Thursday, January 13, 2011

Wednesday for me is Friday for the rest of you lot.

  • Video of Tony at the 2010 HyLite Spring Festival Dinner.
  • What is wrong with some people?  It was right and appropriate for Sarah Palin to use the words "blood libel."  The only possible reason anyone could object to her using those words is that they have a visceral and irrational hate for her.  They are thinking "How dare she!  How dare she take the mantle of a victim-hood!    She is simply not allowed to do that!  She is a conservative, after all!"  I wouldn't have believed it, but I have heard some say that her using of those words was anti-Semitic.  I recall myself having encountered this mindset.  This happened to me once on a forum when I used the words antisemitism during a heated debate.  It was known, to the person I was debating, what side of the political fence I was on, and to make a long story short, the person I was debating with assumed that my mere using of the words was anti-Semitic.
  • Tony sits in a box.
  • Meanwhile Obama has also made a good speech.  Though it should be noted that if he is the bi-partisan transcendent figure that he has claimed to be, he would have told his followers, who have used the blood-libels against Sarah, the Tea Party, and Talk Radio, in no uncertain terms to stop their foolishness.  He hasn't.
  • Tony makes a face in the bathroom mirror. (Hilarious!)
  • While I was on the bus Friday Morning, another bus pulled alongside as my buy was stopped for a red light.  I was sitting, and I looked up from my Chinese textbook to see all the people in the other bus were staring at me.  I was a laowai among the locals, and quite the sight for them.  Having had this happen for years, I feel detached when I notice it.
  • Students, I have talked to about the Arizona Shootings, have little knowledge or opinions of it.  Darn!  I can also say that I don't bother talking to the foreigners either because their opinions are predictable.
  • I also mentioned the Why Chinese Mothers are Superior article to the students, and read some passages of it to them in hopes of eliciting comments.  I also hoped to see if what the article writer, Amy Chua, said was true for all Chinese Mothers.  While parts of what Amy Chua said did ring true with the students; overall, I found that they would have thought that Amy Chua was an extremely strict and not at all typical of Chinese Mothers.
  • This Paul Krugman is getting a lot of deserved criticism for his blood libel reactions to the Arizona shootings.  Is there anything he can do to redeem himself?  He could apologize to Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, the Republican Party, and talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh.  Doing this, he could show that he truly desires to have civil discussions about government policy.  He has to also realize that the people he disagrees with are, with rare exceptions, people of good will who want to make the world a better place.  Unfortunately, he seems too invested in the view that his policy opponents are evil, to want to do the honorable thing.  But think what would happen if he did apologize?  Conservatives would warm up to him.  They would go out of their way to give him credit.  Of course, the zealots on his current side would feel betrayed, but doing the right thing does have it costs.  That is why the symbol of Western Civilization is the cross.

No comments: