Far East Cynic

The power is out at Chez Skippy,,,,, but the airport is open.

Go figure.

It may be a while before I can post again. Today I go back to the land of no power.

Only in America. Only in the Whining States of America-can a moron like Donald Trump get time on the political stage to spout his nonsense.

Imagine my shock and amazement to wake up this morning to see his comb over on the TV talking about……well I don’t know what he was talking about.

And then the President actually stops to dignify-what is a baseless charge.

Donald Trump and the rest of the herd need a severe beating. I realize I am not supposed to actively agitate for his demise-but that is what he deserves. The only reason this even has any traction at all is because Americans are so stupid.

Unbelievable.

Is a happy man.

Flew out to the left coast today. The weather coming into the airport out here was very clear-and I had a window seat. So I could see the transition of the land and houses from empty desert, to some houses around a lake, to more houses with zero lot lines, to apartments to the big drop off that drops you into Lindbergh field.

I always thought flying in the California airspace was pretty cool. I have flown out of Miramar in the past in the back of: an E-2, several  A-4′s, and ERA-3B, and an F-18. The latter was about 13 years ago on a bright sun shiny morning. Took off early out of Fallon. S-3 pilot in the front seat, me in the back seat.  Talking on the radios, playing with the radar and admiring the view as we went over the mountains and flew S.E. That’s right-S.E. (look at a map). Coming into Miramar they took us out over the water and then into the break.  A great way to be spending the day. We were flying some parts down in the blivet. Dropped them off-loaded up some retrograde and gas and then took off again for Fallon after having to kill a few hours waiting for the light blue T-shirt mafia to finish whatever really important thing it was they were doing. ( Sarcasm intended).

I remember marveling at the time-how lucky I was to still be doing the only thing I really wanted to be doing after 19 years-and they were paying me for it.

Well I don’t get to fly in military airplanes anymore. But I am getting to travel-and that is still a lucky thing to be doing. And I am getting paid for it. Whoo hoo!

Gotta run. On a whim-have decided to go see the Padres /Braves game tonight. I knew they were in town-but hadn’t planned on going. Suffice to say-I changed my mind. Who should I root for?

I got nothing.

Body pump, lunch, shopping, mind numbing on line lessons about Baseline Sigma and Histograms.

The whole time it was on-this was what I was thinking about:

I have nothing really to write today. Today is Good Friday-the centerpiece of the Christian calendar and the event that made Easter occur. I could write something glowing and reprint an excerpt from the Bible or perhaps from the sermon One Solitary Life. ( Which is, by the way a great read).

Yet-as is always in the back of mind on this day-what Good Friday says about God strikes me as not entirely a good thing. Here, after all,  is a deity-the Creator of the Universe- who is so  unfair as to demand the rather painful sacrifice of an innocent man. This when he could have actively intervened in any time since the Fall to steer his creation back to the proper path. Perhaps The Landlord needs to more actively mange the property.

Free will is overrated. So too is the idea that literally billions of people have to suffer while some grand timeline plays out to its conclusion.

Unlike Christopher Hitchens and others-I don’t seethe with anger over the fact that this timeline is playing out. And therefore they use the inconsistencies of that line of thinking to deny that God really exists. I can’t go there. One because I firmly believe there had to be a Divine Designer behind the world-it clicks together too well for their not to be something bigger than chance behind it. Second-what Hitchens and the others forget is that they are not God. So even if the rules are fundamentally unfair-they were never ours to make.

Just ours to deal with.

Which is why I try to avoid religious philosphical discussions because -being a man of logic and one who likes to pull threads all the way- the more you try to pull this thread the murkier the waters become.

I sometimes wonder though-had I been born in a Muslim country, or say India-would I accept the Christian version as the “right one”?  I regard Islam as apostate and Christianity as correct. But is that just a matter of conditioning? Perhaps so,  perhaps not.

I do know-that if one does not insist on a literal interpretation of the works of the three mono-theistic religions, they actually hang together pretty well. Viewed from an allegorical sense, they state a fundamental truth-God loves man, while at the same time He demands big  sacrifices of him.

Which is probably about as far as I want to go writing down things I think about a lot. And its probably why I have come to like the Catholic Church so much-in that it remains focused on improving man here-as much as to acknowledge his need to get There. Render under to God the homage that is due Him-and let the rest take care of itself.

And THAT’s while I will never be any kind of a great theologian. But it all makes sense to me.

Have a blessed Easter Weekend.

UPDATE! Andrew Sullivan-who disagree with as much as I agree with, has written an excellent and more indepth food for thought article here. Money Quote:

Fundamentalism, in this sense, is not a rigorous theology. It is rigid resistance to a rigorous theology. It’s a form of denial and despair. It is rigorous only within a theological structure that does not account for the growth and expansion of human knowledge. It is therefore, to my mind, an expression of a lack of faith rather than an excess of it. And the use of fundamentalism by those who do not even believe in it – for whatever purposes, good, bad or indifferent – is the real blasphemy.

Charlie Sheen was in Washington DC two nights ago, I read about the performance of his so called “Torpedo of Truth” tour-and I felt sorry for the man. Lots of people are expressing the same emotion, but mine is based on a far different reason than most of those shaking their heads and dismissing the man.

My reason is that I kind of understand why he feels compelled to humiliate himself this way. Most folks do not. They simply are shaking their heads and” tut-tut”- ing because they think he should just quit drinking, or snorting, or whatever it is he does, and if he doesn’t then it implies that there is some defect with him.  Actually, the defect is not with Charlie ( really) it is with them-and their views of what right of control they think they have to exercise over his life.

Most of those looking down on Charlie Sheen just think that he needs to shuttle himself off to treatment. Take a couple of bouts of treatment, and everything will be all better. They generally say this while they themselves shuttle off to the refrigerator for another beer, or pour themselves some more wine, or mix themselves another drink.

Because they labor under the illusion-fostered and encouraged by America’s gigantic treatment machine-that the issue is simply about getting Charlie Sheen to stop drinking. Anyone can quite drinking for a period of time. Sailors prove that every cruise. Charlie however-and I am pretty confident in saying this-has discovered for himself what it is to be victimized by America’s ever growing machine of coerced 12 step treatment. And he, like many others,  is not liking it very much. As a result he is angry-more than a little I’d say. The problem, my dear Scarlett, is not with Charlie Sheen’s drinking-its with understanding he can never quench his anger. The machine that is coerced 12 step treatment will never allow that. No matter how right one may be-it is simply a fight you can never win. And so the people who victimize you, get a free pass to go on victimizing you.

Because treatment for substance abuse-as practiced in the Whining States of America is not about quitting drinking. It’s about losing control of your life-where once you had it. When one is thrown into the pit of the treatment industry, the devil’s bargain they demand is that you cede control of your life to someone else. Or many someone else’s. Even if you continue to show up for work on time and do your job every day-as the majority of those shoved into the twelve step pit do. And nine times out of ten-that person you are forced to cede control of your life to-is even more fucked up than you ever will be.

And, their view-and the view that they have sold to many in books and TV shows like Dr. Phil , Dr. Drew and the rest of the herd-is that you can never have your life back.

And so-rightfully so- Charlie Sheen is angry as he discovers the magnitude of the sacrifice these hypocrites demand that he make. Eventually-Mr. Sheen will discover that living life on your own terms, without interference from the hordes-is the best revenge you can hope to make. However, until he learns that-his anger will remain unrequited.

And he probably has a right to be angry-but his very public playing out of  this drama does not do him any favors. Sometimes-as disgusting as it is-you have to play the game, cooperate and graduate, and bide your time. Certainly every moment he spends on the tour is not doing his downstream prospects any favors. Of course when you are really angry-its hard to see that.

Because now-no matter what he does, no matter what changes he makes in his life-he (and they) will be forever stuck with albatross of the scarlett “A” wrapped around their necks. If he returns to drinking-they will hold the A up in his face. Which is really amazing when you consider a couple of really important statistics:

1)      Better than 65% of folks who have difficulties with alcohol or other substances recover on their own. And many, if not most, of them are able to resume drinking, contrary to the orthodoxy put forth in treatment literature.

2)      The majority of people shoved into treatment-are not and never will be –“dependent”  in the classical definition.

3)      The overall success rate of people in 12 step programs is actually worse than those who deal with their issues through other means.

Now mind you-I am not giving Charlie Sheen a pass for any actions that he may have taken that violated the law, his contract, or any other professional obligation. If he in fact broke those-and it appears he did-then he should be punished as required.

But beyond that-it’s his life to live. And eventually he will come to grip with the fact that he-and only he-has to take responsibility for that life. Most people do. Some people don’t. But it is their choice to make.

But that does not make it all right for an employer-or the state-to compel him or anyone else to go to treatment against his will, nor does it give them the right to dictate a particular outcome ( e.g. abstinence) in any particular case. This is especially true with respect to the America’s self-reinforcing cooperation between its traffic courts and its multi-billion dollar treatment industry. Especially since in any given year-barely 15% of those arrested for DUI meet the clinical standards to be qualified as “dependent”-whatever the hell that means.

When individuals become subject to coercive judicial or treatment systems, they are likely to be especially confused, self-doubting, and vulnerable. Great damage can be done at such times times which call for careful assessment and options. ..

Especially when you are forced into a program whose unstated goal is nothing less than religious indoctrination. Isn’t that right Mr. Bill?

Eventually though-I am confident he will find his own path. And it will probably include a drink or two and “goddessess”. I sure hope so.

These bastards are serious. The work load has really ramped up. So my blogging level is going down.

Six Sigma blows! There was a reason I hated statistics in college (even though I was a math major).

Back to the grind.

Then you know a movie really sucks. Megan McCardle-the dumbest economics writer BAR NONE-hates Atlas Shurgged:

 I wish I could report that the movie holds out the same kind of promise that the first Lord of the Rings movie did.  Unfortunately, it’s . . . how do I say this . . . an incoherent mess that put me less in mind of Peter Jackson than Tommy Wisseau.  It was a huge mistake to watch it on a laptop; I spent the entire time fighting a nearly overpowering urge to check my email.

Today is a beautiful spring day. Time to play some golf! This will be the first time I have played golf since last October. Big scores on the horizon I fear.

For those of you doing your taxes still-here are some tax tips from those who pay no taxes:

“[Rand] had a habit of exaggerating her own suffering, and she often forgot to credit those whose ideas she borrowed and who helped her in more material ways. She humiliated her husband. She could be narcissistic, shrill, demanding, untidy, even unclean, and her use of amphetamines exacerbated her angry outbursts, unkempt periods, and paranoia.”

Atlas Shrugged is out. You will forgive me if I am not standing in line to see the movie. The book sucked-and even before today I had no doubt at all the movie would too.

And Roger Ebert says my suspicions have proved to be right:

I feel like my arm is all warmed up and I don’t have a game to pitch. I was primed to review “Atlas Shrugged.” I figured it might provide a parable of Ayn Rand’s philosophy that I could discuss. For me, that philosophy reduces itself to: “I’m on board; pull up the lifeline.” There are however people who take Ayn Rand even more seriously than comic-book fans take “Watchmen.” I expect to receive learned and sarcastic lectures on the pathetic failings of my review.

And now I am faced with this movie, the most anticlimactic non-event since Geraldo Rivera broke into Al Capone’s vault. I suspect only someone very familiar with Rand’s 1957 novel could understand the film at all, and I doubt they will be happy with it. For the rest of us, it involves a series of business meetings in luxurious retro leather-and-brass board rooms and offices, and restaurants and bedrooms that look borrowed from a hotel no doubt known as the Robber Baron Arms.

During these meetings, everybody drinks. More wine is poured and sipped in this film than at a convention of oenophiliacs. There are conversations in English after which I sometimes found myself asking, “What did they just say?” The dialogue seems to have been ripped throbbing with passion from the pages of Investors’ Business Daily. Much of the excitement centers on the tensile strength of steel.

The story involves Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling), a young woman who controls a railroad company named Taggart Transcontinental (its motto: “Ocean to Ocean”). She is a fearless and visionary entrepreneur, who is determined to use a revolutionary new steel to repair her train tracks. Vast forces seem to conspire against her.

It’s a few years in the future. America has become a state in which mediocrity is the goal, and high-achieving individuals the enemy. Laws have been passed prohibiting companies from owning other companies. Dagny’s new steel, which is produced by her sometime lover, Hank Rearden (Grant Bowler), has been legislated against because it’s better than other steels. The Union of Railroad Engineers has decided it will not operate Dagny’s trains. Just to show you how bad things have become, a government minister announces “a tax will be applied to the state of Colorado, in order to equalize our national economy.” So you see how governments and unions are the enemy of visionary entrepreneurs.

But you’re thinking, railroads? Yes, although airplanes exist in this future, trains are where it’s at. When I was 6, my Aunt Martha brought me to Chicago to attend the great Railroad Fair of 1948, at which the nation’s rail companies celebrated the wonders that were on the way. They didn’t quite foresee mass air transportation. “Atlas Shrugged” seems to buy into the fair’s glowing vision of the future of trains. Rarely, perhaps never, has television news covered the laying of new railroad track with the breathless urgency of the news channels shown in this movie.

So OK. Let’s say you know the novel, you agree with Ayn Rand, you’re an objectivist or a libertarian, and you’ve been waiting eagerly for this movie. Man, are you going to get a letdown. It’s not enough that a movie agree with you, in however an incoherent and murky fashion. It would help if it were like, you know, entertaining?

The movie is constructed of a few kinds of scenes: (1) People sipping their drinks in clubby surroundings and exchanging dialogue that sounds like corporate lingo; (2) railroads, and lots of ’em; (3) limousines driving through cities in ruin and arriving at ornate buildings; (4) city skylines; (5) the beauties of Colorado. There is also a love scene, which is shown not merely from the waist up but from the ears up. The man keeps his shirt on. This may be disappointing for libertarians, who I believe enjoy rumpy-pumpy as much as anyone.

Short for? Sucks with a capital “S”. Of course, Ebert had already documented the type of people who are her fans.

Shintaro Ishihara, Tokyo’s flippant governor-easily won re-election last week.

Ishihara ran as an independent but was effectively supported by the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. The Democratic Party of Japan did not field a candidate due to recent poor public approval ratings for Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is DPJ president. Watanabe, 51, was backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members of the DPJ.

The Japanese Communist Party endorsed Koike, 50. Seven other candidates also ran.

After he was assured of winning Sunday night, Ishihara said he would continue to enhance antidisaster measures during his fourth term, and suggested people should stop playing pachinko to conserve electricity.

“If you ask me what I would do after winning a fourth term, I would say I’ll keep doing the same [as I have until now],” Ishihara said in his Tokyo office. “I’ll strengthen our measures against disasters. Tokyo is Japan’s driving force. If Tokyo comes to a halt, Japan will come to a halt as well.

“Japan won’t survive unless we rein in our selfish desires and live more humbly. Let’s get all Japanese people pushing in the same direction.”

Voter turnout in the Tokyo election was 57.8 percent, 3.45 points higher than the previous election.

With 99 percent of votes counted, Ishihara had garnered 2,608,318 ballots to Higashikokubaru’s 1,682,874. Watanabe had 1,002,909 votes and Koike 620,309.

Ishihara is LDP- and currently DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) holds the Prime Minister and the Lower and Upper house of the Diet. No one in DPJ is taking Ishihara’s re-election as a good sign. However, as I noted previously, since Ishihara can alaways be counted on to open his mouth and say really outrageous and stupid things, its good news for comics, newspaper pundits and disgruntled Gaijin bloggers. Fucked Gaijin notes that it gives us, “Four more years of Blinky. 4 more years of that dried-up crapsack. Kokubara had the most votes among voters age 20-40, but Blinky was the far-ahead winner among the 70+ crowd.” As you can tell-he is not a fan.

The S.O. is not amused-she says it long past bedtime for the man. Of course she hasn’t voted in a Tokyo election in probably 15 years since its been at least that long since she lived in Tokyo-to.

More for me to write about I guess.

Or why I am a dinosaur when it comes to on line courses.

I am in the throes of taking a 16+ week class from one of America’s major universities. They have an on line program for the subject matter I am taking that is pretty comprehensive-involving on line classes ( live with the instructor on the other end of a whiteboard screen), self paced lectures-that are not so self paced, they have to be done in the week they are programmed, and projects and homework e-mailed back and forth.

I hate it. I’d much prefer to be going to a class room-even if it meant I wasn’t getting home till after 10pm or later. Besides the fact that there would real girls people to look at, the home environment offers too many distractions. Even though I close the doors and lock myself in my man-cave, the fact that I am on my own computer-finds me shifting back and forth between some easy web surfing and coming back to the white board. At least in a class room, I would have to take notes.

I’d also have a set commitment of time and the ability to stop somewhere fun on the way home. Sure I can drink beer while listening to the lecture-but that one benefit does not offset the down side(s). I spend all day sometimes in VTC’s-now I have to come home and do it too?

But-I’ve put your tax dollars to work on it ( Thank you very much for the Post 9-11 GI Bill!). So I have to keep plugging away for several more months.

I just finished my taxes-after having to take a time out to do some research on one particular set of deductions and non-deductions. I even ended up calling the IRS-where a very helpful lady helped me run the numbers to make sure I had it right. Guess we need to f*ck her out of her pension.

Now-in tebagger land, I should be outraged at the taxes I am paying. But I am not-taxes are a fact of life, and I for one want lots of services from the government. Unfortunately, we don’t get near the level of services available elsewhere.

Probably the biggest lesson I have learned is how much room to live there is-once you know what your income stream is. And for all I complain about the S.O.-she is a saving machine, and has taught me how to be one too. Had my ex been that way ( and been a FM too), who knows how rich I might be? But it would be a sin to complain-so as much as I like to on other days-today I won’t. My taxes reminded how truly blessed I am compared to other Americans who are getting screwed daily by the policies advocated by that worthless piece of human excrement Allen West, Eric Cantor and any one of your friendly neighborhood teabaggers.

The video below however, points out something you should be outraged about. I didn’t cause the recession and I pay my taxes.

Unlike some people who a) did cause the recession and then decided to put the blame on us and b) didn’t pay their taxes-but were more than willing to exploit Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Vietnamese, Filipinos etc etc.

Allen West-go f*ck your self!

Our future in space, stunted in its youth-because Americans, as a whole are pretty stupid. We went to the moon, in an aggressive fashion, and then pretty much stopped.

When I think about all the money that has been wasted on all the wars between 1972 and  now-we could have gone to Mars 20 times, had a base on the moon, and a real space station-with gravity.

But we made other choices. Like tax cuts for gajillionaires-and tax breaks for corporations who send jobs overseas. Now, the best we can do is go to the ISS in a Russian rocket-if that does not disgust you-then you have a screw loose. But we found money to go bomb Libya though.  ( Of and if you even say one one word about the health care bill-I’ll just zap your comment right there).

The Economist has a great pictorial about the future that might have been-had we not been so collectively stupid.

TODAY marks 50 years since Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin became the first human being in space. The dizzying pace of developments in aerospace technology—just 58 years separated the Wright Brothers’ first demonstration of powered flight from Gagarin’s trip into orbit—inspired plenty of optimistic speculation about what humanity’s future as a space-faring species might look like. This slideshow takes a look back at a future that was thought, in some quarters at least, to be just around the corner, and compares it with the reality of space exploration half a century after Gagarin’s flight.