Biden on Tour

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Is China Gearing for War?

China Preparing For Armed Conflict 'In Every Direction'

UK Paper the Telegraph has China is preparing for conflict 'in every direction', the defense minister said in remarks that threaten to overshadow a visit to Beijing by his US counterpart next month.

"In the coming five years, our military will push forward preparations for military conflict in every strategic direction," said Liang Guanglie in an interview published by several state-backed newspapers in China. "We may be living in peaceful times, but we can never forget war, never send the horses south or put the bayonets and guns away," Mr Liang added.

China repeatedly says it is planning a "peaceful rise" but the recent pace and scale of its military modernization has alarmed many of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific, including Japan which described China's military build-up as a "global concern" this month.

[More]

Sure this looks bad... but the Chinese still have a long way to go before they have the infrastructure to manage the capability to fight wars on multiple fronts and on multiple levels, and that's just on their own borders! Earlier this year was the three week traffic jam, right? (Luckily) they don't have the rail or roads to move the amount of men and - more importantly - the logistics - to carry out whatever dastardly plan they may be cooking up over there.

But their intent is there, and what is more of a concern is that they are committing the necessary resources and personnel to make that possible. And, at least this Blasphemer will note, there is an extra-ordinary amount of young males since the one-child policy was enacted. What to do with all those extra, horny, impressionable, young men?

PS - here's some good analysis on China's military from the Small Wars Journal.

Thanks to our friends at War News Updates for the scoop!

Dyslexic Number Oops

So they flipped the numbers - a bit. Oops. What damage could false or incorrect numbers possibly caused?

"It is not plausible that Himalayan glaciers are disappearing completely within the next few decades " ~Michael Zemp, World Glacier Monitoring Service

The extrapolar glaciation of the Earth will be decaying at rapid, catastrophic rates - its total area will shrink from 500,000 to 100,000 square kilometres by the year 2350," Mr Kotlyakov's report said. Mr Cogley says it is astonishing that none of the 10 authors of the 2007 IPCC report could spot the error and "misread 2350 as 2035."

Look - I don't want to be a denier here, but, come on guys - 10 authors let this one past. I agree that humans are changing their little space ship Earth -- and not in a fun 'I'd like to hang out here' kind of way. But, if we're going to make plausible arguments to try to not to wreck it, let's double check the work, okay?

The Week In Review - Sunday Comics

Yesterday there was a protest against oil in Washington DC and also "hands across the sands" which was a bunch of white people holding hands on their beach front property. Many of them had green hard hats on, which meant they wanted 'clean' energy. Of note, were the green hard hats which were made of plastic. Which is made of petroleum. Goddamn it people.

And why does America need 20 million barrels of oil A DAY?
Yeah, it's a joke about the sweatshop that made the iPhone 4, but the reality is that it's our waiting-in-line attitude and cult-ish worship of the newest and shiniest new gadget rolled out on top of the pile of pointless consumerism and one-up-manship of the Joneses. But on the bright side, this lifestyle is completely unsustainable. Just ask everyone looking for employment.

That recovery is going great! Right?! I mean, every country in the world is following Mr. Obama's advice and driving their countries into crippling debt and dependence? What? they're not? They're standing up to him? Oh, Greece scared the living crap out of everyone? Really?

And as the G8 gets around to condemning North Korea for continuing to fight the Korean War, with a mildly worded letter, the good old fashioned protesting in Toronto is being led by Tyler Durden... no, really.

No. I mean, really. That's not shopped.

What a week. See you next time.

Well, Bayh

Now Evan Bayh is retiring from the Senate for thoroughly nonsense reasons -- the EXACT kind of thing that drew laughter and ridicule when Sarah Palin made the same resignation from her Alaska governor's seat. [you know, cash]

This isn't really all that interesting; the Democrats have been dropping like flies lately. What's worth noting, though, is the predictably self-defeating response of many on the left to the news that an admittedly centrist Democrat is quitting Congress.

The left is jumping for joy -- tweeting unmitigated crap like "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Evan!" If there's a better example of how the left has been running to self extinction, I can't find it. Bayh may have been a gutless little dog mess and occasionally an obstructionist of the highest order, but he was a Democrat, which means that he was ostensibly on the same side as those who are now gleefully jumping on his political grave. Who does the left think is going to replace Bayh in Indiana? A more liberal Democrat? Not likely.

This all-or-nothing, Utopia-or-bust stance that my friends on the left continue to adhere to will be the death of the progressive agenda. Hell, it probably already is. The funniest part is, they're completely oblivious to it.

Also of note, Bayh was considered top of the list for Kerry and Obama as a running mate. What is it with Democrats and their VP choices? A couple years later they're treated worse than Republicans?