Asian News & CHB

It is great to sit here in SE Asia and still feel in touch with the world. On my cable network I get BBC, Asia News, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera in English. I only consider Asia News and Bloomberg as being non-partisan and reasonably honest. It seems that BBC has sold out, altho the Brits were never far from the pockets of Arab Oil Money. Al Jazeera is subtly biased, not the drooling, raving, maniacal Arab hordes portrayed in much of the American media. They hire English speakers from the UK, and the women newscasters are beautiful, caucasian, often blonde, and have that sexy English accent with none of the harsh edges. Al Jazeera is very astute.
But biased or not, I get news, and also have internet news to wallow in. This is all a far cry from those days living on a sailboat in Georgetown, Great Exuma, where a three week old Miami Herald was the cherished news link. In those august days it did not matter, for retirement had softened any need for contact with the outside world, and it was just too much effort to bother trying to communicate and keep abreast of anything happening outside of my immediatoue water world.
This venue is a wonderful gift. I thank Doug time and again, although I don’t always agree with him. Having a place to write where intelligent people can respond is like having a dinner table full of wonderful food that never runs out, and is just replaced by new, delicious dishes.
Looking at the topic list on my left, I see new and nice subjects for comment, so let’s get it on:
Scary out there?
Not really. Cheney is scary because he is evil incarnate. Bush is scary because he is stupidity personified. Rice is scary because she is amazingly incompetent and has managed to totally destroy our image in the world while allowing a milksop foreign policy to diminish our influence. Reid and Pelosi are disgusting, Reid for his inaction and Pelosi for her inability to speak out against the traitors in the White House while her tongue is up Bush’s ass. You would think that someone as duplicitous as her could do both without missing a breath.
But take these terrible people out and there is not that much to be scared of. North Korea, if left alone, would have starved to death and done nothing dangerous. Iraq, if left to its own devices will eventually sort things out, and we could drop 75% less money there and do a lot more good than the harm and destruction we cause and create by being invaders.
A decent president would have gone to Africa and South America on numerous diplomatic missions. Look at how often Hu jin tao, the leader of the PRC, has visited there. Now who will they remember and respect?
Where to spend?
Obviously not in Iraq. Money thrown into that sewer ends up in the pockets of Bush and Cheney. We need to leave, and do it NOW.
Not on diplomacy, at least not until we get some diplomats at the head of our government.
How about spending those Billions on America. On schools, roads, bridges, pollution controls, aid to disaster victims that really gets to the victims, on Social Security so that our elderly have sufficent dollars to live decent lives, on a sensible and honest National Health Insurance Program. That works for me, and for my country, and for the people who live here. I don’t care if they are illegals or not, they are human beings and deserve a little humanity from us. It certainly is cheaper than a war. Have we become such “Christian” Zealots that we spend billions to kill Iraquis but refuse to spend millions to help people living in our country?
enough for now. More later.
Barak