Viet-Justice

Our friends at IBLOGA have found this little gem. A judge in Arizona has banned the term “illegal” and “aliens” in his court room. This does present a problem if you want to get a point across. I believe that we should look to how the British would describe the situation. Perhaps the term, “improper border traversers” would work. It does sound quite pleasant, especially when combined with tea and crumpets.

The Telegraph is reporting that college girls are now banned from whistling at builders. A memo that was sent out read:

It has come to the attention of the college that some female students have been making comments to, or whistling at, the builders both whilst on site and as they walk around the campus. Although we are sure no offence is meant, this constitutes harassment and is wholly unacceptable. We have asked the contractors’ representative to pass on all instances of harassment to the college and we will take appropriate action which may include disciplinary action.

Apparently these naïve college girls did not realize that these buff construction dudes they were wolf calling at were actually gay. We don’t know that for sure since the contractors were not interviewed, but what straight man would complain? If you are a straight man on this work site and you have a problem with college girls whistling at you, then we recommend that you report to your nearest gay bar for gaydar testing.

Obama inhaled and that was the point.

Mitt Romney on the other hand doesn’t get the point.

“I agree with the sentiment that nobody’s perfect and most of us, if not all of us, in our youthful years have engaged in various indiscretions we wouldn’t want to have paraded in the front of a newspaper,” the former Massachusetts governor said in New Hampshire. “On the other hand if we’re running for president, I think it’s important for us not to go into details about the weaknesses and our own failings as young people for the concern that we open kids thinking that it’s ok for them.”

I would have to disagree with Mr. Romney on his last point.  Politicians are not perfect and should not try to portray themselves as perfect.  I want to see weakness.  I want to see failure.  When you are human you are humble, which is something many politicians are not.  The other issue is that Romney, like most Republicans, seems to have this attitude that everyone should be perfect.  We don’t want kids thinking that it’s ok to be weak and have a failure in their lives now do we?  Yes, God wants us to be perfect.  If you believe he’s there you shouldn’t forget that we were made in his image, not as his exact duplicate.  Romney should realize men are not gods, but maybe someone should give him a mirror that works before trying to explain it to him.

George Orwell alert. A Wisconsin woman was arrested for discussing sex ed with her children.

In the agreement, Smalley pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of exposing a child to harmful material in exchange for the dismissal of a felony charge of exposing a child to harmful descriptions.

The felony charge could have levied a sentence of more than three years in prison and fines up to $10,000.

ADA Crystal Long recommended a year probation and counseling, which the Judge accepted. This is a big loss to the citizenry on several fronts. It represents the irrational fear that Americans have of sex. Three years in prison for talking to your kids about sex is ludicrous. It’s also ludicrous to call it felony exposing a child to harmful descriptions. It is legal for a school to do that, however. What the government is saying to the public is that you should not educate your kids, but we’ll do it because we’re the government. Some may say that how she conducted discussion was inappropriate and perhaps too graphic. Her kids were 12 and 16 and in the UK they would have received sex education around 10. At 12 you should be exposed to everything that the world has to offer in the most graphic sense. Show pictures of mutilated bodies from drinking and driving, meth addicts photos, anything that can be a lesson to the worst possible scenario.

I don’t support Barack Obama, but his idea that we should have sex ed in kindergarten is a great one. Why? Let’s consider what class sex ed is taught in, General Sciences or Biology. America lags behind in science and math education. Therefore if Chinese students can learn calculus in middle school, it would stand to reason that they can learn advanced biology and chemistry in the same time frame. If you move backwards in time from that education level it would seem that sex ed would be appropriate for people around the first through third grade. The concepts of plankton, alge, mitosis, and bacteria are easily convertible from a middle school level to an elementary school level. America is falling behind the rest of the world and we can blame our government for that fact. It is time we looked at knowledge as power, not something to be feared.

Here is another problem district with zero common sense.  Megan Coulter was suspended for hugging classmates goodbye.

District Superintendent Sam McGowen said that he thinks the penalty is fair and that administrators in the school east of St. Louis were following policy in the student handbook.

It states: “Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved.”

Saying  goodbye in a manner that is customary to your social group is in poor taste, reflects poor judgement, and brings discredit to all involved.  WTF?  Dr. McGowen must be a boring and uncultured person.  To believe that self expression is poor judgement indicates that he is trying to create a sterile environment at his school district.  To also say that self-expression brings discredit to the school and to others involved is also a foolish statement.  Zero tolerance equals zero credibility.  It is impossible to discredit some entity that has no credibility, so I am not sure why he wasted the reporter’s time with that statement.  It is obvious that in this word of political correctness at school districts that we have an over budget problem.  Anyone who has taken an undergraduate intro to law class understands that the law is not fair and that due to limited police and judicial resources only the most serious offenders are pursued.  I do not think we would want to live in a world where the police have unlimited resources since there are many silly laws on the books that date back hundreds of years that we would not want enforced.  By the same token I believe that school officials have way too much money and free time to be pursuing silly issues such as hugging.  What we need is a drive to cut school funding.  If they have time to punish young people for being human and expressing themselves, then they are over funded and need to be brought back in line with other government agencies.

If you want to tell the school district how much you appreciate their stupidity providing you with entertainment then here is the contact information

Dr. Sam McGowen, Superintendent
720 West Harnett Street
Mascoutah, IL 62258

Administration Office:  618-566-7414
Business Office: 618-566-2927
District Information Line:  618-566-9344
Fax:  618-566-4507

John Cornetta has generously offered the city of Johns Creek $3000 toward the purchase of a new firetruck. Unfortunately the mayor, Mike Bodker, has some strange political agenda up his sleeve and has refused the donation. For some reason Bodker feels the need to pilfer the pockets of the tax payers, rather than take free money when it is offered. Cornetta, a successful business owner, should be commended for his efforts to subsidize a firetruck for the city of Johns Creek since the mayor has not purchased one since the city was formed on December 1, 2006. Presently fire and police services are contracted to Fulton County. Some believe the mayor has snubbed Cornetta because of his business of operating adult video stores. Regardless of the political or moral implications, Mr. Cornetta has offered the tax payers of Johns Creek some savings on building their city. Any accountant will tell you that 1% savings is better than 0% and anything more than 1% is gravy. You don’t have to be an Asian rocket scientist to understand the numbers. I would hope that an old white guy like Bodker could understand 5^th grade math, but apparently not. The mayor and the voters of Johns Creek need to realize that the only thing in play here are the numbers. Turning down free for a more expensive option never makes good economic sense.

I am always deeply amused how FOXNews.com likes to make a big deal over nothing. We all know that Schwarzenegger smokes cigars. Big deal. For some reason everyone is making a big deal about the possibility that he smoked a Cuban cigar while in Canada. Now you can legally import them to Canada, but some brain dead person took a statement that made absolutely no sense and included it in the article.

“Persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are prohibited from purchasing or importing Cuban cigars, regardless of where they are,” U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said in a statement.

That statement makes no sense in context of the FOXNews article or in any other context.  You are not subject to US jurisdiction after you leave US soil.  If I go to Moscow the FSB, not the FBI, have jurisdiction over me.  The current administration seem to have this idea that no matter where you go or what you do your fall under US jurisdiction.  While that may be a pleasant thought to people such as AG Gonzalez, it isn’t practical in the real world.  You are bound by the law of the land where you are located.  You can’t be put on trial in another country for breaking their laws while here.  Why should it work in reverse?

In response to Good’s points on Why Racial Acceptance Does Not Matter it is time to take a look at why it is perceived that Asians do not have positive roles or have reduced roles in entertainment. Why do Asians have no prominent roles in entertainment? I believe it is because Asians are very practical people. Parents are very influential and sometimes controlling in the upbringing of their children. Practical occupations such as Medical, Law, or Business are what parents equate with wealth and success. The two former may put you in an above average income bracket, but the latter have a shorter education time and put you in the workforce long before law or med students. While you may make less, there are more opportunities. It’s a simple trade off in terms of what you get. Actors, musicians, athletes, and other entertainers are commonly seen as the “starving artist”. Success is difficult to find, but when you do find success it can be abundant. Unfortunately with entertainment the major leagues are fairly exclusive. I doubt many first generation Asian parents encourage art & entertainment as a career path. By not exploring the arts when very young and being coached in math and science until college, Asians tend not to pursue the arts. Based on pure statistics I believe there are fewer Asians and Latinos than Blacks or Whites who go into acting or athletics. This is one reason that there are not enough positive Asian roles seen on television or in the movies. Until more Asians decide to drop out of Law or Medical School, or pursue liberal arts this is something that is not going to change. There’s no real nice way to say it. For those who aren’t happy about this fact, it’s time to learn to accept it. It’s purely a numbers game.

Now that we’ve established that you will see fewer Asians in the arts we can move on to how they are represented. The most common thing I have heard is the neutering of the male Asian and the over sexualization of female Asians. I don’t know if you can really say Asian women are sexualized more than other women. Kelly Hu and The Rock were both provocative in The Scorpion King. Hu’s role in the film was not submissive and as a powerful sorceress I wouldn’t say there was a negative portrayal of her. I would actually say that the power behind the supernatural nature of her character would actually make her dominant over the other male counterparts in the movie. Strong female characters are never negative.

Sex sells is what you hear the marketing droids say. I don’t think that Asian women are being exploited by marketing or media outlets, at least any different than other races. You also have to note that there are muscle bound men who are represented in a similar manner of all races. While you don’t see that many men who look like The Rock we cannot deny that they exist.

The male role I hear bantered around the most by Asians is Jet Li in Romeo Must Die. While it is an urban remake of Romeo and Juliet there is no romance. How did that happen? Well, the movie was given some prescreening time and the people interviewed just didn’t like romantic subplot. Ok, I have no problem with that. If you can squeeze any additional money out of your project by tailoring it to the target audience go ahead, even if it does make the story ridiculous. All you Asians out there complaining about Jet Li being neutered in this film really need to stop and ask yourselves if you would risk losing your job by disregarding the data gathered by movie prescreening. I’m not going to debate the taste of the screeners. Obviously for whatever reasons they decided they didn’t like the romantic story.

Is that really a problem? Quite frankly I’m glad there is less romance in film and that Asians are leading the way. Way to go Jet Li! This may sound crazy, but if you look at the creation of movies dating back to the silent film era you will understand. You have a villain, a hero, and a damsel in distress. It recycles classic literary story, where the hero always gets the girl. When Hollywood first started ramping up movies had to be cookie cutter to appeal to all demographics. You had to have the romance scene to attract female moviegoers. This was many years before the advent of the “chick flick” and practically every American movie ever made follows this formula. So, why do I think it’s great that Asians are not getting any of the action? It’s a deviation from the classic Hollywood formula. If I want to see something mushy I will go see a “chick flick”. If there is a male hero role then he needs to be a superhero. You don’t have to be Fabio (15 years ago) to save the world. In real life you don’t always get the girl at the end of the show, and I would really appreciate it if Hollywood tried to parallel real life more. This is also a message to the ladies, not every guy is going to be a superhero that will sweep you off your feet or protect you from adversity.

Another negative male inequality that is mentioned often is from the 1960′s Star Trek. The white Captain Kirk played by William Shatner is always picking up women on every planet while the Asian Lt. Sulu played by George Takei is neutered and has no romantic relationships. There are several easy things to see here. Captain Kirk is the hero so he’s always going to get the women. It’s 1966 so that isn’t too hard to figure out. None of the supporting cast get much action compared to the Captain. Let’s take a look at Sulu for a moment. He’s the Helmsman of the ship and he’s a Lieutenant. If you are familiar with the mythology of Star Trek, people who go into Helm rise in rank faster than any other occupation on a starship. If you want to be a Captain you go into Helm. Obviously since Sulu is a Helmsman he’s more concerned with rising in rank than a Navigator, Engineer, or Science Officer. I would equate this with the young junior associate at a law firm who is aggressively trying to make partner or someone in business who wants to be CxO at a company. People who want to climb the mountain tend to put all other concerns off until they reach the top. Only then do they devote time to dating, marriage, or raising a family. In some cases they have lived without for so long settling down doesn’t matter. In later movies George Takei’s character commands his own ship and has a daughter. The portrayal of Sulu is not only a positive Asian character, but realistic one as well.

In summary I do not think Asians are improperly represented when they appear in entertainment. The fact that Asians choose not to enter entertainment careers is not a problem, just a mere cultural upbringing issue. My career advice for Asians, and anyone else for that matter, is to find a practical day job first. Base your education on business or something practical and minor in something artistic if you choose. Go for two degrees at the same time if you’re ambitious. Based on watching some of my white friends I see this approach has worked out. An acquaintance has a degree in HR and some type of degree from a fashion design school. She works a corporate HR job during the day and designs clothes for fashion shows during the evening. She isn’t married and is quite self sufficient. She hasn’t hit it big, but it’s a hobby that eventually has turned into something that now makes some money. The best part is that it’s fun.

Contrast her situation with another friend who only pursued an education in theatre and has only managed to get bit parts and lives the life of a starving artist. This is a risk/reward tradeoff. Had my successful acquaintance not studied HR, she might be working minimum wage jobs as well. Another point is that if you have a corporate job that gives you more money to spend towards your passion. Designing clothes and sponsoring fashion shows costs money and you can do more in less time if you have money. Just remember that like Lt. Sulu, you may have to give up dating or other activities to reach your goals.

In my experience most Asian parents want their children to be successful and not want for money. This usually means sheltering the children from careers where they put all their eggs in one basket. I have no issue with pursuing the arts, I think it makes sense to go into business or law, work hard, and pursue your dreams in the evening and on weekends. If you make a good go at it, then retire early. Retiring early is something I think we can all agree on as being a good thing.

As part of our satire and desire to purely enjoy needling other people, we present the dumb quote of the week.

Coincidentally, the cafe owner that Peterson was leeching WiFi off of didn’t even realize that what Peterson was doing was a crime at the time. Neither did the police officer. “I had a feeling a law was being broken, but I didn’t know exactly what,” Sparta police chief Andrew Milanowski told the TV station.

How brilliant is this one?  Everyone should be a little uneasy when the police don’t know if you’re breaking the law, but decide to haul you in anyway.

This is going to sound very odd and perhaps offensive to some of the more liberal Asian readers, but after reading Suzy’s comments I thought it was time to post on this topic.

Maybe you never experienced racism or maybe you’re just ignorant of the fact that it exist but however u grew up, u were just lucky. Maybe all the white people in your neighborhood put on a good facade for you and u never had to see their true racist face.

Why does racial acceptance not matter? I have called Georgia home since the end of the Vietnam War, though I had temporary residences in other states. Southerners are a very independent group of people. The elderly talk of a time when your nearest neighbor was 5 miles away and the only way to get there was on horseback or by walking. As a result of being geographically isolated most southerners keep to themselves. It’s part of local culture that exists today. People tend to mind their own business, dislike government intrusion, home owners association covenants, and zoning. I’m sure that independence goes back to a time when you could only depend on yourself and your immediate family.

Some of my relatives live in California, a very liberal state. They tend to have liberal attitudes on many things which I do not completely understand. One recent conversation questioned why I wanted to put in for a temporary transfer to the office in Paris or London. International travel has always fascinated me, and if you work for a large enough company they way to move up quickly is to transfer from office to office as higher ranking positions open up. My relatives wanted to know why I wanted to live in a third world country like France or the UK when the single state of California has the economic power of the all the states of Germany. Why live in a place where you would not be accepted by the local people? I found that last question odd, since I have friends and friends of friends in many European countries. My relative said that because I’m not white and I’m not a native Frenchman or Englishman I would never be accepted. My friends over there accept me and any co-workers would be subordinate to me since I would be representing the home office. Then I was told that the whole society wouldn’t accept me. What would that matter? My relative said that is the goal to fit in, then blend in, and be accepted by everyone. No reason why, but apparently that’s how Californians think. I’ve run into that same attitude many times in my travels there. Strangely enough, southerners don’t share the same need to be accepted by everyone.

Why be accepted by society at large? Do punk rockers want to be accepted? No. Do straight edger’s want to be accepted? No. There are many counter cultures out there that exist happily without the acceptance or approval of the whole. These groups have their own happy social circles and can interact with the rest of society in most cases. This is why I believe racial acceptance does not matter.

If we step back and take a look at our daily interactions with people we can break it down into three general categories, co-workers, friends/family, and personal business.

Your co-workers are people that you see, or at least deal with, every day. These are people that you know and who know you. Everyone at a company has goals set by their management which the workers attempt to accomplish. Your co-workers and management are more than likely interested in how well you do your job. Respect is earned by displaying your competency, proactively taking on new tasks, and being the proverbial team player. Since we do not live in a caste system, it can be assumed that if your co-workers or your supervisors have a problem with you, then you will move on and find a place that you are more of a cultural fit. If you prefer jeans and t-shirts, a silicon valley start up or a small company is more likely your speed than a Big 4 accounting firm. In business race is something that doesn’t matter today. Profit is the motivation of any corporation and your ability to make money for the corporation is how you will be judged. With today’s technology it is possible for you to work anywhere and potentially never meet many of your co-workers. I have supervised employees in other countries. I have hired people I have never met in person. Since I don’t know what they look like I certainly can’t draw any conclusions based on how they dress, what color their eyes are, how tall they are, or what color their skin is. When dealing with remote workers you have to draw performance metrics from statistical data, such as number of customer calls handled per hour, or number of lines of code a programmer writes. As for those out there who can’t work in such jobs such as theatre and artsy types? Maybe it’s time to choose different professions until you’re wealthy, then retire and chase your dreams. My mother taught me that in Vietnam having money is essential since “tipping” is essential to getting anything done. You have to choose an occupation that provides high income so you can afford to pay the right people to have your way. If you want your car fixed quickly, you need to “tip” your mechanic to move you to the front of the line. If you want your Sheriff to deal with a crime problem, you need to have the money to “contribute to his reelection campaign fund” so he pays attention to your issues. Work relationships seem to be easy to comprehend and win at in my view.

The next category of personal relationships is your friends and family. Family is self explanatory, so I’m not going to spend much time on why they automatically accept you. Friends are people that you have met in various stages of your life. Obviously they accept you for who you are or what you can do for them otherwise they wouldn’t hang out with you. The latter could be professionals who are part of a social network that refer each other to good jobs or educational opportunities. You’re not necessarily interested in anything but a professional relationship, but this differs from the co-worker/supervisor/subordinate relationship mentioned above. Friends are very cliquey and tend not to relate to others outside their clique. For example, when you and your friends are hanging out at a bar/nightclub you are not actively seeking to interact with anyone other than your friends. This is why not only racial acceptance does not matter, but acceptance period does not matter. You are with your friends and you’re having fun. If you’re trying to hook up with someone, sure I can agree that acceptance is important there, but that is seeking relations outside the three major types that I have outlined. On the other hand if you’re just having fun with your friends and someone else wants to approach you, then you might have a new friend to add to your clique. I have enough friends, so I’m not going to be just walking up to strangers striking up conversation. Therefore, when in a public forum with friends racial acceptance does not matter.

The last major category of people is those you do personal business with. These are people you meet in your daily life, but you don’t really know or want to know. The person at Starbuck’s is a good example. You are paying them for a service and if they do a good job you might tip them, provided they don’t spit in your food. I’m not interested in talking to them beyond the “Hello, how are you today?” exchange of pleasantries. Do they honestly care how your day is going? Do you honestly care about their day? If you answered yes to either of these I believe you are delusional. Think about how intimate the word “care” is when compared to how your friends and family “care” about you. If they don’t know your name, then they obviously aren’t involved enough in your life to care. Just make my frackin’ latte and don’t talk to me. Do I care if you’re Korean, Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani? No, I don’t. Light starch on the shirts, and don’t damage the delicate fabrics, thank you Mr. Dry Cleaner. Do I care if you’re an old white guy or a young black guy? No, Mr. Senator, here is your campaign check now deal with my political issues. This category of people does not care about you. They want to deal with you and they want you to go away. You pay their wages and would they really want to get to know you? I doubt it. People you do personal business with are more than likely those that take up a large amount of your time outside the office. To gain their acceptance is highly irrelevant. Think about how important the cashier at K-Mart or your barista at Starbuck’s is? Do you hang out with them? Would you invite them over for dinner or a BBQ?

This whole notion of racial acceptance is greatly exaggerated in importance. If you step back and think about how different people influence your day-to-day activities you will find the people that matter will accept you for who you are. I am not concerned if the Klansman or the Skinhead fixing my truck likes me or not. They’re going to like me because I’m contributing to their paycheck. If they do shoddy work because I’m Asian, then I’ll go somewhere else and give them my money. I can respect business owners and workers for doing their job. I don’t need to respect them for anything else if my relationship with them is business only. I can actually have respect for a Skinhead who will work on anyone’s vehicle and do a good job because he has pride in what he does. I respect him as a mechanic, not a person. He is not a person. He’s a guy that works on my truck. We are defined by our occupations and the execution of that occupation. With work taking up 10-12 hours of every American’s day, is there anything other than our occupation that defines us? If 40%-50% of your day is your work, do you have an identity beyond your job since only 4 hours a day belong to you for individual expression? Is a 4 hour bigot different than a 16 hour bigot?

I believe that if you consider how unimportant the rest of the world that you do not know personally is, you will see that acceptance of any type beyond your work group and your social group is meaningless.