Inside the Asylum

In the comments to an earlier post, I was accused of being a normal red blooded male, or words to that effect, when I was merely pointing out how strong willed the Japanese Prime Minister was for not looking down Miss Japan's top when she bowed to him. I forget the details. Let me stress that my masculinity has nothing whatsoever to do with this post. Rather, I am reporting important news. Firstly, this is an Olympics follow up post. This fashion show was held in the Water Cube, the National Aquatics Center, in Beijing, showing that the Olympics venues, built at great cost, are still being utilized. Secondly, it is cultural commentary on the great changes in China since the Mao-suit fashion era. Thirdly ... well, let's face it, Asian women are hot. For your edification, I present the Beijing swimsuit design contest.

Follow the link for more pics.
[update] I told you I'm ahead of the news cycle. Now Reuters has video.

This is kind of interesting. It looks like the Chinese authorities are thinking of blocking the Chinese purchase of Hummer from GM.

A domestic company's purchase of the gas-guzzling Hummer brand is against China's economic situation and the country's development, said an official with the Development Research Center of the State Council, the country's Cabinet Tuesday.

I have to say, I didn't expect that. I'll keep you posted about further developments.

Once upon a time, countries like Britain were major centers of shipbuilding. It was still pretty strong until the 1970s, and after that the industry went into a major decline. I can't help but notice that as the US allows its military aircraft industry to run down, the Chinese are gearing up in both civilian and military sectors. No one is going to argue that Chinese aircraft are competitive with American aircraft now, but it's not that many years ago when no one would have argued that Japanese cars were better than their American rivals.

SHANGHAI, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (COMAC) unveiled its manufacturing and assembling center here Saturday, the latest step towards the goal to manufacture China's homegrown large aircraft.

The L15-05 trainer plane, developed by the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group takes off at Qingyunpu airport in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, June 8, 2009. The trainer plane had a successul maiden flight on Monday.

People who accuse others of being fascists and Nazis would have a lot more credibility if they didn't behave like fascists and Nazis themselves.

The demonstrators - shouting "off our streets Nazi scum" - chased [BNP leader Nick Griffin] down the street to his car.
Mr Griffin said: "It's a very, very sad day for British democracy."... He had only been speaking for a few minutes when the protesters appeared, chanting and waving banners declaring: "Stop the fascist BNP." Eggs were thrown at Mr Griffin and... the demonstrators kicked and hit his car with their placards before cheering as he drove off.

Griffin said. "People should be entitled to hear what we have to say and to hear journalists question us robustly."

He's got a point. Regardless of what you think of the British National Party and its views, he has a right to be heard. Fascists and Nazis, of course, do not believe that opposition groups have the right to be heard.

On the other hand

Protest organiser Weyman Bennett, national secretary of Unite Against Fascism, said: "The majority of people did not vote for the BNP, they did not vote at all. The BNP was able to dupe them into saying that they had an answer to people's problems.

Well, except in a few places (like Australia where it is illegal not to vote) it is the democratic right of all citizens to choose not to exercise their franchise. It is also a fundamental aspect of western democracy that citizens are entitled to be represented... and the way you measure that is by having elections and seeing who they vote for. As I said, people who accuse others of being Nazis shouldn't behave like Nazis themselves.

That seems to be all that's required to be president of the United States these days.

Obama rarely talks without the aid of an autocue. But he has the ability to read with considerable fluency

The next point is a telling blow against Obama.

Obama is perhaps the first American president to present himself as a kind of umpire between the US and its critics.

Isn't he supposed to, you know, represent the United States?
And still more on the way Obama has bought into Al Qaeda's conflict narrative

The Cairo oration began with the assertion that this is a "time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world". But is it? As a sovereign state, the US deals with governments, not people - and certainly not religions. Only about a quarter of Muslims live in Arab nations. In the Arab world, the US enjoys good relations with Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and some other nations. The same can be said for the Muslim majority nations of Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia. By focusing on prevailing tensions, Obama neglected to mention that, in recent memory, the US took military action in defence of Muslims living in Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and elsewhere.

It's one of the reasons I read the Sydney Morning Herald, even though I don't live in Australia. Unlike too many other media sources, it will actually print pieces like this, even though it doesn't agree with the prevailing philosophy of the newspaper.

The Brazilians know very well that the US is not serious about alternative energy sources.

Even with the 54 cent per gallon tariff barrier, intended to offset the 51 cent per gallon subsidy for blended domestic corn ethanol, Brazil managed to sell 790 million gallons of its more energy efficient sugarcane-based ethanol in U.S. markets last year, once again calling into question both the competitiveness of the U.S.-promoted corn ethanol industry and the actual level of price distortion posed by the tariff...
The U.S. has few grounds to boast of a commitment to clean and renewable fuel while it ignores a cleaner and more efficient alternative fuel available in the hemisphere.

Bill Clinton went to Brazil's 2009 Ethanol Summit, but so what? It's a nice piece of grandstanding to allow him to feel good about himself ... but what did he do with his 8 years in the White House?