So the Chinese have let it be known that they are insulted that the United States is once again honoring the Dalai Lama.
We, of course, are not the least bit insulted that there is no such thing as human rights in the People's Republic of China. That the organs of political prisoners are being sold to patients around the world. That they've tried (not on purpose, of course) to poison us with tens of millions of tainted products in the last couple of years --including foodstuffs. That they've somehow bribed the International Olympic Committee to host a travesty of an Olympic Games (ironic, isn't it, that athletes suspected of doping are subject to greater sanctions). That shortly after the I-35 bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, a bridge collapsed in China with hundreds of fatalities (think about that when you sit your ass down in one of their brand new stadiums if you should decide to attend the aforementioned games). And --this is my favorite-- one of their generals openly bragged how they could paralyze the entire United States with a push of a button, bringing down our entire power grid. Actually, as a child of the cold war era, I'm kind of glad that the computer age now makes those pesky ICBMs completely obsolete.
I've been zapping in and out of the parrallel universe created by delving into The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Putting down the book for a moment to hear on NPR about China being insulted strikes me as the height of absurdity. But then, I live in the most absurd of cities in the most absurd of countries in what must count as one of the most absurd of times in human history. I have to limit --severely-- my news intake these days because the doings of this human race on this planet is so absurd that it belies explanation. If there were to be contact with another form of intelligent life in the universe, how the heck could we explain ourselves? How we are conducting ourselves on Earth these days makes as much sense as the grammatical laws of the English language.
This is why I also have to limit my caffeine intake. And maybe take a nap. And when I wake up, sanity and order will have been restored.
Yeah, right.
We, of course, are not the least bit insulted that there is no such thing as human rights in the People's Republic of China. That the organs of political prisoners are being sold to patients around the world. That they've tried (not on purpose, of course) to poison us with tens of millions of tainted products in the last couple of years --including foodstuffs. That they've somehow bribed the International Olympic Committee to host a travesty of an Olympic Games (ironic, isn't it, that athletes suspected of doping are subject to greater sanctions). That shortly after the I-35 bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, a bridge collapsed in China with hundreds of fatalities (think about that when you sit your ass down in one of their brand new stadiums if you should decide to attend the aforementioned games). And --this is my favorite-- one of their generals openly bragged how they could paralyze the entire United States with a push of a button, bringing down our entire power grid. Actually, as a child of the cold war era, I'm kind of glad that the computer age now makes those pesky ICBMs completely obsolete.
............
I've been zapping in and out of the parrallel universe created by delving into The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Putting down the book for a moment to hear on NPR about China being insulted strikes me as the height of absurdity. But then, I live in the most absurd of cities in the most absurd of countries in what must count as one of the most absurd of times in human history. I have to limit --severely-- my news intake these days because the doings of this human race on this planet is so absurd that it belies explanation. If there were to be contact with another form of intelligent life in the universe, how the heck could we explain ourselves? How we are conducting ourselves on Earth these days makes as much sense as the grammatical laws of the English language.
This is why I also have to limit my caffeine intake. And maybe take a nap. And when I wake up, sanity and order will have been restored.
Yeah, right.
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