"10,000 years. . .10,000 years. . ."
Bai hua qi fang, bai jia zheng ming: A hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend
Comments on History, Politics, Society, and Culture
Monday, May 16, 2011
HOW LONG WILL YOU LIVE?
A blood test that can show how fast someone is ageing – and offers the tantalising possibility of estimating how long they have left to live – is to go on sale to the general public in Britain later this year.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
PHOTO LAURA BUSH & HASIDIC LEADERS
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
And for some people conspiracies are never resolved. I was visiting with someone who is convinced communists are in charge of the Islamic revolution and terrorism. I am not sure any proof would satisfy him. (And by the way Marxism sees a conspiracy by capitalist forces!)
Monday, May 09, 2011
ONLINE GULAG MUSEUM
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
ROMAN CATHOLIC ANALYSIS OF OBAMA'S VIEWS OF EASTER
Thursday, April 21, 2011
ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS
Their report advises that the bulbs should not be left on for extended periods, particularly near someone’s head, as they emit poisonous materials when switched on.
Friday, April 08, 2011
CONSERVATIVE SATIRE
Friday, April 01, 2011
MOCK OBAMA AD
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
PBS FUNDING
Thursday, March 24, 2011
LIBYA
In a briefing on board Air Force One Wednesday, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes took a crack at an answer. "I think what we are doing is enforcing a resolution that has a very clear set of goals, which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis, and setting up a no-fly zone," Rhodes said. "Obviously that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end."
And then there is Vice President Biden who wanted Bush impeached if he went to war with Iran without congressional approval. But now he doesn't exactly see Obama's actions in the same light.
From The Daily Show.
Monday, March 07, 2011
ISLAM & DARWINISM
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
2008 ECONOMIC CRASH
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
DECLINE OF THE WHITE COLLAR CLASS
Blue collar workers have been getting the shaft since 1973; white collar workers are starting to get the same treatment now. Two of the same forces that drove down blue collar wages are starting to hit professionals: competition from overseas and the use of technology to raise productivity so that fewer workers are needed to do the same amount of work. The US manufacturing sector has actually grown since 1973, producing more even as it has shed workers. There is no reason why the same thing can’t happen to lawyers, middle managers, government bureaucrats and many more white collar workers as computers get smarter and firms start outsourcing professional work overseas.
Tens of millions of Americans aren’t just reading about American decline; they are living American decline.
The educational system is also going to change in ways the unions and the guilds can’t imagine — and will fight to the death. Going forward, students need to be evaluated and credentialed on the basis of what they know, not on the basis of time served.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
SOUTH KOREAN PSY-OP
South Korean activists sought to exploit the suffering, firing balloons carrying thousands of leaflets on waterproof pieces of plastic bearing insulting messages about Kim Jong-Il and his three sons. Beneath the headline, “Republic of Fat,” were photos of Kim Jong-Il quaffing a glass of wine and of the puffed-up faces of Kim Jong-Nam and Kim Jong-Un.
“They’re sick because they ate too much,” said the caption. Opposite those were pictures of emaciated children and a young woman whose body was discovered in a field after she starved to death. “This woman is picking clover not for a rabbit but for herself,” the caption says.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
NIR ROSEN RESIGNATION
UNITED MUSLIM NATION
Qaradawi advocates establishing a "United Muslim Nations" as a contemporary form of the caliphate and the only alternative to the hegemony of the West. He hates Israel and would love to take up arms himself. In one of his sermons, he asked God "to kill the Jewish Zionists, every last one of them."
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Friday, February 04, 2011
VIOLENT RHETORIC OF LEFT
FT. HOOD SHOOTINGS REPORT
Today the Senate Homeland Security Committee released an independent report on the Ft. Hood shootings. The 91 page report is titled A Ticking Time Bomb: Counterterrorism Lessons from the US Government’s Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack. The gist of it is that the FBI and Hasan’s superiors had more than enough information to prevent the shootings and likely would have done so if not for political correctness.
Monday, January 31, 2011
CHINA'S CYBER-ESPIONAGE
After photos surfaced recently of a prototype Chinese stealth fighter, Pentagon officials acknowledged that they have continually underestimated the pace of Chinese technological advances. Perhaps that’s because China is stealing technology from the West at a blinding pace, through cyber-espionage. And U.S. companies are doing little to stop it.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
OBAMA, THE PERSON
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
INDEX OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM
Sunday, January 09, 2011
TUSCON SHOOTING
Saturday, January 08, 2011
EGYPTIAN MUSLIMS PROTECT CHRISTIANS
From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
KNOWLEDGE OF MIDDLE EAST AT UCLA
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
AMERICA IN DECLINE
Monday, January 03, 2011
Friday, December 31, 2010
POPE'S 2010 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
Thursday, December 30, 2010
THE WARS OF 2011
WOMEN ISLAMIC TERRORISTS
Pakistani Taliban have established an all-women wing of suicide bombers to carry out terror missions across the country, dramatically revealed a 12-year-old girl who managed to escape from the clutches of the rebels from near the Afghanistan border.
Meena Gul's brother, a Taliban commander, told her: 'You will go to heaven before any of us, if you blow up yourself the way I tell you.'
OBAMA'S BIPARTISANSHIP
CONSTITUTION NOT UNDERSTANDABLE
CHINESE MISSILE
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
CALIFORNIA, A THIRD WORLD STATE
It is almost as if the more California regulates, the more it does not regulate. Its public employees prefer to go after misdemeanors in the upscale areas to justify our expensive oversight industry, while ignoring the felonies in the downtrodden areas, which are becoming feral and beyond the ability of any inspector to do anything but feel irrelevant. But in the regulators’ defense, where would one get the money to redo an ad hoc trailer park with a spider web of illegal bare wires?
Friday, December 10, 2010
CHINA vs. AMERICA IN EDUCATION
Friday, December 03, 2010
HEALTH CARE IN THE US
RUSSIAN MOLE IN NSA
Monday, November 29, 2010
OBAMA'S FAITH
WIKILEAKS
Der Spiegel's analysis. Never before in history has a superpower lost control of such vast amounts of such sensitive information -- data that can help paint a picture of the foundation upon which US foreign policy is built. Never before has the trust America's partners have in the country been as badly shaken. Now, their own personal views and policy recommendations have been made public -- as have America's true views of them.
Jimmy Carter, deja vu.
Friday, November 19, 2010
DEMOCRATS, THE PARTY OF THE FUTURE???
Declining to pinpoint a Republican favorite, Carville said any GOP presidential candidate would be forced to “double-down on older whites” — a strategy that becomes less reliable each cycle.
“When you get into a presidential electorate, it decidedly favors Democrats, and every year it’s going to decidedly favor them more and more,” Carville said. “Demographics don’t do anything but get better for Democrats. Every election becomes less white.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45353.html#ixzz15kCXcG5H
STATE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
THE ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES
Friday, November 12, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
CHEATING SCANDAL
"This is college. Everyone cheats, everyone cheats in life in general," Ravvin said. "I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in this testing lab who hasn't cheated on an exam."
Friday, November 05, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
AMERICAN CORRUPTION GROWING
Monday, October 25, 2010
BRANDS & POLITICAL ALLEGIANCE
Google is the top brand for Democrats, according to an index incorporating consumer impressions of its quality, its value, their satisfaction with it, its reputation, their willingness to recommend it and their general impression of it. Google doesn't appear in Republicans' top 10.
Republicans, on the other hand, rank Fox News tops; Fox News, perhaps not surprisingly, doesn't appear on the list of Democrats' favorite 10 brands.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Monday, October 04, 2010
ISLAM IN FRANCE
Sunday, October 03, 2010
ISLAM TO RULE THE WORLD
“We do believe as Muslims the East and the West will be governed by the Sharia,” Choudray. “Indeed we believe that one day the flag of Islam will fly over the White House. Indeed, there's even an oration of the Prophet where he said, ‘The day of judgment will not come until a group of my...’”
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
PICTURES OF THE RUSSIAN PAST
Sunday, September 26, 2010
UN CONTACT FOR ALIENS
Saturday, September 25, 2010
COMPUTER ATTACK
Mahmoud Alyaee, secretary-general of Iran's industrial computer servers, including its nuclear facilities control systems, confirmed Saturday, Sept. 25, that30,000 computers belonging to classified industrial units had been infected and disabled bythemalicious Stuxnet virus.
The experts say it is beyond the capabilities of private or individual hackers and could have been produced by a high-tech state like America or Israel, or its military cyber specialists.
Monday, September 20, 2010
PARENTING OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
I was reminded how we got this generation of students -- many of whom are not prepared to deal with setbacks and whose egos need to be stroked all the time -- when I was at a friend's home for dinner. The parents beamed as their 11-year-old son showed off a ribbon he got for coming in second in a race.
After he went to bed, I found out that in that particular meet, only two kids participated. Better yet, the school makes sure that every child gets at least one ribbon, so that his or her tender self-esteem will not suffer.
Friday, September 17, 2010
RANKING COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD
HISTORY OF THE SOVIET UNION
Saturday, September 11, 2010
AMERICAN CULTURE. . .IN DECLINE AGAIN???
Farmville is a corporate conspiracy sucking in dumb Facebookers.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE
Government-subsidized loans have injected money into higher education, as they did into housing, causing prices to balloon. But at some point people figure out they're not getting their money's worth, and the bubble bursts.
Some think this would be a good thing. My American Enterprise Institute colleague Charles Murray has called for the abolition of college for almost all students. Save it for genuine scholars, he says, and let others qualify for jobs by standardized national tests, as accountants already do.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
DARWIN'S THEORY QUESTIONED
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
CAUCAUS EMIRATE
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
HUNTINGTON'S THESIS REVIVED
The greatest advantage of Huntington's civilizational model of international relations is that it reflects the world as it is—not as we wish it to be. It allows us to distinguish friends from enemies. And it helps us to identify the internal conflicts within civilizations, particularly the historic rivalries between Arabs, Turks and Persians for leadership of the Islamic world.
But divide and rule cannot be our only policy. We need to recognize the extent to which the advance of radical Islam is the result of an active propaganda campaign. According to a CIA report written in 2003, the Saudis invested at least $2 billion a year over a 30-year period to spread their brand of fundamentalist Islam. The Western response in promoting our own civilization was negligible.
Our civilization is not indestructible: It needs to be actively defended. This was perhaps Huntington's most important insight. The first step towards winning this clash of civilizations is to understand how the other side is waging it—and to rid ourselves of the One World illusion.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
MORE PROBLEMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
"Inflation-adjusted spending on administration per student increased by 61 percent during the same period, while instructional spending per student rose 39 percent," wrote Greene, who also heads the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. They blame government for these trends, but somebody is making the decision to curtail faculty or student services.
From U.S. News & World Report, "Is a College Education Worth the Price?" Numerous studies show that tuition, which has far outpaced the cost of living, has been spent on things other than classroom teaching. Administrative staffs and lavish facilities top the list. After years of building palatial campuses, states faced with budget cuts now find that they are stuck with the fancy athletic center and have to slash faculty, resulting in packed classrooms detrimental to the learning experience. Doesn't seem like classroom teaching is much of a priority.
And in the Christian Science Monitor more indication of misplace focus of the use of money: We hope this will be a wake-up call that colleges are asking for lots of money and a major sacrifice by families, but in too many places they have really abdicated their responsibility to direct students to what they need to learn for success after graduation. It is not about learning for life.
The problem in Maryland. One might think that as enrollments increase, universities would need relatively fewer administrators per student since they could spread those fixed costs over a larger base. Instead, the opposite is occurring. As universities increase their enrollment and receive more money, they expand the ranks of administrators even more rapidly.
Monday, August 16, 2010
THE FAILURE OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
Also a good article by William Deresiewicz on "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education."
And here is a comment by by Neal McClusky from the Cato Institute: The majority of people who are going to college today are really just getting a piece of paper," he said. "The bottom line is we always insist that everybody has to go to college without in any way discriminating or determining whether actually going to college is giving you the skills that makes you more employable. All that matters, especially to the politicians, is that everybody is getting a piece of paper -- a college degree.
LEADERSHIP
Monday, August 09, 2010
GROUND ZERO MOSQUE A PROVOCATION
Saturday, August 07, 2010
CHINESE MISSILE
Saturday, July 24, 2010
RUSSIA AND ISRAEL
CHRISTIANS ARRESTED
ISLAMIC HATRED OF JEWS
Thursday, July 22, 2010
THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS
SHERROD ON OBAMA
Saturday, July 17, 2010
TRAVEL PROGRAM RIP OFFS
AMERICA'S ARISTOCRACY
As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors' "toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America. They explained neither the difference between the assets' nominal and real values, nor precisely why letting the market find the latter would collapse America. The public objected immediately, by margins of three or four to one.
When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term "political class" came into use. Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public's understanding, the American people started referring to those in and around government as the "ruling class." And in fact Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act as a class.
RUSSIAN SPY SWAP
STALIN BUST
Friday, July 16, 2010
A CARL ROVE CONFESSION
Thursday, July 15, 2010
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
Monday, July 12, 2010
OBAMA VOTER FRAUD
CLIMATEGATE SUMMARY
From the Atlantic Monthly--another criticism of how the investigation was mishandled. By way of preamble, let me remind you where I stand on climate change. I think climate science points to a risk that the world needs to take seriously. I think energy policy should be intelligently directed towards mitigating this risk. I am for a carbon tax. I also believe that the Climategate emails revealed, to an extent that surprised even me (and I am difficult to surprise), an ethos of suffocating groupthink and intellectual corruption. The scandal attracted enormous attention in the US, and support for a new energy policy has fallen. In sum, the scientists concerned brought their own discipline into disrepute, and set back the prospects for a better energy policy.