Centerfield

Don't die on me....Good posts. I'll send you something decent on next week.

As far as the Chinese, I suspect our nuclear companies don't mind a little supression. It makes Chinese nukes safer. A bit of strange logic here too. What do we trade for help on NK, Pakistan, Sudan, Myammar, Iran and Syria? Are we getting enough in return besides leveraging our debt? How much national security secrets have we given to the Chinese beside neutron bomb plans and our most advanced Intel aircraft?

The only problemwith China is that many still fear the return to the bad old days of pre Mao, when there was an aristocracy of the wealthy (which T. Roosevelt warned US against). I should know, my grandfather was one of them.

Max:
That's an interesting pointer. I never heard of that agreement before. It certainly sounds pretty unclear that we got our money's worth, since Pakistan now has nuclear weapons. I'm pretty unafraid of bad angles from the Westinghouse plants, though; it's VERY hard to proliferate or advance weapons tech using that line of technology.

Thoughts yet on what you want to write about?

Marcus:
I think the Communist Party IS an aristocracy. Though, there is one vital difference vs their forebears: they haven't forgotten that dynasties end. The fall of so many other Communist countries put a fire under their bellies that hasn't gone out yet. Oh, and also, like many countries run by Communist parties, they're an oligarchy instead of a dictatorship; unfree and aristocratic, but not as horrid as monarchy or dictatorship.

E.G., they have checks and balances.

Jon,

Perhaps Franklin's philosophy of the "free press" as he became America's first media mogul.

It's either that or why Russert was wrong when he said Hillary's take on torture contradicted her husband's "24" exception as well as the boos she got when applauding the Israeli action in Syria for her response to Tim's hypothetical whether she would support an Israeli strike on Iran.

As for the nuke deal with China, I think we have seen some slight Chinese effort on NK (also a pull out from Iranian nuke program some years back), but if the Syrian strike wasn't prompted by Intel the NKs gave the US, then suspicions will continue about "other" NK activity. I would say that the agreement up until the NK impass was broken doesn't seem to be in our interest. If Iran is not resolved to our liking, how can we have faith in where dual use technology ends up. Yes, a bomb doesn't easily come from power station technology, but the larger sweep of materials and monies provides some good cover for things ending up outside of China and certain technology being exploited by China for "other" purposes.

The "Asian Tigers" of the 20th century are an interesting test case. Circa 1960, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were all free-market autocratic governments. Fast forward a half century and South Korea and Taiwan have morphed into full democracies with Singapore still stuck with de-facto one-party autocracy; the changes in Korea and Taiwan happened in the 80s and 90s.

We're a quarter-century into China's free-market autocracy. Will it turn out more like Taiwan or more like Singapore? Beijing will likely want to take pages from Singapore "Big Man" Lee Kuan Yew's playbook, but we can hope, pray and nudge China towards the democratic alternative.

lucius oxammite unreflected stemmatous edeology unspoil reviving oncin
The Political Graveyard: Butler County, Iowa
http://cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/10/07/palm.handheld.reut/

lucius oxammite unreflected stemmatous edeology unspoil reviving oncin
Photo Pro: Patrick Hutton
http://www.transylvania.timewarp.org.uk/