Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Twelve guys with white helmets

Twelve guys with white helmets
Around my neighborhood in Wuxi, I always see these guys with white police helmets riding on motorcycles.  They always ride in pairs, and I wonder why are they cruising about.  This morning (Thursday), I saw twelve of these guys gathered outside a restaurant at my apartment complex.  I wish I could have taken a photo.

Later on in the morning, I saw these five girls, dressed like airline stewardesses, lined up at the entrance to an department store on Zhongshan Road at what used to be the Sheraton.  I marveled at the use of womanpower.  I also wish I could have taken a photo.


Tony Kaulins Links








NHL Playoffs
The second round of the NHL playoffs has already seen one sweep -- what happened to the Caps?  And there is a chance there could be two more as the Bruins lead the Flyers 3-0 and the Sharks lead the Red Wings 3-0.  It seems that the Canucks are in tough as they lead the Preds 2-1 in a low scoring series that has seen two games go into O.T.


OBL
The students haven't had much to say about the death of OBL.  Asking them if it was a good thing, most either said yes, or had no opinion.

I mentioned the Obama birth certificate controversy, and a few said they had heard about.  I got lots of laughs that asking if I could see their or Hu Jiantao's birth certificate.

For what its worth, I say good on Obama for ordering the attack on OBL's compound.  He talked about doing such things during the election campaign and carried through with it.  But there was wanton negligence in not giving credit to Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld whose efforts to fight terrorism were constantly being undermined by the Democrats and then candidate Obama.  Bush, it has been said, was reluctant to go into Pakistan for fears of offending an ally.  Obama criticized this during the campaign.  However, Bush did order the drone attacks in Pakistan which Obama later doubled down on.  

But then Obama also made efforts, to see the war against terrorism as a legal matter, which turned out to be silly.  Would Obama have had a captured Bin Landen stand on trial in a civilian court in New York City?  He wanted to do that with KSM till he was forced to back down by the sheer logistical difficulties of doing so.  A captured Bin Landen would have been best taken to Gitmo and put on trial there too.  

As I have said, foreign policy pronouncements are tricky.  Bush and Obama policies have been both vindicated and cast into doubt by events.  As a general point, I have heard persuasive arguments for American isolationism; and  I have heard persuasive arguments for America being more directly involved in world affairs.  

The death of OBL is no doubt a victory for the U.S.A.


Video taken by a Wuxi Expat going to work



What is happening in the Wuxi China Expatdom?


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