chen

that the u.s. embassy has sheltered chen guangcheng no doubt puts it in a difficult position. it also speaks extremely well for us. in the initial mini-crisis, people were suggesting that we might turn him over, which ought to be inconceivable. instead, this morning our ambassador is escorting him to the hospital. the current chinese state - a monstrous mating of marxist totalitarianism and hyper-capitalism - the worst of all possible systems, more or less -  deserves total collapse. meanwhile, we might try to save a few of the victims, and we are specifically obliged to in this case.