Living History

I woke up to read that "Superman" has died after years of Paralysis.

This morning Gas price is at a historic high. People at the gas pumps fret and reminiscence about the good old days: "What happened to two dollars a gallon?" Yes, we've been conditioned into thinking that two dollars a gallon is cheap.

Today I learned that U.S. federal deficit surged to a record $413 billion in 2004. Congress has raised the debt ceiling three times in the past three years and is looking to raise it again. (Oh, but no worries. It won't happen before the election day.) Funny how our president should be the one who is talking about "Fiscal Sanity".

Although it should've come with no surprise (Italians, Japanese, Koreans all have been already) - two Chinese were kidnapped and taken hostage by Al-Qaeda linked militants in Pakistan, I was still shocked and outraged. Hearing about all the recent frequent events of cold-blooded beheading of foreign hostages, I had unrealistically thought or wanted to believe that Chinese were left alone rather safe from all the turmoil and atrocity going on in Middle East and wherever.

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“THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
THEN THEY CAME for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.”