2005.4.14=4[#104]:4703.3.6[#60+5/60]: [Da Vinci Code...] Return Still Incomplete. 1)US<>EU. 2)US Intelligence. 3)Churchill. 4)China's Economic Danger.

[Da Vinci Code] http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21751/ [Glass Eel] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4432951.stm [Safe Sex] http://www.alternet.org/rights/21749/ Totally clear cool mild: 7:44 Jyun calls me to up, then drive him to station. Lung does his tax return with TurboTax Deluxe & State rather quickly while I have breakfast. 10:40 get back computer for emails and to eel url above. Then quickly to "Anti-Americanism" or "USA <> EU" topic. Then 2 answers to [G], until 1:32pm now finishing emails instead of earlier morning. After lunch, finish emails again at 4:36pm when Lung is home, mails first now. Copy Taipei home's account numbers, till 6:30 Jyun and Mei back then Mei leave quickly, while I watch Korean dramas "The Winter Sonata" and then "The Blue Fog" in Chinese, answering [C] R. leading here to prove even Americans have started to change their perceptions of the world reality, at least among the extreme left? So I'm going to copy from "USA <> EU". Evening arrange documents again for tax return, Mei back late then cooks past 10pm. Still no home tax info of 1/2, want to do medical deduction also, but no time? Lung did this morning, Jyun not yet and still out here, Mei watches a rather good drama of a Taiwan countryside family, where children speak Hakka also and dad is a foreign povince man (from a short observation, it seems to be good and realistic one). It's now 12:18pm. Try tv2's remote2 for an hour and fail, bed 2:05. 1) USA <> EU: (1) "Goodbye Uncle Sam, Hello Team Europe", by John Feffer, AlterNet. Posted April 14, 2005: ""Not only does the world hate us, a new poll shows that for the first time most countries want us to get the hell out of the driver's seat."": http://www.alternet.org/story/21753/ "" A new poll conducted by GlobeScan and the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) reveals that citizens in twenty out of twenty-three countries would like to see Europe become more influential than the United States in world affairs. "" (2) "We can learn a lot from Europe", BY WOLF SCHAFER, April 14, 2005: ""The union of nations that shed old divisions has become a world power player - with lessons for America"" Wolf Schäfer, professor of history, is founding director of the Center for Global History at Stony Brook University, which is co-hosting an international conference on "The New Europe" now throug http://tinyurl.com/4kqdw "" Considering Europe, it is a mistake to think that nothing is new under the sun. A potent new Europe is emerging, and Americans are hardly paying attention. "" 2) USA Intelligence: "Exposing Incompetent Incumbents", Ray McGovern; TomPaine.com; April 13, 2005: ""Ray McGovern is a 27-year veteran of C.I.A.’s intelligence analysis directorate. He now serves on the steering group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and works at Tell the Word, an activity of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC."" http://www.tompaine.com/articles/exposing_incompetent_incumbents.php?dateid=20050414 "" Many have asked how it could be that a comparatively small group of intelligence analysts in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) was able to get it right on several key Iraq-related issues, while larger agencies like CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency—with, literally, a cast of thousands—got it so wrong. The answer is simple: INR had the guts to be the skunk at the picnic. That’s how. State Department analysts showed backbone in resisting White House pressure, as well as in-house prodding from the likes of Under Secretary of State John Bolton, to cook intelligence to the White House recipe. "" 3) "Churchill: Visionary. Statesman. Historian", John Lukacs: amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/4fusz Foreign Affairs: http://tinyurl.com/6u5pt "" Lukacs examines Churchill's relations with Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower, as well as his feelings toward European integration. He also deals at length with Churchill's critics, especially recent ones such as John Charmley and Niall Ferguson. Looking at Churchill as a historian, he covers his funeral in a chapter brimming over with sentiment. This superb little book is a pleasure for the reader. The mix of critical intelligence, sure appreciation of what Churchill did to stop the dark evil of Adolf Hitler, nuanced understanding of the many strands of Churchill's personality, and literary talent is admirable. Is Lukacs always fair? Perhaps not: his tepid assessment of Roosevelt and his distaste for Eisenhower go a bit far. But it is hard to resist this tour de force. "" 4) China's Rise: "China's Economy: Crash or Slow Decline?", by Rodger Baker; Stratfor; April 14, 2005: "" The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that China's seemingly unrestrained growth could come back to haunt it. In its just-published World Economic Outlook report, the IMF warns of continued strong growth in the Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) fed by runaway investment, low interest rates and tight monetary controls. All of these trends could damage the Chinese economy if they remain unaddressed. Stratfor has long been pessimistic about the future of the Chinese economy because of certain structural and political issues in China. Despite frequent criticism of our bearish view, China's economic problems are now becoming conventional wisdom, with the new debate over the style of the Chinese downturn rather than its potential existence. ""