Thursday, December 31, 2009

Larwyn's Linx: The Left's Permanent War on the War on Terror

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Nation

The Left's Permanent War on the War on Terror: Ace
Dems lose another top recruit: Kansas: Riehl
We are being governed by children: Nice Deb

Some politicians 'acted stupidly' in 2009: Surber
Martha Coakley's Secret Bank Account: LegalIns
"Not just incompetence but incomprehension": MoneyRunner

Ron Paul: Al Qaeda's Useful Idiot: GWP
TSA subpoenas bloggers, demands sourcing info: AP
Dems brace for voter backlash on health: Times

Heaven help us: the failed Detroit attack: FoMF
New TSA travel rules for public can't be released to public: CFB
Illinois Governor Highlights Gitmo Relo Lunacy: JWF

Economy

Income and Wealth: Greenroom
Keeping America's Edge: Corner (Manzi)
Our Mediterranean Moral-Hazard Holiday: Corner

A Decade and its Three Crises: AT
Farewell to the Decade of Fear: Barone

Climate & Energy

News: CO2 levels in atmosphere haven't changed in at least 150 years: BlogProf
The final nail in the Global Warming coffin: Surber

Media

Gateway Pundit- #9 “Best of the Rightest” Top Ten Conservatives of 2009: GWP
They Shouted "You Die!": LegalIns
Worst Tweet of the Year: LegalIns

Sarah Palin, Man of the Year: Surber
The Second Worst Day of My Life: Noisy Room
A World Without Rush: AT (Marcus)

Top 20 Political Quotes of the Decade: RWN
When Worlds Collide: Dewey

World

Connecting the frickin' dots: Jawa
Why Didn't Abulmutallab Get Flagged by State?: Wizbang
A Humpty-Dumpty View of the World: Hanson

Muslim Immigrant Opens Fire – Kills 5 in Finnish Mall: GWP
Blackwater contractors cleared in Iraq killings: Surber
Knee Slapper: R&R

US releases ‘dangerous’ Iranian proxy behind the murder of US troops: LWJ
New Year's Eve: What Better Time to Spring an Iranian Terror Master Who Murdered American Troops?: Corner
What Can Israel Teach the U.S. About Airport Security?: PJM

Counterinsurgency at a Sprint: CJ
Obama's 2010 Policy and Iran: Misconceptions Guarantee Failure: RubRep

SciTech

How eavesdroppers can listen in to cell calls: CNet

Cornucopia

Beautiful short films to wish you a beautiful new year: Anchoress
Daily Scoreboard: Surber
Dick Cheney and Pollsters: New Enemies Within: Michelle's Mirror

Email o' the day (sent to Don Surber):

Just got this from my friend Diana and I thought I’d share it with you!

Happy New Year!

My Dog…

My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365. His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Dr. once a year for his checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise. For this, he pays nothing, and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than he needs, but he is not required to do any upkeep. If he makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep. He receives these accommodations absolutely free. He is living like a king, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day. I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head: Holy S##t!!!

My dog is a Democrat!


My third prediction for 2010: all types of airport scanners will be defeated by terrorists, eh, man-made-disaster instigators

Kim Priestap points us a Radio Netherland report with a discomfiting title. "Al-Qaeda practises beating body scanners" describes test runs by terrorists that involve smuggling explosives past full-body scanners in Europe.

In 2007 Ed Morrisey summarized a series of apparent terrorist dry-runs. At that time the TSA alert (PDF) suggested that an attack on airliners was imminent. The TSA noted items that closely resembled C4 (explosives), IEDs, and remote triggers.

Furthermore, the explanations of the persons involved were "questionable" and investigations continue.

[Authorities] have intercepted several items at airports resembling improvised explosive device (IED) components. These items include wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components, and dense clay-like substances. The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern... Terrorists may repeat operational tests to desensitize, distract, or adapt plans for specific environments...

Individuals involved in these incidents were of varying gender, and initial investigations do not link them with criminal or terrorist organizations. However, most passengers’ explanations for carrying the suspicious items were questionable, and some investigations are still ongoing. Many of the incidents caused airport terminal evacuations and at times, brief closures...

Noteworthy incidents include the following:

5 July 2007, San Diego, CA – A U.S. Person’s (USPER) checked baggage contained two icepacks covered in duct tape. The icepacks had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.

4 June 2007, Milwaukee, WI – The carry-on baggage of a USPER contained several items resembling IED components, such as a wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes, and two blocks of cheese

8 November 2006, Houston, TX – A USPER’s checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals, and pipes.

16 September 2006, Baltimore, MD – The checked baggage of a couple contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.

* * *

At some point, the TSA practices -- often described as "security theater" -- need to cease. They must be replaced with decisive, intelligent measures such as those used by Israeli security personnel.


My second prediction for 2010: It's Going To Be Bush's Fault

Dan from New York offers a prediction for the coming year and I concur.

It's hard to argue with the premise that 2009 exposed a yawning gap between Obama's worldview and the way of the world. But many conservatives mistakenly believe that the weight of reality will force the man into a course correction. That's a bad mistake committed by reasonable people who are unable to fathom the power of Obama's bred-in-the-bone ideology to withstand change and brush off the laws of cause and effect. If Republicans can't convince the American people to put a honkin' speed bump in Obama's path this coming November, he's going to drag us full speed in the same direction until 2012, come what may.

A Humpty-Dumpty View of the World


Rarely has a candidate’s entire world view been so abruptly refuted in the first year of a presidency...

By Victor Davis Hanson

...most of you readers remember young Barack Obama in late 2007 hitting the stump against Hillary, proclaiming to the world how his hope and change bromides would stop the Bush-Cheney nexus from destroying the planet.

Those were heady times when Guantanamo was still a gulag with its hundreds of Solzhenitsyns, not psychopaths like Khalid Sheikh Mohammeds, when we could just leave Iraq by “March 2008”, and when there would be no lobbyists, no tax cheats, no insider buy-offs and horse-trading for votes. In such a dreamy world, geniuses like Timothy Geithner don’t pocket their FICA allowances, and Tom Daschles don’t fudge on their complimentary limo services.

And then tragically Obama got elected and discovered that the real world had no relationship whatsoever to his fantasy impressions of it. In a cosmos of radical Islam, Chinese bankers, Japanese exporters, and Arab oil producers, there were no more law school profs, Rev. Wrights, or Chris Matthews and Newsweek editors to wink and nod and reassure Obama that his mellifluous but empty rhetoric allusions were at all reality-based.

...So if he seems bewildered, angry sometimes, and more at home in warm, lush Hawaii, you would be too — once you discovered that your easy fantasies and winged rhetoric of the last thirty years have no relation with the here and now...

You know what to do.

My First Prediction for 2010: Illinois-based Terrorists to be Freed, Unionized, Hired as TSA Baggage Screeners

Consider the following facts:

1. Senator "Little" Dick Durbin (D-IL) believes relocating Gitmo terrorists to Illinois will help stimulate the local economy.

2. Senate Democrats are working tirelessly to bring collective bargining (i.e., unions) to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), despite the fact that similar security-focused organizations (e.g., CIA, FBI) are kept strictly non-unionized to ensure agility.

3. The Obama administration's Justice Department strongly asserts that terrorists captured on the battlefield have the rights of U.S. citizens.

4. Since these barbarians were not Miranda-ized (had their rights read to them), some experts believe there's a reasonable chance they could be freed and walk right out of court.

I can come to no other conclusion that they will form a TSA Baggage Screening Union (Jihadists Local 1) and solicit the SEIU for affiliation. Oh, and they'll vote Democrat.

It's really not funny because, sadly, it could happen with this brilliant crew in charge.


Larwyn's Linx: The Challenge of Freedom

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Nation

The Challenge of Freedom: Doc Zero
Scott Brown Winning The Online Battle: LegalIns
More Radicalizing of Higher Ed: AT

10 New Reasons Why Obamacare Can Still Be Killed : Schlafly
Four days to respond to terror; just hours to Cheney: Hemingway
The President's War on the Word 'Terror': RedState

What is Barack Obama doing?: Tapscott
Mystery van causes Times Square scare: Times
2012: It'll be here before you know it: Grand Rants

Did Holder's firm represent NWA bomb mastermind?: GWP
DeMint decries union obstructionism in TSA: RWN
Watch List Review Chief Has Ties to Watch List Firm: Times

Economy

More workers revolt against SEIU: Malkin
A dozen states threaten suit over NE health deal: Hemingway
Four Easy Steps: How Goldman Made Billions in Meltdown: Collapse

Kucinich et.al.: Prove It (Fannie/Freddie "Outrage"): Denninger
Obama's Game of False Choices: AT
GMAC becomes the government's takeover #6: Ace

The Gladney Twins Need Assistance: GWP
Dow's Worst Decade Since the Thirties: Surber
Stimulating Minnesota: Power Line

Media

WGN Opens Censorship's New Front: Radio Equalizer
AP laughably tries to sell an economic 'rebound': PJM
The Fox News Decade -- Illustated: Surber

15 Bloggiest Stories of 2009: Patterico
Looking For A Picture On A Blank Screen: JOM
TSA springs into action, targets bloggers: JWF

Surprises abound in Going Rogue: PJM
Ten Reasons Obama Gets an 'F': Patterico

World

Interpol: The International Enforcement Arm of the Islamic Republic of Iran: GoV
Suicide bomber kills eight in Afghanistan: Ace
UAE banks threaten customers with jaail over debts: Maktoob

Petraeus: Iran involved in kidnapping of British citizen: JWF
France's Constitutional Council rules carbon tax illegal: AT
Pantybomber Abdulmutallab’s al-Qaeda London connection: Fausta

SciTech

Full-body scanners: a waste: Pupista
Why the Big Phone Companies are Dogs: Fortune

Cornucopia

Richard and Ray: Denny
Adam James (Texas Tech) on YouTube: Patterico
Image credit: The Nose On Your Face

Featured Posts


Popular Posts

You may have noticed all hell breaking loose around us

The end-times must be near.

Yes, that's Sarah Palin's Going Rogue nearing the pinnacle of the San Francisco Chronicle's local bestseller list.


Hat tip: John Galt.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Avatar Review: More Than Just 'Dances With Wookies'

Avatar in four words: Production: $183,000,000. Script: $14.25.

Cameron must have blown his entire budget on CGI, which was gorgeous, and forgotten to spend on the story. Cameron's under-$15 script recycled a bunch of the old favorites:

Dances With Wolves: Dude goes native except he's 9-feet tall and blue.

The natives even ride horsey-type creatures and use bows-and-arrows.

And they ride in packs and wear war paint and scream when they attack. Clever!

Aliens 2: the evil corporate boss with Giovanni whatever-his-name-is playing the Paul Reiser character.

Oh yeah -- and they threw in Ripley for good measure.

Pocahantas - Native chick falls in love with the dude who goes native.

And is it weird that I was strangely attracted to a nine-foot tall blue chick?

Lion King - Let no Disney script go untapped! In this case Hakuna Matata...

I swear to you that I kept waiting for the cast to break out in a chorus of Circle of Life.

And, really, the whole Gaia versus the evil corporation meme rings a bit hollow, what with California shutting down a million acres of prime farmland to save a frickin' two-inch river smelt.

Mr. Cameron: next time save a little budget for story development. Tell you what: I'll throw in my screen-writing services for half off.


Say a Prayer for Rush

Bob McCarty points us to this report from Hawaii's KITV:

Conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital on Wednesday afternoon with chest pains, sources told KITV.

Paramedics responded to the call at 2:41 p.m. at the Kahala Hotel and Resort... Limbaugh suffered from chest pains, sources said. Paramedics treated him and took him to Queen's Medical Center in serious condition.

Say a prayer tonight for the King of Talk Radio.


Which kind of infrastructure is most important?

As the government contemplates trillions in new bailout spending, it is worth considering real infrastructure projects. And there is no infrastructure quite as important as that which undergirds the two-parent family.

Consider that, of 23 peer-reviewed U.S. studies since 2000, 20 found that family structure directly affects crime and/or delinquency.

"[R]esearch strongly suggests both that young adults and teens raised in single-parent homes are more likely to commit crimes, and that communities with high rates of family fragmentation (especially unwed childbearing) suffer higher crime rates as a result."

For example, a 23-year study found that nearly 90% of the change in violent crime rates can be attributed to the change in percentages of out-of-wedlock births (divorce rates, on the other hand, had no relationship with crime).

In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead noted that the "relationship [between single-parent families and crime] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature. The nation's mayors, as well as police officers, social workers, probation officers, and court officials, consistently point to family break up as the most important source of rising rates of crime."

In addition, the statistical link between the availability of welfare and out-of-wedlock births is conclusive. There have been dozens of studies that link the availability of welfare benefits to out-of-wedlock birth.

One study found that a 50 percent increase in the value of AFDC and foodstamp payments led to a 43 percent increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births.

Research for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that a 50 percent increase in the monthly value of combined AFDC and food stamp benefits led to a 117 percent increase in the crime rate among young black men.

In 1995 Dr. Patrick Fagan wrote a seminal summary of the situation: "Over the past thirty years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise in families abandoned by fathers... High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families abandoned by fathers... The rate of violent teenage crime corresponds with the number of families abandoned by fathers... Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods... Even in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable homes do not become delinquents. By contrast only 10 percent of children from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime... Criminals capable of sustaining marriage gradually move away from a life of crime after they get married."

But what caused the breakdown of the American family? There are certainly many factors, but the welfare system; glorification of the single-parent household; and ill-conceived legislation are among the chief culprits.

Welfare: In 1994 the Maryland NAACP published a report that concluded "the ready access to a lifetime of welfare and free social service programs is a major contributory factor to the crime problems we face today."

Author Robert Rector argued that "[f]or thirty years, the welfare system has paid for non­work and non­marriage and has achieved massive increases in both." Rector noted that when New Jersey began denying increases in cash welfare benefits to single mothers who have additional children while on welfare, out-of-wedlock births decreased 10% with no increase in abortions.

Glorification of single-parent households: During a 1994 commencement address at George Washington University First Lady Hillary Clinton stated, "If it ever did, [the American family] no longer does consist of two parents, a dog, a house with a white picket fence, and a station wagon in the driveway."

In 1992 Vice President Dan Quayle ignited a media kerfuffle by criticizing the character of Murphy Brown for raising a child out of wedlock without any discernible father figure. Though mocked for months in the press, Quayle's words now seem prescient: It doesn't help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.

Furthermore, "Feminist" organizations have long opposed measures to reduce single-parent families and revamp welfare accordingly.

But even more important than Hollywood, the media and feminist efforts to glorify single-parent households, legislation played a critical role in the breakdown of the family.

Legislation: Tax law hits married couples directly in their wallets. Studies have determined that the "marriage penalty" disincentivizes both marriage and labor, since "[the] best approach to appear to have a lower family income is to not have an employed spouse in the home."

Research shows that tax and transfer programs have a direct effect on marital stability. Financial stress contributes heavily to family problems, including marital difficulties that can lead to divorce. Therefore, tax policies that penalize married couples by increasing their tax liabilities, contribute directly to the breakdown of families.

Tax policies of the 1940s provided a family-oriented tax structure which preceded the sustained prosperity and social stability of the 1950s and early 1960s. During this time period, the rate of divorce actually declined.

Social researcher Allan Carlson proposed a variety of pro-­family tax policies, saying "a tax code recognizes that tax structure does influence human behavior. It would help children and strengthen families."

Other experts have offered a series of legislative proposals that strengthen the family, including: (a) identifying every child's father, by having states ensure that a document exists at birth to identify the name and social security number of both parents; (b) forcing fathers to take responsibility for their children through programs like Charles Ballard's National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood, in which fathers are strongly encouraged to legitimate their children, attend school, and find gainful employment; (c) rescind no-­fault divorce laws for parents with children; and (d) eradicate the destructive incentives of the welfare system.

Put simply, Congress can pave the way through intelligent legislation based on data, not opinion. If government is going to spend hundreds of billions on "infrastructure projects", no infrastructure is as important as that which underpins the two-parent American family.


Won't You Please Lend a Hand?

Remember -- it's for the children.

Remember to give generously. These ladies did.


Calling Dr. Freud, or The AP

Dan from New York:

AP: Web posts suggest lonely, depressed terror suspect


Read the whole story. It's enough to make you cry. Too bad the unfortunate young man didn't contact me before he set himself alight and tried to become a martyr. I would have found him a nice girl, and if that didn't work, a nice shrink.


Larwyn's Linx: The Emperor's New Speech Impediment

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

The Emperor's New Speech Impediment: AmDig
The Isolated Extremist: Cold Fury
More Guns, Less Crime in '09: AT

The INTERPOL Question: Malkin
Why has Obama given INTERPOL a free hand in U.S.?: WExam
Where is the national GOP in MA special election?: Morrissey

Bureaucrats Running For Cover Over Flight 253: Strata
Is Ben Nelson's Career Over?: RWN
GOP cedes ground: Crittenden

Economy

Consumer Credit and Bank of America: Denninger
It's a wonderful life, working for the government: Barone
Teddy's Dream is America's Nightmare: PJM

Four Members of Congress Caught Cheating on Taxes: Wizbang

Climate & Energy

Fireplace fascism in California: WExam
ClimateGate (Inadvertently) Explained: Wizbang
A shovel-ready test to separate the authentic environmentalists from the phonies.: PJM

Media

The wake-up call from Flight 253: Jacoby
No Christmas Mass for the Obamas: iOTW
Doncha Just Hate It When Those Damn Neocons Get All Violence-y?: DPU

Man, Do I Hate Holiday Travel, Iowahawk Special Guest Opinion by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab: IowaHawk
Should have just said "You Lie!": LegalIns
We must face the reality that evil exists: Emery

They’re Lost, But They’re Making Good Time: Driscoll
Iron Chef Does the White House: Powers
Imelda Obama: BizzyBlog

World

The Christmas Crotch Bomber - Why He Almost Succeded And How To Stop Him In The Future: JoshuaPundit
Airliner suicide mission blessed by imam linked to Fort Hood suspect: Times
The Yemeni Front in the War on Terror: AT

Chesler on terrorism and the absent father: Pundette
Iranian Cartoonist Mocks Obama’s Soft Words Against Killer Iranian Regime: GWP
U.S. knew of AQ attack before 12/25: GWP

SciTech

Google plans January 5 Android press event: CNet
Beam Me Up, Johnnie Walker: DailyTech

Cornucopia

Video: Air Force Jet Cruises Thru Grand Canyon: BMW
Happy Kwanzaa!: Six Meat Buffet
WTF? US orders 200M rounds of ammo for homeland security: TAB

Illustration: Red Planet Cartoons.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Thomas Friedman Has a Plan for Managing the Climate, the Economy and More!

Note: you will want to read this post and scroll down for the illustrations. Trust me on this one.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the wit and wisdom of The New York Times' Thomas Friedman?

Thomas Friedman (35 points)

"Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today. One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.”

-— New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in a September 9 column, "Our One Party Democracy."

Tommy's the best the Times can muster -- and his recommendation is as follows:

Let's ignore thousands of years of brutal experience and the counsel of Polybius, Plato, Aristotle, Montesquieu, Locke, Jefferson, Adams and Madison, and follow instead the model of China's dictators.

Consider the latest news from inside the People's Republic of China:

On December 17, Wuhan City organized over 800 law enforcement officers to forcefully demolish nearly 40,000 square meters of illegal buildings that are near the Wuhan City to Huangshi City railway construction site. The phenomenon of local famers rushing to “grow houses” is very common.

Protesting the forceful demolition, a farmer woman was blocked out by hundreds Chengguan (city management) from her illegally built building.

...Experts pointed out that farmers “grow houses” are directly motivated by profits, however a deeper reason was because they fear for their lives after losing their land to the government project. In order to stop the root of the “growing houses” problem, the government should make efforts to find employment opportunities for the farmers and include them into the new city lives.


Well maybe that's just a fluke, because Thomas Friedman is oh-so-very knowledgeable about China's despots!

The case of Nail household is a common occurrence in China, however this incident is by far the most escalated conflict between residents and the government demolition team. Ms. Fan attempted to defend her house from the demolition squad by throwing home-made fire bombs…

Today, Ms. Fan’s house in Minghang district was to be forcefully demolished, Ms. Fan standing on the 3rd floor threw home-made fire bombs (at the demolition squad)... Upon seeing this news, I am pleased that after two decades of development, society has progressed. Sub-machine guns are replaced by high-pressured water gun. Then why would it lead to such brutal resistance? Because of the large-scaled building project of Hongqiao, Ms. Fan had an area 480 square meter home, but the government is only willing to offer the compensation of 670,000 yuan, which is 761 yuan per square meter of housing subsidies and 1,480 yuan for the compensation of the land.

When the city’s average commercial housing is measured by tens of thousands (per square meter), forced eviction’s price is still calculated with the hundreds, this is the reason why residents threw fire-bombs. That is, they were living in a 480 square meter home, you acquired their land for so called construction, that’s also business, your compensation for the family only is enough to buy a 40 square meters home, and then the demolitions team came. I think anyone who had weapons probably could not help themselves but to take them out in this situation.

But that kind of brutal repression must be an outlier sort of situation... because Thomas Friedman thinks tyrants are cool!

“Ten thousand girls go to Lingnan (South of the Five Ridges – the area covering Guangdong and Guangxi), millions of whoremasters go down to Dongguan”, this is an up and coming popular phrase and also depicts an image of how prosperous Dongguan is...

Prosperity is people’s first impression of Dongguan – in the past 30 years, Dongguan’s economy was developing at an unbelievably fast pace... As famous as its prosperity is the city’s sex industry...

Dongguan’s Tourism Bureau released data from the first half of this year showed that the city had a total of 96 hotels of various stars. In the past year, the financial crisis ruined Dongguan’s export-oriented economy. However in Houjie, this famous town in Dongguan, even in the middle of the night, there are young girls who are dressed sexily on the street. They wear short skirts, black stockings, high heels, carry a small handbag and hold a cigarette in their hands. Their faces are covered with heavy make-up, and they do not seem to mind the chilly night.

As for Friedman's desire for a command-and-control approach to the climate "problem"? Yes, sir, that's a compelling proposition.

Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin Iron and steel plant (河北省涉县天津钢铁厂) is a heavily polluting company. Company scale is still growing, seriously affecting the lives of local residents. Thomas Friedman Approved!

Guiyu, Guangdong province, (广东省贵屿镇) rivers and reservoirs have been contaminated, the villager is washing in a seriously polluted pond. Thomas Friedman Approved!

In the Yellow Sea coastline, countless sewage pipes buried in the beach and even extending into the deep sea. Thomas Friedman Approved!

In Inner Mongolia there were 2 “black dragons” from the Lasengmiao Power Plant (内蒙古拉僧庙发电厂) covering the nearby villages. Thomas Friedman Approved!

Large amount of the industrial wastewater flowed to Yellow River from Inner Mongolia Lasengmiao Industrial District (内蒙古拉僧庙工业园区) every day. TFA!

Longmen town in Hanchen city, Shaanxi Province (陕西省韩城市龙门镇) has large-scaled industrial development. Environment is very seriously polluted there. TFA!

There are over 100 chemical plants in Jiangsu province coastal industry district. (江苏滨海头罾沿海化工园区) Some of them discharge wastewater into the ocean; some heavily contaminated sewage is stored in 5 “Sewage Temporary Pools”. During the 2 high tides in every month, the sewage then gets discharged into the ocean with the tides. TFA!

Anhui Province Cihu Chemical Industry District (安徽省慈湖化工园区) built a underground pipe to discharge wastewater into the Yangtze River. The wastewater sometimes is black, gray, dark red, or yellow, wastewater from different chemical factories has different colors. TFA!

Shanxi Province is the most polluted areas of China. It is also the province with the highest rate of birth defects. This loving farmer couple adopted 17 disabled children. TFA!

15-year-old boy from Tianshui, Gansu Province (甘肃天水), dropped out of the school after 2nd grade, followed his parents to Heilonggui (黑龙贵) Industrial District. He earns 16 yuan a day. TFA!

Inner Mongolia province Heilonggui (黑龙贵) Industrial District, the couple who worked at the Plaster Kiln and just got home. TFA!

Villagers from Kang village in Linfen City, Shanxi Province (山西省临汾市下康村) due to long-term consumption of the polluted water contaminated by industrial waste, there were 50 people who have cancer and cerebral thrombosis. 64-year-old Wang Baosheng got ill since 2003, he has fester all over his body so he cannot go to bed and lying face down on the edge of the bed each day. TFA!

Zhaozhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (洪河边的河南省西平县张于庄村), Gao Wanshun’s (高万顺) wife died of cancer. Now he lives in poverty. TFA!

In Shanxi Province there are a lot of charitable nursing homes, to help disabled infants abandoned by their parents. TFA!

The oldest is 9, not going to school. The youngest is less than 2 years old. They lived in severely polluted area. They hands and faces were always dirty. TFA!

Every year, a lot of deficiency babies in Shanxi Province were abandoned. Kong Zhenlan (孔贞兰) in Qi town (祁县) who was making a living by recycling trash adopted 25 abandoned children. TFA!

Xuanwei (宣威) in Yunnan province is a cancer village. Every year there are more than 20 people die of cancer. 11-year-old student Xu Li (徐丽) is suffering from bone cancer.

I'm truly disappointed that Friedman only made second runner-up for Media Research Center's 2009 Audacity of Dopes Award (Most Insane Analysis of the Year Division).

The world is flat? No, Thomas Friedman's world-view is flat. And seriously f-ed up.