[Peace-discuss] Town meeting letter.

[E. Wayne Johnson]

The Uighurs (Weiwer in Chinese) are one of 57 minority peoples living in 
China and they wear a particular shade of  light tan button-down cap 
commonly, and quite by accident I happened to acquire such a color of 
that kind of hat at WalMart on my single trip back to the states about 
10 months into my 5 year stay in China.  When I wore this hat in China, 
I fit in marginally better.  I didnt hear anyone on the bus or street 
pointing me out to others calling me "laowai" (foreigner) anymore  
(everybody look, there's a lao wai).  Most of the Chinese thought that I 
really was a Weiwer or Xinjiangren ( from Xinjiang province, home of the 
Uighurs). [Although some of my Chinese friends said I might be better 
off as a "laowai" or "yangguizi" (foreign devil) than as a 
Xinjiangren].  I had the correct length of nose and body type for the 
quasi-Western/quasi-Arabic Xinjiang people, and my Mandarin was none too 
good (same as them) so that even some of the Xinjiang Muslims in Beijing 
near Nongda thought I was really one of them.  Some thought I was one of 
them but just didnt want to say so because they thought maybe I was 
running from the law.   It was great fun anyway and they enjoyed it 
too.  Their Mandarin was bad enough for us to communicate pretty well 
(we were patient) and we enjoyed eating and drinking together.

C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> [Notice that Lewis Carroll is turning up with a greater frequency in 
> what passes for politics in this country.  The following is from an 
> NYT blog.  --CGE]
Nothing seems to fit the surreality of some of it better than an 
orthodox Carrollian paradox..

>
>     June 30, 2008,  2:21 pm
>     Snark Injection for Guantanamo Trial
>     By MIKE NIZZA
>
> While the Supreme Court has most certainly dealt the strongest blows 
> against the Bush administration’s handling of Guantanamo detainees, a 
> lower court in the same city might have dealt the most creative one. 
> The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has 
> rejected the government’s evidence for keeping a prisoner at 
> Guantanamo by citing a celebrated poem of nonsense:
>
>     "Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact that the government has 
> 'said it thrice' does not make an allegation true. See LEWIS CARROLL, 
> THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK 3 (1876) ('I have said it thrice: What I tell 
> you three times is true.'). In fact, we have no basis for concluding 
> that there are independent sources for the documents’ thrice-made 
> assertions."
>
> The opinion was referring to the government’s evidence against Huzaifa 
> Parhat, who was detained in Afghanistan in 2001. While three documents 
> were meant to convince the court that he should not be released, Judge 
> Merrick B. Garland, who penned the ruling, flatly stated: “We are not 
> persuaded.” His quite serious explanation, available in full as a pdf, 
> follows:
>
>     "Many of those assertions are made in identical language, 
> suggesting that later documents may merely be citing earlier ones, and 
> hence that all may ultimately derive from a single source. And as we 
> have also noted, Parhat has made a credible argument that — at least 
> for some of the assertions — the common source is the Chinese 
> government, which may be less than objective with respect to the 
> Uighurs."
>
> Mr. Parhat is one of 17 Uighurs, a Muslim minority from western China, 
> who were brought to the Guanatanamo prison after being detained in 
> Afghanistan. As William Glaberson reported in The New York Times, 
> their cases have drawn wide attention since they were spoiling for a 
> fight against the Chinese, not Americans.
>
> Despite the ruling, it is not clear what will happen to Mr. Parhat. No 
> other country seems willing to accept him or the 16 others, except 
> China, which may be all too eager...
>
>
> E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
>> `Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the 
>> twentieth time that day.
>> `No, no!' said the Queen. `Sentence first--verdict afterwards.'
>>
>> *
>>
>> `How do you like the Queen?' said the Cat in a low voice.
>>
>> `Not at all,' said Alice: `she's so extremely--' Just then she 
>> noticed that the Queen was close behind her, listening: so she went 
>> on, `--likely to win, that it's hardly worth while finishing the game.'
>>
>> The Queen smiled and passed on....
>>
>>
>>
>> Tom Abram wrote:
>>> What excellent logic from our dear leaders.  We should also probably 
>>> discuss all of our candidates and make a decision as a community 
>>> before they are allowed to even appear on the ballot...
>>>
>>> Tom Abram
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 9:06 PM, David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com 
>>> <mailto:davegreen84 at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     Democracy in Urbana, From N-G article:
>>>          Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing worked with other Democratic
>>>     regulars, including former alderwoman Esther Patt, City Clerk
>>>     Phyllis Clark and Ben Grosser, to turn out opponents to
>>>     instant-runoff voting.
>>>          *"The discussion (about instant-runoff voting) should come 
>>> first,"
>>>     she said. "_You don't put things on the ballot so they can be
>>>     discussed."_*
>>>     ...
>>>
>
>
>