Sam duPont's blog

It's been a wet summer in many parts of Europe, and the former Soviet Union is no exception. From EnglishRussia.com comes this great shot of a Russian street surfer in action:

More photos at the link.

STR/AFP/Getty Images

It has been many years since rival kingdoms sent each other messages via homing pigeon, but the latest development in the killer-export dispute between the United States and China offers a new take on that old-fashioned method of communication.

According to a Chinese government website, officials recently seized a shipment of 41 pigeons and executed every last one of them. The pigeons, which originated in the United States, were destined for use as both pets and gourmet food. Chinese inspectors, however, cited a litany of problems with the shipment, including an infestation of "parrot fever," a bird-disease that can cause mild symptoms in humans. So the birds were slaughtered and incinerated.

I have, in the past, defended the Chinese from allegations that they're out to poison us; I still think Americans tend to overreact when it comes to China. On the flip side, this pigeon business is utter silliness. It's clearly just tit-for-tat escalation of a dispute that need not cause any serious trouble. If China wants to keep an open, friendly market for their exports, they're better off acknowledging problems and working to promote safety, rather than going on the offensive to find flaws with U.S. exports.

Plus, think of the innocent pigeons. 

In March, Mexican police raided a luxurious mansion in Mexico City, finding $207 million in cash stashed in steel cabinets and hidden inside false walls. The house belonged to suspected drug kingpin Zhenli Ye Gon. During the raid, police arrested Ye Gon's wife and six relatives. 

The Chinese-Mexican pharmaceutical bigwig was accused of illegally importing enough chemicals to manufacture nearly 37 metric tons of methamphetamine with a street value of over $700 million. But Ye Gon didn't stick around to find out what the consequences might be, and he went into hiding.

Later, Ye Gon held a secret news conference in which he constructed a defense of thrilling grandiosity. The money was foisted on him by an associate of Mexican President Felipe Calderon under threat of blackmail, he claimed, to fund "terrorist activities" in case Calderon fell to his challenger in the presidential election.

On Monday, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officers finally arrested Ye Gon in Silver Spring, Maryland. Agents dragged him away from a meal of codfish and baby carrots—humble fare for a man who once boasted his own fleet of luxury cars and mistresses across the globe.

Of course, in the event that said codfish came from Ye Gon's home country of China, his timely arrest may have spared him an even worse fate.

TEH ENG KOON/AFP/Getty Images

China has been working with its neighbors lately to step up the fight against terrorism, ethnic separatism, and religious extremism, a triumvirate Beijing calls "The Three Evil Forces." It sounds like something out of Tolkien, but "The Three Evil Forces" is no fantasy. In fact, Beijing is using the phrase both to promote cooperation and to rally China's western neighbors against nascent independence movements like that in restive Xinjiang province.  

China and its fellow members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (or SCO, which includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) are gearing up for unprecedented joint military exercises in August. According to the China Daily, these exercises "will demonstrate the determination and capability of SCO member countries to combat 'The Three Evil Forces'." Meanwhile, Chinese Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang recently reminded the Pakistani government of its commitment to fight these evils. The upshot? Pakistan invaded the Red Mosque.

We can laugh about the language being used, but Chinese diplomacy is actually becoming pretty sophisticated. With the strong states of Central Asia, Beijing's message is about combating evil and crushing dissent. In Africa, China's tag line is "Friendship, Peace, Cooperation and Development," while in Southeast Asia—where people are wary of a historically imperial China—the Chinese talk about "trade and trust." Beijing carefully selects each of these slogans to suit the circumstance, as none would work as well in any other part of the world. It's a diplomatic strategy that has been quite successful, as we can see from China's booming trade and burgeoning popularity in all these regions.

Maybe even Washington could learn something from China about how to make friends.

CHUNG SUNG-JUN/Getty Images News

Apparently, the South Korean government has finally had it with Christian missionaries causing trouble abroad. With 23 members of a Korean church group being used as bartering chips by the Taliban, the foreign ministry in Seoul has added Afghanistan to the short list of countries to which travel is now a criminal offense for South Koreans. The ban, which takes effect Tuesday, also applies to Iraq and Somalia.

I'm certainly inclined to agree with David that these people—whether or not they were on a mission to proselytize—made a foolish decision and put themselves in harm's way. Surely, the Korean foreign ministry would be well-advised to better educate their people about the dangers of the places on this list, and perhaps recommend some alternative destinations for determined evangelicals.

But I'm not convinced that punishing travel to these countries is really the right course of action. Given that people have access to information about what they're walking in to, restricting their liberty to make that decision has some unsavory qualities to it. Or maybe that's just the young, freedom-loving American inside me talking. 

OMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty Images

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has gotten so wrapped up in the Pan-American Games taking place in Rio this month, he's forgetting to take his pills. In his newspaper column "Reflections of the Comandante," Castro writes: 

I don't miss a single event on television: weights, taekwondo, rowing, cycling, beach volleyball... I hardly take my eyes off the television set. Sometimes I forget when it is time to eat or take a pill.

I can hardly blame him. It's not every day that Cuba can celebrate triumphs on the world stage, but right now, the island nation trails only the USA in gold medals won. Today, the Cuban baseball team will face off against Nicaragua for a spot in tomorrow's finals. For Fidel's sake, I wish them luck.

FRANK PERRY/AFP

Saint-Nazaire, FRANCE: "Bathduck", an inflatable giant duck made by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, with giant dimensions of 25 meters high and 32 meters large, is pictured 07 July 2007 in Saint-Nazaire harbour during a cultural event named "Estuary 2007" taking place all along the Loire River, from Nantes to Saint-Nazaire, until 01 September 2007.

If you're not big into death metal, you might have missed a unique piece of recent political commentary in the form of a new album by Megadeth with the clever title, "United Abominations." The album, whose cover depicts a 9/11-style assault on the United Nations building in New York, is basically a borderline-insane tirade against the U.N. that is based only loosely in fact.

Fortunately, you don't need to listen to the album, because Mark Leon Goldberg over at the U.N. Dispatch already did. He offers a verse-by-verse review of title track's factual accuracy, and his findings are well worth reading.

As if that weren't entertainment enough for one afternoon, lead singer Dave Mustaine published a response at Blabbermouth, a news blog that covers bands with names like "Wolfpack Unleashed," "Broken Hope," and "Bonebag." While Mustaine acknowledges that most of his facts are inaccurate, he still "feels right" about the album. And besides, as Megadeth's leader astutely points out, Goldberg himself is largely responsible for any inaccuracies, because it is Goldberg's crowd—the media—who put all those facts on the Internet in the first place.

What effect will this exchange have on Megadeth fans' opinions of the U.N.? That question was probably best answered by user "madeinquebec," who left this comment on Mustaine's post:

I don't care, Megadeth rulez.