2005.5.12=4[#132]:4703.4.5[#60+33/60]: [N.Irish, Iraq] LA, Jung tel Hsiang no drive. 1)China<>Taiwan [W]M emails. 2)US God Party. 3)Sustainable Living

[N.Irish Bloody Sunday] http://tinyurl.com/dbmpy [Bush in Iraq] http://tinyurl.com/8me2q Cloudy turns fine mild to warm: Up 6:10, drive Jyun quickly to station and back, sort newspapers then out for breakfast and emails, first to "(1)", then back to "{2)", under "1) China<>Taiwan". Then at 5:55pm after sorting some nearby documents then lunch, finish emails again, after mom tel to replace Jung tonight at o.h., then much later Jung tel that Hsiang has been hurt again seriously unable to drive, turn to Lung then back to me hoping I will driver them to LA, with Jung as the 2nd driver. Topics are to "3)" now. Drive to station as requested by Mei then Jyun, back home Ch. sleeping in outside car, her dog and Lung in. Fisnish now 7:51pm to go to o.h., 12:40 bed. 1) China <> Taiwan: (1) "Taiwan in a Chinese overture", by Andrew Mueller, lpenDemocracy, 9 - 5 - 2005: http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-83-2487.jsp ""China’s mixture of diplomacy and threat across the Taiwan Strait creates tension in Taiwan, reports Andrew Mueller from Taipei"": "" The logical solution appears to be that China should just let bygones be bygones, sign a treaty with Taiwan and allow the people there to do as they like. This could certainly benefit Beijing: even in the present awkward circumstances Taiwan has $70 billion invested in China. But unless there is a revolution inside the People’s Republic, that simply won’t happen, for reasons both powerful and numerous. China sees settling the Taiwan issue on its own terms as the key to reducing American and Japanese influence in the region. It has its eye on the Chunxiao oilfields beneath the Diaoyutai islands (“Senkaku” for Japan), which are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan. The Chinese armed forces need the Taiwan issue to justify their bulging budgets, and the Beijing government needs the Taiwan issue so that if it faces domestic strife it can always create a galvanising nationalist distraction. In Taiwan right now the two things that people fear most, in no particular order, are: 1) a strong, confident China, and 2) a weak, disintegrating China. "" (2) "" now 12:39pm, M., D.'s replies to my "China Has Made It!? #10004:Taiwan WMD, Farce & Family Migration": "" Message: 1 Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 09:09:36 -0700 From: M... Subject: Re: China Has Made It!? #10004:Taiwan WMD, Farce & Family Migration[Tsai 05.5.10=2 #1] Thank you and I'm putting this in my blog for any one interested. I guess we couldn't have any evaluation of this kind of info? Do we have to be careful about IAEA or like, since it's very outdated? Not to worry about any t-word? Most people concerned think any possible Taiwan nuclear weapon programs and weapons were totally stopped by the US many years ago? This is about your: > > The only real evaluation you might want is classified and unavailable to both of us. The only reason that any of this came out at all, was because somebody saw a good reason to put some political pressure on for disclosure and leaked. What their agenda was, is problematical. Perhaps they wanted to try and put economic pressure on South Africa to disarm. No way of telling unless the CIA declassifies, and given the infighting and spin doctoring that goes into producing any unified intelligence estimate, my guess is that they'll keep it buttoned up simply because the infighting over the analysis would be profoundly embarassing. > >"" And since Taiwan has the bomb, it probably also has the ability to >manufacture more. If you don't test, the only way to have a reliable >deterrent is to set a short shelflife and scrap out of date bombs and >make new ones. With a low volume isotope separation capability, there's >probably a slow but steady growth in Taiwan's nuclear stockpile. So, >assuming that you have a credible delivery system, and preferably two or three so >that you have overlapping performance envelopes and thus complicate the mainlanders >defense problems, and given that the optimum time to invade will be in >06, given that Beijing wants no real embarassments when the Olympics comes to >Beijing in 08, this would be a very good time to do an overt nuclear test. "" > >About Taiwan "statesmen" statement, once our former president has been out of office, he just stopped playing the role of the farce of the ROC, and has started to state the reality as it is, and has started to complain that the current president is too timid, which is the price we are still paying for not violently overthrowing the "evil" KMT's ROC government, which was subverted by himself, the former pres. Lee Teng-hui. > Interesting. Chinese politics is based more on nuance than overt declarations, so things must have really deteriorated for it to have gotten that far. >. >My father had taken his whole extended families (except one sister married to a Taiwanese in Osaka, Japan and lives there) still in Taiwan and moved them to California in 1977. In response to my repeated question, he answered that he wants to sleep here, so he is in Skylawn Park near here. The second one to go is my only sister-in-law in LA. All of our 2nd generation here except one in Osaka (Her husband was gone before.) and our mother are going to attend her ceremony on the coming Saturday. > Good. Being on the island when all Hell breaks loose, as it will, is going to be ugly. "" "" Message: 2 Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 23:14:38 -0700 (PDT) From: D... Subject: China has made it #1004 1/2 ? I would think the Chinese would be wise to hold off on starting any short victorious wars until after their 2008 Olympics, not before. Otherwise, they'll be running the risk of hosting this showcase of an event in an Olympic Village full of bomb craters. And that would be kinda embarrassing. "" 2) "God's Own Party", by Jim Wallis; TomPaine.com: May 12, 2005. Originally published in Sojourners magazine: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050512/gods_own_party.php Jim Wallis is convener of Call to Renewal, a network of churches and faith-based organizations working to overcome poverty, and editor of Sojourners magazine. His is also the author of the best-selling book God's Politics. Several weeks ago, Episcopal priest and former Republican Senator John Danforth began an op-ed in the New York Times by writing: "By a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians." And, I would add, some religious right leaders are trying to transform the church into the religious arm of conservative Republicans. Either way, these partisan attempts to hijack faith and politics are wrong. Yet each week brings a new outrage. This week's news was of a Baptist church in North Carolina, where nine members, including three deacons, say they had their membership revoked because they were Democrats who supported John Kerry. According to the Charlotte News-Observer, the nine walked out of a church meeting when Pastor Chan Chandler asked them to sign documents agreeing with his political views. When they left, members remaining voted to terminate their membership. "" 3) "The energy gap: the cost of living sustainably", by Dan Damon, openDemocracy, 11 - 5 - 2005: http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-6-129-2495.jsp ""Between two families in northern India and western England, the BBC radio reporter Dan Damon conducts a unique social experiment in low-energy living.""