I read in the L.A. Times today that the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are funding various Chinese schools "to lure students into learning languages deemed critical to national security and the economy." Which is sort of suspicious sounding, yet sort of reassuring?



The real question is whether or not the programs will get their funding renewed next year now that China's got such a bad rep. As my friend Hamilton recently soliloquized, "The Chinese can violate human rights, but when you start fucking with American pets, your shit is going to go down. Chinese coal workers? Big deal, they die. You fuck with little Daisy over there, and Kofi Annan is coming to your house."