Say Anything Blog

Bombshell from The Washington Times:

New intelligence reveals China is covertly supplying large quantities of small arms and weapons to insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, through Iran.

U.S. government appeals to China to check some of the arms shipments in advance were met with stonewalling by Beijing, which insisted it knew nothing about the shipments and asked for additional intelligence on the transfers. The ploy has been used in the past by China to hide its arms-proliferation activities from the United States, according to U.S. officials with access to the intelligence reports.

Some arms were sent by aircraft directly from Chinese factories to Afghanistan and included large-caliber sniper rifles, millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and components for roadside bombs, as well as other small arms. The Washington Times reported June 5 that Chinese-made HN-5 anti-aircraft missiles were being used by the Taliban.

According to the officials, the Iranians, in buying the arms, asked Chinese state-run suppliers to expedite the transfers and to remove serial numbers to prevent tracing their origin. China, for its part, offered to transport the weapons in order to prevent the weapons from being interdicted.

The weapons were described as “late-model” arms that have not been seen in the field before and were not left over from Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq.

After months of it being public knowledge that Iran is supplying terrorists in Iraq with weapons, training and funding, we find out that a good portion of the financing and arms have originated with none other than Red China. When will the majority of Americans be told of this during their nightly news broadcasts?

Why is this vital and shocking information still struggling to be set free, being repeatedly discussed largely on blogs but not on the American street? Enemies must be confronted if they are to be defeated. Negotiations, dialogue, discussions and ceasefires have time and time again proven not to lead to longlasting, meaningful world harmony.

Are we that afraid of war today, with the luxurious and comfortable lifestyles to which we’ve become accustomed? Are we so afraid that we will continue to deny the truth laid bare? We have a president who’s more concerned about the rights of illegal foreigners in America than the success of wars being waged abroad. We need a wake up call, now more than ever.

Just who will sound that alarm remains anyone’s guess.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer hit theaters today, featuring the lovely Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman. The film centers around the gang having to save earth itself from destruction, with an old character returning and difficulties getting hitched. The film is certain to be a huge summer blockbuster for FOX, but what I came away from the moving thinking about more than anything else was…

...the advertising. This sequel features probably the most egregious example of hyper-commercialism ruining a movie that I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to see. Sure, by now I’m used to seeing brands featured on the home screen and the big screen for just about everything. To name just a few, Fantastic Four 2 featured computers, beers and name brand clothes.

What worked to help ruin a portion of the movie for me was Dodge, though. That is, the prominently featured Dodge-Fantasti-Car built by Mr. Fantastic. The car, definitely one of the cooler action hero vehicles, is scarred by its overtly branded and advertised status as a Dodge.

When the thing flies on screen, you see the Dodge logo, front and center. When it lands, you see Dodge-branded seat covers. The first thing that is asked about the car is whether or not it’s got a hemi. Ugh, Disgusting! Come on, it’s a superhero car! Don’t screw up the coolness with some second-rate visual and verbal advertising for a car company.

Fantastic Four rides on the fact that it stars Jessica Alba, unfortunately, and remains one of the worst comic-to-film adaptations I’ve seen when it comes to plot and dialogue. Oh well, though. At least I can thank Jessica for getting Paris dumped from her talent agency.

A so-called “global survey” (read: 18 countries) released by the American Free Press on Yahoo! has some rather surprisingly results. The survey asks respondents their thoughts on China inching closer to attaining economic superpower status.

The survey says there was “little cause for concern” among Americans polled, leading me to wonder how many citizens realize the massive amount of political power China will wield over us considering how many billions of dollars we owe the communist country.

In only one country — Iran — did respondents say that China’s rise would be “mostly positive” when viewed as a counterbalance to U.S. world power.

In no country was there a majority who felt that China’s economic rise would be mostly negative, but that was not because China is particularly trusted, the pollsters said.

Majorities in 10 out of 15 countries said they did not trust China “to act responsibly in the world.” But the same number also said they distrusted the United States.

“Though people are not threatened by the rise of China, they do not appear to be assuming that it will be a new benign world leader,” Kull said.

“They seem to have a clear-eyed view that China is largely acting on its own interests.”

The Chinese themselves are among the more skeptical populations, with only half saying that their economy will catch up with the United States’. Among Americans, the percentage was 60 percent.

It’s shocking to me that the Chinese people themselves don’t even realize how quickly their own country will overtake ours as an economic superpower; only half think China will even catch up to America.

Similarly shocking is the apparent disregard with which Americans view Communist China as a threat to United States world hegemony. Only about 1 in 3 Americans are concerned? What are the other 2 in 3 concerned about, then?

Well, probably Lindsay Lohan eading back to rehab…before even turning 21. *Sigh*