The Chinese Age or China Ages?

We hear it all the time. People, especially Europeans, love to talk about the miracle of the Chinese. In high school I was told that by 2015 the Chinese would surpass us economically. None of it is true. The intention of this is to raise doubts about the power of the United States.

Your humble WordBearer has long been a naysayer on the veracity of Chinese economic prospects.

The NY Times (I know I loath them too) has an interesting story about China's aging problem.

By the year 2020, 1/3rd of the population of the city of Shanghai will be over 59. Experts say Shanghai is on the leading edge of one of the most profound demographic changes in history. There may soon be manpower shortages due to the massive amount of elderly Chinese.

Much of this problem can be laid at the feet of the disastrous one child policy of the Communist Party. It eviscerated the flower of Chinese youth and has created a top heavy population pyramid. The massive social welfare net will be strained due to the lack of young people to pay taxes. The Chinese government will collapse before they ever economically overtake us.

The population control freaks in the West will lead us down the same road if we allow it. Their constant calls for population controls through abortion will skew our demographics as well.

All I can say is this: Ladies and gentlemen, get married and have kids. Have a bunch; at least two. The future of mankind depends on what you do in your bedroom. How private can it really be?

The next lifestyle choice: Anorexia

As hard as it is to believe, many of those suffering from the eating/mental disorder known as anorexia are now catergorizing their illness as a "lifestyle choice."

Groups who support the anorexic lifestyle, known as "pro-anas", have popped up all over the internet; setting up websites to promote their affliction to others.

All I can say is that these people are sick and really need help. I know the media promotes ultra-thinness as the standard to which we should all attain, but it is simply not the truth. These people are displaying a case similar to Stockholm Sydrome. They are identifying with their mental captures in the media and the entertainment industry.

The advocates of this sickness have obviously done their homework. By couching their disease in terms like "lifestyle choice," they have appropriated the language of modern liberalism to collude in their ritualistic suicide. By defining their sickness as a choice they are asserting the idea that it must be judged by the modern ethic that holds all lifestyle choices as equally valid and denies that any choice can be judged as good or bad.

In the modern world we no longer view the promotion of virtuous behavior as the obligation of society. We instead promote "fulfillment" and "authenticity."

One example of this is the oft proffered piece of advice: "Be who you are." Implied in this is the concept that being what you are is the best course of action. This is absurd. What if who you really are is a thuggish bully? This makes no sense to me.

The point is that we must know ourselves. We must examine our characters and natures and determine what about us is bad, and should be suppressed, and what is good, which should be exalted. Self-examination is the key. The pro-anas have not examined themselves properly. They have bought into the modern lie of appearance. If they properly examined themselves, they would note this behavior as destructive and worthy of suppression.

Let me add this as well. Ladies speaking for most guys, we do not really care much about your weight...to a point. Being 300 pounds overweight is not health or attractive, it is a sign of a severe problem. What I am talking about is the girl who is 150 pounds and thinks she needs to be 100 to be desirable. It is simply not true.

Hell I just get stoked when a woman talks to me. Weight should be monitored for health reasons. Just relax about it ladies. Ignore the media because they do not have your best interests at heart. Besides curvy chicks are hot. Why someone would want a wraith is beyond me.

A Mexican man once gave me a very good piece of advice: "Bones are for the dogs, meat is for the man."

Mull that over and get back to me.

VDH, the speaker of reason

Victor Davis Hanson, one of my favorite history professors, looks at the war in the short and long term.

Time for a whine

Ok after spending some time on other sites, I noticed that personal ramblings tend to garner many replies. I get few on my news rants, so I thought I would get a little personal today.

Your humble WordBearer is still having trouble in the lady department.

As many of you may remember, I had spent months working up the courage to ask out a lovely young lady that I knew. When I finally did she said yes. I can not begin to describe my happiness. Dan Wesson can attest to it, he had lunch with me afterwards.

Well a few days later she sent me a text message on my phone saying she had changed her mind. My devastation equaled or surpassed the elation I felt when she agreed.

My self-worth took quite a hit. Dan Wesson and CartoonBeaver really helped me get through it. To them I am eternally grateful. Side note: I have known CartoonBeaver since we were six and was the best man at his wedding. I have not known Wesson as long, but count him, as one of the best friends a guy could have. Lots of love to a certain Wolf and Warrior as well.

I am over her maltreatment...to a degree, but still am alone each night. Any help would be useful.

I'm not a club guy. I used to go to lots of them but always lost out to better looking guys. Let's face it; those places are meat markets and I am not Grade A prime. I'm more like Grade X: Circus animal and some filler.

I consider myself a good guy. I have my glaring faults like all others. I'm not great looking in my opinion, but I am respectful and have a good sense of humor.

I know this is all mindless rambling, but I am getting tired of hanging around the same places and doing the same things. The WordBearer needs to bear his word into more diverse places.

Knife control: First a joke, now a reality

As you, my astute readers, will remember, your humble WordBearer has been cataloguing the rise in knife related crime in Britain. See this post: Knife culture overtakes Britain

Well now the family of a young man murdered by a knife wielding assailant has called for stricter laws on carrying knives.

The Brits banned guns long ago. This illustrates the simple fact that people are violent, and they will find the means to kill one another. The tool does not matter. Gun, knife, it does not matter.

People kill people, not knives and guns.

The return of the WordBearer

Your humble WordBearer has been gone for a couple of days. I was out in the Laguna Madre menacing the speckled sea trout. May post pictures later.

Back to business.

The upswing in prostitution anticipated for the World Cup has not materialized.

See below posts and the Dumb Ox for further details about the importation of Eastern European women to "service" the hordes of drunken men. The article makes it sound like all this is consensual, but you, the astute Ring of Gyges reader, know better.

Frankly the idea of thousands of men lining up to abuse (and it is abuse) a woman in this manner chills me to the bone. It also offends my sense of honor and angers me to no end. My virtue, what little I have, precludes me from sanctioning this.

I have urges like every other guy...well probably more than the normal guy, but I would rather go without than use a prostitute. It is called self-control. We are not animals people. We do not need to copulate just because we feel the need.

Enough of my pontificating. I am off to sob uncontrollably into a glass of beer. Shiner Bock to be exact.

Germany should be ashamed

All of you who read the Dumb Ox know the Ox and I have been talking alot about the importation of Eastern European women into Germany to "service" male World Cup fans.

Donna Hughes over at the National Review is on the story. She recounts the tale of two Russian women who were shipped to Germany and used as prostitutes.


She is quite right that Germany should be ashamed of what is going on. Germany legalized prostitution in 2002 at the insistence of women's groups and perverts. As many as 40,000 women will be imported for the World Cup.

The exploitation of women in this manner is something that no civilized nation should tolerate. I do not buy this "it is my body I can do what I want with it." That is a load of bogus garbage. Hughes article points out that most of the workers are controlled by pimps and mafia groups and have little choice in what they do. This is despite the fact that it is a legal career in Germany. This is not a freedom issue. What is at issue is the basic dignity of the human person.

I also do not buy the "victimless crime" mentality. There are plenty of victims to prostitution. First of all is the prostitute and customer, both their families, and the people in the neighborhoods where the acts occur who see their property values go down and have to deal with the blowback from sex workers. What about the health system that has to deal with the disease and health problems sex workers encounter?

Let me cut off a few objections. I know prostitution has been around forever and has been accepted in many other societies. That is meaningless. Cannibalism has been around forever and been accepted in many societies. Should we legalize the eating of others? Just because something has been around forever does not mean that it is right.

There is no dignity to prostitution. Would you want your daughter to choose the life spent on her back, knees, or bending over a table?

No matter how lonely I get I would not use a prostitute. I would never be able to forgive myself.

Michael Novak: The Dims are screwed

He is predicting a Dim defeat in this year's elections.

I have been saying this for a while now. The Dims are counting their chickens before they are hatched.

1. The way Republican state legislatures have drawn their districts makes it very difficult for Dims to win the 15 seats they need to take the House.

2. The Dims are placing too much faith in the polls. All the polls are showing the same thing: responders prefer generic Dims to Republicans and have a very low opinion of Congress.

To draw any significant conclusions from these polls over looks some very important facts. First of all respondents almost always say they prefer a generic Dim. It is when you get to specific Dims that they back out.

Number two, the low approval ratings of Congress are nothing new. It is Public Opinion 101. When you ask people how they feel about Congress they always disapprove. Yet when you get to their specific Congressman they tend to give positive reviews. In summation, voters tend to dislike Congress as a whole but like their Congressman.

3. Dissatisfaction with Republicans does not mean that the country is ripe for Dim leadership.

Most of the disatisfaction with Republicans comes from their voters. People want less spending and Congress to curb its appetite. These people are not going to vote for Dims. The most they are going to do is not show up. That is what the Republicans must fear.

The Dims seem to think that the country is ready for more taxes, class warfare, greater social spending, and socializing medicine. Nothing could be further from the truth.

3. If the Dims think the "Culture of Corruption" strategy is going to work they are sorely mistaken.

The corruption knife cuts both ways. If you make the accusation you open yourself up to it. Does William Jefferson ring a bell? They would do better making sure that their own house is in order.

What voters will see is a Dim party grasping at anything under the sun to try to get power. Basically they will be seeing the truth.

4. Not to sound to Kerry-like, but the Dims "Don't have a plan."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know they stand for this and that but most of it is just worthless feel good catch phrases like "social justice." They have no Contract or Convenant with America.

That was a big part of the 1994 Republican Revolution. The Dims need a plan that people can get behind. The problem is that what they believe is so idiotic that people see right through it. Americans do not want to cut and run in Iraq, destroy the economy with attempts to redistribute wealth, and coddle terrorists.

Their desire to impeach the president is not going to help them either. People do not want to go through another impeachment in less than a decade. They only say those things to fire up their loony base and the average American finds those people contemptible.

The Dims are not going to make much headway in November in my opinion.

Just a side note: I hate the phrase "Speaking Truth to Power."

Here is what it really means: "I'm a pompous douche bag and I say shit like this because my ideas suck and no one will listen. Obviously if you don't listen to me you are a power mad animal who can not see my divine wisdom. The revolution is coming. Your head will be on a pike."

What really annoyed me was when Carl Levin said it the other day. He is power. Who the hell is he speaking truth about?

I get it, but few others do

Joel Mowbray answers the question many people are asking "Why attack Canada"?

It is a good question. Canada does not support US efforts in the Gulf, harbors radical imams, and does not adequately defend itself. Why would they attack Canada? Hey the country is basically America's weak little brother.

Of course the answer is simple and I have been harping on it for a long time: The terror leaders have no interest in the supposed abuses of Muslims world wide. Their goal is a world caliphate. All of the reasons and slights they spout are just the pretext for their desire to turn the world into their idea of paradise. To the rest of us it is known as squalor and barbarism.

Mowbray asks the question that is asked alot recently: Why don't non-radical Muslims stand up to their hate preaching imams?

I believe that while many Muslims dislike the methods of the terrorists, they secretly cheer every time they kill Westerners.

They are like all the people who were not in the Klan but were not sorry that blacks were lynched.

Their silence speaks volumes.

Roast in Hell douche bag

Since it is the hot news item of the week, perhaps month. I, your humble WordBearer, will offer an assessment of what the death of this son of a bee (yeah that is right I said it) will mean.

1. The Dims will still complain. Hell they already are.

The Dims can not benefit from this in anyway. If Zarqawi had escaped they would have had an opportunity to attack Bush for incompetence. The Dims have never supported the war in Iraq or the War on Terror itself. Sure many of them voted for the Iraq war resolution, but that was just so they would not face a voter backlash.

2. This is a good thing.

Reporters have already started asking questions about who will replace Zarqawi. They seem to insinuate that it might be someone worse. It could be that it will be someone worse, but the odds are better that it will be someone who is not. Plus killing the boss really does matter. Look what happened to the Anglo-Saxons after the death of Harold at the Battle of Hastings.

As a guy who has been in many organizations, I know from experience that any group is going to have rifts and factions. Al-Zarqawi was a terror mastermind. His replacement will not be easy. Perhaps there are multiple figures hoping to take over. Maybe they will war on one another.

I'm not sure about this article though. Too extreme for a group that murdered thousands on 9/11?


3. The war will go on.

There are still lots of thugs loose in Iraq. We will never be able to eradicate them all, but we can quell them. We did not eradicate all the Nazi's, but we did defeat them. There are still unreformed Confederate sympathizers in this country. I myself am still angry over the outcome of the the Battle of Bosworth....damn usurping Tudors. Yet I am not going to take up a sword, mount a barded steed, and fright the souls of fearful adversaries over it.

I am proud of our troops and their commanders. They are doing a difficult job and they just got rid of a serious cockface.

Kennedy swears off 'mood altering' drugs

Isn't power a mood altering drug?

Will he swear off his pompous pontificating?

This scandal is so Kennedy. All it needed was a dead chick and it would have been perfect. Well Pat Kennedy is no Teddy.

A social war is brewing in China

Yesterday the Chinese paper The People's Daily, the official Communist Party paper, ran a commentary piece that reaffirmed China's commitment to economic reforms.

The reason this is an issue is due to China's internal war between reformers and new leftists. Inside the Chinese bureaucracy a war is being waged between those who want to hold on to authoritarian rule and get rich, and those who want to hold on to authoritarian rule and be poor.

No matter who wins China is not going to change much. It will remain the belligerent wannabe hegemon that it currently is.

When nerds attack

Chaos ensued during the international Chess Olympiad after British grandmaster Danny Gormally assaulted an Armenian player at a nightclub in Turin.

The fight broke out after Levon Aronian was seen dancing with the Australian chess bombshell (there are some words you thought you would never hear) Arianne Caoili. Apparently Mr. Gormally has a crush on Ms. Caoili.

Denis Jessop, president of the Australian Chess Federation, was not surprised to hear that violence had once again tainted the world of chess.

Mr Jesso told reporters that, "I am not surprised at anything that chess players do. It is not the first time that there's been an argument at a chess tournament and people have hit each other, he said."

Authorities believe this was the worst boardgame related crime since the infamous "You sank my battleship" killing spree of 1991.

Update: Stephen Moore over at the Guardian has a blurb on the fight and what it means for chess.

He is a little over dramatic but it is still interesting.

Conan hates your homeland

A big nod to Dan Wesson for showing me this: Conan O'Brian Hates my Homeland.

Let's lighten the mood

Since I have not lightened the mood lately, I thought I would post a couple of funny videos. Have a wonderful day everyone.

Star Wars behind the scenes

Mr. Ethnic Clean

For some reason I find this funny as hell

Best of 2005 from Conan O'Brian