Tiger Party--Mission: Win Something

SCIENCE NEWS

Last night my kids and I converged on Crossgates Mall, Albany, NY, to see if we could win either an iPod or the Powerbook laptop. My daughter came first and got inside during the first half hour. At the door they were handing out scratch off lotteries and she called me on her cell phone to tell me she won...but not the best prizes, alas. It was fourth prize which she gave to me for Mother's Day. (Geek kids are awesome)

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New WTC Target Ground Zero

From the NYT: Security concerns outlined last month by the New York Police Department have set off a serious reassessment of plans for the World Trade Center site. People involved in the rebuilding effort say that the revisions that need to be made to the site's most prominent feature, the Freedom Tower, could delay the start of construction from several months to a year.

When NYC ran a contest for new design of the WTC, pictures were put online and people were supposed to vote for the best one.

My kids and I decided the one showing a giant target bull's eye was appropriate.

Millions of dollars and zillions of meetings and wrangling later, the NYPD decided it is a bull's eye and they are against the present design.

Well...DUH. Should this prime target be built? Will anyone sane want to work there?

NYT Article About Los Alamos Bloggers

Los Alamos, home of the most hideous WMD ever concieved: the nuclear bomb, is in the news.

A blog rebellion among scientists and engineers at Los Alamos, the federal government's premier nuclear weapons laboratory, is threatening to end the tenure of its director, G. Peter Nanos.

Four months of jeers, denunciations and defenses of Dr. Nanos's management recently culminated in dozens of signed and anonymous messages concluding that his days were numbered. The postings to a public Web log conveyed a mood of self-congratulation tempered with sober discussion of what comes next.

This reminds me of a childhood story from when we lived at the super secret China Lake facility:

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Nuke, Nuke, Who's There?

BREAKING NEWS

I found this poll in a rather odd corner of the net. It is pretty amusing.

According to a recent poll conducted jointly by Frontier Times and the 21st Century Research, nearly half of the people of South Korea (44.4%) believe North Korea's nukes are good for Korea. Voting for the nuclear Korea were 51.9% of the male respondents and 37% female, 56% in their 20s and 18.3% in their 60s, indicating clear gender and generation gaps. 43.8% believe North Korea needs nukes for defending against US attacks.

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While We Contemplate Trade War With China...

FINANCIAL NEWS

India takes even more computer jobs away!

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America Plays Paper/Scissors/Rock With China

FINANCIAL NEWS

There is much startling news about our rapidly deteriorting status in Asia today. All the forces that have been subterra are beginning to start earthquakes. This is the beginning of the Great Power Tsunami.

According to the NYT, Mr. Portman's (trade negotiator) nomination was held captive for several days by Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, who was demonstrating his irritation over what he and other lawmakers consider the administration's ineffective trade relations with China.

Indeed. We are awfully irritated with China for China is doing exactly what the Japanese have done with impunity for years except for the copyright violations. The Japanese were the ones worried about us violating their copyrights (ahem)! Nonetheless, America has many worries concerning China. We want to tell them how to adjust their currency.

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As Hu and Wen Triumph USA Squabbles With Allies

BREAKING NEWS

Our military might at work:

US investigators are reported to have found the soldiers who shot up the Italian allies, "not culpable".

The Italians refused to sign the report which, as per usual, excuses the American leadership from any responsibilities. This is a diplomatic disaster. It already made the Italian government wobble very badly. It might fall because of this fracas. This is how we say, "Thank you for your support".

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America Surrenders Power to the Chinese: China, US to enhance military exchanges

BREAKING NEWS

Before WWI diplomats were very busy. Everyone was making deals and treaties with everyone else. The King of England who took over after Victoria died of extreme old age was very busy, personally inking joint communications and concords of mutual support. Everyone emulated him. In particular, military matters were scrutinized and many deals, mostly hidden from view, were inked. The British were anxious to preserve their domination of the world and at the same time wanted to do this with minimum effort. They recognized the rising power of the USA and Germany and Japan but wanted to keep their premier position.

There was a very vibrant antiwar movement running along side all of this. The Boer war upset many Brits who thought that was enough rough housing for the time being. In France, the workers wanted to have the Internationalist Front and their slogan was "workers of the world unite!"

It all collapsed into WWI. One shot.

We are in a nearly identical phase right now:

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Testing the Water: China Plays Currency Games

FINANCIAL NEWS


http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/images.html
The the longest time Americans have demanded the Chinese revalue their currency. No such demands are made with Japan who can't connect their perpetual depression with their perpetual currency game of constantly devaluing the yen by purchasing excess American dollars which we happily churn out and ship off to Japan. Since the Japanese hold much more of our debt than the Chinese, one would suppose we would be much angrier about their currency manipulations.

After all, it is Japanese cars that are killing our native car industry!

But, as usual, geopolitical games of Go trump mere domestic politics and we allow this to continue. On the other hand, our identical situation with China somehow ticks off everyone in our government! But several interesting things happened this week that roiled the international currency markets, all of which came out of China:


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Pretending This Debate Over Healthcare is a Picnic

FINANCIAL NEWS


http://www.florence-nightingale-avenging-angel.co.uk/index.html

Everyone thinks, if you play nice, you won't get gored by an angry bull or ants won't crawl up your pants but in the real world anyone who isn't careful about these sorts of things learns the hard way. You don't play golf when you hear thunder. You don't swim in a rip tide. You don't go out in a blizzard in a bikini.

Krugman talks about medical reform and ends with this gem:

O.K., let's not turn this into a Bush-bashing session. President Bush didn't cause the crisis in American health care. His health care policies have made things only a little bit worse.

The point, instead, is that even though all the evidence suggests that we would be much better off under a system of universal coverage, any such move will be fiercely opposed, on principle, by conservatives who want us to move in the opposite direction.

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The Space Race and Money

SCIENCE NEWS


http://www.space.com/news/jaxa_trouble_050428.html
Jaxa, the Japanese space program, just announced it is giving up on their recently announced plan to go to the moon which was launched when China announced they would go there. No money.

This is odd since Japan has about $200 billion a year to spend on buying US bonds to tide over the perpetually over the budget government and finances in America. Since much of the money the Japanese garnish with the uneven trade balance with America goes right back into American pockets via loans and tax cuts, one wonders if this unhealthy relationship is going to bring down Japan as a first world economy?

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Medicaid Patients Slated for Death

http://www.ancestralbranches.com/tombstones/gravestones.html

I didn't see this headline. But there it is: Medicaid is going to be cut again, this time a huge whack of $10 billion. This means people will die or be much unhealthier. I once took care of a man who was released from the hospital after losing his job. He had no health insurance and his teeth were rotting so badly, he was literally dying from it. Rotting teeth is what shortened the lives of many humans in ancient times like about 100 years ago. I got him Medicaid help. He couldn't get his teeth fixed but he could get them pulled so he at least wasn't running a high fever and dying.

This is what is going to be cut. Rob is alive and well and working today and paying taxes. In the New World Order of the GOP, there would be no help and Rob would be dead and his little girl begging on the streets.

Meanwhile, taxes are cut on corporate entities yet again to the tune of $106 billion.

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"Thank you for all your answers"....The Death of America

NYT picture showing Bush DRUNK. He is often drunk.

Bush stumblebummed to the end of his "press conference" with that statement which pretty much sums up his entire ability to convey information. One presumes the "reporters" were there to question him but obviously as we have seen for years now, they did their proper function which was to answer all his questions for him.

Not one reporter asked about bin Laden. Mr. bin Missing Laden popped into the news for an hour right before the "election" and the press all yelled that he helped Bush win because people are scared of old bin Laden and his merry band of terrorists.

Bin Laden ordered us to vote Bush into more power so he can further the Jihad. He wanted Bush to be our leader so he could succeed faster. The Communist Chinese wanted Bush, too, because he is so dumb and so easily circumvented he is the perfect foil for them. Putin wanted Bush because he can't wait for us to follow the Soviet State into bankruptcy.

Supposedly a slim majority voted for Bush but he ended up a mere few weeks later to be profoundly unpopular in the polls which is striking. It has never happened before.

The chief thing about this unpleasant exercise in self flagellation was the appearance of the American leader. Any leader of any country, SPEAKING ENGLISH can run circles around this.....ill informed simian. Every time Bush appears in public, he diminishes our country. Everyone sees a blundering fool that even "Kim Jong Ill" (Bushian for the name of the leader of North Korea) can outtalk and outsmart.

He made a number of astonishing mistatements such as how we're forming a Consortium to bring democracy to South Korea, I it's a comprehensive strategy or we shall get those out of harms way those who want to harm us or some people are trying to unwind NCLB (no child left behind act) or consensus among ourselves. Like the time he said he wouldn't debate with himself or negotiate with himself, one wonders if he is a President or Gollum/Smeagol at the Gates of Mordor.

The hissing "s" are not reassuring, either.

His inability to speak common or even semicommon English isn't a mere handicap, it is a catastrophe. All over the web I see people writing long and involved postings or articles right off the cuff just like this one here and with little effort yet our ruler can't string three words together without dropping at least one of them! Diplomacy and politics have tools and the chief tool of them all is the language. We can grunt and hit each other with clubs but the human brain evolved because smart people who could communicate with more than a grunt had an advantage over the hump and grunt groups. So the real question is, why do so many Americans follow and even love this impossible, stupid man? Do they believe there is a pot of gold at the end of this rainstorm we are in? Con men exist because of rank greed and incredible stupidity. The free lunch, the Santa Claus is real crowd seems limitless.

We are entering very dangerous times now. Already the oil wars roar in our ears as we fight for oil. Saudi Arabia attacked America directly and here we see our ruler kissing the man running Saudi Arabia and BEGGING him to give us more oil! Mexico is pulling away from us, Venezuela actively hates us, Canada is reconsidering being too close to us, all the major sources of our oil are either withdrawing from us or actively attacking us and we are on our knees, begging for more oil.

The solutions to this, as proposed by Bush and Cheney, are beyond laughable. Pitiful. The whole "hydrogen" thing is a farce. You need oil to make the hydrogen! Less than useless. Drilling for more oil won't fix things because Indonesia just stopped exporting any oil! There is less oil today than yesterday in world markets. This will continue relentlessly thanks to the iron rule of Nature: nothing is infinite.

No one asked Bush about Amtrak. No one asked him about solar energy specifically. No one asked him about CHINA!!! MEXICO!!!

Indeed, it seems as if my blog is detailing stuff from another universe. All the topics I have talked about for a month were not mentioned by either Bush nor the press. This fatal refusal to consider what is obviously the important matters at hand is depressing.

As one poster at Atrios, which is where I pulled a number of quotes, a great crew of posters, top notch!--said, "my 3 year old can ask better questions". Indeed. If the child asked, "Can I have a cookie" he would have surpassed much of the press' ability to ask questions.

Agency Says North Korea Can Mount Warheads on Missiles reads the NYT headline right below the one about the Bush pressure conference.

"My administration is doing everything we can to make gasoline more affordable," Mr. Bush said, alluding to a recent trend that polls show is annoying the American people and perhaps endangering him politically. "There will be no price-gouging at gas pumps in America."

Excuse me, but not only is there price gouging at the pumps, ditto for natural gas which comes from TEXAS as well as electricity and all other forms of energy all of which doubled this last year or tripled.

What really troubles me is Bush's promise to make America "energy independent" via drilling for oil and building refineries using tax payer's money, of course. This is not only useless, it makes things much worse. No mention about gas guzzling. The sky is the limit! There is a Santa Claus!

The Social Security plan he proposed is to remove the 30%+ top half and make them get rich via stock options...oops, market down 500 pts this last month or so!--while the poor get it until the well to do vote it into oblivion. This "divide and conquer" is old stuff. Make the rich pay for something that is only for the poor and you can bet, they will pay the politicians to cut it. He knows this, they know this. If they impose this regime on us all, we only have to look to Ukraine or Mexico or Lebanon or any other country to see how to fix this.

In the streets.

It may come to that.

Thank you for all your answers. Good night.

Bush Press Conference

Bush or Chimp.com

is all over the news, Bush is going to hold a super duper rare press conference tonight. Most of it will be him pitching a new improved Social Security plan. Then there will be a very short "question" session which he will conduct by reading off of a piece of paper the names of a few toadies and sycophants, minus super hunk, "Gannon".

I am predicting this attempt at killing Social Security will feature a thousand little bribes and a million big lies. "We will all be millionaires!" will be the sales pitch. "If you don't gamble you will be poor" will be the subtext.

Congress passed a $3+ trillion budget. This won't be the headlines because they leave out $300+ billion for the wars and other sundries. This $3+trillion is about half a trillion over revenues. Bush will not be talking about this.

He will talk about oil prices. His solution will be to build more refineries as if we need more gasoline. This is beyond stupid, this is Schiavo level brain deadness. Pull the plug, please!

He might salute the creation of a new government in Iraq, hello, Chalabi! New oil minister! Iran is happy! Bush also wants many nuclear power plants. Meanwhile, terrorist fears in DC! Bush and Cheney are rushed to undisclosed locations (Baradur is that big black tower over there...) because they are afraid things will blow up which is reasonable since bin Laden has said, he intends to take down both men.

We will discuss this press conference later. Hope to see everyone here!

Elaine Supkis, Editor.

I am Year of the Tiger and Apple Has Tiger Coming Out Tomorrow

Apple stock performance this year...up and away!

And I will be reporting on this, am going to the Apple party here in Albany, New York, at Crossgates Mall. Any readers in the area, hope you come too. I got an email from Apple saying A FREE POWERBOOK will be given away at the store tomorrow. Incentive time!

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Visit the New Guest Blog!

Today we have three guest bloggers: Mixer, Richard and Juliedee all have fine articles to read. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

TO READ GUEST BLOG CLICK HERE

It All Falls Apart

For weeks we have been treated to a virtual Mississippi river of propaganda explaining how high energy costs no longer matter and doesn't effect the markets and interest instability doesn't matter either, housing values will rise forever in a hyper inflated fashion which isn't really a bubble....pop.

Economy grows at slowest pace in two years

APR. 28 8:41 A.M. ET The economy lost momentum in the opening quarter of 2005, growing at an annual rate of 3.1 percent. The slowest pace of expansion in two years, amid soaring gasoline prices and rising interest rates, offered new evidence the economy has hit another "soft patch."

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Mass Demonstrations Foil Fox in Mexico

This isn't top of the fold headline news in America perhaps because it isn't Lebanon or Ukraine and it certainly isn't what Bush wants as headlines but here it is!

The good people of Mexico are busy forcing el Presidente Fox to retreat from his plan of winning the next election by making it impossible to run against him.

The legal proceedings that threatened to knock Mexico's most popular politician off next year's presidential ballot and to plunge this country into turmoil seemed to come to a sudden end on Wednesday night, when a beleaguered President Vicente Fox announced the resignation of his attorney general and a review of the government's case against the politician.

In a nationally televised address, Mr. Fox said he had accepted the resignation of Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, who oversaw the prosecution of the politician, Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico City, and thus became one of the most polarizing figures in the government.

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Historic Moment: Two Foes Formally End War

Now you would think this would be headline news. The news of troops withdrawing from Lebanon (hello, civil war time!) got loving and close coverage in America. Every little propaganda piece flung out of the Vatican is immediately regurgitated in America. The long death of the old previous Pope dominated headlines for weeks in between headlines about a dying brain dead woman.

But when the world's biggest economic power finally succeeds in winning over a previous foe who is vying for the Presidency of one of the world's top economies, dead silence in America.

This is most odd because "who lost China (to the commies)" wracked the State Department after WWII and led directly to the HUAC hearings run by far right winger, McCarthy. An entire era was named after him. The USA was the sole supporter of the Nationalist Party in China and when defeated, protected and coddled them when they took over Taiwan.

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America Pretends to be a Helpless Baby

"The Global Savings Glut" by Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post.

We are all taught that saving is good -- indeed, Americans are often chided for spending too much and saving too little. But what if the problem of today's global economy is that people elsewhere -- in Europe, Asia and Latin America -- are saving too much and spending too little? Former Princeton University economist Ben Bernanke argues that this is precisely the case. He calls it "the global savings glut."

The power of a good idea is that it dispels common confusions. Bernanke's global savings glut is just such a notion. It helps explain (a) the huge U.S. trade deficits; (b) the weakness of the current economic recovery (now 3 1/2 years old); and (c) the difficulty of doing anything about (a) and (b).

As a rule, saving is good. It helps individuals afford big-ticket items (a home, college tuition), protect against emergencies and prepare for retirement. For societies, it provides funds for productive investments in new factories, technologies and businesses.

This article is hilarious. The economist who came up with this latest excuse for our irresponsible economics reminds me of small children when they are doing something very naughty. "He MADE me do it," the child whines while pointing to usually a smaller and younger child. Good mothers seldom are impressed with this sort of reasoning.

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Changes at this Blog

From now on, since I post several times a day, minimum, this blog will have several pages and this page will be the home page for all of them. The final format is yet to be settled so please bear with me as I try out various systems of organizing things here.

Thanks in advance,

Elaine Supkis, editor/

The Sun Rises in the East--Reports on Historic Visit by Former Foes

You wouldn't know it from the American newspapers, but great changes are happening between China and Taiwan. Not a single paper is carrying this story as a main headline, it is buried below the fold. Unlike the disasterous caroom across the planet by Condi Rice that was given breathless coverage--"Oh, look at her boots! Tres charmant!"--she was barely tolerated by our allies and our nonallies found her negioations to be laughable, she returned home nearly empty handed in stark contrast to the Chinese.



Hu suggested that, to attain this goal, China and the Philippines increase exchange of visits of personnel, work together to attain the goal of increasing bilateral trade volume to 30 billion US dollars by 2010, continue to cooperate in the development of the South China Sea, and increase cooperation in security and fight against transnational crimes, and coordinate with each other in the frameworks of ASEAN-Chinese free trade zone plan, the United Nations, the WTO and APEC.

Arroyo expressed her appreciation for the high evaluation by Huon Sino-Filipino relations. She said that the development of China is exerting a positive influence on regional and global peace and development, and that the Philippine government has opted to seek a strategic cooperative relationship based on peace and development with China.

She said that the Philippine government will make mutual efforts with China in seeking an increase of exchanges between the personnel of the two sides, and to expand cooperation in the fields of energy, infrastructures, agriculture and mining.

Arroyo also reiterated the Philippines' One China Policy, and said the Philippines respects China's stand on Taiwan.

Another day, another Go stone set on the board, another step towards victory! This got very scant mention in American news and no analysis.

But the big news overseas it the historic visit. The leaders of the Nationalist Party were nervous about what sort of reception they would find. No more worry about that. In stark contrast to the way they are dealing with the Japanese, the Communists rolled out the red carpet, poured the best tea and rained flowers down upon their former, bitter foes.

Lien Visits KMT Founder, Sun Yat-Sen's Grave


NANJING, April 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan said in this east China city Wednesday morning it is an across-Straits aspiration to "continuously boost the Taiwan economy" and "further develop the mainland into a well-off society".

In a speech delivered immediately after paying respects at the Mausoleum of the KMT founder Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1886-1925), Lien called the aspiration a goal that both sides at the Taiwan Straits should "strive to achieve in a peaceful and going-all-out mentality" against the backdrop of the current "stalemate" in cross-Straits relations.

Calling Chinese jointly to strive for common prosperity, Lien said that "Chinese should hold their heads high in the 21st century."

The KMT Chairman also lead a thank-you applaud for the "perfect protection" of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum conducted by local administration.

The Western media struggles to understand what is happening.

The BBC's Caroline Gluck, in Taiwan, says the already strained relations between China and Taiwan have worsened in the wake of China's recently passed anti-secession law, which legalises the use of force against Taiwan if the island moves towards formal independence.

Relations with the present government of Taiwan which won a very close election. Looks to me like tension between half of Taiwan is not tense but really friendly now. Taiwan is being divided: do you want war with mega big China or reunification? The sane choice is obvious. The axe is going to be formally buried this week in Beijing. Here is some more very interesting news:

Beijing has not invited Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, to visit the mainland and has ruled out talks with him unless he accepts the "one China" formula under which Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan, a condition Mr. Chen has rejected.

But China's overture to the opposition groups put Mr. Chen's government on the defensive, forcing it to cede ground to politicians who tend to take a softer line on relations with the government in Beijing, Taiwanese officials and Chinese analysts said.

Evidently the Communist Chinese invited all the other opposition parties to come to Beijiing and sip tea. Pointedly, they excluded the President of Taiwan. You can bet, he is reading with rising alarm the news concerning the relentless and successful visits by Hu and Wen across the planet and in particular in Asia, setting up the coalition to support Chinese reunification.

Taiwan is isolated. Literally surrounded except for one last piece, America, the white stones on the Asian board are about to turn black as China flips them. In Go, surrounding pieces means the territory is captured.

Understatement of the century:

"It is true that these trips are creating some turmoil in Taiwan politics," Joseph Wu, who heads Taiwan's official Mainland Affairs Council, said in a telephone interview. "They are part of China's tactic of creating divisions in Taiwan that it can exploit."

Mr. Wu said the government has warned Mr. Lien and Mr. Soong not to "sign agreements" that infringe on Taiwan's rights, which he said would break the law. Mr. Chen and Mr. Lien discussed the opposition leader's trip on Monday to avoid such problems, he said.

Mr. Wu knows that if Taiwan is a renegade province of China, it has no "rights". This is the Chinese view and today they won over a major former opponent. The threats to Taiwan were very carefully attached to some tremendous goodies, this is classic Rooseveltian "Talk softy and carry a big stick". Namely, the Chinese are making it perfectly clear that Taiwan must reunify and the sooner the better and to encourage this the Chinese are willing to negotiate a good business deal making this reunification less frightening than it appears. They want Taiwan and they want it intact and friendly. They don't want to hold down a province at war like we are struggling in vain to do in Iraq. They want a win/win situation. This way they can kick the Seventh Fleet out of the China Seas.

Lien intends to seek a declaration of some kind after the talks with Hu to define the fruits of his visit for the Taiwanese people, according to a reliable account of his plans. Such a communique, though not a government document, would boost his claim that the Nationalists, if they regained the presidency, would be more able to assure peace for Taiwan.

Read that paragraph carefully. LIke reading Pravda, when you read the Washington Post or the NYT, it pays to reinterpet things. What this is saying is, Lien of the Nationalist Party agrees that fighting is futile and resistance is hopeless so he wants the best surrender terms possible. The present leader of Taiwan disagrees. This means, carrying messages of friendly reunion and a bunch of roses, Lien will return to Taiwan to agitate for reunion as swiftly as possible.

This is a major victory for China. Huge in a hundred ways. If Lien can pull this off, it means no WWIII hopefully and a big reduction of tensions in Asia. Note how unhappy America is! We have grown used to a huge empire that spans the planet. We abused our imperial privilages and are now losing it. It is no loss, we lost our democracy here at home, thanks to this vast imperial project. Time to bring down the flag overseas and do what the Chinese are doing so well: form friendships and relationships and joint ventures. Can the military stomping on toes. Note how we are losing an old ally, Italy! Spain, too! Not to mention quite a few others, Mexico, for example.

NEW FEATURE: Culture of Life News Guest Blog!

This is where guests to our blog can run extended articles or conversations. Some of the postings under various stories are long and detailed and it would be a shame to not give them proper airing. To post an article here is very simple:

Contact me at emeinel@taconic.net or post it at the comments section in the opening page of this news site and I can transfer it over to the guest blog. If a poster has trouble with HTML coding, don't let that faze you, it is a pain to do. I do it so much it is second nature so all you have to do is give me the URL and I can do all the coding. This includes pictures. If you want a picture set up, pull it into the email and it will appear usually as code ending in jpg. I can code it so it appears. If it is too big, I can shrink it, etc.

Every time there is a new posting there, it will be highlighted here with a link.

Thanks in advance,
Elaine Supkis, editor.

More Signs of Hubbert Oil Peak

The good news just pours in, doesn't it?

Indonesia denies quitting OPEC

Jakarta, April 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro here Tuesday denied reports that Indonesia had sent a letter to the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) secretariat general to downgrade its status in the organization from member to observer.

"I have checked with the Foreign Affairs Ministry. There has been no such letter (to OPEC)," Purnomo was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.

The reports said the Foreign Affairs Ministry had made a recommendation on Indonesia's membership in OPEC to free the country from the obligation to pay 1 million US dollars annual membership fee.

In its recommendation, the ministry reportedly provided several options for the government among others to maintain Indonesia's membership in OPEC until it turned into a net importer of oil, which would mean the country could no longer comply with OPEC requirements.

It also recommended the country's withdrawal from OPEC or change of status from member to observer.

A short arcane article. Here is some background: Indonesia is becoming oil importer

Bloomberg news

The country may turn to importing a net 61,000 barrels a day this year from net exports of 27,000 barrels a day in 2004, based on figures in a document prepared for the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Indonesia has failed since early 2002 to meet its output quota, currently at 1.425 million barrels a day, from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. An end to Indonesia's status as an oil exporter would threaten its membership of the group, led last year by Indonesia's Oil Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Global oil prices have reached records because of limited spare output capacity among OPEC's members and increased demand from China, whose imports have risen over the past decade from zero to 41 percent of local consumption. Domestic production has failed to keep pace with demand that more than doubled to about 6.38 million barrels a day in 2004.

This is pretty significant. Indonesia's history should raise more than just my eyebrows:

Indonesian Oil History

Indonesia's oil industry is one of the oldest in the world. Oil in commercial quantities was discovered in northern Sumatra in 1883, leading to the establishment of the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Petroleum-bronnen in NederlandschIndië (Royal Dutch Company for Exploration of Petroleum sources in the Netherlands Indies) in 1890, which was merged in 1907 with the Shell Transport and Trading Company, a British concern that had been drilling in Kalimantan since 1891, to form Royal Dutch Shell. Royal Dutch Shell dominated colonial oil exploration for more than thirty years. By 1911 Royal Dutch Shell operated concessions in Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan (then called Borneo), and Indonesian oil was almost 4 percent of total world production.

The Saudis admitted today that far from increasing their pumping, they are at their limit.

I lived for a while in the Hohokum reservation in Tucson, Arizona. It pleases me to see this news:

Hohokam flips solar switch

Six Tucson schools will have solar energy systems installed over the next year to both save money on their electrical bills and teach students about renewable energy.

Hohokam Middle School, in the Tucson Unified District, flipped the switch on its new system Wednesday.

"Many students don't know what solar panels look like, which is a travesty given we live in an area where the sun shines year-round," said Hohokam science teacher Ariana Wilder. "We can discuss directly how they'll benefit us in the school."

Mitsubishi Solar Panels...history.
Seems their stock has doubled in value in the last 16 months...hmmm.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Gremlins Away

This blog runs off a dual system of two Apples, an iBook G4 and a iMac G4 flat screen.



We have many other things in this network at home. One is the APC surge protector that defends these systems from lightening and other mishaps. We have a seperate hard drive for data protection, auxiliary batteries so electrical interruptions won't crash the larger iMac. We have a small TV we use on occassion when we have to watch propaganda (ech) but it is used less and less as time passes.

The Wacom work pad is used for artwork and general moving around the icons and such because frankly, it hurts less than the mouse which wrecks havoc on hands because of the way you have to click the mouse. Too much arm movements with a mouse, the Wacom pen easily moves an icon while moving only the wrist and that, slightly. I highly recommend this system especially if arthritis threatens!

You can see all our notes on the wall but not the bookcase with many CD books. We back up everything. Sometimes in hard copy.

I bring this all up because once again, Bill Gates is in the news unveiling something that isn't ready yet. Unlike Steve Jobs, he likes to tell everyone long before it happens that something might happen someday. Wow (yawn).

Gates demos 'more secure' Windows

Bill Gates said the top priority for Longhorn was better security
Microsoft boss Bill Gates has demonstrated key features of the next Windows operating system, code-named Longhorn, at a developers' conference.
The revamp is promised to be the biggest update to the operating system since Windows 95 launched in 1995.

The preview showed a new desktop design, more visual ways to organise information, and faster searching.

The full version is expected in December 2006, but a preview, or beta, could be out in the summer, he said.

"We just gave people a glimpse to show them it's an awfully big deal," Mr Gates said in an interview after his speech at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle.

Like, speedy as a snail! Will crawl into view next December at the earliest. I like the "awfully big deal" part. Awful, maybe. Big, probably. A deal? Hahaha. You decide.

The key in the article is this note: The way people can switch from window to window and the way files are presented on a PC with Longhorn is reminiscent of Apple's operating system, according to analysts.

Well, DUH. Hello, dear Microsoft users, I hate to say this, but I am spoiled rotten. I was forced to interface with a Micro computer yesterday and was shocked to see the screen. The top cut off by that ugly bar. Everything was hard to use. I had to jump through hoops constantly to access things. Rats. I washed my hands afterwards.

I am happy that in a mere 8 months 90% of the world's computer usesers will get some of what I have used for a very long time. Hello, welcome to the party!

Longhorn will make use of cryptographic keys stored in chips built into a PC for the first time. Such encryption features are usually kept as data on a hard drive.

Having encryption keys actually on a chip makes it harder for data to be compromised through hack attacks.

Some PC manufacturers have been offering computers with security chips for some time.

Ahem. Hahaha. Yup.

Bill Gates has decided to throw his considerable bulk behind Bush and the religious right wing. This is why, to the sorrow and fury of his employees who are gay and their friends, he has pulled support for gay rights. He also bribes politicians to do naughty things. This is bad. It ticks me off that Gates pays little in taxes and supports those people who are actively undermining our country. If one is a liberal one must support liberal companies. Al Gore is on Apple's board of directors. I loved Al Gore and honor him.

Cheap isn't always good or healthy. Fight back even if it means paying more. I never regretted buying Apple...IF you buy the insurance which is well worth it, you get fabulous tech support. We use it all the time, used it just two days ago because of a bug in the security system we downloaded. Apple reprogrammed their patch and sent it off to everyone. Heh. They are super nice to us because we apply things immediately when they put out new stuff and then we tell them what happens.

I would like to hear from everyone how this works. The web and our computers are truly revolutionary systems and the thing we are building has many facets and many applications that cross all over the place. The fact that computers and design morph at a high speed, higher than anything except maybe biotech stuff, is important. This is the cutting edge and it is very significant in a thousand ways.

BREAKING NEWS: Gates is giving right wing lobbyist Ralph Reed $20,000 a month to fight gays!

OK. Anyone on the sidelines: now it the time. Ditch Microsoft.

Begging for Dummies, Lesson 2.

The BBC carries this news for us all:the Japanese are worried about their great success in keeping the currency deliberately low, like the Chinese, and selling great cars that aren't rank gas guzzlers.

Toyota boss fears US trade fury

Japanese designs are proving popular in the US

Japan's car makers should consider giving their US rivals a breathing space to avoid the risk of a political backlash, the boss of Toyota has said.
Japanese car makers have taken nearly one third of the US market. Last week, General Motors posted a quarterly loss of $1.1bn, and Ford's profits fell.

By contrast, Nissan had record profits, and Honda's net profit rose 27%.

"We need to give time for some American companies to take a breath," said Toyota Motor chairman Hiroshi Okuda.

Mr Okuda, who is chairman of the Japanese employers' group Keidanran, said he was "concerned" about the situation at General Motors, the world's biggest car maker.

Ain't that nice of him? He is going to "help" us. Will he demand his government stop supporting the dollar? Heh. Stop buying American debt? Will the cow jump over the moon?

Once again, Japanese cars are taking off in America because they don't guzzle gas. This was easily foreseen and easily dealt with which is why Congress and the UAW and corporate America rose up in fury when a bill raising CAFE standards went to Congress. The old Chinese curse, "may your wishes come true" comes to mind.

The fact is, we can't yell at Japan to stop because we are beggars in Tokyo. We trot behind the Japanese begging to wipe their windshields for them. We are willing to hand over our military to them if they only give us more money. They are happy to do this. It is a great bargain. I note that the BBC article doesn't mention how Japan twists the financial markets to keep their own currency artificially low so they get a huge trade advantage over America. For some ODD reason the only country mentioned doing this is China. This is ridiculous. This is why so many economic commentators can't figure out the obvious. If the media doesn't ever mention something it becomes invisible. This is why this blog obsesses about these things. The dog that doesn't bark as Sherlock remarked is the key to solving mysteries.

China Continues as Go Champions of the World

The startling news about Taiwan, namely the virtual surrender of the Nationalist Party to the Communist Party, is barely being noted today in international news in English. This amuses me. People don't look at things that are most dangerous. It is the "head in the sand" impulse that runs very strongly in humans.

Let's review what has happened since Bush "won" his "mandate": American courts continues to forgive American crimes overseas and responsibility for our war crimes and destruction. We just told the Italians that it was OK to kill the agent and shoot up the former hostage. No one was at fault. And no one running our country was running our prisons so no punishments for crimes in Iraq and no one in Iraq shot up at check points gets a day in court, either.

And Vietnam, eager to be our friend, courting us for years, wanting to counterbalance Chinese power, we slapped down yet again. Despite the Vietnamese eagerly digging up even the tiniest remains of Americans buried over there, we still fly the ridiculous "black flags" here in supposed support of assumed prisoners of war who don't exist and never existed. So our courts happily conspired with our government to overrule the Vietnamese lawsuit over Agent Orange. All they wanted was our help. We could have done this cheerfully years ago and thus earned a very valuable ally on China's southern flank and gained control of a huge swath of ocean in a major shipping corridor but our collective insanity nixed that.

So in disgust and despair, Vietnam turned to China and basically surrendered.

Just this month alone, Bush and Condi rebuffed India. We "sold" powerful, dangerous military jets to Pakistan despite warnings from India so off goes President Hu and he suddenly got India to sign a major treaty ending 50 year of cold and even hot wars over who controls the Himalayan passes. Each nation signed the other's sphere of influence and swore to uphold this forever. The bottom line of the Chinese document was that India recognizes China's rights over their colony,
Taiwan.

Today, Bush and his sultry Sultan buddy are openly conspiring to alter the price of oil. Russia likes the price of oil as it is right now. They have zero reason to lower it. This is an open economic attack on Russia. So China trots off to Russia to write up a series of oil pacts. They told the Russians, the price is right. We are happy.

America is now OPEC. We run it. We set its agenda. We are the people responsible for this stuff now. Isn't that charming? And as I have detailed, this isn't going to work since there are too many economic forces heaving away for anyone to manipulate oil prices easily.

As America isolates itself the great game of Go continues relentlessly. Taiwan will fall to the Communist Chinese. The only question now is how many people will die? I hope none. In this case, Taiwan has nothing to stand on, diplomatically. They themselves have stated for 50 years that Taiwan is part of China and reunification is the ultimate goal. There is no way around this. It can't be waved off suddenly, not without great violence. And Taiwan is very small and China is very big. Size does matter.

Today, a very happy Chinese leadership will resume their happy game. They will continue the whirlwind tour of the world signing treaties and making statements of mutal support and security. For crying out loud, they did this with Australia just two weeks ago! And we go about rebuffing people. Snapping orders at them and in general, acting like asses.

I read the NYT which is the paper that has the most international information in America and it is a sorry rag. Breathlessly they note political turmoil in Russia and on the borders of Russia. Oh boy, we can chop Russia up further! Whoopee! Meanwhile, the turmoil in Mexico goes unremarked and barely covered. Did you see all the pictures of the giant anti Fox demonstrations yesterday in Mexico City? The biggest ever? And the Mayor urging the crowd to resist the dictator, Fox? And how he thanked them for springing him from prison and told them to resist Fox's attempts at keeping democracy at bay?

Wow. A velvet revolution much bigger than in little nearly useless Lebanon and larger but not nearly as big as Mexico, Ukraine? Much of our oil comes from Mexico! It is a major trading partner! It is the second longest border for us. The mayor of Mexico City is friendly with the President of Venezuela and Brazil and Premier of Cuba! Viva la Revolutione indeed!

Because America is the sole supporter of Israel all our attention is focused on that country. we can't see what is going on elsewhere. It literally becomes invisible to the mind. I seldom talk about that hideous flash point because it is pointless. All parties want the Apocalypse and will get it if we grant them this.

The people to focus on are the American right wing which cynically wants to use Israel as the launch pad of Jesus' return. They have to be defeated here at home.

This is why the news about persecution of other religious students at the Air Force Academy is so important. Aside from the rapes and mayhem going on in that institution it seems the born again Christians are attacking fellow students. What a mess. The place should be shut down. The right wing Christians intend to take over the entire American miltiary machine so they can use it in the Apocalypse. This is not joke. It has to be stopped. They are dangerous to everyone including themselves. They don't care about the diplomatic victories of China, they think it is all a waste of time, being clever. They intend to blow up the joint so why fix the environment, for example.

Reagan's cabinet members themselves said, "We don't have to save anything because this will all be gone in a few years anyway" and just this week, Jesse Helms said, "I hope to stand shoulder to shoulder with Bolton when the Final Battle comes!" I didn't see men in white coats come and collect the old coot. I noted the press didn't go wild like they do any time Dean states the obvious. Just this week, they went deranged over Dean telling the truth. Oh, the mercy.

Hold onto your hats. The international landscape is going to change rapidly from now on.

Breaking News: For the First Time Since 1948, China and Taiwan Will Meet Directly

From the BBC: The leader of Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang - or Nationalist - Party, Lien Chan, travels to China on Tuesday for a historic visit.

During his four-city, eight-day tour he will hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing.

It will be the first meeting between Nationalist and Communist Party leaders since the Nationalists fled to Taiwan after losing China's civil war in 1949.

Wow. The Chinese leadership is moving at lightning speed now. They disciplined the Japanese and now Taiwan has seen the light and is learning to kow tow properly. Of course, the Chinese leaders want a happy union and as little blut und drang as possible so they will be most accomodating.

This is an IMPORTANT MOMENT IN HISTORY. Mark this day down on a calendar. The Nationalist Party narrowly lost the last election. This election was as disputed as the Gore/Bush election here in America. It is a clear sign that Taiwan is utterly divided in serious ways. A divided nation is a weak nation.

My father, many years ago, right after Jimmy Carter recognized mainland China as the one and only China, suddenly while my dad was on a sensitive (hahaha, was it ever!) mission in Taipei--there were riots. I had fears my dad would be killed. He wasn't even ruffled by it, he was off in the countryside, visiting---the rulers in Beijing told my father he could fly directly to China to have talks with them about Taiwan. He then flew back to Taiwan and delivered the messages. This was the very first time the mainland Chinese allowed ANY direct flights from Taiwan!

So today, without warning or fanfare, suddenly the former President of Taiwan is going to the Forbidden City to talk....surrender. Yes, surrender. The only thing is the terms. He read the writing on the wall. He knows that even if America attacks China, we can't win.

it is finished.

The Great Game of Go is now showing the true strength of the Chinese team. All I can say is, "wow". Just "wow".

Blood For Oil

The NYT excitedly posts:

Bush and Saudi Prince Discuss High Oil Prices in Ranch Meeting

The picture doesn't show a discussion, it shows two men having a happy hand in hand stroll. Oh, that will put Bin Laden's pants in a twist!



During the last election (sic) Bush talked about how easy it would be to get cheaper oil. "I will call my friends in Saudi Arabia and they will give us the oil," he assured his easily tricked supporters. The obvious question, why he didn't do it that very day, didn't occur to many supporters. Obviously, logic is not their strong suit.

So here comes the bride. Dressed to the nines, kissing up to Bush, thanking him, no doubt, for allowing the Saudis to totally escape the responsiblity for 9/11. Old foe, Saddam, innocent of all charges, taken down by Americans. Many of whom either died or was seriously wounded or mentally destablilized but these two buddies don't mention those details.

Saudi Arabia's plan, which it began discussing publicly weeks ago, calls for spending up to $50 billion to increase its maximum sustainable production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009, and to 15 million in the subsequent decade, from about 10.8 million barrels now. The Saudis are currently pumping about 9.5 million barrels a day.

I remember even eight months ago. During the Bush 9/11 festival in NYC, the Saudis said they would pump 11 million barrels of oil a day. And when they announced that, prices did drop $5 a barrel...for several weeks. When the pumping humping didn't happen, the price rose again. I even remember when it was 10 million barrels a day. Seems that it is dropping, not going up. This is a mystery...for gullible people.

Asked whether that plan would have any effect soon on gasoline prices in the United States, Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, told reporters, "It's hard to say."

Bush fooled his supporters last year. He hopes to continue fooling them. This is called "talking down the price" so people will imagine something magical will happen. China just did this to Japan, quite maliciously, too. It worked.

But this story won't fly. Too many supporters have been burned. They are asking questions. Like, "Can Saudi Arabia increase oil pumping?"

Some experts, including past and present officials of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company, have said the plan may be too optimistic because of geological complexities in the oil fields and challenges in finding enough technology and labor.

Short answer: probably not. Any new wells going in will simply replace ones that are depleting. And even if Saudi Arabia can increase pumping which is very unlikely, depletion in other places will negate the overall amount of oil being pumped. EVEN if this came out wine and roses, China will simply soak up any oil pumped lickety split. There is one way to put pressures on price: outlaw SUVs and trucks that aren't used for real work like my truck which is used only to haul things. Put an excess tax on all such vehicles and tax them hard until people conserve.

This will never happen so we just have to wait for the cruel effects of the Hubbert Oil Peak to take hold and ravage us all.

Blogging is Hard Work

The NYT article about celebrities blogging is rather interesting. It shows that the NYT still doesn't understand what a blog really is nor do the clebrities understand.

When Somerby's The Daily Howler was launched back in 1998, he and all of us were happy about it because trying to pass information in the old way via forums was beginning to collapse. Intelligent voices like his were being drowned out by people chatting idly or right wingers howling like banshees in unison. From that day on, I was a daily visitor at his new fangled home. "The Daily Brew" was another such site early on. The motivation was the attacks on Al Gore as the impeachment unravelled. Our dear media unsheathed the shivs and started backstabbing Gore with an amazing ferocity.

To run a blog needs self sacrifice and dedication and a belief in one's self that can take the slings and slugs of interacting with hoards of humanity. Many early blogs had no means to comment on each day's postings but when this was fixed, new blogs moved to the head of the class: blogs with a community that meets and greets each day. On the left was the ever popular Atrios, the web equivelent of a running bar and anarchists of the world unite convention (hello, gang! Luv ya all!) and the much more controlled Kos which is hard core politics with a lot of criticism of each other (sorry, not a place I can handle, personally). Reminds me too much of the self critisism sessions in Maoist China...

The right has the Little Green Goofballs and other unpleasant places one can find if you look in dark corners.

Blogging is different from articles of the day or week such as professional writers like Parry of Consortium News. He has a history of great reporting, he broke the Iran/Contra story, for example, and has published many books. He has been running his professional blog for many years. It is a must read once a week.

The famousBartcop was launched at the same time as the Daily Howler and for the same reason: to give us news uncorrupted by the so called mainstream media. He calls it his tree house and it gets raided by monkeys periodically. This is his chief form of amusement aside from watching the ballet (hehehe).

To run a successful blog today one should have a community which means using Haloscan or other platforms so comments can rain down on the head of the blogger---especially pointing out editorial mistakes or spelling errors, heh. GUILTY! I appreciate the free editing, by the way. Keep nipping!

Many bloggers tire of this. They close the joint entirely like Media Whores Online or Billmon who closed the comments section.

So into this lion pit comes......Celebrities and a very rich lady, Arianna Huffington, the columnist and onetime candidate for governor of California, is about to move blogging from the realm of the anonymous individual to the realm of the celebrity collective.

The NYT which is addicted to the obvious, note Bobo Brooks at the editorial page, gets all up in the knickerhood over this great thing, a "blog" of "celebrities". Oh, the famous names. Time to HOB NOB! They are even hiring ten, count it, ten assistants to run this blog. Talk about a bloated blog. The Titanic of Blogs. The BLOG. Sort of like the alien in the movies sloshing into the theater in a remote town in Alaska to eat dating teens!

Having prominent people join the blogosphere, Ms. Huffington said in an interview, "is an affirmation of its success and will only enrich and strengthen its impact on the national conversation." Among those signed up to contribute are Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman.

This is a list of people I hear from already way too much. If they are so hot to trot they could all start a blog, each. They then can spend time inbetween trips to Paris and swimming in a big private pool with their own cabana and cabana boy to post something that might mean something to me...yeah. Right.

Blogs are PERSONAL. Just like we know dear Bartcop intimately, we know Atrios and his collection of cats and Kos and his cute kid and here at my blog, each story is salted with various tales because I am a real person just like the readers here who, even when anonymous, reveal many things about themselves because this is an open but intimite conversation.

You can't have that with a celebrity. They spend fortunes to keep us all at bay. Far away. They don't want to interact at all. This "blog" won't even have a community and if they dare try that, it will collapse because everyone will clamour for attention rather than build towards each other.

This part disgusts me: Ms. Huffington's effort - to be called the Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) - will also seek to ferret out potentially juicy items and give them legs. In fact, she has hired away Mr. Drudge's right-hand Web whiz, Andrew Breitbart, who used to be her researcher.

Well, I am happy this monster is deserting his present sinking ship. Shows you this is the Twilight of the Twitchy Troublemakers but this doesn't make me want to go to her "blog" which looks more like a newsletter like Salon. I remember Salon really well. The former owners and editors and I had some very long and involved fights which ended with them banning me from communication with them. Their blog is dreadfully thin now and barely better than this blog.

Except for the comix there. They are fantastic and fun. Go visit them.

This is the worst part of the Huffy blog:

While many of the bloggers are on the left of the political spectrum, some conservatives have also signed on, among them Tony Blankley, editorial page editor of The Washington Times, and David Frum, the writer who coined the phrase "axis of evil" when he was a speechwriter for President Bush.

OK. Earth to Huffington: I know you live a sheltered life but are you nuts? What possesses you? The entire reason bloggers like this one here exists is because the main stream media has locked us out. Parry once was in the mainstream. I used to be published or appear on TV regularily. We are LOCKED OUT. Nearly totally. The right wingers she is "inviting" in are all walking through open doors no matter what they say, they can even, like Coulter, call for the murder of millions and the editors fo the NYT and still get to sip wine and play with the cabana boy at the pool!

WE ARE LOCKED OUT. My biggest fight with Salon was over David Horrorwitz and the host of rank right wingers they paid to write for them. Why? Why? The owner snipped at me, "It pisses off liberals like you". Well, piss off, Salon. Note their stock has collapsed and they are a shell of their former selves and we seldom visit them.

There is no way I would visit the Huffy blog. She can go rot.

China Tests New Powers

Yuan

It is an odd side story but instructive if one knows what is going on in Asia. Readers here can see clearly, there is tremendous tension between China and Japan. The Chinese were very loud about this up until today. Now they are flexing their arms in subtle ways.

Chinese remarks cause yen to soar

The yen hit a one-month high against the dollar and a two-month peak against the euro on Monday as comments from the governor of the People’s Bank of China sparked hopes of Chinese currency reform.

Speaking in China on Saturday, People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiachuan suggested that the Chinese authorities may after all respond to international pressure to implement foreign exchange reform. “If there is more pressure from outside , it will force us to speed up our reform,” he said, reinforcing mounting market speculation that the Chinese authorities will soon announce a change to the renminbi peg. Any change in the peg is expected to be a revaluation, which in turn should lead to a broad rally in Asian currencies.

The yen appreciated in early Asian trade, hitting a one-month high of Y105.27 against the dollar. However, comments from Wei Benhua, deputy director of the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange, that there would be no policy change in the “short term” saw the dollar pull back to Y105.80.

Talk about smart. The Japanese spend hundreds of billions of American dollars keeping the yen artificially low against all other currencies. This is to boost trade values. The Chinese do this too. As the Japanese joined America in calling for a stronger Chinese currency, the Chinese decided it is time for Japanese currency to go up, first.

Note how one official lights the fire, oh, hope springs eternal! America goes nuts! Finally, the Chinese will obey us! Then a Chinese official steps forward, after hours of currency turmoil to put the desired change off into the unknown future.

This is fun to watch or would be if I lived somewhere else.

Note how Americans, hysterical about rising Chinese trade power have utterly forgotten our problem with the Japanese doing exactly the same thing. You can bet, Tokyo doesn't forget this.

Meanwhile, Europe see saws on trade, too.

Gentle approach

"If there are some interests in Europe who want to see some sort of trade war with China launched over this, then they are looking to the wrong person," Mr Mandelson told a news conference over the weekend.

"I don't regard China as a threat but as a welcome and important member of the international trading community."

An EU official said that they hoped to avoid "formal" talks with China.

"If we get to formal talks, then things are pretty serious," the official said.

Gentle? Try "gingerly". Collectively, we all want cheap stuff all the time. We also know this is bad because we lose manufaturing jobs but the lure of not paying a lot is too high a temptation. Corporate powers on the planet love China because it is their dream: to make tons of money while not working at all, it just pours in. So off goes the factories to China and the rich are much richer and the workers are getting bit..not too hard because of the cheap stuff but it will change when China begins to demand a fair share of the spoils of this planet: 25% of earth's resources, not 10%.

And everyone is nervous of Chinese power and powerless to stop it because of the appearance of exploitation, namely, rich people in Europe and America are getting richer thanks to Chinese labor. So they will support this system until it collapses. I suppose the plan is for the rich to live in select enclaves protected by the new super powers. This is their hope.

Unfortunately for them, it won't work out. Not at all.

Forget Diplomacy for Dummies, This is Diplomacy for Lunatics

OK. Yesterday it looked like Japan figured out how to Kow Tow.Only they went home today and threw rocks at the Chinese:

TOKYO (AP) - Japan opened a new front in its dispute with China on Sunday by sharply criticizing Beijing's history textbooks, signaling continued friction between the Asian powers despite high-profile diplomatic moves to quell tensions.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura refuted Chinese claims that Japanese textbooks gloss over Tokyo's World War II-era atrocities, firing back in a TV talk show Sunday that China's schools indoctrinate their students with an unbalanced take on the past.

New friction? Like Stalingrad was a tiff?

What is this? An Amazon.com book review battle? Are the Japanese going to review everyone's histories? Like the Pope pretending he was never really a Nazi, he only looked and acted like one all his life? Doesn't anyone learn anything from history?

Well...looks like the Kamikazi Koizumi diplomacy has taken over again and he has decided to go to war with China over history. I guarantee this is a war he is doomed to lose. Japan should understand, if they choose war, it can be pretty nasty for them.

There is nothing more infurating than to have someone apologize and just as you shake their hand, they throw another punch. I have had this happen and believe me, my retaliation when this happens is much worse than the original fight. "Blood in the eyes" is and understatement. The Chinese laugh at us but they do not laugh at the Japanese. This is going to reinforce anti Japanese sentiment in China and this will cause many waves. I suppose our government is happy that China and Japan are at each other's throats. Reminds me of the old Chinese curse: may your wishes come true.

MORE NEWS: Anti Japanese demonstration in NYC in front of the UN.

NEW YORK (Kyodo) About 300 people, mostly Chinese but with some Koreans, held a rally Friday at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the United Nations to protest Japan's attitude toward its wartime past.

Demonstrators hold a banner protesting Japan's aspirations to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council during a rally Friday in front of U.N. headquarters.

The spirited but peaceful rally lasted about an hour. It was organized by the Global Chinese Alliance for the Unification of China.

Participants waved Chinese and South Korean flags in a show of unity against Japan's approach to its wartime history.

"I came here to express myself," said Li Huang, 30, who came to the United States from China about three years ago. "I think Japan is not a reasonable country. I want Japan to face the history and apologize for its deeds in the past.

MORE BREAKING NEWS:80 Japanese Officials and Members of Parliment Visit War Shrine

If you are going to be belligerent might as well go all the way, no?

Eighty mostly ruling party lawmakers paid homage Friday at Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine, setting the scene for more protests from Japan's Asian neighbors at a time when relations with China and South Korea are already very tense.

`Prime Minister Koizumi has not stated this year whether he will visit or not,'' Fujii said. ``However, I sincerely hope he will do so without fail.''

The Chinese are not amused.

China wants ``the Japanese side to be sincere about improving relations,'' Li told his counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura.

On Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference that Beijing hoped Koizumi would stop making visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

Ratzinger and I Had a Big Big Fight in 1968

Elaine the pushy feminist in 1969 while visiting Smith College to talk about women's rights.

This is a TRUE STORY. I am not making this up at all.

In 1968, I was the only woman on the campus at Tuebingen, Germany, who made speeches, confronted the faculty and in general, raised mayhem concerning Naziism and the war in Vietnam and the future of humanity and my worst crime of all: arguing with the religion faculty about God. I was utterly notorious on campus. Periodically, right wingers would try to beat me up only I have many fighting skills, both Japanese as well as sword fighting and simple wrestling with horses and cows since childhood.

In other words, I was one tough bitch.

I even made "Der Spiegel" magazine. I was finally deported from Germany because of my activities!

Well, this morning I learned something amazing: the reason Raztinger gives for reverting to being a Nazi is very simple.
NYT article about Tuebingen

But while his deep reading and thinking in theology, philosophy, and history were fundamental to development as a theologian, it was the protests of student radicals at Tübingen University - in which he saw an echo of the Nazi totalitarianism he loathed - that seem to have pushed him definitively toward deep conservatism and insistence on unquestioned obedience to the authority of Rome

We met, we argued and I terrorized him so badly he decided to be a Nazi. Amazing! Will wonders nevercease. Actually, the reason we argued and I was "vulgar" was because he was already a Nazi and this ticked me off greatly! I can spot a Nazi from pretty far away.

The article details his humilation at my hands...ahem. He was oh so learned and could quote anyone but I was there and there was precious little for me to quote since most literature is anti women's rights! So we got in a classic fight over "this is MY body that I live in and YOU can't order me around" stuff. Then I accused him of being "Kinder, kuchen, Kirche" Nazi. That was so mean of me he decided on the spot to be come a Nazi. I suppose.

Reading this article irritates me because no one interviewed me about this matter. Even after I publish this you can bet the NYT will not interview me.

Ratzinger isn't shy. He is full of hostility and repressed anger. Being a shallow intellectual, he was petted by his teachers because he was a toady who wanted to please, not challenge. This is why he appeared to briefly be a "liberal" under Herr Professor Kueng. I was at the meetings detailed in the NYT piece: everyone wanted to talk about anything but women's rights. Only one voice demanded we discuss this matter. That voice, dear readers, was mine! And only mine.

I was the sole VOCAL feminist on campus at this time.

And I am a loud mouth and am famous for launching fights. In philosophy class, my male professor announced one day that women couldn't argue philosophy because they are too emotional. I raised my hand and said, "Could you please prove this?" He then let me stand next to him and we began to argue. I got the entire room mad at me. I made one feminist challenge after another, coldly and cruelly. With a deliberate straight face. What blew them up was my contention that scientists should make artificial wombs so men can do their fair share of child bearing.

Blooie. Everyone was screaming at me including the professor. I crossed my arms on my chest and stood there in the storm, triumphant.

"Case closed. Men are TOO EMOTIONAL TO DEBATE." Dead silence. The professor began to laugh. Everyone was horrified. I won the debate! It was their Waterloo.

Well, Ratzinger can't debate his way out of a paper bag. He is a classic case of "authoritarian using authorities" type of argument. "This is how it was done before and it can't change" sort of junk. A revolution of the mind is to see through all of that to a new way of doing things.

So this Pope is personal to me. I demand a rematch with him. I will volunteer to go to the Vatican and debate him. The propaganda is, he loves debates. So bring it on!!!! (Fat chance. He is a coward, even with Opus Dei holding his hand).

America Blames China For Our Economic Messes We Made Ourselves

What a week that was! Greenspan whining before Congress, blaming them for the fix we are in, whimpering that he wasn't responsible, claiming that he really didn't expect deficits to explode when he gave Bush the green light to cut taxes because of the surplus.

Excuuuuuuse me! I still remember that time, the first six months of Bush's reign. During the election, I watched with alarm as the internet bubble popped. I said, "Well, there goes the surplus!" and lo and behold, it began to melt away. Bush came into office and said, "Because the economy is in trouble, I will cut taxes" only he cut taxes far in the future, not a quickie tax cut! I wrote, "This is ridiculous. It will cut taxes exactly when an expected recession will be over!"

Well, he continues to do what is senseless.

Greenspan also whined about mean old China not doing what we want. Congress responded by cutting more taxes, passing more "emergency spending" for Iraq and other activities that made a bad situation a joke.

So time for the The Bipartisan US-China Economic Security Review Commission aka "BUCESRC" (Boopkus). The hand wringing is amusing. From Senator Byrd:

Mr. President, I will not recite all the many important conclusions and recommendations for action contained in this timely report. But I point out that the United States needs to be much more proactive and clear-thinking in managing our overall relationship with China, and far more focused on what our goals are in the relationship if we are to advance our national economic and security interests.

The report concludes, overall, that the U.S.-China economic relationship lacks active management. U.S. goals for specific elements of the relationship are too vague or even nonexistent. This is particularly highlighted in the enormous goods trade deficit, some $123 billion in 2003, and growing rapidly. The United States has the capability to nudge the Chinese into more positive policies and actions, thereby leveling a playing field which China has tilted in the direction of mercantilist behavior, including, in some arenas, intimidating tactics. Issues which have been festering in the WTO, for instance, such as China's artificial manipulation of the value of her currency, continued tolerance of high levels of Intellectual Property Crimes, massive illegal subsidization of Chinese enterprises, resistance to good faith compliance with important WTO procedures, and with many pledges made for progress in proliferation of WMD, all require heightened levels of attention and management by the United States

The United States certainly has such influence at this period, and for the next few years, because of the enormous dependence of China on our good will, our consumer markets, our manufacturing capability, our technology and our cooperation in many fields. Such dependence will not last forever, however, and it is time that we begin to manage this relationship in ways that will produce more positive and favorable outcomes.

I like it. "Enormous dependence of CHINA on our good will..." As I often encounter on line as well as in the streets, Americans think China comes to us, hands out, begging.

Time for us to review "Begging for Dummies". It is laughably simple. If one wants something and one can't get it by force or threat, one must BEG. Humbly. Just this week, Congress added another $150 billion to our overdraft with China. We decided to cut more taxes and spend more money. Ergo, we now have to return to China and beg for them to give us cheap loans.

They know this. We know this. We disguise our begging by calling it "sales" but what we are selling is....our begging for money. Seems to be our number one export! Begging. It equals the trade deficit. People send us stuff and in return, we beg.

The trade deficit and the budget deficit are both about $666 billion. We are beggars. Beggars can't be choosers. You take what is put in the bowl and you eat it or starve. We can complain and our benefactors will smile. Cranky beggars are funny. In ancient Rome, they were stock figures in comedies.

Members of a congressionally appointed commission on U.S.-China relations left the Beltway for Stanford on Thursday to find out how Silicon Valley thinks Washington should deal with fast-growing China.

They got an earful. Former Defense Secretary William J. Perry told commissioners the United States is losing its edge in the information technology that is key to this country's military superiority. And a parade of high-tech executives implored Congress and the Bush administration to get tough with China on the rampant piracy of intellectual property and Beijing's insistence on securing sensitive technology transfers.

Beggars are known to whine very loudly. These men spent fortunes to insure the present situation is just like it is now. They don't like it but refuse to fix it, of course. They want some magic to happen. Wave that wand and presto!

Wong raked China for failing to protect intellectual property of U.S. companies. "When it comes to keeping trade secrets,'' he said, "there is little hope of recourse'' if secrets leak out.

And leaks are likely, he noted, given the conditions imposed by the central government in Beijing. "Encryption methods must be acceptable to the Chinese authorities, and they must be given the keys,'' he said. "China is essentially a controlled playing field.''

George Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, based in San Jose, criticized Beijing for giving Chinese companies subsidies and grants that foreign companies operating in China cannot get.

Note how these non tax paying, military/industrial complexers are complaining about the Chinese subsidizing their own industries! Tch. Tch.

At the same time they beg for government spending! That will fix things! To get this money to spend in Silicone Valley, the government has to go to....China for loans. Oopsie.

Scalise called for making the U.S. research and development credit permanent as one way of leveling the playing field. He also urged Washington to lighten up on its post-Sept. 11 visa restrictions because they are impeding the flow of bright, foreign-born scientists and engineers to Silicon Valley.

Additionally, Scalise urged the Bush administration to haul China before WTO courts if it fails to provide open markets and protect intellectual property.

Oh those sneaky industrial titans! Once again, they try the "kill the Chinese with laughter" weapon! Seriously, the UN should investigate this nefarious Weapons of Mass Delusion! It is all the fault of those tricky Chinese and by the way, can we import them here? We need them here because we can't survive unless we have access to tricky Chinese computer experts as well as their equally tricky engineers!

So much for employing Americans.

And so it goes. The begging cup rattles, the beggar pleads and threatens, the USA comes staggering over to clean the windshield with a dirty rag. "Pay me!" yells the bum.

Video of "violent" child

Thanks to Jesus' General, here is the video

My take: the child is acting out but is remarkably quiet. Her most violent act was to push away an unsympathetic teacher. You can hear the other white staffers talking about the child as if she were a dog or something. I was really outraged by this video.

The only time the child was loud was when two adult police officers, one a woman, both white, grabbed her and twisted her arms. Up until then, she was sitting utterly still in a chair and was totally quiet! This is rank child abuse. I hope she wins her case. I wish she could find some great hearted teacher. This video made me very sad and unhappy.

It reminded me of our kindergarden. We had Korean, Chinese, Jamacian, Haitian, Anglo Saxon, Eastern European, American black children. We were very international. Our teachers were equally varied.

Rats.

I wish I was this child's lawyer....

They Wanted To Keep Terri Alive But Kill Everyone Else

Frist and DeLay as seen by a agnostia brain damaged person.

The entire "Culture of Life" broohaha the Republicans ran that ended with Frist and DeLay calling for the murder of judges and Bush flying to DC for an emergency passing of a bill to give Terri's parents unprecedented access to the highest courts in the land to overturn court rulings....here is reality:

Medicare Patients MAY NOT go before a judge to get treatment

A new federal policy will make it significantly more difficult for Medicare beneficiaries to obtain hearings in person before a judge when the government denies their claims for home care, nursing home services, prescription drugs and other treatments.

OK. The jarring you are feeling isn't the Boxing Day Great Earthquake. It is simply the feeling that the world is turning inside out. The very same clowns who stopped all of America to howl about a brain dead woman and who cost us taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars running Congress for special sessions so the parents of a brain dead woman could go to courts that were utterly out of line as to refering to the laws of the land, these same clowns now are going to deny the average American to right to see ANY judge when Medicare tells them to drop dead, literally.

We firmly believe that no insurance company, no bureaucrat in a back room, no politician, no Pope has any say in what we do with our bodies.

We live inside our bodies. These objects are something very important to us since we live in our bodies and our bodies are very intimately ourselves. Ergo: only the person living inside a body knows what that body is doing and what it wants. Even if the person and the body do naughty things like smoke or drink too much, it is one and the same.

Whew.

So once again, the GOP shows themselves to be crude, self serving hypocrites.

I am really mad today. Every day, another reason to be mad.

What Is Wrong With Our Schools--open ended series.

A lawyer has threatened to sue police officers who handcuffed an allegedly uncontrollable five-year-old after she acted up at a Florida kindergarten.
The officers were called by the school after a teacher and assistant principal failed to calm down the little girl.

The incident was caught on a video camera which was rolling in the classroom as part of a self-improvement exercise at the St Petersburg school.

There are so many things wrong with this story in just two paragraphs!

1. Using the terms "self improvement exercise" is insanity when talking about little children. This is "corporate talk". And should be vigorously resisted by any sane child not to mention adult.

2. Once again, an issue that should be "parental control of the schools via voting and participation" becomes a lawyer thing.

3. Five year olds with tempers are laughably easy to deal with. I did this for years and years. Anyone wants lessons in this, I will be happy to oblige. I train horses and dogs and birds and fishes, too (yes, you can train fishes).

4. The police could see this was a small child. If the child were totally out of control, the teachers could have evacuated the room by herding the others out and the cops could have sat down and talked the child out of this passionate rage.

5. My Victorian great godmother would have had a caniption fit over this news. She was very strictly "children should be seen but not heard" school and she taught me how to sit up straight and be still at the age of four.

6. The BBC article notes the children were doing math. This is insanity. This is kindergarten!

So, time for my early education lecture. I have credentials in this area. When, in NYC, I had babies, I joined a nursery co-op. I eventually taught there. We were very liberal and did a great deal of research into how to conduct a nursery school. Our school was so successful it became an after school place, too, so we could do this for several more years. It was democratic. Literally. Our children learned to negotiate and vote for things and we discussed all our plans with the children in a circle each day. So we had a willing troop for all activities. It was pretty astonishing, the choices these children made. "Let's go to the science museum!" they would shout raising hands, smiling. "Let's go to the movies!" also got a big vote. We would discuss the movies, mostly cartoons, of course. "Analyze this!" we would say. They learned to dictate to us, as we used a primative typewriter, their movie reviews which we then published on a mimeo machine which they cranked out and then we passed this out to the other preschools!

The history of Kindergartens: this is a German word for "Child's Garden" and was started by neo liberal German Romanticists. Von Bismark was so impressed by them, he made them part of the German school system he was building. "Strong bones and strong minds" was his motto. You can't build a powerful army with people who worked when they were six or had rickets and bad teeth and were stunted from hunger and privation. So all children went to preschool to be fed and cossetted. This is why it was called "GARDEN" and not "WORKHOUSE".

In America, the desire to "teach" stuff has dropped down and down in age while the ability to learn is collapsing like a souffle in winter. There is zero need to teach math to five year olds. You simply make up fun counting games that make them laugh while they learn effortlessly. We had a penny jar. Every day we went shopping for lunch with the kids. The children would guess at how much something like grapes would cost and then count out the change. Each one had a seperate thing to buy and got to select it. Off we went, each child proud that they were going to buy lunch which we made from scratch with the children. They learned to cook with us as well as washing dishes which was great fun. We deliberately generated a great deal of soap and would build things out of the dishes and cups.

Many weekends the children voted to run the school for fun! We ended up, on weekends with the parents, going on vacations or long trips to just outside NYC like the beaches in summer. We were literally one big happy family. My children still talk to their nursery playmates twenty years later.

We were family.

I have tutored children. Nearly always, when I meet them, they are sullen and angry. They don't want to learn, they want to play games and watch TV. So we do this, together. Slowly I would build up a relationship and get them into discussing the shows and the games. Slowly, they open up again. It is very tedious and I always wonder, why don't adults do this earlier?

This is because most people really don't want to interact with their own children. Or if they do, they do it as if they are a child, not an adult visiting the child and guiding them to another world. The increasingly childish behaviors and attitudes and lusts seen in adults is, well, my great godmother would have been appalled if she saw what I see every day. This includes stuffing our faces or boorish driving habits.

The news media has story after story of cops going into increasingly younger school rooms to wrestle with difficult children. This is utterly unacceptable and is an indication of the collapse of our ability to learn, grow strong, be responsible. But then, look at the story below this one: our government, investigating itself, refuses to be responsible for anything at all. Bad children, bad prison guards.

Blame them.

The Buck Stops Below

This time the top generals not to mention the Attorney General of America who approved of torture, secretly, are all innocent of charges.

Every single military prison tortured. Every single one was filled with guards and others who inexplicably tortured prisoners repeatedly even photographing and filming this for future use and this was done against the desires of "bring 'em on" Bush.

Yup. And the KGB was all rogue agents who did things behind Stalin's back and Hitler knew nothing about the death camps.

Right.

The buck never stops where it belongs or rather, tons of bucks flow into the hands of the top honchos and not a penny of responsiblity for war or preventing terrorism or keeping our economy well or country solvent.

NO MORE NOAA WEATHER ONLINE!!!

Hurricane Hugo, a killer storm

Now I am really pissed off. I use the NOAA Weather service online for many things. I do a great deal of work outside as well as run my farm. I need good weather analysis and data, much of it raw to evaluate what I am going to be doing. This has made my life very nice since I can gage very closely the complex weather systems over my farm which is in the Taconic Mountains of NY.

Now the GOP wants to eliminate this!

Do you want a seven-day weather forecast for your ZIP code? Or hour-by-hour predictions of the temperature, wind speed, humidity and chance of rain? Or weather data beamed to your cellphone?

That information is available for free from the National Weather Service.
The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.

We will "go to Mars" but will die in hurricanes or floods or freeze to death or lose all our crops or die in sand storms here at home on planet earth! What a visionary proposal! We will see the weather on Mars and be left to the tender mercies of the weather on earth!

This level of insanity is breath taking. All so that the online weather services can charge a buck off of us for information we already paid for via our tax dollars! In a nutshell, this is the future for America courtesy of the Republican penny pinching "we love monopolies and hate government services that are really useful or successful like Social Security" maniacs.

Mars Mission Madness

Mars capsules

My parents wanted to go to Mars. Back when the California Institute of Technology kids would go to Devil's Canyon to shoot off homemade rockets before WWII, my parents promised to go to Mars if they got married.

So now, Bush has decided to go to Mars.

Why am I totally sceptical?

Readers of this blog can answer this queation. To travel anywhere you need the funds and the technology and the desire to travel. Interplanetary travel needs all this in spades. This means focusing on a goal. And money. Lots of money. A human Mars mission will be fabulously expensive. Not only must a craft be crafted, it must be built and launched and supported.

Back in the late seventies, the space exploration clubs we so painfully built through the Science Fiction Conventions began to implode when the leaders of this movement got derailed by the will-o-wisp of the Star Wars nuclear shield system. Developing this useless extraterrestrial Maginot Line diverted precious money and talent. Always, it was funded, always at the expense of other programs.

The Mars Society was started with the remnants of the earlier clubs pushing for space colonies and human exploration. They worked hard for their goal which is to colonize the desert planet of Mars. This was always possible except for one huge problem: you can't buy what you can't afford. To pay for this we have to cut funds somewhere else. Like the $81+billion every seven or eight months for the $300+billion war to make Iraq an outpost of democracy. It would be tons cheaper to make Mars and outpost of democracy but this strangely isn't high on the Bush agenda. We can't buy everything we see. We have to make choices. And the Mars Society has decided the choices should come from within NASA rather than from outside NASA.

This means mocking the scientific work done with the Space Shuttle and worse, the work involving studying our own planet. Bush would love to see the funds for that cut drastically. This is because he doesn't want information about the degradation of our planetary systems known since Americans are causing a great deal of the destruction.

Dr. Zubrin talks about the Hubble Space Telescope and admits it is worth saving...thank goodness. Only this costs money. And money is what NASA will see less and less. And the Hubble, unlike the Mars mission, has excited great interest and genuine calls for saving it and improving on it.

Here are the terrifying words of the head of the Mars Society, Mr. Zuberin:

If the United States is to lead the West, it must not only carry its sword, but the banner of its most sacred cause. And that cause is the freedom to explore on the wings of human reason.

The French may sneer, with some cause, at our fast food restaurants and TV sitcoms, but the Hubble Space Telescope can inspire nothing but admiration, or even awe, in anyone who is alive above the neck.

A human Mars exploration program would be a statement about ourselves, a reaffirmation that we remain a nation of pioneers, the vanguard of humanity, devoted to the deepest values of Western civilization.

It would be truly an irony if we gain Mars only to lose the Earth! A tragic irony. No planet is more important than this planet.

Right now, going to Mars is merely a joy ride. Taken because it might be fun and romatic. When my parents were young, life was exciting and knowing the unknowable, fun. Today, we know a great deal about Mars thanks to the unmanned missions. It is an awe inspiring place but is also as nasty as Death Valley after a nuclear bomb. What ever life is there, it is microscopic and dessicated. While Dr. Zubrin calls for the elimination of many unmanned space programs he doesn't call for an end to the military spending that has ballooned recently as detailed here on this blog. He doesn't call for tax hikes and belt tightening here in America, either. Indeed, he assumes along with his friends in the White House that the money for this will magically appear from Asia and no choices will be made. Cutting existing programs at NASA will save pennies and the Mars mission is not a subway ride. This is like saving 5 cent bottle returns until you can buy a first class ticket to tour the world on the Queen Mary.

Humans can't live on Mars. This is certainly obvious now. Pretty much nothing can live there. Yet we will slit our throats here at home rather than focus on saving planet Earth, the Jewel of the Solar System. We cannot plant a flag on another planet unless we first bring peace to Earth. It is a joint effort. It must be international. It must come from everyone, not some flag waving, sneering, Napoleonic American with delusions of grandeur.

More news:The chairman of a House panel that makes decisions about NASA’s budget said Wednesday that he opposed a White House plan to cut spending on aeronautics research next year at the U.S. space agency.

The NASA budget request the White House sent to Congress in February would cut aeronautics spending by $67 million in 2006 to $852 million. In 2007, according to White House projections, aeronautics spending would drop a further $191 million to $728 million before leveling off.

This is pork protection, of course, by a pol. But again, we can't buy everything in the Earth Store, we have to make choices and pick wisely. This seems to be nearly impossible now. Just like we pig out at home, we do the same in public.

More Diplomacy for Dummies Brought To Us By Premier Wen

Koizumi apologizes a second time.

China and France Seal Big Deal

Well, Premier Wen is back at work after dusting off Prime Minister Koizumi he went back to the real business at hand: patiently putting one stone after another on his personal Go board, this time getting his French stones set up.

China and France reached a three-billion-euro deal Thursday morning during French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's three-day official visit to Beijing.

Raffarin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao witnessed the signing ceremony of the 20 cooperative agreements, which deal with aviation, nuclear energy and agriculture.

As part of the agreements, China promised to buy 30 Airbus planes, including five Airbus A380 and 25 A320 planes.

Prior to the signing ceremony, Wen and Raffarin held hour-long talks, agreeing to further political and economic ties.

Wen said both China and France are putting the bilateral ties in an prominent position in their foreign relations and making efforts to improve mutual political trust and strategic dialogue.

"China appreciates France's understanding and support to China on the Taiwan issue and EU's lift of arms embargo," he said.

Wen also said he was delighted with the fast growth of bilateral trade exchanges, close consultation in key internationaland regional issues and vibrant cultural exchanges.

Two weeks ago he dangled these contracts in front of the Americans who wanted him to buy Lockheed jets. Ah, the whims of the buyer! Note his statements about supporting China on the issue of Taiwan. This is in every single press release. Every press release also has "mutual political trust and strategic dialogue" in it. "Close consultation" also appears. Seems to be required. Obviously he is building a structure of treaties and trade agreements and partnerships that are rock solid. At the UN, do not expect France or Germany who as just concluded talks about trains and cars and planes too, to go against Chinese wishes.

Meanwhile, the Japanese are practicing their own odd sort of diplomacy.Talks with Russia about the oil pipeline continue.

During the talks, Nakagawa is believed to have asked Khristenkoabout remarks he made suggesting Russia will build a branch oil pipeline to China before completing the main pipeline that will cater to the Japanese market, according to Kyodo News.

The two ministers are also expected to talk about Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization and Japanese automaker Toyota Corp's plan to build an automobile assembly plant on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Kyodo said.

Carrot and stick. Note the Chinese use carrots and apples. Anyway, the Japanese are obviously agitated that Russia is doing business with China. Russia has a million reasons to do business with China. Russia is doing the classic triangulation strategy which Culture of Life News talks about periodically. Since they are in a position of weakness but possess potential power and actual power in the form of nuclear missiles, they have an interesting potential for playing other, stronger players off of each other. President Putin is taking full advantage of this.

From Japan, clumsy attempts at bribery:
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is to pledge Friday a doubling of Japan's official development assistance (ODA) to Africa at the Asia-Africa Conference in Indonesia, officials said.

In doing so, they said Tokyo hopes to build on support it has received from African nations for its bid to secure a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Forget the IMF! China has been going about patiently setting the stage to put the third world back into business. Now the Japanese are upping the ante! This pleases the third world nations that have been shut out of the money markets while America soaks up 80% of world funds to pay for government red ink!

There is a problem here. The money for buying influence in Asia and Africa will have to come from Japanese funds used to prop up the USA. I see a nasty squeeze coming.

MORE NEWS: Saturday, the apology is recieved by the Chinese who said this:

"The strong reaction of the Chinese people and the concerns of people from other Asian countries are something that the Japanese side should seriously reflect on," Hu said after meeting privately with Koizumi for 55 minutes.

"The question of Taiwan should be correctly handled. It is hoped that the Japanese side will demonstrate through concrete action its adherence to the one-China policy and opposition to Taiwan independence," Hu said.

Why the Stock Market Shot Up, Part III: Google Giggles

The sudden surge in the stock market that lasted exactly one day had several odd components. The business component news that drove this was Google stocks that shot up $20 in one day. It is the ENRON.

BILL MOYERS (talking about Enron): To understand why CEO pay is so high, you need to look at how CEO's are paid. Not only do they get salaries and bonuses, they get another form of pay called stock options. Simply, a stock option is the right to buy a share of company stock at a low fixed price. For example, let's say that fixed price is ten dollars. Now, let's say the stock goes up in value to $20 a share. Since you can buy it for ten, you make ten dollars profit per share. And if you have been given a million options, that's ten million dollars profit.

There is huge incentive for a company to twist information so things look really good. Google sort of rolled along happily until the young owners decided to go public. /Then there was a great hooplah. Seems no one has learned a thing from previous online crashes. Google was god! So the price of the stocks shot up in value. Now Google is in a fix and to fix this, they did the classic, "Oh, look, due to advertisers flocking to us, our advertising profits shot up 400% in just a few months!"

If you believe this is real, I have a bridge to Brooklyn to sell you.

The company's IPO filing has been rumored for the better part of a year and recent speculation has created a buzz about Internet stocks not seen since online auctioneer eBay went public in September 1998.

Wall Street has been eagerly anticipating a filing from Google so investors could finally get a glimpse into the company's finances.

I would like to peek into their books, too. I suspect when this all crashes in, Elliot Spitzer will take many days to go over the books, too.

My granddaddy told me fifty years ago, "If it is too good to be true it is a cheat".

Why the Stock Market Shot Up Part II: Oil

Horses hauling oil drums in the 1800s.

The price of oil drops stocks climb. This is a simple formula for simple minds. Many investors don't dwell on international finance or factory output or anything. They follow one thing closely: the price of oil. I know this from talking to investors themselves. They might even deny this but whenever the price of oil drops a tad, I get the calls, "The price of oil went down! We are not at the Hubbert Oil Peak!"

Al Qaeda has more gun battles in Saudi Arabia this time in MECCA

Old bin Missing Laden is a busy guy. He has his eyes on the prize. And one of the obstacles to this prize, Mecca, is the Ghawar oil fields. The price of oil is totally bound up with the amount of oil pumped by Saudi Arabia and the rulers of Saudi Arabia are in cahoots with outsiders who want cheap oil and are willing to spend $300 billion in a futile war in Iraq to keep the price of oil at the level we want. So the Saudis are raking in the money, we are losing money like crazy and old bin Laden keeps on truckin'.

The reason our economy hasn't collapsed is because we grant ourselves infinite credit. This is why we see this now:Greenspan bloviating helplessly:

Fixing the renminbi to the dollar is beginning to significantly work to the detriment of Chinese economy. I think there is no question that two things are happening.

One is, in order to sustain the value of the renminbi to the value of the dollar, they've been purchasing very significant amounts of U.S. treasury issues.

In so doing, in order to prevent an inflationary money supply increase, they do what central bankers call sterilizing the purchase of foreign reserves... and they do this by selling bank issues, bank liabilities, denominated in their domestic currency, and so as they do that, that tends to prevent purchases of foreign reserves from expanding the money supply.

However, because there are interest rate caps in China, they're finding some difficulty in selling an adequate amount of domestic-currency-denominated debt to absorb the excess. And that is creating imbalances that suggests that sooner rather than later, they are going to have to, for stability purposes, move their currency.

Greenspan looks like a carp caught on a hook. He thrashes about helplessly. Our Federal Bank chief throws his hands up in despair. Why don't the Chinese kow tow to the USA? Why?

Well, hello! They are the BANKERS. They set the terms and they tell us what to do not the other way around. Since Congress just voted more tax cuts and more money to burn up on the borders of Saudi Arabia, this means our BANKERS get to set the terms yet again. Surprised?

Worse, our other bankers, the Japanese, are being forced to kow tow to China this very week. After defying China they are rediscovering the joys of bowing to a higher authority. This ticks them off greatly and increases the severity of the lesson in kow towing for dummies.

Our lesson is going to be much worse. We are much more arrogant than the Japanese. We are number one! God blesses America! We are the shining city on the hill, etc. The lesson that we are now the beggars at the gate will hurt. Greenspan won't even mention this. This is why he sounds so clueless. Congress is clueless. Wall Street is clueless, seemingly.

Time to ream out our automotive sector!

Diplomacy for Dunmies Updates

The Japanese still refuse to read this valuable book. Today, Koizumi repeated an earlier apology for WWII atrocities but didn't say a word about recent court rulings that show no remorse or understanding of these atrocities. Nor did he attack writers and government officials for using humiliating speech hectoring the people Japan invaded and murdered.

The official answer to this "apology" from the Chinese was eloquent and simple: total silence.

This is a clear message: try again. Bow lower and add to the apology. Japan is already bridling over this and keeps talking about how this is enough, they want to get to business, etc. "Only 15 minutes is what we need," Koizumi said. This is an insult. Fixing a 60 year attitude problem isn't going to happen in a mere 15 minutes. The kow tow session is going to be much longer.

On the other Diplomacy for Dummies session, a real diplomat tells Bush and Bolton that their attempt to do the UN thing is not going to happen. The neocons loved to make fun of poor Powell. Every time he practiced real diplomacy, they would immediately do the opposite and get Bush to reverse anything Powell arranged. Then they boasted, "He has to go, he doesn't have the ear of the President" and I would say, "The wrong man resigned. Bush should go and Powell stay".

Further updates will be forthcoming--this is certain. Enjoy this game of "gotcha".

Why The Stock Market Shot Up Today

Northrop Grumman's latest SUV
People like to project information upon events especially that many legged centipede, the Stock Market. Sometimes it pays to step back and look at less obvious events to see if the market goes up or down.

Big news today (if you are very diligent):Congress overwhelmingly passes yet another special OFF BUDGET Iran/Afganistan war budget

The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved $81 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in a spending bill that would push the total cost of combat and reconstruction past $300 billion.

snip

"I'm confident we will be able to come back with a product, in the form of a conference report, which the Senate can support," said Sen. Thad Cochran (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

snip

In both the House and Senate, lawmakers struggled to give troops whatever they needed and pay only for projects deemed urgent. Congress was leaving other items to be dealt with in the regular budget for the new budget year starting Oct. 1. In doing so, they were sending a message to the White House that it cannot expect a rubber stamp from Congress on its emergency war-spending requests.

This is mucho money. In addition, Congress voted to give to Isreal the annual billions in gifts, too, after chiding them for making missile technology available to the Chinese. With friends like these....

All this money is...DEBT. We have no money. The plan is, next month we visit China and sell them our debts. You see, we are building this vast military machine so we can force China to do what we want. The average American thinks the Chinese want us to menace them with our weapons systems. Those inscrutible Orientals!

The stock market and our entire manufacturing system is now nearly totally a military/industrial twin headed beast. So when Congress shovels in another $80+ billion in Chinese loans of course, the entire stock market shoots upwards. Money is going to pour in! Whooray! Whoopeee!

The entire Pentagon budget is gigantic. While trimming money for useless things like hospitals and gear for soldiers, money for odd projects is just pouring in. Like the aircraft carriers. The one that is supposed to be mothballed, the Kennedy, isn't now because certain companies will make tons of loot rebuilding it.

This was not a popular decision in the Pentagon.

The controversial Navy decision to retire one of its 12 aircraft carriers may be a blessing in disguise for the service’s air wings, which are stretched thin due, in part, to a higher operational tempo.

The Navy fields 10 active air wings for its 12 carriers, which normally is a manageable situation because at any given time at least two carriers are in extended overhaul or yard periods. The Navy also maintains a reserve carrier air wing, but two of its squadrons were eliminated in recent months. An air wing typically comprises 72 aircraft, including F/A-18 strike fighters, EA-6B electronic combat aircraft, E-2C radar warning aircraft and H-60 helicopters. The reserve carrier air wing now has approximately 36 carrier-deployable aircraft.

However, the Navy’s new Fleet Response Plan to reschedule maintenance periods and get more sea days out of existing ships has placed increased demand on the air wings. At a press conference in early February, a senior Navy budget official said the service has no plans for a reduction in air assets because, “we need the airplanes.”

The reduction to 11 carriers would reduce the strain on naval aviation, the official said.

Well, here is a site we should all visit frequently: Taxpayers for common sense

The annual Department of Defense Appropriations Bill (defense appropriations bill) is, by far, the single largest spending measure that Congress passes each year. The fiscal year (FY) 2005 version weighed in heavier than most at $391 billion. In such a large bill, Congress has plenty of opportunities to hide the pet projects coveted by individual lawmakers. This year's bill includes 2,671 parochial and politically motivated earmarks worth $12.2 billion, both record highs. These projects were not requested by the President, but were instead inserted at the request of individual legislators while the bill was in subcommittee, committee, or conference committee.

Despite its status as the 800-pound gorilla of spending bills, the defense appropriations bill has historically contained the least amount of information about where our tax dollars are being spent. In this year's bill, for example, there was specific geographic location information on less than one percent of the earmarked funding in the bill. Consequently, no one, outside of Congress itself, knows where all the money in this bill goes. Taxpayers for Common Sense set out to remedy this lack of transparency by tracking down how this money is being spent and who is benefiting as a result. After starting with very little, we now know where close to 90 percent of defense earmarks are directed.

This url is a must read. It details how the members of the Defense Appropriation sub committee all pork out like crazy. The needs of our country are nearly totally distorted or even ignored as they concentrate on bringing home make-work and creating jobs and profits for Americans while evading taxes to pay for this. We have tried this before. The Vietnam war was utterly useless and made fabulous amounts of money for the stay at homes who weren't being blown up like today's victims in the helicopter shoot down.

This is why the Vietnam war was popular with politicians. It created endless opportunity for profit. Unlike during Vietnam, though, it is worse today for we are nearly finished with wiping out our industrial base that is nonmilitary. If we cut our military back to where it was a mere seven years ago, half of the manufacturing base will go belly up.

Things look bad in Reality World:Greenspan states the painfully obvious while disregarding his own role in creating this:

Sounding an increasingly familiar and urgent warning, Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, testified today before Congress that the federal budget is on an "unsustainable path" that, if left alone, will cause the economy "to stagnate or worse."

Congress has promised more than it can continue to deliver, he said, and it must quickly make major changes in how it manages its finances, especially as it prepares to shoulder the cost of new programs like the prescription drug benefit and growing demands on Social Security and Medicare. .

In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2004, the federal budget ran a deficit of $412 billion, or about 3.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Moreover, the size of federal debt relative to G.D.P. has "risen noticeably" since bottoming out in 2001, Mr. Greenspan told the Senate Budget Committee.

Of course, as all the GOP guys have done, Greenspan leaves out the $100 billion in special funds tacked onto this deficit which is all "off budget". What a concept. I should call my bank and tell them a quarter of my budget will be "off the record" and thus, not appear on my balance due.

You know why they are doing this? Here is a group of men who decided to imitate our Federal Reserve:

2 Brits caught with $3 trillion

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday said it has arrested two British nationals with $3 trillion fake US federal bank notes in their possession, DZMM reported.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco identified the suspects as Paul Edward John Flavell and Sam Beany. The two listed their address as Unit 305 CEO Apartments in Jupiter Street, Makati City.

Yes, that is 3 TRILLION dollars. Sounds like Bush has a new possible Treasury Secretary! They figured out how you budget things if you run the printing presses: you print up what you need. Which is what Greenspan is going to do. Keep interest rates very low so we can lend ourselves money we print up at a cheap rate below the rate of inflation and lala! Here we go, to the moon!

Talking about the moon,NASA is being asked to cut everything to the bone an this is causing problems. Many scientists are not going quietly into the good night.


Meanwhile, back at the Pentagon, the money flows like a tsunami.

The Navy's new destroyer, the DD(X), is becoming so expensive that it may end up destroying itself. The Navy once wanted 24 of them. Now it thinks it can afford 5 - if that.

snip

The first two DD(X)'s are now supposed to total $6.3 billion, according to confidential budget documents, up $1.5 billion. A new aircraft carrier, the CVN-21, is estimated at $13.7 billion, up $2 billion. The new Virginia-class submarine now costs $2.5 billion each, up $400 million. All these increases have materialized in the last six months.

The Navy says it can make do with fewer big ships patrolling the oceans. It wants more fast boats and aircraft to fight offshore and upriver, a speedier force to counter terror. But Congress, seeking to sustain America's shipyards, wants as many big ships as possible.

Admiral Clark, who plans to retire later this year, says both strategies could be sunk by soaring costs.

The sky is the limit if it is for Northrop Grumman Ship Builders. They have pretty ads in the editorial pages of the NYT and WP and advertise on TV. As if consumers are going to buy this junk. "One CVN-21, please". "That will be $6.3 billion, sir". Looks like those two Brits were getting ready to make some purchases!

So let us celebrate a vibrant stock market today. They just got the greatest gift the Easter Bunny could have made...$450 billion dollars. Next year they will try for $3 trillion, thanks to the example of the clever Brits.

Papal Propaganda

Papal picture that is all over the net now

Pope Benedict likes verbal sparring, thinks God has sense of humor says the official Papal Paper.

Yes, indeedee!

A God that, in a fit of pique, killed all but a handful of living creatures certainly can be humorous. The Pope wants me to know he has a sense of humor, too. Haha. And he loves to spar verbally.

Sort of like Bush announcing he loves press conferences even without Gannon throwing him soft balls.

Somehow, I find this funny in a non haha way. You can bet, this Pope will go to the ends of the earth to avoid debating with me, for example. Or any of the Liberation Priests that he viciously silenced. Or the nuns he has removed for not toeing the Vatican Red Line.

When a despot puts out propaganda about how accessible he is and how he enjoys a good laugh after a day of running the Inquisition, all I can say is, you tickle me to death, hahahaha.

The Chinese Government Reads the News Commentators

Japanese killing civilians in China during WWII

I know this is shouting into the wind but I grew up dealing with the Chinese leadership because my father and mother were often sent over there to do business and I assisted in NYC because I was near the UN as well as various consulates. I also fed them information because I had access to foreign newspapers that are sold in NYC.

Now we have the internet. My parents and I discovered that the Chinese leadership tracked us very closely for they would refer to things we said or wrote almost immediately. One time when the NY Daily News published an editorial by me concerning China, my mother recieved an angry call that same day as the ambassador demanded she get me to recind this offensive piece.

Even stray remarks are reported. When the Chinese leadership is interested in something, they track it very closely. One top item on this list is "how many Americans are fooled into believing China can ONLY trade with them?" idea. So far, so good. Even on liberal sites, this false information holds steady. Another item is the idea, "China doesn't want to challenge the status quo of the world". This is truly funny. The Chinese have to disguise their goal as much as possible. I am fortunate that they told me outright in 1982 what their goal was.

No one has to believe me. But world events will prove me right, as usual.

Right now, the Japanese are in the bull's eye of the Chinese leadership and every word, every gesture is carefully calibrated and weighed as the Chinese examine this troublesome neighbor. The feelings the Chinese have for the Japanese are strong. In the negative sense. The Japanese blythely talk down to the Chinese as if they are inferiors. So, today at a major newspaper, a top official attacks China head-on with THIS:

POINT OF VIEW /Kazuo Ogoura: Political immaturity spurs Japan-bashing

Wow. I suppose a direct slap in the face isn't enough, is it? Time for "Diplomacy for Dummies". IF the goal is WWIII, the Japanese are going about this in splendid fashion. IF the goal is to accomodate both the Chinese and the Koreans, this is not going to work.

Quite.

Heated relations are also fanned by some ``improper'' comments made by Japanese politicians about Japan's history and to the descriptions of that history in Japanese school textbooks.

Diplomacy for Dummies, Chapter 2: when you put quotation marks around your insults, implying that they are not really insulting, this doubles the insult! Enraging the other party further! The quotation marks implies that the "improper" comments were not really improper, only seemingly improper.

In other words, the anti-Japanese campaign is in fact a muffled or disguised political campaign against the present Chinese government and a way for the Chinese people to vent.

OK, I see. The angry Koreans and Chinese are not angry about Japanese war crimes or Japanese attitudes, it is really the people hating their own leaders! I wonder if this will be said in the faces of the Chinese leaders this next week? Wish I would be there to watch. Could be amusing.

In China, the ruling Communist Party has had difficulties in trying to find a new identity for the party after the adoption of the modernization policies. Therefore, it has had to rely more on nationalism in the sense of emphasizing historical Chinese traditions and national pride.

Heaven forbid the Chinese feel national pride! As for party identity, anyone looking at Japanese politics and the refusal to redistrict according to population has corrupted the government so badly it barely responds to any popular critics because you can't vote them out of office. Time for reform which never seems to happen.

In that sense, the basic cause of Japan-bashing in China and South Korea should not be attributed to the Japanese political attitude toward those countries. Nor should it be attributed wholly to political manipulation by the leadership of those two countries.

Note how, after arguing with himself, Kazuo Ogoura smugly says, "We are not at fault at all". Readers of Diplomacy for Dummies know this isn't going to fly any further than a plump pig.

any event, China and South Korea should realize that to make political use of anti-Japanese feelings is likely to be increasingly regarded in the rest of the world as symptoms of their political immaturity.

Japanese leaders, for their part, should be more sensitive to the impact of globalization in South Korea and China. They should be more careful in dealing with sensitive political issues with those countries.

Slap, slap, slap. This Japanese commentator can't resist. "Immaturity" indeed! The Chinese have shown great skill in the diplomatic realm. I note their progress through the world and it is pretty awesome. When Japan, pushed by America, decided on an open confrontation with China, the response was swift, popular and forceful. Calling the Chinese "immature" as Japan clings to the notion they are in a strong negotiating position means either we have a major war in Asia or Japan eats a crow feast as they are forced, in the end, to retract everything.

The Chinese leaders read this editorial today. This I guarantee. They are also extremely angry with the choice of words as well as the Japanese attitude of entitlement and superiority. This rankles more than anything. The Japanese, like the British, considered the Chinese to be subhuman. "No dogs or Chinese allowed" still burns in the minds of Chinese.

We will be seeing more action in Asia. This is going to get plenty ugly.

The NYT Explains Why They Showed Virtually No Pictures of Chinese Demonstrations

"By Playing at 'Rage,' China Dramatizes Its Rise" shouts the NYT headlines. Now we know what America's rulers want to believe. The rage in China over the incursions of the Japanese is all fake. Yes, fake. We can't tell how fake since the NYT decided to not show us very much to begin with.

Chinese today have little experience of mass organized protests, so when the Government tolerated - some would say encouraged - a huge anti-Japanese demonstration here that flirted with turning into a riot over the weekend, for many it bore echoes of the mass manipulation of students of another era, the Cultural Revolution.

Culture of Life News has already noted how the NYT covered the anti Syrian demonstrations repeatedly and in full color. The pro Syrian demonstrations were distant photos showing crowds but the anti Syrian showed people in close up.

Every single antiwar demonstration before our illegal invasion of Iraq was NOT shown by the NYT and when we forced them to talk about it, they did snippy snide articles like the one about the Chinese which is full of lies and evasions. It is standard ruling class boilerplate coverage. The demonstrations in Ukraine got loving coverage. This gets hostile coverage.

This is why Americans are woefully uninformed. Pretending that the Chinese are faking the present feeling of rage is not going to help us when this rage is suddenly redirected at China's main rival, America. Yet elsewhere even in American news the nervousness about this possibility is expressed even if it is suppressed.

Next, the real rulers in America use the Washington Post to twist diplomatic reality:

Region's Leaders Ask China, Japan to End Feud

Sounds like all the Asian countries are NEUTRAL and think both parties are equally at fault, no?

Asian ministers, speaking during breaks in talks aimed at strengthening Asia-Africa ties, said the dispute was being scrutinized across a region where many countries count Japan and China as key trading partners.

"It won't be good for us if these two giants in Asia are going to have bad relations," George Yeo, Singapore's foreign minister, said after meeting with his Japanese counterpart. "It's not in our interest at all. We hope that there will be enough goodwill on both sides to overcome problems between them."

This is called "diplomatic talk" and is standard boilerplate. Everyone knows the "problems" between China and Japan are 100% due to the sudden suicidal urge of Japan to push China around. This is easily resolved as detailed here at this blog.

Sino-Japanese ties are more tentative than at any time in the past three decades, putting at risk a partnership worth $178 billion in annual trade. While Asian countries have tried not to take sides in the dispute, some have sought to remind Japan about its wartime past. Most are loathe to offend China.

Ministers said the tension was not on the table at the Asia-Africa meeting.

Still, Nobutaka Machimura, the Japanese foreign minister, reminded Asian and African diplomats about his country's generosity in a speech at the meeting, saying that in the past decade, Japan's aid to poor countries accounted for 20 percent of the world's total.

Most have no reason to offend China. Japan is offending China because it is in our Bush's interest to foster this unease because Japan and China hold the lion's share of our IOUs and tension between them means they will be forced to buy more IOUs.

Japan is reduced to snarling at potential allies, thus the reminder about Japanese aid that will be withdrawn if anyone supports China in the coming confrontation. The Chinese have been patiently pursuing a diplomatic course that is bringing them closer to their ultimate goal: to lead the anti American coalition. This inevitable coalition of much of the planet is growing because in history, any time an empire becomes too powerful, all former enemies band together to fight it. This is because power corrupts and all empires when too powerful become hopelessly corrupt at home and abroad. Look at Congress. Ruled by the GOP, it is now hopelessly corrupt and the voting system keeping them in power is seriously compromised.

Our leaders even question the need for compromises and diplomacy and even treaties. When Bush got into the WH he immediately repudiated a number of treaties and refused to sign the Kyoto Accords or the World Court internationalism. From the Cato Institute:

According to a public opinion poll recently taken in five Chinese cities, public opinion toward the United States is mixed. Although most Chinese like Americans (even if "not particularly"), half see the United States as a rival. Perhaps more ominously, a majority believes the U.S. is trying to contain China and that a clash over Taiwan is likely.

"Not particularily like" is "dislike". Why they used this defensive wording is obvious. It hides the squalor of our unpopularity. "Well, they don't particularily like me," is universally viewed as "Geeze, I better avoid them, they are hostile".

"There are reservations about America's dominant influence in world policies," the late J.N. Dixit wrote shortly before he became the Indian national security advisor last year. "The choice is to confront and resist the U.S. and get isolated, or to make ourselves a subordinate ally of the US, or adopt a strategy of engaging the U.S. on the basis of equality while developing equations with other major powers to redress the imbalances of U.S. dominance."

Classic understanding of world history here. He is explaining why the emerging alliance between India and China is developing. They are ancient enemies who have a common foe: the USA.

"Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and [Russian Defense Minister Sergei] Ivanov agreed in their talks that the joint military exercise will be an important event," People's Daily reported. "The bilateral ties between China and Russia have entered a new phase in their relations, with the two sides establishing a strategic co-operative partnership,"said President Hu Jintao.

Couldn't be blunter. Russia and China have troubled each other for eons. Now they are cementing a vital alliance strengthening both while isolating the USA.

Indeed, it is noteworthy that on the eve of Secretary Rice's trip to Asia, the Indian government announced the foreign ministers of India, Russia, and China would be holding their first "stand-alone" meeting in June. To be sure, assurances were given that no alliance was envisioned, but at the beginning of the last century the Triple Entente was also not a formal alliance. We should be careful that, by emphasizing the importance of our alliances, we do not foster the emergence of a countervailing "entente."

Shows that the Cato scholars have some inkling about history! Will wonders never cease? Of course, they would rather retreat into some sort of shell and have NO alliances! This is sheer insanity. The attitude that alliances are annoyances is why so many of our allies don't particularily like us. Our present maladministration is wildly unpopular with our allies. It is unpopular at home, for that matter. No one likes Bush at all except for maybe Tony Blair.

About uprisings, readers of American press might be astonished that totally hidden from our eyes, Equador just had a revolution and the Presidente there has fled the country!

"Former Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy and sought asylum, after being ousted on Wednesday." says the BBC.

Mr Gutierrez was removed by a unanimous vote in Congress, following a week of escalating protests.

He came to power as a populist left-winger in 2002, but lost the backing of many supporters by implementing free-market policies.

Several things: he came into office by lying. When he tried to impose the New World Order of "free market" the country rose up and kicked him to the curb. Unlike the utterly demoralized American workers, they knew their very lives were at stake. China has an interest in Equador. Expect Premier Wen to pay them a visit as soon as the dust settles. Across the planet, people are taking matters in hand. In China, in Equador, in Ukraine and Lebanon, all over the place, the populous is unsettled and is demanding they be heard and the old order is falling. LIke in 1848, 1872, 1919, 1932, 1968 the world sees general uprisings and agitation. We are in such a phase right now. We wonder, will this come to America in the end? Will the workers here allow all the taxes and obligations be placed on their backs alone?

I am betting we will see fireworks here.

Lastly, the editor of Culture of Life News would like to post this news:

Chinese autoplant isn't for selling to China, it is for selling in America, as this news service predicted!

DaimlerChrysler AG is in talks with one of its Chinese partners to build a plant in China in order to export subcompact cars to the United States, a top company executive said Thursday at the Shanghai Auto Show.

Dr. Ruediger Grube, the DaimlerChrysler executive president and management board member in charge of corporate development and China operations, said that while no final decision had been made, he hoped that the details could be worked out in the second half of this year. It would almost certainly be the first mass-produced Chinese car widely sold in America.

This is the death knell for the UAW. They are now finished. The Japanese, to placate Americans, built many plants here. Their cars are expensive. The Germans tried this and their cars were expensive, too. Now they are switching gears. Since being a friend of America means being called names and slapped around, they just don't care about placating us anymore. So now we will see cheap German autos here.

The Japanese will have to close their American plants, too, in the end. The last remaining major manufacturing base in America will evaporate now. Rapidly. Will we see angry demonstrations in DC? Like there were in Equador? China? We will see. Looks more and more likely.

The Eternal Game of Go Speeds Up

For the last several months the new Premier of China, Wen, has been very busy and his labors have borne great fruits as one trade treaty after another is signed, more allies collected, more mutual defence treaties signed, more promises to support in votes at the UN and he has been able to directly fight the American/Japanese alliance.

This is all possible because the Chinese people are increasingly active and he can say, "Look, I will restrain them and keep them from being belligerent, they are very angry right now."

A new Pope sits in that dusty old boy's club with the "no girlz alloud" sign hanging out front. Immediately, barely pausing for breath, Wen goes for the throat.

Beijing warns new pope about ties with Taiwan New Feature
By Chris Buckley

Thursday, April 21, 2005

BEIJING China wasted little time before warning the new pope, Benedict XVI, on Wednesday that the Vatican and China could establish formal relations only if the Vatican dissolved its diplomatic links with Taiwan and promised not to "interfere in China's internal affairs."

The statement signaled that China was unlikely to make any concessions soon that would open the way for formal ties between China and the Vatican.

"We are willing to improve relations with the Vatican on the basis of two principles," said the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, in a statement congratulating Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on his election as pope. Qin said the Vatican must sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan and "acknowledge that the People's Republic of China is China's sole legitimate government." China regards Taiwan as a renegade province. Qin added that "the Vatican cannot interfere in China's internal affairs, including interference in the name of religious matters."

The Vatican is the last European state to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, attended Pope John Paul II's funeral, angering China's government and "patriotic" Catholic Church.

As I noted before, the Chinese feel strong enough to be uncompromising about key core issues and issue number one is Taiwan. This inflexible attention signals to us that the Chinese have sufficient strength to force events their own way. This is one Humpty Dumpty that WILL go together again, like it or not.

President Hu is also very busy

Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao offered a six-point proposal here Wednesday to strengthen cooperation with Brunei in areas of economy, energy, tourism and military.

Hu, who arrived Wednesday for a state visit to Brunei, made the six-point proposal during a meeting with Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei. It is Hu's first state visit to Brunei since he became president of China in 2003.

"It is a set policy of the Chinese government to develop good-neighborly, cooperative relationship with Brunei," said the Chinese president. "We will work with the Brunei side and make our two countries eternal good neighbors, good friends and good partners."

Brunei has oil.

As America becomes increasingly unpopular in Muslim lands, others pick up the pieces we are sweeping off the board.

PS. Condi's trip to Russia: According to happy American news, she is getting along with Pootie Poot. Her rages and threats were entirely for domestic consumption. The usual Bushtonian "bark loudly and carry a twig" diplomacy.

Diplomacy for Dummies

Looks like the Japanese and Bush both need diplomacy advice.

A day after China ordered an end to anti-Japanese protests, Japanese officials softened their tone toward China today and urged a meeting between leaders of the countries later this week.

With signs that both sides were seeking ways to defuse the diplomatic crisis, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi responded favorably to Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing of China after his call to Chinese protesters to stop the sometimes violent marches and attacks against Japanese government offices and businesses in China.

The Chinese called off the attacks for a reason. Far down at the bottom of this article lies the reason:

Today, Japanese business leaders - who, unlike politicians, tend to view China as a partner rather than a rival - held a news conference to express worries that the crisis would make it difficult for Japanese companies to do business in China.

But Koizumi is still arrogant. At least his underlings are trying to be sort of diplomatic.

"We hope this meeting will take place," the spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Hatsuhisa Takashima, said by telephone from Jakarta. "We are now making arrangements in that direction, but the Chinese are a little slow in giving us an answer.

"We haven't put any preconditions on it," he added. "We just told them that we would like to have a meeting on a wide range of issues."

Diplomacy for Dummies can help translate what is happening. The Chinese are "slow to answer" because they are waiting for an apology. Several apologies. Until this comes, the Japanese will be left to wonder what is going on. Well, Diplomacy for Dummies will reveal why the Chinese, when they do anwer, will say things the Japanese will not enjoy hearing.

No more official visits to WWII military shrines.

Compensate the victims of Japanese imperialist crimes.

Withdraw immediately all claims to disputed China Sea territory.

No more meddling in China/Taiwan affairs.

Very simple. The Chinese have set an agenda already and they are waiting, silently, for the Japanese to read "Diplomacy for Dummies" and begin serious negotiations.

Then there is our special dummy. He gets "dummy of the year" recognition at Culture of Life News. Here he is, negotiating with the Democrats in Congress:
The White House vigorously defended the embattled nomination of John Bolton as its chief delegate to the United Nations today, saying that Democrats were making "unfounded allegations" against the nominee and revealing an "ugly side" of Washington politics.

"Democrats continue to bring these accusations up, and trump them up, and make unfounded allegations," Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said at a news briefing today. He referred to a string of accusations, particularly about Mr. Bolton's behavior toward subordinates, that have been raised since the Senate Foreign Relations Committee opened confirmation hearings last week.

"We believe they are unfounded, they are unsubstantiated, and that they have been addressed by John Bolton," Mr. McClellan said. "I think what you're seeing is the ugly side of Washington, D.C.; that people are playing politics with his nomination."

Attack! Attack! Call names! Yell. Stamp feet imperiously. Pout.

Diplomacy for Dummies suggest this works only on very weak willed indulgent parents with toddlers in public. For a President, this is foolish. The reason Bolton is in trouble is because he is a hot head who is famously undiplomatic. Even the President's own party is horrified at the Terrible Twos behavior this very unattractive man has displayed in the past. It just can't pass Congress.

We suggest Bush nominate a horse. This has historic precedent.

Meanwhile, after celebrating the increase in power in DC, the GOP is now falling apart and falling in the polls. People who supposedly voted for them are dismayed by the infantile behavior of the right wing and regret "voting" for them (ahem). So, at the Bolton hearings:


A surprise last-minute defection by an Ohio Republican forced the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to postpone a vote that had been scheduled for Tuesday on the nomination of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.

The chairman of the panel, Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, reluctantly agreed to put off any vote until next month to allow a review of what Democrats portrayed as troubling new accusations that cast doubt on Mr. Bolton's temperament and credibility.

Until the defection, by Senator George V. Voinovich of Ohio, the panel had appeared prepared to send the nomination to the Senate floor on a strict party-line vote. But Mr. Voinovich stunned other senators by announcing that more time was needed to explore accusations against Mr. Bolton.

"My conscience got me," he said after the stormy two-hour session. He said he had gone to the meeting planning to vote for Mr. Bolton, but changed his mind after hearing the case against the nominee made by Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, both Democrats.

Quite.

It seems as if the Bush administration trains diplomats by having them drive up and down the New Jersey Turnpike at rush hour. Road rage for international and internal politics. Then there is the DeLay melt down. He is undiplomatically trying to destroy the entire Judiciary as well as the House in his attempts at getting away with breaking the law. Temper, temper!

One wishes we could go back to duels. They were useful.

UPDATE: Bomb threat in hotel where Condi was supposed to stay.

Rover Red Rover Come Over Come Over

We used to play this violent game in school in the fifties. It was called "Rover" and you chanted, "Rover red rover, come over come over", and the kids standing in an opposite line would charge like linebackers and you would have to stop them from crashing through. This required a strong stomach and stronger arms. I loved playing this game.

Well, so do the Red Chinese!

China's largest car maker, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), is set to build Rover cars in China.
Officially the company says that no decision has yet been made, but sources close to the company have told the BBC that the plan is likely to proceed.

The Rover brand name belongs to BMW, but the Chinese are confident they can secure the rights to call the Shanghai-built cars Rovers .

SAIC last week pulled out of a last-ditch rescue deal for MG Rover.

Rover went into administration when the deal collapsed with the loss of 5,000 jobs.

The Brits are yelling about this. The Germans, it seems, are busy making deals in China. Britain wants to be aloof from Europe and let Bush and Condi represent their interests so lo and behold, the Chinese ream them out.

So let's revist the Ford story.

US car giant Ford Motor saw its profits fall almost 40% in the first quarter, as falling US sales and rising prices for raw materials ate into margins.
The company said its net profit was $1.21bn (£630m), on sales of $45.1bn.

The news comes less than a month after Ford warned it would fail to meet 2005 profit targets, and would miss its long-term annual profit goal of $7bn.

But its performance contrasts with that of arch-rival GM, which a day earlier said it lost $1.1bn in the same period.

Both car makers are facing intense difficulties in their home market, as rising fuel costs and flagging consumer spending hit home.

They now rely on loans and other financial products to make most of their money, while they struggle to deal with huge healthcare costs and rising prices for raw materials.

Well, well, well. Ford's stock went up because the news isn't as hideous as it could have been like with poor GM which must stand for "General Mismanagement". Unfortunately but utterly predictibly, both companies are up the creek without a gas miser. They urged people to splurge and now everyone is suffering from hangover and hangnail.

In the Ford story, it note that sales in China are expanding. It doesn't note that these sales are due to the opening of Chinese factories. The Red Rovers of China know what is important: jobs. And they are ruthlessly going after the jobs. One wishes one's own rulers were this interested but we are stuck with our Diebold winner: Bush. He is busy alienating even our allies. The guy in Italy went down today. He hopes to pop back into office. Doesn't look good for him. And Blair! I should lock up my razors if he visits. He seems bent on suicidal governing.

Metal futures are booming thanks to the roaring Chinese economy. So much to build! So many things to build!

The Chinese government reported overnight that first-quarter gross domestic product grew by 9.5%, helping precipitate the rise in copper amid expectations that orders for the industrial metal will stay robust.

Well, the price won't go too high, there will be little inflation since our own auto industry is going to keel over dead.

Rover red rover comes crashing over....

Condi Practices Diplomacy With Pootie Poot

Condi
an earlier article here, I noted how Premier Wen is globe trotting setting up alliances and trade agreements and in general, setting up his Go game board with one cooperative piece after another, outwitting us on nearly every possible level. In stark contrast is this:

Rice, Headed to See Putin, Cites 'Worrying' Trends in Russia
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 20, 2005; Page A20


MOSCOW, April 19 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to amass power and control television broadcasts are "very worrying" trends that have undermined Russian democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.

Rice said she saw some bright signs, including nascent efforts to form political parties to vie for the presidency when Putin's term runs out in three years, and said she understood that it was a "very complicated task" to govern Russia. But "there is no doubt that when we talk about the trends, the trends have not been positive," she said.

OK. Hint to "Soviet expert" Condi: dear lady, when you put on those high heel military style boots and go tromping off to visit other people, it would be sensible as well as sane to not snap at them in public. If someone calls me names, suggests my housework displeases and my cooking is tasteless then wants to barge in and tell me this in my face, well, no.

Premier Wen visits Russia regularily now. President Putin visits China as an honored guest. I can bet, both men trade President Bush stories and laugh at his expense. The fact that Bush openly told the press he has a cute name for the man running Russia, "Pootie Poot" is enough of an insult to start a major war.

The Russians are still doing business with us. Like the Chinese, today their hope is to see America humiliated and bankrupt. In other words, the people running Russia do not like us even slightly. Anyone looking at photos of Russia's leader glaring at Bush's back can see the open hostility and personal hatred.

Condi comes walzing in, high handedly telling this deadly former KGB agent that he isn't doing things right and he better shape up or ship out. Well, we will all soon see when he will arrange our IMF moment. That is the day when our creditors demand we live within our means. Russia isn't one of our creditors except in a minor way compared to the Chinese. But if they throw their weight behind the Chinese, ie, they sell our debts when the Chinese sell them, we are finished.

This hazard should mean America talk more diplomatically and take greater care. Instead, bloated by "victory" in war and hubris, we dare to lecture our future deadly enemies, evidently HALF OF THE PLANET.

Quite a Few People Alive Today Lived Through WWII

Torture testing table at Unit 731

Seems as if the war just won't end and the crimes of WWII reverberate today. Even as Catholics crown a man who didn't fight Hitler's criminal kingdom but instead, fought for it, so the Japanese continue to stonewall their victims.

BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua/China Daily)-- The Tokyo High Court yesterday rejected compensation demands brought by Chinese victims of Japan's World War II atrocities,

The rebuffed claimants included victims of germ warfare, the Nanjing Massacre and fire bombing in Yong'an, Fuzhou Province.

Turning down the plaintiffs, who were appealing against a previous rejection, the high court claimed under international law cited by itself, individual victims have no right to seek compensation with a foreign country for damages inflicted by a military force.

In the previous ruling issued in September 1999, the Tokyo District Court, while recognizing the facts of the plaintiffs claims, also denied their claims for damages,

The plaintiffs have said they will appeal yesterday's ruling which made no comment on atrocities the claimants had suffered .

The 10 plaintiffs lodged their lawsuits in 1995, asking the Japanese Government to apologize and pay compensation for a series of atrocities during the war, including the Nanjing Massacre and lethal experiments performed on the Chinese by Japan's infamous Unit 731.

Banging her fists on the arms of her wheelchair, Guo Jinglan, 83, refused to give up her fight. "I'm determined to take care of myself and fight to the end," she said.

Guo and her husband were arrested by Japanese troops in 1941 in northeastern Heilongjiang Province on charges of conducting resistance activities.

After grim interrogation, her husband was sent to Unit 731 and never returned.

"Only by recognizing history, can Japan play a role in the international community," said Yoshio Shinozaka, a former member of Unit 731 who testified for the plaintiffs.

Americans should be angry about this.

U.S. Prisoners of War Used for Experiment by Unit 731 and the Issue of American Use of Biological Warfare in Korean War

As early as January 6, 1946, the Pacific Stars and Stripes, an official organ of the U.S. Army, reported that Americans were among the victims of Ishii's human experiments. A week later, similar reports was ensued in New York Times, hence news about Allied prisoners of war to have been used as human guinea pigs were sporadically divulged. An U.S. government document dated August 1947 has this to say:

It should be kept in mind that there is a remote-possibility that independent investigation conducted by the Soviets in the Mukden area may have disclosed evidence that American prisoners of war were used for experimental purposes of a BW nature and that they lost their lives as a result of these experiments.
Until 1956, the Federal Bureau of Investigation continued to accept as fact that U.S. prisoners of war were used in human experiments. In the 1960s, the issue no longer riveted the public interest. In 1976, Japanese television broadcast a documentary entitled "A Bruise-Terrors of the 731 corps," which rekindled the public interest which grew apace in America in the 1980s. Out of 1,485 Allied white prisoners of war taken to Mukden, 1, 174 were Americans. In their first winter (1942-43) at Mukden, 430 perished, most Americans. No matter how desperate American survivors from Mukden, like Gregory Rodriquez of Oklahoma, tried to tell how they were used by Unit 731 for human experiments, an accusation verified by Naoji Uezono, former member of Unit 731, U.S. Congress turned a deaf ear , thereby being irresponsible for paying their medical benefits and compensations. A British Major Robert Peaty kept a diary while detained in Mukden that gives sufficient evidence of Unit 731's using Allied prisoners of war as guinea pigs. Another Australian doctor R. J. Brennan also kept a diary, indicating that how the prisoners of war underwent experimentation. What bothered him most was one day 150 American prisoners were forced to march out of the camp, from which they never returned.

Very notably, the USA, in order to keep the Japanese American friendly allowed all of this horror to go unnoted and unremarked. This was a bad decision.

In the autumn of 1945, MacArthur acceded to granting immunity to members of Unit 731 in exchange for data of research on biological warfare. "The value to the U.S. of Japanese BW data is of such importance to national security as to far outweigh the value accruing from war crimes' prosecution." The BW information obtained from Japanese sources should be retained in 'top secret' intelligence channels and not be employed as war crimes evidence and not be fallen into the Soviet hands. The State Department disagreed over a two year period and the topic simply disappeared.

I am happy to see one of the Japanese occupiers was willing to side with the Chinese in this lawsuit and was willing to testify about the truth on their behalf. People like Yoshino are shining examples of humanity. The sense of guilt and the desire to rectify, not glorify, the past is essential.

After reading the high handed rhetoric of the Japanese leadership, one wonders about the new Condi/Bush gambit of arming Japan so they can menace their neighbors again. The Germans understood they had to change and they tried to change, using diplomacy as well as contrition.

This is why they are at the heart of an increasingly unified Europe which threatens to fall apart nearly continuously thanks to a long, contentious history.

And history matters. None of us can escape the grip of history no matter how hard we try to reinvent ourselves. All we can do is make amends and try harder to not make the same, tragic mistakes.

Ratzinger Ist Der Pope Und Er WAR Ein Nazi....

Neitzsche, "The Antichrist"

What is good?--Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man.
What is evil?--Whatever springs from weakness.
What is happiness?--The feeling that power increases--that resistance is overcome.
Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but efficiency (virtue in the Renaissance sense, virtu, virtue free of moral acid).
The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it.
What is more harmful than any vice?--Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak--Christianity...

3.

The problem that I set here is not what shall replace mankind in the order of living creatures (--man is an end--): but what type of man must be bred, must be willed, as being the most valuable, the most worthy of life, the most secure guarantee of the future.

This more valuable type has appeared often enough in the past: but always as a happy accident, as an exception, never as deliberately willed. Very often it has been precisely the most feared; hitherto it has been almost the terror of terrors ;--and out of that terror the contrary type has been willed, cultivated and attained: the domestic animal, the herd animal, the sick brute-man--the Christian. . .


The Daily Kos and some others in our blogsphere are asking us to not mention the sad fact that the present new Pope was a Nazi once. Evidently, like 99% of Germany in 1946, he became an ardent ANTINazi after deserting his post during the collapse of the German Grand Armee in 1945.

Also, the Jewish people running the Anti Defamation League that supports torturing Muslims and is utterly disinterested in Jewish state becoming startlingly fascist, support Ratzinger as Pope because he, like all the believers in the Apocalypse, believes that Jews should live in Jerusalem (ahem, so they can be destroyed when they refuse to become "Christians" in the Apocalypse!). This papering over the past of Ratzinger is odd considering how we are supposed to be alert to people who have fascist tendencies, if we are "leftists". Remember, the FIRST victims in the concentration camps were SOCIALISTS and COMMUNISTS. Long before the first Jewish person died in a camp, the residents of insane asylums were gassed to death and burned.

My father, when he liberated Buchenwald, asked the people in Jena, "Why did you do nothing?" and they chorused, "Do what? We didn't KNOW ANYTHING". This ticked my father off. "I could smell the camp from far away!" he said. At the Nuremburg Trials.

When I was 16, I risked life and limb to be against the Vietnam war. I had friends shot in demonstrations, one died in Berkeley! I had dear friends who went to Leavenworth Prison because of their refusal to fight for America in Vietnam because the war was wrong.

They were beaten mercilessly in prison.

The Pope was the age of some of my 18 year old friends when he used the Church to evade service and when called, WENT. Period.

I think my friends who resisted the war deserve to be Vicar of Christ, not this man who went, fought for Hitler and then deserted to save his own skin.

As an adult, he worked for Opus Dei and promoted conservativism and consorted with blatant fascists from Spain and he made it clear, he believes in the Apocalypse and feels he will be the Pope to preside over this coming disaster.

Prince of Peace, indeed.

I have strong feelings about this. Five years ago, I raised the alarm about the Pope being taken over by someone who wants the Apocalypse and I named Ratzinger as the person most likely to do the dirty work. His elevation alarms me. Many left wing posters say, "He is an old man and can't do much". Well...

Hitler was in power only 11 years. Think about that. 11.

That is all it takes.

Kow Tow No How

The Japanese/Chinese feud continues apace. The Japanese know very delicately exactly how to apologize for things. Their language has many levels of apology from "gome" to "komenisai". Levels of bowing are carefully calibrated. They also have other body signals. This careful choreography dissappears utterly when they interact with "outsiders".

The Chinese INVENTED public apology dances. They taught the Japanese how to do this 3,000 years ago. They are the ultimate practitioners of this art. Remember the spy plane incident? We blatantly spied on China. So they buzzed us, the planes collided and the American plane flew carefully to a secret military base they were spying on and landed.

Then Bush was forced to kow tow to China. He snarled and snapped and boasted and howled with rage and then kow towed. This was insufficient because of the previous ravings so the Chinese made him do it all over again. Then they snipped the plane into small pieces and shipped them back in boxes. Hahaha. I bet that gave many a gruffaw in the Central Committee meetings.

Now Japan has to learn how to bow. Instead of this, they chose to slap at the Chinese who then slugged them right in the kisser: sales of Japanese goods plummet in China due to popular disgust with the Japanese response.

Japan tried forcing the Chinese into doing business. It failed. They then pretended to apologize but it was totally insincere. Each time the Chinese signaled, "No, go back and learn how to kow tow before visiting us". Now they propose a meeting.

FRIENDLY APPROACH: Koizumi aims to fix China ties
04/19/2005

The Asahi Shimbun

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated he will take a friendlier approach to China in a planned summit this week as the two countries on Monday continued to bicker over which side should apologize first.

Tokyo has proposed that Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao hold talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Africa Conference in Indonesia later

Sounds friendly, no? Har. The Chinese are smart. They know the Japanese must kow tow BEFORE the meeting. This will be wrung from them.

Although Koizumi said he wants Beijing to prevent further riots, he added that the talks with Hu ``should not be a forum to exchange criticism against each other.''

``The summit could be different from the foreign ministers' meeting,'' Koizumi said.

Ding dong. Wrong choice of words, Koizumi. People apologizing do not get to set the terms of the apology. High handedly setting the agenda is an insult.

STOCKS TUMBLE COMPANIES TREMBLE screams the Asahi headlines. Well, great, time to be even more insulting while apologizing. Blood from stones and all that.

The Official Chinese view:

[Reuters]
BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhuanet) -- China has the sincerity for improving relations with Japan, and hopes Japan could show the same sincerity to help create favorable conditions for the improvement of bilateral ties, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said here on Monday.

"As long as the two sides can properly handle historical and Taiwan issues, the political foundation of the Sino-Japanese relationship would be consolidated, the bilateral ties would be furthered, and the cause of Sino-Japanese friendship would be improved in a comprehensive way," said Tang during a meeting with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Machimura Nobutaka.

Welcoming the Japanese foreign minister to visit China at "a difficult time for China-Japan relations", Tang pointed out that the Japanese side had "repeatedly failed the trust of the Chinese people" and had been "driving on a reverse gear" on issues like history and Taiwan in recent years.

"This has done damage to the friendly relations between China and Japan, as well as to the friendly sentiments between the two peoples, which are the hard-won results of painstaking efforts by the older generations of political leaders of both countries," lamented Tang.

Note the much greater diplomatic language of the Chinese. Tang even appeals to one's sense of duty towards the older generations of leaders! How...delicate.

This isn't even a top Chinese news story! The top story today is "Yes, you CAN see the Great Wall from outerspace!" Heh. Love that. Another reminder of who is great and who is great. The Chinese will resolve this issue with the Japanese in their own sweet time. If it takes weeks of torment for the Japanese to figure out how to kow tow, this is OK. The Chinese also invented patient waiting at the doors to the Forbidden City.

Meanwhile, the news in the West is "Tech revival leads share rebound"! Yes, we will compute our way out of the huge mess we are in. There is no waves washing ashore. All is well. Pay no attention to the tsunami, it is a business opportunity.

Addendum: The press explanation for this sudden confidence is probably hog wash, here is one example why:

Philips hit by flat-screen falL:


Shares in Philips Electronics slid early on Monday by as much as 4%, after profits plunged 79% on losses at its flat-screen unit. Net profits at the Netherlands firm were 117m euros (£80m; $151m) in the three months to March, down from 550m euros in the same period of 2004.

Revenues were virtually flat at 6.64bn euros, on lower flat-screen prices and falling chip sales.

Whole sale inflation up 0.7%, housing starts down, GM reports billion loss. Pfizer reports an 87% drop in profits. Yup. Good news for investors. So the big headline is: "EARLY GAINS HOLD UP!"

Indeed. Hope springs ever eternal. Don't look at the data, make up stuff. Besides, more tax cuts for the rich means more money to invest.

Clown Car Companies

Here is a BBC story that should interest all Americans:

Competition is heating up between giant carmakers for a bigger share of China's fast-growing market.
General Motors, the world's biggest auto firm, said on Tuesday that it expects a fierce price war with its rivals to intensify.

Results from the firm, expected later on Tuesday, are expected to show growth flagging elsewhere in the world.

"Competition heating up" means a market isn't growing as fast as production. Why is this? Well, the last line in the article tells us very clearly:

However, since then (China) has responded to soaring energy costs, an overheating economy which is growing at more than 9% a year, and worries about a rise in bad debts by tightening the rules on credit.

I would venture to say, the Chinese communists understand bubble psychology and danger much better than the American capitalists. Namely, bubbles are dangerous. When I hosted a number of top Chinese communists in my home in New Jersey twenty years ago, I gave them homework to do in the form of reading books which I recommend to readers of this blog. We would then discuss the topics. One of my biggest assignments was "bubbles"....how to recognize them, why they are very dangerous and how to stop them from taking off.

It is a topic this blog is devoted to explaining.

So, let's go to the middle of the BBC story:

Big US car firms are now relying on finance - both loans to buy cars and general financial products - to stay in the black and offset losses from vehicle sales.

Indeed. GM and Ford make more money off of lending money (where does it all COME from?) to people. Not just for buying their cars, they lend via credit cards and credit lines to anyone for anything. This lending is, to say the least, most reckless. They can do this thanks to the largess of the Fed which has pumped up lending by lending to lenders at a rate below inflation. This has fueled a classic bubble of the worst sort.

GM says it will invest $3bn to double Chinese production by 2007, while Ford has announced a new engine plant.
Ford's new ven

The Great Game of Go Continues

>Probably one of the most active Prime Ministers in the world is Wen, of China. He is literally all over the place. As Bush mechanically tours America trying in vain to convince us to sign off our retirement funds, speaking only to hand picked crowds of psychotic sycophants, PM Wen has been touring the world, making deals and closing on them.

We saw him last month corner many South American nations.

Now he is busy back in Asia. Even as the Chinese continue to demand Japan apologize for WWII, PM Wen is busy forging yet more alliances.

From CNN:

China and India have signed an agreement aimed at ending a 53-year-old border dispute between the world's two most populous countries.

The pact, reached Monday in New Delhi, calls for enhanced diplomatic relations and economic ties, and will contribute to the two nations "jointly addressing global challenges and threats," a joint statement said.

My, we wonder what these "threats" are!

Under the agreement, China has recognized the Himalayan territory of Sikkim as a part of India. The two also reached consensus on principles leading to an overall settlement of their decades-old boundary disputes, Indian External Affairs Ministry official Shyam Saran said, The Associated Press reported.

I can tell you stories about that border region. For years, this was one of the "activities" areas my parents did a great deal of work. Once, when my mother was asked, "Are you a spy?" (gun aimed) she said, "Why would America send a six foot tall woman to spy out here?" Indeed.

This region has seen more than one hot encounter and Kashmir, the other border settled this week, is a global flash point.

After dealing with India, PM Wen turns to another important potential ally: Australia.



From Xinhau News:

China and Australia agreed to start talks on establishing a free trade area following Australia's recognition of China's full market economy status, according to a Memorandum of Understanding signed here Monday.

The two sides signed the MOU following Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's talks with his Australian counterpart John Winston Howardat the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Trade between the two countries has grown fast over the past years. China is now Australia's third largest trade partner, second largest export market and second largest origin of imports.

During the talks, Wen spoke highly of bilateral relations, citing their substantial development in recent years through constant contacts between leaders of the two countries and the encouraging results of bilateral exchanges and cooperation in such fields as economics, trade, education, culture, science and technology.

Sounds like China is busy developing new markets, no?

"China and Australia are important countries in the Asia-Pacific region and share wide-ranging common interests in safeguarding regional peace and promoting common prosperity," Wen said.

"In the current volatile international environment, to further bilateral overall cooperation is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples, and is conducive to peace and development in the Asian-Pacific region," he said.

The Chinese side appreciates the Australian government's adherence to the one-China policy and opposition to Taiwanese independence, said the premier.

Note the careful insistence about Taiwan. This is the number one issue, across the board. All parties signing treaties with China must adhere to this particular clause. It is number one. Just this month, Japan rashly decided to join the USA in making noises about fighting with Taiwan against China. This caused China to pass a law making it clear, they will invade their province if anyone tries to sever ties with China. Some people over on this side of the planet think the law came first. It did not. It passed in a hurry after Condi stomped through Asia in her high heeled boots.

The game goes on. We shed allies while China collects them. Just this week, the USA demanded Argentina knuckle under IMF rules and pay up. Argentina signed a treaty with China last month. China is their bank, not the IMF. Losing allies is not a good way for an empire to win at Go.

Reading NYT Financial Tea Leaves

Cute URL promising tea reading skills

My very Victorian great godmother lived for more than 100 years. One of the quaint things she taught me aside from sitting up very straight in a chair, shoulders back and don't make too much noise or a little bird will peck your eyes out, she loved to brew tea with loose leaf and would then examine the pattern to see what it revealed. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out the tea leaves. They looked like a jumble or if they looked like anything, it was a bunny rabbit or a duck. "How can you see the future this way?" I asked her. She laughed.

"Eventually, you will figure it out on your own," she promised me.

Well, I am grown up and can read tea leaves. You shred the NYT and pour boiling water over it and then read the mushed up paper. Voila! Future is there!

Here is today's tea leaf reading, first the raw data and then the fortune telling:

Sudden Bearish Sentiment Underlines Fears on Economy

OK. This goes under "duh, no kidding, Sherlock".

fter last week's market plunge - when America's three main stock gauges fell more than 3 percent - Wall Street and unusually nervous individual investors are looking to the flood of earnings reports this week to see how optimistic corporate America is in its outlook for the economy.

Official optimism usually is the last thing that dies in corporate America. After a year into the Great Depression, some corporate owners admitted something was a little amiss.

Whether or not the answer on the economic outlook from corporate executives is positive, it is clear that the mood of the investors has changed markedly. Investors finally seem to believe that high crude oil and gasoline prices are curtailing consumer spending, slowing economic growth and cutting into corporate earnings.

Geeze, one begins to think that investors might have used the internet to see the news especially from overseas! Like, really bad news streaming in daily. The NYT and WP and American TV have tried their best to hide this disturbing news but alas, the internet foils them every time.


The shift in mood and economic outlook has been so swift that Federal Reserve officials appear to have been caught flat-footed.

All panics happen this way. Everyone believes the propaganda and follows the leader when suddenly they notice they are marching on thin air and they panic. This is actually sensible. But the leaders are justifiably mystified. Like Wiley E. Coyote, they hang mid air, legs spinning. Seems OK! Acme is going to work this time!

Recklessly, Americans have set events into motion that we can't understand for some reason. We launched Japan into China and the resounding boom has been heard around the world. Everyone (except for the writers at American papers) noticed and understood this is our Concord event. Our Krakatoa. The great experiment, "Let's see what the Chinese will do if we get nasty with them" is being answered loud and clear. So everyone is now hesitating. Will sane people intervene and stop this? Or is this our doomsday?

Even if the market stabilizes, it is not clear that it can get back onto a track to new highs. That is because stocks are falling now on a surge in fears of slower economic growth. But if that concern passes, then investors are likely to be faced with the consequences of stronger growth: inflation pressures and higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve.

The pretense that our Federal Reserve runs anything is hilarious. Readers of this blog know that I find this particularily funny. We have no Reserve. Nada. It is gone, dear readers. We have obligations and debts! And every few months we go out into the Brave New World and order them to buy our debts so we can keep on going. Alas, one of the nations keeping us from bankruptcy is Japan and the other is China. Both, involved in a deadly duel that can start a world war, will be in no mood or condition to massage our debt cycle. Thus, sane investors are becoming very worried. They should be hysterical.

A rebound in foreign markets, where some benchmark stock gauges dropped more than 4 percent last week, could help confidence, but foreign investors usually look to Wall Street to stabilize a global fall in the markets. In Tokyo, the Nikkei average of 225 stocks fell 369.48, or 3.3 percent, to 11,001.21 at the 11 a.m. lunch break.

Oh yes, the fabled "foreign markets". Two of the biggest economies of the world are....(thank you, tea leaves) China and Japan. And they are busy attacking each other and snarling threats and having riots. Indeed, great for business if you are selling nuclear bombs.

And where is this stuff in the NYT article? Do you see any mention of China? What? Wooozzzzat? Deciphering economic news stories is easy. Assume 90% of the information is missing and the remaining 10% is misleading. Then you too can see into the future and can plan accordingly.

The Tsunami Hits Japan

Guess what? Japan decided to get in a pissing contest with China. They thought they had Condi and Bush's support and this support would cause the Chinese to blanch with fear and give them what they wanted: unilateral control of the China Seas. They thought they could push China around a bit and teach them who is boss.

Well, looks like Japan just shot their economy dead center. In just one day, the stock market there began a collapse as the import of what is happening in China sinks in. Previous to this fracas, Japan was floating down into another depression thanks to rising fuel costs eating into their profits. Now it is 100% certain that Japan will suffer an economic contraction as conditions vis a vis their biggest customer deteriorate.

It will take a great deal to placate China now.

BBC reports on worsening relations.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura went to Beijing on Sunday hoping to ease tensions. He wanted reassurance from the Chinese government that it would prevent further attacks on Japanese interests.

What he got, says BBC Beijing correspondent Louisa Lim, was a talking to.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said on Monday that it was "extremely regrettable" there was no apology.

Japanese officials are increasingly concerned about long-term damage to booming trade and investment between the two countries. Tokyo stocks have fallen, with the key Nikkei index down 3% - its biggest one-day loss in 11 months.

The NYT wonders about OUR stock market:
After last week's market plunge - when America's three main stock gauges fell more than 3 percent - Wall Street and unusually nervous individual investors are looking to the flood of earnings reports this week to see how optimistic corporate America is in its outlook for the economy.

Almost a third of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and almost half the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average are to report earnings for the first three months of the year. But more importantly, many of them will comment on the financial quarters ahead and could either counter or reinforce the current pessimism about the economy.

The price of oil is floating downwards as expected since people are being forced out of the market thanks to high prices. All businesses are cutting back on fuel and energy use. In my interview with Tom, he said, "We are seeking ways to save on energy costs all the time now, it is significant", for example.

Traditionally, the stock market shoots up when oil goes down in price. Note that during the nineties, when our stock market shot up, oil shot down in price. In the eighties, it was identical. This is why everyone in our government as well as most market commentators never mention this. It seems to be highly verboten, ja?

But this also hides the effects of serious economic changes which are very dangerous. Note how swiftly the economic health of Japan is falling due to Chinese ire? The Chinese government hasn't done much to Japan but the Chinese PEOPLE are hitting Japan hard in the wallet. This is popular. Japan bashing is now a blood sport in China. We think, it can't happen to us.

It can and it will.

From CNN:

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Japan is warning of economic consequences as China refuses to apologize for a spate of violent anti-Japan protests staged across the nation.

China is Japan's biggest trading partner, but Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura has warned that bilateral ties, "including on the economic front, could decline to a serious state."

The diplomatic row could threaten to derail trade between China and Japan that last year was worth about $167 billion. According to Chinese government statistics, Japan has invested in more than 20,000 projects in China with total actual investment of more than $32 billion

The tension between the two Asian giants is being reflected on stock markets on Monday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 average down more than 3 percent in the morning session.

From a back page story at the Washington Post....

"The Chinese government has never done anything for which it has to apologize to the Japanese people," Li said without smiling or shaking hands with Machimura in front of reporters. "The main problem now is that the Japanese government has done a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."

Li cited "the Taiwan issue," apparently referring to a recent policy declaration by Japan that left the impression it would join the United States in defending the self-governing island in case of an attack by China. He also mentioned Japan's "treatment of history." Japan on April 5 approved new school textbooks that critics say gloss over atrocities committed by its military in World War II.

The Asahi Shimbum in Japan editorializes:

A passive Beijing could lose the world's respect.
Shanghai has been struck by violent anti-Japanese demonstrations. On Saturday, protesters hurled rocks and other projectiles at Japan's Consulate General, breaking many windows. Japanese-owned convenience stores and restaurants were also damaged, with arson also reported. And two Japanese nationals were chased and injured by a mob.

With Tokyo having specifically requested Beijing to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens and Japanese interests in China, it is a mystery why such serious damage occurred again.

About 34,000 Japanese live in the economic boomtown of Shanghai, giving the metropolis the strongest Japanese presence in China. The spread of these violent demonstrations beyond the capital Beijing to Shanghai, where people from China and Japan daily interact through business, shocks and worries the Japanese community there.

Oh, the MYSTERY of Chinese anger! Can't figure it out at all! This deliberate cluelessness is going to cost Japan a very pretty penny. Basically what they are demanding is for China to brutalize their own, angry, citizens and force them to swallow Japanese insults.

Ain't gonna happen.

If Japan were truly trying to smooth over roiling waters, they would be saying soothing things, not making demands. But thanks to Condi's recent visit where she secretly told them the USA will back Japan in ANY dispute with China, with NUKES! Well, this was predictible. This is Japan's first foray into international relations conducted from a position of percieved strength: they get nasty.

All the money spent on trying to convince Asia that Japan is different from 1939 is down the drain. All of Asia is sitting up and looking hard at Japan now. The Japanese feel, "we are being attacked in China, this means we are VICTIMS" while failing to understand why they are being attacked.

They are the aggressors. This is all about not just WWII's many atrocities, Americans should be very angry with Japan about glossing over atrocities committed against Americans! This is all about economic dominion. Japan lorded it over Asia AFTER WWII by hitching their military/industrial wagon to America. Well, looks like the wheels of this jauggernaut are about to fall off.

World markets go down despite "cheaper" oil

U.S. stock futures pointed to a sharply lower open on Monday, in an extension of Friday's losses, which were sparked by disappointing results from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) .

Global stock markets tumbled to multi-month lows and corporate bonds sank on Monday as disappointing company earnings and nagging economic worries drove investors into safe-haven government bonds.

Well, hate to say this but investors better figure out that in a Tsunami, life rafts get swamped too. Running off to government bonds just when Bush famously said, "But these are mere pieces of paper" and thus, meaningless. Well, if you are worried about company "x" having problems, it doesn't seem smart to me to rush off to American bonds for safety. We are the Enron Nation.

Terrific Tom, Leaves No Stone Unturned

I just got off the phone after chatting with one of this blog's readers, Tom Marney. He was so kind as to send a url which was written by a friend of his, Doug Monroe, freelance reporter and writer in Atlanta, GA.

Faith Based Commuting

I saw in the paper the other day that Gov. Sonny Perdue has signed a resolution forming a "task force" that will "try to reduce traffic congestion" in metro Atlanta.

What a great idea!

I had just noticed that traffic was getting really bad, so I was relieved that some of our most visionary leaders, including a golf course developer, are going to "develop standards for selecting transportation projects" for the region.

Right on, dudes! Just in the nick of time! Who knows, without this kind of timely intervention by our transportation brain trust, traffic here might get so bad that we'd rank in the nation's top five most congested cities!

Oh, wait. We're already there.

This article is very funny and a good read, here is a little more:

After I stopped laughing about the formation of another traffic task force, I called the one guy in town who could share my mirth: Tom Marney, a citizen savant from Lawrenceville.Marney was just an average guy who worked in the mud in the construction industry until 4 p.m. on April 14, 1994, when he was looking at the DOT's plans for widening I-85 for the Sugarloaf development. He had an epiphany. He realized the state had run amok with its plans to build highways beside highways, roads beyond roads, 14-lane freeways, bridges and ramps, forever and ever.

Marney went to war. He haunted meetings of the ARC, the Gwinnett County Commission or any other agency at which officials planned roads. He helped defeat a road sales tax in Gwinnett in 1995. He joined the successful fight against the Northern Arc. He served on two task forces at the ARC.

In 2002, he wrote a monster report - 5,367 words long - that explained how the lack of land-use planning and impact fees has condemned Gwinnett County to "eternally worsening traffic congestion."

Here is a man after my own heart! Give him a word processor and off he goes! To the moon, Alice!

"Marney," I said. "They're doing it again." We had a good laugh. Marney and I are both burned out about traffic - it's kind of sad, really. He now contributes comments to blogs about America's impending economic train wreck. He dropped by CL for a visit and we chatted about the congestion mitigation task force, for old times' sake.

"They're not studying the right thing," Marney said. He read the story in the paper about the new task force. He looked up and said, "Gradually it hits you. It's not going to change, is it?"

After a decade of activism in Atlanta's transportation world, Marney has this to say: "The biggest thing that's changed is that so little is getting done."

A few minutes after he left, he called on his cell phone. The DOT was running a ramp meter test on the Downtown Connector. Traffic was stopped cold. Marney was trapped.

"Karma fairy, please kick my ass!" he shouted into the phone.

Indeed, Tom is a fun person in person. He has an enchanting background, too. His wife's grannie is one of the people who the Firefox project talked to, being a treasure trove all to herself of how to live, pre oil era. She came from classic "mountain people" stock, the sturdy folk who made America what it is today.

I asked Tom if his 5000+ opus caused any stir.

"Seems like I stepped on some toes," he said somewhat sardonically. He explained that the study wasn't a statistical study of how sprawl happens, it was a political document that explained the process and who benefitted from it and other money matters, this is really dangerous rock turning.

I grew up in Arizona. You turn over a rock and you can get bitten by something nasty and poisonous!

"They did try to get me fired," he admitted. "My boss is an ex cop and the told them where to go". Heh. With choice colorful words, too, I bet!

This report was supposed to be secret, not for public consumption but evidently after a rather public blow-out, it wasn't so secret anymore. Maybe Tom should go to the IMF and get them to hire him, they claim they are seeking "openess".

(Added this in the morning) One of the nice things about a blog is the "edit" option. Since I am the editor, I can correct myself. After interviewing Tom, as a courtesy as well as for clarity, I told him to email me any corrections. Here is his email:

The report wasn't secret, though. Far from it; I actually wrote it at the
request of an activist group to submit to Governor Perdue. What the bad guys
tried to get me fired over might have been on general principles or might
have been over one or more specific instances (the most likely being my work
toward filing an amicus brief explaining that the chair of my local county
commission had sworn a false affadavit to a federal court, which is a
no-no). Anyway, the almost-got-fired incident happened in 2000; the big
report wasn't written until 2002.

One thing that steams most people who are interviewed by reporters is the ability to correct things. I know it always annoyed me!---back to the interview....

Tom is a very interesting person, a man with strong opinions and a strong mind. He feels we are not at the Hubbert Oil Peak just yet but he also understands, working for tomorrow means working today. No time to shilly shally, shall we? He is very modest, being "but" a builder and a craftsman.

I would say, he is our hope for the future. And I hope to hear more from him in the future.

The China/Japan Battle Heats Up Even More

I just couldn't resist this picture---Japan's top consumers, the hip young Chinese, is now boycotting Japan. This will hit very hard where it matters: in the wallet. The Japanese spend billions of yen a year, advertising in China, working hard to nurture Chinese customers, wooing them and look, all down the drain. Gone with the winds of war.

Japan's biggest customer is not the USA. It is China. And because of geopolitical games, the Japanese were conned into this outrage with China and now we will see it play to the bitter end. The effects of this fight will reverberate not only in Asia but here at home in America. Both parties know perfectly well who egged this on in the first place. The aggreved party, the Chinese, certainly are aware of this and will turn and deal with this at their collective leisure.

The rulers in Beijing are scrambling to get ahold of this Dragon. They would rather quietly confront the Japanese and Americans but this is no longer possible. The people of China are restive. They want their place in the sun and will take it.

More news: The Chinese shopping trips continue.

The latest acquisition, a laser optics company, if you don't deal in military/spy applications, this company would mean little to you. There is a plan, you know. Already, nearly all companies producing fastners have been shipped quietly to China. Ball bearings: they are aiming to dominate this, too. All things useful for an Empire is being purchased, packaged and shipped off to China.

This is a fool's free trade. We are like the fairy tale, "Jack and the Beanstalk" only the giant at the other end of the beanstalk is going to win this battle of wits.

G24 Attacks G7 For Being G Stupid

BREAKING NEWS:

Economic 'realities ignored'

WASHINGTON: If developing nations are not given more say in global financial institutions, they will leave the fold of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, a top Group of 24 official said.

"The current system of governance is completely out of line with economic realities," Ariel Buira, director of the G24 Secretariat, told a news conference. "What is happening is that many countries are now moving away from these institutions."

Finance chiefs from the Group of 24 emerging nations also complained the US did not consult them on the choice of Paul Wolfowitz as new World Bank president.

The ministers, gathering on the eve of IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington, said representation in the lenders' hierarchy did not accurately represent the growing stake of emerging markets in the global economy.

"Ministers stress the need for concrete actions to reduce the democratic deficit and enhance the voice and participation of developing countries in decision-making at the IMF and World Bank," the G24, which includes countries from Latin America, Asia and Africa, said in a communique after the meeting.

Emerging-market countries have long sought a change in the voting rights of the institutions and question why the IMF head is always a European and the World Bank head an American.

My oh my. Like in "Sleeping Beauty", the King and Queen invite all the fairies to the naming ceremony leaving out the most important fairy of all, the Chinese and Indian and Muslim fairies. Who then come in a rage and put a curse on the baby.

Everyone knows, the real IMF is called "China" and they are the lenders of first resort. They bankroll the bankrupt American government as well as many others. The other lender nations are nearly all Muslim. They, collectively, are the generators of the loan business. America pretends to do this by putting "x" number of dollars in the IMF kitty but not one penny of this is a penny, it is all yuan and yen and whatever Prince Sultan gives us as a tip.

Note also, these powerful nations, many of whom are the ones extending us credit, are very angry about right wing neo conman, Wolfowitz. The Europeans, to appease the Americans, held their noses and made under the table deals (like, over invading Muslim countries to steal oil) and gave Wolfie the green light. Well, Europe isn't our creditors, are they?

Watch this news service for further updates on the international front. Remember: what we get at home is brewed abroad.

Yes, We Have No Apologies, We Have No Apologies Today

From Reuters: China refuses to apologize to Japan

By John Ruwitch and Linda Sieg

BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) - China told Japan bluntly Sunday that it had nothing to apologize for after weeks of anti-Japanese protests, some violent, in cities across the country.

The Chinese are furious at a revised Japanese school textbook they say whitewashes atrocities during Japan's 1931-45 occupation of China and at Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told his visiting Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura, that China was willing to develop China-Japan relations taking history as a mirror.

"The Chinese government has never done anything for which it has to apologize to the Japanese people," he said. "The main problem now is that the Japanese government has done a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people ... especially in its treatment of history."


Chasing after apologies is like fox hunting. If you don't have a horse, you won't catch the fox.

The Japanese, after witnessing mass rage in China and South Korea, have been encouraged by their new, hyper military alliance with America, to strong arm "apologies" from all and sundry. This was a fruiltess mission from the conception. As our news service here shows with many articles, the Chinese are very angry with Japan right now and this can be easily fixed if the Japanese want to fix it.

Only they don't.

So, once again, the pre war farce is played to an increasingly anxious audience. So far, the Japanese people have been quiet. I remember when students in Japan held regular riots and demonstrations. Now, utterly demoralized, they hunker down and hope they can land a government job or some corporate upper management team position. So an eerie silence engulfs Japan. Meanwhile, the Chinese people, feeling their oats, push harder. This is highly popular over there. Make no mistake, these demonstrations might have been allowed by the government but the lusty happiness of the participants isn't fake. They are really charged up which is making the government nervous.

If one wants to know where energy and power is, one goes to the students of any country and see how active they are in the politics of the day. This seems to be the case in many Muslim countries and quite a few Asian countries.

The fact that China blew off the G7 meetings which ended up being a tragi-comedy suitible only for Opera Buffo, means they intend to follow their own geo political course. The fact that the G7 attacked Argentina yet again must be part of the "we will kill them by making them laugh to death" secret program. The G7 never mentioned the sad fact which Culture of Life News covered a week ago, that China is now the top lender to Argentina, not the IMF.

Indeed, the second biggest lender to the USA is...China. Time to go to Beijing and lecture the Chinese about currency and fiscal matters!

Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit!

Schizo Rabbit
From the Smirking Chimp.com people comes this wonderful Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report.

The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

Feel safer? Readers of this blog should remember an earlier story here, the picture of Wall Street with military guard waiting for next terrorist attack. It seems world wide terrorism is way up! Not down. The world is unsafer, not safer. And this is without including Iraq, even! Like the central core of a nuclear power plant melting down, Iraq is the epicenter of the tectonic plate movements deep under the earth.

Even as the ruler of Pakistan goes around frantically trying to secure his realm, bin Laden who is very much alive and well, continues his relentless campaign to win the war against the infidel. It is curious how utterly he has dissappeared from view in the American media. Watching Bush and Condi rub out his face and deny reality is amusing except many Americans will remember him with a jolt when it suits Bush to remind them.

Just this week we read here and elsewhere how the latest anti terrorist Homeland Security (sic) head has quit, they all quit after just a few months! And the funds to secure our airports is unspent! And no one seems to give a hoot!

Maybe we should outsource our airline security to the Chinese? We are outsourcing everything else. You can bet, Beijing knows all about security!

Outsourcing Propaganda

Tokyo Rose
From Buzzflash.com:

April 16, 2005 · The Voice of America is moving most of its overnight news operation to Hong Kong. VOA says it will save about $300,000 a year and have better access to news sources in Asia. Jennifer Ludden hears from VOA director David Jackson and former director Sanford Ungar, now president of Goucher College, about the move.

Hey, looks like Chinese propaganda masters are better than American ones and cheaper, too! Well, all those poor Young Republicans who expected a cushy job churning out lies are going to the unemployment line. Too bad. Oh, the agony! Now we have a problem---if the Chinese are in control of our propaganda machine.....will anyone notice the difference?

Heh.

IMF Decided to Forgive Debts....but won't say how or when or whom

BBC news:G7 fails to agree on debt relief



Inside Debtor's Prison, Lancashire

Poor countries expect quicker results

Yes, they certainly do. Like sometime in the next millennium.

The world's most developed nations have reaffirmed the need to provide debt relief to poor countries.

After talks in Washington, the G7 finance ministers said they were prepared to offer up to 100% relief on a case-by-case basis.

But they failed to announce any concrete measures on how to do it.

Development lobby groups criticised the G7 for "yet another missed opportunity" to deliver the debt cancellation they promised in London in February.

Talk about cold feet! All these starving nations being hit by high fuel costs to boot...must keep paying while the G7 dither and dather and get all in a lather, here, now, no, not yet, how about...well, we can't, maybe....meanwhile, keep paying up, starving nations! You OWE us!

This grubby little farce will play on and on....hark....China has been going around with this kitty of cash offering to pay off IMF loans to various interesting countries and they are wildly popular as I have noted in other articles here at Culture of Life News. People like to live. They also like to eat and be merry. Seems the IMF can't figure this out. Note how the IMF never meets in any of these countries seeking relief.

From my favorite blogger, Richard in Britain comes this:

The comment below, from Oxfam's Jonathan Hepburn, sums it up well for me, Elaine.

"How many children have to die before these seven men in suits develop a sense of urgency?" Jonathan Hepburn, of Oxfam International, told the AFP news agency.

"There was complete silence from the G7 on the sale of gold. Yet the IMF has clearly said the gold can be sold to help cancel poor countries' debt," he said.

From the final G7 comedy report (the whole thing is hilarious):
Snow said he has the impression that other G7 members are coming round to the US position on the need for 100 pct debt forgiveness.
ARGENTINA
-Ministers called on Argentina to work out a deal with private creditors who did not sign up for its debt restructuring plan.
-'Following the debt exchange, Argentina needs to address the remaining defaulted debt, in line with the lending into arrears policy of the IMF,' they said.

Note that pushing only 53% of the population into the poor house just wasn't enough. So they have to pay up or else. They still have some people above third world status. Oh, and again, the USA promised to balance the budget. Isn't this a fun thing? Yup. I can't wait for the IMF to forclose on us.


The clock is ticking. Maybe, it is a timebomb.

Ratzinger Ist Ein Nazi

Where it all began, Hitler, Opus Dei, all of it...

Yes, looks increasingly like History is going to have fun at our expense. Cardinal Ratzinger looks like he and his Opus Dei buddies will be running the Vatican.

There was never doubt that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's hard-line defender of the faith, would have a strong hand in selecting the next pope. But in the days of prayer and politics before the conclave, which begins on Monday, he has emerged as perhaps the surprise central figure: the man who could become the 265th pope, choose him or be the one other cardinals knock from the running.

The previous Pope, a Polish man who was profoundly right wing, opened the door to the fanatics in Opus Dei when he was nearly assassinated. Opus Dei has powerful people in the USA such as two operatives in the Supreme Court who vote in unison for extreme right wing positions.

Raztinger isn't just a conservative, he was indoctrinated into the Nazi party as a Hitler Youth. His right wingedness is deep and abiding and has a bloody history.Opus Dei was founded by a far right wing pro Nazi Spainard, Escriva. The previous Pope, despite his friendly face in public, was a co-conspiritor in furthering the aims of this far right wing fascist group. This is why he was so secretive. When we were having an election, the man in the White House, the two men, Scalia and Thomas all secretly petitioned the Pope to intervene and undermine support for the Catholic candidate, Kerry.

The Pope, to maintain appearances, gently chided Bush for being a war monger but repeatedly hosted him at the Vatican for photo ops where they sat together and communed happily. Then the arms of the Church went out in America and attacked Kerry nearly nonstop. This was only the second time in our history, a Catholic could have been President, and the Church destroyed this possiblity deliberately.

Part of the Unholy Alliance of Jewish right wing fascists and Catholic fascists and Protestant fascists is the core of the army of God that will fight the coming Apocalypse all parties are working hard to forment. They all know, they can't win the Final Battle unless they have control of the nuclear arms of America.

Soon, the take over of the Vatican by right wing fascists will be complete. The parties involved in all of this don't care that their alliance will collapse as soon as one of them gains an upper hand. The Catholics and the Jews will be the losers, in the end. They just want to expand and control certain parts of the earth.

The American Protestants want to destroy everything in a final battle, particularily their own allies. This is like the Hitler/Stalin pact. Doomed, in the end.

I know of many Catholics, turned off by the pronouncements of the Vatican, who are utterly repulsed by the possiblity the Church will be run by a Hitler Youth. Love of the Church will fall further, if that is possible. It is all very sad.

But then, these conspiritors better remember the ancient curse: may your wishes come true!

Back to the IMF Fortress of Solitude....

The Key to open IMF doors!

Thanks to Calculated Risk, we get some more information about the "transparent" goings on at the IMF. As readers here know, they are having an open meeting behind closed doors guarded by armies of military footsoldiers determined to keep any humans far away. Already, things are heating up.

The US administration is calling for China to move immediately to introduce a flexible currency, a marked shift in tactics after several years of patient diplomacy aimed at nudging China towards allowing the renminbi to float.

A senior US administration official told the Financial Times on Friday: “Action is needed now. This is a co-ordinated effort to get the message across.”

The decision to demand prompt action by Beijing comes in the face of growing pressure from the US Congress over the burgeoning trade deficit with China.

Officials acknowledge they were shocked by a 67-33 Senate vote this month to allow consideration of a bill championed by Democratic senator Charles Schumer that would impose a 27.5 per cent tariff on all Chinese imports if China does not revalue in six months.

Sorry, but China isn't feeling very cooperative this week. Not after Bush and Condi egged the Japanese into a fight over the China Sea oil by telling them, they back Japan millitarily no matter what and they will put Japan into the Security Council.

Turning into isolationists would send a terrible signal to the global trading community.” The message is being delivered to China at all levels in advance of this weekend's Group of Seven meeting in Washington. China, which has been a guest at the past two G7 meetings, is not sending its finance minister and central bank governor to the gathering.

Mercy me! As America bleeds to death in a sea of red ink thanks to us slitting our own wrists, we now warn the Chinese that we will take our Go stones off the board and cluster them into our bowl at the side of the board, ie, we will go home and cease our imperial operations everywhere. I can imagine the laughter this is causing across the planet! I often wonder, like the Monty Python WWI skit where the British troops are ordered to tell a German joke that will cause the Germans to laugh to death (and it works!), so Bush wants to kill our opponents by making them laugh to death?


“The administration believes that now is the appropriate time for China to adopt a more flexible exchange rate regime,” she said. “It is in China's best interest to adopt a more flexible currency now while economic growth is strong.”

Yes, change it to our system now so a strong Chinese economy can be weak? Or is this all about American worries no one's economy will be strong? And if America is strong now, why can't we manipulate things so we triumph? Why isn't Bush calling for a Bretton Woods III? After all, every time we stuck our foot in a bear trap in the past, we convened everyone and explained how we have to free our foot, ouch, and they cooperated, at a price, of course.

This particular trap wasn't set by the Chinese nor the Saudis. It was set by our own selves. We wanted to be in this trap. We dug the hole and then flung ourselves into this hole. We are still escavating like mad....note how deep the hole is! That patch of blue over our heads, the tiny spot, is the sky!

Taxes. We don't want to pay oil taxes. We don't want to pay Federal taxes. We don't want to pay our way. We want a free lunch, by dandy! So we will continue to beg everyone to change so we won't have to change.

The more things change, the more they change.

Everyone Is Getting Very Aggressive

"UN must reform or die", snarls Condi.

I have to say, this is a diplomatic statement (sarcasm). She goes on to snarl that the USA will shephard the UN to this New World Order or else. Of course, the UN is already dead. It was killed when the USA used the UN to disarm Iraq and then we shoved the world out of our path and invaded a weak and helpless nation, annexing it to our empire by force of arms. We are now busy killing the people there as we try to insert our own government so the country will be unable to stop us from pumping out all the oil as fast as possible.

Then there is this lovely news coming over the BBC just now: Chinese students extend anti Japanese protests further. Readers of this blog know that political energy is growing rapidly in China. The anti chemical factory riot, for example, shows the people there are full of energy and a sense of mission and even shall I say, "people power" and this is difficult for the authorities but it is also a sign of a growing nation that can, if they find the right leaders, overflow into the world and change it rapidly. Revolutionary, indeed!

"The protests were also directed at Tokyo's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat." notes the BBC.

Unlike America where there is hardly any collective energy visible. Only a sultry, teethgrinding reactionary force is at work which is grimly waiting for doom in the form of an Apocalyptic final war.

Condi snaps that Bolton, aka, Wally the Walrus, and she are the only ones capable of changing the UN. I would like to note that her diplomatic skills has caused a very dangerous escalation in tempers in Asia this last week. Note how neither she nor her clueless boss have said anything, even vaguely, about the present deterioration in realtions in Asia. Note also how they both threw a match on the oil covering the China Sea when she unilaterally told Japan that the USA will sponsor Japan on the Security Council in the UN just one day after visiting China and saying nothing about this sponsorship.

China and India and Russia are triangulating like crazy to keep the status quo a little longer. America is busy sawing off the legs of this stool while at the same time, pretending to triangulate. This is by definition, unstable.

Stability in the present system is collapsing because of economic stresses. The dollar's instability is reflecting the loss of American economic power and the attempts of others to paper over this is beginning to fail. One wonders if America, due to rising pessimism and the conservative counterrevolution, is deliberately causing this collapse because they want to see Gotterdammerung.

Triangulating to Death

It is most interesting, reading the news and trying to pry out of it all, a picture of what is going on benieth the shiny surface. Power relationships are not static. Even if treaties and declarations of concord and trade seem static this is only because they are designed to appear static. In the real world, events constantly warp or impact such accords and they gradually or suddenly give way or alter.

When one sees many diplomatic missions going on around the world and the leaders of various countries putting out contridictory statements of friendship and cooperation, some jarringly so, you can bet, the landscape is rapidly changing and everyone is triangulating their way to a new stability, whatever that is.

Right now, we are in the middle of such a time when the world struggles to shift everything to accomodate new realities. The several new realities are these following:

1. The geological fact that the world is now using the maximum amount of oil it can produce by pumping it out of the ground, therefore the aggregate amount must be capped by price hikes which cut back consumption.

2. The fact that the USA has collectively decided to no longer tax itself sufficiently and is now sucking down the vast majority of world finances in the effort to increase the military component of imperial aggression.

3. The shifting of economic power away from the American empire and towards several potential rivals, India and China and the European Union.

4. The destruction of the American middle class as college degree jobs are removed at an increasing speed and transfered to potential rival powers.

5. The jerry rigged, bureaucratic top heavy American medical system destroying public, corporate and private finances while delivering poorer and poorer service, weakening the people physically.

6. The rise of funamentalism in America and the Middle East drawing both into increasing conflict as well as destroying the liberal powers that fuel most positive changes.

When one looks at all of this from a distance, one can detect the overall movement of events and draw up suppositions about the future. I read in the news various stories today about how America and India are drawing "closer" together. Today, both countries are putting out diplomatic propaganda about how friendly and happy we are with each other. The Chinese news notes some conflicts when reporting the same events, noting the controversy over the F 16 sales and this was used by India to get America to "increase India's missile defense systems".

Ahem. America does have something the other powers want: we spend an absolute fortune designing and building nuclear war equipment and systems. We are truly, number on in this field. Everyone wants this stuff, cheap. All the other great powers know that Bush is frantically tying to bribe them into supporting our oil wars against the fundamentalist Muslims who hate us with a passion. So now is the time to strike a deal!

About India: there is increasing fury in the educated classes here in America directed towards India in particular. The Indian self improvement program is all about removing all engineering and computing jobs to India. This hostile trade action is causing real pain here in America as highly educated, motivated Americans suddenly are facing ecnomic annihilation. I know of no one in these fields who isn't terrified of losing their jobs, angry about the reduction, sometimes very sharp reduction in income. This tension is ignored, for the most part, by the rulers of America. They figure, these people aren't unionized, they are politically impotent due to libertarian style propaganda whereby these people imagine they can do things on their own and there is no need to band together.

This political impotence keeps them at bay while American corporations get to reap the profits of exploiting workers overseas. But this is destroying our empire for making the inhabitants of the imperial center poor and weak means the empire itself, rots at the core. Nihilism and despair do not make a strong empire. I suspect the reason Bush and his militaristic allies are allowing this to happen is because they want to enlist the energy and power of dissatisfied technology workers and put them into the military machine. As military recruiters haunt our colleges, this seems more and more likely.

All nations are triangulating right now. They are preparing to have all their own bases covered when America stumbles and falls. They all can see, the economic and social tensions in a very divided nation are going to get much, much worse. Will America's plunge into economic mayhem cause a world war?

Only America can decide that question. It is all up to us.

The IMF Wants to Stop Poverty

They are meeting in Washington DC under heavy guard as a massive show of force assembles to insure no one is anywhere near where these international do gooders like Wolfowitz are meeting. The IMF won't meet in Argentina, for example. Thanks to the wonderful work there, a mere 54% of the population became poor rather than 100%. I suppose, this is a great victory for the penny pinchers at the IMF! Victory against poverty! The IMF scouts the planet, seeking poor people so they can have more company in their misery, I suppose. Not poor yet?

Get a loan from the IMF and learn the joys of starving to death after we pull the loans and impose draconian financial solutions!



America is getting loans from the Chinese and Japanese right now so they don't need IMF loans and besides, we run the IMF so we can just take the loot whenever and do whatever. And besides, there are middle class people in America! Just like Argentina! Time to increase the poverty level so they, too, can enjoy the New World Disorder! Whoopee. Only 12% are poor, the IMF can make it at least 50% if not more.

I can't wait.

Here is their web page.

It doesn't look scary at all. I see no "Danger! Toxic Loan Zone! Watch out for falling bodies!" I do see this:

Around these meetings, the Bank and the IMF organize a number of fora to facilitate the interaction of governments and Bank-IMF staff with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), journalists, and the private sector. Indeed, every effort is made to ensure that the Annual Meetings provide an effective forum for explaining to the public - directly and through the media - the tasks, objectives, and outcomes of the work of the Bank and the IMF. In this manner, the Meetings make a major contribution to openness and transparency.

Yes, they are pretty tranparent, if you can see through the tear gas and past the lines of military guards and anti personnel carriers. Clear as day when it is raining cats and dogs. The IMF wonders why so few people love them. It is an utter misery and one that they intend to discover by mingling....hahahahaha.

Sorry, there is no more sarcasm left for this sorry planet. This is funnier than the Japanese complaining that they were not nearly so nasty as the Nazis, they invaded and killed mercifully, more or less. Those babies flung themselves upon the bayonets, didn't they? And Korean schoolgirls begged to become sex slaves all on their own, bless them. And the IMF is fighting poverty....too bad, they are fighting on the wrong side.

The Ice Cream Story Was a Fake BUT This Is REAL

Bolton's Hair: No Brush With Greatness



Play tennis with Wally and Woody!

By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 15, 2005; Page C01


John Bolton, President Bush's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, desperately needs a haircut. It does not have to be a $600 Sally Hershberger cut. Bolton simply needs the basics. Tidy the curling, unruly locks at the nape of his neck, tame the volume at the crown, reel in the wings flapping above his ears, and broker a compromise between his sand-colored mop and his snow-colored mustache.

He needs to do this, not because he should be minding the recommendations of men's fashion magazines or grooming experts but because when he settled in before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week to answer questions about his record, his philosophy and his intentions at the U.N., he looked as though he did not even have enough respect for the proceedings to bother combing his hair -- or, for that matter, straightening his tie, or wearing a shirt that did not put his neck in a chokehold. Bolton was one wrinkled suit away from being an insolent mess.

OK. This is "A Queer Eye for a Neo Con Guy" time. Why do these neo nutcases look like they came out of a Woody Woodpecker cartoon? Are we doomed to go into WWIII following these tasteless, clueless people? Forget Bolton's ugly mug, look at Condi's bizarre hair styling. Like, that went out when the Beatles broke up!

I complained earlier about the vapid, stupid, useless waste of time and space of the media and here, on the front page of the Washington Post, they outdo parody yet again. I was agast as our media focused entirely and totally on Condi's dominatrix high heel boots when she was going around conspiring to create war. Now this! Look, during the Clinton impeachment debate in the Senate, I was on the web doing running commentary and 90% of it was "Oh, look at those ugly TIES!" and "Where do these guys go for haircuts? A poodle parlor?" and other snarky and true remarks.

Our ruler's dog and pony show humans are ridiculous looking. This is probably deliberate just like Hitler's mustache was deliberately stupid looking. Who would think the German people would start WWII following a man who looked like Charlie Chaplain?

Well, they did. Lesson: do not follow hideously dressed men with ugly ties and uglier mustaches. They are dangerous.

Asia Continues to Froth and Fume

I awoke to breaking news at the BBC:Top Rocket Administrator Arrested For Bribes. Murky story, murky interior politics. The history of Chinese space programs is rife with such events. It is one of the most closely watched and secretive sectors of the government.

Meanwhile, the Japanese back peddle on the China Seas Political Subduction Zone dispute, the one over oil drilling rights:

Tokyo says it is protecting its rights.

Another big hurdle stands in the way of improving strained relations with China-this time Tokyo's decision to begin procedures to grant Japanese companies drilling rights in the East China Sea.

The decision Wednesday came just three days after violent anti-Japan protests spread in China, mainly over Japan's wartime history.

But Japanese officials stressed the test drilling rights for petroleum and gas fields in an area already being explored by China have nothing to do with the protests.

Industry ministry officials and members of a Liberal Democratic Party policy committee on maritime rights agreed it was important to go ahead with test-drilling procedure-an issue directly tied to Japan's rights and interests-while keeping it separate from the history issue.

Some political experts said Wednesday's decision could be seen as a diplomatic card that Japan could use in negotiating with China for possible joint exploration of oil in the East China Sea. Resolving the bilateral issue in that manner would be much easier than ending the more emotional dispute over the interpretation of the history between the two countries, they said.

Some "diplomatic card", eh? More like Yosemite Sam playing cards while using his guns under the table.

Meanwhile, lSouth Korea and Japan continue to trade insults.

South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun was wrong to say Germany's goodwill efforts after World War II have been far greater than Japan's, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Thursday.

"I dispute whether a simple comparison with Germany is meaningful," Machimura said in the Upper House Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

In an interview with a German newspaper, Roh said, "Japan's attitude does not match the universal value systems that are being pursued by mankind" and that Germany's efforts to overcome its past and improve relations with its neighbors were a tremendous accomplishment.

Machimura stressed that there were big differences between Japan and Germany during World War II.

Well, the differences from Nazi death camps and Japanese death camps: the Japanese weren't focusing on killing Jews, first. This is a fine distinction few Asian neighbors appreciate. I suppose the idea that it is OK to kill Chinese or Koreans in death camps isn't flying over Aisa, is it? Maybe the Japanese can find some other thing to focus on? The inability of the Japanese leadership to understand all of this puzzles me. I watch a lot of Japanese anime and the industrious animators there cover the subject of military human medical testing and death camps and all that. It isn't a hidden topic.

"While there are some people who say Japan and Germany committed similar acts, the genocide of the Jewish people by Germany was a major criminal act," Machimura said. "While it may be moot to debate the differences in numbers of people killed and the nature of those acts, Germans could blame everything bad on the Nazis by almost arguing that the Nazis were a different race of people from the Germans."

This astonishing statement by a high Japanese official shows clearly, the "reeducation" of Japan after WWII was a failure. The Japanese people committed grave crimes because they worshipped the Emperor who wanted to lord it over all of Asia and together, the Japanese people and their rulers behaved very beastfully, abusing everyone as their slaves or outright murdering them for being in the way. This was done in the name of Japan. This "we are number one" attitude leads many countries down tthe American brutality there.

This strange lecture isn't going over well in South Korea.

Back to China:
A bloody revolt in a tiny village challenges the rulers of China

Jonathan Watts reports from Huankantou where protesters angry at corruption and poverty repelled 1,000 riot police. But now fear is replacing euphoria

Seems like some villagers, protesting a chemical factory pollution, were attacked and successfully fought off the police. Note how, under identical conditions in Louisiana, this never happens. Nor would the police retreat without killing many people. The villagers living next to American chemical plants are depressed and muted. Since few of them farm anymore, the will to fight for the land isn't there. Poor peope just hang out and hang on by the fingernails because it is cheap and the state welfare benefits just cover the cost of living in degraded conditions. But the Chinese peasant is proud of the land so nurtured and is angry about the environmental destruction.


Heads are rolling over this riot. The police didn't function properly and I would assume, the rulers in Beijing are not happy with anyone involved in this collapse of state power and probably angry that now they have to step in and deal with it directly. We will keep our eyes on this village..

The Japanese rulers overstepped their own bounds this week. The average Japanese doesn't relish the idea of a war with anyone, much less, nuclear China. Nor do they love or trust American military power. Many Japanese anime and movies are about giant robots or monsters struggling with each other right in the heart of Tokyo. These nightmare stories that are created over and over again are an expression of real fears, fear of earthquakes, volcanoes and war. Any ruler of that most unstable of lands had better tread softly lest they rouse Godzilla.

The government of Italy is going down the tubes, thanks to its association with Bush, Tony Blair is in trouble entirely due to the same reason, his own party having to hold their noses while voting for him. Now the leader of Japan is going to go down, too. I doubt the people in Tokyo will tolerate much more of this sort of dangerous activity!

Mike the Knife

"Just call me Mike", says the smiling new leader of NASA.

NASA’s new administrator, Mike Griffin, told the U.S. space agency’s workforce Thursday afternoon that carrying out President Bush’s space exploration vision will require tough choices.

Tough cookies, Hubble, eh?

 NASA field centers in California, Ohio, and Virginia are planning to shed a few thousand jobs in response to declining aeronautics spending. Griffin offered no false assurances that those jobs would be saved.

"I don’t see a way to avoid some of the dislocation at present," he said. "We do live in a world of limited resources and we do have to set priorities"

First, during the long years we had the Space Shuttle, a new system should have been introduced but so far, it has not even appeared on the horizon so now we will start working on this only...the President, on seemingly a whim, wants to go to Mars. One seldom hears this in public. Even after the surprise announcement way back before the oil invasion, no one is really interested or talking about Mars much at all. Least of all, the President who whimmed this up in the first place.

This lack of interest will rapidly become profound if oil climbs over $60 a barrel this next year. I, personally, think this whole scheme is simply a way for cuttting NASA down to near nothing. The Christians supporting Bush hate modern astronomy and geology and for that matter, biology. So they are happy to see this stuff eliminated.

Another article about mining the moon for water talks about how, despite the fact that the moon is mostly utterly dry, we could use the little water left there to power flight to Mars. Several problems with this scheme jump to mind. One is, is this a sane use for this one time useable resource? Secondly, it is so limited, it would seem to be a one time use which means, the infrastructure and methods can't be used twice. Third, if the scheme means using water on Mars to fly, too, this willl raid the limited supplies there. So are we going to chew our way through our celestial neighbors? And chew up the earth, too?

Something to think about. Mining Mars and the moon can be acceptable but only if there is some greater goal in mind aside from simply traveling about, doing this just to do it. Namely, one needs a goal, not stop gap leaps of faith. Why are we going to Mars? There has to be a reason past the one of "because Bush suddenly decided". We are curtailing many research projects for this one thing. Is this appropriate? Why are we abandoning the L orbits?

Due to Reader Complaints, Here Is Real News, Not Scary News

DUE TO CONFUSION: THIS IS A PARODY...thanks!

"I Scream, You Scream, President Bush Screams for 'Ice Cream!"



Today President George W. Bush followed his dinner with two scoops of Mama Lucy’s Chocolate Ice Cream. This is not a new thing. Since his inauguration, the President has really enjoyed ice cream a lot!

“Ice cream is the President’s little pick-me-up,” said press secretary Scott McClellan, “He just needs something sweet after dinner. Ice cream is indeed sweet and often consumed after dinner.”

Wow. Real news. Very important. Takes up a fair deal of NYT real estate to publish. None of that mamby pamby war stuff the stuffy London Times ran today. Nope. This is American news! Pick you up, go, team, go---great news to digest! Forget your worries, life is good except the poor President who spends much of his time mindlessly going in circles on bikes, will now have to cycle an extra hour each day! Well, in between inspecting his brand new nuclear bomb shelters and private chit chat with his wife....er....Secretary of State....Bush will be eating icecream!

America stands proud. We can overcome all barriers! The sky is the limit...etc! Citizens, pay no attention to nay sayers, eat icecream (and cake)!

Gharwar Oil Field--The Half Empty Cup

Al Jazeera reports

Gharwar's decline may spook markets and force prices up


Speculation over the actual size of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves is reaching fever pitch as a major bank says the kingdom's - and the world's - biggest field, Gharwar, is in irreversible decline.

The Bank of Montreal's analyst Don Coxe, working from their Chicago office, is the first mainstream number-cruncher to say that Gharwar's days are fated.

Coxe uses the phrase 'Hubbert's Peak' to describe the situation. This refers to the seminal geologist M King Hubbert, who predicted the unavoidable decline of oilfields back in the 1950s.

"The combination of the news that there's no new Saudi Light coming on stream for the next seven years plus the 27% projected decline from existing fields means Hubbert's Peak has arrived in Saudi Arabia," says Coxe, referring to data compiled by the International Energy Association's (IEA) August 2004 monthly report.

About oil fields: the Hubbert Oil Peak isn't when it runs out, it is when it is at the maximum. The biggest oil field discovery, bar none, was this field. It is the longest running field. It is vastly bigger than all others, without exception. The fate of this oil field and the family politics of the Royal Saudis are intertwined very tightly. The inner family struggles for power and the power of this oil are streams of red and black blood.

At this history web site there is a good thumbnail sketch of the basic facts:

Although the Saudi king in 1992 was an absolute monarch in the sense that there were no formal, institutionalized checks on his authority, in practice his ability to rule effectively depended on his astuteness in creating and maintaining consensus within his very large, extended family. The king was the patriarch of the Al Saud, which, including all its collateral branches, numbered about 20,000 people. These persons traced their patrilineal descent to Muhammad ibn Saud, the eighteenth- century founder of the dynasty. The most important branch of the Al Saud family was known as Al Faisal. The Al Faisal branch consisted of the patrilineal descendants of Abd al Aziz's grandfather, Faisal ibn Turki. Only males of the Al Faisal branch of the family, estimated at more than 4,000 in 1992, were considered royalty and were accorded the title of amir (prince).

Even within the Al Faisal branch of the Al Saud family, the princes did not enjoy the same degree of influence. The several lineages within the Al Faisal branch derived from the numerous sons and grandsons of Faisal ibn Turki. His most important grandson, Abd al Aziz, married several women, each of whom bore the king one or more sons. The sons of Abd al Aziz by the same mother (full brothers) inevitably felt more affinity for one another than for their half brothers, and thus political influence within this patrilineal family actually tended to be wielded on the basis of matrilineal descent. Since Fahd's ascent to the throne in 1982, the most influential clan of the Al Faisal branch of the Al Saud family has been the Al Sudairi, known by the patronymic of Fahd's mother. Fahd had seven full brothers, including Minister of Defense Sultan, who was second in the line of succession, Minister of Interior Nayif, and Governor of Riyadh Salman. Sultan and Salman were considered to be Fahd's closest political advisers. In 1983 Fahd appointed one of Sultan's sons, Bandar, to be the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Another of Sultan's sons, Khalid, was the de facto commander of Saudi armed forces during the Persian Gulf War. At least once a week, the king and his full brothers met for a family dinner at which they shared perspectives about national and international politics. In addition to his full brothers, seven of Fahd's half brothers were sons of other Al Sudairi women whom his father had married. As the sons of Fahd and his brothers matured and assumed government responsibilities during the 1980s, some Saudis began to refer to the clan as Al Fahd instead of Al Sudairi.

The Al Thunayyan clan was closely allied to the Al Sudairi. King Faisal's favorite wife had been from the Al Thunayyan, a collateral branch of the Al Saud family that had intermarried with the Al ash Shaykh ulama family. During the Al Saud crisis that culminated in the 1964 deposition of King Saud, the Al Sudairi consistently supported Faisal. Because Faisal had no full brothers, he tended to favor those of his half brothers who had backed him during the prolonged political struggle with Saud. For example, Fahd, Sultan, and Nayif all received important ministerial positions from Faisal when he was crown prince (1953- 64) and for much of that period Saud's prime minister. Following Faisal's assassination in 1975, Fahd, the eldest of the Al Sudairi brothers, was named second in the line of succession. Before becoming king in 1982, Fahd served as King Khalid's de facto prime minister and used his influence to obtain ministerial-level appointments for Faisal's sons. One son, Saud ibn Faisal, was named minister of foreign affairs in 1975.

First, this is a problem when you have many wives. Family trees are more like thickets. My parents knew King Faisal. In 1974, my parents lived in Saudi Arabia. My father was working with the King to develop a university system and my father loves talking about the Hubbert Oil Peak and how the kingdom ought to control the pumping of the oil so they could fix things so when the oil eventually runs out, Saudi Arabia would be self sufficient thanks to solar energy! This idea appealed to the king.

A year later, this severe, thin aesthetic man was slain by a relative. Interesting stuff from the BBC:

One of the king's bodyguards hit the prince with his sword, although it was still sheathed.

Oil minister Sheikh Yamani is reported to have shouted to the guard not to kill the prince.

Notice also, the nephew was chatting with the Kuwaitis before assassinating his own HALF uncle.

Here is some interesting news about Yamani:

Business Week interview:

It's hard to think of anyone with a richer history in the oil industry than Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani. As Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister from 1962 to 1986, he was a key player in the first oil crisis following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. And he was around to see production plummet in the late 1980s, as prices in the $30-plus per barrel range killed off world demand. Since 1990, he has been watching the oil markets and OPEC from his London think tank, the Center for Global Energy Studies (CGES).

Yamani, now in his mid-70s, was his usual quietly provocative self as he held court at a CGES conference in London on Mar. 22. The goateed former oil supremo blamed Saudi Aramco, the Saudi National Oil Company, for thwarting a recent effort led by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal to bring international oil companies back into the Kingdom to explore anew for oil.

This would seem like just another 'odd thing' except recently, the entire royal family was killed in Nepal by a relative, seemingly, and the American pet, the 'evil brother' who was disliked by the people, took over. So it isn't 'odd' at all. Fahd is a fat man, quite the opposite of his half brother. The clan side that took over now runs the joint and they keep power by using the Americans as their Praetorian Guard. Even within this conspiritory nest of Byzantine intrigues runs other forces such as the royal pets, the bin Laden clan. We know their name thanks to Osama's efforts.

All of this surrounds the oil business. The Saudis keep power via a vicious police state that keeps the population under control while at the same time, the rulers run wild across the planet, living very unreligious lives, even as they still maintain their dignity as the face of the Muslim religion, world wide. They have Mecca.

Osama is very similar in appearance to former King Faisal. The same lean, dark eyed look. He wants Mecca. He knows the road to Mecca lies through the Gharwar Oil Fields.

The news that these fields now, since they have to hydrate it a great deal to pump, thanks to the lack of natural pressure, are beginning to fail will delight him, for he doesn't want oil, he wants an end to the oil. He views the oil as a curse on the people for it is destroying Islam even as it makes them rich.

Saudi Arabia parties while the oil flowed. They are utterly unprepared for the coming time of no more oil. In the next fifty years, as the oil dwindles, they will still be rich, but only if they can stay alive. As everyone goes after the oil and the wealth, they will be hard pressed to keep their grip on this. Note that this year, there have been fairly frequent bombs going off and gun battles, the last of which was just a few days ago.

House of Bush/House of Saud is an important read if you want to see how these two clans and the bin Ladens intersect. Every American should have read this book before the last election but they didn't. I also suspect, many Americans thought this relationship would bring us cheap oil. The Saudis do manipulate the price of oil but it is no longer in their hands. This is because they are pumping as fast as they can and it is now slipping away from their control. Soon, geological reality will determine how many barrels of oil they pump.

Uri Avnery: Bitter Rice of the March of Folly

Url to book review:The March of Folly



I am linking this article because it is a very interesting read and I agree with this writer. He is correct about Iraq. The new can of worms we are opening now is 1000% worse and more dangerous. Uri writes:

Barbara Tuchman died too soon. Otherwise she could add a chapter about this war to her book „The March of Folly“.

     It should be remembered that Tuchman was very strict in the choice of her examples. It was not enough that a government acted foolishly. In order to gain a place in her book, two additional conditions had to be met: that the results of the folly could be foreseen, and that there was indeed someone who warned in advance of these results.

snip

What is happening now in Iraq was completely predictable. It is an exact repeat of all that happened to us in Lebanon. Otto von Bismarck once remarked: „A fool learns from his experience. A wise person learns from the experience of others.“ If so, how to define President George W. Bush, who is not even able to learn from his own experience?

Heh. I have always been in awe of old Otto. Bismark could see so many things which is why the Kaiser dismissed him. Silly man, predicting the obvious! Onwards! WWI was hosted by a crew of equally stupid imperial Kaisers, Czars and Kings who were all very closely related. Bismark is also the one who decided to go partially socialist in Germany because, "No one will want to freely die in a war if their parents will starve at home because they lost their son". He didn't believe in a mercenary army because of course, mercenaries have every incentive to not die.

The picture of the napalmed villagers in Vietnam: I very vividly remember seeing this, it was on TV in the middle of that forelorn war. My family ate dinner in front of the new color TV which was in this huge cherry wood cabinet. I was lifting a spoonful of rice to my mouth when I saw this. I spat it out onto my dish and began to cry. I got up from the table and ran outside, crying. My mother came out and asked me what was wrong. I said, "I am going to stop this war." This was not a popular declaration at home. My father was part of the military/industrial/spy world and this was a serious family breech. It was so serious, my father decided I shouldn't live at home anymore, so they gave me my majority at 16 so I could live on my own, legally.

Within a year, my oldest brother moved in because I was against the war and working for the Peace and Freedom Party. He wanted to get out of the draft.

In the end, my father saved him from the draft, reluctantly.

Once again, America is being torn apart by war. So far, it isn't terminal for families because there is no draft. But the mercenaries are getting tired about dying or mutilation so if war grows, so will the draft. My life changed because of a news story one day. Everyone's lives will be changing because of news stories in no short time.

Why Does Brooks Want World War III?

Note:Famous Japanese anime, "Grave of the Fireflies" about orphans in WWII. Sad ending.

Brooks of the NYT editorial page is the right wing bellweather. He rings when Bush hits him with a clapper.

Here he is, explaining why we should send an irritable "America Firster" to the UN, the far right wing ideologe, Bolton:

don't like John Bolton's management style. Nor am I a big fan of his foreign policy views. He doesn't really believe in using U.S. power to end genocide or promote democracy.

But it is ridiculous to say he doesn't believe in the United Nations. This is a canard spread by journalists who haven't bothered to read his stuff and by crafty politicians who aren't willing to say what the Bolton debate is really about.

The Bolton controversy isn't about whether we believe in the U.N. mission. It's about which U.N. mission we believe in.

From the start, the U.N. has had two rival missions. Some people saw it as a place where sovereign nations could work together to solve problems. But other people saw it as the beginnings of a world government.

I recall, the UN was created by people who were very upset and rather scared about not just one but two massive world wars that killed millions of soldiers and many more millions of civilians. The giant catastrophe of WWII caused many to reconsider the option of mass warfare and the nuking of two civilian centers in Japan showed the world the terrible future in store for humanity if we continued to wage total warfare.

So the UN was born. Immediately, it divided into two camps, the Soviet alliances and the American alliances. This friction was played out in the UN for fifty years. Every time it seemed it would flare up into a world war, the UN was the channel preventing this. One of the causes of WWI and WWII was the secret alliances that various parties made. The UN was a means to bring openess to alliances and to keep communications open when war threatened. Even recently, the UN was the site of much international negotiations prior to a war which the UN did not endorse and which embarrassed the UN, namely, how America used the UN to disarm Iraq and then turned around, after UN inspectors reported there were no WMD, invading the helpless nation.

So now, the UN is very weak since no sane nation will allow the UN to inspect them nor will any sane nation disarm since dropping one's arms only means the USA will unilaterally invade.

Into this mess we see tensions rising over sovereignty of the China Seas. This ongoing flash point isn't being discussed in the UN. No party wants to talk about it since all the interested parties involved, Russia, China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the USA, are all having secret meetings and negotiations, setting up alliances and pacts that will then solidify in public in the form of military attacks. Ie: we are going to war and this war has very serious ramifications.

Bolton, a famous bully boy, will be our representavite at the UN at a tiime when we really need some quiet diplomat who can dampen down the flames of war. Instead, the neocons who run America will now flex their chickenhawk--for all hid from war themselves during Nam!--muscles. Alarm in DC is tremendous. The devaluing of the dollar failed utterly and miserably, as I have written about in the past, it was doomed from day one. So now, we are in very serious fiscal hot water.

Time to cut taxes!

Nazi Germany behaved this way. Reckless government spending with low taxes while confiscating Jewish property and wealth, once that dried up, Germany marched on the neighbors, all in the name of fixing the economy.

Today, as I type, there are frantic meetings going on, here in America and across the globe. None of these occur in the UN which is totally bugged by the USA, all the offices and phones and everything, as was revealed during the Iraq invasion debates. No one trusts America.

Remember the spy plane stuff? The propaganda machine in America ran full flood trying to make this look like the Chinese were in the wrong when we were merely "observing" them flying as close as possible. Geeze. At the time, I noted that any Chinese planes flying back and forth along our coasts would be a casus bellus, our press pretended that this rank spying is OK even though no other nation dares to do this so blatantly!

The Chinese humiliated Bush over this matter. In return, they hired every one of his family members so they could rake in Chinese currency. When 9/11 happened, the first thing Bush did, was rush through legislation granting China permanent trading rights. Up until this month, when China wanted something, the Bush family kow towed. Now this is changed. Alarm over the financial deterioration of America seems to be the root cause.

A useful url:US Relations with China

Which is why Congress is lowering the taxes on the very rich once again. I really can't understand the rationale for all of this, it is insane. I suspect, the parties involved are insane just like HItler and his crew were psychopaths. Why is America following these present psychopaths?

It is easy. Easy credit and desire for cheap oil. This is the root causes of what will become WWIII. Our desire for an unreal world which will allow us to all be millionaires without work.

Kennedy's Book, "The Rise and Fall of Great Powers"

UN covers up Picasso's famous anti war tapestry just before allowing America to violate the UN charter.


Over at Calculated Risk on the "Mug's Game Challenge: Pick the Start of the Next Recession" thread, we had an animated discussion about China and America and whether anyone should even talk about the startling changes in economic relative values vis a vis both nations. There seems to be this stubborn belief which is carefully nurtured by the news media in America that China loves us and wants to pour all their material goods into our country because they admire and want us to be loaded with loot.

This childish notion is fatal.

In the article, Energy Wars Loom, I speculate about a military clash between China and Japan, two countries that trade very heavily with each other, the trade level being the same as both countries individually have with America. So today, in the London Times, we see this: Naval clash looms in row with China.

A ROW between Japan and China intensified yesterday as Tokyo took steps towards granting Japanese companies the right to test-drill for oil and gas in a disputed area of the East China Sea.

China protested furiously. “Japan has come up with a provocation to China’s rights and the norm of international relations,” Qin Gang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said. “China has already made a protest to Japan, and reserves the right to take further reaction,” he added.

Japanese energy companies have waited nearly 40 years for the controversial decision. The move signals Tokyo’s defiance of violent anti-Japanese protests across China last weekend and its determination to defend what it claims are its rights to precious resources.

The decision, initiated by Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, was taken after Beijing ignored an ultimatum last week demanding a stop to Chinese exploration in the disputed area.



Condi goes to Japan and China and the American propaganda machine chews out the usual crazy stuff:

Sometimes the hardest thing about being Secretary of State is managing relations with 191 other countries across the globe. And sometimes it's just making nice with three or four of your colleagues in the Cabinet.

Colin Powell once told his British counterpart, Jack Straw, that intramural squabbling in Washington kept him from traveling. Every time he stepped onto an airplane to fly overseas, Powell said, someone in Washington stuck a knife in his back.

A shiv in the ribs is one worry Condoleezza Rice doesn't have. As she flew across Asia last week in her latest overseas trip, holding private meetings with leaders of six nations and appearing almost everywhere on TV, it was clear that in two months in office, Rice has consolidated her power as the chief exponent of the Administration's foreign policy, a perch bolstered by her exceptionally tight relationship with George W. Bush.

The article doesn't note that her trip was all about dealing with the startling ASEAN meeting the week before which was kept secret and was talked about heavily only in the Asian newspapers, but when the financial equivelent of Alan Greenspan in Japan blurted out the idea that buying American debts was going to be useless because the looming bankruptcy of America, you can bet, Condi pulled on her high heeled military style boots and stomped off to Asia pronto!

Since her visit, Japan made a joint announcement with America about military matters. They are going to beef up their military more and they will not allow China to menace Taiwan. This forced China it pass the law making invading Taiwan legal. They cited the USA's decisions on Iraq as precedent. Naturally. We are the authors of WWIII, the war for oil.

Japan then provoked the Chinese and the Koreans into anti Japanese demonstrations. This was a deliberate move done at a time when the Japanese and the Chinese already had a confrontation with subs and ships over disputed territory. Citing the anti Japanese riots as an excuse to further inflame things, Japan, our military ally, with the full backing of Bush and the Pentagon, deliberately decided unilaterally to annex disputed territory. This is a stunning move that is extremely provocative and is happening with the blessings of America.

So why is the USA fanning the flames of war in Asia?

Several reasons: alarm at the increasing debt charges vis a vis China and Japan has sparked great interest in the idea, if China goes to war, we can repudiate all our debts there and cut off trade. Japan will be forced to prop up our government because they are at war as our proxies. The Republicans figure, we can run deficits forever if we can push Japan and China into a war. This is why they cut taxes yet again, yesterday. If you can run up charges, why not go all the way? This is the only logic I can see for further tax cutting and Bush musing about SS IOUs being "only pieces of paper" and other destabilizing actions.

This is very dangerous. The topic this week in America should be, "Are we going into WWIII?"

It seems to be verboten, though. Do not ask.

Reading the great classic, "The Rise and Fall of Great Powers" by professor Kennedy is a must if one wishes to understand what is happening today. He details in his book how all previous empires ended up in bankruptcy due to relying too much on military power to extend their influence. Again and again, he details economic factors that clearly delineate how these empires went bankrupt and how their rivals would rise by not spending on military but backing insurgencies and piracy and strengthening domestic production through trade and capitalist investments coupled with running a balanced budget rather than wild spending on huge imperial pretentions. He details how cronyism destroys the power of empires as the palace gad abouts suck up financial resources so they can live in palaces and play elaborate sports.

This pattern is pretty stubborn. Based on his charts, one can project who the winner of a struggle for power will be. When Spain ruled half of the planet and lorded over Europe in the 1600s, the empire rapidly went down in flames because of these forces. Little Netherlands came out on top! Amazing. As soon as they won this gargantuan battle, they decided to go crazy with the famous Tulip Madness and lost a great deal of wealth thereby, fatally weakening their nascent empire, clearing the decks for the rise of the mighty British Empire.

The book is, like "Only Yesterday", a must read.

Maybe We Will Save the Hubble Space Telescope!

WHEW
By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michael Griffin, the Bush administration's choice to head NASA, said on Tuesday he wants to revisit the decision to let the Hubble Space Telescope die and would consider a plan to have shuttle astronauts fix it.

Griffin, a rocket scientist who appears headed for swift confirmation as chief of the U.S. space agency, told a Senate hearing that NASA's decision not to repair Hubble should be reassessed after the shuttle fleet returns to flight.

"The decision not to execute the planned shuttle servicing mission was made in the immediate aftermath of the loss of the Columbia," Griffin said. "When we return to flight, it will be with essentially a new vehicle, which will have a new risk analysis associated with it. At that time I think we should reassess the earlier decision in light of what we learn after we return to flight."

Seems like pressure from all over is working....close call here. I hope we save the telescope.

Energy Wars Loom

Japan announces today they will unilaterally drill for oil and gas where the Chinese have claims
By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan began allocating rights for gas exploration in a disputed area of the East China Sea on Wednesday, a move likely to rile China at a time when ties are at rock-bottom levels in a dispute over Japan's wartime past.

A senior Chinese official, calling the energy dispute one of the main problems plaguing Sino-Japanese relations, had warned Tokyo a day earlier not to award the test drilling rights and said doing so would "fundamentally change the issue."

Simmering tensions between the two Asian giants over a range of topics, especially what China sees as Japan's failure to own up to wartime atrocities, erupted in China at the weekend, with thousands of people taking part in protests that turned violent.

Some concerns have arisen about a Japanese backlash. In Tokyo on Wednesday, members of a right-wing group shouted slogans at the Chinese embassy, where security has been tightened, and dragged Chinese flags behind two vans, a witness said.

Some Japanese media said officials had pressed for a decision on gas exploration before Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura goes to Beijing for a planned two-day visit from Sunday to seek a solution to the broader diplomatic impasse.


Remember the Yosemite Sam cartoons? During the Gold Rush, people would stake claims and the one way claims could be defended or taken was through violence. The authority of the sheriff could be corrupted as bigger mine owners could steal the mines of lesser men through mob violence or assassination. The military would have to come in to restore order. The disorders and violence in boom towns out West was legendary and the grist for a million forms of entertainment. Truly, power and energy does grow out of the barrel of a gun.

Usually, when nations play this game, the danger of a nation acting like Yosemite Sam is lessened by the UN and the threat that all other nations will unite to stop an invasion bent on stealing the claims staked by other nations. Unfortunately, in our desire to Yosemite our way to wealth, we rashly invaded an oil pumping nation that was not menacing anyone, much less Yosemite USA. So we set the stage for an eruption of oil claim jumping that is now playing out across the planet.

Rationally, Japan has no ability to unilaterally seize oil claims. But something changed last week. Condi Rice visited Japan and had private conversations and since then, Japan has been increasingly the bully boy of Asia, openly defying the other nations, snubbing them by belittling them in history text books, refusing to apologize appropriately for WWII, denying the just claims of former sex slaves, and in general, thumbing the nose at the neighbors. Evidently, Yosemite USA gave them a green light to do this.

China, in particular, is upset about this. They were trying to draw closer and closer to Japan. True, the ultimate aim is to eliminate American military and financial power in Asia, but the Chinese were doing this in the legal and diplomatic way, following peaceful rules of conflict. Negotiations coupled with deal making.

But now Japan has decided, this very day, to do it the claim jumping way. The intention is to take and hold the claims and shoot anyone who interfers. This means, China must use some sort of club, too.

China and Japan are the two biggest traders with each other. This conflict has serious side effects, so many, I only can point to Germany vis a vis Britain in 1914 as a model and this is not a good thing.

What did Condi promise Japan? Blackmailing China by threatening them with nukes? Closing down trade with China? It takes the breath away. Wars are ridiculously easy to start. All you need is gross stupidity mixed with rash disregard. Yosemite Sam was a comic figure because of his bad temper and bull headed ways. Are we him now?

Asimov Was Right

In one of his early books about a space detective, the world has many robots. This is part of the "I, Robot" series. In one story, he visits this planet that is filled with robots and the humans prefered the robots over the company of other humans because the robots responded exactly and only to themselves and this meant no complex interactions with a living thing with its own ideas and wants.

Japanese anime has made many stories about this. One series, "Hinotori", about the Phoenix that arises ever again, one of the stories is about a man who loves a robot. He becomes one in her memory when she is destroyed. When he first saw humans, as a robot, they looked like jerky monsters. Only with therapy could he tolerate humans.

As usual, Japan leads the way in technology innovations. Robots for the Elderly

By 2050, the over 65s in Japan are expected to make up a third of the population... and it's likely that technology will be relied upon to help look after them.

Interactive dolls are extremely popular with Japan's elderly. In Japan, the average woman lives to 85, seven years beyond the average man.

From the age of 22, Akino lived with her husband's parents and 11 other members of his family. But they have all died or moved away and she now lives in an enormous farmhouse on her own.

"When I come back from being out for the day and the house is dark, I feel alone and sad," says Akino.

"Conversation makes me happy. Sometimes I just feel like chatting."

To help combat the loneliness of longevity - and in true Japanese style - the country has turned to technology for guidance.

The result is not a pet dog or cat or bird but a robot that mirrors the person's needs exactly. Like the pet toys that acted like living things, demanding food and attention, once the rage of school children, now it is getting serious. Since women are increasingly reluctant to have babies or even marry, the number of children has declined hugely. In that crowded land, the farms are increasingly deserted as the young flee to the cities where all the excitement is. So the government, which last year was still trying to lure young women into motherhood, has decided to build a soft, warm, deadly bed and has begun the process of shutting down. For these robots don't bring life, they are a dream thing, they cut off people from humanity. I used to say, as a young girl, "You know you are alive if you feel pain" and this seems to be out of step with my fellow humans who seem to want to avoid pain, even the pain of loneliness.

Soon, you will see intellectual robots that will play chess or talk about Derrida or go to the opera with you, there will be robots who will do the kid's homework, if you have one, and wash the dishes and cuddle in bed...hey, why get married? No man or woman or child can compete with a robot. Robots shut up when you want them to shut up. Kids certainly don't do this. They don't argue before bedtime or drop socks all over the livingroom floor or forget your birthday. They are infallible and perfect.

This is why they are the harbinger of the death of the soul. If we don't struggle to live, we die, inside.

This desire for utter comfort destroys many people. Like the sultans in the palace or the Pope on his throne, the enswaddling luxury of careless living is a cancer. The worst thing that could happen to a child is for him or her to inherit a fortune. Time and again, history shows this is terrible. Which is why Congress is getting rid of the estate tax.

A fate worse than death....

The Worm Turns

AP photo of Wall Street today.

Big fat headlines at dear Dow Jones Market Watch:

FED INSPIRES STOCKS

It is the same story as the AP at the NYT only the army of TV talking heads touted this as "good news" that the Fed isn't going to raise interest rates! Huh? I read it and it seemed to me, they were worried sick about the need for the Fed to raise interest rates due to obvious inflation. But the talking heads assured investors, the American House ATM machine will grind onwards! Forever and forever! Bless their pointy little heads!

Well, here is another news item, a real winner: Three men have been indicted on charges they plotted to attack financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington. This reminds me, a chap called "bin Laden" has been missing, no?

Note how the "talking up the markets" worked. Reading "Only Yesterday", there is a great deal of Chapter XIII about how the Fed and the President and all the rich guys tried every trick they knew to kick the market upstairs again. It is pretty grisly reading.

Cheers!

The Search For Happy News

Dear Readers,

I know, the news is terrible lately. This is to be expected. Look at who is at the helm of the powerful American empire. Hard to be gay and happy when the vehicle of state is flattening trash cans and banging in and out of ditches and speeding away from the cops with all four tires burned out and running on the rims....you know, Bush was arrested fairly often for drunk driving.

Well, there is good news! Spring finally came to the North East even if it is cold at night, my forest is flushing pink at the tips of all the maple trees and my neighbor who collects sap was here, chatting about maple syrup, yummy. All my flats of seedlings are growing nicely in the warm sunshine in the greenhouse. The Andaconda hens are lying more than two eggs a day, they hate winter, the below zero weather took its toll, one hen died. Well, they follow me around, clucking happily, digging in the horse manure. The fox tried to get one of them but Chris gave him a good scare, bang bang.

Sparky and Molly, my horses, are happy and gay. The sun is warm. Grass is greening and soon will begin to grow rapidly. Sparky, being a male, sniffs the air, expectantly. Hoping for the alluring smell of a mare.

The hawk pair came back and took over their giant nest. The flock of goldfinches are busy building nests and fly catchers and swallows moved back into their nesting boxes under the eaves of the house. The buds on the apple trees and peach trees are swelling.

Spring is wonderful. It comes every year except when Ice Ages take over but that isn't my worry today (heh). I am happy!

: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Policymaking members of the U.S. Federal Reserve worried inflation pressures were mounting when they last met in March, and wondered whether they would need to raise rates more than thought to control it.

``Many participants indicated that their uncertainty about the intensity of inflation pressures had risen...and that, in particular the distribution of possible inflation outcomes, was now tilted a little to the upside,'' according to minutes from the March 22 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee released on Tuesday.

While policymakers thought inflation likely will be contained, they felt that rates might have to keep moving higher for a longer period to ensure that outcome.

Tip toe through the tulips! Oh so daintily! Gingerly, the Fed tries to find a safe path here only they are tip toeing through a financial minefield and I suspect, do not have the intellectual or balletic ability to do this successfully. I fear, they will plant their clod hoppers right smack dab on one of many landmines. The only guess is, which one?

Of course, Bush has a talent for this. I suppose he will do the "war on Iran" landmine which might be more like an economic nuclear landmine.

I can only guess. It is up to them. Last time I was in DC, I stopped at Greenspan's headquarters. "Maybe I should give him a head's up", I thought. Then I thought, "Naw. He will do everything backwards and then blame Clinton".

Well, my tulips are peeking out of the ground. Time to weed.

Archives, March 2004: Forever Free Trade

NEW DELHI, March 16 — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, encountering the other side of a tempestuous debate in the United States, sought to assure Indians on Tuesday that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country.

In discussions with Indian leaders and college students, Mr. Powell found that the issue of the transfer of American jobs to India by leading technology companies was as emotional in India as in the United States.


"Outsourcing is a natural effect of the global economic system and the rise of the Internet and broadband communications. You're not going to eliminate outsourcing; but, at the same time, when you outsource jobs it becomes a political issue in anybody's country."


Mr. Powell told the students what he had said to reporters earlier in the day after a meeting with Foreign Minister Yaswant Sinha: an appropriate American response to outsourcing was to press India to open up to imports of American investments, goods and services.



Just like with the tax cutting mania, every situation has the same solution. All problems with trade are to be solved by more trade. Even though the information pouring in shows that more trade is not working, the rulers of America keep peddling this nostrum. Since every country is set to create as much a one way trade as possible vis a vis the USA, this means we can't merely have "open markets", we have to protect our own markets.


Right now, we have rising trade tensions with our nearest neighbors, Mexico and Canada. Instead of NAFTA creating an united front of the three North American nations, we have NAFTA as a mutual suicide pact as all three nations are being forced into this death spiral with Asia.


The solution to this problem is multifaceted. And in the short run, painful. Number one is to raise interest rates to a realistic level. Second, stop our major "export": the stationing of American troops all over the planet. This is bleeding our economy since it is 100% financed by the American tax payer and nearly all the money is spent overseas, not at home, so it is a significant drain on the economy. Third, tax heavily all labor that is overseas and works for American corporations. Tax heavily all "products" that are labor, ie, subcontracts. The best way to tax them, is to usa a Social Security style system. This money will be dedicated to funding Workman's Comp and Unemployment Insurance and the various welfare programs. Fourth, step up work on freeing America from foreign oil. This means alternative energy should be energetically pursued. It also means much stricter CAFE standards for all vehicles.


There are many things we need to do. Creating more "free trade" is very low on the list.

The Daily Grind

BBC: Millions of the world's poorest textile trade workers will lose their jobs under new trade rules to be introduced in the new year, a charity has warned.

Christian Aid condemned the move, saying it would see almost a million jobs in Bangladesh alone being axed. However, supporters of the change claim it will mean increased efficiency and lower costs for Western consumers. Supporters also argue the move will see more jobs created in India and China.

Now to the New York Times:

Beginning in the mid-1990's, pay increases for most workers slowly but steadily outpaced the rate of inflation, improving the living standards for nearly all Americans. But an unexpected reversal last year in those gains has set off a vigorous debate among economists over whether the decline is just a temporary dip or portends a deeper shift that may cause the pay of average Americans to lag for years to come.

Even though the economy added 2.2 million jobs in 2004 and produced strong growth in corporate profits, wages for the average worker fell for the year, after adjusting for inflation - the first such drop in nearly a decade.

"Pay increases are not rebounding, even though the factors normally associated with higher pay have rebounded," said Peter LeBlanc of Sibson Consulting, a division of Segal, a human resources consulting firm.

Oh, mystery of mysteries! America goes "Right to Work" (sic) which suppresses all unions and makes strikes futile by allowing scabs to cross union lines and be hired permanently and then the rulers use the GOP to pass huge tax cuts for the very wealthy, allowing them to accumulate fabulous wealth with no penalties, so of course, they take all the loot and run for Aruba! Way to go! If you pay wages and health costs, you get no "benefit" if you are one of the corporate executives but if you take the money for yourself, Uncle Sam pats you on the back as says, "Have fun!".

And don't they ever! Balloon rides around the planet, even rocketting into outer space, buying art or buying whole islands, the sky isn't even a limit for the rich! Meanwhile...

The people who actually do the back breaking labor of actually making wealth possible struggle in a swamp of despair, all sinking into the mire, deeper and deeper, even those who thought they would glide through life on a college degree now struggle as hard as the lowliest kitchen maid, wondering why they are being sucked down, too.

Now about oil: just a few weeks ago, the NYT as well as the rest of American press outlets as well as the government were trumpetting how high oil costs has NO effect on inflation or anything, all is well and why worry and happy days are here again...now they are blaming worker woes on oil prices. Not that our government or the pay masters who own America are going to change the ridiculous "inflation index" they created that EXCLUDES oil---nope. This way, they can say, with a straight face--it takes pratice but all con artists are good at this--that inflation isn't really a problem.

If you read the NYT, note how they immediately cry, sending jobs overseas isn't the cause of this. Last week, they said oil wasn't the cause. Now, suddenly it is. Yet note the BBC story: it is about jobs leaving poor countries and flowing to India and China, the two biggest populations on earth. Can we connect the dots? There are many dots in the labor sector we could connect. Marx tried this 150 years ago. Note how he fared! Will someone else connect the dots?


Power grows out of the barrel of the gun is harsh reality. Even as the capitalists in America and Europe and Asia celebrate their great victory over all the world's workers, Maoist rebellions trouble distant lands, like thunder rumbles faintly heard. In America, not heard at all since most of this never makes even the back pages and if the news media ever brings it up, it is only to deride or minimize it.

Even as America celebrates the spread (see article below) of democracy, the underbelly of this public uprising beast is the great mass of very unhappy workers who are in a Darwinian nightmare as they try to climb over each other just to stay afloat. The logic of the situation: mass production can't work if workers can't buy masses of stuff, seems to elude most capitalists. This is why the world has gone through the vast cycle of boom and bust over and over again.

In the present case, the coming bust will slow down the much more serious effects of the Hubbert Oil Peak. The Peak is a big place. It isn't a sharp, one day point in time. It happens over several years. The world has gone on an oil consuming binge that is growing at a rapid pace and has pretty much outstripped the ability to pump and sell oil causing a price spike that will help bring a bust to the world economy which will then cause oil to be consumed in less quantities and thus, the price will go down...only so will wages. The poor will be locked out of the energy market in the end and all will be well, if one is a hard hearted Darwinian "Nature red in tooth and claw" enthusiast.

Americans assume someone else will feel the teeth and claws of Nature. This belief is based on nothing more than our belief that we, the 6% of the earth consuming 25% of earth resources, are going to be in this lucky state forever.

But then, read the NYT article about declining wages.

Will Maoists be running insurgencies against America's rulers?

Missing Mexico

MEXICO CITY -- Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets here Thursday as Mexico's congress voted to begin a process that could disqualify Mexico City's mayor, the leading presidential candidate, from the 2006 presidential race.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, standard-bearer of the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party, is accused of violating a judge's order to stop construction of a road on contested private land. Congress voted by a wide margin to strip him of immunity in the case. If indicted, Lopez Obrador would be barred from seeking the presidency.

The vote came despite fears that disqualifying the popular mayor would lead to months of social and economic unrest. Opinion polls show most Mexicans oppose the effort against Lopez Obrador.

The mayor, elected in 2000, is beloved by many working-class Mexicans for his social programs, which include a monthly grant of about $60 dollars for all residents of Mexico City over age 70.

At a morning rally for the mayor, an estimated 340,000 supporters crammed Mexico City's main square waving flags and chanting in support.

The mayor's opponents have insisted they are merely applying the letter of the law and say Lopez Obrador flouted a judge's order to stop construction for nearly a year.

Did you see all those pictures of Mexicans demanding fair and free elections? The demonstrations calling on Fox to stop this obvious witch hunt against the opponent most likely to win the election? Did you see the zillions of pictures of the Mayor of Mexico City?

Whooozat?

What mayor?

CNN is running hour after hour of the demonstration with excited chit chat? The NYT has one headline after another, speculating when will Fox resign and hand over power in a special election?

No?

Welcome to the New World Order Democracy Now Project. This is where elections are overturned in California or Ukraine while the right wing and the media shouts about the wonders of People Power. But when the People take Power in Venezuela, turning back, overwhelmingly, the right wing/media boss attempt at unseating a fairly elected President, the media in America refuses to show this on TV. The vast crowds cheering real democracy is muted here. The NYT notes, sourly, that the foxy sly President of Venezuela slipped the noose. They hope he is taken down. Well, with the NWODNP hard at work, he will be, if by gross assassination or miltiary coup or whatever tool they find.

Mexico (pronounced "Mehiko") is dear to my own heart. I grew up mostly on the border of Mexico. My great grandparents followed the Cavalry to the Gadsten Purchase so we had long and deep roots that barely penetrated the desert compared to the Spanish and of course, the hardy natives who lived there since the Ice Ages. One thing about going deep into Mexico frequently, especially since my dad often had "business" there, meant I got to see a lot of political activity down there. This is where I first heard the words, "Viva la Revolutione!" before Castro made it ring loud. I also heard, "Yanqui go home". Often, the students would even assure my dad, they didn't want HIM to go home. Just the others. It was all rather amusing to a child. My dad has this knack for going into universities overseas and talking with students during times of riots and dissentions. He had a great deal of practice at home, trying to talk to us kids (ahem! ). He was going to China on June 4th to address the students in Tiananmin Square in 1989 when even I, alarmed, begged him to not go.

In Mexico, America looms large. When you crossed the border, the status of the Mexican people was obvious: for years, mired in terrible poverty, instantly obvious. I remember the children begging in the streets. As a child, this really upset me. I used to save my pennies to spend in Mexico, buying gum from these children. I hate gum and don't chew it. I would bring it home and give it away.

The Mexican government's indifference to the gross human suffering that shocked my childish eyes never ceased to amaze me. Why? How could they?

Then I became a teenager and began to hang out with the students in the sixties. Revolution was in the air and it was all the talk. In 1968, the government brutally suppressed the students in Mexico City. The deaths of the students barely made the news in el Norte. Indeed, whatever happens there seems to strike this invisible barrier that prevents much of Mexican news coming north! The suffering people of Mexico have figured out how to pass through this seemingly impervious barrier, but news is stopped, dead in its tracks.

The Mexican people can see the news from the world, the mysterious barrier doesn't work the other way. They can see for themselves, if you go into the plazas, wave flags and demand elections and the removal of despots, the USA will join in and cheer this on and strong arm those impeding popular will....not.

They know, el Norte fears them and wants them to be kept at arm's length and is very troubled about the magical ability of the Mexican people, being able to penetrate the borders we set after so many wars, stealing Mexican lands. How dare they come here! How dare they speak their own peculiar form of Spanish! Treason!

The power of the GOP in California and Arizona and New Mexico and Texas depends on fear of Mexicans even as Bush and his buddies all try to pretend they want to court Hispanics, the only ones who really respond are the Cubans.

Why Americans think we don't need to know or understand or sympathize with the good people of Mexico, I cannot fathom, at least rationally. I can figure out, there is a strong racist component to all of this.

Viva Zapata! Viva la Revolutione! Viva, Mexico!

Not All Deaths are Equal

Throughout modern times since the invention of mass communication systems such as cheap newspapers and radio and television, since 1800, a curious thing has been noticed. Namely, the death of one person excites more interest than the death of many people. Over and over, the singular trumps the many. Why is this? Just recently, we watched in horror as the death of one very severely brain damaged woman held not only public attention but the entire governance of the nation, hostage. She was no more interesting than millions of other nearly identical situations. Yet it became a vast media circus that had devoted followers and readers.

Back when Dickens first was serialized, there came a famous moment when all the English speaking world was on tenderhooks wondering about the fate of Little Nell. When ships came in from England that week, people would besiege the passengers and crew for breaking news about Little Nell, a fictional waif. Businessmen seriously discussed her condition on Wall Street. The same thing happened with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" when it was serialized.

As I suggested earlier, reading "Only Yesterday" is a perennial exercise in understanding our culture and our ways of thinking.

From chapter VIII:Floyd Collins was an obscure young Kentuckian who had been exploring an underground passage five miles from Mammoth Cave, with no more heroic purpose than that of finding something which might attract lucrative tourists. Some 125 feet from daylight he was caught by a cave in which pinned his foot under a huge rock. So narrow and steep was the passage that those who tried to dig him out had to hitch along on their stomachs in cold slime and water and pass back from hand to hand the earth and rocks that they pried loose with hammers and blow-torches. Only a few people might have heard of Collins's predicament if W. B. Miller of the Louisville Courier-Journal had not been slight of stature, daring, and an able reporter. Miller wormed his way down the slippery, tortuous passageway to interview Collins, became engrossed in the efforts to rescue the man, described them in vivid dispatches-and to his amazement found that the entire country was turning to watch the struggle. Collins's plight contained those elements of dramatic suspense and individual conflict with fate which make a great news story, and every city editor, day after day, planted it on page one. When Miller arrived at Sand Cave he had found only three men at the entrance, warming themselves at a fire and wondering, without excitement, how soon their friend would extricate himself. A fortnight later there was a city of a hundred or more tents there and the milling crowds had to be restrained by barbed-wire barriers and state troops with drawn bayonets; and on February 17, 1925, even the New York Times gave a three- column page-one headline to the news of the denouement:


     FIND FLOYD COLLINS DEAD IN CAVE TRAP ON 18TH DAY;      LIFELESS AT LEAST 24 HOURS; FOOT MUST BE AMPUTATED TO      GET BODY OUT


Within a month, as Charles Merz later reminded the readers of the New Republic, there was a cave-in in a North Carolina mine in which 71 men were caught and 53 actually lost. It attracted no great notice. It was "just a mine disaster." Yet for more than two weeks the plight of a single commonplace prospector for tourists riveted the attention of the nation on Sand Cave, Kentucky. It was an exciting show to watch, and the dispensers of news were learning to turn their spotlights on one show at a time.

For the last year we have watched a seemingly endless number of death watches and funerals which occupy precious mental real estate. Each one follows close on the heels of the next. But when a national TV group decided to merely list the names and show the pictures of the dead soldiers killed in Iraq, the right wing and many others recoiled in horror and made a big to do about how this is invading something very private, a funeral! And it was rude and irritating and so on. A big no no!

Then they happily sat down with the hankies to watch dying individuals who really matter little and weeping while watching it for endless hours. The rest of us have been driven to turning off the news pretty much permanently. I don't watch the news on TV any more at all. Which suits the right wing just fine. Now we will be accused of being irresponsible and "no one is interested in the news".

It is truly odd, the right wing likes to talk about "The Culture of Life" and yet our media seems obsessed with death at the behest of these same people. When we contrast the maudlin displays of sorrow about the dead civilians killed on 9/11 and then see the utter indifference to the dead Americans killed by the Great Sumatran Tsunami...bet you don't know how many Americans died that morning! It was more than one, more then ten, more than one hundred. Barely noticed here. Soon, it was Terri, 24/7. Now that she has been shoved aside by the Pope who amazingly died of old age at home in his palace, she will be forgotten and replaced by a child in a well or a lost puppy or something else, a kitten trapped in a tree. The press and media run around trying to find stories. Meanwhile, our systems fall apart and we are asleep at the wheel.

The NYT ran a curious piece that made no sense at all:
EXTRA! EXTRA! Read not quite everything about it!"

The timing of both the cadaver story and the Clinton review, and their consequent claim on front-page real estate, are symptoms of a persistent genetic disposition. Some newspaper people seem to regard beating the competition as the opposable thumb of journalism, an essential characteristic that distinguishes winners from losers. I think it's more like the tailbone, a vestigial remnant from the era when reporters were still swinging from the trees - that distant time when New York had eight daily papers, and newsboys in knickers prowled the streets shouting "Extra!" whenever their papers had something the other guys didn't.

I call the New York Times "the New York Olds" because they take forever to cover important news stories. I had a commenatry about the coming anti Japanese riots in China a week before the riots, commented on the riots as they happened and then the NYT mentions riots in China. Wow. Talk about backwards. I have broken news stories in the past and getting the attention of the media is like pulling splinters from a child who insists on running into the next room, screaming. It is not easy.

The choices of front page news is no mystery. The media exists to distract as much as inform. This is why a mass demonstration against US occupation in Iraq when a gigantic crowd of potentially dangerous people shouted for us to leave Iraq, this barely made the news, much less front page. When 18 Americans died in a helicopter downing, this dissappeared somewhere on the back pages, overwhelmed by the howls about a Pope dying of old age. The historic climb in oil prices, I remember when Clinton was President, if it went up four cents, it was headlines. It goes up ten times that and there is near silence.

This is why nothing, absolutely nothing is being done about high fuel costs. There are few headlines about this. Everyone I talk to wants to, without my prompting, talk about this. I met a man who bought one of my Geo Metros yesterday. He mentioned high oil prices, I said, "Do you know why?" and he said, "I think we are at the Hubbert Oil Peak".

Eagerly, I questioned him. Turns out, he found this on the web. He even read some of my stuff. When he learned who I was, he was shocked. Small world! The NYT mentioned the Peak OIl issue only this year. In Congress, the words, "Hubbert Oil Peak" was spoken to a nearly empty House only this last two weeks! Instead, it is, "Look, over there! Little Nell!"

Little Nell is dead.

My Granddaddy, a True Victorian, Ordered Me to Memorize This Book

Only Yesterday



Chapter XIII is appropriately numbered. This chapter details the ugly death throes of the happy go lucky stock market/American can-do economy. The buy on debt/sell for a profit economy. The everyone can be a millionaire promise. The buy real estate and sell it for eternal profits dream.

Here: In view of what was about to happen, it is enlightening to recall how things looked at this juncture to the financial prophets, those gentlemen whose wizardly reputations were based upon their supposed ability to examine a set of graphs brought to them by a statistician and discover, from the relation of curve to curve and index to index, whether things were going to get better or worse. Their opinions differed, of course; there never has been a moment when the best financial opinion was unanimous. In examining these opinions, and the outgivings of eminent bankers, it must furthermore be acknowledged that a bullish statement cannot always be taken at its face value: few men like to assume the responsibility of spreading alarm by making dire predictions, nor is a banker with unsold securities on his hands likely to say anything which will make it more difficult to dispose of them, unquiet as his private mind may be. Finally, one must admit that prophecy is at best the most hazardous of occupations. Nevertheless, the general state of financial opinion in October, 1929, makes an instructive contrast with that in February and March, 1928, when, as we have seen, the skies had not appeared any too bright.

Some forecasters, to be sure, were so unconventional as to counsel caution. Roger W. Babson, an investment adviser who had not always been highly regarded in the inner circles of Wall Street, especially since he had for a long time been warning his clients of future trouble, predicted early in September a decline of sixty or eighty points in the averages. On October 7th the Standard Trade and Securities Service of the Standard Statistics Company advised its clients to pursue an "ultraconservative policy," and ventured this prediction: "We remain of the opinion that, over the next few months, the trend of common-stock prices will be toward lower levels." Poor's Weekly Business and Investment Letter spoke its mind on the "great common-stock delusion" and predicted "further liquidation in stocks." Among the big bankers, Paul M. Warburg had shown months before this that he was alive to the dangers of the situation. These commentators -- along with others such as the editor of the Commercial and Financial Chronicle and the financial editor of the New York Times --would appear to deserve the 1929 gold medals for foresight.

Remember as you read this book on line, and please read it carefully!--the results of this mess meant that literally over 30 million humans died hideous deaths because of this mess. They were killed in war, famine, murder, nuclear explosions, starvation, marched to death, trampled underfoot, drowned, whatever, the death machine ground all to a fine powder.

There are strong downside effects to these sorts of games. The rich might laugh it off, some might jump from windows or shoot themselves in the head like my great granddaddy on my mother's side in the Depression of 1892. Death wins in depressions.

The suicide rate in Japan, during this latest depression there, shot way up, even school children gave up and died. So many died. And now the skeletal spectres again stalk the Japanese who, in despair, destroy themselves.

More:
The disaster which was impending was destined to be as bewildering and frightening to the rich and the powerful and the customarily sagacious as to the foolish and unwary holder of fifty shares of margin stock.

Here, for those readers inclined to think, if you have a formula, all can be plugged in and run smoothly:

Suppose a man walked into a broker's branch office between twelve and one o'clock on October 24th to see how things were faring. First he glanced at the big board, covering one wall of the room, on which the day's prices for the leading stocks were supposed to be recorded. The LOW and LAST figures written there took his breath away, but soon he was aware that they were unreliable: even with the wildest scrambling, the boys who slapped into place the cards which recorded the last prices shown on the ticker could not keep up with the changes: they were too numerous and abrupt. He turned to the shining screen across which ran an uninterrupted procession of figures from the ticker. Ordinarily the practiced tape-watcher could tell from a moment's glance at the screen how things were faring, even though the Exchange now omitted all but the final digit of each quotation. A glance at the board, if not his own memory, supplied the Missing digits. But today, when he saw a run of symbols and figures like

               R                         WX
                    6.5 1/2.5.4             9.8 7/8 3/4 1/2 1/4.8.7 1/2.7.

he could not be sure whether the price of "6" shown for Radio meant 66 or 56 or 46; whether Westinghouse was sliding from 189 to 187 or from 179 to 177. And presently he heard that the ticker was an hour and a half late; at one o'clock it was recording the prices of half past eleven! All this that he saw was ancient history. What was happening on the floor now?

I have witnessed panic in Wall Street. It is swifter than the fastest runner. It is as fast as photons flying through outer space. Zing! Bang...it is there and gone! I remember one panic. The Reagan panic. Stocks began to collapse just like the WTC fell. swiftly and in one day, out of the blue. I was reroofing the mansion of this rich surgeon who had many investments. I play the radio when I am on a roof to keep up with weather reports in summer. Thunderstorms are bad news!

Well, I heard the melt down as it happened. By 2:00pm, they closed down trading to keep it from melting down to China. I shook my head. A Mercedes screamed into the driveway and a visibly distraught man leaped out, screaming, "I am finished!" I said, "Get a beer, come up the scaffolding and sit here with me, on the roof".

He did this. We drank and chatted. I helped him over this hump (told him, even if he couldn't pay, I would work to finish the roof, I wasn't going to let his house fill up with water!). In the end, things went OK and he paid me. But...this was then.

Today, when this happens, and it will, no evading this truth----our government won't be able to bail anyone out.

This book is a must read. As granddaddy told me, memorize this book.

The Greatest Game of Go Ever Played

There are two important, ancient games of tactical and strategic skills, one is chess which came from India and the other is the game of Go which originated in China. The two games are similar yet very different. In chess, you want to capture castles and kings and each piece has different powers and values and the winner is whoever can checkmate the king. This is an excellent game for learning how to do Byzantine politics! Trapping someone by eliminating their options, removing obstacles and forcing events.

Go is utterly different. Each stone on the huge board is identical in value. Its level of preciousness depends entirely and totally to what stones occupy which spaces around it. One can capture many stones and still loose the game. Indeed, good Go players sometimes try to force the opponent to take stones that would then leave them at a strategic disadvantage. Usually, though, one tries to lure opponents into ackward impasses. The goal of Go is to take territory. Not occupy it. Surround it and control it. The winner at the end is the one who controls the most space using the fewest pieces to do this! In other words, you don't want to fill in the blanks. You want it empty as possible. This yin/yang zen game is required training for diplomats and generals in Asia for the last 2,000 years or more. This is why the tactic, to enfold an alien force and then digest it, has been the strategic tactic of the Chinese culture for thousands of years.

Virtually no American diplomats play or even heard of the game of Go. The negotiators for trade and military and geo political matters trot off to Japan or Korea or China and try manipulating events blithely unaware that we are playing the wrong game. Occassionally, we do the classic thing: we tip over the table and become violent. This starts the game over again, with us the victors and they, slowly enveloping us, enclosing us and digesting the foreign forces. Burp.

Today there is a raft of news, stored here at Daily Fortune Cookie News I and "Daily Fortune Cookie News II and even this hour, more news pours in if you read foreign papers....but in America, the several day long riots in China just hit the news....talk about olds! Like a grumbling turtle, the American media brings up the rear! Onwards, slogggggg.

This is life and death for us. We depend nearly totally now on Asian good will for propping up our wastrel ways. Already, the irritated Chinese are letting us know in not so inscrutable ways, they are pissed off. The South Koreans just let the Japanese know they are angry, too. Then Japan, encouraged by Bush and Condi, wondered out loud if they should have nukes.

OK. WWIII: it will happen if it looks like Japan will nuke China. Right? If not earlier. I detail in the news the fights raging over the potential oil fields in the China Seas. Japan, using America as their muscle, are trying to unilaterally take this territory. This is prime Go board real estate, it has oil! So China and Japan and Korea all set one piece after another not just at the disputed site but elsewhere on the board. You win in Go by placing pieces, sometimes far away from the contested sector, the other player, intent on winning this sector doesn't notice he is being surrounded with an outer ring. The Chinese have been building this outer ring...in South America, once prime Japanese territory, they even took over Peru openly for a while! And in Asia. The Prime Minister of China is visiting the Prime Minister of India. India is mad because Bush placed dangerous Go stones in Pakistan, endangering India's stones so India hooked up with the master Go players in the world: the Chinese.

As a long time Go fan, I can look at the international board and project ahead. It is clear, the USA is over extended, has too few deeply held places, nearly all the places we control now are ours only through force and can slip away as quickly as the Soviet satellite states.

The USA now has to spend $200 in Iraq alone to secure our bases and get oil. China just went shopping for influence in South America and spent $100 billion and not one rock was thrown, not one bomb killed a single Chinese, indeed, everywhere the delegation went, they were greeted by cheering crowds and the Presidents of all the South American nations begged them to come.

Bush dare not show his face in public in South America or North America, for that matter. In Italy this week, Clinton moved through the mob of Europeans, they cheered him. When Bush's face appeared on TV in St. Peter's Square, he was booed lustfully. Clinton could have been a great Go player, you know.

Bush can't even play tiddley winks, much less checkers. And chess? Forget about it.

Why Is It Impossible To Secure Air Travel?

Third air security boss quits in just three years

The is the BBC headlines. My goodness. I am eternally grateful the British let us know what is going on here in this zoo of a country. So, is this the NYT headlines? Big Brother wants to pry in everyone's banking business even more, cites terrorism as motive. Following the money may solve a crime after it happens, it may motivate "terrorists" to be careful of where they stash their cash but it doesn't stop terrorism at all. So why is this the USA headline and the news that yet another "terror" expert who is supposed to secure America is quitting after only eight months? Why did he quit? What ails this whole process? Why is no one cooperating with him? I read that the problems preventing him from doing his job are the same ones that prevented the others from securing the system.

Most Homeland security funds are unspent doldorously says the Washington Post. Well, the Texans knew how to spend it! One guy used it to buy a trailer to tote around his two lawnmowers he used in lawnmower races! Nice to see the winning spirit at work!

Neither paper has a peep about the recent resignation.

Let's go back in time to the "elections". Remember those things? Well, many a racist GOP red voter claimed they supported Bush over Kerry because of security issues. Despite Bush's peculiar inattention after Condi read him "My Pet Bin Laden" in August, 2001, Americans voting for him though he was doing a bang up job, protecting us.

Al Gore, the winner of the most popular votes in the previous election, worked on a committee which examined airport security...back in early 2001. This report was submitted to Bush in late July, 2001. Bush stayed on an aircraft carrier in Italy
during the summer meetings there because he was afraid of an aerial attack. Especially a hijacked plane assassination attempt.

So when he got clear warnings from his favorite kicking boy, the CIA, he forthwithly ignored it and ignored the Gore suggestions and vacationed happily. When he reluctantly returned to DC, he decided to show contempt towards the residents of DC by having a midnight fireworks display on a Wednsday, without any warning, inviting only the President of Mexico and the Bush royal clan, to watch this from a balcony. The police lines lit up and people thought DC was under attack and you can bet, Bush laughed derisively at the news reports the next morning. Up yours, DC!

The next day he flew to Florida.

On Sept. 11, 2001, I sent an e-mail to a reporter at the BBC, in it, I said, "Bush's popularity is now in the red danger zone. The only way to fix this is for someone to attack America, I am predicting this will be NYC, most likely, the WTC again, and he will use this to rally people into his corner so he can pass his stuff in Congress". I noted the hour, 8:45am. Just as I clicked on "send", a poster at the American Prospect with whom I was chatting while sending emails, she lived just above the WTC and she typed in, "I have to go...something is happening at the WTC". Minutes later, a phone call, "Turn on the TV. A plane hit the WTC".

I screamed to my husband, "I have to call the FBI! Both buildings will be attacked, this is a terrorist attack!! We have to save those people!" My husband grabbed me. He said, "You just wrote that Bush will allow a terrorist attack. Calling will do no good". I said, "No, the FBI will do something" and I grabbed the phone and tried to dial when the second jet hit. As I held the phone in my hands, I thought, this is a waste of time. No one wants to stop these attacks. They worked hard to prepare the ground for these attacks. I left the house. I didn't want to see anymore. I knew what would happen.

Well, let's put the pieces of this week's puzzle into place: a great deal of Homeland Security (sic) money is deliberately going unspent. This is nearly impossible in imperial DC. Money is always spent, usually sent out to Bush buddies for various things, this is how they get rich! So why aren't they providing "services" no matter how inept, to "protect" us? Why did they maliciously and deliberately not spend this little kitty of money?

Why does each Homeland Security chief, sub head, Praetorian Guard, flunky, resign? One after another starting with Ridge? Why did the "terror alerts" suddenly cease once the true cause, John Kerry, was removed? Well, it answers itself, no? Why is there no yelling and fear and anger at this obvious chaos in Homeland Security? Money is being spent on insuring people will be humiliated but none is spent at the point of danger, ie, on the planes, themselves? I wrote back in 2001, "All we have to do is have teams of Sky Marshalls patrolling all planes". This costs money but isn't impossible, the Israelis do this.

It was barely tried. A stab was made at hiring these marshalls only the war in Iraq has slurpped up all potential people who could do security and hiring froze and then the program was discontinued! This and only this was the way to stop hijackers like the ones who attacked on 9/11!

So how does a woman living on a mountain know more about what is going to happen next? Easy. I read the news to see what is missing. Since the NYT and WP are refusing to connect the security dots, I am assuming our overlords who run our finances and who are very powerful, need to allow another attack on America. Then they can possibly dispose of Bush who is becoming a great liability and impose full military rule on us.

Isn't this fun.

New Blog to Run Concurrent With This Blog

I know, I know, this is nuts. But there is so much going on, the need to park information, breaking news, scientific broohahas, having a second blog to move text and information back and forth like a ping pong match with racoons is necessary now.

Feel free to check up on breaking stories or past stories with little or no commentary, and anything to do with the Hubbert Oil Peak or Hubble Space Telescope or Mother Hubbard's cupboard...all over at Culture of Life Science News.

If you have urls to share, put them in the comments there and if they are neat, I will put them up on the page with credit for referals (yeah, I know this is super cheapskate of me, but hey! If I were rich....I would be rich!)---my son and daughter will, along with certain help from interested parties, ahem, will help me build a proper web page eventually...takes a bit of time, though, not as easy as these plug in blog sites.

Have fun. See you all later!

A Parable About the Future: Dangerous Gullies

When I was a child, one of my favorite chores was to saddle up old Socksie and ride him down to Bear Canyon Creek crossing to put up barriers after summer thunderstorms. The desert always glowed with that special red aura as every spine of every cacti turned into miniature rainbows as the setting sun lit them up. Socksie would snort with happiness as the delightful herbal aroma fills the moist air. He was nearly blind from old age but he still smelled things just fiine. Every year, as I set up the barricade which we parked next to the highway, I couldn't just leave, I had to stay to insure no one tried crossing the road until the thunderstorms were done.

Meanwhile, I would amuse myself by catching toads, pushing around the tarantulas that came out of their flooded holes or throwing stones into the raging arroyo.

Then cars would come. Every time, without exception, if the driver didn't know me personally, they would begin to argue. "Why can't I drive across?" they would demand. I would explain the dangers, patiently. Disbelief. "You are only a kid. You don't know anything". I would then warn them, I take license plate numbers and the sheriff Burr, who told me to do this, would be pretty steamed if they go around the barrier or harrass me.

Then comes the threats. "You better move out of the way or I will run you over." I take pencil in hand, write down the information and then I step aside. What happens next, and it happened a LOT:

The driver sees only the surface of the water which looks rather serene going downstream. If he or she threw in a stick and watched it shoot away, they would hesitate. But no, none ever did this scientific experiment. Always, they drove in as fast as possible, hoping speed would work.

It never worked.

The vehicle is now stalled. If it is a low on, it begins to turn and head downstream. This is where I order them to not get out of the car but wait until Socksie and I get the rope over to them. It was rather fun pulling out one wet hen after another over the years. Even when I told people about this, they refuse to listen, go in, and scream for the rope.

I grew up and left.

My mom and dad tried to keep this up but it was harder for them, they are nicer than I. I used to tell people "No, I won't rescue you" just to teach them a lesson before throwing the rope. One stormy day, the sheriff was with my parents trying to rescue a car load of errant travelers from that spot. A TV station crew wanted to film the rescue so while the camera was gotten ready, the people drowned.

This traumatized my parents. The sheriff was fired. The TV station got great film of people dying.

Why am I writing about this?

Here: "Elaine, oil is definitely an exhaustible resource (Hubbert's peak general concept), but I don't think we are on the downside of the peak yet." This quote isn't unusual on forums, it is normal. Whenever I talk about the future, everyone says, they see the water but it doesn't look scary, the road looks smooth, why not just keep on driving?

The Hubbert Oil Peak may happen today or tomorrow or next year. But why wait until the water is around the windows and Elaine and Sockie aren't there with the energy/lifestyle rope to save you? For in this case, there is no one there to save any of us unless we decide to become the savior, ourselves. If I drove or tried to walk into that arroyo, I would have died. And I am an excellent swimmer. This is why, after the storms, I would ride a horse and take along a stout rope. I often thought of taking a rifle, too, and using it to shoot out the tires of recalitrant driver's cars. But I believed in free will. If one wanted to freely do something dumb, so be it.

More people drown in the desert than drown in swimming pools in Arizona.

Can you swim after a flashflood?

England Has No Diebold Machines

England, lest we forget, has three political parties, all of whom are struggling to gain popularity

Refering to the upstart Liberal Democratic Party: Here he is, they complain, gifted a historic electoral opportunity. His party has a record number of MPs, and scored some spectacular byelection victories during the last parliament. Never have so many Tory and Labour voters been simultaneously disaffected, there for the taking. But can Kennedy do it? Is he a uniquely well-adjusted politician, who has worked out that we actually want ordinary people in charge? Or just a rather ordinary man not cut out for the big league?

snip

His confidence comes from the polls. An ICM survey last autumn confirmed his personal lead, giving him a positive rating of plus 25 points in voters' satisfaction. Blair's was minus 15, Howard's minus 11. But people can be hypocrites, moaning about "yah-boo" politicians, but voting for them all the same. Isn't it a terrible gamble to take them at their word?

snip

Two months on, though, Kennedy's grip on the moral high ground seems altogether shakier. The Tory revival has roughly elbowed him out of the picture, and every day, as the fever over Gypsies, flying pigs and abortion burns hotter, he risks melting further away. Part of Kennedy's problem is intractable, a product of our electoral system. The current vacancy on the political spectrum obviously lies left of Labour. That's where he probably feels at home. But in each constituency he must chase the votes of the party doing worst — which in most cases is the Conservative party. As few Tories are likely to defect left of Labour, this leaves him with the invidious job of what he calls "riding two horses".

I have been reading about the snap election called by Tony Blair and decided to do something about the rising sense of confusion the news media gives me over there (a side effect of having a real press, I think): I contacted Richard, a sensible man who happens to live in England!

We chatted atTAPA since I can't quite afford long distances calls to England...yet. I started off asking Richard about himself and his political affiliations, if any.

Hi, Elaine.

I Live in North Western England, on Merseyside, not many miles outside the city of Liverpool.

I'm not a signed up 'party member' of any political party.  Over here, it's not the norm to be actually signed up as a party member.  Those who are form a very small minority.  They're the real die-hards.  I was tempted to say extremists but that's probably a bit too harsh.

It's quite normal for an election to be called ahead of the end of the maximum four year term.  Unless a party thinks it's almost certain to be kicked out at the next election.  Then they cling on for dear life right to the very last minute.

I don't think he just 'thinks' things would be worse for his chances later on - I'm sure he KNOWS they would.
Sorry, I forgot to say that my politics HAVE changed over the years - very much so.

When asked if he was always Labor, he surprised me, "I voted for mad Maggie Thatcher the first time.  Before her second term ended, I'd seen what was coming.   I've swung further left ever since.  As I've gotten older and wiser."

As an American, I asked about our President. Richard assured me that Bush is an albatross around Blair's neck. Since this blog often talks about economic matters, I wanted to know if he was aware, as a home owner, about property issues.

Properties did boom, Elaine.  But too much too quickly.  Then, in December gone, they started to fall.  They had to sooner or later.  It was like the South Sea Bubble.  Misery's on the cards for many in the near future, I'm afraid to say.  That terrible spectre of 'negative equity' is looming large again.

As an example, the much publicized [dubious]purchase of couple of properties in Bristol, by the Blairs, is now losing them money at a quite dramatic rate. They're trying to sell - fast. They had one deal lined up - but it's now just fallen through.
The subject of Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber came up. I wondered," John Major, the hour he left 'public' service, joined Carlyle and became part of that machine. Do you expect Blair to do this? How do you feel about whoever you elect, ending up working for Carlyle or Halliburton?"

Richard understood the system of buying leaders, "As you say over there, Elaine - I'd 'bet the farm' on Blair getting payback BIG-TIME from Bushco.  He's "gonna be 'a made man'".  Be it via Carlyle, Halliburton or some other branch of the crime families currently running the US administration.

Hows that for 'firing away,' Elaine?  Heh.  I even chose my words very carefully, and didn't swear, even once!

Blair will win, Elaine.  The Liberal Democrats will have to wait at leat another decade, I believe , for their first real chance to govern.  The conservatives under Michael Howard and his current crew will not get in.

The best we 'real Labourites' are hoping for, is that Blair's huge overall majority is slashed - dramatically.  That way, he won't be able to claim he has 'a mandate' to do pretty much as he likes.  Hopefully, he'll be forced to actually get this country back to being governed by 'cabinet' - rather than cronies & spinners."  

We chatted so more. "Richard, do you and your neighbors talk about this? Or is there apathy about this election? Do you all worry about apathy leading to the sort of messes that happened in France when the far right nearly won because of stay at home liberal voters? "

He seemed fairly certain, "Unfortunately, activists like myself are always in the minority.  That's not to say that most people I have as neighbours and as friends aren't fed up to their eye teeth with the Blairs, Bushes and Berlusconis of the world.

Thankfully, there won't be a big enough swing country wide to let in any right wing government.

As I said, the best we can hope for, indeed the best result we do hope for, is for Labour to win - but by a greatly reduced majority - and for Blair to soon be replaced as Labour leader by Gordon Brown.  He's[Brown] the current Chancellor of the Exchequer.   

One light at the end of the tunnel is that Blair's already said quite publicly, he will NOT serve another FULL term if elected - and Brown is the 'accepted' heir. Young British squaddies being asked to go and die - anywhere - is very much home politics, Elaine.  You just ask any of their grieving relatives and friends."

We talked about fox hunting, "I prefer hunting squires", he added, and how domestic politcs can be about nearly nothing important. I have the feeling, from chatting with Richard over the years, that disenchantment with Tony Blair is extremely high but the namby pamby politics that are pressed upon a people when there seems to be no pressing matters at hand, causes elections to rage over very trivial things. One of the things that bother Richard is certain, whoever runs England can't fix: the rain.

" I live litterally just back from the sand dune lined, coast, Elaine.  Not far from many pretty, tree lined streets.  And, only yards away from beautiful, old mansions once owned by wealthy shipping line owners.

As for loving it - yes I do - in summer.  In winter - nice it's not.  We suffer too many gales.  When it rains or hails - it's the horizontal variety.

Hear that? Well, gentlemen running for Prime Minister! You have quite a job ahead if you can fix THAT! We will hear from Richard after the elections.

Addendum: Since this interview, Richard has learned the joys of blogging and now has his own site which I visit daily. How This Old Brit Sees Things. Do drop in and have a tat of tea.

Giving Hubble a New Pair of Glasses

When the Hubble Space Telescope first turned on, everyone at the Jet Propulsion Lab cheered. Until the fuzzy images came up. The staff then spent a difficult month trying over and over again to correct this. They then, with increasing fear, went over the data concerning the making of the mirror, the grinding process, the test results. Then they discovered the problem: the mirror wasn't coordinated with the optics that translated the light information which was fed into the transmitter. It was hopelessly out of focus.

There was great consternation, the cold fear that the second orbital telescope would be a failure washed over the staff. They had a brainstorming meeting. The daddy of space optics, my dad, Aden, asked if the space shuttle crew could service the telescope. They assured him, they could do it even though they were still learning how to cope with the difficulties of space work. Dad said, "You see my glasses?" Everyone laughed because most of the scientists were as four eyed as he. "I will make a pair of eyeglasses for the Hubble if you can install them". There was much joking about this. "Monocle! Not glasses!" "We will have to make a really BIG eyechart for this!" and "Astronomers don't make passes at telescopes that wear glasses".

The corrective lens were made and the brave and very competent crew of the Endeavor successfully did the delicate and difficult job, one of the first such jobs in space. When the new images came in, the JPL staff were all crowded in the room, squeezed in to see the first images from this telescope and tears of joy and exclamations of awe filled the room.

Here is an email from my dad that just came in:

Hi. We tried to send this a few minutes ago, but got an undeliverable notice and found that we used an old address for Steve. So we don't know if some of you already got thiswebsite address for the pictures. But here it is in case all of you didn't get this relayed message.

It's hard to believe that it was 15 years ago when we helped NASA to determine exactly what was wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope and how to fix the JPL Wide Field and Planetary Camera that took these fabulous pictures.

(Grand) Mom and Dad
----------------------------------
Aden & Marjorie:

Here, with many thanks to you for your great work on the first servicing mission, are 125 of the best pictures from HST. The talk was given by Dr. Frank Summers at the STScI yesterday evening.

Hubble Space pictures

It makes one proud to see what can be done when people try for the best.

Regards,

H. John Wood, Ph.D.
Hubble Space Telescope Project

Well, it will soon be over. Like my daughter said to me, "Why don't they just drop it on Yerkes and make it a two for one?"

Oh, and please click in the pictures. They are immensely beautiful.

NEW: Wally links to this story on his own blog. Thanks, Wally, for the kind thoughts.

The Tortoise and the Hare

The hare always thinks, "I am fast so I will win" but we all know the ending of this tale of hubris! America was in a race for conquering space, a race that Russia won, time and again until we finally beat them to the moon. We then stood there, stupidly, wondering what to do next. The Russians just gave it all up and concentrated on invading Afghanistan. This proved to be their downfall.

Oh dear, no need to point out the obvious.

Europe has confirmed its intention to try again to land on the Red Planet, to search for past or present life forms.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is likely to send a roving robot to the surface of Mars, which will carry out a detailed analysis of the terrain and biology of the planet.

The mission is expected to blast off from Earth in June 2011 and arrive at its destination in June 2013.

Instead of invading Iraq and Afghanistan, building a huge military aparatus and occupying bases all over the place, Europe is quietly and relentlessly expanding their space program. Back when they began the Ariane rocket launching, there was condensending mirth here in America. Well, the last laugh isn't for us, not since the last Space Shuttle disaster. The Shuttle is about to lumber back into space again but what is its mission? As far as I can tell, it is going to float around pretty much aimlessly since we are supposedly losing interest in the last remaining mission, the international space station. We aren't using the shuttle to monitor the health and well being of planet earth. This has been pretty much ruthlessly eliminated as per the orders of the Texan whose ranch lay nearly directly under the path of the previous, doomed shuttle mission.

More from the BBC: The broad European goals for Solar System exploration are contained in the Aurora programme.

This had envisaged not only a roving mission to Mars in the near future, but a sample-return mission, too. Scientists want to bring rocks back from the Red Plant to study in labs on Earth.

Aurora also holds out the possibility that European astronauts might one day walk on the surface of Mars - but this would be many decades away, if it happens at all.

Slow and steady goes the tortoise. Bush called for us to rush off to Mars in less than twenty years. Meanwhile, to prepare for this race, NASA is killing off nearly all other projects, many of which we need if we intend to seriously explore our own neighborhood.

The hare is taking a long nap.

History Repeating Itself...

There are many fascinating Victorian books, the Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of the Crowds is a must read for anyone wishing to comment about economic and political matters.

Here, in just Chapter One, about John Law, fanatical financier and wicked gambler who invented an early form of derivatives:

(After the death of Louis XIV) Hardly was that monarch laid in his grave ere the popular hatred, suppressed so long, burst forth against his memory. He who, during his life, had been flattered with an excess of adulation, to which history scarcely offers a parallel, was now cursed as a tyrant, a bigot, and a plunderer. His statues were pelted and disfigured; his effigies torn down, amid the execrations of the populace, and his name rendered synonymous with selfishness and oppression. The glory of his arms was forgotten, and nothing was remembered but his reverses, his extravagance, and his cruelty.
1.9

The finances of the country were in a state of the utmost disorder. A profuse and corrupt monarch, whose profuseness and corruption were imitated by almost every functionary, from the highest to the lowest grade, had brought France to the verge of ruin. The national debt amounted to 3000 millions of livres, the revenue to 145 millions, and the expenses of government to 142 millions per annum; leaving only three millions to pay the interest upon 3000 millions. The first care of the regent was to discover a remedy for an evil of such magnitude, and a council was early summoned to take the matter into consideration.

The parallels get more intense...

The measures ultimately adopted, though they promised fair, only aggravated the evil. The first, and most dishonest measure, was of no advantage to the state. A recoinage was ordered, by which the currency was depreciated one-fifth; those who took a thousand pieces of gold or silver to the mint received back an amount of coin of the same nominal value, but only four-fifths of the weight of metal. By this contrivance the treasury gained seventy-two millions of livres, and all the commercial operations of the country were disordered. A trifling diminution of the taxes silenced the clamours of the people, and for the slight present advantage the great prospective evil was forgotten.

OK. Now, shall we laugh? Cry? Build a guillotine? Seriously, we are talking here of 1719. This is nearly three hundred long years ago.

Why are we reproducing this episode in history? What is it in humans to cause them to choose a road, a very well travelled road, lined with bones, and then to march resolutely forwards? I have warned America for thirty years now and here we are, in the final stages of a classic disaster such as the one that destroyed the mighty French Empire.

Mackay explains how John Law created a bank that issued paper for monopoly powers granted from the Regent. These papers were then resold in the open stockmarket.

Law found that he lived under a despotic government; but he was not yet aware of the pernicious influence which such a government could exercise upon so delicate a framework as that of credit. He discovered it afterwards to his cost, but in the mean time suffered himself to be impelled by the regent into courses which his own reason must have disapproved. With a weakness most culpable, he lent his aid in inundating the country with paper money, which, based upon no solid foundation, was sure to fall, sooner or later. The extraordinary present fortune dazzled his eyes, and prevented him from seeing the evil day that would burst over his head, when once, from any cause or other, the alarm was sounded.

Despots who dispense with favors and grant interlocking monopolies and cartels are very bad news. Over and over again, after the first flush of easy money, the imperial/despot illusion of wealth collapses under the weight of parasites and corruption and bribery that always are birthed in the hot house of such governance.


More: It was remarked at this time that Paris had never before been so full of objects of elegance and luxury. Statues, pictures, and tapestries were imported in great quantities from foreign countries, and found a ready market. All those pretty trifles in the way of furniture and ornament which the French excel in manufacturing were no longer the exclusive play-things of the aristocracy, but were to be found in abundance in the houses of traders and the middle classes in general. Jewellery of the most costly description was brought to Paris as the most favourable mart; among the rest, the famous diamond, bought by the regent, and called by his name, and which long adorned the crown of France.

Note how, today, the market of upscale property and items is roaring along marvelously. One of a kind things are bid up higher and higher by giddy people made rich on speculation and selling debt instruments. Now for the depressing part of the story:

Thus the system continued to flourish till the commencement of the year 1720. The warnings of the parliament, that too great a creation of paper money would, sooner or later, bring the country to bankruptcy, were disregarded.
Hitherto no difficulty had been experienced by any class in procuring specie for their wants. But this system could not long be carried on without causing a scarcity. The voice of complaint was heard on every side, and inquiries being instituted, the cause was soon discovered. The council debated long on the remedies to be taken, and Law, being called on for his advice, was of opinion, that an edict should be published, depreciating the value of coin five per cent below that of paper. The edict was published accordingly; but, failing of its intended effect, was followed by another, in which the depreciation was increased to ten per cent. The payments of the bank were at the same time restricted to one hundred livres in gold, and ten in silver. All these measures were nugatory to restore confidence in the paper, though the restriction of cash payments within limits so extremely narrow kept up the credit of the Bank.
1.50

Notwithstanding every effort to the contrary, the precious metals continued to be conveyed to England and Holland. The little coin that was left in the country was carefully treasured, or hidden until the scarcity became so great, that the operations of trade could no longer be carried on.

The first warning of a coming depression. I often harp about money being lent out for less than the rate of inflation. If I gave you $20 today and you paid me back in a year at only 4% interest, I then go fill my tank with gas with the $20 and get less than a full tank, ie, I lost value while my money was lent out.

Seems simple enough. If you print endless dollars or lend money at ridiculous rates, savings plummets to near zero and the dollars don't buy what they could, earlier. This rule of economics is pretty iron clad. Just because it doesn't set in with a vengence immediately doesn't mean it isn't setting in with a vengence, it merely means the despotic rulers and the gang around him are madly manipulating the currency and the value of the collective estate and the mess is being shoved forwards in time.

This always means bad things will happen. This is how unhappy investors in Paris reacted when everything collapsed:

Eight days afterwards the concourse of people was so tremendous that fifteen persons were squeezed to death at the doors of the bank. The people were so indignant that they took three of the bodies on stretchers before them, and proceeded, to the number of seven or eight thousand, to the gardens of the Palais Royal, that they might shew the regent the misfortunes that he and Law had brought upon the country. Law's coachman, who was sitting on the box of his master's carriage, in the court-yard of the palace, happened to have more zeal than discretion, and, not liking that the mob should abuse his master, he said, loud enough to be overheard by several persons, that they were all blackguards, and deserved to be hanged. The mob immediately set upon him, and, thinking that Law was in the carriage, broke it to pieces. The imprudent coachman narrowly escaped with his life. No further mischief was done; a body of troops making their appearance, the crowd quietly dispersed, after an assurance had been given by the regent that the three bodies they had brought to shew him should be decently buried at his own expense. The parliament was sitting at the time of this uproar, and the president took upon himself to go out and see what was the matter. On his return he informed the councillors, that Law's carriage had been broken by the mob. All the members rose simultaneously, and expressed their joy by a loud shout, while one man, more zealous in his hatred than the rest, exclaimed, And Law himself, is he torn to pieces?"11*

Note here the earlier article I posted about the business in Pakistan--- deployed paramilitary troops and police to guard the country's main stock exchange yesterday following angry protests from brokers and retail investors, who saw the value of their shares plunge more than 24 per cent in a week. Investors have been reassured by Greenspan even as Bush wonders about even bothering to honor the paper IOUs issued in the name of our government vis a vis the citizens who forked over billions to the government to invest. Ho hum, the money is not only lost, we can't repay it, not without taxing the rich and we won't do that so we will cut funds to the workers who gave us these funds. Let them eat cake!

Or as my Victorian granddaddy would say, "If you think you are getting something for nothing, you are being cheated".

Revisiting Sallyh and Her Research

In the previous article here, "Downsizing and Degrading" we talked about Sallyh who was laid off in California. She works on statistics of infection. The key item here is the idea that viruses and bacterium, having short reproductive lives, can mutate many generations in mere days, unlike us human organisms.

The population boom on earth is due to several things, one of which is the suppression of viruses and bacterium that we don't like. Because of reckless use of the nostrums for containing diseases, we have created severe evolutionary pressure on them which they have handled quite nicely, from their own point of view.

So today, here is where we stand vis a vis the great war of germ vs human:

Study Finds Spread of Resistant Steph

Dangerous drug-resistant staphylococcus infections are showing up at an alarming rate outside hospitals and nursing homes in the United States, researchers are reporting today.

Until recently, these hard-to-treat cases were seen only in hospitals and other health-care settings, where they can spread to patients with open wounds or tubes and cause serious complications. Now doctors are seeing resistant strains among inmates, children and athletes. (This didn't mention soldiers and sailors!---ed)

In a study of patients in Baltimore, the Atlanta area and Minnesota, researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 17 percent of the drug-resistant staph infections had no apparent links to health-care settings.

"Close to one-fifth of what used to be a hospital-specific problem is now a community problem. And that's a large number," said Dr. Scott K. Fridkin, an epidemiologist at the centers. "We didn't think it would be anywhere near that high when we started the study."

Note the time frame. At the beginning of the statistical study, the numbers outside of the hospital were very small, by the end, quite significant. I detect the roots of an epidemic here. If you know the history of hospitals, often they were viewed as scary places because of all the diseases that congregated there. Much of that was fixed by making hospitals more sterile. But now, with prions and with ever evolving germs in general, standard proceedures to cleanse things are beginning to fail. So what do we do?

Cut funding to statistical studies of such potential epidemics, of course.

This problem has been brewing a long time. Biologists have published studies warning about this happening and here it is, and little has been done to stop it from happening. Soon, there will be little to do to stop this.

The Four Horsemen: coming to a theater near you. (Time to study evolution, no?)