Wednesday, June 29, 2011

China, The West’s Greatest Threat

We cannot walk into most department stores without seeing the shelves filled with products made in China or Mexico. Many people want to enact tariffs to allow American manufacturers to compete. It’s been proven in the past that tariffs can start trade wars, but there already more than 12,000 tariffs without any major problems. There are many goods in which Americans can only get from other countries. There are also many goods that that we no longer make in this country, and might never be made profitably in this country again.

We often think of cheap goods that are made in China, but it’s much more than that. Today, I learned that California is putting a new 2050 ft. bridge over the San Francisco bay. That bridge is being made in China and shipped in sections for $500 million less than it could be made in the USA. - American workers are assembling the bridge.

Quote from NY Times:
Pan Zhongwang, a 55-year-old steel polisher, is a typical Zhenhua worker. He arrives at 7 a.m. and leaves at 11 p.m., often working seven days a week. He lives in a company dorm and earns about $12 a day.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Huma Abedin Weiner

Through all the talk about Anthony Weiner, we have mostly listened to jokes about his private parts and his name. His wife was often mentioned as a victim to his online tomfoolery.  Today, I want to talk about his wife, Huma Abedin Weiner.

In 1996, while Bill Clinton was president, he and Hillary met Huma while on a trip to Saudi Arabia. It’s unclear what transpired, but she ended up in Washington DC with close ties to the Clintons. We now know she is Secretary State Hillary Clinton’s deputy Chief of Staff. This is a very sensitive position so we would think Huma was well vetted.

Huma Abedin Weiner is a devout Muslim. Her brother, Hassan, works at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies (OCIS) at Oxford University. He has close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian Al-Azhar University, is well known for a curriculum that encourages extremism and terrorism, and is active in establishing links with OCIS.