Even if your accusation were true, it would pale in comparison with the loss of trillions of $$$ and the concomitant destruction of hopes and dreams of millions of people.  Even if your accusation were true, the result would be what exactly?  We'd trade one fraud for another.  

Now that you have brought the subject up at TL and people have responded to you, you won't be able to say that the subject hasn't been discussed.  Your arguments have been heard and they are not convincing.

it so happens they have friends in the media community, and influence. ms. levy's disappearance was a mere blip on the DC crime scene, before they started availing themselves of their media contacts. they were the ones who insisted, lack of evidence notwithstanding, that condit was either directly responsible for her disappearance, or knew who was.

it was solely as a consequence of ms. levy's parent's constant media harping that both the local police and FBI narrowed their focus to rep. condit, wasting valuable time that could have been better spent looking for the real killer.

The Washpo had a piece in about it.

snip:

"Because of the slaying, a number of Muslim organizations, including the Islamic Society of North America, are calling on imams and other Islamic leaders to speak out against domestic violence in Friday's sermons. It's another example of the continuing willingness of American Muslim leaders to speak out against violence in all forms."

snip:

"But American Muslim organizations are condemning the killing and stating that Islam forbids such domestic violence as well as honor killings. "The Muslim community unreservedly condemns domestic violence of all types," the Muslim Public Affairs Council said in a statement issued this week. "Such crimes are despicable and unequivocally prohibited in Islam . . . Regretfully, Aasiya has become another statistic in an ever-growing problem of spousal abuse in New York. Islam celebrates and protects human life. Muslims of all shades and opinions know that."

"Shahed Amanullah, editor-in-chief of the online newsmagazine altmuslim.com, is among those who are encouraging imams to speak out against domestic violence. "It is essential that we address the problem and take steps to ensure that no one else faces the same tragic fate as Ms. Zubair," Amanullah said.

;)

Folks I met on a trip to Moscow less than a year after the Soviet Union fell told me they literally believed they had been living in a workers' paradise compared to the West.  One young man apologized for his terrible English by saying he'd studied it for eight years, but didn't take it seriously because when he was at university, they all believed that "in 20 years, or sooner, there would be no need for anybody to know how to speak English."

That said, I agree with your basic point that the popular conception is a wild exagerration.  But Tiananmen Square did happen, and people are apparently still in jail without anything we'd recognize as a trial for participating in it.

Child labor is also complicated.  It horrifies wealthy Western states, but in places like China, peasant children engage in what amounts to child labor at home anyway, and having them go work in factories is in some ways preferable and brings desperately needed cash to the families.

I don't like it, but it's not a black-and-white situation for most families or even for the kids themselves.