News Flash: Tom Friedman not totally off his nut From today's NYT, in a column about why engaging Iran makes more sense than isolating it (e.g., culturally, Iran is much more sympathetic to the US than Saudi Arabia is):

But all this has to be accompanied with a clear declaration
that the U.S. is not seeking regime change in Iran, but a change of behavior,
that the U.S. wants to immediately restore its embassy in Tehran and that the
first thing it will do is grant 50,000 student visas for young Iranians to study
at U.S. universities.

Just do that — and then sit back and watch the most
amazing debate explode inside Iran. You can bet the farm on it.

Of course, let's not underestimate Iran's desire to challenge the US as a regional hegemon, but we seem to have no problem working with China.

There's something interesting here about reforming our cold war strategy in the Middle East. The West's straetgy in the region has been to support reliable autocrats rather than modern regimes that might tilt towards the Soviets and that seem to be less predictable. Of course, no one would characterize Iran as a modern regime, but given the social trends and tensions there, a modern regime might emerge.

Perhaps a dream scenario could be a Persian/Israeli/Turkish/Kurdish alliance that catches the Arabs in the middle and contains/marginalizes them? Stranger things have happened. I can't think of any off hand, but I'm sure there are some.  ¶ 7:30 AM 0 comments

  Takes a smacking and keeps on yakking... I dropped my Nokia 6235i Phone yesterday down a flight of stairs.

It still works fine.

Try that with a Treo.

Candybar, fool! What! What!  ¶ 10:59 AM 0 comments

  God Bless the Internet As Chris says, God Bless the Internet. Introducing www.jott.com - call and leave yourself a voicemail and it emails it to you. Pretty cool.

I tested it with a hard message: "This is about monkeys and giraffes" and it got the monkey part. But it also links to an audio recording if it can't transcribe the text.

I sent myself a message at 8:16 PM and got the email at 8:24. Pretty cool!  ¶ 8:27 PM 0 comments

  Obesity Epidemic in One Picture
  ¶ 2:23 PM 0 comments

  NYT: Elite college students get naked Black Tie Optional - New York Times sheds the hard light of truth on...elite college students getting naked.

I went to one of these colleges, but never actually attended one of these parties. But a close friend did. his verdict: "It just smelled like ass."

So I guess I didn't miss that much.  ¶ 8:48 PM 2 comments

  Democrats Find Backbone? Reid and Pelosi write a letter to El Presidente:

"After nearly four years of combat, tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, and over $300 billion dollars, it is time to bring the war to a close."

Wow. That's almost, like, a clear expression by leading politicians of the overwhelming preponderance of public opinion. Brave stuff indeed.  ¶ 8:08 PM 0 comments