Playing A Long Game

The phrase "playing a long game" recurs repeatedly in economics or when discussing a strategy that is aimed to come to fruition at some point in the relatively distant future. Many people recognize that China is very good at playing a long game. They have a long, long history in the world and are used to slowly developing strategies. The West in general and Americans in particular are, quite frankly, not really very good at long term strategies. Call it the "sit-com mentality", cultural attention deficit disorder or whatever, but we tend to like a short, quick resolution to problems. And we tend to lose interest with longer-haul issues.

And it's killing us.

China is playing a long game in the ruckus over global warming that the left is promoting over all other threats in the world. Don't believe it? Read this article.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The impact of global warming on China is clearer each day, but climate change must be tackled in a way that allows sustainable development, a top-level meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao agreed.

The world's number two emitter of greenhouse gasses will release its first national plan to curb rising emissions next week, seeking to rebut international criticism that it is not doing enough on the issue.

Officials in China's State Council, or cabinet, called at their meeting for countries to bear "shared but different" responsibilities to combat rising temperatures, a report posted on the main government Web site (www.gov.cn) on Friday said.

The comments were in line with Beijing's stance that China should not have to sacrifice the emissions-intensive economic growth which industrialized nations went through on their path to greater prosperity.

Read that last sentence again. Critically. "The comments were in line with Beijing's stance that China should not have to sacrifice the emissions-intensive economic growth which industrialized nations went through on their path to greater prosperity."

In other words, the West must cut its greenhouse emissions but China has no intention of doing so. They'll make a show of it, pandering to the true believers in the West, but will demand draconian cuts by the West, knowing full well that manufacturing will move to their country once Western countries can no longer afford the energy costs.

China looks set to become the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide this year or next, just as serious talks start to extend the U.N.-sponsored Kyoto Protocol on global warming beyond 2012.

Next week President Hu Jintao attends a meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Germany at which global warming will be high on the agenda.

But Chinese officials have already reaffirmed Beijing's rejection of compulsory caps on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists say are heating the planet. (Translation: you cut yours off, we'll laugh at you.)

When there are no more union manufacturing jobs in this nation, when there are no more union coal mining jobs left in this nation, when all the industry has moved to the new capitol of cheap energy and low-priced oil, it will be too late. The left will outsource American jobs at a breakneck pace. Want proof? Look at the packaging for the compact fluorescent bulbs that they are touting as a big salvation for the environment.

It will say made in China.

China is playing a long game. Sadly, they have a lot of assistance.

Ancient Melons

Researchers in Japan have found what they believe is the oldest melon ever found. It is estimated to be about 2,100 years old.

TOKYO - Archaeologists digging in western Japan have excavated what they believe to be the oldest remains of a melon ever found, an official said Friday.

Based on a radiocarbon analysis, researchers estimate the half-rounded piece of fruit to be about 2,100 years old, said Shuji Yamazaki, a local official in the city of Moriyama.

The remains are believed to be the oldest of a melon that still has flesh on the rind, Yamazaki said. Previously, the oldest such find was believed to be remains found in China that date back to the fourth century A.D., according to local media reports.

The melon might have been so well-preserved because it was in a vacuum-packed state in a wet layer below the ground, an environment hostile to microorganisms that might otherwise have broken down the remains, Yamazaki said.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard hate to rain on the researchers parade. But there is a local restaurant here in our town that routinely has even older produce on its salad bar. We don't eat there.

Who Will Invigilate The Invigilators?

Nearly 2,000 Nigerian students were caught cheating on university entrance examinations using cell phones.

"A total of 1,948 candidates were caught cheating with mobile phones during the examination," Dibu Ojerinde, registrar of the examination body, told the independent This Day and The Punch newspapers.

Ojerinde said a total of 40,043 candidates, including the mobile phone cheats, were caught for malpractices during the examination conducted to select candidates for admission into the country's universities.

He said "299 invigilators and external agents were reported to have colluded with the candidates" to commit the examination fraud, adding that 21,466 cases were pending for determination following discrepancies noted in candidates' scripts.

What, you ask, is an invigilator? Well, that caught our eye, too. It is a word used in English English (as opposed to American English) to describe someone tasked with monitoring students during examinations. (I've always heard them described as "monitors" in American schools.) Authorities caught on to the scheme when every single answer to question 21 started off:

"Request for urgent business relationship.

First I must solicit your strictest confidence in this matter. My name is Prince William Masala  M'Botu. I am in need of assistance in a most vital matter concerning a large sum of money……."

All those learned men of Nigerian letters caught on right away.

You Know, This Actually Makes It Worse

I posted on Tuesday about a twisted bit of television "entertainment" that was due to air in The Netherlands. Dutch production company Endemol, producers of Big Brother, had scheduled the airing of a show in which three kidney transplant candidates would try to scavenge compete for the organs from a dying cancer victim. There was a lot of uproar internationally. Well, they aired it tonight.

And the show is a hoax.

Shortly before the controversial program was to air, Patrick Lodiers of the "Big Donor Show" said the woman was not actually dying of a brain tumor and the entire exercise was intended to put pressure on the government and raise awareness of the need for organs.

The three prospective recipients were real patients in need of transplants and had been in on the hoax, the show said.

The program concept had received widespread criticism for being tasteless and unethical.

But Lodiers said that it was "reality that was shocking" because around 200 people die annually in the Netherlands while waiting for a kidney, and the average waiting time is more than four years. Under Dutch rules, donors must be friends, or preferably, family of the recipient. Meeting on a TV show wouldn't qualify.

"I thought it was brilliant, really," said Caroline Klingers, a kidney patient who was watching the show at a kidney treatment center in Bussum, Netherlands.

"I know these transplant doctors, and I thought they'll never go and actually do it. But it's good for the publicity and there are no losers."

Oh, how wrong you are, Ms. Klingers. There are losers. The people at Endemol behind the use of lies to promote an agenda for starters. This is a particularly cruel manipulation of people. Even though the participants were in on the hoax, the public was not. They were manipulated by ethically challenged con-artists with a particularly foul "end justifies the means" outlook.

UPDATE: Ed Morrisey, who has a rather personal interest in kidney transplants takes a very, very dim view of the producer's stunt, despite any good it may do.

I share the hope of the producers that this will convince more people to donate their organs for transplant. I also hope that no one pulls this kind of stunt again.

The Wages Of Death

Two reports that happen to be right next to each other on Memeorandum right now, give a very interesting picture of the Gaza Strip and the chaos that rules there. First, a report from MEMRI translating some of the reports from the Palestinian media on the situation in Gaza:

"The situation in the Gaza Strip, and especially in the city of Gaza, is scary. Murders are committed by the dozen, using every [conceivable] weapon… The murder machine, fueled by every conceivable type of hatred, is hurtling in every direction, all the time, everywhere… in the mosques… in the schools… [There are] executions… Leaders are attacked, and their families humiliated… Children and innocent civilians are being murdered…" Talal Okal, columnist for the Palestinian Authority daily Al-Ayyam, May 17, 2007.

The current wave of violent Hamas-Fatah clashes is one of the most brutal the PA has known, especially considering that it broke out only a short while after the signing of the Mecca Agreement, which was supposed to put an end to the mutual fighting. The large number of casualties, and the fear that has taken hold of the Gaza streets, have sparked intense protest among Palestinians and Arabs, with harsh criticism directed towards both the PA and Hamas.

Some consequences of the clashes are public statements by residents calling on Israel to reenter the Gaza Strip, and concerns regarding the effect of the fighting on the international community's faith in the Palestinians' ability to establish a state, to honor agreements, and to maintain peace.

Among the solutions proposed in the Palestinian media were to launch a third intifada, this time against those responsible for the internal chaos, and to bring in Arab or international forces to keep the peace between the Fatah and Hamas.

Who is Responsible for the Clashes? - Mutual Accusations by Fatah and Hamas
Fatah and PLO spokesmen accused Hamas of staging a coup against the Palestinian Authority and of trying to renege on the Mecca Agreement. The PLO Executive Committee issued a statement saying: "What is happening in Gaza is an attempted coup against the legitimate security apparatuses, aimed at imposing by force the legitimacy of the armed militias, and especially the legitimacy of the Hamas militia [known as the] Executive Force." It should be noted that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pronounced the Executive Force illegal immediately after its establishment."

Get that? Some Palestinians are calling for the Israelis to come back in and save them. That should indicate how desperately bad the situation is right now. With each "ceasefire" there are even more deaths. But here's the kicker: they are complaining about what is happening there, while letting their children be indoctrinated into what is nothing more than a death cult - starting right from kindergarten. Watch this appalling video of a graduation ceremony and then ask yourself who, exactly, is to blame for the situation in Gaza.

Hint: it isn't the Israelis. And here's a message for Jimmy Carter: you won't have to make up your stories to support your pals much longer - according to the Palestinians themselves:

Senior PA official and Al-Ayyam columnist Ali Al-Khalili wrote: "We are not insane. There are nine million Palestinians, and we will not be swept up in the madness of several hundred suicidal extremists among us, who are [heading] for a great nakba, after which there will be no rehabilitation, no [Palestinian] people, no Palestinian cause, and not a single inch of Palestine left.

Sow the wind…..

Let The (Legal) Games Begin

I haven't commented on the tuberculosis patient who was diagnosed with a very dangerous, drug-resistant version of the disease then traveled overseas and back in defiance of medical advice. Frankly, the behavior was incredibly selfish and unbelievably self-absorbed. It turns out the guy is a lawyer from Atlanta.

And he's pretty likely to get himself sued over his behavior.

(Andrew) Speaker flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon after being advised by health officials not to make the trip because he had TB. Then, while he was in Rome, U.S. health officials told him to stay put because further tests showed he had an even more dangerous, drug-resistant type of TB than previously thought.

The 31-year-old newlywed disregarded those instructions, taking commercial jets to Prague and then Montreal in an attempt to sneak back into the United States.

In an interview earlier this week with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Speaker said he declined to report to Italian health officials because he believed the only lifesaving care for his condition was available in the U.S.

"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he told the newspaper. "This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing."

A barrage of criticism was posted Thursday on the Web site of a Georgia newspaper that carried Speaker's engagement announcement and allows outsiders to post comments.

Under a picture of the smiling couple on the Appen Newspapers Web page, a person signed as 'Concerned Citizen' wrote: "Warned not to fly but just put your personal pleasure above the safety of other passengers. I hope you get sued by potential victims for your actions."

Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University, agreed with those who feel Speaker has exposed himself to possible litigation.

"There are a number of cases that say a person who negligently transmits an infectious disease could be held liable," he said.

Speaker apparently attended the US Naval Academy (but may not have graduated from there according to a biography, since it mentions that he completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia). And his firm specializes in personal injury lawsuits (their website has been taken down), so he certainly had to be aware that he was opening himself up to lawsuits. There is also some question now that he even got married while in Greece:

Meanwhile, questions arose as to whether the wedding even took place. The mayor of the island of Santorini in Greece, Angelos Rousso, told The Associated Press: "There was no wedding. They came for a marriage but they did not have the required papers." He said the couple stayed in a hotel for three days and then left.

This man will spend years getting out of the hole he dug for himself through his selfish actions.

When Legends Suck

How bad are the concerts being given by the reunited legendary rock band The Police? Well, the review by one critic says it is just about as bad as it can get. And he's a member of the band!

A philosophical Stewart Copeland unleashed his vitriol in a posting on his Web site on Thursday, a day after the band played its second show in Vancouver, the Canadian city where it began its first world tour in more than 20 years on Monday.

"This is unbelievably lame," Copeland wrote of Wednesday's show at the GM Place arena. "We are the mighty Police and we are totally at sea."

Most of the 20,000 fans at the venue might not have noticed a series of small flubs, but Copeland, singer/bassist Sting, and guitarist were painfully aware of them.

Copeland started the show off on the wrong foot, literally. He tripped as he took to the stage, and then banged his gong at the wrong time so that "the big pompous opening to the show is a damp squib."

He did not hear Summers' opening riff to "Message In a Bottle," and Sting in turn misheard Copeland's drum intro — "so we are half a bar out of sync with each other. Andy is in Idaho."

They quickly recovered, but then Sting got his footwork wrong as he leapt into the air to signal the end to a shambolic version of their rat-race rant "Synchronicity II."

"The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock," Copeland reported.

"And so it goes, for song after song," he wrote, with tunes such as "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" and "Don't Stand So Close To Me" reduced to ruin.

Ouch. (Fans over at Stewart Copeland's website are not at all happy about the story on Yahoo, apparently.) Hopefully, they'll get it all sorted out soon.

Belgium Declares War

It seems Belgium is bucking the growing European trend toward pacifism. That's right, they're sending in the troops - with flamethrowers, no less. They will show their enemies no mercy whatsoever.

The caterpillars are toast, baby.

Procession caterpillars, so-called for the way they march in lines through forests, are covered in long, toxic hairs which cause dermatitis and respiratory problems and account for up to 80 percent of doctor visits in the affected area.

"A bit less than a platoon, about 24 soldiers and airmen, will be deployed to help the fire brigade and civil protection authority combat the caterpillars," Belgian military spokeswoman Ingrid Baeck said on Thursday.

She said Belgian armed forces were also deployed in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kosovo and the Congo but that they had a duty to help the local civil population.

Equipped with super-size blowtorches, the soldiers will spend six weeks in the eastern province of Limburg from Monday, waging a tree-by-tree war on the scourge of caterpillars, which cling in groups to trunks and branches.

Good thing it isn't the French…..

Only Two Things Can Kill Superman

Kryptonite and Fred Thompson. Jonah Goldberg uses that "Fred Thompson Fact" cribbed from IMAO to open a column discussing Fred Thompson's entering the presidential race.

But there’s no denying that Fred Thompson has one of the most profound personality cults we’ve seen in politics for a long time. While traveling around the country in recent months, I’ve been amazed at how many rank-and-file Republicans see Thompson as a secular savior, as if Thompson were designed by GOP-friendly alien scientists as some sort of Super Candidate.

For some skeptical observers, this has resulted in comparisons to retired General Wes Clark, the Democrats’ onetime man on a white horse. “Fred Thompson is to the Republicans in ’08 as Wes Clark was to the Democrats in ’04,” writes Jason Zengerle of The New Republic. “In other words, the highpoint of his campaign will be the day he gets in the race, because once he’s a serious candidate — and not just the fevered daydream of a dissatisfied base — voters will realize he’s not all that.”

On the surface, there’s merit to the comparison. Wes Clark, as I wrote in ’04, was the “Johnny Bravo” candidate. That’s a reference to the Brady Bunch episode where Greg Brady is picked to be a rock star, not because of his musical talent but because he fit into the glitzy costume that rock promoters had already created. Clark, with his admirable military record and perceived “toughness” in foreign policy, seemed like the ideal candidate to beat Bush in ’04.

Similarly, Thompson seems to be what Republicans are yearning for. But there’s a key distinction. Wes Clark was a candidate for Democrats who wanted to beat Bush. Thompson’s appeal is based partly on a desire for victory, but there’s also a desire to get beyond Bush.

First and foremost, Thompson’s articulateness shouldn't be underestimated. He shares with Ronald Reagan — another actor-politician — an ability to communicate ideas in folksy, almost conversational ways without losing important nuance or meaning.

That skill at communication and Thompson's extremely good media savvy, for both old and new media, are exactly what is keeping his profile so high even though he is not officially in the race yet. And it is exactly what the other candidates - from either party - should rightfully be very, very worried about.

(IMAO is having a ball with being cited by Goldberg, incidentally.)

Odd

There was a bomb threat in Pittsburgh yesterday that caused major problems right at rush hour.

A bomb threat led police to close the city's three major vehicular tunnels during the evening rush hour tonight, causing serious traffic snarls. Authorities said nothing suspicious was found and all three were reopened within an hour.

The Fort Pitt, Squirrel Hill and Liberty tunnels, three main thoroughfares into the city, were shut down after police received the threat shortly before 5 p.m.

State police Trooper Robin Mungo said a man with a foreign accent called Allegheny County's 911 system around 4:45 p.m. and said a bomb would explode at 6 p.m. at one of the "Parkway" tunnels.

The call was traced to pay phone, which has been taken as evidence, she said.

"At a quarter to six, we closed down the tunnels to make sure everyone was safe and to continue our sweeps," Trooper Mungo said.

Initially, the Liberty Tunnel was not closed, but officials closed it shortly after 6 p.m. when they received a report that a package had been found, said Jim Struzzi, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. That report was unfounded, he said.

The three tunnels were reopened shortly after 6:30 p.m., but not before the ordeal had caused headaches for tens of thousands of drivers.

Oddly, this is not coming up in the Yahoo! News main page at all. I found it while looking for something completely different.

First Class

In a troubling new twist to the Animal Uprising™, deer are now attempting to steal the United States Mail. Two of the enforcers for the animal overlords assaulted the US Post Office in Elgin, Illinois. One actually got inside, the other was chased off just before he got in, too.

ELGIN — Nature collided with civilization Thursday afternoon when a deer charged through and shattered a window at a west-side post office.

U.S. Postal Service worker Lisa Martin said there were about six customers in the Randall Road branch at 2:15 p.m. She was helping a customer at the front desk when she heard a loud crash of breaking glass. She walked around a corner and saw a customer getting mail out of his post office box — and a female deer, about the size of a Great Dane, standing in broken glass.

"She was scared. She just wanted a way out of here," Martin said of the deer, which left spots of blood in its wake. "She tried to climb up a couple of walls, trying to get out."

The doe circled the post office lobby for three or four minutes, looking for an escape. Customers seemed stunned, Martin said. She directed two women, standing near the deer, into an office, then called police.

"The customer held the front door open, and she went out," Martin said of the man closest to the post office boxes.

When the second deer approached the Post Office, an alert citizen chased it off. It is a good thing that Ms. Martin interrupted the first deer - if it had gotten into the post office boxes, there's no telling what havoc would have resulted. If the deer succeed in this nefarious scheme, millions of pieces of junk mail could go missing…… Hey, wait a second. That isn't a bad thing, is it?

Go Deer! We'll hold the door for you to get in!

Major Trouble

Peggy Noonan is openly distancing herself the Bush administration in an extremely harsh column today. This should serve as a wake-up call for the Republican party - a call to wake up before it is too late. Her column spells major trouble for the Republicans.

What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration. They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting down a historical marker–"At this point the break became final." That's not what's happening. What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.

The White House doesn't need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don't even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.

For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.

But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic–they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."

And this name-calling by administration officials and Bush himself is a recipe for disaster. Noonan points out the exact same thing I have been saying all along: first the border. Break the monstrously complex compromise into smaller pieces with the border secured everything else can be worked out. But alienating the base is a disaster for the party and a way to fracture the coalition that conservatives have had with the Republicans.

Wake up folks. I still believe that this issue was a major reason for the Republican defeat in the midterms. Don't make it an even worse disaster in 2008 by going down this road.

Tragedy And Farce All At The Same Time

Charles Krauthammer has a harsh column about the immigration "reform" deal working its way through the Senate in today's Washington Post. It recounts the farce that surrounds the deal and examines a real tragedy in it as well: The best and the brightest - the most desirable of immigrants - will be treated the same as an unskilled laborer in terms of waiting for a visa. As Krauthammer puts it: get in line, Einstein.

Until now we've had a special category for highly skilled, world-renowned and indispensable talent. Great musicians, athletes and high-tech managers come in today under the EB-1 visa. This apparently is going to be abolished in the name of an idiotic egalitarianism.

I suspect this provision is a kind of apology for one of the few very good ideas in the bill — taking skill, education and English proficiency into account rather than just family ties, thus cutting back on a chain migration system in which a Yemeni laborer can bring over an entire clan while the engineers and teachers desperate to get here languish in the old country.

The price for this lurch into rationality appears to be the abolition of the VIP fast track, which constitutes less than 2 percent of total immigration and, from the point of view of the national interest, is the most valuable. This staggeringly stupid idea is reason alone to vote against the immigration bill. Beyond stupidity, the bill offers farce. My favorite episode is the back-taxes caper. John McCain has been going around telling everyone that in order to be legalized, illegal immigrants will, among other things, have to pay back taxes. Such are the stern requirements on the "path to citizenship."

Problem is, McCain then discovered that back taxes were not in the bill. The Department of Homeland Security had argued that collecting on money paid under the table — usually in cash, often with no receipts — is pretty much impossible. Indeed, the cost of calculating and collecting the money would probably exceed the proceeds.

Now, nonpayment of taxes is not the kind of thing you want to defend when trying to sell immigration reform to citizens who do pay their taxes — back and otherwise. So last week John McCain proposed an amendment to restore the back-taxes provision. A somewhat sheepish Senate approved this sop — unanimously.

Krauthammer also notes the mendacity of the media coverage, noted by me in an earlier post, of completely misrepresenting the results of a NYT/CBS News poll. They twisted the results by using a skewed question of the "did you walk to work or bring your lunch" variety. They completely disregarded the fact that a vast majority of voters want the border secured. A very solid majority also do not want amnesty no matter how the pig is gussied up and called something else.

The Republican party is rightfully in trouble over this issue right now. I believe the Democrats will also pay a heavy price if the deal goes through. Every Senator - regardless of party - will have to answer to a very irate constituency if this passes. The media may have dropped the cone of silence around the voter revolt that is brewing, but they will not be able to do so for very long.