I noticed last week that the Communist Chinese government created a diversion with the US while they worked on some nefarious scheme or other, by first inviting then blocking a Thanksgiving Day visit to Hong Kong by the American aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.

Aside from the nuisance value, the Chinese made a miserable holiday not only for scores of sailors but also for their families who had flown to Hong Kong to enjoy a traditional family gathering in a somewhat nontraditional setting. As the families were waiting excitedly to see their loved ones, communist bureaucrats pulled the rug out from under them and refused to let the Kitty Hawk dock in Hong Kong harbor.

In a classic "psyche" maneuver, the order blocking the visit was rescinded after the Kitty Hawk had returned to the South China Sea and continued its regular duties. Can't you just see a bunch of commies, standing on the rail of the Star Ferry out in Hong Kong harbor, all dressed up in their little Mao Muppet uniforms? I can hear them now, ever so faintly calling "come back, come back, it was all a misunderstanding."

I figure that by creating the Kitty Hawk diversion, the Chinese communists are hiding something, somewhere else in the world, either working on taking out our communications satellites, or helping Islamo-fascist terrorists who are doing the dirty work for them and the Russians, or plotting something against Taiwan.

That island government has been a thorn in the communists' side ever since Chang Kai-shek's nationalist Chinese fled there in 1949 after losing a civil war to the communists.

US president jimmy carter gave the communists a big boost of false hope when he was in office by supporting the communist takeover of the island. Fortunately that hasn't happened yet, but many analysts believe the ongoing Chinese military buildup is as much a movement toward an attack on Taiwan as it is a challenge to the US presence in the western Pacific.

Whatever the real issue, the nonsense in Hong Kong on Thanksgiving Day was too minuscule and picayune to rate the full attention of the commie leadership unless they were up to something else. Everyone, check you wallets, make sure they didn't have agents roaming American households riffling through our belongings while we were focused on turkey and cranberry!

The international slights in Hong Kong got the lions share of media attention, but I also noticed an article in a local paper this week that discussed Chinese/American relations, this time on the educational front.

A group of American educators journeyed to China to established a "sister" relationship with a Chinese school. This is not new, but the article provided some revealing insights into the communist educational system and the mindset of some American educators.

It related how the American public school educators toured Chinese schools and how they were duly impressed with the 'advanced' Chinese system. For instance, one educator remarked that his school system was only on the verge of embarking on a science program that already is well established in China.

Considering that Chinese missile technology made huge advances during the Clinton administration by stealing advanced guidance systems from us that they wouldn't have developed on their own for years, I wouldn't be making a big deal about my school system lagging theirs in science.

But the commentary that drew my attention was an American superintendent's reaction to the Chinese requirement that the students leap to attention whenever their teacher enters the room, with a mandatory greeting to the teacher that they are ready to be educated.

Wow! What a difference from American slouches, eh?

Also of note is that the state removes these students from their homes and families, and boards them at the school where they are constantly monitored while attending classes from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Only a select percentage of the smartest children are "allowed" (should I say ordered) to attend this school, and considering how much time they spend in classes we can see why they are acquiescent and obedient.

Figure for starters, that if they arise one hour before classes start, and stay awake for one hour after classes end, they are putting in a 16-hour day, minimum. (Communists don't have to worry about child labor laws.) Assuming that they don't immediately go to sleep when their heads hit the pillow, you can bet that sleep deprivation is a part of this routine.

I couldn't help but wonder if their diets are restricted too, similar to those religious cults where recruits are never left alone, while sleep and protein are withheld to ensure that they stay docile and malleable.

The Chinese appear to be selecting anyone who might have the intellectual capacity to think and act independently, then brainwashing them into total obedience to the state.

Should anyone deviate from the state-run school system's control, the Chinese still has time-proven means of dealing with upstarts. If they don't come to attention fast enough, and don't praise the teacher with appropriate enthusiasm, they can be yanked out of the system and sent to the Laogai, a system of forced labor camps where conditions will assuredly be harsh.

Fail to perform at the Laogai, which in many cases is a foregone conclusion since excessive forced labor coupled with harsh treatment and insufficient food is a recipe for death, and you get the drug dealer treatment.

You know how China stamped out drug abuse don't you? It was a simple plan and yet oh, so effective. If you sold or used drugs, the police rounded you up, lined you up against a wall with the other miscreants, and shot you. After a while, no more problem.

With a population of more than a billion people, the drug dealers were never even missed, except perhaps by their families.

So, what do you think? Considering the condition of far too many American schools where boys wear their pants down around their ankles, girls show more cleavage than Brittney Spears, pre-teens engage in 'Rainbow Parties' (look it up), gang bangers rule the buildings, and teachers barricade themselves in their classrooms just so they can collect a hazardous duty paycheck, maybe we need some of that old-fashioned communist discipline.

Maybe we should select the top 1000 American school systems, in terms of disciplinary problems and lack of results, and farm out the discipline to the commies. We do it with phone service, computer help desks, and much more, why not failing school systems?

It is unfortunate but true, that in some cases there would be a marked improvement.