On the flip side, they say Jamaica is 91% black

And I know plenty of non-black Jamaicans. So I wouldn't write off 5% white Haitians as not existing--they're especially unlikely to be vanishingly small, since there's a shade of a chance they're better off than average (though the post-colonial politics of Haiti were harsher for whites than most other Caribbean countries).

I dunno. I'd never say there were no white people in any country unless I knew it for fact. I mean, I'm not going to say there are no white Chinese people, I just know it's a tiny percentage. Unlikely to encounter them, but I'm not going to erase them.

That was what I meant by the flip side -- my gut reaction was not actually right, but I don't think it's an uncommon gut reaction to have.

As far as white Chinese people, I'm pretty sure the Tsingtao brewery was founded by Germans, so maybe their people stuck around.

I have to admit, when I think of countries with small to non-existent white populations (not that I do that very often, except today), it's usually Asian countries, like Laos or Cambodia, even though I know that's not really true.

My wife and I are especially fond of "biritilulo," a word from Papua, New Guinea, that literally means "to argue over yams" but is actually a great, loud row deliberately started between two angry parties as a way of letting out tension. It allows everyone to realize that the conflict in question is silly and to get on with life.

There's a word for this in English: Kerfauxfle.

There's a word for this in English: Kerfauxfle.

We must endeavor to introduce this word into the common lexicon.

In other news, I love the drawings of things writers fuel themselves with

That's great! In fact, that makes me like F.Scott Fitzgerald more than anything I've read by him.

Truman Capote had a short day, eh?

We must endeavor to introduce this word into the common lexicon.

right? I love it.

One of the blogs I read is thinking about dealing with the overrun of trolls by requiring everyone use their real names (they thought about using the Facebook commenting system - which I find is the scourge of the devil, slows websites WAY down, but maybe that's just for me since I'm not on FB).

I wrote them a longish email about how I thought pseudos isn't the problem, but that lack of community and ineffective moderation WAS the problem.

What say you all?

You white people are like glitter. You get absolutely everywhere. And just because we think you've gotten rid of most of you, doesn't mean there isn't some lurking back there, cheerfully waiting for the least expected moment.

I SEE YOU.

LeN, there is a level of identity that can be achieved using fake names. It's not real names or anarchy. And I've seen people be bags of dicks using their real names. Keep people accountable for what they said, and endeavour to keep them to one identity per person.

Then monitor the tone of the discussion.

I don't think I'm signing on anywhere in the near future that needs my real last name unless it's a professional community. Moon will have to do in the meanwhile.

Thanks, guys, for reminding me to wear makeup. You're really useful.

A lesson in standing up for yourself--there were no brownie cupcakes in the case at the cafe downstairs, but when I asked, lo magically one appeared. So if I'd stayed mum and been happy with the apparent status quo...no chocolately goodness.

(they thought about using the Facebook commenting system - which I find is the scourge of the devil, slows websites WAY down, but maybe that's just for me since I'm not on FB).

This drives me nuts. A couple of political blogs that I used to comment on switched over to this with the result that I no longer comment there. The way political blogs can get, I'm not linking comments that directly to the rest of my online life. And I'm not setting up a dummy Yahoo account which appears to be the only way around. (Also annoying: the comment display order defaults to "social ranking" and you have to click every time to resort chronologically. WTF?")

I'm not alone - the comment volumes have dropped precipitously.