Chinese Deal With Recalcitrant Muslims

The government gets peeved, they plow down the mosque. Ya gotta hand it to communists, they can be efficient when they want to be. Gateway Pundit muses, "Obviously, the Chinese could care less about the reaction from radical Islamists over the demolition."

I'm wondering how brave radical Islamists will be in going after the Chinese government. The Chinese seem pretty confident.

On Karma

In my last post I asked, "how am I going to sleep with my blood pressure this high?" The answer: I'm not. So what to do but come up with more spleen venting for my beloved readers. Now, we've already established that I'm thoroughly pissed off and it's probably a truism that one should not drive while intoxicated nor blog while infuriated, but hey, I live on the edge, baby. So here goes....

Rachel Lucas discusses Karma--you know, what goes around comes around--and flaming fucknozzles. Go read for yourself, but she makes an interesting point:

I’m sure the 80,000 dead people got their just desserts for personally not being nice to the Dalai Lama. He’s a friend of Sharon’s! You be NICE, peasants! Or karma will destroy you and everything you own.

Technically, Karma's force follows you into the next life, according to Webster, thus Al Gore will be coming back as a bloated dung beetle next time around (what could be better energetically speaking?):

the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person's next existence

Anyway, what most dillweeds use as Karma they usually meld with the biblical parable of reaping and sowing ala Galatians 6:7 and they get both wrong:

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature^[a]will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

And still, this is ultimate judgment. As in, a scumbag can prance through life pretty much unscathed and still get it in the afterlife. In this life, shit happens to everyone. (Matthew 5:45) Ecclesiastes 9:11 says it best:

I saw something else under the sun. The race isn't [won] by fast runners, or the battle by heroes. Wise people don't necessarily have food. Intelligent people don't necessarily have riches, and skilled people don't necessarily receive special treatment. But time and unpredictable events overtake all of them.

Shit. Happens. Deal. With. It.

Now some people (my friend's ex-husband) are such assholes that their actions repeatedly reap asshole consequences (getting fired over and over and over). Is that Karma? Is that God's hand? I think it's just being an asshole and people hating you.

This idea causes people discomfort. Christians often say "God willing" as some sort of mantra. Muslims say "insh'allah" (if Allah wills). Mexicans say "manana". Oh wait, that means tomorrow. Bottom line, too many people wait around as an excuse to not take responsibility for where their life is now. They wait so they came blame God if things don't go right.

And at the other end of the spectrum, New Agers believe that everything in the universe, big "U", is a function of the person's beliefs. Reality itself bends to our own personal will. So, the Chinese people, on some level wanted or believed they deserved this earthquake and the earthquake manifested. Ditto the people of Myanmar. And in that case, the people believed bad Karmic actions happened and were manifested.

I'm rereading a book by Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life which is a precurser to The Secret. A mentor suggested I read it when I was in college and I did and I thought it was unmitigated crap. Well, age and life experiences can moderate our perspective and a friend suggested I read it again. Here's the essence of the book, summed up in the first sentence of the first chapter:

Life is really very simple. What we give out, we get back.
And,
We are 100% responsible for all our experiences.

And by all, Ms. Hay means all. Even the abuse you took as a kid, on some level, you're responsible for. The earthquake in China, the people are responsible for. The cyclone in Myanmar, the people are responsible for. The Holocaust, the Jewish people are responsible for. The ethnic cleansing in Rwanda, the people are responsible for. And on and on... This seems patently absurd. Shit doesn't just happen, people want shit to happen so it happens.

This thought process misses a tiny distinction: rather than responsibility for all experiences, after a certain age, we are responsible for our reaction to all our experiences. That is, how we interpret and respond to our experiences is our responsibility, but owning every experience takes away the free will of all the other people around. It makes no sense. And this warped thinking has infected the brains of far too many people and it has real world consequences. Ironically, the philosophy of God micromanaging isn't so far from the individual (we are all God) micromanaging life--we are under no obligation to do anything because nothing is in our control on the one hand or we only control our own experience on the other. Either way, everyone else is on their own--either God will take care of it or the poor sufferer will. And in the Western world, where many don't suffer much at all, the all-consuming god-self-complex means taking everything on because the world will fall apart if my caring action isn't taken right now!

Dumbasses like Sharon Stone contemplate the un-niceness of leaders rather than dip into their significant pile of dough when people are dying of misery because they are morally obtuse and hide their selfishness in psychobabble religion. It seems self-evident that you reach out and help people who need help whether you like their leaders' political positions or not. The people have nothing, absolutely zip, to say about Mother Nature's wrath. And the Chinese people have nearly zip to say about their communist government. They do what they are told which is why they're so pissed about their one-child policy. Scores of thousands of people are childless now, because of the earthquake and because of their government's policies. Part of this is time and chance; part of this is stupid.

Louise Hay is right about one thing: we create beliefs and live our lives based on these beliefs. So now, people make decisions based on some swirling mix of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Global Warming and psychology with little understanding of any of these religions and no understanding of science. The end result is do-nothing, feel-good, Selfism. Yes, I believe that's a new word and even if it's not, here's my definition: Selfism has one tenet--I am right because I care.

If Selfism sounds a lot like liberalism, you've hit the jackpot. It's not about actions. It's not about measurable outcomes. It's not about results. It's not about facts. It's not about objective reality. It's not about truth. It's about feelings. It's about intent. It's about words. It's about subjective experience. It's about my truth.

Karma in Sanskrit means action. It is what a person does that results in their placement for the next life. It's not how good-intentioned a person was. And this is a very Christian concept, too. Matthew 25:35-46 is well-worth reading. In fact, the whole chapter isn't about sitting on your butt waiting, but getting out there and doing. A Christian is known by his fruits...what he does--mostly what he does for others and what he does with what he is given.

Nature abhors a vacuum. And in the vacuum that has become the Western world's secular soil all sorts of peculiar ideologies are sprouting up and the unifying theme is narcissism. Selfism is a very popular religion.

More Evidence China Is Trying To Kill Us?

Contaminated heparin from China has killed 81 Americans and been found in 11 countries. Is this accidental, sloppy, malicious? China needs to focus on quality control otherwise, their humming engine for economic growth is going to slow down.

Feng Shui At McDonalds

I actually think Feng Shui makes lots of sense and have incorporated some ideas into my own home and life. If McDonalds finds that using the five elements balances the profit column, I don't think anything else will matter to them.

Why Do We Care?

Why do we care about the Middle East? When people ask me that question, it still shocks me. Do they really not get it? Maybe with the murder of Benazar Bhutto of Pakistan, we need a reminder why it is in America's, in the world's best interest, to care about this sandy, forsaken landscape half-way around the world.

It has been my belief since the beginning that George W. Bush entered Iraq secondarily because of Saddam Hussein's WMD flirtations. Yes everyone, including the lily livered Democrats and squishy Republicans, believed Saddam was a bad guy desiring to do bad things with bad substances. He had done bad things. It wasn't a stretch that he'd do more bad things. But that didn't seem to me to be the most compelling reason for Iraq. To me, and I feel that George Bush must have seen this too, Iraq is first and foremost a strategic launching pad. For all Saddam's bluster, he was weak. No one could imagine how weak until the Yanks marched through Iraq. It happened so quickly, everyone was stunned. But the fall and subsequent search for scant WMDs mattered less than being planted as a bulwark against crazy in the Middle East.

Iraq borders Iran, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, a couple Stans and a lovely thing called the Persian Gulf. Trouble brews in every place on the list. And trouble there means trouble everywhere. Russia trembles with hypermasculine impotence. Any way to cause trouble to the alpha males of the world will be and are being embraced. Putin squeezes Europe already. Georgia sits like a plum in a vice. Iran would happily be the conduit for Putin's displeasure. More on all this here.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan and Pakistan boil with extremism. Here's what's happening now:

"We've really got a new situation here in western Pakistan," said Army Col.
Thomas Lynch III, who has served in Afghanistan and with Central Command, the
U.S. military headquarters for Pakistan and the Middle East. He said the
assassination marks a "critical new phase" in jihadist operations in Pakistan
and predicted the coming months would bring concentrated attacks on other
prominent Pakistanis.

"The Taliban ... are indeed a growing element of the
domestic political stew" in Pakistan, said John Blackton, who served as a U.S.
official in Afghanistan in the 1970s and again 20 years later. He noted that
Pakistani military intelligence created the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"Pakistan must take drastic action against the Taliban in its midst or we will face the
prospect of a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of al-Qaida — a threat far
more dangerous and real than Hussein's arsenal ever was," he said, referring to
the deposed Saddam Hussein.

Nuclear warheads in the hands of Jihadists in a country where 40% approve of Osama. America may not be able to do anything from Afghanistan to stop willful annihilation, but I hazard to say it could do less without a mid-east presence.

And Pakistan is a crazy little country compared to China with her supersized ambitions. Imagine the panic should China not get the fuel needed to keep its economic engine humming. Forget for a moment American's cries of despair at being deprived of cheap consumer products, the bigger problem would be an unstable country armed to the teeth.

Don't forget Israel, either. Like Tawain, Israel is a freedom-loving democracy, and America is about democracy building, remember? As shaky as that idea may be as a long-term solution to extremist middle east regime problems, there is one democracy that thrives over there. Should that country be abandoned?

Oh yeah, there's this other little thing called oil. I never have understood what's so upsetting about trading a little blood for a lot of oil. If China, Japan, Europe and America come to a screeching halt economically, the next step would be, inevitably, war. And there would be a whole lot more blood spilled. The whole world is entertwined in ways that could have never been imagined during the World War II era. The internet reflects a world interconnected.

Our fate rests in the Middle East as much as any other country's. The Jihadists hate freedom. They hate life. They believe they have a holy mission. If Pakistan crumbles, if Iran arms, if Afghanistan turns back to the Taliban, if China becomes aggressive, if Russia presses, if, if, if, the free people of the world have big problems.

America is in the Middle East because, well, isn't it obvious?

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

Chinese Cyber Attack?

I'm concerned about stories like these. It's going to happen more and more. The thing is, people don't have to be in the United States to threaten or harm us. And more than that, with the right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it) kind of threat, the terrorist or foreign government wouldn't want to be here.

James Fallows: Life Really Is Unfair

Aren't you glad that it is?

Yahoo! Communist Collaborators: Selling Out Freedom To Make A Buck

LEFT: These people were tortured by the Chinese government because of information given to them by Yahoo!

You know those German companies that made money using slave labor during WWII? Remember the whole premise of Schindler's List? Yeah, well, Yahoo! can put themselves in the same category of business owner--willing to look the other way at moral depravity for their own bottom line:

Yahoo! acknowledged that it provided Chinese officials with identifying information of its Yahoo! service users that made these arbitrary arrests and long-term imprisonments possible, but the company claims that it had to provide the information in compliance with Chinese law. Sklar noted that “the language of China’s requests to Yahoo! make it clear that these individuals were being targeted for their exercise of free speech and free press rights, and not for any legitimate law enforcement reasons.” During Congressional hearings held in February 2006, Yahoo! also defended its actions by claiming that it was not aware of the purpose for which the information was requested. Recent information has surfaced, however, indicating that Yahoo! was, in fact, aware of the repressive purposes of the requests. On August 3, Tom Lantos (D-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced that Congress would investigate Yahoo!’s conflicting statements to determine whether the internet company lied under oath about what it knew during last year’s Congressional hearings.

I'm not saying that the Yahoo! leadership are a bunch of Nazis. I'm saying they are communist collaborators. Perhaps they never viewed themselves this way. Perhaps they quaver at losing the Chinese market over principles. Perhaps they rationalized into collaborating with communist thugs. I hope they're losing sleep at night.

Forgotten Wisdom

Tonight I read one of the best essays from 2007, if not the best. It is by Victor Davis Hanson. He covers all sorts of territory: Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS), the definition of a Neocon, the housing mess, cheap Chinese goods and the notion of who to trust, media-wise.

Please read it.

Onward Christian Chinese Soldiers--UPDATED

Forget Eurabia, they're lost and Christianity is gone, too. However, another Christian power-house rises in the......East. Yes, East. And her name is China:

The World Christian Database offers by far the largest estimate of the number of Chinese Christians at 111 million, of whom 90% are Protestant, mostly Pentecostals. Other estimates are considerably lower, but no matter; what counts is the growth rate. This uniquely American denomination, which claims the inspiration to speak in tongues like Jesus' own disciples and to prophesy, is the world's fastest-growing religious movement, with 500,000 adherents. In contrast to Catholicism, which has a very long historic presence in China but whose growth has been slow, charismatic Protestantism has found its natural element in an atmosphere of official suppression. Barred from churches, Chinese began worshipping in homes, and five major "house church" movements and countless smaller ones now minister to as many as 100 million Christians. [2] This quasi-underground movement may now exceed in adherents the 75 million members of the Chinese Communist Party; in a generation it will be the most powerful force in the country.

Where traditional society remains entrenched in China's most backward regions, Islam also is expanding. At the edge of the Gobi Desert and on China's western border with Central Asia, Islam claims perhaps 30 million adherents. If Christianity is the liquidator of traditional society, I have argued in the past, Islam is its defender against the encroachments of leveling imperial expansion. But Islam in China remains the religion of the economic losers, whose geographic remoteness isolates them from the economic transformation on the coasts. Christianity, by contrast, has burgeoned among the new middle class in China's cities, where the greatest wealth and productivity are concentrated. Islam has a thousand-year presence in China and has grown by natural increase rather than conversion; evangelical Protestantism had almost no adherents in China a generation ago.

China's Protestants evangelized at the risk of liberty and sometimes life, and possess a sort of fervor not seen in Christian ranks for centuries. Their pastors have been beaten and jailed, and they have had to create their own institutions through the "house church" movement. Two years ago I warned that China would have to wait for democracy. [3] I wrote:

For a people to govern itself, it first must want to govern itself and want to do so with a passion. It also must know how to do so. Democracy requires an act of faith, or rather a whole set of acts of faith. The individual citizen must believe that a representative sitting far away in the capital will listen to his views, and know how to band together with other citizens to make their views known. That is why so-called civil society, the capillary network of associations that manage the ordinary affairs of life, is so essential to democracy. Americans elect their local school boards, create volunteer fire brigades and raise and spend tax dollars at the local level to provide parks or sewers.

China's network of house churches may turn out to be the leaven of democracy, like the radical Puritans of England who became the Congregationalists of New England. Freedom of worship is the first precondition for democracy, for it makes possible freedom of conscience. The fearless evangelists at the grassroots of China will, in the fullness of time, do more to bring US-style democracy to the world than all the nation-building bluster of President George W Bush and his advisers.

Wow. The Christians will have to overcome a very powerful government, though. Freedom is an irresistible force and it comes courtesy the Christian faith. One feeds the other.


H/T Brussels Journal and check out how Sweden is once again collaborating with the enemy. Who says history can't repeat itself? It's only been sixty years. Sixty.

UPDATE: Ah, this is what I couldn't find and just remembered to post with the Christian Soldiers bit. China is going after the Taliban, too:

Since China has come down hard on real, or perceived, Islamic radicalism at home, China is seen by Pakistani Islamic radicals as "foreign devils" and "enemies of Islam." The Islamic radicals recognize that China is crucial to maintaining Pakistani military and police power, and keeping the current government in power. So there are more attacks on Chinese by Pakistani Islamic radicals.

As I said here:

China won't lose the War on Terror. They meet brutality with brutality. It's something that even Islamists understand. That's why the fight isn't taking place in Taipei.

As long as al-Qaeda has Western allies, the fight will be with the West.

But the good thing about this is that Pakistan is being squeezed like a vice between the East and West, neither of whom are interested in seeing their citizens blown to smithereens.

MySpace Bans Sex Offenders...That They Know About

The remarkable thing about this story: 29,000. That number is terrifying.

"That number includes just the predators who signed up using their real names, and not the ones who failed to register or used fake names, or who haven't been convicted," wrote Mr. Cooper, who is one of several attorneys general working to slap restrictions on social networks.

In addition, how many technology un-savvy predators are there? With this Internets thingy, I found out: 600,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. Maybe being computer savvy, lacking social skills and luring children because you're too lame to get laid by an adult is a sub-set disorder of the 600,000. Or maybe there's multiple thousands more on MySpace registering under a pseudonym. That would be my bet. Parents, watch your children!

And initially, MySpace wouldn't release the predators' information. Let's see, Google will filter its content for China, but won't share data with their own government. MySpace will harbor sexual predators.

These technology companies need to find a moral compass and quick. Doing what's right shouldn't have to be imposed by the government or law enforcement. They are hardly more trust-worthy.

China's War on al-Qaeda

There is one, you know. It's rather one-sided and brutal and hopeless....for the Muslims. The West, hamstrung by the leftist elites and MSM, haven't documented this fight. They are too busy emasculating their own:

There are times when I am tempted to think that the Western Left is radical Islam's Ring of Power. And the brilliance of al-Qaeda's reliance on it as a force-multiplier is that the defeat of radical Islam must consequently come at the price of altering the structure of post-war Western politics itself. In a sense the Western Left has become a hostage to the current world crisis, and perhaps the only part of the Left that understands this are the signatories of the Euston Manifesto, who realized that al-Qaeda had already claimed its political soul: that unconciously, almost imperceptibly, the Left in uncritical embrace of any foe of America had come to align itself with the most brutal, obscurantist, repressive theocrats on the planet. And would conceivably share its fate with them.

But al-Qaeda's allies can only control events up to a point. Elemental forces are ranged against it. Chief among which is the sheer, simple brutality of countries like Putin's Russia and China. If a snapping point is reached, even the Left may not forever restrain the West. The end point of debasing the coin of information is absolute bankruptcy

China won't lose the War on Terror. They meet brutality with brutality. It's something that even Islamists understand. That's why the fight isn't taking place in Taipei.

As long as al-Qaeda has Western allies, the fight will be with the West.

China & Food Products

I saw organic garlic, I think it was, imported from China. Given stories like these, I don't think I'll be buying anything edible for man or beast from China anytime soon.

China & Iran Cause Worries

According to this. The money quote:

Investors have also seen an unusually fast decline into disarray and outright incompetence by the new Democrat-led Congress. After years of criticizing President Bush, the Democrats have displayed a frightening lack of concern for America's security — reminding everyone they're still the party of Jimmy Carter.

So Iran, China, global security, stupid Democrats, debt, potential recession, and everything Mama talks about all the time and I still don't understand, combine to make investors nervous.

Putin's Projection

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest. --Winston Churchill

Well, Vladimir Putin finally reveals his hand: he wants to rule the world and he's angry the U.S. interferes with his plans. That's not exactly what he said, though:

Attacking the concept of a "unipolar" world in which the United States was the sole superpower, he said: "What is a unipolar world? No matter how we beautify this term it means one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master."

"It has nothing in common with democracy because that is the opinion of the majority taking into account the minority opinion," he told the gathering of top security and defense officials.

"People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us democracy don't want to learn it themselves."

Gordon Johndroe, press secretary for the White House National Security Council, rejected Putin's comments.

Let's look at Mr. Putin's actions to promote democracy and freedom just in 2006:

• Stopping oil transportation to countries he's trying to cow
• Assassinating political enemies
• Attempting to assassinate political rivals in geographically important states like Georgia
• Arming Iran
• Arming China
• Arming anyone who will act against the U.S.
• Taking over private enterprise within Russia and stifling the press
  
• Acting against non-government organizations in Russia
  
• Expanding the KGB
  

By focusing on the United States, Putin saves Europe from taking a serious self-assessment. I'm sure Putin's words sound good, but to anyone watching Russia right now those words are very hollow and quite clearly psychological projection. Since the U.S. is everyone's favorite scape-goat, he figures he'll exploit it.

Those who want the U.S. to get out of Iraq need to consider the ramifications geopolitically of doing so. Since the Left refuses to drill for oil and explore serious ways to become energy independent (corn oil is not a serious solution), they should have a good alternative to staying in Iraq and being near to police the Middle East, but they don't.

America's reliance on Middle East oil, African oil, South American oil makes us a debtor nation. Of course these countries like our money, too, and don't want that spigot to turn off, either, but we need them more than they need us. China also needs energy as their economy grows.

The geopolitical world's ground shifts constantly and I'm not sure we have ever lived in a more dangerous time. Meanwhile, back to Anna Nicole.

What Do You Do With Young Men?

Glenn Reynolds has a post about the "youth bulge" which corrolates young men population to violence, unrest and crime. And war? Yes war, too.

I have been beating the warning drum about India and China for nearly two years now for this exact reason. What do you do with a population that's disproportionately male and in their youth and violent? They either fight each other or the state unifies them and uses them.

India and China have the greater misfortune to have too few women to socialize the men. This won't just be a problem for these states, it will be a problem for the world. They don't possess all these arms for nothing.

Condi Concerned About China

Back in the day, my Western Civ course instructor said something about economic strength precedes military strength and economic aggression always precedes war.

Will China use that massive arsenal American dollars are helping to build?

China Sub Stalked US Carrier

Not to be a downer, but is China really the U.S.'s friend? Color me doubtful.

AP) A Chinese submarine came close to the USS Kitty Hawk carrier group in the Pacific Ocean last month, a top U.S. naval commander confirmed Tuesday, adding the encounter could have triggered an "unforeseen" incident.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, however, said she had not heard of such an incident.

The aircraft carrier and its supporting ships were conducting exercises in an unidentified location when the encounter occurred, Adm. William Fallon, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters.