Daily Archives: 06/27/2009

(Community Matters) Took Steven to the Peak this evening.

Hard to believe that until 1947, only expats could live on the Peak – reminds me of the rules against Chinese sleeping within the Bund area in Shanghai during colonial times.

(Community Matters)

he swears by the podcast, Die Empty

(Community Matters) AAS reporting the Lt. Gov is getting married – best wishes

(Community Matters) Members of House Financial Services Committee trading in banking stocks – gotta be kidding me. here

(Community Matters) Steven arrived 9:30ish – perfect timing, I’d just wrapped up dinner with Susan Adler and Chris Stephens who are on internship with Saatchi & Saatchi.

All sorts of typhoon warnings on the coastal mainland and in Hong Kong, so we worried about his arrival. We mostly just caught up and traded stories. Even ran into one of Steven’s former students and his parents in the lobby. Today full on exploration – big surprise, Steven’s come armed with maps, lists and books. SOOOOOO nice being back together!

borrowed stock photo – probably from peak

(Community Matters) Response to a friend complaining that Obama ran as an idealist but acting like a pragmatist.

You say he ran as an idealist, I say he also acknowledged being a pragmatist. All during the last year of the election I cautioned that the liberal base will be more disappointed than the moderates who didn’t vote for him, knowing that he was a pragmatist who most valued repairing the deep red and blue divide. ALWAYS imagined the moderate would be pleasantly surprised and the ideological liberals temporarily disappointed.

On my friend’s position that Obama & America should be much more overt and aggressive in support for Iranian opposition:

Disagree a thousand times about Iran. This isn’t an election about affirming American culture or reestablishing ties with us. Let’s not forget, the most powerful and influential Mousavi supporter is former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was the closest collaborator of Islamic Revolution founder Ayatollah Khomeini. I fear we’d lose much of the important fracturing support from clerics, revolutionary guards, police and the middle income older generation if this became framed as pro vs anti-American. President Ahmandinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei would be quick to exploit this given half a chance.