Only an European Liberal can dream up this October 31, 2013
Posted by hslu in China.add a comment
EU will set a standard on the maximum amount of water one can use to flush the toilet after each use: six liters for poop and one liter for pee. Some wanted five liters for the full flush, but apparently that would have caused “some legal problems for some Member States.”
In the US, the public urinals require 1 gal of water (3.785 L) for each flush. Home use toilets take anywhere between 6 to 13 liters of water per full flush. The US adopted 6 L toilets in 1994 but they usually required more than one flush to do the job.
Moral of the story: liberals act alike.
Hmmm, 这叫”多管闲事!”
Hold me Accountable October 31, 2013
Posted by hslu in Congress, Obama, Obamacare, Politics.Tags: ACA, Democracy, Obama, Obamashame, Sebilius
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In the US federal government, “hold me accountable” means lateral transfer to another job and then get a promotion a few months later. It also means that the person was instructed to take the heat from the opposition, i.e., the Republicans, and do everything he or she can to protect the president at all cost.
Sebelius declared at Congressional testimony that she’s the one to blame and, reading between lines, Obama is not to be touched.
She was embarrassed in public for one day but she became the hero in the Democrat Party and the White House because she did her job at protecting Obama. There was no demotion. There was no salary cuts. There is no firing from her job. There is no elimination of her pensions. There is no punishment at all.
As such she’ll have the full confidence of the president and will stay in her job because no one can touch her. Republicans can say whatever they want, they have no say at all.
This is what “hold me accountable” mean in the US Federal Government.
What can we concerned citizens do under the democracy system?
Nothing! Nothing at all!
You are told that you have to wait 4 years until the next election cycle. American people get to exercise their scared “rights” and elect the next president, Congresspersons and Senators. Well, only about 55% of all eligible voters vote and a little more than 50% of the votes had put Obama back to the White House: that’s less than 30% of American people dictates the direction of the government of the US in the next 2 and 4 years.
That is scary!
This is what American people are overwhelmingly proud of: Democracy. The liberals think this is the Holy Grail of governing!
I say that “It is a joke!”
Democracy is broken in the US!
40 to 67% October 30, 2013
Posted by hslu in Congress, Health Insurance, Obama, Obamacare, Taxes.Tags: Health Insurance, Health Insurance premium, Insurance, Obama, ObamaCare, Obamashame, Santa Claus
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Obama knew this set of percentages before hand; 40% and 67%, but he kept lying about it:
- In 2007, Obama said:” if you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums.” “That will be less.”
- In 2007, Obama said: “I will sign a universal health-care bill into law ….. that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”
- In 2009, Obama said that: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.
- In 2009, Obama also said: “If you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”
- In 2012, Obama said: “For people with insurance, the only impact of the health-care law is that their insurance is stronger, better, and more secure than it was before. Full stop. That’s it. They don’t have to worry about anything else.”
- In 2012, Obama said that: “If you already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”
Yet, Obama and his administration knew all along that between 40 and 67% of people who have their own insurance will lose their insurance once Obamashame becomes law, according to a NBC investigation report.
Of course, Obama and his cronies made the law like this so that more people have to sign on to Obamashame or they have to pay a fine or a tax based on Roberts.
In essence, it was designed to be this way.
American politicians, starting from Obama, lie to American people but sadly they are not accountable for their lies. Obama lied on Obamashame and by all account, Obama will get away from it.
This is democracy and American people fall for it. For whatever reason that I didn’t understand, American dutifully kept sending their lying congressperson back to the Congress every two years.
That’s why the Congress has an approval rating of around 10% but almost 90% of all current Congressperson got re-elected. They were judged by how much pork (money paid by other middle class people) they could bring home. Not by how many times they lied.
台北街头一景 October 30, 2013
Posted by hslu in Taipei, Taiwan, Travel.Tags: 台北, 台湾
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台北竟然有如此低俗的商家你又能说什么呢？这是否也反映出台湾的民间文化？
低俗！这就是台北的街头文化。
Chatuchak Weekend Market, Bangkok October 28, 2013
Posted by hslu in Travel.Tags: Bangkok, Chatuchak Weekend Market, Grand Millennium Bangkok, Sukhumvit, Taipei, Tapa Y Vino, Thailand, 曼谷, 曼谷乍都乍周末市场, 泰国
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Our flight out of Bangkok back to Taipei on Saturday was at 5 PM. We have to be at the airport by 3 PM. We decided to check out the Chatuchak Weekend Market （乍都乍周末市场）in the morning, have a quick lunch at noon, go back to our hotel before 1:30, get our luggage and be at the subway station by 2 PM. With our luggage packed and stored at the front desk, we had our breakfast buffet and headed out at 8:30 AM. We planed to be back at 12 noon and have a quick lunch near by.
The Chatuchak Market is one of the most popular shopping destinations in Bangkok. It is huge and has hundreds of shops in several sections. If you like to shop or if you just enjoy 逛逛 and see other people spending their money buying things they probably don’t need, you just have to check out Chatuchak. It is one of the kind shopping experience. For us, it certainly was.
The weather was nice. It was clear and there was no sign of shower or rain. I took a lot of pictures but most of them were gone with the lost camera.
We took the subway to the market on the other side of the city center. We got there rather quickly because it wan’t a workday.
The huge market was just outside of the subway station and there were a lot of tourists helping with local economy already. My wife did some shopping and even got us a pair of matching Thai shirts. Well, no more than 40 minutes after we got there it started to rain. It was steady to begin with and soon it started pouring and pouring with no sign of stopping anytime soon.
The narrow walkway inside the market started to accumulate water and soon it was flooded. We basically got stuck became the pathway became impassible without getting our shoes wet. I noticed that basically the floors of almost all shops were raised by about 6″ from the ground. They have been very used to the rain and were well prepared for it. At first, we took it easy and thought the rain will stop soon. We stopped by a cafe which was soon filled with many people like us who got no other place to go.
We finished our drinks and started to get edgy because we still have a flight to catch. But we couldn’t go anywhere.
Rain showed no sign to stop. We didn’t bring our umbrella. We didn’t have sandals on. The entrance to many sections of the market was flooded and was crowded with people who tried to make a dash toward the subway station.
We finally decided to make a go for it: we took off our shoes and socks. Bought a pair of flip flops for each of us. Found a shop that was doing a great business of selling cheap, transparent, plastic poncho like raincoats.
With shoes in hand, we needed something to cover our bodies.
Make sure you are prepared when you visit the weekend market. Rain could come at anytime.
Time to say goodbye to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. It was fun!
Now that we were properly equipped, we braved the still very heavy rain and ankle-high water on the street and walked slowly towards the subway station.
We finally made it to the station and managed to change back to our regular dress.
What an experience!
Now that we had more time on our hands because we didn’t stay as long as we first planned, we could spend more time to have a decent lunch.
And that’s what we did. We took the subway back to the Asok Station and walked a few block to try tapas at Tapas Y Vino at the Grand Millennium Hotel in Sukhumvit, Bangkok.
Calypso Cabaret, Bangkok October 27, 2013
Posted by hslu in Travel.Tags: Bangkok, Calypso Cabaret Bangkok, Chao Phraya River, Thai baht, Thailand, Transsexualism
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Calypso Cabaret is located at Asiatique Waterfront Market on the left bank of the Chao Phraya River. The ticket is not cheap: 1,000 Baht each but we liked the show because, other than the stunning transsexuals, the stage show revolved around several national scenes: Korean, Japan, China, Western and Thailand. The colorful costumes, energetic performance, beautiful songs, pretty faces and parade of performers after the show made the experience very memorable.
The show was completely sold out on the day we were there (Wednesday) and people continued to walked in after the stage show got started. We had a good seats and a good view of the stage from the front row of the second floor.
We were allowed to take pictures but we couldn’t use flash.
- A promotion poster in front of the theater.
This stage show was about to end when we walked into the theater. There was a cafe downstairs and these girls (I thought they were the real thing) were performing for customers at the open seating area there.
This was our ticket.
The stage
Drinks menu. Our drinks were included in the price of our tickets.
These performers were very talented. They all did a great job on stage. I couldn’t tell that they were transsexuals from a distance.
A stunning face and a attractive body afforded her a prominent role on stage. I wondered how long their professional life could last like this.
They worked really hard on stage.
I thought it was hard to hide his male body frame no matter how hard he tried.
A scene from the Japanese cultural related show.
Asiatique Riverfront Market, Chao Phraya River, Bangkok October 26, 2013
Posted by hslu in Travel.Tags: Asiatique Riverfront Market Bangkok, Bangkok, Calypso Cabaret Bangkok, Chao Phraya River 湄南河, India, Thai, Thailand
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Bangkok‘s Asiatique Riverfront Market is a very popular and trendy tourist spot along the Chao Phraya River 湄南河. There are many shops and restaurants here and is a good place to spend an evening here. Eat, drink, play and be happy with the one you love on your side.
Evening is a good time to visit here. It could get very hot and messy in the day when temperature could go up to the 90’s. A cool breeze in the air makes it a very comfortable evening here.
Expensive hotels and high end condos on the right bank of the river.
Oh, did I mention that you can watch stage show made famous by Thailand’s transsexuals too?
We came here around 4 PM and our tour guide helped us bought two tickets to see the stage show at Calypso Cabaret: a popular musical show performed by stunning transsexuals and transvestites. Each ticket cost us 1,000 Baht which was more than similar shows elsewhere in Bangkok. We also got a drink with each of our ticket though. Our tour guide told us that he could get better seats for us and we didn’t have to wait for the box office to open at 6 PM. He also said that we could get in there about half an hour earlier and watch the performers too.
He also said that we were allowed to take pictures but can’t use flash. He said that in general these transsexuals and transvestites lived a difficult live because they weren’t looked upon favorable by the general public. They got sick easily and they had to take drugs all their lives to suppress their male identities. The drug caused complications all the time but they had no choice if they wanted to stay that way. Illegal drugs were another problem for them and their stage lives were short because they got old easily. On top of all that, they don’t normally live a long life. Well, beneath the pretty faces, I now realized that there were a lot of untold sad stories and many sorrows for people like them.
We then said goodbye to our tour guide and our driver which was the end of our 2-day tour.
Sunset along the Chao Phraya River was gorgeous and watching boats going up and down the river was a good way to kill some time before the show too.
There were some street performers trying to get people’s attention but all that got cut short because of light shower before the show got started.
There were hundreds of shops spreading out in multiple sections. Many upscale restaurants were open along the river front. Wide selections of cuisine were available too: Irish, American, seafood, India, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese too. There was also a amusement park but we didn’t check it out because we were interested in rides or games.
Studying tonight’s menu before the crowd arrived.
I liked to see a little more tourists here. Well, it was a weeknight.
Nice color.
The make up was great! They were actually alive. See the Live Statue sign there?
From 6 pm to 7 pm, Monday to Thursday you could eat as much as you could for 599 Baht: about $20 US.
Live fish skin treatment. Smooths out your skin.
Pants only.
You could find many international cuisines well represented here.
Owned by a Japanese or the ice cream came from Japan, I suppose.
By the time we got out of the show, it was almost 10 PM. Rain came down very hard. We had a simple dinner with a bento box and a bowl of steaming ramen.
US not trustworthy October 25, 2013
Posted by hslu in China, Economics, Euro, Global Affair, Obamacare, Politics, stocks, Taiwan.Tags: Bolivia, Currency war, deficit, NSA, Snowden, US National Debt
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Foreign countries will no longer trust America no matter how many times Obama calls Merkel. It’s like an egg on American’s face which can’t be washed off easily.
Obama’s order to force Bolivia president’s private airplane to land in Austria has already caused serious consequences in its relationship with many South America countries. These countries will think twice before doing business with the U.S. again.
NSA’s monitoring of domestic and international communication has stirred up hatred towards American’s policy. This kind of action is simply not acceptable according to international laws. No amount of denying from Obama will ease other countries’ concerns. Even France and Germany are leery of American’s action and they will not be satisfied with whatever Obama or American ambassadors told them for a long time.
US federal government shutdown and debt ceiling impasse has became a joke among financial markets and other countries in the world. America’s credibility has been seriously damaged too. QEs by US Federal Reserve has other countries worried and countries like China, Russia, Korea and Germany will re-evaluate their foreign reserve policies. They will likely diverting some of their foreign currency holdings to other currencies such as Euro because Europe has started to emerge from financial ruins created by America five years ago. It appears that Euro as the single currency for EU countries is no longer in question and there is even some talk of creating a de facto central bank for EU countries.
China will speed up its move to create more direct currency swaps with other countries, especially in South America, in an effort to increase their acceptance of Renminbi in bilateral trades. As such, the status of American dollar being the world reserve currency will be in question.
The high drama of currency war has just started. America, being the bully of the world, will continue to enjoy the privilege of being able to print the world reserve currency whenever it feels like it.
With American’s national debt at 100+% of US GDP and with America government borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends, the day of reckoning for the imperial empire is just around the corner.
曼谷街头 – 2 October 24, 2013
Posted by hslu in Travel.Tags: Bangkok, Erawan Shrine Bangkok, Four Face Buddha, Thailand, 曼谷四面佛
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A few more interesting scenes we saw in Bangkok while we were there。
Taking water taxi up and down the Chao Phraya River 湄南河 was very convenient.
Street food。We didn’t try any of them. Some of them looked very spicy. We also didn’t know what they were either.
Open markets are everywhere in Bangkok. They were usually crowded and not very clean.
Night market along a major street in downtown Bangkok.
Performer at the night market in Bangkok.
Another food vendor we came across at night market. Very busy with locals.
Great mango! Among the best we have tried.
One thing I dare not to try. Many people like it and swear by it saying that it is the best fruit in the world.
Roasted seafood.
MBK is one of many Bangkok’s legendary shopping malls. All malls were packed with tourists and locals alike. Many of them located at subway stations. very convenient to hop around. The tressts were packed with cars day and night non-stopped.
曼谷的四面佛：Erawan Shrine or Bangkok’s famous Four Face Buddha.
- These Thai dances in traditional Thai costume will perform for you when you make a donation to the shrine.
- These pineapples probably have being kept there for a while.
A typical open market at Bangkok’s Ratchadamri Road.
曼谷机场 – Suvarnabhumi Airport October 24, 2013
Posted by hslu in Travel.Tags: Bangkok, Bangkok International Airport, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, 蘇凡納布機場, 黃金大地, Suvarnabhumi Airport, Taipei, Thai Airline, Thailand, 曼谷, 泰国
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This is the departing area of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.It is vibrant and unique. It projects the mystic side of Thailand and its culture. The staff at Thai Airline ticket counter was courteous and amiable; a lot friendlier than the custom agent we met when we arrived at Thailand.
I guess that working for government has its drawbacks: boring job, unhappy life, mediocrity all his or her life and got stuck in a system, among others; comparable to what US federal government has demonstrated recently with Obamacare or Obamashame. A side note here: I have to give praise to the county office I went to in Taipei: Daan District Office (大安区公所.) People there always greeted us with a smile to begin with. They are polite and more than willing to help. Best of it all, they are efficient too. In short, doing business with 大安区公所 has been a pleasant experience.
Well, back to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport 曼谷蘇凡納布機場. In Thai, it means Golden Land or 黃金大地, The airport is not big even though it is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. Of course, we have only been to one of its terminals.
Take a look of the brilliant display in the airport and you will be amazed at the images which made us wanted to find out more of the sculpture and the story behind it.
Unfortunately I lost a camera at Bangkok Airport right before boarding the Thai Airline back to Taipei. With it I lost a lot of pictures too. Too bad. Until today, I still couldn’t figure out how I lost that camera.
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xiaohua 