China's Filthy Air Prompts Mask Rush and Sale of Fresh Air in Cans

For the fourth time this year, a murky haze has descended over north China, leaving residents of Beijing choking on toxic smog. China's air hasn't been this bad since 1954, according to the state-run People's Daily newspaper. In a remarkable record of dirty air, 24 out of January's first 29 days this year had air classified as hazardous. And the skies have still not cleared. The Air Quality Index from the U.S. embassy, designed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, shows that the concentration of fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, has been hovering at the top of the scale since last Friday. It's in a range described as "hazardous" and calls for protective measures to be taken...more

Let's see, China is a country where the government owns all the resources - air, land & water.  And the environment is filthy.  We found out the same was true when the government in the Soviet Union fell.  Here in the U.S. the D.C. Deep Thinkers turn to who to protect the environment?  The government.  Sounds like a plan for success.

Here's the ABC News video report:




Speaking of government control, there is this:

Adolf Hitler's memory is a 'constant warning', Merkel says on 80th anniversary Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that Adolf Hitler's rise to power 80 years ago should go on reminding Germans that democracy and freedom cannot be taken for granted. Mrs Merkel was speaking at the inauguration of an exhibition in Berlin to commemorate eight decades since Hitler became chancellor on January 30, 1933 - an anniversary which has aroused much interest in Germany. "Human rights don't assert themselves. Freedom doesn't preserve itself all alone and democracy doesn't succeed by itself," Mrs Merkel said. "That must be a constant warning for us, Germans," she added referring to Hitler's arrival at the chancellery. The exhibition, "Berlin 1933. On the Path to Dictatorship", is on a site charged with history as the former headquarters of the Gestapo, the secret police of the Nazi regime. It now houses The Topography of Terror, an open-air documentation centre whose exhibition traces Hitler's first months in power through photos, newspapers and posters...more

You don't have freedom where the government controls the natural resources, period.  And even if the gov't allowed it, you couldn't have an exhibition like this is China because its "open-air".