Online access remains limited.  Saw this, however, in the international print edition of the USA Today, elaborating precisely the problem with the entire American political system (to wit: that its financing system remains corrupt to the core, and virtually every aspect of public policy is now on sale to the highest bidder):

The best-case annual return on invested capital within a particularly robust business: maybe forty percent.

The best-case annual return on invested capital when buying political influence: maybe a thousand percent.

You can see where the whole American system might be headed long-term very quickly.

On a related note:

One of the arguments you hear against sending aid to the poorest African nations is that many of their governments are notoriously corrupt kleptocracies.

The near-immediate response which seems to be commonly made by supporters of such aid across Europe: the American government’s a kleptocracy, too, but that doesn’t stop us dealing with them.

Whether that’s a fair comment or not you can judge for yourself.  But I’ve now heard it made twice, in two different countries.  And neither interviewer flinched.

That was me, Jono, and Ashok the other day.  What happened next I’d love to recount, but there has been a stunning lack of wireless access (or at least my ability to find it) so far on this trip.  Other stuff I want to write about:

England’s new law creating an "exclusion zone" in which free speech is banned in the vicinity of Parliament.

The crazy levels of armament inside Windsor Palace, essentially a visual confession that vast fortunes only accrue at the point of a gun.

The all-star cricket benefit for the tsunami victims, during which I was surrounded by a variety of ecstatic South Asians, one of whom briefly loaned me his child (nice story, that).

Wimbledon, which turns out to be one of the more egalitarian major sports events on Earth.

Taking cricket batting and bowling practice at Lord’s, which is akin to getting to play catch in the bullpen in Yankee Stadium.

What the ground smells like after a U2 concert.  (Hint: the answer isn’t "rain".)

Shakespeare’s Globe, a near-perfect replica of the 16th century theatre in which performers in period dress transport you to another era… except for when they have to shout over the airplanes on approach to Heathrow.

First-hand evidence that my forebears were mostly a bunch of drunks.

And a lot of other stuff.

But I am now in Denmark, where roughly 4 million people look like Sigourney Weaver at her most beautiful, even the men, despite subsisting entirely on a diet of cinnamon rolls and pork.

This may be because all Danes are also required to ride bicycles for at least nine hours per day, even if they have nowhere to go.  (I’m riding one right now, in fact.)  This somehow also compensates for the fact that everyone smokes here, including infants and dogs.

Many of the dogs also look like Sigourney Weaver.

Headed further east shortly.

But the cafe I’m in has a Scandanavian-style keyboard with multiple shift keys and I am typing at a rate normally only made possible through severe nerve damage.

Please stand by.