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| gromit |
 Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 11:27 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Jeremy-o-my:
I assume you are just transiting through Shanghai on your way to points north. I wouldn't get too carried away in your rhapsodizing about Shanghai. I still see folks carrying chamber pots down the street to dump them in public toilets (designed just for that purpose) since they have no indoor bathroom. And that's rather close to the colonial waterfront buildings and the gleaming People's Square. though they are rapidly knocking down many of those old neighborhoods and replacing them with high rises and office buildings.
Also, Beijing is building the world's largest airport, not Shanghai. Shanghai built it's new airport about 10+ years ago, which you no doubt came through. it's pretty big and ncie, but rather too far from the city. And with the mag-lev getting you only to the middle of East Shanghai and still a good 30 minute subway ride from downtown.
Shanghai has the slowest broadband internet in all of China (even behind Tibet). The tap water isn't potable, so you see lots of deliverymen hauling around large plastic water jugs. But yeah the boom rolls on. And the infrastructure and building went into overdrive leading up to the World's fair. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 12:16 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Thanks, Bart... That's a brilliant and important article. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 1:48 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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I received this petition from a cousin in South Carolina, but it doesn't make sense to me. I don't think any such bill went through the Senate--and even if it did, it would have to get through the House before going to Obama, and there's no way it would pass the House. Also, how could anyone who hasn't paid into Social Security get payments from it? I think this is a panic petition from the gullible Tea Party contingent.
SOCIAL SECURITY CHANGES
It does not matter if you personally like or dislike Obama. You need to sign this petition and flood his e-mail box with e-mails that tell him that, even if the House passes this bill, he needs to veto it. It is already impossible to live on Social Security alone. If the government gives benefits to 'illegal' aliens who have never contributed, where does that leave those of us who have paid into Social Security all our working lives?
As stated below, the Senate voted this week to allow 'illegal' aliens access to Social Security benefits. Attached is an opportunity to sign a petition that requires citizenship for eligibility to that social service.
If you do not want to sign it, please just forward it to everyone you know.
Thank you!
To add your name, click on 'forward'.. Address it to all of your email correspondents, add your name to the list and send it on.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When the petition hits 1,500, it is up to you to send it tocomment@whitehouse.gov < http://us.mc501.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=comment@whitehouse.gov >or else, it will not be sent.
PETITION for President Obama:
Dear Mr. President:
We, the undersigned, protest the bill that the Senate voted on recently which would allow illegal aliens to access our Social Security. We demand that you and all Congressional representatives require citizenship as a pre-requisite for social services in the United States. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 2:27 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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carrobin wrote:
Dear Mr. President:
We, the undersigned, protest the bill that the Senate voted on recently which would allow illegal aliens to access our Social Security. We demand that you and all Congressional representatives require citizenship as a pre-requisite for social services in the United States.
It's unclear what they are referring to and the chance of it passing the House and becoming law (if it exists in the first palce) is minimal anyway.
Whatever it is, it's pretty sloppy.
It's fairly standard procedure to include the Name and/or # of the Bill in question. Also it's glides from SS in the first sentence to the much more general social service in the next sentence, which would include items such as food stamps and possibly even ... public schooling. |
Last edited by gromit on Fri Jul 19, 2013 11:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 4:09 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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The e-mail had been sent to my mother, who forwarded it to me. I told her that it sounded very strange. The last name on the list of signers was my cousin's, not my mother's--so I hope she was smart enough not to fall for it.
Some of those southern conservatives will believe anything they're told about that terrible Obama and his plans to destroy the country--and even worse, to jeopardize our Social Security! |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:26 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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Gromit,
Yes, I spent a few days in Shanghai on route to Weihai.
I agree with most of what you said - I will admit to being somewhat wowed by the facade - though I am not totally naive, and, in my defense, I did say that Shanghai was 'building' rather than 'had built' the world's biggest aiport. Poverty and infrastructure lag are nothing new for rapidly expanding cities, including Victorian London, but I'd suggest that Shanghai is managing these issues better than most - look at India.
In some respects, I found Shanghai somewhat sterile compared with Hong Kong, say, but I think that can be partly attributed to excessive Government control and its relative newness as a megacity.
As you are aware, China has significant issues to manage if it is to continue to grow and transistion to a mature economy, but it has managed to prove the naysayers wrong so far and it has history on its side - 'the triumph of the West' may turn out to be just a two hundred year anomaly in China's millenia long postion as the World's biggest industrial power. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 9:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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carrobin wrote: I received this petition from a cousin in South Carolina, but it doesn't make sense to me. I don't think any such bill went through the Senate--and even if it did, it would have to get through the House before going to Obama, and there's no way it would pass the House. Also, how could anyone who hasn't paid into Social Security get payments from it? I think this is a panic petition from the gullible Tea Party contingent.
SOCIAL SECURITY CHANGES
It does not matter if you personally like or dislike Obama. You need to sign this petition and flood his e-mail box with e-mails that tell him that, even if the House passes this bill, he needs to veto it. It is already impossible to live on Social Security alone. If the government gives benefits to 'illegal' aliens who have never contributed, where does that leave those of us who have paid into Social Security all our working lives?
As stated below, the Senate voted this week to allow 'illegal' aliens access to Social Security benefits. Attached is an opportunity to sign a petition that requires citizenship for eligibility to that social service.
If you do not want to sign it, please just forward it to everyone you know.
Thank you!
To add your name, click on 'forward'.. Address it to all of your email correspondents, add your name to the list and send it on.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When the petition hits 1,500, it is up to you to send it tocomment@whitehouse.gov < http://us.mc501.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=comment@whitehouse.gov >or else, it will not be sent.
PETITION for President Obama:
Dear Mr. President:
We, the undersigned, protest the bill that the Senate voted on recently which would allow illegal aliens to access our Social Security. We demand that you and all Congressional representatives require citizenship as a pre-requisite for social services in the United States.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/socialsecurity/illegal.asp |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 10:08 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Thanks, Whiskey. I'll forward that Snopes article to my mother. Interesting that it's dated 2010, with the same wording in the current "petition." |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 11:37 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Just for the record: Beijing is building a mega-airport. And Shanghai isn't building a new airport. Right now, Shanghai is the only Chinese city with 2 int'l airports, though the old airport is mostly for domestic flights and Hong Kong.
The other day, I was watching Frank Capra's Why We Fight WWII propaganda film -- available here --- and there is a shot of a plane taking off right over a pagoda. And that reminded me that the old original Shanghai airport is down by the nice old Longhua Temple.
The shot they took/use was filmed from within the temple, as it has the upturned eaves of a temple roof in the foreground.
Last time I went down there the small airport building was vacant, but when i rode my bicycle around back, it was odd to see a city bus rolling down the old runway. There was talk of trying to turn it into a small airport for private planes and helicopters, but the gov't doesn't allow private planes and technically all airspace is military, with commercial aircraft only allowed to fly through relatively limited designated channels.
The doc is pretty good with some impressive footage of Shanghai being bombed, people trying like hell to get into the int'l concession areas, and even clips of Japanese advances. It's also interesting how they try to portray the Chinese as nice peaceful people like us, while "the Japs" are ruthless colonial aggressors. Of course, it takes a little sleight of hand to explain why there is a French Concession and an int'l settlement with British and Japanese and US Marines in Shanghai if we are good guys but the Japanese are colonial monsters ...
Interestingly Disney made the maps and other animated clips used in the films. One trick was to show the Axis controlled territory in black, to make them seem sinister. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 12:57 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1245
Location: St. Louis
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Yeah, blackness on maps....that's what made the Axis so sinister.  |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 1:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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carrobin wrote: Thanks, Whiskey. I'll forward that Snopes article to my mother. Interesting that it's dated 2010, with the same wording in the current "petition." |
_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 1:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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knox wrote: Yeah, blackness on maps....that's what made the Axis so sinister. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:24 am |
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RIP Dennis Farina
I liked him in everything he did. Sad. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:31 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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2nd that. And he was a real cop before he was an actor.
And shocked to learn of Cory Monteith's death at 31, from booze/heroin mix. He was "Finn" on "Glee." Not that many 30-plus guys could play a high school kid. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:35 am |
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| Did you ever see the TV series, Crime Story? That was the first time I saw Farina and heard that he was an actual cop. He was very good and so were all the others in Crime Story. The second season, after a large audience in the first season, NBC put it up against Moonlighting and of course the ratings went down and after this stupid action by NBC, they cancelled it after season two. I was really pissed. |
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