Newborn Baby Girl Pulled From Toilet in China

JINAN, CHINA — A willful baby-killing has been foiled in Jinan Province, China, thanks to neighbors who heard the infant’s cries from the bottom of a public toilet.

They called the authorities, who pulled the newborn, who had been dropped head-first, to safety, saving her life.

Thankfully, as CNN reported, the local police were diligent in saving this child. They are, as this reporter can tell you from personal experience, not always as helpful. Much credit goes to the police and to the citizens who came together to help this poor child.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/04/asia/china-baby-toilet-beijing/index.html

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Shut Down China’s Summer Dog Meat Festivals!

I just saw this story on Facebook, and since it involves one of my favorite places – China – I have to help expose the violence and cruelty of organized abuse of domestic animals.

Please help by signing the petition on the HSI website.

Here’s a link to the page from Humane Society International. I’ve posted a shortened but descriptive link so you can share this with everyone you know:

http://bit.ly/chinadogfest

Stop China’s Dog Meat Festivals!!!

Outpouring of grief for third Boston victim, Chinese university student

Outpouring of grief for third Boston victim, Chinese university student.

China’s netizens outraged over caged beggars at Taoist temple fair

Original NBCNews.com story: China’s netizens outraged over caged beggars at Taoist temple fair.

By NBC News Beijing        Follow @NBCNewsWorld

BEIJING – With more than 100,000 pilgrims and visitors expected to attend the annual Xishan Wanshou Palace Temple Fair, authorities thought it would be a good idea to confine the local beggars in one spot.

So, more than 100 beggars from the town of Xishan, in China’s southern Jiangxi province, were placed in a 165-foot-long iron cage during the fair on Sept. 15.

But when pictures of the beggars in the cage were posted on Sina Weibo, China’s most-popular version of Twitter, there was an outpouring of criticism online. Most netizens were furious.

One micro blogger wrote, “It’s just like a zoo. This is trampling their dignity.”

Another blogger sarcastically chimed in, “Our government always boasts that China has the best record on human rights. Before I did not believe that, but today I am convinced. These officials are just too smart, treating people as dogs.”

Others thought the pictures are too ridiculous to be true.

So NBC News called the civil affairs office of Xinjian prefecture government, which oversees the annual fair at the Taoist temple in the town of Xishan, to verify the photos were real. Mr. Wan, head of the civil affairs office, acknowledged that the photos were in fact real and told NBC News that it was the best solution the government could find for the problem so far.

“We had to consider both sides: the pilgrims and the beggars. There are some fake beggars who just want to trick money from pilgrims. We did see the pilgrims were harassed by such beggars in the past. On the other hand, the temple fair is so crowded that beggars might be hit by cars or trampled by the crowd,” said Wan.

Cities and towns across China hold fairs in or near the local Taoist temple usually once a year, or in some instances monthly. In this case, the town of Wanshou was holding its annual fair, hence the preparation for big crowds.

Xinjian government also made a statement on its official Weibo account saying: “In order to avoid accidents, we provided this temporary rescue shelter whose two exits are open. All the beggars voluntarily entered it.”

Many netizens were not satisfied by the answer and believe it was just an excuse by government officials to justify their behavior.

One blogger posted, “Despite any reasons they may have, the moment the government locked the beggars in the cage, they had already stripped away these people’s dignity.”

To many Chinese, the photos also damaged their impression of temple fairs. For centuries, the temple fair, “Miao Hui” in Chinese, has played a unique role in ordinary Chinese daily life. It originated in ancient times when people offered sacrifices to gods, but later it gradually turned into a marketplace for people to exchange goods and a place to see cultural performances.

During the last 10 years, the Chinese government has encouraged the fairs in order to emphasize traditional values. But this incident has left a bad impression of local officials and how they organize the events.

One blogger wrote: “What should be caged is power.”

Original NBCNews.com story: China’s netizens outraged over caged beggars at Taoist temple fair

One small step for woman, one gigantic leap backward for China….

The baby-killers of Beijing put their first woman in space today. That would seem like a pretty big accomplishment.

But if you read between the lines, it seems pretty obvious they’re planning to send as many women there as possible and just leave them out there….

Why the fuck is America still doing business with these people???

Another crime against humanity by China

NEVER FORGET TIANANMEN SQUARE

The following are copies of two pages out of a blatantly gratuitous propaganda pictorial the Chinese sold in foreign hotels entitled: The Truth About The Beijing Turmoil. It is an incredibly graphic piece of political pornography, and I will be scanning in the entire contents of the book and posting pages as quickly as possible.

Page 58

Page 59

Rapid Descent into Hong Kong

I’ve never been a thrill-seeker per se. I’d say I’m adventurous, but thrills also come with chills and spills sometimes, which I’m none too crazy about, so I back off at that level. But I have friends who’ve bungee jumped off the Royal Gorge Bridge near Canon City, Colorado; I have a couple of friends who sky-dive, and I’ve known a bunch of people who ski the black-diamond hills. And I’ve got a friend who’s a fighter jockey and had to bail out when both his engines failed, going over 450 knots – something he was very lucky to survive.

Me? I don’t even do roller coasters. Ferris wheels? Forget about it. I’ve been on Splash Mountain at Disneyland, and almost shit an entire brickyard. I’ve been to the top of the World Trade Center a few times, the observation deck of the Empire State Building, and inside the crown of the Statue of Liberty, but each time, I would grab hold of the rail, lean backwards away from the edge, and peek down, always keeping my center of gravity low, and leaning backwards. Lame, ain’t it?

But one thing I do love despite my avoidance of heights is flying. Whether it’s in a real airplane or in front of my computer, flying Microsoft Flight Simulator. I just love to fly. The closest I’ve ever come to flying for real was taking the co-pilot’s seat in a United Airlines 767 simulator at their Flight Training Center in Denver. The pilot/instructor who was demonstrating allowed me to overfly the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. Incredible experience.

In real life, I’ve been on a Continental MD-80 whose nose-wheel snapped right after we’d rolled off the active runway on landing at Sea-Tac; another one that had to be emergency-evacuated because of a leak while refueling in Spokane; and I’ve experienced a couple of aborted crosswind landings, which can be extremely unnerving, because they’re so unexpected. I also flew out of Denver a day or two after a Continental DC-9 flipped over on takeoff, the wreckage still sitting in the grass between the north-south runways.

THE FLIGHT

I was on a United Airlines non-stop flight from Seattle to Hong Kong a bunch of years ago, before Kai Tak was closed in favor of Chek Lap Kok. The plane was a 747-SP, which I believe no longer fly — that was the short, fat, long-range version of the widebody, a Special Performance model. And it was a 13-1/2 hour flight.

United Airlines Boeing 747-SP

We took off and headed north/northwest, over Vancouver Island, and then over some of the most beautiful, pristine scenery I’d ever seen – the Aleutian Islands. Thankfully, the skies were clear, visibility was unlimited, and I was on the right side of the plane in a window seat on the upper deck, with a front-row view.

Here and there I could see lakes on some of the mountaintops. Heated by the volcanism that makes the Pacific rim the Ring of Fire, they steamed as their surfaces shined. Only a thin film of wispy clouds ever came into view; this was a flight I’d always remember. We also overflew Wake Island, its distinctive shape making it look like a lone galaxy surrounded by an infinite universe of water.

I had one last Black Russian and went to sleep for awhile. Woke up just in time to see Mt. Morrison, the highest mountain on Taiwan, below us. It’s part of a range of mountains that runs north-south on the eastern side of the island. Breathtaking scenery. Makes me wonder how come Taiwan isn’t a traditional vacation destination?

It was getting close to evening. We’d taken off from Seattle at 1:30 in the afternoon, and it was getting towards early evening as we began to approach Hong Kong. We encountered some clouds, and then we flew into a thick layer of them before the air brakes were extended and we slowed down for the approach.

It began to get bumpy as we descended through 10,000 feet, and the weather wasn’t improving any as we continued to bleed off speed and altitude. Every now and then we’d hit an air pocket and drop suddenly, and the engines were whining some kind of spooky sounds, and I was getting a little nervous.

We were still in the clouds when the announcement came that we were on final approach, and as we finally broke through the clouds a few seconds later, I looked out the window, and saw a woman in her high-rise apartment watching television,  in a 6- to 8-story building, not much taller. My next thought was, “Oh no….”

I honestly thought we were going to come down in a residential neighborhood. I could see people sitting down to dinner, and watching television, and I could see the clothes on their clotheslines so clearly, I probably could have ballparked what size they were.

As I dug my hands into the arms of my seat, we banked slowly to the right, then leveled out, and the next thing I saw was the airport’s inner marker, and then the stripes on the wet runway beneath us. I sat back and waited for the bump of the wheels, and as they touched the ground I began breathing normally again.

The arrivals area was a sea of humanity; the taxi area worse. It was by now almost 8 pm in Hong Kong, and a day later, and it felt like the middle of rush hour. I soon learned it was always rush hour in that city, but from that day on Hong Kong was my base of operations in Asia, and my hometown away from home.

Here are two videos for your reference. Unfortunately, the site admin is a dickhead, and refused to allow me to re-post them here.

Landing at Kai-Tak in the rain, cockpit view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g-ArLYsloI

What these approaches look like from street level: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyU9OLqQ8XA

NEXT: FORCED AIR CONDITIONING