pugs; massaging thugs

Con and I spent the weekend in Chiang Mai. It was fabulous, and we did get massages at a women's prison, learn to cook curry at an organic farm and make friends from Italy, Australia, Scotland and Manchester. But I killed the internet at our house while trying to set up wireless upon our return, so now I'm blogging from an internet cafe next to a snoring pug where Google shows up in very very unreadable Thai.

So.. when in doubt and unable to post pictures.. complain about politics.

James Fallows, an Atlantic blogger/editor based in Beijing who I started reading in the run-up to the Olympics, wins with the best review of Palin's flop on ABC:

The truly toxic combination of traits GW Bush brought to decision making was:

1) Ignorance
2) Lack of curiosity
3) "Decisiveness"

That is, he was not broadly informed to begin with (point 1). He did not seek out new information (#2); but he nonetheless prided himself (#3) on making broad, bold decisions quickly, and then sticking to them to show resoluteness.

We don't know for sure about #2 for Palin yet -- she could be a sponge-like absorber of information. But we know about #1 and we can guess, from her demeanor about #3.

Most of all we know something about the person who put her in this untenable role.

This works as an interesting response to Charles Krauthammer (a conservative, a fantastic writer, and someone who called the Palin pick "near suicidal"), who gave an otherwise solid defense of Palin's performance.