Thursday, March 10, 2011

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Thursdays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I can't make it today. I'll be back next week to deprogram you.

Quiz for the Know-It-All

This is a quiz for people who know everything! These are not trick questions, they are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters ' dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter 'S.'

For the answers to the quiz, click on comments.

The End of America's Zenith?

UPDATE X: "Americans seem unable to grasp the magnitude of the challenges that face us. Despite the hyped talk of China's rise, most Americans operate on the assumption that the U.S. is still No. 1." Read Time, Are America's Best Days Behind Us?


UPDATE IX: "Napoleon is famously said to have declared, 'When China wakes, it will shake the world.'" Read The New York Times, China Rises, and Checkmates.


UPDATE VIII: "China is playing games with its foreign-exchange policy at the world’s expense." Read The New York Times, The Renminbi Runaround.


UPDATE VII: The title says it all. Read Newsweek, It’s China’s World We’re Just Living in It.

Thanks again to Wal-Mart and the Republi-cons.


UPDATE VI: Thanks to Wal-Mart, "China has the United States about where it wants it. You can make your own calculation of President Obama’s leverage over Beijing — and it’s heading south." To understand why, read The New York Times, The World’s Watchmaker.


UPDATE V: For yet more proof of the growing power of China, read the Washington Post, China's strident tone raises concerns among Western governments, analysts.

And there is not much that can be done about it since the Republi-cons' war on the middle class and unfair trade policies gave China a $2.4 trillion slush fund to "create a world economy that serves China's interests."


UPDATE IV: Tell your kids to learn a new language of business. Read The New York Times, Foreign Languages Fade in Class — Except Chinese.


UPDATE III: After yesterday's fireworks, read The New York Times, Chinese Fireworks Display, about the future of Chimerica, the tightly integrated China-America symbiotic relationship.


UPDATE II: Will the dollar soon be worth less (pun intended)? Read The New York Times, The Almighty Renminbi?

And if you doubt the growing power of China, read The New York Times, China’s Heart of Gold, in which the writer, the executive director of the Beijing Private Equity Association and a director of the China National Association of International Studies, demands "inflation-protection measures for China’s existing investments in America, and [requests] additional security or collateral for its continued investments. America should also provide its largest creditor with greater transparency and information."

This is a stunning demand and challenge to American sovereignty.

This is also the beginning of the end of America's debt addiction, and the withdrawal/detox of the American economy is going to be ugly.

All thanks to Republi-con unfair trade policies as part of their war on the middle class.


UPDATE: Read The New York Times, America the Tarnished.

Will this decade prove to be America's zenith? I predict that the economic mess will be the event leading to the emergence of Chinese economic and military dominance.

Read Washington Post, In Downturn, China Sees Path to Growth.