China whining yet possibly still winning

The Chinese can't get everything they want all the time, right? So they have been on a heck of a roll these past few years: booming economy, Obama rebuffing the Dalai Lama, Chinese censors blocking both my blog and my website (busanhaps.com for God knows what), the Olympics, etc.

But all of this carte blanche given to the Chinese by the U.S. due to the ridiculous amount of American debt they are financing gave way to good ol' capitalism with the recent $6.4 billion in arms sales to neighboring country and whipping boy, Taiwan.

Quite a balancing act Uncle Sam is trying to pull off you know? Considering the fact that little Taiwan stands strong as the fourth largest holder of American Treasury Notes in the world the deal makes complete sense.

This all is of course coupled with news that Chinese military expansion abroad known as "The String of Pearls" (which shows a poor knowledge of porn idioms) has been seeping into the collective conscious of India --who stands to lose the most from a Chinese military buildup. India has been in a state of denial about this, with the foreign minister going so far as to dismiss Chinese intentions in the Indian ocean. I don't know what kind of chai this guy is drinking.

Seriously, you think all of these ports that the Chinese are refurbishing in South East Asia over the past few years is out of the kindness of their hearts? The great war of the future will not be between the U.S. and China --it will be between India and China. This will come after a bloody spat with Taiwan --unless of course, they are adequately equipped with American military technology.

Busan Haps "Interviews" Josh Hartnett

BusanHaps.com is doing the "Full On PIFF 2009" coverage during the film festival. Myself, Chris Tharpe and Jason Worrel doing the honors. Basically, checking out movies and crashing parties.

Last night got a chance to ask American Actor Josh Hartnett the question on every Korean's mind.

Stay tuned.

Pathetic

Brian Deutsch, author of the great blog, Brian in Jeollonamdo came across this incredibly racist video. The thing is that it was probably something innocent, and unintended as an insult --a casualness that makes it even more offensive. The Americans have done just as bad over the years --remember Charlie Chan?

Oh well, I will just say, get with it Samsung. Love your TV's, but your computers are nowhere near the best. At least your ads can show some quality --or some class.

Morons on Parade Pt 2

Just to be fair, since I was kinda hard on the folks who went to Washington, lets allow them to speak for themselves:

But, as you will see, just more FOX news sound bites and absolutely no substance behind it and little knowledge about what they are protesting.

Oh, well, I'll shut up now. Carry on with the show:

The Great Mortimer Hayden Smyth is back again

The funniest political satirist out there on the net:

Morons on Parade

Just wanted to post a couple of photos that my high school classmate snapped at the recent march on Washington by some of America's finest. Pretty hilarious were it not so scary --perhaps we can blame Reagan for loosening the laws on who goes into mental asylums and who doesn't back in the 80's.

This guy is on top of things. There are many more miscarriages than abortions. Doesn't that make God the worst abortionist?

Speaking of Blame: how these folks can suddenly come up with such a vicious attack against the new president is suspect and obviously based little on fact. They were out there in force with all of the FOX-news-distributed sound bites about socialism and Obama's citizenship --which has been proved-- and other simple slogans that deny the deeper concepts, but that's OK. Freedom of speech doesn't specify any prohibition for utterances of the incoherent.

Those who can only see things in their own narrow view, who have this delusion of some "golden age" in America that never actually existed. The odd definition of "freedom" that once again shows why America continues to be the most violent, most drug abusing, teenage baby havin,' low education sportin' "democracy" in the world.

Why aren't they marching about that?

And I love the way they quote the Founding Fathers in all this --as if they were beacons of the right way to govern. Most of the Founding Fathers were terrified of an ill-informed mass like the one that marched on Washington this weekend.

Best Pic of the day. The mental hospital security crew must be short staffed on weekends.

There were probably a lot of good people and some good intentioned people --but there were an abundance of morons on the march.

Black, White and the Vanishing Gray

During the presidency of Georgy Boy, I watched as people called the man stupid, gave him no credit for anything and reduced him to something less than human.

And now I watch in utter bemusement as the other side does the same to Obama. These tit for tat simpletons on both sides are pathetic. So obsessed are they for a definitive right or wrong, good or bad, blessed or evil, that they miss the nuance.

In their presidential run there is one great thing that both Obama and McCain shared in common. They both sought to bring people together. And we know that it wasn't the typical political bullshit hype. With McCain we only need look at his record for proof that he is a good man, who has always sought consensus and not absolutes. With Obama, over the past months, we can see that he is the same.

For me the presidential race was a toss up. I would have been happy with either McCain or Obama --they are both good men. One need look no further than McCain's concession speech for guidance out of the current diametrical mess the country is in:

“Senator Obama and I have argued our differences and he has prevailed…these are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face. I urge all Americans who supported me to…offering our next President our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary ways to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity…and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited. Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans.”

John McCain would have made a great president, but he, like Obama now, would have been constantly caught up in the petty squabbles of narrow minded people unwilling to concede on even the slightest difference. Helluva system isn't it?

This country was founded on the Greek concept of a "marketplace of ideas." What we have been reduced to is left wing and a right wing fixtures that control the nature of the debate with their ignorant one-sided views.

Martin Luther King hoped for a color blind society. That's all fine and dandy, but I think the most problematic blindness in America is for the most important color in societal discourse --GRAY.

We are becoming a nation of divided absolutes --losing all sight of the gray area that makes up a large portion of our existence here together.

At any rate, here is the clip from Obama's recent education speech that the right wing nut cases were screaming from the rafters about. A televised speech to our nation's children that some conservative principles, school boards and even parents were actually seeking to block.

Blocking children from hearing the president, no matter his party, is well, uhmm... what's the word? Oh yeah...FACIST.

Now, tell me Mr. School Principle, why would you want to block this? Because he is right, but from the left? You're fired.