Two interesting observations from Jason Levine’s blog Q Daily News. First:

Last night, I had dinner with a friend who lived in Germany

before the Wall came down, and she said that there was an

almost-absolute policy in West Germany for what to do when

a parent tried to bring his or her kids across the Wall and

were killed in the process — if the children had a surviving

parent in East Germany, they were returned to that parent.

In the reasoning of the West German government, the

differences in freedom between East and West did not justify

separating children from their parents.

And:

ABC is back now on New York cable. Interestingly, when I

checked, I caught about five minutes of Oprah, when she had

Janet Reno on. I was thinking that Reno’s Parkinson’s is

getting more and more noticeable (she had a clear tremor),

and just then, Oprah recommended that Reno take a little

time off, and “maybe not shake so much.” I was floored —

has anyone ever told Oprah to stop eating so damn much in

an interview? What an insensitive boob.

A Chicago Tribune article dissects the effects of China’s draconian one-child policy. Apparently, it is being phased out because of the burden of the new generation caring for aging parents without siblings. Mathematically, if the policy continued for another generation, there would simply not be enough adults to care for their elders. My own curiosity is about the effects on the national psyche of essentially an entire population growing up without knowing the experience of brotherhood/sisterhood.

Other blogs always point with astonishment to sites like this. But, given my psychiatric work, I find them merely poignant and prosaic.

An otherwise uninteresting blog pointed me to this item on how Microsoft perverts our kids’ understanding of the world. Knowledge Base article says they are “researching this problem and will post new information…as it becomes available.”

… And by the Way, a Tsunami May Hit D.C. by Timothy Noah I blogged below the original reports about the tsunami risk. Here is a column on Washington’s vulnerability. “The Geology article doesn’t actually

address the possibility that Strom Thurmond, or some other

slow-moving senator, might drown in the basement cafeteria

of the Hart building, but let’s face it: The Capitol stands not

too far from the banks of the Potomac River, as do the swank

salons of Georgetown, the John F. Kennedy Center for the

Performing Arts, the Republican political consulting firms that

line the streets of Old Town Alexandria, and the airport

recently renamed Reagan National.” Because the risk of the undersea landslide that could trigger the tidal wave may be related to global climate change, it would serve Trent Lott right if he drowned in the Washington subway, Noah notes.

Slate’s Politics column has a couple of interesting tidbits today: Clinton’s reflections on his lame duck waning-days status; the phenomenon of Clinton nostalgia in light of the deficiencies of the men who vie to succeed him; the Republican plan to revamp the Presidential primary system; and Gary Coleman’s impending entry into politics.

Deconstructing the media’s obsession with Generation Y.

Slate Diary: A police officer looks at casual marijuana use. “A cop is a cop 24 hours a day, and even when I’m off

duty, I find it difficult to observe drug use nonchalantly.

That’s why, as my girlfriend dressed and her roommate

consumed her “Chinese food” on the roof, I found myself

hitting the redial button on their phone pad, trying to get

the number of the delivery service.”