Moving to shield battered domestic manufacturers from foreign imports, Indonesia is slapping restrictions on at least 500 products this month, demanding special licenses and new fees on imports. Russia is hiking tariffs on imported cars, poultry and pork. France is launching a state fund to protect French companies from foreign takeovers. Officials in Argentina and Brazil are seeking to raise tariffs on products from imported wine and textiles to leather goods and peaches, according to the World Trade Organization.

But, of course, it’s only the U.S. that’s supposed to be ‘the good guy’ and stick to this agreement:

The list of countries making access to their markets harder potentially includes the United States, where critics are calling the White House’s $17.4 billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry an unfair government subsidy that would put foreign competitors at a disadvantage.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world, and, the vast majority of liberal Americans expect America to always bend over and do what’s ‘right’ for the world, while crippling herself while everyone else does as they damn well please, and expects American’s to like it. Just as everyone in America, and the world, expects us to be the world’s police, army, Santa Clause and favorite free-hearted rich uncle.

I am not a conservative, nor am I a republican, but I’m also not a liberal. It’s time for America to be just as damned selfish as everyone else and do what’s ‘right’ for the American people! I’m hoping that prez-elect Obama will be the moderate I expect he is and stand-up for to the weak weenies in congress and elsewhere and to stand up for America’s best interests.

As Mr. Paul Harvy Harvey says… read ‘the rest of the story’.

My Bro, John, passed away shortly after I setup this blog for him and consequently he never had a chance to try it out and it’s been sitting stagnant since December 2005, forgotten and unused. It’s now December 2008 (where I live in the Philippines anyway) and I plan to change that very soon by blogging for him about some of the things he was passionate about, many of these passions we shared so maybe I can do them some ‘justice’. I’ll be back in a day or two to get started and hopefully someone–besides myself–will read and find them of interest.

–The Other Bro, Tim