"..that the Muslim Brotherhood and the even more fundamentalist Salafist Nour Party have garnered some 65 percent of the votes in the first round of Egypts free parliamentary elections since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak should hardly come as a surprise...."
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/08/2011 07:36 ||
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#1
I don't know what's worse: that this idiot gets paid to write this crap, or that anyone takes it seriously...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/08/2011 9:23 Comments ||
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Book review in WSJ, not behind a paywall. Short excerpt:
... Tiananmen Square marks the dividing line between "a China ruled by politics" and "a China where money is king."
Mr. Yu argues that corruption infects every aspect of modern Chinese society, including the legal system. Historically, Chinese peasants with grievances could go to the capital and petition the emperor for redress. Today, Mr. Yu writes, millions--yes, millions--of desperate citizens flock to Beijing each year hoping to find an honest official who will dispense justice where the law has failed them at home. What will happen when they discover that their leaders at the national level are just as corrupt as those at the local level?
...As awful as the Cultural Revolution was, in Mr. Yu's telling its horrors sometimes pale next to those of the present day. The chapter on "bamboozle" describes how trickery, fraud and deceit have become a way of life in modern China. "There is a breakdown of social morality and a confusion in the value system of China today," he states. He writes, for example, about householders around the country who are evicted from their homes on the orders of unscrupulous, all-powerful local officials.
Mr. Yu's portrait of contemporary Chinese society is deeply pessimistic. The competition is so intense that, for most people, he says, survival is "like war." He has few hopeful words to offer, other than to quote the ancient philosopher Mencius, who taught that human progress is built on man's desire to correct his mistakes. Meanwhile, he writes, "China's pain is mine."
Mr. Yu, who lives in Beijing, made the decision not to publish "China in Ten Words" in his own country. Instead, it came out earlier this year in the other China--Taiwan--and, now, in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how he is received when, after his American book tour, he goes home again.
#1
Same old tears on a new background. "Money ruins everything." Oh, for the good old days when skittles, unicorn farts and a rifle butt to the temple or a summary execution was true prosperity and justice, and everyone knew it...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/08/2011 9:28 Comments ||
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#2
Historically, China was steadfastly cyclical in nature. This was the belief that all parts of China, even the emperor, existed in a pattern that reflected the seasons.
From birth, emperors were raised for their particular season and its characteristics, and had no choice about fulfilling that particular role. If they tried to do otherwise, the bureaucracy would just not carry out its orders.
The cycle began with the builder emperor, who would create a new China from scratch. His successor would be the maintainer emperor, who would make sure that everything that had been built was running smoothly. Then his successor was the degenerate emperor, who would retract most of the government into Peking, and let the country decay and fall apart.
The four and last emperor of the cycle was the water emperor, who would tear down and destroy everything, like a flood. This would often mean the death of millions of Chinese.
Not ironically, the last emperor was a degenerate emperor, so when Mao took over, everyone expected him to act as a water emperor. And he acted true to form, because orders contrary to that would just not be carried out, but when he would make a water emperor-style order, it would be carried out promptly and ruthlessly, without question.
The Cultural Revolution was pure, undiluted water emperor.
However, things since Mao are somewhat cloudy. Mao's successor, Hua Guofeng tried to continue on with Mao's purpose, whereas he should have been a builder emperor, so he was eventually displaced by Deng Xiaoping, whose turn to a market economy was what a builder emperor would do.
An aged Deng was replaced by Jiang Zemin, but there begins a problem. China should have moved into a decay cycle, but Jiang managed to keep everything in the maintenance cycle.
This problem has now been exacerbated by Jiang's successor, Hu Jintao, who seems to have been raised without indoctrination into the cyclical nature of China.
But China is now dangerously in need of, and more than ready for, a degeneracy cycle, and the longer it is delayed the worse it will be. It is already happening in much of their economy, and will continue to happen, and get much worse, the longer they try and put off the inevitable.
From the western point of view, this is quite dangerous, because what they consider a degeneracy cycle moving into a water cycle, we would probably see as a Chinese great depression, followed by either civil war or aggressive violent war.
In other words, China right now, from our point of view, is like pre-hyperinflation Weimar Germany.
#3
Oh, B.S. He's just like those leftists who can say nothing good about America. China is better off today than it has been for 150 years, and tomorrow it will be better. And the next day, and the next day...
#4
Today, Mr. Yu writes, millions--yes, millions--of desperate citizens flock to Beijing each year hoping to find an honest official who will dispense justice where the law has failed them at home
Bet this would be news to most people living in Beijing.
Senator Grassley pointed out that the documents DOJ released to smear Dodson were actually supposed to be so sensitive that the DOJ wouldnt provide them to congressional investigators. But then, to harm a whistleblower, someone from the DOJ provided these specifically selected documents to the press. In fact, the name of the criminal suspect in the documents was redacted, but Agent Dodsons name was left for all to see. This looks like a clear and intentional violation of the Privacy Act as well as an attempt at whistleblower retaliation, said Grassley.
#2
SCORE! that was why he asked/requested/challenged Holder to appear before his Oversight Committee. He's got the goods. I see Holder resigning before then
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2011 21:17 Comments ||
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First, enroll in a college that you cannot afford, and rely on large student loans to make up the difference.
Second, spend the next four years having as good a time as possible: hang out, hook up, and above all, take plenty of awesome courses.
Third, find teachers and role models who will encourage you to develop an attitude of enlightened contempt for ordinary American middle class life, the world of business, and such bourgeois virtues as self-reliance, thrift, accountability and self-discipline. Specialize in sarcasm and snark.
Fourth, avoid all courses with tough requirements, taking only the minimum required number of classes in science, math and foreign languages.
Fifth, never think about acquiring marketable skills.
Sixth, when you graduate and discover that you have to repay the loans and cannot get a job that pays enough to live comfortably while servicing your debts, be surprised. Blame society. Demand that the government or your parents or evil corporations bail you out.
Seventh, expect anyone (except for other clueless losers whove been as stupid and wasteful as you) to sympathize with your plight, or to treat you with anything but an infuriating mixture of sorrow, pity and contempt.
If you follow this recipe faithfully, Via Meadia promises that you will achieve all the unhappiness you want. And dont worry; anytime you feel sad and blue, just read some lifestyle journalism in the Boston Globe. It will be sure to cheer you up.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
