plumber2 Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 It just doesn't make economic sense to keep purchasing products from overseas just because one country can produce it cheaper than we can. (Oil from the middle east is one example). Why not produce our own oil and charge a fair price to our own consumers for the effort. Let the other countries that have no domestic oil supply, negotiate with the middle east companies.It's also not very honest of us HAIF'ers to encourage someone to restore a mid-century mod house, right down to the very last detail, and then have them go and park a foriegn car in the garage. How authentic is that?Our country needs to shore up our economic borders and encourage manufacturing to remain here. What's going to happen when we have a real recession and China collapses because there is no one able to purchase their cheap crap? Oh......maybe we'll find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memebag Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 It just doesn't make economic sense to keep purchasing products from overseas just because one country can produce it cheaper than we can.Sure it does. That's pretty much the definition of "economic sense". If you can buy it cheaper somewhere else, you better do it. If you don't then someone else will and you won't survive.(Oil from the middle east is one example). Why not produce our own oil and charge a fair price to our own consumers for the effort. Let the other countries that have no domestic oil supply, negotiate with the middle east companies.Because that would give those other countries a tremendous economic advantage over us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 It just doesn't make economic sense to keep purchasing products from overseas just because one country can produce it cheaper than we can. (Oil from the middle east is one example). Why not produce our own oil and charge a fair price to our own consumers for the effort. Let the other countries that have no domestic oil supply, negotiate with the middle east companies.What you're suggesting is tantamount to corporate welfare on some kind of ridiculous scale as is hard to fathom. The only ones that make any money off that proposition are the owners of domestic oil producing companies. ...which would be interesting because if we did anything at all like that, you can be assured that countries like China, Vietnam, India and Mexico would immediately step up to the plate and start financing our domestic oil producers by way of both equity and debt. Then, knowing how xenophobic you are, you'd have to eat imaginary crow...only in your fantasy land, you'd think it to be real. And I, a shareholder, would just laugh all the way to the bank.What's going to happen when we have a real recession and China collapses because there is no one able to purchase their cheap crap? Oh......maybe we'll find out.If China has excess manufacturing capacity, they drop their prices to move their inventory. To the extent that their currency is allowed to float against ours, the dollar becomes relatively stronger. So we get cheaper goods.Recessions put downward pressure on inflation. That is their nature.EDIT: And you know what...I'm going to go OT just to torture you. Its too fun. I was comparing union membership rates across different states earlier this morning (I'm trying to actively kill/avoid any deals where we'd have to hire or put up with unions). Texas has the fifth lowest union participation rate out of all the states in the nation. And in spite of our tremendous rate of growth, union membership declined from 476,000 to 463,000 between 2006 and 2007--the percentage rate fell from 4.9% to 4.7%. ...just one more reason to love my home state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 So... China faked the fireworks display, and today it comes out that the girl who sang in the opening ceremony was lip syncing. China's Opening Ceremony Lies When we heard about the fake fireworks bruhaha, in our minds we gave China a 'pass' because of the 'safety' excuse issued. But the latest scandal that has emerged has wound us up! Remember that little girl in red (left photo) who 'sang' and captured our hearts? Well, turns out she was lip synching Ode to the Motherland to audio of another girl, deemed not as pretty but with a lovelier voice. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/08/12/o...s-lipsynch.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo58 Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Damn! all this talk makes me want to toss down my Moo goo gai pan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livincinco Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Well, turns out she was lip synching Ode to the Motherland to audio of another girl, deemed not as pretty but with a lovelier voice.Shocking - that would certainly never happen here.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...751C0A9629C8B63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 China just misunderstood. China cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webdude Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Spotlight still on China. Someone still pissed. Maybe try harder. Maybe China no more spotlight because of pouting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeebus Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Shocking - that would certainly never happen here.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...751C0A9629C8B63This would make for a beter arguement if 1. Britney was singing a front of a world audience, AND representing the United States, and 2. if they got Jessica Biel to stand in her place and lip-sync.Otherwise, your example is moot. Try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo58 Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 But the latest scandal that has emerged has wound us up!Remember that little girl in red (left photo) who 'sang' and captured our hearts?Well, turns out she was lip synching Ode to the Motherland to audio of another girl, deemed not as pretty but with a lovelier voice.She isn't as pretty. This is not a scandal. Its good television. Faces must be symetrical, smiles wide, cheekbones prominent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuwong Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 If you guys couldn't tell that the little girl was lip synching, than you haven't watched alot of singers period. It was obvious. I didn't really care who was the real singer. All i know is that it was a great show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livincinco Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 This would make for a beter arguement if 1. Britney was singing a front of a world audience, AND representing the United States, and 2. if they got Jessica Biel to stand in her place and lip-sync.Otherwise, your example is moot. Try again.I think you need to read the rest of the article and not just the first paragraph. The prevalence of lip syncing at the Super Bowl is about as close to a global sporting event and a representation of US culture as there is. Besides, I think that you're dreaming if you think that the national anthem isn't pre-recorded and lip synced at many of these major events.Same person's voice or dubbed voice is totally irrelevant. Singing voices have been dubbed in movies for decades. The fact that it also happens live is just the dirty little secret that no one wants to acknowledge.This is about putting on the best possible show to entertain the television audience. If you enjoyed what you saw and what you heard, who cares how it was achieved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 It's all a grande charade in China. Bela Karolyi even suggests the gymnastics are not the age they say they are.http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news...sid=190870.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 It's all a grande charade in China. We agree! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Those crazy krauts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 This is my last post in the China thread. Reality (war) intrudes on a make-believe campaign http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editor...ok/5937280.htmlThis year's August upheaval coincides, probably not coincidentally, with the world's preoccupation with that charade of international comity, the Olympics.For only the third time in 72 years (Berlin 1936, Moscow 1980), the Games are being hosted by a tyrannical regime, the mind of which was displayed in the opening ceremony featuring thousands of drummers, each face contorted with the same grotesquely frozen grin. It was a tableau of the miniaturization of the individual and the subordination of individuality to the collective. Not since the Nazis' 1934 Nuremberg rally, which Leni Riefenstahl turned into the film Triumph of the Will, has tyranny been so brazenly tarted up as art.A worldwide audience of billions swooned over the Beijing ceremony. Who remembers 1934? Or anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livincinco Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 It's all a grande charade in China. Bela Karolyi even suggests the gymnastics are not the age they say they are. http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news...sid=190870.html OK, slightly off topic here. Is just me, or is there something really disturbing about a sport where being 12-14 instead of 16-18 is considered an advantage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanS Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 She isn't as pretty. This is not a scandal. Its good television. Faces must be symetrical, smiles wide, cheekbones prominent....and you would think... in a country with the population of China... surely, they could find one person, one kid who looked good for the camera and could sing. But they didn't. That's just pathetic. The whole world is watching. And I don't care about Britney, Milli Vanilli, or any other crap artists. This is about China, not us, not anyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memebag Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 It's all a grande charade in China.This year's August upheaval coincides, probably not coincidentally, with the world's preoccupation with that charade of international comity, the Olympics.Ha ha! Charade you are! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 ...and you would think... in a country with the population of China... surely, they could find one person, one kid who looked good for the camera and could sing. But they didn't. That's just pathetic. The whole world is watching. And I don't care about Britney, Milli Vanilli, or any other crap artists. This is about China, not us, not anyone else.OK, it's about China. And a girl lipsyncing the national anthem says what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanS Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 OK, it's about China. And a girl lipsyncing the national anthem says what?To me, it reinforces the notion that China's outward face is just a facade. Fraud and artifice. Show the good, but hide the ugly. Some of the world's best performances are live. They had the once in a lifetime opportunity to do something real, but they didn't.Now, am I going to judge the entire country based on a kid lip-syncing the national anthem? No. Their government? Actually, yes, 1989. Human rights record? Yes. EDIT: I still hold their government responsible for Tiananmen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 To me, it reinforces the notion that China's outward face is just a facade. Fraud and artifice. Show the good, but hide the ugly. Some of the world's best performances are live. They had the once in a lifetime opportunity to do something real, but they didn't.Now, am I going to judge the entire country based on a kid lip-syncing the national anthem? No. Their government? Actually, yes, 1989. Human rights record? Yes. EDIT: I still hold their government responsible for Tiananmen.I could have a field day using this logic on our own country........but I am bored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanS Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 I could have a field day using this logic on our own country........but I am bored.I know you could... and so could I... Right now, the light is on them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeebus Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 I could have a field day using this logic on our own country........but I am bored.I can bend metal spoons with my mind.......but I am busy watching the Olympics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 Oy Vey, Red!If Houston won the games could you imagine what the world would be saying about us?It's cool to comment on others.That's the way of the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 Oy Vey, Red!If Houston won the games could you imagine what the world would be saying about us?Why yes, I could. That's pretty much the point of my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
citizen4rmptown Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 Up early this morning Wayne, and on a roll I see.Some people just will not learn nor bend. They've never set foot in the country and think they have it all figured out. I love the statement about someone being stabbed and his wife wounded, meaning China is not safe. How many people were killed robbed and wounded in Houston Last night. I'm will to bet the Trauma Center at Ben Taub would be able to let you know. Let's see: Here's just a few local headlines from the past few days...... A mother and her son were robbed at gunpoint inside their northwest Harris County home. A woman's body was found in a southwest Houston bayou Thursday afternoon. One person was killed and another was wounded in a shooting at a southeast Houston apartment complex early Thursday. Neighbors in the Quail Valley Apartment complex in Missouri City awoke to news of a murder Thursday morning. But it was the details of what was done to the victim's body after his death that shocked them, Police said the victim's body appeared to be covered with gasoline and set on fire in one of the complex's courtyards. When police arrived, the man's body was still burning, and they put him out with a nearby garden hose. A man's body was found in north Houston late Wednesday. Looks like Houston should get any games either. Sorry Coog Well, thats just one stabbing, and since we are in the houston area and am assuming none of us have a beijing news channel and understand mandarin chinese,we dont know how many assaults/murders/ect. have happened there unless they're related to the olympics or is major(i.e. massacre) dont want to be part of the argument but when i see something so loosely based i just must reply... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livincinco Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 Well, thats just one stabbing, and since we are in the houston area and am assuming none of us have a beijing news channel and understand mandarin chinese,we dont know how many assaults/murders/ect. have happened there unless they're related to the olympics or is major(i.e. massacre) dont want to be part of the argument but when i see something so loosely based i just must reply...I think that the point here is that everything about China is being put under a microscope without considering the context of the flawed world that we live in. Many of us (particularly those of us who have spent a significant amount of time in China) feel that it is more important to consider the progress that they are making rather than condemn them for the flaws that they have as a society.Fact: The average Chinese citizen is more free (economically and politically) today than they have been at any point in their lifetime. That should be encouraging to all.Can they and should they become more free? Yes - but it is not reasonable to expect that it will happen as anything other than a gradual evolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memebag Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 Fact: The average Chinese citizen is more free (economically and politically) today than they have been at any point in their lifetime. That should be encouraging to all.And not just in their lifetimes, but they're probably more free now than at any point in recorded history. China didn't go through the industrial revolution like Europe and North America did. Before the communists took over they were still largely feudal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.