First, hanging out at the Wah Mee (really bad taste), now trashing Chinese goods. Who's got it in for the Chinese over at The Stranger?

(and a sub-lethal dose of formaldehde!)

This stuff will not end until the government evolves truly independent, powerful regulatory systems that are answerable to the people.

What's alarming about it is not that it's happening in the PRC (who could have guessed?), but that 10 years of a Republican Congress (right?) and nearly 8 years of a radically right-wing Executive branch have essentially eroded our own regulatory systems toward a Chinese model.

In fact, as the Chinese struggle with growth, corruption and the new wealth of the middle class, they're slowly gaining more rights. At the same time, US citizens are being stripped of them at an alarming rate. The systems are beginning to resemble one another- lightly regulated kleptocracies deferential to large corporations and allergic to internal criticism, where the wealthy have rights and the poor have none.

I suppose it shouldn't be terribly surprising when you have a culture that is so tied to saving face and putting on the right sort of appearances that sacrificing safety and quality is quite alright. You'd think they would have learned their lesson after the grand failure that was the cultural revolution.

And what exactly is flannelette, anyway?