Olympic Fallacies- March 25, 2008 "We believe the Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations, and we hope that all people attending the games recognize the importance of this." Thus spoke Samsung Electronics, one of 12 major corporate sponsors of the Olympics, when asked last week whether recent events in Tibet were causing it any concern. Coca-Cola, another Olympics sponsor, has stated that while it would be inappropriate "to comment on the political situation of individual nations," the company firmly believes "that...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402297.html?nav=r... My So-Called Life Story- March 11, 2008 Thanks to chance and circumstance -- because people left them, sent them, lent them -- a trio of autobiographies landed on my desk last weekend: Valerie Plame's "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House," George Tenet's "At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA" and Peter Gay's "My German Question: Growing Up in Nazi Berlin." Though Plame and Tenet were published in 2007 and Gay in 1998, I hadn't read any of them.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031002244.html?nav=r... Why Russia Holds 'Elections'- March 3, 2008 Last Wednesday, Dmitry Medvedev took a break from his job as deputy prime minister of Russia and held a public meeting. Dressed in shirtsleeves, he talked about pension reform, promised to improve education, shook a few hands. As public meetings go, it was an ordinary one -- except for the fact that it was the first and last public meeting of Medvedev's presidential campaign. If you wanted to see the candidate before yesterday's vote, that was your one and only chance. Hillary Clinton and...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR2008030201896.html?nav=r... |