He's very well-read, it's quite well known

Lee Siegel writes about the influence of reading classic literature in the books section of the NYT.

Somehow, we’ve been sold a bill of goods about how literature empowers us. But the idea that great literature can improve our lives in any way is a con as old as culture itself.

Take the power back

I'm really late to this, but it's too awesome not to blog. Cops shut down Rage Against the Machine at the RNC, so they did an acapella set for the crowd outside.

More on the Kundera case

A longer story in the IHT today provides more background -- and more speculation -- about the allegations that Milan Kundera ratted out a spy to communist Czechoslovakia.

"The reality is that the totalitarian regime was constructed in such a way that 99 percent of people cooperated in one way or another, and the Kundera case helps them to feel morally absolved, like they are the good guys and he was one of the baddies," Pehe said.

Many historians have found the evidence wanting. The policeman mentioned in the secret police report identifying Kundera is dead, while Kundera's signature is nowhere on the document.

There are trolls and then there are just plain assholes

No one should have to read something like this. The Korea Times has terrible judgment about what to put into their newspaper and if I was an English teacher I would cancel my subscription chigum.

Unfortunately, most native English speakers make no attempt to learn Korean; and even if they did, they probably could not, anyway. Look around you. Does the typical English native teacher strike you as being someone who is of high sophistication? Not! The sad fact is that the typical native teacher graduated near the bottom of his/her class from a lower-tiered university, and probably could not hold down anything better than a minimum wage job in his/her home country. The creme de la creme do not come here, I am sorry to say.

"The most ferocious fighting since the Korean War"

An eight part video series of the fighting in Afghanistan from embedded reporter Ben Anderson. Top tracks include "This guy lives for firing his RPG" and "Nothing like a little opium to get you ready for a firefight." Watch it here.

Where'd Russia go?

What if McCain had a heart attack from caring too much about his friends? Enter the Oval Office with Palin in charge.

The Unbearable Heaviness of Lying

This reads to me like Kundera's hiding something.

The allegations could diminish Mr. Kundera’s moral stature as a spokesman, however enigmatic, against totalitarianism’s corrosion of daily life.

The reclusive Mr. Kundera vehemently denied the account.

“I object in the strongest manner to these accusations, which are pure lies,” he said in a statement released by his French publisher, Gallimard.

In a rare interview on Monday with the Czech CTK news agency, Mr. Kundera also accused the news media of committing “the assassination of an author.”

That's pretty reactionary, defensive language.

North Korea's Octopussy

Like something out of a James Bond novel, the North Korean woman who seduced multiple S. Korean military officers, spread propaganda, and did other shady, spy-like things has been sentenced to prison.

Investigators have also accused her of scheming to murder intelligence agents using poison-tipped needles, though the plot did not go ahead.

Take the debate to the corner bar

Columnist Jim Shea has a suggestion to liven up the next presidential debate -- have it in a bar.

The candidates want to relate to Joe Six-Pack? This is where he hangs out, along with Joe Twelve-Pack, Frankie Foreclosed, Jimmy Jobless and all the rest of the blue-collar voters the candidates want to impress with their regularness.

(If you're in Korea, the debates start at 10 a.m. on Thursday the 16th.)

A Cartoon

Mr. Fish

Anarchy in the S.K.

Korea Herald reporter Bae Hyun-jung put together a greatest hits of the most absurd courtroom moments in recent months. One of my favorite stories I've read since working for the paper.

We set controls for the heart of the sun, one of the ways that we show our age

Did a little disco dance for the Korea Herald hyping LCD Soundsystem coming to town tonight. Read it here.

UPDATE: The event was poorly organized -- oversold, a clusterfuck at the doors, and then understaffed at the bar -- but the music was good. They played for 3 and a half hours. My legs are still sore, and even though Murphy and Mahoney didn't play any LCD, the lyric "I wouldn't trade one stupid decision for another five years of life" is running through my head.

LCD Soundsystem "All My Friends"

We're gonna need a bigger clock

The digital counter that marks the U.S. debt has run out of digits.

The more I seek the more I'm sought

I like the sincerity of this.

Joe Pug "Hymn #101"

Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it

In the first presidential debate John McCain said:

"The next president of the United States is not going to have to address the issue as to whether we went into Iraq or not. The next president of the United States is going to have to decide how we leave, when we leave, and what we leave behind. That's the decision of the next president of the United States."

The quote makes for a good lead into a book review I never wrote about What Happened, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's memoir about his days working for the Bush administration. Members of the administration fed him bad information and then left him to deal with the public and the media on his own when it was found out he had relayed lies. He writes about journalists, the practice of the permanent campaign, the run up to the war and how it was sold to the public, and, most interestingly, the character of the man who has done more to change the world than any single president in U.S. history.

About the war:

Today, as I look back on the campaign we waged to sell the Iraq war to the American people--a campaign I participated in--I see more clearly the downside of applying modern campaign tactics to matters of grave historical import.

They are caught up in an endless effort to manipulate public opinion to their advantage.

It is all part of the political propaganda effort to advance one's causes.

About his relationship with Bush:

I know the president pretty well. I believe that, if he had been given a crystal ball in which he could have foreseen the costs of war--more than 4,000 American troops killed, 30,000 injured, and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens dead--he would have never made the decision to invade, despite what he might say or feel he has to say publicly today.

But Bush was not one to look back once a decision was made. Rather than suffer any sense of guilt and anguish, Bush chose not to go down the road of self-doubt or take on the difficult task of honest evaluation and reassessment. Rather than look back, he would always look forward, focused on the challenges of the future rather than the regrets of the past. That was especially true when it came to a decision as irrevocable and consequential as war in Iraq.

Which is what McCain doesn't understand when he talks about not having to address the issue of how we got into Iraq. If he becomes president, under these current economic conditions, he could possibly be asked to make a decision about going to war with another country.

About the media:

The American public hungers for truth--not just as it relates to petty partisan squabbles and the controversy of the day, but larger truth, including the hard truths we too rarely hear emphasized on television or see written prominently about in our major newspapers and magazines.

We need to give a greater emphasis to who is right and who is wrong, who is telling the truth and who is not, and the larger truths about our society and our world might achieve some amazing results.

About Bush putting shit up his nose:

"The media won't let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors," I heard Bush say. "You know, the truth is I honestly don't know whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don't remember."

I remember thinking to myself, How can that be? How can someone simply not remember whether or not they used an illegal substance like cocaine?