In case you haven’t heard yet, Elaine and I are going to Japan in April! We’ll mostly stay around the Tokyo area for about 8 days.

We bought a Garmin handheld GPS device and Japanese maps (in English) for it. Hopefully by entering interesting points of interest beforehand, we can basically have a self-guided tours all over the place.

Suggestions for things to do or places to go are welcome!

Boloboh Style Pad Thai

Pad thai is so delicious. I have such fond memories of getting crispy chicken pad thai from Rod Dee in the Fenway (RIP). Unfortunately, Mike does not like Thai food, so it is fairly infrequent I get to go to one of the tasty Thai places in Arlington Center. I came up with this recipe one night when I was too cheap to get take-out but really wanted peanuty noodle goodness. Shockingly, Mike actually likes my version.

Ingredients and Where to Buy
Wide Rice Vermicelli: You can find the skinny version in almost any supermarket with an Asian foods section, but I have found the wide versions a harder find. Whole Foods in Fresh Pond, but sells out frequently. H-mart and Hong Kong Supermarket carry this in abundance.
Soy Vay Island Teriyaki: I have only found at Whole Foods. Trader Joe's has their own label (and $1 cheaper than WF), but the quality has not yet been tested.
Crunchy Peanut Butter (or Creamy with fresh chopped peanuts): Any grocery store, also convenience stores and gas stations.
Sugar Snap Peas fresh provides a nice crunch to this dish, but frozen is cheaper and just as tasty
Bean Sprouts (optional): fresh only
Chicken (optional): white meat, cut into bite size cubes
Chopped peanuts (optional)

Prepare the Noodles. The rice noodles will need 10-15 minutes to soak in boiling hot water. I start this first while preparing the rest of the dish. I'll also heat up the sugar snap peas in the same boil and refresh the hot water as it cools down.
Heat up the sauce. Heat 1/2 cup of Soy Vay Island Teriaki with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter in a medium sautee pan. This should cover 2 servings of noodle. I have found the sauce varies from batch to batch - add peanut butter to taste if too sour. If adding chicken, stir fry the chicken in the sauce.
Stir Fry it up. Add the noodles and sauce to a sautee pan. Be sure to really drain the noodles, too much water will water down your sauce. Combine until sauce coats all the noodles. If not enough to coat, add Soy Vay as needed. Cook until heated through.
Garnish and eat. Garnish with optional bean sprout and chopped peanuts. Yum yum!!

Excellent appetizer dish are pot stickers, but that's another post!

 Shanghainese Chi Fan

Chi fan are basically Chinese rice sandwiches. Kind of like Japanese onigiri, except without the weird raw fish and seaweed wrapping. The absolute best chi fan I have ever eaten was back in 1996 at a Shanghainese restaurant in Markham Place, Toronto. The idea is pretty simple, so I decided to replicate it for my home kitchen.

Ingredients and Where to Buy
Glutinous (sticky) rice: Whole Foods in Fresh Pond definitely sells this, but you can also find it in a Shaws or Stop N Shop where they have a larger Asian section of groceries
Fried Crullers ('you tiao'): I got mine at Hong Kong Supermarket (once known as Super88) in the refridgerator section. Decent quality.
Preserved (pickled) vegetables: You could make your own, but H-mart has a fabulous selection of pickled vegetables. 
Dry Preserved Pork String: I got a huge box of this from H-mart, but if you want a smaller supply, Hong Kong Supermarket sells it in smaller tubs.

Cook the rice. I prefer a rice cooker, but follow the packaging for stove-top instruction. I typically like a 1 cup of rice to 1.25 cup water ratio, then adding water as the rice dries out, to get the right consistency. But if you're lazy, add all the water at the beginning. Let the rice cool to the touch.
Lay the foundantion. Take a large piece of cellophane wrap and lay it down. On the cellophane, spread out rice until you have a 6 inch x 3 inch squarish layer, approximately 0.5 inch thick.
Fill it up! Put a 5 inch double cruller (I made the mistake of dividing my cruller in half lengthwise, don't do this!) onto the rice (shorten cruller as necessary). Along or on top of the cruller, put some pickled vegetable and pork string.
Wrap and twist. Using the cellophane, wrap the rice around the cruller filling into a burrito looking thing. Twist the ends to close.

Let it cool. Best if cooled and reheated slightly in the microwave. Yum yum.

This pic totally stolen off the interweb:

I am visiting my parents for the weekend. I really enjoy visiting them, though I would never admit it before or after the fact. I get to live like an retiree and my meals are cooked for me! What's not to love? They even have internet, cable and they keep the heat at 72! We take walks in the mall, scour HomeGoods for asian inspired planters, and get 40 cent senior coffees from Burger King. I listen to them talk about how much longer they have to wait until they can get onto Social Security (1.5 years for 100% benefit), and I wonder if the program will even exist when I get to that age (highly unlikely).

These trips can be a little depressing, because the ever planner, Dad has been planning for "the inevitable" for the last 10 years. I always get briefed on what to do, where things are, where to find hidden stashes: the 'egg roll cart money', Mom's jewelry, deeds and titles. Every time it gets more complicated and more detailed. Now they are really pushing me to buy my own place. Someplace with basement, spare room and storage, 'cause apparently I'm the heiress to their expensive furniture pieces. Not that their dining set is my style, but it's big enough for Arkham Horror. Mike just may let it into the house. And yes, there will be a decorative bowl.

My cousin Jamez runs a traveling performance art spectacular called the Tranny Roadshow.

Although the Tranny Roadshow is done entirely by transpeople, it is not exclusively for transpeople. It is a raucous evening of entertainment, open and accessible to people of all backgrounds. Most of us are experienced performers, and while our goals do include challenging people and making them think, our most important goals are to entertain them, make them laugh, and make them dance.

I’ve not yet been, but come January 14th, he’s bringing it to Jamaica Plain.

Via Lydia Pintscher, I found Sita Sings the Blues, a delightful CC-licensed movie. It’s basically a “musical, animated personal interpretation of the Indian epic the Ramayana.”

One neat thing it does is frequently switch between different narrative and visual styles. It’s a bit slow at times, but I like it.

Here’s a typical clip. Visit the site for the full thing.

I admit, I've only tried this with Merrin Robotics Model WVG-3, but I think it would be good with just about any authentic Merrin maintenance bot.

Many years ago, I started using Pandora, the internet radio station.  It was cool and introduced me to lots of new music while gradually getting a better handle on my musical taste for future recommendations.  Then it started sucking more... introducing ads, then instituting a monthly limit to the hours you could use it.  I continued using it reluctantly... I could give in and buy a subscription to make the annoying stuff go away, but that seemed like caving to terrorist tactics.  Today, though, after exhausting my monthly limit, I gave in and bought the subscription.  They do provide me with a valuable service that I would be happy to pay for... but god damn do I hate feeling like I was coerced by their successful attempts to irritate me :-(.

So why is The Office such an effective comedy?  For the first several seasons, they were constantly struggling with the threat of cancellation, but now the pseudo-documentary style has proven popular enough to not only make that show thrive, but spawn numerous imitation shows like Parks & Recreation, Modern Family, Community, etc.  Has drama somehow evolved (or perhaps reverted) in some fundamental way that leaves actors free to acknowledge the camera, offer soliloquies, and otherwise mess with the fourth wall indiscriminately?  I don't have any good insights, but this seems like an important shift in modern entertainment, and I harbor the drunken hope that this attempt at Socratic inquiry would spark discussion amongst my smarter friends.

Over four years ago, I noticed a very striking similarity between The Incredibles and The Fantastic Four.

Looks like collegehumor.com just picked up on it.

Four years too late, guys.

jlak posted a photo:

Posted via web from ihatelettuce's posterous

jlak posted a photo:

Posted via web from ihatelettuce's posterous

jlak posted a photo:

Posted via web from ihatelettuce's posterous

The Apple® MacBook® Pro® I use for work probably takes about the same amount of time to start as my Windows 7 machine, but it feels like my hair is going grey as I wait. Why? Because it just shows me that stupid Apple logo and a little spinning indicator that actually only indicates that I need to be patient. For a company so obsessed with how they are perceived, you’d think they’d get that the lack of a proper POST screen makes perceived startup time stretch on forever. All that POST info on a Windows or Linux machine serves to distract, even if you aren’t really looking at it carefully. It’s the difference between skimming through a magazine while in the doctor’s office lobby and just staring at the wall.

Maybe they want us to feel like the computer is going through painful labor to give birth to it’s deformed baby, OS X.

I’ve posted at length about why Uyghur people may be unhappy, but you may have noticed that I’ll always end these posts with something along the lines of “they aren’t so innocent” or “that doesn’t excuse the killing of innocents”. Well, I was just reading a post on Global Voices which I think really hammers home the cruelty and viciousness of the recent riots. It features some translated stories of Han Chinese finding themselves in the middle of what seems like a one-sided war against them. Pretty terrifying stuff.

Following these enlightening stories, we get the Chinese reaction to Western reports of the incident, which many once again feel are unfair to China. I expressed in a recent post how I felt the reporting of the Urumqi riots was much more balanced than  the ‘08 Lhasa riots reporting was, so I was a little surprised to see basically the same sort of anger. Why this response again despite improvement? I have some theories:

First, as always, a lot of Chinese are very xenophobic which makes them suspicious of the West in particular and also very receptive to attacks on the West, factual or not. Second, I think a small number of people are pulling the strings. I suspect that while many Chinese can read and speak English, most cannot read well enough to read and fully understand a newspaper. This means that a smaller number of internet users are finding examples of Western media bias and posting them. For that small number of people, there’s probably some confirmation bias at play, and this would result in a very biased look at Western media for everyone else, so the kneejerk reaction kicks in. Oddly, the New York Times is cited as an offender, but if you’ll look back a posts or two at Sympathy for Han, you’ll see that I posted an article from that publication that highlighted the horrors that Han Chinese experienced in Urumqi during the riots. Currently, the top Google News article for “Urumqi Riots” is titled “Han Chinese emerge as the main victims as Urumqi riots death toll rises‎”.   There may also be some ignorance among Chinese about how more than one viewpoint may be printed in Western media. Perhaps they know this but see one viewpoint as mainstream and any others as fringe. Or maybe they’ve been coddled by only having to hear the Party’s opinion important issues on CCTV. No matter what the cause of this (IMO misguided this time around) anger with the Western media, I don’t think it will go away any time soon. Chinese xenophobia, inferiority complex due to much 20th century humiliation, unwillingness to accept opposing viewpoints, and thin skin will almost certainly lead to many years of hating on foreign media, especially Western. Unfortunately for everyone, this plays right into the CCPs hands because they clearly desire control over the flow of information they don’t like.

One more thing, one comment on the first link compare the riots to 9/11, “To kill civilians on the street for no reason is 100% equal to 911 Twin-tower attack”. Obviously a bit of hyperbole here as casualties were less than 1/10th those in the 9/11 attacks, but whatever; ultraviolent L.A. Riots is probably more appropriate. Really I wonder what that Chinese would think if he knew that there existed Western media outlets at the time which explored the reasons behind the attack and the motivations of fundamentalist Muslims. Sure, it may not have been a mainstream thing to discuss at the time (some people complained such exploration was “blaming America”), but it was very much in the media. Would that Chinese think that such reporting was biased or irresponsible? Probably not, but just the same, the media is not allowed to look at Uyghur motivation beyond “someone foreigner masterminded it” (that may well be true about the protests, BTW, but whether the actual violence was planned, well, who knows).

Hopefully this is my last post on this. I will make my thoughts clear: The Uyghur violence was cruel and unnecessary, and I suspect that the police response was just as the violence had clearly gotten out of control. By turning violent during the protests, the Uyghur probably hurt their own cause because now the Chinese will definitely never listen to them (they already kind of weren’t, but it’s probably worse now). It seems likely that a foreign entity had a part in planning the protests (and maybe the violence). So what we’re left with is nearly 200 dead (mostly Han), over 1000 injured, lots of renewed hate for the Uyghur people, and zero understanding of why they are protesting because any meaning was lost in the cruel violence. Lose-lose.

With a single post my dear friend Jordan is about to surpass my contributions to this blog for the year by about 100 words.

That's on the heels of having a pretty busy month already; she drove across a continent, saw Ben Folds perform live, visited Ikea, swam in 76 different US states, patted the dog you see to the right, and cooked this delicious sounding meal:

I made a great shrimp dish last night. A scampi of sorts, I suppose. Here's what I did:

First cut up one green and one red pepper and a half a pound of mushrooms. Sautee until about 2/3 of the way done. Remove from heat. In the same skillet as more olive oil and about 4-5 cloves of garlic (depending on size). When the garlic is 1/2 way done, throw in a pound of peeled, raw shrimp. Once the shrimp starts turning pink, add the vegetables, the juice of 1 and 1/2 lemons, a bunch of fresh chopped basil, about 1/2 cup of white wine, and some salt and pepper. Cook this until the shrimp is done. While you are doing all of this, cook some linguine. I like to serve this on a platter like this: bed of mixed greens (spinach and arugula preferable), then pasta, then shrimp mix. The greens wilt but add a fantastic bite! I also top the dish with some parmesean and leave it out for people to add their own. Enjoy!

The bottom line is, she's been busy.

Jacob303: speaking of the guy in regulate
Jacob303: http://www.bombblunts.com/
^Daverd: hahaha
^Daverd: amazing
Jacob303: what i really like is their mission statement, it had to be written by a suit/tie marketting guy
Jacob303: “Not only are the names catchy, they also have your mouth watering in anticipation of firing em up. As an added benefit our unique inner packaging forms a double seal keeping our precious wraps fresh long after the competition is all dry and cracked up.”
^Daverd: wait a minute, the front page says they have 22 flavors
^Daverd: but the flavors page says 20
^Daverd: i’m being robbed of 2 flavors
Jacob303: well, thats the thugg lyfe, son.
^Daverd: true dat.

First, I’m probably wrong about much of this and certainly am missing a lot of facts. I welcome any additions, edits, corrections to be posted in the comments if anyone actually reads this.

You’ve probably heard something about the rioting of Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China over the weekend in which at least 156 (supposedly mostly Han Chinese) were killed.

Internal strife in China often gets blamed on the outside (foreign influence). The US is sure to be a target of many conspiracy theories. One already ties the CIA to Xinjiang separatists. What do I think? People believe such speculation because the CIA has such an unfortunate history of secretly meddling in foreign affairs (you probably already know some examples like Afghanistan in the ‘80s, Tibet in the ‘50s). It seems premature to say whether or not the CIA is involved because there’s not any hard evidence, but I think it is fair to say that the history of strife in Western China offers enough explanation without necessarily bringing US conspiracy into the picture. Many Chinese will NEVER admit that this is a possibility, and will always blame it on foreign influence. I’d rather not sound high and mighty, but I can’t avoid it here: Chinese are conditioned from a young age to be xenophobic. There are a lot of intelligent Chinese who see through this conditioning and will tell you quite directly that it is a part of the education in the mainland. Having said that, it doesn’t mean it’s out of the question that some foreign power might be helping to nudge the separatists.

Why are Uyghur and majority Chinese so furious?

Uyghur anger? Aside from the immediate trigger (Han/Uyghur fight in Shaogun resulting in a few dead Uyghur) Poverty is one obvious reason. The Uyghur do not have as much money as the Han people and they presumably see that every day in the city. Han Chinese have flooded into Xinjiang over the decades in a way that the minority may feel is threatening to their culture or way of life (this should not be a strange concept to the Chinese as they are notoriously militant about maintaining their own culture after all that’s happened in the past century). Despite all the development and money the Han bring, it’s hard for an non-mandarin-speaking ethnic minority to get a piece of that pie (this is also likely a reason for the unrest in Tibet). It’s not hard to imagine how resentment, justified or not, might build in such a situation.

The Chinese anger? Aside from the obvious (the murders), many seem to feel that the Uyghur minority are ungrateful for the development they have brought to Xinjiang. This mirrors feelings that were expressed by majority Chinese about the Tibetan riots last year. Many Han have trouble grasping why minority people would not appreciate the money that flows into their regions thanks to Han-spearheaded development. They feel they are doing good, so it is no doubt shocking to them that the favor is met with violence and protest. Also, I can say from personal experience that many Chinese see Xinjiang people as thieves and cheaters. It’s probably true that there are a lot of Xinjiang thieves in the big cities, but I can’t say for sure as I’ve never seen the stats or had any such experience.

One more thing can’t be ignored: Chinese nationalism. As I said before, propaganda in China tends to be very xenophobic. One of the key fears tapped into is the fear of China being broken up. The threat of Taiwanese independence feeds into this fear, as do both Tibet and Xinjiang. I’ve been told by a Chinese that when she looked at a map of China, she felt ashamed because “borders incomplete”. Those places are the rightful territory of China, and no one better touch them, whether they were there first or not! Of course, that reason is just for the people. The government is most definitely more interested in Xinjiang as a strategic military position and the large amounts of oil it potentially holds.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m in support of the Uyghur violence or Xinjiang independence; I’m not. I sincerely doubt they are the innocent victims some are bound to make them out to be. It’s probably in the best interest of everyone for the Uyghurs to just grin, bear it, and try to adapt.

To my Western friends, be wary of trying to talk about this with Chinese people. Only the most intelligent and open of Chinese will be capable of discussing this without getting incredibly defensive and attacking Europe for formerly occupying foreign countries and the US for it’s treatment of Native Americans and blacks, and saying how it’s a double standard and just not fair that all those countries got away with it. A decent analogy would be trying to discuss criticism of the US with a redneck nationalist: the result is a very shallow conversation and an avoided topic.

I made a loaf of bread in my breadmaker, but it refused to dislodge itself from the pan. After much violent shaking, the loaf finally thunked onto the table. The breadmaker crankle that kneads the dough was missing; it was inside the loaf.

............................................________
....................................,.-‘”...................``~.,
.............................,.-”...................................“-.,
.........................,/...............................................”:,
.....................,?......................................................,
.................../...........................................................,}
................./......................................................,:`^`..}
.............../...................................................,:”........./
..............?.....__.........................................:`.........../
............./__.(.....“~-,_..............................,:`........../
.........../(_....”~,_........“~,_....................,:`........_/
..........{.._$;_......”=,_.......“-,_.......,.-~-,},.~”;/....}
...........((.....*~_.......”=-._......“;,,./`..../”............../
...,,,___.`~,......“~.,....................`.....}............../
............(....`=-,,.......`........................(......;_,,-”
............/.`~,......`-...................................../
.............`~.*-,.....................................|,./.....,__
,,_..........}.>-._...................................|..............`=~-,
.....`=~-,__......`,.................................
...................`=~-,,.,...............................
................................`:,,...........................`..............__
.....................................`=-,...................,%`>--==``
........................................_..........._,-%.......`
...................................,

BTW, post title should be read a la Mel Gibson in Ransom "Give me back my son"

What up with women and babies?  Babies stink and are stupid, yet women are still proud of themselves for making them.  I mean, you can't even have a discussion with a baby.  You have to teach them to speak and walk and go to the toilet.  If you're thinking of having a baby consider this: once that baby pops out, you are responsible for it and if you don't take care of it you will be in deep shit.  If you do take care of it, chances are it will never appreciate it;  It probably won't even like being alive. Lose-lose.

And who even cares if the human race of dies off?  Does that really change anything for you?  Once you're dead, you're dead, and you don't get to experience this spoils of human advancement, so why not be bitter about it and refuse to make any babies?

mterry posted a photo:

mterry posted a photo:

mterry posted a photo:

For anyone who’s been having the same problem with the Ubuntu package pidgin-microblog:

I’ve been using a plugin for Pidgin called pidgin-microblogmach zehnder modulator that allows me to receive twitter updates via a pidgin tab, and post to twitter in that same conversation. It’s pretty sweet. Anyway, recently (possibly since I upgraded to jaunty,) it has been sending me the same messages over and over every 15 seconds or so, to the point where I had to disable the plugin because it was annoying and occasionally crashing pidgin.

The solution was to apt-get purge pidgin-microblog and then reinstall it. The reinstall wasn’t entirely straightforward — I had been using a custom repository in my /etc/apt/sources.list which the upgrade to jaunty automatically commented out for me, which I had to uncomment for the reinstall to work. As an aside, all of my other custom repositories were also commented out from the upgrade (just FYI).

I took a walk to the library today, and noticed an ice cream truck ambling through the neighborhood blaring its jingle.  I've never really thought before about how nefarious a business model they represent:  creeping past your home broadcasting an inducement to panicked demand for the ice cream RIGHT NOW MOMMY HURRY!!  I imagine a roomful of fat, cigar smoking men trying to determine the exact volume level and truck speed that would allow for practical purchasing but optimize the instilled sense of urgency.  Ok, that might be a paranoid fantasy, but I like the image.

At the library I got a collection of John Irving short stories.  Supposedly these are all the short stories he's ever considered "finished," and given his reputation as a methodical stickler for story structure I'm eagerly anticipating some highly polished nuggets of literary bliss.

boloboh posted a photo:

boloboh posted a photo:

boloboh posted a photo:

While sifting around in the old documents on my PC I recently found the beginnings of one of a series of Craft fictions that we wrote in 2003 and 2004. This was unfinished at the time, and will most likely remain so for all eternity, but that's no reason not to flesh out the Craft universe as fully as possible. So without further ado, presented in its original form:

Things That Mean Nothing to Me:
Corduroy Craft IV:
Arduous Holiness:
Twinkle Tinkle, Little Dog
By: Ben Wilson IV:
The guy that needs to read III

    Craft lay in the snow, weeping. The full moon shone down through the trees, reflecting off of the forest floor and illuminating the morbid scene around him. Everything was blue. Especially Craft.
    “Are you sure?” asked the pencil-thin man standing amongst the trees behind him.
    “Don’t,” Craft pleaded.
    “Are you sure?” persisted the man.
    “Yes I’m sure, damn it!” shouted Craft. “Now leave me be!”
    “Then it is done,” replied the man, fading back into the forest. In seconds Craft was alone.
    Pushing himself up off of the ground, Craft wiped the tears from his cheeks, leaving a smear of blood. Glancing at his hands Craft realized (not for the first time) how much congealed flesh resembles marmalade. He shuddered.
    “You may look like Craft, but you don’t have his heart!” he scolded himself. He looked down at the frozen body at his feet. Anger quickly replacing the sorrow he had felt moments before, Craft clenched his fist and shouted to the sky, “You have no power over me now. I’m coming for you!”
    An earthquake shook the forest, its single deafening roar stopping almost as abruptly as it began. A challenge, thought Craft. Good.

That's all there is. Maybe I'll send this to Matt's agent and see if it reignites the passion.

For a while Jen, myself, and several people at work were playing the web-based strategy game Ikariam. Our original goal was to build up an alliance of cities ("NVTS") large enough to launch a successful surprise attack on the Harmonix alliance; raping, pillaging, and otherwise griefing as much as possible. This kept us going for a month or two before we eventually ran out of gas and gave up. For the most part this was due to some missing features and poor game design linking the economic and military mechanics.

But that discussion is for another post. For now I'd like to highlight the similarity between Ikariam's Diplomatic Advisor icon and the profile picture of our friend Dav that his job keeps on their website:

Truly uncany.

FreakinYeahDude posted a photo:

FreakinYeahDude posted a photo:

FreakinYeahDude posted a photo:

warren_the_head posted a photo:

warren_the_head posted a photo:

warren_the_head posted a photo:

So here’s what’s sweet:
Harmonix (by way of one Casey Malone) has offered to donate a copy of Rock Band to my school. A friend from home (thanks Chris) is offering to donate a PS2 so that we can have something to play it on.
Video games are awesome at our school because they help with a lot of things- they’re great for hand-eye coordination, fine motor development, age-appropriate cooperative play, and as a reinforcer for hard work. A lot of the teachers already play Rock Band and are psyched to be able to teach our kids.
Thanks, Casey and Chris! This is going to be so sweet.

DavTheGook posted a photo:

DavTheGook posted a photo:

DavTheGook posted a photo:

Hi guys.
So like a month ago it was my birthday and dave made me a fucking incredible website. You should probably go look at it.

Check that shit out.

word.

bwilson posted a photo:

A large portion of our north andover group of friends.

I live in a house with two 50 year old ladies. I have my very own room and my very own bathroom. About once a week or so, I find my bathroom trash can stuffed to the brim with things that I have not put there.

For your consideration:

Things I Have Found in my Trashcan

bubblewrap

some fancy crackers

an empty box from nitrous cartridges

shards of a broken mirror

uno cards

fin

bwilson posted a photo:

Ciernia family (cousins) + me + jen

bwilson posted a photo:

Relatives + Jen at the vacation "trailer" during the Van Hornesville squaredance/Nana's memorial service '06

In response to a federal judge's ruling that the NSA's warantless wiretaps are illegal, President Bush had this to say:

"Those who herald this decision simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live," Bush said after meeting with his economic team at Camp David. "This country of ours is at war, and we must give those whose responsibility it is to protect the United States the tools necessary to protect this country in a time of war."

Also in response to the ruling, the Republican National Committee released an Internet advertisement painting the Democrats as soft on defense. The ad shows prominent Democrats decrying warrantless wiretapping, abusive interrogations, ballistic missile defense and the war in Iraq through the opening of a cave, meant to represent the vantage point of terrorists monitoring the opposition party. "Democrats say they want to talk about national security and the war on terror ... while terrorists are watching," the narrator intones.

Obviously, I have some problems with this, as I'm sure you, my legions of loyal readers, do too.

Bush said that the people who herald the judge's decision "do not understand the nature of the world in which we live." Clearly, they understand that the world in which we live has a Constitution for the United States of America, outlining powers, limits and checks and balances to the three branches of government. What's more, it would seem that they understand that in this world, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution has this to say about searches and warrants: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

I love that the founding fathers capitalized random nouns as though they were proper nouns. Hey, Benjamin do you know my cousin Warrant? Yes, John, I met him in Oath a couple years ago.

But I digress.

Let's cut out all verbiage in the Fourth Amendment that is not applicable to the case at hand. We are left with this: "The right of the people to be secure in their... effects against unreasonable searches... shall not be violated... but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation... and particularly describing the place to be searched." Taking this parsed-down version, let's assume for a moment that we do live in a world in which the boogey man lives in everyone's house and talks on the phone 24/7 as Bush "understands." If that were the case, the President, or executive branch, including the FBI, the NSA and the police would be required to gain a warrant by providing evidence that illegal activity is afoot in a specific place. Everyone's phone is clearly not involved in a crime, and the entire US is more vague a place than specific. Furthermore, the Amendment doesn't even mention violating "the right of the people to be secure" WITHOUT a warrant. Apparently that's not a power granted to anyone in any branch of the government. And thus, without ANY legal analysis, wiretapping is manifestly illegal.

Yes, but what happens on the phone is not a person's property or effects, it is electronic blah-blah which travels through the public domain, and thus eavesdropping on it does not abridge anyone's rights. Well you clever Sophist, I'd congratulate you, but the Supreme Court has already ruled against that theory. A man named Katz was arrested for illegal gambling after using a public phone to transmit "gambling information." The FBI had attached an electronic listening/recording device onto the outside of the public phone booth that Katz habitually used. They argued that this constituted a legal action since they never actually entered the phone booth. The Court, however, ruled in favor of Katz, stating the Fourth Amendment allowed for the protection of a person and not just a person's property againsty illegal searches. Whatever a citizen "seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accesible to the public, may be constitutionally protected." The Supreme Court ruled on that issue in the landmark case Katz. v. United States in 1971 with a vote of 7-1. Clearly anything that someone says in an email or on the phone is something that that person "seeks to preserve as private."

Bush also attacks the federal judge by invoking the word "protect" twice in one sentence, in relation to the US. He also says that we are at war. The asymmetrical nature of Bush's war, fighting a loosely networked paramilitary group with the most dangerous military in world history, clearly does not warrant the wholesale denial of civil rights.

The shameless fearmongering in the name of "protection" is a thinly veiled excuse for a power snatch for the executive branch that Bush would like to see become permanent. The RNC ad, showing terrorists watching the democrats, as though the very act of disagreeing with a policy will in some way help terrorists, is another attempt to inspire fear in the name of more power for the executive. The nature of this fearmongering is to create a Big Brother environment, not of the government, but of terrorists. Terrorists are everywhere, and if you think non-patriotic thoughts, people will die. The truth of the matter, which is inherently obvious, is that Bush and his cronies see an opportunity for a historical power grab abroad for the US, and are manipulating and fueling fear, insecurity, racism and hatred in order to control the populace to do that. Why are they REALLY tapping our phones? However you might feel about Bush and co. they do take a long view on policy. It may not be a very big deal today, but if we are engaging in a 'global struggle between good and evil' (translation: militant global market domination is America's manifest destiny, and will require violence and warfare to enforce for the foreseeable future) then there will come a time when the government will want to know what its citizens are thinking and saying. This war is only going to get bigger, and it is not against the people they tell us it is against, or for the reasons they tell us. They are also not protecting us like they say they are. A highly visible thwarting of a terrorist attack like the one which allegedly occured recently in London is a huge boost to our leader's credibility while also preying on our fears. However, nothing would prey on our fears, give Bush more power, more carte blanche, and keep the population in line better than another terrorist attack. And Bush knows it. So again, why is he tapping our phones? To gain influence and control. The more control the executive branch has over the public domain, and particularly public perceptions, the more leeway they will have to fight their wars for global market imperialism abroad. It's simply realpolitik. The point of politics is the expansion of power. Power begets expansion, control allows expansion. Power begets more power. That is the point of the wiretapping. Fortunately, the founding fathers knew all this. They created a document to protect us from the excessive ambitions of our leaders. Bush is trying to wiggle his way out of the parameters of that document.

Benjamin Franklin said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Our rights are timeless and must always be protected. The boogeyman that our current batch of leadership has invoked to scare us into submission is a passing fad of history, and will eventually be replaced by others.

Ahnyanghaseyo,

That's Korean for "Hi." I live in Korea. I teach English to little kids, which mostly involves giving them word searches and telling them to play scrabble while I use the internet to look at pictures of famous breasts, bitch about Korea to my friends, and look for another job.

Speaking of another job, I was recently offered a new job at Mokpo National University, where I will be heading in under two weeks. I will be a college professor there, teaching English conversation to college students. I'm pretty excited about it. Being a college professor, with the opulent vacations and license to be a snob fits my personality pretty well, and is something I've always aspired to. The fact that I've become a college professor with a minimal amount of qualification is totally a bonus.

I plan to scam the Korean education system for another year or two, and then head back to the wild West and get a higher degree somewhere and then be a real college professor. That's the plan anyway. Hopefully I won't accidentally sire a half Korean along the way like someone I know.

I plan to use this space to rant and rave a little bit, and probably pretend that you are an impersonal, massive audience and not one of the two or three people I've known for years who read this blog because I pester you to do so.

I'm pretty political, so, if I don't completely forget about this blog within like a week, you can expect some ranting and raving about politics. For example, I recently read a book by Noam Chomsky called Hegemony or Survival. It says that the doctrine of preemptive strike is recognized in the rest of the world for what it is. That being, an orchestrated effort to dismantle the international bodies devoted to peace and human rights that were used by US power to manage the Cold War. It is an announcement to the rest of the world that the US is going to manage the entire global system into the foreseeable future, in the pursuit of its own interests, regardless of the sovereignty of other countries, and amounts essentially to a global militant market imperialism. It has made the world radically more unstable than at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis, and is leading to the rapid proliferation of nuclear weapons in non-democratic states, especially Iran and North Korea, as a deterrent against American power. While all of this seems inherently obvious, the unity of this vision of global politics, and the single thread of cause, being the aggressive use of US power, was a little bit of a kick in the pants for me. While most of the US was easily scared into believing that Iraq was a great threat to the world, the rest of the world has quickly come to realize that America is the greatest threat to world peace and stability in the world today. A chilling thought.