Urban Vancouver

I think this is the first “made in Denmark” explanation of why Danes are according to these rather facetious surveys “the happiest people in the world”. And here’s the link!

Would you believe it may have much to do with the simple fact that Danes apparently have low expectations. So it doesn’t take much to make them happiest year on year!

• Al Qaeda Repeats Threat to Danes
• Danes take contentment in stride

2008

Originally uploaded by NY在HK

Many older unskyscraper buildings in China can take on odd appearances. Here is an example of an odd one in Hong Kong. Outside “decorations” can include lots of A/C units, advertisements, stuff hanging from windows et al.

The headline on Political Ticker at CNN’s web site is:

September 5, 2008
Alaska state jet didn’t fly on eBay

Since being named as Sen. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Palin has mentioned several times that she put a government plane up for sale on EBay — including during her speech before the GOP convention.

But that’s not the whole story because it was not sold on eBay and the state lost about $600K on the real deal.

My goodness details can be pesky things.

• eBay Jet Sale? Didn’t Happen
• Palin Plane Not Sold on e-bay, not for a profit, sold to GOP contributor
• Does Anything Check Out?

I have made more than negative post about La Palin since last Friday. I have been hoping that there would be a real push-back and I guess I am not surprised to see one published by NY Times. Here’s the link!

If you are really interested in what other women think, then scroll down to the comments and you’ll read an eye-full.

• Another Look At Sarah Palin
• Of all the themes…

If you set aside her sarcastic style using glib talking points. Her speech, with the background noise of the GOP base going more than slightly gaga, did the job. But its content was thin and as some have observed fits with her own pattern of “stretching the truth”. She is another glib politician who tells it like she sees it and gets a pass letting the way she sees it go unchallenged.

But then there are those times that she just avoids the media or investigators:

Since she inserts God into some pretty material issues, like the Iraq War and getting a $30 Billion gas pipeline built in Alaska, she also sounds like another of those white middle-class preachers who puts Godliness along with American exceptionalism and bringing in the $$$.

But the wildest thing of all is the “Straight Talker” McCain may very well be upstaged by his VP pick. He gives terrible speeches and it will be only too obvious how bad he is following her remarkable performance.

But her message like Mitt Romney’s running against BIG government blithely forgets that the BIG government they are talking about was Reagan’s as well as the Bushes (41 and 43). Sounds to me like another one of those political shell games.

• The Ironies Of Last Night

Here’s an excerpt from his TNR piece today:

Sarah Palin’s nomination is a public service. No longer will we hear lectures from the likes of Newt Gingrich telling poor women on welfare how to conduct their sex lives. Focus on the Family will have to focus on a different kind of family. William Bennett has no virtues left to write about. At long last our national nightmare over sexual hypocrisy has come to an end, and we can all thank John McCain for that.

And that is not all. In rushing to Sarah Palin’s defense, the leaders of the Christian right have made it abundantly clear how they define a Christian. We don’t care if you sin. We are not bothered if you put your ambition ahead of the needs of your children. If you have lied or broken the law, we will look the other way. It all comes down to your stand on guns and fetuses. Vote the right way, and you have our blessing. If any proof were needed that James Dobson is a political operative rather than a spiritual leader, his jumping on the Palin bandwagon offers it.

I blogged in this space last week that Palin represented the libertarian wing of the evangelical movement rather than the punitive wing. (In doing so, I pointed out that she had named her children after witches; I was wrong to do so, as was the source upon which I relied, and I apologize for my mistake). Now we are learning that the split between libertarians and moral regulators involves far more than a religious movement. It goes to the heart of what once passed for conservatism in the United States. John McCain has shown that he has a wrecking crew approach to politics. Among the things he is wrecking is the movement and ideology that brought him to his station in life.

–Alan Wolfe

I couldn’t have said it any better. I have posted elsewhere about the nature of McBush and the GOP. They specialize in “rewriting history”. Who cares about the Constitution, or telling it like it is, or real straight-talk. Nooooooooo, it’s all about the political impact!

• Sarah Palin Wednesday Linkdump [Conspiracies]
• Conservatives Loving Palin, Shaping Platform
• Palin Excites Reagan-Loving Dobson

This morning I was reading a serious piece of analysis about US policy in Iraq and the story about it being spun by Sen. John McBush, sorry McCain. In reference to the story line used by GWB in his televised appearance in St Paul supporting McCain’s candidacy, the NY Times journalist, David Sanger, writes that “In describing himself and Mr. McCain as like-minded on Iraq, Mr. Bush was rewriting a good deal of modern history.”

For pity’s sake WTF is “rewriting history”? Is that changing the facts or changing his version of the historical record or simply lying before or after or before and after. Why does the MSM let those darned Republicans get away with this verbal legerdemain?

And why do they, McCain cancels his Larry King appearance, strike back whenever one of their less articulate spokespeople are publicly shamed by a conventional anchorperson from CNN during a TV interview about the contentious vetting of Ms. Palin as VP candidate.

And all of this swirling around the political campaign of the so-called “straight talking maverick” from Arizona or a Vietnam prison or whatever is politically convenient this week.

Is “rewriting history” just another version of “straight-talk”? What a load of crapola!

• McCain’s War on Media Begins in Earnest [Bias]
• McCain Cancels Creampuff CNN Interview All Because Someone at the Network Is Doing Her Job
• Eric Schmeltzer: McCain Runs Scared From Larry King
• Go Campbell Brown - Get All Journalistic On His Ass
• Soft Sell And Hard Truths

Sean C’s Cosmic Variance is the neatest blog about physics, cosmology and other thinks like poetry. Check this out!

• The tightrope of debating antiscience

This photo is reminiscent of scenes in the aftermath of Katrina.

I know that India is working diligently to close a nuclear technology deal with the Bush government, but does that mean they have to copy Bush’s methods during the Katrina disaster in dealing with the victims of flooding disaster in Bihar Province.

Here’s a link to a report from the Guardian about the situation in India. The headline is dreadful and indicates that Indian society and government continues to be mired in the worst aspects of prejudice between ethnic/religious groups.

This does not look like a 21st century world economic power!

• ‘Untouchables’ last to be rescued

They arrested several journalists including Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Is the MSM giving this ugly news a pass because it might taint the “good feelings” about the RNC convention?

Here’s the link to a full report from Glenn Greenwald!

Check out the videos. The behavior of the police is reminiscent of scenes in Beijing. If I can believe some of what I read about Sarah (Barracuda) Palin, it sounds like St Paul police actions reflect some of her heavy handedness as government executive. Oh dear, what am I saying?

Is this all part of the mavericky style of McCain? How does this compare with the mood and actions of security in Denver last week, especially at Invesco Field? Needless to say the comparison is not complimentary to McCain & Co. It all smacks of McBush and McCheney!

In case anybody wonders why a Canadian blogger should bring this up, we have felt the heavy weight of Bush’s bad 8 years and we are praying that Obama throws the bums (GOP candidates and advisers) out!

• Freedom of the press?
• Amy Goodman Busted in St. Paul
• Nearly 300 arrested at RNC convention protest

Here it is from Italy (Garfagnana):

Garfagnana is an area in Tuscany formed by the Serchio River. The closest city is Lucca.

When I consider the obvious misery of ordinary Indians in Northern India suffering privation, no water or food for several days, and minimal physical efforts from their government to move them for the disaster zone as well as the miserable situation once they reach “dry land”, I can’t help comparing their fate to what happened in earthquake devastated Sichuan a few months ago.

Both countries have their share of ultra wealthy resulting from their economic expansions. But India is obviously still mired in government inefficiency and inability to help its most momentarily deprived citizens. Neither its government nor its middle class seem to be ready to rescue their fellow citizens in a timely and meaningful way.

China was able, even during the few months running up to the Olympics to keep its eye on both situations and move resources ASAP to help its citizens deal with physical, economic and social calamities.

India is still a desperately backward country, which is ready to spend scarce resources on conflict with Pakistan, but manifestly unable to help its own people in time with anything but the skimpiest resources and bare bones rescue infrastructure. The political leaders of India have time to negotiate nuclear deals with the USA, but seemingly little time to deal with natural disaster in its own country. Contrast that with the leadership behavior of Hu JinTao and Wen JiBao during the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake.

This link provides a profile of eye-popping infrastructure in China today and outlines other projects underway and contemplated. This is another useful point of comparison between the two countries, India with inadequate and decaying assets vs. China going from improvement to greater improvement.

• Aid Rushed to Flood Victims in India
• India: Up to 2,000 feared dead in Bihar floods
• 1 Million Stranded by Monsoon Floods

I was just watching US Open Tennis Monfils vs. Fish in the second set on TV. Mary Carillo, who is sharp witted but usually more conventional, commented about Monfils showing a serious mental letdown in the match on his birthday “he looks like somebody let his birthday cake out in the rain!”

This comment got a good guffaw from yours truly!

Josh Marshall is a journalist/blogger who has a well earned reputation for digging out the nasty but sometimes obscure bits ignored by big media. Here’s his summary of Palin’s “troopergate” scandal du jour:

We rely on elected officials not to use the power of their office to pursue personal agendas or vendettas. It’s called an abuse of power. There is ample evidence that Palin used her power as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. When his boss refused to fire him, she fired his boss. She first denied Monegan’s claims of pressure to fire Wooten and then had to amend her story when evidence proved otherwise. The available evidence now suggests that she 1) tried to have an ex-relative fired from his job for personal reasons, something that was clearly inappropriate, and perhaps illegal, though possibly understandable in human terms, 2) fired a state official for not himself acting inappropriately by firing the relative, 3) lied to the public about what happened and 4) continues to lie about what happened.

These are, to put it mildly, not the traits or temperament you want in someone who could hold the executive power of the federal government.

If you click on a few of the links below other well known journalist bloggers are calling McCain/Palin abusers of truth or simply liars about a few of “Sarah Barracuda’s” more questionable exercises of executive power in Alaska. Was she vetted by McCain and his entourage of advisers or was it just another of McBush’s crap shoots which may be rolling badly?

It would certainly be wry turn of irony if McBush, who admits to being a techno neophyte, finds that the blogosphere does the Palin vetting for him with none too complimentary results.

• Palin’s Troopergate
• Missing the Point on Troopergate… Entirely
• Palin Photogate
• Bridge to somewhere

And not every body in Alaska gives full-throated support to la Palin!

• Former Palin staffer: “She’s not qualified, she doesn’t have the judgment, to be next in line to the president of the United States”

Since she is an avowed Evangelical Christian, touts the cause of teaching Creationism, and has a licence to hunt wolves in Alaska, is it possible that Sarah Palin VP candidate on the John McBush ticket fits this quote from the Gospel according to Matthew:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are like ferocious wolves.”

• McCain Taps Lady [Breaking]
• Palin’s Homes
• Meet Sarah Palin ‘the Barracuda’: anti-abortion, pro-death penalty and gun-lover

so now that Beijing’s Olympics are fading away, even in China, we are reminded by NY Times that conflict is really everywhere:

Wow, how about a long dispute between South Korea and Japan, about 46 acres of islets and specks of land hours away from South Korea by ferry.

From www.chinaview.cn:

22 dead after magnitude-6.1 quake jolts Sichuan Province
www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-30 23:24:32 Print

PANZHIHUA, Sichuan, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — Twenty-two people were dead after an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit Panzhihua City in southwest China on Saturday.

As of 9 p.m., 17 people were reported dead and about 100 others injured in Sichuan, and five others dead and 26 other injured in neighboring Yunnan Province.

The quake struck the juncture of Renhe District of Panzhihua and Huili County of Liangshan Prefecture at 4:30 p.m. (Beijing time). The epicenter was about 50 km southeast of downtown Panzhihua, at 26.2 degrees north and 101.9 degrees east and at a depth of 10 km, the National Seismograph Network Center said.

In Panzhihua, a 54-year-old man was killed in debris in Miyi County and another person was killed Yanbian County. Nearly 1,000 houses were destroyed and cracks appeared in walls of more than 400 houses.

In the affected counties of Liangshan Prefecture, 86 people were injured, and many houses were destroyed or in dangerous conditions. The number of people buried in the ruins were not immediately available.

The quake also affected Chuxiong Prefecture in Yunnan Province, leaving five people dead and 26 others were injured, 11 severely, as of 8:30 p.m., said Mengfu, a prefecture government official.

The casualties in Yunnan were reported in Yongren, Yuanmou, Wuding and Dayao counties, in which four deaths were in Yuanmou, about 55 km from the epicenter, and another in Yongren, about 30 km from the epicenter.

• Tremor Rocks South West China
• Quake rattles southwestern China

Then there is this one also from that great photo site Big Picture:

Oh to have the resources of AP’s photo teams!

I guess the most important thing that doesn’t get mentioned often enough about the Democratic Convention in Denver is how well organized it was. And they were lucky to be there a week ahead of Hurricane Gustav’s landfall in Louisiana.

The Acceptance Speech event was especially amazing falling on the anniversary of MLK’s event at the Lincoln Memorial 40some years ago and drawing a great crowd of 80,000+ to Invesco Field and however many thousands across the country to all sizes of TV sets in all kinds of ordinary locations.

I’m a grizzled cynic and a 72 year old Canadian citizen and my eyes were brimming with tears for much of the night. This kind of political drama sure makes Harper & Co look like small beer!

• From King’s ‘Dream’ to Obama’s Reality
• Outside the Stadium, Giddy Chaos
• John Lewis DNC Speech: Text

In a world that is said to be globalized, the South Ossetians look forward to a form of small country independence as neighbors of the Russian Bear.

Optimism or delusion?

They’ve got mountains that look a bit like Andorra’s, but then there are those Russian tanks and planes that are still in South Ossetia as “peace keepers”. And while Russia declares their independence, the rest of the Western world seems to think that they are a fractious part of Georgia.

Dream on South Ossetians!

• War of words over South Ossetia future
• Russia ‘to Absorb’ South Ossetia
• An Embattled Enclave Yearns to Be Free (and Liechtenstein)