Obama Signs Financial Overhaul Bill, Relates with Average Joes

After a 2 year battle with lobbyists and an obstructionist Republican Party, today President Obama signed an historic bill to regulate Wall Street's clearly irresponsible financial practices. But has President Obama won the war? Well, obviously the only way to judge that is to dissect the bill itself and see precisely what regulations it will allegedly impose. The New York Times supplied a summary of the fundamental changes in store:

The law subjects more financial companies to yada yada, regulates many doodads and  and creates a panel to detect things as well as a problem-solving regulator. A number of the details have been left for regulators to work out, because the White House staff was reallllly just trying to squeeze this baby in before mid-term elections and didn't have time to proof-read it... or hammer out every detail... or address every issue... or close all the loopholes. But the White House says they are "confident that this bill will make people feel slightly more comfortable trusting their money to proven thieves."

 Despite the vagueness of the bill, Obama did have this to say to the American people:

“...because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes... There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts. Period.” 

Though this may be difficult for the American people to believe (due to the litany of promises Obama has yet to deliver upon), Obama tried dearly to give hope to the more incredulous among us, by what other method than the good ole presidential standby - relating to the Average Joe:

“If you’ve ever applied for a credit card, a student loan, or a mortgage, you know the feeling of signing your name to pages of barely understandable fine print - well folks, that's kind of how I feel right now."

When questioned on the bill's thoroughness, Vice President Joe Biden responded, "Why the hell are you asking me?"

  

This is motivational?

I'm a bit more than halfway through a supposedly motivational essay that gets passed around the Chinese-language-learning community, and so far I can say it falls far short. This brief aside was particularly uplifting and hopeful.

In fairness, it should be said that classical Chinese gets easier the more you attempt it. But then so does hitting a hole in one, or swimming the English channel in a straitjacket.

Full text here: Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard?

More thoughts later.

Fighting Wars Like Idiots

I've been reading a lot of articles recently about the sordid state of America's war on terror. I knew we were losing - I don't think anyone is under the impression we're winning by any margin -  but I didn't know about the repugnant, destructive, and downright counterproductive tactics we've been employing for who knows how long.

Let's just run through the evidence that has emerged over the past couple weeks:

1) WikiLeaks (a relatively new watchdog group attempting to check abuse of executive power, among other things) released footage of US military members in an Apache targeting suspects who they believed had guns. It turns out they were in fact cameras, not AK-47s, and the suspects were journalists and photographers, not enemy militants. A cargo van carrying that arrived on the scene several minutes after the US forces opened fire came to save the injured, but that van was also attacked. The van also was carrying 2 children, who were injured (not killed in the raid as well. If that were not enough, this tape was filmed in 2007 and suppressed by government forces. The incident also was elaborately covered up, to the point where atrocities - such as the fact that reinforcement tanks that came after the firing ceased ran over several dead bodies - were specifically explained away in press interviews (a general interviewed by the Washington Post explained that didn't allow tanks into the area since they were unable to without running over bodies).

2) Obama has authorized assassination of US citizens abroad who have been deemed enemy combatants. This requires no due process, no proof - just suspicion or "intelligence."

3) US military recently opened fire on a bus carrying civilians, killing at least 5 and injuring around 20

This is what I've got a problem with: our strategy to win the war - according to what has come to light despite apparent government attempts to stanch these facts from becoming known - is to shoot people we think carry guns. It's 2011 - phones can give us directions to somewhere in China, toilets know when we've stopped shitting and flush accordingly, cars can know when your sleepy and suggest a nappy-poo, but despite all this innovation we still conduct wars like it's fucking Duck Hunt? Are all of our great minds too busy designing iPhone apps that our war department is being run by dumbasses? Of course not, but they're not making a good case for themselves with this evidence popping up.

Even if I think it's dumb and there could be a better way to win a war, that's no case for changing the strategy. But in a recent article of the NYTimes - on their Opinionator blog - Robert Wright cites a study done by Jenna Jordon of U of Chicago that focuses on "leadership decapitation," a name for the strategy of targeting and offing senior leaders in organizations in order to pacify their organizations completely. That's what we're doing in Afghanistan, which you know due to the abundance of headlines that read "A Senior [insert terrorist org. here] Leader was killed today..." But Jordan's study finds that this strategy not only doesn't work, but in the case of religious extremist groups especially, has the opposite effect. How about that. Killing senior leaders (who not only inevitably get replaced, but Wright argues they are potentially replaced by more capable leaders, citing the replacement of CEOs and bosses at corporations). Wright deftly explains why this unquestionably the wrong tactic:

Of course, if you did enough killing, you might make the job of computer executive so unattractive that companies had to pay more and more for ever-less-capable executives. But that’s one difference between the computer business and the terrorism business. Terrorists aren’t in it for the money to begin with. They have less tangible incentives — and some of these may be strengthened by targeted killings.

He goes on:

You can imagine why, as Jordan’s data suggest, this counterproductive effect of decapitation might be stronger for religious groups than for groups driven by a secular ideology. To the intensely religious even the harshest adversity can seem like a test administered by a God who will reward faithful perseverance. And the belief that death in a holy war gets you to heaven can’t hurt when you’re looking for someone to replace an assassinated leader.

Now along with this being counterproductive in our immediate war with Afghanistan, think about the future of wars after America has set this precedent. And I know, living in America, it's sometimes easy to forget that America sets a lot of international precedents, but think about what other countries will do in future wars if this conduct goes uncontested. We're not only fanning the flames of the dangerous terrorist forces we're currently fighting - we're justifying their actions as we kill their families and we're telling the rest of the world that that's okay. It's a wonder our international allies haven't spoken out against these atrocities, but they'll have us to thank when their enemies starting fighting like us.

There is never a reason to throw lives away like this. Moreover,  when it does not even achieve the desired result, there's not a reason on earth for the government to protect and support policies like this.

[article cited: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/title-2/]

For further reading on the topic, Glenn Greenwald of salon.com has extensively covered these issues, focusing on their illegality. Here is the most recent:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/12/afghanistan/index.html

and you can find the others linked to that one.

Coincidence?

Or Google Mindread?

I'm not the great communicator that I thought I was

I haven't felt compelled to write anything for a good long while now, but coming face to face with a childhood friend with whom I haven't talked since elementary school (about 10 years) made me feel all sorts of strange things that I had to get out. To clarify, by face to face, I mean we were sitting across from each other in the BU student union in a fashion where I could just stare at him but he couldn't see me - maybe that stare-sesh is what got me thinking about this issue more seriously. This isn't by any means the first time I've seen him or been aware that we attend the same university, but it's the first time that my inability to walk up to him and say, "Kevin? Kevin Chang?!" all cliche-like has really bugged me.

Some background info: Way back when I was a mere element, I went to a pretty small elementary school. My class was about 25 kids, and I was basically friends with everyone - I had yet to grow into the harsh, judgmental, and selective boob I am now. My friendship with Kevin was similar to my friendship with most of the others: we played sports after school, played Pokemon during school, and played video games together whenever we had a chance. Ah simple pleasures. Kevin, like several other good friends at my school, moved before we could grow up together, so our relationship reached a stasis (we never tried to stay in touch). The only unique memory I can conjure up is running through his house wearing roller blades wielding water guns with which (to the dismay of his parents) we assaulted each other - and that was awesome.

Though that may be a funny and positive memory, and though we may have had a fun and positive relationship when we were little, I cannot muster up whatever courage it takes to talk to him today. Maybe it's because I know I'll have another chance to talk to him - I know I won't necessarily take that chance, but at least it's something I can comfort myself with. But isn't there something really... wrong here?

Probing the matter deeper, I recalled how I even came to know that this is my Kevin Chang. Around the end of high school, me and many of my fellow Orchard alumni received a friend request from him - I personally received what I just now dubbed a "silent friend request": one where the person friends but declines to send a personalized message like "Hey it's been 10 years what the fuck is going onnnn???" or something in that vein. Regardless, it thrilled me since facebook was nothing more than a tool to keep tabs on the people I saw regularly - now I could keep tabs on people I actually need facebook to keep tabs on. Unfortunately, that was the last interaction (if you could call it that) we've had, electronic or persontronic. At some point after I transferred and joined the BU network, I realized Kevin was among the very few people I knew at BU - omg. So I sent him a message telling him we were ironically attending the same school again, but I never got a response. Any effort to meet up with him ended there - I still see him around campus but I don't even try.

Back to the present: staring at the subject of this blogpost, asking myself "What's so hard?" And I'm unsatisfied with every answer I give myself. I play the conversation out in my head (as I'm prone to do): what I'll open up with, how I'll greet him (does he deserve a hug? tears?), dispel any notions that I'm a stalker by offhandedly letting him know I've flipped through volumes of his facebook photos in order to recognize him, even how I could dissolve the conversation in case of awkward silences. How sad that I don't even trust my own conversational skills with the task of talking with an old friend. I mean, I don't know anything that he's into or what kind of person he is compared to the future-megalomaniac me and my classmates made him out to be back in the day, but I do know that he remembers me (and hopefully rollerblade-watergun fights in his house too - that's another thing we can discuss!) so what do I need to actually feel comfortable walking up to him and reuniting?

Did the e-snubs I experienced dampen the prospect of talking with him again? Would I be so hesitant to talk to Stephen Demetrius or Marilisa Ciciercha or John Vagiano or Bjorn Wanchoo? Does the fact that I've seen him around campus so much and had this sad sad deliberation only make me less inclined to walk up to him and say hi? I don't know, but instances like these make me feel like 100% pussy, and they are certainly not few and far between.

Anybody else on the blogosphere write self-loathing blogposts? Maybe we should meet. Maybe.

Want to read Chinese, Japanese, or Korean online? Awesome Firefox plug-in to the rescue

This goes out to all my homies in da struggle, tryna learn Chinese but having a tough time finding ways to learn outside of the classroom. I stumbled upon(via StumbleUpon) Perapera-kun a very lightweight add-on that shows the pinyin and translation of any character you hold your mouse over.

Students of Chinese know that, due to the lack of spaces in between words in Chinese, it's sometimes very difficult to demarcate where one word ends and another begins. The nicest part of the scroll-over feature is that the plug-in shows you individual character meanings in addition to combined-character meanings. For instance, when scrolling over 节目 (jiemu), you're given the definition of 节,目, and 节目. This is most helpful when approaching new words that have a combination of familiar or unfamiliar characters and is executed really smoothly so it's not difficult to use at all. It should be noted that this only works within your browser, so if you're reading a word document in Chinese this won't be of any help.

Very simple and very useful, but aside from the basic translation feature it has a really nice keyboard shortcut (press "S" while a word is highlighted) that allows you to save the word if you're interested in building a vocabulary list for yourself.

Though how useful this add-on will be is proportional to how much time you spend reading Chinese online, it does open up more opportunities for media consumption for the average Chinese student, which is pretty exciting. Trying it out on China Daily was fun and it's much easier than running back and forth to a dictionary, copying and pastying all over the place.

You can read about Perapera-kun here: http://perapera.wordpress.com/

You can download Perapera-kun here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3349

The developer seems to update the plug-in frequently with new features requested by users, so feel free to drop him a line if you think it can be improved. Enjoy!

Revelations in the Shower

In the last two days, I've done more outside activity than I have in about the last... season. I owe it partly to the fact that I've recently transferred to Boston University, and being in a city offers fewer opportunities for outdoorsy action. In fact, I feel as if I'm trying to stay outside as little as possible, running from my apartment to the bus - scorning the bus if it's not pulling up just as I arrive - and hustling from the bus to my class, only getting off at the closest possible stop. But I can't blame my new environment for everything - I'm also a lazy summabitch when it gets cold out. So shoot me.

Anyways, back to embracing the outdoors. So yesterday, with several of my good friends, I hiked to the (near)top of one of Bear Mountain's eleven peaks (thank you Wikipedia) at Bear Mountain in New York. Today, I tackled yet another peak (this time with my girlfriend), from which I could see the peak I had bested yesterday, filling me with an enormous sense of pleasure and fulfillment (the rest of you peaks... well you just wait till Spring Break). The reason it felt so good was not simply because I was breathing fresh air and connecting with nature - which!, I learned from the Na'vi of Pandora, could bring great enlightenment and otherworldly pleasure - but also because I was totally unburdened by the technology that I encounter all day, every day(other than my silenced cell phone. I've read "Between A Rock and Hard Place" and seen many a documentary telling stories of stranded hikers/climbers, and I don't care to end up the subject of one of those harrowing survivor - or not-survivor - stories). Other than that though, I was free from the enormous stress that being connected to so many networks and notification systems and responsibilities and reminders brings to my - and undoubtedly, your - life.

Now I just got out of the shower, during which I got to thinking about my little escapades these past two days. Why were they so marvelous? Why did they feel - to my body, to my mind, to my senses - absolutely novel? Well, probably for the same reason I could only come up with the answer while I was in the shower: I was totally disconnected from technology. Which revealed to me yet another reason for something I experience everyday, and that's how I think more lucidly while showering and, frankly, while taking a shit. I, being the very well-mannered person that I am, don't talk on the phone while I crap, don't text while I drop a deuce, instead opting for a book, newspaper, or most often my mind. I used to do SAT sets while I crapped and always felt that I did a better job than when I was sitting in my kitchen next to my green-lit oven timer. I've always prolonged those technology-free interludes of my day, often prompting my mom and dad to ask me if my stomach feels alright (sometimes it really doesn't XD) or to tell me not to waste water. I always thought I just did it because I liked to take my time, but I think it gives us a unique opportunity to take a break from the electronically and informationally charged qualities of our lives, to reflect on or think about whatever the hell we want. It feels like freedom. It's a freedom you can get from taking a hike, taking a shower, or taking a shit. I like that. I gotta remind myself to do that more often (the former, of course).