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Chinese Government Sued Over Dog Height Censorship
Googling Yourself writes "More than 30,000 censors are employed in China to monitor the Internet, so it was no surprise when censors deleted a posting by Chen Yuhua protesting Beijing municipal government's regulations barring any dog over 14 inches high and restricting each family to only one dog. The surprise (reports the Washington Post) was when Chen studied China's civil code and marched into court with a lawsuit, only the second time that a Chinese citizen has gone to court over party censorship. 'I was very careful to follow the correct procedure,' Chen said in an interview, while pointing at the official legal manual on his dining room table. On December 14 Chen was told by clerks that the district court, after referring to higher-level judges for advice, had decided to reject the case. The next step, Chen said, is an appeal to the Supreme Court."
Actually, that smell is bacteria getting a foothold on the once sterile urine.
Once it leaves your body, it's not going to be sterile for long. Thus urine is actually quite a bit of a health hazard. It's "okay" for a dog to piss on the street because no one has figured out a good alternative yet. Ideally you'd want your dog to use the grass instead (where it gets absorbed into the ground and becomes plant nutrients), but grass is hard to find in many parts of New York (especially Manhattan).
Poop is actually easier because you can pick it up and dispose of it. One of the coolest (and quite amusing) solutions I've heard of is to stick a paper plate under the dog when he starts to squat. That way it will all be collected on a disposable dish that's easier to collect and get rid of.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Needless to say, Beijing's Municipal Government is not 'The Chinese Government', nor is this 'a bold challenge to the legal authority of the Communist Party to decide what China's 1.3 billion people can say and read on their computers'. And strictly speaking, we don't know whether his posting was actually removed by somebody who was a member of any government or indeed the Communist Party. In fact, the most likely scenario is that some employee at whichever web-hosting company runs the blog saw some reference to Beijing's local government and automatically deleted the post without even reading it further. And bureaucrats all over the world being what they are, they don't want to be bothered with cleaning up after their mistakes, so they tried to ignore it, knowing that this is too trivial for anybody to take serious action.
So how can this become 'a bold challenge' that illustrates that 'some of China's educated elite may be growing impatient with a one-party authoritarian system'? Well, only in the hazy minds of people who are willing to believe anything about their perceived enemies, never mind reality. I can't be bothered pointing out that this kind of things happen all the time everywhere - you already know.
I, like many other people in the world love and respect the American nation and the American people - but, by gods, you sometimes make it bloody hard work.
Is it something along the lines of the people using them as weapons? Doberman Pincers, Rottweilers, etc? To keep people from having two dozen guarding a building to keep the police out, or at least delay them while they destroy evidence or escape?
Read the Chinese constitution, or at least just skim the guaranteed rights.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html
(See, for example, article 35:
Article 35. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.)
It's interesting that this document exists but, unlike the US Constitution, seems to hold no importance whatsoever.
Still, I'm glad this guy's standing up for himself.
(Completely Off-topic, but what the hell is that Dice Discussions Flash ad doing to Firefox to make it run so slow? Editors, you gotta pull this ad, this is ridiculous.)
Comment of the year
This would seem to be more about the censorship of his complaint, not about his dog. However, I do tend to agree that he's likely to get executed and the family billed for the firing squad bullet(s)...
OTOH, given the Chinese taste for dogmeat, I am somewhat surprised they would issue regulations like this, unless the intent is to take the confiscated dogs and process them for meat. Wouldn't it be better for the Chinese to take a page out of Michael Vick's playbook and factory-farm dogs for their meat?
Do a google search for "sneaky leaker".It's a contraption designed for people who need to take a piss on the street during Mardigras (sp?) but can't whip it out because of indecent exposure laws. Basically it's a tube that runs down your pants leg.
*sigh* back to work...
Try placing orange and/or lemon peels in your herb garden.
I've heard that cats won't generally spray or scratch a location that smells like citrus.
Can anyone verify this?
*sigh* back to work...
And why, pray, would the American "propoganda machine" be interested in ruining people's perceptions of china? If you haven't noticed, the big businesses that run the media rely on consumers buying tons of goods manufactured in China. How many times have you actually heard about human rights violations in China on the nightly news in, say, the last 5 years?