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whinejunkie

Listed below are comments made by whinejunkie between Friday, 22nd August 2008 and Sunday, 30th November 2008.

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Rare insight 6:20pm on 30 Nov 2008 To No. 57 timbatu

You say your personal experience of the American judiciary is that it is all political play. Were you convicted of a political crime? Are you writing from an American prison?

US Supreme court judges are appointed only after they are approved by the popularly elected Senators. Judges are not elected because they should not be involved with party politics.
Rare insight 6:01pm on 30 Nov 2008 To No. 45 manpet

In the US and UK, the legal proceedings on events of the spy crime are always made open to the public, it is only the classified information itself that remains secret.

And judgments are made based on the events that took place, not the classified information itself.
Rare insight 5:51pm on 30 Nov 2008 No. 43 bluejeansbj

No. 17 heyone is both right and wrong.

Chinese law does not allow dual citizenship. People born in China or Hong Kong (during British rule) are all considered Chinese citizens. But Hong Hongers can travel in China with foreign passports.

It is only when something legal comes up that depends on one’s citizenship that the Chinese government will take a ruling on one’s citizenship. And the Chinese government will take an arbitrary ruling to suit its purpose. Here are 2 actual examples:

A Chinese scientist born in China who has US citizenship has been given a resident status in China so he can help China develop its technology. So he does not have Chinese citizenship.

A Tibetan activist born in China, became a Canadian citizen, and has officially renounced his Chinese citizenship, was picked up and imprisoned by the Chinese government.
Rare insight 6:23pm on 27 Nov 2008 To: Zickyyy

Unlike Western countries, the Chinese judiciary is not independent from the government. The Chinese Constitution says that the courts report to the national assembly. That explains why the government wins almost 100% of of the time, and the proceedings of judging serious crimes usually only take a day or less.

EXCEPT FOR THE NATIONAL SUPREME COURT, judges of the courts do not need to have stringent formal legal training, they only need to pass a test of basic legal knowledge. Many of these judges are only retired government officials or retired military officers. That explains why death sentences are required to be checked by the Supreme Court. Lawyers need to have a law degree and are more professional than the judges.

It's impractical to quote a specific case to show whether the court judgment is fair or not, because judgements are erratic. What is allowed in China today may not be allowed tomorrow, and they do not have to change the law to do that.
Determined to vote 7:12pm on 24 Oct 2008 To #26, Y_K_Hui:

If the subprime crisis was caused solely by the Democrats, and the Republicans’ effects to correct it were blocked by the Democrats, then why has the Mc Cain team not used these facts in their campaign against the Democrats? The Mc Cain team must be either ignorant or stupid, or may be Mc Cain HIMSELF has a record of voting against regulating the subprime lending.
Sacred ceremony ends Beijing Games 6:52pm on 24 Aug 2008 Well, the people now do have something to believe in. Look no further, they are now more devout believers of the Ruling Party.

Maybe, the purpose of the Games was to make a greater religion out of the Ruling Party, not that it wasn*t one in the first place.

In present-day China,

Worship=traditional ceremony
Morality=Confucianism
Religion=Ruling Party
In retrospect 06:28am on 24 Aug 2008 Well, it is now down to the closing ceremony. The Beijing authority should have learnt from the mistakes of the opening ceremony.

I noticed that in the opening ceremony, the Olympic flag was raised by Chinese solders in full military uniform. This was utterly different from previous opening ceremonies where the Olympic flags were all raised by ex-athletes in courtesy uniforms. The Olympic flag raising should in no way be felt to have nationalistic and military implications. I hope they won*t make this mistake when they lower the flag.
New story for China? 7:11pm on 22 Aug 2008 Just imagine a 10 year old math prodigy gets admitted to a university. He builds a splendid spaceship with Lego blocks, and brings it to show off at a students’ party at the university. All the students there were busy discussing sex, politics, and the economy, and everybody ignores him. The boy thinks : My grades are as good as theirs, if not better, my lego masterpiece is spectacular, why do they not take me seriously ? The boy is lost. That*s what the Chinese situation is.

Some parts of the intellect cannot be taught or learnt, they are acquired through immersion, incubation, evolution. And the fact that you wear an expensive Italian suit does not make you a cultured person.

The Beijing Olympics does little to help the rest of the world understand China, or change their opinion of China. It is just a placebo China uses to boost it*s own self-confidence.

What does China do when it finds it*s confidence? A recent world-wide poll says that most people of the West do not think China is a threat, on the contrary, most people of China*s neighbouring countries think it*s a threat. That may be because throughout it*s long history, China had annexed it*s neighbours by force, and it*s current neighbours know that too well.
China's Olympic highlights 4:02pm on 22 Aug 2008 To # 60 SheffTim:

These reports of age discrepancy was widely published before the actual gymnastic competition events.
China's Olympic highlights 3:58pm on 22 Aug 2008 To #59, aerochie :

The thing is it*s discovered that the Chinese government*s Sports Administration registry, for 3 consecutive years, showed a date of birth of the gymnast which is different from what the Chinese authority is claiming today. And the government-run Xinhua News Agency and the government-run CCTV also reported a different age. That makes it difficult for the Chinese authority to explain itself.

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