.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Milton J. Madison - An American Refugee Now Living in China, Where Liberty is Ascending

Federalism, Free Markets and the Liberty To Let One's Mind Wander. I Am Very Worried About the Fate of Liberty in the USA, Where Government is Taking people's Lives ____________________________________________________________________________________________ "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue." -Barry Goldwater-

Thursday, September 29, 2005

I Went.....

I went to a boxing match once and a Taiwanese legislative session broke out [Via Simon World].
Last week, it was the KMT & PFP parties causing chaos in the legislature by ripping up speeches and blocking the podium, but it’s good to see that the DPP & TSU have just as much respect for the dignity of the legislature as they returned the favour yesterday:

While the pan-blue alliance was retreating to their seats, a skirmish broke out between Hung and DPP Legislator Yu Jan-daw (余政道), who was trying to grab her megaphone.

KMT Legislator Pai Tien-chih (白添枝) managed to take it back, but DPP Sandy Chuang (莊和子) attacked KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝).

Chuang pulled Liao’s hair and knocked off her spectacles, while Liao responded with a hard push.

Chuang was later taken to the nearby National Taiwan University Hospital, but KMT lawmakers blasted Chuang for faking injuries. Determined not to let Chuang get all the media attention, Liao also went to the legislature’s medical center for treatment.

Both camps then accused the other of starting the scuffle, and the KMT accused Yu of causing the mayhem under the influence of alcohol. Yu, however, denied the allegation and threatened to file a lawsuit against Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春), who Yu said hit him on the head during the disturbance.
Yikes.

This is what China fears about democracy, the skinny little runts that run the place would get the shit kicked out of them publically!

Shit Coverage By Lazy And Agenda Laden Journalists, Outted Yet Again...

The coverage of the Katrina hurricane disaster was a complete and total embarrassment to the press and to Americans.
"Don't get stuck on stupid, reporters," Lt. Gen. Russel Honore first told them last week. "We are moving forward. And don't confuse the people, please. You are part of the public message. So help us get the message straight."

Several media organizations have examined, sometimes harshly, the work of newspapers and particularly cable-TV news networks.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune published a lengthy account Monday of errors, misrepresentations and wildly exaggerated claims of murder, rape and abuse of children at the New Orleans Superdome. The newspaper cited publication of "scores of myths about the dome and Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials."
So the left leaning press wants us to believe that African Americans, the second that something happens, lose all control and goes on a "Lord of the Flies" rampage? Its also embarrassing that many people actually believed that garbage when it was happening. Shameful, utterly shameful.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Giant Squid Captured On Film By Team Of Japanese Scientists....

My 10 year-old son is fascinated by deep sea creatures and he can name many of them. He will be very excited when hears the news. He has asked me many questions about giant sea squid that I have been unable to answer and so we look up the answers on the internet.
"It's the holy grail of deep sea animals," he said. "It's one that we have never seen alive, and now someone has video of one."

New Zealand's leading authority on the giant squid, marine biologist Steve O'Shea, praised the Japanese team's feat.

"Through sheer ... determination the guy has gone on and done it," said O'Shea, chief marine scientist at the Auckland University of Technology, who is not linked to the Japanese research.
Its better than hearing some leftist drivel on Katrina, Cindy Sheehan or Iraq.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Maxwell Smart Is Dead....

A couple weeks after Gilligan, Maxwell Smart has passed on. Don Adams[born in New York City as Donald James Yarmy changed his name from Yarmy to Adams because he got tired of being last during alphabetical auditions], the star of "Get Smart" has died at the age of 82, 62 years after this WWII marine on Guadalcanal was thought to be mortally ill. He believed that it was prayer that saved his life. Also, he was Tennessee Tuxedo during the entire run of Underdog and had a smash hit as Inspector Gadget in the 1980's.

"Missed it by that much." Sorry but his ages don't add up. He was 82, but he says that he was 16 years old on Guadalcanal which would make him 78.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Can't Blame Hurricanes Katrina And Rita On Global Warming Just Yet....

I have heard several people yap about this as of late but it appears that global warming isn't what is impacting the intensity of the hurricanes we have seen this year....
"The increased activity since 1995 is due to natural fluctuations (and) cycles of hurricane activity driven by the Atlantic Ocean itself along with the atmosphere above it and not enhanced substantially by global warming," he testified.
Landsea said the studies indicate global warming could increase hurricane wind speeds and rainfall by about 5 percent --100 years from now. But, he added, more study is needed, looking back at historical data and making it more compatible with modern reporting techniques.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Odie The Dog, Says 'I Love You'.....

Odie on David Letterman.

Rodin Museum....

The gardens at the Rodin Museum in France, over 3 hectares interspersed with Rodin sculptures, only cost 1 Euro [US$1.25/HK$10] to enter. I will make sure that I go there next time I am in Paris.

Hate Your Job?


I think that there are worse countries in Europe than England.

Pollutants In the New Orleans Flood Waters...

The noxious brew of pollutants in the stagnating waters of New Orleans includes, as The Onion points out, decades of dried vomit.

What Was Lot Doing Near Sodom and Gomorrah?

He was doing more than just pitching tents?

Peace Rally...

Billed as the largest peace rally since the Vietnam war, the poor turnout must be indicative of....something. I just don't know what. Turnout was much higher in the weeks and months leading up to the war, but since then, people have been much more circumspect in their protests.

The Gay patriot also points out that if the Iraq war is really like Vietnam, as several of my friends argued the similarities on Friday night at dinner, then the rallies should be getting bigger, not smaller.

A Day At Disney....

By Phil at Flying Chair. He was somewhat disappointed, essentially not enough rides for the number of people let in. I haven't gone and probably won't for a little while. Since the kids would be the main reason to go, and they are at school now, therefore, the days off are probably bedlam there. Hopefully there will be a school field-trip or something so that they can go while school is in session and there will be many fewer people.

I do have one suggestion for a ride.... a while back, I had the opportunity to ride a mini-bus from Shatin to Mongkok, over the mountain. This was as frightening an experience I have had. There is good reason why all the safety handles are broken on the back of the seats, its because people grip them so tight, that when their weight is thrown around, the dang things break!

So I suggest that they have a wild Mongkok mini-bus ride, and of course this one will be much safer! They could go through marketplaces, have pedestrians jump out of the way, etc. to add to the excitement.

This may work in Florida, California, Tokyo and Paris, too!

From The Institute For Public Affairs In Montreal.....

"What is our aim? Victory! Victory at all costs; victory however long and hard the road may be; victory in spite of all terror for without victory there is no survival."

~ Winston Churchill

I was surprised to see this article on this institute's web-site since I naturally assumed that it would be a left leaning policy think tank. However, it is very much different than that.
Amidst the coverage of the horrors of yet another terrorist attack, it was poignant to watch the British veterans of World War II celebrate and remember their victories in a ceremony in the middle of London yesterday marking the official end of World War II. Churchill's spirit in Churchill's soldiers.

Their dignity and defiance put into stark relief the hand-wringing attitude of many in the western media and political life as one continued to watch the press conferences and public pronouncements. Leaders, with rare exceptions, seemed dazed and bewildered. Journalists, in much too typical fashion, commented cloyingly on the need to find ways to deal with the "fringe fanatics" of the "Islamic street". Talking-head analysts still pathetically pontificated about finding the "root causes" for terror and how difficult it is to "ferret out the killers" since destroying them meant killing human beings not just machines. And herein lies the problem.
Their basic premise here, is that they think that Islamists are not to be considered humans, just weapons in a war and that we should seek to destroy them. Read the whole thing.

Industrial Accidents Claim More Than 136,000 Lives Last Year...

136,000 lives were lost in fatal industrial accidents in China last year. This compares with 5,575 and 5,703 in the US for 2003 and 2004, respectively.

I have heard people say that life is cheap in China, and this really drives home the point as to how little value is put on the lives of the hard working Chinese people. If this is how they value the lives of their fellow citizens, imagine the value that they put on us, the non-citizen, non-Chinese guest.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Even The French Understood....

Chicken littles worried about the US economic position should hear what de Gaulle had to say...
The United States continues to reap major gains from what Charles de Gaulle called its "exorbitant privilege," its unique role in providing global liquidity by running chronic external imbalances. The resulting inflow of productivity-enhancing capital has strengthened its underlying economic position. Only one development could upset this optimistic prognosis: an end to the technological dynamism, openness to trade, and flexibility that have powered the U.S. economy. The biggest threat to U.S. hegemony, accordingly, stems not from the sentiments of foreign investors, but from protectionism and isolationism at home.
US investment returns and deep liquidity is now the Bretton Woods gold standard.

Read this and weep non-believers.

What Is a Masterfece?

And other insights here.

Why I Think That "Doing" Iraq Is In The Best Interest Of The USA....

Every leader of every country has to do what they think is in the best interest of their people. Some leaders will make decisions based upon short-term considerations and some will make decisions based upon long-term considerations. These decisions are principally tied to the situation. For example, decisions surrounding the response of a natural disaster is largely a short-term decision, whereas, decisions in planning for a natural disaster is longer-term [actually kind-of an intermediate decision].

Now, we can debate the issues surrounding tactical and strategic short-term and long-term decisions. Arguing that Iraq is part of the war on terror [WOT] confuses people as to what a tactical or strategic decision is. Most people think of Osama bin Laden as the ultimate goal of the war on terror. I had several Democrats huffing this at me last night. So people look at this as the ultimate goal and therefore, the thought is, that it is a strategic decision to get him out of the picture. This is wrong, its not him, he is just the human form of a sick philosophy. Removing him would not eliminate the problem, removing him is just a tactical maneuver to reduce the ability of the organization to operate. It is not a strategy. Since some people think that Osama is the ultimate goal of the WOT that any movement is just a tactical maneuver to gain the ultimate goal in this war. This thinking is just plain wrong and does not look at facts and does not achieve that which is in the best interest of the nation. By definition, it is only part of the puzzle.

Iraq is in a very sensitive part of the world. It was run by a despotic murderous madman. No one can debate that. The world, through the UN was engaged in a containment strategy that was weakening and the oil-for-food scandal is showing just how weak this containment strategy had become. Besides, a containment strategy is just a tactic. It doesn't address the ultimate problems and lacks a cohesive and sound strategy and had no ultimate goal, it largely pushed the problem into the future. Some can argue that Saddam posed no risk to the US. Ok, that is an opinion and one that I would have to consider but his past actions, philosophy and potential for harm remains large.

So, does one allow the containment strategy to continue to weaken and probably get eliminated in a few years? This is tough decision for any leader. Their time in office, for the US President, is limited to eight years.

Additionally, people have argued that Saddam and al Qaeda were not collaborators. Lets assume, as people argue that they never did collaborate and never had any contact what-so-ever. Can we now assume that these two, Saddam and al Qaeda would continue on their separate ways even though Afghanistan was now hostile territory for them? This is the bet that the anti-war crowd has to take.

Its not one that I would be willing to take as a leader. If I am looking out for the best interests of my nation, then I have to look at both the short-term risks and the long-term risks. This actually appears to me as one of the biggest long-term risks in the world at that time. A resurgent Iraq, with oil revenues and a failed containment strategy. A hostile Iran working towards nuclear armament and a brutal religious philosophy based on hate looking for a home and funding.

Now, as a President with high popularity after September 11th and a mandate to protect my nation from more risks of this type, I have to think of a way to change the calculus of the region and reduce the chances that al Qaeda can reconstitute itself as a force. One needs to tactically continue to close the box with the ultimate strategy of reducing risk.

I may have made the same decision as President Bush in his shoes. Maybe I would have lost my nerve and not done it. Or maybe I would have plunged in to the fray with the fervor and zest that Bush did. I appreciate that this is not an easy decision and many armchair quarterbacks can disparage his decision making. But I, for one, commend his foresight and calm approach to the risks. I think that Winston Churchill, if he were still alive today, would have approached it very much the same way. The only difference is that Winston would have had some nice quotable wisdom that we could lean on in difficult times.

Undeserved High Real Estate Prices in Hong Kong.....

High end real-estate in Manhattan goes for US$26 a square foot a year. That equates to 26*7.8/12=hk$16.90 a square foot equivalent a month. Hong Kong so-so real-estate that is considered high-end, trades for an almost 50% premium to that! Nationally in the US, apartments average rent is US$14.53. That equates to 14.53*7.8/12=hk$9.44 per square foot. One would be hard pressed to find a place that rents for that price here in Hong Kong.

Additionally, the square footage that one pays rent for in Hong Kong includes all kinds of useless space. Efficieny ratios are generally around 70%. This means that if you rent a 1,500 square foot place, one only get around 1,050 square feet of space.

I just don't understand why prices are so high here and why people in Hong Kong tolerate this.

Why Are The Democrats Not Showing Up At Cindy's Anti-war Rally?

Lots of huffing and puffing. Lets hope for the anti-war's sake that many thousands show up so the debate can continue....
"There are a lot of people here who are wondering, where are the Democrats?"
I wonder about this every day!!!
said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic House member from Maine who's now the national director of Win Without War, one of several groups that are organizing three days of protests against the war in Washington starting Saturday.

"The Democratic Party has an identity crisis on this issue. We need voices. We need leadership," Andrews said. "But fear is driving them."
Well, go out and do it boys and girls!

Warren Beatty, To Run For Governor Of California?

Probably not. He doesn't really want to embarrass himself to badly. He has been a big critic of right leaning Arnold and the berating continues despite his inability to put his mouth [money] where his mouth is. Hollywood people are so tiring, anyway. Who thinks that any of them are worth a stream of bat piss anyway? Besides...
Beatty, who has criticized the governor several times this year, called the initiatives "union busting" and "fascist."

Arnold's spokeswoman, Margita Thompson, had a response to the criticism:

"We don't care that much about Warren Beatty, and based on his ticket sales from the past generation, I doubt anyone else does either."
Zingo!

How Do You know things Are Back To Normal in New Orleans?

Strippers.

Bird Flu....

The outbreak in Indonesia looks as if it may be worse than people are saying. The Indonesians are already looking for help...
The bird flu virus has spread to 22 provinces across the sprawling archipelago, killing more than 9.5 million poultry since late 2003. Indonesia said this week it would cull poultry in areas where the outbreak was serious.

Four Indonesians are confirmed to have died since July from bird flu.
Yikes.

Friday, September 23, 2005

For Spike....

You may have lots of albums and music, but I bet that you do not have this one. Called 'Has Been.' See him in action by clicking on video on the lower right corner of the screen and hear some scat.

Pop-star OR Porn-star???

Can you tell the difference between a pop-star and a porn-star? Play the game here. I only got one wrong.

Ring My Bell.......

One of the great college football traditions is the honor of ringing the bell....

This guy does it with vigor.

Husband Super Store...

Recently a "Husband Super Store" opened where women could go to choose a husband from among many men. It was laid out over five floors, with the men increasing in positive attributes as you ascended.

The only rule was, once you opened the door to any floor, you HAD to choose a man from that floor; if you went up a floor, you couldn't go back down except to leave the place, never to return.

A couple of girlfriends went to the shopping centre to find some husbands...

First floor

The door had a sign saying, "These men have jobs and love kids." The women read the sign and said, "Well, that's better than not having a job or not loving kids, but I wonder what's further up?" So up they went.


Second floor

The sign read, "These men have high paying jobs, love kids, and are extremely good looking." "Hmmm," said the ladies, "But, I wonder what's further up?"


Third floor

This sign read, "These men have high paying jobs, are extremely good looking, love kids and help with the housework." "Wow," said the women, "Very tempting." But there was another floor, so further up they went. "



Fourth floor

This door had a sign saying "These men have high paying jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking, help with the housework and have a strong romantic streak." "Oh, mercy me," they cried, "Just think what must be awaiting us further on! "

So up to the fifth floor they went.

Fifth floor

The sign on that door said, "This floor is empty and exists only to prove that women are ******* impossible to please. The exit is to your left, we hope you fall down the stairs. "

Yahoo Defends Itself By Publishing A Story For Their News Service....

Yahoo new service has run a story on their recent complicity in the jailing of a Chinese journalist by providing email information to authorities. Some journalistic integrity here, running a news story on yourself defending yourself from criticism.
"We did not know what they wanted information for," Yang told reporters. "We are not told what they look for. If they give us the proper documentation in a court order, we give them things that satisfy local laws."

Should Yahoo have refused to cooperate anyway? Suppose you work for Yahoo in Beijing, and one morning the cops arrive in your office and say that they need you to hand over some information. They don't tell you the details of the case. For all you know, the security forces are investigating a spammer.

ASKING FOR TROUBLE? That's not implausible. After all, spamming has become a major problem in China, and lots of junk e-mail that clutters the inboxes of Internet users in the U.S. come from or are routed through computers in China.

Or maybe the inquiry is about someone whom authorities suspect of peddling child pornography over the Net. Or a terrorist using e-mail to plan an attack. You just don't know. Should you refuse to cooperate anyway? Should Yahoo have a "just say no" policy, refusing to provide any information to the Chinese police, period?
So Yahoo co-founder 'billionaire' Yang has been called in to defend their actions and try to weasel out of their complicity.

There is a big difference in providing information on a potential spam suspect and providing information that jails a journalist on a trumped up politically motivated charge. "Oh, sorry, I meant to shoot my gun in the air but instead I shot that poor slob in the head. Its not my fault that I am complicit in a moral crime since I was just doing what I was told, [Yahoo pleads in the Nuremberg trials on the net]. Golly gee, I didn't mean to do that and couldn't help it, so I am not guilty, right?" We can hear the billionaires at Yahoo plead.

Steve Martin once suggested that a great way to get some money, would be go down to the bank with a gun, tell them to give you some and then if you are caught, just claim that you forgot that it was illegal.

I am no legal expert, but can't yahoo fight to make it somewhat more difficult and time consuming for the Chinese to gain such information, make it an issue or delay and let the world press get wind of the heavy handedness of Chinese authorities or do they plan to just roll over every single time that some Chinese official or court pulls some legal stunt. "Oh," you can hear the sweet yahoo voices say. "Do you want some tea, while I dig up the information that you need to put some poor unwitting slob in jail for a decade or two?"

As far as I concerned, as a member of the global communication system, they have a duty to step back and take time to figure out where this is all taking them. They played a fool's game with the Chinese government and have already played cards with the devil. There is no way that they can win.

We should all stop using Yahoo and send them a strong message.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

The Potential For A Bird Flu Pandemic Is Worrisome....

Hopefully, this bug won't mutate into something as deadly as the Spanish flu. But the Spanish flu had an ally in that there was a world war going on and people were traveling all over the place into dirty deadly conditions and living unhealthy lives.
WHO researchers say between 7 million and 100 million humans worldwide could die in such an outbreak. Dr. Michael Osterholm, head of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, predicts it could kill at least 1.7 million Americans. Worldwide, he foresees at least 180 million deaths and possibly 300 million.
But the operative word is "could." The disease must first mutate into a strain to affect humans; flu virus mutates with ease, and it could mutate into a killer strain -- or into a relatively harmless strain. Some analysts describe Dr. Osterholm's forecasts as far-fetched, given that only 675,000 Americans died in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, when medicine was relatively primitive and between 20 million and 50 million people died worldwide. About 40,000 Americans, mostly the elderly, die of flu in an average year.
I worry most about my kids.

Clinton And Lewinski......

Clinton And Lewinski condoms are now available in China. I remember a few years back, prior to the scandal, Clinton and family passed through Hong Kong in 1998 on one of his global 'sucking up' tours. There was a "Clinton" cigar that was packaged and sold here to commemorate the occasion. Little did anyone know how famous Clinton cigars would become a few short weeks later! I went to all the cigar stores to see if I could find any leftover floating around but they were all gone.

The Gap Between China's Rich And Poor.....

We have always been subject to the discussion on income gap between rich and poor back home in rags such as the New York Times, who never saw a tax that it didn't like, as long as it was aimed at the undeserving 'rich'. Typical leftist dogma likes to use taxes against the rich as a utopian wealth distribution method that shrinks the gap between the haves and have-nots. So, generally, blathering about the wealth gap is just the first volley in a program to increase income taxes.

However, this issue is even more important in the developing world, particularly China, where access to government and favors allows certain 'connected' private individuals benefits not allowed to the public in general. A widening income gap is the result of both...
Among the wealthiest are private business owners whose fortunes were built through hard work and talent, the Xinhua report said" and those whose riches stem from corruption and crime."
The interesting thing is that rampant corruption, particularly among the elite government officials, is itself viewed as a risk to stability in China by the government officials. So, what are they going to do? Throw themselves in jail? They are both the problem and serving themselves up as the solution to the problem. How silly is that? There are fundamental problems with this since government officials have always viewed themselves as above the law, the law, although voluminous, is not enforced equally and the judicial system is weak and is itself subject to the same corruption that plagues government officials.

As far as I am concerned, what makes the problem of official corruption in China even more recalcitrant is that there is no mechanism for cleaning house and injecting new blood in the political process. Authoritarianism is a short-term answer to a problem that other unintended long-term consequences for a society.

China now has an elite class of government officials that will be difficult to dislodge. Despite its short-comings, democracy is a mechanism for creating a transition mechanism and represents the combined wisdom of the people. It provides a peaceful mechanism to remove corruption and start on a path to make changes. Some may argue that democracy is an imperfect solution to such a big problem but I think that Winston Churchill said it best...
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
I had to laugh at this line in the article sited above, though, since it is ever so true....
In a separate report, the state-run newspaper China Daily took aim at the gaps in incomes of China's government employees.

The topic is "a highly contentious issue, especially as many in China cast doubt on the very existence of any honest officials," it said.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

North Korea Makes $250 million A Year From Counterfeiting US $ Notes....

The rogue regime of North Korea, is and has been producing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fake US$ 100 notes.
The counterfeiting profits support the North Korean government's drug trafficking, money laundering and gambling, Miss Hwang says. On a strategic level, the North Koreans think that circulating supernotes will help destabilize Western economies, she says, noting that the U.S. Treasury redesigned the $100 bill in part because of North Korean counterfeiting.
China is linked to the counterfeiting by North Korean use of Chinese territory and criminal gangs, she says. The Beijing government is probably aware of the official role in North Korean counterfeiting and is not doing enough to stop it.
Interesting that all of this is getting press time just after Mega-wealthy Ronnie "I have no morals and will sell anything to anybody or do anything since I am above the law or above responsibility" Au's sleezebag bank gets rapped for involvement in North Korea's illicit programs. And we all know that any of this could not be done without the complicity and tacit approval of China's ruling elite.

I Actually Saw This Guy Blubber On Meet The Press....

Aaron Broussard, the President of Jefferson Parish in or around New Orleans was interviewed on the Meet The Press program that I wrote about a few weeks ago since Tim Russert did such an awful job on that show. He broke down in tears and blubbered away for a few moments recounting a vivid time-line of events on the death of a co-worker's mother. The problem with President Broussard's account is that he changed the timeline of events and fabricated parts the actual situation to create an emotional blame filled moment. You can see the film here and see where he mislead the public. What his motivation was for embellishing upon the tragic death of a colleague's mother is somewhat of a mystery to me.
The story, of a colleague's mother begging her son for rescue as flood waters rose after Hurricane Katrina, came to prominence on Sunday, Sept. 4, when Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday through Monday, Aug. 29 — not Monday through Friday, Sept. 2 as recounted by Broussard. The owners of the nursing home were indicted Tuesday for the deaths of more than 30 residents, which officials say occurred on Aug. 29

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The Poor In The USA Was Never A Hot Topic.......

until the Katrina disaster struck New Orleans. Now all these liberal newspapers are whining on the class angle for a while and trying to blame the Republican Bush administration for some agenda laden tripe that they dig up.

But the question that is being asked of the newspapers and big media is where have THEY been all these years when poverty has been festering in the poor communities in New Orleans? Apparently, they were nowhere to be found!
A Sept. 12 Washington Post story was headlined "Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at Bush." An equally apt headline would have been, "Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at a Media Establishment That Has Largely Ignored Them."

A database search of The Post for the past decade found one story that prominently mentioned the poor of New Orleans: a 2002 piece on a campaign to boost the minimum wage that cited the city's "40 percent poverty level." Far more typical of the Mardi Gras media was a 1995 Post story on how "the city's black neighborhoods come alive" with Sunday parades in the fall.

New York Times ombudsman Byron Calame found a similar record at his newspaper, unearthing only two articles about New Orleans in 10 years that "contained a few paragraphs on poverty and race."
The newspapers are not the seekers of truth, but a fair-weather friend to the needy and whatever news story advances their agenda, and that agenda is be a millstone around George Bushes neck. They could figure out a better way to be useful and serve the public purpose that they are charged with and that is to REPORT the news, not create it.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Bird Flu Pandemic...

Like SARS but even more troubling.
Millions of people could die around the world if bird flu spreads out of control, and most countries are totally unprepared for such an event, the UN's World Health Organisation says.

"If there was a flu pandemic tomorrow we would not be ready. The clock is ticking and when the pandemic strikes it will be too late," said WHO spokeswoman Christine McNab.

Despite warnings at the United Nations by US President George W. Bush and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin calling for international cooperation to confront the "first pandemic of the 21st century", the international community was far from prepared.
My grandfather got the Spanish Flu in 1917 or 1918 while training on a submarine for combat during WWI. Apparently, he was very ill for a long time, but he survived [otherwise, you wouldn't be reading this].
The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%. The death rate for 15 to 34-year-olds of influenza and pneumonia were 20 times higher in 1918 than in previous years (Taubenberger). People were struck with illness on the street and died rapid deaths. One anecdote shared of 1918 was of four women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza (Hoagg).
The mortality for 15-35 year old is what is interesting here, like SARS, that killed 50% or so of those over 65, relatively healthy young people died too.

So we, as individuals, have also to plan a possible course of action since governments in an environment like this would be completely overwhelmed.

A letter To Yahoo.......

I read about Yahoo's complicity in the conviction of a person by the name of Shi Tao, a journalist in Hunan, China.

As far as I am concerned, your actions constitute a change of privacy that users have come to expect from Yahoo.

Also, this kind of behavior is clearly unacceptable from a human rights standpoint.

I have been a paying customer of your email service for several years and I am angry at your behavior. I will have to evaluate my commercial relationship with you and will urge others to do so also.

Thank you for showing your true colors, that your commercial interests take precedent over your moral obligations and that you are willing to put one honest man in jail so that you can help the authoritarians in China keep the boot on peoples necks.

Shi Tao's story [Washington Post, Registration required, I think].

Sunday, September 18, 2005

What Is A Son-of-a-bitch?


Iraq bomb deactivation....

The fellow in the front is a bomb deactivation specialist. The fellow behind is a son-of-a-bitch.

Problems With Macao's Banks....

I saw on the TV yesterday, that there was a run on Macao bank Delta Asia after being accused of complicity by the United States in money laundering supporting North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Banco Delta Asia, part of the Delta Asia Financial Group headed by Stanley Au, a Hong Kong financier and Macao legislator, was designated under the Patriot Act for alleged money-laundering activities. The move could result in the bank being barred access to US financial markets.

The Treasury Department alleged that a "significant amount" of the bank's business for the past two decades had involved North Korea. Its banking services had "specifically facilitated the criminal activities of North Korean government agencies and front companies", the Treasury said
In addition, Bank of China's Macau branch may also be investigated since nothing in Macao happens without their knowledge. Stanley Ho's Seng Heng Bank is also targeted in the probe. This comes at a very awkward time for Bank of China since they are in the process of listing the bank on foreign stock exchanges and any sniff of running afoul of terrorism laws may jeopardize the share issuance.

If any of Macau's banks are found to have abetted terrorists in the form of the rogue North Korean regime, business with American banks may be restricted or eliminated. Additionally, guilty Macao banks could have further problems with other global non-US banks fearing to do business with them in the future leading to a loss of market position and all-important confidence leading to a destabilizing run as depositors try to get their money out.

Statue Square.....

A mainland visitor once stopped my wife on the street and asked her where the famous statues were in Statue Square, a tourist stop-off for our friends from the north [tours frequently show as many free sites as possible to keep costs down], since he was puzzled by the name and the lack of statues.

Unfortunately, the only statue remaining in Statue Square is one of Sir Thomas Jackson, the chief manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank between 1876 and 1902. Huh? The other original residents, mostly British royalty, were moved to other locations and the HSBC lions are now across the street in front of the HSBC building. And it wouldn't be appropriate to keep statues of the former colonial rulers right there next to the legislative council I suppose. So Statue Square is a big....so what!

Now, someone is trying to raise money for a statue of Bruce Lee to put on the Tsim Sha Tsui "Avenue of the Stars" to memorialize the famous Hong Kong film star for his upcoming 65th birthday celebration.
Bruce Lee fans are urging the Hong Kong government to help pay for a bronze statue to mark the actor's 65th birthday in November.

The Bruce Lee Club is planning to erect an 8-foot-2-inch statue of the martial arts legend on the Avenue of Stars, which honors Hong Kong movie stars, said Hew Kuan-yau, a member of the club's committee.
He would be perfect for statue challenged Statue Square, don't you think? Even though he was born an American.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

The Awful American Media Coverage Of The Aftermath Of Katrina....

You won't hear too much of what really happened after Katrina hit New Orleans since it doesn't fit the agenda of the American mainstream press.
"Military helicopters played a striking role in this-flying in food and water and flying out evacuees," he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration said that 6,500 survivors were rescued by air. Another 2,500 were rescued by boat.

The National Guard evacuated more than 2,000 sick and injured people from New Orleans and flew around 300 missions a day along the Mississippi coast delivering supplies.

Major Tim Doherty, commander of the Georgia National Guard's 148th Air Ambulance, said his unit was flying nonstop from sunup to sundown to evacuate people.
CNN was breathlessly predicting 10-25,000 deaths in New Orleans and running versions of this hyperbole on the running news wire at the bottom of the screen for days. Then they were attempting to inject a racism angle into the reporting in order to further advance their agenda. However, they missed much of the story of ordinary civilians and well prepared military personnel saving lives right after the storm passed.

Shame on all the press and shame on the people that are promoting their spiteful agenda. One of the biggest failures in the post-Katrina environs in Louisiana and Mississippi was the press.

Just Another Madman....

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday he has documentary evidence that the United States plans to invade his country.

Chavez, interviewed on ABC's "Nightline," said the plan is called "Balboa" and involves aircraft carriers and planes. A transcript of the interview was made available by "Nightline."
Holy hot tamale, Batman. Maybe Pat Robertson and Chavez have something in common, after all.... a need for lithium.

Splendid Fall Colors....

One of the top few things that I enjoy in the northeastern part of the United States is the splendid Fall colors and cool crisp dry air. I miss this time of year when overseas but, as everyone knows, I do not enjoy the sappy whinny liberalism that dulls everything and casts a grey shadow in New York and surrounding environs. But I digress.

Protein FtsH6 degrades another substance in leaves during the Autumn season and this reveals its yellow and red colors. So there you have it.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

My Predictions.....

That progress in Iraq that has been ignored by the press will continue to be ignored by the press till one day, we will wake up and our boys will be coming home, successful. It will be a new day in the Middle East and the American press will have made itself more irrelevant by painting an opposite picture.

That Roberts will become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court without much bluster from the Democrats and Bush will nominate a more ideological conservative for the other vacancy and get that passed too.

That the leftists in the press that are trying their best to make the Katrina disaster a racist issue will be identified by normal Americans including most black Americans for what they are, just race-baiters, further destroying the credibility of the agenda laden press.

That the real blame for the disaster will be on Katrina, herself, since disasters are just that, disasters. If it wasn't a disaster, then it would have been something much, mush, less...maybe a big storm? Government at all levels will need and be asked to adjust and rationalize their roles.

Most normal Americans will be glad for what people did for others in need as millions have donated to relief efforts of the unfortunate people whose lives were turned upside down. George W. Bush will not get much of the blame for what will prove to limitations on what a central government can do in these situations.

The American press will come out of all of this worse-for-the-wear. How can anyone trust or believe those clowns unless you are pre-disposed and want to believe the drivel that they publish?

Monday, September 12, 2005

Just Poor Katrina Journalism ...

One of my fellow Hong Kong bloggers did another cut and paste job of poorly researched, fact skipping and blatant opinion/agenda oriented journalism that is included and fact checked here. I am afraid that American journalists have painted themselves into a corner now and can do nothing but to try to cover their own biased tracks. That is why you only hear reporting on New Orleans and not on Mississippi, where the city of Gulfport was also destroyed.

Little Buddy Has Died....

I guess that I am showing my age, but Bob Denver, star of the 60's sit-com died September 2 at the age of 70 from complications from cancer treatment. I have probably see every Gilligan's ?Island episode 50 times. Also, I thought that Mary Ann was better looking than Ginger. I guess I like the wholesome gals more than the gold-digger types.

Remember September 11th......

There is a lot of destructive hate in this world.

I will never forget September 11th like my parents will never forget World War II. I had friends and I knew people that died in the World Trade Center.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

What is the Hong Kong Problem?

This is just mysterious.

Let Me Ask You A Question.....

This question really gets to the core of federalism and it also gets to the core of a realistic approach to what people expect and can do and what government can do, what one can expect and for which roles governments are positioned to serve and in the case of hurricane Katrina, respond.

Local governments, by definition, are in the best position to know what the risks are in an emergency situation; they know their own territory, their own people and what is needed.

For example, natural disaster risks are different in Minnesota, St. Louis and New Orleans where, large snowfalls, Mississippi River flooding and a strong hurricanes are unique risks, respectively, to each area. Therefore, these localities are in the best position to know, plan and carryout responses for these types of risks. If there is a snowfall in Minnesota, the snowplows go out in every locality in the area to keep the streets clean for safe passage of the citizens. If the snow piles up quicker than anticipated and roads become impassable, then the first responders in the area are also equipped with snowmobiles so that they can respond to emergencies and carry out their duties. When I lived in Bufallo, New York, this occasionally happened. The State of New York National Guard was called out once and a curfew was put in place, where people were not allowed to go out, since cars were getting stuck in the snow and people died in the cold. So, when the problem was too much for the city government to handle, in this case, the state was called upon for further assistance.

Obviously, a disaster can be so large and devastating, that it over-whelms the local and state's governments ability to respond effectively and therefore, the federal government is asked to assist. Further resources, those of the government and other states, are pulled in from outside the immediate vicinity to assist with relief efforts. However, the federal government, rightly, does not have primary responsibility for disaster relief until this benchmark is reached. And remember that this is a benchmark set up by the local governments, not by the federal government themselves.

One should recall the example that I used earlier, a snowstorm in Minnesota. The theorectical problem I used did not get to the point where the federal government was needed to respond, since the local government was prepared for this level of storm. Additionally, rarely would a city of New Orleans need to prepare for a snowstorm of the magnitude that Minnesota would and rarely, if ever, would Minnesota need to prepare for a hurricane flooding over dikes, since there are none there. St. Louis, on the other hand, may have to prepare for both, but neither of the same magnitude of New Orleans or Minnesota.

So, there are various levels of risk depending upon where the city is located to prepare for and various needs depending upon population. Plans on how to prepare are best devised by the localities since they are intimately familiar with the issues necessary for making decisions.

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is designed, as it should be, to assist localities when local resources are overwhelmed. They too need to plan on various different response scenarios when locals are overwhelmed.

With hurricane Katrina, those potential response scenarios included moving materials in place prior to the hurricane hitting, which was done, and then waiting for the requests for assistance and evaluation of what is needed and where. Personnel are a more difficult matter with an organization like FEMA, since it is difficult to predict exactly where a catastrophe will happen, what the level of damage will be, what exact resources are needed and where to put these people since you do not want the FEMA personnel to also be victims of the disaster and therefore become part of the problem. So, by definition, FEMA can not be expected nor should we ever expect that a federal US Government agency be charged with first response capability. It is just an impossible job. And ultimately doomed to fail. Given what has happened in New Orleans, and this differs from the experience of where the hurricane hit directly, Mississippi, done a poor job given the capabilities and the responsibilities of the US government in situations such as this? What markers were set down to measure success or failure? Is it response after the disaster? Preparedness before? I have heard very little from the US press with actual facts on what is expected as compared with what was done. All I have heard are emotional blathering from some who were unfortunate enough to be caught up in the disaster and some of those that are trying to score political points at the expense of the others. In my opinion, the American press has done one of the poorest jobs in the disaster. They are wholly unprepared to report since they are tainted with promoting an agenda or political points instead of doing their primary job and that is reporting news.

But I digress. My ultimate point is that the US government cannot and will never be everything to everybody.

And this last line, I feel is the problem with the American left today and also the tone of the coverage of the Katrina response by the press... let me repeat...
The US government cannot and will never be everything to everybody
The American left, for some odd reason, wants things centrally managed in the USA. This, in my humble opinion, is a recipe for disaster and if the FEMA response is after looking at the facts, considered a disaster, then this will be another example of a failure of soviet style central planning. So the left's desire for central planning and its potential failure here should be very troublesome for them. Of course, most of them think that everything is the fault of George W. Bush, but I think that normal people know that not everything can be the fault of one man. I never did like the idea of centrally planned national responses except those that involve international diplomacy or war. But that issue os one for antoher post.

FEMA was created in 1979 by the Carter administration, merging many different disaster response organization in different agencies under one roof. Its mission is...
FEMA's mission remains: to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of "A Nation Prepared."
So, do you think that the US is prepared for every possible emergency? I don't think so. Do you think that we should be prepared for every possible emergency? I don't think that this is a realistic goal. Do you think that the response to hurricane Katrina was adequate? I think that we have to see when we are looking at what we wanted to achieve and how the response was carried out. I don't think that anyone is even remotely qualified to answer that question now. But I think that we were well prepared and we got the best kind of federal government response that we could expect given the nature of the disaster and what we should expect of them.

So there!

With Dignity....

The search for the dead in hurricane ravaged New Orleans will not be allowed to be ravaged by the press either.
Col. Ebbert said the search for the dead will be done systematically, block-by-block, with dignity and with no news media allowed to follow along. "You can imagine sitting in Houston and watching somebody removed from your parents' property. We don't think that's proper," he said.
The press hunting sensationalism like pigs sniffing for truffles will not be allowed to accompany soldiers with cadaver sniffing dogs to give a little bit of dignity to the dead their instead of each one being trumpeted by the press. The press is being allowed to wallow it its own effluent of breathlessly reporting the 10,000 deaths that they were hoping for so that they would have a big wedge issue to hang over George Bush. Essentially, like a little child that was misbehaving, they are being given a time-out!

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Difficult internet in China....

I had very real trouble in China with the internet. In the hotel, at times, it was even difficult checking my emails since I kept getting these errors....
The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings
Additionally, every subject, from Swiss maps to US Government agencies came up with this message...
The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings
I tried to look up travel information for other South East Asian countries and I got this message...
The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings
Jeez. I just gave up. I am sure that there are thousands of others that figured that giving up, instead of learning on the internet, was the more viable option.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Miserable Journalists....

I had the opportunity to watch CNN this week while in China since I don't have it home. They had been reporting breathlessly on the estimates of thousands of deaths in New Orleans earlier this week. But now.....nothing. CNN says nearly nothing on this subject. Why? So far only 118?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I think that these clowns are disappointed. 201 deaths in Mississippi, where the hurricane hit, but only 118 in New Orleans so far? After speculating on the catastrophic losses and, of course, the catastrophic losses all being the fault of George W. Bush and the incompetent people he purposefully hired so that when, one day, a hurricane hit a town of, predominately populated by black people, he could order his brainless minions to ignore the problems for a few hours so more of them would die.

CNN, and some other clowns in the press are trying so hard to make this unfortunate tragedy the fault of George Bush. For those that are easily or want to be influenced by this, it sells well, but too bad, the reason people died is that a strong hurricane hit a place that was never, still is not and will never be designed or protected from surviving a strong hurricane. Sorry my friends, but you just can't blame 30 years of negligence on the guy that held the last office for 5 years.

Sorry, CNN, the only brainless people right now, write and edit for you!

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

FEMA.....

There has been lots of media blustering from the talking suits in front of the cameras about the performance of FEMA's [Federal Emergency Management Agency] response to hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. According to the NOLA site, these are the assets that were onsite by Tuesday afternoon a little more than a day after Katrina hit.
FEMA deployed 23 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams from all across the U.S. to staging areas in Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, and Louisiana and is now moving them into impacted areas.

Seven Urban Search and Rescue task forces and two Incident Support Teams have been deployed and propositioned in Shreveport, La., and Jackson, Miss., including teams from Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Three more Urban Search and Rescue teams are in the process of deployment.

FEMA is moving supplies and equipment into the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible, especially water, ice, meals, medical supplies, generators, tents, and tarps.


U.S. Coast Guard
More than 40 Coast Guard aircraft from units along the entire eastern seaboard, with more than 30 small boats, patrol boats, and cutters are positioned in staging areas around the impact areas, from Jacksonville, Fla., to Houston, now conducting post-hurricane search, rescue and humanitarian aid operations, waterway impact assessments and waterway reconstitution operations.

Department of Transportation
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) dispatched more than 390 trucks that are beginning to deliver millions of meals ready to eat, millions of liters of water, tarps, millions of pounds of ice, mobile homes, generators, containers of disaster supplies, and forklifts to flood damaged areas. DOT has helicopters and a plane assisting delivery of essential supplies.

National Guard
The National Guard of the four most heavily impacted states are providing support to civil authorities as well as generator, medical and shelter with approximately 7,500 troops on State Active Duty. The National Guard is augmenting civilian law enforcement capacity; not acting in lieu of it.

Department of Agriculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) State Emergency Boards are coordinating agricultural-related responses at the county, state, and national levels in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and elsewhere. USDA is also coordinating damage assessments to area crops, livestock, and other agriculture-related operations. Farmers are encouraged to contact their local USDA Service Center for additional information on assistance available.

Department of Health and Human Services
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has sent 38 U.S. Public Health Service Officers to Jackson, Miss., for deployment. In addition, HHS has 217 U.S. Public Health Service Officers on standby for deployment to support medical response in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf states.

Department of Defense
The United State Northern Command (NORTHCOM) continues to assist FEMA after disaster declarations were issued for Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi following the devastation caused in parts of each state by Hurricane Katrina.

Department of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is contacting major power companies to the areas affected to provide safety briefings to employees at power restoration staging areas in affected communities. OSHA is also releasing public service announcements to inform workers about hazards related to restoration and cleanup.

American Red Cross
The American Red Cross is providing a safe haven for nearly 4,000 evacuees in more than 230 Red Cross shelters, from the panhandle of Florida, across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas. The Red Cross is launching the largest mobilization of resources for a single natural disaster involving thousands of trained disaster relief workers, tons of supplies, and support.
I unfortunately had the opportunity to see one of the most vile interviews by Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" of Michael Chertoff, the head of federal Homeland Security Agency under which FEMA resides.

Russert was pontificating in his plush studio on the alleged failure of FEMA to provide a timely response and asking if heads will roll and other form over substance lines of interrogation.

Why or how can we respect this kind of journalism at this time? Its inappropriate and frankly disgusting and risks a form over substance response by federal, state and local governments. There is plenty of time to do finger pointing and figure out what went wrong and we know that empty suits like Tim Russert will do just that from his plush TV studio offices.

And of course, former President Bill Clinton is already chiming in with his 2 cents.

More on The Disgusting Performance Of Talking Suit Tim Russert....

On the same program, where Russert tried to embarrass Homeland Secretary Chertoff, the Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour had this to say about his experience with the US governments assistance...
Over here, we had the Coast Guard in Monday night. They took 1,700 people off the roofs of houses with guys hanging off of helicopters to get them. They sent us a million meals last night because we'd eaten everything through. Everything hasn't been perfect here, by any stretch of the imagination, Tim. But the federal government has been good partners to us. They've tried hard. Our people have tried hard. Firemen and policemen and emergency medical people, National Guard, highway patrolmen working virtually around the clock, sleeping in their cars when they could sleep. And we've made progress every day.
So, of course this didn't fit Russert's plan to denigrate the US government's response, so his next question completely changes the subject...
MR. RUSSERT: Governor, will you rebuild casinos along the Gulfport, exactly the same locations they were? And is that inviting another disaster if you do?
Can't report on the good work being done, can we Mr. "Empty Suit" Russert? So, lets change the subject!

From China.....

Its very difficult to use the internet from here. I was looking for some travel maps of Switzerland and I kept getting page failures that looked like this....
The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings
Looking at a map of Switzerland may destabilize the government here I guess. I cannot get a single blogspot link-up and I am only successful half the time finding what information that I need.

Its sad.

Monday, September 05, 2005

In Shenzhen....

Its an easy trip up here by bus. Just HK$42 and about an hour trip from Wanchai. Doing a project for a couple of weeks. I can't see some of my regular reading, particularly blogspot, and I feel lost without being able to see all that is going on in the blogosphere.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Bush Laying Blame Or Telling It Like It Is?

The Washington Post says that Bush is laying blame on the state and local government's response to the emergency but it appears to me as if he is leveling with the American people here.
Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," he said. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."
Additionally, Bush wanted the state to ask for a federal takeover of the situation but so far, the state of Louisiana has declined. And as of the writing of the article on Saturday, Governor Blanco still has not declared a state of emergency.
In a Washington briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said one reason federal assets were not used more quickly was "because our constitutional system really places the primary authority in each state with the governor."
What are they waiting for? When the situation deteriorated, why did the state of Louisiana tie the hands of the United States federal government?

Katrina Aftermath....

The politically correct version or the truth?
New Orleans hasn't even been disarmed yet, but the story of those who looted, trashed, and terrorized the city this week is already being re-written. Al Sharpton went on MSNBC Thursday night to say that "looters are people who pay their taxes whose infrastructure caved in on them." The final PC version of the story is likely to go like this: The desperate people left behind in New Orleans, nearly all black, had justification in brutally attacking their city because the help they frantically sought didn't come.

In truth, the looters, rapists, and murderers who have terrorized New Orleans since Monday began their post-Katrina reign of terror a full day before the situation grew truly desperate - and it was their increasingly lawless behavior that kept willing but unarmed professional and volunteer rescue workers away from the city and from the poor people who needed saving.
Jeez and as long as there are apologist charlatans like Reverend Al Sharpton, the black community will continue to be unable to straighten out the bad elements.

The Washington Post Has A Well Written Column...

By Colbert King, A Time for Action, Not Outrage.
Katrina is a test for the nation, a critical examination for us all, public and private. That is unless you're inclined to sit this one out in the armchair and second-guess.

This Is.....

Disgraceful.
"I never thought that as a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans," said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. "And I never thought I'd have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.
Donald Sensing has outlined that this is really being treated as a combat operation due to the level of lawlessness.

Most of the victims in New Orleans are black since the city is over 60% black. Most of the whites and most of the black citizens that could, left, leaving the poorest and disabled to endure the storm and its aftermath.

What isn't being said is that citizens of New Orleans, the ones that are looting and terrorizing others, are predominately black. The media has to be completely politically correct in the USA, and reticent to discuss the lawlessness perpetrated by a bunch of criminals in the city since they are black. Its just more and more excuses for their uncivilized behavior. They are being portrayed as hungry and thirsty desperate looters trying to survive. Bullshit.

So then, of course, this is being portrayed as a race issue by some blacks.
"I am very angry, and I really, really believe that [the crisis] is driven by race," Wright said. "People can say what they want, but when you look at who is left behind, it is very disturbing to me."

Wright was referring to the thousands of predominantly lower-income blacks still stranded inside New Orleans. Media images have been dominated by scenes of dead, dying and crying blacks, their desperation and pleas for help sometimes laced with anger.
A preposterous claim like this should be attacked for what is, an other example of blacks playing the race card and shows their continuing inability to stop whining about everything that happens to them. These people are so dependent on hand-outs that they can't do anything for themselves? So, during one of the worst natural disaters in recent American history, if prople aren;'t coddled and taken care of immediately, then it has something to do with race? Or maybe its something more mundane than that, maybe its just the way things normally are. You can't always get what you want right away. Its just so tiring to hear these people talk sometimes.

Furthermore, the job at hand, now, is to help out the people in need as fast as we can. These race players are not doing anyone any good. How does dong these things help those that are in the greatest need? The only people that benefit are those with their own agendas and they should not be respected right now. There will be plenty of time to point fingers later.

A Signature On A Recently Received Spam...

Barbeque lovers are better looking than mothers. During leap
years the preachers are often mistaken for dogs. Worms ignore
videogames. Wolves curse the children of veterans.
Theoretical calculations of variation of highly excited states
is especially strong electric field? Quadratic Pade approximant
sequence increases with numerical solutions and quasi? In the
ratio gamma The Rydberg limit as a! Fishermen cannot understand
National Park rangers. Television personalities burst into tears
if they see dental assistants. Huns hang out at the mall with
rock stars.

Anyone That Listens To Air America.....

has to be a clown. According to Air America pundit Randi Rhodes...
"This President is never gonna do the right thing. I think somewhere deep down inside him he takes a lot of joy about losing people, if he thinks they vote Democrat or if he thinks they're poor, or if he thinks they're in a blue state, whatever his reasons are not to rescue those people who are (planning?) for their safety."

Would a conservative host get away with similar rhetoric about Democrat leaders? That Harry Reid, John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi hope Republicans are swept away by a hurricane?
My friend's brother, Kenneth Halpern, passed through Hong Kong a year-or-so ago, and after treating him to nice dinner, he said that he wished that all Republicans would die. There is no explaining this kind of attitude and its just unacceptable, particularly since he knew that I was a Republican. He said that right to me after I paid for his dinner. But for some strange reason it seems as if since they feel justified in wishing death on their political adversaries, it must be that Republicans think that same way. Fortunately, for them, we harbor no such feelings. The Democratic Party is no longer the party of my parents, but has been hijacked by a bunch of silly fatuous inculcated with hate, buffoons. I hope that the party gets taken back by some psychologically balanced people.

Lawlessness In New Orleans....

Lawlessness in New Orleans is a national disgrace. Its not what you think, Bush haters.
Unfortunately, the urban revival that had swept much of the country mostly left New Orleans behind. The atmosphere of lawfulness that stood New York City in good stead after 9/11 and during the 2003 blackout - although those were much less far-reaching disasters was never established. The city never had a Rudy Giuliani. Even as murder rates continued to decline in other cities in recent years, the murder rate in New Orleans crept up. The police were plagued by allegations of corruption and brutality, and, according to The Associated Press, only had ''3.14 officers per 1,000 residents - less than half the rate in Washington, D.C.''
It appears as if the blame for aftermath meltdown lays squarely at teh feet of local officials.

Typical Democrat?

I was on my home and was on the ramp getting off the highway. I saw a mini-van on the side of the road. There was a lady standing next to the van and in her arms she held her child. I can only assume her mini-van had broken down. I don't know, perhaps with so many gad stations being out of gas, she had also run out. I slowed down and started to pull over to offer her a ride. At the very last second I noticed a "W" sticker on the back of her vehicle and I sped up and drove off.
If Republicans and Bush supporters behaved like this, there would be hell to pay. But why is it acceptable for Democrats to be so callous?

But most amazing, is that this woman seems proud of what she did.

Wonderful......

and hearfelt. The best day of her life.

Interesting Insight To The Katrina Disaster....

Why was it necessary to send in the National Guard to restore order after the hurricane that hit New Orleans? Usually, there are heroic efforts by ordinary people saving lives and helping others. But instead there are tales of rape, robbery and murder. Battle hardened Arkansas National Guard troops entered the city with orders to shoot to kill lawless bands of roving criminals.
For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency--indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.

When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New Yorkers to September 11).
This person blames the deterioration in the aftermath of the hurricane on several factors, one being the inadequate planning of local and state governments to evacuate certain groups of people including jailed criminals that were released from prison to fend for themselves. The people that weren't evacuated included the poorest, least educated and socially dependent welfare recipients that were least likely to cope in this situation.
There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.

Who Pressed For The Mandatory Evacuation Of New Orleans?

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
This was more than a day before the hurricane hit. But unfortunately, there was no capacity to move the 10's of thousands of people that had no other means of transportation. It appears as if New Orleans did not have a workable evacuation plan in place that dealt with these souls.

Chief Justice Rehnquist died last night leaving 2 Vacancies on the US Supreme Court....

U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who helped shift the U.S. Supreme Court toward a more conservative ideology and strongly supported states' rights during his three decades on the bench, has died.
Its going to be an interesting Fall political season. You can bet that the left is going to go gah-gah over this appointment.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Wineries In San Joaquin Valley Charged With Creating Smog....

The wine making process apparently produces ozone, a key component of smog, that has been choking San Joaquin Valley, California's main wine producing region.
Wineries have come under scrutiny because the fermentation process that turns grape sugars to alcohol releases ethanol, methanol and other organic compounds into the atmosphere, where they react with sunlight and heat to form ozone, one of the components of smog, air regulators said.

With the region producing roughly 70 percent of California's table wine, that results in 788 tons of pollutants a year.
Some of the charm of California is the smog. What would California be but just another beautiful state if it didn't have awful smog?

Friday, September 02, 2005

Fucking Idiots....

When something bad happens it takes time for people to get back on their feet. No matter how big or powerful, we are still just human. These people are just fucking absolute dopes. Go back to your opiates, will you and don't bother to say anything more.
The world has watched amazed as the planet's only superpower struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some saying the chaos has exposed flaws and deep divisions in American society.
"Anarchy in the USA" declared Britain's best-selling newspaper The Sun.

"Apocalypse Now" headlined Germany's Handelsblatt daily.
"A modern metropolis sinking in water and into anarchy -- it is a really cruel spectacle for a champion of security like Bush," France's left-leaning Liberation newspaper said.

"(Al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden, nice and dry in his hideaway, must be killing himself laughing."
I am not too particularly fond of Europeans too start with and their old-world smug attitudes, but they are getting a bit old and long in the tooth these days. We would be better off with out these idiots.

Of course Americans are involved helping out and we don't spend months debating this shit. Who was the first on scene in Aceh? The French? The Dutch? Sorry my pale skinned friends, it was the American military. You Europeans are just fucking useless. Waitng for the UN to debate, in session, how they are going to debate the next seesion how to deal with the problem. You have no spine left, do you. You are hardly worth the shit that comes out of your skinny little asses. Fuck-you, fuck-you, fuck-you. And fuck-you again you god damn fucking pieces of shit. How can I do anything but hate you! Now you may hate Americans but we hate you just as much. Maybe we will strap bombs on us and go to your fucking stupid cocktail parties to detonate. Fucking dopes.

And Furthermore........

My wife tells me tonight that someone in her office, an office of an American firm, told her that America deserves what happened with hurricane Katrina. My wife was also told essentially the same thing by one of her Hong Kong colleagues here when she worked for Merrill Lynch when the space shuttle challenger exploded on re-entry when landing back home.

My wife had the class to not tell me who these clowns were since she knows that I would ask them about these attiudes. I love that kind of confrontation that makes everyone uncomfortable. I imagine that even for a Hong Kong Chinese, it would be incredibly embarrassing to be shown to have been engaged in saying something so absolutley moronic and heartless that it boggles my mind. Hong Kong people can be so incredibly mean sometimes when things like this happens.

How many of us Americans were running around saying that China deserves the floods, mine accident, food poisonings that killed thousands over the past year. How many? Maybe none what-so-ever? How many of us Americans walked into work and said "You Chinese deserved the floods of the Yellow River over all these years" and walked away? Hong Kong Chinese can be absolute fucking robotic idiots sometimes.

Have the Chinese ever done anything even remotely altruistic in their whole history? Most of their history involved killing others or getting killed for power/taking over the country or involved conquering someone or doing something in their own interest? Or the interest of their sappy headed leaders. I do give the PRC one little credit....some of the work done during the Tsunami disaster of December 24th but that is all. As far as I am concerned, the attitude of the Hong Kong people is not that far from those of the smug worthless Europeans. So fuck you too.

Sodomy Has Always Been Legal In Hong Kong....

Apparently there were some age limitations involving sodomy still on the books that were overturned by Hong Kong's highest court.
In a landmark decision, the High Court ruled Wednesday that current laws on the age of consent discriminate against homosexuals.
These were probably statues left over from a long-by-gone era. However, if there had been a way that some of the uber-wealthy tycoons could have made money off of this, the laws would have been eliminated a long-long time ago.

As far as I am concerned, tycoons in Hong Kong have been sodomizing the populace of Hong Kong for quite a while. And I just don't understand why the people here put up with some of the high prices and shoddy services delivered by these people.

And Some Balanced Thought on Hurricanes And Katrina....

From the Belmont Club, here and here.

More blaming Bush For Katrina....

As usual, Chrenkoff has a nice round-up of finger-wagging left.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Blaming Bush For Katrina....

The inevitable political posturing is now taking place, using one of the biggest natural disasters in recent American history to bash the President. First, drug induced commentary by Robert Kennedy, Jr. links the disaster to the pulling of the Kyoto greenhouse-gas protocol by President George Bush [also by Clinton who never put it up for a vote and the Senate that voted against it something like 95-2]. Bad science and wanting commentary by environmentalists and the blame America first crowd is getting somewhat tiring.

And the dependable anti-Bush Kos finds something to blame Bush with, an operative that says that Bush cut the Army Corp of Engineers budgets and this led to the disaster in New Orleans. I suppose if you try hard enough, you could blame anything on anyone if you that is what you want to believe. These leftist Democrats would spend oodles of money on anything under the sun just to protect themselves from criticism in these situations I suppose.

Well, all I have to say is that bad things sometimes happen. And we cannot be prepared for every single eventuality. Sometimes people make some decisions that are unpopular and sometimes people have to make decisions that are practical.

But also, people that lived in New Orleans live in a dangerous place. It is low lying and subject to flooding in a hurricane of this size and force. Its just unfortunate. But people in California live in an earthquake zone and does this mean that every house and building has to strengthened through federal tax dollars so if a gigantic earthquake happens that there is no damage of death? The answer is no. People choose to live there and it is their responsibility. The US government should not and cannot be responsible for this level of intervention.

And would these people have blamed the Elder Bush President for the destruction of hurricane Andrew on Florida August 24, 1992? Maybe they would have too. So now we have to endure political posturing during crisises instead of an outreach of hope and caring? Well, I guess that we should let the Democrats decide that, they are the ones that have started to attack. Its becoming more-and-more difficult to respect the whining Democrats anymore.