Little Red Blog

Wednesday I had planned on attending a gathering of bloggers and political folks at a local grill/bar. Put together by the Independence Institute, the plan was to watch Rather's final edition of the CBS Evening News. Life interrupted, the Mrs. was called away on business to Calgary and I drove her to the airport. And this thought occurred to me:

Tickets to Calgary: $1200.00
Hotel Room: $300.00
Missing Rather's goodbye: Priceless.

Although I was looking forward to meeting some of the local bloggers, I wasn't all that interested in sitting through another segment with Rather.

Here are a few of the items in the news worth a comment.

Taiwan has delegates in the Chinese parliament. Most interesting, given that some have never been to Taiwan and none are elected by the people of Taiwan.

"I may not have been born in Taiwan, but my parents raised me to love Taiwan, and I care deeply about Taiwan's future," said delegation member Cai Guobin, the mainland-born son of Taiwanese parents.

The future of China, Taiwan, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and just about every other place are concerns for me, but that doesn't make me representative of the people. There is still much to be gained through self-representation. A future of ones choosing over a brighter (or darker) future at the hand of another should be a clear objective, unless it is your hand that’s doing the controlling.

India loves its cricket. So does Pakistan. India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf to a visit in India to watch their respective teams play. Musharraf has accepted, now let's hope that their negotiations continue to progress.

UN chief bureaucrat for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief says that far more than 70,000 have died in Darfur. Genius. Still not genocide apparently, just as homicide/suicide bombings by Palestinian's isn't terrorism.

UN chief bureaucrat Kofi Annan wants a treaty making terrorism illegal. Hang on, I have to go outside and yell... Okay, I'm back. Read it here. While discussing terrorism, let's remember that good 'ol Kofi announced just a few days ago that the UN must accept Hezbollah as a force in Lebanon.

Spain has the first Muslim organization, that I'm aware of, to issue at fatwa against Usama bin Laden. Given that today is the anniversary of the 3/11 attacks, I'll have more say about Spain later. And as Charles at LGF notes, the organization behind this fatwa is committed to defeating terror, so long as it doesn't mean "taking 'disproportionate' measures similar to those which the Sept 11 attacks sparked in the US." How exactly are we supposed to fight terror?

There are many more items to discuss, but not until Carolina finishes off Clemson. One other note, Dr. George Friedman, of Stratfor, is on Dennis Prager's show this hour, very interesting discussion. Back in a bit.