News & opinion on Greater China and the even Greater Beyond: by Biff Cappuccino.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Rumsfeld to Reporter: “I Have a Real Daytime Job” (VIDEO) : RUMSFELD: You think I’m going to stand around reading your books and disputing things in them or validating or not validating? I have a real daytime job. ... The fact that I haven't disputed something—I mean, if I disputed all of the mythology that comes out of this group and the books of the world, I wouldn’t have any time to do anything else. Biff- I'm neither pro-Republican nor pro-Democrat. But it's wonderful to see a politico taking down a presumptuous reporter.
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法國是個神經質的女人?法國從攻打巴士底獄的暴民革命,到拿破侖的武力征伐,建立帝國,再到共產主義雛型的巴黎公社,一路充斥反秩序、反傳統,反法治、反道德的革命瘋頭。在這種“瘋狂”中,人性最原始、丑陋、殘忍的一面,充分大爆發。法國首創流行的斷頭台,是醫生發明的。狄更斯的名著《雙城記》中那個凶惡的暴民老太婆更是鮮明的象征。這種暴民政治,甚至比任何專制都可怕。就像中國的文化大革命一樣,是最無法無天的殘酷時代(可今天還有人歌頌有個人民文革,是前造反派們要肯定自己的歷史吧?)
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PBS: The Tank Man - After all others had been silenced, his lonely act of defiance against the Chinese regime catalyzed the world. What became of him? And 17 years later, has China succeeded in erasing this event from its history? Biff- For those who can endure the deliberate languor of PBS. For me, Huell Howser's "California Gold" series was the last straw. More insulting than even Sesame Street.
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On North Korea: Communist China’s Colony - Anyone who examines or comments on the Korean peninsula’s political situation is aware of its people’s painful history as victims of colonization. Unfortunately, many assume said colonization ended with the Second World War. While the last colonial power in southern Korea was indeed removed in 1945, the northern half of peninsula simply switched colonial masters – from Imperial Japan to the Soviet Union and (now solely) Communist China. ...The Communists themselves answered that question with their brazen “historical” claim to Koguryo, the ancient Korean kingdom whose boundaries just happen to include “most of modern North Korea” (London Telegraph via Washington Times). The significance of this is plain: the Communists used the same type of pseudo-history to justify seizing Tibet in 1950. With precedent in place, the message was sent: Kim Jong-il will do our bidding, or we’ll simply take northern Korea for our own.
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China: Sex work to support the family - Fortunately, things began to turn for the better for Xu. One of her former "customers" helped cure her disease and even proposed to her. She refused, but gained happiness from the whole ordeal. Biff- but how does this fit into the woe-is-me narrative? And of course, customers are always proposing marriage to prostitutes. That fact never seems to show it's dirty face in the usual diatribes. Not to mention the hordes of Japanese soldiers who dated and/or proposed marriage to comfort women. Complicated stuff. Too complicated for most reporters: a simpleminded incurious bunch... But in 2005, Xu did receive an email from her brother about the news of a Wuhan University college student who was infected with HIV after having sex with a foreigner... Biff- That's about as likely as being paid in three dollar bills... And the larger subtext to this story is that professional sex pays well. Ergo, bimbos don't end up in the gutter. They end up financially solvent. But how often does that awkward rule of thumb make it into the diatribes? Pffft!
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Mystery of Japan abductee deepens: Pyongyang returned what it said were Ms Yokota's remains to Japan in November 2004, but Japanese officials said tests showed the remains came from a number of people and were not Ms Yokota's. Biff- Given the cults of personality, conspiracy theories and anti-information nature of despotisms, it often seems as if there's no act too arrogant and dim-witted for despots and their minions. To wit, Saddam's decision to go toe to toe with the US and the Iranian leadership's present burst of apocalyptic madness.
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Political Correctness Is Alive and Well on College Campuses: At one point during a Vagina Monlogues staging in 2001, three professors wrote a letter in the campus newspaper, not advocating that the performance be stopped, but simply presenting the idea that the play entails, as much as anything else, the misandrist, carping pseudo-victimology of a group of people who claim to be oppressed while actually being more wealthy and privileged than 99%+ of all the people who have ever lived on this planet. Rather than acknowledging the free-speech rights of all (let alone actually considering the points being raised), the campus feminists chose react in several unconscionable ways. One angrily called one of the critics “a cheap Jew.” Biff- When I think of how little of utility I learned during four and a half years of university attending first a computer science and then a history program, cripes... 95% of successful novelists don't go to college. Twain didn't, Orwell didn't, Mencken didn't, and the pattern continues down to the present day. Bill Gates is a college dropout, the late Peter Jennings was a high-school dropout. By sophomore year, I knew college was a complete waste of time for me but I didn't have the balls to drop out. Regrets, regrets...

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