Behind the Scenes of Borat...Behind the Scenes at America's Largest Bank

This is the most comprehensive look at reactions from the folks who got duped by Borat that I've seen so far.

This is just totally terrible in every way:

Macaca Speaks!

I was in Nepal when Macaca-Gate broke...I didn't even know about it till I got back and asked the same question everyone else in America asked, only a month later- "what the fuck is a macaca?"

Well, wikipedia has robust coverage of the answer to that question. For the record my favorite antiquated racial slur is and will remain WOG.

Anyway, the alleged macaca (actually a wog) is S. R. Sidarth. He's written an very nice and very diplomatic op-ed in today's Washington Post.

I hope Mr. Sidarth finds whatever he is looking for at the end of the aspiring politico rainbow. He's off to a grand start.

Songs I Haven't Heard in a Very Long Time #1

Inner Circle are best know for the Cops theme song ("Bad Boys") but "Sweat" is certainly their greatest work. It brings the listener back to the days when sexy music was fun. This song rams it in hard, but with a loveable goofyness that keeps me coming back for more.



P.S. three huzzahs for the democrats, but where the fuck was my invitation to CNN's blogging party?

China is a land of contrasts...

The first thing that is abundently clear to anyone who has visited china is that there is a bit of a air quality issue going on...

Take, for instance, this photo from Beijing (at the construction site of the city's new largest building):



Chengdu, is about 2000 kilometers south of Beijing. It looks like this:



The problem even overwhelms most trips to the Great Wall:



It even looms, among other things, above Tiananmen:



Also, the country can be a bit crowded sometimes. This is the tiny little ancient village of Lijiang in Yunnan:



And yet...there's still some really beautiful places...like this countryside pagoda, also in Yunnan:



and there are also cool animals...alive... :



....dead... :



...and slightly less dead... :



You can even get lost on strange communist tourist trap islands:



But, after all is said and done, the best thing about China is the people: