This letter to the editor from Tom Perkins about the anti-tech backlash in SF is just breathtakingly stupid.

I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its “one percent,” namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the “rich.” … This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent “progressive” radicalism unthinkable now?
This comparison is so obviously idiotic I’d just ignore it. But it’s by Tom Perkins, founder of Kleiner-Perkins, one of the most influential VC firms in the tech industry. Blogging it so we “never forget” if you know what I mean.

I’m concerned about the growing class tension in the SF Bay Area. While I think some of the rhetoric in the protests is deplorable there’s significant, meaningful issues of equality and access in the Bay Area that need to be addressed. But then to have some jackass come in and Godwin the whole discussion, in the Wall Street Journal no less, just ick.

Maybe it’s time for Kleiner Perkins to rebrand.

politics
  2014-01-25 20:37 Z

Greetings from Thailand! Just on the way home. I have to be honest and say we didn’t love this part of our trip as much. Maybe we went to the wrong places?

Bangkok is an amazing modern city, with all the excitement and hassle that entails. It’s also crowded and dirty and at least for us, not so much fun as a tourist. The highlight was seeing the amazing temple Wat Pho, totally worth a visit. But famous entertainment areas like Patpong were lost on us; too crowded and sleazy. I’m sure folks have more fun in Bangkok than we did, but for us a couple of days was enough. As for dining, it got better once we got out of hotels. Queen of Curries was quite good: divey place by American standards, but friendly staff and delicious food. The Local was more interesting, strong fresh flavors and significantly more variety than we see in the US. I particularly liked the lemongrass salad with little dried shrimps and fried tiny fish, wrapped in betel leaf.

We had more fun in Chiang Mai, the medium sized city in the north. The Dhara Dhevi hotel was phenomenal: incredible hotel architecture, great food, terrific service. Our favorite experience was the hotel’s cooking class with market tour. Our temple tour was also interesting was thanks to a good guide. Riding elephants was not for me: certainly interesting and different but I’m not much for large animals.

So now we head home from a long successful trip to Bali, Singapore, and Thailand that my sweetie Ken arranged for us with help from our travel agent. Turns out to not be so hard to visit this part of the world, at least if you’re a little patient and don’t mind paying for high end service. Bali was definitely my favorite place of the three, I’m sure I’ll be back.

culturetravel
  2014-01-07 01:16 Z