tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88632582009-07-08T15:30:19.748-07:00TurkeyBlog2gbartonoreply@blogger.comBlogger1118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-51444356472579023652009-07-08T15:04:00.000-07:002009-07-08T15:30:14.610-07:00Via Instapundit, here's a good Forbes article on what's up in China. And here's an ABC report that makes clear how brutal things are getting, whatever China says about everything being under control. I'm not seeing direct statements to the effect, but what I find most interesting in this is a sense that the Han Chinese feel entitled to whatever works for them, whatever the harm may be to the gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-11476737519372087052009-07-07T18:32:00.000-07:002009-07-08T15:02:45.551-07:00Here's the Times Online (UK) with the latest on events in Uyghurstan. Hu Jintao is headed home from the G-8 to deal with the situation.When things started, it was the Uyghurs on the march in response to incidents in Guangdong where first some Uyghurs were accused (falsely, it appears) of rape and tensions arose in a factory, leading to the death of some Uyghurs. Last night/today it was the Han gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-9502200769245281712009-07-06T23:45:00.000-07:002009-07-07T00:24:38.478-07:00Racial Tensions Flair in Uyghurstan, er, XinjiangA lot of people chatter about the rise of China. But China has problems of its own, some more bothersome than anything facing the U.S. For starters, a quasi-capitalist, quasi-communist society whose affections lie with the ethnic Han majority has trouble containing its minorities in the frontiers. To the ethnic Hans, there's a situation somewhat gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-15641461320475975132009-07-04T23:44:00.000-07:002009-07-04T23:59:09.682-07:00Dropped in to work tonight to run the payroll reports ahead of Monday. When I came out, there were fireworks. I ran back in to grab a camera and got back just in time for the action to subside. Here's the one shot I got:Happy Independence Day!gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-6622376119919849592009-06-30T22:11:00.000-07:002009-06-30T22:14:36.387-07:00So, the President of Honduras decides he doesn't want to leave when his time is up.He uses his goons to gin up support for a popular referendum.The people don't support him.The constitution of Honduras doesn't support him.The Supreme Court doesn't support him.The military doesn't support him.Obama supports him.The same Obama who can't quite bring himself to say anything forceful about Ahminejad gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-42869755074793264722009-06-23T13:21:00.000-07:002009-06-23T13:35:25.516-07:00A passing thought on Iran... The President's statement said: The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching.To which one must respond: The President of the United States must understand that the world is watching.When the statement came out over the weekend, I was heartened that the administration had taken a step in the right direction. But more is needed.When George W. Bush gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-75456829377098897382009-06-20T13:56:00.000-07:002009-06-20T13:59:42.585-07:00Finally:We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.- Statement from the Presidentgbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-50998983287008127412009-06-18T22:48:00.000-07:002009-06-18T23:03:43.791-07:00Idle thought prompted by events here and in Iran:The true value of democracy lies not in this election, but in the next. It's not just the ability to choose your rulers and set the country's direction. More important is the ability to remove your leaders and go in a new direction.After Napoleon III got elected in France - for real, according to my best sources - it took the defeat of the country gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-38495947731885581172009-06-02T20:21:00.000-07:002009-06-02T20:38:45.607-07:00The Really Scary Part about that Accidental Disclosure of Where our Nuclear Materials are LocatedFormer CIA Director John Deutsch says these screw-ups happen. And I suppose they do. What's really scary is the why:The information, considered confidential but not classified, was assembled for transmission later this year to the International Atomic Energy Agency as part of a process by which the gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-18103969104489652002009-05-26T12:53:00.000-07:002009-05-26T13:07:10.758-07:00Prop 8 and the California Supreme CourtIt looks like they did as good a job of splitting the baby as one could, upholding the Proposition but also the marriages performed prior to its passage.The decision is as sound as one could hope for from the Court: They recognized that while they can get away with a lot in interpreting the Constitution, when the voters explicitly change the Constitution in gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-45379306193759226212009-05-26T00:04:00.000-07:002009-05-26T00:07:47.328-07:00So, North Korea can make a nuke equivalent to Hiroshima and can launch it.And China is holding off on buying our bonds.And people are unsure about investing in corporate bonds given the Chrysler, GM situation...Well, it's change, anyway.Happy Memorial Day (17 minutes late)!gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-23661593258587139742009-05-17T16:58:00.000-07:002009-05-17T17:15:38.791-07:00On AOL, the headline just went by:"52% Said Ashley Olsen Doesn't Deserve Her Fame"So... 48% of us consider Ms. Olsen's oeuvre and her tie-in businesses, ask ourselves if she should have such a high profile and come out somewhere between "Yeah, sure" and "I guess I don't see why not."Olsen critics may be snickering, but Chris Dodd's trying to hire away her publicist.gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-91794926310659822532009-05-08T23:54:00.000-07:002009-05-09T00:02:07.023-07:00Big Changes Coming in the Middle EastRumor has it Netanyahu told Obama that Ahminejad secretly manages a hedge fund. Then he let slip that Likud's considering joining the UAW...gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-43306711212197505262009-04-21T19:29:00.000-07:002009-04-21T20:01:30.726-07:00FBI workers accused of spying on dressing room[name suppressed], 40, of New Milton and [name suppressed] of Buckhannon have been charged with the misdemeanors and face fines and up to a year in jail on each charge if convicted. Sutton has been released on bond, Wilson said, and Hommema is to be arraigned later this week. Wilson did not know Hommema's age. Specifically, they were spying on teenagegbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-81047784699982833042009-04-08T23:26:00.000-07:002009-04-08T23:29:23.331-07:00Full MoonHappy Doggbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-28339264390053963462009-04-05T12:04:00.000-07:002009-04-05T12:23:45.922-07:00We're all aware of Obama's call for a nuke free world (fwiw, I want a world without soggy peanut butter sandwiches - we all can dream) and the way North Korea showed its enthusiasm with a purely peaceful missile launch. Still, with their current technology North Korea could get, what, one or two of our cities at the very most. (If they aim for San Francisco, I hope they don't accidentally hit Sangbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-55518380577027525542009-04-04T13:14:00.000-07:002009-04-04T13:34:38.014-07:00“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”- Barack Obama to some bankers(see Moe Lane for more)So what? Some would say that the police are all that's standing between us and the drug runners. Or that the Marines are all that's standing between our freedom and submission to Al-Qaeda. But it's the police's job to guard public safety. And it's the gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-875871574832182702009-03-30T22:28:00.000-07:002009-03-30T22:45:34.944-07:00If I understand correctly...Obama gets to run the country because he didn't take federal money.And Rick Wagoner doesn't get to run GM because he did.I'm pretty sure there's a lesson in there.gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-6203438286859004812009-03-18T21:59:00.000-07:002009-03-18T22:31:05.848-07:00Imagine:1. The world learns of the AIG bonuses.2. Secretary Geithner comes out and says:With the AIG mess, we can look for villains or we can look for solutions. We know that with these bonuses, some bad people are getting money they don't deserve. But other people, whose best interests would have been served by leaving early on, have instead stayed to help us figure out what happened and how to gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-27584795202061484012009-02-28T13:50:00.000-08:002009-02-28T13:52:38.694-08:00Quotes of the Day, from Instapundit:The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.A depression is when you lose your job.Recovery begins when Jimmy (Obama) Carter lose his job.Poor Obama. He had all these dreams for spending other people's money, but Bush spent it first!gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-40647616895033080652009-02-20T14:01:00.000-08:002009-02-20T14:10:21.623-08:00If I had to do over again, instead of investing in Microsoft I would have put my money in Congress. Although it's an unusual play:Their stock keeps falling but the dividends are increasing astronomically!Here's the story. (Via Instapundit)gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-63953156804421890432009-02-19T00:01:00.000-08:002009-02-19T00:17:58.998-08:00Muslims just can't get any breaks...So, a Muslim businessman in Buffalo named Muzzamil Hassan got upset about negative portrayals of Muslims. So he started an outfit called Bridges TV to positively portray Muslims and break down stereotypes.So then his wife filed for divorce and got a restraining order.Now he's in police custody for allegedly beheading here.I first learned of this from an gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-36732448733620188572009-02-15T20:55:00.000-08:002009-02-15T21:16:16.626-08:00Now that we're a few weeks into the new administration, how are we doing?The good news is we have a Treasury Secretary who tax problems we're willing to ignore.Better news is that we didn't ignore Tom Daschle's tax problems, so he's not at HHS.The best news is that Judd Gregg figured out the game and got out in time. And got the word out about the White House's attempts to take over the Census. gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-37836827106232823962009-01-20T19:26:00.000-08:002009-01-20T20:42:47.110-08:00Thoughts on the InaugurationOn the whole, it was a pretty good speech. There are some people who read into it a lot of backhanded slaps at Bush, and who are thus offended. However, a fair number of the critiques could apply equally to the Democratic Congress we've had the last two years. Whether Obama intended to slap Pelosi and Reid doesn't matter. What matters is that if they don't change the gbartonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863258.post-37598882920371937222009-01-14T20:08:00.000-08:002009-01-14T22:51:53.324-08:00A Different Approach to the 4th Amendment?Today, the Supreme Court handed down Herring vs. United States, ruling that even though Herring was arrested on an expired (thus invalid) warrant, what police found during his arrest was admissible in court - not eligible for suppression under the Exclusionary Rule. Here's the reasoning: 1) The Exclusionary Rule is not grounds for willy-nilly suppression gbartonoreply@blogger.com