|
Have you had enough of China yet?
This entry was posted on 4/21/2008 1:33 PM and is filed under China - never been there.
I have an idea. Let's turn our country from communist to fascist. A side bar might be how easy it is to transition from one to the other. But none-the-less, let's then through expedited cheap labor and manufacturing, contaminate much of the world's products with unreliable ingredients. Then after much of the First-World has lost confidence in a safe product culture it nurtured for 100 years, we as said former commies-now-fascists will foist our version of the Olympics on you. After all, the First-World lackeys bought the cheap products hook, line, and sinker.
There was a dual demonstration down Madison, Wisconsin way on the opening day of the Farmers' Market on Saturday. The smaller pro-Chinese group held signs and Chinese flags saying the contaminated product thing is all just a big misunderstanding. The Free-Tibet group assembled and prepared to head down State Street with pro-Chinese folks preparing to bring up the rear.
What was my instinct when a friend in our group noted it was odd to see a demonstration at the Farmers' Market? I assured them it is, "Just Madison as Madison is." I always try to be upbeat with friends, and Chinese demonstrations pro or con, are certainly nothing new anywhere these days.
But, (my Mom always offered the odious "but" when the infamous Irish caveat was about to be leveled after just singing someone's praises), "but," a bit later as I watched the relatively uneventful march make its way down State Street, my Irish imagination kicked in - thanks Mom:
I thought, but did not say, as I held my breath and covered my mouth, "You killed our God damned pets - Fluffy and Spot will fuck your pant leg and pee all over you in the after life!" To be fair, I really directed my inner thoughts to both groups in my burst of angst. Then my mind wandered and I thought, "Try a demonstration march like this one in fascist China - for or against." Then I mused to myself, "Oh, great. Another ideological war being fought on our soil by people from another country because if they fight it in their own land, in this case China - they will.....die." Here, their greatest risk to life and limb is probably eating products from....China. My mind then wandered to a piece on television I just saw and some newspaper articles discussing how Chinese anti-freeze ended up in cough medicine in Panama. One hundred dead to date. And the band plays on and on and on and on and on and...
Not too many people act as apologists for the Chinese government any more. Although President George Bush seems to think they are cool. "But," he also thinks Iraq is going well, (I've been there twice); and, same said President has suggested on more than one occasion that we would have won Viet Nam if we had just tried..., well tried a bit harder and stayed a bit longer - slackers that my military and civilian colleagues of that era apparently are.
Oh I know, many of you have quickly put on your xenophobic-deflecting aluminum hats to protect your delicate ethnic-sensitivity and generational-tolerance souls from my crass bad vibes. But in the spirit of our own culpability in all this China mess which I hinted at near the end of the first paragraph, I defer to the Vietnamese, of whom "My Generation" fought. Remember, we where sent to 'Nam by that..."Greatest Generation" and left hanging out to dry. Anyway, we old military adversaries are rather good friends now - as old enemies do sometimes eventually gravitate. I have been to Viet Nam and Laos three times in recent years and gleaned a new understanding of the Chinese via Viet Nam and Laos.
I believe the Vietnamese, who have fought the Chinese for 1000 years off and on, say it something like this - and excuse my poor interpretation, but, "Man who sleep with Chinese business, end up with dead pet, dead children, and unemployed neighbor."
Stupid pop culture, media-complex, distraction-from-reality story
I see the main stream pundits are still up to their old tricks more than ever while I was gone to Iraq. So, I am thinking, each day I should continue to jot down the stupidest news story that is foist upon us by the big-media-complex as a distraction from the reality that has become America. So here we go - welcome to today's "Stupid Pop Culture, Media-complex, Distraction-from-reality Story."
The war in Iraq languishes on; the dollar collapses; gas prices have us working stiffs deciding between filling our car tanks and buying necessities; and, Washington apparently continues to be run by two-party paradigm lunatics. But wait; in the nanny-state America that has become the real-time world of Orwell, the freedom of movement and fun, facilitated by hard work....and man toys has been compromised. This freedom to move about expeditiously however and whenever we want is what America "means" to some of us. The Bush regime's deconstruction of happiness grinds on.
President Bush has another notch in his "destroy-life-as-we-know-it-in-these-United-States-for-no-apparent-reason" Texas-style belt. Recession proof Harley to lay off 370. Apparently even tough guys like the Harley people have surrendered to the Bush economic..."strateegery." Of course, President Bush is still holding out for a future Harry Truman-esque style revisiting and public epiphany to his much misunderstood policies.
Now there is some real God damned news!
Wisconsin military service person of the week
Lance Corporal Ryan J. Nass, 21, of Franklin, Wisconsin died September 3, 2005 from a gunshot wound at Camp Blessing, Afghanistan. He was a rifleman in the 1st Squad, 1st Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force. The unit is based out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Camp Blessing, Afghanistan is about 20 miles from Pakistan. His unit was deployed to Afghanistan in June of 2005. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sited his medals as the Afghanistan Campaign Medal; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Sea Service Deployment Ribbon; and, the National Defense Service Medal. Nass is survived by his wife. Lance Corporal Ryan J. Nass was the fourth Wisconsin service member to be killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
82,987 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,145 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,038 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
490 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
308 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
299 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
29,780 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1,928 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
89 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
127 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
15 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
