It's kitty-corner to the hotel. It's obvious they've taken the whole capitalism thing to heart and chucked collectivism out the window in some parts of the country.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Best angry rant about state of the Nation
Joseph Palermo on the Huffington Post just lets loose and takes no prisoners. Best part? He even fingers the most benignly evil aspect of the Far Right's draconian solutions to the country's problems: "Like the Texas State Board of Education purging textbooks for children of any ideological impurities, we're surrounded (it seems) with stupid people screaming loudly for stupid policies that are designed in one way or another to produce a generation of stupid people."
I'm at present in a country where I can't access certain Western newspapers, where I can't access my personal blog and where certain books are censored and edited, and I can only sit back and shake my head as Texas, the state where the loudmouths always claim to be more patriotic than everyone else, just gutted the Constitution with an Orwellian school curriculum. Unbelieveable.
Welcome to the Mainland: American Express accepted
If you're reading this post, then congratulations! 'Cause I can't. Posterous, like Facebook, is not accessible in the People's Republic of China. So, I can only update the page via email, either my corporate email address or via my Gmail which I think has been rerouted through Hong Kong. We grabbed a cab at the airport because the legendary Maglev train stops running at 9 p.m. and our flight was three hours late. No problem, caught a cab pronto and drove into the big smoke in a little over 30 minutes. Weirdly enough, both Bob and I found the drive into Shanghai very reminiscent of driving from the Detroit airport to his son's home in Birmingham -- wide highways, some marginally elevated above the ground. Also, as Shanghai is on a river and a flood plain, the landscape is similar to the greater Detroit area. However, driving into the city, especially coming down Nanjing Xi Lu was very much like driving down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, complete with impressive Beaux Art buildings, modern skyscrapers and the prerequisite luxury mall. We're staying at the JC Mandarin. We were told it was "tired", but we think it got a face lift for the Expo because it seems like someone dabbed a fresh coat of paint here and there. More tomorrow. Tired.
Flight delayed, meal vouchers ...
Mmmm, ramen. Bob got dodgy soy chicken and fried rice. A lesson to all: when in doubt, always go with the Japanese ramen chain.
Yuan and renminbi ...
... are pretty much the same thing. The official currency of the People's Republic of China. Renminbi means "people's money" but on Wall Street it just means "undervalued currency" and at 14- or 15-cents a US buck, I'd say that's pretty accurate.
The ¥ has Chairman Mao on it, the other stuff is Hong Kong dollars.
Gotta love the MTR
Bob grows weary of the solo snapshots. Rare pic showing both Bob and I in Hong Kong.
I love checking in at the Hong Kong MTR, dumping off the luggage and napping for 30 minutes or so. Only thing missing? Bar car.Off to the Mainland
Brunch at the Phoenix. Last minute luggage check. (I forgot to pack eight days of unmentionables. Bob found them neatly folded on a chair next to the suitcase. It did feel lighter ...)
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Libertarianism debunked. Finally
Michael Tomasky at The Guardian finally says what many American columnists have been afraid to say: That Libertarianism is a farce, a contradictory and completely useless ideology incapable of governing anything, be it a rural hamlet or a major world power.
For me, Libertarian has always been a kind of intellectual loophole for Conservatives uneasy with the whole "family values" crap that made the GOP such a bunch of stick-in-the-muds. A catch-phrase that gives certain Republicans the intellectual wiggle room needed to justify cheating on their wives or smoking pot in the privacy of their own home or have a torrid gay affair with their daughter's boyfriend.
It's all about personal freedom.
Like those odes to the noncommittal losers of America's heartland: Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" and the Allman Brothers' "Ramblin' Man", the word "Libertarian" just seems to say "it's all about me" -- like an episode of Sex and the City -- but with a macho swagger.
And it's always middle-class, middle-aged, self-entitled white men who claim its mantel. Sad, really ...
參考來源： Michael Tomasky: Intellectual consistency can be overrated | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
For me, Libertarian has always been a kind of intellectual loophole for Conservatives uneasy with the whole "family values" crap that made the GOP such a bunch of stick-in-the-muds. A catch-phrase that gives certain Republicans the intellectual wiggle room needed to justify cheating on their wives or smoking pot in the privacy of their own home or have a torrid gay affair with their daughter's boyfriend.
It's all about personal freedom.
Like those odes to the noncommittal losers of America's heartland: Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" and the Allman Brothers' "Ramblin' Man", the word "Libertarian" just seems to say "it's all about me" -- like an episode of Sex and the City -- but with a macho swagger.
And it's always middle-class, middle-aged, self-entitled white men who claim its mantel. Sad, really ...
參考來源： Michael Tomasky: Intellectual consistency can be overrated | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
Sunday in the Park with George ...
... in Cantonese.
Oddly, next to the English-language title in parentheses is the word "re-run".Facts prove popular with the people
Despite the love affair Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and most bloggers (Left and Right, but especially the Right) have with preconceived narratives and out-and-out untruths, it appears that a large number of newsreaders like their facts to be accurate. Leave it to that old MSM mainstay, the Associated Press, to come to the rescue.
參考來源： The Plum Line - Who woulda thunk it: Fact-checking is popular! (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
參考來源： The Plum Line - Who woulda thunk it: Fact-checking is popular! (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
On the road again ...
Just setting up the new site for our next little adventure in Asia. Stay tuned ...
Monday, May 17, 2010
Texas Two-step
Libertarian bloggers wet their panties of late because a local Houston TV news program caught wind that the Houston police were testing a UAV on the down-low.
Now, this blog here used the headline "Texas Becoming a Police State" which I found a little funny (albeit a little on the hysterical side of things), because most of the people I know from Texas are big law and order types who defer to law enforcement and the rule of "might makes right" more often than not when it comes to keeping a civil society.
Now, where was this hysteria about using "drone technology to spy on" people when Arizona passed SB 1070, its "show us your papers, please" law? See, it appears that using UAVs that can fly for almost up to 24 hours and gather information is unconstitutional, but stopping someone to demand they prove their citizenship is perfectly legal. Doesn't that violate someone's right to privacy? I'm just asking.
Cool spyplane, BTW ...
參考來源： Texas Becoming a Police State | Intellectual Brouhaha (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
Now, this blog here used the headline "Texas Becoming a Police State" which I found a little funny (albeit a little on the hysterical side of things), because most of the people I know from Texas are big law and order types who defer to law enforcement and the rule of "might makes right" more often than not when it comes to keeping a civil society.
Now, where was this hysteria about using "drone technology to spy on" people when Arizona passed SB 1070, its "show us your papers, please" law? See, it appears that using UAVs that can fly for almost up to 24 hours and gather information is unconstitutional, but stopping someone to demand they prove their citizenship is perfectly legal. Doesn't that violate someone's right to privacy? I'm just asking.
Cool spyplane, BTW ...
參考來源： Texas Becoming a Police State | Intellectual Brouhaha (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
Changing Values
It's not often you see such a clear-cut analysis of contemporary Jewish views on Israel as in this article by Peter Beinart that appeated in The New York Review of Books: "Morally, American Zionism is in a downward spiral. If the leaders of groups like AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations do not change course, they will wake up one day to find a younger, Orthodox-dominated, Zionist leadership whose naked hostility to Arabs and Palestinians scares even them, and a mass of secular American Jews who range from apathetic to appalled."
It's a generational case, of course, just as more and more young Americans (even those from conservative religious backgrounds) don't understand anti-gay hostility or mixed-marriages or even the idea of a black president, younger American Jews, one- or two-generations removed from the scars of the Holocaust, are questioning the US relationship with Israel and that country's own policies towards Palestinians and the Muslim world.
Provocative stuff from Mr. Beinart.
參考來源： The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment | The New York Review of Books (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
It's a generational case, of course, just as more and more young Americans (even those from conservative religious backgrounds) don't understand anti-gay hostility or mixed-marriages or even the idea of a black president, younger American Jews, one- or two-generations removed from the scars of the Holocaust, are questioning the US relationship with Israel and that country's own policies towards Palestinians and the Muslim world.
Provocative stuff from Mr. Beinart.
參考來源： The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment | The New York Review of Books (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Tea Party Mirage? Possibly
GOP-ers and Tea Baggers pay attention to the next quote from the AP story: "I'm a new Democrat," said Harley Smithson, 51, of Baltimore, who said he had recently switched from the GOP. "I want to be with a party that's for something instead of against everything."
You just can't be down on Obama because he's black any more. You have to grow up, admit America is changing and that thinking that not having a single WASP on the Supreme Court is a bad thing.
You can't just keep saying "no" to everything Obama suggests, just ... because. That's grade-school. What's worse is when you say "no" to policies members of your OWN party previously endorsed. That's just retarded.
You have to learn to love bilingual education. Studies show that bilingual students not only do better in school, they master non-language classes like math and science at a faster pace.
Also, enough with the gay bashing. So many of you GOP-ers have been forced out of the closet of late, it's just embarrassing. It's about time you admit GOP stands for Gay Old Party.
Since we all know that Libertarians are really only Conservatives without the family values hang-ups (drugs, infidelity and homosexuality seem to be OK with most Libertarians. Weird, I know), if you can just get over the selfish, Ayn Randian posturing, the country would do so much better. Really, we like entrepreneurs, it's self-absorbed douche-bags we hate.
參考來源： The Associated Press: AP-GfK Poll: Only a third want own lawmakers back (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
You just can't be down on Obama because he's black any more. You have to grow up, admit America is changing and that thinking that not having a single WASP on the Supreme Court is a bad thing.
You can't just keep saying "no" to everything Obama suggests, just ... because. That's grade-school. What's worse is when you say "no" to policies members of your OWN party previously endorsed. That's just retarded.
You have to learn to love bilingual education. Studies show that bilingual students not only do better in school, they master non-language classes like math and science at a faster pace.
Also, enough with the gay bashing. So many of you GOP-ers have been forced out of the closet of late, it's just embarrassing. It's about time you admit GOP stands for Gay Old Party.
Since we all know that Libertarians are really only Conservatives without the family values hang-ups (drugs, infidelity and homosexuality seem to be OK with most Libertarians. Weird, I know), if you can just get over the selfish, Ayn Randian posturing, the country would do so much better. Really, we like entrepreneurs, it's self-absorbed douche-bags we hate.
參考來源： The Associated Press: AP-GfK Poll: Only a third want own lawmakers back (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)
Above Happy Valley
Really cool luxury apartment buildings above Bowen Road. Hong Kong architecture is pretty impressive.
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