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Monday, September 28, 2009

Daily Links, Sept 28, 2009

Checking for swine flu at public gatherings.

I was going to get such a lot of work done today. And then I stupidly started reading The Historian. Meanwhile, you can take the temperature of Taiwan on the blogs today....
MEDIA: Penghu gambling victory in Reuters. China's investment boom: great leap into the unknown. Taiwan News on victories in Penghu, Yunlin. Death Penalty in Asia, including Taiwan. Taiwan commits to US wheat purchases for 2010 and 2011. Stable wheat prices are a necessity for so many small family run bakeries and noodle shops. Seismic testing off Taiwan stresses marine life. Taiwan military in Washington pressing for F-16s. Everyone says KMT gets wake up call in election. Too soon to tell, folks. Taiwan has 279 yards to lead E. Washington past Sacramento State. "Few could have predicted" (HSR from AFP) is on my top ten things I never want to hear again. Lots of people thought the HSR wasn't a winning proposition (like this from 2003) as did all of the private investors who ran the numbers and pulled out. The only people who didn't know were the public. Ex-independence activist goes to China, then forms pro-China party. Replay: Taiwan fishing captain says Japanese ship rammed his boat. The Central Bank leaves interest rates at record low 1.25%. US academics criticize treatment of Chen. Legal experts question ruling in Chen case. Morakot washed down 980,000 tons of driftwood. Remittances by Taiwan firms in China are on the rise. Kaohsiung Film Festival will screen Kadeer documentary. Taiwan helps Panama with endangered orchids. TSU: ECFA will cause crisis, with bonus former HSR chief saying industries moving to China killed HSR. Ma ideology watch: another unprecedented Ma Ying-jeou association with Confucius worship.

SPECIAL: Taiwan is one model for educational reform in US. I think it is time for a post debunking Taiwan's amazing math claims. As many observers have pointed out, the article does not even mention CRAM SCHOOLS. Hello, does anyone actually know anything on the other side of the pond!

SUPER DUPER UBER PROUD DAD SPECIAL: New rock stars blossom in Taiwan.

UNTAIWAN: Awesome collection of recent editorial cartoons at DKOS.

MODELS: This cool paper compares economic forecasting models in predicting the current economic crisis. This model shows that the 1970s Viking lander just missed finding water on Mars. And new climate models show that when it comes to Planet Earth, our elites are following a variant of the Nike strategy: just doom it.
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6 comments:

  1. Kudos to Pivot Capital Management for publishing a realistic report.

    If I have to hear one more time that "domestic spending in China is driving a sustainable recovery", I will barf. It is amazing how many people never stop to think that "domestic spending" does not equal "mom and pop go to the store to buy...".

    China growth is real, but built on a very sandy foundation. If more people had fewer stars in their eyes, Ma would have much more difficulty pushing an economic sell-out to what is an extremely unbalanced economy.

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  2. Is this racist? You decide. I don't think it is at all, BTW. I agree. Advertising for a position and only opening it to ROC nationals is not racist. It might be overly patriotic. It might be a response to a legitimate business concern (access to certain government information). But it is not racist.

    However, the site you link to asks the question: Would we not be considered racist in North America if we did this?. The answer to that question is, "If we did this north of the Rio Grande, then "Yes", would certainly be considered racist by the major news media outlets and by many people on the left of the political spectrum. And I think that unless we could prove a business need (such as a need for a clearance) we would be violating U.S. discrimination laws.

    But being considered racist is not the same thing as being racist. For example, a couple years ago we learned that may people believe opposing illegal immigration is racist. But opposing illegal immigration is not necessarily racist. Jimmy Carter seems to think that opposing health care communism is racist. However, opposing health care communism is not racist.

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  3. Jimmy Carter seems to think that opposing health care communism is racist. However, opposing health care communism is not racist.

    Man, and I thought throwing around "socialist" was a loaded word.
    Anyway, what Uncle Jimmy said was that he thinks that some of the people opposing health insurance reform are doing so because of racism, and not as a matter of public policy. Many of those he refers to have a history of racism.

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  4. I would imagine some jobs in the USA are open to US citizens only - say at the CIA...so its not racist.

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  5. I found this article at CNN which has some quotes from our former Democratic president.

    First, Carter did not say some people opposing government health care were racist, he said in the context of the health care protests, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American".

    Carter also said "When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the president of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds", and he is correct to say so. For example, see here or see Democratic Representative Keith Ellison's comments about Bush.

    The difference of course is that the protesters acting that way toward Obama are indeed a radical fringe, while the hating of Bush and Republicans became mainstream on the left. For example, Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic party said "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for...". New Republic editor Jonathan Chait wrote a column entitled "The Case for Bush Hatred" that started with "I hate President George W. Bush." CBS talk show host Craig Kilborn showed a video of George Bush and flashed the words "SNIPERS WANTED" on the screen. Former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry joked about killing George Bush.

    But because, as you say "Many of those he refers to have a history of racism", it is assumed that the people on the right have poor motives for opposing socialism?

    What about the strident opposition to Clarance Thomas? Those people also had a history of racism, yet we didn't have former Republican presidents making such accusations. The same applies to the opposition to the nomination of Miguel Estrada, who Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said liberal interest groups saw as "dangerous" because he was "Latino and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment" and so encouraged that his nomination be held up as long as possible. And so his nomination was filibustered. Where were the former Republican presidents accusing the "overwhelming majority" of liberal opposition of being "racist"?

    The accusation cannot be proven false, and so in the absence of proof positive, it has little value. Yet the Democrats seem to throw it out any time they think they can get away with it - and they usually do get away with it because the mainstream press shows favoritism toward the Democrats (with the almost singular exception, these days, of Fox News).

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