"There's a sucker born every minute" is an oft-quoted phrase attributed to the famous 19th century huckster. Well in China, where the population is well over one billion, there must me several born every minute. Apparently, there is a company over there that just had its license suspended for trying to sell real estate on the moon.

The Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science and Technology Co. managed to sell large swathes of pristine lunar property before being shut down, the state -owned Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

The company, claiming to act on behalf of an entity referred to as the Lunar Embassy in China, charged 298 yuan (37 US dollars) for each acre (0.4 hectare) on the moon, according to the report.

Each lucky new owner of lunar soil was issued a "certificate" that ensured property ownership including rights to use the land and minerals up to three kilometers (1.9 miles) underground, Xinhua said.

Li Jie, CEO of Lunar Embassy, said that 34 clients bought 49 acres (20 hectares) of land on the moon in the first three days after his company became operational last month.

Barnum would find it all very amusing. So many suckers, so little time.

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France is burning and all Chirac can do is declare a state of emergency.

President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency Tuesday, paving the way for curfews to be imposed on riot-hit cities and towns in an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in decades after 12 nights of violence.

Ralph Peter's in the NY Post today:

Utterly devoid of self-awareness, the French cherish their image of America as racist. But minorities in the United States have opportunities for which their French counterparts would risk their lives. Our problem is that demagogues convince the poorest of our poor to give up on getting ahead. In France, the non-white poor never have a chance of any kind.

France has no Colin Powell or Condi Rice, no minority heading the equivalent of a Fortune 500 company, no vibrant minority political culture. When Americans who adore la vie en France go to Paris (the intelligentsia's Orlando), they don't visit the drug-and-crime-plagued slums. If tourists encounter a Moroccan or a Senegalese "Frenchman," he's cleaning up the sidewalks after the dogs of the bourgeoisie.

Willfully blind to reality, liberals continue to praise the racist culture of France by citing the Parisian welcome for Josephine Baker or the Harlem jazz musicians in the 1920s. But the French regarded those few as exotic pets. The test is how they treat the millions of immigrant families whose members don't play trumpets in bars or sell their flesh in strip clubs.

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Click here to see the how American culture is infiltrating China. Hilarious!! The looks on these kids' faces is priceless.

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for finding this. It's streaming video so it may take time to load.

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1 That is classic! I gotta link it... Not sure how I got here but I love the site! Stop by my place and have a drink... Keep up the good work! -Josh

Posted by: Peakah at October 25, 2005 02:30 PM (LxGm9)

2 Puts a whole new spin on "nup and nup!" What would Justin say???

Posted by: Georgia Girl (gfsil) at October 27, 2005 12:31 PM (EHefn)

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Ace has pens his love-letter to the the departing Chancellor. Heh.

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We go from Germany now over to France, where a new survey shows that the term "Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys" should be amended to "Filthy Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys".

"Only one-in-10 of our continental cousins regularly uses soap and one-in-25 never takes a bath or shower.

To make matters worse, one-in-33 never brush their teeth, according to a special report by the weekly magazine Le Point, which quizzed 10,000 people.

Rather than have a good wash, many French people simply use perfume and cosmetics to mask their smell.

Despite this, adults manage to spend between 48 and 56 minutes in the bathroom every day.

Of these, 14% make telephone calls, 8% sing and 6% smoke - and 1% admitted to eating there."

Link courtesy of NealeNews

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Herr Gerhard is outen! Frau Angela is in!

It seems all the hullabaloo over the razor-thin Parliamentary election victory of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat Party has subsided, and a deal has been reached. Merkel will be the new Chancellor of Germany.

Under the agreement, which ends a three-week political deadlock, Merkel would have to give most of the seats in the new Cabinet to Schroeder's Social Democrats as the price of governing, including top jobs such as foreign minister.

Merkel also said good relations with the United States — another possible sticking point with Schroeder's party — would be a priority.

"I am convinced that good trans-Atlantic relations are an important task and that they are in Germany's interests," she said.

Hat-Tip To Jonah Goldberg, and Andrew Stuttaford who says "the stein remains half-empty" in his opinion.

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Although the result of Sunday's Parliamentary election seems eerily familiar to Americans, the political realities in Germany (and the EU in general) reveal much bigger problems.

Pam Meister reviews Mark Steyn's take on the state of Europe and makes a sober observation:

It's like a burning car wreck--we can't do anything about it but stare as those involved suffer until the fire truck arrives. Will the fire truck arrive in time?

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I swear. You really have to search - and I mean really search - to find any story on yesterday's historic Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan.

Afghan voters had a 50% turnout, there was no major violence reported and women were pulling off their burqas at the polling stations in celebration. While former Taliban thugs threatened to disrupt the election, the day was a peaceful one.

What patrolling Canadian soldiers witnessed instead on Sunday was a virtual national holiday. Afghans casually strolled down the streets of their two major cities after all non-essential traffic was ordered off the road, on their way to do something they thought would ensure a brighter future -- vote.

"Everyone is so happy. It's like we are waiting for Christmas to come," said Abdullah Shahood, a 22-year-old poll observer for candidate Abdul Razziq.

"Everyone is optimistic."

Hmmm. Now why would the U.S. media be ignoring something so significant? Oh yeah, I forgot. They're too busy covering the big anti-Bush speech that Bill Clinton made yesterday. What the hell was I thinking?

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Now only a fool would completely trust that little buck-toothed punk, Kim Jong Il, at anything he promises, but it turns out that the six-nation negotiations have born at least some fruit - an agreement by North Korea to dismantle its nook-yoo-lar program. Of course, the North Korean dictator was able to extract its pound of flesh from the U.S. and its Asian allies as part of the bargain - simply put, money. And that of course was the whole point of their nuclear blackmail.

What's most amusing however is that I can recall a certain French-looking Democrat Presidential Candidate who went on and on about how a six-nation negotiation was too complicated and the only way the U.S. could succeed was to deal one-on-one with North Korea. What a genius, huh?

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The voters have spoken and the winner is...Angela Merkel and the Christian Democrats with an estimated 36% of the vote. Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats got 33.6%.

The Christian Democrats, the more conservative and pro-American of the two largest German political parties, fell short of the anticipated 40%+ they were expected to get, but this puts Angela Merkel in as the new Chancellor.

Without a majority, Merkel may be forced as chancellor into a coalition with the Social Democrats, probably without Schroeder.

UPDATE: 11:00pm
It's now reported as too close to call with both Schroeder and Merkel claiming victory. Could be be counting "hanging chads" in Dusseldorf?

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German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his Marxist...er I mean Social Democrat Party are fighting down to the wire for whatever votes they can muster in the face of a strong challenge from the Christian Democrats (Germany's more conservative party) in tomorrow's parliamentary elections.

The leader of the Christian Democrats - Angela Merkel - is campaigning on job creation and economic reform. God knows Germany could use some of that these days. It's unemployment rate is 11.4% and economic growth was last recorded at a sluggish 1.6%.

What happened to the German powerhouse that once challenged the U.S. economically? Simple: Socialism. It looks good on paper, but in the real world the enormous welfare state Germany has created is crushing its once prosperous economy. more...

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