Jokes and Humour: "Tip: Hu?s on China?
Playwright Jim Sherman wrote this when Hu Jintao was named chief of the Communist Party in China on November 2002.

HU?S ON FIRST
By James Sherman

Shortly after Hu Jintao was elected Leader of China....
(We take you now to the Oval Office.)

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What?s happening?

Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.

George: Great. Lay it on me.

Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.

George: That?s what I want to know.

Condi: That?s what I?m telling you.

George: That?s what I?m asking you. Who is the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes.

George: I mean the fellow?s name.

Condi: Hu.

George: The guy in China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The new leader of China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The Chinaman!

Condi: Hu is leading China.

George: Now whaddya? asking me for?

Condi: I?m telling you Hu is leading China.

George: Well, I?m asking you. Who is leading China?

Condi: That?s the man?s name.

George: That?s who?s name?

Condi: Yes.

George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of
China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.

Condi: That?s correct.

George: Then who is in China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir is in China?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Then who is?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of
China.
Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.

Condi: Kofi?

George: No, thanks.

Condi: You want Kofi?

George: No.

Condi: You don?t want Kofi.

George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi?

George: Milk! Will you please make the call?

Condi: And call who?

George: Who is the guy at the U.N?

Condi: Hu is the guy in China.

George: Will you stay out of China?!

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi.

George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.

(Condi picks up the phone.)

Condi: Rice, here.

George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?"

Selections from Bertrand Russell at conservativeforum.org: "To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of democracy."

--- Bertrand Russell

BOOK TV.ORG: "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (And Al Franken Is #37)"

I watched the show on booktv a few hours ago. Hopefully, the video archive would be available next week on the website. I totally agree that we should be more judgemental toward our cultral environment, but the author's defense of President Bush and vice president Cheney seems not so convincing. He defended Cheney by claiming that the F-word was used in private. Right, a PRIVATE conversation on the senate floor.
The defense for Bush is based on the distinction between mistake and lying knowingly and that "I see no advantage of lying [about WMD]." Whether Bush lied has been discussed in a slate article. Whether we should call it lying or bullshitting, or a mistake, but the defense is rather weak. Nixon lied. Clinton lied. Lots of people lied. I do not think they lied because they saw or calculated the advantage of lying.

A new look at ????

The Chronicle: 7/29/2005: Agnes Smedley, an Example to Whose Cause?: "Agnes Smedley was one of the most significant American women of the 20th century, a flamboyant journalist, feminist, and political activist who made historic contributions to letters and politics on three continents and had a celebrated roster of friends including Margaret Sanger, Emma Goldman, Mao Zedong, and Langston Hughes. Her enemies ranged from J. Edgar Hoover to Chiang Kai-shek, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and Robert Lowell. But nowadays she is largely forgotten."