IllinoisDave

Bob, That's an incredible amount of work you put into researching and posting this info. Thanks for that. We didn't have any CCP issues and thus thankfully had no need to worry about it. But I'm sure others who follow will be grateful for your effort. I'm sure it'll be very useful in helping them naviagate the maze that is GUZ. Hopefully one of the mods will deem it worthy of pinning. Good luck in your journey.

What they all said. And GOOD LUCK!

Not sure what you mean here, but I have noted the fine leather appointments and sleek design of the interior http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q408/ltbadd/1216018671966_000.jpg Richard I like the way the headlights look from the side and the shape of the rear bumper.

That isn't good news for us. My wife has an apartment in Shenzhen that she was hoping to sell eventually for a decent price.

What's amazed me since moving and working in China, is the incredible lack of oppression. There is not even the slightest hint of an oppressed or pressured people. Much of your lack of seeing it can surely be attributed to an incredible lack of a free and open press.

They're givin it their best shot. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/19/b...h_n_113769.html

Well, she says she wants to bake a chocolate cake. If ya need a volunteer taste tester...

For us, about a week after getting the notice.

Congrats Lee to you and your family.

Pretty sobering stuff. What struck me along with the things Randy mentioned was the matter-of-factness with which the traffickers went about their business of selling kids,including the one guy who sold his own son. One of themhad a quote that went something like "I try to think of ways that selling kids is a bad, but can't come up with any. And that stat at the end? 70,000 kids a year are snatched from the streets of China. Unbelievable.

Congrats on joining the 21 month club.

You'll inevitably get the response that Deng Xia Ping and Chairman Mao lived well into their 80's and were heavy smokers. Actually, I don't think cancer rates are higher in China than they are in the US. Unless, of course, you have some statistics. I wasn't really comparing China and the US. Just making a general observation about smoking and the senseless death it causes. Actually, I saw a table (lost it when I had to re-boot) that showed that the US was something like 9th in the world with around 300-something cancer deaths in 100,000. Rog's article cited 136 in 100,000 for China. So they're still behind us per capita but gaining unfortunately.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Congrats.

That is just sad. And so much of it preventable. Makes you want to travel around China,or the world even, grab people by the shoulders and scream STOP SMOKING...IT KILLS PEOPLE!!

http://www.the-reelgillman.com/gallery/snapshots/movie/ben_scares_julia.jpg

Is he working or is caught off guard? "Chinese officials are trying to make the stuff go away. Hundreds of soldiers cleaned it up by hand in a seaside park Wednesday. About 10,000 ordinary citizens were doing the same along the shore" It's apparently working I'd like to see some "after" pics.

Actually, the net result is that we would probably end up with smaller families. NOW yer talkin.

I think some of responders at the bottom summed it up best: "In The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century (which I recommend to anybody who cares about global peace and prosperity), author Will Hutton says, "[China] requires our understanding and engagement - not our enmity and suspicion, which could culminate in self-defeatingly creating the very crisis we fear." If you want to know such enmity and suspicion to the extreme, read The Coming Wars of China, which is simply a categorisation of the bad stories about China you can find over the internet. (Author's note: "Much of the research conducted for this book was done over the internet.") " And: "This relentlessly one-sided polemic against China is what it is, without any pretense of objectivity or balance. Peter Navarro has pulled together charges and allegations, most of which are not new, and many of which have been discussed at some length in the press, to make the argument that China is a threat to the world."

GOOD LUCK!

With some fava beans and a nice chianti.

Sounds great Griz.I envy you your wide open spaces to practice driving. Good luck with that.

Yeah. Start leaving a lot on your plate. When your clothes no longer fit that should get her attention.

Don, you fell out of your rocking chair again didn't you? How about 1 car per family. With an exception of course for families in the countryside who have kids that need to drive to school/work after chores.

What if? Just two of my cents... IMO the jury IS in on global warming and people ARE the cause of it this time around. Has the earth gone through other "natural" cycles of heating and cooling? Yes. But this time it's us folks. The levels of CO2 we've pumped into the atmosphere and the rate that warming is occuring make it clear to all but the die-hard deniers that we're doing it to ourselves here,in China,in India and everywhere else there are human beings. There isn't really a serious debate about that except from a few crackpot denial scientists and the Inhofes of the world. Might as well get over that part of the equation. People like to argue around what may be the only real solution IMHO, a solution that in all probability will be forced on us whether we want it or not. It's a pretty simple solution really. And it won't come from any nation,developing or not. It won't come from some blue-ribbon panel convened to solve the problem. Nor from a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. It will come from good old Mother Nature. And her solution for the people on the planet will be less people on the planet. Unlike the "lesser" animals, so far we human beings have shown a great reluctance or inability to self-manage our population to levels that would allow us to co-exist with available resources. Eventually, Mother Nature will do it for us. To it's credit, China's been the one country to recognize and act on the need to limit population in any appreciable way. Instead of recognizing that policy for what it is, most groups,usually influenced by one type of religious dogma or another, scoff at China and deride them for being godless heathens intent on reversing the obvious intent of their particular deity. That mindset has played no small role in getting us to the point we're at today. A planet overpopulated by fossil fuel-guzzlling humans with an infinite appetite for finite resources. If I'm right, and I hope I'm not, IMO the only question remaining is which path it is we take that leads to the demise, or near demise, of humans and maybe our animal friends as well. Do we continue to procreate our way out of planet and home by devouring the resources remaining, thus slowly dying off through starvation and/or war? This path may allow for a few to come to their senses long enough to save themselves and allow the planet to heal itself without the total annihilation of our species. Maybe. Or do we end up burning those resources at the rate we have been, thus leading to the planet shriveling up into a Mars-like dusty sphere incapable of sustaining man or animal? Neither path is particularly appealing. Some scientists and well-meaning folks like Al Gore think we still have time to do something,that we haven't reached the tipping point. I sure hope they're right. I'd also bet that most,if not all, of the ones who think we've already tipped wouldn't say it out loud. Or I could be wrong. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.