Sandwich Maker; Food porn, Gun Porn; Animal Cruelty; Friends with Chinese?; American Foreign Policy; Bleak House

• My wife Jenny bought a sandwich maker slash waffle maker. I used it on the first morning after its purchase to make Tony a ham and cheese sandwich for his breakfast. He enjoyed it.

• On WeChat moments, I don't like to post pictures of my life. I prefer to post memes, pictures of food, interesting gifs and pictures of guns. I should label them ____ porn. For example, food porn and gun porn.

• I posted a photo of it on my AKIC photo blog of what I thought was an act of animal cruelty. I was walking around the local shopping plaza when I saw that someone had put a fairly big dog in a cage that was meant for small puppies or kittens. The dog was yelping in protest against its tight confinement. Its yelping could be heard quite a distance away. I have to wonder what the story behind this was. Were the people who put the dog in the small cage prohibited from keeping it on the leash? Was it a merely temporary measure? Whatever the cause, the people who did should have been ashamed of themselves. [In China, no one is ashamed of themselves unless they lose face. That is, they can happily go on doing a selfish thing and only feel bad if it is pointed out to them. Or in other words, you have to wonder if the locals have consciences.]

• Spengler says that no one can really be friends with China. He was speaking at the geo-political level. On the personal level, I wonder if anyone can be friends with Chinese. I will say that I can't. I find their company boring. Not there aren't any nice Chinese. In fact, there are lots of nice ones and they are capable of acts of generosity that put me to shame. But at a certain point, I find myself, while with them, wanting to escape. Something about being with them is so confining.

• When it comes to American foreign policy, I came to the conclusion years ago that I can only shrug my shoulders about it. Generally, Americans have been a force for good in the world, but they have been well-meaningly naive at times in their dealings. This is because Americans have a problem unlike other nations, in that they possess a lot of power when it comes to dealing with the world and they also have a generous streak. And so Americans have tried to deal with foreigners in many ways. They have been isolated and they have been involved. They have been imperial to some and great partners with others. They have used their power for imperial reasons and for causes in which they have nothing to gain. They have done the wrong thing many a time. And yet I am glad they possess the power they have. Better they have had it than the Russians, the Euros and the Chinese. But as to the question of what America should do with its power, I have no strong feelings. America would be the best possible policeman the world could hope to have if it really had the stomach for such a thankless task. However, they would be well within their rights to get out of places like the Middle East and Asia. There are too many shithole places in the world that really can't be fixed by outsiders.

• On the reading front, I have gotten around to reading some Charles Dickens. I say "got around" because my cousin's husband is a big devotee of Dickens, as he was a devotee of Frank Sinatra who I am proud to say is my favorite singer. So, I have started to read Bleak House and so far, the writing is wonderful.