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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, February 28, 2008

Uh Oh.....

Should we start worrying now of global cooling? The data is worrisome. Some people may thank us Americans for driving our SUVs all over the place. Read it here.

War For The Whitehouse....


Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

So funny.

Luke 10....

I read this passage last night and I was moved by this...
At the Home of Martha and Mary

38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
There are many of interesting facets to this story. Martha invited Jesus and his disciples into her house, however, her sister Mary, instead of helping her to prepare for the guests, chose to listen to Jesus instead. This irritated Martha that was focused on the creature comforts of her guests.

Hmmmmm. Also, Martha was so irritated that she commanded Jesus to tell her sister Mary to give her a hand. Kind of gutsy for Martha to demand Jesus to send over her sister to help. But Jesus responded, probably with a chuckle, "Martha, Martha." He told Martha, that the preparations were unimportant but that there is only one thing that is important. I think that he was talking about the spiritual life. That all the annoyances and distractions of everyday life aren't as important as our souls. But I think that even more crucial, to me, is that Jesus said that Mary has made a choice, that she has chosen the better way and that this choice will not be taken away from her. This is a choice that a girl or woman in the paternalistic times of ancient Israel [this attitude still exists in the modern Middle-East amongst the Muslims that live there] where women were not allowed to be educated or have choices. This is very powerful statement by Jesus that tells us all that we all have choices. And I think that our rights to choose, particularly when it comes to matter of spiritual life, are natural rights and that these rights flow from God.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Frozen People In Grand Central....

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Ha Ha...

Friday, February 22, 2008

Barak...

Everyones new favorite Democratic candidiate seems to me to be just an empty suit. He has even less substance then the substanceless Hillary Clinton, who herself has achieved almost nothing legislatively in her single term in the Senate and nothing of note prior to that other than being the wife of populist President Bill Clinton.



But whenever I think of Barak Obama, I think of David Dinkins and particulary this guy.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Amazing....

Today was the last day of Chinese New Year and I was in Shenzhen on business. My friend and I left the office and wew found it very difficult to find an empty taxi cab. As we drifted down the street int eh search, some young kids were handing out fliers on the street. What the heck does this say in Chinese? The English is quite provocative!



Lady Orgy Festival? Wow! How does that work? Is it just a bad translation? It looks as if its just a restaurant or something.



I asked my wife to translate. She gave me the eye since this flyer is also somewhat provacative in Chinese too.

Ha Ha..

You know those motivation Powerpoints that have the funny captions? Here is one more...



I know some people that still look and think like this.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

I Cannot Fathom How Anyone With Half-a-brain Could Write This Stuff...

In todays's Hong Kong Standard, we can enjoy this fine headline and bit of reporting...
Global warming blamed for unusual cold spell

As Hong Kong shivers through its second-longest cold spell since 1885, scientists point to global warming to explain the abnormal cold weather phenomenon worldwide.
Hmmmmm. Second coldest spell in 120 years and the cold is blamed on GLOBAL WARMING. Ha ha ha. And its not the April 1st issue of the newspaper.

Next thing to expect from the global warming crowd is to state that night is dark and the day is light due to greenhouse gases.

Of course, in order to deflect the inevitable contrary data, whether it be real or just short-term observations like one, the term "global warming" has transformed into the more convenient "climate change" since this moniker helpfully explains that cold weather can also be catagorized as a change in climate (from normal one would suppose) and therefore a weather behavior that we should concern ourselves with and one that the messiah, Al Gore, has a solution for. The solution, is of course, massive government intervention that is really communist in nature and gives the tools of production and ultimately weath distribution to a handful of government officails, but please, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Thailand And Hua Hin....

Went to Thailand for Chinese New Year holidays. Thailand is always a nice place to visit. But its gotten significantly more expensive. Rising prices in the currency in Baht is being exacerbated by the strengthening in the currency against the dollar. Therefore, I think that Taiwan has become a better travel travel value for families but not for Chinese New Year since everything will be closed there and it will be cold like it is in Hong Kong.

My chats with local business people are not painting a pretty picture for travel oriented enterprises in Thailand. According to these sources, business is down 15-25% year-over-year. Several reasons were offered by these people. Higher prices in Thailand, focus on attracting travelers to Phuket by the government as compared to other destinations and better values for European tourists such as travel to the US were all profered as reasons for the decline.

Also, after spending several days in Hua Hin, where the weather was just spectacular, it is apparent that Thailand is a destination for elderly tourists from Europe. These leather skinned sun worshipping tourists probably averaged 60 years-old in age. And one other observation/question about European tourists: Why don't they ever smile nor talk in restaurants?