62 mpg in 2025? No way! October 13, 2010
Posted by hslu in Energy.add a comment
The US government is mulling an idea to require automakers building new cars and trucks with an average gas mileage of 62 mpg in 2025.
I am going to stick my neck out and make this bold prediction:
It will never reach that target because there are too many fat people in the United States. They simply can’t squeeze their over-weight bodies into small cars. Fat and obese people can’t drive a car with their tummy touching the steering wheel.
Do you know that almost 61% of Americans are overweight according to some reports? It is amazing, isn’t it?
Proposed 28th Amendment to US Constitution October 13, 2010
Posted by hslu in Congress, Politics.add a comment
Got this from a friend and it makes so much sense. You should know about it too. Please pass it on to your friends.
For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered… in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn’t seem logical. We do not have elite that is above the law. I truly don’t care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent, or whatever. The self-serving must stop.
If each person that receives this will forward it on to 20 people, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.
Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”
Deepwater Oil Drilling Ban Lifted October 13, 2010
Posted by hslu in Energy.Tags: Deepwater Oil Drilling
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It’s about time.
Cold War between US and China October 12, 2010
Posted by hslu in China, Cold War, Global Affair, Military, Politics, Taiwan.Tags: China's military, Cold War, Commander Cao, defense budget, Diaoyutai, F-16 C/D fighter jets, India, Japan, Japan-U.S. security treaty, New York Times, Senkakus, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam
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United States defense budget accounts for 46.5% of the total defense spending in the world.
But according to an article in New York Times, the United States is “alarmed by harsh tone of China’s military.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/world/asia/12beijing.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
The article maintained that “The Pentagon is worried that its increasingly tense relationship with the Chinese military owes itself in part to the rising leaders of Commander Cao’s generation, who, much more than the country’s military elders, view the United States as the enemy.”
The key words here are “in part” because what is not spelled out here are the military exercises that US navy have conducted with South Korea and Japan naval forces in recent months in and around China’s Yellow Sea and East China Sea under the pretense of teaching North Korea a lesson. They were intended to be a show of force to tell China that you are under our watch at all times.
During the recent Diaoyutai incident, the US has reiterated US’s position under Japan-U.S. security treaty to protect Japan if a military conflict erupted between China and Japan over this island even though the US does not necessarily agreed that the island belongs to Japan.
According to an article in New York Times,
The other problem is that, technically, the U.S. would be obliged to bail Japan out if there were a fight over the Senkakus. The U.S. doesn’t take a position on who owns the islands, but the specifies that the U.S. will help defend areas that Japan administers. And in 1972, when the U.S. handed Okinawa back to Japan, it agreed that Japan should administer the Senkakus. So we’re in the absurd position of being committed to help Japan fight a war over islands, even though we don’t agree that they are necessarily Japanese.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/look-out-for-the-diaoyu-islands/
The US has in recent months accelerated shipments of military supplies and advance weaponry to Taiwan in the name of defending the small island against China’s military advance. Its clear intention was to use Taiwan as a pawn to block China’s expansion into Pacific Ocean with Taiwan acted as a willing partner. The US, however, has held back on the shipment of F-16 C/D fighter jets to Taiwan purely as a bargaining chip in dealing with China’s expansion economically and militarily.
The America also injected itself into the long standing territory dispute between Vietnam and China in South China Sea after decades of silence on this issue. Its Secretary of States and Secretary of Defense suddenly found Vietnam a friendly country with promises of providing Vietnam with nuclear technology and the construction of a nuclear reactor power plant in Vietnam, all in the name of protecting American’s national interests in South China Sea. What interest is the US talking about?
What’s really going on behind the close doors between US and Vietnam are secret discussions of setting up a permanent naval port in Vietnam for American’s navy ships in South China Sea.
On India, closer military cooperation between US and India was the primary objective of the high level visit by US defense secretary Robert Gates to India earlier this year. His goal was made very clear by his speech:
“In coming years, we look to India to be a partner and net provider of security in the Indian Ocean and beyond.”
Can you not clearly see the intention of the United States which is to block China’s expansion militarily and diplomatically? The United States looked for areas of dispute and potential conflicts between China and its neighbors. It then make itself a partner with China’s neighbors and in the process further divide Asia into two camps: China and everyone else.
How can China not seeing the US as a potential enemy given the diplomatic and military maneuver by the US in recent months?
What’s going to happen is an arm race in the region because every country is entitled to defend itself militarily. China will certainly do so to rid its “sick man of Asia” image once and for all. It is also likely that the pressure from the US will push China and Russia closer in the near future and the cold war will take on a new meaning before you know it.
The United States has 10 aircraft carriers and hundreds of naval ships cruising around the world every day. It has thousands of nuclear war heads and countless fighter jets in airbases all over the world. It has advance military technologies no other country can match in years or even decades.
But, what right does America have to object other country’s military expansion?
They do not, period.
The United States is exercising its military power over other countries for a simple reason: that’s all it has now!
The United States is losing the global war on energy as it imports 70% of its daily crude supply. The trend can not be reversed any time soon and the United States is sending $380 billion dollars to foreign countries every year. If you want to know what wealth transfer is all about just look at this amazing sum of money flowing from our pockets to oil-rich countries. Year after year! With no end in sight! The Iraq war cost the US $700 billion in nine years. We are giving away two Iraq wars every two years with some changes to spare!
The United States is losing the global war on economics as its morphs into a service centered economy.
The United States is losing the global war on capitalism as it moves slowly to socialism with national health care system. In the process, it will drags down its medical instrument industry and drug companies; two areas of innovation and research.
The United States is losing the global war on currency as US dollar is weakened by the introduction of Euro and renminbi within the next twenty years.
The United States is losing the global war on manufacture as new plants popping up all over the world except in the US.
The United States is fighting the global war of terrorism as more and more terrorists looking for ways to come to America as we speak. This global war on terrorism is America’s to lose because of increasing discrimination against Muslims in the US.
The only area that the United States is decades ahead of every one else is its military capability. But the paper tiger is struggling to hang on to its military might in order to exert influence in the world. But its military power is built on a house of cards because the United States is broke.
In short, the good times are gone for the United States. It may not be forever. But it is damn close!
The really sad thing about this is that the US has limited ways to get out of this malaise simply because of its enormous debt, federal deficit and trade deficit in the years to come.
Too Many people work for federal government along Route 7? October 11, 2010
Posted by hslu in Uncategorized.Tags: federal holiday, Route 7
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I took my wife to work earlier this morning before 7 AM.
Normally, Route 7 to Tysons at this time changes to a mile-long parking lot with bumper to bumper cars to as far as eyes can see.
Not today.
There were about 50 cars only moving toward Tysons Corner when I drove from my house to Baron Cameron, a distance of about a mile and a quarter. The traffic was equally light when I came home from Baron Cameron.
I wondered where have all the cars gone?
I didn’t know until shortly after 7 AM when the traffic report said that today is a federal holiday: The Columbus Day.
Am I wrong to assume that almost 90% of people driving on Route 7 early in the morning work for the Federal government?
Wow! Amazing!
That’s why the unemployment rate here is only 6% or so. Federal government workers don’t get fired even they don’t perform.
Sharia is creeping in, one school at a time October 11, 2010
Posted by hslu in Global Affair, Islam, Religion.Tags: 9-11, Atheism, Buddhism, Cambridge school district, Ground Zero Mosque, Hinduism, Israel, Jerusalem, Koran, Muslim holiday, Pagans, Palestine, Sharia
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The Cambridge school district will close school one day per year to observe Muslim holiday.
It is only fair that Cambridge school district should close for a day every year to observe Buddhism holy day too.
Should Pagans get a day off too?
Well, there are Hinduism, Atheism and other ism’s in the US. SHould they get a holiday too?
I don’t think so. Only Muslims talk about killing infidels. Only Muslims talk about submit to sharia law.
The United States becomes more polarized by the day because Islams becomes more prominent in Americans’ daily lives whether they like it or not.
How come the conflicts between Islam, Christianity and Judaism are such a dividing issue in the US?
The list is endless:
The ground zero mosque, the school holidays, meaning of Christmas, football practice after midnight, the burning of Koran, fight between Israel and Palestine, Jerusalem, 9-11, etc.
World peace, anyone?
Every Employer is entitled to a waiver to ObamaCare October 11, 2010
Posted by hslu in Congress, Health Insurance, Obama, Politics.Tags: equal protection clause, Her Majestic Sebelius, McDonald's, New York Teacher's Union, ObamaCare, ObamaCare waiver, Pelosi, Supreme Court
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McDonald’s threatens to drop health care for many part-time employees because McDonald’s can’t afford it.
Her Majestic Sebelius, aka HHS Secretary, thought about it for one second and decided to grant the waiver because it would look bad for Democrats in an election year.
In case you didn’t know, the New York Teacher’s Union with 350,000 teachers also received the waiver.
Hmm.. should everyone gets a waiver under the equal protection clause? If not, what kind of nation is this: one set of law for some and another set for the others?
But why do we need a waiver in the first place? Was it a bad law to begin with? Pelosi said that we needed to pass the law to find out what’s in it. What a joke? But it looks like Pelosi was right!
This thing is going to the Supreme Court if it is not repealed.
Taxing the riches won’t work October 4, 2010
Posted by hslu in China, Congress, Economics, misc, Obama, Religion, Taiwan.Tags: Democrat's play book, Taiwan, taxing the rich
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Taiwan, taking a page out of Democrat’s play book, has hinted the likelihood of closing its annual deficit gap by taxing the rich.
Unfortunately this logic is fundamentally flawed and will not close the spending gap in the US and later in Taiwan, in the long run. You see; in order to make this tactic successful, you have to assume that more people becomes rich and rich gets richer into perpetuity in order to support a growing number of poor people at the bottom of the social network.It also assumes that the rich will not hide their incomes from Uncle Sam or KMT for that matter, by shifting their assets to foreign countries.
