Of places and their reviewers

Another top-name-recognition celebrity has denounced the new post-9/11 dictatorship. That is exciting:

http://rt.com/news/oliver-stone-us-orwellian-022/
Oliver Stone to RT: ‘US has become an Orwellian state’

I give the guys an A-minus compared to the C-plus I rated Stone on his new documentary. Add him and Prof. Kuznick to the collection -- Stone's come a long way since JFK, even if he is still foolish enough to hope for CHANNNNNGE in Obummer's second term.

Over to Manny in Guatemala now for a different kind of country report -- one dripping with tragicomic ironies:

http://www.panamalaw.org/getting_out_of_dodge_01-07-13.html
Get Out of Dodge -- January 7, 2013
Malaysia, an Expose

I've pretty much settled on Honduras as my expat destination, but there has been much talk about the advantages of the new, prosperous, seemingly stable and all-around-great Malaysia. It never snows -- the daily high is around 90°F year round. Life is inexpensive, you get cheap top-quality health care on a walk-in basis, and you're treated as a human with real problems from the minute you walk in a hospital's front door. Its former president Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad is an actual human being who publicly denounced Jewish supremacism while still in office. How good can it get?

Manny, a berserk, flaming Zionist, waves his favorite bugaboos at us in the article, typically (for a berserk, flaming Zionist) as if the assumption is that we're all berserk, flaming Zionists in concert with him:

 Let us dissect Malaysia. Population is 27,000,000 and 61% are Muslims. So if there is a call for jihad what do you do if you are not a Muslim and live there? They have a double court system. There are Sharia law courts and secular courts. Sharia law courts are for apostasy and family law so make sure you never speak badly of Islam there. Islam is the official religion in their constitution. The country practices Muslim censorship. Muslims get some tax breaks under the law that are not given to non Muslims. The ban on importation of Bibles and Christian books has been going on. Christian churches have been attacked. A Muslim cannot marry a non Muslim legally in Malaysia. To be a Malaysian you would have to confess Islam. But relax women do not have to wear a head covering, whew! Hey you can even get a retired persons visa. This has no path to permanent residency or citizenship. Just put $50,000 in the bank there for five years or show an income of about $3300 a month for a couple. You get a five year renewable visa. You do need to show proof of medical insurance.

His sympathy for churches, etc., is purely strategic. I wrote him back

Sounds almost identical to Israel, so it must be wonderful. ;-}

.......and that in pure irony, of course. But put the shoe on the other foot, pretend he is writing about Izrul,  and notice the eerie parallels! You as a newcomer not sharing the national religion would be forbidden to speak ill of it. It's illegal for different classes to intermarry (little known fact about Izrul, thus the very fair accusations of apartheid there). If there's an uprising by indigenous fanatics against "infidels", that means you. And so on, and so on. It's a reality vs. Bizarro contest, with Malaysia getting my vote as you may have guessed. I don't even know that Israel accepts non-Jew emigrants. Maybe Malaysia should emulate them, not us, in that one respect.

Dr. bin Mohamad's Wikipedia article shows him to be that rarity of wonderful rarities, a popular former leader who has never done his country any harm, has identified no crazy Big Ideas into which to invest their entire stock as demoniacs like the Clintons, Bushes and Obummer have done for 23 miserable, ignominious years. Think of it -- there was no trouble facing Malaysia during Dr. bin Mohamad's tenure, and he didn't go running off looking for dragons to slay! That's right -- he was serving his people and them alone, no foreign power. He wanted what was right and gave it to 'em, caring nothing for his personal "legacy", which will be fine down through history insofar as history pays any attention to real heroes.

No "war" on "terror" for Malaysians against any distant, nebulous enemy, no slightest need perceived for turning the country into an armed camp under total surveillance -- still today. Let me get this straight: these Moslems are the main danger in the world, is that right, and we're supposed to hate and destroy them for resenting our supposed freedom and sham prosperity?

Where it says "Life is inexpensive" up above, I originally wrote "life is cheap" but amended it. While true in the sense intended, some might have taken it the wrong way; life is in fact cheap to the US government and its millions of jingoist supporters, and expensive here at the same time. Life is considered precious and fragile in Malaysia, but the cost of living is low.

And now, just for fun, a whole lot of places in one place just for you, courtesy of my choir tenor. Fasten seat belts!

http://twistedsifter.com/2012/12/top-100-pictures-of-the-day-2012/
The Top 100 ‘Pictures of the Day’ for 2012

Thanks, Jim.... Hey, COME TO COLUMBIA TOMORROW, all! Stop Obamascare while the stopping's good. Our bus leaves the area of Exit 51 (our own Area 51) at 8AM sharp. Call me and I'll let you know where to meet us in the capitol plaza.

/\/.\/\/.   torpenhow@charter.net    (864) 356-9966