Taco Republic

this is some crazy shit

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Another Chinese moment. . . .

Gezzzzz . . .  I need preface this by saying it is normal for cars to park on the sidewalk in China…. Not the best thing but you do get used to it. Anyway I was walking down the sidewalk last night on my way to bbq. At the entrance I was passing between two parked cars when a lady in an SUV tired to squeeze thru the two cars and as you guessed it, there wasn’t room for the two us. Her passenger side mirror struck my right arm knocking me sideways against the parked car and folding the mirror in on her SUV (Thank God for folding mirrors).  The lady quickly rolled down he window and you’ll never guess what she said. . .  she didn’t say “are you okay” . . .  she didn’t say “I’m sorry”. . . She had a completely blank looking face and nicely asked if I would please straighten out her mirror….  I shit you not . . . . .

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White Could Mountain (Baiyun Mountain, Zhejiang Province China) 4/29/2013

White Could Mountain (Baiyun Mountain, Zhejiang Province China)

I finally had a free day after months of none stop work so when my friends Mei & Chen Tianxi invited me to climb a mountain I happily accepted. Now keep in mind that climbing mountains on a day off for city dwellers is very common. It normally entails going to a state ran mountain. Everyone I have seen or heard about really isn’t “climbing” a mountain but rather walking up some nicely built stairs and at the top there is normally a Temple or Statue with various religious meaning.

When we arrived at the mountain it looked pretty much like many places I’ve been… Buddhist temple with monks praying… I was warned not to take pictures and if I did I would need to apologize. When in Rome do as the Romans do…. So no pic’s but it was pretty impressive.

What happen next I was not prepared for…. We started walking up a path that was not much of an incline at all. I even mentioned it was so nice to take a nice easy walk on such a nice day. I would soon find out why Mei laughed.

Now I’m not going to get dramatic here but gezzzzzz. . . . . we climbed a mountain… the path ended and we were pretty much traveling on a very rarely used one foot wide trail. At times it was so steep we you had to use your hands as in “climbing”. Coming down was either facing up and lowering yourself or sliding down on your ass and it kicked my ass as well.

Not to smart because we didn’t take water. The last kilometer I was badly dehydrated and my vision was all messed up. I had double vision and had a hell of a time…. Luckily there was a lady selling ice cold water at the bottom…. Smart lady.

I won’t claim victory over the mountain…… she let me thru this time. .

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Chinese girls need to much emotional maintenance.

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Five weeks, 15 cities in China

Just finished up a 5 week trip that took me to Taizhou, Suzhou, Ningbo, Hongzhou, Wenzhou, Chaozhou, Changzhou (what’s with all the “zhou’s”?), Shanghai, Yiwu, Yonggang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, ZhongMuTou and Chengdu.

Here are just a very few pic’s from my iPhone…. Nothing to write home about but at least the memories are saved here.

 

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Half Mast: Should we be flying our flags at half-mast out of respect for the passing of what was a great AMERICA?

Wikipedia: Half-mast is the term describing the flying of a flag below the summit of the flagpole (mast). This is done in many countries as a symbol of respect, mourning or distress.

half-mastI think my first memory of flags at half-mast was in 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was just a kid and have no further memories of that time in my life except those flags at half mask and I didn’t have to go to school for a couple of days. . .

Then as I got a little older those half-mast flags became more and more common… Apollo 1 fire disaster (1967), Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy both assassinated in 1968, not to mention the rash of passing ex presidents, Hoover, Eisenhower, Truman and Johnson all went in an eight year span…. The one thing in common was that something “thought” to be good, great or special had left us forever.  Our flag flying at half-mast was our reminder that nothing last forever and that evil or disastrous things can happen at any moment.

So. . .  I pose the question no American wants to think about let alone consider. Should we be flying our flags at half-mast out of respect for the passing of what was a great AMERICA?

We have gone from the world leader in almost every important category to below average amongst most developed nations. The USA is now 17th in education and 37th in health care behind countries like Costa Rica, Chile and Colombia. We are 8th in GDP/PPP (how much your money actually purchases) and 23rd in quality of infrastructure. The Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam are Dinosaurs next to projects like China’s Beijing to Guangzhou high-speed rail lines. This line would be like New York City to Miami in 5 hours with a 138 trains traveling at 200 miles an hour on one line simultaneously. We use to do these things. . . .

We are however still on top at No.1 when it comes to Teen Pregnancy with 494,357 births (No.2 is considerably lower at 30.4k). This does not take into account abortions and one would assume since we are ranked No.2 in the world in abortions that teen pregnancy is even higher (really happy we have all those free condom programs). We also get the dubious honor of ranking No. 1 in illegal drug use….

Now with all that horrible news it sadly gets worse. Most of what you see above is directly related to money, i.e., our debt. Our debt is driving our economy into the ground. 16.5 trillion and growing at rate of 3.82 billion a year since 2007.

The unemployment rate of 7.8% is just unadulterated BULLSHIT! A quick look on the web has most experts saying yes the unemployment may be 7.8% but the “UNDEREMPLOYMENT” rate is 24 to 27%. University grads working at grocery stores and fast food restaurants. Wake up people, these are your kids!

And here is what drives me absolutely nuts. . .  we continue to re-elect those that put us in debt at a faster rate then anytime in our past history.  The debt doubled in our currant presidents first term and then we reward him with a second term. Now that’s just so smart folks. I will concede that he is dealing with the presidents before him but that is no reason to reward him.

So, I pose the question Should we be flying our flags at half-mast out of respect for the passing of what was a great AMERICA?

Don’t look here for the answers…. Look at the people, the new generation of people running for office in your home town and elect them. These will be the unpopular candidates. The ones not willing to spend money they don’t have. The ones that think people should work to provide for themselves instead of the government taking care of them. The ones that really think less government is better. Lets put the people who want to spend our money on their favorite pork-barrel projects that only benefits them and their chances of re-election out of business.  FIRE THEM.

In bad times some people say “God save us”, God doesn’t want to save America, God wants Americans to save America.

 

 

 

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Japan Airport in January. . . that was after 26 hours and I still wasn’t home…

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Damn neighbor’s dog wouldn’t stop barking…. Job done… I got the neighbor.

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ZhuHai Bike Ride.

Finally got off my ass and did the long ride to Zhuhai. Actually went from Dongguan to Shenzhen and then up and around to Zhuhai. About 225 kilometers in total. Took one full day and three hours the next morning. Would have completed it in a day but iPhone ran out of battery and I had no GPS…..

It’s one of those things I always wanted to do and happy I did but wouldn’t recommend it. Ingested way to much bus fumes and going over all the bridges with no shoulder was a bit dangerous….. anyway, it’s finally off the to-do-list.

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The first pic in the slide show is why I left….. broke a water pipe in the kitchen floor so no reason to hang around….

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Hong Kong Border

gezzzzzzzz….. A girl could get pregnant here and not know who the father is…..

Hong Kong Border crossing.

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New Years 2013 at Brandies with friends.