Assorted Links

• Jon Chait indirectly calls McCain a 'sociopath.' Didn't he just saw he loved him last week? That was a quick breakup.
  
• Excellent article in the New Yorker about China's "Angry Youth." They want China to join the world stage as an equal to the United States, not as its morally deficient younger brother. This quote sort of sums it up:

  Boycotting the Beijing Games in the name of Tibet seemed as logical to him as shunning the Salt Lake City Olympics to protest America’s treatment of the Cherokee.

• The United States' "culture war" pales in comparison to Turkey's, as this WSJ article makes clear. I had always understood that Turkey was founded as a secular state, but never this clearly. The piece is just filled with interesting facts like this one:

  Just as Muslim activists mine the Quran for verses to boost their cause, Turkey's hard-line secularists and their foes delve into Ataturk's voluminous writings and speeches -- Turkey's secular scripture. The sheer volume of Ataturk's words gives plenty of scope for argument: a single speech he gave in 1927 lasted 36 hours, spread over six days.

• The Weekly Standard shoots down programs designed to scare kids sober.
• Bill James meet a Lemur. I bet Lemurs have good range ratings.
  

Assorted Links

• Expelling a kid because he has a 2.8 is pretty dumb. I understand the need for standards at a magnet school as popular as Thomas Jefferson is, but a 3.0 is too high. I think it should be like most colleges - if you're below a 2.0 for consecutive semesters, you're done.
• This has to be an intentional Talledaga Nights reference.
• In the movies, someone would try to secretly establish Atlantropa. In real life, however, these sorts of grandiose schemes are always publicized, probably because their backers are convinced of their brilliance. ALSO: Strange Maps is definitely a site worth visiting on occasion.
• Via Yglesias and Wonkette, DC Prep also seems to be based on a false premise: that the sons and daughters of U.S. public officials live in Washington, D.C. At least for members of congress, I am under the impression most kids live in the home districts of the parents.