Even a blogger needs to eat. This blog is primarily Charles' hobby. But if he is intent on continuing to woo the Hooter's waitresses
in Chatanooga he needs something that pays.... wings don't come free you know. Here's a link to his
day job where he works the education beat
and, assuming he can't annoy enough people that way, is sometimes allowed to write opinion pieces.
Need perspective? Watson offers readers all they could possibly eat. For a unique view on current events, namely how they look from
orbit, here's Chuck's Real-Time(ish) Satellite Imagery of Areas of Interest.
Whenever it strikes his fancy, and there's good telemetry, Chuck will
process and post near real-time images of locations in the news. Eminently engrossing.
Wanna get into the head of a Japanese salaryman? Why, for Chis'sakes?! Well, assumin' you do, feel welcome to check out
the on-line journal of
Campbell's English class. Everyday, a group of disaffected salarymen are required to spill out their inner-most thoughts about life, the universe
and everything in broken English. Amazingly prosaic.
Shoutin' across the Pacific
Chiizu taberu koufuku shiteiru saru ga kangei-saremasen.
Saturday, May 15, 2004 The Jacksonian Turn. Supporters of the Iraq War seem to be getting in touch with their inner Old Hickory.
At National Review's The Corner, Rich Lowry contends that "As Wilsonians are discredited to some degree by recent events in Iraq, we will have to rely more on Jacksonian sentiment to see us through there."
And Andrew Sullivan says Zarqawi has misunderstood the Jacksonian part of the American psyche. Well, that's not quite what he said, but it's what he meant.
Since Walter Russell Mead offered his taxonomy of American foreign policy in 1999 it has been enthusiastically embraced as a useful descriptive device by many pundits. But the most ardent supporters seem to be self-described Jacksonians to justify their desire for total war. Surprisingly, many of these Jacksonians are conservative or libertarian.
Mead, intentionally or not, puts a fine gloss on Andrew Jackson and Jacksonianism.
Jacksonians, in his telling, just want peace, but if pushed they are ruthless in war.
But that description, or at least the first half of it, doesn't apply to Andrew Jackson himself.
Andrew Burstein's new book "The Passions of Andrew Jackson" presents as useful corrective to Mead's fable. (Also check out Amy Sturgis' review of the book in Reason.)
Put simply, Jackson himself wasn't a man of peace. In his personal life, he was a bully. A man with a violent temper, he not only challenged others to duels at the slightest provocation, he goaded friends and associates into similar behavior. While certainly capable of cunning, rational thought doesn't seem to have been his strong suit.
He rode to the White House on his reputation as an Indian fighter. Now, conflict between Indians and whites was probably inevitable, but there's plenty of evidence that Gen. Jackson didn't merely fail to find peaceful solutions to the Red-White conflicts, he actively whipped them up.
And in both his presidency and pre-presidential career, he displayed a respect for the law, the Constitution and for basic morality only when it suited his own purposes.
God help us if unleashing our Jacksonian impulses are the only way to win the war in Iraq.
Friday, May 07, 2004 Bad Girls. This USA Today article on judoka Ronda Rousey is the talk of martial arts boards.
Rousey has broken several women's arms with armbars during competition. That's a legit move. The person whose arm is locked is supposed to verbally submit or tap, and even if he or she doesn't, the referee is supposed to call ippon if the person can't get out.
Some have charged Rousey has snapped arms after the ref has called the point, but she, her family and coaches deny it. Most judo fans say they've never seen her do that. And the USA Today article makes it clear that, at least in some cases, the problem is that the opponent doesn't submit, the ref doesn't see the submission or appreciate just how much danger Rousey has put her opponent in. Or as the ref in the article notes, Rousey is just very fast and very aggressive.
So what's a high-level judoka to do:
"If the ref doesn't stop it, you have to decide what you're going to do," Rousey's mother says. "And I say crank the sucker and pop that baby."
And if the women complain:
Rousey's coach, Jimmy Pedro, the veteran, grizzled keeper of judo secrets and the father of former world judo champion Jimmy Pedro Jr., says of the criticism that his star pupil is a vicious, remorseless arm-breaker, "The girls who are getting hurt, it's their own fault. If they don't like it, tell them to take up pingpong."
If Rousey was a 17-year-old man accused of playing too aggresively and his father and coach defended him with those words, I don't think anyone would think twice about it. But I guess women aren't supposed to be such cold-blooded competitors.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004 For You Fans of Nobel Laureates, Robert Mundell is on Letterman again tonight. He's telling "Yo momma jokes" this time. If you are on the West Coast, keep an eye out.
Sunday, May 02, 2004 Hidden Inflation? Robert Blumen has been arguing for some time that official statistics understate price inflation. (See this and this.)
I'm not convinced he's right, or rather, I'm not convinced the official numbers are off by as much as he thinks. Still, of all the major economic number, the CPI and other inflation measures seem to me to be the most arbitrary. The adjustments for improved quality, for instance, are particularly capricious. Some of the articles Blumen links to, while from quite dbubious sources, do a good job of showing just how dubious some of the decisions about what counts as an improvement in a product and how much to discount for that are.
That said, I never understood Alan Greenspan's temporary obsession with deflation. In times of rapid technological change and rapidly growing productivity (like we are allegedly having now), wouldn't you expect mild deflation?
In fact, my former professor George Selgin has persuasively argued that mild deflation is a good thing.
Saturday, May 01, 2004 But Who Is The Red Queen? I'm sure the Bush administration will hail this as a victory, also.
I'm perplexed at those hawk bloggers, radio talk show hosts and online posters who are now taking the "Bush won the war but is losing the occupation" direction.
What was the goal of the entire endeavor? And why was war necessary to achieve it, i.e., would some other alternative hve worked.
Bush himself doesn't seem to ever had any clear answer. His supporters have offered a constantly shifting numbers of goals. Remember just a few weeks ago when establishing democracy in Iraq was the goal? Now, we are putting former Bathists back into power. And if you listen to right-wing talk radio the lemmings are squealing about the Army investigation into the alleged torture by U.S. personnel of Iraqis at the Abu Ghaib prison. Why is the Army punishing these good soldiers? Doesn't the Pentagon understand torture is the only thing these Arabs understand? So far, the Washington hawks haven't gone that far. But I wouldn't be surprised to hear one do it soon.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004 A Worthwhile Georgia Initiative. If you look closely at Zell Miller's record, there's not much to his alleged conservatism than being one of the more-blood-thirsty supporters of the war in Iraq and getting really, really upset that Janet Jackson flashed a boob at the Superbowl.
But Zell has one idea that's both very good and very conservative. Too bad it doesn't have a shot of being enacted.
Friday, April 23, 2004 Oh, that's gonna take some industral solvent to get outta my head. Maybe it's my imagination but as our class is watching The Score as their Friday afternoon flick this just amazed me. I'll switch the subtitle and sound tracks around every few minutes or so to give the students chances to both hear and read the movie in both Japanese and English. And I swear the Japanese voice actor for Marlon Brando is doing a straight on impression of the guy.
(imagine high-pitched lispy voice with lazy cheeks: "Nikku wa... dou? Kare ga danreinai teian wo suru tsumorida..." Yes, Japanese for "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.") I've decided this weekend to do all of my Japanese practice in Chirs Elliot-does-Brando voice. This should be as much fun as my Dylan in Japanese phase. That lasted a whole week before I wanted to punch myself.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004 I know from funny. And this is comedy.
Personal fave: "Standard end-of-show sign-off, "You've been great! Drive safely!" replaced with ominous-sounding "Another hour nearer the sweet embrace of blissful death"
Snitch on your neighbors! I may be out of the mainstream on this one among my fellow ex-patriates and Chuck N Charles but the common sense behind this story strikes me as blindingly obvious. Japan is being criticized by the foreign community and civil libertarians for its "Report an Illegal" program. The immigration office has set up an anonymous tip line on the internet where people can report on people they think may be living here illegally. A legal support group for ex-pats in Japan calls this service, "racist and an infringement of privacy." Excuse me , but how's that? Look. Will a disproportionate number of "foreign-looking" people be ratted on? Sure. And...? Well, at worst, an immigration worker will come to your home or you might get stopped on the street and be asked to produce your Gaijin Card or (if you're staying here for less than 120 days) your passport. These are powers immigration officials, police and tax officials already have. This was sort of the understanding that you agreed to when you made the decision to live in this country. And what, you say, if you are a natural born citizen? Same thing applies. You get inconvenienced for a few minutes; the official offers a thousand apologies and the incident is over. For me, the reason why this country works as well as it does is because there is a real sense of community here. The flip side to that is that there are those who are 'outsiders.' But Japan has never been anything but honest about the leeriness it has for those from foreign countries. I knew that coming here and I accepted it. I feel it is a small price to pay, to subject myself to a little bit more scrutiny, if it allows the cohesiveness of the society to perpetuate itself. Man I'm sounding like one of Landru's brainwashed minions. "Peace be unto you in the body of Landru." But seriously, this sort of thing may rate a bit high on the cringe factor but don’t you wish your country vigorously enforced it’s immigration laws? (/civil libertarian troll)
Tuesday, April 20, 2004 This Is Why I Hate Children. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has proposed a $5 tax on admission to strip clubs as part of his school--financing package.
I notice the governor isn't proposing any new taxes on his own vices, like hairsrpray.
Saturday, April 17, 2004 Back to the Future. Domenic sent this piece on the potential bursting of the Chinese bubble.
China’s economic fragility is not just a problem for Beijing. As the Chinese maw has grown, it has become a growing market for its neighbors. Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia have seen their exports to China – including manufactures – grow by as much as 50 percent. Japan is coming out of its decade of stagnation, in part because of the fillip Chinese exports have given its still only partially reformed export-led economy. South Korea, caught in political and economic crosscurrents, counts on its “China boom” for its high tech exports to buoy it until domestic demand returns. Even the U.S., however much it might complain over the loss of jobs to China, continues to have a lower inflation rate in part because Beijing [as well as Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong] gobble up its treasury notes, halting any “crowding out” of private sector borrowing in capital markets.
The thing I've feared most for the last couple of years is that the Chinese bubble and Alan Greenspan's latest bubble here in the United States will burst at the same time. We're really screwed if that happens.
Updat: I fixed the then Zinni link. I wouldn't make his #1 priority mine. I probably wouldn't make it a priority at all. But the rest of his points make a lot of sense to me.
