Happy June 35th (O.K., that was Thursday, but...). I'm a big fan of the site "The Big Picture", and their photos of Tiananmen in 1989 and now provide a nice little reminder that people tried, and scum prevailed. It'd be nice if that happened less often, wouldn't it? Not to mention how nice it would be if the scum weren't still in control. Ah, well.

On the other hand, how often do you get to see the Secret Police deploy umbrellas as a weapon of suppression?

And speaking of Chinatown, just in case you missed the update to yesterday's post - here's a good reason to cancel your up-coming trip to China. Unless you favour governments of the thuggish, for the thuggish.

As you've probably guessed, this is a reflection. In water. A puddle, to be precise. So, you can imagine how many associations I can make between it and this story from the New York Times. But, of course, it's more fun for you to it yourself, right? (O.K., I can't resist giving hints. Try working with "reflection", "illusion", "ephemeral" - you get the idea) I mean, Bush comes out and says (again), "Hey, torture's the American way!" and this guy interprets it as Bush cementing his legacy of fighting for strong executive powers?!?

There was, by the way, a good article in the New Yorker a week or so ago discussing America's use of waterboarding during their little contretemps in the Philippines early in the 20th century, for all you history buffs out there. Conservative motto: "If it was good enough for my granddaddy, it's good enough for me."