I’m off to Israel for the next 12 days. Coincidentally, there is a huge issue tying all three countries — the U.S., China and Israel — together: Iran’s nuclear program. Israel will be sending a delegation to China later this month to persuade China to sanction Iran so that Iran might decide it’s against their […]
Spring Festival in China is a must-do on anyone’s list. I was a little miffed before about not having any real plans (a week off from work is an excellent time to go somewhere!), but now I’m really glad I stayed put in China. This has been one of my favorite weeks in China so […]
The Chinese are so different so often that sometimes it’s easy to forget they still are fundamentally like the rest of us.* Enter the Lunar New Year. The atmosphere leading up to the big day is something akin to the end of the year for us Christians/Westerners. The warm holiday spirit infuses everybody and everything. […]
Spring Festival is still three days away and there is an official week-long holiday for it, but people are already starting to celebrate. The city is clearing out. Every morning, there has been fewer and fewer people on the streets and bus to work. I like it! Someone somewhere is setting off fireworks right now. I’ve […]
I don’t have a lot of faith in the Chinese: They have bad tastes, they’re generally disgusting and I may not have witnessed a bigger herd of sheep ever in my life or a group of people so unwilling to take the lead on and responsibility for anything. But every so often, I am reminded […]
It’s one of the most important times of the year — the Super Bowl is back, and this year promises to be one of the most exciting games since…well, the Giants-Patriots in 2008. Here in China, several of the expat bars are hosting Super Bowl breakfasts. Kickoff will be around 7:30 a.m. local time on […]
Stanley Fish has a good blog post at the Times, where he discusses two approaches to the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election commission. Basically, the SC ruled 5-4 to overturn bans on corporate political spending, including McCain-Feingold. The case […]