Report from Hong Kong International Airport

I don't imagine there's anyplace in the world more interesting to be at this moment, unless of course you are not interested in the press. The lounge this early AM at Cathay Pacific Airways is alive with what is left of the London tabloids, the TVs blaze the Murdoch/Cameron hearings in Parliament, and several of those on the plane from NYC to Hong Kong were going to work either in finance or for what had recently been the Murdoch Empire. There were a few young wives on board, going to see their families with babies that did not cry, one with a four-year-old who kept herself amused and pleasant the whole trip, used to the journey as her grandparents live in Hong Kong. The young wife told me to stay by the window and be fed by the light when I got to the airport here, waiting for my flight to Bali, and that way I wouldn't get jet lag. The flight from JFK was fifteen hours, spent in one session of full sleep, one John Grisham movie, and a long nap, and I did my yoga here in the lounge at 7 this morning so don't yet feel that dull deadness that comes over you. My plane to Bali leaves this afternoon. The trip to Bali comes as a mercy as I have despaired of our country being our country at this point, Republicans being more fixated on their party and its priorities than they are on the United States of America, as it used to be known. It seems a fine time to be fleeing, as that which was once known as patriotism seems to have, as the book was called, Gone with the Wind, the wind blowing mainly from Boehner, McConnell, and Michele Bachmann. I am less than clear-headed due to the time change, sitting by the window or no, as it's already Thursday here and I left Tuesday night, so am in no position to be at the top of my game, so suggest you all read Frank Rich in New York magazine, who is at the top of his. God (if you believe in her) Bless America (if it's still there. Believe in Heaven, and, on occasion, Alec Baldwin.