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TELL ME IF THE FOLLOWING DOESN'T EXACTLY SOUND LIKE ONE FOR RIP LI (more on that shortly):

Conservative editorialist Robert Novak was involved in a hit-and-run accident involving a bicyclist in The Nation's Capital last Friday ... and by Sunday, was in hospital diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Since then, he has announced that he will suspend his column for the interim.

What exactly was G-d trying to tell Mr.Novak by such events occuring as they did under these circumstances?

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IN CASE ANY OF YOU READERS GET ANY IDEAS THAT I SHOULD BE SAYING "ONE FOR RIPLEY" AND NOT "ONE FOR RIP LI," please allow me to explain:

For a brief while in the early 1920's, when Robert Ripley was just getting started with his legendary cartoon "Believe It or Not!"--which, in time, would encompass museums, film shorts, radio, television and, more recently, the Information Stuporbahn--he began developing a legendary fascination with China and things Chinese. And one manifestation of this was his briefly signing his cartoons as "Rip Li," a mock-Chinese version on Ripley.

Not to mention his fondness for decorating whole rooms in his residences in Chinese fashion, wearing Chinese robes, hosting lavsh Chinese dinners and even acquiring an authentic Chinese junk he called "Mon Li."

Now you know.

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STAYING ON THE CHINESE THEME FOR A MOMENT, AND SEEING AS HOW THE GAMES OF THE XXIX OLYMPIAD WILL OPEN IN BEIJING in nine days' time from today, perhaps it will be worth noting where:

• Amnesty International has come out with a blistering indictment of the Chinese Government's "human rights policies" (or reasonable facsimilies thereof) since Beijing was awarded the XXIX Olympic Games in 2001, essentially suggesting that the Chinese Government's propaganda slogan of "a more open China welcomes [the] 2008 Olympic Games" was just propaganda slogan, nothing else.
• And, for those of you whining the meme of "Social Engineering! Social Engineering!" (in the key of "Ring around the collar!", no doubt) in service to the Greater Conservative Agenda, you might like to know where the Chinese authorities, for the sake of the Beijing Olympic Games, may impose further restrictions on auto travel in and around Olympics venues in Beijing beond such now in force ... as well as a blanket ban on construction and engineering activity, energy-intensive manufacturing and use of coal-fired power generating facilities for the duration.

But then again, the next Olympic Games after Beijing will be the XXX such in London, scheduled for 2012. (Which, BTW, will be the third time London has hosted the Olympics, having previously hosted the Games in 1908 and 1948.)

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DOUBLETHINK, WHITE HOUSE STYLEE: It took quite awhile, but His Fraudulency has finally acknowledged where the United States is facing Serious Economic Crises within measurable distance, if not yet already.

But, on the other hand, Your Correspopndent would like to know what exactly is precluding His Fraudulency's Great Within, let alone His Fraudulency "himself," from acknowledging tacitly and @ once openly that they, and they alone, are to blame for embracing flawed, misguided and discredited socioeconomic thought to the point of creating the very conditions by which the situation is being made manifest just now.

In particular:

• the discredited "supply-side" (a/k/a "trickle-down") school of thought as expects tax cuts to translate into employers creating jobs out of the goodness of their collective hearts and minds, in turn translating into sustained tax revenue collections @ prevailing rates along with a theoretical nil rate of unemploment within free-market capitalistic parameters and paradigms;
• insistence that Americans maintain some semblance of normalcy in everyday routines as part of the Greater Battle Against International Terrorism, and to excuse such as necessary for G-d and Country;
• further insisting that the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism can be financed by keeping taxes all the lower in the hope of creating jobs and, in turn, socioeconomic stability--not to mention wasteful, frivolous and unnecessary consumer spending as part of the preceding point; and
• looking for cheap, cheerful and @ once "fresh and innovative" ways to (howbeit subtly) expect the Lower Classes to develop a "healthy acceptance" of free-market capitalism with American charactristics as Great White Father, which, in its turn, will translate into a Classless Ownership Society based on free-maket capitalistic models and a healthy respect for human rights and liberty after years, even generations, of "helpless enslavement to Socialistic and other un-American beliefs" which State Welfare supposedly promoted (howbeit subtly) among the poor and National Minorities. (To be especially "helpful and beneificial" in pushing for a "complete, final and binding" denationalisation of "failed and failing" State systems of social welfare and Social Security as would emphasise "empowerment" over "dependency," even if it meant invoking crass stereotypes of the poor.)

"Money is the root of all evil."
Why not invest yours in United States Savings Bonds?

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ONCE AGAIN, YOUR CORRESPONDNT WISHES TO REMIND YOU OF WHERE HE INTENDS TO TURN OVER PART OF HIS PROCEEDS FROM THE ONLINE SHOPPING offered @ this "irresponsible" weblog towards Reduction of the National Debt--as if you needed a reason to shop online as a regular visitor here.

So what exactly stands in the way of your actually making purchases as long as you're here?

And can you honestly show me cause why the National Debt ought be of no worthwhile interest to the average person save for selective sound bites on the news so as to discourage actual action, let alone talk?