Yippie, I got invited to GMail. I am busy now switching over from yahoo, just because 1 Gb is so very useful for storing stuff :-)

Where I come from, we call this corruption: Building War Chest With Few Restraints (washingtonpost.com)

I think this is a disgusting way to run a democracy

If I understand blooger correctly, comments should now be enabled. I am just playing with the system forr the moment

Never believe the pundits: Gandhi sets to work on coalition. For months all the press kept telling us that Congress was dead, and the BJP were sure to win.

It is a clear case of observer's bias: most reporters are well educated and middle class. So their view of the world is from that perspective. The upper middle class and the city dwellers have done quite well over the last few years, so they thought everybody would be happy.

It is going to be interesting to see what is going to happen in India now. It is clear yhat ignoring the poor and farmers is electoral suicide. However, the future of India lies in economic liberalisation, and new technologies like the computer industry and the creativity found in the cities (Bollywood anyone?). Further liberalisation is necessary, but how to achieve that without alieniating the poor is a very hard problem. I hope Sonia Gandhi will be able to solve this. We'll see

This is nauseating: Soldier Details Abuse, Offers to Plead Guilty. Allowing a little bit of torture is like being a little bit pregnant. It confuses the message. Saying: "torture is not allowed, ever!" makes everything unambigous. Saying: "torture is not allowed, except when we think it is necessary" will lead to horrors reported in the last few weeks.

Well. they better be careful, or there will be a big backlash over this: Fighting Moves Into Islam Holy Place in Najaf (washingtonpost.com)