All warfare is based on deception,
…when able to attack we must seem unable,
when using our forces we must seem inactive,
when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far…,
when far away, we must make him believe we are near.Sun Tzu
China’s hawks demand cold war on the US
…almost 55% of those questioned for Global Times, a state-run [Chinese] newspaper, agree that “a cold war will break out between the US and China”.
An independent survey of Chinese-language media … has found army and navy officers predicting a military showdown and political leaders calling for China to sell more arms to America’s foes. The trigger for their fury was Obama’s decision to sell $6.4 billion (£4 billion) worth of weapons to Taiwan, the thriving democratic island that has ruled itself since 1949.
“We should retaliate with an eye for an eye and sell arms to Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Venezuela,” declared Liu Menxiong, a member of the Chinese people’s political consultative conference.
He added: “We have nothing to be afraid of. The North Koreans have stood up to America and has anything happened to them? No. Iran stands up to America and does disaster befall it? No.”
…“This time China must punish the US,” said Major-General Yang Yi, a naval officer. “We must make them hurt.” A major-general in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Luo Yuan, told a television audience that more missiles would be deployed against Taiwan. And a PLA strategist, Colonel Meng Xianging, said China would “qualitatively upgrade” its military over the next 10 years to force a showdown “when we’re strong enough for a hand-to-hand fight with the US”.
Chinese indignation was compounded when the White House said Obama would meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, in the next few weeks.
“When someone spits on you, you have to get back,” said Huang Xiangyang, a commentator in the China Daily newspaper, usually seen as a showcase for moderate opinion.
An internal publication at the elite Qinghua University last week predicted the strains would get worse because “core interests” were at risk. It said battles over exports, technology transfer, copyright piracy and the value of China’s currency, the yuan, would be fierce.
…American officials seem baffled by what has gone wrong and how fast it has happened.
…Diplomats say they have been told that there was “frigid” personal chemistry between Obama and the Chinese president, with none of the superficial friendship struck up by previous leaders of the two nations.
…Americans were also livid at what they saw as deliberate Chinese attempts to humiliate the president by sending lower-level officials to deal with him.
…In Beijing, some diplomats even claim to detect a condescending attitude towards Obama, noting that Yang Jiechi, the foreign minister, prides himself on knowing the Bush dynasty and others among America’s traditional white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant elite.
Michael Sheridan
Times Online
If big print can give what fine print takes,
can winning the wrong game lose the right one?
Does complexity increase the likelihood of complication?
Is thinking rehearsing?
If you were who you think you were and you are what you think you are,
and some of what will, can, can’t or won’t change,
what are the chances of becoming who you think you’ll be?
You can’t start over.
If nothing doesn’t change,
is not making a move moving?
Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed,
whatever follies I have witnessed…
have been the consequence of action without thought.
Bernard Baruch
American financier, and presidential advisor
If opponents don’t begin with pieces of the same number and value,
and players can think they’re winning when losing ,
can influencing others’ thoughts enhance results,
and vice versa?
If opponents think you have more influence and power,
do you?
The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance
as though they were realities,
and are often more influenced by the things that seem than those that are.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Are the only two certainties,
that there are at least two players,
you and everything that’s not?
If truth isn’t realizable without doubt,
is skepticism the best way to confirm reality?
If you meet a madman
who says that he is a fish and that we are all fishes,
do you take off your clothes
to show him that you do not have fins?
Milan Kundera
Known and unknown,
you were, are and will be pieces of varying value,
in an infinite number of games.
You may or may not be playing the games you think.
The chess board is the world,
the pieces are the phenomena of the universe,
the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature,
the player on the other side is hidden from us.
Thomas Huxley
Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit
…President Obama called it “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”
…Joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing, Justice Stevens said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings.
Adam Liptak
New York Times, January 22, 2010
Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit
Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.
…The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.
Adam Liptak
New York Times, January 22, 2010
In chess, a fork is a tactic
that uses one piece to attack two or more of the opponent's pieces
at the same time,
hoping to achieve material gain
(by capturing one of the opponent's pieces)
because the opponent can only counter one of the two (or more) threats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(chess)
If big print can give what fine print takes
can winning the wrong game lose the right one?
…Highway planners use badly flawed techniques...
…the “A-weighting” scale used by officials to rate traffic noise…developed in the 1930s…ignores huge volumes of sound, the kind of low-frequency rumbling from trucks that pierces walls like they aren’t even there.
…State DOT doesn’t dispute that the A-scale misses lower-frequency sound.
…Daniel Maguire, a well-known noise expert… found…A-weighting as an arbitrary system never meant to be applied in the way federal authorities now use it.
Numerous studies show that low-intensity noise is at least as disruptive and potentially harmful to health as higher tones, he said.
You are so intent that you believe
only what you believe that you believe
that you remain utterly blind to what you really believe
without believing that you believe it
Orson Scott Card
If big print can give what fine print takes
can winning the wrong game lose the right one?
If all City Council Candidates receive information
from all City Council inquiries after the campaign filing deadline,
what information has been provided to Council incumbents,
that the challengers have not received
since July 17, 2009?
How many other North Carolinian municipalities
require all candidates to receive all answers to campaign inquiries?
Why does the City of Greensboro believe the policy
helps ensure that incumbents would not have an advantage
over anybody attempting to run for city council?
The first rule is not to lose
The second rule is not to forget the first rule
Warren Buffett
You can’t start over
Can winning be not playing?
A life making mistakes is not only more honorable
but more useful than a life spent doing nothing
George Bernard Shaw
If nothing doesn’t change
is not making a move moving?
Everybody sooner or later
sits down to a banquet of consequences
Robert Louis Stevenson
If you can’t necessarily control your pieces
can you be obliged to move and/or sacrifice
when you don’t want to?
If players don’t necessarily follow the same rules
which can change without everyone knowing
should you break rules if your opponent does?
I don't care if I follow your rules, if you can cheat, so can I
I won't let you beat me unfairly, I'll beat you unfairly first
Ender Wiggin
Fictional Military Strategist
All animals are equal
but some animals are more equal than others
Some of George Orwell’s Pigs
Known and unknown
you were, are and will be pieces of varying value
in an infinite number of games
You may or may not be playing the games you think
The chess board is the world
the pieces are the phenomena of the universe
the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature
the player on the other side is hidden from us
Thomas Huxley
I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding
because I think, well, if they attack one personally
it means they have not a single political argument left
Margaret Thatcher
If opponents don’t begin with pieces of the same number and value
and players can think they’re winning when losing
can influencing others’ thoughts enhance results
and vice versa?
If opponents think you have more influence and power
do you?
The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance
as though they were realities
and are often more influenced by the things that seem than those that are
Niccolo Machiavelli
