Far East Cynic

Also known as why Juan Williams may be in fear for his job again. I have a special place for him-NPR was wrong to fire him and I wouldn't be surprised if Fox now did the same. At least he is not allowing himself to be intimidated:

The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message. The code words in this game are “entitlement society” — as used by Mitt Romney — and “poor work ethic” and “food stamp president” — as used by Newt Gingrich. References to a lack of respect for the “Founding Fathers” and the “Constitution” also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core “old-fashioned American values.”

The code also extends to attacks on legal immigrants, always carefully lumped in with illegal immigrants, as people seeking “amnesty” and taking jobs from Americans. 

But the code sometimes breaks down.

Roger Ailes is not going to like that one little bit.

Some problems never go away-they just resurface with different troublemakers.

There is an e-mail link on this blog for a reason. If you can't find it-hit compatibility view-and I am sure you will. Some conversations are better held off line-or better yet, not at all.

Like Ronald Reagan said-I am paying for this microphone. I control the content here-and I expect my rules on commenters and what to call a commenter to be respected. If you can't do that-go play with yourself, not my editor.

And for God's sake-read the entire post. Not just the parts you think you read.

And it still entertains a lot of people:

This weekend, sad news came to the Citadel Family.

We won't really know since Gloria Arroyo is under arrest. Could not have happened to a nicer lady.

However it would seem her successors, are not making the Chinese happy:

BEIJING: China on Sunday called for greater efforts towards "peace and stability" in the region, after the Philippines offered to allow more US troops on its territory.

Manila said Friday it planned to hold more joint exercises and to let more US troops rotate through the Southeast Asian country — an offer welcomed by the United States as it seeks to expand its military power in Asia.

"We hope that relevant parties will make more effort towards peace and stability in the region," China's foreign ministry said in a brief statement faxed to AFP.

The government's response was in sharp contrast to a blistering editorial in the Global Times — known for its nationalistic stance — which said Beijing should impose sanctions against the Philippines over the move.

China should use its "leverage to cut economic activities" between the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries and consider "cooling down" business links with its smaller neighbour, according to the editorial published in the Chinese and English versions of the newspaper.



"It should show China's neighbouring areas that balancing China by siding with the US is not a good choice," it said.

You are always winning when the Chinese are losing. The idea of US warships being a lot closer to their disputed claims in the Spratley's is not on their "I want" list.

Or at least the supporters of the Syrians. The S.O. and I decided to go into Stuttgart yesterday. We went to the Mercedes Museum and the Landesmuseum of Baden Wurtemburg. The S.O. was not much of a fan of the Mercedes museum-it seems mega Euro sports cars are not her thing, but I thought it was interesting. On the way back down Konigstrasse, we came across this demonstration:

The protest was against the current Syrian government which by any account is the author of some unspeakable tragedies-and by the same accounts is not going to be in power much longer. The signs they had up-along with the flags, which I think are not the "real" flag of Syria were interesting:

Nothing factually wrong with the sign-but I was suprised to see the Nazi imagery which is a touchy issue here in Germany. I am quite confident that no German laws were broken, and its probably an apt comparison for Assad, but here in a country that is sympathetic to the plight of the Syrian people, maybe not the best expression. The Polizei were out in force-but the demonstration was orderly and peaceful. Too bad the weather wasn't better:

If you look closely you will see a Turkish flag in the background. What that was doing there-I have no idea.

For probably the fiftieth time-I have been accused of hating women, Seems we had a dissatisfied customer with my previous post. 

There is actually a serious counterpoint to be made to the rather disgruntled commenter-but I've got to make it at a later time this weekend. I've got some things to do right now:

Like drink one of these:

And then perhaps have a go with member of the Nihonjin set::

Oh-and here is a little reading material, to put the previous post in some context.

That less than polite statement was one I heard during the middle of the 90’s from a fellow Navy person. His rather blunt point was that AFN- or any other military mouthpiece had to show a woman doing just about any military job; regardless of the actual demographics of that particular MOS or Designator. It was one of the dirty little secrets of the Navy’s PAO world-that they had accepted the subliminal mission of serving as an active advocate for the feminist mission. When the speaker said this particular phrase-the PAO effort to preach the feminist gospel had probably been underway for over 15 years, if not longer.

If you don’t believe me-go back and look around the Navy.mil website. For every picture of an individual-there will be at least 50% (or more of them) female. And the papers and TV have gone out of their way to trumpet any number of female “firsts”.

Even when they didn’t merit notice whatsoever.

Gotta show a gash. Anywhere and anyway you can. This is rule number one at AFN and in the PAO community in general.

Crude way to say it? For sure. But 100% accurate.

Long time readers of this blog will know that I am not exactly a fan of the repeal of the combat exclusion laws, nor the aggressive thrust undertaken by the services-having broken down that obstacle-to recruiting to a designated quota or percentage (30% by the previous CNO’s sellout embrace of the diversity mantra) of women in the service. I am, however, a realist and I do accept the reality that it is the world we live in today. Women will continue to serve and be advanced within our military, our nation as a whole—unwittingly IMHO-has agreed to accept the costs that come with that course of action.

So it was with a certain degree of resignation- that I was greeted to this picture on my Facebook page. Courtesy of the Tigertail Ombudsman, there was a whole series of photos outline the courageous act of scheduling an all female crew for a mission over Afghanistan.

From left to right, Air Control Officer Lt. Nydia Williams, Radar Operator Lt. j.g. Ashley Ellison, Plane Commander Lt. Cmdr. Tara Refo, Pilot Lt. Ashley Ruic, 

and Mission Commander Lt. Cmdr. Brandy Jackson, all assigned to Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 125 pose for a photo before flying

the first all-female-crewed combat mission in an E-2C Hawkeye aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70).

Voluminous coverage in Navy Times and Navy.Mil guaranteed to follow. Hallelujah-the greatest thing since sliced bread! Hallelujah brother-we have seen the light!

Except of course its not the first all female mission. Perhaps for the E-2 community, although I remain convinced that we had our female pilots fly together back in 1996 and several other squadrons had done similar things in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

The PAO beast would have surely demanded it. After all-its been years since they already broke the barrier of a non qualified female aviator being nominated to command a carrier battle group. This is old news-if anything it shows the E-2 community has been behind the times.

All kidding (sic) aside-this really should have been a non-event. Not worthy of so much of a mention in the SDO’s log book-much less blazing headlines. If the Navy was really true to its rhetoric-this would have been just another day at sea among many days at sea-enduring mind numbing drudgery punctuated by a isolated moments of excitement.

After all, isn’t what the women said they wanted? “We just want to be treated just like the men!”

Except of course we know that is not true. What they really wanted was to ensure the men and the institution they served in, were changed to be treated like the women-and to ensure that whatever advancement of women occurred, took place at breakneck speed. I mean literally hundreds of thousands of combat hours have been flown by five guys without so much as a whisper in the news media-save for when there is a mishap or someone gets fired for giving into the instincts God gave him.

But this. This-is something different. 5.2 hours of flight time to be emblazoned in the history books. A banner day among banner days for the E-2 community!

Excuse me while I sneeze-Horseshit!

I’ll say it again. Gender should not be a scheduling criteria-and if it happens that the dice roll to have five women flying together, that should be a non-event. Just another day at the office. It’s what we signed up for-and oh by the way women have been flying at sea from carriers for almost 20 years.

Old news-except for how it supports the Navy’s ever growing business of institutionalized racism and sexism, known as Diversity.

A burning devil to take them!

Japan elects its youngest woman mayor ever:

Japan's youngest-ever female mayor, Naomi Koshi, has vowed to improve the lives of women in the country after winning the election in the city of Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. The 36-year-old former lawyer and Harvard graduate has revealed that a big inspiration for abandoning her successful legal career to move into politics was a determination to change things for women in Japan, the Mainichi Daily reported. As a child, the mayor-elect watched on as her own mother abandoned a long-term career at a design firm to look after her elderly mother, Ms Koshi has said that she is determined to give Japanese women more opportunities. The role of women in Japanese society is often limited, she says, and this needs to change. "Work or kids? Or sometimes caring for an ill family member? I want to change the lives of women currently forced to choose from among these options," the news provider reported her as saying.

The Video is saying saying that the lady is 36, a lawyer, and a member of the DPJ.

And she wants to help women have it all…….

Good luck with that……….

Where Newt Gingrich may have a chance to win in Florida:

This weekend the New York Times ran an article about Apple and its production of I-phones overseas. Bottom Line Up Front? Steve Jobs could also be a real s**t when it came to his fellow countrymen:

When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.

But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke,President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.

The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.

As an American-I am insulted by Mr. Jobs logic. Because if you read on in the article you will find that it would appear that the main reason Apple cannot bring the jobs home is because most American workers would refuse to be treated as slaves-and that somehow there is something wrong with that mindset. 

An eight-hour drive from that glass factory is a complex, known informally as Foxconn City, where the iPhone is assembled. To Apple executives, Foxconn City was further evidence that China could deliver workers — and diligence — that outpaced their American counterparts.

That’s because nothing like Foxconn City exists in the United States.

The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn’s work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day. When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in a river of employees streaming past. “The scale is unimaginable,” he said.

Foxconn employs nearly 300 guards to direct foot traffic so workers are not crushed in doorway bottlenecks. The facility’s central kitchen cooks an average of three tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day. While factories are spotless, the air inside nearby teahouses is hazy with the smoke and stench of cigarettes.

Foxconn Technology has dozens of facilities in Asia and Eastern Europe, and in Mexico and Brazil, and it assembles an estimated 40 percent of the world’s consumer electronics for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung and Sony.

“They could hire 3,000 people overnight,” said Jennifer Rigoni, who was Apple’s worldwide supply demand manager until 2010, but declined to discuss specifics of her work. “What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”

 

Well, yea-you could not get Americans to put up with that. But ask yourself why they should have to? What Jobs was in fact saying was that, treating people decently and providing a living wage, needed to come second to his impatient deadlines and the need to clear a gazillon dollars in profit. Foxconn has a documented history of trouble and treating its workers like shit.  The point of the article is that Apple just couldn’t get that done in the US, and if you read the muted Times’ description of Foxconn, or, better yet, listen to those who have told of visiting Chinese factories, it’s easy to understand why. Those workers live in dorms which house 13-15 people in bunks in 12 by 12 rooms. They officially work 12 hour days, but often work for up to 16 hours a day, for a little more than Chinese minimum wage (about $1.30/hour if my math is right). Turnover at the plants is estimated at 10-20% per month. 

What disgusts me the most is that instead of castigating Apple for being an enabler to such inhumanity-there is a whole horde of people who agree with Jobs that it was somehow all right because the ends justified the means. That;s more than just a little wrong-its a criminal mindset. That there are a lot of Americans who agree with this point of view is more than a little disturbing.

Its not true-Americans can and will produce when properly motivated to do so. That they will not allow themselves to be mindlessly taken advantage of is not a flaw-its a feature. The only thing that distiniguishes the United States is its unwillingness to throw a 1/3 of its population under the bus-the way the stinking Chinese have.

And that there are people who think that is the example we should seek to emulate-is another sign the country is losing its mind. I'll say it again-American workers will produce. But they have a right to be fairly compensated for the effort-and they expect to have their private lives and time respected.

And that's the way its supposed to be. Not the other way around.

That's real capitalism and real democracy. Too bad our Galtian overlords have not grasped that. And shame on the Times for  not calling it what it is.

About women who are on the trashy side.

Thanks to the miracle that is our Sky Satellite hook-up I get to watch such worthwhile and edifying entertainment such as, Snog, Marry, Avoid". I like the show -but the S.O. hates it.

Snog Marry Avoid? is a British Reality show. It focuses mainly on transforming 'fakery obsessed' or 'slap addicts' in Britain into natural beauties by stripping them of their skimpy clothes and layers of make-up and giving them a make-under instead of a make-over with the help of POD – the Personal Overhaul Device.

(Snog BTW does not mean to have sex with-according to the Urban Dictionary it means heavy French Kissing. The Brits have a another word for penetration-however slight).

Funny thing is-I never seem to get to voting for the Marry or Avoid part, I always am choosing "Snog". And that is before they do the make-under. In fact I haven't seen one yet that doesn't get a snog vote-well maybe the one where they did a guy. That's a definite "Avoid". Like I said-they have a song for guys like me:

Is the German word for "accident". Which is what we had last weekend while on the way into Garmisch Partenkirchen. One mile from our hotel to be exact.

Dealing with this and work is why I haven't posted in the last few days.

After a pretty drive through southern Germany, and the Tyrol region of Austria, we came up to a light, the light was what they taught you in driver's ed as a stale green-so I was understandably cautious. As we were passing the towards the light the S.O. shouted out that the "light was red-stop". So I did. You probably know the rest-"One potatoe, BAM!". We got rear ended by a 1988 Honda. Our massive piece of Ford technology survived pretty well, bumper damaged and tailpipe loose from the outermost bracket. Cracks in the bumper cover. Nothing to be sneezed at ( at 2800 Euros damage) -but we got off easier than the guy who hit us-whose, hood as jacked up 90 degrees.

Nobody hurt though. So good news right? One would think so-but this is Deutschland and I was Auslander. So the cocksucker of a head cop shows up and asks me why I stopped-with the other driver telling him again and again the light was "Grun". ( I think it was yellow at the time we got hit).  When the Garisch MP's showed up ( someone had thankfully called them-they were a tremendous help), Mr Head Polizei was not very happy.

Long story short-get the car settled, they take us to the hospital to get checked, and we get to go back to the hotel for a couple of quality hours of anger and recrimination. This in large part because Mr cocksucker Head Polizei says its my fault. Even though I got rear ended. Sure enough, two days later, a warning arrives in the mail. Wanting 30 Euros for the privilege. I consulted with the police liaison and a German Lawyer. They were scant comfort. Basically, I could fight the warning. However, like refusing NJP, the stakes go up if you do. The warning has no points against my license. However-if the police want to get serious, they can take me to court to prove it. With points and court costs. But, "it is my right to contest the warning"-just get it back to them inside a week.

In the end, I split the baby. Paying the fine so as not to get in any trouble-I also sent along a letter the lawyer had translated into German, telling them I think they are wrong and should refund my money.

I'm not holding my breath waiting.

There are those who think I should fight this to the end. I don't understand the logic. If I do-the only witness who is going to see it my way is the S.O. The German witness who was there-was obviously on the other side and beyond that, its my word against his. In the meantime the stakes go up at each wicket-to include being slammed in a German court. As far as the insurance goes-its a wash, because the police report says they cited me. So they awarded 25% of the fault to me and 75% to the other guy. ( He got cited for following too close). Why go through the aggravation?

And I never got to go skiing or see the Zugspitze.

Don't try this at home folks.

Be dumber than George W. Bush. But apparently Rick Perry has gone and accomplished it.  By claiming that Turkey-a NATO ally- is run by "Islamic terrorists", Perry has really shown how ignorant of the world as it is-he really is:

Governor Perry might want to notice that there are many differences between Turkey and Iran. For instance, look at this pdf report on Turkish-US military cooperation and see if that sounds like Iran to you. Turkey still hosts that Incirlik Airbase where the young Rick Perry says he was stationed but where he apparently did not bother to learn anything about his host country. If anything, US-Turkish military relations are on an upswing...Ironically, Perry is doing what he accuses Obama of– making an ally nervous and uncertain. Whereas Obama hasn’t done that, at all.

This website will not be doing so-for reasons I will explain later on today. Its been a hectic and not so great couple of days for yours truly. However, here at Far East Cynic HQ-Deutschland, we firmly support all efforts to derail the SOPA Act, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and its companion PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act.  As I have pointed out in my previous attempts to defend Net Neutrality-these efforts to censor the Internet, are nothing more than ways to ensure that internet users are forced to line the pockets of people who already are making plenty of money.

There's been plenty of talk (and a ton of posts here on Techdirt) discussing both SOPA (originally E-PARASITE) and PROTECT IP (aka PIPA), but it seemed like it would be useful to create a single, "definitive" post to highlight why both of these bills are extremely problematic and won't do much (if anything) to deal with the issues they're supposed to deal with, but will have massive unintended consequences. I also think it's important to highlight how PIPA is almost as bad as SOPA. Tragically, because SOPA was so bad, some in the entertainment industry have seen it as an opportunity to present PIPA as a "compromise." It is not. Both bills have tremendous problems, and they start with the fact that neither bill will help deal with the actual issues being raised.

That main issue, we're told over and over again, is "piracy" and specifically "rogue" websites. And, let's be clear: infringement is a problem. But the question is what kind of problem is it? Much of the evidence suggests that it's not an enforcement problem and it's not a legal problem. Decades of evidence from around the globe all show the same thing: making copyright law or enforcement stricter does not work. It does not decrease infringement at all — and, quite frequently, leads to more infringement. That's because the reason that there's infringement in the first place is that consumers are being under-served. Historically, infringement has never been about "free," but about indicating where the business models have not kept up with the technology.

Thus, the real issue is that this is a business model problem. As we've seen over and over and over again, those who embrace what the internet enables, have found themselves to be much better off than they were before. They're able to build up larger fanbases, and to rely on various new platforms and services to make more money.

And, as we've seen with near perfect consistency, the best way, by far, to decrease infringement is to offer awesome new services that are convenient and useful. This doesn't mean just offering any old service — and it certainly doesn't mean trying to limit what users can do with those services. And, most importantly, it doesn't mean treating consumers like they were criminals and "pirates." It means constantly improving the consumer experience. When that consumer experience is great, then people switch in droves. You can, absolutely, compete with free, and many do so. If more were able to without restriction, infringement would decrease. If you look at the two largest contributors to holding back "piracy" lately, it's been Netflix and Spotify. Those two services alone have been orders of magnitude more successful in decreasing infringement than any new copyright law. Because they compete by being more convenient and a better experience than infringement.

Add to that, that it is the begining of a slippery slope. The US complains repeatedly about the Chinese "Great Firewall", yet now it proposes to do pretty much the same thing. It already is monitoring Internet traffic far more than shold be allowed, and when this bill fails to stop piracy there will be a push by the big entertainment companies to pursue even more draconian measures. And after all, the technical approach advoacted in the bill of DNS blocking is essentially the same as China's:

The functional setup of such site blocking — via DNS blocking — is effectively identical to how the Great Firewall of China works. While the intended purpose is obviously different, the actual mechanism for blocking is nearly identical. This creates significant cover for repressive regimes to resist any diplomatic efforts by the US to push back against attempts by the US to promote internet freedom. Furthermore, we have seen how countries, such as Russia, have used copyright law to censor political opposition, using the law to go against activists challenging the government. Even if the intended purpose of SOPA and PIPA are to protect against infringement, opening up the door to censorship for one purpose makes it nearly impossible to avoid it being used for other purposes. It also basically gives the perfect blueprint for repressive regimes. They merely need to claim that their Great Firewalls are designed to stomp out infringement, and then can use it to intimidate and block political opponents. Adding to that is the massive expansion of the diplomatic corp. pushing for greater enforcement, and it's almost as if we're begging countries to set up their own Great Firewalls that will certainly be abused.

 

I am firmly of the opinion that there is a segment of our Teahdist population that would be more than happy with censoring political speech-as means to further their one party government agenda. They will argue differently-but it comes through clearly in the way they attack opposition movements such as OWS. By ignoring the content and ridculing the methods through warped themes like Erik Ericson's "53%".

And finally-Rupert Murdoch likes SOPA and PIPA. This bit of hypocrisy from he of cell phone hacking infamy. The right to keep and watch porn shall not be abridged.