As the Petraeus Report arrives

Gen. David Petraeus: Objective military commander with knowledge of facts on the ground in Iraq...or tightly controlled propaganda stooge for the Bush Regime? Discuss.

Birthday greetings

Many happy returns of the day to this week's and next week's birthday girls:
otherdeb- Wed., Sep 12
joyeuse13- Thu., Sep 13
debgeisler- Thu., Sep 20
braider- Fri., Sep 21
tollers- Sat., Sep 22
And the same to mrpsyklops, whose natal-day celebration in Cordele, GA I expect to be attending this Saturday.

On immigration, Chinese manufacturing and children's toys

Saw in my local paper today, but not on their website, an interesting perspective from an Asian-American columnist who has both gender- and ethnicity-based interests in the subject:
Jennifer Tang on the Barbie doll's butt as a barometer of Third World economic progress