Changi Airport is awesome

Thanks FC for the nice message. We got out of Typhoon Talim on JetstarAsia, the no frills airlines that reminds me of Southwest. Trip was a bit bumpy but the flight was pretty much empty. B- and I are hanging out in Terminal 1 at Changi Airport which is 24 hours and very cool.

It’s about 3am and security came around with 2 fully armed (with automatic weapons) police checking ID and just making sure that the folks who belong here, belong. We’ve got a couple more hours to blow before getting onto the Singapore MRT and to Orchard Bus Road area to take a bus up to KL.

All in all, a very interesting and unique way for us to spend our first year’s anniversary! 🙂

=YC

Traveling Old Roads, One Year Later

Today is Malaysia’s National Day. Also, one year ago today, YC and B- were married. While I have to say a bus ride 500 miles north from Singapore was more pleasant than a Greyhound from New York to Toronto, it is still a grueling all-night marathon by crazy bus drivers punctuated by wading through border crossings and pit stops. Congrats and best of luck for safe travels!

Tuesday into Wednesday

Hmm – with the upcoming Congressional hearing on Judge John Roberts, one wonders what kind of questions will be asked of him and hope it’ll be done and over with a modicum of dignity and interest (and to end the whole speculating thing the media does so well). Bruce Reed, “The Has Been” on Slate (he’s a former Clintonite, and thus a “has been”), proposes the open-question tactic (see the 8/30/05 post in Reed’s blog):

At most, Senators have had a few weeks to prepare for Roberts. Roberts has spent 25 years preparing for them. So on all the obvious questions, Roberts has an overwhelming advantage.

But on screwball questions, that advantage disappears. The model for this line of questioning comes from the late Peter Jennings. In a televised debate during the 2004 primaries, Jennings asked John Edwards to “tell us what you know about the practice of Islam.” A thousand debate preps and murder boards could never have prepared Edwards for that question. It made for great television because neither the viewers at home nor the press corps had any idea what he would say, or even what he should say.

Under the circumstances, Edwards handled it well, admitting that “I would never claim to be an expert on Islam.” Roberts is famed for both erudition and modesty. Make him choose: Is there any topic on which he would say he’d “never claim to be an expert”?

Sure, no one prepares for the “Tell me what you know” question… (except I think Roberts might have something handy in his arsenal).

These pictures of the Gulf coast (New Orleans/Biloxi/etc) – they look so sad. “Devastation” is the word oft repeated. Best wishes out there.