Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Created in America, Made in China

China has come a long way, very quickly, from supplying McDonald’s with Happy Meal toys covered in lead paint. Last week, WBUR’s (Boston University Radio) On Point with Tom Ashbrook had a show about corporate espionage by Chinese hackers.

[audio:http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2012/02/onpoint_0216_hacking-americas-future.mp3|titles=On Point with Tom Ashbrook – China hacking]

Listening to this exchange was, for me, frustrating. There’s a lot of alarmist talk in the show, but why was it okay for American corporations to send their manufacturing jobs to China in the first place? Why, only now, with the theft of proprietary information, is China being seen as a threat? And if these victimized companies have such sophisticated intellectual property, why couldn’t they invest more in better protection against online attacks? In the old days, employees would have to be moles, or be corrupt and willing to sell secrets, for serious damage to be done. Now, just having an Internet connection is all it takes? Seems to me this is a case of reaping what you sow.

Colbert Report suspended!

Last night, I was surprised to see that The Colbert Report was a repeat, even though The Daily Show was a new installment. They always come as a matched set, so something must be wrong. The Huffington Post says, “Production has halted on “The Colbert Report” for Wednesday and Thursday, according to fans who had tickets for the rest of the week’s tapings.”

Does Colbert have a personal emergency? Has Viacom pulled the plug on the show because of the SuperPAC?

Follow-up: The Wall Street Journal says it’s “because of an emergency in Mr. Colbert’s family, according to people familiar with the show.”

Further follow-up: Colbert’s mother is over 90 years old. Just saying.

While we’re waiting for Stephen’s return, let’s watch the latest battle in the Colbert-Fallon Ice Cream Wars. I just eat this stuff up.

Stephen sends a valentine to Jimmy…

… and delivery is made.

Z lives in my memory

I’m watching Z, from 1969, on TCM.

When I was in the 9th grade I saw Z on a school field trip. We took a yellow bus all the way into downtown Boston, which was a big deal in itself. I remember being completely wrapped up in the film, start to finish. Everything seemed to be so real, and not fake like a Hollywood movie. I wasn’t even aware that I was reading subtitles for over two hours, as I struggled to keep up with the story of political intrigue. The ending left me feeling upset and outraged. Z helped to develop my awareness of the adult world, and political corruption, which was further tested a couple of years later, with the news of the Watergate Hotel break-in by Nixon operatives.

P.S. The movie is over, and it occurs to me that it’s similar to Dragnet, in the way it goes through the investigative process.