"Not all men are annoying; some are dead"

The shutter speed for this pic was fast enough that it stopped the water drops, yet the bird's head is a total blur. Amazing.

We had our family Thanksgiving dinner tonight here at our house. Last December I got a gift certificate to Honey Baked from one of the guys in San Diego for whom I managed rentals here. It had been sitting on my desk waiting for the right occasion, and tonight was that occasion. We had their turkey and ham, plus all the good fixin's. Comfort food with family. Does it get better?

I wrote a couple of nights ago about a driver who cut in front of a group of cyclists competing in the Tour de Tuscon, got out to look at the damage to his car and then drove off. One of those cyclists is in a medically induced coma and others are hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
Word today is that the driver is 91 years old. He went home, got himself a lawyer and then called the police about the incident. Pretty tough to argue any kind of dementia when he knew to get a lawyer first.

The terrorist activity in Mumbai (that city used to be known as Bombay) is getting lots of news coverage, as it should. But a much less violent incident in another country may have a far greater impact on both local and international politics. It got almost no coverage on network TV or the major online news sources. But if it is indeed the first shot in a larger looming conflict it could become the news story of 2009.
Months ago I blogged some about the situation in China. It is a totalitarian state; the government controls everything from top to bottom. And the people at the top are more concerned about remaining there and holding on to their power and privilege than they are in the welfare of their people. Because China is not a democracy the leaders never stand for election. All they have to do to stay in power is keep their 1.3 billion people sufficiently distracted or afraid to complain about their living conditions - corruption, lack of education, pollution, inadequate health care, miserable living conditions....
In this age it's impossible to adequately intimidate 1.3 billion people. No army is big enough. So the Chinese government has distracted them with an improving standard of living, increasing prosperity. As long as the masses have more this year than they did last year - and in China "more" isn't much - they'll overlook all the problems with their govt.
Build factories, including in remote provinces. Employ millions, paying them a pittance, but more than they were making on their subsitance level farms. The factories are unsafe and their housing inadequate, but they have more spendable income than they used to and the hope of making more. In the big cities, some are able to afford things previously unthinkable, like a TV (govt. programming only), a fridge or, for the young and educated, a car. Life is good and getting better.
More factories are built and more people employed as China becomes the manufacturing center of the world. With an endless supply of cheap labor and none of those pesky laws about worker safety or environmental pollution, China is in the catbird seat.
Oops. The world economy went south. It started with soaring fuel prices that drove the costs of manufactured goods that had to be shipped from China near the breaking point. Then the whole banking thing happened and firms couldn't buy anything from anywhere. Suddenly the road to increasing prosperity hits a speed bump. People aren't distracted anymore. Worst case scenario.
This six paragraph article reports on a few hundred taxi drivers who last week protested a government plan to put more taxis on the streets of their town. The additional taxis would cut into their already declining income. This protest took place two days after a riot by residents who feared that their economic fortunes would be ruined by a govt. plan to move some offices to another city.
Other news sources are reporting additional factory closings elsewhere in China. Millions who moved from their farms in the country to the city for factory jobs are now facing unemployment, with no safety net. Not surprisingly, the Chinese govt. says there has been no downturn in their economy. Everything is hunky-dory.
Taxi drivers protest, city dwellers riot. The world economy deteriorates and the Chinese government faces serious problems as a result. What will distract the masses if the elixir of increasing prosperity disappears.
If the anti-government actions of last week spread, as many China watchers think they will, the effects could lead to serious political upheaval.
Let's keep an eye on this one. Could get interesting.