Yesterday I got an email from my mom telling me there was a problem with my absentee ballot, namely that I need to sign some paper in order to send it out, and considering that it would be too late to send it to Japan, and that the deadline to register for voting online has passed, I won't be afforded the opportunity to exercise my right as an American citizen to vote for president this year. Such a turn of events has deeply shocked and saddened me. For the past year, starting with the primaries, I have followed this election closely, torn between the two candidates, making my ultimate decision only about a month ago. The news that I now can't vote hurts me very deeply.
In 2004, I was in China, and under similar circumstances, mostly because of my own ignorance about election rules, I was once again disenfranchised. I spent the whole last four years telling my friends and family "I voted for.... well, I didn't vote, but I supported..." It was annoying and a huge knock to my credibility in political discussions. Since I was a young child, I have always been a huge presidential history buff; I'd say in my knowledge of the 42 men who presided over the executive branch of our government (and even the three who lead the articles of confederation government), I'm in the top 1% of Americans. And yet, I have never had the chance to vote in a national election. It's insulting. Guess I'll have to make sure on the first Tuesday of November 2012 that I'm in the good old USA...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Iran to the Polls
I got an interesting email from my sister this morning. I'll let it speak for itself:
Here we are in Virginia, a politically-conscious swing state which has been somewhat desperately courted in the last month. Leesburg, VA first had Obama come to speak, and today Palin will speak. We are a hot-spot, and we are important. Like my other home state Florida, where I did grad school and where my parents now live, there have been cases reported in which volunteers have reportedly deliberately delayed lines or ballots have defaulted to the McCain-Palin ticket. Hearsay?
Maria is originally from the Middle East. She is a citizen and has followed the election issues closely. This weekend, she decided to vote early to beat Nov. 4th crowds. With a line of approximately 35 people in front of her, it took Maria more than an hour and a half to finally get into a voting booth. It wasn't because the voters themselves were suspicious or without proper voting ID...I mean how time-consuming is it to show ID and cast your ballet? No, first there were "technical difficulties" with the computers. When she finally reached the front of the line, she said that after selecting each of her voting options, it took upwards of 3 minutes to move to the next ballot item.
80% of the people turning out to vote early are democrats. In fact, fully 1/3 of all the Democrats expected to vote are voting early this year. When people wait in long lines to vote, the "opportunity cost" of voting increases, making many people who cannot afford to wait so long go home or decide not to vote altogether.
Maria remarked, "It is easier to vote in Iran."
Here we are in Virginia, a politically-conscious swing state which has been somewhat desperately courted in the last month. Leesburg, VA first had Obama come to speak, and today Palin will speak. We are a hot-spot, and we are important. Like my other home state Florida, where I did grad school and where my parents now live, there have been cases reported in which volunteers have reportedly deliberately delayed lines or ballots have defaulted to the McCain-Palin ticket. Hearsay?
Maria is originally from the Middle East. She is a citizen and has followed the election issues closely. This weekend, she decided to vote early to beat Nov. 4th crowds. With a line of approximately 35 people in front of her, it took Maria more than an hour and a half to finally get into a voting booth. It wasn't because the voters themselves were suspicious or without proper voting ID...I mean how time-consuming is it to show ID and cast your ballet? No, first there were "technical difficulties" with the computers. When she finally reached the front of the line, she said that after selecting each of her voting options, it took upwards of 3 minutes to move to the next ballot item.
80% of the people turning out to vote early are democrats. In fact, fully 1/3 of all the Democrats expected to vote are voting early this year. When people wait in long lines to vote, the "opportunity cost" of voting increases, making many people who cannot afford to wait so long go home or decide not to vote altogether.
Maria remarked, "It is easier to vote in Iran."
Monday, October 13, 2008
Bad Combos
John and Bill discuss the human body and ABC's hit drama "House" when the conversation suddenly turns to American junk food:
John: I don't know much about anatomy, I'm not a doctor, but I do watch House
Bill: so you are uninformed AND cynical
John: it's a bad combo... And by bad combo, I mean bad combination, not a cheeze filled pretzel stick that's been sitting on the kitchen counter for two weeks... crap, now I want a combo!
John: I don't know much about anatomy, I'm not a doctor, but I do watch House
Bill: so you are uninformed AND cynical
John: it's a bad combo... And by bad combo, I mean bad combination, not a cheeze filled pretzel stick that's been sitting on the kitchen counter for two weeks... crap, now I want a combo!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Lessons from John Sensei
During a lesson on body language and hand gestures for my junior high school students, the following humorous exchange occurred between the Japanese instructor, Florence (Nakubutso sensei) and myself:
Florence: So John, can you show us how to say "no" in English using body language.
John: (shaking head) Well, the most common way is to shake your head like so.
Florence: Is there a special way to say "no" to children?
John: (pointing index finger and swaying hand back and forth) Yes, there is as a matter of fact, like this!
Florence: How about adults?
John: (waving hand) You should wave your hand and make a disapproving face, like so.
Florence: I see. And how do you say no to a beautiful girl?
John: Think about baseball.
Florence: So John, can you show us how to say "no" in English using body language.
John: (shaking head) Well, the most common way is to shake your head like so.
Florence: Is there a special way to say "no" to children?
John: (pointing index finger and swaying hand back and forth) Yes, there is as a matter of fact, like this!
Florence: How about adults?
John: (waving hand) You should wave your hand and make a disapproving face, like so.
Florence: I see. And how do you say no to a beautiful girl?
John: Think about baseball.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
One Way Track
Sliding accross a snowy road towards Kanazawa to an underground brazilian night club and staying out until the break of dawn, sipping on coffees at cocos with a parade of fresh faces from all over the world. This is the one night that led me to open my "return flight" information on the internet, and with my hand firmly placed on the "cancel flight" button, flip a 10 yen coin. That evening I was particularly drawn to revisiting certain parts of my pre-Japan life, and the call to just "get on the plane and go home" was ever so strong. But the coin had other plans for me. Four times I flipped that coin, and each time, the answer was the same: stay in Japan. How could I argue with chance? Afterall, it was chance brought me here to begin with.
We, as humans, have a tendancy to let the past keep a stranglehold on us. In moments of providence, we see there is more to life than wishing for things to go back the way they were; before the argument, before the accident, before the break up, etc. It can be a new experience we've never had before that reminds us we are alive. Sometimes it's a new person who suddenly appears in our lives and challenges us to step outside of our comfort zones, to take a risk, to feel something real. The question becomes how we then interpret that experience or that new relationship. Is it a new direction in life or simply a blip on the radar screen? As it happens, I wrote a song a while back for O'pinpin that at the very least vaguely flirts with this idea:
We, as humans, have a tendancy to let the past keep a stranglehold on us. In moments of providence, we see there is more to life than wishing for things to go back the way they were; before the argument, before the accident, before the break up, etc. It can be a new experience we've never had before that reminds us we are alive. Sometimes it's a new person who suddenly appears in our lives and challenges us to step outside of our comfort zones, to take a risk, to feel something real. The question becomes how we then interpret that experience or that new relationship. Is it a new direction in life or simply a blip on the radar screen? As it happens, I wrote a song a while back for O'pinpin that at the very least vaguely flirts with this idea:
One Way Track
Music by Saitoh Teppei
Lyrics by Johnny Di Lascio
The siren call of another world
Pull myself home with mild regrets
Alone inside, bound to earthly scorn
And feigning lights offering providence
Some think and some might say
A fading star
Should always burn away
The sun will rise again
Casting the first stone
And if you find a friend
Let love seat your throne
Gone down a one way track
How does it feel, now you’re running…
Knowing you can’t go back?
From stations echoes in the clear
Of trains that passed by so long ago
The ghosts we chased tread so far from here
Like evening hours, they turn us into foes
Our times as one have gone
We lost ourselves in all the ways we’d grown
If we’d only known
The sun will rise again
Listen, not too long
Our lives might meet an end
But my love is still strong
There’s no hurdle on your one way track
How free it feels, now you’re running
Knowing you can’t go back!
It's a work in progress!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Kafka Cliches
In the 1980's, journalist Christopher Hitchens visited the then Soviet stronghold of Czechoslovakia, now two seperate democratic states. Here is an excerpt from a 2005 interview with the Hoover Institution in which Hitchens recounts his time behind the iron curtain:
[As a reporter,] one tries to avoid cliché. I remember I went to Prague during the old days, the bad old days of the communist regime to attend a dissident meeting. I thought whatever happens to me, I'm not going to mention the name Kafka in what I write. I'm going to be the first reporter who doesn't--who goes to Prague and doesn't bring up Kafka... Anyway the policemen came in--the secret police broke into the meeting I was at and slammed me up against the wall and said you're under arrest. And I said what for? And they said we're not telling you what for. And I thought damn, now I have to mention Kafka.
Christopher Hitchens is an Oxford born journalist who has contributed to publications including Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and the Wall Street journal. In addition to boasting an impressive body of published works on a wide range of subjects, Hitchens is also a prominent speaker on atheist philosophy and a Thomas Jefferson biographer. "The Hitch," as his avid readers know him, holds the distinguished honor of being the only reporter to have visited all three "Axis of Evil" countries. Always bold, armed with a sharp with and biting sarcasm, and never above personal attacks, Hitchens is both revered and beguiled by his contemporaries. His fundamental support of the principles of American democracy along with strong reservations about the British crown led him to became a US citizen last year, taking his oath on the steps of the Jefferson memorial in Washington DC.
Full Hoover Institution Interview
http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2939056.html
Read more about Hitchens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens
Hitchens discusses North Korea
http://www.slate.com/id/2117846
[As a reporter,] one tries to avoid cliché. I remember I went to Prague during the old days, the bad old days of the communist regime to attend a dissident meeting. I thought whatever happens to me, I'm not going to mention the name Kafka in what I write. I'm going to be the first reporter who doesn't--who goes to Prague and doesn't bring up Kafka... Anyway the policemen came in--the secret police broke into the meeting I was at and slammed me up against the wall and said you're under arrest. And I said what for? And they said we're not telling you what for. And I thought damn, now I have to mention Kafka.
Christopher Hitchens is an Oxford born journalist who has contributed to publications including Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and the Wall Street journal. In addition to boasting an impressive body of published works on a wide range of subjects, Hitchens is also a prominent speaker on atheist philosophy and a Thomas Jefferson biographer. "The Hitch," as his avid readers know him, holds the distinguished honor of being the only reporter to have visited all three "Axis of Evil" countries. Always bold, armed with a sharp with and biting sarcasm, and never above personal attacks, Hitchens is both revered and beguiled by his contemporaries. His fundamental support of the principles of American democracy along with strong reservations about the British crown led him to became a US citizen last year, taking his oath on the steps of the Jefferson memorial in Washington DC.
Full Hoover Institution Interview
http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2939056.html
Read more about Hitchens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens
Hitchens discusses North Korea
http://www.slate.com/id/2117846
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Suspending the Smear Campaign
It’s a Thursday evening somewhere in Middle America. A young lower middle class family of four is sitting down to have dinner. As they thank the Lord for the food on their table, the father turns on the kitchen television set. Alex Trebek segues into a commercial break, and the fading sound of the Jeopardy theme song is abruptly interrupted by dark ominous music and an unflattering picture of a forty-something black man in a suit. “Barack Obama wants to teach YOUR six year old children about SEX!” Without a moment’s reflection, the decision has already been made for this small town family “No way, no how, NOBAMA!”
Extreme an example though it may be, ads just like this one have been used by the McCain camp for months in an attempt to mislead Americans on issues ranging from education to foreign policy in Iraq. It’s nothing new. McCain’s playing out of the old Karl Rove playbook (who got it from Goebbels): take a candidate’s policy, remove a few or all the details, and reinvent it as a moral issue. But the strategy was too recognizable, and liberals along with freethinking conservatives across the country were less willing fall for it.
Then suddenly, amidst a storm of negative political ads and shameless smears, a beacon of light shone through what was in recent weeks a dark and dirty campaign. That beacon of light was John McCain himself. Last week the first of a series of debates between the presidential candidates was conducted at the University of Mississippi campus in Lafayette. With a stern smile and a firm handshake, the Arizona senator, leaving behind a wave of negative adverts, political gimmicks, and “suspend the campaign” stunts entered a debate he was as of a few days ago being dragged into kicking and screaming.
By the very first opening statements of the two candidates the tone of the debate was clear: no misquoting, no photoshopped pictures, no slogans, just straight and unadulterated political discourse. Criticisms would be dealt out harshly, but with respect for the other candidate and, more importantly, the facts. This was the moment we remembered who John McCain truly was.
Speaking on issues of tax reform, spending cuts, the war in Iraq, earmarks, immigration, the economic crisis, and others, McCain was detailed, presenting facts and figures as well as clearly stating his positions and views of the opposing side. Old crowd pleasers like “They hate us for our freedoms” and “They’re going to follow us home” were nowhere to be found. Classic republican scare tactics, as if fighting to somehow make their way into the discussion, were mostly stifled, forcing the candidates to appeal to voters on the basis of issues and reason.
John McCain’s performance in the September 26 debate seemed in many ways a rebirth of the straight talk express character he popularized in 2000. The rebirth was unfortunately short-lived; immediately following the debates, the McCain camp ran an ad grossly misrepresenting Obama’s responses. However, this one moment of providence could be the saving grace for McCain among undecided voters who feel lost in a sea of mudslinging and party-hackery. Independent of ones views of McCain’s policies, last week’s debate, if nothing else, gave voters a clearer and more coherent basis on which to further research the Arizona senator and make a more informed decision this November. Even after coming to a full understanding of the value of his ideas, however, the question becomes, what does John McCain’s smear campaign say about his integrity and by default his ability to lead this country.
Sex Education Ad
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NseW0UPMLtg&feature=related
Obama Debate Responses Ad
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec3aC8ZJZTc
Humorous sketch about McCain ads http://www.videosift.com/video/SNL-Im-John-McCain-and-I-Approved-This-Message
Extreme an example though it may be, ads just like this one have been used by the McCain camp for months in an attempt to mislead Americans on issues ranging from education to foreign policy in Iraq. It’s nothing new. McCain’s playing out of the old Karl Rove playbook (who got it from Goebbels): take a candidate’s policy, remove a few or all the details, and reinvent it as a moral issue. But the strategy was too recognizable, and liberals along with freethinking conservatives across the country were less willing fall for it.
Then suddenly, amidst a storm of negative political ads and shameless smears, a beacon of light shone through what was in recent weeks a dark and dirty campaign. That beacon of light was John McCain himself. Last week the first of a series of debates between the presidential candidates was conducted at the University of Mississippi campus in Lafayette. With a stern smile and a firm handshake, the Arizona senator, leaving behind a wave of negative adverts, political gimmicks, and “suspend the campaign” stunts entered a debate he was as of a few days ago being dragged into kicking and screaming.
By the very first opening statements of the two candidates the tone of the debate was clear: no misquoting, no photoshopped pictures, no slogans, just straight and unadulterated political discourse. Criticisms would be dealt out harshly, but with respect for the other candidate and, more importantly, the facts. This was the moment we remembered who John McCain truly was.
Speaking on issues of tax reform, spending cuts, the war in Iraq, earmarks, immigration, the economic crisis, and others, McCain was detailed, presenting facts and figures as well as clearly stating his positions and views of the opposing side. Old crowd pleasers like “They hate us for our freedoms” and “They’re going to follow us home” were nowhere to be found. Classic republican scare tactics, as if fighting to somehow make their way into the discussion, were mostly stifled, forcing the candidates to appeal to voters on the basis of issues and reason.
John McCain’s performance in the September 26 debate seemed in many ways a rebirth of the straight talk express character he popularized in 2000. The rebirth was unfortunately short-lived; immediately following the debates, the McCain camp ran an ad grossly misrepresenting Obama’s responses. However, this one moment of providence could be the saving grace for McCain among undecided voters who feel lost in a sea of mudslinging and party-hackery. Independent of ones views of McCain’s policies, last week’s debate, if nothing else, gave voters a clearer and more coherent basis on which to further research the Arizona senator and make a more informed decision this November. Even after coming to a full understanding of the value of his ideas, however, the question becomes, what does John McCain’s smear campaign say about his integrity and by default his ability to lead this country.
Sex Education Ad
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NseW0UPMLtg&feature=related
Obama Debate Responses Ad
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec3aC8ZJZTc
Humorous sketch about McCain ads http://www.videosift.com/video/SNL-Im-John-McCain-and-I-Approved-This-Message
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