liberal japonicus

Asymmetries and a goodbye

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by liberal japonicus

Back when the world was young and Obama was running for president, one of the points, which I uncharitably assume was thought to be sufficient to derail his candidacy and so indicated not a modicum of restraint, but a desire to use only as much mud as necessary, was to highlight his choice of focussing on his father over his mother and suggest (often sub rosa) some sort of indication of a rejection of all things Caucasian. 

While taken to idiotic heights by Dinesh D'Souza in his The Roots of Obama's Rage, the question of why he wrote extensively about his father yet, as Janny Scott, in her biography of Obama's mother, has her quoting second hand that Stanley Ann Dunham noted that her son had only reserved 'one sentence' for his mother might still be on people's minds. While it may be a bit of hubris, I think that I know what Obama was thinking. 

I suppose the same charge could be leveled against me, in that I have written about my mother (here and here) but not anything at length about my father. While it is possible, in some sort of 'all possible worlds' theory, that Obama is, in D'Souza's words 'governed according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s', there is a more understandable and, I believe, sympathetic, way to look at things, (not that D'Souza shows any ability to actually be understanding or sympathetic). More below the fold

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Is A Puzzlement (open thread by dr ngo)

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by dr ngo Once upon a time there were worthy causes and there were charitable givers. Setting aside the questions of what constitutes a “worthy” cause and whether structural changes in society would obviate the need for private charity – legitimate questions, but not germane here – the basic process seems to have been that … Read more

Why we love the World cup Friday open thread

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by liberal japonicus Because you get lines like these: but the team delivered when it mattered most, beating Montenegro on Friday before dispatching Poland on Tuesday behind goals from Wayne Rooney and the captain, Steven Gerrard. Because you know it is do or die when you are facing Montenegro. Discuss.

A metaphorical question

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by liberal japonicus Or maybe a metaphor[ical] question. I was recently working through a book on metaphor with a student, and the author asserted that Shakespeare's metaphor, 'all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players', from As You Like It that the metaphor had a much longer history before Shakespeare used it, but … Read more

Sabotage and Obamacare

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by liberal japonicus Being in a country with a working national health care system, I've thought of the Obamacare battles as the typical overwrought commentary. However, via Atul Gawande, I see that this view is all too sanguine. Obstructionism has taken three forms. The first is a refusal by some states to accept federal funds … Read more

Kofi Awoonor and Westgate

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by liberal japonicus

It is probably a measure of not only tragedy fatigue, but also the distance that Africa stands in my mind that the terror attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi didn't really loom very large. Most of my reading of world news is about Asia and my recent post about Kyrgyz has me trying to figure out all the names and places of Central Asia as well as dealing with the more mundane aspects of classes starting.

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Peaceful Stories from a Distant War

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by dr ngo

Everyone who’s ever been in the military has stories to tell, and I am no exception. Mine are scarcely the best around – for one thing, they occurred about 10,000 miles from the nearest combat – but they are my own, and in this telling of them, at least, they are true, to the best of my recollection. Besides, for me most of you are a new audience, though not exactly a captive one, since you can easily skip over this. (If any of you want more stories, just buy me a drink. Any drink. Any time.)

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Kyrgyz, Syria and the dog that didn’t bark

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by liberal japonicus

This post is part travelogue and part musing on world politics, though I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins. In possibly the most famous Sherlock Holmes story, the key clue is the dog that didn't bark and while it may be strange to find a non-barking dog in Kyrgyz, it's one of the things I take away.

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Here today, TGAN tomorrow

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by dr ngo Not long ago my brother (the opera singer) recommended to me Richard Powers, The Time Of Our Singing as perhaps The Great American Novel. I read the book, which elegantly combines a deep appreciation of music with the story of several decades of race relations in the USA, and was much impressed, … Read more

A Sunday map open thread

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by liberal japonicus This Slate article links to a zoomable map of the US that "features 308,745,538 dots, each smaller than a single pixel and each representing one person: Caucasians are blue, blacks are green, Hispanics are orange, Asians are red, and other races are brown." Pretty amazing. What do you notice? 

Your ghostcycle Friday open thread

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by liberal japonicus A wander through some links turned up this Wikipedia entry. A ghost bike or ghostcycle is a bicycle set up as a roadside memorial in a place where a cyclist has been killed or severely injured (usually by a motor vehicle) Apart from being a memorial, it is usually intended as a … Read more

Eminent Domain done right

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by liberal japonicus The New York Times had the following The power of eminent domain has traditionally worked against homeowners, who can be forced to sell their property to make way for a new highway or shopping mall. But now the working class city of Richmond, Calif. hopes to use the same legal tool to … Read more

Metaphors for Asia: My three sons*

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by liberal japonicus

In a recent thread, the subject of East Asian relations in general and Japanese-Korean relations in particular came up and I suggested that the relationship problems have much deeper roots than is often imagined by Westerners. I may have suggested that I would write a post detailing the evidence for my assertions. As you can tell from the title, this post is probably not that one, but it will probably be as close as you get. I'm also ready to post this now that dr ngo is on the field, backing me up so as to stop those ground balls that go thru between my legs because I didn't get my glove down.

More below the fold if you want to ignore this and treat it like an open thread.

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Le Tour

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by dr ngo What's the sound of a powerful cycle crossing the mountains? Froome, Froome. Today the 100th Tour de France ended, and once again I was pleased to have watched most of it, despite all its heritage of drug scandals (So Long, Lance, it's been weird to know ya) and lack of real suspense … Read more

Your shotcrete Saturday open thread

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by liberal japonicus Perhaps you, like me, weren't expecting discourse about the construction considerations of underground tunnels at Talking Points Memo, but there was this: Specifically, they are covered in what’s known as “shotcrete”. Shotcrete is nothing more than concrete mixed at a standard 3000 to 4000 psi, but with a very high slump so … Read more

Reprints & Revivals Sunday(!) open thread

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by dr ngo! I'm just reading Giles Milton, Nathaniel's Nutmeg - which actually is about a mariner named Nathaniel (Courthope) and his search for nutmeg – and came across this wonderful sentence: One of the more popular books [of 16th century England] was Andrew Borde's Dyetary of Health, a guide to good living which earned the … Read more

(Not) Everything Old Is New Again: Part 2

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by dr ngo My previous reflections were not intended as a full-scale political/intellectual autobiography, but a prelude to broader questions. What in life changes and what doesn't, taking into account the variations – the “swings and roundabouts” – that accompany both tendencies? Each dynamic, I came to realize, is unique, idiosyncratic. There are no Universal … Read more

With friends like these Friday open thread

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by liberal japonicus An Illinois Republican official resigned Thursday, after writing a vicious attack on a biracial, female congressional candidate–calling her the “love child” of the Democratic National Committee, destined to work for “some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires.” The target was Erika Harold, a former Miss America and … Read more

your John Oliver open thread

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by liberal japonicus This insightful piece about Daily Central correspondent John Oliver in the Grauniad is quite interesting, but what I want to highlight His earliest Daily Show appearances played almost exclusively on his Britishness; most Americans, he points out, hear his distinctively Brummie accent as standard Posh English. He once interviewed Tea Party activists … Read more

Dear Old School

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by dr ngo Growing old is not entirely negative, though it certainly ain't for wusses. If I sounded angst-y in my last post, and even morbid in the comments, it's because I split up my reflections on age and happened to post the downside first. One big advantage of aging is experience, and not only … Read more

No, they are just like us Sunday open thread

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by liberal japonicus I had this for the Friday open thread, but didn't want to blogblock dr ngo's post. The Guardian, riffing about an AP report here, reveals that al-Qaida is organized like a bad cubicle farm. After 15 years as one of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb's top commanders, it became clear that the Algerian terrorist Mokhtar … Read more

Othello’s Occupation

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by dr ngo Nobody – well, hardly anybody – really believed the Who when they sang “Hope I die before I get old.”  Well, maybe Keith Moon, and a few other rockers like Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix, but we still have Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey with us – and even Keith Richards.  So … Read more

I AM NOT HILZOY (obviously)

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by dr ngo (posted by liberal japonicus who will quickly get his grubby fingers out of dr ngo’s prose as soon as we can sort out the typepad shtuff) Let me introduce myself with some important disclaimers: First, I am not Hilzoy. That’s OK, because no one else is. On the other hand, some denizens … Read more