Baizuo Isn't a Kind Descriptive Word

 If you hang around Chinese folks.....and they get asked to describe Americans...somewhere in the description will be the Chinese word 'baizuo'.

The literal translation?  'Blessed mother'.

It's a 5-star sarcastic term to show people of opinions or emotions....lacking empathy and mostly promoting one's self of selflessness.

Around a decade ago, it started to be thrown around....mostly pointed at fakeness  or the lack of morality within western media (bluntly pointed at Twitter and Facebook).

All of this leads to destructive behavior naturally....where you might destroy a 20-year friendship with a school-friend, or dissolve a 10-year marriage, or screw over some church members because they didn't follow your preferred social doctrine. 

So here's the thing....all the way up and down Chinese levels....they perceive this same behavioral problem.  They don't respect you for it, and they certain won't sit at a table and let you dish out fake chatter leading back to baizuo.  You saw that this week with the Chinese folks invited to a discussion with the State Department idiots in Alaska.  

The key problem here....once they assign you with the tag of baizuo....you are regarded as naive and stupid....a country bumpkin.  It doesn't matter what you degree you profess, or if you carry a PhD level on your shoulder....your respect is chopped off.  You are in their mind....a fifth-grade kid.

So the LGBT stuff, the hyper behavior about refugees, the BLM chatter?  Yes, it all leads back to baizuo.  

The 2020 election?  The arrival of the Biden-team?  The Twitter idiots?  The Washington Post marginalized news?  The Greta crowd?  Baizuo.  

Divorce Story

 The problem here....you really don't know how much is true, and how much is fake.

China says....at least from the Wuhan City numbers.....that sixty percent of the folks who did have divorce paperwork generated in January of 2021.....decided something 'clicked' and dumped the paperwork....(staying with their perceived loser-husband or loser-wife).

So, this odd thing occurred.....China made up this law that said when you file for a divorce, you have to go through a 60-day cooling-off period.

During this cooling-off period, you have to go to marriage counseling, period.  No waivers....no exemptions.

So they say in Wuhan, in January of this year....just over 3,000 couple filed for divorce.  

It should have been final in March.

Just over 1,300 went final in March.  The rest?  The situations were dropped.

Now, it would be interesting to gather up the 1,700 couples who dissolved the paperwork to divorce, and ask some more direct questions.  But no one went that far.

Current Impressions of Ten People

 1/2: Prince Harry and Meghan.  I see two no-talent people who need to be given a clear job....like caretakers of a camp-ground, or mattress sales shop, or running a dog-grooming shop.  They need real work to keep themselves occupied.  I'd also suggest that Harry take up drinking to lessen his stress levels.  

3.  Pelosi.  I doubt that she's ever gone a day in thirty years without three cocktails.  At her weight-level, 95 pounds....that's about two cocktails too many.

4.  Kanye West is living the American dream, and doing something right.  He is supposedly the richest black guy in America now....even if he is 50-percent crazy.

5.  This Psaki gal who is the White House press-person....is probably the most miserable member of the Biden-team.  I actually feel sorry for her as she grapples around with questions each day.

6.  I don't think the current governor of California (Newsom) has the qualifications to even run a sports bar or muffler shop. 

7.  I think Joe Biden is the best spokesperson for the NRA ever....all he has to do is stand and make a 60-second comment, and tomorrow.....40k guns will be sold across America.

8.  I think Putin could actually arrive in California, and within six weeks....convince more than half the state that he deserves a chance as governor of California.  

9.  I think this Marvel Comics effort to 'remake' Captain America into some gay activist....will last for about six months, and then they will admit the humiliation comments by readers is way too much.  A two-year silence on Captain America will then occur.

10.  I think Brian Stelter of CNN needs a year off, and probably is suffering from PTTS (Post-Traumatic-Trump-Syndrome).  I know of an excellent hotel down in Florida where he could recover.  

Decline

 I'd like to strongly encourage folks to watch this 7-minute video of Patrick Bet-David having a discussion with Adam Stokes on the topic of the decline of America.

The point here that Patrick makes....the nation is headed toward a messy situation where people expect 'X' and the mechanism we are built upon....simply can't deliver 'X'.

If you gaze around at kids finishing college, and having a debt of $80k over student loans....things are pretty screwed up.

If you gaze around California and look at restaurants and pubs shutdown, with dismal recovery in the works....things are screwed up.

If you gaze at President Biden's tax chatter....things are pretty screwed up.

If you look at the hotel and airline industry, things are screwed up.

I would suggest for the next three or four years....it's a pretty dark period to emerge, and our patience will be tested to last the period.  

A Little Story

 Somewhere around the ninth-grade, I picked up Mary Shelly's book 'Frankenstein'.  After finishing it....I sat for about a week...off and on, thinking over the writing, the story, the good doctor's efforts, and the conclusion.

There's one single bit over the book and Shelly, that I didn't realize until the 1990s when reading through an article.  The book goes back to 1818.  A British gal....Shelly, then roughly 21 years....had a 'contest' brewing between her boyfriend (Shelley), and his buddy (Lord Byron).  

The 'contest'?  Who could write the better horror story?  During the contest period, she was traveling through Germany, and was in the region of the Odenwald Forest, near Darmstadt. Something 'clicked'.  

Amusingly enough....no one rarely mentions the two guys in this contest or what they wrote as a 'horror' story.  What Lord Byron attempted to write, was 'Fragment of a Novel', which was supposed to be a vampire story....but the manuscript was never finished.  As for Percy Shelly?  He made an effort but never got anywhere on the story business (remember, he was a poet at heart).

What can be said about the German landscape and Darmstadt?  This was the period where the Brothers Grimm were busy, and there were literally millions of tales or home-spun stories which were being told at pubs and homes.  Some were about enchanted women....some about demons....some about magical unicorns, and some related to crazed beasts.  

It was an era where travel was going on....a lot more people were engaged in idle chatter in roadside inns in the evening hours, and they were sharing stories they'd heard weeks or months prior.  Yes of course....a bit of booze probably helped to relax the mind, and the story being told was probably more 'gripping'.

The end result with 'Frankenstein'?  No matter how good the doctor's intent was....what emerged was some creature that could not be controlled or guided.  From the moment of creation....the creature was absolutely a threat.  Consequences?  You could write an entire book over this story, and the consequences that were laid out.  

It's an odd challenge that was laid out, and you to wonder.....why get into a competition about scary horror things?  Why not write a romance piece, or some unsolvable murder?  So this is the consequence of that one single evening....the challenge over a year to lead onto the creation of 'Frankenstein'.  

News

 I tried to watch forty-five minutes of CNN news yesterday.

Before November of 2020....you could make the case that vast majority of a one-hour show was a majority of some roundtable effort (five folks) whipping President Trump as much as possible.  There might have been five minutes talking over some climate disaster in Thailand, some Russian passenger jet crashing, and maybe some mention of pythons being found in the Everglades.....but it was mostly the anti-Trump hour.

So yesterday?  Some brief mention of Brazil President Lula being freed-up (out of prison).  Another mention of this Tanzanian President having died from Covid-19 (he had done daily presentations to the public to pray for people to recover).  There was some mention of Wall Street worry over inflation.  And some chatter of President Biden hyping that the government is part of the long-term solution to the virus.

To be blunt, watching CNN now (compared against summer of 2020) is like taking some antidepressants or watching it while have a four-star flu (feeling like it's running at three-quarters speed).

At the end of 45 minutes.....I hit the Netflix button, and watched two episode of Trailer-Park Boys.  It brought me back to life.   

I'm not going to dump a lot of criticism over CNN (they probably deserve it)....but the idea that there's plenty of news to get you hyped-up over a day?  That suggestion is a joke.  

I would imagine that several CNN folks quietly now wish that Trump was still around, and drilling down into the enthusiasm every single day.  

Trees Discussion

 This morning, I watched a 14-minute discussion via DarkHorse Podcasts (off YouTube)....with two PhD folks, and the topic was this new science study which says....trees are beneficial not only to your status in life, but to your mental positive feelings as well.

I would strongly recommend a viewing of it, and you might want to sit for a while and ponder over this.  

Weird study?  I would suggest that, but I don't think they were expecting the outcome to be this way.

A stamp of positive words over trees?  No.  It really invites more study, and probably gathering up 5k people....some who live in treeless communities and some living in rural areas surrounded by trees.

As a kid....I had a fascination with trees because of the four seasons and how trees were revolving calendar.  Around October, you had the yearly leaf raking....to the end of the yard, and then a fire on a windless day....to burn the leaves away.  Course today....folks get real hyped up if you do something like that.

In my late 30s....I spent a couple of years living in Tucson, Arizona.  To put it mildly.....it's the most treeless place that you can live.  Every couple of months, we'd drive up the mountainside....to the 'peak', where everything was covered with pine trees.  I always came back from this six-hour trip....charged up and feeling more positive.  

Something to this trees thing relating to positive feelings?  It wouldn't shock me at all.