Our task is not to rediscover nature but to remake it.
Raoul Vaneigem
Liu Xiaobo, A Worthy Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Thumbs WAY UP!
During high school I did a research topics course, and I chose a particularly propitious topic: China. In many ways, it was an odd choice: years earlier, the Communist Party leadership launched the economically disastrous Great Leap Forward followed by the Cultural Revolution, an ideological movement determined to purge China of closet capitalists. But incredibly, the staunch anti-Communist Richard Nixon signaled a flexibility for a renewed diplomatic relationship with a ping pong competition ice breaker. The US has had to walk a thin line to this very day between mainland China and Taiwan, where the former Nationalist government fled after its overthrow by the Communist Party of China, supported by its Soviet allies. Even as intuitively convinced I was of the story behind China back then, I would scarcely imagine that China would somehow emerge from its hopeless state planning mentality to grow in just over 3 decades into the world's second largest economy, perhaps on course to overtake the US in my lifetime.
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| An Iconic Symbol for Human Rights and Dignity |
I still remember visiting my totally disinterested maternal uncle at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, when student-led protests led to a military crackdown resulting in the deaths of hundreds and the injury of thousands of peaceful civilians. It was during this dramatic struggle between the pro-democracy forces, insisting on their own constitutional rights to free speech and freedom to assemble, and the party dictatorship that Liu Xiaobo came into prominence. His was a moderating voice in the movement, not wanting the overthrow of the party dictatorship to be replaced by a student-led dictatorship and also arguing restraint by movement participants looking to attack the military.
In my opinion, the Communist Party of China is an anachronism and inevitably headed towards its day of reckoning. It is utterly inconceivable to me that the bright young men and women leading the way to a new golden age for China will indefinitely tolerate arbitrary restrictions on their human rights by an out-of-touch, paternalistic petty dictatorship. Liu Xiaobo is an uncommon man, a truly worthy recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and I look forward to the day that the Chinese government finally frees him from its morally unjust imprisonment.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs....
Once again, we see unemployment at 9.6%, with a modest pickup in the private sector (but the quality of those additions is very poor, e.g., part-time, temporary, lower-paying jobs (such as restaurant work), while jobs in manufacturing and construction are down). (I should note some estimates, e.g., payroll processing, showing the private sector dropping 39,000 jobs in September.) When one factors into the equation roughly equal proportions of roughly 150,000 Census and local government layoffs, the economy had a net loss of 95,000 workers.
So, congratulations, Mr. Obama. Some 16 months after the end of the recession and nearly $1T in an excessive, poorly structured stimulus, your economic policies can't even meet the roughly 100,000 jobs needed for new labor force additions, never mind at least 200,000 or more needed to make progress in easing unemployment--probably the weakest jobs recovery in decades. That Government Motors car in the ditch you've been talking about? It looks like the only thing you've been doing the last 20 months has been spinning your wheels on your own perpetual campaign mudslinging.
For American voters tired of Obama's uncompromising, hyper-political mindset (already promising "hand-to-hand combat" if the GOP wins), no constructive plan for growing the economy, constant scapegoating and refusal to accept responsibility for his and his party's own inept performance, there's an election early next month. Got a vote?
Political Humor
"Former vice president and presidential candidate Walter Mondale criticized President Obama for using teleprompters. He called them 'idiot boards.' Of course, Democrats were stunned. They said, 'Walter Mondale is still alive?'" –Jay Leno
[Obama was going to respond to Mondale, but his teleprompter fell over.]
"Donald Trump is running for president. He's already got a short list of running mates. He's thinking about Cyndi Lauper, Hulk Hogan, Melissa Rivers, Sharon Osbourne . . . He's ready to go." " –David Letterman
[No, he's not, Dave. He's building buzz for his spring 2012 Celebrity Apprentice, Red, White and Blue edition. This Apprentice has special rules: viewers will have an opportunity to give the Donald feedback on whom he should fire, and a pollster will be in the boardroom. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to play, but he's been told he's not eligible...]
Musical Interlude: The "British Invasion" of the 1960s Series
Dave Clark 5, "Glad All Over"
