the Gold Bubble

"Early this month, Hu Xiaolian, a vice-governor of the People's Bank of China, was asked if the central bank would be replacing more of its greenbacks with gold after a gold purchase earlier this year. He said that was unlikely given that the bank now worries about the emergence of a gold bubble." ..."Central banks and the International Monetary Fund can and do regularly sell off gold from their reserves, flooding the market. Gold producers bring uneconomic mines back into production when a rise in gold prices makes them viable again.... And gold, unlike oil, does not change its chemical composition, and turn into something else, when used. " via thestar.com

I've been saying this for a while, but no one online would listen. there are better investments then gold when an economy collapses. The price is inflated. Do yourself a favor and sell your gold now. My family makes their money off of Exxon Mobile. Petroleum is where your money should go and new green technology will increases it's value, not decrease it.

"Gold hit its record, inflation-adjusted peak at $850 in January 1980. That too was a time of high anxiety, caused then by double-digit inflation and interest rates; huge public- and private-sector debt; and geopolitical uncertainty after the two "oil shocks" of the 1970s. In the short space of a decade, the price of oil – a much bigger part of the Western economy than it is today – had skyrocketed from about $2 per barrel to $34. But then the U.S. Federal Reserve Board finally broke the back of inflation. Economic growth boomed in the 1980s, and the stock market entered its greatest bull market in history. And gold went into a 19-year free fall, plummeting to a nadir of $252.90 in June 1999."

To bet on gold, especially if one were to buy it at today's nosebleed prices, one must believe that the U.S. dollar will collapse in value and be replaced as the global reserve currency. You have to assume inflation will return to double digits as governments cope with admittedly massive debts they've taken on in combating the recession with their stimulus spending.
You have to believe some indebted nations, even the U.S., will default. And that, like the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) of Dubai a few weeks ago, all the world's SWFs will become insolvent, including those of Norway, Alaska and Alberta. You might believe, as some goldbugs do, that a medieval barter system is in our future.

via thestar.com

After the precious metal had set 19 records since Nov. 1, Friday's tumble was at least temporary confirmation of the growing bearish view. News that job losses were far better than expected pushed gold down 4%, the biggest percentage decline in more than a year.

For many former gold bulls, evidence has been mounting that the rally was weakening. They point to slackening demand for the actual metal combined with a surge in buying gold futures—an often highly leveraged bet that prices will keep rising. They say that at current prices, gold is trading ...

via online.wsj.com

"Practically every bit of gold in use since the Pharaohs remains in existence. It is a notoriously "soft" metal useful in few industrial applications. For many precious-metals buyers, it is eclipsed in "aspirational" value by platinum."
"Nouriel Roubini, economics professor at New York University and one of the few experts to warn about the epic U.S. housing bubble and its consequences when there was still time for central bankers to safely deflate it, this month warns about "the new bubble in the barbarous relic that is gold." Reminding clients of his financial advisory service that gold "has no intrinsic value," Roubini finds no fundamental justification for gold's rise "with no near-term risk of inflation or depression.""
via thestar.com

The Last Temptation of Ruth

A play in one act

Written for the stage by

N()AH
DAVID
SIMON

Unemployment now leads to

the Death of the Dead.

Death becomes wrong.
The dead have no right.
No longer does death order,
The sacrifice of ones function.
The permanently unemployed are dead.
The order of the male will die.
An Androgynous world is a mass murder

with true equality.
Gender becomes unemployed.
-----------------------------------
Ruth walks down an urban upper middle class street. It is cloudy and there is a slight breeze. It is the middle of winter and the weather has warmed for a frivolous calm. Bezelbub walks down the street.

(Bezelbub smiles to HIMSELF.)

Bezelbub

Ruth

Ruth

How did you know my name?

Bezelbub

If I want to know your name, then I know your name.

Ruth

(SHAKING HER HEAD IN THE NO POSITION.)

uh-uh

(SHAKES HER HEAD LEFT TO RIGHT AGAIN)

uh no, I think not Rumplestilskin.

Bezelbub

You don't know what you want.

Ruth

I don't want you.

Bezelbub

You already have me.

Ruth

I have pain. That is true.

Bezelbub

We have each other.

Ruth

You don't have me. Nobody has me.

Bezelbub

I get what I want. I have complete control.

Ruth

You don't have control over anything, not even control over your self.

Bezelbub

I will control.

Ruth

Your control?

Bezelbub

see this dollar?

Ruth

mmm-hmmm

Bezelbub

I will put this dollar on the ground. Like this.

Ruth

(cynically)

a magic trick.

Bezelbub

Nobody likes a skeptic

Ruth

do your trick.

Bezelbub

I am going to make the dollar move without touching it.

Ruth

I see

Bezelbub

Are you Ready?

Ruth

Yes, go ahead

Bezelbub

Make sure you are watching carefully.

Ruth

I'm watching. I'm watching.

(They both stare at the DOLLAR for 15 seconds. Nothing happens)

Ruth

Nothing happened.

(Bezelbub Smiles)

Ruth

Nothing happened. Nothing at all.

(RUTH GOES TO PICK UP THE DOLLAR. SHE PUTS THE DOLLAR IN HER POCKET)

Ruth

Thanks for the dollar!

Bezelbub

You see, it moved.

(Bezelbub SMILES)

Bezelbub

I did tell you. I control everything.

Ruth

You didn't make it move. I moved it.

Bezelbub

I made you move it.

Ruth

no

Bezelbub

I just did. I control you and I can oppress you..

Ruth

How can you oppress me?

Bezelbub

If it isn't me, then it is somebody else. Wherever you go. You will be oppressed. There is no escape. It is only through me that you can find freedom.

Ruth

Oh really. How do you offer freedom?

Bezelbub

I offer what some might call love. I offer understanding. I offer a mutual relationship of cooperation. I offer pleasure.

Ruth

Now the devil offers love!

Bezelbub

Love?

Another Abstract manifestation,



Ruth

who is the skeptic now?

Bezelbub

Water that is too pure

has no fish. You abuse the word love, so I don't believe in it.

Ruth

You're not evil. You're ignorant.

Bezelbub

I offer pleasure. I offer freedom. I offer you the ability to do what you want.

Ruth

You offer stupidity.

Bezelbub

I offer the ability to escape from the burdens of society and live for you. I offer autonomy. I can do anything I want and so could you if you cooperate.

Ruth

are you threatening me? I don't have to listen to this. Why should I trust you. Maybe you're just getting off. Is that what your doing? You're crossing the line.

Bezelbub

I'm telling you that I could. I didn't say I would!

Ruth

Would what?

Bezelbub

Anything I want

Ruth

You can't always get what you want. You might find that your actions have consequence.

Bezelbub

I decide my own consequence.

Some struggle with a way.

Some struggle with no way.

Ruth

You must have had a healthy normal family life.



Bezelbub

If you're so afraid of me then why are you talking to me?

(Pause)

Bezelbub

Well?

Ruth

I'm trying to be polite. People are watching and I don't want you to make a scene.

Bezelbub

Why are woman always doing what is socially sanctioned? All a woman desires is sensitivity from others, they don't need a man to make them happy.

Ruth

You don't really think that, do you? I know plenty of women who like sex with men.

Bezelbub

For women, sex is like cigarettes, coffee, or alcohol. They develop a taste for it and then they become addicted.

Ruth

I've had sex with men.

Bezelbub

I don't doubt you. The women I know don't even seem to get aroused by men until after their first experience. Once a woman has a heterosexual moment then a woman might develop a taste for it.

Ruth

Sex is a scary.

Bezelbub

It's not quite as scary for men. Most women have to be talked into sex their first time. You know what the world would be like without men? A bunch of obese and content butch lesbians.

Ruth

Woman have more at stake then men. It's not that they can't enjoy sex, it's simply that they are given a huge neurosis about it because they are the ones that could be pregnant.

Bezelbub

Rarely do women contemplate copulation without the children factor, because they have more at risk in pregnancy. Nine months of work is a bigger investment then a quick ejaculation.

Ruth

Is that fair?

Bezelbub

Life isn't fair for men either. People choose sexual partners based on their populaces social pressures and their own sexual cravings, but usually only women fear the direct biological result.

Ruth

Maybe it is time for men to start worrying.

Bezelbub

Oh, men are worried now. Believe me it is nothing to wish for. Sex is dangerous for us all now, but mostly women fear sexual anarchy because it would allow every one to be unmonogamous.

Ruth

Monogamy protects women from being cheated. It protects men too.

Bezelbub

Yes, men can lose. But, like you said, men can't become pregnant. You resent the fact that Bill Clinton cheated on Hillary, because it sets a precedent of sex without responsibility for men.

Ruth

I'm sorry, but sex without responsibility is not a good thing.

Bezelbub

You would think advances in birth control would make that phobia goes away. Men have to go out and earn a living while many women sit home and contemplate their newfound choices. Do you still think all men are given unlimited freedoms?

Ruth

but, your saying women are more likely to be gay by nature? A huge generalization!

Bezelbub

Your consider yourself gay, right?

Ruth

You're crossing the line.

Bezelbub

A good generalization usually has exquisite truths in it that are correct more times then not. Reality itself exists only through generalization. To understand our existence and to operate in it we must generalize. I have generalized... but truth itself is a generalization.

Ruth

Your generalizations are in the mold of an eighteenth century sexist.

Bezelbub

So now I am in the eighteenth century? Is there an exquisite difference between the eighteenth century and now? Certainly women haven't changed! Women are comprised of the same flesh today as they were yesterday. What has changed?

Ruth

Our roles have changed. Our perceptions of each other based on what is between our legs are different.

Bezelbub

Nothing has changed. The benefits and expenses of gender roles are still here and they are not going away.

Ruth

That's because of you.

Bezelbub

No, it is because of you. Women tend desire for some kind of moral system, to control. You secretly desire a feminist hierarchy, like an intimidating boyfriend. Something to tell us what to do.

Ruth

I don't want anyone to tell me what to do.

Bezelbub

Of course not. You want to control the boyfriend. Since you can't completely control a man you are replacing him with political correctness. speaking of that oppressive boyfriend. Rape: Isn't it odd how some woman enjoy the feeling of being victims. The ecstasy of being aware that a man was so needful that he broke his own morals. I have no moral values. You can't break me.

Ruth

That is your mistake. You think we want to be controlled.

Bezelbub

Passive men are seen as weak to the opposite sex and therefor not worthy of copulation and progeny. I am not passive. For women one's mate is seen as a gamble. A man who is strong enough to perform a violent sexual act is arousing for a woman because it proves a man's autonomy from other males. Then that man becomes a commodity.

Ruth

Men generally are given the freedom to rape the world. They habitually use a strategy of control to fill their desires. Men rarely attempt submission as a way of also filling desires. They rarely think, if I were to contribute and take part then I might fill the minimal desires I need.

Bezelbub

Who do you think the men were pillaging the world for? Carnal pleasure. If they could of had it at home they wouldn't of left their house. The eighteenth century wasn't a utopia for men.

Ruth

The men back then had it better then the women.

Bezelbub

You're deluded. maybe the sexism was installed into the workforce by men was created as a defense for a civilization struggling to escape from the brunt of responsibility forced on men by women.

Ruth

Some how I doubt that.

Bezelbub

Your welcome to doubt, but think about this. Boys are generally competitive, individualistic and yet highly efficient and will embark well into any interaction with the goal of personal benefit. If you allow personal benefit then the boys will be tolerable.

Ruth

Why should we fashion the world for a mutant male sex? Just because you guys can't get along doesn't mean the rest of us can't. I say ignore the little boys and their little squabbles. The rest of us can get a long fine without you.

Bezelbub

You might just get what you are asking for. Modern birthing techniques allow women to have children without fertilization, therefor no men involved... meanwhile men can't have children without the women's ovary.

Ruth

That's good to know!

Bezelbub

The sheep that they cloned genetically?... that was done with a blank ovary without male fertilization and a womb was still needed. The male sex is now completely obsolete!

Ruth

Well, you guys did it to yourself. Halaluya

Bezelbub

On the biological level men have always been at a position of vulnerability even with their general superior physical ability.

Ruth

oh I see, is that how western man raped billions of aborigine peoples.

Bezelbub

It always took only one man to fertilize millions of women. Today, one could create a society of almost all women, who would also be the workers. The male would be used only for fertilization and you would need only one male to do this. You could slaughter all the excess men.

Ruth

There is an idea.

Bezelbub

The amount of production a man could do in the majority of industries could easily be substituted with a women. Beyond the biological reproductive factor, no good comes from an aggressive gender in the mechanistic workings of a healthy society. If women had truly wanted to improve the efficiency, it would be the end of man. It is no wonder that man has instituted sexism into society. Sexism is man's only defense against anialization.

Ruth

That was a twist that I wasn't expecting. Men oppress because they have to?

Bezelbub

If you look historically at men who instituted genetic cleansing, you will find they all treated the women around them well. Hitler was great to all the women who were around him.

Ruth

What about all the non-Aryan women Hitler killed?

Bezelbub

In Hitler's logic it is necessary to purify race. If you take Hitler's philosophy a step further then you get a very militant feminist doctrine. The final purification based on scientific reduction is the death of the mutant and randomizing genes that comes from both Aryan and non-Aryan men.

Ruth

So Hitler would kill himself. Hurrah!

Bezelbub

Or he would attempt to get a sex change.

Maybe that is why we can't find him today!

Ruth

Hitler as a woman. I think I'm going to barf.

Bezelbub

It's possible.

Ruth

The mustache would have to go.

Bezelbub

There is nothing more dangerous to men then a man that listens to women. The pussy-whipped man is a man who installs fear into the mutants. The emancipation of womankind is freedom and that freedom from male oppression can only happen with the death of the mutant sex.. Women simply don't need men...

Ruth

How true.

Bezelbub

The supposed emotional and spiritual companionship that men could offer women can be substituted with another woman.

Ruth

You think you are righteous in your contrary to the mainstream divergence, but yet you are consistent in doctrine with Judeo-Christianity in that you see salvation through men.

Bezelbub

I don't appreciate the comparison. What is salvation when you have eternity? I do not see salvation through men. I see a continuance of the status quo in men.

Ruth

An unconventional neo-conservative.

Bezelbub

A label I can live with. The destruction of this planet and its natural system would be a paradox certainly in the concept of messianic deliverance, as would the extinction of the male sex. The death of mankind would destroy the Judaic concept of g-d and the devil.

Ruth

The bible describes true evil as always male like the force of good itself. The polarities of forces are always male. This is a mistake, but so is what you are saying. Instead of coming to the conclusion that gender identification is a complete sham, you have substituted women for the devil and left the benevolent father figure consistent with monotheism.

Bezelbub

Ha!, no woman has the balls to be the devil. This is no longer about what is righteous. This is about survival. If you see that as righteousness then that is your viewpoint. I see little benevolent in man... I'm man's biggest supporter! I prefer the so-called chosen evil of men to the ways of irresolute women like you.

Ruth

If there was a devil do you think g-d would send him a card during the holiday?

Bezelbub

No.

Ruth

Do you think g-d says, "Hey, Lucifer how are things?" and Lucifer might say, "Not bad. A little hot down here in hell, but that's the breaks of being damned. How are things in heaven?"

Bezelbub

That jerk!

Ruth

g-d is always a haughty guy who wouldn't give Lucifer the time of day. Talk about an unforgiving father figure.

Bezelbub

Amen!

Ruth

Monotheism misleads us into a corner. To hell with the conviction that the realm of g-d is infinitely large by disregarding the diminutive truths.

Bezelbub

There is no one truth.

Ruth

I have my truth. The eternal trick of Western thought is that the knowledge has been coded with masculinity permanently for all eternity.

Bezelbub

Testify.

Ruth

The ultimate trick that Nietsche would understand, as the catch-22 of organized religion.

Bezelbub

Amen.

Ruth

Judaism began the misdeed by manifesting a fixed book. The Jewish commentary was continually building and changing, but the root core of the system was static.

Bezelbub

Amen.

Ruth

Christianity zealously followed this archetype, but it was Judaism that laid the fixed masculine groundwork for Civilization and it's Discontents.

Bezelbub

Then we partially agree.

Ruth

Do we really? You fear that if mankind is destroyed, and woman triumphs, that evil will go out of business?

Bezelbub

Let's hope not.

Ruth

You have nothing to fear. Even after the "Y" chromosome is erased from the flesh of the universe, the code can be salvaged. The data for the male sex exists in all humans. A male can be made from a female.

Bezelbub

Phenomenal. Adam created from Eve's rib.

Ruth

The mutant sex lurks in all of us!

Bezelbub

What about nesting?

Ruth

Nesting?

Bezelbub

The female conspiracy.

Ruth

Freaky cracker!

Bezelbub

In most species the female does most of the child rearing. Therefor the female code or DNA is more vulnerable. For this reason the female designs a series of obstacles for the men to perform so that the male will not betray the female and perform copulation with another female.

Ruth

That makes sense.

Bezelbub

If the male betrays the female then his odds improve in the spread of his genetic code, likewise the female's code has a lesser chance of survival. This is why sexual responsibility is so serious and why some female birds have men build nests.

Ruth

Nesting!

Bezelbub

Exactly! If the male is occupied with nest building then he is less likely to cheat on the female. The male will be forced to build a nest for each female. This is why in our society it is customary for the male to work and provide... the human equivalent of nest building.

Ruth

I don't want your nest.

Bezelbub

But, you want somebody else's.

Ruth

I will build my own nest.

Bezelbub

I'm going to make sure you can't. That's the killer for men. If women can provide the nest then men are useless.... Therefor obsolete! If men are obsolete... they will soon go extinct. I am going to insure that women do not enter the workforce and are incapable of building a nest on their own.

Ruth

So then it's war! Us against you.

Bezelbub

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Ruth

When will it end? You can't win!

Bezelbub

I'm doing my best to not win or lose. Henry Kissinger said that no one will win the war of the sexes because there simply is too much fraternizing with the enemy. The struggle must continue. Let's suppose you were pregnant.

Ruth

With who's baby? Not a chance if you think it would be yours.

Bezelbub

Let's suppose you were pregnant with a child.

Ruth

The hell you say.

Bezelbub

Exactly. Let us suppose you had knowledge that your child would be like an Antichrist.

Ruth

The Antichrist?

Bezelbub

heh heh... whatever you wanna call it.
The one who will bring on the final battle.

Ruth

I would have an abortion

Bezelbub

I should have guessed. You wouldn't have any reservations?

Ruth

None whatsoever. Why are you inquiring?

Bezelbub

Just wondering.



(script continues with realization that Ruth and Bezelbub are the same person. A schizophrenic.)

American Power: Mousavi Nephew Killed in Tehran Protests

The Iranian capital erupted in massive and fiery morning-to-dusk protests as tens of thousands of demonstrators clashed with security forces on the occasion of an important Shiite Muslim holiday.

Several witnesses told The Times that Iranian security forces opened fire with live ammunition against unarmed protesters near College Bridge in in the capital. And opposition news websites reported that several protesters had been killed, including Ali Mousavi, the adult nephew of opposition figurehead Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Reformist websites said he was shot and taken to a Tehran hospital, where his uncle and other relatives soon arrived.

The information could not be independently confirmed, and a police source denied that protesters had been killed in a comment to the pro-government Fars News Agency.

But a witness in front of City Theater in downtown Tehran said she saw a fallen man, apparently stabbed in the back, and spotted another man falling to the ground after a volley of shots was fired near Enghelab Street, which emerged as the epicenter of the day's clashes.

The reports of deaths came during a harrowing day of multiple, rolling clashes between police and Iranian protesters coinciding with an important Ashura religious commemoration as well as the significant seventh day of mourning following the death of the country's leading dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.

Reformist websites and witnesses also reported clashes in the cities of Qom, Esfahan, Najafabad, Kashan, Shiraz, Babol and Mashhad.

Demonstrators vowed to continue the protests into the night, with reformist news websites identifying key Tehran squares for gatherings.

"There is no let-up," said Farzad, a 30-year-old who attended today's protests with his girlfriend. "We will go ahead until we topple the government."

Across the capital, witnesses described scenes of pandemonium, which were confirmed by video footage posted online. One described Tehran as a war zone, and another likened the situation to open "civil war" as increasingly bold demonstrators took on security forces, in one case stripping a member of the security forces naked before letting him go, a witness said.

Despite a heavy crackdown, the protest movement that emerged from Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election has grown increasingly daring, with those who want abolition of the Islamic Republic increasingly vocal.

Protesters had vowed for weeks to turn today's annual Ashura commemoration marking the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hossein into an anti-government demonstration.

Also, lots of videos at Jawa Report, "This Will Be a Day Long Remembered," and IranNewsNow, "Live-blog: Ashura in Iran – December 27, 2009":

And from the Guardian's report:

The authorities are taking a risk in using lethal force against protesters during the Islamic Moharram, during which war and bloodshed is deemed to be religiously haram, or forbidden. It raises the likelihood of a series of mourning cycles, as required by Shia tradition. It was such a mourning cycle that fatally undermined the Shah's regime when it tried to suppress demonstrations in 1978.

via americanpowerblog.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

What Obama could of learned from Nixon about Asian Diplomacy

It isn't only White folks who are good old boys...

Obama: "I am greatly dishonored Emperor Akihito, for owing you so much money!"

Obama didn't get what he wanted in China because (1) Jimmy Carter is partly right (it is racism, but not American, rather Chinese racism towards Africans) (2) Obama bowed to the Japanese Emperor and that really pissed off the people we owe a lot of money to. Global Warming science might be a sham, but industrial cooperation between nations is important for other reasons. Polution is a problem that effects more then Carbon Monoxide levels. Carbon and Petroleum based burning could polute water and cause all kinds of illnesses. It is a shame that Obama couldn't learn how to handle actual diplomacy which has nothing to do with popularity on TV and has a lot to do with how you effect people in an intimate relationship. Obama is a failure at talking man to man. For a guy who has been touting diplomacy, Obama failed to understand that real diplomacy was done by men like Richard Nixon who might of not been great mass media stars, but certainly knew how to relate to people in a small room of educated elitist minds. Only Nixon could of gone to China. We would of all been dead if they sent Obama there in the 70s.

Why did Chinese premier Wen Jiabao choose to publicly humiliate Barack Obama at Copenhagen? In their eyes, and those of much of the world, he has lost face, and with it, power and influence. While getting widespread play overseas, this story has been kept very quiet by our disinterested, nonpartisan media (I haven't seen it mentioned in any major U.S. outlet).

After promising to meet the Messiah at 7:00 p.m., Premier Wen stiffed him in favor of a meeting with the leaders of India, South Africa, and Brazil. Rather than wait, a no-doubt infuriated Obama stalked into the room in question and demanded, "Are you ready to see me, Premier Wen?" No word on Wen's reaction, though he did submit to a discussion on the spot that evidently sealed the release of the immortal and glorious Copenhagen Quasi-Agreement on Climate Change.

So with Barack Obama, we've reached the point where the leader of record of the most powerful state in history has become a man you can casually stand up. But the question remains, why?

There are a number of reasons why the Chinese might take a cavalier attitude toward an American leader. China is the chief foreign holder of American debt, which may well have created an impression of the U.S. as a beggar nation on the level of a failed African republic. (I strongly suspect that words were exchanged on this topic during Obama's recent visit to China, though we're unlikely ever to learn about them in detail.)

There's also the matter of race. As is true of most Asians, the Chinese sense of racial superiority is cultural and innate. This is a people who refer to Caucasians as "ghost shadows"; what they think of American blacks is probably best not dwelt upon.

Then there's the deep aura of unseriousness that Obama has generated around himself. Though essentially incalculable, this factor is undeniable and will grow in importance and impact as time passes.

But there's one event in particular that very likely played a part -- the fact that, only a few weeks before, Obama publicly and notoriously bowed to the emperor of Japan.

Japan and China have a lengthy history, very little of which can be termed benign. They have always been rivals, often acting at cross purposes and usually at sword's point. But the past century of Sino-Japanese relations has been little short of horrendous.

Japan's militarist government occupied Manchuria in 1931 and proceeded to menace the Republic of China for several years afterward. In June 1937, as a result of a contrived confrontation known as the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident", Japan escalated to open conquest. Occupying Nanking in December of that year, the Japanese army carried out a city-wide massacre that in little more than a month resulted in over 250,000 deaths. So brutal were Japanese actions that they could not, in a pre-Auschwitz world, be referred to directly in news accounts. Sixty years passed before the story was completely told in Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking(Chang, a less than stable personality in the first place, was so deeply affected that she later committed suicide, after telling friends that she could not get the images of the killings out of her mind.)

For nearly a decade Japan occupied vast areas of China, a period marked by further massacres, atrocities, and casual violations of the human spirit. It's safe to say that, but for the even viler activities of the Nazis, the Japanese occupation would stand as one of the peak moments of human cruelty in the modern era. (It's undeniable that Japanese human experiments in their Chinese and Manchurian prison camps were fully as loathsome as those of the Nazis.)

Though the Chinese don't discuss the matter, their attitude toward Japan and the Japanese can easily be imagined. Particularly since Japan, unlike Germany, has only in recent years reached the point of admitting to "irregularities" in its occupation, much less issuing an apology or offering reparations.

So here comes Obama, as ignorant of all this as a little lamb.

Many will recall the uproar that surrounded Ronald Reagan's 1985 visit to a German cemetery at Bitburg, instigated by the existence of SS graves within line of sight of the ceremony. The attitude of the Chinese to Obama's bow must be similar. From that point of view, Wen's behavior should be taken as a rebuke, not to the United States so much as to Obama personally.

Which only goes to underline the reason why diplomatic protocol exists in the first place -- to exclude through ritual actions all possibilities that error, misunderstanding, or personal pique might interfere with matters of state. Obama has yet to learn this. His insistence on winging it, on reinventing established practice on his own terms, is potentially far more than simply embarrassing. It could be actively dangerous. His refusal to go by the rules may well have cost him the opportunity to pose as Savior of Gaia in Copenhagen. It may cost him -- and the country -- far more at some future time.

via americanthinker.com

The press is going buck wild about Obama bowing to Emperor Akihito. Make what you want of it. Some say that Obama was showing a sign of respect, others say it was totally inappropriate and it was Obama showing the weakness of the USA. But I know the truth! Obama was thanking Emeror Akihito for buying MORE US government debt. As Bloomberg reported, Japan had bought AN ADDITIONAL $105 billion dollars of US Treasuries this year, which exceeded this year's amount of US debt that China bought. Hell, if I loaned someone $105 billion dollars, they better bow before me! Hahaha.

Check out this funny video that compares the Obama-Akihito meeting with Akihito shaking hands with politicians and royalties of other nations. Notice how the other politicians and royalties did not bow?

via asianrapworldwide.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous