Articles written by Stephen Carter

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About me - Stephen Carter

Here I am, back in Chiang Mai, Thailand, after attempting to make a September '08 visa run to Malaysia, but due to the protests/strikes in Bgk I turned around & did a passport stamp run to Mae Sai at the Burma border instead, & then back here to Chiang Mai.

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Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Apocalypto: 1 of 26
Mel Gibson's tagline for his movie, 'Apocalypto' (2006) was a quotation from historian Will Durant: "A great civilization is not destroyed from without until it has destroyed itself from within." 'Apocalypto' rhetorically asks: Is the West, via its suicidal new ideology of political correctness, destroying itself from within?... More..
Arts & Humanities > Awareness & Reality On the minds of men: 1 of 19
Let us not confuse the mind with the brain. The latter is an organ located within the skull (and nowhere else, obviously) that performs a range of cognitive functions. The primary such function is the processing of information from the body's sensory apparatus, of which a minuscule percentage is retained in easy-access storag... More..
Entertainment > Movie Analysis Movie analysis: Political implications of the movie "300": 2 of 37
An Iranian prayer ends with the words: "Protect us from the infidels who pollute us with their vile ways." Akbar Khodaei, who wrote recently to these pages (Nation newspaper, 3.31.07) from the Iranian embassy, no doubt was thinking along these lines when he made his criticisms of the movie '300'.The Persian messenger's behavi... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Political & Economic Theory Economic revolution happens: 2 of 31
Imagine a chart tracking growth in GDP for all 191 nations of the world. It also might have an MACD overlay using 12 and 26 months that show upside and downside crossovers, and volume bars, measuring money flows. Aside from all this, it might have something quite different: a 'freedom index'. This could be a composite of econ... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Self-Awareness & Realization Positive thinking and its effects on the law of attraction: 3 of 39
What is positive thinking? It is first having a 'thought', which then produces within myself a positive 'feeling'. A thought followed by a feeling. Moreover, every thought produces some such feeling.After a series of thoughts which evoke within myself a series of positive feelings, the 'vibration' of my mind and body would su... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem: 1 of 13
'Alien vs. Predator: Requiem' (2007) gives its audience a requiem, a dirge for the repose of the dead. It's unclear if the dirge is for predator, alien, or human dead, or perhaps all three? Then again, maybe it's a dirge for the expiring 'Alien' and 'Predator' movie franchises. At any rate, the movie's setup shows a predator ... More..
Business > International Business & Trade Is it safe to continue to import Chinese food products?: 2 of 21
To answer this question one needs to determine the cause of China's unsafe food products. However, since it's in no one's interest to make this determination, it has not been done.Why then has such a pronounced lack of product safety in China's economy occurred; and does it affect only the export market? It is not for lack of... More..
Arts & Humanities > Awareness & Reality Commentary: On the nature of man in nature's landscape: 1 of 9
It was the French philosopher, Rousseau, who invented the notion of 'nature' and its inhabitants as innocent, pure, unblemished, untouched by the negation that is 'humanity'. Nature was, is, and always will be an Edenic landscape, according to this fanciful notion.Enter man, predatory, wantonly destructive, motivated by greed... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Politics in Asia Speculating on the future of China: 4 of 32
It may be easiest to determine China's future by considering the concerns of one of its neighbors, a neighbor to whom the Chinese regime never tires of issuing dire threats - Taiwan.Taiwan faces three security risks over the next several years. The first and least plausible risk is a contagion from China spreading to Taiwan a... More..
Business > International Business & Trade Should the US continue China's privileged trade status?: 2 of 16
The US has largely made the right decision: to separate matters of trade from matters of human rights and democratization. Perhaps the left's position on this is more sound: to develop a profound indifference to the internal repressive political apparatus in other states. It is certainly not the West's 'raison d'etre', nor it... More..