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The bright side #3: Reinforcements in the frog wars
Stumbling just now into my apartment in Beijing, some 24 hours after pre-dawn checkout from the airport hotel at LAX, I discover that my Atlantic colleague Jeffrey Goldberg has volunteered for the noblest of efforts. This is the long, twilight struggle to mock politicians, journalists, raconteurs, etc who repeat the stupid, cruel, hackneyed, and unscientific boiled-frog cliche, so that eventually people will stop saying it. I knew I'd find an ally some day.
We all pick our causes. During my brief and enjoyable stint at Microsoft long ago, I worked on various big-think projects. But my claim to have changed the world may rest on my all-out war against "Clippy," the moronic "help" feature that popped up to say "Hey, you seem to be writing a letter!" each time you typed "Dear ..." I don't want to overstate things, but before I arrived, Word came with Clippy turned on by default. Now it's turned off by default. Judge for yourself.
So may it someday be concerning the frogs, thanks to their new defender Mr. Goldberg. And I actually have frog news, which at some point after I get some sleep I may share.
The Atlantic's motto (cont.): Today's news three years ago
Just one last reminder, this one prompted by the Bear Stearns news and the collapse of Asian stock markets around me as I type, of the Atlantic's "Countdown to a Meltdown" cover story, by me, from the summer of 2005.
The point of steering readers toward the article once more is its attempt to explain, while it was going on, the origins of the credit bubble whose collapse is now causing problems.
Some "predictions" in this fictional history are looking pretty shaky now -- for instance, the assumption that the first black American with a serious chance at the presidency would be a four-star Army general running as a Republican. (Our 45th president in this scenario, the "Desert Eagle," becomes a hero by leading the raid that captures Osama bin Laden just before the 2012 elections.) But some of the other predictions, about the spread of panic from the real estate markets to the international financial system.....
'Great Firewall' article now online
Two week ago I mentioned that the March issue of the Atlantic -- by that point snugly in subscribers' hands! -- would include my article on how the Great Firewall of China actually works. That article is now online, here. So is the entire issue, which is full of great stuff.
Also, my interview about the article and the general China-tech scene is online here. It was conducted by the Atlantic's estimable Abby Cutler -- as the last thing she did on our staff before leaving to begin medical training. Applying the healing touch in different venues, is the way we like to think about it at the magazine.
Bill Clinton on getting involved in the primaries, ca. 2002
In the fall of 2002 I flew from Washington to Little Rock and then Fayetteville, Arkansas -- in my own little propeller airplane, it was a blast -- to spend time interviewing Bill Clinton. He was just settling into his post-presidential life. Raising funds for his foundation (now a source of controversy on its own, then still a goal). Laying out plans for his presidential library, then still under construction. Working on his book -- already behind schedule, but of course it turned out well. And theorizing about how, as a young and vigorous former two-term president, he should deal with the next crop of Democratic candidates then on the rise.
Ah, if only he'd listened to his own advice five-plus years later. Sample: "Look," he told me back then. "I can't run." As I said in the article, "In his tone he reminded me again of a champion athlete whose career had come to an unnaturally early end."
"If somebody needs me to go do something [for the party], and nobody else can do it, I'll go do it." He pointed out that he had appeared at more than a hundred fundraising events for the party and its candidates in 2002. 'I'd like for my direct political involvement to go way down ..."
Full transcript of the interview is
here. Passages from the resulting cover story, "
Post President for Life," come after the jump.
Continue reading "Bill Clinton on getting involved in the primaries, ca. 2002" »
On the actual, you know, "issues" the next President will face
Enough of this campaign hubbub! Whoever is left standing to be sworn in 377 days from now will suddenly have to worry about things like.... the Chinese government's enormous hoard of U.S. dollar assets.
My attempt to explain how exactly that pile of money was stacked up, and what the Chinese government has in mind for it, in this article from the Atlantic's new January-February issue. If you been yearning to know how the dollar you spend at Wal-Mart or CVS is eventually reincarnated as a Chinese-held Treasury note, or why Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone is about the most reviled foreigner in China at the moment, your dreams have come true.
Unlike most previous such announcements, I don't have to say "Subscribers Only" for this one. It's in the free section of our site. Nonetheless, as always, Subscribe! Among other reasons, you'll get to see the wonderful full-sized version of the wonderful Guy Billout's illustration for the piece, reproduced in miniature online and below.
Media watch: C-Span Sunday morning
You've heard about the gala feature-packed 150th Anniversary issue of the Atlantic Monthly! See it discussed, in real time and with exciting viewer call-ins, on C-Span's Washington Journal this coming Sunday morning, Oct 21, 9:15-10 am. (Assuming I can get up by then.)
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Free Flight: Inventing the Future of Travel
Breaking the News
Looking at the Sun
