The Pointless Random Thoughts of Bradley Paranial

Super Bowl Special

2011-02-07T16:56:00.001-08:00

Like many Americans, I watched the Super Bowl yesterday. All in all, it was a very good game. The Packers should have been a bit more dominant, a team that gives you three turnovers is practically handing the game to you. However for whatever reason, it seemed almost like Green Bay wanted to make sure that the game was interesting. Few players actually played as well as they should have. Packers Receivers were dropping balls left and right, killing drives and keeping Pittsburgh in the game. On a final thought, I am sorry Pittsburgh, but that hit was clean, deal with it.

As for the commercials the other reasons that people watch this game. I’d say they were pretty good this year. One of my favorites was the Doritos one with the pug. A man is trying to call his girlfriends pet pug with Doritos in order to get him to run into Glass. It turns out the Pug is able to knock over the door and take the Doritos from the guy while giving him a crushed face. My mom and step dad’s pet pug approved. Also up there was the Emeinem commercial featuring Detroit. I liked this one a lot. It is a very in your face and gritty proclamation of pride from a city that has a lot to be proud though it has been struggling lately. My biggest favorite however, is the one with kid in the Darth Vader costume trying to Force Push/Grip numerous things only to have his dad start the car with his key chain and make him think he did it. I know it is cute and all and I was one of many people that wanted to be a Jedi when he was a kid, but seriously. This kid is wearing a Darth Vader costume, do we really want to encourage this behavior. What if he tried to Force choke the dog?

All in all, I had a good time, watched some football, stuffed myself on food that was not good for me and spent time with my family. It was a very good day.

Rocking the Casbah

2011-01-29T13:07:00.001-08:00

I know that it has been about a week or so since I made any posts, but the stress of my current financial situation as muddle my thoughts somewhat and distracted me. That being said I have found something that has recently sparked my interest.

It seems as though the unrest in Tunisia has been spreading across the Arab world. Protests have been going on in Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen and most importantly, Egypt. It seems as though that Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak is not as popular as his 88.6 percent tally in the last Presidential Election would indicate. Perhaps the fact that he has been in power for nearly thirty years and has a habit of cooking election results would have something to do with it.

It is not all that much of a secret that the Arab world is hardly a bastion of Democracy. Nearly all of the leaders there are either corrupt dictators or decadent absolute monarchs. The closets things to democracy in the entire region are Lebanon, where the natural state of being is a hair width away from sectarian civil war and Iraq, which, while better than what it was just four years ago is still not the most stable place in the world. Many of the problems in the Arab world are in m opinion based on this lack of freedom. The oppressive nature of many Arab governments along with their tendency to horde all of their country’s wealth ha lead to widespread poverty and despair. In order to deflect attention away from themselves Arab leaders have long used numerous scapegoats, the US, the West in general, Israel, local minorities. The list is endless really. Though I shall admit, many of those above groups would not make such effect scapegoats if they were not at least somewhat culpable. This has also lead to the popularity of religious extremists. The Irony is this last being that a lot of the radical Islamist movements were started by the elite of Saudi Arabia as a way of spreading their country’s influence in the Muslim World as well as to keep at bay one of their main rivals, Iran.

Fortunately so far, there is not sign of the Islamists in any of the protests. This is simply about a desire for freedom from tyranny. Hopefully when the smoke clears, it shall be that start of a new beginning for the Arab world. One where they can finally put the past behind them

This is where I get Banned in China

2011-01-22T15:14:00.001-08:00

Well as many of you all know, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in the US this week for a summit with President Barrak Obama. What did this summit accomplish? Absolutely Nothing, which is about as much as these things usually accomplish. A summit is in many ways little more than pageant, a means through which individual leaders can look good in front of each other and their constituents with some photo ops to make everyone know they are doing something.

That being said, it is important to note that this summit is indeed a big deal, since it involves, well, China. The US likes to claim that every one of its international relationhips is its most important one. With China, however, this statement is actually true. The US is the world’s largest importer of Chinese goods. China is the largest expanding market for US business. China has a near monopoly on rare earth metals that supply most of the world hybrid electric batteries. China also finances a good portion of the US’s national debt. In short China and the US depend on each other, a lot.

At the same time however, China is also one of the last Communist regimes in the world. It is clear, however, that Marxist ideology gets little more than lip service these days. However what has remained in place is a very oppressive authoritarian regime that controls many aspects of life in China. For one thing the worlds fastest growing website Facebook, is not available in China because the Chinese government is afraid of that dissidents might use to communicate with each other and with people abroad. Also the Chinese government has tendency to deal with people they do not like by locking them away in prisons. And let us not forget a little incident that happened about twenty years ago in a place called Tiananmen Square. There is also the issue of their treatment of the Tibetan people as well as the fact that the have pretty much bullied one of East Asia’s most stable and thriving democracies, Taiwan, into an peculiar state of international limbo. Oh, and they also are the only reason why ongoing crisis on the Korean peninsula did not end with us running Kim Il Sung across the Yalu River sixty years ago.

In short, China is neither really a friend nor an enemy. Both of our economies depend on each other, while at the same time. It is a very complicated relationship that offers no simple answers in how to deal with them. There are some who say the China is destined to take over the world. However those people seem to ignore that twenty years ago, people said the same thing about Japan. China already seems to be showing signs of slowing down. The gap between the wealthy coasts and the poorer inland is becoming more pronounced. There are also concerns that China’s economy will not expand enough to spread the prosperity around to all, to say nothing of the fact that China’s new middle class might find itself longing for new freedoms. All in all, it is hard to say for certain what the future holds for the world’s oldest continuous civilization.

So Where's Peter?

2011-01-18T18:56:00.000-08:00

Humor me for a moment as I take a small amount of your time to talk about something that most of my readers have most likely never even heard of. It is no shock really. It is one of the last big stories in Hawaii to break before I left the Islands to go to school. As much as I would like to say that it is a happy one, it most certainly is not.

In January of 1998, a six-year old boy from Hilo, Hawaii named Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr. was reported missing by his parents. His father, Peter Kema Sr., claimed that he had taken his son with him to Oahu when he went to look for work. There he claimed to have left his son with an older relative in order to take care of him since he and his wife were to poor to do so. Seems like a very typical story right, wrong, DEAD WRONG. First, Peter Boy had not been seen by anyone since July of 1997. His grandparents and social workers (we will get to this one later) had not been able to get him on the phone or see him during this time and his parents only reported him five months due to family pressure. Second, the relative with whom Peter Sr. supposedly left his son, no one has ever found any evidence to believe that she even exists. Third, it turns out that there is no evidence that the Kemas were ever on Oahu. And finally, the Kema children had a very long history with Child Welfare authorities in Hawaii. With Peter Boy being subjected to abuse that was particularly horrific. If you want to know the gory details, there is a link at the end of this article.

Why I am I writing about this, because this months marks the 13 year anniversary of this boy’s being reporting missing. He was six years old when he disappeared and would have turned 20 this year, just one year shy of being able to buy beer. He would be about the same age as some of the college students that I work with at the call center. It is a shame really; anyone with two brain cells to rub together can deduce what most likely came of this little boy. But since no one ever found his body and since his low life parents have stuck to their story, there is just not enough hard proof to bring these monsters before a court of law. I remember early one watching a news report with my mom who said simply, “They killed him”. Bumper stickers that bore the slogan that is the title of this post were a common sight in Hawaii. And after all this time, the question still remains.

So where’s Peter?

http://hawaii.gov/dhs/quicklinks/peter_boy/

Thoughts on a Dream

2011-01-17T22:59:00.001-08:00

As of the time that I have started writing this, there is about two hours left in Martin Luther King Day. I shall admit that I almost never give this day any more thought than as, say a day off from work. However for lack of anything else to write about at the moment, I have chosen to write about this.

Dr. King’s message of equality and peace was at it’s time a very radical one. It is very hard to imagine that there was a time when African Americans were not even allowed into dining rooms, drink from the same fountains or even use the same bathroom. Furthermore, this was considered by something people to be not only acceptable, but right and even God-ordained. It took courageous men like King to stand up to such injustices and make equality a reality in this country. Barrak Obama’s historic presidency is a sign of how far we have come. Despite not agreeing with a lot of his politics, I consider the fact that we now have a black President to be something of which this country should be proud.

That being said one must be forced to acknowledge that we have hardly achieved prefect equality and that in many ways Dr. King’s Dream has yet to be realized. The legacy of over three hundred years of racism still persists and less settle forms of racism and discrimination can be found. Sadly, one should say that the bigots in this world have become more subtle these days. Do not think, even for a second that much of the ire that has been directed at Obama by the hard right in this country is not due to the fact that he is Black. When I first heard all this “birther” nonsense, along the Muslim rumors that came before it, I knew that that was what it was all code for. Because of this, one must say that I have begun to question my political allegiances.

That being said, I have always believed in the inherit goodness of people. As such, I am more inclined to believe that we are now much closer to the goal that we are to where we started. Hopefully we shall continue to make progress, and that King’s dream shall soon become a reality.

A Nice Scent of Jasmine

2011-01-15T00:43:00.001-08:00

Ah, the stuff you learn whilst peaking around on CNN.com. Just before today I shall admit to the fact that I never really read up all that much about Tunisia or paid all that much attention to it. So I shall admit that I was rather surprised when I heard that the protests in that country had gotten so bad that the country’s long time president, Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, has been forced to leave the country. Again I shall say that I am still doing my research on this subject as I am writing about it, but what little I have been able to learn has me smiling.

Tunisia for those of you that are even later to the party than I, is a country located along the Mediterranean coast of Africa, just a stone’s throw are from Italy. It is most noteworthy of being the location of the classical city state of Carthage and the place where that filmed the Tatooine scenes in the Star Wars saga. It has also been rule by one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

How bad is it? Well, according to The Economist, the country ranks 149 out of 167 countries in terms of the state of democracy. According to Reporters without Borders, it is 164 out of 178 in terms of press freedom. It is ranked along with such regimes as North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan as “Enemies of the Internet.” In the most recent presidential election in the country, two of the candidates running against Ben Ali actually said that they supported Ben Ali. The third candidate was not allowed to put up any sort of posters and hold any sort of meetings while state media declared Ben Ali the greatest thing since slice bread. Ben Ali won re election with over 80% of the vote. The President, his family and his political allies live lives in almost unimaginable luxury whilst many Tunisians have been struggling. As someone who himself has been struggling, I can sympathize.

Things began to come to ahead on December 18^th when people in the Sidi Bouzid began to protest. The wanted simple things really, jobs, freedom, better standards of living. The government responded with force, but the people were not discouraged. More protest began to emerge throughout the country. Finally on the 14^th, Ben Ali announced that the government was dissolved and that he was going to be taking a vacation. Well, the government must not have gotten the first part; since the Prime Minister decided that he was going to be running things until at least the next election.

We still do not know how things in Tunisia are going to turn out. While Ben Ali is gone, many of the other actors are still in place and there is still a curfew and tanks on the streets. The not ironically named at all Constitutional Democratic Rally remains in power as it has had for over fifty years and if anything, the previous presidents of Tunisia were worse that Ben Ali. But I have faith in the people of Tunisia and their Facebook/Twitter/iPhone organized “Jasmine Revolution” . I hope that they get all of these *ssholes out once and for all and start making a better life for themselves.

Haiti: One Year Later

2011-01-13T20:38:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, it has been nearly a year since Haiti had been devastated by a 7.0 earthquake that killed over 100,000 people. Do people even understand that number? There are countries whose entire populations are equal to the death tool of Haiti earthquake. The worst part about it is that this was only the latest chapter in the misery that has plagued this country. In additional to the Earthquake, Haiti has suffered from a cholera epidemic and has had a presidential election that is still in dispute.

The history of Haiti has been one of misery. It is a country that has gone from one seeming calamity to another. From dictatorships, to famines, to hurricanes to earth quakes to epidemics and instability, if it has not been one thing this country, it has been another. The worst part about all of it is that it does not look as though anything will get better anytime soon.

Haiti is the poorest country the Western Hemisphere and has been for quite some time. Its government is insanely corrupt and weak. Nearly two thirds of the population is unemployed (and we think that 10% is bad). The only real economic activity for many years was an illegal drug trade. The already weak government was decimated by earthquake, with nearly all of its most important buildings destroyed. Just reading about Haiti is enough to get the feeling that they are the Charlie Brown of countries. It looks as thought they might make it and kick the football this time, but it gets yanked away again.

Things are so bad in Haiti that the hardest part about trying to fix this country’s problems, is figuring out where to begin. There are just so much of them and they are all so big. One wonders if the first Black Republic will ever see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Most Post Mordern Post on this Blog

2011-01-13T19:48:00.001-08:00

I know that it has been a while since I wrote in this blog but the thing is that I have been rather busy as of late. I have had a lot of time at work, which is by the way a very good thing. But it also means that I have had a tough time find the mental fortitude to keep writing.

All in all, I have rather enjoyed the idea of having a blog. It has given me something to do on day in which I have not worked. And also it gives me the opportunity to really doing something really smart and creative. Ever since I graduated from school, I have been looking for things that have made me feel, well, smart. But that is kind of hard when you are working in a parking lot, or parroting some survey while trying to make sure the 82 year old lady on the other end of the line understands you. The fact that I have a small, okay very small following right now actually makes me feel rather good.

As many of you have realized right now. I kind of have a thing for current events, which is why most of my posts have been on them. Whenever something on the news draws my attention, I am away at my laptop pounding away. I hope that I add something important to the conversation. And if I don’t at least I am practicing for when I do.

Right now as you noticed this seems to be a very apolitical post. This is because I have been away from my blog for so long that I have been struggling to find things to write about. Well I have already written about the Arizona shooting. Perhaps I can talk about Southern Sudan or the situation in Haiti one year from the day of the quake over there. I have some ideas right now that I have started writing, so perhaps I shall have something later tonight.

This post is actually more about unclogging my writers block than anything. It is me getting into the mode of writing again so that I can actually get used to putting thoughts on paper. So there you have it, the most post- modern post in this blog.

Tragedy in Arizona

2011-01-09T13:16:00.001-08:00

Right now I feel compelled to write, though really I am at a loss for words. I have just read that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D- Arizona, along with several dozen others, was shot by a lone gunman while meeting with constituents in Tucson. Six people are dead including a federal judge. The man who did it is currently being held in custody.

While the man’s motives are, at this time, still unclear part of me is almost dreading to learn any more details. I really and sincerely hope that this is just some lone nut who thought that he was following instructions from the mother ship. But part of me is thinking that this might be one of those loons who believe in Black Helicopters and that Obama is a Kenyan Muslim Socialist infiltrator out to destroy America for kicks. It seems as though he is the former though due to the fact that his posting on YouTube seem to be about as coherent as a David Lynch movie, but sadly this does not change a very ugly truth. The political discourse in this country has been becoming more a toxic each and every day. The other side is not only wrong, but an evil that must be purged by any means necessary. And, while no one shall ever admit it, there are some who just will not accept that fact that we have a black president. This country is slowly but sure tearing itself apart. I am afraid of where we are heading.

Casting Aside Childish Things

2011-01-09T13:10:00.001-08:00

Today I have done something that I probably should have done a long time ago. I have listed many of my old role paying game books on eBay.

Back in my college days, I was a bit of a geek. As a matter of fact in many ways I am still a geek. I like anime; I played weird Japanese videogames and computer RPGs. I was also a big player of pen and paper RPGs as well, especially White Wolf’s Word of Darkness Series. I remember having a lot of fun making up adventures with my friends and even playing on online chats, which I still do to this day, even though I do not have as much time as I once did. I generally have a lot of fond memories of my books like many gamers do.

Sadly however, one cannot live on memories alone. The past two years have been a difficult time for me economically. I am working but none of my jobs are truly full time and hours are sporadic at best. As such, my income fluctuates wildly and I have very little savings. My books are some of the most valuable possessions that I have in monetary terms. With my current situation, I really have no choice but to sell them.

It is rather sad really, I really enjoyed the times I had in the universes that I once played around in. I still have character ideas in my head, waiting for a game to take life in. But, I shall have to pay my bills first. Hopefully, if my situation improves, I might buy these books back or maybe download them online. If I can do that, maybe I might be able to have some fun with them again. Until than however, I shall have to put away childish things.

Reaping what you sow

2011-01-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

Note: I humbly apologize for the lack of posts this past week. Unfourtunately a proofreading arrangement I had in place did not work out as well as I thought it was going to do. So today you shall all get three posts from this past week.

Regards-
Brad

Pakistan is a country that is a lot like a little boy that plays with matches and keeps getting burned and continue to play with matches anyway.

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, today the Governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province was assassinated by his own bodyguard. The reason why he did this: because his boss spoke out against his country’s anti-blasphemy laws, which make it a crime to “insult” the Prophet Mohammed. These laws have been used to target religious minorities in Pakistan.

Pakistan is a country that really exists for only one reason, Indian Muslim politicians who did not like British rule did not care that much for living in a Hindu majority independent India either. This fact is made all the more plain by the fact that Pakistanis look like Northern Indians, have similar customs and cuisine and even have languages that are for all intents and purposes indistinguishable from each other except for the scripts in which they are written. The only real difference between Northern India and Pakistan is that one is secular, Hindu Majority country and the other is a Muslim nation.

Pakistan has also been in a state of conflict with India ever since the two were partitioned from each other, mostly over the disputed regions of Jammu and Kashmir. As part of their struggle against India, the Pakistani government has supported numerous militant groups the Northwestern Tribal Regions bordering Afghanistan. The most notable of these groups is the Taliban, and organization that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and sought to purge their country of such immoral things as music, television, equal treatment of women. They were also notable for extending their hospitality to wealthy Saudi businessman by the name of Osama bin Laden. We all know what happened as a result of that.

After NATO finally ran these losers out of town on a rail, the Taliban tucked their collective tails and went into hiding in the wilds along the Pakistan border. After lying low for about five years while the US decided to go off on what turned out to be a fool’s errand into Iraq, the Taliban came back with a vengeance. However not only were they causing trouble in Afghanistan but the eventually starting trouble in Pakistan as well, striking in the border regions, blowing up a mosque of a minority Muslim sect in Lahore , attacking the Sri Lankan cricket team, also in Lahore, assassinating a former Prime Minister, (who was by the way a woman) , blowing up a police station in Islamabad, blowing up another police station, again, Lahore. I could go on forever.

Pakistan’s chickens have come home to roost. They back militant jihadists in order to further their own aims and now those jihadists are deciding to make Pakistan in their image. Most people in Pakistan prefer to live a more modern form of life, one where they can watch TV, listen to music and not be treated like garbage for being female. The match that they have been playing with is burning them. One hopes they learn to stop before their country falls to these Neanderthals, and these Neanderthals get nuclear weapons.

Must we PC everything

2011-01-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

I just read an article on CNN.com which says that there is a new edition of Mark Twain’s classic work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This would not normally be noteworthy except for one thing, this particular work has all reference to the n-word removed and replaced with the word “slave”.

This is ridiculous, people. Must we dumb down and bowdlerize everything? The book is actually a scathing critique of the racial attitudes of the era, one which put for what was at them time a bold message, that blacks were human beings. The n-word was to put it simply, how many people referred to blacks back than. It is shocking now, but times were different back than. Sadly it seems that we are too dumb to understand context these days. Thus, we seek to sanitize anything that we regard as being vaguely offensive. It is sad really.

Longing for April

2011-01-04T00:04:00.001-08:00

No profound comments on geopolitical affairs tonight I’m afraid. All I have are some ramblings in the oh my God about life general and about the season of winter.

I grew up in the great state of Hawaii, a place that has no real seasons of which to speak. For the first eighteen and a half years of my life I knew nothing but nice sunny weather. That would remain the case until I decided to leave the islands to go to school at Creighton University, in Omaha, Nebraska, that was my first taste of fall and winter and believe me when I say it was a shock. I have endured five Midwestern winters and believe me when I say that I would be glad if I never have to endure another one.

I now hang my hat here in Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento. While things are not as bad as they were in my time in Oh My God Nebraska. It is hardly the pleasant tropical paradise of my childhood. (I can hear my Southeast Asian readers gloating right now about how wonderful it is over there). Right now the Temperature is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit outside and even with the heat it feels like 60 in here (The heat was up to 70 but we had to turn it down due to the electric bill) To top it all off it has been raining non stop which has been good since we have been having a drought. But still it does make things a pain. I am glad I did not have to work tonight.

Winter is nice when you are leading up to Christmas and New Years. If you are an American Football fan you might also have the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl to which to look forward. But for the most part all it now is cold and wet that I just want to go away. I cannot wait until mid-March to early April when it shall start to get warm again.

I miss summer.

It's like Florida, but with bullets.

2011-01-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

It seems as though that rumors of coming peace and stability in Ivory Coast have turned out to be greatly exaggerated. It seemed as though a few months ago that the government of President Laurent Gbagbo had come to a deal with the rebels seeking to end hostilities in exchange for allowing the rebels to participate in presidential elections. Every thing seemed to be going well, until the vote actually happened.

How things turned out depends on who’s doing the telling. According to the country’s independent election commission, opposition and rebel leader Alassane Outtara won the election by a relatively narrow margin. However, the country’s constitutional commission had invalided several votes that had been cast in areas where support for Outtara was strongest and the amount was just enough to re elect Gbagbo. Did we mention that the constitutional commission is packed with Gbagbo’s political allies? Needless to say, Outtara hasn’t taken this very well.

So since about November, these two Presidential hopefuls with names that make Barrack Obama look normal have been engaged in a stand off that had made with the closing days of Bush vs. Gore look tame and civil. Both men have had themselves sworn in as President of Ivory Coast. Outtara and his government have holed up in a hotel where they are enjoying free HBO, complimentary continental breakfast with waffles and the protection of UN peacekeepers against government troops and pro-Gbagbo mobs. Ivory Coast’s neighbors, including the President of regional power Nigeria and winner of the Coolest Name Ever For a World leader, Goodluck Jonathan, have been trying to politely but firmly tell Gbagbo that is it past closing time and it is time for him to leave. However, the man seems to not be taking a hint. Taking a page from the Kim Jong Il school of thumbing your nose at the international community he is determined to stay in power despite the fact that the Ivoirians don’t seem to want him.

It seems almost as though Africa is locked in this sick twisted spiral and has been so every since the end of colonialism. At first, things look like they are going well but than something happens, a disaster, a famine, someone deciding that he wants to be President but not bothering with the fuss of having to get elected. Once that happens it seems as though everything goes to hell. Ivory Coast was at one time the wealthiest countries in West Africa during the 1960’s and 70’s. But than a drought and a drop in global sugar prices lead to an economic slowdown and internal unrest and finally Civil War and the current mess they are in. One can almost set you watch to when the next major upheaval on this continent is going to be. Heck it seems that that countries that look to have things the most together are just being set up for a big fall. Look at Zimbabwe, once the Breadbasket of Africa, now it is a basket case. So far, South Africa seems to have evaded most of this problems and Nigeria looks like it is pulling it self into the global middle tier. One can hope things shall get better, but part of me doubts it.

Hollywood Special

2010-12-30T20:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I was just poking around Yahoo News and I found not one but two short little news articles that I found interesting.

The first one was history in the making. Apparently North Korean television showed its first ever western movie. For those of you who want to know it was Bend It Like Beckham. Read the article here. I have not actually seen this movie so I cannot say anything else about it. The big shock I am sure for many of you was that there is television in North Korea. But to be semi serious for a moment one would point out of the big ironies of this. While western movies may be a novelty in the Hermit Kingdom, the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il is an avid movie buff. He is rumored to have a thing for the Austin Powers series and to really love westerns. He loves westerns some much that he actually learned to shot a revolver from the hip, a skill which is absolutely useless in a real fire fight but looks cool on camera. Well, I guess what the Dear Leader wants, he gets.

The second thing that has got me going is that it seems as though past his prime actor Val Kilmer owes about $500,000 in back taxes to the IRS. Knock yourself out and read it here. I know that the man has serious issues in regards to mere mortals but really no matter how big of a star you are, you really should not mess with Uncle Sam. They have already put a lien on his ranch in New Mexico where he had been living and had been hoping to sell for about $33 million (he has since lowered his price to $18.5 million I guess the economy is getting to everyone). Val Kilmer, a man who is such an jerk that one of the main reasons why George Clooney was chosen to be a part of Batman and Robin was because no one wanted to work with Kilmer again. He is a man whose only redeeming grace was that he as able to show up Tom Cruise in Top Gun by playing Iceman so gay that the entire film would set the gold standard for gay camp in the 80’s. He is finally getting what he so rightly deserves. I hope the tax man rips him a new one.

Sun, Fun and Cartels

2010-12-30T13:22:00.000-08:00

I really would not want to be in the Mexican town of Guadalupe right now. Why not, Because the town’s only cop has mysteriously disappeared.

Erika Gandara was kidnapped from her home on December 23^rd. Officials do not have much in they way of leads this is largely because her family did not report the crime themselves. Authorities learned of it from her friend. While this might shock some of you keep in mind one simple fact. Guadalupe is located just outside of the city of Juarez. Juarez is known for it beautiful desert scenery, quant colonial architecture and out of control drug cartel violence. Juarez is considered by many people to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world. In a country that is becoming one of the most dangerous in the world.

The thing that seems to be the most perplexing about this whole situation is that it started at first as an attempt to clean up the corrupt Mexican government. The drug cartels in Mexico have been operating for years. They became even more powerful after the Crackdown on the Columbian cartels took away their biggest competition. However, the cartels also had the Mexican government bought off so that they would not go after them. In return, they divided Mexico amongst themselves and agreed not to waste so much time fighting each other. That all changed however when the current President Felipe Calderon decided that it would be a good idea to crack down on the cartels. The cartels themselves however, disagreed.

For those of us living north of the border, this should be of some concern. So far the violence of Mexico has managed to remain in Mexico but, as we all know, the border is hardly impenetrable. It shall be only a matter of time before things spread to the States and when it does, especially in Texas and California, be afraid be very afraid. Part of the major reason why states like Arizona are pushing for immigration reform is a feeling the secure borders are the only thing that can help keep this from happening.

One more thing before I leave, the city of Juarez is just on the other side of the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.

From Bad to Wrose in Haiti

2010-12-29T18:53:00.001-08:00

It seems as though the country of Haiti is one of those places that just cannot seem to catch a break.

I hope that most of you remember that in January of this year, soon to be last year, that the Country was hit with a massive earthquake that centered around the capital of Port au Prince where the majority of people lived. The size of the quake combined with shoddy construction in the city led to the deaths of nearly 100,000 people. On top of that, what little government existed in that country was effectively destroyed as key buildings were toppled. Nearly one year later, the country still has not fully rebuilt itself. This is especially troubling considering that years of poverty corruption and misrule have meant that Haiti was already pretty damn messed up to begin with.

As though things could not get any worse for this county, the first free black nation in modern times, Haiti has struggled for that past few months with a Cholera epidemic. Until recently Cholera has been one of the few misfortunes that Haiti has managed to avoid. They have had numerous coups, rebellions, floods, famine, dictators, (including the notorious “Pappy Doc” Duvalier), but until now, no Cholera. What happened? It seems that some UN peacekeepers using a stream as a bathroom brought it there. So the people that were sent in to help these people end up making things worse. But to show just how messed up the situation there truly is, they decided to go ahead with a planned presidential election. I know that there is a desire to continue as normally as possible, but really people. You are in the middle of a massive and deadly epidemic. Couldn’t you postpone the election until you at least got the problem under control? Would you even be surprised if I told you that turnout was low, and there were massive reports of fraud?

It seems to get even worse. There are reports that due to the whole people dying of Cholera thing, combined with many farmers being afraid to tend their fields for fear of getting sick, that Haiti’s rice harvest is not expected to be all that good. Yes a country that is still recovering from a earthquake and laboring with an epidemic now looks like it is going to have a famine pretty soon. Like I said, it seems as though someone must not like this country at all. If it is not one thing in Haiti it is another. I sometime feel overwhelmed by the whole thing.

Where is YOUR Birth Certificate

2010-12-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

While I was looking through CNN’s website I found an article that interested me. It seems as though the new Governor of my home state of Hawaii Neal Abcrombie has declared war on the birthers.You can read the article here He promises that he shall release as many documents as legally permissible to prove once and for all the Barrack Obama was born in Hawaii and thus eligible to be President. All I have to say about this is that it is about time.

My own personal politics are somewhat right of center. I am a register Republican with somewhat libertarian leanings. That being said, from the very beginning I found the whole birther thing to be ridiculous. I mean do we seriously believe that someone could have made it though some of the most vigorous security checks with a forged or inadequate birth certificate, or that countless officials from the government of the State of Hawaii would commit perjury and say that he was born there. To say nothing of the fact that his mother was a natural born US citizen which renders this whole debate moot, or that they cannot even answer the simple question as to why the Democratic Party would even go through the trouble of propping up a candidate that was not qualified in an election year when any Democrat with a pulse would have won. This is stupidity at its best. The sad thing is that I cannot help but think that this is all nothing more than code for the real reason they refuse to accept him as president.

Before I say anything more, I would like to add to the fact that I personally never liked Abcrombie. He is an aging hippie who is entrenched in the political machine that is one of the reasons why Hawaii is a dysfunctional mess. That being said I am with him on this one. Since he knew both of Obama’s parents and actually remembers him being born. It is kind of personal for him as well, since these people are calling his parents liars. Sadly I doubt that anything that Abcrombie does shall really do anything to silence the birthers. They believe what they believe because they want to believe it. It allows them to go on and continue to believe that a dark skinned man with a funny name cannot possibly be their president.

Korean Chicken

2010-12-28T23:03:00.001-08:00

What is the national sport of Korea?

I think I have you thinking already, at least the ones that are not staring blankly and going “huh”. Some of you are probably thinking something like “The national sport of South Korea is Baseball and the national sport of North Korea is Gymnastics.” Perhaps you thought of soccer or maybe Taekwondo or Korean Wrestling. Maybe perhaps you thought of Kumdo, Korean swordsmanship. But in truth, it is none of those.

The real national sport of North and South Korea is chicken.

For those of you unfamiliar with this game (including perhaps my small but enthusiastic following in Southeast Asia), here is how chicken works. You have two people in their cars driving towards each other in a collision course, accelerating as they go. The object of the game is to keep driving towards the other car until he turns out of the way. First one to do so loses. If both of them turn at the same time, than the game is draw. If they crash into each other, then the game also counts as a draw with the added bonus of both drivers dying.

There have been numerous attempts to explain what has been happening on the Korean Peninsula in that past month or so. The mostly likely explanation is that Kim Jong Il is trying to create a situation where he can assure the military that yes, his son Kim Jong Un who was recently made a four star general in the Korean People’s Army despite not having any military experience at all had what it took to lead North Korea. Kim Jong Il’s health has been fading recently and it probably shall not be long before he joins his dad, Eternal President Kim Il Sung in the great hereafter. He knows full well that this situation could lead to a power vacuum, with numerous factions fighting each other and the country collapsing. So he is trying to prop up his son as much as possible by giving him ample opportunities to appear to be a tough guy.

On the other side of the DMZ, the South Koreans elected this guy by the name of Lee Myung Bok. This guy was elected in 2007 when South Koreans, who had spent the previous couple of years trying to be nice to the totalitarian dictator to the north of them only to realize that that did not stop him form developing nukes and threatening them with them, decided they were tired of playing Mr. Nice Guy. One of the first things he did was say that North Korea, a country that is totally incapable of feeding itself, would not get any more aid from South Korea until it let go of its nuclear program. Let’s just say that Kim Jong Il did not like that. This along with the above mention succession issue sheds light on the reason for the North’s provocative behavior.

So now you have the following situation. The North wants to look tough so it can send a message to its people that the heir apparent has what it takes. The South at the same time does not want the North to think that it can bully them around. The end result of you have two of the world’s largest militaries rushing towards each other in order to see who would get out of the way first.

Like I said, it is a game of Chicken, with nuclear weapons.

A post for the Holidays

2010-12-24T10:45:00.001-08:00

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful day so far, whether it is Christmas Eve or just another day for you. I myself am looking forward to the holiday. For one thing I am only going to be working two days for the remainder of 2010, barring a last minute, emergency, can’t wait until New Years project coming down the line at EMH. My grandmother has come down from Washington State. My Warriors are playing in the Hawaii Bowl tonight and we shall be watching the game on my parents’ home theatre. As you can probably tell by now I am struggling to find something to write about and am just rambling on in an attempt to overcome writer’s block.

In general, I love Christmas always have. It has been a time to get together with family Yes there are also the gifts but I have always had a hard time with the question “what do you want for Christmas” cause really, I have I had a hard time with thinking about what I want. The religious side of the holiday I have always been mixed about. While I was baptized a Catholic, the only time that I ever regularly went to Mass was ironically enough, while I was going to school at Creighton University. Yes, that is right; I was more religious in college than I am now. I know I have it backwards. Furthermore, I have come to terms with all of the commercialism surrounding the holiday. To the point where I believe that all the people that get all worked up about are in the “We’re Not Happy Unless We’re Mad” party.

All in all, I am looking forward to having sometime to spend with family watching TV and eating. I know this is not the usual geopolitical furor that this blog usually produces but like I said I have writers block and have been too busy working to pay attention to things. But never the less some of my readers shall get upset if I go more than week without posting something. So here is a post. Think if it as my gift this year.

Happy Unspecified Winter Holiday.

O what the hell, screw political correctness, Merry Christmas.

A Golden Mess

2010-12-18T12:34:00.001-08:00

Well, it seems as though California Governor Jerry Brown has some surprises planned for the first proposed budget of his third term as governor of California. It also seems that for the numerous people that got him elected, they are not nice surprises.

Brown has mentioned that, considering the situation, he is going to have to result to what people in Europe have begun euphemistically referring to as “austerity measures” in order to balance the budget. Meaning he is going to have to make cuts to such things as education and transportation. Pay cuts, furloughs and lay offs for state workers and all those other things that people used to whip Arnold over. It seems almost as though all that money the unions spent to elect him seems to have gone to waste.

California has been having problems for a long time. None of this started with Arnold as much as the hardcore liberals would like to believe that to be so. The man in my opinion tried to make things better and attacked the problems of California in a fair and honest matter. The sad thing is however he tried to fight the public employee unions who have kept insisting on keeping their benefits and pensions in that face of a perpetually dire budget situation, probably hoping that his status as a celebrity would see him through. He ended up getting creamed. Plus that fact that he actually was willing to take such things as climate change seriously and make a definitive stance for marriage equality meant that his own party deserted him as well. Long story short Schwarzenegger was too far to the left of his own party and too far to the right of the democrats to be acceptable to either.

The unions want to hold on to their pay, benefits, and pensions, the far right would rather drink raw sewage than raise taxes, and compromise is an almost unspeakable heresy to both sides. This simple statement gets to heart of the matter of why California is such a mess. Sadly, this malady is spreading to the rest of the country. It seems that the idea of governing for the good of the country is becoming some barely recalled memory and politics has become nothing more than a game to be played and won. I spoke earlier about the seeming outrage over Obama’s the tax cut and how ridiculous it was. Sorry but compromise is an essential component of democracy. The fact that we seem to have so little of that these days makes me worry about my country these days.

Juntas Suck

2010-12-16T19:39:00.001-08:00

I am not sure why or how, but lately my train of thought has turned to the situation in Burma. A country that has gone from being one of the wealthiest in Asia to being one of the poorest in the world thanks to the most enlightened rule of the junta who decided in 1962 that democracy was not good enough for the country.

You have probably heard of these guys already. Back in 1990 they decided to hold a free and fair election and apparently, to the surprise of the world, the actually kept their word because a very nice lady by the name of Aung San Suu Kyi who is the leader of the National League of Democracy, a group devoted to having their country not be ruled by crazy men with guns. However the junta turned around and said “We said we would let you have an election but we didn’t say anything about it meaning anything” so they threw out the results and put the nice lady in prison. Perhaps I should mention that her dad helped to free Burma from British rule and was the founder of the Burmese Army. Then, after about eighteen years of being complete and udder jerks a cyclone hits their country resulting in widespread destruction and death. The international community swarms in to help. What does the junta do? They refused to let anyone provide their country with any aide because they did not want to expose the people of their country to foreign influences. These douche bags value staying in power more than they value their own citizens. Yet they think nothing of continuing with a referendum on a constitution that keeps them in power.

That was not the first time the junta screwed the Burmese over, shortly after they took power in 1962 the instituted something called “The Burmese Way to Socialism”, yeah I know the word “socialism” should tip you off as to how bad this is going to be already. But let’s just say it totally screwed up the country’s economy taking it from one of the wealthiest country’s in Asia to one of it poorest. When people finally had enough in 1988 and revolted the junta responded by declaring martial law and throwing out the pretense of Socialism and said “Screw it we aren’t about anything other than keeping ourselves in power.” At least we should give the credit for being honest.

Well about a month ago they held elections in Burma again. The junta seemed to have learned their lesson this time since the party they supported won about 79% of the vote. The nice lady sadly learned her lesson as well decided to sit this one out. Though some members of her group formed their own party decided to run. They did not do so well. International authorities declared the whole thing to be a sham.

I hope that you have figured out that I do not like these people. This junta that has ruled for nearly fifty years is nothing more than a bunch of morally bankrupt old men that desire nothing more than to keep themselves in power. They destroyed their country with their outmoded ideas. They persecute other ethnic minorities including the Karen people. If you have seen Rambo you may have heard about them. (Fun fact, when the junta banned the movie, it became a favorite among the Karen rebels to the point where “Live for nothing or Die for something” was adopted as a battle cry.) I hate these people so much that if many of you noticed by now. I refuse to use the name that junta use for this country. I won’t even write it here.

Good news however, around the same time as the election, the freed the nice lady from house arrest. One hopes that this might be start of some mass “People Power” revolt where the people rise up and regain their freedom. But sadly those things have failed before. As an American, I find myself to be a strong believer in the idea of freedom and the idea that if a people want to be free badly enough nothing can stop them. It is simply a question of whether the people of Burma want freedom badly enough.

I hope the nice lady gets to be prime minister. She won the real election after all.

If You Ain't Cheatin' You Ain't Tryin'

2010-12-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

The other night I was watching Pony Excess, ESPN’s documentary on the SMU football scandal, death penalty and aftermath. All the while I was watching I could not help but think two things. Firstly, that if there was every a program that ever deserved college football’s ultimate sanction it was the Mustangs of the early 80’s. Secondly, SMU were most likely just the poor shcmucks that got caught.

Make no mistake about it. In my not so humble opinion, amateurism in high level college athletics died sixty years ago when Notre Dame got its first TV contract. Scratch that, it died when rich alumni took interest in how their teams were doing. The problem was noted as early as the 1950’s when the Carnegie foundation reported that three quarters of all schools were subsidizing their athletes in some way. Bret Musberger put it best at the end of the documentary “as long as they are keeping score, the will find the best players that shall allow them to score more than the other team.”

Look at all the programs that have been on probation during the past few years, Alabama a few years ago, Michigan Basketball, Baylor Basketball and most recently USC. Ask USC about Reggie Bush some time. I wonder if you will get any response other than “Reggie who” these days.

This might seem so bad if enforcement also wasn’t so inconsistent. Just look at the recent case of Cam Newton, he is allegedly guilty of much of the same things that Reggie did, but he is let off on a rather lame excuse. Do not tell me that the NCAA’s desire not to have two scandals surrounding Heisman winners so close to one another did not have something to do with it. And also how many programs do you think have been caught twice within five years. This is technically what is required for a program to get the Death Penalty but no one has gotten it since SMU, why? Because it has taken nearly 21 years for that program to even begin to show signs of turning itself around. It is the Atom bomb of college sanctions.

The idea of the student athlete, at least at the highest levels of football, is a farce. The boosters in Pony Excess are to this day, unapologetic about what they did, almost proud. “We were the best cheaters there were and everyone was just jealous of us” seems to best describe the whole mentality of this lot. The fact that they were caught in the middle of an old school newspaper war did not help either. All they did was play the game the way it was played in Texas at the time. Eric Dickerson got a Trans AM from A&M as part of recruiting. Reggie Bush got a Land Rover and a rent free apartment. The only thing that has really changed is that people seem to b more subtle about it these days. And yet the NCAA says that paying athletes would “corrupt the sport”. It is already corrupt. It cannot get any worse.

Standing with South Korea

2010-12-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

Freedom, it is not a word that one hears all that much these days. Perhaps it is because it has become something of a cliché. Perhaps it is because people became wary of it from how it was used by George W Bush in the build up to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it is a very important thing. Something that defines to me what it means to be an American. Not only that, it is the birthright of the entire human race something that many people have been brutally denied by those who believe it their right to lord over them.

Much has been said about the complete and utter lack of freedom in North Korea, one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. But I would like to take a moment to talk about South Korea, a place that despite sharing a common language and cultural heritage with its Northern Cousin has become as different from it as night and day.

All in all, South Korea is one of my favorite places. It is a very vibrant, dynamic and happening country of about 50 million people who produce a lot of catchy pop music, yummy women, chronically overacted drama series, an ancient an unique culture that does not get as much attention as it deserves (think of Korea as the middle kid Asia sandwiched in between its older brother China and its younger brother Japan) , incredibly skilled baseball players and of course, an almost disturbing devotion to Starcraft.

But they had a long road to get there. Let’s just say that the past century and a half or so of Korean history has been less than kind to them. So as not to bore my readers I shall give you the Cliff Notes version. In the latter half of the nineteenth century Asia was being overrun by westerners. The policy of the rulers of Korea at the time was to try to remain isolated as much as possible and rely on China to protect them. Unfortunately for them, China was having its own problems and Korea found itself in the middle of a power struggle between Russia and Japan. The Japanese eventually won out and in 1910 they annexed Korea. The Japanese were, less than benevolent lords to the Korean people. They deliberately tried to wipe out all vestiges of Korean language and culture and replace them with their own. Forcibly drafted their men into the Army and forced labor camps. Used their women as “comfort women” (or to put it another way, sex slaves) and generally were not all that nice to them.

Then came the end of World War Two and the Japanese surrender. Good news was that the Korean people no longer had to deal with all those not very nice Japanese anymore. The bad news was that Japan’s surrender took everyone so completely by surprise that the allies did even have time figure out what to do about Korea. This was somewhat complicated by the fact the both the US and the USSR had much, different plans for what post war Asia was going to be like. The solution that was so perfectly put together with such excellent foresight was this; divide the peninsula in two with the Soviets coming into the North, the Americans taking the South. The two forces shall accept the surrender of the Japanese troops stationed there and govern their parts of the peninsula until the Koreans can elect their leaders to rule themselves. Unfortunately for the Korean people, Stalin had other ideas and the rest is history.

We all know about how the North has fared since than. Now I shall tell you a little bit about the South. In what is something of an irony at the time of the division the most developed part of the country was the North. South Korea was an agrarian backwater. It also didn’t help that many of South Korea’s leaders were really not much better than Kims were and corruption was rampant. But the people of South Korea struggled and persevered. Now South Korea is one of the wealthiest, most advanced, and most free nations in the world. It is a miracle that they have achieved much of what they have achieved in just half a century.

But the freedom that the people of South Korea have attained from themselves has always been endangered by their neighbors to the North or, to be more exact, the tyrant who has anointed himself “The Dear Leader”. Seoul lies well within ranged of Northern artillery. The North’s nuclear ambitions are well documented. The North Korean regime officially declares that it is the sole legitimate government of all of Korea and its ultimate goal is to bring the South into the fold. This is blatant and intolerable aggression that threatened a way of life that the people of South Korea have struggled so hard to work for. Many military experts believe that a second Korean war would be over rather quickly once the US and South Korea committed to the conflict. But the price would be high in untold death and destruction to the South, Seoul at the very least would be left in ruins. All to serve some corrupt tyrants’ desire to “go down fighting.”

It is wrong for a free people like the people of South Korea to live their lives held hostage by these mad men who would see it destroyed out of spite. It is wrong that this people that have suffered so much in their history have to continue to endure a decayed relic of the Cold War. It is clear who the side of the angels is here. Now more than ever, we must stand against the forces of oppression and tyranny and with a free people in time of need.

Tae Han Min Guk.

Two for One today Since I have been working

2010-12-09T11:23:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of talk recently about Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. Even on this blog, I have discussed recent revelations about the situation between China and North Korea that came through as a result of the recently published cables. Let us just say that this has caused a bit of a stir. This is no doubt Mr. Assange’s intention. I, for the most part, am wary of people trying to make a hero of this man.

Make no mistake; this is a man whose primary motivation for doing what he is doing is to weaken the ability of the United States government to engage in diplomacy abroad and to defend itself. In his own writing he has stated that that, not creating a more open or transparent society, is his primary intention. He has shown blatant disregard for whoever might get hurt as a result of these actions, dismissing it as “collateral damage” and these people are not just American military and intelligence personal. These are foreign operatives working in support of US operation, dissidents of regimes such as Iran, North Korea, Cuba, etc. and their families. Such information may also, in the wrong hands make us more venerable to terrorist attacks. One recently leaked document showed up to seven places outside the US that are vital to American interests. One could almost see him circling them with a red marker and saying “Attack here.”

On another note, President Obama recently reached a deal with the Republicans in the House of Representatives regarding an extension of unemployment benefits to millions of American still looking for work. You would think that the Democrats would be happy about this but they are not. Instead they are fuming with rage over the very idea and why is that? Because in order to achieve this, he had to agree to extend the Bush Tax cuts.

“O My God, a lawmaker compromised, how terrible” I am sorry people but this is still a representative democracy and we still need a functional government the supports all of its people not just the ones that vote a particular way. That fact the many self styled “progressives” were willing to put the ability of millions of people to support themselves why they looked for working in limbo, just so they could score some partisan trophy disturbs me. Our government was set up by the Founding Fathers to make it so that our leaders would have to compromise to accomplish anything because they wanted to mitigate the influence of ideologues and demagogues. It seems as though politics has become less about governing the country than it is about winning. Those on the other side of the aisle are no longer fellow citizens with a different point of view, but the enemy. The sad thing is that history has shown that when politics becomes warfare, democracy becomes impossible.