Cinco de Mayo and Boy's Day
1) This day in 1862, the Mexican army defeated the French invaders in Puebla.
The French invaded because Mexico owed money. The French thought it would easy to invade Mexico. They were wrong.
The Mexicans celebrate this day as Cinco de Mayo (5th of May).
If I had more $$$, I'd celebrate lavishly.
2) In Japanese culture, today is Boy's Day. (The girls already had their day on March 3)
3) Being that I am part Mexican, and a male, I deserve special treatment all day today :)
Friday, April 29, 2005
LA riots 13 years ago, XXX 2 comes out today.
The LA riots broke out 13 years ago today in reaction to the not-guilty verdict given to the white cops who beat up Rodney King(who was African American).
Ironically, today, the movie XXX 2: State of the Union comes out today.
Though the movie has NOTHING to do with the LA riots, it stars Ice Cube who had some commentary on the LA riots on his late-1992 album "The Predator". Ice Cube himself is from South Central LA.
It was said that his 1991 album "Death Certificate" predicted the LA riots. Especially the song "Black Korea" in which he expressed anger towards Korean store owners in LA and mentioned he wanted to burn their stores. Other songs in the album expressed more anger towards America's treatment of African Americans. Some said the LA riots were the fault Ice Cube's lyrics. Others said that Ice Cube was just making commentary on life in South Central LA. and he was giving a warning that mainstream white America was ignoring at the time.
Ice Cube later albums, while still hardcore, didn't have as much angry commentary as "Death Certificate" or "Predator". Some of the militant African Americans are dissapointed about that. Ice Cube said that those albums were done in the early 1990's and he's not interested in doing them again.
Though Ice Cube wouldn't admit it, America in general has been nicer to him since the LA riots.
Ironically, today, the movie XXX 2: State of the Union comes out today.
Though the movie has NOTHING to do with the LA riots, it stars Ice Cube who had some commentary on the LA riots on his late-1992 album "The Predator". Ice Cube himself is from South Central LA.
It was said that his 1991 album "Death Certificate" predicted the LA riots. Especially the song "Black Korea" in which he expressed anger towards Korean store owners in LA and mentioned he wanted to burn their stores. Other songs in the album expressed more anger towards America's treatment of African Americans. Some said the LA riots were the fault Ice Cube's lyrics. Others said that Ice Cube was just making commentary on life in South Central LA. and he was giving a warning that mainstream white America was ignoring at the time.
Ice Cube later albums, while still hardcore, didn't have as much angry commentary as "Death Certificate" or "Predator". Some of the militant African Americans are dissapointed about that. Ice Cube said that those albums were done in the early 1990's and he's not interested in doing them again.
Though Ice Cube wouldn't admit it, America in general has been nicer to him since the LA riots.
The fact that a hardcore African American like Ice Cube has become a big movie star in the last decade shows America has become more tolerant of African Americans.
Back in the early 90's (I was in elementary school) all the major action stars were white (ie - future Cali gov Arnold, Jean Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris etc.). Now we have a more multi-racial slate of action stars (ie Vin Diesel, The Rock, Ice Cube)
I remember that I was in the 5th grade when the LA riots broke out in 1992. I got a call from my uncle living in LA in the afternoon (Hawaii time). Being that it was the afternoon, I didn't get a chance to watch the news yet. Anyways, my uncle mentioned about some fires out in the streets of LA. A few minutes later, my older brother came home. I mentioned to him about a call from my LA uncle. My brother already heard the news - there was a riot in LA.
About a week later, a new student came to my elementary school. It was a white boy from LA. So I asked him if he came here to escape the riots. He didn't want to answer my question. Who knows, the timing might've been a coincidence.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Grant Crowell visit to HPU
A decade ago, then UH-student Grant Crowell made a cartoon mocking Native Hawaiian supremacist Haunani-Kay Trask.
http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/art/news/022305cartoon.shtml
Trask called Crowell a "racist" and demanded his expulsion from the university. Around that time, Ward Churchill made a visit to UH and said that it would be good if Crowell was executed.
This in contrast to Churchill's whining about "censorship" when people reacted in anger to his pro-Al Quaida stance.
Crowell is now a graphic arts designer living in Chicago. He came to Hawaii Pacific University yesterday to talk about academic freedom.
He spent most of the time discussing the controversy he went through a decade ago.
After the speech, I asked him how non-activist Native Hawaiian students (yes, they do exist) reacted to his cartoon. Crowell said those non-activist Native Hawaiians loved his cartoon and were happy that someone is standing up to Haunani-Kay Trask.
However, those same Native Hawaiian students were intimidated by the Hawaiian supremacists. It is possible if a Native Hawaiian takes a strong stance against Trask and her cronies, they might have a more militant relative screaming at them at the next family gathering. (Extended families and family gathering are extremely important in Native Hawaiian culture)
Back to Horowitz's Speech
The speech was a week ago, but there's so much to talk about
1) Horowitz mentioned that California public universities once had free tuition to every California resident who qualified. Now, the tuition is rising! Horowitz blames this on "overpaid and under-worked professors".
We may want to look into that now that UH tuition might soon go up.
It's so ironic that the Radical Leftists profs claim to care for the poor, yet those same profs want the students to take more core requirements ($$$$) and buy new edition of expensive textbooks ($$$$) . It is the actions of those professors that are hurting low income students. Because of this, more students have to work longer hours just to pay for books and tuition AND students need to take out more loans which they have to pay back.
The Radical Leftist profs claim to care about the poor? Bullshit!
The worse offenders on assigning textbooks were Debra Lieberman (snobbish UC Santa Barbara grad/pscyh prof who assigned 3 textbooks and tested us on pointless, trivial info), and Dr. Foltz (retired English prof who demanded that students keep their textbooks, but I sold em back anyways).
And Tobin Jones defended Dr. Foltz on that? What an ass kisser! And Tobin Jones claimed to care for the low income slum dwellers of Atlanta and Chicago? If those folks were to take Dr Foltz' s class - their $$$ and time would be wasted!
Sociology prof Katherine Irwin assigned a $200 book set ( a rip-off when you see the size of the books) and to make it worse, at the end of the semester, the bookstore wouldn't buy it back. Irwin apologized to the class. Since she's usually a nice lady, I'm optimistic she learned from her mistake.
And for the reward for the nicest prof on textbook savings was Sociology prof Dr. Swift who assigned us small books because he didn't want to over-burden our wallets.
2) Mark Burch on Horowitz
http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/23/426a084ba3349?in_archive=1
He was soundly defeated by a courageous group of truth and reality advocates. Every time Horowitz told a lie, he was corrected by an audience member, who then was rudely told to "Shut up!" by demented looking right-wingers.
I saw Burch there, and he wasn't one of the loudest yellers. However, his statement needs examination.
The audience shouldn't interrupt a speaker, even if they dont agree with him/her.
Those rude leftist yellers didn't trust the rest of the audience's ability to figure out what was true and what was crap!
Those "demented looking right-wingers" (Burch's words) were (gasp) trying to get the leftist yellers to (gasp) let Horowitz finish his statements. How dare those "demented looking right-wingers" tell those leftist yellers to (gasp) wait your turn to speak!
A man in the front wanted to ask Horowitz a question. Yet those communist yellers in the back kept yelling at Horowitz. You're dam fucking right someone had to tell those communist yellers to shut up!
Too bad Horowitz left before the man was able to ask the question.
3) Horowitz exxagarting his pain?
http://www.frontpagemag.com/GoPostal/commentdetail.asp?ID=17824&commentID=548565
Date: 4/25/2005 3:40:03 PM
Name: BarFar
Subject: Ill-Bred Professor
Comment:
David, By my count there were three professors at your talk, all three of whom you know. All three were at the breakfast for you that morning. Don't forget us. You did acknowledge the political science professor, but only for her attendance at the nasty un-reception. She also attended the breakfast, and the talk, as did two economists who have been at UH for over 30 years. But in addition to us, you had a significant number of other supporters in the audience. We just aren't as rude, crude, obnoxious, pig-headed, and un-Hawaiian as is the extremist left. The loudest noises any of us made were to cheer you and to shout "Shut up!" at the ugly screamers of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
And a libertarian-leaning friend on my political email list had this to say about that comment above
Aw, geez, why does Horowitz have to hurt his reputation by treating his allies like this? Could it have hurt to mention these professors? Or does he prefer writing up David-and-Goliath scenarios ("I stood alone against the Hawaiian Leftists!")?
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Testing
Here's my letter to Honolulu Advertiser
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Apr/26/op/op10pletters.html
Tests are essential in evaluating students
This in response to Shelli Aiona's letter complaining about high-stakes tests. The letter claimed that testing doesn't truly indicate what the children learned.
That's like saying, "Big games don't truly indicate an athlete's skills." If an athlete doesn't prosper in high school games, chances are he or she won't prosper as a college athlete. If a student doesn't do well on algebra tests, chances are he or she won't do well in calculus.
If we don't have tests, how else are we going to know if the students are really learning?
Pablo Wegesend
Honolulu
Here's my letter to Honolulu Advertiser
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Apr/26/op/op10pletters.html
Tests are essential in evaluating students
This in response to Shelli Aiona's letter complaining about high-stakes tests. The letter claimed that testing doesn't truly indicate what the children learned.
That's like saying, "Big games don't truly indicate an athlete's skills." If an athlete doesn't prosper in high school games, chances are he or she won't prosper as a college athlete. If a student doesn't do well on algebra tests, chances are he or she won't do well in calculus.
If we don't have tests, how else are we going to know if the students are really learning?
Pablo Wegesend
Honolulu
Saturday, April 23, 2005
The Irony of Free Speech
Andrew Walden on David Horowitz's speech at UH-Manoa
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?084eaa86-eda8-473c-9dc2-d7c9ec98f6a1
Many of the same campus leftists who had so urgently proclaimed the importance of defending Churchill's right to call some of the 3,000 murdered on 9-11 "Little Eichmanns" came to the Horowitz' event armed with signs reading "No free speech for fascists."
Several attempted to shout down Horowitz' presentation, but were themselves shouted down by an audience determined to hear what Horowitz had to say without interruption.
[skip paragraphs]
In spite of this, Horowitz, described the event as "better than expected" and gave credit to those in the audience who stood up to the "politically correct" would-be censors.
Free speech for Al Quaida sympathizers (ie Ward Churchill) but not for U.S. military sympathizer (ie David Horowitz)?T
hat shows the true face of the Radical Left
Andrew Walden on David Horowitz's speech at UH-Manoa
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?084eaa86-eda8-473c-9dc2-d7c9ec98f6a1
Many of the same campus leftists who had so urgently proclaimed the importance of defending Churchill's right to call some of the 3,000 murdered on 9-11 "Little Eichmanns" came to the Horowitz' event armed with signs reading "No free speech for fascists."
Several attempted to shout down Horowitz' presentation, but were themselves shouted down by an audience determined to hear what Horowitz had to say without interruption.
[skip paragraphs]
In spite of this, Horowitz, described the event as "better than expected" and gave credit to those in the audience who stood up to the "politically correct" would-be censors.
Free speech for Al Quaida sympathizers (ie Ward Churchill) but not for U.S. military sympathizer (ie David Horowitz)?T
hat shows the true face of the Radical Left
Horowitz personal manners
On David Horowitz's visit to University of Hawaii-Manoa last Wednesday.
Even my conservative/libertarian friends said Horowitz needs better people skills. They commented that seasoned politicians are better at it.
1) When Horowitz entered the stage, he was offered a lei. He refused to wear it. In Hawaii, that is considered rude. I knew right then and there that Horowitz gave a bad 1st impression.
Horowitz later said wearing a lei while speaking would make him uncomfortable. He should see the amount of leis at Hawaii school graudations. The graduate gets so much leis from friends & family that it can literally cover his/her face.
And here's Mark Burch on the lei
http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/23/426a084ba3349
Horowitz really displayed his true nature when he first walked into the auditorium. One of his group of supporters walked up to him and attempted to give him a lei. Horowitz snubbed this woman and humiliated her in front of the whole audience. His total lack of aloha and sensitivity was a disgrace.
Though Mark Burch is far to the Left, I'd have to agree with him here. Horowitz made a bad 1st impression. People can see that action as a sign of rude-ness and prejudice.
This is why you gotta to be aware of cultural practices when you're in unfamiliar territory. This is especially true when you have very controversial opinions. Horowitz may have good points on academic freedom, but his 1st impression at the speech (not wearing the lei) distracts from any good points he might've raised. It gave others the impression that he was a bigot.
2) On the applauseI mentioned earlier that Horowitz said he didn't like his speech to be interrupted by applause.
That is so stupid.
In fact, applause can be useful to any speaker so that he/she knows what really resonates with the audience.
The speaker can look back and figure out 1) what to leave out in the next speech [stuff the audience ignored/didn't applaud/didn't understand,etc] and 2) what to say again to the next speech [what got the standing ovations]
Let's look at an example of Horowitz's hero President George W. Bush. When President Bush says something that gets a standing ovation, he pauses and admire the applause. Whatever got the loudest applause is what he'll say again in his next speech.
On David Horowitz's visit to University of Hawaii-Manoa last Wednesday.
Even my conservative/libertarian friends said Horowitz needs better people skills. They commented that seasoned politicians are better at it.
1) When Horowitz entered the stage, he was offered a lei. He refused to wear it. In Hawaii, that is considered rude. I knew right then and there that Horowitz gave a bad 1st impression.
Horowitz later said wearing a lei while speaking would make him uncomfortable. He should see the amount of leis at Hawaii school graudations. The graduate gets so much leis from friends & family that it can literally cover his/her face.
And here's Mark Burch on the lei
http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/23/426a084ba3349
Horowitz really displayed his true nature when he first walked into the auditorium. One of his group of supporters walked up to him and attempted to give him a lei. Horowitz snubbed this woman and humiliated her in front of the whole audience. His total lack of aloha and sensitivity was a disgrace.
Though Mark Burch is far to the Left, I'd have to agree with him here. Horowitz made a bad 1st impression. People can see that action as a sign of rude-ness and prejudice.
This is why you gotta to be aware of cultural practices when you're in unfamiliar territory. This is especially true when you have very controversial opinions. Horowitz may have good points on academic freedom, but his 1st impression at the speech (not wearing the lei) distracts from any good points he might've raised. It gave others the impression that he was a bigot.
2) On the applauseI mentioned earlier that Horowitz said he didn't like his speech to be interrupted by applause.
That is so stupid.
In fact, applause can be useful to any speaker so that he/she knows what really resonates with the audience.
The speaker can look back and figure out 1) what to leave out in the next speech [stuff the audience ignored/didn't applaud/didn't understand,etc] and 2) what to say again to the next speech [what got the standing ovations]
Let's look at an example of Horowitz's hero President George W. Bush. When President Bush says something that gets a standing ovation, he pauses and admire the applause. Whatever got the loudest applause is what he'll say again in his next speech.
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