Today: New Orleans, Latin America, Fukuyama, SF

National Guard forces were sent to New Orleans. The image appeared in yesterday's NYT.

In today's issue, Thomas L. Friedman writes about the choices for Latin American countries: are they going to emulate India or to get addicted to China? Friedman describes a discussion he had with Gabriel Rozman — a Jewish technologist of Hungarian roots who was raised in Uruguay, educated in America and now heads the Latin American operations of India's biggest software/outsourcing company, Tata Consultancy Services of Mumbai. The Latin American challenge, argues Friedman, is the choice between becoming a market for outsourcing or a market for natural resources.

As for Maureen Dowd, she uses her ammunition to target almost everybody. Fukuyama renounced to his End of History, it seems after chatting with his barbecue supplier (apparently the new theory is the End of Barbecue), Reagan became kind of Hannah Arendt (when compared to W.), Clinton had big ideas, only he was too much focused on himself, Gore also had big ideas, only he was too much focused by the interest groups that float around Dems, and all remaining ammunition is used for Maureen's predilect target, the Vice (In the hands of the wrong person, big ideas can be terrifying).

Is Science Fiction just fiction? My friend Adrian would say no (and we should give him some credit, as he sailed once through the Strait of Magellan). Anyway, Brenda Cooper will be on an online chat on Wednesday, June 21 - read details in today's WaPo.

And it's the birthday of Jean-Paul Sartre. He would have been 101.