Happy Chinese New Year!

I guess we should 'get used to it' -- since this is the First Day of the Rest of China's Life, ie the beginning of "The Chinese Century" -- when the marriage of Wal-Mart and over a billion people will produce a baby that is poor, white, jobless, Anglo-American, and doesn't speak a friggin' word of English.

Well, so The Year of the Roosteris traditionally a time of death, destruction, and evil on the move?

Wow. It just happens to coincide with Bush's reelection. What a fucking coincidence!

The Rooster says this Global Cock is going to invade... let's see, who is it...?

Oh yeah, Iran! Yes, that's right, Iran has.... um... something we need to bomb...

What was it again?

Oh yes, Iran has Social Security! If they don't reform it, we're sending in the ol' "Shock & Awe"!

BUSH SAYS IRAN HAS SOCIAL SECURITY!

LOOK OUT, BELOW!

superstition is a long way from being wiped out ANYWHERE - the key is to separate out that which has underlying truth and tha which is simply nonsense. How the hell DOES acupuncture work? And I wouldn't be surprised if there is something to feng shui. But declaring everyone should pretty much take a nap for a year because the celestial rooster is crowing doesn't seem particularly realistic or helpful.

Shark: When I decided to write about Chinese New Year I thought I could escape politics. Guess I was wrong then. As a matter of fact, I'm Indonesian, not Chinese..but Indonesian also celebrate Chinese New Year. The difference is that we don't have 1 billion citizens ("only" 200 millions), not so white, but the rest are quite true.
About Mr. Bush..well, who am I to say? I see lots of supporters here. You're doing a great job of keeping balance, Shark.

Eric: I agree with you, but I wouldn't mind if being superstitious means taking precautious actions to prevent bad things from happening (is it possible?). However, I think those people are exaggerating the situation, especially in the case when women had caesarian section to avoid their baby being born in the rooster year.

The communist goverment seems to see it from different point of view though. Recently they banned fortune telling from being advertised in commercials in fear that it might weaken its rule. How is that?

because a totalitarian government sees anything out of its control as a threat, any source of "knowledge" beyond its control is especially threatening

I know it doesn't sound to fit the topic here, but I'm just curious. Maybe I read Shark's comments too much..will the US ever "free" China? Well it's not a democratic country, you know what I mean...

We will not "free" China in the sense of Iraq. We see ourselves as "freeing" China via helping to enable the success of their market economy, which we believe will inevitably yield political change.

Free China?

They're gonna own the US in five years.

Seriously.

And these days, "freedom" really means becoming as corrupt, materialistic, and addicted to consumer crap as Americans are.

It wasn't Ronald Raygun who 'defeated' communism; it was Pepsi, Levis, and Rock-n-Roll.

China is building shopping malls faster than they can steal copyrighted and trademarked products to fill them -- so it's just a matter of time.

Now -- if we could just get those wacky Muslims interested in having thirteen different kinds of toilet paper to choose from...

Watch out Shark, I might be one of those wacky Muslims ;-)

Isn't "Those Wacky Muslims" a new Fox sitcom?

And Shark, it's Syria we're invading - Iran we're just going to pester with covert ops.

Dave

I don't know, Dave. I live in Hungary, I don't watch Fox. But I think muslims are just as human as the rest of us. A few are fanatics, but a lot more are not. I know nothing about people in Iran and Syria, but in where I came from we also eat McDonald's and wear Levi's.

Ayu, I meant no insult regarding whacky Muslims. [And for now, we'll be changing your name from Ayu to "Alex" -- just so we all feel safer... y'know, it's for national security.]

No, the wacky Muslims have a long way to go to catch up with the wacky Christians, who've done more harm throughout history than just about any other 'wacky' category -- although 'Germans who like to wear costumes' is running a close second place.

I'd say "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" -- but I'm an atheist -- with morals.

Anyway, keep up with the McDonalds and Levis -- and remember:

America stands for Freedom, Democracy, Cholesterol, and Tight-Fitting Pants Made In China.

It's all good!

Shark, are you saying consumerism is bad? It seems to me when people are alowed to concentrate a fair amount of their energies on bettering their material circumstances they have less time for such things as honor killings, wallowing in despair, plotting mass murder against better-off societies, and a lot more time and motivation for education, innovation, technological advancement, cooperation with each other and other societies. It seems to me to be the difference between East Asia and the Middle East.