THE CHINA BLOCKBUSTER: WAR OR PEACE?

Whether or not America, with men like Bush leading us, will be able to move aside and peacefully make way for a mightier nation seems a mighty scary proposition.

"Some 25 million Chinese enter the workforce annually. Given the age of its current population, its savings rate of 40 percent, an economy open to investment, a dramatic commitment to mass education and to improving the lives of its own people, and the ability to transfer huge numbers of workers from low-productivity agriculture to higher-productivity manufacturing, China should be able to continue growing at a rate of 7 to 8 percent for the foreseeable future. Let's pause to contemplate what that means: By the middle of the century, the poor country we saw 50 years ago as just so many rice paddies and rickshaws may well be the largest economy in the world. It is an awe-inspiring shift in global power comparable to the rise of Europe in the 17th century and that of America in the 19th and early 20th centuries."

—Mort Zuckerman in US News (Jan. 23, 2006 p. 68)

Call this photo Natural Geometry >>

BUSH CREATES ANOTHER BUSH-LEAGUE NATION

Paul Bremmer (the point man in Iraq lo those many years ago) has admitted in a US News question/answer article (Jan. 24, 2006, p. 24) that we have made a mess of Iraq. You gotta read between the lines:

"The concept of democracy to many people [in Iraq] is just "majority rules." But as most Americans understand, democracy also depends on protection of minority rights. I preached that theme in my many, many negotiations with Iraqis. I think it is gradually being understood. But I do not know how well it is understood by Sunnis. There are some Sunnis who think they are a majority of the country.

"Question: Was Iraqi sectarianism inevitable?

Answer: One of the characteristics of post conflict situations is that political leaders tend to focus on what we would call in America their base. That can have the effect of exacerbating apparent differences, in this case sectarian differences. What we could have done [to discourage that], I am not sure."

This is an old article now and many more people are admitting the same thing, but the point I wanted to make is not about Iraq but about American fundamentalists and their inability to understand compromise as a way of doing business in a democracy. Now if only Christians here at home understood that our own Constitutional government was created with a strong bias to protect the rights of minorities. Under the Bush regime, we're losing sight of that.

MAKE A LIST, ANY LIST. . . .

Make any list of any positive or negative cultural trends from poverty to murder rates in America and the South will end up at top or bottom, depending on how backward the trend is or isn't. I like to bring these items to your attention. This time it's smoking cessation:

"Best grades for progress in smoking cessation are Maine, Washington, Vermont, Delaware and a N.Y./R.I. tie. Worst? Head south, hold your nose, and you guessed it: Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina."

—From an American Lung Association release as reported in a recent Newsweek.

Yep! Ah'll support ma bacci comp'ny e'en'f'it kills me.

Do you think the U.S. Constitution can survive, dragged down by that bunch of yahoos? I apologize to all those stuck down there who can't escape to a better land. Evolution teaches us that we are mighty fond of the environment we grow up in. It's hard to move, but, then, the ability to move freely about is a sign that one has escaped his or her evolutionary handcuffs.