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Russians move from clever communism to clever capitalism
Denis Sinyakov/ReutersGazprom employees prepared to weld a section of a gas pipeline near the town of Novy Urengoy in December 2007.
Russia may start to play more "pipeline politics."
Last British Army WWI veteran dead at 111
From CNN:
His death came a week after fellow British World War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113.Patch was the last surviving soldier to have witnessed the horrors of trench warfare in the first World War
He fought and was seriously wounded in Ypres, Belgium, in 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele, in which 70,000 of his fellow soldiers died -- including three of his close friends.
This story reminds me of my Irish grandfather (born 1904) telling me how he watched all the lads marching off to war full of enthusiam in the Fall of 1914. Everyone was shocked the following year when only a third of them came back.
Come and deface this Bible!
Psalm 2 Alert from Scotland:
A publicly funded exhibition is encouraging people to deface the Bible in the name of art — and visitors have responded with abuse and obscenity.
The show includes a video of a woman ripping pages from the Bible and stuffing them into her bra, knickers and mouth.
The open Bible is a central part of Made in God’s Image, an exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (Goma) in Glasgow. By the book is a container of pens and a notice saying: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.”
The exhibit, Untitled 2009, was proposed by the Metropolitan Community Church, which said that the idea was to reclaim the Bible as a sacred text. But to the horror of many Christians, including the community church, visitors have daubed its pages with comments such as “This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all.” A contributor wrote on the first page of Genesis: “I am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this....”
One writer has altered the first line of the Old Testament from “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth” to “In the beginning, God (me) I created religion.” Another has written “The Gospel According to Luke Skywalker”. The main sentiment, however, is rage at Christianity. “F*** the Bible”, one message says.
China: Risky Business In The Streets
July 4, 2009: It's become fairly common in China, for managers or government officials to now be held responsible for incompetence that leads to people getting killed. This leads to prison sentences, and even execution. If you have good connections in the government, you can still get off. But that is harder and harder to do. The growing public anger over poor government performance is making it difficult for the riot police, even with army reinforcements, to deal with multiple cities having large riots and demonstrations. The corruption is so pervasive, that senior officials despair of ever reducing it to tolerable levels.
India is getting nervous about China's growing power (economic and military) in the Indian ocean. China has economic and military connections with Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and many African nations. For example, most of Pakistan's weapons are Chinese, and there are over 10,000 Chinese in Pakistan working on economic projects. There is $4 billion in Chinese investments in Pakistan, and that is expected to more than triple in the next year. China is doing the same thing in Africa, and trying to do it in Myanmar (run by a paranoid dictatorship) and Sri Lanka (which has long had tense relations with India.)
With over six million Chinese graduating from college this year, and the recession decreasing the number of jobs available for them, the military has made a big deal out of offering good jobs in the armed forces. The college grads are joining as enlisted troops, with the opportunity to become officers after a few years. Currently, most officers come from military academies or officer training schools. Over the last decade, the Chinese military has been reducing its strength and increasing its standards. In most parts of China, you need at least a high school diploma to join. And the military is trying to increase the number of officers with a college education.
About 1,300 troops, each, from Russia and China will conduct counter-terror exercises later this month.
All we hear, usually, about China is that it's going to take over the world - probably before you get up tomorrow. Not understand as well in the US are the weaknesses of China, its internal pressures and neighborhood rivalries.
