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So I’m in the middle of another round-the-world trip, this time for ForbesTraveler.com, where I’m gonna be doing some writing for a while, plus taking notes for other possible projects along the way.

I’ve been wanting to update the blog since I left, since I’m seeing some pretty wild stuff, but frankly the days are crammed — work, fun, work, fun, work, fun, work, sleep, repeat. So far I’ve been bopping around England, France, Monaco, Andorra, and now the Emirates, and I’m not even a quarter done with the trip. It’s wonderful but exhausting, so I’ll have to post things retroactively as I find time.

For now: it’s Ramadan here, which means (a) a solid month of complete fasting during daylight hours (the devout can’t even have water, even in 105-degree heat; visitors like me are only to indulge only if we’re discreet), and (b) an inevitable marketing opportunity at least as major as the Christmas holiday season in the US.

So: a Happy Ramadan to one and all — from Fuddruckers and Krispy Kreme.

PS — “Kareem” actually is closer to “generous” or “gracious,” but the phrase “Kareem Ramadan” is used more like the way we use “Happy Holidays,” so “Happy Ramadan” is a more common translation in this context.

A happy development: looks like I’m going the long way around the planet again. A new writing gig (to be described when the time comes) means that I’m actually getting paid to go places I want to see. Pretty neat.

The details aren’t all worked out, but this one should involve between 12 and 15 countries, including lots of places I’ve wanted to see for years. (And yes, many of them I first learned about during the frenetic cramming-for-Jeopardy! period of my life described in Prisoner of Trebekistan.) I’m hoping to touch base with some friends I met last time around, too.

As always, I’ll share with the rest of the class — pics, stories, etc. — as time allows.

If this is your first visit, I hope you’ll pop back in sometimes when you get a sec. Thanks for visiting.

PS — the first time around, I stumbled across some guy giving Free Hugs in an outdoor shopping mall in Sydney. So I figured what the heck, gave him a good one, and moved on. Had no idea I was being filmed. The video came out about a year later, and sure enough, I can be spotted lumbering through at the 1:12 mark.

Hope the planet is just as benevolent this time, too.

I’ll probably never like John Edwards politically again, despite my own recent kind words. The adultery per se isn’t the issue to me, since (a) personal issues just aren’t that important, from either party (you won’t find much on this site about Larry Craig et al), and (b) Edwards rarely made “family values” his main thang, anyway, unlike the more self-righteous foot-tappers of the world.

(Incidentally, I’m also not pretending that I’m more moral than the next guy. Right this second, in fact, I’m getting a Swedish massage from a manatee named Delilah while fantasizing about three Civil War generals and an East German swimmer. So I’m hardly in a comfortable position to judge. In fact, I’m hardly in a comfortable position per se.)

But Edwards knew what he’d done and what it meant. Which means his entire presidential campaign was an attempt, best case, to bet the medium-term future of the Democratic party on his own ability to continue covering up an extramarital affair. Indefinitely. That’s the sort of reckless arrogance only a true leader can muster, I guess.

(Higher, Delilah. A little higher. Now… touch the swimmer.)

But that said, McCain is a known adulterer, too — and unlike Edwards, he is still running for president, actively posing when convenient as an advocate of all things Family.

I’d much rather see the campaign focus on the economy, foreign policy, energy, education, and so on. Incompetence, corruption, and/or hypocrisy on these issues will sting us all vastly more than some tawdry personal dalliance.

But just saying: given the eagerness with which total nonsense gets trumpeted against the guy, even when it’s often mutually exclusive — He’s an elitist! Under the twisted sway of middle-class blacks in a Christian church! Where he’s a secret Muslim! Manipulated by Jewish banker George Soros! So of course his German rallies remind us of Nazi propaganda! His empty rhetoric is why he doesn’t wear a flag pin! And none of this is contradictory in any way! — what would the media do if Obama were found to have cheated years ago on his wife, the way McCain did to his first wife?

Obama’s candidacy would be toast that day.

But McCain cheating? That’s just how mavericks do.

Turns out McCain’s June flip-flop on offshore drilling was followed by $285,000 from Hess Oil executives just a few days later.

Compare to the man’s own words:

Just going over notes from the Tides Foundation’s Momentum conference.

I’ve been debating how best to write up what I encountered, given the eclectic range of the attendees and diverse subject matter. (If you’re familiar with the Ted series of talks, this was a bit like that, but with an explicitly progressive political focus and lots of chat time.) The best path may just be to jot down some of the more interesting thoughts a la carte, much as they were received. So, here’s a batch of ten, and I’ll follow with more as time allows.

• “Social change is historically facilitated by war or economic despair,” mused Drummond Pike, Tides Founder and CEO. “The good news is, we’re currently blessed to have both.”

• As Senator John Edwards put it, “half the bankruptcies in America are caused by health care costs.” Surprised at the stat, I checked; the language is a tad strong, but basically, yup.

• Gihan Perera, executive director of the Miami Workers Center, noted that a large part of the Katrina disaster happened long before the storm ever arrived; neglected infrastructure has created vulnerable communities in many American cities — tragedies still waiting to happen, lacking only a proximate cause.

• Residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans were forbidden from returning home for weeks — but somehow in the interim, bulldozers had moved in and knocked down many houses. Tanya Harris, head of ACORN in New Orleans, had to begin organizing while slapping large “No Bulldozing” signs on numerous privately-owned homes. Says a bit about official regard for the lives and property of the people who lived there.

• Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles, noted that 12 million people are now living in the US without legal status. (That’s about 1 person in 30.) Immigration is not just about people crossing borders illegally; it’s a human response to economic policies, environmental degradation, and other external factors. People move to try to build a better life. From any political perspective, addressing the basic humanity of the situation is the only sane starting place.

• Salas also noted that immigrants will be the first in line to fight for labor rights, for health care, for environmental protection, and so on — because they’re already first in line for the difficulties without them.

• Salas wondered aloud: what moral obligation does the United States have to the 500,000 Iraqi refugees created by the U.S. invasion, since the war was supposed to be about their welfare, after all?

• According to Maria Teresa Petersen, executive director of Voto Latino, Latinos are currently a full third of the young electoral vote in Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico, four key swing states. The potential importance of the hispanic vote is already historic — and will only increase in the future.

• Web 2.0 organizing technologies used disproportionately by young people have the potential to increase the influence of young voters in an unprecedented manner.

• Peter Leyden, former managing editor of Wired, suggested that historic periods of rapid progressive change in the US have shared three characteristics in common with the present: the emergence of new, more horizontal media (think of the penny press at the beginning of the muckraking progressive era); the entry into the electorate of a new and energized demographic; and changing technology that decentralized and democratized the economy. (I found this a bit of facile shoehorning that neglected numerous large factors that didn’t fit the model, but hey, I could be wrong.)

More notes to come. I’ll add this: some lefty gatherings I’ve attended have been a tad heavy on idealism and factionalism at the expense of practical discussion. A few have even played a bit close to stereotype — small clots of social exiles named, I dunno, stuff like Moondance and Star-Kist and Astroglide, all advocating pet causes like hemp lingerie (finally, someone taking on the power of Big Underpants!) while abandoning a broader, coalition-building political agenda that to (a) we’re not getting anything done, so (b) let’s agree with each other even harder, and (c) see if things improve in some inspecific way.

Not here. This was a bunch of people actually getting things done in a variety of fields, sharing ideas on what works and pushing each other to think.

Kinda the whole point of living in a democracy. Cool.  My thanks to Momentum for the invite.

Because underneath, they look just like tall blades of grass.  You’d never be able to see them.

Usually a contradiction in terms, I realize. But not today.

I’m sitting here at Momentum watching Alex Gibney, director of Taxi to the Dark Side, talking about waterboarding, Gitmo, and how America descended into a country willing to torture and kill people, even if they’re innocent (as many of the Gitmo internees turned out to be). And he’s doing so in a calm, rational voice, certain that his audience is sane, too. Just the sound of it is a good thing.

There’s a reason people attend church even when their religion doesn’t demand it. The converted need to be preached to sometimes, just to remain invested. So if nothing else, meetings like this are always inherently useful, even necessary.

Unfortunately, that’s sometimes all that results from these things. I’ve been to a few conclaves where a pep rally would have gotten just as much done.

So are we learning anything here? Yep. Partly because of the quality of speakers and the convention’s unusual structure: 18 minutes per speech (make your point, show what works, and get off), and no formal Q&A periods but plenty of roaming face time, made possible by a strictly limited head count (300 people here, total).

You could call the format elitist, but it would be a strange description for a bunch of people fighting for immigrant and labor and women’s rights. Call Tanya Harris, an ACORN activist who has devoted herself to rebuilding the devastated Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, elitist, and I think she’d just laugh gently in your face and get back to work.

It’s an eclectic mix — microloan lenders, health care experts, environmental activists, you name it. The main thing the speakers seem to have in common: they’ve actually succeeded at something, and they’re sharing their knowledge about what works. That’s refreshing.

Right this minute, psychology professor Drew Weston is discussing how to communicate progressive values (which the majority of the public shares on an overwhelming number of issues) by “shaping and activiating neural networks” in voters. It’s sound science married to basic neurology — which is to say, really just good basic marketing — but it’s also something the left is still learning.

Here: look at these six words:

Simple, powerful, and (sadly for us all) poorly understood by lefties. Weston is now illustrating how the GOP has brilliantly done this for years, turning the positive word “liberal” into “latte-drinking, Volvo-driving, anti-American,” etc. (Also probably the root of the impulse to call 300 activists meeting privately “elitist.”)

And now Weston is now moving into how concise conservative messaging is, contrasting it with the muddled, unfocused messaging of progressives. (Using the word “progressive” now because the word “liberal” has been soiled in such an Orwellian fashion.) If you’ve read George Lakoff, this is nothing new, but it’s stuff that every successful activist absolutely needs to understand.

And now he’s demonstrating some specific reframes. On national security, for example, the proper frame isn’t specific policy arguments, since they can’t address either the underlying emotions or principles. The proper frame: “if we detain people without hearings, wiretap our own ciizens, and torture people on mere suspicions, the terrorists have won, because we have given up everything our country has stood for.”

Let’s all say that together now.

So this really is a useful gathering. That’s nice to say and mean. Even when a few of the presentations have felt a little gee-whiz, remapping history with a Steve Jobs shine, they’ve still been provocative.

Granted, we’re still a bunch of primates in here, so there’s a serious amount of networking going on. One gathering last night felt much like many Hollywood parties I’ve been to, with people talking about their projects and sniffing out who could help whom mostest. But that’s unavoidable.

At least here, the people desperately trying to save the world aren’t fictional and carrying machine guns.

But even here, there are still disturbing glimmers of our own quiet despair to overcome. One speaker last night quoted Obama’s inspirational refrain “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” itself a quote of Maria Shriver quoting Alice Walker quoting June Jordan and singers Sweet Honey in the Rock, all of whom were quoting a traditional Hopi saying.

Believe it or not, a few feminists actually got visibly pissed — hearing the uplifting phrase not as inspirational, but as a misogynist slam against women, I guess because the speaker didn’t verbalize a string of footnotes while trying to move people at the climax of an 18-minute speech.

Yes, misogyny sucks, anytime it actually occurs — but so does self-disabling instant-on anger at your own allies. Getting from there to what works seems to be part of what this conference is supposed to be about.

And even here, we need a headliner to get the troops psyched.

Last night, Sen. John Edwards swung in, chatting for an hour about hunger and poverty with a depth I wish had been possible during the campaign.

Not a bad way to start, even if it’s an accidental reminder of just how broken our electoral/media system truly is.

Speaking of one’s own quiet despair… ahem.

Onward…

The latest from one of our main favorite geniuses on the planet. (Acts I and II are up; Act III will go online shortly.)

Humankind should be thankful that Joss has decided to entertain it, and not destroy it with his mighty mind.

If you do not enjoy watching this, there is nothing inside you worth saving.

I suppose you could say I’m a fan.

Last Saturday night, I was walking home from late drinks with friends when I heard a loud metallic BANG about thirty or forty feet to my left.

I looked up, and two cars had collided, apparently at fairly high speed. And the vector product of their interaction sent them in a new direction: directly at me.

Yipe.

You don’t see cars coming right at you in the middle of the sidewalk very often. This was like one of those movie moments when a character looks up and sees a large, moving, out-of-place object — a falling building, a crashing plane, a strangely airborne car, etc. — that is about to suddenly kill him.

Two tons of metal were hurtling directly at my thighs. I’d have maybe half a second to do something about it.

Mostly, I said the word “shit” over and over. Also, I ran like hell. All I could come up with.

Fortunately, since the cars were also still braking and rotating, the one barreling most perilously at me slowed rapidly as its tires became perpendicular to the direction of travel, and I probably could have just stood there like an idiot (instead of running like one) and escaped. False alarm. No actual danger. (For me, anyway. One of the drivers seemed pretty hurt, although he refused medical assistance. The other driver is probably in pretty big trouble; she fled the scene, but a passing paparazzi — the same guy who got beat up on a Malibu beach recently, in fact — happened to see the accident and scribble down the license number.)

Still, for all of one second, I had pretty good reason to wonder if my number was up.

In the movies, that’s the sort of thing that gets people to reevaluate their lives, maybe improve their relationships or pursue their life’s dream or stop drinking or, hell, I dunno, join a gym or get that nifty sex change or at least form a freakin’ 4-H club or something. So for the last two days, I’ve been kind of waiting for my big insight or important life-changing decision.

Come on, insight! Here I am! Ready and waiting!

But so far… nothing. Nada.

It appears, shockingly, that running away from a large noise may have granted me no special knowledge.

What a ripoff. Makes it seem hardly worth almost getting killed in the first place.

I wonder if this is because (a) deep down, I truly believe my life choices are all very good, (b) I don’t, but I have no real interest in happiness whatsoever, or (c) something important is still brewing that I haven’t yet noticed.

All of these seem unlikely.

So, great: I don’t even have any insight about my own lack of insight. Well, crap.

Of course, if this sort of thing ever worked, Evel Knievel would have been the wisest man alive.

Man, Evel Knievel would have been like an oracle. With, like, robes, and a big throne, and people would have come to him with their problems, and Evel would have been all Obi-Wan, stroking his chin and gesturing somberly with his scepter, and then doling out advice in little aphorisms whose meanings would slowly unfold as the listener would contemplate and grow.

And then he’d, like, go jump over some sharks in a minibus. And then he’d come back and be even wiser.

But he didn’t. That is also disappointing.

Bottom line: if I’ve gained any larger awareness of the world to share from the experience, it is only this: all of us, brothers and sisters, everywhere on this green earth, should try, every day and in every way, not to get mashed by a Lexus.

This is my advice to you.