Democracy Equals Freedom – Think Again

September 28, 2010

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Source: US Constitution

I find it interesting that I had to read in the Guardian about a respected Mexican newspaper (across the border from the US) asking the drug cartels for guidance on how not to offend them so the drug cartels would stop killing newspaper reporters and photographers.

Freedom House’s annual survey of media independence in 195 countries and territories show that only 17% of the earth’s population lives in what is considered “Free”. 

Forty-two percent of the planet’s people live in “Not Free” and 41% in “Partly Free” countries, and Mexico, which is billed as a democracy is listed with the “Partly Free”.

Watch the video then visit Freedom House.org to discover that countries considered “Free” mostly have colonial links to Europe.

Although the video shows most of the world’s countries are democracies today, the results at Freedom House say it isn’t true.

 Even India, which is billed as the largest “democracy” on the planet is “partly free”.

China is listed as “not free”, which is among the planet’s majority, according to Freedom House, and China makes no attempt to hide that fact.

America and the rest of the “free” 17% of the world would be better off if the “free press” were required to tell the truth and nothing but the truth without exaggerations. Unfortunately, America’s Founding Fathers forgot that sentence.

The U.S. First Amendment also doesn’t protect freedom of the press from corporate CEOs or gangsters, and foreign companies own four of American’s six-largest media empires.

See Media Slugfest Using Taiwan

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Founding Fathers had it Right about the Death Penalty

September 27, 2010

Moans and groans abound in the West about the hidden numbers behind China’s death penalties. 

I’m often baffled how anyone who claims to be a caring person could fight to keep murderers, drug dealers, child molesters and rapists from getting a swift death penalty.

The Death Penalty Information Center says that when the Constitution was written, the time between sentencing and execution could be measured in days or weeks (as it is in China today).

Today, the typical death row inmate in America spends a decade awaiting execution. Some have been on death row for over 20 years. In California, keeping him or her alive that long would cost about one million and that does not include court costs. The only ones who win are the lawyers.

I read a post at error bank.com that offers concerns about the death penalty.

One issue raised was of innocent people found guilty in court then years or decades later, he or she is found innocent but by then it is too late. However, I’m sure more criminal types are executed than innocent victims. Many times, the so-called innocent victim was also a career criminal with a long arrest record.

As for the cost, Amnesty USA, while arguing against the death penalty, makes a case to return to the time of the U.S. Founding Fathers.

Amnesty said that in Kansas the cost of a death penalty case was 70% higher than the cost of comparable non-death penalty cases. 

However, Amnesty doesn’t mention that it costs more because of all the appeals that drag cases out for years.

The median cost for a death penalty case in Kansas was $1.26 million.

In Maryland, a death penalty case costs 3 times as much as Kansas, and in California, it costs $11.5 million for each case.

K.D. Koratsky touched on this topic in Living With Evolution. On page 182, he says this of career criminals, “Over time, by consistently eliminating those who could not get along with others, populations were eventually left largely with the genes that promoted non-kin biocultural coevolution. … nations with the strict codes of law enforced by strong state apparatuses (like China) tended to prosper over others, all else being equal.”

Although a few innocents might die, China may be getting it right be ridding its population of serious criminal types who reproduce leading to more violent crimes by his or her progeny.

Murder of “innocent” people is cruel and inhuman!

Rape is cruel and inhuman!

Child molesters are cruel and inhuman!

Selling hard, illegal drugs for profit is cruel and inhuman!

Destroying lives for profit is also cruel and inhuman!

See Cultural Differences and China’s Changing Legal System

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, legal system, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Long History with Burma/Myanmar – Part 4/4

September 26, 2010

Enough said about The Economist, Christianity and differences between democracies and republics.

Back to the long history between China and Burma/Myanmar, which starts during the Han Dynasty.

Due to deposits of jade in Burma/Myanmar and that region, Chinese merchants have been involved in mining and trade there for more than two thousand years. 

Then during the Qing Dynasty, there were four major invasions (1765-1769) of Burma. In 1784, the long struggle between Burma and China ended and regular trade began again.

In November 1885, Sir Robert Hart favored a proposal that China, as Burma’s overlord, stand aside and allow the British Empire to pursue her own course there provided that Britain allow Burma to continue her decennial tribute (once every ten years) missions to China. Source: The I. G. In Peking, Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs 1868-1907, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, page 614, 1975.

Then the British Empire made Burma a province of India in 1886.

Since independence from the British Empire, Burma has generally been impartial to world affairs but was one of the first countries to recognize Israel and the People’s Republic of China.

Territories such as the autonomous regions of Tibet, Xinjiang and countries like North Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, Burma, Vietnam and others along China’s long borders were considered vassal states, which often sent lavish gifts and delegations to China’s Emperors as Sir Robert Hart wrote that Burma did every ten years.

See The Sino-Vietnam War of 1979 or return to China’s Long History with Burma/Myanmar – Part 3

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

2 Comments | China, Chinese history, government, history, politics | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Long History with Burma/Myanmar – Part 3/4

September 26, 2010

What is a democracy? A democracy is where the numerical majority of an organized group makes decisions binding on the whole group. A Republic, on the other hand, does not allow majority rule.

China is not a Western democracy or has a Christian majority, never has and probably never will.


When you hear the estimated number of Christians in China, do not forget that China has more than 1.3 billion people.

Today, China, by definition, is a Republic and has one political party with two recognized factions.

In November 2005, Cheng Li, the Director of Research for the John L. Thornton China Center, presented a paper at a Conference on “Chinese Leadership, Politics, and Policy” at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In One Party, Two Factions: Chinese Bipartisanship in the Making, Cheng Li makes a case that there are two informal and almost equally powerful coalitions within China’s central government.

Li calls one of the coalitions the “elitists” led by former Party Chief Jiang Zemin and now largely led by Vice President of the PRC Zeng Qinghong.

He identified the other coalition as the “populists” led by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. The core faction of the “populists” is the Chinese Communist Youth League.

Li also says it is unlikely that China will have a multi-party political system in the near future.

See Christianity in China or return to China’s Long History with Burma/Myanmar – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

3 Comments | China, Chinese history, government, history, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Long History with Burma/Myanmar – Part 2/4

September 25, 2010

Until this piece, most of what I read about China in The Economist has been educational but this one was stilted and biased – another example of China bashing.

What does the Beijing based unnamed critic writing in The Economist expect – that China will adopt America’s evangelical, neo-conservative role to spread “democracy” and “Christianity” to the world through nation building?

Wait, stop the presses!

Did I hear that right? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the critic from The Economist suggest that he or she expects China to spread “democracy” to countries like Burma and North Korea, which are by definition dictatorships, which the U.S. has a long history of supporting. See Cold War Origins of the CIA Holocaust to learn more.

Why do critics in America want dictatorships like Burma and North Korea to be democracies when America is a Republic, according to the Founding Fathers and the Constitution of the United States?

See Two Republics to learn more or return to China’s Long History with Burma/Myanmar – Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, Chinese history, government, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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