Catching up on stuff

I have pretty well been flat in bed with asthma and a chest cold for a week, so am ignoring the Comey kerfuffle, which seems to be politics as usual, with the conspiracy theories being shot down by a reality check

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However as Insapundit notes: Fake news continues with some TV talking head quoting a source saying Trumpie boy doesn't know US troops are in Qatar.
Uh, I don't think so: He is a businessman, and can parse a dollar, and his family company has a lot of investments in the Gulf. 


and of course, one wonders why this point wasn't discussed during the campaign, for better or for worse.

one wonders if the press realizes that some of his "problems" with the State Dept is because he has other sources of information than they do, and he is acting like a CEO not a president, and that confuses them. And of course he yells and screams like a NewYorker, not the quiet smiles of the back stabbers of Washington...

we docs have to be sensitive to cross cultural communication styles, but apparently the press not so much.

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I don't know if I will get to see Wonder Woman here (Ruby has lots of friends now so I don't have to go to the films with her, but might ask to tag along).

I was surprised to find the film takes place in World War I, since the comic book is about World War II...

Well, GetReligion blog discusses if Wonder Woman is white, since the lead actress is Israeli.

well, I'm old enough to remember when Jews and Catholic ethnics were not considered "white", so don't ask me.

But I did notice that they recast Dr Poison has been recast as a "Spanish", but her costume makes her resembles the hijab rather than a hood as in the comic, and she reminds me of Dr Death of Pakistani, aka "Lady Al quaeda" fame...

most of this will go over the heads of Asians, so I expect it to make a lot of money here.

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AustinBay has an article up on SouthEast Asia as a possible trigger point for war.

In July 2016, The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that China had violated the Philippines' EEZ and there was no legal basis for China's claims.
Chinese claims extend to Indonesia and the Strait of Malacca, where Singapore is located -- and the site of the Shangri-La summit Secretary Mattis addressed.

and it's not just the Philippines: Vietnam, which was once part of China and had a war with them in recent times, is also part of the mix:

But Mattis didn't shy from confronting China's South China Sea aggression. He declared the 2016 arbitration court ruling "is binding" and serves as a diplomatic "starting point" to peacefully manage regional disputes. That's careful, measured language --let's play by the rules and respect each other.
However, Mattis mentioned, as if in passing, that for the first time the U.S. is giving Vietnam a retired U.S. Coast Guard cutter. That's a small but forceful stick waved at Beijing. He also said America will continue to support Taiwan. That's a bigger stick. 

and President Obama sat back and presssured the Philippines not to defend out territory, so the islands are now built in our economic zone, and a threat to freedom of the seas.

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when is the Pope going to start insisting that we don't kill grandmom (or approve of those who push it on the eldrly)?  Father Z reports. it is splitting Canada's church.

Some conservative websites are already calling some newly appointed bishops "Francisbishops", and more faithful sites are just telling Catholics that we don't have an anti pope, so don't schism out yet: We just have a lousy pope, and we've had plenty of them in the past.

you know, in the culture wars, pious Muslims have more in common with Pious Catholics and Pious Jews than with the rabid secular orthodoxy that runs the institutions.

Ruby ran into a book with a pious Muslim man who like her prayed to God and was honest in his lifestyle (in contrast to the rebellious Muslim girl heroine who was flaunting tradition and ruining her life), and she was surprise at this fact.

But those of us who worked in Africa and Asia already know this.  and is why Pinay caretakers often feel comfortable in good Muslim homes in the Middle East.

as for the nut jobs: I am reminded of Jimmy Breslin's take on the IRA vs the Orangemen: It's Catholic atheists vs the Prostestant atheists.

And as Dilbert points out, the press makes the life seem glamourous for men without jobs who are losers...

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