I have been to China many times and the pollution is everywhere. There are poisoned lakes and rivers and air quality that is the worse For the Olmypics, China is going to close down all factories during the 2 weeks in Beijing to reduce the smog, but I believe it will not work. Automobiles are the major cause. Heavy smog can even be seen in Llasha. Chungqing and Wuhan are especially bad.

The major problem is China is that local corrupt officials look the other way because they have been bribed and their national pollution prevention program has no national teeth to it. One has to challenge the national committment to environmental protection. It certainly is not a top priority.

When there is a tragedy of this type, the story eventually gets pounded to death by the media. Because there is few visuals, TV keeps showing the same things they have over and over again, which add nothing but irritation after a while. The written media start writing more in depth articles about parents, teachers, and surviving students, all of which become boring and predictable. Politians hover around, looking for some political advantage. Frequently if there is a way to overeact, they find it. People turn to God for comfort and forgive any complicity or responsibility "he" may have had in letting innocent, good people die. People are rightfully afraid, but fail to acknowledge their fear drives their actions. It is all so predicable.

Meanwhile, killing of innocents occur on a daily basis in Iraq, usually on a much larger scale. But the killing occurs in a distant land to people we don't trust or understand. Most of us can not comprehend the huge emotional damage being caused there. So we invest in something closer to home. It passes. We continue on. Nothing really gets fixed. We become more disillusioned and sadder and more fearful.

When I was in the Soviet Union in the middle 80's, my company had a contract to help the Soviets build a manufacturing plant. The leaders of project were leaders because of their loyalty to the Communist Party. Were they competent also? No! They got where they were by being loyal. They were afraid to do anything that might cause attention to themselves so they waited and delayed and lied. We could not trust anything they said. They were more interested in finding fault with our recommendations.

Sound familiar?

Bill Clinton taught us that it is necessary to define sex.

Was there arrousal? A hand release perhaps? A kiss here and there to make something feel better? Was eye candy offered?

After my wife died, her cat became neurotic and started to do distructive things, almost like it was being defiant. It was not a happy cat. I took he to the vet and had him put to death. I mourned for a couple of hours at the loss and for what I had to do. Then, life became easier and better which was what I needed to have in my life at that time.

I thought the entire last episode was perfect. Phil gets wacked in a matter deserving our disguest with him. Tony's kids are poised to find their own way in life. Tony has seen that his sister will receive money to live on. He resolves his hatred for Junior. He states to A.J.'s therapist clearly and briefly what his childhood was like for him in a way he has avoided doing and did so with acceptance and not malice. He visits Sil and does so not with a sense of duty, but because of the affection he feels toward him.

We are left with what Tony always has had to always live with; the threat of of being wacked at any time and the possibility that he may be indited by the Feds. Time to enjoy the good things and not focus on the bad as A.J. repeats something Tony has told him.

Then The Soprano's goes dark.

Why does life have to have meaning? It's not mentioned in the Bill of Rights nor any other document that trys to set out a path along which we can proceed.

I see people that pursue the answer to the meaning a life having to turn to religion to try to find the solution.

But that doesn't mean the various religions man has created have an answer either. Almost blind faith is needed and requried to be followed to dangle the carrot that after death, the meaning of life will be discovered.

It takes courage to live life and find our own meaning of life as we go through it and have it based on our own awareness and those around us.

The fact is that very little can be done to reduce the troops by cutting off funding without endangering the well being of the troops and having a huge political minus attached to this action. The President is the commander-in-chief. Its all up to him.

Look, I am not in any way a supporter of the President here. I want Cheney to be impeached now and then Bush.

Apparently, some believe that cutting off funding will end the war and force the President to capitulate. Constitutionally, I agree that Congress has the power to end funding. However it doesn’t have the votes to override the President’s veto. Without a funding bill, the President could and would in my opinion continue the war and shift money from other programs. The entire government could be shut down just like it was when Newt Gingrich led Republicans to do in a funding showdown with Clinton. I am with Senator Biden on this issue.

The failure of the Democratic leadership is not having a strategy to shift the responsibility onto the President, with his veto, for wasting more American lives etc, etc. As a result Democrats look as bad as the President.