Torched

(Picture from www.chinapost. com.tw/ news_images.jpg)

What's the deal with the Olympic torch protesters? Would anyone in the West be protesting China's policy with Tibet if the torch weren't going through their country? I mean China's had a terrible human rights record for at least the last sixty years since Mao came to power and I haven't seen anyone on the news picketing in D.C., London, or Paris until now. The reason is because the people who actually care about the Chinese and Tibetan people are not the ones who are trying to tackle poor defenseless torchbearers. By the way torch tacklers: the eternal flame is not a symbol of Chinese communism and/or oppression; it's a symbol of the Olympics Games whose head haunchos decided to have China host this year. Why weren't you outside the IOC meetings picketing when they were deciding on where to hold the Games? I agree ideologically with putting pressure on the Chinese government to be more responsible for their human rights violations, but we are not going to tackle a beast like China by spearing some nice French lady getting the chance of a lifetime. I promise China is not waiting with bated breath to see if the torchbearers are safe, they don't even do that for their own citizens. So to all Western democratic idealogues stop trying to get on TV and go do something real.

Good Summer, Bad Economics

(Image from an anonymous google images source)

So a few weeks ago Meg and I were contemplating how we can obey our commander in chief and spend the money he wastes on us to "stimulate the economy". Now, I'm no economic genius here, but taking tax dollars from the people who have money and know how to spend it and giving it to the people who are barely making enough doesn't seem to quite add up in my head. I keep joking with Meg's dad that the government is taking money from him and giving to us. So despite Mr. Bush's shaky economic sense (pun intended), individually I'm pretty happy about the extra cash. In a twisted way, it panders to my American psyche of spending money recklessly with regard for wise investment. So we contemplated traveling to certain places in the country Chattanooga, New Orleans, Chicago, maybe a 2nd honeymoon to Montana, but another opportunity came up. That's what Macchu Pichu has to do with the good ole economic booster. You see there's this missionary couple that home schools their kids and practices medicine among the locals in Kusco, Peru and they've invited us to come down during the month of July for as long as we want. I'd be able to follow the doc around, do a couple of medical things with him, and basically learn what it is like to live as a rural, international, primary care physician. Of course, Meg and I are youngest children (i.e. not administratively competent) so we have yet to hammer out the details of the trip but if it works out it should be really cool. That wouldn't be a bad view to see on your third wedding anniversary would it? So there's an update (happy Tim?), sorry for the delay, I still have a love/hate relationship with blogs and cyberspace in general.