From God's Mouth ...

EWTN will have an extended interview with the president Friday night at 8pm (I don't know what time zone, I assume Eastern) in anticipation of the Pope's visit to America.

Among other things (in portions aired on FOX) the interviewer asks him "how could you, in good conscience, attend those games (the Olympics)?" The interviewer was of course referring to the Communist Chinese government and their restrictions on religion. The president responded, that he was going to talk to them about religious freedom "before the games, during the games and after the games", and he didn't see how that would be accomplished without going - & that was his basic thrust. He also said, which made me chuckle, "No one needs to call up ol' George Bush and tell him about religious freedom. I've been doing that (communicating the need for it to the Chinese) for almost 8 years now." And he did stress publicly with the Singapore Foreign Minister in a joint press meet & greet at the White House that it would behoove Beijing to open a dialogue with representatives of the Dali Lama.

Not going would be a face loss for the Chinese ... and to be honest I have mixed feelings on this. Communism is by definition evil. On the other hand I buy their goods every time I step into Wal Mart, so to expect the POTUS not to go after I've dropped probably 20-G's in the last year buying their products would be the pinnacle of hypocrisy. I mean, lets be honest we are NEVER going to war with China as a means of liberating their population from Communist rule. Not that we would lose but we would certainly have to employ WMD's - if "size" matters, ten million troops strong makes them a porn star. It is much more likely that as we do business with them and introduce their population to the "spoils" of Western liberty that their population will want more and more personal ability as a means to pursue wealth, and Western liberty is the best vehicle to obtaining those ends to be sure. So while any sane person would denounce communism, I think the more we expose their people to capitalism - which they are sure as hell ripe to embrace - rather then isolate them, we stand a better chance that in a generation or two enough of their population will stand up and say, "okay, we're done with these restraints, lets have an election or two." So, I say to the president, go.

Your thoughts.....?