Moe Lane

…and the ChiComs are upset about this.  You may safely assume from my use of the term ‘ChiComs’ that I am bearing up under the weight of their disapproval without suffering any visible strain.  Call me an old unreconstructed Cold Warrior if you like, but I think that if the Chinese government spent less time worrying about the movements of the exiled spiritual/temporal leader of one of its conquered territories and more time on turning the People’s Republic of China into something better than the kind of country that one associates with “People’s Republic” then life would be brighter all around.

However, I certainly hope that the Dalai Lama got to use the front door this time (H/T: Gateway Pundit)… what?  Of course I can hold a grudge.  I’m a blogger, remember?

[UPDATE]  There’s just something fun about pissing off a foreign Commie-lover. I note ‘foreign’ because, given that Marxism is intellectualism for stupid people and everything, you usually can’t rely on them having the minimum necessary brainpower to recognize when they’ve been insulted in a language not their own.

I understand that they can be easily enough removed with a combination of WD-40 and a razor blade. Some people should get cracking with that…

In an attempt to gain favor with China, the United States pressured Tibetan representatives to postpone a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama until after Obama’s summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month, according to diplomats, government officials and other sources familiar with the talks.

For the first time since 1991, the Tibetan spiritual leader will visit Washington this week and not meet with the president. Since 1991, he has been here 10 times. Most times the meetings have been “drop-in” visits at the White House. The last time he was here, in 2007, however, George W. Bush became the first sitting president to meet with him publicly, at a ceremony at the Capitol in which he awarded the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’s highest civilian award.

…because it’s just the first step. Given the passive-aggressive nature of this administration, the next step will be to see whether enough people squawk at this; if they don’t, they’ll start making it ‘difficult’ for the Dalai Lama to visit the United States. And if he passes away, expect the USA to keep its mouth shut and let the PRC do… whatever the PRC plans to do about the religious leader’s successor. All part of the task of the day – which is to improve the PRC’s IMF standing, apparently. Why it’s up to the USA to do that* is a reason known only to God and the President, and I’ll avoid the obvious sneer this time. It seems unfair to taunt people who now have to go out and do work on their cars because of this…

Moe Lane

PS: Via Below the Beltway – and, to answer Doug’s confusion as to which is worse; it’d be if this was done unilaterally. If we negotiated to this it’d at least imply that we got a concession in return, which would be something, from a realpolitik point of view.

Moe Lane

*But if the People’s Republic of China is looking for advice, here’s some for free: try being a democratic republic, run on open market principles. Yes, I know: physician, heal thyself. Still, it’s good advice.

Crossposted to RedState.

After all, Freeing Tibet is one thing – but rank heresy of this sort?

Audience member: “Can you give us an example of a leader we should look up to as a positive influence?”

Dalai Lama (after thinking for a few seconds): “President Bush. I met him personally and liked him very much. He was honest and straightforward, and that is very important. I may not have agreed with all his policies, but I thought he was very honest and a very good leader.”

There are surely limits, yes?  After all, the fellow was disturbing his listeners’ religious sensibilities most harshly with a statement like that.

See The Corner, The Anchoress, and the Boston Globe*, all via Right Side of Lowell.

Moe Lane

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