Joe Biden Denied Communion; What Happens When An Intersection Has No Left Turn Signals; Tony's Current Sports Interests; Halloween; Canada; What It Is Like to Pick Up Tony from His School

• I was ecstatic to hear that Joe Biden was denied communion. It was good to hear that some Catholic priest somewhere had balls. The only defense I have heard of Biden is that his views on abortion weren't known. But they weren't known because he was being a politician. This is no excuse for not expressing Catholic teaching on such an important matter. Again, great to see that a politician gets punished for trying to have it both ways. One wonders what the consequences of this will be. Will Biden go to the Pope and ask for an apology? Will Biden, the so-called Catholic, change his ways? Will the story be ignored by the left-wing media? Will the priest be removed from his position? Will something big come from it? On the last question, one can only pray.

• I swear if the Chinese aren't herded or forced to be civilized, they won't. A case in point is what happens at controlled intersections that don't have signals for left turns. Left-turning cars driven by locals will immediately try to turn left as soon as the signal turns green. Sometimes this is not an imprudent maneuver because they can get through the intersection without impeding the progress of oncoming traffic. But I have seen local drivers make left turns even when prudence would dictate that the oncoming traffic is coming on too fast. So, I have often seen the oncoming cars either have to come to a quick stops or swerve around the left-turning cars; with the result being near collisions and unnecessary traffic jams. One morning, I was driving Tony to school and trying to get through an intersection when an oncoming car tried to make a left turn in front of me. I forced the car to come to stop as I had no choice but to swerve around him. I then made a point of slowly going around the left-turning car to impede its progress and hopefully teach the driver a lesson about not making left turns when traffic is oncoming. But I could see from the driver's frantically turning his steering wheel that the realization of his doing anything imprudent had not crossed his mind. A chinaman truly doesn't take into account others when trying to make his way about the world.

• Tony follows all the leagues it seems. That is, the NHL, the NBA, the NFL, MLB and the CFL. He has been asking me to find video of the Houston Rocket Akeem when he played in the NCAA.

• I won't be doing anything Halloweeny this year for which I'm happy. The reason? Chinese lameness. However, Tony told me that he wished he could trick-or-treat. That saddens me. I think he will be too old to do this by the time I get him out to Canada. What I have done for him is download some slasher horror movies that he requested from the Halloween and Friday the 13^th series.

• I am thinking of going back to Canada. I've been in China since 2004 and I am getting bored of it. And I don't want Tony to spend his whole childhood in the PRC. For as he told me, China is boring. And as he asked me, why did I move here?

• Sitting in the car Monday afternoon by Tony's school, I thought of something about which to blog: what it is like when I go pick up Tony from his school. Frequently, I have blogged about the bad drivers I encounter in the mornings when I take Tony to his school, but I know I have had little to say about Monday afternoons when I pick up Tony. Everything one does when one has to go out in China is fraught with anxiety. And usually it's because there are far too many people and most of them, given the chance, will do something stupid and selfish that impacts on others. It is because of this that I try to arrive at Tony's school at least an hour before he finishes his classes and comes to the school gate to meet me. I go early to ensure I get a decent parking spot before they are all taken. And when I park on the road, I parked at an angle to the curb because if you parallel park, there is a good chance that some late-coming driver will double park and block you. (I had this happen once when I parked near a school. I came out to see that I was blocked by a double parker who didn't come out for thirty minutes. And when she did, I swore at her and she had this strange look on her face like she couldn't believe that someone would actually get mad at her for double parking. This happens to a lot to other drivers in China which is why most locals angle park their cars when coming to pick up their children. What a low-trust society, China has for this to be happening.) And when I sit in the car, I worry when I see cars park near me. (Once, a car angle parked next to me but left so much space between us that other drivers thought they could park in between, but not enough that they could actually do so.) Other sensations are hearing someone speaking on the loud-speaker at the school's sport field and thinking this what it must have sounded like during the cultural revolution.