http://regimewatch.blogivists.com So many petty tyrants...so little time Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:17:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en City planners are seeking to slam the brakes on duplex development in the Berkeley neighborhood of northwest Denver by simply downzoning the whole area. But the fact is that duplexes play an important role in both the ongoing demographic shift from the suburbs back into the city, and in the ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2009/08/04/downzoning-northwest-denver-is-contrary-to-sustainable-development-goals/ Under the current Denver zoning code, I could scrape off my little house in the Berkeley neighborhood of northwest Denver and build a duplex on my double lot (6,250 square feet).  But I can't build a detached accessory dwelling unit (granny flat or carriage house) on the back of my ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2009/08/03/why-denvers-new-zoning-code-should-allow-accessory-dwelling-units/ A common theme among communist regimes, and authoritarian regimes in general, is intense paranoia...often about the most absurd things.  And "state-run" media makes exercising that paranoia all the more efficient.  From the editorial board at the Rocky Mountain News comes this too funny tale of paranoid censorship in Beijing: Employees of ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2009/02/16/more-communist-paranoia-from-beijing/ I have a piece in today's Colorado Daily newspaper on how President Obama can change U.S. policy toward Taiwan for the better...without having to commit thousands of U.S troops or billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to either regime change or nation building. Here is the piece, re-printed in its entirety: For 30 ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2009/02/09/88/ U.S. Congressman John Linder, a Republican from Georgia, has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 18 (HCR 18) calling for diplomatic recognition of Taiwan by the U.S., and an end to America's backwards "one China" policy. Concurrent  resolution are not submitted to the president, and lack the force of law.  Rather they are ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2009/02/02/taiwan-supporters-in-us-congress-alive-and-kicking/ I recently watched the film "The Lives of Others."   The German language film (with sub-titles) shows life in the mid-1980s in the German Democractic Republic (GDR, or as it was commonly known, East Germany), an authoritarian communist regime that fell almost twenty years ago, along with the Berlin Wall.  The ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2008/12/27/communist-chinese-authoritarianism-at-its-paranoid-worst/ So has the United States Postal Service decided that Taiwan is just another captive province in Communist China's empire? And if so, does this mean the post office is now setting U.S. foreign policy? On his Taiwan focused blog, The View From Taiwan, Michael Turton has a great post (pics ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2008/12/19/is-the-us-postal-service-practicing-beijing-appeasment/ A really good piece of video work from reason.tv, "Killer Chic:  Hollywood's Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara." So what does the thuggish, and sadly iconic, Guevara have to do with Mao,  Communist China's ex-dictator?  From the description accompanying the video: "We're rightly horrified by fascist murderers like Adolph Hitler," says reason.tv's ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2008/12/11/killer-chic-che-and-mao-icons-of-the-clueless-left/ As it turns out, the regime in Beijing is not only one of the world's great human rights violators, but also a bunch of cry-babies.   As it also turns out, France's junior human rights minister is not just a terrifically good looking woman, but also one tough cookie, having ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2008/12/08/beijing-pouts-over-sarkozy-meeting-with-dalai-lama/ Much of the African Continent is mired in conflict and ruled by thuggish regimes...exactly the kind of conditions Beijing prefers for expanding its influence.  And Indeed, whether it is arming the murderous regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, or enabling the genocidal regime in Khartoum, the regime in Beijing seems ... http://regimewatch.blogivists.com/2008/12/06/more-chinese-influence-in-africa/