First it’s newsmax… nuff said.

I was in China in 2000. It’s still communist but with a touch of - I’m not sure what to call it - there exists some private industry. The Chinese said that they have to give some of their profits to the government.

There is some religion, Buddhist temples and a few Catholic churches, yet our guide would not set foot in the temple when we went on tour. Part of it, she told us, she was a communist, but I had the feeling it was way more than that. They often would ask us about our politics, but never discuss theirs. At all. As if to talk about it, meant they’d be carried away. That’s the feeling I got anyway.

Their beggars often were blind and/or missing limbs, hands or legs. Very neatly severed at the joints. Some had scars which looked to appear from whipping or caning. Ok…

Then there’s the one child rule, still, where little baby girls end up in dumpsters or worse. In fact, my g/f who was adopting at the time (why I was there), and that’s exactly where they found her daughter. A Christian missionary found her while taking out the trash.

The pollution was so excessive, on a good day you could see about 1/2 mile. A usual day, maybe 1/4 mile, but usually only a few blocks.

We’re a laughing stock? Laugh all you want, but I’ll never return to that pit.