After 2008, China will move quickly to democracy.
(OK, I’m paraphrasing.)
Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, told a Japanese opposition party politician that democratization would make China a more predictable neighbor, a news report said Saturday.
Newsvine – Report: Dalai Lama Seeks China Democracy
Just saw the film Munich , the Hollywood version of the story of Israeli retaliation after the kidnapping and murder of 11 athletes at the 1972 Olympics.
Steven Spielberg directed and the quality is excellent.
I thought it was remarkably unbiased. Both the Palestinian terrorists and the amateur Israeli retaliation team are shown as people, not heroes or villains.
Spielberg focuses on “the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence”.
Everyone is a loser in this film.
I might have liked the movie better if I had not read the book on which it is based, Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas.
Jonas attempted to document the true story of one of the Israelis, Yuval Aviv, who is played by Eric Bana in the movie.
In the book the assassinations of people on a list who may or may not be involved in Munich was much uglier than in the film.
Well … the movie is “inspired by the true story”. The book criticized as being inaccurate regarding the true story. The facts are muddled.
But one thing is clear to everyone. Assassination and counter-assassination do not work, long-term.
I recommend both film and book.
I believe in a separation of Church and State. Theocracy is bad government. We’ve seen that time and time again.
But Islamic secularists are reluctant to voice this view. Perhaps they fear repercussions.
Here’s an exception. Inspired by Ataturk (who should be a great hero of Islam) brave people took to the streets.
ANKARA, TURKEY — Thousands of nationalist Turks marched in the capital Saturday, vowing to defend the secular regime against radical Islamic influences and urging the government not to make too many concessions in order to gain European Union membership.
Some 12,000 people from more than 100 pro-secular associations waved Turkish flags as they marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. “Turkey is secular and it will remain secular,” they chanted during a march broadcast live on some TV channels.
I love Doonesbury.
Especially with the American mid-term elections coming up.
Only in the States (feeling the “vibe“) and only in rent-a-cars. And only on white trash AM radio.
But I have to admit — the big, fat idiot makes the miles fly by.
Rush Limbaugh – Wikipedia
He is a master Republican defender. And gutsy. I even heard him spin the absolutely indefensible Mark Foley and make it sound like Bill Clinton’s fault.
Limbaugh’s an intelligent guy, obviously. I can’t imagine he believes everything he spouts. Perhaps he does. There is a consistency to his line of argument.
Those who listen only to Limbaugh, watch only Fox News, should check out the anti-Limbaugh — Al Franken.
Want to book reservations at Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Hotel?
Sorry.
The “hotel” is an empty shell that can be seen from anywhere in the capital city. Construction was stopped in 1992 due to a lack of funds and safety concerns about crooked elevator shafts and cracking concrete. Plus, no tourists.
A perfect symbol of the hubris and stupidity of totalitarian rule.
Pyongyang: Home to the Tallest Hotel in the World That Could, but Will Never Be
Locking up this guy will really make me sleep better.
Security researcher Christopher Soghoian created the Northwest Airline Boarding Pass Generator in the hope of spurring Congress to look closely at the nation’s aviation security policies, which he calls “security theater.”
The site lets anyone create a facsimile of a Northwest Airlines boarding pass, with whatever name they choose.
On Friday, Congress heard Soghoian’s message loud and clear. But instead of promising to reform broken airport security procedures, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), a member of the House Homeland Security committee known for his defenses of privacy, wants the site shut down and Soghoian arrested. …
Soghoian, a Ph.D. student at Indiana University, says he has never used one of the fake boarding passes, which are likely good enough to get someone through airport security into the “sanitized” area of the airport, but not good enough to get anyone on a plane. He was waiting for clearance from lawyers at Indiana University before attempting to test if the method worked to get through security. …
“I want Congress to see how stupid the (Transportation Security Administration)’s watch lists are,” he said. “Now even the most technically incompetent user can click and generate a boarding pass. By doing this, I’m hoping (Congress) will see how silly the security rules are. I don’t want bad guys to board airplanes but I don’t think the system we have right now works and I think it is giving us a false sense of security.”
Wired News: Boarding Pass Hacker Under Fire
Thanks George.
Like every tourist in Page, Arizona, I popped in to visit Glen Canyon Dam. I’ve really enjoyed similar tours of other large dams.
And the impact on the environment caused by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam is more controversial than most. It sounded interesting.
But I was turned off by over-zealous security officials.
After a slow line-up, turned out I was not allowed to carry anything into the facility. They rushed and flustered a bus load of French tourists too. Everyone present was painfully aware that there was zero security risk. It was an embarassment.
This going-through-the-motions has been called security theatre. Too right.
Rather than this useless song and dance, why don’t we study what the Israelis do? The security procedures of El-Al airlines, for example. El Al has has had no successful terrorist attack on board any of its aircraft for over 35 years.
Major dams are terrorist targets. They deserve the highest level of security. But hassling tourists does not help. Shut the facility down from tourism completely, if necessary. Shut down the highway, if necessary.
But don’t pretend you are preventing a serious attack by preventing me carrying in a wallet.
» next travelogue post on this trip – when did Halloween get … BIG?
… more boring US politics
You would be hard pressed to prove that Democrats are any better politicians than Republicans.
But Republicans are far more hypocritical. They fear monger, pander to racism, cheat, steal and out-lie the Democrats by a wide margin. (Some would say they are more skilled at the “art of politics”.)
Case in point — “happy-go-lucky sexual predator, Mark Foley, the Republican congressman from Palm Beach, Florida, who had been luring teenage congressional pages to his townhouse of iniquity” — only the latest in a long line of two-faced Republicans.
Publicly Foley had been fervently anti-Gay. And the first elected official to vote to “protect children”.
Sidney Blumenthal gives a run-down of the scandals among GOP lawmakers if you want to be reminded of past deceit.
Check this picture of North Korea by night, deep in darkness. And see also, just below, the lights of South Korea blazing so warmly.
Question: Which of those two Korean countries do you think decided to follow America and go capitalist?
Andrew Bolt is a raving extremist so far as I can tell from this rant.
But the photo could be real.
Rick McCharles 