Bits and Pieces - January 27, 2010

The guy who said that Abu Zubaydah started confessing after fifteen seconds of waterboarding now says it was just what he heard around the water cooler. We can hope his fifteen minutes of fame were worth it.

China is rebuilding the Silk Road for trade with Central Asia, but the singular Soviet railroad track gauge is standing in the way.

Some facts about US debt rating, including

US tax revenues are far lower, 25.9 percent of GDP, than the tax share of most other AAA countries. The median AAA-rated country had combined tax revenues equal to 43.6 percent of GDP over the past ten years.

But Oregon comes to the rescue!

Steven Perlstein writes a pretty good SOTU.