Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
I have repeatedly denounced world leaders for refusing to meet with the Dalai Lama out of fear of incurring the wrath of China: Western leaders have made a mockery of their condemnation of the brutal crackdown on Tibetan monks by heeding China’s warning against meeting with the Dalai Lama in any official capacity. UK Prime… Read more.
I was more than a little annoyed yesterday when a well-intentioned friend tried to get me to sign a celebrity-fronted petition, which exhorted me to: Please act immediately to stop thousands of dogs from being tortured and butchered for their meat. You can save thousands of dogs from unspeakable pain by adding your name to… Read more.
For a little context, here is a relatively lengthy excerpt from “China Buying Up Political Dominion Over the Caribbean (Latin America, and Africa),” February 22, 2005, in which I presaged (almost 10 years ago) the spectre – not only of countries selling their sovereignty to China for easy cash, but of China placing increasingly mercantilist… Read more.
If reports of Gaddafi’s most egregious abuses turn out to be true, I suspect they will still pale in comparison to those Chinese leaders not only committed during their brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, but are committing today in their continual vigilance to attack any sign of democratic expression as if it… Read more.
China signed a landmark deal Wednesday to buy Russian natural gas worth about $400 billion, giving a boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin and expanding Moscow’s ties with Asia. (The Associated Press, May 21, 2014) I’ve been forthright in pointing out foreboding analogies between what Hitler did in Europe during the late 1930s and… Read more.
President Obama is on a state visit to Japan. It’s the first by a sitting U.S. president in almost 20 years. Therefore, you’d expect the media to be covering each step he takes on Japanese soil as if he were John Glen walking on the moon. Yet his visit is competing for coverage not only… Read more.
The 15-member UN Security Council voted moments ago on a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Crimea and declaring tomorrow’s scheduled referendum to ratify its annexation of this region of Ukraine invalid and a flagrant violation of international law. Unsurprisingly, 13 members, led by the United States, voted in favor of the resolution; one member, Russia, voted… Read more.
The media have been hyping this weekend’s summit between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping as if it were a heavyweight-boxing match. Specifically, they are reporting on Obama’s declared intent to give Xi the riot act over Chinese hacking American military and corporate secrets as if he intends to lead off their summit by punching… Read more.
Much is made in the international media of the way North Korea ignites military tensions with Groundhog Day-like precision. It does this, of course, by threatening to nuke not just wary neighbors like South Korea and Japan, but even the United States. By contrast, relatively little is made of the way Japan ignites similar tensions… Read more.
War between China and Japan over the Senkakus would make the war Argentina and Britain fought over the Falklands seem like a barroom brawl between mindless drunks. Not least because the United States would be compelled to honor its treaty obligations to defend Japan… [But] notwithstanding the mob-like passions of their respective nationalists, I’m sure… Read more.
