Fifty percent of the liquor industry's revenues are derived from alcoholics � people who down at least four drinks every day. OK, you're trying to shock us about how bad the alcohol problem is compared to marijuana, but I'm still struggling with the idea that 4 drinks a day makes you an alcoholic. (Not me, I'm a teetotaler.)

Here's some of what the WaPo should've printed. (via Instapundit)

How the polls go wrong. (link via Occam's toothbrush)

Chi-Dooh Li is thankful for sweet taste of freedom. His parents got him out of China just before the Commies took over and--let's be frank--ruined so many lives. He's haunted by the question of why he was spared the enormous suffering endured by his cousin. Today buying groceries we ran into a friend from Shanghai; unlike my in-laws, his father (also then in the KMT) stayed. He says even now he regrets his decision because of the negative impact on his childrens' lives. "Liberation" indeed. (link via Occam's toothbrush)

New additions to the blogroll; food blogs via Weblog central and most of the China-related blogs via China Weblog.

Keith Bradsher blames India's relatively poor economic performance on poor infrastructure, government monopolies, and over-regulation. He also cites wait for it the desire for public service, in other words, Indians supposedly don't reinvest their money, but use it for charitable works.

I note the shoe manufacturer he describes doesn't like Chinese food; maybe that's the reason. My wife wonders if his dislike of the food is because he goes to Guangdong Province, and their food isn't as strongly flavored as one would expect a South Asian to prefer. Too bad the shoe factories aren't in Hunan or Sichuan.

I wonder if Bradsher read Jayanthi Iyengar, who also credits China's infrastructure, but is less bullish on China, noting that China suffers from a lack of transparency, aging population, and growing unemployment, all of which may lead to a crash.

Activists involved in attempts by North Korean refugees to storm into foreign diplomatic missions in China for protection plan to step up pressure on the U.N. refugee agency to "start doing their job" by monitoring the Korean refugees in China, labeling the UNHCR as apathetic and negligent "to the point of complicity." Yeah, but as an earlier report noted, it's tough because of China's behavior. Not that the treatment of the refugees isn't horrible.

Laurence Eyton has an excellent analysis on Chen Shui-bian's plan to clean up Taiwan's farmers' and fishermen's corrupt credit associations, how they've been an important part of the KMT's local power and funding base, which led the KMT to oppose the reforms, and how the whole debacle makes Chen look "vacillating, treacherous, and weak, easy to panic and liable to give in to threats."

A NYT article about blogs by a self-confessed blogger with no links. It can't be NYT policy against printing links, because Katie Hafner mentions A.Word.A.Day and explains it's at Wordsmith.Org. If I didn't get so much spam, I might subscribe.

With regard to the new US trade plan, Ian Campbell argues

Bush and EU leaders must be willing to take on their domestic farm lobbies. They show no sign of having the political courage and the economic sense to do so. While that is the case, developing countries are going to go on being poor, angry, and uncooperative.

Maybe out of a billion, it's not that much, but still, why are so many Chinese willing to poison innocents in order to hurt their enemies? It's anybody's guess about why Yang Bin got arrested. But I'm sure the average Chinese person will believe it's only the capricious nature of the justice system that nailed him while others go free.

Update
Many analysts and diplomats take Yang's troubles as a sign that China is displeased that North Korea launched a plan to develop a free-trade area and named Yang to run it without consultation. Even though North Korea is just imitating the the special economic zones that kicked off China's great economic expansion nearly two decades ago. (Zones that some argue are modelled on similar areas in Taiwan.) So I guess China's behavior is only what one can call neo-imperialism.

Why we're going to be using fossil fuels for some time, from Pete Geddes, with some thoughts on what politicians are doing to "help".

According to Amnesty International, Internet users in China are at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and even execution.

Despite the measures introduced by the authorities to stifle freedom of expression over the Internet, the new technology is a cornerstone for economic growth in a country with over a fifth of the world's population. As the importance of the Internet grows so too will the millions of users and the demands of those seeking justice and respect for human rights in China.

We'll see. (via Blogcritics).

I'm blogging on Thanksgiving because frankly, it's just another day to me. Not that I don't appreciate how happy I am. But as a non-believer, I guess I've got to say I'm not really thankful, except to my fellow humans, or at least those who behave themselves.

So what's for dinner today? Sometimes we have jiaozi. (I hate callling them dumplings, because to me a dumpling is boiled dough with no filling.) Here are some recipes, but I can't vouch for them. The hardest thing is making the wrappers, as this site describes. I can't say much for the fillings, though.

Anyway, for lunch today, we're having leftovers (better than it sounds: pork meatballs mixed with rice). Then for supper, home-made hamburgers. I like mine really rare. A couple of days ago, we had Vegetarian Black-Eyed Pea Stew, with some hot peppers added to the recipe, and served with cornbread. Yum. Last night, we had the Tortilla Pie again. We used cottage cheese and mozzarella from Aldi; maybe that's why it wasn't really tasty. For a snack last night, I had ratlami sev, which I discovered at our local International Grocery Store ("spices and specialty foods from all over the world; including dry foods and fresh fruits and vegetables"). Yum. So I'm thankful for all of that.

However, I'm not so thankful that the tasty French/Belgian dark chocolate tablets that one can find in supermarkets like Monoprix or ED, often own-brand, also C�te d'Or, are not readily available here. I guess we'll have to rent an apartment in Paris.

I found this tool via Cranky Professor. I have found a few blogs I like, but the only one that really stands out is greg allen. The others mostly look like conservative/libertarian ranters--and how much of that can I read? And I didn't realize that's what my politics are. It's a little like the strange suggestions Tivo or Amazon comes up with for their consumers. (link via GeekPress). Not that I'd know. I've only bought one book from Amazon, and Tivo's a little to pricey for me. Actually, I like the idea. Too bad it doesn't seem to work as well as it ought...so far, anyway.

Andrew Sullivan criticizes the mealy-mouthed response to the Muslim Miss World riots. I can't agree with his characterization of the Nigerian columnist Isioma Daniel remark as "crude" that apparently caused the riots. Her joke was that Mohammed might approve of the Miss World pageant since he might pick one of his wives from the throng of beauties. That's not crude! I'd show you crude, except being a college professor living in a politically correct world, I don't dare.

An article about the deterioration in the way the United States has been treating Saudis says the resulting Saudi unhappiness with the US has taken an economic toll.

"We've scared off a lot of tourism and scared off a lot of medical patients, and the impact on our economy is more substantial than people realize or want to recognize," said Charles Kestenbaum, a commercial officer at the U.S. Embassy here until becoming a corporate consultant last summer.

Hmm. As Matt Welch wrote, Former U.S. diplomats have become Saudi Arabia's apologists. Neither the article nor Mr. Kestenbaum says a single word about the Wahabi fundamentalists the Saudi government won't or can't put the lid on.

I don't see why everything has to be political, but according to Kimerly Rorschach, "'Global political art' is what's happening right now....". Erik Eckholm explains she's using "political" in the broadest sense to refer to works that engage social themes. Ugh.

A letter to the editor offers further evidence of why the Chinese are going to
take over.

While Chinese students do "self-assigned homework" on Sundays to beef up their six-day school weeks, lots of American college students are cutting classes to add a few extra days to their Thanksgiving vacations.

They don't do that here--because we give them a full week. _{Not that we're all that demanding anyway.}

Randy E. Barnett on what the Republicans could do to attract more libertarian votes. Funny, I agree with all of them. (link via Eugene Volokh)