Tar Baby

OK. There is historical justification to call the phrase "tar baby" (defined as a sticky situation) racist, as it was apparently used as a racial epithet some decades ago. But let's be honest, most people, don't know that it ever was derrogatory. They just remember the children's story.

Well, at least it isn't as bad as when people get slammed for using the word "niggardly".

I will admit however that in modern times, so many black people have gotten up in arms because of this specific vocabulary misunderstanding, that now people use 'niggardly' almost as a vocabulary test for black people... fishing for a reaction... so maybe it's become a racist word specifically because it isn't racist. Hmm?

"Excuse me Mr. Black Man? Are you smart enough not to get angry if I say 'niggardly'? OK. Just checking."

Perhaps it's the same thing for 'tar baby'? Perhaps people (like Tony Snow and Mitt Romney, not quite at the forefront of the war against racism) throw it out there because they can clutch their pearls and say, "Racist? Tar baby? My goodness! I had no idea!" Or maybe they really didn't know. Maybe they did. You can't prove it either way, I suppose.

My advice to black people would be — instead of shouting "racist" at Governor Romney — would be just a polite "please say that in a different way next time as we happen to be aware of a definition for that phrase other than the one that you were thinking of which we don't particularly care for, thank you," and leave it at that.

Monday Vinnie Blogging

Define Winning

All that Israeli air power is driving Hizbollah back, right? There is at least progress in this new front in the war on terror, right?

No. Of course not. Yesterday, 140 rockets from Lebanon landed in Israel... the highest daily number to date.

Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 2 decades, and couldn't put a dent in Hizbollah with constant street patrols. Now they think they are going to accomplish Hizbollah's complete destruction from 10,000 feet? Keep dreaming.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You can't bomb away terrorism.

The one and only solution to terrorism is to simply create a new iron curtain around the Middle East. Cut that entire part of the world off and forget about it. Perhaps in half a century or so, after all the fundamentalists are gone, the Muslim world can be let out of this jail, but until then, let Muslims be the only ones who have to deal with Muslim extremists.

This is why I think that the most important challenge facing us right now is finding a way to become 100% independent of gasoline. Without oil to worry about, we have no reasons to deal with the middle east, no reasons to go there, and no reasons to have Muslims (and the terrorists among them) outside of their countries.

Yes... mine is an extremist view, but it's also a pacifist view as well. You have my option, or you can just keep bombing these people in a hope that one day we will kill every angry person in the middle east.

Even I get a certain cathartic satisfaction hearing about terrorist cells getting blown to bits, and get a chuckle from extremists ranting and raving about "Western decadance" and Zionist conspiracies, but it is all just frosting. No real progress is being made, no damage is being done, no terrorists are being killed who aren't replaced with more terrorists, and most certainly, the Muslim world isn't becoming happier, more peaceful, or easier to get along with.

So, I'll say it again: We should say our goodbyes, make our apologies, close and bolt the door from the outside, and then walk away from the Middle East, and let everyone inside of these no-go places deal with themselves and their own problems in their own way. And, in the end, isn't that what everyone in the Middle East has always told us they've wanted? To just be left alone? Perhaps it's time we listened.

Boring Sunday Afternoon

Saw this quiz on another person's blog, and, it being a boring Sunday afternoon here in Pattaya, took it. Last time I did one of these things, I was something like 51% Republican.

Your Political Profile:
Overall	50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Social Issues	50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Personal Responsibility	50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Fiscal Issues	50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Ethics	25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Defense and Crime	75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

That's what happens when we Libertarians try to fit into a Conservative/Liberal world.

That led me to re-take one of my favorite tests:

Your Linguistic Profile:
50%	General American English
25%	Yankee
15%	Dixie
5%	Upper Midwestern
0%	Midwestern

I have no idea where the "Dixie" came from. It wasn't there last time I took it. I must have changed one of my old answers. It's probably Bob's fault.

Your English Skills:
Grammar:	100%
Spelling:	100%
Punctuation:	80%
Vocabulary:	80%

Oh: I also passed eighth grade Spanish with 6 out of 8 (even though I never took Spanish). I passed eighth grade History with 7 out of 8. I passed eighth grade Geography with a 10 out of 10. I passed eighth grade Science with an 8 out of 8 (even with the confusing "neuron" spelling error). I passed eighth grade Math with a 10 out of 10. I passed the US Citizenship test with a 10 out of 10 (although it seemed suspiciously easy).

I am, however, ashamed to say that I only scored 70% on the 80's Music Quiz.

And finally, under "What does your birth date mean?" I got: "You are an island. You don't need anyone else to make you happy. Though you see yourself as a loner, people are drawn to you. Deep and sensitive, you tend to impress others with your insights. You also tend to be psychic - so listen to that inner voice! Your strength: Your self sufficiency. Your weakness: You despise authority. Your power color: Maroon. (Note the color of my blog? Got that one in advance.) Your power symbol: Hammer. Your power month: July. (Shit... I find this out on July 30th?)

Oh well... that ate up a quick 90 minutes. Now on to something productive.

Never Liked Him Much Anyway

Mel Gibson's "peaceful, uneventful arrest for driving under the influence" in Malibu?

Turns out he gave an drunken, beligerent, obscenity-laced, Jewish-conspiracy rant peppered with threats and sexual innuendo.

(Well, that was what was in the original report which police decided was a little too damaging to Mr. Gibson's reputation. They decided to create the "peaceful, uneventful" version of things to help ol' Mel out but... well... oopsies always happen, and the original report (pdf) wasn't taken care of as carefully as it should have been.)

p.s. Anytime somebody says "I was drunk and didn't mean what I said", you should always cry bullshit. Booze is truth serum and everybody knows it.

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UPDATE:

I was thinking about it, and Mr. Gibson blew 0.12 blood alcohol. That is not that drunk. In fact, that's really only barely halfway to what the average person would consider drunk. (You know: The staggering around, slurred speech, the room-is-spinning-and-maybe-I'll-barf kind of drunk.) In other words, he wasn't so far gone that he didn't know what he was saying.

Well, you tell me: If you drink approximately 4-6 beers (depending on your weight), are you so smashed that you could "accidentally" say things that are completely socially reprehensible (especially when surrounded by half a dozen law enforcement officers)? Would you be that messed up?

Mel Gibson is a man with much more than alcohol on the brain.

Out For The Evening

Mike, Riza, Pui, and I joined Mike's friends from Australia, Alan and Bryan, for a nice evening at Vientienne restaurant (fast becoming a regular hangout for me, as this is the third time in as many weeks I have gone there).

After that, we went to the Hopf brewery to hear Enzo sing. Once again, my camera phone did a piss-poor job of capturing the scene there, but I'll put it up anyway.

I had a good time, although Enzo added some new songs that I did not like as much as the old ones, and cut his show short and walked off stage (after about 1 hour) because people weren't cheering enough. He's a prissy Italian drama queen, but he's still worth going to hear.

Howard Dean, Right Wing Mouthpiece

It's actually kind of funny in a way. Everything that the liberals said would happen in Iraq happened almost exactly the way they said it would.

Remember Howard Dean? He was labeled as a "left wing extremist" because he said the following before we invaded Iraq:

The Administration has not explained how a lasting peace, and lasting security, will be achieved in Iraq once Saddam Hussein is toppled. ... It is possible that Iraq will try to force our troops to fight house to house in the middle of cities - on its turf, not ours - where precision-guided missiles are of little use. ... There are other risks. Iraq is a divided country, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that share both bitter rivalries and access to large quantities of arms. Iran and Turkey each have interests in Iraq they will be tempted to protect with or without our approval.

Now we have all those people who called Howard Dean a "left wing extremist" stepping up and saying the most outlandish things, which can be collectively summarized as "everything is going wrong with our war in Iraq because Iran is doing exactly what Howard Dean said it would, but don't blame us."

In December of this past year, Howard Dean once again was in the spotlight for daring to compare the Iraq War to the Vietnam War. (Michael Reagan: "He should be hung for treason.")

Today? David Frum, major player in ramping up neocon support for the Iraq war was writing this:

It's like some baby boomer nightmare: after decades of swearing that we would never repeat the mistakes of our parents, we are re-enacting the errors committed in Indochina in the 1960s and 1970s, every single one.

Ooh! String that terrorist-appeasing liberal... er... I mean... Give that former advisor to President Bush a medal!

I especially enjoy the title of David Frum's piece: "New Plan Wanted", seeing as how it was his plan, along with Richard Perle, in the book An End To Evil: How To Win The War On Terror, that Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney were following.

[Wolfowitz] said there was no history of ethnic strife in Iraq ... He said Iraqi civilians would welcome an American-led liberation force ... And he said that nations that oppose war with Iraq would likely sign up to help rebuild it. "I would expect that even countries like France will have a strong interest in assisting Iraq in reconstruction," Mr. Wolfowitz said.

Well, fortunately, just as Iraq is descending into the civil war that everyone (except Bush supporters) predicted, and every Bush supporter scoffed at, Israel started a war that will distract all of us for... well... maybe even weeks (assuming that Israel doesn't go along with the U.S. flip-flop position regarding a ceasefire), which should be more than enough time for the Bush White House to use it's favorite plan: "If at first your war doesn't succeed, start start another one."

The Interview

Mock interviews have been all the rage for almost a decade now, starting off with Stuttering John of the Howard Stern show, and Ali-G of HBO fame, and moving on to quick-minded Comedy Central geniuses like Stephen Colbert.

This clip burning up the internet today is the latest, if not the greatest, mock interview. Stephen Colbert's target is Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington DC's representative in Congress. It really is a perfect example of the genre, with the unwitting interviewee showing just the right amount of shock when Colbert makes outlandish remarks, such as the premise that Washington DC isn't actually "in" the United States, and that, by definition, she, being born in our nation's capitol, is not an American citizen.

When Representative Norton makes a mental error, and Colbert says, "You see why they don't let you have a vote?" it's just classic victim comedy.

Thai Lesson Of The Day

Uterus in Thai is "มดลูก" (môht luùk): "Ant child." Cervix is "ปากมดลูก" (päk môht luùk): "The ant child's mouth."

Well, at least it is memorable. That's one I don't have to study.

Friday Cat Blogging

The night that I carried the Pot-abused kitty off to arcadian bliss, there were supposed to be two cats in the travel case. However, the second cat managed to be out getting laid at the time I declared a household cat moratorium and she came back several days later knocked up.

No. I can't toss kitties out into the street unless I'm pissed off. Thus we again became a cat household almost immediately. My intense shame at my utter inability to enforce my own rules has prevented me from commenting on this earlier. Or something like that.

However, Pot has stayed away from the new kittens like they have plague, and he perhaps might have learned something, although I obviously haven't.

Me? I'm From Toronto.

Distaste for America runs so deep that, for example, at the recent World Cup in Germany the American team was the only one asked not to display its national flag on the team bus. In South Korea, traditionally a U.S. ally, two-thirds of people under 30 said in a recent poll that if there were war between North Korea and the United States, they would side with North Korea.

Actually, in Thailand, I've never heard — from Thai or foreigner — any unkind reaction to my being American. That's probably just because Americans haven't pissed off Thai people yet, and most expatriates in Thailand just want to put all of the world's worries behind them.

But then, you can go to Korea, where you'll run into "No Americans Allowed" signs on many store fronts. (Americans are still worried that North Korea might nuke Seoul as flat as a parking lot?)

Well, I left America 3 years ago, and I've been lobbing poo-balls at our cold-and-prickly foreign policy ever since. In fact, aside from my old friend Gene (who's kind of a kooky bastard anyway), I don't know a single American who lives in Thailand who supports American foreign policy.

New Passtime

It seems Pot has found a new role model to replace me, as banging away on the keyboard got boring.

Now Pot rides his little bike up to the front gate, and hangs out with the security guard for hours at a time, helping to raise and lower the bar to let cars through, and saluting all the drivers going by.

Well, at only 4½ years old, it's too early to accuse him of making a poor career choice.

Science News

Scientists close to curing Alzheimers. Awesome.

Monday Vinnie Blogging

It's the hair. Chicks dig the hair.

Party

I got a call Friday night from my oldest friend in Thailand, Lolo, who is the head choreographer of the Tiffany Show. Her birthday party was Saturday night, and I was invited.

I haven't seen Lolo (or any of the Tiffany's folks) in almost a year, and it was great to hear from her. Of course I (and Pui, who hasn't met any of these people yet) would be going.

The one downside (and one of the reasons I haven't seen Lolo and company for so long) is that they are nocturnal: The party would start at about 1:30 a.m. after Lolo first finished work at Tiffany's (11:00 p.m.) and then finished putting on her daily cabaret show at Boyz Boyz Boyz (1:00 a.m.).

I went to sleep at 8:00 and woke up at 11:00 to take a shower and get ready. Pui, a little more excited about the party, didn' get any sleep, but instead spent her time fixing her hair.

First we went to Boyz Boyz Boyz, stopping at Foodland to pick up a bottle of Hennesy as a birthday present. Pui had never been to a gay gogo bar before and didn't care for it very much, but I got her laughing by pointing out how most of the guys on stage had socks stuffed down their shorts, and besides... Lolo's show started rather quickly, so Pui didn't have to put up with the boys show for very long.

The show was the usual sequined gowns and lip-synching of Broadway tunes and camp classics, and lasted for about half an hour. After that, we met Lolo and everyone in the show out in front of the bar. Lolo had to make a stop at her house before going to the party, and put us in the charge of (another) Pui, whom we followed out to Ot's house. Ot is the creative director for the Tiffany's Show. I had been to his house once before, and knew that it was across Sukhimvit Road somewhere, but had forgotten where. It turns out it he lives on Soi OBL, with the entrance to his housing development about half a mile away from my own.

So anyway, just about everybody I knew from the Tiffany Show was there, and it was really great to see all of these people again. Photos:

My Pui and Tiffany's Pui (still in her Tiffany's stage makeup) hit it off. That's one of the things I enjoy most about having Pui as a girlfriend. Most Thai girls, if you put them in a social situation where they don't know anybody, will go all quiet and introverted. Pui will immediately get to work getting to know people. The fact that she was able to make friends and have a great time among the Tiffany's crowd, which is about as insular and as cliqueish as you could ever hope to see, says a lot about her outgoing personality.

This is Lolo on the right and my second oldest friend, Oad, on the left. I actually took a road trip with Oad, Lolo, and their friends Seiko, Bob, and Tum to Chantaburi to visit Oad's family about 2½ years ago. That was a good time.

Below is Ot in the center, the creative director for the Tiffany's show, with Lolo, head choreographer on the right, and Bob, another one of my old friends, who is kind of the "star" of Tiffany's show. Actually, all of them are among the first people I met when I arrived in Thailand.

Friday Night Out

As Friday was Jil's bi-weekly payday, it represented an opportunity to treat those who otherwise always treat Jil (and that would be primarily Mike) to a night on the town.

So, Mike, Riza, Riza's best friend, Pui, Maid Go, Jil, and Pot piled in Mike's car and went for dinner at Vientienne Restaurant, and then it was off to Moon River Pub for drinks. (Pot was not allowed into the bar, being a fair spot under the age of 20, so Go and he took a motorcycle taxi home at that point.)

Everybody drank, danced, and made merry while Jil balanced out his pecuniary karma. All is well in the world.

Who Is Matt?

Once upon a time, a guy named Matt decided that he would go on a trip around the world. He did just that. In a fit of genius, he decided that he would dance everywhere he went. Hence this video, which reminds me that I've sat in one part of the world for a very long time.

I find this video really inspirational to tell the truth. I've said it a hundred times before: You're only a plane ticket away from one of the defining moments of your life. Here's something to get you started:

Once you've danced a jig on an Antarctic glacier, then you can tell me you've done it all.

Also, click through to go to other Matt videos. Click here to visit the web site.

Family Everywhere

It's interesting in Thailand how much "family monikers" are used in daily language. Words that are normally reserved for members of the family are frequently used for friends, acquaintances, or even complete strangers.

Pot still calls me "loong" (uncle, older than one's parent). Pui calls Maid Go "mae" (Mom), whereas Took, the old girlfriend called Maid Go "pa" (aunt, older than one's parent). Often times, Thai girls will start calling their best friend "sister", as Pui does with Stan's wife, Mem. Pot calls his older friends who live nearby "pee" (elder).

But the oddest occurrences is with complete strangers, where Thai people will call the person selling them shows "aunt" or the person waiting on their table "sister".

A Pro-Life Argument

I'm pro-choice, but only lukewarm. However, I've never heard an argument that would convince me to be pro-life, but I saw something written that made me stop and think: It was regarding the recent stem cell veto thing in Congress.

I cannot see how [a stem cell] can be seen as anything other than human life.

Note the semantics: "Human life" versus "A human life."

It made me stop and think:
1. Is it alive? Is it life?
2. Does it come from a human?

If you say yes and yes, well then there you are. Your own pro-life argument.

I'm still pro-choice, but that is because I (and I'm just being honest) place no intrinsic value on an undeveloped fetus. I place value in a potential life — with a capital L perhaps? — that can come from that fetus, and I think it should never be wasted. However, I simply don't feel strongly enough about it to actively remove the ability to make what I consider to be the wrong choice in such a matter. I simply feel it should always be a choice, and... yes... it should always be the wrong choice.

The Upside Revisited

About 10 months ago, I wrote here about how it wasn't really a bad thing that the Republicans managed to stay on top after the 2004 elections because that meant that everything for the next 2 or 4 years that went wrong (and certainly there have been enough things going wrong) would be blamed on the Republicans.

And, since basically everything that has gone wrong before and since then (except for Katrina, and even then) has been more or less managed/mismanaged by Republicans, I figured that keeping the blame with them was fair. Add to that the new/renewed accusations of corruption, underhanded governance, shifty politics, and dubious policies, and finally... now... the American public might have had enough.

Over the last 10 months, everything has gone exactly as I expected it would.

But, you want a true sign that the Republican establishment is in serious trouble, here it is: Ralph Reed — a huge name in the "non-elected" cadre of the conservative elite — decided to run for the underwhelming office of Lieutenant Governor of Georgia and lost... in the PRIMARY.

That is to say, with only registered Republicans voting, this celebrity conservative couldn't get enough votes to even be allowed to be a Republican candidate for a mid-shelf office in the state where he was, just a few short years ago, the primary force behind a Republican sweep. He lost by 20 friggin' points to a relatively unknown state senator. He lost because of his association with that infamous "disgraced lobbyist", Jack Abramoff.

That culture of corruption and extremism is finally coming home to roost. (The fact that fellow Georgian, Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, of Capitol-police-slapping fame, found herself in a primary runoff enforces that point.)

The last 20 months of Republican-controlled government are really what did it. Americans are starting to recognize the problems with the neoconservative patronage of Congress. (They've always been a little slow.) If Kerry had won the election, it would likely be a completely different story, as the focus and dialogue would have shifted.

Without a President Kerry, the only thing the Republicans can point their blaming fingers at is The New York Times. Without a President Kerry, the only thing the American public can point their blaming fingers at is the Republicans.

After this coming election, expect the Republicans to turn on President Bush in a big way. Expect the American public to follow suit.

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UPDATE:

Hmm... Looks like I'm right again, except in timing: As I was writing "expect the Republicans to turn on President Bush", the Washington Post was writing about how the Republicans are turning on President Bush.

I rock.