Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
From the NYT. Poison Chinese toothpaste found here in the states. Link from Drudge. Previous post.
Over 100 years ago in this country we set out to ensure consumer safety through food and drug inspections and standards. Now we are losing that guarantee with cheap imports. Viva free trade.
UPDATE: China seems to be handling things in its usual way: belligerently going on the offensive and blaming the U.S. for blowing things out of proportion. Story here.
Over 100 years ago in this country we set out to ensure consumer safety through food and drug inspections and standards. Now we are losing that guarantee with cheap imports. Viva free trade.
UPDATE: China seems to be handling things in its usual way: belligerently going on the offensive and blaming the U.S. for blowing things out of proportion. Story here.
This story should be huge. A reporter for TIME magazine in Vietnam, a man also used by several other western news agencies and reporters, was a communist agent who fed information to North Vietnam and fed propaganda to news agencies. Lind from Instapundit.
Unfortunately, it will be a cold, cold day in hell before the Sunday morning talk shows fixate on this topic, or CNN devotes extensive time to it.
Think about it: the American media was largely responsible for public opinion turning against the war in Vietnam (e.g., the Tet Offensive which was a stunning defeat for the Viet Cong and NVA was portrayed in the Western press as a stunning defeat for us). And in the midst of the reporting from Vietnam was a Vietnamese communist agent.
How many of the stringers and reporters used in the Middle East today take their orders from Islamic radicals?
Unfortunately, it will be a cold, cold day in hell before the Sunday morning talk shows fixate on this topic, or CNN devotes extensive time to it.
Think about it: the American media was largely responsible for public opinion turning against the war in Vietnam (e.g., the Tet Offensive which was a stunning defeat for the Viet Cong and NVA was portrayed in the Western press as a stunning defeat for us). And in the midst of the reporting from Vietnam was a Vietnamese communist agent.
How many of the stringers and reporters used in the Middle East today take their orders from Islamic radicals?
01/06: Talking to Iran
I have not been happy that we have had talks with Iran, especially that we started on Memorial Day. But this post on Wizbang makes me feel somewhat better.
31/05: Needed, Iraqi Minutemen
One of the almost mythically important figures in the history of British/American Liberty is the yeoman. The small land-owner ready to defend his family and community with bow or musket or rifle. Joining with his neighbors in militia units, these citizen soldiers have been seen as the backbone of Anglo-American freedom from tryants both foreign and domestic.
More good news from Iraq as shown by this headline "Iraq Residents Rise Up Against Al Qaida." More and more of this seems to be happening, often with direct action by the Iraqis. Three cheers. A people who will not defend their own liberty themselves will not keep it, nor deserve it.
Picture of the Minuteman statue. May the people of Iraq someday raise their own statue.
More good news from Iraq as shown by this headline "Iraq Residents Rise Up Against Al Qaida." More and more of this seems to be happening, often with direct action by the Iraqis. Three cheers. A people who will not defend their own liberty themselves will not keep it, nor deserve it.
Picture of the Minuteman statue. May the people of Iraq someday raise their own statue.
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
I don't have enough context to comment, but this story is interesting--protesting to declare New Zealand a Christian Nation. Link from Instapundit.
29/05: United (League of) Nations
Once again, the United Nations has shown itself incapable of living up to the hopes of FDR, and earlier Woodrow Wilson. The UN has proved incapable of stopping the genocide in Darfur. So, President Bush has announced that we will begin to take actions, beginning with economic sanctions. (Link from Gateway Pundit.)
As a general rule, nations operate by the law of the jungle--self-interest determines actions. The UN is a collection of nations each serving its own self-interest. (China has announced that they will continue to support the genocidal regime; they want oil and influence.) The surprise is not that the UN has been unable to stop the genocide in Darfur, the surprise is that the UN has ever accomplished anything positive.
The exception to the self-interest rule are democracies. If the voters possess some sense of idealism, then those nations may act in ways outside (rarely in contradiction to) their own self-interest. We have no real national interest in Darfur; our economic interest is served best by stable oil prices; our national self-interest probably would lead us to support the oil-producing government of the Sudan. The actions President Bush has announced are idealistic, not pure self-interest.
The time has come for us to move forward away from the United Nations, and toward a consortium of democracies. Most of the UN member states represent governments not accountable to their own people. Read the Declaration of Independence again, and the preamble to the Constitution.
By the way, the ongoing genocide in Darfur also demonstrates the humanitarian impulses of Arab governments (alert for the sarcasm impaired), and the inability of Europe to act in concert beyond its boundaries. (Though if The Sudan were a former French colony, action probably would have been taken unilaterally by France before now.)
As a general rule, nations operate by the law of the jungle--self-interest determines actions. The UN is a collection of nations each serving its own self-interest. (China has announced that they will continue to support the genocidal regime; they want oil and influence.) The surprise is not that the UN has been unable to stop the genocide in Darfur, the surprise is that the UN has ever accomplished anything positive.
The exception to the self-interest rule are democracies. If the voters possess some sense of idealism, then those nations may act in ways outside (rarely in contradiction to) their own self-interest. We have no real national interest in Darfur; our economic interest is served best by stable oil prices; our national self-interest probably would lead us to support the oil-producing government of the Sudan. The actions President Bush has announced are idealistic, not pure self-interest.
The time has come for us to move forward away from the United Nations, and toward a consortium of democracies. Most of the UN member states represent governments not accountable to their own people. Read the Declaration of Independence again, and the preamble to the Constitution.
By the way, the ongoing genocide in Darfur also demonstrates the humanitarian impulses of Arab governments (alert for the sarcasm impaired), and the inability of Europe to act in concert beyond its boundaries. (Though if The Sudan were a former French colony, action probably would have been taken unilaterally by France before now.)
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
Like roaches, Islamic terrorists pushed out of one place will pop up in another. This story on Bangladesh as the new exporter of terrorism.
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
More poison exported from China. This time its toothpaste. An alert from a listserve. Original source NYT.
DIETHYLENE GLYCOL CONTAMINATION, TOOTHPASTE- MULTICOUNTRY EX CHINA
**************
A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: Tue 22 May 2007
Source: The New York Times [edited]
[As more contaminated toothpaste, including some made for children,
has turned up in Latin America, Chinese authorities are investigating
whether 2 companies from the coastal region of Danyang exported the
tainted toothpaste.]
A team of government investigators arrived [in Danyang] on Sunday
afternoon [20 May 2007], and closed the factory of the Danyang City
Success Household Chemical Company, a small building housing about 30
workers in a nearby village, according to villagers and one factory
worker. The government also questioned the manager of another
toothpaste maker, Goldcredit International Trading, which is in Wuxi,
about an hour's drive southeast of Danyang.
No tainted toothpaste has been found in the United States, but a
spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday
[21 May 2007], that the agency would be taking "a hard look" at
whether to issue an import alert.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said they seized 36 000 tubes of
toothpaste suspected of containing diethylene glycol, an industrial
solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze. Included were tubes
of toothpaste with bubble gum and strawberry flavors marketed for
children and sold under the name of "Mr. Cool Junior."
Toothpaste containing the toxic solvent was also found in Panama and
Australia in the last week.
(rest below)
DIETHYLENE GLYCOL CONTAMINATION, TOOTHPASTE- MULTICOUNTRY EX CHINA
**************
A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: Tue 22 May 2007
Source: The New York Times [edited]
[As more contaminated toothpaste, including some made for children,
has turned up in Latin America, Chinese authorities are investigating
whether 2 companies from the coastal region of Danyang exported the
tainted toothpaste.]
A team of government investigators arrived [in Danyang] on Sunday
afternoon [20 May 2007], and closed the factory of the Danyang City
Success Household Chemical Company, a small building housing about 30
workers in a nearby village, according to villagers and one factory
worker. The government also questioned the manager of another
toothpaste maker, Goldcredit International Trading, which is in Wuxi,
about an hour's drive southeast of Danyang.
No tainted toothpaste has been found in the United States, but a
spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday
[21 May 2007], that the agency would be taking "a hard look" at
whether to issue an import alert.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said they seized 36 000 tubes of
toothpaste suspected of containing diethylene glycol, an industrial
solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze. Included were tubes
of toothpaste with bubble gum and strawberry flavors marketed for
children and sold under the name of "Mr. Cool Junior."
Toothpaste containing the toxic solvent was also found in Panama and
Australia in the last week.
(rest below)
24/05: A Cold War Story
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
This weekend I spent some time with old family friends. One man was stationed in Germany in the early 60s with the Army. He reported that along a straight stretch of fence between the Germany's, the troops from both sides drag-raced each other.
When no officers were present, troops of the opposing armies would drag race using jeeps versus Soviet block vehicles, and sometimes even tank against tank. On opposite sides of the fence the young men would line up vehicles, wait for the sign, then roar along the divide.
I am thankful these men were not forced to fight and kill each other.
When no officers were present, troops of the opposing armies would drag race using jeeps versus Soviet block vehicles, and sometimes even tank against tank. On opposite sides of the fence the young men would line up vehicles, wait for the sign, then roar along the divide.
I am thankful these men were not forced to fight and kill each other.
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
This story from the BBC.
After the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, and set about creating the Soviet Union, they had to consider the problem of the Russian Orthodox Church. After initial attempts to crush Christianity failed, they adopted the strategy of exerting control over the Church (the Bolsheviks were, after all, totalitarians) and hoping that through continued indocrination in the schools Christianity eventually would wither away.
Some Russian Orthodox, fearing State influence over the Orthodox Church, formed a Russian Orthodox Church in exile. Today good news. The two churches are reuniting. Another Cold-War era wall comes down.
It gets better.
At the ceremony on Thursday the Patriarch of Moscow, Alexy II, joined the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Lavry, in celebrating Mass at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. It was blown up by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and rebuilt after the collapse of communism.
Tempering the celebrations are memories of suffering under communism.
On Saturday, the two will jointly consecrate a new church on a site in southern Moscow, where the Soviet secret police shot thousands of Orthodox priests.
As always, the Christian church has survived its oppressors. Thanks be to God.
After the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, and set about creating the Soviet Union, they had to consider the problem of the Russian Orthodox Church. After initial attempts to crush Christianity failed, they adopted the strategy of exerting control over the Church (the Bolsheviks were, after all, totalitarians) and hoping that through continued indocrination in the schools Christianity eventually would wither away.
Some Russian Orthodox, fearing State influence over the Orthodox Church, formed a Russian Orthodox Church in exile. Today good news. The two churches are reuniting. Another Cold-War era wall comes down.
It gets better.
At the ceremony on Thursday the Patriarch of Moscow, Alexy II, joined the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Lavry, in celebrating Mass at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. It was blown up by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and rebuilt after the collapse of communism.
Tempering the celebrations are memories of suffering under communism.
On Saturday, the two will jointly consecrate a new church on a site in southern Moscow, where the Soviet secret police shot thousands of Orthodox priests.
As always, the Christian church has survived its oppressors. Thanks be to God.
