20 years already?

We remember watching the Tiananmen Square protests on TV for several days. And, of course, we remember watching this, as it happened (i.e., probably 6 hours after the fact, on the Today show. This was in the time before the Web, after all.) We loved it. This one guy stopped a line of tanks. He was and still is a hero to us.

But 20 years have gone by, and it’s time to ask: Is there a more useless moment in the history of political revolutions?

Isn’t it time we took a step back and admit that China's suppression worked? Its now 20 years later. The same party is still in power, they are successfully censoring the newest technology (thanks, Google), they are emerging as the next Super Power, the whole world just genuflected to them at the recent Olympics, and from all accounts we've read, the young people in China A) never heard of the Tiananmen Square protests, and B) are actually more conservative and nationalistic than their peers 20 years ago. The man who stopped a line of tanks from advancing on a crowd of civilians is now largely forgotten by the sons and daughters of the people he tried to save.

While the Soviet union and other Communists powers took tentative steps toward a peaceful transition to less authoritarian governments during the late 2oth Century , in the end they all fell. So now it's 2009, and the only remaining Communist power? China, also the only one who violently crushed their opposition. On national TV, no less. There's a lesson in there somewhere, and it's not a good one.

Thanks to Kottke for aggregating a lot of great links on the subject.

Most readers of this blog are familiar with "death by cop," but this is the 1st time we've heard of "death by Air Force. "

Worst. Week. Ever

Occurred back in 1945, when a Japanese man was on the scene for not one but two atomic explosions.

"Mr. Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when an American B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He returned to Nagasaki, his hometown, before the second attack, officials said." via the NY Times.

Do we detect a pattern here?

A new President is sworn into office, and not too long after China gets aggressive with a US military asset.

Just like in 2001.

The rye bread is very stale indeed.

So we've been trying this new Twitter thing that all the kids all the members of the media have been using lately. It's being touted as the Next Big Thing! So it was with some sense of obligation to you people that we decided to give it a whirl.

So what did we find? Here is a typical post on Twitter.

"The rye bread went stale. Time to throw it out for the birds."

Think we'll sit this one out.

From our friends at the Elf Liberation Front.

"I run the house, and Tommy runs the city"

Great line by Mrs. Tom Menino, describing the division of labor in the Menino household.

Comes from an article about some contracting scandal involving the mayor, his son, and some contractors, or something that may or may not be unethical - we've seen the headlines for the last few days, and still can't be bothered to read too deeply into the stories.

Ten AM Quiz

Our readers are a smart bunch, so we figured we'd offer you a challenge to spice up your day. Here goes:

O'Ryan Johnson is a reporter for the Boston Herald. He posted a story today:

Cops vs. EMS in restraint flap
A battle is brewing between police brass and the head of Boston EMS after a deputy police superintendent handcuffed an EMS dispatcher moments after he directed an ambulance to a wounded man in South Boston, claiming he violated a restraining order in the process.

Your challenge: go read the story then come back here and try to tell us what happened. A prize for the 1st person who can actually piece together an order of events.

Johnson is a real reporter, not an intern. He acutally was paid to submit this, and his editors saw fit to publish it. Something to think about next time someone raises the idea of a newspaper bailout.