David Ginsberg International and Domestic Blog. "It's time to make a change in our world!"

Nunes Memo is Moronic, Juvenile Hypocrisy

2018-02-03T01:04:00.002-05:00

The absurdity of the Nunes Memo

I am so furious at the moronic intellectual dishonesty. Of what relevance is it who paid for the Dossier? What matters is whether the Dossier is true. Am I wrong?

The GOP is making the specious point that the Dossier was also used as part of the justification for the FISA warrant, and therefore the Judge should have been advised that it was paid for by democrats, as though therefore it was invalid as a source of probable cause. This is an absurd argument. Police often get information from people who are snitches or informing criminals and use them for warrants. I am not comparing HRC or the DNC to snitches and informing criminals, but I am saying who paid for the Dossier, or their motivation, is not relevant if the information is reliable, which it was at the time the FISA warrants were issued (because there was corroboration) and because having a motive does not make information false or unreliable. Lastly, the accuracy of the information in the Dossier was proven by the guilty pleas of the very same people the FISA warrants were directed at. Also, the DNC having a motive does not automatically make the authors of the Dossier liars.

And if the original people who were the subjects of the FISA warrants pled guilty, doesn't that sort of prove that the FISA warrants were reasonable and that seeking them was justified?

What a dishonest, hypocritical, juvenile desperate argument by the GOP.

The Facts: Why BDS and anti-Israel Arguments are Factually Flawed

2017-11-22T02:16:00.001-05:00

(Borrowed from "An Open Letter to the University of Michigan Central Student Government "CSG" from Victor Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Asian and Comparative History")

If you support BDS or are against Israel, you are dead wrong, according to REAL FACTS:

You can’t judge it on the basis of anecdotes.

You have heard, or will hear, stories of Palestinian suffering.

These are genuinely moving, but no more deserving of sympathy than stories about Israeli victims of terrorism, such as:

* The teenage Israeli girl whose feet were blown off by a bomb

* The little Israeli boy who this July saw his father and grandparents stabbed to death.

Likewise, I think it’s wrong — as I’ve heard some students say — that the CSG should support Palestinians because they are “brown” people struggling against “white” oppression.

Not only are Israeli Jews, most of whom come from Arab and African lands, physically indistinguishable from Arabs, but to judge issues on the basis of physical appearance is not a useful mode of analysis.

Who Is Responsible for the Ongoing Conflict?

The only way to judge this resolution is to analyze its central claims.

Is it true, as the Resolution claims, that Israel is historically responsible for Palestinian suffering?

Is it true that Israeli treatment of Palestinians violates international norms?

Now I agree that current Israeli policies are one obstacle to peace. But the question is: Why have these policies come to dominate?

Jews have offered to recognize Arab sovereignty in Palestine on at least five occasions.

Everything the Palestinian Authority claims it wants — Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, an independent state, a capital in East Jerusalem, an end to settlements, a partial return of refugees —

Israel has offered.

But every offer has been rejected.

What’s more, every rejection has been accompanied by attacks with the declared goal of destroying the Jewish state.

This happened in 1948, 1967, 2000, 2006 2008, 2012, 2014.

Why this recurrent resort to violence?

* Because Palestinian leaders reject the 1947 decision of the United Nations that both peoples have historic rights in Palestine.

* This was the view of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Father of Palestinian nationalism, who worked during WWII with Adolf Hitler.

* It was the policy of the PLO, whose charter promised to destroy Israel and expel 95 percent of the Jewish population.

* It is the position today of Hamas whose leaders have declared,

“Palestine is ours from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea… We will never surrender one inch of land. There is no [hope] for Israel…. We will rid this land of the Jews… By God, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine.”

One can easily sympathize — and I do — with the Palestinian sense of injustice, the feeling that they were displaced by alien intruders. But, in practical terms, maximum demands and violence have been extremely counterproductive. Palestinians have been the chief victims.

a) Every time Israel is attacked, it takes steps to prevent fresh attacks.

b) The Palestinian position therefore deteriorates, which creates more bitterness, which engenders more attacks, which inspires new Israeli counter measures. Thus the cycle goes on and on.

* If Palestinians had accepted the UN decision to divide Palestine between Jews and Arabs, Palestinians would have had their own state 70 years ago. Instead they joined Arab armies in an effort to destroy the Jewish State.

* If they hadn’t urged Jordan to attack Israel again in 1967, Israel would never have occupied the West Bank

* If they hadn’t used the West Bank to start the second intifada — bombing  hotels, restaurants, buses all across Israel — Israel would never have built the separation wall, installed biometric IDs and other security controls, and expanded strategic settlements.

* If Hamas hadn’t used Gaza to start three wars against Israel from 2008 to 2014, there would be no blockade of Gaza.

Israel doesn’t use Apache and Blackhawk helicopters to target innocent civilians. They’re used to defend against attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist militaries.

Israel has the same right as any other country to defend its people.

Fear that Hamas will repeat its Gaza behavior is the chief reason Israelis are now reluctant to leave the West Bank.

a) If Israel left the West Bank, Hamas — the most popular Palestinian movement — almost certainly would take over. It could then amass tens of thousands of rockets 5 miles from Israel’s main cities. And to help invade Israel, Hamas could invite in Iranian troops, who write on their weapons: “Israel must be destroyed.”

b) In repeated polls, 70-75 percent of Jewish Israelis say they’d gladly get rid of the West Bank if militants would only agree to stop attacking them.

c) But Palestinians don’t reciprocate: in poll after poll, some two-thirds say that their ultimate goal is Israel’s disappearance.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, a lifelong supporter of the Palestinians, summed up the problem when he begged Palestinian leaders to accept Israeli peace proposals in 2000:

“Since 1948, every time we’ve had something on the table, we say no. Then we say yes. But it’s not on the table any more. Isn’t it about time we finally said yes?…I hope you remember what I’m telling you: If we lose this opportunity, it’s not going to be a tragedy, it’s going to be a crime.”

But Palestinian leaders refused — and launched a suicide bombing campaign.

III. Does Israel Violate International Norms?

In this light, consider the claim that Israel’s actions have been unusually harsh and bloody. In the last 10 years, in wars started by Palestinians, Israeli forces, while themselves suffering significant casualties, have killed 3500 Palestinians, about half civilians, according to the UN.

Other countries have faced security threats far less serious than those facing Israel.

How does their behavior compare to Israel’s — as documented by the UN, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch?

* To suppress a local revolt, Russia in Chechnya killed 200,000 Chechens, 90 percent civilians. Murdered and tortured w/ total impunity.

* To keep control over Muslim Kashmir, India killed 45,000 people… and  passed laws to shield its soldiers from charges of rape, torture, and murder.* To prevent Kurdish independence, Turkey has killed 50,000 Kurds and ethnically cleansed vast areas.

* Saudi Arabia has now killed 20,000 Yemeni civilians, and subjected 70 percent of Yemen to famine and cholera.

* But the world’s most unspeakable atrocity is Syria, where Iran, Hezbollah and Russia have killed almost half a million and made 11 million homeless.

They use chemical weapons, bomb hospitals and operate vast torture centers, where prisoners are starved to death, metal spikes are driven from their anuses to their spines, lips and noses are sliced off, and 10s of 1000s are executed.

By contrast, Israel has no capital punishment even for terrorists. Israel’s security services are subject to constant judicial review.

The commander of British forces in Afghanistan wrote, “[The Israeli army has] done more to safeguard the rights of civilians … than any other army in the history of [modern] warfare.”

If I had time, I COULD GIVE YOU 50 OTHER EXAMPLES OF STATE VIOLENCE — in defiance of repeated UN resolutions — FAR more hideous THAN ANYTHING ISRAEL’S ENEMIES HAVE EVEN accused it of doing..

Why then are we focusing only on Israel? Why not India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, which also receive U.S. arms? Why not Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon, Russia, and Iran, which direct the slaughter in Syria?

And why not China, America’s chief trading partner, which is practicing systematic genocide against Chinese Muslims and Tibetans?

The same double standards are used to criticize Israeli democracy.

a) The apartheid analogy is mere rhetoric. Like other international boundaries, the separation wall divides people on the basis not of race — as in South Africa — but citizenship.

On one side of the wall you have Israeli citizens — Arabs and Jews. On the other side, you have non-citizens.

b) Within Israel itself, Arab citizens enjoy the same legal rights as Jews. They sit in the parliament, the cabinet, the supreme court, they vote, have full access to universities and all public institutions.

Israel has the same freedom of speech as the U.S. So-called “political prisoners” are in jail not because they said something, but because they killed or tried to kill other people.

c) The most authoritative survey of democracy, the Economist Index of Democracy, ranked 167 countries for democratic practices and treatment of minorities. #1 is the best.

Israel ranked #34. The U.S. ranked #20. No other Mideastern country ranked better than #57 and most ranked above #110.

The Need for Impartiality

So again I ask, why is Israel being singled out?

If you’re going to consider gratuitous military violence, Israel is better than 95 percent.

If you’re going to weigh internal democracy, Israel is better than 133 countries.

Now some proponents of this resolution say: Well, yes, maybe Israel isn’t the worst, but they still do bad things and should be censored.

But the CSG is being asked to act in a semi-judicial capacity. Justice requires uniform standards. What would you think of a judge who sentenced a man to 10 years in jail for double parking — but ignored charges against others accused of rape and murder?

Some supporters of this Resolution also say this is only a preliminary step. We’ll set up an Advisory Committee to settle the issue.But for Israel to be the only country subject to such an inquiry is itself deeply insulting — and completely unjustified.

This Resolution is merely a tactic in a long-standing political campaign to demonize and delegitimize Israel. It uses the same strategy, the same rhetoric, to pursue the same goals as all other movements to boycott, divest and sanction Israel.

A national BDS leader Asad Abu-khalil has made clear the movement’s goal, “The real aim of BDS is to bring down the State of Israel.”

Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of BDS, concurs: “We oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.”

Proponents of this Resolution know that whatever an Advisory Committee decides, UM regents will not divest because the Resolution ignores three basic legal conditions for divestment.

But they seek something much larger than withdrawal of money. Their real goal is to undermine Israel, to isolate it and ultimately to destroy it.

Israel has done nothing to deserve being singled out.

Its only offense is that it has refused to commit suicide.

Its “crime” has been to defend itself against constant attacks.

And in defending itself, Israel has acted more humanely than the vast majority of countries facing less existential challenges.

President Trump's Anti-Semitic Slur of the Jewish People

2017-08-16T03:00:00.001-04:00

The actions of the President of the United States, while insane and unhinged, were a disgusting anti-semitic slur on the Jewish people (and other groups with which I stand in absolute solidarity) today, and in the most vehement ways possible I condemn and denounce him.

No Mr. President, the people who were protesting (allegedly the removal of the statue of Robert E Lee) were all racist anti-semitic neo-nazis, KKK members, and other flavors of violent White Supremacists. As they always do, they came armed and looking for violence, and they did indeed instigate that violence, resulting in the murder of a young innocent woman, and unfortunately, this is far from the first time this has happened. You have wasted more breathe defending these hate mongers then your trivial insincere tweet about her death.

No, Mr. President, the counter-protesters were not at fault. They were victims of domestic terrorism no less dangerous then ISIS. You criticized President Obama for failing to call some terrorism by a name you preferred, yet you actually not only refuse to do the same, your trivialize, minimize and defend domestic terrorists and re-victimize their victims because those terrorists happen to be your supporters and are white skinned neo-nazi racists.

No sir, there is no equivalence between a statue of Robert E. Lee and a statue of George Washington, other then what might be perceived by an infant in that they are both statues.

Mr. President, you said you would make "America Great" again, but you have done so much so quickly to destroy and degrade America and turn it from the most respected nation in the world to the laughingstock of the world. You have also so degraded and disgraced yourself and the office of the presidency that we are alarmed, sickened and saddened. You exceeded yourself today. You proved that you can not even control yourself to the extent of covering up your own lies and camouflaging your own (well documented) racism.

Mr. President, you promised me better health care coverage for less money, but all you did was try to make it impossible for me to get any health care at any price.

Mr. President, when you walked away from the Paris accords and repealed regulations which protect us from environmental disasters and poisoning, how were you making America great again? President Hoover promised us "A chicken in every pot." You offer us only lead, mercury, and arsenic in every glass [of drinking water].

Mr. President, I could go on and on, but we understand you can only process short sentences and short bullet points. We also understand that you dislike reading, if you are able to process written analysis at all. And, if I were to list all your mistakes, failures, lies, defects, flaws, and so forth, most assuredly Google's servers would fail for lack of storage.

You defame the legacy of our beloved President Obama. But you are rushing urgently to leave a legacy on par with Idi Amin Dada. You will never be as beloved or as great as President Obama. Thank God you don't have Idi Amin's power.

Trip from EWR to HKG

2017-03-18T19:01:00.000-04:00

Pictures of HKG

Pictures of Shenzhen

Trump Blows it with China

2017-01-27T18:43:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I live in China. I read the Chinese news every day. I speak to nationalistic Chinese. I speak to [Communist] Party Members. The TPP was a shot against "over the bow" of China who (perhaps rightfully) is seeking dominance in many areas, especially in the pacific region. The TPP excluded China, and this pissed China off and directly threatened their dominance in trade. They have tried to come up with alternative arrangements to compete with the TPP. Yes, it was a trade deal, and "trade deals" have gotten a bad, and partly undeserved, partly deserved, reputation. But this deal was very different, especially as it gave the USA some added leverage over China.

Trump has labeled China part of the problem with the loss of jobs. He is not entirely incorrect, although you can not blame poor people for wanting to work. He is clearly not entirely correct either. [But that is to much for this post.]

So Trump canceled the TPP. The Chinese could not be more happy with this. The TPP was a threat to their dominance, trade, etc. He did more with that Executive Order to hurt our trade deficit in general and with China then he can imagine or we want to know.

Let me go further. I have watched the present government of China. These are sharp people, who are very nationalistic and determined. While they have their defects and criticisms, these are not in areas that will diminish their capacity to deal with America. In fact, they will prove very effective in this regard. They do not want problems with America, but are very defensive as a country, and will not hesitate to respond to perceived provocations of any kind. Note, the people of China virtually revere America and Americans, and this division will really be a waste of goodwill. But then again, Trump excels at division.

In a trade war, they [China] will out-think, out-maneuver, and out-last Trump and the Congress. They will think nothing of letting their own economy suffer for 10 years, just to win a trade war, especially so long as they can tell their people it is Trump's fault (and probably Japan's as well - Japan is their bogeyman of choice). Unlike Congress, which is concerned about midterm elections every two years, and a presidential election every four years, the Chinese think 30 years down the line (as Israel used to do).

The Chinese economy is not in the strong shape the Chinese government pretends. Remember, financial statistics, unlike in America, are controlled by the government, which manipulates them for political means. The end result is that there is tremendous internal pressure to let the Chinese Yuan weaken. This means Chinese goods become cheaper, and more countries buy from China. China has resisted this internal pressure because of international pressure, especially from America, whom they have regarded as a key economic ally. When Trump alters that relationship, watch the Chinese Yuan weaken, and our balance of trade with China worsen further.

Let me add that if people do not think China allows USA stores, brands, and products, they are very wrong, I can assure you there is a Starbucks on every street and a McDonalds in every shopping center. Every foreign luxury brand is represented, from Cartier to Louis Vuitton and non-luxury brands from Coca Cola to Red Bull. If you can afford it, and even if you can't, rest assured it is sold in China. The demand for imported wine in China is actually threatening to cause a world wide wine shortage. It is just unfair to pretend that China is closed to foreign goods and companies, although they do admittedly have unfair protectionist policies. (I live one block away from a Walmart).

Furthermore, Trump has needlessly antagonized China with the Taiwan issue in a way no Republican or Democrat has ever done, and in a way which was morally questionable and clearly irresponsible. Let me be very clear. The Chinese regard, with some historical legitimacy, Taiwan to be part of China. Many Taiwanese make the same claim. If you want trouble in China, or a fight with some Chinese, just claim Taiwan is or should be an independent sovereign country. When Trump took a congratulatory phone call from the leader of Taiwan in the capacity that Tsai Ing-wen, President of Taiwan, was a "head of state," that is exactly the message he sent to all of China. And they received the message loud and clear and did not like it.

Now, North Korea is one of the biggest threats to world peace. The Doomsday Clock was just moved today 1/2 minute closer to annihilation, and North Korea was a major factor in that (as was global warming - again a Trump catastrophe).

Trump has said that he will seek Chinese help with the North Korea issue. Clearly, only China has [limited] leverage on North Korea. China backed US sanctions, for example, on North Korea in the Security Council. Can one imagine the response when Trump calls China, and says "Let's be best buds and work together on this problem [of North Korea]?" I know what I would do if I were Xi Jinping (leader of China).

By the way, although I am in Tokyo at the moment, let me say, from the City of Shenzhen, Peoples Republic of China, we wish you all a very happy, prosperous, and healthy Chinese New Year (which is today).

Doing Business in and with the People's Republic of China - Compliance and Legal and Social Audits

2016-08-04T03:22:00.000-04:00

Many companies, big and small, are either doing business with companies (and people) in China or are thinking of doing this. If you don't think you are, just look at the seller on Ebay, As an American attorney who lives in Shenzhen China (near Hong Kong) here is some basic general advice (feel free to contact me for more information):

I. Methods of doing business with the Peoples Republic of China:

There are several methods of doing business with the People’s Republic of China. The easiest way is just to purchase goods (manufactured or otherwise) or sell goods, without any activity or presence in China. Historically, this is the reason Hong Kong became an economic powerhouse. Foreign companies dealt only with Hong Kong entities, and left it the their Hong Kong counterparts to deal with China. This has simplicity and minimization of risk as a principal advantage. Of course, hiring a third party company (such as one based in Hong Kong) can help avoid “having a presence” in China.

Nonetheless, as discussed below, depending on the nature of the Buyer’s/Manufacturer's business, and their specific needs and concerns, some of the issues discussed below still apply. For example, in the “Social or Moral Audit” scenario, it doesn’t really matter where title to the goods passed, nor does it matter if the financial side of the transaction is secure (for example COD with inspection), if one’s company becomes the subject of very bad publicity.

Furthermore, it is common for factories in China to copy or overproduce (for their own benefit) the goods for which they are contracted to manufacture for their clients. Similarly, sell a hot product to your purchaser in China, and don't be surprised if a good portion of what they are really selling turns out to be a Chinese manufactured copy of what they agreed to purchase exclusively from you.

One client of mine designed women’s clothing. Her Chinese factory was scheduled to begin production, and she came to China to supervise quality control. Before going to the factory, as was her practice, she used to visit local Chinese boutiques. She was shocked to find her designs being sold in some boutiques under a different label. In fact, this was so common (and China was perceived to be so poor), that many companies haven’t even cared so long as the sales remained in China and under a different label. Of course, the risk for counterfeits, and sub-standard products all being exported to your markets remain. So even a company with no presence in China should have concerns (which can be addressed) with proper auditing. Furthermore, don't underestimate the size and wealth of the Chinese marketplace, nor the technical abilities of their factories. They have the money and expertise to buy and sell whatever can be bought and sold.

Of course, depending on how the transaction is structured, financially and legally, quality control can also be a big issue. An audit can supervise production and reject, on the spot, defective products, avoiding both delays and disputes, and even rejection by customs (in your country) when the goods are imported into your (foreign) country.

The need for proper protection becomes more acute if any intellectual property is involved. That includes trademarks, copyrights, and patents. China does offer protection for such property, but it is not automatic. Nothing should be taken for granted. Registration in China is necessary, and should be done promptly and correctly. It should be noted that China is notorious for taking advantage of foreign companies who fail to protect their intellectual property rights in China, or who delay in doing so.

The other side of the “picture” are companies who desire (or require) a presence, to some extent, in the People’s Republic of China. That may be merely an occasional visit from you or your employee (the foreigner) to discuss a purchase of goods. Or perhaps you will find it profitable to establish a foreign owned and managed company in China (whether a factory or retail sales). Each of these implicates additional needs for legal and other compliance protections. The greater your presence in China, clearly, the more you need (as both a legal and practical matter) to be protected and concerned.

Such issues are discussed below.

II. Legal Audit:

Doing business in the People’s Republic of China can be quite lucrative, as there is both a highly skilled, low paid, labour market to produce goods, as well as an massive and wealthy market for the purchase of both consumer and other goods. Make no mistake about it, there are a lot of Chinese with a lot of money and they love to spend it on foreign goods. I had a cup of foreign coffee with my son today. The going price is $6 USD for a single cup. Similarly, China needs to import many raw materials and component parts to fuel their export driven economy and domestic needs.

On the other hand, doing business is fraught with hidden and obvious legal challenges, which can become costly, problematic, and even criminal. One is required to not only follow the relevant laws, rules, and regulations, but also to see that they are fairly applied and enforced when applied to you, the foreigner in China.

While things are changing at a rapid pace in China, things are quite anarchistic at the current time Furthermore, it is likely that the next round of legal developments will actually be to enforce existing laws, to the detriment of those who ignore them, especially foreigners, even though there are simultaneous efforts to “liberalize” laws for foreigners.

Accordingly, anyone who is doing business in China is encouraged to have both qualified local counsel as well as non-Chinese internationally skilled legal counsel make sure that:(i) exposure in China is limited to the extent necessary; and, (ii) important local laws are complied with.

When I say “important,” there are two classes of laws which I am referring to. Those that are important to the client in terms of protecting and creating wealth, such as protection of international property (trademark registration, patent protection) and also for example choice of law provisions,, and drafting important contracts which contain, for example, Hong Kong arbitration clauses.

Then there are other “important” laws which need to be complied with because the failure to comply with them can bring negative monetary and even criminal sanctions in China and elsewhere.

The later involves two sub-classes of laws. There are foreign “Domestic Laws” which impose criminal sanctions in one’s own country for what one does in another country (China).

The USA law known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) provides extra-territorial jurisdiction for the actions of USA citizens in places like China. In the old days, what one did in a foreign country was between that person and the foreign country. After Americans became victims of terrorism, the USA and other countries began to take the view that they had legal jurisdiction over conduct which occurred outside the USA by non-USA citizens and also by USA citizens. That quickly spread to “sexual tourism” and the FCPA, as examples. Other countries have similar laws (the UK has the UK Bribery Act for example). As we all know, there is now a tremendous focus on tax evasion, tax avoidance, and money laundering which is occurring outside the “domestic” country. Where this will lead, no one knows.

Second, countries like China have a multitude of laws, rules, regulations, and procedures, and they are getting very serious about them. Everything from immigration and visa control laws, to currency regulations, to the enforcement of the proper and required procedures for foreigners doing business in China. Of course, many of the laws implicate the legitimate concerns of the Chinese government in, for example, collecting the proper taxes and revenue. But China also seeks to exert control, to a great extent, upon what goes on in its borders, for other reasons, such as political stability and economic protectionism. This extends not only to “formal” requirements such as registration of foreign companies, but even requiring foreigners who visit China (who do not physically reside in a registered hotel) to register with the local police department within 24 hours. Of course, China takes a great interest, and imposes penalties, upon violation of such things as its labor laws, competition laws, etc.

III. Laws of the People’s Republic of China:

The Wall Street Journal reported in January of this year that “…doing business in China is getting tougher.” They cite “…unclear laws, perceived antiforeign sentiment, overcapacity…”

Nonetheless, in my opinion, the Chinese government seems determined to keep the “doors opened,” especially in aspects of international business which are likely to increase their GDP and/or currency reserves (suspected to be dangerously low). There are also issues (in China) relating to the strength of the banking sector, bad loans, and a bubble in the housing market and stock market, all of which keep up the pressure on the Chinese government to encourage foreign trade and investment. Furthermore, the presence of a huge wealthy massive domestic market can not be ignored.

Areas of importance:

Taking money out of China: While it is possible, and legal up to certain limits, there are strict currency controls and procedures, and make no mistake, the government is cracking down on this. Furthermore, it is often done secretly and illegally by, for example, a local Chinese vendor, supplier, or partner, who, for example, may wish to be paid in Hong Kong or another country, or who may request an adjustment to an invoice. This is something which could cause an unwitting foreigner to face severe civil and criminal penalties.

Another new law of importance affects, at least on paper: National Security. This law, which is still being drafted and implemented, requires, for example, companies with data on computer servers, to have that information physically located in China. Sometimes, the rule is nonsense, when actually applied, and appears irrelevant at best and outright protectionist at worst.

It is important to note that many of the Chinese laws, rules and regulations have multiple reasons. Some represent legitimate government concerns. Others represent protectionism in its purist form. Others represent a desire for “social control” which is designed to protect the absolute authority of the Communist Party of China, and efforts to guard against perceived threats thereto.

Furthermore, the laws can be complex. There are a multitude of “Free Trade Zones,” “autonomous economic zones,” etc. Each has different laws, procedures, and rules, etc. Each are run by officials with varying incentives, sophistication, etc. In Shenzhen, where I live, a company located a few blocks away, in the newly created Qianhai economic zone, will have different (and more liberal) laws, rues, and procedures.

Even more compelling, directors and senior managers of foreign non-Chinese companies (unlike the practice in many western countries) may face civil, administrative, and/or criminal liability if their company acts in breach of Chinese law, administrative regulations, or even a company’s Articles of Associations. That liability can apply to foreigners who never set foot in China (although extradition becomes an issue.) Foreigners who have such problems while in China can be prohibited from leaving China while these issues are outstanding. This can take years and tremendous legal fees. Good Chinese lawyers are as expensive as lawyers in the west.

What are some more specific regulations, as examples? China is a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) which prohibits the employment of minors under the age of 16. Yet this remains a big problem in China. There are many other laws which regulate the employment of labor, including minimum wage, benefits, and workplace safety (along the lines of the OSHA regulations of the USA). All of these need to be complied with, and should be complied with. The list is complex and varies from region to region, and is constantly changing.

IV. Quality Control, Compliance with Purchase Orders, Customs Regulations:

The old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” could not be more true in China. Even if the transaction is structured to the advantage of the non-Chinese foreign country, countless problems can arise by “ignoring” what is going on in China. No one wants litigation in any country, no matter how fair and reasonable. Even if you can sue in your home country, in your native language, and under the laws of your own country, good luck in collecting if you have not thought ahead (with proper legal planning). Furthermore, late deliveries, inadequate quality, etc. can cause your customer or purchaser (like you) to lose your customers, incur expenses, etc. Quality Control, on the spot at the factory, is especially helpful for many companies.

Additional problems arise when importing goods into a foreign country from China. While the foreign purchaser may be satisfied with the goods, or unaware of their defects, technical problems, intellectual property issues, and consumer safety issues can have the goods stopped at various Customs. In some countries, this can be a matter or mere inadequate labeling.

V. Moral and Marketing Reasons for Audits:

We have touched briefly on the legal issues and consequences, both within China and abroad, for companies who fail to know and follow the laws of the Peoples Republic of China. This was one reason for the existence of Hong Kong as an economic powerhouse. Historically, China lacked the legal and financial institutions to even handle significant commercial transactions. It was easier to avoid China altogether, even more so to avoid the anarchistic and hodge-podge of laws, rules and regulations, and corrupt, lax, and irregular enforcement. So most companies paid a little extra to deal with Hong Kong “middlemen,” and were able to avail themselves (in Hong Kong) to a relatively honest, modern and fair banking and legal system. The need for this is diminishing, however, as are the benefits. They simply “washed” their hands of China. This is no longer a viable or even advantageous option.

For example, many prestigious companies in the United States have come under severe criticism for the working conditions at the factories which actually manufacture the goods they sell. In my personal opinion, this criticism is well deserved. It has become irrelevant as to the number of “middlemen” involved, and equally irrelevant as to the lack of knowledge of management as to how their goods are produced. There is a constant, and in my opinion, well deserved and needed, requirement of social responsibility for purchasers and manufacturers to ensure that workers are, at a minimum, treated according to the laws in which they live and with a minimum standard of living (timely payment of wages, safety, etc.) Furthermore, while the bad publicity can be detrimental, the good publicity can also be an effective marketing tool. Studies show that consumers are more likely to purchase, even at a higher price, goods which were made with environmental and humane factors considered. No one wants to purchase a shirt for a few pennies less if that shirt was made with slave labor.

These social audits are becoming more the norm, and more required, if not by law, by business practices. But they have to be conducted diligently, by people who know what they are doing. Mere cursory inspections are inadequate. Walmart, for example, did an inspection at a “certified factory” in Guangdong, approving a production of several million US Dollars on Christmas specialty items. Unknown to the inspectors, none of the items they inspected had actually been manufactured at the factory they inspected, but instead had been inspected by a rogue factory which did not meet the inspection standards. Hazardous work conditions, like locked fire escapes, persist despite audits by the biggest USA companies. The focus on factory monitoring has increased since the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh killed more than 1,000 workers.

V. Business Reasons for Audits:

Many of the reasons for an audit should be clear. First, it is best to comply with the laws to take advantage of their protections and privileges, as opposed to running afoul of these laws, and risking the severe consequences.

Second, the moral and marketing reasons are equally obvious. No one wants to be associated with a fire or calamity that kills innocent workers working in sweatshops. It is bad for business. On the other hand, the efforts a company makes to supply socially responsible goods can be an effective marketing tool in a price competitive market. Many companies actually require some degree of certification.

But the last issue, which has not been touched on, is that to some extent, depending on the violation, the efforts of a company are relevant, whether to a finding of liability (moral or legal). Hiring a responsible auditing company not only provides additional assurance of compliance with the law, but it also supplies some defense if there is a problem. Again, the nature and extent that this defense can apply depends on the violation, but it can never hurt to have at least made a real and significant effort at compliance.

Feel free to contact the author at GinsbergLLC@aol.com.

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February 19 - Chinese New Year -Pictorial Documenting the Biggest Migration of People in History

2015-02-19T04:57:00.000-05:00

The Chinese New Year is the largest movement of People.

Chinese Search Engine Baidu has a location tracker which it used to track the people returning home.
Notice that most people left one of four cities

Most Chinese no longer remain in their ancestral villages, but instead travel to the big cities to find more lucrative work. Those cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are filled with transplants from all over China. I live in Shenzhen, the 4th largest, with about 22 million people. It borders Hong Kong, and is in the same province as Guangzhou, the 3rd largest. Guangzhou was formerly known as Canton, the place where the British sold Opium to the Chinese. Both Shenzhen and Guangzhou are in the Guangdong Province, formerly also called the Canton Province.

I wanted to document this migration, so I asked people to send me various pictures from their trip home as well as their stay at home. I didn't want to tell people what kinds of pictures to take. I also found many pictures posted on Facebook, but even more on We Chat (Weixin)(the Chinese mobile Facebook) used by some 300 to 500 million Chinese.

People go home to their ancestral villages and home cities. People travel great distances, if necessary. Trips range from one to three weeks, depending on one's job, finances, and available vacation days. Everyone has fun. People exchange Hongbao (or red envelopes filled with Lucky Money). Dumplings and special meals are eaten. Fireworks scare away evil spirits, while red banners bring good luck and prosperity. Unwed people over 25 complain they are harassed about the failure to marry.

The pictures tell the story far better than I could.

Notice the Picture of Chairman Mao in the Back

MORE PICTURES FOLLOW

My good friend Alice and her family

Gambling on Mahjong is a favorite pass time during the holidays

It is common to watch the celebrations on Chinese TV, CCTV

Dumplings are eaten for good luck. Some contain lucky money.

Pictures of governmental officers (not her) of their wives or mistresses
displaying inordinate wealth
have led to arrests and charges of corruption - China is very serious about this

The high speed train station from Shenzhen was almost empty by the time
the holiday had come as most people were already home.
Trains and buses are the most common means of transportation.

My very good friend Jing

Thus Dumpling contained "Lucky Money"

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I AM CHARLIE AND WILL ALWAYS BE CHARLIE

2015-01-19T19:36:00.004-05:00

I AM STILL CHARLIE, AGAIN AND AGAIN,

DESPITE THE RECENT PROTESTS OVER CHARLIE HEBDO'S DEPICTION OF MOHAMED

Charlie Hebdo was republished with another depiction of Mohamed, causing worldwide protests, and perhaps, more future violence. I have Muslim friends. I respect Islam. But it has been perverted, attacked and degraded, not by those who who depict the Prophet, but by those that commit unjustified violence in the name of the Prophet. That is the point of the cartoon. Perhaps some Jihadists should look at the cartoon and think about it for a moment.

I am Jewish. My religion also prohibits depiction of God. Who cares if someone else does this? That is on them. I would never commit violence if someone depicted God. We are not even supposed to write God. We are supposed to write G-D. Our religion is not so different from Islam in this. So why is our behavior and tolerance so different?

One, because we ostracize the fanatics of our religion. Second, because we value the societies we live in. Most importantly, as Islam, Judaism, and Christianity teaches, we value the prohibitions against violence and destruction of innocent lives and societies. Not every action or perceived insult justifies Jihad, as even the Koran states that Jihad must be defensive.

It is time for people to live in peace. Violence just begets violence, and too often, it is the truly innocent who bear the suffering.

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Ninja Warrior - New Sport Spreads from Japan through USA and Asia

2014-12-09T22:45:00.003-05:00

The sport is called Ninja Warrior and it sent from being a TV show broadcast from Japan and re-broadcast in America on a lesser known cable TV station to prime time network in America called America Ninja Warrior.

Gyms across America are building ninja warrior obstacles, as are people in their backyard.

Etan Ginsberg, a fan who build his own obstacle course in the woods near his apartment, also competed (and won) in some competitions in the mid-Atlantic region in the gyms which held these "unsanctioned" competitions. Often competiting were a few of the television competitiors.

Now, a website has appeared, authored by Etan, which has become the premier website for the Ninja Warrior Sport. The site. www.ninjawarrior.info is receiving massive numbers of hits. Interviews with the competitors can be seen, and blueprints for the ninja warrior obstacles can be purchased.

The site is well worth checking out, and was recently featured in Outdoor Magazine

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Police, Prosecutors, and Judges are Way Out of Control In America

2014-12-04T22:40:00.000-05:00

I am sitting in peaceful Shenzhen China watching CNN with so much disgust.

The daughter of Eric Garner was just interviewed on CNN. She echoed my sentiments exactly. She said, this was more about the abuse of power by the police. The Ferguson case is not the example this country needs to see. The Eric Garner case is.

Michael Brown was filmed on CCTV minutes before the altercation acting in an unlawful, aberrant manner. While that doesn't mean he deserved to die, it raises questions about his behavior during his confrontation with a single policeman. Eric Garner was confronted by six policeman, all armed, all with batons, all trained in combat. They probably also had tasers, etc. The entire episode was filmed.

The police are way out of control in America. They abuse their power habitually, in ways small and large. We only hear about the extreme cases where someone dies, and perhaps there is an element of racism. As racism is diminishing, the abuse of power by the police is spreading to the abuse of everyone. I have seen this first hand, as both a citizen and a lawyer. I would have been subject to harassment and abuse were I not a lawyer who knew his rights and was capable of "out-bullying" the bullies. If I wrote the horror stories of my clients, no one could read that lengthy a book. And the victims included white University of Pennsylvania college students lawfully driving home for winter break.

But every time someone is searched without probable cause, they are degraded and US Constitution is shredded. Every time someone is hand cuffed without being incident to a lawful arrest, the person is degraded and the US Constitution is shredded. I have seen this over and over. Watch the TV show "Cops" and I can not count the constitutional violations, even when these police know they are being televised and on their best behavior.

I am so very tired of hearing "concern for police safety" being used as an excuse for unlawful and excessive police violence. We train them. We arm them We pay them. We give them radios to call for backup. We give them bullet proof vests.If they can't or are afraid to do their job correctly and professionally, they can resign with honor.

The essence of the problem is that we expect criminals to break the law. That is why we call them criminals, and pay for police and prisons. But when those who are sworn to uphold the law (including prosecutors and judges), and paid to uphold the law, break the law, then there is no law, just anarchy.

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End Female Genital Mutilation

2014-02-06T18:39:00.001-05:00

This is a short blog, and I will start doing this more often to help spread the word on worthy causes when I don't have the time to write a more detailed article. Also, there are others who have done a better job then I could.

Truth about genital mutilation:

1) There is not a shred of benefit to Genital Mutilation. There is no medical reason, not a shred of a medical benefit. There is no psychological benefit. Nothing. There is not worthy social reason. There is nothing at all.

2) It is severe child abuse (both physical and psychological). It causes multiple kinds of permanent physical and mental damage.

3) It can not be justified. No child is legally, psychologically, or otherwise able to consent to such a procedure., When it is done, and it should never ever be don, it is usually done under unsanitary conditions, by "butchers." The child, and often family members, are not told the truth about the procedure, its lack of justification, and the damage it does.

4) Many (if not most) of the girls who have this performed on them are physically and/or mentally coerced into it.

5) Many (if not most) of the people involved in performing these procedures are either misguided parents who later regret it, or (sometimes both) are heinous criminals.

6) Religion and social differences can not and do not justify this procedure. I am all for freedom of religion and respect for different cultures. But religious freedom and cultural diversity have never and should never be justification for all acts committed in the nominal name of a religion or culture.

Female Genital Mutilation is the violent oppression of women my a society which is make dominated (even when the mutilation is performed by and/or at the request of women), and the make members of this society do not have the slightest idea of what women are, who they are,etc. To them, women are less than an object, even if they think they care for or love the woman involved.

It needs to be legally banned and made illegal. Penalties need to be severe. The laws need to be enforced vigorously. Support needs to be given, and substantial additional monetary aid needs to be provided, for those organizations that are fighting Female genital Mutilation and/or helping women escape from this procedure.

Click Here for CNN's Story About this
China's CCTV Coverage About Female Genital Mutilation

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Ninja Warrior - American Ninja Warrior

2014-01-21T01:14:00.001-05:00

If you love the show or the sport, you''l love this website.

www.ninjawarrior.info

Click Here to Go to Fan Website

Live Dispatch from China - Tensions Escalate - Japanese Militarization, Refusal to Acknowledge War Crimes, Whale Hunting, and Over fishing are a disgrace to the "Land of the Setting Sun"

2013-12-26T21:29:00.000-05:00

The news from Japan is foreboding. Japan is increasing substantially its military. The Prime Minister is paying respects to the Japanese war dead (from World War II). The former is an offensive measure and should be received with alarm. The later is just one in a long line of insults, but proves the Japanese haven’t changed and are unrepentant. The pretense of Japanese increased militarization is to counter increased Chinese military capability. This is a facade. It is the same type of specious propaganda asserted by Hitler (as his justification for the militarization of Nazi Germany prior to World War II.)

The instant dispute involves a bunch or rocks in the ocean somewhere between Japan and China referred to as the Diaoyu Islands. No one lives there. No one will ever want to live there. But these islands may be located near some natural resources (under the ocean). Fishing rights are involved. Japan needs natural resources. That was a major reason they [Japan] waged World War II in the first place (lack of natural resources). Here they go again. Lack of natural resources is not a justification for aggression and provocation, except to the Japanese, whose sense of superiority leads them to believe it is Japan’s destiny given by God. More war in the name of God.

Let’s talk about fishing rights. The Japanese are singularly the biggest contributor to the overfishing of the oceans. When there are no more fish left to eat, we can look to the “Land of the Setting Sun.” Japan is the only country to continue to slaughter endangered, highly intelligent, and very social whales in the protected area of Antarctica. This must also stop. It is all part and parcel of the same psychological sickness epidemic in Japan. A sense of entitlement and superiority.

Let’s look at Japan’s sentiments towards their war crimes. They have none. This most recent insult is further evidence. But one need look only to seven decades of suppression in Japan of the truth of their most horrific atrocities and aggression. One need look to seven years of denial and refusal to repent and apologize.

We would assume that all countries have people with diverse beliefs. So there must be some protestors against the whaling industry in Japan, right? There must be some people who recognize Japanese aggression in World War II, and again toward China involving the most recent dispute. Not so. I have travelled several times to Japan recently, including last month. The only voices and protests (I have heard them almost daily while in Japan) are the fanatical right wing fascists who protest Japan’s right to eat whale meat, right to the disputed islands. Absent are the voices of peace. Silent are the voices of contrition.

Any teacher, professor, or other person in Japan who tries to teach the truth about Japanese atrocities committed in World War II will have their careers destroyed and their lives threatened. There are simply too few people of knowledge and conscience in Japan compared to the great number of nationalistic fascist right wing Japanese. The government of Japan is likewise complicit in this.

Japan needs increased militarization like the world needs another plague. Let’s recall history.

Most wars arise from “gray” areas, ancient controversies, and misunderstandings. Never in history did two countries like Japan and Germany combine forces to wage a more unprovoked and less justified war then World War II. Most probably, never did two countries attack and invade more countries and territories and threaten the entire world. More significantly, no countries ever committed the most heinous and most numerous war crimes committed by the Germans and Japanese during World War II.

The Japanese invaded/attacked Korea, China, USA, the Philippines (and the list goes on and on). These invasions were entirely and absolutely unprovoked and unjustified. They were followed by the most unimaginable atrocities in the most incomprehensible numerical scale.

The war crimes committed by Japan against the Chinese, Koreans, and others [including American Prisoners of War] were not measured in the hundreds, or thousands, but numbered in the millions. They included: (1) the most heinous evil medical experiments conceivable; (2) forced prostitution; (3) rape. They included the needless and senseless murder of civilians, children, women, with deaths numbering in the millions. Murder for sport. Murder for Genocide. In Nanking (Nanjing) and elsewhere, officers would line up innocent civilians to see how many people they could kill with a single bullet. This was a game for them. Something to relieve the boredom of war.

By the Grace of God, and the combined efforts of the Chinese and American people and others, Japan was defeated.

Japan was given a Constitution by the victors, led by General Douglas McArthur of the USA. That constitution forbade a military. The USA agreed to defend Japan, not because the USA wanted to be allied with Japan, but to keep Japan from ever again being able to wage future wars. A few prescient and influential Japanese saw the destruction Japan had brought on the world and on itself, and urged McArthur to make sure Japan was never again a military power. These few people knew that the same nationalism, racism, and that the same Japanese military industrial complex, would arise again in Japan (absent a prohibition against Japanese militarization) to threaten Japan’s neighbors. That same racism and nationalism still exists and never disappeared. Hence, the threat from Japan remains.

Japan’s lack of a military has nothing to do with a desire for peace by the Japanese. Instead, it is a recognition by the rest of the world (and a few Japanese) of the fact that Japan forfeited its right to an offensive military. Moreover, like a child with a gun, the world deemed that a militarized Japan was simply too dangerous, unnecessary, and undesirable. Any misunderstandings arising from the “Cold War” have become moot as the Cold War has disappeared.

Now, Japan created and was the aggressor in the instant conflict. It attempted to alter the status quo of the Diaoyu Islands of China in 2012. I use this name because in fact these islands do, and should, belong to China. Japan claims that the USA gave them these islands. But clearly, the USA had no right to give to Japan what it does not own, and was not thinking of the real value of these rocks. In the post-war confusion, the USA made a mistake and did not carefully consider what appeared to be a bunch of rocks. But that mistake was not binding on China. China never agreed that Japan had any rights to the Diaoyu islands.

China is a country of 1.6 billion people, and is the second largest economy in the world. Along with its economic growth, it has naturally increased its military capability. Unlike Japan, however, China, in thousands of years of history, has virtually no history of aggression towards other countries. A country of China’s size, with China’s history of restraint, should have and is entitled to have a military. The PLA has never threatened Japan. But the most recent announcement of increased militarization by Japan is a direct threat, and act of aggression, towards China. It is an unwarranted provocation and escalation.

Japan needs to “stand down” from its aggression and provocation with regards to the Diaoyu islands. Japan needs to clearly, loudly and publicly acknowledge and apologize for its aggressions and atrocities (both their numerical scale and the extent of the evil perpetuated) towards China, Korea, American POW’s, and other victims of World War II. Japan needs to cease overfishing the oceans, and absolutely stop the slaughter of whales. Most importantly, Japan needs to rewrite its text books and curriculum so that Japanese students learn the truth about Japan’s actions in World War II. Only then will there be some hope that Japan will move away from its racist nationalism and aggression.

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In Defense of Edward Snowden

2013-08-07T00:10:00.000-04:00

REMBERING 9/11:

After all, in its essence, the Bradley Manning Case, and the Edward Snowden case, are really all about 9/11 and our response to it.

I remember 9/11. I was at Disney World with my then wife and young son. I saw a restaurant closing and thought it odd, but then, for a second, thought the owner must be taking a break. Just a for second, however, because then I realized that there are no privately owned restaurants in Disney World. I had a bad sense of foreboding, as I saw more and more facilities closing. Then came the announcement I will never forget, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, due to circumstances beyond our control, the park will be closing immediately. Plan A.” I knew enough to know that “Plan A” was an emergency code to the staff regarding evacuation. I also knew that Disney World had never ever closed, even for weather. Something was very very wrong.

People around me, and then I, tried to make phone calls on our cell phones. But the cell phone networks were overloaded, and we could not get through. We did not know why. We thought there was no cell phone service any more. Rumors started floating around. Some true, you know them: (1)World Trade Towers attacked and collapsed; (2) Pentagon attacked; (3) Capital a target; (4) planes hijacked; (5) thousands dead….Add that to the rumors which were not true, and sitting there in the middle of Disney Land, with my young son, and with Disney Land a feared target or another attack, it seemed like Armageddon.

Writing this more than a decade later is still very emotional. Few Americans have fully recovered. I was very affected. I have no respect, no compassion, no quarter for these terrorists. It is hard to compare evils, but they are right down there with the Nazis and others.

I am a pacifist. But I make an exception for the most evil people. The day they killed Bin Laden was a very good day. The people who did it are heroes.

ARE YOU WITH ME? LOOK AT THE COSTS:

But we have paid, and keep paying, so much more than a mere mortal like Bin Laden could take from us. We need to stop. Our fear is destroying us, and even worse, it is destroying “Who we are.” It has been said, “It is not the number of years in your life that counts. It is the life in your years.” We are letting Bin Laden destroy the quality of our life and the essence of who we are.

I am not just talking about the expense and delay of TSA checks at airports, or the fact that I cannot go into an office building in Philadelphia without passing security, since 9/11. Nor am I referring to extra police everywhere, especially in New York City, with dogs, extra weapons, and so on.

These are monetary costs and inconveniences. Perhaps they are worth it, even though I don’t think so. Yes, they may save lives by preventing a future attack. But people die every day, and money can be better spent saving lives in other methods. What is the cost of saving a life? But that is another debate. Our fear of terrorists compels us to take these security measures.

WHERE THE COSTS RUN TO0 HIGH:

But most importantly, it is the diminishment of our civil rights, the very definition of who we are as Americans, where the costs run too high. The Declaration of Independence states that we are endowed with “certain unalienable Rights” and most Americans hold that these include those rights contained in the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution. Most importantly, rights such as: (1) Due Process of Law; (2) Trial By Jury; (3) No Cruel and Inhuman Punishment; (4) Freedom of Speech; and, most importantly; (5) the Right to Protection Against Unwarranted Search and Seizure. The United States Supreme Court, and most Americans, also hold that the Constitution and its Bill of Rights contain implied privacy rights.

These rights are what we believe make America great. These are the very things that define who we are. These are the Rights that we defend, with our lives if necessary. In fact we have spent many lives defending these rights, such as in World War II. To toss away, to discard, these Rights is to diminish, to redefine, and to degrade who and what we are. It hurts us far more than Bin Laden was ever capable, and could ever be capable.

We have seen these rights degraded and impaired in response to 9/11. We did it to ourselves. We did it voluntarily. Most people are never affected, so most people don’t care. But most people would not be affected if the Bill of Rights were renounced. Nonetheless, we have always cherished and defended the Constitution. We take oaths to defend the Constitution. We pledge our allegiance, and sing songs about defending the Constitution. Now we just discard it as though it were outdated and frivolous.

We think that only terrorists are having their rights affected, and we don’t care about these “sub-humans.” While the welfare of true terrorists is of no moment to me, it is not what they do which defines who and what we are. It is what we do, how we act, and by what laws, rules, codes, and ethics we live by which defines who we are. This is why even animals are entitled to humane treatment. When we let these terrorists, in response to their actions, change our actions, our legal codes, are moral standards, we have let them hurt us in ways otherwise impossible.

The most obvious degradation to the Bill of Rights began with imprisonment without due process, and, in extraordinary cases, torture and/or rendition. “Rendition” is when a person in the custody of America, but is given to a foreign country that freely and openly engages in such practices as torture. When in the foreign location, the prisoner is tortured, without ever having even been charged or found guilty of a crime. The person may not even have any knowledge of terrorism, and may have previously loved America. Our torturing or prisoners has in fact created more extremism and terrorists than any other occurrence or reason.

While we may claim that the Constitution was upheld because these people were tortured in another country, that is a façade, as it was done by America, at our direction, and on our behalf. Abu Ghraib and disclosures about Guantanamo Bay in Cuba proved that we didn’t often bother to go to the façade of rendition.

It is far from clear that every tortured victim, who never had a trial (or prisoner at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo), is or was ever guilty. One simply needs to watch the movie “Rendition.” While it is fiction, clearly the potential for such a situation to happen exists, and has probably occurred more times then we want to know. Watch “Rendition” and ask yourself, “How many innocent people can justifiably be tortured, before it is too much?” Even if the failure to engage in torture allows a terrorist to attack and costs me my life, my answer remains, “Zero.” I refuse to engage in condone in, be a part of, or stand silently by, while I, any group I am associated with, or my country engages in such practices.

I recall (from documentaries) those heroes of WWII who gave their lives to destroy regimes (Nazis and Japan) who were engaging in these activities. We have invested so much, and expended so many lives, to protect who we are; now a mere Bin Laden gets us to voluntarily throw all this away?

Edward Snowden

While I agree that every American with access to classified information can’t be judge and jury as to whether such information needs to be disclosed, in Snowden’s case, he made the right call, showing bravery in the face of inevitable severe consequences. We owe a debt to Snowden, and need to defend him and his actions.

It is settled law that the Fourth Amendment to the Bill of Rights, which protects us against unreasonable search and seizure, extends to the interception of electronic communications, such as phone calls, e-mails, etc. In Snowden’s case, each and every American was having their Fourth American rights violated with every phone call and e-mail they made. The fact, that the government may not have been interested in most of us, is of no moment. There is no difference between what the NSA is doing then a random and unwarranted search of your house, for no reason and with no search warrant, which results in no arrests because the victim is a law abiding citizen. Most people would not tolerate the later. Why tolerate the former?

In 1971, a man named Daniel Ellsberg released classified information called “The Pentagon Papers.” It was a specifically commissioned top-secret report about the Vietnam War which concluded that the Vietnam War could not be won. At the behest of the government, he made many secret trips to Vietnam, serving the government, having worked both for the Pentagon and the State Department. He had a very high security clearance, and the Pentagon Papers were classified as “Top Secret.”

The public needed to know this information, because America was still actively engaged in the Vietnam War, spending countless amounts of money, and more importantly, sending our young men to their death in order that they could kill Vietnamese people fighting for their independence. The Vietnam War needed to end, and the release of this document helped end it. People were being misled by the government about the war, including that we could win it. History has proven that we did not win it, and probably could not have won it. But several administrations, both Republican and Democrat, had told the American public that the war was necessary and winnable. Ellsberg’s act was an act of conscience, and Ellsberg was not charged with espionage, treason, or any other crime.

It was obvious that his disclosure was a necessary, moral, and courageous act. It was clear that Ellsberg, like Snowden, sought only to help America by disclosing something which the public needed to know, regardless of its “classified status.” There is no difference between Ellsberg and Snowden. Ellsberg was quoted recently as saying that had he done now what he did then, he would be prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced.

I don’t want, and you should not want, your Fourth Amendment Rights violated, even if there are never any consequences to us. I don’t want to live in a country which does not have and follow, with the strictest defense, the Bill of Rights. I have, as many Americans have, personally tasted the bitter pill of t constitutional rights violations, for example, of my “Due Process Rights,|” and that pill is not fit for human consumption.

We have paid enough already. We need to become “America” again.

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CBS's Big Brother 15 - Bad People Doing Bad Things

2013-07-17T03:27:00.004-04:00

Big Brother 15 is one of my favorite shows. I have been watching it since the third season, 12 years ago. Of course, some years are better then others, and some are more unique then others. Each year, CBS tries to change something about the show to make it more interesting as opposed to mere repetition of the prior year. Even my ten year old daughter joined my 14 year old son (and I) in liking this show (in prior G-Rated years).

Before you jump the gun and think this is just another discussion about another dumb reality show, wait. This season's show has made headlines throughout the world, caused CBS to rewrite their disclaimers, and ended the careers of two contestants.

For example, one year, the contestants had to compete with their significant "ex-s," whether that was a former love or a former spouse. Some had bad breakups, others were still friends. Some hadn't spoken in years, others were still in contact with each other.

The game is played like this. At the beginning of the show, there are about 16 players. While the contestants appear somewhat homogeneous, being in their 20's, for good measure, they usually throw in someone who is gay, a contestant who is older, and some other mix of contestants to achieve a measure of diversity in the house (big city northern sophistication v. small town southern country).

Each week, someone is voted off the show. The last "man or woman standing" wins 1/2 million dollars. The runner up wins 50K. everyone else wins next to nothing. Each week someone wins the "HOH" or "Head of House" and is the person who nominates the two people to be evicted. That person also gets luxuries like a private room, special food treats, and more importantly, is not only safe from being evicted, but has power to influence who will be evicted. The remaining people vote on who stays. OK, for simplicity sake, I have omitted some minor rules..

Here is the catch. If you go all the way, you are in the Big Brother House for 3 months.There is no TV. No Books (not that the people chosen look like the reading type.) There are no phone calls, no newspapers, etc. Absent the occasional death or serious illness of a family member, no information is given to the contestants. On the other hand, television subscribers can watch the contestants 24 hours a day on the Internet in addition to the three one-hour episode(s). Contestants have no privacy, and everything they say or do is watched by the public (and the good stuff is shown on TV). They only get privacy in the shower or bathroom, and then, only if they go in alone. If you go in with someone else, the cameras come on. There are cameras all over the place, including night vision cameras, and one-way windows (with cameramen lurking on the other side), so that every contestant can be filmed and heard all the time, without the possibility of escape.

People mistakenly assume that contestants can hide their true selves due to the fact that they are being filmed. Interviews, however, with reality show participants show that the people become immune to the effects of the cameras and forget that they are there. That is even more true in the "Big Brother House" where there is nothing to do except talk to others. People drop their guards and say things they later regret. One year, a contestant whispered her secret to another contestant - that she had gotten an abortion and no one, including her family, knew. She got angry when that contestant told her secret to a third contestant, incredibly forgetting that tens of thousands of viewers heard her secret live, and that the blogs picked it up the next day.

Here is where the game gets interesting. There is nothing to do but to form alliances and conspiracies in order to try to win the 1/2 million. If is impossible to do well in the game if you play honestly. You have to lie about who you will vote for, who you are in an alliance with, etc. So the show is about good people acting bad, and that effects people. Some people are effected very badly and get torn up by guilt. Others have no morals and that becomes very evident.

Furthermore, people who are perceived as too strong a player or in too strong an alliance [like in a romance on the show (called a showmance)], can make other contestants feel threatened and "put a target" on their back, causing even their friends and alliances to vote them out. Similarly, weak players tend to become targets as no one fears nominating them for eviction of or conspiring to follow through. People ingratiate themselves with others by trading information (like who is campaigning to evict whom) for promises relating to future votes.

Some people have fallen in love on the show; at least one marriage resulted. Some really nice people have appeared, and some really rotten ones have been exposed. On the third season, one contestant made some cruel anti-Semitic remarks about a Jewish contestant which I, as a Jew, took personally. No one made a big deal that year (curious)? People with genuine dislike, fear, or lack of exposure to homosexuality have had to get to know, in intimate and close quarters, gay contestants. Usually there is a positive result. Usually, people become friends after the show, as everyone understands that "it is just a game" and people have to act badly to win.'

Not this year! CBS outdid themselves in finding people who were already bad, real bad. In a week in which allegations of racism permeated the news in connection with the Zimmerman trial, we needed tolerance and harmony. INSTEAD, The first week, the severely racist, misogynist, and anti-gay comments were flying on the show. Minority contestants were in tears. Two contestants have already lost their jobs [even though they don't know it] as their employers have issued Press Releases terminating their employment due to their racism.

Since contestants are secluded from society, so they have no idea that they have lost their jobs, and are hated and mocked by America, while they continue to play this game on reality TV. I AM REPEATING THE UGLY COMMENTS WHICH WERE MADE SO THE AUDIENCE CAN SEE THE HATRED, IGNORANCE AND UGLINESS WHICH STILL EXISTS. I SPECIFICALLY AND MOST VIGOROUSLY DISCLAIM AND OPPOSE THE COMMENTS AND THE THINKING WHICH GAVE RISE TO THESE COMMENT:

One contestant said that, because of her income level, she receives “nigger insurance” (she whispered the n-word, so it’s possible she said the version that ends with “a”). She also referred to another contestant who is Asian, and said, “should be kissing our ass and serving us some fucking rice.”

The most vile contestant, who lost her job, said of another contestant [who is a nice guy but appears a little different] “No one’s gonna vote for whoever that queer puts up.” She also suggested he’d win MVP because “people love the queers.”

In talking about a Black candidate, incredibly, she said, “be careful what you say in the dark; you might not be able to see that bitch.” She told the Asian contestant, “Shut up. Go make some fucking rice.”

A third contestant, incredibly said that the medical torture conducted by Nazi doctors was beneficial and praised Hitler’s speaking abilities, even while acknowledging that he’d be criticized for that.

For more information, click here.

TMZ reports, Aaryn Gries -- the Paula Deen of the "Big Brother" house -- has been dropped by her modeling agency after dropping racist and homophobic comments in the BB house ... TMZ has learned - Click Here

At least I get to root that the bad people get evicted and loose. Talk about reality shows, what I wouldn't give to watch these people when they learn they are more hated and more unemployed then Zimmerman.

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Thinking of Buying or Renting at Oak Hill Estates and Terraces in Penn Valley (Oakhill Condominiums)?

2013-07-16T22:21:00.000-04:00

Thinking of buying or renting an apartment or townhouse in Penn Valley (also considered Narberth) at the Oak Hill Estates and Terraces ("Oakhill")? You might want to think long and hard and look elsewhere.

Since I wrote this Blog, I have been subjected to further retaliation and attempted bullying and intereferenced into my personal affairs. Furthermore, I received a slew of so called "anonymous" comments which I traced by IP address to the same people I was writing about, and hence, they were not published. These comments, in the same gutless manner management operates, did not address the issues but were personal attacks against myself. 　IF YOU PLAN ON MOVING HERE, THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE GETING YOURSELF INTO.　　

While prices may abnormally low here (where I currently reside), that is because things are abnormal (in a bad-way) here. We all know that the closer and more involved one is with one's neighbors, the more vulnerable one becomes to the eccentricities and problems of those neighbors. Condominiums (a legal way of owning property) which are apartments (even the townhouses here have either an upstairs or downstairs neighbor as well as people on each side of a common wall) carry with them a great risk of entanglement with people one would not wish to be "entangled" with. Oakhill is the best example (worst place) I have witnessed (in 25 years of representing condominium associations and property management companies) of a place where those entanglements are so bad they should be avoided at all costs. I have lived here between 5 to 6 years and my experience and observations are shocking, disturbing and should serve as a warning to prospective purchasers and renters.

Let emphatically state, as an initial comment, that Rules, and behaviour and social interaction, should always be geared to be moral, ethical, and compassionate. When behaviour, whether or not codified in Rules, rums afoul of morality, compassion, and ethics, that society is sick. The organization that is the Oakhill condominium is sick.

If ethics and morality are not your concern, then the there are other reasons which should nonetheless make you think twice about Oakhill. The financial costs you will pay, the way you (and children) will be treated (included selective and malicious targeting of people with the "Rules") and other reasons make living at Oakhill far less desirable then it appears.

For example, a condominium owner not only has to pay the initial costs of purchasing a home along with taxes and utilities, but you have to pay condominium dues and fees (which can be very high) and includes such things as gardening of common areas, salaries of people (whom you may prefer to be far far away from yourself and your family), air conditioning of hallways, etc. Even worse, your ability to use and enjoy your home becomes subject to the whims, rules, and threats of the association, property managers, and other employees and officials and quasi-officials. There is even a "pool rules" committee.

I have witnessed, on all too many occasions, expensive landscaping during the day, and at night the deers feasting on and destroying that landscaping [this is a deer infested area]. This happens over and over and management is death to complaints about this and other facts. Some actions have been so inexplicable that kickbacks were the only logical explanation I have ever been able to determine, although I have no evidence of such has been seen (it rarely is). Rules get selectively enforced against some people, while other members of "cliques" have been given a free hand to, for example, to allow their pets to defecate on public walkways and violate the same rules others are threatened with fines and other penalties.

When I moved in here, there was a registered sex offender on the floor above me (while he moved recently, there appear to be others who seem to belong on that list and, in fact, three Tier One offenders live in this zip code). A high placed official/employee in the employment of the association committed assault on a resident, among other things. The use of illegal drugs proliferates here, and one resident was observed today to be seen trying to "score" some illegal drugs. That was ignored, while an "out of favor" resident was yelled at for eating blueberries too close to the swimming pool.

I was yelled at for helping a lifeguard clean leaves from the pool last August. It seems two of the "pool clique" members wanted to swim laps, and it being the end of the summer (and a windy day) leaves were blowing into the pool. The lap swimmers kept yelling at the young lifeguard until she started to cry, at which point I happily volunteered to help her clean while I was floating around on my raft. The next day, I was contacted by the management as though I had been discovered selling crack and told I was not permitted to clean leaves from the pool. That same clique member yelled at me twice today because I wanted to swim from the deep end to the shallow end, and she was swimming laps across the entire pool and my path intersected her path (even though I was far away from her and going to great pains to avoid her lap swimming).

Yesterday, another resident (who considers me to be a friend) began an anti-China anti-Black tirade wherein he also accused President Obama (and his wife) of being a Muslim terrorists. Other people, who mistakenly consider me to be sympathetic to their sentiments (they no longer make that mistake) have made severely rascist, mysognystic, and/or homo-phobic statements, [they used hate speech]. One woman was so "troublesome" that, on the day I moved in, when she started ranting about the rules, my (then) nine year old son reckognized that "There is something wrong with that lady."

Aside from the waste of exorbitant management fees (which are only going to get higher especially after I and others sue the association and its officers) there is something sick about this society of "main-line want to be's."

Don't get me wrong in that there are some very nice people here, some of whom I have known for a very long time. And the landlords who own my unit are wonderful people. But this small minority is far overshadowed by mean spirited and ignorant people living here. To many of the people who reside here are an odd bunch of outcasts. Others have nothing doing in their life except to manufacture delusions of rules and then to try to make other people (other residents) miserable. These people are insensitive, at best, and sadistic, at worst, when dealing with others.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that, while most owners greedily want to maximize their real estate prices, and thus allow the owners of units to rent their apartments, the owners really don't like the more transient, generally younger tenants. Furthermore, since many owners are senior citizens, or approaching (to their dismay) that age, they really don't like children, or the activities that children engage in.

An excellent example of the renter owner issue is the rule that prohibits renters from owning a dog, while owners are free to have one. These same people, who are so quick to run screaming about alleged "rules violations" by non-owners, can be seen daily walking their dogs in front of signs prohibiting dog walking on the manicured lawns.

An example of the mistreatment of children (and the families who struggle to raise them) is exhibited by the behaviour of full grown (and then some) adults at the swimming pool. Many of the nasty residents will read their books in the middle of the swimming pool ( and then complain if some innocent child accidentally splashes them while similarly enjoying the pool. Things are so bad that the life-guards used to constantly quit and refuse to work at this site. Now, I believe, they are paid "combat" pay to work here.

I have spent much of my 25 year career representing condominium associations and property management associations, many of which were far more significant than here at Oakwood. Nonetheless, the ignorant arrogant meanness which certain residents, quasi-officials, and others misstate the rules and other issues relating to condominiums causes a tremendous waste of money, failure to take constructive steps to reduce costs while increasing quality of life, etc.

Much of this mean spirited behaviour comes from the fact that many of the people here are embittered with their own status in life (socially, career, etc.) Many are single and have little prospect of changing that fact given the "ugliness" in their lives and the ugliness of their behaviour.

So, before buying here, consider the non-economic costs of living here, as well as the future economic costs. When people like me (who are experienced lawyers) are forced to litigate (which is coming shortly), condominium association dues go up as the costs of defense can easily enter six figures, and I am but one of many residents who intend to litigate. Even if covered by insurance, such litigation makes the cost of insurance in the future prohibitive or even impossible to obtain. The costs of dues can also depress resale prices.

Query, Why did one of the longest property managers quit with no notice and seeming extreme animosity towards Oakhill?

Query, Why do life guards quit constantly, and why are they paid more to work at Oakhill then at other residences?

Query, Why are subordinate staff, who are good people, often heard cursing upper management?

Query, Why have more than a dozen people approached me about suing Oakhill?

Query, Why did maintenance head, Mickey McDermet (who I may have a lot more to say about) complaint that I was helping a life guard clean leaves out of the swimming pool when that lifeguard was being screamed at by two residents because the wind was blowing the leaves into the pool at the end of summer [a windy day when the leaves had already begun to fall] to the point that the lifeguard began to cry?

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The Legacy of Former President George W. Bush - His Library Opened Today

2013-04-25T21:41:00.000-04:00

Today, the President Bush (the son) Library was opened. What information and displays should be inside:

1) US economy is destroyed;

2) Cost of Iraqi war is way over One Trillion Dollars which is the amount we don't have now which is cause for sequestration;

3) Thousands of dead American military personal in Iraq, tens of thousands loose limbs or are maimed, and the cost to Iraq is so much higher with car bombs going off daily which kill hundreds of civilians at a shot;

4) Pro-Iranian government wins control of Iraq, and Iran becomes biggest state sponsor of terrorism as well as nuclear threat in the making and now has major ally next door;

5) Easy win in Afghanistan (including capture of Bin Laden at Tora Bora) is missed because troops spread to thin because they are in Iraq;

6) Tax cuts worth billions for oil companies even though budget deficit grows and oil shoots to $100 per barrel;

7) 9/11 occurrs;

8) Bin Laden is never captured (during remaining 7 years of Bush's tenure);

9) Hurricane Katrina totally mishandled, Bush to busy to care;

10) More tax cuts for the ultra rich even though we desparately need to reduce budget deficit and Americans sink into unemployment and poverty;

11) Unemployment at all time high when Bush leaves office;

12) Whackadoodle Tea Party comes into existence;

13) America becomes a country which engages in the torture of people;

14) Civil rights of Americans are totally erroded due to, for example, Patriot Act;

15) Gasoline prices quadruple;

16) Kyoto accords rejected, global warming denied by administration, while polar bears starve to death because there is no more ice in north pole where bears used to hunt for seals, and hundreds of other species now threatened or extinct;

17) Afghanistan, which started out as easy win, becomes totally unstable;

18) American infrastructure continues to erode;

19) Laws which protect American consumers and investors are eviscerated allowing people like Bernie Madoff to steal billions;

20) Major Bush contributors earn hundred million per year salaries while the financial institutions they run go into bankrtuptcy (AIG, Bear-Stearns, etc.) thus further devastating US economy;

21) World opinion of US (which after 9/11 is at all time high) plummets to all time low; and,

22) Mexico continues to grow into major narco trafficking center and millions and millions of illegal immigrants cross the border for each year of his eight year term while major drug distribution networks continue to flourish.

23) George Bush's drug supplier and alcohol vendors go broke because Bush has to stop drinking and drugging.

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Who Won The US Presidential Election?

2012-11-11T04:35:00.000-05:00

Who Won the Election?
America Did!

Good triumphed over evil,
Intelligence prevailed over ignorance,
Reason won over chaos,
Strength beat fear.

Prosperity will prevail over greed,
National Security will succeed instead of reckless war mongering, and,
...

social justice will replace destructive greed.

When Republicans have won the Presidency (in past elections), they claimed that America had spoken, and that all Americans [meaning Democrats] should respect the "will of the people" and work with the new President. But when a Democrat wins the White House, they always try to obstruct and hinder the elected President, no matter what the cost to America. Republicans are consistent in their hypocrisy. When that fails, they call some absurd special investigation.

Republicans are now claiming that Obama will be hampered by the same inability to "get things done" which ignores the fact that it is their obstructionism which is the reason that nothing has gotten done. They are throwing that in the face of Americans, like a child saying, "I told you so, now you will be sorry." They ignore the fact that they are the ones refusing to be reasonable and work with anyone. These Tea Party extremists are the nuttiest and most dangerous bunch ever.

The American people have spoken [again.]

Obama overcame the racism, the damage done to the economy by Bush and the Iraq war, and the refusal of Republicans to pass any meaningful legislation. If that doesn't send a message to the Republicans in the Congress, especially the House, then they need to resign, and resign quickly.

If Republicans continue to refuse to pass the President's legislation, then the answer is clear. We will have to vote out the Republicans from Congress in two years. So the message to Republicans, who have become extremist and obstructionists, is either play ball or get out of the game.

On a personal note, now I can resume my attention to a rancid system of lawlessness and injustice in Montgomery County.

Israel lost, and I am glad. I am so angry at Israel, and they deserve my anger. They tried to interfere with our election and influence the results, which was the breaking of an unspoken agreement. Netanyahu lost, and he needs to be kicked out of office, and I am really angry at Israel and Netanyahu. Let's not forget that Ariel Sharon was an extreme right winger, and NetanyahuIas is far to the right of Sharon. Furthermore, despite his excellent command of the English language, Netanyahu is tarnished with corruption and scandal.

If Israel is in such a rush to attack Iran, let them do it and face the consequences. I will save this topic for another post. But I have been a strong supporter of Israeli security. They have made me turn my back on Israel in disgust this year. I will explain why in another post. Bibi, why don't you pass legislation which will help the hasidic community beat up secular young Jewish girls. Isn't that what Israel is all about in your sick extremist minds?

In the meanwhile, here are Netanyahu's suppporters (the old men) and what Isreal would look like under Bibi the corrupt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awtsGTfhCzA&feature=player_embedded

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A tear of respect for the Cadres of China's Communist Party

2012-02-20T15:09:00.005-05:00

This is the difficult and controversial Blog I have ever had to write. It will be considered heresy by some in America and treason by others, if it is understood at all by our undereducated public that obtains its information from Cable TV which thought that Whitney Houston’s death was worth covering non-stop for 10 days. It will also incur the attention if not the ire of the censors in China, as certain of the topics I raise in this Post are still somewhat taboo.

From an American point of view, I was also raised (as a result of the information provided in the press and taught in the school, with a undeserved fear and generalization of all Communism. Some of that was warranted, for indeed Stalin, cloaking his authoritative and brutal regime in the name of Communism, was nothing more than an murdering dictator. Possessing nuclear weapons, there was much indeed to fear and loathe from a Stalinist Russia.

But Communist China was not the same as Communist Russia, not politically, not spiritually, not strategically, and not culturally. Our conservative Republican President Richard Nixon recognized this. The Chinese broke with Russia a half century ago, and until Russia’s demise, considered them an enemy. They even specifically differentiated their brand of “communism” as “Chinese Socialism” or “Communism with Chinese Characteristics” in an deliberate effort to differentiate themselves from Russian Communism. This relates to the way they govern(ed) their respective countries? They also have radically different histories and cultures, including different circumstances by which each country’s Communist Party came to power. So how can we paint them with the same broad stroke or condemn them as being the same? More evidence is apparent when considering the increasing strength of China and her Party compared with the disintegration of the CCCP and the virtual dissolution of the Russian Communist Party. Many attribute the later to the exposure of the west and eventual ability to travel to the West, from which few Russians return. Yet the Chinese are generally free to travel abroad, including to westernized and so called “free” Hong Kong, and China is absolutely westernized and modernized, to an extent few Americans want to comprehend.

But while Americans have been forced to recognize the People’s Republic of China for military (strategic) reasons and for economic reasons, the have declined to do so on political reasons, (meaning on the basis of the moral authority of the leadership of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China). It is time to do so now. Actually, the time past a long time ago, and our support of Taiwan and Chang Kai-shek’s brutal dictatorial regime was a moral disgrace and economic waste.

[Especially in this election year] it is also time for an introspection of the flaws in America's "Capitalism" and “Two party theory of "democracy" which has, at best, become paralyzed, and at worst, has been come more of an illusion for Americans then an actual "American Dream." Comparing America and her political system critically, along with a critical analysis of China’s Communist Party will help Americans [at what I believe to be a time of social, political, and economic crisis], to have a chance of saving ourselves instead of falling like so many great nations before us [like the Romans, the ancient Chinese, the list is endless]. It will also help us understand the world we live in, and the mistakes we made, and thus help guide our future foreign relations with others. Finally, although the People’s Republic of China has its seat on the Security Council, and although we borrow a substantial portion of our budget deficit from them, they still don’t have the respect and trust they deserve. China is and was a very advanced country, socially and culturally, which has always valued invention and innovation, the rule of law, education and hard work, and in fact shares many many of the values we once had and seemed to have recently lost. I have spent much of my time in China and have found the people to be at least as kind, generous, civilized, cultured, educated (again the list goes on and on) as Americans, if not more. If China is different, it is because of her lack of natural resources and tortured history of foreign intervention and exploitation which caused her people to suffer tremendous injustice and poverty which resulted and necessitated the Chinese Revolution and the supremacy of her Communist Party.

That is why the incredible story of the "Search for the Soul of Lin Zhou" is telling, interesting, and important. It is a compelling story of China at its worst. But like all facts, they need to be put in context, both temporal and relative. In fact, as I have learned, there are usually two valid ways of interpreting the same “set of facts.” For if we can reconcile the tragic story of Lin Zhou with a complete understanding of the moral authority of the Communist Party's governance in China, if we can understand China at her worst, then we can see China at her best, and China as she really is. China is a dynamic country where politics and economics are working very well, while America has become a country where both are failing, and failing fast.

Her story also spans much of the period in which China was at her worst, and none of the periods in which China was at her best. Lin Zhou was not alive during the time of Sun Yat-Sen (or the imperial period prior to his revolution). She was not around to make the heroic “Long March” or to fight the Japanese during World War II. She was not alive to benefit from the reforms of Deng Xiaoping, or during the modern economic prosperity, westernization, and individual freedom existent in modern China. She was around from the period of necessary “land distribution” almost through the dark period of the Cultural Revolution” and suffered most during the dark periods of the Anti-Rightist Campaign and also the disastrous “Great Leap Forward.” Unfortunately, the things Lin Zhou suffered and lived through (only the dark chapters are what we still, in America today, associate with Chinese political authority and the issue of the moral authority of the Chinese Communist Party.

We have not been taught about the tremendous poverty, social and legal injustice, and virtual enslavement of women which preceded the Revolution which brought the Communist Party to Power. We view with suspicion and fear the modernization and economic prosperity of modern day China yet are ignorant of, and choose to ignore, the tremendous increases in legal and social justice, the decrease in poverty, and the liberation of women which has occurred in a relatively very short time due to China’s Communist Party and her leaders. We view only where we think she should be (in terms of politics and law) and ignore where she came from, the tremendous positive changes in a very short period, and the tremendous hurdles China has had to face from both within and from without. We also have a false illusion of where we are and where we are headed.

Through helpful self-criticism [a method employed by China’s Communist Party], at a time when political and economic change are imperative, we may be able to survive our current economic and political crisis . We need not abandon either democracy or capitalism, but we need to redefine those words, as they no longer stand for their intended definitions. We also need to stop scapegoating China, because she is entirely innocent of causing our problems, and instead, deserves our respect, which she has never enjoyed.

The fact that my Blog concludes with an optimistic prognosis for China and its Party, and a pessimistic view of America and its two-party alleged "democracy" is simple analysis of real facts and simple logic. Americans who don’t like our future need to understand the inherent problems we face, need to stop believing in propaganda and magical fixes, such as by electing politicians who know little and care less (aside from caring about their own political future, power and wealth). It is not too late for America, but the deadline is fast approaching. Given the rhetoric and issues currently being debated in Congress and by the politicians, I have no reason for optimism.

Regarding China, yes, we have taken her government loans, bought her goods, and toured her lands. During World War II, we used her as an ally against the Japanese, tying up more than a million Japanese soldiers on her mainland who would otherwise been able to defend the islands our marines were dying on. Before that, we exploited her (although not to the same extent as the Japanese, French, Portuguese, Russians, and especially British) as a source of wealth, including especially through the sale of opium, and after the slave trade was abolished, a substitute form of cheap labor, the "Chinese Coolie."

But as we failed to recognize in Vietnam, which was not about Communism but was more about independence, the label "Communism" is no more than a label than does not fit all sizes and shapes. To many extreme rightist fascist dictatorships have cloaked their selves in the name of "anti-communist" to justify regimes and actions which suppressed freedom and democracy.

Chaing Kai-Shek did this with his Nationalist Kuomintang government, both in China before World War II and thereafter in Taiwan. He hijacked the revolution begun by Sun Yat-Sen and murdered his allies in the war against Japan (the Communists) as well as installed a corrupt dictatorship which stole billions and billions of dollars intended as US aid to fight the Japanese, US aid to help China, and finally, US aid to Taiwan. At the same time, he brooked no dissent, suppressed opposition groups, and tolerated no individual freedoms.

At the same time, a fact that we in America are now facing because of economic necessity but should have recognized due to factual accuracy and moral integrity, the Chinese Communist Party did represent the people of China and their legitimate interests. It was the will of the People of China that the Communists took over China, as Sun Yat-Sen would have envisioned (as a reformer and revolutionary.)

America supported many dictators in the fight against "Communism," only to have the people of the governed and eventually our own people pay the price. We did this with the Shah in Iran. We did this with Pinochet and Batista in South America. In China, this would be phrased an “error to the right” or an act supporting fascism which is inconsistent with our own values and political system. Slavery and the discrimination and exploitation of minorities were acts of extreme civil rights abuses (again inconsistent with our own Bill or Rights and thus our own political, legal, and social values) and were again “errors of the right.” The misuse of political processes and the power of the government (i.e. police riot at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, the Kent State massacres, the failure to investigate and prosecute civil rights violations, and even recently, racial profiling scandals) all constitute errors of the right.” Unfortunately, America’s errors on the right are so numerous and continuing (and many relatively unknown – the complicity of America in giving safe passage and/or immunity to Japanese war criminals and Nazis whose horrific scientific research was deemed beneficial to American interests after World War II) that they cannot be listed.

An “error on the right” is when one, in order to resist change or those who would force change upon us, we commit an act which is repugnant to one’s inherent political and moral values. An “error on the left” is, in when the desire for change causes overzealous actions which are also repugnant to one’s inherent political and moral values. Because China needed to and did change so much, her errors were more on the “left” while our prosperous country tended to commit errors on the “right.” China’s political history is wrongly disproportionally associated and thought of in connection with her errors on the right. Unfortunately, to be newsworthy, a story has to be compelling and interesting. Stories about hundreds of millions of people getting an education, eating well, and receiving health care are not news worthy, even when they would not have received these basic necessities absent some event or occurrence. But like the death of a toddler at the hands of her mother in Orlando or the death of a Pop Star at the hands of his doctor in Los Angeles, scandals sell newspapers. So China’s “errors on the left” make the news, while little else about China does. The story of Lin Zhou is one of China’s errors on the left which did not make any news.

Lin Zhou was one of the prettiest, smartest, dedicated, and most charismatic Communist Party (the “Party”) Members (or “Party Cadres”), even though she was one of its youngest and a low-level member. She sought to follow the true spirit and "soul" of the Party, for which she was ultimately imprisoned, punished, tortured, and ultimately executed.

Such a premise may seem odd in a Blog which begins with the story of Lin Zhou. The mere mention of her name would have once labeled me as a critic of China and the Party. But times have changed for the better in China, while they have failed to change at best, or changed for the worst, in America. But it is really a search not for her soul, but to for the soul of the Party to which she was once devoted and ultimately destroyed her, as well as the soul of America's two party system. It is a dynamic analysis. For too often, American’s focus on what was (the America we once were and the China that once was) and fail to see that each are evolving in different ways, the former for the worse and the later for the better.

Those who know of Lin Zhou's story who work for the Party may cringe at the mere mention of her name. But there is much to learn from her story and the changes in China since her story, as well as the changes in America since that time. While China has reformed and progressed, America has stagnated and regressed.

At the time of Lin Zhou, China was labeled by the West as a land of Communist Repression and Oppression. Capitalism was viewed as the keystone of Democracy. But these were arbitrary labels made my mere humans who neither understood the Party and its history nor the repression and oppression that Capitalism would ultimately bring to America. "Capitalism" in America is really a misnomer. The definition has changed over the years. Capitalism once allowed and promoted slavery. For a while after that, while slavery was abolished, Capitalism flourished on the continued discrimination of Black Americans and also of other minorities, such as that of the immigrants who flocked to the new world. Our abundant fee and cheap natural resources gave out economy (and the phrase “Capitalism”) a distinct competitive advantage. China was, at the time America was settled, far more culturally and intellectually advanced., albeit far poorer and more populated. She was also surrounded by hostile foreign enemies, as she had been since her inception, unlike America which was virtually an isolated fortress. Now “Capitalism” stands for nothing more than unashamed greed. But a look beyond the surface and a look to the future is warranted.

Lin Zhou was a party member who engaged in land distribution and executed oppressive landlords. Why should her courage and brilliance not be part of the legacy of the Party? There were many Lin Zhous in the Communist Party, forgotten or never recognized. We all know the names of a handful of top Communist Party officials, most of whom went on the Long March, but there were thousands of people on that heroic march, including thousands who never had a chance at greatness because they perished, often heroically, and tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, who risked their lives and suffered to create an egalitarian society in a feudal land with more class distinction and class oppression then any country elsewhere in the world. A country where women were worth less than the family dog, and where foreign countries contributed to the social oppression through military and economic invasion and interference. A land invaded by the Japanese and their foreign dictatorship (where again, the Chinese were viewed as inferior to the pet dog). A land where as many as 40% of the people had been addicted to opium as a result of the British importation of that drug from India and their invasion of China to secure the right to sell that drug (against the will of the authorities who wanted to ban the sale and distribution of the drug). This was the status of China up until World War II, which is extremely recently. The changes in China must be viewed in the context of the time required for evolution and development. The Party has been in charge for less than a century. In America, slavery was legal for a century even after the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

It is especially hard to painful to write this Blog as I face my own legal troubles due to the failure of those in charge to follow the "Rule of Law". I have done nothing wrong, but have stood up for the truth and demanded that those responsible follow the "rule of law." As a result, I have been punished and lost much. Even my children have suffered at the hands of a system who blames the innocent victims rather than accept that it is flawed.

It seems that China is not the only country where people are imprisoned (more so in China’s past) for demanding that the authorities follow the rule of law. I pray that I will have the strength of Lin Zhou and sacrifice my own self-interests for the pursuit of truth and to demand that those in power follow the law.

The progress made by the Party in a relatively short period of time is remarkable. Why is the legacy of the Party tied to certain leaders (despite their mistakes) and not to the actions of the entire membership of the party, and their accomplishments and the actions of many other leaders who did nothing but sacrifice everything for China on behalf of the Party? Why is China judged by the actions of a mere handful of Party officials, almost all of whom are now dead? How will dead men affect China’s future. Since their death, the change in China has been almost instantaneous.

Before I say more, who was Lin Zhou? I have read so many many books about China, both banned in China and also sold and promoted in China. I have read of her accomplishments and of criticisms of her (China). I have read of her cities and people. I have travelled throughout China, and made many friends there. I have known love there, and the love of my life resides there as a native Chinese citizen. Yet I never heard of Lin Zhou.

Yet Lin Zhou had a remarkable ability to make people fall in love with her. But what is "love?" The Party has posthumously rehabilitated people. Can others posthumously fall in love with someone?

It is even harder because, I love and revere China, her people, her history, her culture and even her government, yes the Chinese Communist Party. Yet, in writing this, I am faced to confront one of the darkest moments in that Party's history. It is my hope to reconcile that dark chapter, and some dismal chapters which follow, with her bright and brilliant future. I can only hope that some enlightened readers will understand that I seek not to destroy or criticize the Party, nor to betray America, but to recognize all that it is and was and give it and us a guide for the future. For no one can deny China is a dynamic fast moving country with inherent contradictions. It has engaged in economic reform, for example, but has been criticized (often unfairly) for resisting democratic reform. [More on that later, because resisting democratic reform is not necessarily bad, one has to understand what "democratic" means in real life – and there in fact has been substantial democratic reform in China.]

Chairman Mao was a contradiction. One the one hand, he decried the ancient system of Confucius and many of the old ways, old books, etc., yet he followed many of the examples of Confucius and learned much from the past. He as an avid promoter of Wei Qi, and it is said he made his generals learn the game. A wise move, as some of the most effective military strategies have parallels to Wei Qi, strategies which Mao himself successfully employed.

But I am in love with Lin Zhou. At least the account of her. Her picture is beautiful. I will bring it with me to prison for inspiration, if I am allowed. Her story is even more addictive. Let me state that, with all my reading, all my Chinese friends, all my travels in China, I have never heard of Lin Zhou. What I know of her is from the last book I read by Philip P. Pan titled Out of Mao's Shadow. The chapters about Lin Zhou were extremely compelling. It was an interesting book with many compelling stories and a lot of points, many accurate and some with which I disagree, but like so many facts, capable of leading to different albeit logical conclusions.

Author Pan did not know Lin Zhou either. But he met and wrote about an unemployed underground documentary film maker named Hu Jie, a hero in his own right, who also never met Lin Zhou. Hu Jie heard about Lin Zhou's persecution under Mao's Anti-Rightest campaign and became obsessed, perhaps in love, with Lin Zhou, even though she was long dead before he ever heard of her. It appears she was executed in the 1968, when I was six years old. I have never even seen this documentary, and suspect it is in Chinese, but am desperate to obtain a copy. Perhaps a reader of this Blog can help me. It is probably in Chinese, so I will have to watch it with a translator.

So who was Lin Zhou? Why are we searching for her soul, and what does this search have to do with the search for the soul of the Chinese Communist Party? What does the analysis of the Party’s role in the Lin Zhou story and how it has changed (for example how it changed as exemplified by the benign treatment of Hu Jie) tell us about its future, and what does that say for America? How can this search lead the Party to follow the "correct party line" and resume its role as the legitimate representative of the people of China? You see the story of Lin Zhou appears, at the surface to be a criticism of the Party in China. It is certainly perceived as such by the Party. But it is not. Lin Zhou was a true Chinese Communist Cadre. She participated in the re-distribution of land and the execution of the oppressive landlord class. She did so with pride and without regret. She should be held up as an example of the very rare and extreme bravery, intelligence and integrity of the Chinese people and the Party Cadres. Many view her as a one who betrayed the party. In truth, the party betrayed Lin Zhou, but did so during an aberrant time when the Party had gone astray.

Even hard line party members recognize the injustices done during the rule of Chairman Mao, especially during the anti-Rightist movement and then again during the Cultural Revolution. These injustices were aberrations in the Party, not the essential direction, soul, and “party line” of the Party. The actions of the people who perpetrated these injustices were those who betrayed the Party by seeking to put their own welfare in front of that of the people of China and the Chinese Communist Party. Fortunately, they are gone from power, and the party has evolved, like every major country, including America (who sanctioned slavery for over a century).

So much of what follows comes directly from the book by Mr. Pan which in turn comes from the work of Hu Jie. The credit comes for the facts goes to them. But the quest for the truth entitles me to steal their efforts and discuss them. For the right to freedom of speech, the quest to improve society, and the need to fight for social justice is the most paramount law that I respect. Other laws made by man, like copyright laws, are just that, "Man Made" and thus arbitrary and second to a higher need.

Lin Zhao was a young woman who grew up in Suzhou, not far from Nanjing. She was born "Peng Lingzhao" in 1932. In physical appearance, she was a true beauty. The personification of a beautiful Chinese girl, who was described by Pan as "pretty and still girlish, a slender young woman who wore white blouses under tailored workman’s overalls and braided her hair in long pigtails with ribbons tied to the end."

But her physical characteristics were the least of her attributes. From the outset, she was described has having a sharp tongue, quick wit and filled with graceful poetry." She was also as devoted to the Communist Party.

In the early 1950's she worked in a land reform team that dismantled the unequal system of land ownership, abusive rents, and high taxes that had enslaved the Chinese population for centuries if not millenniums. Often, the tenants, who had suffered so severely at the hands of the landlords, would beat or torture the oppressive landlords, occasionally to death. Women were also given property for the first time. Before the automatic reaction of modern people at hearing of the death of landlords, it is essential to understand that the landlords in ancient China had great wealth and power which they used and abused to torment, enslave, impoverish, humiliate, and degrade their tenants in abusive ways which are beyond the comprehension of our modern society. That the land reform and executions were justified is not in question and needs to be judge not by today’s standards but by the conditions and time and standards of the time. Chaing Kai-shek, the supposed representative of democracy, was in fact an oppressive tyrant who was more oppressive and murderous then the Communists were every accused of. Her allowed the Opium trade to continue, and condoned and participated in the abuse of women, abuse which was tantamount to slavery and forced prostitution.

The beautiful and smart Lin Zhou was a dedicated cadre and unapologetically actively participated in the land reform as a member of the Party. In 1954, Lin Zhou took the national college entrance exam and achieved the highest score from her Jiangsu Province. She was admitted to the prestigious Beijing (Peeking) University [known as "Beida"] to study Chinese literature. She distinguished herself not just because she was the youngest member of her class, the smartest, or the prettiest or even the most popular, but because she seemed "different," more daring, and more "stylish." She as blunt and had a "cutting intellect and dialogue.”

Then came the "Hundred Flowers Movement," initiated by Chairman Mao himself. He felt that the party had drifted away from the people it served. He had witnessed uprisings in Poland and Hungry in 1956 and was concerned that discontent, especially among China's intellectuals, could lead to an erosion of the Party's control and influence in China. To allow students and other intellectuals to "let off some steam" he ordered the Party Cadres to encourage people to express their dissatisfaction with the Chinese Government. The chairman proclaimed, “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools contend." As a loyal Party Cadre, Lin Zhou complied and urged her fellow students to air their discontent. She even co-authored a beautiful and inspiring poem urging her fellow students to air their grievances and to not be afraid to do so.

Chairman Mao grossly miscalculated the amount of discontent and the subsequent explosion of discord. It posed a serious threat to the legitimacy, power and control of the Party. The students who aired their criticisms and suggestions also miscalculated the consequences of airing their discontent, even despite the promises and urging of the Party.

Mao commenced, first secretly, the Anti-Rightist campaign. Second only to the Cultural Revolution in the oppression and upheaval inflicted on China, those who had expressed criticism or discontent began to be attacked. At one debate which was part of the Hundred Flowers campaign, one of the people who had been urged to offer suggestions and criticisms of the Party, a friend of Lin Zhou's, Zhang Yuanxun, started to discuss his opinions, when he began to be attacked and berated by Party thugs.

Lynn Zhou jumped to the defense of the critic and hushed the shouting students. She boldly and daringly denounced the thugs and said,

"Aren’t we calling on people outside the party to offer suggestions? When they didn't we [the Party] pushed them again and again to speak up. So when they finally do, why do we fly into a rage? Take Zhang Yuanxun. He isn't a party member, or even a member of the Youth League. He wrote that poem [critical of the Party], but is that enough for these people to get so angry and rise up like this to attack him?

What kind of meeting are we having tonight? Is it a meeting for speeches or a struggle session? It shouldn't be a struggle session, because we don't need to denounce anyone. Who are we denouncing? Zhang Yuanxun? Why should we denounce him? You sirs [the party thugs] who spoke just now, I know all of you. You are all Party Members in the Chinese literature department."

This was, apparently, the beginning of the break between Lin Zhou and the Party. She had followed the Party's instructions, and encouraged others to criticize the Party. She had assured the critics, as the Party had assured her, that there would be no repercussions for the airing of dissention. Now that the Party was betraying its assurances to the critics, and Lynn Zhou was caught in the middle. On the one side was her loyalty to the Party and its new direction to punish the critics. On the other side was the promises she had made to the critics on behalf of the Party that they would not be punished and that the party wanted the airing of dissention and suggestions.

Mao formally commenced the Anti-Rightist campaign, and began labeling and punishing those critics as Rightists. Many Party Cadres decided that the Party was right all along in tricking the dissenters. Mao argued that the deception was necessary to expose enemies of the Party. Others resolved the conflict between their conscious and their loyalty to the Party by following the course which as in their best interests, going with the Party.

Lin Zhou stood alone and followed her conscious despite the obvious peril. She found the Anti-Rightist campaign sickening. She saw the Party's behavior as a betrayal of those who trusted it the most.

She could have escaped criticism and any serious punishment as her role had been limited and she had been following Party orders. But her conscious tortured her at the thought of those who had listened to her and to her Party being punished for doing what the party had requested. She became more defiant. She refused to admit any wrongdoing and continued in defense of the critics (who were now labeled as Rightists). In China, the easiest way to mitigate the punishment of a political crime was to admit your wrongdoing and to condemn and/or implicate others. During the Cultural Revolution, people who confessed and offered a "self-criticism" were often freed from prison or elsewhere while those who refused were held indefinitely.

Years later, Nien Cheng [see Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng] was held in Shanghai prison for many years because she refused to confess and offer self-criticisms when in fact she was completely innocent of any wrongdoing and the authorities had no interest in her or her alleged crimes. The real target was a much higher Party official, perhaps Zhou Enlai himself, who had approved certain aspects of the industry she worked in. She was accused of treasonous activities because she worked for a foreign firm which in reality had operated in accordance with Chinese law, rules, and regulations and had nothing to do with espionage. Certain Party officials (perhaps reaching to Zhou Enlai himself] had approved these foreign firms to operate in China. Had she confessed that they, and her, were engaged in espionage, the inquiry and accusations would have gone further up to those who had approved their operation. Once having confessed, Nien Cheng would have been rehabilitated. Nien Cheng paid a terrible price for her defiance. In addition to the physical torture and years in prison, her daughter as murdered by thugs who either wanted her to pressure her mother to confess or to provide information condemning her mother.

Lin Zhou also refused to admit wrongdoing or to denounce Zhang and others who had been labeled as Rightists. But Lin Zhou was a Party official. And she was popular, outspoken, and willing to speak her mind in public and even in prison. And her talent at speaking and winning people over made her real threat to the party. Her persistence, in the face of almost suicidal danger, made her a serious threat to the Party. There is even some evidence that Chairman Mao himself may have visited Lin Zhou in prison and threatened and berated her. That could not be proven.

There is much more to the Lin Zhou story. All of it is even more heartbreaking, at least cumulatively. There is the part about how she was isolated in prison to keep the other prisoners from hearing her protests. There is the part about how her pen was taken away so she couldn't write her protest letters, so instead she wrote them by cutting her finger on broken glass and wrote her letters in blood. I could tell you much more, and perhaps tears would well up in your eyes like they do in mine. Perhaps you would also want to keep a picture of Lin Zhou so that she would never be forgotten, as I do. But I have borrowed enough from Mr. Pan's book who in turn got much of his material from Hu Jie's documentary.

The Party was divided over Lin Zhou. There were many who tried to help her. Some were severely punished themselves. More severely than Lin Zhou would have been had she simply confessed early on. One official reported, off the record, that some had lost their lives trying to protect Lin Zhou.

Word of her execution was made public only when a policeman appeared at Lin Zhou's mother's doorstep and demanded a five-fen fee. He explained that it was the cost of the bullet that had been used to execute Lin Zhou. Five Fen was the equivalent of less than a penny, but this was the Chinese way. I do not condemn it. I condemn the execution of Lin Zhou and the way her family was notified.

But, decades ago, this story would have been viewed as a virulent attack on the Party. But things have opened up in China, and even Hu Jie was allowed to make his film. Two State Security officials had been questioning his friends for some time about Hu Jie. He finally received a knock at his door in 2005, and his film was already an underground success. One officer told Hu Jie that there were many stories like Lin Zhou's across the country, and that people like Lin Zhou were victims of an "Error of the Left." The State Security officials’ criticism was that there was no use talking about such stories because no one would ever be held responsible. They also questioned Hu Jie on why his films dwelled on the negative.

But that as the extent of the Party's intervention with Hu Jie. A frank, friendly, and honest discussion. No beatings. No forced interrogation. No threats. No attempts at censorship. Most importantly, no imprisonment.

While this was no renewal of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Hu Jie's film, and the Party's tolerance of it, can be viewed as a single yet big and beautiful flower. Just as Hu Jie was looking for the soul of Lin Zhou, had the Party found its soul? Had it ever totally lost it. I would argue yes and no, respectively.

It is clear that, many years ago, there were many "Errors of the left." The Tiananmen square massacre may have been the last significant error "Of the left." In the west, we don't view it as an "Error of the left" but as an act of a dictatorship suppressing its people. That is a simplistic and incorrect analysis altered by media coverage. I do not defend the death of the students. But it was not the action of the entire Party. Most certainly, it is not the actions of the Party which rules China today. There is no doubt that Chairman Mao often exercised the powers of a dictator and used them to suppress his people. Yet, to condemn the entire Party of today and its current rule for the actions of a few dead leaders is a grave error and absolutely unfair.

Lin Zhou was a Party member. Should she be condemned for her membership and the Party not given credit for having members like her? Liu Shaoqi was a high ranking Party member (second in hierarchy only to Chairman Mao). He stood up for the people of China and sought to bring the party in line with the interests of the people. He paid with his life as well for his efforts, as Chairman Mao viewed his criticisms and concerns as a threat to Mao's authority and legacy. Deng Xiaoping was a high ranking Party member, and he paid dearly during the cultural revolution. Once rehabilitated, after Mao's death, he did so very much to reform, liberalize and open China up to the West.

During Mao's rule, it was impossible to communicate with the West or to receive information from the West. Now almost every Chinese person, even many poor ones, have cell phones that can call America. I can walk down any block in China and, for a minimal payment, purchase a cheap phone and pre-paid Sim Card and then call America without anyone knowing who I am. I can receive information and share information without any fear of anything. The internet and e-mail are prolific. Less anyone be concerned in my next trip to China about my use of the cellular system, my phone calls are almost exclusively to my family to ascertain their health and happiness. I occasionally call my divorce lawyer to find out the status of my own oppression at the hands of the American Justice System.

How can the Party be accused of suppressing information when it has allowed this to occur?

The Tiananmen Square massacre is used as an example that "nothing has changed in China." But again, such criticism frankly, totally incorrect. First, the Tiananmen Square (which occurred more than two decades ago) protest began as the mourning of the death of Hu Yaobang, a former Party leader and also a reformer of China. But who was Hu? Not only a high ranking Party member, but also a survivor (in fact he was injured) of the Long March, the Party's heroic and triumphant escape from the tyranny of Chiang Kai-Shek (a corrupt dictator) and which ultimately led to the Party’s liberation of China, the emancipation of women and the liberation of the Peasants. In fact, there were many heroic high level Party leaders on that Long March who were eventually persecuted. Liu Shaoqi, as previously noted. Peng Dehua1, He Long, Deng Xiaoping, and countless others. Thousands more died heroically on the March and there are lost.

Zhou Enlai, considered one of the greatest statesman of all times, was a Party Member and a leader in the Long March. What were the Communists doing on that March, and did it reflect the interests of the Chinese people. Absolutely. They redistributed land and gave people who were living in abject poverty a means to make a living while punishing a cruel and oppressive landlord class (people who would be convicted of major crimes in America had they done here what they were doing in China like torture, rape, murder, false imprisonment, slavery). They freed and educated women who were sold as child brides to be the literal property of their "in laws" destined to toil in slavery of the fields of their in-laws, clean their clothes and filth, and perform the most degrading and menial tasks even at very young ages. Beatings and degradation of these young woman were the norm, not the exception. It mattered not if the intended husband even lived to marry the child bride. She was still the property of her in-laws. She could even be sold as a concubine or worse. Many young girls and baby girls were murdered as considered useless and burdens. The Party stopped that and gave these girls freedom, education, and equality. They ended the pervasive and highly destructive trade in Opium. They did in a few short years more than America did in the hundreds of years it took just to emancipate the slaves, not that they were truly free and equal after the civil war. We are still fighting, and loosing, a war on drugs which is almost identical to the war the Chinese Emperors fought for two hundred years but which was won in a few short years by the Party.

China is often criticized for having a "one party" rule while we are indoctrinated to believe that the two party system is so much better. Yet our two party system has paralyzed our country and stopped our progress, including in the area of social justice. In the time that our Congress was debating the issues of slavery, the Communists were liberating the women and peasants. It took America, and its endless congressional debates, until the LBJ administration to enact the Civil Rights Act, which was not effectively enforced for even decades longer (and some would say enforcement is still lacking).

The decision to use violence in Tiananmen also split the party, and was opposed by Zhao Ziyang, then the leader of China. Force as only able to be used because Zhao was in North Korea when the decision was made (and it was made in his absence). Back then, the decision to use violence was promoted by some hardliners who were hold outs from the era of Mao. They are all dead now, as is Chairman Mao. Even Deng Xiaoping, who ultimately endorsed the decision to use force against the Tiananmen protestors, and thus possibly tarnished his splendid reputation as a liberal reformer, is deceased. It also must be understood that Comrade Deng was being fed misinformation by some hardliners and also had suffered greatly during the political instability of the Cultural Revolution. It seems he may have mistaken the protests and turmoil in Tiananmen square for the type of instability which led to the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution, and a repeat in China of this period could not be tolerated, as all reasonable minds would be agree.

Yet the Party and system of government is now attacked for its one party rule and the past errors of a few dead men who deviated from the “True Party Line.” Not only are the actions and leadership of Lin Zhou, Zhou Enlai, Zhou Ziyang, Hu Yaobang and so many others, and countless of other unknown Cadres forgotten and ignored in this criticism, but this criticism is flawed for so many different reasons.

First, to put it in the politically correct terms of those Chinese Security Personnel who interviewed Hu Jie, there were "many errors of the left." That some of these errors may have been committed by such people as even Chairman Mao does not mean that they were not aberrations of the system of government in China.

All governments have their aberrant leaders. In America, where we have our beloved two party system, we had to impeach our own President, Richard Nixon.

Philip Pan points out in his book several examples of more recent injustice and the failure of Party officials to follow the rule of law in the cities, provinces, and countries. But he ignores the fact that these Party Officials are deviating from Central Party directives. For example, he notes that the use of coercive methods to comply with China's birth control program was banned by the Central Party Government. But he points out that in some areas, local Party leaders still use those coercive methods. He implicitly indites the entire party for the aberrant actions of some local minor party leaders. This is grossly unfair. The policy of the Party is set by Beijing. Often these officials are punished, denied promotions, etc. It is not the Party or the one party rule which is to blame, but instead, those minor officials who deviate from the Party Line.

The same goes for the plight of the farmers and peasants. Beijing has tried to grant relief. Many of the injustices perpetuated were caused by regional party bosses who deviated from Beijing’s directions and orders, including on such matters as taxation. Other times, the local Party Cadres were simply corrupt and stole. But to condemn the Chines Communist Party, and its one party system, on the basis of the actions and injustices perpetuated by a few low level crooks who deviated from the Party Line is grossly unfair to China, the Party, and her system of Government.

Any argument that the two party system enjoyed in America is an answer to such injustice is severely misplaced. For one, it ignores the fact that in many local counties and cities, there is no effective "two party rule." Many counties and cities are entirely dominated by a single party, who exercises its power with no less oppression, corruption, cronyism and wrongdoing than in China.

I have lost everything by a lawyer and Judge who blatantly flaunted the evidence and rule of law because both my “prosecutor [my ex-wife’s lawyer] were Republican cohorts in a county which was Republican controlled. I was attacked for exercising my constitutional right to campaign against this Republican lawyer who was running for Judge by the Republican Judge who was deciding the case. As a result of this and other injustices committed by this duo, I have been stripped of everything in flagrant violation of the legal procedures and substantive law which any law student would comprehend.

In what is probably the most recent sever example of the abject failure of America's two party rule, Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich (one of the highest elected officials in one of America's most important state) was sentenced to 14 years on prison for corruption in office,

He had 18 corruption charges, including, incredibly, trying to sell the Senate seat made vacant when President Obama was elected.

They are many other corrupt, hypocritical and despicable people who enjoy power and reputation in America despite tremendous wrongdoing. Take Ralph Reed and his misconduct with Jack Abramoff (mentioned in another Blog) when he betrayed his own constituents and took money in return for lobbying for repugnant issues, such as the perpetuation of slave labor in Saipan.

Second, even assuming those involved in America's two party system don't break the law, don't act slow in correcting such social injustices, one has only to look at the recent paralysis in Congress. Passing a simple two month extension on a minor tax break turned into a major political crisis. We are paralyzed while China moves forward. We have all but given hope on such issues as social welfare and balanced budgets. Our elected officials care only about being reelected, getting more power, or promoting fanatical causes which are contrary to the principles enshrined in the United States Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

Obviously, in this short article, I can only mention but a few examples of people and occurrences in China. Suffice it to say that there were many more Lin Zhou stories, but many many more Cadres who devoted their lives and showed extreme devotion, bravery and selflessness towards the betterment of China through the Communist Party's egalitarian goals. Lin Zhou was also one of them.

I can also only mention a few of the countless examples of social and legal injustice in America, both current and historic. There are many examples of social and legal injustice that have existed for the more than two hundred years that America has existed, and I would warrant, economic oppression still exists here as does the aberrant rule of many government officials.

On the other hand, the Chinese Communist Party has governed for less than a hundred years, and due to the "errors on the left" and (I apologize for saying it, the rule of Chairman Mao who often deviated from the correct Party Line) China would have progressed and reformed even faster.

Yet our country stagnates and is in fact regressing, in my opinion.

So let's talk about lost souls. Whose souls were lost and when. Lin Zhou lost her life but her soul lives on in eternity through her actions and her deeds. It has not disappeared. Her story was almost lost to the obscurity which swallowed up the names and many of the heroic Party cadres, but all of their souls live on through their actions and deeds.

The Party started out with a soul that was unmatched by any group in history that I can recall. Even General Washington’s troops suffered less and showed less devotion to the cause of democracy then the Cadres on the Long March. The Party appeared to have lost its soul through the actions of some aberrant Party members, like those who persecuted Lin Zhou, caused the Anti-Rightist Movement, and finally the Cultural Revolution. But to conclude that the party lost its soul would be to ignore the Cadres, including the high ranking Party members, that stayed loyal to the principles of the Party, even when such loyalty and integrity, such as Lin Zhou's and Liu Shaoqi’s, cost them their lives, reputations, and/or careers.

The Party of today seems to be more promising then every, with a bright, energetic and well intentioned leadership, from the Politburo, its standing committee, to the Central Committee itself. The injustices, disturbances, and protests, which are published in Western publications seem to be local disturbances caused by aberrant local and regional party officials who deviate from the Party Line and principles, not by those who follow the true guidelines and principles of the Party itself and its leadership.

I remain very optimistic about the future of China, especially under the rule of the Central Party leadership. When I visit China, I am amazed at the cleanliness, safety, and modernization of China, not to mention its economic prosperity. The social conscious and generosity of the Chinese is almost entirely absent from America. People talk about freedom in China. I have never felt freer then when in China. While it is true that I don't stand on a street corner with a bullhorn advocating some crazed political cause, I don't do that in America, either. The day I wrote this, two "Occupy America" non-violent protests were forcibly dismantled and disbanded (with accompanying arrests). Where is our freedom of assembly, protest, and speech in this land of liberty? They were protesting social and economic injustice, and in our land of “Freedom of Speech” they were arrested and censored.

Today, the Republican Primary in Florida was held. While the field of candidates has narrowed some, and Romney and Gingrich seem to be the front runners, it seems that there is not a single Republican candidate with a soul. They are all selfish self-promoters with no legitimate agendas, other than the agendas of greed and religious fanaticism, and thus without souls. The same goes for Congress, who has paralyzed our political process and ability to move forward with their concern for re-election.

While China builds the Three Georges Damn, we could not build a public works project if it would require the demolition of a few rich suburbanites’ swimming pools. George Bush, and his policies of invasion, torture, and fiscal irresponsibility was the worst politician and most soulless leader who violated the rule of law, including the Bill of Rights [i.e. the Patriot Act, “Torture Light, Abu Ghraib, and the rendition of suspected terrorists], to an extent equal to the worst criticism of China at its worst.

President Obama is our last hope, the only politician still standing with a soul. If he is not reelected and given a congressional mandate such that he can pass the desperately needed legislation he supports, then America's two party system will truly have lost its soul. The question will then become, how can we state that our two party system, which is frozen and stalemated, is better than China one-party system which is moving forward dynamically and impressively. Even applying moral and philosophical principles, how can we criticize China’s one party system on democratic or legal principles when our system is an abject failure. It is true that both countries need to enforce the “Rule of Law” especially at local and regional levels. But to condemn China, her system of government, is absolutely self-serving and wrong.

Lin Zhou is dead, but fortunately not forgotten. Her soul lives on as an inspiration to us all, in every country. In China, we would state that she leads to the conclusion that errors on the right and of the left must be avoided, and the correct Party Line must be followed. In America, we need to understand that there is as much lawlessness and injustice at the hands of our government as that which caused Lin Zhou’s death. Innocent people are executed from death row. By sheer luck, the West Memphis Three were finally freed after two decades in prison (one who was on death row).

We must also follow her soul as a guidepost for speaking up against lawlessness and oppression, especially at the hands of Judges, Prosecutors, Police, and elected officials. To modify a quote from one of my favorite movies, “When a criminal breaks the law, there is nothing worse than simple lawlessness which is expected, common, and has occurred from the earliest days of recorded history. But when those charged with enforcing the law break the law or refuse to enforce it, there is no law.” That is an unacceptable tragedy, and applies in both countries. Lin Zhou sought to follow the law, even when the Party sought her to deviate from it during an aberrant period. Her rare and unprecedented actions and deeds show us how we ought to behave, in each country, as individual citizens regardless of our respective nationalities, and as citizens of a humane world.

Lynn Zhou, you are not forgotten, and you are still admired and respected. You serve as an inspiration to us all. Your soul lives on in the soul of people of good conscious everywhere.
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Soros Ginsberg Agree - Republicans are Obstructing the Recovery

2012-02-13T13:30:00.003-05:00

In my Blog Post of July 28, 2011 [more than six months ago], I accused Republicans of Treason and obstruction because they were putting their own political careers and interest in destroying the Democratic Party and President Obama. In an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN in a program titled "GPS" Billionaire and knowledgeable economist and investor George Soros said exactly the same thing [without using the word treason]. He said that Republicans will not want to see a recovery until after the elections, and were out to destroy the democratic party instead of putting the interest of the United States first.

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World Must Heed the Call For Armed Intervention In Syria

2012-02-13T13:11:00.006-05:00

On December 25, 2011, I called for armed intervention in Syria in my Blog Post, which you can read in this Blog.

It is almost two months later, and the massacre has only escalated, The Syrians are arming themselves, to the extent they can, with rifles and machine guns against tanks and artillery. The massacre of civilians has not only continued, but it has escalated, even despite the temporary presence of the Arab League.

Now as the country descends into civil war, the world has itself to blame. Analysts, politicians, and commentators refer to the "Tipping Point" at which opposition to the regime outweighs its support, and the military and others in power begin defecting to the opposition. But as Elliott Abrams has pointed out in a recent interview on CNN, if the violence continues for too long, the time will pass for a peaceful reorganization of the country and there will be to many deaths and to much "blood spilled" for a peaceful ending.

It should already be noted that Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad has already attempted to blame the opposition for the violence, citing two car bomb attacks on government buildings. While the people responsible have not yet been determined, and it is not beyond comprehension for a murderous dictator to create an attack against his regime to justify war (Hitler did it before he invaded Poland by creating a false attack on German border patrol which was really carried out by SS soldiers in Polish uniforms), it matters not who is really responsible.

What does al-Assad expect as he shoots, and now uses tanks and artillery to indiscriminately kill (what is now estimated to exceed) a hundred innocent civilians a day?

Of course, the Syrian opposition will eventually use force to attempt to stop the murder of innocent civilians and topple the regime. If car bombs are the most effective weapon they have, then they will use them. They were certainly effective against US forces in Iraq (although condem their use in that war).

We need to remember that the Syrian Opposition movement started as a non-violent exercise of freedom of speach and freedom of association to opposie a rutheless, corrupt, and murderous dictatorship. It is the actions of al-Assad, the inaction and apathy of the world, and the collusion of Iran and Russia, which will necessitate the violence.

I believe in legal non-violent opposition and resistence. Ghandi, King, and Egypt showed us that this works. But that is not the same as self-defense. It is predictable, if not inevitable, that the Syrian pro-democracy groups will need to defend themselves. We (the world) must intervene to stop the violence and prevent Syria from sliding into a violent civil war.

Since the entire world feels the same way, the United States need not and should not shoulder the burden as it has in so many efforts. Furthermore, in today's "high tech" world of warfare, minimal effort with no "boots on the ground" are necessary (as they were not necessary in Libya).

Since Syria is the principal ally of Iran (our main enemy in the region and the cause of world instability and a principal sponsor of worldwide terrorism), and since Syria is a supporter of Hezbollah, it is hard to see how the demise of the current Syrian regime is not in the best interests of the United States (not that this should be our main motivation for intervention).

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My Blog Readers Hit The Ten Thousand Mark

2012-01-20T03:59:00.009-05:00

My Blog Readers Hit The Ten Thousand Mark (since I started counting)
我的博客读者达到一万大关（自从我开始计算）
Мои читатели блога Hit Ten Thousand Марк (так как я начал считать)
هيت القراء مدونتي وعشرة آلاف مارك (منذ بدأت العد)
Translations at the End ترجمة في نهاية Переводы в конце 最后的翻译 תרגומים סוף
Thank you to all of my readers who now exceed Ten Thousand (10,000) [and that is since I just started counting]. I also have several more thousand readers on my nearly identical, but slightly inferior, copy of my blog (a mirror blog) on WordPress.com [click here to go there]. I have created this second Blog because I was warned that some countries do not allow their citizens to access Google's Blogger on the Internet.

I am starting two separate Blogs because the topics are different. One deals with one of the subjects I was writing about in my book, legal injustice. The other is a lighter one dealing with entertainment and culture, more specifically TV, Movies, Books, and Music. Click Here to Go to That Blog or type the URL which is http://ginsbergentertainment.blogspot.com/

The injustice, bias, and incompetence in our legal system as experienced by me in my divorce. It is a story of how a child can be abused an no one cares, no one does anything. People who have taken oaths turn their back on those oaths and fail to exercise the duties of their jobs. People who violate their ethical obligations, whether they be lawyers, judges, social workers, etc.

While I am writing about my story (it was already part of a far more comprehensive book titled A White Tear in Red China started over a decade ago about my experiences as a lawyer in out absurd legal system), I have found that my story is, unfortunately, the story of all to many other people.

The second Blog is about a lighter subject. I wanted to comment on Books, TV shows, music, and other cultural areas which I find either to be very worth while or to be overrated and, despite having many viewers, makes me question the taste, education, morality and/or amount of free time of the viewers as well as the greed of the network and other entertainment executives who air such trash at all. The Kardashian shows (Keeping up with the Kardashians, Kloe and Lamar, and Kourtney and Kim Take New York) and the Jersey Shore on MTV.

I am reluctant to mention these shows at all, because, as they say, "Any press is better than no Press." But the Kardahsian shows are so bad, such a waste of time, that I wonder how anyone can possibly watch them. It is a sad inditement of E Television to air them. If they have any significance, it is how so much can be created from so little. The shamelss and constant "self promotion of Kris Jenner and the Kardashian children. What an embarrasment to the legacy of the deceased ex-husband of Kris Jenner and of the Kardashian Children, Robert Kardashian, a lawyer who did make something of his life.

The Kardashians are significant in that it is amazing that their fame and income spirals (Kim was crying because she lost an earing which cost her Seventy Five ($75,000.00) Dollars at the same time the Republicans call people like her "Job Creators" and oppose tax increases that would tax her and reduce the size of her earing and jewlery collection because she is somehow a "job creator."

As Anderson Cooper described, the reason he did not watch "Jersey Shore", he said something like, "Why would I want to watch horrible people acting horribly." Enough said, except that MTV was a cutting edge cable station which, to put it lightly, has lost its way and followed the wrong lighthouse to the land of greed.

But back to my original Blog. My readership continues to spiral up in numbers, and I want to thank you all and ask you all to keep reading and refer your friends. I fight with words and I fight for you. Every day, more and more people read my Blog (even when I publish nothing new), and these people are from all over the world, but are especially concentrated in the countries I discuss.

Hopefully, someday this Blog will have more than a local impact. Since it is open to all to comment or contribute or collaborate (such as by linking Blogs), the influence I am beginning to enjoy can be shared by all responsible people(regardless of whether I agree or not with their oppinions). Feel free to submit comments and/or your own post articles for inclusion in my Blog (with attribution and credit if you want it). I welcome opposing points of view.

We already changed the course of one local election for Judge, and as we join together in one Internet force which crosses all borders, joining together people of all races and religions, and speak to thousands of people in an instant even though those people are scattered throughout the earth and speak many different languages. If your cause is legally or morally just, use my Blog to fight for you! With truth and morality on our sides, our victory is assured and our force unbreakable, as Gandhi showed us, without any acts of violence, lawlessness, unethical behaviour, cruelty, or indifference. Instead of striving to act in accordance with the law and ethics, we strive to act, not only in accordance with all laws, rules, and regulations, but to exceed those "minimum standards and act with the highest ethical and moral conduct possible and with the utmost honesty, compassion, selflessness, bravery and generosity.

Soon we will be as influential and powerful as other Blogs and published experts of the widely known and respected Blogs like the Huffington Post and CNN. While leaning towards what many consider, "The progressive liberal left," the true slant of this Blog is to accurately state the true facts and expertly and impartially analyze those facts and give all of the conclusions without bias in their presentation or inclusion.
But I am dedicated to fighting oppression and injustice, and reducing human suffering, wherever that occurs, instead of earning profits or gaining political power. Together we can make a difference. When I use the word "I," it means we. I am powerless alone. Together we are "all powerful." I suffer no delusions nor seek any accolades. My sole reward is more readers and more change. With you, we have already won and change is guaranteed. The others just don't know it yet.

When my book is finished (which it almost is but some chapters are not over),you will bear witness to my actual fight against injustice in the legal system and the terrible price I paid and am paying along with my 12 year old son who is being physically and mentally abused with the enabling of one lawyer, the acquiescence of a Judge, and the inaction of the authorities who are in fact charged with protecting minors and enforcing the law. As it was said in one of my favorite movies, "When those charged with enforcing the law break the law [or allow through inaction others to break the law], then there is no law."

Let us build a platform for the speaker with no freedom to speak, the person with no voice to speak, or the human with no education to give them the words and arguments, and/or the fear of punishment by oppressive governments who routinely torture, imprison, and kill peaceful protesters and even innocent bystanders (some of which are mere children seeking to buy items like bread).

As people are now learning, the truth is the most powerful weapon of all, when one is morally beyond reproach and the story which contains that truth can be told to a mass audience as the Internet now allows. The force of that non-violent legal and ethical weapon is stronger than steel and resists all of man's weapons.

Sincerely yours,

David M. Ginsberg

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شكرا لجميع قرائي الذين تتجاوز الآن عشرة آلاف (10،000) [وهذا هو فقط منذ أن بدأت العد]. ولدي أيضا العديد من القراء على مزيد من ألف متطابقة تقريبا بلدي ، ولكن أدنى قليلا ، ونسخة من بلدي بلوق (أ بلوق مرآة) على WordPress.com [انقر هنا للذهاب الى هناك]. لقد خلقت هذه المدونة الثانية بسبب وحذرت من أن بعض البلدان لا تسمح لمواطنيها الحصول مدون غوغل على الإنترنت.

قراء بلدي تواصل دوامة بأعداد ، وأريد أن أشكركم جميعا وأطلب منكم جميعا للحفاظ على القراءة وتشير أصدقائك. أقاتل مع الكلمات وأحارب من أجلك. لا تتردد في تقديم تعليقات و / أو آخر مقالاتك الخاصة لإدراجها في مدونتي (مع إسناد والائتمان إذا كنت تريد ذلك). وأرحب وجهات النظر المتعارضة.

نحن بطبيعة الحال تغيرت بالفعل واحدة من الانتخابات المحلية للقاضي ، وكما كنا معا في قوة الإنترنت احد والتي تعبر كل الحدود ، حيث ستندمج الناس من جميع الأجناس والأعراق والأديان ، والتحدث إلى الآلاف من الناس في لحظة حتى وإن كانت مبعثرة هؤلاء الناس في جميع أنحاء الأرض ، ويتكلمون لغات مختلفة. إذا قضيتكم قانونيا أو أخلاقيا فقط ، واستخدام مدونتي للقتال من أجل لك! مع الحقيقة والأخلاق على الجانبين ، وضمان انتصارنا وقوتنا غير قابلة للكسر. غاندي كما أظهرت لنا ، من دون أي عمل من أعمال العنف والفوضى والسلوك اللاأخلاقي ، والقسوة ، أو عدم الاكتراث بدلا من السعي إلى العمل وفقا للقانون والأخلاق ، ونحن نسعى جاهدين للعمل ، وليس فقط وفقا لجميع القوانين والقواعد واللوائح ، ولكن أن تتجاوز هذه المعايير "الدنيا والتصرف وفقا لأعلى السلوك الأخلاقي والمعنوي وممكن مع صدق قصوى ، والرحمة والإيثار والشجاعة والكرم.

قريبا سوف نكون كما مؤثرة وقوية ومدونات أخرى وخبراء من مدونات نشرت على نطاق واسع ومحترم مثل هافينغتون بوست وشبكة سي. بينما يميل نحو ما يعتبره الكثيرون "، والليبرالية والتقدمية اليسار" ، والميل الحقيقي لهذه المدونة هو الدولة بدقة وقائع حقيقية وبخبرة وتحليل تلك الوقائع بنزاهة وتقديم كل ما من الاستنتاجات من دون التحيز في العرض الذي قدموه أو الشمول.

ولكنني كرست لمحاربة الاضطهاد والظلم ، والحد من المعاناة البشرية ، أينما يحدث ذلك ، بدلا من تحقيق أرباح أو الوصول إلى السلطة السياسية. معا يمكننا أن تحدث فرقا. عندما استعمل كلمة "أنا" ، فهذا يعني أننا. أنا عاجزة وحدها. نحن معا "قوية جميعا". أنا لا يعانون من أية أوهام ، ولا تسعى الجوائز التقديرية. مكافأتي الوحيد هو المزيد من القراء وأكثر من ذلك التغيير. معك ، لاننا فزنا بالفعل ومضمون التغيير. الآخرون لا يعرفون حتى الآن.

عندما يتم الانتهاء من كتابي (والذي يكاد يكون ولكن بعض الفصول التي لم تنته) ، سوف تشهد على كفاحي ضد الظلم الفعلي في النظام القانوني والثمن الفظيع الذي دفعت وتدفع صباحا مع ابني من العمر 12 عاما الذي بدنيا وعقليا اعتداء مع تمكين أحد المحامين ، وموافقة من قاض ، وتقاعس السلطات التي هي في الواقع المكلفة بحماية القاصرين وفرض القانون. كما قيل في واحد من الأفلام المفضلة : "عندما وتلك المكلفة تطبيق القانون خرق القانون [أو السماح لآخرين من خلال التقاعس عن العمل لكسر القانون] ، ثم لا يوجد قانون."

دعونا بناء منصة للمتكلم مع عدم وجود حرية في الكلام ، والشخص مع عدم وجود الصوت في الكلام ، أو الإنسان مع أي تعليم لمنحهم الكلمات والحجج ، و / أو الخوف من العقاب من قبل الحكومات القمعية الذين يمارسون التعذيب بشكل روتيني ، سجن ، وقتل المتظاهرين المسالمين والأبرياء من المارة حتى (بعضها مجرد أطفال تسعى لشراء سلع مثل الخبز).

لأن الناس يتعلمون الآن ، والحقيقة هي أقوى سلاح للجميع ، وعندما واحد هو أخلاقيا لا تشوبه أية شائبة ، والذي يحتوي على قصة يمكن أن يقال بأن الحقيقة لجمهور الإنترنت الشامل ، ويسمح الآن. قوة هذا السلاح غير العنيفة القانونية والأخلاقية أقوى من الفولاذ ويقاوم كل اسلحة الرجل.

تفضلوا بقبول فائق الاحترام ،

ديفيد م. جينسبيرج
انقر هنا لمراسلتي عبر البريد الإلكتروني
انقر هنا للذهاب إلى الصفحة الرئيسية لمدونتي

Спасибо всем моим читателям, которые в настоящее время превышает десяти тысяч (10000) [и это, так как я только начала подсчета]. У меня также есть еще несколько тысяч читателей на моем почти идентичны, но немного уступает, копия моего блога (зеркало блог) на WordPress.com [Нажмите сюда, чтобы туда]. Я создал этот второй блог, потому что я был предупрежден, что некоторые страны не разрешают своим гражданам получать доступ к Blogger компании Google в Интернете.
Моя аудитория продолжает к новым виткам спирали в цифрах, и я хочу поблагодарить всех вас и просить вас продолжать читать и относятся ваши друзья. Я борюсь со словами и я борюсь за вами. Не стесняйтесь представить свои замечания и / или свои собственные статьи сообщение для включения в мой блог (с атрибуции и кредит, если вы этого хотите). Я приветствую противоположные точки зрения.

Мы уже изменили течение одного местные выборы для судьи, и, как мы объединиться в одну силу Интернета, которая пересекает все границы, объединяются люди всех рас и религий, и говорить с тысячами людей в одно мгновение даже если эти люди разбросаны по всей земле, и говорят на разных языках. Если причиной является юридически, ни морально справедливым, использовать свой блог, чтобы бороться за вас! С истины и нравственности на боку, наша победа обеспечена, и наша сила нерушимая, как Ганди показал нам, без каких-либо актов насилия, беззакония, неэтичное поведение, жестокость или равнодушие. Вместо того, стремление действовать в соответствии с законом и этикой, мы стремимся действовать, а не только в соответствии со всеми законами, правилами и положениями, но и превзойти эти «минимальные стандарты и действовать с самыми высокими этическими и нравственное поведение можно и с максимальную честность, сострадание, самоотверженность, мужество и великодушие.

Скоро мы будем в качестве влиятельной и мощной, как другие блоги и опубликованы специалисты широко известных и уважаемых блогов, как Huffington Post и CNN. Хотя склоняется к тому, что многие считают, "прогрессивных либеральных левых", истинный наклон Этот блог точно состояние подлинные факты и профессионально и беспристрастно проанализировать те факты и дать все выводы, не предвзятость в их представлении или включения.

Но я посвященный борьбе угнетения и несправедливости, и сокращения человеческих страданий, там, где это происходит, вместо того, чтобы получать прибыль или получение политической власти. Вместе мы сможем изменить ситуацию. Когда я использую слово "я", это означает, что мы. Я бессилен в одиночку. Вместе мы "всемогущий". Я страдаю не бред и не искать какой-либо награды. Моя единственная награда больше читателей и многое другое изменение. С вами, мы уже победили и изменить гарантируется. Другие просто не знают еще.

Когда моя книга закончена (а это почти есть, но некоторые главы не более), вы будете свидетельствовать о моей реальной борьбы с несправедливостью в правовой системе и страшную цену я платил и плачу вместе с моей 12-летний сын, который является быть физически и психически злоупотребляли с включением одного юриста, молчаливого согласия судьи, и бездействие властей, которые на самом деле, отвечающий за защиту несовершеннолетних и обеспечение правопорядка. Как уже было сказано в одном из моих любимых фильмов: "Когда тех, кому поручено исполнение закона нарушают закон [или своим бездействием позволить другим нарушать закон], то нет закона".

Давайте строить платформы для говорящего, не свобода слова, человек без голоса, чтобы говорить, или человек без образования, чтобы дать им слова и аргументы, и / или страха перед наказанием от гнетущей правительства, которые регулярно пыток, сажать в тюрьму, и убивать мирных демонстрантов и даже невинных свидетелей (некоторые из которых являются лишь дети стремятся покупать вещи, как хлеб).
Как люди в настоящее время обучение, правда, самое мощное оружие из всех, когда люди морально безупречны и история, которая содержит, что истина может быть сказано массовой аудитории, как Интернет в настоящее время позволяет. Силу этого ненасильственные правовых и этических оружие прочнее стали и сопротивляется всем оружием человека.

С уважением,

Дэвид М. Гинсберг

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תודה לכל הקוראים שלי שעכשיו יעלה עשרת אלפים (10,000) [וזהו מאז אני רק התחלתי לספור]. יש לי גם עוד כמה אלפי קוראים על כמעט זהה, אבל נחות מעט, העתק של הבלוג שלי (בלוג המראה) על WordPress.com [לחץ כאן כדי ללכת לשם]. יצרתי בלוג זה ושנית, מפני שאני הזהיר כי חלק מהמדינות אינן מאפשרות לאזרחיהן גישה ב-Blogger של גוגל באינטרנט.
הקוראים שלי ממשיכה ספירלה למעלה במספרים, ואני רוצה להודות לכולכם ומבקש מכם לשמור על כל קריאה להפנות את החברים שלך. אני נלחם עם מילים אני נלחם בשבילך. אל תהסס להגיש הערות ו / או במאמרים שלך פוסט עבור הכללה הבלוג שלי (עם ייחוס אשראי אם אתה רוצה אותו). אני מברך על נקודות מבט מנוגדות.

יש לנו כבר שינתה את מסלול הבחירות מקומי אחד עבור השופט, וכפי שאנו מצטרפים יחדיו חיל האוויר אחד באינטרנט אשר חוצה את כל הגבולות, שהצטרף יחד אנשים מכל הגזעים והדתות, ולדבר עם אלפי אנשים בבת אחת, למרות אותם אנשים מפוזרים ברחבי הארץ ומדברים שפות שונות. אם הסיבה שלך הוא משפטי או מוסרי, פשוט, להשתמש בבלוג שלי כדי להילחם בשבילך! עם האמת והמוסר על הצדדים שלנו, הניצחון שלנו מובטח הכוח שלנו שביר, כמו גנדי הראה לנו, ללא כל מעשי אלימות, הפקרות, התנהגות לא אתית, אכזריות, או אדישות. במקום שואפים לפעול על פי החוק והאתיקה, אנו שואפים לפעול, לא רק בהתאם לכל החוקים, הכללים והתקנות, אבל יעלה אותם "סטנדרטים מינימליים ולפעול עם ההתנהגות האתית והמוסרית הגבוהה ביותר האפשרית עם כנות רבה, חמלה, חוסר אנוכיות, אומץ ונדיבות.

בקרוב נהיה כמו השפעה ורב עוצמה כמו בלוגים אחרים ומומחים לאור של בלוגים ידוע ומכובד כמו Huffington Post ו-CNN. אמנם נוטה מה שרבים מחשיבים "ליברלית ומתקדמת שמאל", המשופע האמיתית של בלוג זה היא מדויקת המדינה עובדות אמיתיות במיומנות וללא משוא פנים לנתח את העובדות ולתת את כל המסקנות ללא משוא פנים במצגת שלהם, או הכללת.

אבל אני המוקדש למלחמה דיכוי וחוסר צדק, והפחתת הסבל האנושי, המתרחשת בכל מקום, במקום להרוויח רווחים או צובר כוח פוליטי. ביחד אנחנו יכולים לעשות את ההבדל. כאשר אני משתמש במילה "אני", זה אומר שאנחנו. אני חסר אונים לבדו. ביחד אנחנו "חזקים כל". אני סובל אשליות ולא לחפש כל השבחים. הפרס היחיד שלי קוראים יותר לשנות יותר. איתך, כבר ניצחנו ולשנות מובטחת. האחרים פשוט לא יודעים את זה עדיין.

כאשר הספר שלי הוא סיים (בו הוא כמעט אך פרקים מסוימים אינם ומעלה), תוכל להעיד להילחם בפועל כנגד העוול שלי במערכת המשפטית ואת המחיר הנורא שילמתי ואני משלם יחד עם הבן שלי בן 12 מי להיות פיזית ונפשית עם התעללות שמאפשר של אחד עורך דין, הסכמה של השופט, ואת חוסר המעש של הרשויות אשר למעשה מואשם להגנה על קטינים ואכיפת החוק. כפי שנאמר באחד הסרטים האהובים עלי, "כאשר הממונים על אכיפת החוק על החוק [או לאפשר לאחרים דרך חוסר המעש לעבור על החוק], אז אין חוק."
תנו לנו לבנות פלטפורמה הדובר עם חופש לא לדבר, אדם עם קול לא לדבר, או אדם ללא השכלה לתת להם את המילים ואת הטיעונים, ו / או פחד מעונש על ידי ממשלות דיכוי אשר באופן שגרתי עינויים, לכלוא, ולהרוג מפגינים שלווים עוברי אורח חפים מפשע אפילו (שחלקם ילדים בלבד מחפשת לקנות פריטים כמו לחם).

כאשר אנשים נמצאים כעת למידה, האמת היא הנשק החזק ביותר של כל, כאשר אחד הוא מבחינה מוסרית דופי, סיפור המכיל את האמת אפשר לספר לקהל הרחב כמו האינטרנט מאפשר עתה. הכוח של נשק בלתי אלימה כי חוקיות ואתיות חזק יותר מפלדה מתנגד כל הנשק של האדם.

בכבוד רב,

דוד מ 'גינסברג

לחץ כאן כדי לשלוח לי דואר אלקטרוני
לחץ כאן כדי לעבור לדף הראשי של הבלוג שלי

谢谢我的读者，现在已超过一万（10000）[和的，是因为我刚开始计数]。我也有一千个读者，我几乎相同，但略逊一筹，复制我的博客上WordPress.com（一面镜子博客）[点击这里去那里]。我已经创建了这第二个博客，因为我是警告说，一些国家不允许本国公民在互联网上访问Google的Blogger。

我的读者继续以螺旋状在数量上，我要谢谢大家，请大家继续阅读，并请你的朋友。我打话，我为你作战，。随意列入在我的博客提交意见和/或您自己的发表文章（如果你想让它的归属和信贷）。我欢迎反对的观点。

我们已经改变了法官的一个地方选举过程中，因为我们一起加入在一个互联网的力量，跨越所有边界，加入所有种族和宗教的人，一个瞬间，即使这些人分散在发言数千人整个地球，并说出许多不同的语言。如果你的原因是法律或道义上，用我的博客为你作战！我们双方用真理和道德的，我们的胜利是有保证的，我们的力量牢不可破，甘地表明我们没有任何暴力，违法乱纪，不道德的行为，虐待，或冷漠行为。努力按照法律和道德行为，而是我们努力采取行动，不仅在与所有的法律，法规和规章的规定，但要超过那些“最低标准和最高的伦理和道德的行为可能与行为最诚实，同情，无私，勇敢和慷慨。

不久，我们将赫芬顿邮报和CNN等的广泛了解和尊重的博客其他博客和出版专家的影响力和强大。虽然对许多人认为倾斜，“进步自由离开，”这个博客的真正倾斜是准确地陈述事实真相，并熟练地和公正地分析这些事实，并给所有没有在他们的介绍或列入偏见的结论。
但我专用的压迫和不公正作斗争，减少人类的痛苦，无论发生，而不是赚取利润或获得政治权力。只要齐心协力，我们可以有所作为。当我使用这个词：“我，”这意味着我们。我无能为力单独。我们一起“的所有强大。”我苦于没有妄想，也不谋求任何荣誉。我唯一的报酬是更多的读者和更多的变化。有了你，我们已经赢得了和变化是保证。别人只是不知道它。

当我的书是成品（它几乎是，但某些章节不超过），您将见证我不公正的法律制度和实际打击了惨痛的代价，我支付，我支付我12岁的儿子是谁的身体和精神虐待与一名律师，法官的默许，而实际上是被控与未成年人保护和执法当局的无所作为使。由于这是在我最喜欢的电影之一说，“当那些负责执法犯法[或允许通过无为他人犯法]，那么有没有法律。”

让我们建立一个平台，没有说话的自由，没有发言权的人说话，或没有受过教育的人类给他们的话和参数，和/或处罚的人经常折磨压迫政府的恐惧与扬声器，监禁，并杀死和平示威者，甚至是无辜的旁观者（其中有些是单纯的儿童寻求购买像面包的项目）。

随着人们现在的学习，真理是所有的最有力的武器，当一个人在道德上是无可非议和故事，其中包含真理可以告诉互联网现在允许大量观众。的，非暴力的法律和道德的武器的力量是比钢强，并拒绝所有男人的武器。

您诚挚的，

大卫M ·金斯伯格
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点击这里进入我的博客主页

Join The Protest Against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA

2012-01-04T21:33:00.010-05:00

This site went blank at 12:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (USA) on January 18, 2012 for 24 hours to join with other sites like Wikepedia in protesting the Stop Online Privacy Act. All that was visible, was this information about SOPA, which, ironically, I will copy from Wikepedia discusses SOPA [Click Here] and other sites which are also going blank (except for information about SOPA).

The reason is that freedom of information, and the dispersal of that information, is critical, to, among other things, the fight against oppression, violence, and injustice. For example, I have started embedding videos of religious violence in my Blogs, yet I did not "shoot" those videos, so they are technically pirated. Since my Blog is read throughout the world, it is critical that my message against violence outweighs the minuscule revenue the people who took those videos might deserve.

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In fact, I am joining with sites all over the world and have ironically Pirated Wikepedia (a spearhead of the protest) and here is their explanation.

Wikipedia’s community called for anti-SOPA blackout January 18, 2012
Here is there post, which I pirated:

Posted by Sue on January 16th, 2012
Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States —the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECTIP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate— that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion. From the public statement, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:billinghurst:
It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.
On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.

In making this decision, Wikipedians will be criticized for seeming to abandon neutrality to take a political position. That’s a real, legitimate issue. We want people to trust Wikipedia, not worry that it is trying to propagandize them.
But although Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence is not. As Wikimedia Foundation board member Kat Walsh wrote on one of our mailing lists recently.

We depend on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. And we depend on a legal infrastructure that also allows other sites to host user-contributed material, both information and expression. For the most part, Wikimedia projects are organizing and summarizing and collecting the world’s knowledge. We’re putting it in context, and showing people how to make sense of it.

But that knowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or, if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to.

The decision to shut down the English Wikipedia wasn’t made by me — it was made by editors, through a consensus decision-making process. But I support it.

Like Kat and the rest of the Wikimedia Foundation Board, I have increasingly begun to think of Wikipedia’s public voice, and the goodwill people have for Wikipedia, as a resource that wants to be used for the benefit of the public. Readers trust Wikipedia because they know that despite its faults, Wikipedia’s heart is in the right place. It’s not aiming to monetize their eyeballs or make them believe some particular thing, or sell them a product. Wikipedia has no hidden agenda: it just wants to be helpful.

That’s less true of other sites. Most are commercialy motivated: their purpose is to make money. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a desire to make the world a better place –many do!– but it does mean that their positions and actions need to be understood in the context of conflicting interests.
My hope is that when Wikipedia shuts down on January 18, people will understand that we’re doing it for our readers. We support everyone’s right to freedom of thought and freedom of expression. We think everyone should have access to educational material on a wide range of subjects, even if they can’t pay for it. We believe in a free and open Internet where information can be shared without impediment. We believe that new proposed laws like SOPA –and PIPA, and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States– don’t advance the interests of the general public. You can read a very good list of reasons to oppose SOPA and PIPA here, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Why is this a global action, rather than US-only? And why now, if some American legislators appear to be in tactical retreat on SOPA?
The reality is that we don’t think SOPA is going away, and PIPA is still quite active. Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.

On January 18, we hope you’ll agree with us, and will do what you can to make your own voice heard.
Sue Gardner,

Executive Director [Wikepedia]

Take action: If you’re a US citizen, contact your representative to let them know you oppose SOPA and PIPA.

Religous Violence Erupts Tughout the World As the New Year Begins

2011-12-29T17:22:00.010-05:00

Religous Violence (INSTEAD OF PEACE) Erupts Tughout the World As the New Year Begins: Shia v. Sunni; Jew v. Jew; Christian v. Muslim; Christian v. Christian; and Government v. the Governed 的暴力行为，而不是和平，整个世界新年伊始爆发：逊尼派什叶派诉;犹诉犹太人，基督教诉穆斯林，基督教诉基督教;和政府诉治理 لعنف بدلا من السلام ، ويثور في جميع أنحاء العالم مع بداية العام الجديد يبدأ : الشيعة ضد السنة؛ يهودي ضد يهودي، مسيحي ضد مسلم، مسيحي ضد المسيحيين، ويحكم ضد الحكومةאלימות, במקום שלום, פורצת בעולם כולו את השנה החדשה מתחיל: שיעים נגד סונים, יהודי נגד יהודי, נוצרי נגד המוסלמים; כריסטיאן נ 'נוצרי; ו נ' ממשלת הפלשתיני
Enough is Enough, and it is time for the violence to end!

"Can't we all just get along?" Rodney King (after the riots in LA)

Translations in Hebrew, Arabic, and Chinese are Below the English Text.
The Videos and Links to Other Web Sites Such as CNN and the BBC are in the English Text.
תרגומים בשפות עברית, ערבית, סינית להלן הנוסח האנגלי.
סרטי וידאו ו - קישורים לאתרי אינטרנט אחרים, כגון CNN ו-BBC נמצאים טקסט באנגלית.
ترجمة بالعبرية والعربية والصينية وفيما يلي النص الانكليزي.
وأفلام وروابط لمواقع أخرى مثل سي ان ان والبي بي سي موجودة في النص الانكليزي.
在希伯来文，阿拉伯文和中国翻译下面的英文文本.
视频和链接到其他网站，如CNN和英国广播公司（BBC）在英文文本中。

As the year ends and another begins, as the western world celebrates the joyous holidays of Christmas and Hanukkah, and as the Arab world celebrates the liberating movement of the Arab Spring, the news of the last two days is filled with amazing examples of violence which seems to evidence our inability to “Get Along.” It must stop!

We are all used to some conflicts, such as between the “Superpowers” and between Arab and Israeli, but as these old conflicts disappear, they seem to spread like a virus to every aspect of society. In fact, some of the conflicts, violence, aggression and oppression is, to be frank, mind boggling. It is saddening as it seems we can never ever move this world towards one in which people can coexist freely and peaceful, with mutual respect.

I will list some of the events of the last two days with the hopes that others will be shocked and that people will begin to say, enough is enough.
Here are the conflicts reported in the last few days. The list is much longer (such as the violence in Egypt and the violence towards women in the Arab world), but this list is long enough such that people of faith and morals must be sickened and saddened.

Bethlehem - Armenian Orthodox Christians v. Greek Orthodox Christians
Even during this holiday season, it seems the priests of the two branches of Orthodox Christians can not get along. A long standing feud broke out and erupted into violence. Incredibly, that violence occurred between the priests of the two sects right in the most holy church and right before Christmas. One must wonder what is the worth of the clergy, of the holiday, and of the shrine?

While the violence was not as deadly as violence elsewhere, what is incomprehensible is that priests of the same branch of Christianity, which teaches love, peace, and “turning the other cheek” resorted to violence during this holiday season in the most holy of Christian shrines. Here is a video.

In Israel Near Jerusalem - Jew v. Jew
An ultraorthodox sect of extreme fanatical Jews are harassing and committing acts of violence and vandalism against less religious Jews. Again, incredibly, in a Jewish state founded so that Jews could live in peace, Peace or "Shalom" it seems, is a mere illusion, and the Jews in Israel have no one to blame but themselves. As a Jew, I am ashamed and saddened. Let me say that anyone can call themselves Jewish. But any one who practice violence, oppression, injustice, or cruelty does not practice the same religon as I, does not worship the same God as me, and is an embarrasment to me.

In a recent act reported just today, a little girl was terrorized and traumatized while going to school by this extreme ultra-orthodox sect who thought she was not dressed modestly enough (she wore normal western attire). She was spit on, called a whore, and yelled at. The people who did this belong in prison, and they may believe they are the "chosen" people, but most clearly they are chosen for a trip to Hell.

Iran v. America [again]
As CNN reports, tensions are flaring over passage through the Strait of Hormuz through which about 1/3 of the world’s supply of oil passes. Iran has threatened to close the strait, which will mean war with America and perhaps others. On the other hand, Iran is doing this because the US, and others, are threatening sanctions to stop Iran’s nuclear program which will threaten Israel, and thus the rest of the world, with nuclear war. Additionally, if Iran gets nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia and other countries have declared that they will also develop nuclear weapons, and hence, the proliferation of nuclear weapons could easily lead to, at best, a nuclear accident or incident or at worst, a nuclear war.

Iran seems bent upon a course of violence, oppression, terrorism, and extremism and is determined to spread that throughout the world. Clearly, the people responsible in Iran will never see Paradise.

Nigeria – Islamists v. Christians
As the BBC reports, Islamist militants are attacking Christians (the worse attacks were on Christmas) leading to a call by Christian leaders to defend themselves.

Sudan [again] – North v. South
As the BBC reports, violence has erupted in the Sudan, between north and south.

Syria Continues
As the BBC and CNN are reporting Despite the promise of the Arab Spring and the intervention of Arab League monitors, the Syrian government continues to attack, kill, imprison, and torture unarmed and innocent protesters and even civilians not involved in the protest.

Iraq - Shia v. Sunni
Less than a week after the US pulled out of Iraq on what was supposed to be a long but successful mission to restore peace, freedom, and stability to this country, the words which best describe the decade long, trillion dollar invasion seem to be: failed, expensive, and unravelling. This is widely regarded, including by such sources as CNN as a real political crisis.

Bombs are exploding as the Shia President has issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni Vice-President, in what appears to be a grab for power, in a government which was supposed to be ruled by coalition, consensus, and cooperation. See CNN's Coverage. Instead, the leaders of the Shia majority seemed determined to follow the lead of Iran in oppression, violence, and dictatorship.

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هذا يكفي ، وحان الوقت لانهاء العنف!
وتنتهي السنة ويبدأ آخر ، والعالم الغربي يحتفل الأعياد السعيدة لعيد الميلاد وهانوكا ، وبما أن العالم العربي يحتفي حركة تحرير الربيع العربي ، ملأت أخبار خلال اليومين الماضيين مع أمثلة مذهلة من العنف الذي ويبدو أن الأدلة عدم قدرتنا على "احصل على طول." يجب أن يتوقف!
وتستخدم كل ما لبعض الصراعات ، مثل بين "القوى العظمى" وبين العرب والإسرائيليين ، ولكن لأن هذه الصراعات القديمة تختفي ، ويبدو أنها تنتشر مثل الفيروس على كل جانب من جوانب المجتمع. في الواقع ، بعض الصراعات والعنف والعدوان والقهر ، لأكون صريحا ، محيرة العقل. فمن المحزن كما يبدو أننا لا يمكن أبدا أن تحرك هذا العالم من أي وقت مضى في اتجاه واحد حيث يستطيع الناس التعايش السلمي وبحرية ، مع الاحترام المتبادل.
وأسرد بعض الاحداث التي جرت في اليومين الماضيين مع الآمال التي سوف تكون صدمة الآخرين والتي سيبدأ الناس أن أقول ، هذا يكفي.
هنا هي الصراعات التي أعلن عنها في الأيام القليلة الماضية. قائمة أطول بكثير (مثل العنف في مصر والعنف ضد المرأة في العالم العربي) ، ولكن هذه القائمة طويلة بما فيه الكفاية بحيث يجب أن يكون مرض شعب الإيمان والأخلاق والحزن.

بيت لحم -- المسيحيين الأرمن الأرثوذكس ضد المسيحيين الارثوذكس اليونانيين
حتى خلال عطلة هذا الموسم ، يبدو أن كهنة فروع اثنين من المسيحيين الارثوذكس لا يمكن الحصول على طول. واندلع خلاف منذ وقت طويل خارج واندلعت أعمال العنف. بشكل لا يصدق ، التي وقعت اعمال عنف بين كهنة الطائفتين الحق في الكنيسة المقدسة ومعظم الحق قبل عيد الميلاد. يجب على المرء أن يتساءل ما هو يستحق من رجال الدين ، من العطلة ، والضريح؟
في حين أن العنف لم تكن مميتة مثل العنف في مناطق أخرى ، ما هو غير مفهوم هو أن كهنة نفس الفرع من المسيحية ، والذي يعلمنا المحبة والسلام ، و "تحويل الخد الآخر" لجأت إلى العنف خلال عطلة هذا الموسم في معظم المقدسة في المسيحية الأضرحة. هنا هو الفيديو.

في اسرائيل بالقرب من القدس -- يهودي ضد يهودي
طائفة من اليهود المتعصبين ultraorthodox المدقع ومضايقة وارتكاب أعمال العنف والتخريب ضد اليهود أقل تدينا. مرة أخرى ، وبشكل لا يصدق ، في تأسيس الدولة اليهودية حتى أن اليهود أن يعيشوا في سلام ، والسلام أو "شالوم" على ما يبدو ، هو مجرد وهم ، واليهود في إسرائيل لا يلومن إلا أنفسهم. كيهودي ، أشعر بالخجل والحزن. اسمحوا لي أن أقول إن أي شخص يمكن أن اليهود يطلقون على أنفسهم. ولكن أي واحد ممن يمارسون العنف والقهر والظلم والقسوة ، أو لا تمارس نفس الدين كما قلت ، لا يعبدون الله نفسه لي ، ويشكل احراجا بالنسبة لي.

في عمل آخر ذكرت اليوم فقط ، وكان الرعب فتاة صغيرة والصدمة في حين يذهب إلى المدرسة من قبل هذه الطائفة المتشدد المتطرف الذي يعتقد انه لا يكفي متشحة متواضعة (تلبس الزي الغربي العادي). ويبصقون على أنها ، ودعا عاهرة ، وصرخ في و. والاشخاص الذين قاموا بذلك ينتمون في السجن ، وأنهم قد يعتقدون أنهم هم "المختار" الناس ، ولكن بشكل أكثر وضوحا واختيارهم للقيام برحلة الى الجحيم.
إيران ضد أمريكا [مرة أخرى]
كما CNN التقارير ، هناك توترات حرق أكثر من المرور عبر مضيق هرمز الذي يمر به نحو 1 / 3 من امدادات العالم من النفط يمر. وهددت ايران باغلاق المضيق ، والتي سوف تؤدي الى الحرب مع أمريكا وربما آخرين. من ناحية أخرى ، فإن إيران تفعل ذلك لأن الولايات المتحدة وغيرها ، ويهدد بفرض عقوبات لوقف برنامج ايران النووي الذي سوف يهدد إسرائيل ، وبالتالي بقية العالم ، مع نشوب حرب نووية. بالإضافة إلى ذلك ، إذا حصلت ايران على أسلحة نووية ، أعلنت المملكة العربية السعودية والبلدان الأخرى التي ستعمل على تطوير أسلحة نووية أيضا ، وبالتالي ، فإن انتشار الأسلحة النووية يمكن أن تؤدي بسهولة إلى ، في أحسن الأحوال ، وقوع حادث نووي أو حادث أو في أسوأ الأحوال ، نووي الحرب.
ايران تبدو وكأنها عازمة على دورة العنف والقمع والإرهاب والتطرف وعازمة على أن تنتشر في جميع أنحاء العالم. ومن الواضح أن المسؤولين في إيران لن يرى الجنة.
نيجيريا -- الاسلاميون ضد المسيحيين
وتقارير هيئة الاذاعة البريطانية ، متشددون اسلاميون يهاجمون المسيحيين (أسوأ الهجمات على عيد الميلاد) مما أدى إلى دعوة القادة المسيحيين للدفاع عن أنفسهم.
السودان [مرة أخرى] -- الشمال ضد الجنوب

وتقارير هيئة الإذاعة البريطانية ، وقد اندلعت أعمال العنف في السودان ، وبين الشمال والجنوب.

ولا تزال سوريا

كما بي بي سي والسي إن إن والتقارير وعلى الرغم من وعود الربيع العربي وتدخل مراقبي الجامعة العربية والحكومة السورية تواصل الهجوم ، وقتل وسجن وتعذيب المتظاهرين العزل والأبرياء والمدنيين الذين لا يشاركون حتى في الاحتجاج.

العراق -- الشيعة ضد السنة
اقل من اسبوع بعد الولايات المتحدة انسحبت من العراق على ما كان من المفترض أن تكون هناك مهمة طويلة ولكنها ناجحة لاستعادة السلام والحرية والاستقرار لهذا البلد ، والكلمات التي تصف أفضل العقد الطويل ، تريليون دولار الغزو يبدو أن يكون : فشل ومكلفة ، والتفكك. وينظر على نطاق واسع هذا ، بما في ذلك مصادر مثل شبكة CNN وأزمة سياسية حقيقية.
قنابل تنفجر رئيسا الشيعة اصدرت مذكرة اعتقال بحق النائب السني لرئيس الجمهورية ، في ما يبدو للاستيلاء على السلطة ل، في الحكومة التي كان من المفترض أن يحكمها ، والتعاون والتحالف الآراء. انظر التغطية لشبكة CNN. بدلا من ذلك ، يبدو أن قادة الأغلبية الشيعية عازمة على أن تحذو حذو ايران في والقمع والديكتاتورية العنف.
انقر هنا للذهاب إلى الصفحة الرئيسية لمدونتي
انقر هنا لمراسلتي عبر البريد الإلكتروني

够了，和它是为结束暴力！

随着这一年的结束和另一个开始，西方世界庆祝圣诞节和光明节的欢乐假期，并作为阿拉伯世界的庆祝阿拉伯春天的解放运动，在过去两天的新闻充满暴力惊人的例子似乎证据，我们无法相处。“它必须停止！

我们都如之间的“超级大国”，阿拉伯和以色列之间的一些冲突，但这些旧的冲突消失了，他们似乎就像一个社会的各个方面的病毒传播。事实上，一些冲突，暴力，侵略和压迫的是，坦率地说，真让人难以置信。这是可悲的，因为它似乎我们可以永远不会走向，使人们能够共存，自由与和平的这个世界上相互尊重，。

我将列出一些希望别人会感到震惊，人们将开始说的最后两天的事件，已经受够了。

下面是在过去几天报道的冲突。这份名单是更长的时间（如在埃及的暴力和对妇女的暴力行为在阿拉伯世界），但这份名单是足够长的时间，信仰和道德的人必须是生病和悲痛。

伯利恒 - 亚美尼亚东正教徒诉希腊东正教徒
即使在这个假期，似乎两个分支东正教徒的祭司都无法相处。由来已久的宿怨爆发出来，到爆发暴力事件。令人难以置信的，这两个教派的牧师在最圣洁的教堂，圣诞节前的权利权利之间的暴力发生。我们必须想知道什么是值得神职人员的节日，和参拜靖国神社？

虽然暴力不是其他地方一样致命暴力，什么是不可理解的的是，在最神圣的基督教，基督教，教导爱，和平，和“转向另一边面颊”的同一分支的祭司在这个假期诉诸暴力神社。这里是一个视频。

在耶路撒冷附近的以色列 - 犹太人诉犹

ultraorthodox教派极端狂热的犹太人骚扰，并承诺对宗教犹太人少的暴力和破坏行为。同样，令人难以置信的是，在一个犹太国家的成立，使犹太人能够生活在和平，和平或“沙龙”看来，仅仅是一种幻想，在以色列的犹太人有没有人责怪，但自己。作为一个犹太人，我感到羞愧和难过。让我说任何人都可以自称为犹太。但任何一个实践中的暴力，压迫，不公正，或虐待，不实行同一宗教，因为我并不像我崇拜的神一样的，我是一个尴尬。

在最近的行为的报道就在今天，一个小女孩，而这种极端的极端正统教派谁想到她是不是穿着足够的谦虚（她穿着正常的西部服装）学校恐吓和精神创伤。她吐，被称为妓女，并大声训斥。人谁做这属于在监狱里，他们可能会认为他们是“选择”的人，但最清楚的是，他们都选择地狱之旅。

伊朗诉美国[再次]

作为CNN报道的紧张局势正在燃烧通过霍尔木兹海峡，通过它传递世界石油供应的大约1 / 3以上通过。伊朗威胁要关闭，这将意味着战争与美国，也许别人的两岸。另一方面，伊朗这样做，因为美国和其他威胁制裁，以制止伊朗的核计划，这将威胁到以色列，从而与世界各地的核战争，的。此外，如果伊朗获得核武器，沙特阿拉伯和其他国家已经宣布，他们也将发展核武器，并因此，很容易导致核武器扩散，充其量，核事故或事件，或在最坏的情况，核战争。

伊朗似乎弯曲后，暴力，压迫，恐怖主义，极端主义和过程，并决心在世界各地蔓延。显然，负责在伊朗人民将永远不会看到天堂。

尼日利亚 - 伊斯兰诉基督徒
由于英国广播公司（BBC）报道，伊斯兰武装分子攻击基督徒（更糟糕的攻击是在圣诞节）由基督教领袖呼吁为自己辩护。

苏丹[再次] - 北五南
由于英国广播公司（BBC）报道，在苏丹爆发的暴力事件，北方和南方之间。

叙利亚继续

由于BBC和CNN尽管阿拉伯春季和阿拉伯国家联盟显示器干预的承诺的报告，叙利亚政府继续攻击，杀害，监禁和酷刑手无寸铁的无辜的示威者，甚至不参与抗议的平民。

伊拉克 - 什叶派诉逊尼派

不到一个星期后，美国撤出伊拉克就应该是一个漫长，但成功的使命，以恢复这个国家的和平，自由，和稳定的，最好地描述了长达十年的话，万亿美元的入侵似乎是：失败了，价格昂贵，和解体。这是广泛的，包括作为一个真正的政治危机，如CNN等来源。

炸弹爆炸什叶派总统已发出逮捕令逊尼派副总统，似乎在这应该是统治联盟，达成共识，合作政府，是一个夺权。见CNN的报道。相反，占人口多数的什叶派领导人似乎决心按照伊朗的压迫，暴力和专政导致。

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מספיק זה מספיק, הגיע הזמן לשים קץ לאלימות!
ככל שהשנה מסתיימת אחר מתחיל, כמו העולם המערבי חוגג לימי השמחה של חג המולד וחנוכה, וכן העולם הערבי חוגג את תנועת שחרור של האביב הערבי, את החדשות של היומיים האחרונים הוא מלא דוגמאות מדהימות של אלימות אשר נראה ראיות חוסר היכולת שלנו "להסתדר." זה חייב להפסיק
אנחנו רגילים כל כמה סכסוכים, כגון בין "מעצמות" בין הערבים והישראלים, אבל אלו סכסוכים ישנים נעלמים, הם נראים להתפשט כמו וירוס לכל היבט של החברה. למעשה, חלק מן הקונפליקטים, אלימות, תוקפנות ודיכוי הוא, אם להיות כנה, מבלבלים את המוח. מצער ככל שזה נראה לעולם לא נוכל אי פעם לעבור את העולם הזה לכיוון אחד שבו אנשים יכולים להתקיים באופן חופשי ושליו, עם כבוד הדדי.
אני יפרט כמה אירועי היומיים האחרונים עם התקווה שאחרים יהיו המומים שאנשים יתחילו לומר, מספיק זה מספיק.
הנה קונפליקטים דיווחה בימים האחרונים. הרשימה היא הרבה יותר (כגון האלימות במצרים את האלימות כלפי נשים בעולם הערבי), אך רשימה זו היא ארוכה מספיק כך שאנשים אמונה ומוסר חייב להיות בחילה עצוב.

בית לחם - נוצרים אורתודוקסים נוצרים ארמנים נ היוונית אורתודוקסית
גם במהלך העונה את החג הזה, נראה הכהנים של שני סניפים של הנוצרים האורתודוכסים לא יכולים להסתדר. היריבות ארוכת פרצו פרצו באלימות. למרבה הפלא, אלימות שהתרחשו בין הכהנים של שתי כתות זכות בכנסייה הקדושה ביותר, ממש לפני חג המולד. צריך לתהות מה הוא שווה הכמורה, של החג, וכן המקדש?
בעוד האלימות לא היה קטלני כמו אלימות במקומות אחרים, מה לא מובן הוא כי כמרים של הסניף אותו הנצרות, אשר מלמד אהבה, שלום, "להפנות את הלחי השנייה", נקטו אלימות במהלך העונה זה החג הקדוש ביותר של כריסטיאן מקדשים. הנה וידאו.

בישראל ליד ירושלים - יהודי נ 'יהודי
הכת החרדית של יהודים קנאים קיצוניים הם מתנכלת בביצוע מעשי אלימות וונדליזם נגד יהודים דתיים פחות. שוב, לא ייאמן, המדינה היהודית הוקמה כדי שיהודים יוכלו לחיות בשלום שלום או "שלום", כך נראה, היא אשליה בלבד, ליהודים בישראל אין את מי להאשים אלא את עצמם. כיהודי, אני מתבייש ועצובים. הרשו לי לומר כי כל אחד יכול לקרוא לעצמם יהודים. אבל כל מי אלימות בפועל, דיכוי, עוול, אכזריות או לא לתרגל את הדת כמוני, לא לעבוד את האל כמו אותי, היא בושה לי.
במערכה האחרונה דווח רק היום, ילדה קטנה היתה אימה טראומה תוך ללכת לבית הספר על ידי הכת החרדית הקיצונית שחשבו שהיא לא לבושה בצניעות מספיק (היא לבשה לבוש מערבי רגיל). היא היתה לירוק, שנקרא זונה, וצעק. האנשים שעשו את זה שייכים בכלא, והם עלולים להאמין שהם "נבחרו" אנשים, אבל בצורה הברורה ביותר הם נבחרו למסע לגיהינום.
איראן נגד ארה"ב [שוב]
כמו CNN מדווח, מתחים הם מתרחבים על מעבר דרך מיצר הורמוז שדרכו כ 1 / 3 מאספקת הנפט של העולם עובר. איראן איימה לסגור את מיצר, אשר אומר מלחמה עם אמריקה ואולי אחרים. מצד שני, איראן היא עושה את זה כי בארצות הברית, ואחרים, מאיימים סנקציות לעצור את תוכנית הגרעין של איראן אשר יהיה לאיים על ישראל, וכך שאר העולם, עם מלחמה גרעינית. בנוסף, אם איראן מקבלת כלי נשק גרעיניים, ערב הסעודית ומדינות נוספות הכריזו כי הם יוכלו גם לפתח נשק גרעיני, ועל כן, הפצת נשק גרעיני יכולה בקלות להוביל, במקרה הטוב, תאונה או אירוע גרעיני או במקרה הגרוע, גרעיני המלחמה.

איראן נראה כפופות על קורס של אלימות, דיכוי, טרור, קיצוניות נקבע כי כדי להפיץ ברחבי העולם. ברור, אנשים אחראים באיראן לא יראה גן העדן.

ניגריה - איסלאמיסטים נ נוצרים
כמו ה-BBC מדווח, חמושים איסלאמיים תוקפים נוצרים (ההתקפות היו גרועים בחג המולד) מוביל לשיחה על ידי מנהיגים נוצרים כדי להגן על עצמם.
סודן [שוב] - צפון נ 'דרום
כמו ה-BBC מדווח, האלימות פרצה בסודן, בין הצפון לדרום.

סוריה ממשיכה
כמו ה-BBC ו-CNN מדווחים למרות ההבטחה של האביב הערבי התערבות הליגה הערבית עוקבת אחר, הממשלה הסורית ממשיכה לתקוף, להרוג, לכלוא, ועינויים מפגינים לא חמושים ותמים ואף אזרחים שלא היו מעורבים במחאה.
בעיראק - הסונים לשיעים נ
פחות משבוע אחרי ארצות הברית הוציא עיראק על מה שהיה אמור להיות משימה ארוכה אבל מצליח לשחזר את השלום, החופש, היציבות למדינה הזאת, את המילים בצורה הטובה ביותר לתאר את עשור ארוך, הפלישה טריליון דולר נראה: לא, יקר, נפרמים. זה נחשב, כולל על ידי מקורות כגון CNN כמו משבר פוליטי אמיתי.
פצצות מתפוצצות כמו הנשיא השיעי הוציא צו מעצר נגד הסוני סגן הנשיא, בתוך מה שנראה לתפוס את השלטון, בממשלה שהיתה אמורה להיות נשלטת על ידי, קואליציה בשיתוף קונצנזוס,. ראו סיקור של CNN. במקום זאת, מנהיגי הרוב השיעי נראה נחוש לבצע את ההובלה של איראן, דיכוי דיקטטורה אלימות,.

לחץ כאן כדי לעבור לעמוד הראשי של הבלוג שלי
לחץ כאן כדי לשלוח לי דואר אלקטרוני

The Time Has Come For Armed Intervention In Syria to Bashar al-Assad Committing War Crimes

2011-12-25T19:55:00.020-05:00

The Time Has Come For Armed Intervention In Syria to Stop the Government of Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad from Slaughtering, Torturing, and Massacring Innocent Non-Violent Protestors لقد حان الوقت للتدخل المسلح في سورية Stop the Slaughter and The Massacre وقف المذبحة والمجزرة

Update February 7, 2012

I called for armed intervention in Syria to protect the Syrians from the tyrannical, criminal, murderous, and oppressive rule of Bashar al-Assad way back on December 25, 2011. I have always prided my Blog posts on being prescient, ahead of even the media, much less world opinion. It is now February 6, 2012. The government has resorted to shelling innocent civilians, including with indiscriminate mortar attacks. It is both emboldened by the failure of the United Nations to Act, and desperate to quash the growing rebellion, including in the armed forces.

People have died each and every day since I first published my call for armed intervention, lots of people on each day. Most are children and other innocent civilians who have nothing to do with the protests. The government proudly arrests, tortures, and murders innocent civilians (who are within its reach) to punish armed rebels and unarmed protesters who are generally outside its reach.

The news reported yesterday the death of many children, and the severe injuries of many others, including one child whose jaw was blown away.

The really disturbing videos have been self-censored by the media
4 month-Old: Tortured to Death! Afaf Saraqbi, An Infant Martyr by The Doctor (Ass....ad) 01/10/2010

It is important to note that the entire movement began as a non-violent peaceful demonstration. The sole reason that there are now armed soldiers involved in the demonstrations is that some members of the military, who were ordered to shoot and murder unarmed protesters, refused to do so, and defected along with their weapons. Now, they seek only to protect the unarmed protesters from being murdered by the soldiers who still follow Assad's Orders.

The continued failure of the world to intervene militarily is a moral crime. We all have blood on our hand. A peaceful educated modern populace wants peace, and we have stood by while a repressive dictatorship has slaugtered, and continues to slaughter, them. When will politics and apathy give way to compassion, morality, and the rule of international law? If is far past time.

I updated this Blog on January 2, 2012 What appears in Italics was added on that date.

A member of the Syrian opposition correct argued [I am rephrasing], by failing to provide armed intervention and assistance to the largely non-violent protesters against Syrian President/Dictator Assad’s murderous tyranny, the free and democratic world is losing its credibility, legitimacy and degrading its moral mantle. I agree. It is time for armed intervention. Furthermore, as I will explain, in no other country affected by the Arab Spring is American and Western self-interest more aligned with the freedom movement of the Arab Spring. He even said that, “A no-fly zone would do the trick.” We could do that at minimal cost and with minimal loss of life.

While the observers from the Arab League have arrived in Syria, the violence against the peaceful protesters continues. Bashar al-Assad continues to murder these protesters, despite the presence of the Arab League observers. Assad has previously and continuously ignored both world opinion, the condemnations in the United Nations and the condemnations by the Arab League. The right of the protesters to demonstrate peacefully without fear of arrest or violence is sacrosanct. The only reasonable conclusion is that Bashar al-Assad must leave both his office and Syria, along with the regime that he created. While it is regrettable, because I do believe in non-violence as a general rule, I see no other solution than the use of force.

While this may seem contradictory to my belief in non-violence, legitimate and restrained self-defense is an exception I can embrace, and it seems to be the situation now clearly called for in Syria. Assad's continued violence in defiance of all outside and internal condemnation, and even in the presence of the Arab League observers, clearly makes the use of armed intervention an act necessary to defend the protesters who have the legitimate right to protest.

Intelligent people of good conscious can simply not stand idly by and ignore the slaughter of the brave and innocent protesters and bystanders who risk their lives for nothing more than the most basic human rights.

Amateur video uploaded on December 28 is purported to show an Arab League observer waving a white flag as gunfire rings out during an inspection in Homs.

In some countries such as Egypt, there has been a concern that the regime which would replace the old regime might be worse, more militant Islamic and Anti-West, or that anarchy would set in if the existing regime were replaced. While I remain absolutely optimistic about the future of Egypt and Libya, there is some evidence that some of these concerns were not totally irrational. Nonetheless, benign revolutions are fluid and not static moments in time. I am certain that the tyranny currently being experienced in Egypt and the anarchy in Libya will move towards benign democracies where these countries will find themselves as welcome, free, proud, and democratic members of the world’s community of nations.

On the other hand, in Syria, a different set of facts makes armed intervention a clear moral imperative. First, that member of the Syrian opposition is correct, if we do not intervene and stop the slaughter of unarmed innocent protesters who simply want the same “regime change” that our former President Bush sought to impose on Iraq [which never asked for it and never stopped regretting his gift], why would we not do it in Syria?

Furthermore, unlike Iraq which was the nemesis of Iran (our real enemy and the threat to stability in the Middle East), Syria is an ally and proxy of Iran. So when we destabilized Iraq, evidence of which we see daily on the news, we created a valuable ally for Iran, who now even threatens the entire world with nuclear weapons and the exportation of terrorism. These are not fears or suspicions, but well documented facts.

We invaded Iraq for absolutely no reason. They had no “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and they did not help Al Queda. The cost to America was about One Trillion Dollars (the same amount which is paralyzing our congress which is trying to cut the same amount from the economy). We turned world opinion against America, which was at a high point post 9/11 and was at a low point during the invasion of Iraq.

The invasion of Afghanistan, I will note, was different. It was more limited, more necessary, and understandable. Afghanistan had turned into a severely extremist regime that was so extreme and oppressive, even Iran was having military confrontations with it. It had few friends and allies. It was actively giving safe harbor to Al Queda and Osama Bin Laden, and was the site where the terror attacks, with the acquiescence of the Taliban government, were planned and directed against America. As anyone familiar with the pervasive and severe human rights violations, including especially against women, some governments (and this is rare) are so inherently evil that the world must intervene for moral and humanitarian reasons. Afghanistan was such an example. Iraq was not.

Syria, and its leader Bashar al-Assad, are dictators of the worst form. They use any form of murder and torture they feel will be effective. They torture young children to death in the most cruel manner, and then release the body to the families, not so that the families can bury their young children, but to serve as a deterrent to the community against further opposition. Each and every day, unarmed and peaceful men, women, and children are being slaughtered. Many are not even protesters, but people on their way to market or other chores.

Here is a video from YouTube. The Description of the author is as following:
Syrian victims are screaming for your help. Will you answer? A protester is tortured and cursed at by Assad forces and forced to admit to accusations that he is a drug dealer. They repeatedly tell him to laugh and at one point to say he is having a good time. These are the faces of the Baath Regime.

To date, the number of dead in Syria exceeds the number of dead US servicemen in both Iraq and Afghanistan (except the Syrian opposition had no body armor, no guns, only words or peace as weapons.) Bashar al Assad and the current regime in Syria is no friend of the USA or the west. We have nothing to loose in seeing their demise, and everything to gain. The same goes for those who support Israel, democracy, freedom, and/or peace.

Both Egypt, under Mubarak, and even recently Libya, had a relationship with the West. We had reasons to be concerned with the regime that would replace the prior regimes. I disavow that selfish analysis, but only mention it to further to convince my readers that no argument favors ignoring the slaughter of innocents, and every arguments compels military intervention (at the very least a "No Fly" zone.) Syria is both an ally and proxy to Iran and helps spread and support terrorism and instability wherever it can, including in Lebanon, Iraq, and against Israel and the West.

I am not arguing for armed intervention because it is in the West’s interests’ to do so. I am simply pointing out that this argument (against acting in our own self-interests) argues for intervention in Syria unlike in Egypt (where it was not necessary) or Libya (where the West did intervene). The main reason for military intervention is that people are fighting to achieve the same freedom and democracy we enjoy against an illegitimate government which is a true dictatorship. Instead of achieving freedom, people are being slaughtered at the very second you are reading this.

I don’t think that every government which is different than America’s is either an enemy of America or should receive our intervention. Far from it. There are many legitimate forms of government as the Socialist and even Communist governments of Europe and China have established. I believe that China, Russia, the Arab World, the West, and the rest of the United Nations should finally unite without fear and out of strength and moral obligation. But, in any event, Basair al-Assad must go, and it is time that we “Helped him to the exit.”

It is easy as a Blogger in the USA to write about intervention in Syria as I sit in peace and safety. But indeed I have attempted to contact people involved in the Syrian uprising for the purpose of entering Syria, whether legally or illegally, as an independent journalist to document, first hand, also with a high resolution video camera and my words and writing, the massacre going on. This would involve to me, a Jewish American not credentialed or supported by a powerful news organization such as CNN, great personal risk. I am willing to share my videos and stories with all major news organizations for free in the hope of stopping the slaughter. I will do my reporting from the very front lines and without a support or security staff, in the sole interest of stopping the slaughter. This is desirable because many of the videos smuggled out are not authenticated and/or are taken from a distance. That would not be the case with me.

I have not heard from anyone connected with the Syrian uprising. If anyone who is in a position to help me in my goals reads this blog, please contact me.

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وقد أضفت تحديث هذه المدونة في 2 يناير 2012 ما يظهر في مائل في ذلك التاريخ.

في حين أن مراقبين من الجامعة العربية قد وصلت إلى سورية ، والعنف ضد المتظاهرين السلميين لا يزال مستمرا. بشار الأسد لا يزال القتل هؤلاء المتظاهرين، رغم وجودالمراقبين جامعة الدول العربية. الأسد سبق وباستمرار تجاهل الرأي العام العالمي على حد سواء، والإدانات في الأمم المتحدة والادانات من قبل جامعة الدول العربية. حق المتظاهرينفي التظاهر السلمي دون خوف من اعتقال أو العنف هو مقدس. الاستنتاج الوحيد المعقول هو أن بشار الأسد يجب أن يترك كل من مكتبه وسوريا، جنبا إلى جنب مع النظام الذي أسسه.في حين أنه أمر مؤسف، لأنني أؤمن باللاعنف، كقاعدة عامة ، لا أرى أي حل آخر سوىاستخدام القوة.

في حين أن هذا قد يبدو مناقضا للاعتقادي في عدم اللجوء إلى العنف، وضبط النفسالمشروعة للدفاع عن النفس هو استثناء أستطيع احتضان، ويبدو أن الوضع الآن دعابوضوح في سورية. استمرار العنف الأسد في تحد لادانة كل من الخارج والداخلية ، وحتى في وجود مراقبين من الجامعة العربية، يجعل من الواضح أن استخدام التدخل المسلح فعلاللازمة للدفاع عن المتظاهرين الذين لديهم الحق المشروع في الاحتجاج.

يمكن للناس ذكية واعية من الجيد ببساطة لن تقف مكتوفة الأيدي وتجاهل ذبح المتظاهرينالشجعان والأبرياء والمارة الذين يخاطرون بحياتهم من أجل لا شيء أكثر من أبسط حقوق الإنسان الأساسية.

وهنا شريط فيديو من يوتيوب. ووصف المؤلف على النحو التالي :
تم الرفع الفيديو الهواة يوم 28 ديسمبر أن المفروض أن تظهر مراقب الجامعة العربية تلوح بعلم أبيض وحلقات اطلاق النار من خلال عملية تفتيش في مدينة حمص.

بوصفها عضوا في المعارضة السورية الصحيح القول [أنا إعادة صياغة] ، من خلال فشلها في توفير التدخل المسلح وتقديم المساعدة للمحتجين غير عنيفة إلى حد كبير ضد سوريا الاستبداد الأسد الرئيس / الديكتاتور القاتل ، والعالم الحر والديمقراطية تفقد مصداقيتها وشرعيتها والمهينة في عباءة الأخلاقية. وأنا أتفق. حان الوقت للتدخل المسلح. وعلاوة على ذلك ، كما سأشرح ، في أي بلد آخر تتأثر الربيع العربي الأميركي والغربي المصلحة الذاتية أكثر انسجاما مع حركة حرية الربيع العربي. وقال انه حتى ذلك ، "منطقة حظر الطيران سوف تفعل خدعة." اننا يمكن ان نفعل ذلك بأقل تكلفة ممكنة وبأقل الخسائر في الأرواح.

في بعض البلدان مثل مصر ، كان هناك قلق من أن النظام الذي سيحل محل النظام القديم قد يكون أسوأ ، وأكثر الاسلامية المتشددة ومكافحة الغربية ، أو أن الفوضى سيحدد في حال تم استبدال النظام القائم. في حين ما زلت متفائلا على الاطلاق حول مستقبل مصر وليبيا ، وهناك بعض الأدلة على أن بعض هذه المخاوف لم تكن غير عقلاني تماما. مع ذلك ، هي ثورات حميدة السائل وليس لحظات ساكنة في الوقت المناسب. وإنني على يقين من أن الطغيان التي يشهدها حاليا في مصر والفوضى في ليبيا سوف تتحرك نحو الديمقراطيات حميدة حيث ستجد هذه الدول نفسها على أنها موضع ترحيب ، حرر ، أعضاء فخور ، والديمقراطية للمجتمع في العالم من الدول.

وهنا شريط فيديو من يوتيوب. ووصف المؤلف على النحو التالي :
الضحايا يصرخون السورية لمساعدتكم. سوف تجيب؟ هو احد المتظاهرين للتعذيب ولعن من قبل الاسد في القوات وأجبر على الاعتراف على اتهامات بأنه تاجر مخدرات. يقولون عنه مرارا وتكرارا أن تضحك وعند نقطة واحدة ليقول انه هو وجود الوقت المناسب. هذه هي وجوه نظام البعث.

من ناحية أخرى ، في سوريا ، مجموعة مختلفة من الحقائق يجعل التدخل المسلح واجب أخلاقي واضح. أولا ، أن عضوا في المعارضة السورية هو الصحيح ، وإذا كنا لا تدخل ووقف ذبح الأبرياء من المتظاهرين العزل الذين يريدون ببساطة نفس "تغيير النظام" ان لدينا الرئيس السابق بوش يسعى إلى فرضها على العراق [التي لم يطلب لها و لم يتوقف أبدا عن أسفها] هدية له ، لماذا نحن لا نفعل ذلك في سوريا؟

وعلاوة على ذلك ، على عكس العراق الذي كان الأبرز في إيران (عدونا الحقيقي ، وتهديدا للاستقرار في الشرق الأوسط) ، وسوريا حليف لايران والوكيل. خلقت لذلك نحن عندما كنا زعزعة استقرار العراق ، والأدلة التي نراها يوميا في نشرات الأخبار ، وهو حليف هام بالنسبة لإيران ، الذي يهدد الآن حتى في العالم كله مع الأسلحة النووية وتصدير الإرهاب. هذه ليست مخاوف أو شكوك ، ولكن حقائق موثقة توثيقا جيدا.

نحن غزا العراق لسبب على الإطلاق. لم يكن لديهم "أسلحة الدمار الشامل" وأنها لم تساعد آل Queda. كانت تكلفة لأمريكا حول تريليون دولار (المبلغ نفسه الذي شل مؤتمرنا الذي يسعى الى خفض المبلغ ذاته من الاقتصاد). لجأنا الرأي العام العالمي ضد الولايات المتحدة ، والذي كان في آخر نقطة مرتفعة 11 / 9 وكان في نقطة منخفضة خلال غزو العراق.

غزو أفغانستان ، وسوف نلاحظ ، كان مختلفا. كان أكثر محدودية ، من الضروري أكثر من ذلك ، ومفهومة. وكانت أفغانستان قد تحولت إلى النظام المتطرف بشدة أنه متطرف جدا والقمعية ، وإيران حتى بعد أن المواجهات العسكرية معها. وكان عدد قليل من الأصدقاء والحلفاء. كان يعطي بنشاط الملاذ الآمن لQueda القاعدة واسامة بن لادن ، وكان الموقع حيث تم التخطيط لهجمات ارهابية ، بموافقة حكومة طالبان ، والموجهة ضد أمريكا. مثل أي شخص مطلع على انتهاكات حقوق الإنسان انتشارا وخيمة ، بما لا سيما ضد النساء ، وبعض الحكومات (وهذا أمر نادر الحدوث) هي بطبيعتها ذلك الشر الذي يجب على العالم التدخل لأسباب أخلاقية وإنسانية. وكانت أفغانستان مثال على ذلك. لم يكن العراق.
سوريا وقائدها بشار الأسد ، هي من أسوأ الحكام المستبدين النموذج. يستخدمون أي شكل من أشكال القتل والتعذيب يشعرون ستكون فعالة. انهم أطفال صغار التعذيب حتى الموت في معظم بطريقة قاسية ، ثم حرر الجسم للأسر ، بحيث لا تتمكن العائلات من دفن أبنائهم الصغار ، ولكن لتكون بمثابة رادع للمجتمع ضد المعارضة. كل يوم ، ويجري ذبح الرجال العزل وسلمية والنساء والأطفال. ولا حتى العديد من المحتجين ، ولكن الناس في طريقهم إلى السوق أو غيرها من الأعمال المنزلية

حتى الآن ، فإن عدد القتلى في سورية يتجاوز عدد الجنود الامريكيين القتلى في كل من العراق وأفغانستان (باستثناء المعارضة السورية ليس لديها الدروع والبنادق لا ، كلمات فقط أو السلام كأسلحة.) بشار الاسد والنظام الحالي في سوريا ليست صديقة للولايات المتحدة أو الغرب. ليس لدينا شيء فضفاض في رؤية زوال ، وكل شيء لكسب. الشيء نفسه ينطبق على أولئك الذين يدعمون إسرائيل ، والديمقراطية ، والحرية ، و / أو السلام.

وكان كل من مصر ، تحت حكم مبارك ، ومؤخرا حتى ليبيا ، والعلاقة مع الغرب. كان لدينا أسباب تدعو للقلق مع النظام الذي سيحل محل الأنظمة السابقة. أنا بريء من هذا التحليل الأنانية ، ولكن أذكر فقط لاقناع مزيد من قرائي أن أي حجة تفضل تجاهل ذبح الأبرياء ، وتجبر كل حجج التدخل العسكري (على أقل تقدير "No_Fly" المنطقة.) سوريا على حد سواء وحليف وكيل لإيران ، ويساعد انتشار ودعم الارهاب وعدم الاستقرار أينما كان يمكن ، بما في ذلك في لبنان ، والعراق ، وضد اسرائيل والغرب.

أنا لا يدافعون عن التدخل المسلح لأنه في مصلحة الغرب "للقيام بذلك. إنني ببساطة مشيرا إلى أن هذه الحجة (ضد يتصرف في المصالح الذاتية الخاصة بنا) يقول عن التدخل في سوريا خلافا في مصر (حيث لم يكن ذلك ضروريا) أو ليبيا (حيث لم تتدخل في الغرب). السبب الرئيسي وراء التدخل العسكري هو أن الناس يسعون لتحقيق نفس الحرية والديمقراطية التي نتمتع بها ضد الحكومة غير الشرعية التي هي الديكتاتورية الحقيقية.

لا أعتقد أن كل الحكومة التي هي مختلفة من أميركا هو إما عدو لأميركا أو ينبغي أن يتلقى تدخلنا. على العكس من ذلك. هناك أشكال كثيرة من الحكومة الشرعية والحكومات الاشتراكية والشيوعية حتى في أوروبا والصين اقامتا. وأعتقد أن الصين وروسيا والعالم العربي والغرب ، وبقية الأمم المتحدة يجب أن تتحد في النهاية ، ودون خوف من قوة والتزام أخلاقي. ولكن ، على أي حال ، يجب أن البشير الأسد الذهاب ، وحان الوقت أننا "ساعده على الخروج."

فمن السهل كما مدون في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية إلى الكتابة عن التدخل في سوريا وأنا أجلس في سلام وأمان. ولكن في الواقع لقد حاولت الاتصال الأشخاص الذين شاركوا في الانتفاضة السورية لغرض دخول سوريا ، سواء كانت مشروعة أو غير مشروعة ، كصحافي مستقل للوثيقة ، أول يد ، وأيضا مع كاميرا ذات دقة عالية والفيديو كلماتي والكتابة ، ومذبحة يجري. وسيشمل ذلك بالنسبة لي ، وهو أميركي يهودي لا المعتمدين أو تدعمها منظمة انباء قوية مثل سي إن إن ، ومخاطر شخصية كبيرة. وأنا على استعداد لتبادل أشرطة الفيديو الخاصة بي وقصص مع جميع المؤسسات الإخبارية الكبرى مجانا أملا في وقف المذبحة. سأفعل تقاريري من الخطوط الأمامية للغاية وبدون دعم أو موظفي الأمن ، لمصلحة الوحيد لوقف المذبحة. هذا أمر مرغوب فيه لأنه لم يتم المصادقة العديد من أشرطة الفيديو تهريبه و / أو تؤخذ من مسافة بعيدة. فإن ذلك لن يكون الحال معي.

لم أسمع من أي شخص له صلة مع انتفاضة السورية. إذا كان أي شخص في وضع يمكنها من مساعدتي في أهدافي يقرأ هذا بلوق ، يرجى الاتصال بي.

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