Hillary Clinton, Missionary

You’ve all heard the quote by now:

““The percentage of taxes on GDP (in Pakistan) is among the lowest in the world… We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move, and that’s not what we see in Pakistan,”

To be fair, that’s a bit out of context. See the full story here in the Daily Times.

Still, it struck me that Madame Secretary sounds awfully Nineteenth century Christian missionary. You know, the old “We’re gonna save the natives from themselves by bringing them Christianity AND Western culture AND a decent dress sense AND….” thing.

Tsk tsk. Isn’t it supposed to be more like Gene Roddenberry’s ”IDIC” from Star Trek: “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination”?

An excuse to take pot shots at liberals and geek out on Trek ? I couldn’t resist.

Why does Wal*Mart “Eye Urban Expansion in US”?

From a Financial Times story here.

We all know why without reading the story. You can hardly drive in the country without passing Wal*Mart after Wal*Mart. Women across the US make their travel plans based on the availability of Wal*Mart bathrooms. That’s when you know you’ve arrived.

And I hear the expansion to the Moon and Mars are being held up by the slow economy.