Non Motorised Birding Year List: 23/12/05 Time is running out, but my chance arrives.
Sunday, October 19th, 2008Array Finally, the British Columbia-based Asian Pacific Post tells the harrowing tale of a mother in Hunan province who was on the run for five months, escaped a Communist hospital, and had a Caesarian-section delivery, all to save her second child from the cadres’ hideous one child policy.Luo Gan was in Shanwei just before the shooting: The Epoch Times is reporting that Luo Gan, the Politburo Standing Committee member who was in Hanyuan just before the shooting started last year, clandestinely arrived in Shanwei just before departing overseas, providing greater evidence the Shanwei massacre was at least condoned and probably encouraged by the Communist leadership in Beijing. Gu Qinger and Gao Ling (Epoch Times) have the latest on the torture and fear in Shanwei, and Ye Deming (also Epoch Times) gives the background on the brutal Luo.Communists charge New York Times journalist: Zhao Yan, the New York Times researcher and dissident journalist jailed last year, was finally indicted by the Communists for fraud and illegally releasing state secrets (CNN). Meanwhile, International PEN expressed concern for Shi Tao (fourteenth, fifth, lead, third, eighth, seventh, third, fifth, eighth, last, and third items) following reports that he is suffering from respiratory problems and a skin inflammation as a result of forced labor (Boxun).Communist thugs beaten priests and nuns, then police interrogate them: Another land dispute with a Catholic Church turned ugly, this time in Tianjin, where five priests and nuns were beaten by more than 30 thugs (Central News Agency, Taiwan, via Epoch Times). Finally, the beating of demonstrating practitioners in Argentina, and the government’s refusal to stop it, earns opprobrium in Australia (Epoch Times).Chen Yonglin speaks: The former Communist consular officer who defected to expose the Communists’ international espionage activities testifies to the Sydney Tribunal during the Trial of the Chinese Communist Party for Crimes against Humanity about the persecution of Falun Gong (Epoch Times).On Communist China and Christmas: Kery Nunez, Epoch Times, reveals how her attempts to avoid Made in China this Christmas helped her discover its true meaning.On Stalinist North Korea: China Freedom Blog Alliance Member One Free Korea has the latest on the Stalinist counterfeiting flap, including the Communists trying to provide cover for their would-be colony, while guest blogger Andy Jackson wraps up his reports from the Seoul conference on human rights in the Stalinist North.
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Our Own Re-Education Campsmark said: I’m two years into a bachelors degree in a social science. You would seem to be correct… walking down the department hallway looking at posters on walls and doors to offices, you can see all the typical liberal propaganda, slogans, bush-bashing, etc.. There are conservative professors, though, they just aren’t loud mouthed about it. Before the 2000 and 2004 elections I would have sworn the entire country was liberal. I thought there was no way in hell Bush would get elected, and yet here he is a two-term president. The loudest group is always a minority. Liberals speak up very loudly but the silent majority quietly dismiss their ideology. In class most people are just there because their parents are making them go to school or because they just want to get a degree and go make money in the real world. The few people who are in class to learn something are the best check and balance against a professor who will spout off anything. Numerous (I tell you three time, NUMEROUS) occasions this past semester I challenged professors openly in class. I would research the facts and bring in my evidence. If I was correct, the professor made a public retraction. If I was wrong (I never was) I would do the same. Once a professor knew that someone was actually listening to every word they uttered, they became much more careful and the rhetoric became toned down. It’s not that students are afraid to speak out against their professors for fear or reprisals. The case is more often that students are using college as a stepping stone or an insurance policy for their standard of living in their adult life. They don’t plan to retain any of the information they get in these classes. They want the diploma and the salaried job and they are done. They will go on thinking and believing whatever they already had in their minds. The socialization process is virtually complete by age 15 or 16. By the time ‘kids’ get to college they are 18 and sometimes older. They will keep the information in their heads long enough to get an A on the test but they aren’t there to learn, and they won’t suddenly become brainwashed to be a liberal. For the kids who ARE there to learn something, they will scrutinize everything a professor says and make the professor that much more careful because they don’t want to be embarrassed in front of a class. It takes that ONE student who has the balls to stand up and call a professor out… that’s all it takes. I don’t believe any of my grades have been negatively affected by standing up and challenging the authority. I think more often than not, the liberal professors admire it and it has earned me a reputation. The fact that I am paying attention in class actually boosts my grade, I think. Professors want kids to actually struggle with the material and achieve their own conclusions. The liberal perspective is so common it is taken for granted and met with a sigh, roll of the eyes, and shrug of the shoulders. When a professor actually sounds conservative, I’ve seen much more discussion in classes and a more positive response from my peers. It would appear the re-education camps truly have no affect. I agree with your proposal to eliminate tenure. RJR: Mark is among the 5 to 10 percent of the students who are independent minded and will contest what their professors say. But for the rest, they are like potted plants, absorbing what the professor says as though getting sunshine. Now, all professors have a worldview, which even among the best of them will unconsciously influence their choice of textbooks and the content of their lectures. If they are mostly liberal-left, then this similar view will orient one class after another. It is as though the light was always coming in from the same angle, and in time the potted plant will lean in that direction. Kenneth Sikorski said: Excellent post. No other source for anti-Americanism can be more troubling, than what’s being spawned on US soil. These tiny totalitarian oasis’s in an ocean of democracy, are the breeding grounds for Marxist thought which can boast to help formenting social unrest, a damaged economy, a civilian sheep mentality, international defeatism and international bigotry when it comes to the state of Israel. Like all good Marxist socialists, they fear the market place, whether it be for saleable goods or ideas. The notion that life isn’t sometimes fair, and that its everyone’s responsibility to do ‘their maximimum’ in order to succeed in life, is relegated to the level of a fabeled myth. David Horowitz: To the extent the left remains captive to Marxists and other such intolerant interest groups, it must and will remain hostile to the marketplace of ideas. By definition, totalitarians cannot abide opposition. True liberals, by contrast, understand that a free exchange of ideas is not only a basic human right, but essential to the betterment of society. I remain hopeful that the latter camp will ultimately triumph over the former, and we will once again have true freedom on our campuses. Sadly, the academy can be characterized by its intellectual laziness, where justice equals symmetry. It means you don’t have to give too much thought to who’s right and who’s wrong. But it’s sure as hell convenient. RJR: I don’t think intellectual laziness is an exclusive characteristic of the left, but a personality trait. Some, regardless of ideology, are just that way. Dean Esmay said: The worry I have about ending tenure is that in some areas, particularly the hard sciences, this could in fact wind up destroying mavericks who question the status quo. I know scientists with strong dissenting views in their particular area of study. Yet almost all grant money from the government is given out to those who hold to the orthodox views. Somehow the independent review boards must also be allowed to identify scientists and other people who hold perfectly defensible ideas that are out of the mainstream for their profession. That would be my only concern. RJR: As it is, such scientists can be denied tenure, and if they have it life can be made miserable for them — denied promotion, merit or salary increases, research and travel funds; students advised to avoid them; given worst parking slots, office environments, courses to teach, and committee assignments; and socially ostracized. The life of the unorthodox in any organization is never a happy one. So, reformers have to consider what will overall improve an institution’s function, and for educational institutions whose purpose is to prepare students for life, independent thought, and work, eliminating tenure is the best option. Ronald Rutherford said: I think the title says it all: Less Democracy Please. But for a small taste… Again, I’m all over democracy, within reason. But full-frontal democratic governments, reflecting the will a majority are fine in theory but in practice it’s scary as hell. I’m sure that’s why we’ve done away with it here in the United States. RJR: I stopped reading the link when it implied that Iran has had democratic elections for almost 30 years, and claimed that the Iraq Shiia were allied with Iran. Anyway, Iraq and Afghanistan are constitutional, federal democracies, in which there are protections against majority rule, as in the U.S.The Quiet March of Democratic FreedomPaul Vincent said: Something about these kinds of rankings have always had me slightly in a deep state of skepticism. What constitutes a country as being free? They could not possibly be giving the absolute statement that a person does what they want or no nation would be free. In this kind of a ranking my fear is that America is the model of freedom for the world. If it is not America then what is it? Do they have some sort of points criteria? Its great that freedom reigns but saying how many nations are free needs at least a common point to base freedom off of. RJR: The Freedom House criteria for defining its rating are elaborate, clear, and public. They are here. I have surveyed all the published methods for rating, scaling, and ranking democracies, and the Freedom House criteria are the best theoretically, and best applied.Attack IranJimbo said: Good comments and thoughts. It’s hard to find a college professor with conservative views. RJR: Ahh . . . I’m not a conservative. I’m a freedomist, and agree with conservatives on foreign policy and economic freedom, with liberals on social freedom, and with libertarians on minimum government (but not their isolationist foreign policies). In other words, I’m for the maximum individual freedom for me, for you, and for everyone here and abroad, consistent with the same freedom for all. Ronald Rutherford said: I personally don’t care if he believes the Holocaust or not. What he says has no bearing on reality but it is a concern on what he says he wants to do or will carry out. After saying Germany, or Austria he now says: If you committed a crime, it is only appropriate that you place a piece of your land at their disposal – a piece of Europe, of America, of Canada, or of Alaska - so they can establish their own state. Rest assured that if you do so, the Iranian people will voice no objection. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Suggests: Jewish State in Canada or Alaska I have been teasing the liberals that 6 million Jews in 19million acres(ANWR). But not before saying that if the Arabs really thought that relocation was an option they could move the Palestinians to Iraq. RJR: This all would be funny — you know, like a crazy man claiming he is Napoleon — if it were not for this henchmen of the Mullahs heading a murderous, genocidal dictatorship that may soon have nukes. mark said: I think our country has seen enough war. We’ve been knee deep in shitsville for four and a half years. Let Europe do something about it for once. Our military is exhausted and we are in debt up to our eyeballs. Starting another war would require an amount of debt that would make the USA obsolete in a few years. Second, there aren’t enough soldiers willing to keep going. You’d have to draft people to keep the war machine chugging along. Then we’d have a REAL vietnam on our hands. I think the USA has done a fair share of work. It’s time the Europeans got off their asses and actually handled a crisis instead of relying on America to be the world police and then condemning us for it. No more handouts. At the very most, give Israel some expensive jets and stand back. RJR: Europe will do nothing, and thus the U.S. is faced with the choice. Let Iran get nukes, or help Israel stop it. As to mark’s assumptions, our military is not in any way exhausted, the military is meeting and sometimes exceeding its enlistment and reenlistment goals, so no draft is required. And our national debt relative to GDP much less than at the end of WWII — about 120 percent then versus about 68 percent estimated for 2005. He is correct about the results of a draft, and that is why we don’t have one. Kenneth Sikorski said: I understand Mark’s point of view. It is time for ‘Old Europe’ (represented in the foreign policies of the EU) to get off their selfish and greedy hind quarters, and stand up for the same democracy that others sacrificed themselves for in freeing Europe during WWII. It is not by coincidence that the recently freed former Soviet block countries of Bulgaria, Czech Republic,Poland, Romania, Slovakia represented as well as former Soviet states such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. All those states with very recent memories of tyranny and oppression know what’s at stake, and that any American policy aimed at removing a thuggish dictatorship is a worthwhile project to sign on to. I applaud their wisdom and tenacity. If any blame could be laid at the present administrations feet, the most valid charge would be that the president did not effectively explain to the average American, that there will be a need for great sacrifice. Most Americans have only an ‘abstract understanding’ of the enemy we are at war with, and that we are in this fight for the long haul. There should have been a serious drive for a draft for soldiers. It would have sent a major message to the forces we are at war with that US forces are committed to waging a long protracted war. In this day and age of ‘I want it all and I want it now’, we face a lethargic populace and government that refuse to want to ‘upset the apple cart’ too much. The enemy we presently face are not only dedicated in wanting to upset our apple cart, but destroy the system that allows that apple cart to exist. We cannot allow the free world to fail those still ‘locked down’ under tyranny, by losing heart in the face of such a vile enemy. History would severely condemn us. RJR: Agree, except for the draft. While a draft is desirable based on free rider and freedom requires sacrifice arguments, it would generate huge, Vietnam War like, antiwar demonstrations of the ignorant and idealistic youths, all engineered by communist, anti-American, and jihadist groups. For that reason, a draft is not a good idea. Dean Esmay said: Sadly it seems the US has been bogged down in finger-pointing, recrimination, and defeatism in Iraq for so long that most people fail to see that it is already quite arguably the greatest military and human rights victory since World War II. I myself would be fully in favor of taking out the Mullah regime in Iran. We clearly have more than enough resources, and could raise more if we needed. Our debt is trivial compared to our national wealth, and the returns such an investment would pay would be incalculable. Yet do the Americans have the will to do the right thing? RJR: Agree, and if properly explained and exhorted, Americans will do what is necessary. That’s what leadership is about. And Bush has it. And those of you that have blogs and websites have a role to play. Are you up to it? Solomon2 said: do the Americans have the will to do the right thing? France chose not to invade Germany in 1935 because its top general told the leadership that in any war, Germany’s superior industrial strength would eventually lead to a German victory. It was a questionable argument even then, but the economic advantage of the U.S. means that this argument is easily disposed of. No, the question is whether or not the U.S. wishes to suffer terrorist retaliation now, or very likely a greater terrorist strike later. These are not the days of the Cold War, terrorists are stateless enemies, and doubtless the mullahs would have time to construe things so that Iran wouldn’t be blamed - by setting up cells in Marseille, Detroit, or Potomac, for example. As soon as these arguments are understood by American decision-makers, I think there is little doubt that the U.S. will strike. My main worry is that U.S. intelligence is generally insufficient and often compromised - the Iranians may be further along than we think. And if the Iranians aren’t close to a bomb at all — well, everyone should have learned after Saddam that even pretending to have a bomb while maintaining a state of genocidal belligerence is unacceptable. Who denies that the world won’t be better off without mass-murdering mullah? RJR: Same response.The Moral Argument for Killing AnotherKuro Yoshitsune said: The question of the death penalty is one with which I have struggled of late. Emotionally, I can relate to President Bush and Dr. Rummel’s final paragraph. However, there is something buried deep in me that I have been trying to bury more and more since September 11, 2001. Actually, it is probably inaccurate to say that I have been trying to bury it, but it has been going deeper and deeper. This is my thought that, at the end of the day, Killing someone is wrong.Even if that person committed or is responsible for mass murder, tourture, rape, not to mention building Palaces and seeing that Uday was well supplied with Heroine, Johnnie Walker Blue, and Pornagraphy, among other things, while children were starving and lacking basic life necessities. He is a man who has done some evil things. He will likely never come to realize that doing these things was evil. But I find that I can not 100% support his execution. Why? It has to do with my personal beliefs about life. Okay, as one might guess from my name, I am Buddhist (although, I have not been a very good one since at least 9/11/2001). I said 100% because there is a part of me that thinks that doing would be justified. Not for revenge, but for the fact dead former dictators are quite safer to others than alive ones. While I can understand why many would like to see him suffer a very slow lingering, painful death, I do not believe that seeing this will bring them real happiness. For the pain and suffering he caused will not cease to exist with this revenge. The satisfaction in seeing Saddam suffer and die will not, in my belief, bring them lasting happiness. It is tough, but if you believe in Karma, the guy has a whole lot of of it to pay off. If you believe in Hell, what could be worse than eternal Damnation? (Last I heard former dicators eventually have a 100% death rate) If you do not believe in either, then what else can you do but get in line to take a whack. RJR: Killing another is wrong, immoral, an evil of its own. And thus, it is the same with war. But, as there is a Just War doctrine, I believe there is a Just Execution doctrine. Sometimes we are faced with a necessary choice between two evils — war or non-war, use the atomic bomb or not; execution or non-execution. One then must choose what is the lesser evil. In the case of Hussein (or Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, or Mao), the evil of execution is the lesser one compared to that of letting such a dictator who is responsible for the murder of at least a million souls, live. Turn this around. Which is more just? Execution or life in prison partly paid for by the loved ones of those he murdered and the survivors of his wars. mark said: One is not simply born human. Human is a title one must earn. Saddam Hussein is not a human. He is a monster. He is a killer, or a plague. We eradicate plagues, we eradicate dictators. The price for murdering so many people can not be 3 square meals a day and clean sheets for the rest of his days. Kill the fucker. RJR: Agree with the last two sentences, but not the first and second. I think at birth we are all human, with equal rights, except for freedom. That is a right we grow into as we become adults. Kuro Yoshitsune said: Interesting concept. I didn’t particularly specify that my view was limited to humans. I purposely used the term life for this reason. The concept of having to earn the title of Human is new to me. I do not particularly agree with this, as it would mean that those things that keep popping out of women all of the world each day are but potential humans. Don’t tell the Pro Choicers this or they’ll want to be aborting in the 40th trimester, like Eric Cartman’s mom was trying to do in the South Park episode: Cartmans Mom is (Still) a Dirty Slut” LOL Anyway, since my arguments are based on beliefs that few likely share in this blog (and ones that are hard for even me to accept in cases like this), I am not trying to debate whos right and wrong.link
And that’s about all the mention I’ll give them until Jon Koza and the Catepano brothers cough up money for the Netscaper113 car fund.When my father was alive, he used to send Christmas letters to his friends and relatives. My mother’s relatives used to complain about the morbid, negative tone of the letters- until I wrote the family letters for 1995 and 1996.
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The record time here for the race is 13 minutes which is about how long it takes me to walk to my observatory [3/4 mi] on a good day! We are on 2 miles of ice here and the air is thinner at the earth’s poles due to the rotation of the earth, which flattens the atmosphere even more so it feels about 700′ higher than we are.
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Well with 8 days of the year left, fate appears to have offered me the real chance of reaching 250.Thursday night on 22nd December I have now finished for 2005, and the pager has announced the arrival of a drake Smew at Tottenhill, plus the confirmed residence during the last week of a Rough-legged Buzzard (or a Rough- buggered Lizzard as Simon texted me with last night!) in the Massingham Heath area.Everything looked good Thursday night for Friday, a relatively mild day was forecast with a 10 mph westerly wind. If I had to come back tomorrow so be it, but I was going to make life a little easier for myself, rather than doing another 50 miler tomorrow!I sat down again and scanned, checked the time, scanned again, checked the time,and scanned again, at 3PM I decided that at 3.40Pm I should call it a dayâ¦â¦â¦â¦..then just to my left heading directly towards me, clearly a big bird of prey, at 500m with the bins on it, clearly a Buzzard, very pale headâ¦.come on turn, please turn, it banked, pale tail with broad dark terminal band!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was all over - ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD -250, 250, yes, yes, yes!!!It landed in the conifer belt, just to my left so I headed round across on the footpath, and was treated to further great views, I watched as it headed North â presumably heading for itâs chosen roost.Ecstatic I rode home forcing the legs through the pain barrier for most of the way, the day ended though with a lesson learnt.On arriving home at 415PM with 71 miles cycled, I was probably some what exhausted, but the elation and adrenalin were still working.
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We even saw Quasimodo’s bell tower- this is where Sandy fell down the stairs :)After Notre-Dame we walked to the Louvre. We even saw the Mona Lisa- it was so neat to have a front row view.After the Louvre, we got on a bus to the Eiffel Tower. Kenny ordered duck and I thought I would order rabbit because I had never had it before- it ended not looking like any rabbit I had ever seen! We both slept pretty well and in the morning we got hot chocolate and a croissant.Wednesday- April 7We got off the train and tried to find a tourist info place to help us find a hotel room, but then just went outside and walked to a hotel with a doorman- it was a 5 star hotel starting at 250 Euro per night. He showed us what street the 3 star hotels were on and we walked in the first nice one we saw- San Carlo.