December 4th, 2006 by Quan Tranh
According to the wonderful actress, “The British are much more intelligent and civilised than the Americans”.
My favorite comment from her is,
People don’t talk about work and money, they talk about interesting things at dinner.
Apparently she hates something about capitalism in America. I wonder if she feels the same way about Asian countries? The Japanese work more than we do and they have realized that you need money for recreation. In order to go to museums, opera, and other artsy events you need money to buy your way in. The Japanese have long understood that you have to work hard to play hard because playing hard is expensive. She’s entitled to her opinion, but I dare to say that when the Chinese and Vietnamese have the dominant economies she’ll be talking trash about us next.
Tags: Asian
Category: Entertainment/Sports |
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December 3rd, 2006 by Quan Tranh
Newsweek is running a story on McCain standing alone in proposing more troops for the ground war in Iraq. The Democrats certainly don’t want to hear of it and the Republicans are concerned about opinion polls.
Privately, some McCain supporters have begun to worry that the senator’s hard line on the war may turn off the moderate, independent-minded voters who’ve long formed the bedrock of his primary support. “We lost independents,” says one campaign adviser, who asked for anonymity discussing the politics of national security. “McCain will have to get them back to win, or at least convince them to trust him.”
Right, well I’m going to assume that Americans are somewhat educated in the ways of business. If you want something done then you have to prioritize the resources involved. McCain is actually on target with what he is proposing if you want the troops out of Iraq quickly. Think of Iraq as a project at your office. There’s no deadline, but you’ll get it finished whenever because the boss (Bush) hasn’t set a timeline. A steering committee member (McCain) says if we double the personnel on the project we can finish in less time. All projects are going to take a certain number of man hours to complete and by adding more personnel you can potentially do more in less time.
The real story is to do that cost benefit analysis to see if the extra money and human resources on the war will finish the war any faster. Will the American public go for an aggressive strategy on Iraq knowing the costs involved? In the world of business you have to be aggressive and sometimes run a 24/7 operation to win contracts or meet your bonus objectives while the 9 to 5 shops lose out. Unfortunately most American businesses and the people running them love slow and cheap rather than fast and expensive. Hopefully McCain will be able to educate some of the middle voters along the way and bring them back to his side.
Tags: War on Terror
Category: Uncategorized |
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December 2nd, 2006 by Quan Tranh
This year’s opium crop in Afghanistan sets a new record for drug growers. It is a dismal reminder that the war on drugs is a losing battle and that continuing to fight the war on drugs will cause us to lose the war on terror. Like most illegal enterprises the drug trade fuels the local economy and many depend on the money that their crop brings in.
“It is truly the Achilles’ heel of Afghanistan,” Gen. James L. Jones, the supreme allied commander for NATO, said in a recent speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. Afghanistan is NATO’s biggest operation, with more than 30,000 troops. Drug cartels with their own armies engage in regular combat with NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan, he said. “It would be wrong to say that this is just the Taliban. I think I need to set that record straight,” he added.
Other news articles have pointed out that the opium trade is so profitable that farmers in Afghanistan are refusing to grow corn and other crops because opium is worth more per pound. While General Jones does point out that it is not entirely the Taliban behind the drug trade they do have a large role to play in the black market. Some farmers may sell their crops of the Taliban and the Taliban in turn sell their crop to the international drug cartels.
There is something that can be done to correct this problem and the fact that the Democrats are in power potentially could bring this to pass. Democrats helping the war on terror? Yes, I believe that they are of the key to the entire mess. Are you listening Nancy Pelosi? The first thing that has to happen is all Federal controlled substances acts should be repealed. That’s right all of them. The bible thumping Republican leadership is too busy with trying to save your soul and make sure that you’re sober to be of any help. This is where the Democrats come in. The question of recreational drugs and their legality should be left up to the 50 states and not the federal government. California and other states have already legalized marijuana in certain circumstances contrary to federal law. Alcohol and tobacco continue to be legal at the state level and all other drugs deserve the same consideration or we should go back to prohibition which based on what I’ve read in the history books did not work too well. After legalizing drugs that means there is absolutely no use for the DEA. What do we do with this agency that receives way too much money? Disband the entire organization and fire all the employees. Next, create hundreds of jobs in the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The former DEA agents along with the civilian support staff can apply for the newly created jobs that concentrate on border security. Finally, take the entire budget of $2 Billion and reallocate it to Border Patrol and ICE. By realigning the mission of federal law enforcement we can better improve security at the borders of our country and reduce the value of narcotics to the black market and any potential terrorist middlemen dealing with the cartels. This will also allow the 50 states to decide which drugs they want legalized and allow them to deal directly with international growers which would still allow farmers in Afghanistan and Columbia to grow their crops as they do today or switch to a different type of crop that will continue to feed their families.
Tags: War on Terror
Category: Business |
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