We Honor Communist Revolutions Now?

The people who make such decisions have announced that they plan to light up New York's Empire State Building in red and yellow this evening to honor the 60th anniversary of China's communist revolution. The building is normally lit in white but other colors are frequently used to celebrate holidays and various special occasions.
Say what?
Let me be absolutely clear. I am far from xenophobic and wouldn't utter a single complaint if this were being done to honor some visiting Chinese dignitary. Like their policies or not (and I loath them), China is an important trade partner who owns a staggering amount of our public debt and we do owe them some courtesy for this. However, that is not the case here. This lighting display is being done specifically to honor their communist revolution. That is an entirely different matter!
According to the building's managers, this display is to honor "the 60th anniversary of their country", but that is utter nonsense. China's current form of government has existed for 60 years but the country itself, as it is known, has existed for centuries at the very least. China did not spring into existence or become a new entity separate from it's past because of the revolution any more than Russia did those things when their own revolution transformed the Russian Empire into the Soviet Union. Russia, within that union, was still Russia and their nation was certainly not born at that time. Would you like a better example? How about Great Britain? Anyone care to claim that the anniversary of that country goes back only to the Magna Charta? Or maybe only as far back as Queen Victoria when the modern shift to a Constitutional Monarchy (where the royal family is little more than ceremonial) was fully implemented? Go ahead and try. I dare you.
Making such a claim is insulting to the intelligence of anyone and everyone who might be listening and only serves to prop up the totalitarian regime in China, which thrives on such fictions. Had the Empire State Building's managers decided to celebrate the specific acts of totalitarian brutality of any other despotic country in the world, they would have been out on the sidewalk before they could finish making their excuses.
That a communist revolution is being celebrated in America at all is a nightmare indicative of the insane times in which we now live. That it is being celebrated in one of the most important capitalist cities in the world and in a building that symbolizes that capitalism to most people is a crime beyond words.

Breaking The Language Barrier

One of the biggest international news stories of the last few days was the incident of the U.S.N.S. Impeccable being harassed by Chinese ships in international waters. It is a known fact that Chinese officials do not comprehend the language of international boundaries but, from what I have discovered, neither apparently does most of the mainstream media. The sentence I just gave contained the extent of the location details given in most MSM articles on this story. In order to find out exactly where this confrontation happened, I had to go to a blog that is so far left the writer and many of the commenters actually consider the New York Times to be a Republican mouthpiece.
I'll give you a moment to settle the laughter from that last sentence.
Ready to continue now?
So, where did the confrontation take place? (Amusingly enough, I return to that blog for my notes and it seems that all reference to the exact location has been removed. Glad I have a good memory, but this does mean that I won't be giving exact numbers.) The Impeccable was operating about 75 miles off the southern coast of China. My knowledge of international law is sketchy at best but, last time I checked, international waters begin about seven miles off coast. Even if my memory on this is not precise, you do the math. There is absolutely no way to claim that the Impeccable was not in international waters and there is absolutely no way to claim that the actions of the Chinese vessels (approaching to within 25 feet and even stopping directly in the path of the moving Impeccable, forcing an emergency stop) were not a violation of Maritime law. Take a guess at how many mainstream media outlets are actually calling China out on this blatant violation. If you guessed any number higher than zero, you need to be paying more attention to current affairs.
China has been trying for years to claim territory that does not belong to them and this behavior is just another example of that attitude. By not denouncing these actions loudly and without reservation, the international community is letting them get away with it.