Random stuff I learned while chasing links around the Web:

First off, NBC’s Brian Williams ought to get the last week’s Stupid Award for this:

How do you ask the Dalai Lama to leave the White House if you’re trying to keep his visit from becoming too public? Well, judging from the trash bags that he had to walk around, the Obama White House had him exit through a door seldom used by anybody but household staff. It’s where the West Wing meets the main residence. China, however, did notice the visit and called in the U.S. ambassador to China today to protest.

By my count, last week’s was the tenth visit the Dalai Lama has made to the White House, and the fourth sitting POTUS he has met there. I understand he met with George H.W. Bush once, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush four times each, and now Barack Obama once. These meetings are always kept as far under the radar as they can be kept. Clinton didn’t even put His Holiness on the official schedule, but would arrange for him to meet with some lesser official and then casually drop by. The two Bushes handled Dalai Lama visits about the same way Barack Obama did — very quietly, and not in the Oval Office.

The one exception to this was October 2007, when George W. Bush attended the ceremony at which the Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The award set off a round of celebrations, protests and police actions in Tibet that played a part in the March 2008 uprising. There are reasons to keep these things low key other than placating China.

And as far as I know, the White House exit he used Thursday is the same one His Holiness always uses, although don’t quote me on that. The Dalai Lama will be on Larry King live tomorrow night, I understand, and maybe Larry will ask him about the trash bags if he runs out of questions about Tiger Woods.

As I wrote at The Guardian, the Dalai Lama is a walking dilemma for presidents. They can’t meet with him, they can’t not meet with him. Either way, they get slammed by somebody.

But the suggestions that the White House seriously was trying to hide the visit from China is more than ludicrous. It was in the papers. There were reporters there (His Holiness threw snow at them in a manner that suggested a purification ritual). The White House issued a statement and uploaded a photo of the meeting to the White House Flickr.com page. The Chinese were paying close attention, believe me.

BTW, His Holiness wore flip flops to the White House. He’s so cute.

Other profiles — I learned from Phil Boehmke at the right-wing site American Thinker that it takes real courage for a prominent and self-employed right-wing publisher to stand in front of a right-wing audience and badmouth lefties. So, folks, whenever you are facing terror — like it’s 6 a.m. and you realize you’re out of coffee, or there’s a big spider in the pantry, or something — and need someone with real courage, be sure to call on ol’ Andrew B.