Dec 17, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Yahoo News:
BEIJING - A Chinese court sentenced a hotel worker and a prostitute to life in prison on Wednesday for organizing a three-day-long sex party for Japanese tourists -- a case that outraged Chinese and reignited anger over Japan's wartime conduct. All 14 of those convicted in the sex party case by the Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court were Chinese citizens....Prostitution, though illegal, is common in China and often practiced openly in tourist hotels in major cities....The public and nonessential employees were barred from the courthouse by officials who cited privacy concerns. ["China Sentences Two to Life for Sex Party "]
It also appears that Red China wants Japan to extradite Japanese construction workers who "clearly requested sexual services." Japan has so far refused. To which an appeaser might ask: why can't Japan be more accomodating like Christian conservative Pat Robertson?
As the AP release appeared the best that a UK Guardian editorialist with a "nostalgia for the political climate" when "capitalist-style growth was regarded as political poison" can do is whine about the fact that China's growth is not moving along "green" lines as the bicycle has been replaced by the evil car.
Meanwhile innocent individuals who violated the rights of no one sit in prison after being railroaded under kangaroo law proceedings.
Recommended Reading: George W. Bush's Unprincipled Foreign Policy Against Taiwan by Allen Forkum
How good can it be when President Bush and the Communist dictatorship of China share the same negative view of another nation's desire to be free from the threat of tyranny?Dec 16, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Mark Steyn in UK Telegraph, December 15th 2003:
...The one consistent feature of the post-9/11 era is the comprehensive failure of the international order. The French use their Security Council veto to protect Saddam. The EU subsidises Palestinian terrorism. The International Atomic Energy Agency provides cover for Iran's nuclear ambitions. The UN summit on racism is an orgy of racism.
The New York Times, sleepwalking through the 21st century on bromides from the Carter era, wants the UN to run Saddam's trial because one held under the auspices of the Americans would "lack legitimacy". Au contraire, it's the willingness of Kofi Annan, Mohammed el-Baradei, Chris Patten, Mary Robinson and the other grandees of the international clubrooms to give "legitimacy" to Saddam, Kim Jong-Il, Arafat, Assad and co that disqualifies them from any role in Iraq...
Dec 16, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Yahoo News, "France Pledges to Help Reduce Iraq's Debt ":
France said Monday it will work with other nations to cancel billions of dollars in Iraqi debt and suggested that Saddam Hussein's capture would open the way toward mending relations with Washington....
Observe that France's decision followed the "U.S. decision last week to lock out Russia, Germany and France from bidding on $18.6 billion in U.S.-financed reconstruction projects in Iraq." France understands that Bush means business.Dec 16, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
The E.U. opposes the death penalty for man responsible for murdering hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children--and tortured even more. But, at the same time their intellectuals oppose "Eurocentrism"--Americans "imposing" Western values on relatively primitive cultures. It is time at last to put the false doctrine of "multiculturalism" to good rhetorical use by allowing the Iraqis to stone Saddam to death.
Comments Thomas Sowell in "What Should Be Done With Saddam Hussein?":
Since stoning people to death is a tradition in parts of the Middle East, that might be the most appropriate way to execute Saddam Hussein. If each relative of someone murdered by Saddam were allowed to throw a stone, the line might stretch back for miles. Television pictures of that line, broadcast throughout the Arab world, could completely undermine any notion that this is just an American vendetta against Moslems.
Presiding over a matter of this magnitude and applying traditional laws and practices could help establish the credibility of the new Iraqi authorities. To our inevitable critics in Europe and elsewhere, we could say: "This is not the American way of doing things. But this is the Iraqis' country."
Dec 16, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Writes Mark Steyn:
One of the reasons America has an illegal immigration problem is because it has a legal immigration problem. If, like that hapless British Army wallah, you do things by the book, go to a US consulate in a foreign city and get issued with an "Advance Parole", you lay yourself open -- for years to come -- to being suddenly plunged, entirely arbitrarily, into a bureaucratic nightmare that destroys your life. Compare that to the courtesies extended to illegal aliens....if you slip across the border, rent an apartment, get a job and a driver's license courtesy of outgoing California Governor Gray Davis, the entire Democratic Party and a good half of the Republican Party will bend over backwards to respect you as a fine upstanding member of the Undocumented-American community and facilitate your access to all the benefits the state has to offer. Entering America illegally is a rational choice.
If a non-criminal foreigner wishes to immigrate into America--and an American is willing to hire him--the process of immigrating should be little more than a matter of "rubber stamp" paperwork, as opposed to a sometimes decade-long process. Immigrants should not be permitted to enter if they simply intend to be future members of the welfare state.Dec 16, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
This cartoon was intended to run yesterday but was displaced by news of Saddam's capture. Pro-democracy/anti-terrorism demonstrations occurred in Baghdad last week, but you might not know that if you only watched network news. Except for the FoxNews channel, the major media did not give the demonstrations significant coverage.
The blogosphere, however, did a great job of taking up the slack. In particular, InstaPundit provided a number of good links (here, here, here and here). Highlights include: Report from Iraqi blooger Healing Iraq with photos, photos, and more photos; Report from Iraqi blooger Iraq the Model with a follow-up comment on his disappointment with the media, western and Arab; Donald Sensing posted screen captures of FoxNews television coverage.
