Boycotting China

Effective immediately I am boycotting all things Chinese — including, for the first time in my life, the Summer Olympic Games. Why?

Unequal trade barriers, Tibet, support of Sudan/Darfur, totalitarian communism, alliance with Iran, no First Amendment rights, no Second Amendment rights, no habeas corpus, violations of World Trade Organization rules, disregard for intellectual and artistic property rights, tainted gluten, altered pharmaceuticals, hacking U.S. Defense Department computers, spying, threatening Taiwan, religious persecution, human rights violations, no free press, censorship, one-child laws, forced abortions, pollution and building coal-fired power plants anyway, lead paint, Hong Kong restraints, diversion of water from villages for the Olympics, arrest, torture and disappearance of political dissenters.

Awarding China’s oppressive regime with the Olympic Games is a patent sellout of human values for economic gain perpetrated by the International Olympic Committee and all those who participate.

I realize this boycott means I will spend the rest of my life naked, hungry and in the dark, but I am a man of principles above all.

Mike Herr
Kansas City

Comments

[Engineer]

JayhawkinMO
Reaching back six years to more or less temporary measures? But it is not the GOP that is killing the Columbian Free Trade Agreement. Actually, I wasn't assigning blame to anyone. I was just pointing out that we cannot compete in low skill, low technology, and low plant investment industries.

[JayhawkinMO]

There goes Engineer again, going to his default position: Blame the Dems! Here's something from Business Week in 2002:

In the past month, the White House has slapped new tariffs on lumber imports from Canada -- causing a spike in lumber prices paid by U.S. consumers. It levied huge tariffs on steel imports from nations as diverse as Russia and Korea -- the latter the very country often cited by Bush as a free-trade success story. And the U.S. Transportation Dept. has created new paperwork headaches for Japanese airlines in return for actions in Tokyo that angered American cargo companies.

W has been a very nice protectionist, thank you very much!

[kenny]

Mike Herr, beachpoet:

It was good to read your last online post.

I am sure you are busy ripping your PC apart to take out all the stuff made in China -- memory, hard disk, motherboard,... oh, don't forget the monitor.

[Engineer]

jack
Things do change. It seems only yesterday the Demos were decrying GOP "isolationism". They were calling for the US to "become a part of the World Community", have open borders, practice Internationalism, and be multicultural and diverse. We did and now, like the chickens, it has come home to roost. To mix my metaphors, it has also taken a huge bite out of the a$$ of one of the Demo's main consistencies, the labor unions, and also of all low or unskilled Americans. The unavoidable truth is that in the case of low skill, low technology and low capital investment products the US cannot compete Internationally on a level playing field. The Demo's answer to this seems to be a call for trade barriers and isolationism. This is a questionable answer in the modern world but what the correct answer may be I do not know. Anymore than I know what is to become of the 50% of urban youth that does not graduate from High School or the others who do but are functionally illiterate.

[JayhawkinMO]

Jack, you are a great piece of work. Bueno LOL!!!... Otherwise, Mike Herr says he is going to boycott all Mainland China products. Good luck! This means everything in Wal-Mart, Target, and many of the offerings in Sam's Club. Look for the "Made in China" labels at Lowe's and Home Depot. If you need casual clothes, Jockey Shorts, or tools, Mike, you're outta luck!! I just looked at the label on a blue golf wind shirt with KU Jayhawk markings: Made in China. But there's hope! I bought a catnip toy for my cats this afternoon in Parkville: Made in USA...!!

[jack]

No news organization is going after them. They are all owned by huge conglomo's. They all have a huge stake in the masses being frightened mice, watching the pre-fab "news" on their Korean TVs, behind their security gates, triple dead bolts, with assualt rifle in hand, eating Cheetos and wearing Chinese boxers--all while complaining that the Nation's problems are caused by "Godless, socialistic, liberals".

So take out another loan against the equity in your house to pay off the credit card bills you ran up drying your oversized truck to Walmart and pray for the rapture to arrive soon.

That's about all there is left.

[Stifled Freedom]

Fox news is the only conservative news organization I can think of. And you have to remember that conservatives are in bed with big business. Its not in thier viewers interests to attack big business.

The local news was given plenty of opportunities, but they declined. I was told "if its going to require to much investigative work, we are not interested". I already had all the proof. So much for the "investigative news" they claim to be so good at.

Thier idea of investigative news is jumping in the news truck and running out to a crime scene or chasing an ambulance or sensationalizing some sex scandal. If its not a headline grabber, they dont care.

It was not long after I reported this that they busted the massage parlors. They made the choice that sex sells better.

[T. Hanson]

AJ,
When the normal channels don't work I am sure a more conservative news organization wouldn't mind a bite...

[Stifled Freedom]

The whole China thing is too big to fight. Here is a story that will make your blood boil.

My local employer in KC has offices in China. They have been bringing technical professionals over here on visitors visas and putting them to work right here in OP KS for 6 months to a year at a stretch. They rotate people out and its been going on for 8-10 years now. They pay them in thier home offices in China (while they are here) so there is no US tax or social security or unemployment burden. Its as if they aren't here. The salaries are much lower. It has to be illegal under federal law.

I reported them to the local ICE dept. I provided names, hotel location, addresses, even timesheet reports indicating they were working on US based projects when I met with ICE agents over lunch. They investigated and told me they would eventually raid the place and it would be all over the news. A few months later, I called because nothing had happened. Local ICE said they sought approval from Washington and were told to "back off". I found out later the company had a full time Washington lobbiest. Then I knew what happened. Its all corrupt.

Today, there are so many poeple from thier Chinese offices working here that the company operates a big yellow school bus to drive them from the extended stay hotel to the office daily. They cant drive. They sit in their hotels on the weekend and walk to the grocery store in all type of weather.

[Stifled Freedom]

You will be arrested for indicent exposure for going outside the house naked...put on the sexual predator list by law....forced to leave your home by law because its too close to a school....and then you have to live under a bridge...where you will be murdered by some reckless intoxicated teenages. Seems like cutting off you nose to spite your face doesn't it?

[katman]

I appreciate and respect a person of principle like yourself. Nevertheless, I bet you watch a little of the Olympics.

KATMAN

[beachpoet]

I'm with you all the way. All of the politico-corporate hand wringing about how angering China will only make the situation worse regarding human rights is nothing more than self protective propaganda. The fact is that boycotts work if enough people sign on. Just look back at South Africa and apartheid.

I am no longer buying any goods that originate in China and am encouraging my friends and family to do likewise. China must earn it's place in the civilized world, not demand it like the spoiled brat it has been for far too long.

Charity begins at home.

[wniko]

Go ahead showing naked in the Congress and telling them to stop begging Chinese to raise their currency value.

Go ahead telling Ford, GM, IBM, Intel, Microsoft... to stop investing in China. They are all below your principals.

BTW, more people died in Iraq everyday than the total number of Tibet incident. I got it. All people killed in Iraq are terrorists.

[beachpoet]

I'm with you all the way. All of the politico-corporate hand wringing about how angering China will only make the situation worse regarding human rights is nothing more than self protective propaganda. The fact is that boycotts work if enough people sign on. Just look back at South Africa and apartheid.

I am no longer buying any goods that originate in China and am encouraging my friends and family to do likewise. China must earn it's place in the civilized world, not demand it like the spoiled brat it has been for far too long.

Charity begins at home.

[T. Hanson]

Good luck with that.