i spent 4 weeks last summer in Beijing and got myself into every cranny of that town. a quarter century ago my sister (a telecommunications computer analyst) was helping to set up systems that were meant to Create Order from out of that 14th century Chaos.

Overnight the epicenter of human "Chaos" has turned into the Supercity of Asia. Perfect Order, clean parks, (clean air in high summer !!) highways that actually flow, architecture that makes Tokyo (a city i've known well since the 70s) seem like a dingy, dumpy Asian characterless Baltimore. You can walk around by yourself at 3 in the morning and feel safer than L.A. in broad daylight.

And Everything's for sale there. I ate at a side walk joint called "Uncle Sam's Fastfood". Mao's a joke over there; for a Buckskin you can get a private or shared balcony showingrooms in a film theater (that oversees all the Little People swarming below in the peanut galley). The Chairman would croak over what was what among the 21st century Masses -- who now love to jump up & down and make themselves look like Goofy Americans at their own baseball games.

Yeah, you hear French & Russian spoken on the streets - - - but EVERYTHING is printed in English --- EVERYWHERE (from highway signs to do not smoke signs at the toe of the Great Wall). American corporations & their monikers proliferate (while their presense in Japan is as minimalized as possible).

And so you foresee a resurgence of Keynsian Manipulations in Amerika ?? - - - Allow me to confide to you the fact that, were Adam Smith alive today, he would feel far more at home in Beijing than in any American city.

You ought to pick up Friedman's Flatearth book and give her a sober re-read (by the by, he said nothing so revolutionary in this bestseller than what many of us in the population studies department understood back in the days of Paul Erlich & Company).

The YouSa is heading toward a RR collision with that nation that will make the Nihongi Shock of the 70s seem like a circlejeirk. While passing a school soccer field and an astronomy observation structure on the highway I asked my driver what university it was a part of --- and was informed that it was a high school campus.

30 years ago Americans pooh-poohed Reagan's Starwars program (which he later admitted was nothing more than a ruse to cause the Ruskies to bead sweat at the poker table). Well Amerikans are as famously "Today & Now" shortsigted as the Chinese are and have historically been, longsighted. The National Space Center is not bashful about the future -- although WciaDOTgov will get you a more unsettling interpretation.

Their going Big Time into StarWars (a program we dumped in the prehistoric days before CNN & cellphones). The Chinese have been active in establishing a network of satilite stations around the globe, from (thus far) failed attempts in the Cuba-Venezuela corridor, to Antartica, to their new fleet of mobile battleships.

To simplify it so that people like you can "get it" just think of Buck Rogers Ray Guns that will unleash shields that will blanket most of Europe or the USA with 'blacklight' technology that will disable the Western government, military, and financial computer systems -- in a blink of time; temporarily sending the victims into the Stone Age.

This won't happen next year or perhaps even 10 years from now. But it will happen in time. Cloning, cellphones, Gnome Projects, Starwars, CNN ---- technology has NO Limits -- all will come to pass. As the Politboro in Beijing keeps to the Longview, the Bubbleheaded Hicks in America will focus backwards on the Rantings of Maynard & Co.

What ? ? You thought popping that rogue satillite outta the sky a month back had anything to do with anything but to make the Starwars Watchers in Beijing bead sweat ?

UTNE MAGAZINE: (July-August 2007) . . a Progressive Voice for Progressive Times.

"RENT-a-PROTESTER"

"If you can't seem to lure the True Believers to your sit-in, fear not: German website Erento.com, a Craigslist-style rental marketplace for such items as horse-drawn carriages and chicken-plucking machines, now also offers "Protestors For Hire."

"According to SPIEGEL ONLINE (18 Jan 07), the website provides profiles of the 300-odd available 'Demonstrators,', such as;

"Steffen (6 feet 2 inches tall, 'athletic') and Manuela (green eyes, 'very long' hair), as well as their geographic locations."

"These sign wavers and slogan chanters typically charge $188 for a six-hour shift, although Demonstrators are free to negotiate ($$) their own prices." ( !!! )

"And while Steffen and Manuela may not have a personal passion for your cause, Progressives will be relieved to hear that, as far as the demonstrators are concerned, certain protests -- involving Neo-Nazis or promoting discrimination, for instance, are strictly taboo."

[And May j. maynard k. , bless his butts, Rest in Peace]

( * pssst' .... hillary's g'wona looze - - pass it down )

Increasingly Barry O'Blarney is coming across less presidential and Way More Sophmoric in His Reality.

I am trying to picture Ralph Nader with a Bowling Ball in his hand.

nope - - - does not compute.

regardless of 'always-jolly' katrina's remark today on abc news that condirice was "...the worst secretary of state" in the nation's history, --- it increasingly appears that the incubating prediction i articulated four years ago is about to crystalize.

so in response to the writer's query, are "americans more ready for a BLACK (sic) president than a woman [i.e. woman president]?" - - - the answer is, - - and always has been, altogether self-evident.

Mizz Rice will most indeedy make her way into the White house and fulfill the the Big Q.

(and by the by -- although ive never succeeded in voting for a winning president in the past 8 elections - - - i also have never -- never-ever -- been wrong about who the winning candidate would be. -- never.)

"and ------ 'Think RAAAAAAALFFFF' in TWENTY-O-EIGHT !!!"

they say that 'curiosity' is the sign of intelligence.

they also say something about those who are so easily bored ---