Affirmative Action is needed

I think you have to look at the purpose of AA, one purpose, is to give certain minorities a chance at a good job, college etc.. Is it unfair? Perhaps, but I would argue that it is less unfair than legacy, nepotism, or the old boy net, which most who oppose AA do not have as big a problem with. There will always be some cases where a supposedly more-qualified white person will have been passed over for a seemingly less-qualified minority, but I would argue that the reverse also happens today even with AA. I think we can all agree that before AA, and the Equal Rights Amendment, things were definitely unfair to minorities. That being said the left argues that AA is a way of attempting to repair those years of unfairness. The right argues that little miss Sally Whitebread has never discriminated of been unfair to minorities so why is she being treated so unfairly? Why should minorities be given an extra leg up? Surely these things should be decided purely on merit, (snarky remark edited). In other words society as a whole doesn"t have to give minorities squat for what society has done to them. Whereas those on the left argue that society as a whole must allow for some recompense for all those years of unfairness. It may not be my fault personally, but I feel that I have to take responsibility as part of society, and I’m willing to pay the price of having some instances of a little reverse discrimination. Those on the right are not willing.
AA can also be argued this way: Nepotism, legacy, Old Boy Network, will not be going away anytime soon, the boss can pretty much do whatever he wants in terms of hiring his relatives, and schools are not going to reject a wealthy alumnist"s idiot son and lose his fathers generous donations. These things overwhelmingly benefit white people. So we give some non-white people a leg up only to compensate for the preferential treatment given to whites. Yes, two wrongs don"t make a right but it does make things a bit more equal, if in the face of wrong #1 (legacy) not going away. But wait, most whites are not wealthy, or related to the boss, or know someone high up enough, to benefit from these things. To which I would say, Well why don’t you take your own advice and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, work hard and perform well and raise yourself up to that level.
Also of note: minorities of Asian descent do not benefit from AA, and that"s whole other can of worms.

post inspired by Angry Bear™

I know what I said but..

I know I said that I wouldn't do the around the blogosphere thing but this one I think is special. I was scanning Cursor.org and saw that Where is Raed is back. This is the blog of a young man in Iraq, specifically Bahgdad. While there is speculation about the validity of this blogger, it is a facinating read if true, and gives accounts first hand accounts of someone actually there, that most of us in the US did not see. Read it while you can.

Mom's day misc.

Yesterday was Mother’s day, unfortunately I had to work 1 – 8pm, so I was unable to go over to my mom’s. I did arrange to have some flowers delivered, and I took my parents out to dinner on Saturday night. The thing is, when I called my mom on Tuesday, or maybe it was Wednesday, to let her know I had to work, she mentioned that my brother was out of town for the entire weekend, so he was suggesting that we do something next week, instead of this weekend. It kind of pissed me off that I have to arrange my schedule around my brother’s schedule. It’s something that happens whenever we try to have some kind of family event. Now I realize that he is busy, but I think he should be willing to re-arrange his life a bit sometimes too. So I took my mom and dad out for dinner (my Dad’s birthday was earlier in the week, so it was something for both of them. The First restaurant we went to was very crowded. So we went to a nearby place, one which we don’t frequent as often as the first, but we were able to get a table without waiting, and we had a nice evening, the food was good, not great but good, and we talked a lot about my older brother and the problems he has been experiencing lately. I was kind of thankful that I don’t have to deal with the stuff he does, and realized that my life is pretty simple, maybe even boring, sometimes I think it’s a bad thing but other times it’s not so bad.

I'm trying to not do the around the blogosphere thing when I'm pressed for time and write original stuff as much as possible, so cut me some slack ok?

Bananas vs. FOBs

The topic of American born Asian (a.k.a., ABA, bananas, johk sing, etc) vs. Asian born Asians who have moved to the US (often referred to as FOBs, imports, ornamentals, etc.), seems to bring a out a lot of passionate argument. Being a third generation Japanese American, I hope gives me some perspective, so... The biggest problem I have is with those who will accuse me of being “whitewashed” or calling me a “sellout” to my culture, heritage, etc. Because we look Asian and don't act the way FOB’s think we should. We don’t speak the language, don’t eat all the foods, don’t observe all the traditions, we just don't think, but mostly act, and behave,(right?), like you do. While this is generally true and it does lead for a bit of an identity crisis for some, it has never truly bothered me, primarily because, well, that’s the way I am, that’s the way I was raised, part American, part Japanese, I am both. I suppose being raised in a city where I am actually NOT a minority, (Honolulu, Hawaii), might have possibly skewed things. I really don’t see myself personally as being marginalized as some people have pointed out. Yes, as part of the greater population of the US, the marginalization of Asians exists and occurs with all too much frequency, assumed to always be immigrants, being portrayed as stereo-types in the general media, but I don’t go looking for examples or cry racism at every turn. OR even say in being *marginalized*, give me a fucking break.
I don’t see the marginalization here because when I look around, I see Asians and Asian culture everywhere. I see two Hawaii Governor’s who were Asian, (Ariyoshi, and Cayetano), I see a State legislature House, Senate, with more non-white surnames that white ones. I see the university name the baseball stadium the Les Murakami Stadium. I can buy dim sum and sushi at the 7-Eleven. I can even get saimin and rice at McDonald’s, my last name will rarely be mispronounced, . With each new generation, we, as Asian Americans, become more Americanized, but Asian traditions will still be a cherished and integral part of our lives, because it’s a source of identity, (I know I’m not white) and I fully realize that it would be a terrible shame to ignore, or worse, turn my back on, my ethnicity. (I try, i can count in japanese, and speak a smattering of rudimentary words and phrases), I was raised to embrace both Japanese and American cultures, but I have to say American was primary. (Scooby Scooby Doo Where Are You). Are there conflicts? Yes, but you deal with them, and make it work. Does that make me whitewashed? Am I so unlike you who I look so much alike? as to be gaijin? you decide, and tell me. Maybe, but you know what? I really don’t give a shit if you think I’ve sold out, because I know that I can accomplish far more than you as an FOB ever will in the good ol US of A, because I don’t put limits what I should or should not do, or what I will or will not do simply because of what my ethnic culture says so. If I want to have an intimate relationship with a black person, I can. If I want to say, run for political office, or even if I want to buy a house, and move in to whatever neighborhood I desire, . Thats the way it is, its neither good, bad, nor an insult if you do call me whitewashed because I really don't get all that worked up about all this shit. Of course that’s not to say that anything goes, you would not, for example see me on Jerry Springer, because I have had the Asian concept of saving face ingrained into me, (as well as going to every funeral of even the most remotely, distant relative that you have never seen since you were two, thanks Mom). But I would have no problem walking into a room filled with white people, and schmoozing with them (I'd much rather be somewhere else tho, even blogging). My point being if you cling too tightly to your ethnicity, and not allow for some Americanization, then it’s your loss, you gotta give to get, and only you know how much you are giving. (one of Myself's rules of life). It’s why you are in the US in the first place, or at the very least part of why your parents came here, so go LIVE YOUR LIFE

very busy at work, so nothing new for a couple of days, (yes I do this at work).Maybe I'll post about it. Have some ideas for posts though. Terrible thing how work interferes with blogging.

About email worms

I was on a message board the other day and someone had gotten an email from someone they knew, but it turned out the email was spoofed, generated by a email worm, while he opened the email, he did not open the attachment, because the person who sent it usually writes a bit more that "check this out". So he asked what is a worm, how does it work, and what can you do to prevent this. Being that I have some knowledge on the subject, I posted a response that I thought may be helpful to the novice, and I thought I should post it here also:


There is really no "easy explanation" as to how an email worm works, but I hope this helps. The worm is a program, just like your internet explorer, MSword, Excel, Resident Evil or solitaire, once the program executes it can pretty much do anything to your PC, read, write, delete, execute other programs. If you use MS Outlook, your address book is stored in a folder and its always in the same place on any PC, so the worm knows where to look and can read it. Furthermore each address entry has a specific format so the worm can sift though the file and knows what is an address and what is not. The same goes for ICQ, and your browser cache. Knowing this, the worm can now execute your email program and send a replica of itself to all the addresses it found.

As for the second part, again there is no easy answer, one way you can possible verify whether an email is actually from the person is to look at the email header, and verify that the mail server is the same as the persons email account, if you get an email from JoeBlow@hawaii.rr.com and the header says the email server was xtreme.uk.net and not the Hawaii road runner mail server then it may be falsely generated. Of course no one does this on a regular basis, the cold truth is there is no easy way to verify the sender is legit or from an infected PC. You can usually safely open any email you get, although there are some sophisticated worms that can execute when opened, the vast majority need you to open the attachment to execute, you need to have anti-virus with an email checker to scan the attachment.



Suggestions on prevention: spend $30 for anti virus software and update it on a regular basis. Get the most current updates of Outlook and Explorer. There is a setting you can turn on that will check if you have the most current version. Better yet don't use MS outlook at all, hackers know it's the most popular email program and write their virus specifically for outlook. That preview window in outlook is the same as opening it and as stated above there are some rare, smarter worms out there. Use an internet email like yahoo, hotmail, or pay $5 a month to subscribe to a messaging service like NetAddress, your address book resides on their server, and they always have the latest virus preventions. Or you can buy/download an email program that has public-key cryptography, like MailSafe or PGP which allows you to sign an email with an electronic signature that guarantees the sender is who it say its from. This also has the advantage of having the address book in a format that the virus may not be able to read. (emphasis on may not). Delete your cookies and temporary internet files and delete your history, on a regular basis, you may have to do more typing but you won't leave a trail of addresses that can be easily found.


Also very important: another way of being infected is if you have roadrunner or DSL. You MUST, repeat MUST, get a firewall installed or you will in all likelihood get infected from there.

Bold and Audacious..... exploitation

So the 2004 Republican National Convention will be held in New York City in September. Normally conventions are held earlier, like July/August. Tearful & solemn tributes up the yin yang predicted

"Emphasis" theirs

via Tom Tomorrow

From this it seems that the "Saddam has WMD's and would in fact use them against our troops" screed was, well, a lie.

Officials inside government and advisers outside told ABCNEWS the administration emphasized the danger of Saddam's weapons to gain the legal justification for war from the United Nations and to stress the danger at home to Americans.

"We were not lying," said one official. "But it was just a matter of emphasis."

Officials now say they may not find hundreds of tons of mustard and nerve agents and maybe not thousands of liters of anthrax and other toxins. But U.S. forces will find some, they say. On Thursday, President Bush raised the possibility for the first time that any such Iraqi weapons were destroyed before or during the war.

"just a matter of emphasis"...yeah right.
this article calls a spade a spade. I heard this quote from Penn Gillette, from Penn & Teller, on their Showtime show Bulls**t it's a good show, debunking such things as the environmental wacko movement, psychics, feng Shui, bottled water, and the like, but here's the money line:

"No ends justifies the means, of lying"

That's the way love goes...

Federal terrorism charges were filed yesterday against a 20-year-old California woman who allegedly threatened to kill the passengers and crew of a cruise ship sailing to Hilo last week, said U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo.
Kelley Marie Ferguson of Laguna Hills was charged with two counts of threatening acts of terrorism, Kubo said. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. Probation is not allowed under the statute, meaning Ferguson would be required to spend some time in prison, if convicted.

snip...

"The defendant said that she never wanted to go on the cruise with her family and that she wrote these notes hoping it would shortern her time on the cruise, thereby allowing her to rejoin her boyfriend in Orange County, California,"

Why oh why do people do these kinds of stupid things?

Time for a new PC

So its time to buy a new PC, my current one is (get ready to say wow that's old), a 200Mhz pentium, purchased circa 1995 (say it now). Buying a new one is not the problem. The problem is offloading the data from the old girl. The CD-burner died about six months ago, and I have no zip drive or tape backup. I figure I have about 6 gigs of data that I want to keep. What I may try to do is to remove the dirve from the old one and try to hook it up to the new one, I have no problem opening the case and puttering with it. Maybe I can buy/get some USB/Firewire transfer utility. I just hope the old girl can last a few more weeks.

misc

I'm not all that thrilled with this template, but if I do change it I will have to copy the customizations I've applied or lose them.

using lowercase

Just read something by Eugene Volkoh about using only lower case in posts and emails and such, which is something I tend to do primarily because its easier to type that way, i.e. I'm a lazy typist, but I think he's right. So I will attempt to capitalize as per standard english. However, my spelling will continue to be a bit poor. But at least my grammar is decent, well except for run-on sentences, over parenthesizing, and other assorted (but not too egregious) offenses.

on the Sen. Rick Santorum thing

actually he was quoted out of context, but only slightly, santorum appears to be making a slippery slope argument (that goes way overboard) as to the decline of "family values". which is incorrect in this case. incest, adultery, yes they can destroy/destablize a family unit, but if its between consenting adults well, i'm not so sure, i fail to see how two male adults (or two female adults for that matter) having sex in a monogomous relationship can destroy/destabilize someone else's family unit or even their own family unit. i have no problem with someone believing or saying that what i do is immoral, perverted, a sin, or whatever because the bible said so. but when you beleive or say that i should be thrown in jail because the bible said so, i have a problem with that. seperation of church and state
also, in the literal sense, a woman giving a man a BJ or a man munching some carpet is also sodomy. definition of words change, 50 years ago the word "party" was only a noun and not a verb the definition a marriage can also change.
his only valid argument is that this issue should be a states rights case, not a federal one, but that too is also debatable. The argument being that the texas law violates the constitution because two men engaging in consentual sodomy is illegal yet man/woman sodomy is not.

i guess the issue here is how far can the courts go to regulate the behaviours of consenting adults.

i also got involved in some off topic comments at philly.com



The reason libs have their panties in a bunch over this is not because of the argument he was making at the time but that his words revealed something about his character that libs hate. Namely the conservative-christan-homophobe-hypocrite. its similar to Sen. Lott, the context in which he spoke (a few kind words to Sen Thurman in his b-day) yet his words revealed him to be, as seen by libs, conservative-racist-bigot

noticed i actually got some hits other that me (hooray!). i am thinking that this blog will probably be more personal than a news/current events type blog. I will use this to write out my thoughts on subjects and throw my opinion out but it won’t be the pseudo-journalism type, more like editorials by me. And I may also write some personal stuff. I used to like to write at one time, even kept a hand written journal. (it got stolen when someone broke into my car and took my backpack, I always wondered if the thief read it), but I will post links to other news-type blogs that I find and try to expand my link list.

still trying to decide if this is going to be a personal blog or a news blog

so this weekend it seems the looting of the national library and the surrender of a top scientist, whats the deal with the dek of cards thing? thats a bit much. But are we so surprised at the looting? not me. should the US helped secure the museum? Yes, but the military claims it's not in their job description (how very american government employee of you). could they have helped? yes. send a tank squad. Here's a question: If the US forces are not trained to be peace keepers whose fault is that? traditionally the UN is the role of peace keeper, but since we chose not to listen should we not have covered this contigent? The training recieved included urban warfare right? learnt from our past involvements. So why, after taking control of a city with, what? 2 million people, we were NOT going to have to keep the peace? seems someone missed something here.

just do it

everyone seems to be fawning over the troops these days. our brave and valiant young sons, daughters, friends and neighbors fighting the evil scourge, heroes, every last one of them. Well, yes and no. yes they are performing what is probably the most distasteful yet necessary task, they are the providing the blanket of freedom with which myself and every american sleeps. yes i am grateful for the fact that i am able to write this because our military has provided for the common defense. but i can"t bring myself to throw the kind of adulation others do. the reason is that these people are doing their jobs, they are doing what they are trained to do. i"ve never heard anyone saying "thank god for our boys at ratheon for the tomohawk missle". they all signed up to do this, for whatever reason, i would contend that if you queried the military personnel who are at the end of the chain, the privates, airmen and seamen, the e-1, e-2"s, they are absolutely hating life right now. I have far more adulation for our police who also put their lives at risk on a daily basis and they do not have automatic weapons, or bunker busting, precision guided missles.

Was reading Matt Yglesias and this from calpundit and the comments in Eschaton. I've some thoughts on this, need to gather them..

futzing around with the template... trying to add links and counters

So just about everyone of Asain descent on the web is all wet and hard over the movie Better Luck Tomorrow. Yes it's a good thing for all the reasons everyone says, breaking the on-screen stereo-types and all that, being Sansei (third generation Japanese-American) myself . One of the downsides of living in Hawaii (yes there are some) is that it probably won't be shown here till May. Guess I'll have to wait, or I could obtain a copy, but of course that would be wrong [lifts pinkie to corner of mouth] bwahahahaha.