George W Bush Doesn't Waffle. Does He?

The other day I was looking for a recipe for waffles and lo and behold! Google took me to Johyn Kerry's campaign site. Another fine example of Google-bombing.

And certainly, the Right Wing has a lot to crow about in the waffling of Senator Kerry. President Bush has never displayed such despicable behavior. After all, once an opinion is formed, one should adhere to it through thick and thin, right and wrong, no matter how thin and wrong it may turn out to be.

George W Bush certainly stood firm on his conviction that there should be no 9/11 comission. After all, why should we hand the enemies of the US a blueprint of the weaknesses that allowed the 9/11 attack in the first place?

George W Bush has stood firm in his resolve that there are Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Unless they're in Iran. Or is it North Korea?

Then there's global warming where Bush has stood firm on his position (for most of his first term).

Of course, when George W Bush first learned that his nation was under attack, he stood firm in his resolve to finish Our Pet Goat.

Jan 2005 -- Realizing how inefficient it was to inspect passenger's shoes at the airport, the airlines instituted a new policy: passengers are given comfortable slip-on booties to wear during the flight. Passenger shoes are placed in a container that is then X-rayed with the rest of the luggage.

Aug 2005 -- Recent allegations that al Qaeda was perfecting a "coat bomb" that detonates when the jacket is briskly zipped up spurred the airlines into introducing a new security measure. Now along with their shoes, passengers are asked to change from their street clothes into a comfortable, one-piece jumpsuit to wear during the flight. Unfortunately, the only color that was available in large quantities was International Orange.

Sept 2005 -- Did we say coat bomb? We meant "wig bomb". It turns out that thousands of metal detectors around the country can't detect significant amounts of metal carried above neck level, and that al Qaeda is perfecting a bomb that mimics a bouffant hair style, or could fit within a turban, a shaggy beard, a bowler hat, or other headdress.

Now all airline passengers are requested to wear their hair short, or submit to random scalp and beard inspections. Barbers and styling salons are opening in airports all across the US for travellers in need of a quick shearing before boarding.

And so on, until passengers boarding a plane look like so many convicts.

I'm now thinking of converting my wife's PC over to Linux. This is not a trivial decision. She depends heavily on her computer for her day to day work, especially for word processing and email. Yet I'm really tired of worrying about the security issues surrounding Windows.

One good thing is that she's been using Netscape for email and most Web browsing for some time. So she wouldn't have to be retrained away from Outlook. (I once went through a deathmarch where my ISP attempted a forced migration to IE/Outlook, but that's another story.)

Properly handled, my wife might not even notice the conversion. My child would be quite upset though, when all the computer games stopped working. But that might not be such a Bad Thing either.

I recently read the novel The Crazed by Ji Han. This is an amazing book. Ji Han has a way of building up the tension in a story. In The Crazed, he outdoes himself. The book ends in a series of punches -- about the time you think he's done, he sends another roundhouse into you.

I've traveled in China and mingled with the natives, and I think it's truly hard for people from the United States to comprehend just how invasive the Chinese government is. China is a country where rule of law doesn't apply to the upper class. Or at least, they're excused from its strictures much of the time.

On one trip, I recall sitting in a nearly deserted hotel cafe, eating a bland breakfast. Three people entered from the far side, a middle-aged couple and their teenaged daughter. They were quite portly, unusual for China. They walked up to a server's station at that side of the restaurant. There they helped themselves to cups of coffee and whatever else was at the station. A waitress from my side of the restaurant approached them, but the husband shot her a warning look, and the waitress immediately retreated.

For several minutes the family stood there, brazenly committing petty theft, yet apparently taking no joy in it. The expressions and tones they exchanged among themselves were nearly as ugly as the look the husband had given the waitress.

Another time, I was walking with my wife through the streets of Wuhan. We stopped to ask directions from an elderly woman who was sitting on a chair on the sidewalk, eating noodles from a disposable bowl. The woman said she didn't know where we wanted to go, but she had a phone we could borrow. Well enough, but then she threw her bowl, half full of noodles, splat! onto the sidewalk, followed by the chopsticks. Shocked, I glanced around. A few feet away stood a very old woman, carrying a broom and dustpan, who stared dejectedly at the bowl and the noodles. My wife's eyes opened wide with surprise for a moment, then she calmly followed the noodle thrower.

There was nothing atypical in either scene. These people lording it over others were members of the Communist Party. There was no one and nothing to prevent their petty abuse of their position over others, nothing to impose societal standards on them. These were also people low in the Party hierarchy.

Scale up this behavior to a nation of over one billion people. Now you have corrupt officials who infect entire villages with HIV while extracting blood serum for pharmaceutical companies. Who have built the most polluted cities in the modern world. Who've committed innumerable offenses, small and large, on the people they govern. As long as this situation exists, I have to agree with Ji Han, that China is not a healthy nation, and its future is not going to be a pleasant one.

There's a tedious aspect to blogging. It's yet one more drain on one's time, without any promise of gain or return.

Unless you get lucky and cover something like a war, obtain a mass following, and end up with a lucrative media contract.

Okay, what is the best way to start a blog? I guess to just jump in and do it.

I'm now working for an eclectic company in California's Bay Area. I've mixed feelings about having moved here, but I feel lucky to be employed and so on.

I'm originally from Colorado, and my wife is from China. The United States is a cold society, and for whatever reason, it seems colder here than back in Colorado. Perhaps its the climate. Or perhaps its the big city influence. People seem busier, less pleasant and considerate.