tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post4278039401893933756..comments2024-03-28T08:06:43.198-04:00Comments on The Silicon Graybeard: China Isn't Going to Recover for a Long TimeSiGraybeardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-39142897208789272642016-01-26T12:22:26.882-05:002016-01-26T12:22:26.882-05:00@Dan: What Mr. Graybeard said. I couldn't say ...@Dan: What Mr. Graybeard said. I couldn't say it any better. We have (huge, terrifying, awful) problems...but we at least have the illusion of being free. The NSA et al might monitor the content of our conversations, but at least we only *wonder* (can't believe I'm writing this...in America! God help us.) whether we'll be picked up and imprisoned secretly because we say something naughty. In China, they don't wonder. They *know* if their words are overhead they'll be shot or imprisoned. Is the comparison too close for comfort? Hell yeah. But even in China there are people who hope, and have faith, and look towards a brighter future, even if they die for the crime of believing that the present isn't bright and shiny. If China and the US are the same, just as evil, just as dark as each other...why do Chinese people flee here when they get the chance? Hell, the existence of this very blog is evidence that, though things are unacceptably bad, they still haven't gotten to China level. An even better example is the fact that "he who must not be named" (the "supreme dark lord" of the ELOE) continues to run his blog. The feds almost certainly monitor it, but it, and places even more...unsavory and unPC?...than it *exist*. And they exist as more than just a means for the state to identify noncompliant "badthink"ers to arrest. If you'll pardon the sentiment, the flame of Liberty may have been hooded in many places in this country...but it has not gone out. It will continue to burn, obstinate, indomitable, and unfaltering, as long as people like you, and me, and Mr. Graybeard, and the madgeniusclub, According to Hoyt, monsterhunternation, etc. crew refuse to give in to the temptation to despair. I don't know what struggles you've had, sir, but (if I may be so bold) I can tell they haven't extinguished your fervor and devotion to the concept of Liberty, however awful they were. That's a part of what makes this flawed, wounded, ravaged nation great, in my opinion: we are a bunch of seriously stubborn, intractable, unyielding nutters. (Love that word...) We refuse to surrender. And we "have not yet begun to fight!" :-D<br />(Sorry if this makes little sense/seems off topic...I'm feeling under the weather today. I'll stop rambling now.) God bless!Bibliotheca Servarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11643412827583261562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-80674345201430701272016-01-25T23:04:23.468-05:002016-01-25T23:04:23.468-05:00Dan, 99.9% of Americans aren't robbed by the p...Dan, 99.9% of Americans aren't robbed by the police or indicted by lying prosecutors and police. Don't conflate the horror stories the Internet spreads around with the normal life most of us live. I'm 72, don't drink or do drugs and have had zero bad interactions with the police. Most of my friends and family can sat the same. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-64132707181538772252016-01-25T18:34:31.875-05:002016-01-25T18:34:31.875-05:00To begin with, I think when I said that China was ...To begin with, I think when I said that China was worse than the US, that means a difference in degree, not fundamentally different. <br /><br />Is the US just as bad? I don't think so. We're still better at not having factories full of slave workers, and still better at not harvesting organs from live prisoners. We're still better at not bulldozing churches. They still haven't fundamentally transformed us to that level. Yet. All those other things you write about? Yeah, I've written about them in the pages of this blog, too. Many times. <br /><br />SiGraybeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-14285554208557802912016-01-25T06:43:02.982-05:002016-01-25T06:43:02.982-05:00Precisely....in your opinion. Ask someone who has...Precisely....in your opinion. Ask someone who has been jailed because a DA withheld exculpatory evidence or the po po lied under oath if this is a 'free country'. Ask someone who was pulled over and robbed by an armed badgemonkey of thousands of dollars simply because the thug COULD if this is a 'free country'. I could go on and on and on ad infinitum. NO.... our government is no better than that in China and we are no more free than the people of China.....it's just that our system and methodology of corruption and state sanctioned criminality is DIFFERENT from theirs.Dannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-13041411566730379852016-01-25T04:22:48.849-05:002016-01-25T04:22:48.849-05:00No better? Seriously? The US certainly isn't a...No better? Seriously? The US certainly isn't a bed of roses bathed in sunshine and scented with unicorn farts, but it's a bit of a stretch to call it "no better" than the totalitarian, pseudocomnunist, Orwellian hell-pit that is China, in my opinion. Are we doing our damndest to change that, to make America into a totalitarian hellhole? You bet. *spits* But even with all the freedoms the constitution enshrines (doesn't give. It enumerates rights that already exist, it does not *grant* them.) that have been stripped away by unconstitutional processes and abuse of the (deeply flawed) concept of "judicial review", America is still a helluva lot freer than just about any other country on the face of this earth that you could name. In my opinion, of course. God bless, hope I didn't offend. :-)Bibliotheca Servarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11643412827583261562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-84560727356885119162016-01-25T00:13:47.146-05:002016-01-25T00:13:47.146-05:00All true....China is rife with corruption, tell me...All true....China is rife with corruption, tell me DC and Wall St. aren't and do it with a straight face. China has centralized control of business, the US does the same thing by regulations and bureaucratic edicts. China wastes BILLIONS on questionable and even useless building projects. The US Gov has shelled out $3 million to study video games like World of Warcraft.....and that is just one of THOUSANDS of things that money is flushed down the shitter for. <br /><br />NOPE.....don't tell me how horrible China is. The US is NO BETTER.Dannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-54668614841089689342016-01-24T23:17:20.495-05:002016-01-24T23:17:20.495-05:00I finally got around to reading Rickards' book...I finally got around to reading Rickards' book.<br /><br />It's very good, and downright scary. Made me reevaluate my retirement savings allocations....drjimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05647484115197408897noreply@blogger.com