For those of you who have not seen it, the latest episode of South Park, The China Probrem (link goes to full length video), begins with Cartman having nightmares about the Beijing Olympic’s opening ceremony, and he is then convinced that China is going to invade the US. Not a great episode by any means, but it has its moments.

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It is amazing how the above video so outraged many of the republican bloggers. While calling China’s railroads, airports and ports “vastly superior” is an exaggeration that he probably regrets, I think it can be agreed that China has been investing heavily in their infrastructure, while the US has not. And the rail system in the United States is not very good, especially when compared to Europe, Japan and China. The following from Mommy Life (misleading title) sums up pretty well political discourse in the United States.

This guy is unbelievable! The lengths he will go to to denigrate the US - and his terrifying naivete concerning world affairs.

If we had an unbiased media - which even the media are now admitting they’re not (see the Washington Post: Obama’s Edge in the Coverage Race ), we’d see these clips on the evening news and shudder at the thought of turning the keys to our country’s future over to him:

Heaven help us!

Obama is basing his assessment of China on the propaganda, secrecy and lies rampant during the Olympics - and dutifully fed to the American public by the liberal MSM (ironically, the same people who have everything to lose if America’s government changes in the direction they encourage).

It is sad really. I wonder if reactions like that were why Obama only once directly referred to China in his acceptance speech, and it was a negative reference at that:

We’re a better country than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he’s worked on for 20 years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.”

We will see if McCain will mention China in his acceptance speech at the Republic convention this week.

See Also:
Joe Biden : Big Fan and Customer of Rail Transport, Amtrak
China’s infrastructure splurge: Rushing on by road, rail and air

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Today I have been messing around with TVU, a video utility that has a wide variety of television channels from around the world. I mention it here for a couple of reasons.

1. It has a good selection of Chinese language television, with all the CCTVs and channels from Hong Kong and Taiwan. I have been looking for more sources for listening practice, and it is excellent for that. Plus I miss those Korean soap operas…
2. For you entertainment staved foreigners living in China, it has Comedy Central, Sci-Fi channel, a channel that just shows episodes of Family Guy and various news channels. I don’t know if it will actually work for you or not, but it is worth a try.

It also seems spyware and free, at least according to Softpedia and some other sites, and that is more than you can say for a lot of these online television players.

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An awesome video, and if anyone knows where I can get a “Hip Hop Ain’t Dead… It Lives in Tainan” shirt send me an email. According to his wikipedia entry I would think there are some strong pro-Taiwan statements in this song if I could understand it.

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