2005.4.16=6[#106]:4703.3.8[#60+7/60]: [Earth, GM Crops] [[Left Taiwan '63, Reagan "to Abolish Nucl", Jane Fonda ]] 1)Taiwan;65-88:+9% 2)US Pres.Power.

[Earth NASA] http://www.visibleearth.nasa.gov/ [GM Crops] http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ican//C1833 http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=www&q=%22GM%20crops%22&go=ican Cloudy fair mild: Up 8:20, check Anchor check book, 2:20 drive past house stopping to listen to B. about bath hot water problem (Mei tel Leo to check, B. wanted to check by Mei havn't tool either), then home, Mei has just left shrimp vegetable, take lunch. Quickly check emails, now 4:46pm for [Earth Picture] rul. Then answering [G]'s L. get Taiwan topic: [[ When I left Taiwan and came here as the very first member of my dad's extended family (eventually his 4 children's families moved to California, only one in Osaka, Japan) in Feb. 1963, my father suddenly told me not to come back and to become an American. I answered that I would not do that and do come back. At that time, Taiwan was deeply in the midst of the Chiang's Nationalist Chinese (of Kuomintang or KMT Party) COLONIAL RULE of white terrorism. Not only Taiwanese, but also newly arrived (until 1949) Chinese lived in fear and uncomfortably. Among Taiwanese at that period only I believe, and not as racial terms, Japanese were dogs and Chinese were pigs, and those newly returned Taiwanese from China were three-legged (meaning half-pigs, not quite human.). So what my father advised wasn't strange at all, and most students stayed here. It' was also because the standard of lving was quite different between here and there. I still vividly remember how I felt the excitement of experiencing real self and at home with myself from finally, finally escaping from fear and hatred and obrtaining my freedom. Of course I had not gone back to Taiwan, or pay attention to or read newspapers from Taiwan for decades. Until one day I discovered the explosion of Beautiful Island Incedent in December 1979 then the slaughter of "the family of Lin Yi-shiung": http://tinyurl.com/caecg ]] finally now 6:55, shall soon finish and go to o.h. But "The Winter Sonata" in Chinese shall start now at 7pm (however, back to #2), then in Japanese at 8:15pm? at o.h. So stay here a while finishing emails first. All 3 + Ch. just gone out for dinner. To o.h. enough time for "Winter Sonata" [[ Second near death of the man eventually recovers his memory of his lover. Is EVERTHING only by accident? ]] Xueh tel, mom will tel later about goinb back to Taiwan. Then 2 good Booktv programs, and then now 4.17=7 2:50 one more: "God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life", by Paul Kengor "attempts to plant Reagan firmly in the camp of evangelical Christianity": http://tinyurl.com/79mfb 1. Paul Lettow, "Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons", February 1, 2005: http://tinyurl.com/e2srp "" From Publishers Weekly The growing body of affirmative revisionist scholarship on Ronald Reagan and his presidency is enhanced by this comprehensively researched, well-crafted monograph. Independent scholar Lettow uses recently declassified archival material to establish Reagan's determination to abolish nuclear weapons as a focal point of his presidency. Reagan believed that the U.S. should use the arms race to bankrupt the Soviet Union, and that the development of an effective defense against ballistic missiles would then render all nuclear weapons negotiable and foster discussion of their abolition; the U.S. would then share the system with the U.S.S.R. and other countries, ensuring the safety of an eventually nuclear-free world. Lettow presents Reagan as a thoughtful leader, who developed his radical challenge to both liberal and conservative conventional wisdom on the Cold War independently. "" "" From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Paul Lettow has found the purloined letter of the Reagan presidency: the fact that much of his Cold War policy was driven by a desire to eliminate all nuclear weapons. This aspect of Reagan is part of the public record but has so far been hidden in plain view because it doesn't seem to fit his conservatism and seems so otherwise outlandish. Lettow, a first-time author whose book resulted from his work on an Oxford doctorate, demonstrates that Reagan had acquired his fundamental beliefs in this area by the 1960s. He wanted to do away with nuclear weapons entirely, perhaps because he thought the biblical story of Armageddon foretold a nuclear war. He believed that the Soviet economy would buckle under the pressure of stiff competition in the arms race. And he supported missile defense as a technological and moral alternative to the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Lettow's book gives the reader an odd appreciation for impracticality. It was Reagan's utopian belief in the possibility of eliminating nuclear arms that spurred his creativity. That belief prompted his policy to cross ideological boundaries, making for a yeasty, original mix. But the most important ingredients to his success were the most intangible: intuition and imagination. Working off newly declassified documents and extensive interviews with the key players, Lettow conveys this extraordinary story crisply and convincingly. Although his sympathy for Reagan is obvious, he gives a straightforward historical account that will challenge the assumptions of Reagan admirers and detractors alike. He has made a significant addition to our understanding of Reagan and the endgame of the Cold War. Score one for dreamers. Reviewed by Rich Lowry "" 2. Jane Fonda, "My Life So Far", April 5, 2005: http://tinyurl.com/a6led "" From the Inside Flap Now, in this extraordinary memoir, Fonda reveals that she is so much more. From her youth among Hollywood’s elite and her early film career to the challenges and triumphs of her life today, Jane Fonda reveals intimate details and universal truths "" "" examines her controversial and defining involvement with the Vietnam War. As her film career grows, Fonda learns to incorporate her roles into a larger vision of what matters most in her life–and in the process she wins two Academy Awards, for Klute and for Coming Home. In Fonda’s third act, she is prepared to do the work of a lifetime–to begin living consciously in a way that might inspire others who can learn from her experiences. Surprising, candid, and wonderfully written, Jane Fonda’s My Life So Far is filled with universal insights into the personal struggles of women living full and engaged lives. "" 1) Taiwan, 1965-1988: "The Labour Movement in Taiwan" by John Minns and Robert Tierney: http://tinyurl.com/caecg Endnotes:1: "" Between 1965 and 1988, real GNP grew at an annual average of 9 per cent. Lawrence Lau, 'The Economy of Taiwan, 1981–1988: a Time of Passages', in Lawrence Lau (ed.), Models of Development: a Comparative Study of Economic Growth in South Korea and Taiwan, second edition, ICS Press, San Francisco, 1990, p. 187. "" 2) US Presidential Power: "Bush’s Presidential-Papers Power Grab", by James Bovard [[ the author of "The Bush Betrayal" and "Terrorism & Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil" serves as a policy advisor for The Future of Freedom Foundation ]]; April 16, 2005: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/bovard7.html "" On November 1, 2001, President Bush issued an executive order entitled “Further Implementation of the Presidential Records Act.” His order effectively overturned an act of Congress and a Supreme Court decision and could make it far more difficult for Americans to learn of government abuses. Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, declared that the executive order “effectively rewrote the Presidential Records Act, converting it from a measure guaranteeing public access to one that blocks it.” ""