Cup of Cha
This is China

The surprise vice presidential pick of Sarah Palin by John McCain told us a lot about the campaign, much of it concerning. The first and most obvious, is that most of his strategy has become trying to convince Hillary supporters to switch over to him. Rudy has been going on radio and television shows trying [...]

Continue reading “Palin Pick Not About Good Governance” »

In the midst of the Olympics, I missed an interesting story about a car tax that will go into effect September 1. Ostensibly it is designed to reduce pollution and vehicles that use a lot of gasoline. However, as the Economist points out, the real goal is to reduce imports from foreign car manufacturers, who [...]

Continue reading “Greening with Chinese Characteristics” »

Last day of the Olympics and I have handball gold medal tickets.  I love handball, it’s fast paced, I understand the checking rules that leave me bemused with basketball and it’s in the Olympic Green.  The sun is shining and the trip to the Green is pleasant enough.  I have heard so much about the [...]

Continue reading “One Man, One Dream.” »

Beach volleyball in the rain.
Forty-six boxing matches watched in person.
Four soccer games in Workers Stadium. A red card against an American in the first minute of the first game. At least one red card in every game I watched. The Belgians winning, down a man the whole game, despite the refs giving the Italians two [...]

Continue reading “What I’ll Remember About the Beijing Olympics” »

I texted a Chinese friend asking if she or her colleagues were interested in an extra pair of tickets I have for tomorrow’s soccer finals. The reply came back at 12:25PM on a Friday:
我们在睡觉 我一会问他们。
In other words, the office is napping, I’ll ask them in a bit. I love China.

Continue reading “Text of the Day” »

IOC President Jacques Rogge shot off his mouth at one of the biggest stars of the Olympics today, criticizing Jamaican Usain Bolt’s flashy finish to the 100-meter finals. Guess what Mr. Rogge: no one cares about you and everyone cares about Mr. Bolt. No one comes to the Olympics to hear about what members of [...]

Continue reading “Rogge, IOC Should Not Criticize Bolt” »

The Olympics have been a tremendous success and I have enjoyed them enormously. However, there is one huge fear that I have always held that seems to be coming true: this success of sports is going to be used to validate horrible public policy.
This came to light yesterday in two pieces. The first was an [...]

Continue reading “Big Olympic Fear Comes True” »

You did know Liu Xiang has been injured all year, right? The 2004 gold medalist in the 110 meter hurdles hasn’t been in top form in months. So why is it such a shock that, after the Chinese Team and the nation did all they could to force this poor guy to run through injury, [...]

Continue reading “Liu Xiang Critics Bring Shame to China” »

A couple things I caught with my cell phone camera around Beijing this week:

Rickshaw now carries the great Brooklyn beer. It’ll cost you RMB35 plus a special Olympics 15% service fee, but it’s worth it to have a beer with flavor:

For the Olympics, some of the merchants in Ya-Show Market actually removed fake labels from [...]

Continue reading “Things You Don’t Usually See in Beijing” »

Alan Combs has been ridiculed as a tool of the right and for being Sean Hannity’s patsy. However, in the middle of a conversation about how former candidate John Edwards is unfit to be president for cheating on his wife, wimpy Combs suddenly breaks in and points out that McCain cheated on his wife too. [...]

Continue reading “Combs Grows a Pair: McCain Should be Held to Same Standards” »