SOKOBLOVSKY FARMS: RUSSIA’S FINEST PURVEYORS OF MINIATURE LAP GIRAFFES. Via MTM I think. eta: OK, I thought this was just random ridiculous satire of The New Russian Millionaires (TM), but it turns out to be an ad for DirecTV (which I don’t know what that is, as Radar O’Reilly would say). That makes me a lot less okay with the intense, OTT Russian stereotyping. Read more

ONCE AGAIN, I AM STARTLED TO FIND I ALREADY HAVE THE PERFECT TAG FOR THIS. Via… DLB maybe? Read more

THE REAL WORLD: CHINESE GULAG. Last night we stumbled upon the Laogai Research Foundation‘s Laogai Museum, a very quick walk north from Dupont Circle. LRF was founded by Harry Wu, the fearless man who exposed the Chinese gulag system. We’re visiting the museum soon, and if you’re in DC, you should too. I’ll tell you more about it once we’ve been inside. (Post title is because of the bizarre coincidence that the museum is housed in the former Real World:... Read more

THE DEAD FAITH OF THE LIVING… HOUSEKEY. Via DLB. Read more

A LOT GOING ON AT BALKINIZATION. “Bin Laden’s Greatest Legacy: The Surveillance State“; Deborah Pearlstein points out that even the merely strategic calculus on interrogation methods involves a lot more than just “Did we get a truthful answer to the question we happened to be asking this time?” (last paragraph); more on the role of torture in finding Bin Laden, with a bright glittering array of Newspeak euphemisms (second paragraph). Read more

“ALL THE FROGS CROAK BEFORE THE STORM: DOSTOEVSKY VS. TOLSTOY ON HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONS.” Worth it regardless of what you make of the author’s own position. Read more

KITCHEN ADVENTURES: SOCCA STAR. Socca (soccas? socci?) are fried chickpea pancakes, stupidly easy and tasty. I posted about them here and here. Tonight, for dinner, I had THE BEST SOCCAS SO FAR. They came in three batches, which I will detail from least-awesome to stellar. 1. Thin soccas flavored only with minced jalapeno and a bit of salt, topped with habanero jack cheese and fresh tomato slices. I loved the thin crispiness–these were almost like quesadillas, really–and they were really... Read more

I DON’T BELIEVE IN MODERN LOVE: I have a review in the current Weekly Standard of the Neue Galerie’s “Vienna 1900” exhibit. It’s a great show; go see it! It’ll run until at June 27. The review is subscribers-only for now, but I’ll let you know if that changes. Read more

SOME LINKS ABOUT TORTURE, SINCE APPARENTLY WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THIS AGAIN. This Balkinization post mostly interesting to me for the intensely depressing poll data. I believe the children are the future! Two takes on how the US got the intelligence which led to Bin Laden’s death, in neither of which do we see an actual [ETA: by which I mean, admitted/confirmed] example of torture “working”: ‘here and here. Don’t count on making up your mind on the moral issues based... Read more

A TRIVIAL POSTSCRIPT. While sometimes it is accurate to attribute actions you approve to “Obama” and actions you despise to “America,” or vice versa, most of the time if you use that formula you’re being a self-righteous jackass. Similarly if you can recognize either good or bad qualities in American culture but can’t recognize these exact same qualities when displayed by Obama. As I think we should all be well aware by now, he is as American as anybody. …Is... Read more