East Saxonia

Blogging for Kathy Sierra

2007-03-30T01:35:00.000-07:00

Kathy Sierra, my local news reports tonight, is a blogger who has received death threats, for exercising her freedom of speech online. Read about it at http://majikthise.typepad.com as well.

I have no time to make this post--not that anyone much reads me anyway! -- but as today is a national day for solidarity with her, I want to say that, though I've never read a single word she's written, no-one should receive death threats for exercising their freedom of speech. People who make such threats are not men.

Wife saves husband, clubs mountain lion

2007-01-25T23:34:00.000-08:00

I have fond memories of journeys to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, a beautiful park on California's far north coast, with gorgeous redwoods (natch), ferns, fungi, and wildlife.

MSN.com reports that Nell Hamm saved her husband Jim (70)'s life, when a mountain lion attacked him and wouldn't let go. She tried jabbing a pen in the puma's eye, but ended up repeatedly clubbing it until it finally let go. When it stared at her and released her husband, she stood up and yelled at it until it went away (they say you should do this, making yourself look as big as possible). I love it!

Many kudos to Nell Hamm for her intestinal fortitude (that's guts), and of course, best wishes to Jim for a speedy and happy recovery, and many more lion-free years.

UPDATE: The TV news reported yesterday that Mr. Hamm has "taken a turn for the worse" with his head wound. They interviewed his wife, who seemed genuinely embarrassed at hearing the word "hero" applied to herself. I would bet that, even if she doesn't think that this incident made her a hero, there are probably a lot of family members and friends of hers who have observed her doing countless kindnesses over the years, which, taken together, would make her a hero in my book. You could tell.

Again, praying for her husband's health and quick recovery.

Desperately Wishful Songs

2007-01-06T01:09:00.000-08:00

"Give Me Just a Little More Time," by the Chairmen of the Board. Great soul standard. "Give me just a little more time!/And our love will surely grow", the lyrics say. Why was this song written, though? Plainly, because some poor guy had a relationship that had no spark in it. Sometimes two people have no real need to be together. The woman, sensing this fact and panicking about it, obviously became agitated and snapped, "WELL?!?? WHERE'S THE PASSION!?", prompting the indecisive guy to say, "whoa!" "Give me just a little more time! What's the hurry? I just met you! These things have to build!" But, of course, they probably didn't build, because if there's going to be magnetism, it's there from the start. If not, well--you're lucky, at least you got a great classic song from it.

Similarly, the Vanessa Williams song, "Save the Best for Last." There is no way in hell that a woman as fine and beautiful as Vanessa Williams, who I consider to be one of the most beautiful women in the world (well, she was Miss America, so I guess someone else agreed), would EVER have to write a song about how she chased some ambivalent guy around, while he went off with other women.

(Checking) Hey, I was right! She wasn't one of the writers. The language of this song always tweaked me:

I see the passion in your eyes
Sometimes its all a big surprise
cause there was a time when all I did was wish
Youd tell me this was love
Its not the way I hoped or how I planned
But somehow its enough

And now were standing face to face
Isnt this world a crazy place
Just when I thought our chance had passed
You go and save the best for last

All of the nights you came to me
When some silly girl had set you free
You wondered how youd make it through
I wondered what was wrong with you

cause how could you give your love to someone else
And share your dreams with me
Sometimes the very thing youre looking for
Is the one thing you cant see

And now were standing face to face
Isnt this world a crazy place
Just when I thought our chance had passed
You go and save the best for last

Sometimes the very thing youre looking for
Is the one thing you cant see

Written by waldman/lind/galdston

"It's all a big surprise..." "dreams..." Isn't it all "crazy"? "...the one thing you can't see..."

This is the language of those who are used to deluding themselves. Wh-wha? Why, it's Vanessa Williams! I never noticed... how beautiful you are!

I love this song, but it's bullshit. Complete bullshit. Please! Has anyone ever said anything like this in front of Vanessa Williams? If she looked at me sideways for two seconds, I swear to you, I wouldn't let much grass grow under my feet before tripping over them to bring flowers. Note to women: if your guy friend has been around for longer than a month or three getting to know you, and hasn't made some move to be alone with you, or to make that aloneness equate to making out instead of cuddling and safeness, then either: 1) he sees some flaw in you that he can't hack, and knowing guys, it's probably something superficial about your looks, or 2) he's petrified and will _never_ make a move. I mean never, never ever. He's either petrified or not into it. So you'd better get it over with and make the move yourself. Then at least you'll know. But you knew this.

Ancient Ice Shelf Breaks Free

2006-12-29T14:18:00.000-08:00

Sounds like a logline for an Edwardian drama of manners, doesn't it? The "Breaks Free" part sounds hopeful, at least. But no, it's a development in Global Climate Change. You know, the kind right-wing cranks and industry shills keep grousing has nothing to do with human activity, nor could be changed in any way by moderating our creature comforts (or, in the case of the Hummer, Beastly Comforts). The Ayles Ice Shelf, about the size of Manhattan, has broken away from its position of the last several millenia. Anyway, I hope those right-wing-nuts enjoy their climate change, because they've gotten almost all their wishes: our President has renounced the Kyoto agreement, our industry will not change its habits one meaningful whit, and whether for comfort or to spite environmentalists, who they see as unmanly and controlling, the private right-wing individual (though I suppose there are left-wing anti-environmentalists and right-wing environmentalists here) won't change his or her piggy habits either.

The only wish they won't get is that the environmentalists should like it and beam happily about it.

Pearl Harbor Survivors

2006-12-07T00:28:00.000-08:00

This article on the AP wires says that many of the survivors of Pearl Harbor, who have been reuniting every five years since the war, expect December 7, 2006, to be the last reunion. 65 years on, most of the survivors are in their 80s or 90s, many wheelchair-bound.

There are survivors who still feel that there can be more reunions:

...some veterans don't believe, or refuse to accept, that this will be the last major gathering.

"They claimed the 60th was going to be the last one. Now they have the 65th. When they have the 70th, then they'll be claiming, 'This will be the last one,'" Hyland said. "They've been crying wolf too many times."

Hyland does accept the fact that their numbers are falling fast.

"We all have our turn and our turn is getting closer," he said.

[...]

The bond is so strong that some ask to have their ashes interred inside the Arizona, laid to rest with shipmates who were not so fortunate as to survive Dec. 7, 1941.

"They're coming home," Middlesworth said. "They feel they're coming home."

My parents had me late. My mother survived a Japanese internment camp. I often felt, while she still lived, that the world she grew up in was so distinct from ours, that to talk to her about it was to travel to another time, completely alien but completely familiar. This other era, this other Britain. The other America, where she and my father later met, after my father served in the Pacific. It's so very long ago.

Anyone with grandparents or parents who were alive during that war should talk to them tomorrow.

Unbelievable

2006-11-27T01:32:00.000-08:00

This ridiculous story says that a southern Colorado homeowners' association is trying to get a woman to remove a peace-sign Christmas wreath decoration; among the ridiculous reasons offered, you can pick your own (the last is my favorite)

First, some say it could be construed as an anti-Iraq war protest;

Second--yes--some people actually think the peace sign is a symbol of satan;

Third, my favorite, her homeowners' association feels the peace sign could be "divisive."

Modern America is often considered Orwellian. You heard it here, L's and G's: Peace is divisive.

Lisa Jensen said she wasn’t thinking of the war when she hung the wreath. She said, “Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing.”

[...]

“Now that it has come to this I feel I can’t get bullied,” she said. “What if they don’t like my Santa Claus.”

Serge Gainsbourg Graverobbed

2006-11-19T20:07:00.000-08:00

My head shot up in astonishment today to hear Serge Gainsbourg's "Bonnie and Clyde" issuing from the television today. It wasn't his original version, I don't think, and certainly not the sample in the MC Solaar rap "Le Nouveau Western." It was apparently a remake. Before my astonishment could give way to rapturous delight, however, I saw what it was advertising: the Cadillac Escalade.

Gainsbourg did do advertisements during his life. However, there is something revolting about this defier of convention being used to sell Escalades, ultimate symbol of selling out.

Interesting to find out that Gainsbourg, whose family apparently had fled Bolshevik Russia, and later had to wear the Jewish yellow star and flee Nazi-occupied Paris, was last involved with a relative of Generalfeldmarschall Friedrich von Paulus (the wikipedia entry doesn't say "von," but I think he was a "von"), who was ground down at Stalingrad until he surrendered to the USSR, and ended up working for them. Paulus had rebuked Admiral Canaris for suggesting that the Nazis were committing war crimes (wikipedia's entry on Canaris contains a misstatement or two--Himmler had actually protected Canaris from his rival Heydrich, who reported to Himmler, until the July 20, 1944 plot made it impossible any longer to do so).

I'm glad things worked out better for Gainsbourg in the last half of the 20th century than they did in the first.

Vice-President says Torture is a "No-Brainer"

2006-10-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

But, of course, he claims that waterboarding isn't torture--just "robust interrogation." Well that sounds very bracing. Like a spa treatment. For God's sake, I don't often go into American politics on this blog, but this person. This PERSON.

Here's the link to the MSN.com story (and sorry that I keep posting all my news from them--no, I'm not exactly scouring the 'net. Just swatting the ones that are easy.).

Uh-oh

2006-10-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

msn.com mentions the new warning from North Korea to the South, saying:

"South Korea, forced by the United States, has already halted inter-Korea humanitarian projects and is moving to stop cooperation in other areas. The South is even revealing an intention to join U.S.-led military operations aimed at blockade against us," the spokesman was quoted as saying.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement

"South Korea’s participation in the U.S. racket to put pressure upon the North ... is a serious provocation leading to a crisis of war on the Korean peninsula," the spokesman reportedly said.

"If South Korea joins the U.S. ploy to pressure us, we will consider it as a declaration of a showdown and take corresponding actions," the spokesman added.

More disturbingly (?), Japan may respond:

Japan’s Defense Ministry could not confirm media reports that Tokyo was considering deploying several destroyers and patrol aircraft to its western and southern coasts to conduct warning and surveillance activities.

Japan’s defense minister, Fumio Kyuma, indicated it all depended on the United States.

"Japan must keep a close eye on what America decides to do and if it goes ahead must cooperate in various ways or carry out activities of its own," Kyuma told a news conference.

I have mentioned previously that Japan's air force is in no way prepared to take action against North Korea. Also, I've mentioned a billion times, though not only here, that if Japan, rather weak at this moment against North Korea, rattles sabers like a 1939 Poland, overrating its defense capacity, it could be calamitous to the world's economy.

I've considered it urgent, for some months now, that some government, financial newspaper, or unofficial body do a study on what the possible impacts of a North Korean conflict with Japan might be upon the world's economic and financial systems (remembering, of course, that North Korea is largely divorced from these capitalist systems, and cares nothing about them, but will care a great deal about prosecuting this war thoroughly and not half-heartedly, should it occur). Consider that Japan is a crucial link in our supply chain. Consider that their holdings of US dollars, which they've just begun to sell off in 2005, have been one of the main props keeping the dollar's value afloat; also that China, North Korea's putative ally, which didn't start selling dollar bonds last year, but only stopped buying them, has also been just as crucial to the dollar's value as well. Though both countries already stopped supporting the dollar last year, what effect will war have, as goods and components can no longer be brought with such safety into and out of East Asia?

What if China takes up with North Korea again, as an ally, as they did a half-century ago? Will China's formidable purchasing power, mentioned in The Economist this week as approaching the United States', be given over to Europe, at the expense of America's already decimated manufacturing sector? Will Taiwan's industry be forced to take up the slack for a hostile China and a Japan under siege, if the latter two are less able or willing to supply us? And, as I've been crying for three years, what if China engineers a precipitate fall in the dollar, by selling with alacrity? Will interest rates rocket, to attract foreign investment to the dollar again? Will US housing fall still further? Will this drop in housing impact the wider US economy?

No crisis on earth has worried me more than North Korea. We need to plan. Not only should the US government write reports on the matter, but someone needs to actually read them.

North Korea says fightin' words

2006-10-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

North Korea just responded to the UN sanctions by saying that they were an "act of war," according to our local TV news. Pray that we don't go to war with them. As you know, I've been very concerned for some years now about the way things have been hotting up in East Asia (Brainhell, what was that bet we had again?). If we go to war with North Korea, I think we will be lucky if all it turns out to be is a national and international humiliation on the order of Vietnam. I think it will be a complete disaster for us, especially considering how important Japan is to our economic supply chain, and how vulnerable they are to North Korea, and how fully North Korea can be expected to wage total war against us. Pray.

Welcome back brainhell!

2006-10-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

The best of our many posters here, brainhell, has come back from his hospital stay. Glad the stay was brief, hope you are recuperating well, and welcome back home!

Be well, Mysticusque

Stand against women being stoned to death

2006-10-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

From eteraz, hat tip to majikthise.

Seven women are to be stoned to death in Iran; Amnesty International, the great human rights organization, is mobilizing to stop it.

More wordplay

2006-10-02T01:52:00.000-07:00

The great comedian Brian Regan (and if you get a chance, go see this guy) has a bit regarding his childhood difficulty with this inconsistency:

"I before E, except after C
Or when sounded as 'A,' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh,'
And on weekends and Wednesdays and all throughout May,
And you'll always be wrong, no matter _what_ you say!"

He's just Weird. Right?

He must need Caffeine.

I think I'll load up a whole Weir-full for him.

I only hope the Heir doesn't Heist an Heirloom. That would be Heinous. Especially if he fell from the Ceiling, because that would be a great Height. But we don't want to Deify him.

Well, at least "Heinous" is sounded as "A," as in "Neighbour" and "Weigh." And "Ceiling" has a C before the I and the E. But no, seriously, when is it "I before E"?

Usage

2006-09-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

Saw a sign yesterday: "Old Fashion Pizza."

OK--first I thought: "I'd be happier if it said 'Old-fashioned,' and it'd better be with a hyphen, too."

Then I thought, if it were bad, would we say, "that's bad-fashioned!"?

NO!

We would say, "That's badly fashioned." Maybe we'd say, "That's a badly-fashioned pizza."

Resolved: the sign should say, "Elderly-fashioned Pizza."

Aaron Sorkin does it again

2006-09-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

So, I just watched Studio 60 on Sunset Strip, the new series by writer/producer Aaron Sorkin, who did such great work on The West Wing. He was the mastermind behind the West Wing, and wrote most, perhaps all, of the episodes through the fourth season, when he was busted for having psychedelic mushrooms, and was replaced by John Wells, the producer of ER. That seriously derailed the show, although I thought they became good again for the last season. But with all respect to John Wells, never as good, as dramatically engaging and funny, as when Aaron Sorkin was at the helm.

Aaron Sorkin has brought his brilliant writing and astute casting to bear on Studio 60 on Sunset Strip, Mondays, 10:00 p.m., about a late-night variety show (obviously Saturday Night Live), and the behind-the-scenes drama that plays out there. Pilots can sometimes be shaky or unfocused, as a new show strives to find its feet. Not here. The pilot was perfectly well-thought-out, very well-directed, and the actors knew exactly who their characters were. Well-recommended. Well-?

Annoying Commercials: Still not an oxymoron!

2006-08-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing ads for a product called "Head On." The ads feature a young woman rubbing something that looks like a deodorant stick to her forehead. A female voice intones repeatedly:

"Head On--Apply Directly to the Forehead! Head On--Apply Directly to the Forehead! Head On--Apply Directly to the Forehead! Head On--Apply Directly to the Forehead!"

, until the commercial is done.

You're probably wondering: what is it for?

I DON'T KNOW!!!!!!!

Yes, absolutely nothing in the commercial, not the narrative (obviously), nor any writing on the product's packaging, gives you the smallest indication of what the thing does. There was a Saturday Night Live sketch decades ago, with Gilda Radner touting "the women's product so feminine--we don't know _what_ it does!"

The other ad that's got to go is Comcast:

Guy 1: "What's the deal?"
Guy 2: "(explains Comcast's great new deal)"
Guy 1: "No--I mean what's the deal with us being huge in Japan? (or other crazy thing he can't explain)"

It's. So. LAME. I mean, it's like a joke written by someone who's never heard a joke before, but has only had "joking" described to them, and tries their hand at it.

To be positive (I don't want to drive any ad copywriters to suicide), let me suggest: jokes aren't your thing. Don't try them. Write drama.

Kim Jong Il's Love Life

2006-07-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

Maybe she'll turn out to be his reverse Yoko, and teach him to do better. Love that the son of the anti-capitalist ideologue fell out of favor because he really, really wanted to see Disneyland. We rule!

Report: Kim Jong Il Living With Secretary

- - - - - - - - - - - -

July 22,2006 | SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has been living with his former secretary, who is virtually acting as the communist nation's "first lady," South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Sunday.

There is no official information available about the marital history of the 64-year-old leader of the highly secretive government, but Kim is widely believed to have been married three times. His last wife, Ko Yong Hi, reportedly died of cancer in 2004.

Kim Ok, 42, "virtually acts as North Korea's first lady" and frequently accompanies the North Korean leader on his visits to military bases and in meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries, Yonhap said.

She also traveled with Kim Jong Il on a secretive trip to China in January, when she was received by Chinese officials as Kim's wife, the report said. Kim Ok also met with Chinese President Hu Jintao, it said.

It is not known whether Kim Ok and the North Korean leader have any children, Yonhap said.

Kim Jong Il is known to have three sons -- one from his second wife and two from his third. North Korean experts say Kim's 25-year-old son Kim Jong Chul is most likely to become the North's next leader.

His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, is said to have fallen out of favor after embarrassing his father in 2001 when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

Japan discusses strike against North Korea

2006-07-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13775754/

Japan is to vote to consider a "pre-emptive strike" (the article's words) against North Korean missile bases, in response to North Korea's missile launches around the 4th of July. The experts in the article don't rate Japan's air force as being up to the task in pilotry or materiel. Serious things being talked about here.

Update: I've been looking at Globalsecurity.org, for information on Japan's readiness. This link: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/jmsdf.htm

mentions casually, or not so casually, that

For Japan, which relies on foreign countries for the supply of almost all energy and food, the influence to national life is quite serious in case that maritime traffic is cut off. It can also be said that the impact to the world economy is significant in such case.

If they're discussing mixing it up with North Korea, then they should know that

The DPRK, with over 8,800 AA guns, combined with SA-2, SA-3, and SA-5, and handheld SA-7 and SA-16 surface-to-air missiles, has constructed one of the world's most dense air defense networks.

and that

In the mid- 1980s, the former Soviet Union supplied SA-3/GOA surface-to-air missiles to the DPRK. The SA-3 provides short-range defense against low- flying aircraft. In 1987, the former Soviet Union provided SA-5/GAMMON surface-to-air missiles that gave Pyongyang a long-range, highaltitude, surface-to-air missile capability.

They stress that air defence is a North Korean priority. Though they have many unworthy MiG-21s, the North Koreans apparently also do have dozens of MiG-23s, MiG-29s, and Chinese Fantan fighters.

The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force seems to have very little bomber capacity. They have several hundred fighters, including F-1s, F-2s, and F-15Js, some of which serve as fighter-bombers or carry air-to-surface missiles, and their navy has several dozen destroyers, but as far as carrying out this attack on North Korea, it seems it would largely fall to the US to do it. If I were Japan, I would talk less about it, but do more about preparing for it. Considering what a problem it would be for the world economy if Japan lost such a struggle, this is far, far more important than any Vietnam War. I hope our leaders here in Congress are paying a lot of god-blessed attention to this situation, and thinking clearly and critically about it. God help us if this goes wrong, because if there's one thing we know about Kim Jong Il and the North Koreans, it's that they couldn't give a f*** about our capitalist system, or about the suffering that such a disruption of that important little island friend Japan would cause us.

North Korea's tests

2006-07-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

msn.com has the story of the missile tests North Korea just ran.

North Korea's Taepodong 2 missile, our local news keeps saying, "has a potential range of 9320 miles, far enough to hit California," but (although the news outlets often mention that the missiles are likely to be inaccurate) that's only if they manage to put a third stage on them; also, they likely can't put a nuclear warhead on them yet, thank God. North Korea can certainly do damage to us, though. The counterfeit dollar program that some of their officials supposedly run does some little damage. If they wanted to export terrorism to us, they could probably do that too.

With the Taepodong 2, they're like a small child with a temper problem; the missiles landed in the Sea of Japan, but didn't damage Japan. An earlier launch, in 1998, actually went over Japan itself (like a shot across the bow), much more alarming. So they're like a child punching the air angrily; the punches haven't landed anywhere yet, but the parent still must say something, because the child could hurt someone. And although they can't hurt anyone badly yet, they can hurt people somewhat, and when they grow up, their violent tendencies will be a real concern.

New Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers!

2006-07-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

With a hat tip to boingboing.net, and my brother, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers have their first installment in years! Good news!

China "only strengthening" its military "to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence"--Whew!

2006-06-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

In an article in msn.com today, experts mentioned Chinese advancements in cyber-warfare, and the possibility that they might hinder us in helping Taiwan, in the event of war between Taiwan and the mainland:

James Mulvenon, a specialist on the Chinese military at the National Defense University in Washington, says China has been strengthening its ability to attack enemy computer systems as part of preparations for potential U.S. involvement in any future clash with Taiwan.

“In the event of a military conflict between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan, the PRC believes that disrupting U.S. computer systems and networks could potentially delay U.S. intervention, and the PLA could then cause pain sufficient enough to force Taipei to surrender before the U.S. has a chance to arrive,” Mulvenon said.

Further, that--oh, thank God!--their recent military spending spike is "only" for "defensive purposes" such as "preventing Taiwan from declaring independence." Oh, "only" that? So, if we just forget that the US are treaty-bound to come to Taiwan's aid in that eventuality, there'll be no problem.

Meanwhile, Professor Chu Shulong of China's Tsinghua University stressed that his country’s concerns over Taiwan are what are motivating China's military development, as opposed to any possible aggression toward the U.S. Taiwan and China are engaged in a complicated war of words in which each claims to represent the true Chinese government.

“China is a developing country in which as it develops, it will strengthen its military for only defensive purposes — mostly to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence, not to target the United States,” added Chu, sometimes a harsh critic of Beijing's military policy.

Dr. Jin Canrong, a professor at Renmin University of China, says Beijing's foremost concern is economic development and that conflict with the U.S. “will only hinder China’s development in the long run.”

Long-term threat to U.S.?
The U.S., though, argues that the lack of transparency in China’s robust military build-up poses a credible long-term threat to the U.S.

Last month's Pentagon’s report said China’s military budget for 2006 is likely much more than the $35 billion it claims. The Defense Intelligence Agency estimates that China’s military spending will amount to between $70 billion and $105 billion in 2006.

The article led with mention that we're letting China observe our massive wargames off of Guam, and hoping that China will reciprocate by letting us observe theirs (so far, only Russia has been allowed to, recently). I think this is an awful idea. We may not be able to prevent them spying, but why give them a ringside seat?

Faux-Onion Headlines

2006-06-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

Today I begin a new feature of my little-read blog: faux-Onion headlines. The Onion is not looking for submissions from random fools, but for some reason, I feel that I want to put my spoke in. The Onion places, or used to place, satirical headlines on its site, some of which had stories attached, but some of which were just the headline. When I get off my ass and design my own look for this site, I'll have them in a separate place, but for now, they'll appear as posts. No comments are necessary, I'm just tossing them out. No drum roll, please, as I present herewith my first installment:

Woman Chirping 'it's First Come, First Served' Secretly Longs to Feel Schadenfreude

Grunting in Music

2006-06-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine reminded me that when in high school, I mentioned to him that the "unh!" in Hotel California by the Eagles (she got the Mercedes Benz/unh!) bugged me no end. He opined that the Eagles were going for a sexual grunt (in which case it's twice as weak). I emailed him:

It is extremely funny that I was mentioning the weakness of that "Mercedes Benz--unh." line even way back then. The Eagles' grunting, I think I can safely say, was only tangentially sexual. Grunting in rock and roll music began in the 1960s. I have a live version of Free doing Fire and Water in the late 60s, in which Paul Rodgers grunts forcefully, something between "Mm!" and "unh!", before starting the last verse. This is a grunt of power, expressing the intensity of the performer's experience. Paul Rodgers, with his powerful pipes, was the one chosen to replace Freddie Mercury for the latest Queen tour, and this incredible singer remains the standard by which all other grunting singers should be judged.

The context in which Paul did his grunting was one of a music scene, not as strictly segregated as it later became. The 1960s soul music scene was replete with grunting ("Ha! I'll be there!/To love and comfort you," or see songs by Sam and Dave, the Four Tops, or Stevie Wonder). Thus, Jimi Hendrix, who played with the soul (later funk) band the (great) Isley Brothers, took their grunting tradition and brought it to rock and roll. This is not unlike the Beatles' borrowing of Little Richard's whooping, for their records. Thus, Jimi Hendrix brought grunts and whoops like "whaow! let me stand next to your fire," and those in "If 6 was 9," to hard rock. During the 1970s, funk music brought the grunt over the top. Along with wonderful songs like the fantastic "Fight the Power," by the Isleys ("and when I rolled with the punches I got knocked on the ground, by all this/Bullshit goin' down/Ooo!"), punctuated by the odd grunt or whoop, we got the world-acknowledged grunting tour de force, piece de resistance, and masterpiece, "Jungle Boogie," by the great Kool and the Gang. "Feel the funk, y'all/let it f-low/Uh-uh-uh!/chka-chk-chk/chka-jungle-boogie-come-on." This, I would say, is sexual grunting, but I'm just guessing.

It was against this backdrop that the mid-70s Eagles chose to offer: "she got the Mercedes Benz. Unh." This is the weakest grunt of the entire decade. I like an entrancing vamp, but when repetitive songs turned plodding, they always annoyed me no end. And there is no getting away from Hotel California. My request to the Eagles: please remix that song, and have the Isleys or Kool and the Gang add a proper grunt.

RIP Vince Welnick

2006-06-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

Stunning news today. KFOG just announced that Vince Welnick, longtime keyboard player from the Tubes and the Grateful Dead, has died. They say that unconfirmed reports suggest that it might have been at his own hand. What a tragedy.

It's hard to pick a "most-talented" member of the Tubes--Prairie Prince rates high--because they were always firing on all cylinders, and with so many members, too. But I always thought of Vince Welnick as the top of the heap in that band. Find the great, unsung album "Now!", from the late 70s. When I got my first bass, the first band I started studying was the Tubes, especially "You're No Fun," from "Now!." That was always my very favorite Tubes song, a pounding, expansive tour de force. I worked so hard to get that bass part right. Last year, I bought the album again, and rediscovered that great song. Vince Welnick's beautiful piano shines out on that song, and interplays wonderfully with Michael Cotten's sophisticated synthesizer sounds. In the end, Vince is hammering away on the piano, with the rest of the band just smoking away.

It's a tragedy. I don't know what stresses he was undergoing, that may have brought him to this, but anyone considering the same thing should reflect that suicide is still the killing of a good person. Vince Welnick, rest in peace.

Katrina and the Waves Walking-on-Sunshine-watch

2006-05-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

OK, I guess it makes sense to make this a regular feature, since that #$%^@ song is NEVER NEVER EVER GOING TO GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!

(The ten exclamation points above are actually symbolic; the number ten represents completion. Or, as Boomhauer put it: "mcnncnmmdnmuttermumbledang ol' Closure, man.")

Our local radio station has been playing more B-sides and deep cuts, with a tagline: "Kxxx. Where you never know what you're going to hear next." They have actually done a very fine job of diversifying the playlist over the last year or two, so I don't want to ride them. But they played that ad, "Kxxx. Where you never know what you're going to hear next," just now, and launched into the Katrina and the Waves song. As if it's not the most overplayed and overmarketed and overhyped song ever, in the existence of carbon-based life.

That, and Hotel California, by the Eagles. Jesus.

Eruption coming

2006-04-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Indonesian Volcano Could Erupt Any Day

- - - - - - - - - - - -

April 27,2006 | JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's rumbling Mount Merapi is spewing volcanic ash, magma has fully covered its crater, and a powerful eruption could come any day, a scientist said Thursday.

Authorities said, however, they were not ready to raise the alert to the highest level, which requires immediate evacuation of villagers living on the slopes of the 9,700-foot peak.

The mountain, one of the most active in Indonesia, is still in phase two, they said.

"It's close to eruption," said Dewi Sri, a vulcanologist at a monitoring post near Merapi's peak.

"The crater is fully covered by magma," she said, predicting "an enormous and dreadful eruption" within days.

I remember after Mount St. Helens erupted, that all the way in San Jose, the sky was sooty grey for several days. Can events like this trigger earthquakes, too?

China in Africa

2006-04-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press reports that China has signed agreements with Nigeria, and announced they'll "seek closer ties with Africa," to exploit Africa's oil and other resources.

By DULUE MBACHU Associated Press Writer

April 27,2006 | ABUJA, Nigeria -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said Thursday his government will seek closer ties with Africa -- a resource-rich frontier of opportunity for the world's fastest growing economy -- after signing oil and other agreements with Nigeria.

Hu, on the second and final day of his visit to the West African nation, said China is seeking "a strategic partnership" with the continent that would improve living standards for Africa, he said.

China's interest and growing profile has worried Western rivals -- among them countries who may feel their colonial ties should give them an advantage -- for Africa's resources and markets. And some Africans have complained about being flooded with cheap Chinese goods.

:D) Don't you love it? Hey, you guys too?

Nigeria is the top African producer of crude and the seventh largest in the world, normally pumping 2.5 million barrels per day and was the first sub-Saharan Africa stop on a tour that has included the United States, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

Hu and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo have signed an agreement that requires Nigeria's Petroleum Ministry to give China's state oil firm preferential access to oil blocks in return for a Chinese undertaking to take over a loss-making refinery in the northern city of Kaduna.

China's economy is growing so fast, its leaders have taken steps to avoid inflation or ballooning bad loans. Growth hit 10.2 percent in the first quarter, and China is hungry for the energy, timber, minerals and other raw materials Africa can provide.

"By the year 2020 ... GDP would quadruple that of 2000 to reach $4 trillion, averaging $3,000 per head," Hu said.

In other deals, Chinese firms will build a hydroelectric power station in the northeastern Mambilla plateau and a fast rail system linking the Nigerian capital Abuja with the economic capital, Lagos.

Two Chinese telecommunication firms, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, will execute large contracts for rural telephone service across Nigeria with the help of concessionary loans from the Chinese government worth more than $200 million.

In January, China's state-controlled oil firm CNOOC announced it had reached a deal to pay $2.3 billion for a 45-percent state in a Nigerian offshore oil field.

In the last five years, China's trade with Africa has grown fourfold to $40 billion in 2005.

I've always said two things about China: first, that their aim is, while not to expand, to retake Taiwan (therefore, their expansion has a military goal); second, that if they were smart (though yes, they are smart), they would forget all about retaking Taiwan, and realize that the modern battlefield is the economic and financial battlefield.

Most people I've discussed it with say that they do indeed recognize that. It may well be true, and if so, they're acting with alacrity to win those battles, while we content ourselves with occasionally going to war. With all the gentlemanly agreements, diplomacy, and sometimes bullying, that the Chinese are doing in Africa, Asia, the mideast (Iran) and the South Pacific, what are we doing? We, uh--well we went to war with Iraq. Maybe Iran soon. Anything else? (clearing throat) Guys?

I still think that China, surrounded as they are by several nuclear countries, several unstable countries, several hostile countries, and several countries with million-man armies (I think they border 19 countries, several of which they've gone to war with in the last several decades), has security and military concerns much more in the forefront. We can afford to think primarily of our economy, we're sheltered by two oceans (well three, the Arctic too) and a thin land bridge, beyond which lie countries unlikely to invade us or have border disputes with us. But China's economy is growing crazily, though with uneven results (they have a growing middle class, I think, but their peasantry and country people are getting squeezed by bandits, just the way they did before the Communists). For us, our middle class has been squeezed to death along with our poor, and I think that over the last five years, we've lost a couple of million jobs, net. So if they are focusing primarily on the economic battlefield, they're winning, hands down.

Don't Nuke Iran

2006-04-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Our government is kicking around the idea of nuking Iran. I feel this would be an atrocity that would shame us for many years to come. Don't do it.

I'm afraid that the lines for World War III have been drawn. The alliance between China, Russia and Iran worries me. But there is a human tragedy in a world war that is so monumental that it can't be explained away. Let us not be responsible for this.

Iran and its Missiles

2006-04-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

In this story from several years ago in Globalsecurity.org, Iran's scientists have trained in Russia, learning their missile technology. Interesting development. Iran, 100 years ago and more, often viewed Russia with much alarm, as a bear encroaching on their backyard. But they've apparently become quite cozy, as Iran has with the Chinese as well.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/1998/980309-iran-nyt.htm

Recently, Iran tested its new Hut missile, a high-speed waterborne missile, which matches what was heretofore the fastest such missile in the world. Why, goodness me: it was a Russian missile that used to be the fastest. Goodness gracious, what a coincidence.

Write your Representative: Save New Orleans, Fund the Levee Repairs

2006-03-31T14:05:00.000-08:00

This is a link to help to make it easy for you to write your
representative: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Please urge them to fund levee repairs, and to concentrate their efforts in a concerted application of thought, energy, and action, to rebuild New Orleans sensibly. It's time for them to think, speak, and act. Save the city.

Help New Orleans

2006-03-31T13:41:00.000-08:00

Our government is trying to underfund the rebuilding of New Orleans' levees. I had written to my congresswoman and senators to encourage them not only to rebuild the levees, but to refurbish Louisiana's coastal wetlands, which acted as a natural hurricane break until they began to be destroyed. Now, not only are the wetlands a sacrifice (too Environmentally Squishy, I guess), but the administration says $10 billion is too much to spend here. If we can spend $80 billion for Iraq, we can spend $10 billion to save one of our own cities. Please, even if you don't usually do this, write your senators and congressmen or -women, and the White House, and respectfully tell them we want New Orleans protected. There isn't much time; there will be more hurricanes within only a few months. These are our people. They need our help. Save the city.

http://www.node707.com/archives/007512.shtml

China and Taiwan

2006-03-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

The Economist's latest number includes a survey on China. The Economist is a fine paper, so they must have meant the following sentence sardonically:

"Its secretive armed forces are reaching out to other countries by staging joint manoeuvres (though not yet with the Americans or the Japanese)..."

I would have written: "...though, significantly, not with the Americans or the Japanese." If they didn't mean it to be tongue-in-cheek, then not "yet?" Considering that the most likely eventual targets of Chinese weapons are likely to be India, Taiwan, and/or Japan, all three allies of America, I should think Not Soon. China have been conducting war games with Russia. They have also encouraged (also by the Economist's report) demonstrations against Taiwan and Japan both.

Apparently, Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek had also made plans during the '60s to invade the mainland:

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/detail.asp?ID=79291&GRP=A

And this alarming report by globalsecurity.org mentions that China is overtaking Taiwan militarily:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/taiwan/2006/taiwan-060320-cna03.htm

The article states that China "has laid an 'advantageous' foundation for invading the island, according to a [Taiwanese] Ministry of National Defense (MND) report released Monday," and that according to Taiwanese Director Liang Kung-kai of the MND's Department of Strategic Planning, "the greatest menace China poses to Taiwan is a possible 'blitzkrieg attack' involving tactical and cruise missiles targeted at Taiwan's political, economic and military installations."

"China has deployed more than 800 tactical and cruise missiles targeting Taiwan and is developing more than 10 guided missiles and two surface-to-air cruise missiles, [Liang] noted.

Another threat to Taiwan is China's submarine fleet which could blockade sea traffic to and from the island, Liang said.

In addition to its 70-odd warships and nearly 80 submarines, China is also carrying out five programs to modernize its underwater fleet which could be used to blockade Taiwan's ports for an extended period of time, according to Liang.

He pointed out that China's air force has more than 400 new-generation fighter jets equipped with long-range and smart missiles that are capable of attacking air space over eastern Taiwan from a distance of 600 nautical miles.

His report was entitled 'The necessity of acquiring P-3C anti-submarine aircraft and submarines and the combat readiness of the ROC armed forces.'"

I think it's clear: with all the dangerous characters on its borders, like Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India, Korea, and Russia (all of which are nuclear-armed), China has pointed several hundred missiles at Taiwan. They clearly view Taiwan with extreme tension, still, despite one-step-forward-two-steps-back overtures toward reaching an accommodation with them.

Consider this, too: why so many submarines, for a nation that has never ranged far from its own shores? Why are they buying so many right now? India, Russia, the Koreas, and Indochina all have seas to patrol, but I strongly believe that most of those subs are pointed straight at Taiwan.

Got a smile, too, at the Economist's take on President Hu and Prime Minister Wen, who "appear far more concerned with maintaining stability than with the long-term challenge of moving to a more pluralist system," as if this censorial government has any intention of allowing a vigorous opposition party or parties to take shape.

Predictions and Parallels

2006-03-27T12:26:00.000-08:00

This was once one post with the other Taiwan post today, but it was long, so I've split them into two:

I predict:

1. By 2010, China will be at war with Taiwan.

2. China will take special care to guard its relations with Iran. If the US goes into Iran before then, then China might not raise a huge fuss over it, but if we don't, then China will guard Iran as an important ally (oilfield) once their war begins.

3. Taiwan will call in the US, which made promises to help, all during the Cold War. However, by then, the US military will be exhausted because of the Iraq War, and any other conflagrations that occur betweentime. We will not be able to effectively put boots on the ground, though we will be able to send the Air Force.

4. China's practice of sending spies into the US by the dozen, which the US has been unable to curb, will have allowed China to scout out our industry and military (see articles in the Guardian, www.guardian.co.uk, re: Chinese spying).

5. India, the Koreas, and Japan may be drawn in.

The parallels with World War I:

1. A conservative empire (China today, Austria-Hungary in 1914) sees itself as taking a police action to rein in a renegade province, which it considers legally to belong to the empire, though the legality of the ownership is contested by the people of the province (Taiwan today, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1914) itself.

2. A rival nation, equally large and strong, but equally aging (The USA in our day, Czarist Russia in 1914), is called upon by the people of the province to protect the like-minded freedom fighters there (Taiwan's fellow democracy now, Bosnia's fellow Slavs then).

3. The two large, very conservative empires are thus drawn into a war which neither of them wants, because of commitments of force in a confusing, unresolved issue of self-government vs. government by one of the empires.

4. Other allies are eventually drawn in, and by the end of the war, the original players, who seemed most important to begin with, are either tottering (modern China, 1918 Austria) or supplanted entirely as they were too exhausted from previous fighting (from the unnecessary Iraq War, and the necessary Afghan War, for today's US; or the Japanese war of 1905, for World War I Russia) to have begun a World War.

My friend Brainhell feels that it'll be over by Christmas of the year it's begun, because of our superior air technology. China's jets, though, are new too. Pray that I'm wrong. I certainly am.

Cartoon

2006-03-19T23:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.ucomics.com/tomtoles/2006/03/17/

Use the link now, as it'll be invalid in 3 weeks or so--love Tom Toles.

Sabre-rattling

2006-03-16T01:45:00.000-08:00

Well, here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11849446/

John Bolton is rattling sabres against Iran. This is inevitable, because Iran has definitely been intent on destabilizing Iraq (as others have suggested, their worst nightmare was that Iraq's democracy would bloom perfectly after the US invasion, thus freeing the US to say, "great! Who's next?"). I wonder if we're going in.

The president has also included North Korea in his recent list of despotates to watch, along with Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, and a few others. I continue to be alarmed at the casual way in which we toss slaps at North Korea. It's like showing up at a paranoid schizophrenic's house with a film camera and a swat team. The paranoid is the one with the problem, but mind how you provoke him. North Korea continues to strike me as a very dangerous country. Their economy is in tatters, and their military hardware is supposedly largely obsolete, but there is damage they can do to us. I'm not saying we shouldn't be confident diplomatically, but we don't seem to handle them with the care we should. They are radioactive, after all.

Ukraine

2006-03-16T01:43:00.000-08:00

Just reading about the Ukraine in National Geographic today, and snickering at the butt-awful Soviet apartment blocks that we rightly feared, and which made such effective advertisements for the West during the Cold War. Those, with pictures of smoking and vodka-drinking proletarians, some salt-of-the-earth and some scary, mostly living lives of close-to-the-bone desperation; and pictures of peasants pulling ploughs (no animals, the husband pulling and the wife pushing), in such magnificently green, wild countryside that you almost imagine it makes it worth it.

Made me think of the trip to the Czech Republic, which had the same buttplug-ugly newer Soviet-era buildings, against the gorgeous, sublime, evocative, lyrical and majestic edifices of the 900 years preceding the Communist interlude, and the same wild countryside, refreshing yet almost frighteningly stark despite the green, as you realize the income disparity between eastern/central and western Europe. Would love to go back to that beautiful country, and especially to Prague.

The Tubes Project

2006-03-13T00:28:00.000-08:00

This incredible band is now the subject of a film documentary, by their ex-synth player, genius Michael Cotten. Where the great Vince Welnick took the piano part of the keyboard tandem in the early days of the band, Michael Cotten devised all the delightfully squiggly, squirmy sorts of sounds that were a Tubes signature. In addition to the similar squiggly sounds Roger Steen's guitar used to make, these sounds always pleased me, because they evoked the image of toothpaste squirting out of a tube. Or... (well, it was the Tubes, after all)

Michael Cotten is taking us on a trip through the early, hazy, crazy days of this musically masterful, theatrical, dynamic band, from back when music was fucking Exciting. The Tubes, of course, still blow audiences out to this day. Much respect to everyone who's ever been in that band. Look forward to it, look for it, coming soon--come now!

http://www.thetubesproject.com

Whoops

2006-03-06T21:18:00.000-08:00

There are people who should not attempt to whoop.

One such person is to be found whooping on the acoustic version of Eric Clapton's "Layla" (another song that WE'VE HEARD ENOUGH OF, ALREADY). I think it's at the first chorus, the first time he sings "Layla--" (Whoo!) "--you got me on my knees Layla." It's bad. It's a bad whoop. Actually, less a "Whoo!" than a "Whaow!" All his life, that poor fellow must hear himself whooping a bad whoop.

This shame was not necessary: while he was standing on line, waiting to get in, he should have tried out the whoop. Then he would have realized that he's one of those people who just shouldn't whoop. I am one of those people. It could have been me.

Oscar Almosts

2006-03-06T01:24:00.000-08:00

Well, much-remarked-upon was Jennifer Garner's daring almost-dive, which if it had come to "fruition" would have caused the biggest Oscar uproar since David Niven's unannounced gentleman-not-in-waiting.

Unremarked upon, I hope, by anyone but me, was another close shave by the lady producer of "Crash"--upon receiving her Oscar, she called it the "motht--most breathtaking" moment of her life, or words to that effect. I don't remember the exact quote after "motht--most breathtaking," because I was concentrating on the fact that, if she hadn't caught the spoonerism, she would have said "motht breast-taking."

That is all.

More Americans Know the Simpsons than the Constitution

2006-03-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

More Americans can name all the Simpsons than all the five freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution (freedom of speech, religion, peaceful assembly, the press, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances; the first two, we still have; the right to peaceably assemble is now contravened by riot police, when the subject of the peaceful assembly is not to the authorities' liking; the press is partially free, but mostly beholden to powerful, rich corporations; and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances, well... I guess we can still petition, but I think the idea was that something should be done about it.)

My favorite bit was that 20% of Americans thought that the right to own a pet was enshrined in the Constitution.

From msn.com:

D’oh! More know Simpsons than Constitution

Study: America more familiar with cartoon family than First Amendment

Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms in the First Amendment, but more than half can name at least two family members of "The Simpsons" (... Lisa, Marge, Maggie, Homer and Bart).

Fox via AP file

Updated: 1:22 a.m. ET March 1, 2006
CHICAGO - Americans apparently know more about “The Simpsons” than they do about the First Amendment.

Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

But more than half can name at least two members of the cartoon family, according to a survey.

The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

Joe Madeira, director of exhibitions at the museum, said he was surprised by the results.

“Part of the survey really shows there are misconceptions, and part of our mission is to clear up these misconceptions,” said Madeira, whose museum will be dedicated to helping visitors understand the First Amendment when it opens in April. “It means we have our job cut out for us.”

The survey found more people could name the three “American Idol” judges than identify three First Amendment rights. They were also more likely to remember popular advertising slogans.

It also showed that people misidentified First Amendment rights. About one in five people thought the right to own a pet was protected, and 38 percent said they believed the right against self-incrimination contained in the Fifth Amendment was a First Amendment right, the survey found.

The telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted Jan. 20-22 by the research firm Synovate and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

_________________________________________________________

Editor's note: The five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment are freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.

Mysteries Explained

2006-02-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

The title of the Led Zeppelin song "D'yer Maker" is not pronounced as if someone was dying, or even dyeing.

The title, according to an interview I once heard on the radio with the Zep's road manager, comes from an old joke. You may be aware that some Britons pronounce words like "America" as "Americer," slurring the end into an "r" sound, if the next word starts with a vowel: "Americer and Russier 'ave just reached an agreement..."

Man 1: "I've just returned, had a great vacation in the islands with the wife."

Man 2: "D'yer Maker?" (Pronounced as "Jer-maiker?", to make a homonym with "Jamaica?")

Man 1: "No, she came of her own accord."

Also: Led Zeppelin, not Led Zepplin. The "Led" was misspelled in order to avoid confusing the pronunciation with that of "lead," as in "Lead Guitar." I don't know what Def Leppard's or Motley Cru:e's excuses were.

Also: Fascism, not Facism.

And another thing...

2006-02-12T01:26:00.000-08:00

That "I Will Survive" song from the 70s has got to go, too, already. I never liked it in the first place, but I think I've been more than patient in allowing it its comeback as a retro-camp piece, and simultaneously as a you-go-girl moment for the Womyn's Movement.

(And God, do I barf when people change the spelling of the word Womin so that it doesn't contain the word "man" or "men." I'm all for equal rights, equal pay, equal opportunity, and proper treatment of women, but how childish is it going to get, and how tortured does our interaction have to get, to kowtow to someone's group? "You should call them Ger-persun Shepherds, with a '-sun' so that it doesn't contain the word 'son'!" "Oh the hu-persun-ities!" I mean, I'm half Jewish, but I don't go around looking for excuses to be offended at people about their insensitivity to Jewishness, and it really bugs me when other people milk it.)

But anyway, are we done yet with "I Will Survive?"

Olympics Oddness

2006-02-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

So, just as I was puzzling over:

the two Koreas marching as one into Olympic Stadium in Turin, and the announcer's statement that they might compete next time (are they planning to reunite? so dictator Kim Jong Il would happily submit to South Korean democracy? or, South Korea to Kim Jong Il's dictatorship, which starves its people and surveils them day and night?);

and Hong Kong entering as a seperate entity (aren't they really part of the People's Republic of China now?);

I watched the Republic of China, aka Taiwan, sometime known to the west as the isle of Formosa, pick a fourth alias: "Chinese Taipei," read the placard they held, walking into the Olympic Stadium. The flag they held was an Olympic flag, with a blue Taiwanese star, not the flag of Taiwan. The announcer said that this was an agreement they'd worked out with the People's Republic of China and the International Olympic Committee.

I'm glad they made an agreement, but it makes me curious: what agreement? What benefits accrued to Taiwan? And what on earth is this with the Two Koreas?

Kate Bush Nominated for 2 Brit Awards

2006-02-07T00:33:00.000-08:00

Still loving King of the Mountain, Kate's new single. Can't stop listening to it. Also love Joanni, about Joan of Arc, and Nocturn.

The Surrey Siren continues to bloom in her astounding return following exile.

Here's a neat article in the Guardian about her:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1582789,00.html

Katrina and the Waves

2006-01-27T00:48:00.000-08:00

Katrina and the Waves.

Walking on Sunshine.

I swear to God. If they play. That FUCKING SONG. On ONE MORE COMMERCIAL, TV SHOW, OR MOVIE.

I shall not be responsible for my actions.

That is all.

China the Hub

2006-01-20T17:23:00.000-08:00

The BBC news reported on Kim Jong Il of North Korea's visit to China over the last week:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4614848.stm

Kim Jong-il 'inspects' China boom

Beijing usually reports the visit after Mr Kim has left the country
North Korea's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, has reportedly been touring hi-tech firms in Shenzhen, the city at the forefront of China's economic boom.
Japanese TV has broadcast secretly filmed footage showing a man resembling Mr Kim leaving a hotel in Shenzhen.

The visit has prompted speculation that China is advocating market reforms for Pyongyang and could also urge it to rejoin stalled nuclear negotiations. [...]

Mr Kim's visit to the cradle of the Chinese boom could be a careful hint to the outside world that he is following Beijing's lead, says the BBC's Louisa Lim in Beijing.

He may be trying to indicate he is ready to introduce reforms to relieve North Korea's struggling economy, she says.

The gist of the article is that China will urge Kim Jong Il to return to the nuclear disarmament talks, and that North Korea may indeed be accepting China's prescriptions for North Korea's economic reforms.

In an otherwise unrelated article, the San Jose Mercury News wrote today about Iran's recent braggadocio, talk of sanctions against Iran from the US, and Iran using oil as a weapon (Iran produces 10 % of the world's oil, second only to Saudi Arabia). They quoted an expert who said that Iran was bolder about its nuclear program than North Korea, because of its oil, with which they could cause us pain. The experts in the article went on to say that although the world would suffer from the higher oil prices that would ensue if Iran withheld its oil, Iran also needs oil money from us. However, the article mentioned that most of Iran's oil is shipped to China and Japan.

Considering China's extreme hunger for oil, and their occasional indifference to the world's suffering when it conflicts with their national goals, can we not imagine that they might make an agreement to be the exclusive purchaser of Iranian oil, at terms favorable to each nation, but highly unfavorable to the West? At the moment, China has the US Navy to thank for clearing the shipping lanes for shipments of Middle East oil. But things can change... China is building a navy... pipelines can be built... watch this space.

North Korea's Secret Meeting in China

2006-01-09T23:46:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press reported today that Kim Jong Il has visited China "on a rare trip outside his country..."

It looks as if the six-country nuclear deproliferation talks the US had been having with North Korea have broken down. I continue to worry about this situation. There's a menace in their paranoia, as there is in every paranoia. The ruthlessness of North Korea bothers me very much too. Too many of the North Korean people--those out of uniform, that is--have been allowed to starve.

Why are they meeting with China? Leaders meet to coordinate. What is being coordinated?

What are China's concerns? At the moment, they are especially: 1) their economic concerns, especially with their rivals, India, Japan, and the USA; 2) their military buildup, and their military situation in their neighborhood; 3) their need for raw materials, especially energy supplies, upon which they've clashed with Japan recently.

Upon which of these concerns would they meet with North Korea? If it is 3), it is North Korea that will most likely receive any energy supplies, food and raw materials, rather than give them; as wikipedia.org mentions,

North Korea has previously (and may in the future) received international food and fuel aid from China, South Korea, and the United States in exchange for promises not to develop nuclear weapons. In June 2005, the U.S. announced that it would give 50,000 metric tons of food aid to North Korea. The United States gave North Korea 50,000 tons in 2004 and 100,000 tons in 2003. On 19 September 2005, North Korea was promised food and fuel aid (among other things) from South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Russia, and China in exchange for abandoning its nuclear weapons program and rejoining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

So what would North Korea give in return for such food and fuel aid, especially now that nuclear deproliferation is off the table? What's in it for China?

If it is concern 1), then it would have to be a new economic initiative that was being discussed with North Korea. North Korea's economy has been sort of a shambles, and largely because of the lack of transparency that is communism's biggest problem. China has struggled with transparency, since the Hong Kong takeover. In order to succeed, their businesses must be transparent, and that means a free press. If not, corruption flourishes. North Korea won't like that free press, though. Again, from wikipedia.org:

Mainland China and South Korea are the biggest trade partners of North Korea, with trade with China increasing 38% to $1.02 billion in 2003, and trade with South Korea increasing 12% to $724 million in 2003. It is reported that the number of mobile phones in P'yŏngyang rose from only 3,000 in 2002 to approximately 20,000 during 2004.

But--wait for it--

As of June 2004, however, mobile phones became forbidden again.

Don't you love that??

So, this fascinates me. China is their staunchest ally, I think, so no surprise there, that they're the DPRK's biggest trading partner. But South Korea? Their ideological rival? At number two? Just as the People's Republic of China (mainland China) has developed such a huge trade with their implacable enemy, Taiwan, that many people (like The Economist and a reader or two of this blog? ;D) can't even imagine the two going to war. (Though I still think they may.)

South Korea and North Korea have recently had much thawing to their cold war relationship. I wonder if it's because a de facto trading partnership had blossomed, of necessity, leading them to think, well, now that we've got this trade going with one hand, does it make sense to prepare to fight each other with the other hand? South Korea has many times the GDP that North Korea has, and North Korea must trade mostly in its vicinity, with none of the high-end exports the South has (like South Korea's Hyundai and Daewoo autos, and its high-end electronics sector, with Samsung). So they have North Korea over a barrel on economics and trade. However, the North has more regular soldiers, perhaps twice as many as the South; plus those nukes. That's got to worry them. So each side has handled the other gingerly.

But--again, if China is meeting with the North to advance a new economic plan, then what's in it for China? Many communist countries (and the US) subsidized third-world countries during the Cold War, and sometimes the third-world countries were getting the sweeter end of the deal--see under Egypt--but it's not that way now. Again, now that the US is meeting with India and making a frankly military alliance with them, and now that Japan and China are clashing over natural gas reserves, China is meeting with Korea to secure:

Option 2). This is a military alliance, and we have only to wonder whether China and North Korea are simply meeting to keep the diplomatic lines of communication open, or whether they're planning something.

The AP report:

Report: N. Korean Leader Visiting China

- - - - - - - - - - - -

KWANG-TAE KIM Associated Press Writer

January 09,2006 | SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has traveled to China on a rare trip outside his country, a South Korean military intelligence official said Tuesday.

The official told The Associated Press he received the information from intelligence inside China. The official spoke on condition his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the information.

"We confirmed he went to China," the official said. "We don't know why."

Kim, who seldom travels abroad, last visited China in April 2004 for a summit with Chinese leaders. North Korea and China, both communist countries, have traditionally had close ties.

Chinese President Hu Jintao visited North Korea in October.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported earlier in a dispatch out of Beijing that the reclusive North Korean leader's train had crossed the border into eastern China amid tight security. The agency did not say where it got its information.

Kim's visit comes as North Korea on Monday sent its highest-level signal yet that international talks aimed at ending its nuclear programs are unlikely to resume soon, repeating its demand that the U.S. drop sanctions to end the impasse.

"Under the present situation it is illogical to discuss with the U.S., the assailant, the issue of dismantling the nuclear deterrent built up by the DPRK for self-defense," an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

DPRK refers to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the communist state's official name.

North Korea and the United States have been engaged since 2003 in negotiations aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programs. Though the talks also involve China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, their progress is usually determined by the existing level of tension between North Korea and Washington.

In September, the United States imposed sanctions on a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau, alleging it helped the North distribute counterfeit currency and engage in other illicit activities.

The next month, Washington sanctioned eight North Korean companies it claimed were fronts for proliferating weapons of mass destruction.

China is under pressure from the United States and other governments to use its leverage as North Korea's main ally and aid donor to push Pyongyang for concessions.

North Korea Cuts Off International Food Aid

2005-12-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

North Korea has cut off food aid from the UN's international World Food Program.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10631108/

According to the article, "...it may be a ploy to get the WFP to relax rules for its aid." "While donor nations insisted on extensive monitoring, Pyongyang is insisting that the WFP operation be scaled back to a skeletal staff with no field offices, essentially making dependable monitoring impossible."

"(The government) may be concerned with control issues when it comes to the market," said Dujarric. "And obviously to them politics has priority over feeding the people."

[...]

“We are heading back toward a situation like in the 1990s in which you are foreclosing the mechanisms by which people actually access food,” said Noland. “At the same time you are shutting off information.”

In the last crisis, by the time the world understood the severity of the famine, and Pyongyang finally called for international food aid, it was too late for hundreds of thousands of its citizens.

One thing I agree with George W. about: "Kim Jong Il... he is _starving_ his people."

A Wild Card

2005-12-19T21:38:00.000-08:00

North Korea is in the news (from the AP wire):

N. Korea Aims to Boost Nuclear Program

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By BURT HERMAN Associated Press Writer

December 19,2005 | SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said Monday it plans to boost its nuclear weapons program because of hostile U.S. policies toward the regime, and it called Washington's criticism of its human rights record hypocritical.

The latest tirade cast (sic) fresh doubt on efforts to resume six-nation talks to resolve an international dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

The North "will increase (its) self-reliant national defense capacity, including nuclear deterrent, pursuant to the Songun (military-first) policy, to cope with the U.S. escalated policy to isolate and stifle it with the nuclear issue and the 'human rights issue' as pretexts," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Since the crisis began in late 2002, the United States, South Korea, Russia, Japan and China have sought to persuade Pyongyang to disarm in exchange for diplomatic recognition and aid.

In September, the North agreed in principle to do so, but implementation of the accord has stalled over new financial sanctions imposed by the United States to stem alleged illegal activities in North Korea, including counterfeiting and money laundering.

The two Koreas agreed in high-level talks last week to work to implement the September agreement. South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young traveled to Washington on Sunday seeking to restart negotiations.

The North claimed in February that it had nuclear weapons, and experts believe it has enough radioactive material for at least a half dozen bombs. The claim has not been verified independently.

The North's latest statement came in response to a U.N. resolution adopted Friday expressing serious concerns about reports of human rights abuses in North Korea. The U.S. envoy for human rights in North Korea also this month visited the South for a U.S.-supported conference on the issue, where he called on Seoul to take a stand on the issue.

"The U.S. is a typical criminal state which politicizes the human rights issue and applies selectivity and double standards concerning the issue," the North said Monday.

North Korea has been accused of abuses ranging from an absence of basic civil liberties to public executions and life-threatening conditions in confinement. The U.S. State Department believes that the isolated communist nation holds 150,000-200,000 political prisoners in camps.

The North denies the accusations.

As it has in the past, the North on Monday turned the human rights accusations back against the United States, referring to the Iraq invasion as being "in utter defiance of the U.N. and the system of international law" and calling interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects "medieval torture which would make even brutes blush."

AP on Foreign Support for the Dollar

2005-12-11T01:01:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press sounds the worry alarm about the deficit, and about foreign countries propping up our dollar:

U.S. Foreign Money Addiction Means Trouble
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By ELLEN SIMON AP Business Writer
December 10,2005 NEW YORK --

...At our current rate of trade and budget deficits, foreigners need to purchase $2 billion in dollar-denominated assets each day just to keep the dollar stable, said Axel Merk, who manages $60 million at Merk Investments and runs the Merk Hard Currency Fund.

[...]
"I guess everyone wants to keep this game going," Ibbotson said. But if one of the countries we're most dependent on drops out, it could be "like a bank run."
David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, is also concerned. "If this money stopped coming, the dollar would take a dive and U.S. bond yields would have to come up. That would constrain capital spending and housing and slow down the U.S. economy."

[...]
Why did foreign investors' interest in the U.S. intensify?
For one thing, investors can get a better return on U.S. bonds than they can in their home countries. Yields in the United States have been near 4.5 percent, while yields on Euro bonds are closer to 3.2 percent and yields on Japanese bonds are near 1.5 percent.
Second, our massive trade deficit has sent tens of billions of dollars abroad, as imports increased while exports declined, which has helped foreign business owners sock away plenty of dollars. And our budget deficit means the federal government keeps issuing more debt.
Then, there's our personal savings rate, which has been hovering near zero.
"We need the money because we're not saving any," Wyss said. "We need it from anyone who has a spare yen to lend us."

[...]

The gush of foreign money "is critical to keeping the U.S. dollar from collapsing, because we have a large trade deficit," said Daniel Katzive, foreign exchange strategist at UBS. "If the deficit wasn't financed, the dollar would fall until it reached a level where U.S. assets were more attractive to foreign investors."It's simple accounting, he said: Cashflow in must equal cashflow out. "If it doesn't, you have a big adjustment until you reach equilibrium."

The bit about "If this money stopped coming, the dollar would take a dive and U.S. bond yields would have to come up. That would constrain capital spending and housing and slow down the U.S. economy" should sound familiar to anyone who's paid attention to what I've been saying for the last few years: that following a Chinese withdrawal from the US bond market, the dollar would fall, then bond rates would rise, and the housing market would suffer, and hence, the economy, which depends quite a bit on housing prices. I always feel that I'm crying in the wilderness, but it's nice to hear an echo from an authority once in a while.

Richard Pryor, Gone--Rest in Peace

2005-12-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

Richard Pryor, one of the twentieth century's very greatest comic talents, had a heart attack and passed away at 65 years old today.

Comedian Paul Rodriguez called Richard Pryor "the Beatles of Comedy." I remember watching him some 30 years ago, on Saturday Night Live, talking about taking his acid trip: "some skinny white dude, talkin' about I'm gonna be 'trippin''! I don't see no luggage!" Or, of course, taking a word-association test from Chevy Chase, so as to get hired as a janitor:

Chevy: "Spearchucker!"

Richard: "White Trash!"

Chevy: "Jungle Bunny!"

Richard: "Honky!"

Chevy: "Spade!"

Richard: "Honky Honky!"

Chevy: "N-----."

Richard: "Dead Honky."

Ironically, a visit to www.richardpryor.com today showed the title of his latest DVD: "I Ain't Dead Yet, Motherf#cker!" I wish it were still true. Rest in Peace, Richard: you're a true genius.

Blog Against Racism Day

2005-11-30T22:22:00.000-08:00

December the 1st is Blog Against Racism Day.

1) Martin Luther King. As a pastor, he drew inspiration from Jesus. He could have advocated violence, but he used reason and dialogue instead.

2) Rosa Parks, be at peace. I like Rosa Parks. She just got tired of being told what to do, when the rules were evil, and she used her own free will, again hurting no-one. This is a true American.

3) Vanity Fair's latest issue carries an article about Tim LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind series of books. The Left Behind series, what Vanity Fair deliciously characterised as a "Vengeance Fantasy" for evangelicals who resent being disagreed with, feature a vengeful Jesus, returning to boil the blood of non-believers, and slaughter every last one of them. Contrast this with the Jesus Christ of Martin Luther King. Mr. LaHaye's wife wrote a marriage manual stating that, for some reason, God preferred people to have intercourse than to indulge in oral sex. Needless to say, I reject Mrs. LaHaye's authoritative word about what God thinks.

On a tour of the Holy Land, led by Mr. LaHaye, the evangelicals on tour with him "chuckled warmly" when an Israeli tour guide said that the Arabs "breed like fleas," and would be driven into the desert. THAT'S RACISM. As a half-Jewish person who follows Jesus, while reading that article, I had the rare privilege of being ashamed of both halves of myself, in the same paragraph.

That's live racism, happening today, and a lot of people indulge in it. There are almost a billion Muslims in the world, and about 350 million Arabs, of which maybe 3 percent sympathise with the terrorists. I've met plenty of Arabs and other Muslims, and to hate these people I've met is satanic, just as it is to hate someone on account of their Jewishness, Christianity, Buddhism, or atheism. That's not pollyannaish; it's fact. I've seen it, I've met these people. There are heaps of Jews, Christians and Arabs in the world who are perfectly fine people, and we're all being held hostage by the violent or hateful people among us. And no religion or race is pristine, I'm sorry. All of us have that core of hateful people. If we're forced into war (as I felt we were, where Afghanistan was concerned, though not at all where Iraq was), then that's one thing; but no general, president or terrorist can order us to hate.

China Updates

2005-11-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

The Economist, in a November 19, 2005 Special Report ("China's World Order/Aphorisms and Suspicions"), weighs in on China's situation:

"In Central Asia, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), a security forum comprising four Central Asian states plus China and Russia, is increasingly challenging America's military presence in the region." "In August, China and Russia staged their first joint military manoeuvres since the cold war. "Peace Mission 2005", billed as a counter-terrorist exercise, looked far more like preparation for a Chinese assault on Taiwan." (Italics added.)

China, says the Economist, "has also deftly used [the North Korea nuclear arms talks] to boost its ties with South Korea..."

"The Americans fear [a potential lifting by the EU on the arms embargo with China] would give China access to military technologies that could be used in a conflict with America in the Taiwan Strait."

Chinese deployments on the coast opposite Taiwan include "between 650 and 730 mobile short-range ballistic missiles, with the number increasing by around 100 each year." But, they say, "there are plenty of signs that China has little interest in resolving the Taiwan issue militarily and that it regards its extensive economic ties with Taiwan as hugely important." "Assuming that Taiwan does not declare formal independence...China appears ready to live with the status quo of a Taiwan that is, in effect, independent already."

I think this would be wise. If I were China, I would give over the idea of retaking Taiwan, in favor of winning the bigger battle, which will be (whether or not there's war) economic. Be aware: conflict is coming with China, even if it is only a trade war. Trade wars can hurt, though, and hurt badly. But be aware, also, of two other things: first, even if neither America nor China wanted war, there are other players in the region, such as India, with whom China has indeed gone to war. Especially in a situation of heightening tension, these wild cards could easily draw in China and America, just as Serbia once did the very conservative Russia and Austria-Hungary. Secondly, since China and America are rivals, and since both of their governments are rather ruthless and both countries are relative heavyweights, they won't shrink from making war if it seems to further their interests. War, if it comes, won't just use tactics; war will be a tactic.

NEW KATE BUSH!!! Double CD

2005-11-11T23:57:00.000-08:00

Well, ladies and gentlemen. Kate Bush has returned. Her new double CD is called "Aerial." I'm just watching the video for the new single on her website. It's great. I'm just over the moon--it's such a strange coincidence, I was just talking with my good friend, and she mentioned she loved Kate Bush. So when I got home, I had it in mind to listen to Moments of Pleasure from my Red Shoes tape; then I put in the Single File video (yes, tape and video--it had been that long since her last CD). Like King Arthur's return, a legend both unlooked-for and unhoped-for. How we used to pine for her, hoping she'd someday tour America, in the 1980s.

I had been a huge fan ever since someone played Babooshka for me at a party in 1984. At the time, I was completing my Peter Gabriel collection, and she had sung on "Games Without Frontiers" and "No Self Control" (the latter song also featuring Phil Collins, debuting the gated drum sound that would make him famous on "In the Air Tonight") from the third Peter Gabriel album, and would sing on "Don't Give Up" from the So Album as well. I had every album, including The Red Shoes, her last release from 1997. Apparently, she had begun this new album in 1999, but had been involved with raising a relatively new son. Now she's got a double CD, and it's "flying off the shelves in the UK," where the first single has charted at number 4, her third-best-selling single ever, barring only "Running Up that Hill" and "Wuthering Heights."

Funny coincidence #2: I had just posted the King of the Hill with the dollar sign, below, before watching the old Kate Bush Single File video, and when I went online, lo and behold, the title of the new CD's single was: King of the Mountain. That lady always did have mojo.

Go to her official website at http://www.katebush.com/ or the unofficial http://www.katebushnews.com/ for more. Congratulations Kate, welcome back we missed you, the new music is bril, and the very best of good fortune on your new release!

King of the Hill

2005-11-11T20:52:00.000-08:00

The fall of the Dollar as the world's reserve trading currency:

I know little about economics, so don't roast me alive if I misstep here or there.

A couple of years ago, at the start of the Iraq war, I saw eminent economist and historian Niall Ferguson speak about the situation. He mentioned that America was vulnerable because of its balance of payments deficit. China, until recently, has pegged its currency, the Yuan, at about eight to the American Dollar. This is why almost every single screwdriver, children's toy, or pair of shoes at Walmart is marked "Made in China;" our dollar is strong in China, so a few dollars buy a lot of goods.

This means two things: first, our manufacturing sector has been destroyed, and you can't find a thing marked "Made in America" anymore, because Asian goods are cheaper. Second, China and Japan are now sitting on over a trillion extra US Dollars. Professor Ferguson said that China and Japan are now financing our whole war in Iraq, by using these extra dollars to buy US Treasury Bonds, so as to keep the dollar from falling (and thus, their whole store of dollars from losing value). I asked, "if we're so vulnerable to China, won't they use this situation against us, for instance, by threatening to make the dollar fall, by unloading dollars?" He replied: "Yes. Not if, but when."

In 1956, when England and France backed Israel against Egypt during the Suez crisis, there was a run on the English Pound (that is, the English public all went to the banks at the same time to withdraw their money, because they feared a banking collapse). America agreed they'd bail out England, but angrily demanded they give up the Suez project.

France apparently took note: throughout the sixties, they unloaded their US Dollars, turning them in for gold (Dollars were originally good for 1/38 of an ounce of gold, from the US Government). During the 1960s, though, America was running foreign trade deficits (that is, more dollars were leaving the country than coming in). America's gold reserves couldn't cover its liabilities, if foreign countries wanted to convert their dollar reserves (which were growing, remember, because of the deficit) to gold. Finally, America was forced to go off the gold standard. Now, the Dollar is simply worth whatever the exchange rate decides it is.

The Dollar, since the Bretton Woods conference, had become the world's reserve trading currency; over half of all the transactions in the world were done in US Dollars. But that will not last forever. Our Congress has realized that our manufacturing sector has been decimated, and jobs lost, because of the weak Chinese Yuan. They've been lobbying the Chinese hard to let the Yuan rise against the Dollar. Of course, although it would seem that the weak Yuan did grease the outflow of dollars, the Economist insists that America's low household savings rate is the bigger problem. In any case, though, China is responding the way our politicians are demanding: China has now pegged the Yuan to a basket of currencies, including the Euro, the Yen, and the South Korean Won, instead of the Dollar. This won't bring our factories back, though.

Warren Buffett agrees: the Dollar's going down.

China on the Move

2005-11-11T16:09:00.000-08:00

America will soon be at war with China, I think.

Why would China threaten us, or be threatened by us? China wants Taiwan back, and America has pledged to defend Taiwan. This island represents, in China's mind, a big loss of face, since it's now ruled by the Nationalist Chinese. The Communist Chinese feel that Taiwan should be a part of mainland (Communist) China.

China is arming up, buying submarines (submarines are good for blockades, as in the Strait of Taiwan) and other military hardware. France, and other European countries, recently sought to sell arms to China, but the US objected. As the Economist reported recently, the west is a bit concerned that China won't say why they're arming themselves. China is spying on British and American high-tech military and civilian firms as if there were no tomorrow (per an article in the Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk). China has now pegged the Yuan to a basket of currencies instead of to the dollar, thus relaxing China's dependence on the strong dollar.

As the current-affairs magazine The Walrus reported recently, America has recently made diplomatic overtures to India, promising to make it a world military power, darkly hinting at "knowing all the implications of this" (India is a neighbor and rival to China). America has also allowed Japan to begin using its troops non-defensively. Japan has recently had many significant disagreements with China, over natural gas reserves in the border area between Japan's southwestern islands and Chinese waters, and over Japan's refusal to acknowledge criminality during World War II. China visited Canada, America's biggest trading partner, following Canadian anger over America's refusal to honor the terms of NAFTA, during a dispute over softwood lumber. The goal: trade. Immediately after that visit, Condoleezza Rice visited Canada too, to reassure Canadians that the dispute was a very small matter.

China and Taiwan now trade with each other to a huge extent; I wish that China would forget about reintegrating Taiwan. My friends think I'm crazy, that China would never damage its economy by invading Taiwan. If I were ruling China, I'd concentrate on the economic battlefield too, and forget about the literal battlefield. They might turn out to have every advantage there. But China has different concerns than America does. I'm convinced that pegging the Yuan to the Dollar, flooding our markets with Chinese goods, and running up a huge trade deficit were quite conscious decisions on China's part, to get America, its rival, at its weakest point. I could be wrong, but I think America is going to war with China.

The Tubes--Brookdale Lodge, October 29

2005-10-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

Here are the spoils from the Tubes' Halloween show of October 29, 2005 (autographed t-shirt, Rick Anderson's bass pick--Dean Markley heavy pick; good man)--what a fantastic show. Here's the email I just sent out about it:

>The Tubes were every bit as phenomenal as I'd always heard and hoped they'd be. Great Halloween show, filled with such off-the-wall numbers as "Tip of my Tongue," "Mondo Bondage," "Smoke (La Vie en Fumer)," and the opener, the marvelous comic number "Madam I'm Adam."

>Was pleased to be able to meet a few of the band afterwards, and to tell Rick Anderson, the bass player, and Fee Waybill, the singer, that the very first songs I'd ever taught myself on the bass were from the Tubes' "Now" album. Rick said, "that's a tough proposition--I had to relearn them, myself, so you probably know them better than I do," and he and Fee both gave very kind and gracious "thank you"'s--not the usual jaded "thank you"'s you often get from the more put-upon and weary musicians, but the kind of exchanges that make you feel that they really value their fans. God knows every audience member that night (however drunk) was ready to return the appreciation. Great job!

Hope to see them many more times. The band is 30 years old, and plays like it's newly born. Well worth every penny (and the 1200-mile flight from Vancouver), and more. Go see them!

North Vancouver

2005-10-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

This is the wood that lies right across the road from my home. Walk through it for 100 more feet, and you get to the ocean.

Vancouver

2005-10-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here's me in Vancouver. Always loved the natural beauty of the west coast.

Hollywood, LA, Santa Barbara, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Lake Tahoe, Big Sur/Carmel/Monterey/SantaCruz, San Francisco, the Wine Country, Mendocino, the Humboldt Coast, Ashland and its Shakespeare Festival, Seattle, Olympic National Park, Vancouver, British Columbia's Islands--yes, I'm proud of this place. Come to the west and be amazed.

Blog Joli Nouveau

2005-10-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hi! This is the very first post on my very first blog. The name East Saxonia refers to the sleepy county of Essex (it was ruled by an earl, but is called a county), east of London, where I spent a happy year as a little guy.

Postings on this blog are likely to concern history (I was a history major), travel (I love to travel), music (I love almost all genres), and current events (I'm living currently).

Pop my virtual cherry!