Clipmarks | ouyangwulong's Thinking collection

Corruption and Conscious in China

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:15:27 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Although it at first seems appealing to have public officials take responsibility for the disasters that slip by one their watch, it may not be the best course of action.

For instance, there was a baby food scandal in 2004, and the government reacted by holding people responsible - heads of companies and several public officials were executed.

But now a similar problem is happening again. Why?

Because by holding an individual responsible for what is a societal lapse, it allows everyone else to keep on doing business as usual without addressing the fundamental underlying problems.

In the case of corruption or dereliction of duty, the communist party's punitive actions have not served as a deterrent, quite the opposite.

Perhaps we should also consider this in our own context, for we all own a small part in the disasters we blame on our politicians.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Chinese baby formula scandal widens as 2nd death is announced

China's Ministry of Health announced on Monday that a second baby had died in recent months and that 1,253 others had been sickened by contaminated milk powder in a widening food safety scandal that has exposed persistent weaknesses in the country's regulatory system.

Four years ago, at least 13 Chinese babies died of malnutrition after their parents unwittingly fed them fake baby formula that lacked any nutritional value.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

HONG KONG: The governor and deputy governor of Shanxi Province lost their jobs Sunday after at least 254 villagers were killed when their homes were engulfed in a cascade of muddy iron ore waste from the reservoir of an unlicensed mine.

was the latest sign that the authorities in Beijing were assigning personal responsibility to high-ranking members of the Communist Party for their handling of environmental and work safety disasters.

Tags: china, corruption, baby formula, scandal, responsibility, death penalty, bush, iraq

The Gray Scale between East and West

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 03:53:46 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Understanding that there is no clear distinction between east and west is one of the most important changes we need to make in 21st century diplomacy.

Failing to see east and west as a cultural continuum with significant commonalities across the board is one of the main reasons for the rise of terrorism and our failed Russia policy.

Clinging to old nationalist divisions blinds us to what the world has become and what the world has always been: cultures in flux across borders and mutating as different people interact.

Clip Source: www.lrb.co.uk

‘The greatest single truth to declare itself in the wake of 1989,’ J.G.A. Pocock wrote two years afterwards,

is that the frontiers of ‘Europe’ towards the east are everywhere open and indeterminate. ‘Europe’, it can now be seen, is not a continent – as in the ancient geographers’ dream – but a subcontinent: a peninsula of the Eurasian landmass, like India in being inhabited by a highly distinctive chain of interacting cultures, but unlike it in lacking a clearly marked geophysical frontier. Instead of Afghanistan and the Himalayas, there are vast level areas through which conventional ‘Europe’ shades into conventional ‘Asia’, and few would recognise the Ural mountains if they ever reached them.

But, he went on, empires – of which in its fashion the European Union must be accounted one – had always needed to determine the space in which they exercised their power, fixing the borders of fear or attraction around them.

Tags: eu, nato, foreign policy, europe, asia, terrorism, culture

How & Why Chrome will Conquer the World

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:41:53 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: So this is a hilarious little comic book Google put together to explain Chrome, which I think represents a very important leap towards cloud computing, which I think is the future of both comunications and computing.

We can see this leap in my three favorite features unique to Chrome...

Clip Source: www.google.com

Tags: chrome, ie, microsoft can go to hell, vista, evil, google, savior, cloud computing, facebook, firefox

BLOW YOUR MIND: They are just now checking Sarah Palin's background

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:37:36 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Now, the Republicans will jump to the defense of Sarah Palin and her family, because she is one of their own. However, if they were liberals, these kind of disclosures would be used to crucify them. That sad reality is more than a little depressing. For instance, Obama is repeatedly accused of "not loving America," but unlike Sarah Palin, he never joined a party who's goal was succession.

But the thing that really shocked me is that McCain seems to not be taking this seriously at all. Apparently, according to this article, they are just checking into her background NOW, after they put her on the ticket.

Is this the kind of judgment we want in a President? Honestly, although I am still a McCain fan, this shocked and disappointed me that he didn't have enough wherewithal to have all his ducks in a row.

It seems like he doesn't take running for President that seriously at all, which is too bad for America.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

On Monday morning, Ms. Palin

issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant

it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power

she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice

Tags: mccain, obama, palin, marijuana, sex, naked, hypocrisy, experience, judgment, hates america

Real Political Issues: Peace or Perpetual War?

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:52:27 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: What is the real lesson of 9/11?

I still want to discuss this election in terms of issues not polemics and ad hominems, so I'm going to keep trying...

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“We live in a dangerous world,” Mr. Bush said, “And we need a president who understands the lessons of Sept. 11, 2001: that to protect America, we must stay on the offense, stop attacks before they happen, and not wait to be hit again. The man we need is John McCain.”

Tags: 9/11, iraq, afghanistan, bush, mccain, obama, issues

Inexperienced Republican vs. Inexperienced Democrat

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:38:42 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: So I've been having a lot of heated discussions on exactly how important it is for a candidate to be experienced. My view is: not at all. Knowledge matters. Belief matters. Judgment matters. But experience in Washington is a minus for me.

Hopefully, now, this will put the experience debate to bed. Shame on Barbra Boxer for making the same argument against Palin that she dismisses against Obama!

Both tickets are a good mix of experience and freshness. If Democrats want to take on Palin, they should have enough wherewithal to criticize her political positions, just like Republicans should stop whining about manufactured personal issues with Obama and get to the meat of why they don't like him: the issues.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Several of Mr. McCain’s outside advisers reacted with bewilderment to the selection of Ms. Palin, and one said that it would undercut one of Mr. McCain’s central criticisms of Senator Obama — that he is too inexperienced to be commander in chief.

Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, dismissed Ms. Palin’s appeal to female voters.

“The vice president is a heartbeat away from becoming President, so to choose someone with not one hour’s worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice,” she said in a statement.

“Governor Palin is a very bright leader who will bring a fresh perspective to a ticket that already has the experience and judgment necessary to lead our country from day one,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader.

Tags: palin, obama, mccain, experience, democrat, republican, idiots, democracy, talking points

Why Everyone Should Be in Favor of Reducing Taxes on the Rich

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:04:41 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: mises.org

Are the American people being primed to elect a home-grown version of Hugo Chavez, in the person of Barack Obama? This is a question one can come away with after reading "Obamanomics," the featured article in this last Sunday's (August 24, 2008) New York Times Magazine. Written by Times' columnist David Leonhardt, the article provides insight into Obama's thinking on economics and the economic policies he would be likely to pursue if he were elected President.

Obama's agenda, we are told in more detail, includes "a $500 cut in the payroll tax for most workers" and major middle- and lower-income tax credits, to the point of simply handing out government money to those for whom the tax credits more than eliminate the taxes they would otherwise have to pay. "These tax cuts," Leonhardt writes, "are really the essence of his market-oriented redistributionist philosophy (though he made it clear that he doesn't like the word 'redistributionist').

Obama's Fair Tax

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:34:57 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

Mr. Warren, a man of the cloth, has done us a great service by asking the candidates to answer a pretty secular question: What kind of income makes an American "rich"? Maybe in the more secular setting of an upcoming debate, one of our nonpastor moderators could ask the candidates the moral question: What specific rate of individual taxation would it take for the rich to be paying their fair share?

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

He talks about it as a general theme: "It is time for folks like me who make more than $250,000 to pay our fair share."

He invokes it as a solution for Social Security: "[W]e will save Social Security for future generations by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share."

He points to how it guides his energy policy: "The first part of my plan is to tax the windfall profits of oil companies and use some of that money to help you pay the rising price of gas."

And he stuck to it on capital gains, even after ABC's Charlie Gibson noted that the record shows increased taxes on capital gains -- which would affect 100 million Americans -- would likely lead to a decrease in government revenues: "Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness."

It's not about robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Robbing from the rich will do, especially if it's done in the name of fairness.

Tags: taxes, election

Judicial Barbarism

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:15:18 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Although I am an opponent of the death penalty, I think this was the wrong decision.

Why? Because it enshrines barbarism in our legal system. By saying that the death penalty is not warranted unless the victim of the crime was also killed, the justices have defined our legal system as an instrument not of justice but of vengeance.

Justice is the protection of the weak, and the assurance that wrongs, once committed, will not be repeated. Justice should not spring from vindictive passion, but instead from a love for all those in society.

Our legals system is there to protect us from henious individuals who menace society, not to torture them for our own sadistic satisfaction.

If we merely revisit their own crimes back on them, we are not just, but savage, not civilized but barbaric.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — The death penalty is unconstitutional as a punishment for the rape of a child, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

The 5-to-4 decision overturned death penalty laws in Louisiana and five other states. The only two men in the country who have been sentenced to death for the crime of child rape, both in Louisiana, will receive new sentences of life without parole.

The court went beyond the question in the case to rule out the death penalty for any individual crime — as opposed to “offenses against the state,” like treason or espionage — “where the victim’s life was not taken.”

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said there was “a distinction between intentional first-degree murder on the one hand and nonhomicide crimes against individual persons,” even “devastating” crimes like the rape of a child, on the other.

Tags: death penalty, rape, judicial activism, barbarism begins at home

Hillary's Own Sexism

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:44:09 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Although there is a lot of talk about sexism, and how it is to blame for Hillary's defeat, I think people are barking up the wrong tree.

Obama never campaigned against Hillary on the basis that as a woman she would be "unelectable" because conservative "swing voters" would never elect a woman. On the other hand, she did make that case against Obama on account of his race.

In fact, nobody ever questioned Hillary's ability to lead the country, as a woman or otherwise. The should have: her foreign policy is scary and ignorant.

But the most sexist person in the race was Hillary herself. Her campaign, with the pant-suits and tough guy attitude (especially on Iran) seemed to reflect her own belief that if a woman was going to win, she had to convince people that she was "one of the guys."

I think almost anyone who would vote for Obama would also vote for a woman - if it was the right woman. What I'm not willing to do is vote for any woman simply for the sake of making history.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Racism is deeper, but sexism may be wider in America today.

In polls, more Americans say they would be willing to vote for a black candidate for president than for a female candidate, and sexist put-downs are heard more publicly than racial ones.

We aren't always aware of our own biases.

Some of Clinton's supporters are sure that she was defeated by misogyny, while those who voted against her invariably are dismissive:The reason I didn't vote for her isn't that she's a woman. It's that she's a dynastic opportunist who voted for the Iraq war and...

Tags: hilary, misogony, pant suits, obama, sexism, america, election

Small Claims Court for Countries

Sat, 24 May 2008 02:54:10 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: It's interesting how well the international system works when people aren't busy sabotaging it.

Malaysia and Singapore just settled this international dispute in court, and everyone seems happy.

I think the main reason that countries such as the US or China don't support international courts and authorities is because they don't want to be held responsible for the transgressions they know they've committed.

You have to admit, America has come to demand a certain kind of exceptionalism, placing ourselves above the law by virtue of our own self-aggrandizement. Restoring America's international reputation will begin with ending this repugnant double standard that we hold for ourselves and the rest of the world.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

World Court awards contested island of Pedra Branca to Singapore

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The International Court of Justice on Friday awarded Singapore sovereignty over a disputed island hosting a strategic lighthouse at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Straits.

It ruled in favor of Singapore's argument that it had exercised sovereign powers over the rock since the Horsburgh lighthouse opened 1851, with no protest from Malaysia until 30 years ago.

Both sides said they accepted the ruling.

"It is a good example to the region of how such disputes can be resolved in a peaceful and amicable manner," said Singapore's deputy prime minister, S. Jayakumar.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim called it a win-win ruling since each side won a partial victory. Resolving such disputes through the rule of law, he said, "will make the world safer."

Tags: malaysia, singapore, international, courts, diplomacy, law, order

The Jew Problem

Fri, 23 May 2008 06:16:15 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Let's see how many people click on that title!

I hope I have your attention now, because this is important!

Some politically active Jews, although certainly passionate, often have trouble telling friend from foe. The belief among Jews that the Christian Fundamentalist Evangelical community is a friend is a big mistake.

Some worry that Obama is part of the nation of Islam, or Palestinian, or that he won't help Israel. But they think the GOP will.

But what is the Christian Right's agenda in helping Israel? Clearly, right-wing evangelical fundamentalists like Hagee have no tenderness or fondness for Jews.

They believe Israel is simply a part of God's ultimate plan leading to the apocalypse. Although they support the Jews returning to Israel, they also believe it is Biblical prophecy that there will be continuous warfare, so they don't support peace, but an Israel besieged. Many believe this is the prelude to the final destruction of the Jews by a wrathful God.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

But the resistance toward Obama appears to be rooted in something more than factual misperception; even those with an accurate understanding of Obama share the hesitations. In dozens of interviews, South Florida Jews questioned his commitment to Israel — even some who knew he earns high marks from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbies the United States government on behalf of Israel.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Senator John McCain on Thursday rejected the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, a televangelist, after a watchdog group released a recording of a sermon in which Hagee said Hitler and the Holocaust had been part of God's plan to chase the Jews from Europe and drive them to Palestine.

The latest Hagee remarks to surface may strike at the heart of McCain's efforts to reach a critical group of voters, Jews, some of whom have viewed Obama with suspicion.

Tags: jews, israel, christianity, fundamentalism, hagee, obama, racism

Insanity Defined

Wed, 21 May 2008 19:01:21 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.amconmag.com

President Bush deserves to have this anniversary memorably marked. Five years of fighting since he pronounced the end of “major combat operations” attests to a singular capacity for delusion—except that his would-be successor is as least as reality-challenged.

Anyone inclined to think John McCain remotely capable of ending the war—see the letters section of our last issue—might take a look at his predictions. The aircraft-carrier address looks almost sane by comparison:

“I don’t believe it’s going to be nearly the size and scope that it was in 1991.” 9.15.02

“There’s not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shias. So I think they can probably get along.” 4.23.03

“Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.” 8.04

“Iraq is now the central front in the war against al-Qaeda.” 9.16.07

Eternalism, Nihilism: new forms, old superstition

Tue, 06 May 2008 09:47:03 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: <<<Throughout the Buddha's long period of teaching the Dhamma to His followers, He actively discouraged speculative arguments. During the 5th century B.C. India was a veritable hive of intellectual activity where scholars, yogis, philosophers, kings and even ordinary householders were constantly engaged in the philosophical arguments pertaining to human existence. Some of these were either ridiculously trivial or totally irrelevant. Some people wasted valuable time arguing at great length about all manner of subjects. They were far more concerned about proving their powers in mental gymnastics than seeking genuine solutions to the problems that beset humanity.>>>

Clip Source: zencomp.com

To develop Right View or Perfect View, we must first be aware of two views which are considered imperfect or wrong.

The first view is eternalism. This doctrine or belief is concerned with eternal life or with eternal things. Before the Buddha's time, it was taught that there is an abiding entity which could exist forever, and that man can live the eternal life by preserving the eternal soul in order to be in union with Supreme Being. In Buddhism, this teaching is called sassata ditthi ----the view of eternalists. Such views still exist even in the modern world owing to man's craving for eternity.

The second false view is nihilism or the view held by the nihilists who claim that there is no life after death.

The teaching of kamma is enough to prove that the Buddha did not teach annihilation after death; Buddhism accepts 'survival' not in the sense of an eternal soul, but in the sense of a renewed becoming.

Tags: eternalism, nihilism, buddhism

Democracy Saves America's Reputation

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:21:40 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: The great thing about America is not that we are a perfect country, but that we are always a redeemable one.

We have a certain mercurial charm (not to mention idiosyncratic way of doing things) that somehow manages to bring us back from the brink.

The world will never truly hate us, because we can and do change. And somehow, America has a knack for putting its best foot forward at just the right crucial moment.

Roger Cohen, also, is a shining example of editorial journalism in an age of glib semi-literate rants. He takes in the whole world, and manages to make sense of it, noticing all the right details.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Roger Cohen: Europe blue, Asia red

By Roger Cohen

Published: April 9, 2008

Europe's America is blue-state America. The rest is a discomfiting blur of churches, cowboys and electric chairs.

But in Asia, there's a different view.

At a deeper level, they've felt comfortable enough with a United States playing power politics, while that strut-your-stuff style has appalled consensus-driven Europeans.

I don't mean the Iraq invasion pleased Asians. It didn't. But China and India rising see the world more in terms of classic balance-of-power equations, driven by the might and self-interest of nations, than through the post-sovereign European prism of international institution-building and soft power.

Democracy at work is riveting. In Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, America has produced three remarkable candidates. It's not surprising that a recent BBC World Service global survey showed positive views of the United States increasing for the first time in years.

Tags: america, democracy, asia, europe, international, relations, roger cohen