In Memory of Nate Dogg

3 days ago, hip-hop singer Nate Dogg passed away due to a stroke. He was 41 years old.

Part 1: History of Nate Dogg
Part 2: my talent show experiences singing Nate Dogg's song
Part 3: links to songs featuring Nate Dogg



1) The History of Nate Dogg
While Nate Dogg was a singer and not a rapper, he was an important part of gangsta rap history. He was the background singer for many gangsta rap classics of the1990s and 2000s.


He started out making songs with Snoop Dogg, Warren G back when they were in high school in Long Beach. Warren G hooked them up with his step-brother Dr Dre, who was in the process of leaving the already legendary NWA for a new record label Death Row, which was just about to revolutionize the hip-hop industry.



Nate Dogg was introduced to the world on Dr Dre's "Chronic" and Snoop Dogg's "Doggystyle" both albums released in 1993. Those albums were among the most influential albums in hip-hop history. This was when radio and MTV started playing gangsta rap in regular rotation, whereas before, gangsta rap was only played late nights when the kids were sleeping. Before those albums came out, radio mostly played pop-rappers like Hammer and Salt-N-Pepa.



Those albums were also important in that they signified that the West Coast was taking over rap music. Previously, most of the popular rappers came from New York. But between 1993-1997, West Coast rappers ruled the hip-hop world. The most popular videos had guys wearing khaki clothing & colored bandannas, driving lowriders, and having picnics in the park with palm trees and brown mountains in the background.



Nate Dogg's 1st mainstream hit was with Warren G, "Regulate". While I do think both Nate Dogg and Warren G made better songs than that one, I still have to say, that song is a major classic!



Nate Dogg also appeared on other West Coast rap classics like Dogg Pound's "Let's Play House" and 2pac's "All About U".



From 1996-1997, Death Row Records fell apart. 2pac was killed, Dr Dre left to start Aftermath Records and Suge Knight went to jail. Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg also felt they were being ripped off by Death Row Records, so they left.



This was the beginning of the end of the West Coast's reign as the capital of hip-hop. The South started it's reign of the center of hip-hop, to the point where I wouldn't even be surprised that today's kids mistakenly believe rap started in Atlanta.



But that didn't stop Nate Dogg. He spent the following decade making classic hits with rappers from various parts of the USA. He made classic songs with E-40, Eminem, Fabolous, Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, Westside Connection, 50 Cent, Shyne.

My Talent Shows

I sang Nate Dogg's "Never Leave Me Alone" at 2 different school talent shows.

The 1st time was at McKinley High School during my senior year. I never did any talent shows before my senior year, but dammit, I was going to make my senior year an exciting year! That's how you're supposed to handle your senior year, regardless of what dramas might come!

My 1st talent show that year was the Senior Luau in Nov 1998. I did Usher's "Nice & Slow" acapella style! It got everyone giggling, all in a good way.

But the big show was what was then called Brown Bags to Stardom (which has changed its format since then) in March 1999. Whereas the Senior Luau was just attended by the seniors, Brown Bags was for the whole school. Would it make you nervous? I didn't let it stop me!

I decided to sing Nate Dogg's "Never Leave Me Alone". It was safe enough to satisfy the censors, but still had the street credibility which was important in my urban school. That song did feature Snoop Dogg rapping the 3rd verse. But the talent show organizers limited our performances to only 3 minutes, so I didn't have time to rap the Snoop Dogg verse.

My performance was a classic. I became famous to the whole school. The students who were in the younger grade levels all knew me from the performance. All the public housing students said they loved it. (if they didn't like it, they'll tell it to your face) Many of the athletes would sing "Never Leave Me Alone" the moment they seen me on campus. Even at the Project Grad (the post-graduation party hosted by the school), people encouraged me to sing karaoke and rap along with the songs played by the DJ. That wouldn't have happened earlier in my high school days. I credit Nate Dogg for that

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My 2nd talent performance involving Nate Dogg's "Never Leave Me Alone" was at UH. It was part of Manoa Moonlight Madness, which was a late night talent show in December 2002. It was 3 years since I did a talent show, but I was ready to go back to the stage.

My original plan for the talent show was to sing Nelly's "E.I.". However, as I tried to practice "E.I." I found that I couldn't sing fast enough to do well on that song. I decided to switch songs and do Nate Dogg's "Never Leave Me Alone".

While the college audience is obviously different from the high school audience, I did get a lot of cheers for my performance at UH! Even people I never seen on campus before would see me and say "Hey, I loved that song you was singing".

3) Links

Here are some links to some of my favorite Nate Dogg classics.

I tried to avoid the more "dirtier songs" on the following list, though I wouldn't recommend playing some of them at a church.

First off, my favorite, the one I sang ................

"Never Leave Me Alone" with Snoop Dogg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzveEPBVQtA

Explosive (clean version) with Hitman, featured on Dr Dre's "Chronic 2001"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRj3MrotSww

Nate Dogg's "One More Day"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lpfIDl6Q54&feature=related


2pac's "All About U" (nate's singing "everywhere we go ...")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2WGekQoHT4&feature=fvst

E-40 "Nah Nah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlQmrGYHLE&feature=related

Dogg Pound's "Let's Play House" (Nate just sang the title in this song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx9yypsIW_Q

"Ring the Alarm" (with Jermaine Dupri)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd4ME-LvpMg

Nobody Does it Better (with Warren G)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8UD-eLIfw

I'm sure there's more, but time is limited. You can easily find more on YouTube.

and of course "Regulate" (with Warren G)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1plPyJdXKIY

Tsunami warning

As most of you already know, there was a mega-earthquake in Japan last week. It measured 8.9 on the Richter Scale. The earthquake itself damaged many buildings. But it caused many tsunamis as well. The first tsunami hit the already earthquake damaged Japan without much warning.


Tsunami waves also went throughout the Pacific as well. Nearly every country that touches the Pacific Ocean were under a tsunami warning.


Here in Hawaii, some of the waves hit the coasts. While it was never as severe as the tsunamis that hit Hilo in 1946 and 1961, it did damage some small boat harbors. The coastal areas of the Big Island and Maui got most of the damage, though the waves never went that far inland.



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It was a Thursday night (3/10/2011) at around 8:45 pm that I got a call from a former co-worker. She called about reports of tsunamis on the Pacific Ocean that might head toward Hawaii. The sirens didn't come on yet. I turned on the radio, they were playing music as usual, so I turned it off! I'll just wait until 10pm local TV news to see if there's anything major.



Just when the 10pm news went on, the sirens made their noise.



That same co-worker called again, and she was in total panic.



She was originally from Chicago, lived in Hawaii a few years ago, moved back to Chicago and recently moved back to Hawaii, now living in the building next to mines.



She was like "what should I do". I told her "just go up the hills". She didn't want to go alone! She was super-freaking out! I just told her "don't wait for me, just go!" She was still expressing fears, so I just told her "I'm going to hang up".



Now, some of you might think I was being "cold-hearted" or whatevers. But this is not the time for me to be on the phone. It was time for me to pack a few of my belongings, duct tape whatever I'm leaving behind, and double-check on everything. To continue being on the phone will only delay things. In fact, to continue to be on the phone would put my life at risk, so I hung up!



I didn't call my friends or relatives after the first siren! Why should I? If I did, I would only be wasting their time! I would've been just interrupting their disaster preparedness actions. If they're able-body adults, they should know what to do without me calling them! Plus, if they got kids, disabled or elderly people living with them, they shouldn't be interrupted by me calling them after a siren!



Anyways, I pack up my backpack and left my building to walk up the hill to UH-Manoa. That lady who called was right outside the building she lived in. Again, more panic from her. She kept worrying, asking questions like "do you know where you going?", and I reminded her that I lived in the area for about 8 years, plus I was a student at UH for 5.5 years, so I course I know where I'm going.



She was also worried about walking alone late at night! I know the cliches, "there is danger for women walking alone at night". But reality is men are likely to be victims of murder, robbery, assaults and other violent crimes. The news media distorts the issue everytime they report a woman getting kidnapped or raped outside at night! While I would never want a woman to go through that, that doesn't erase the fact that the overwhelming majority of crimes are male-on-male violence!



I'm also thinking if this was a 3rd world country, people are so used to the risk of violence, that if there's a tsunami warning, even most women would just go up the hills even if there were risk of getting attacked along the way. You don't have time to over-analyze your fears in an emergency!



Anyways, we went up to UH-Manoa. Again, that lady freaked out about sitting on dirty benches there. She admits she's not an outdoors person. And again, I'm thinking that lady needs to chill! We're escaping a tsunami and she's worried about some mildly dirty stuff on the bench?



We later went to Sinclair Library (which is usually open 24 hours during weekdays), checked the internet, sat on the 2nd floor lanai, and watched news reports from someone else's laptop. Sirens kept going on every so often!



My brother called hours AFTER the 1st siren. This was fine, since at that point, we were out of harm's way.



At around 3:30, while watching the news report from another person's laptop, we saw the waves hitting Diamond Head. We could see the reef being exposed, which was a sign that the waves are about to come back with greater force. But that was about it. The news reports were mostly focused on Oahu & Kauai, and didn't show anything from Big Island or Maui which got more damage.



Anyways, the library shut down, and we all went to Campus Center. They had a big-screen TV with more news reports showing. The Campus Center staff was even nice enough to offer cookies and coffee.



At around 7:30 am, the tsunami warning was downgraded to an advisory. It was obvious to everyone that the storm was over, but they called it an advisory just in case.



I just went home and sleep after that!

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Back to that women I was with that, when I described her panic state of mind, I do NOT intend to humiliate her in any way or form.

However, I bring that issue up because I want to use that as an educational example of what not to do!

When there's a tsunami warning, you shouldn't be calling your friends in a panic mode. You're only interrupting their disaster preparedness action.

When there's a tsunami warning, look for a hill, and GO THERE! Don't wait for your friends! Don't call people in a panic mode! JUST GO!

Even if you don't know the area that well, just look for higher ground and JUST GO THERE!

If you got kids, or some disabled or elderly people under your care, DO NOT show a "panic mentality". You are supposed to be an example of calm leadership!

While you don't want to be those morons who head for the oceans in a tsunami warning, you don't want to be an overly emotional person who gets paralyzed by fear.

Your goal has to become someone with Confident Awareness. Aware of the dangers, but confident enough to take action without getting overly emotional.

That is NOT easy for some people! It is easier said than done!

I admit I was at times over-emotional as a kid. But I'm not a kid anymore!

Being person with Confident Awareness is someone all adults shall strive to be! That's not the easiest thing to do! But those who have Confident Awareness usually get things done properly in an emergency, and are usually someone who can earn the respect of others!

That woman is a very nice person. I just hope she develops some Confident Awareness soon!

Condolences

So little time to update my blogs, but here are a few belated condolences



1) Mr James Kealoha - He was a Special Education teacher at various schools. His most recent school was Palolo Elementary School. Before that, he was teaching at Niu Valley Middle School (NVMS).

NVMS was where I met Mr Kealoha. Back in March 2009. I was called by T-SEAS (an automated calling system hooking up substitute teachers with vacancies) to work at NVMS. That was the one time I was called to sub at NVMS. Before that, I worked all the other public middle schools in the Honolulu district!

He was on campus, but he was in conference, so he couldn't teach the class that day. But he did stop by the classroom after 2 students were expelled from the class for play fighting. He talked to the students about proper behavior when there is a sub teacher in the classroom.



About a year later, I was hired as a para-professional tutor at NVMS. So I'm there 2-3 a week. While I still occassionally work as a substitute teacher, I haven't subbed at NVMS since that day in Kealoha's class.



In January of this year, Mr Kealoha had a heart attack while surfing. The ambulance took him to the hospital, but it was too late!



Mr Kealoha has been missed by many at NVMS. We send our condolences to his family



2) Another teacher that I subbed for, and later passed away was Daniel Fong. Fong was a Special Ed preschool teacher at Lunalilo Elementary School. I subbed in his class back in Spring 2006.

Fong seemed to be a happy and friendly person!

I found out last year that Fong has passed away via Facebook. I learned it because one of my Facebook friends became a fan of "We miss you Daniel Fong" facebook page.

The page didn't mention the cause of death, and I didn't want to ask how it happened.

I send my belated condolences to Mr Fong's family and friends



3) Now, my next condolence is NOT related to a death of any person. However, it is related to a shut down of one of my favorite businesses.


Netstop, an internet cafe located on the corner of University Avenue & King Street, has shut down last week.


Netstop was a place of many of my favorite memories. I will always appreciate the great customer service, even when there were technical difficulties from the computers I was using.

The most popular staff member was Eric. He was a very easy person to talk to! He was able to talk to a very diverse group of customers. I had many interesting conversations with him on various topics, from current events, sports, schools, and life in general.


I also remember when my former high school classmate Russell was working there. We didn't talk for a while until he was hired at Netstop. So there was a mini-reunion right there. Many interesting conversations with him there too!


Netstop was where I wrote many of my blog posts. It was where I watched many YouTube clips, from old news clips to music videos I haven't seen in a long time! I also did some research there too!


While I usually go to the library to do my internet stuff, Netstop was a great place to go when the libraries weren't open. Plus, the public libraries blocked "generic streaming websites" (ie. YouTube) so I went to Netstop for that!


I currently don't have a computer at home. I used to have one, but it was outdated and not working. I didn't want to go through the trouble of buying a new one. Plus, if I did have a computer at home, I might spend too much time on my favorite sites (ie facebook, YouTube). LOL! While I LOVE the internet, being at home is my time to take a break from the internet and focus on other areas of my life!

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Last week Tuesday, I noticed that the neon sign outside Netstop was not on, even though it was usually open that time. So I went up to Netstop just to find out why! I looked inside and it was EMPTY!

I asked the parking attendant about it, and she said she also found out last minute.

Coincidentally, I saw Eric later that day. Netstop shut down and the staff was given last minute notice. Eric still seemed to be in shock over it. As you can assume, Eric seemed very worried about the near future, and I sense some sadness from him. It's never easy being laid off from a job!

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So while there was no death involved in this case, I still send my condolences to Eric and the rest of the Netstop staff who just got laid off! While I am saddened by the closing of Netstop, I will always appreciate the great memories being there!

4) Also, today was 14 years since Notorious BIG was killed! I wrote about it in 2007 which you can read at http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2007/03/life-death-of-notorious-big-10-years.html  

Dictators going down in the Muslim world

It's been a week since the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak resigned from power. Mubarak was in power for 3 decades.



The street protests that occurred in the last few months got tons of publicity in the US!



However, what inspired the protests in Egypt were the protests in a lesser known North African nation of Tunisia.



While Tunisia has been known as one of the more stable African nations when it came to economics and violence, things were starting to boil at the end of last year. Inflation and unemployment was rising! Wikileaks exposed the high level of corruption within Tunisia's government. People just weren't going take being under the rule of a dictatorship anymore.



Some Tunisians burned themselves in protests. More come out to the streets to protest and riot. Things got so hectic, that the Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali left the country on 1/14/2011!



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Now the Egyptians were thinking "if they could get rid of their dictator in Tunisia, why can't we?" The Egyptians also faced the same problems with economics and the lack of civil liberties, just like the Tunisians.



So the Egyptians had their own street protests! While the majority of the protesters were against the dictator Hosni Mubarak, some of Mubarak's supporters came out, and there were tons of street fights. They not only attacked anti-Mubarak protesters, they even attacked foreign reporters who they feel were unfairly biased!



Some of Mubarak's supporters even rode on camels & horses and whipped any anti-Mubarak protester around. Even in 2011, camels & horses were being used in battle? Just watching that reminded me of those war movies that took place thousands of years ago!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgjU-uH_KYk&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-1-HM



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCdj9ZxUi-Q&feature=related



But the anti-Mubarak protesters weren't going to be deterred. They were willing to risk their lives. They were willing to risk getting hit with punches, batons, whips and even camels. After all, if the Tunisians could get of their dictator, why can't the Egyptians?



On February 11, 2011, Hosni Mubarak figured that it's best for him to get out of there! He resigned. This was a cause for celebration for many in Egypt! There were loud street parties. Just watching it was exciting



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ-gz9fkirw&feature=fvsr



Now, the protests are spreading to other Muslims countries run by dictators. The anti-dictator protests have been occurring in Algeria, Lybia, Jordan, Iran and Bahrain! They all are inspired by the Tunisians and Egyptians!



2) Reactions from the US



There have been mixed reactions from many in the US about the Egyptian situation.



Being that the USA is a proud democracy born of revolution, many here sympathize with the anti-Mubarak protesters!



However, Mubarak was in power because the US government gave Mubarak's government about $2 billion a year. This was basically a bribe to Egyptian government to be nice to Israel. Egypt's previous dictator Anwar Sadat signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979. Sadat was later assassinated and Mubarak was next in line! Because Mubarak was willing to honor Sadat's peace treaty, the US was willing to give his government tons of money!



While many in the US were happy to see Mubarak not using his military to threaten Israel, they looked the other way as Mubarak used US-funded weapons against his political opponents. Those who protested against Mubarak were usually tortured by government agents. And US taxpayers paid for that!



So many in the US were thinking "US was for spreading democracy to Iraq & Iran, but was funding the Egyptian government that were torturing pro-democracy folks ?"



This put Obama's administration in a bind. Obama's reputation worldwide was one of a "the hero of the oppressed" but his administration continued the tradition of funding Mubarak's government. This contradiction pushed Obama's administration to urge Mubarak to allow for democratic elections. That was a sign to Mubarak that the US was no longer willing to look the other way as his government violated many civil liberties. That was a sign that Mubarak's time was up!

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However, many people in the US are still skeptical about whether things will improve in Egypt. This is because the US has been traumatized by the 1979 situation in Iran! Back then, there was a protest against Iranian dictator Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (usually referred to as "the shah"). The shah fled Iran in 1979, and a group of Islamic Fascists took over the country.

Because the shah fled to the US, the Islamic fascists, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held hostages. Jimmy Carter, who was the US President at the time, launched a failed attempt to rescue the hostages. That failed attempt was seen as a sign of Carter's weakness. Carter was already in political trouble for the declining economy, and now this. This doomed Carter's presidency, and Carter was replaced by Ronald Reagan, whose image was a mixture of optimism and strength.

Meanwhile, the Islamic fascist who took over Iran were more brutal than the shah ever was. Civil liberties, already rare under the shah, was even more severely restricted after Khomeini took over. Khomeini publicly considered the US as the "Great Satan", and encouraged terrorism against the US!

While Khomeini died in 1989, his followers still run Iran. One of them is Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, who has supported the anti-US militants in Iraq, gave weapons to Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, stated his desire to "wipe Israel off the map", and has even freaked out some neighboring Arab nations who are worried about Iran developing nuclear weapons.

So what this gotta do with Egypt? The most organized opposition group in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood, which is an ultra-conservative, anti-Israel, anti-US organization. Some of their members have ties to Islamic terrorist organizations.

While the Muslim Brotherhood has an estimated support of only 20% of Egypt's population, they are way more organized than the more moderate, secular organizations existing in Egypt. This is what got many worried. This is what got some worried that Egypt might soon experience what happened in Iran in 1979!

Some people also point out the fact that the Islamic terrorist organization, Hamas getting democratically elected to run Gaza back in 2006!

While many want to focus on what happened in Iran in 1979 or Gaza in 2006, let's remember that Pakistan took a different direction in 2008. Pakistan was run by Pervez Musharraf, a dictator who was supported by the US government, basically as a bribe to help the US against the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the Pakistani people eventually got tired of the lack of civil liberties under Musharraf. Massive protests occurred. People worried that having a democratic election in Pakistan would lead to Islamic fascists winning elections. THAT DID NOT HAPPEN! Musharraf resigned and Asif Ali Zardari, a moderate Muslim, was elected president!

However, based on the reports from this year's Egypt's protest, most of the protesters aren't expressing the rhetoric of the Muslim Brotherhood. They weren't the type to support the Hamas, Khomeini or Ahmadenijad. While many are devout Muslims, their rhetoric is more about freedom than jihad.

I'm sure when elections occur in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would get some votes and some members in the legislative branch. That's something the people of Egypt will have to work out on their own.

Remember, while the USA is seen as the land of the free, it didn't start out that way. Slavery was still allowed when the Constitution was signed. It was more than a century afterwards when women and racial minorities had the right to vote! Progress takes time!

What happens next in North Africa or the Middle East will be up to their people. The US is pretty much done invading countries to liberate them. The people are pretty much liberating themselves these days.

Egypt is mostly Muslim, and therefore, people would likely not vote for the nation to be as liberal as Europe or North America. It's not likely the nation would become as lenient on drugs, gambling or sex like Amsterdam or Las Vegas. What direction they want their country to go will have to come from within.

3) Lara Logan situation

Lara Logan, a CBS reporter, was in Egypt to cover the protests. While there, she was sexually assaulted by people in the crowd.

People have made really stupid statements about that situation.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/15/lara_logan_rape_reaction/index.html

When the news broke, Nir Rosen, a fellow at the New York University Center for Law and Security, promptly whined to Twitter, "It’s always wrong, that’s obvious, but I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get," adding, "She’s so bad that I ran out of sympathy for her." He soon backpedaled, deleting several of his most offensive posts and tweeting, "I apologize and take it back. joking with friends got out of line when i didnt want to back down. forgot twitter is not exactly private." Apparently he still hasn't remembered that sexual assault isn't great joking around material.

"Forgot twitter is not exactly private"? DUH! Anything you say or write can & will be used against you! Especially in this era of twitter, facebook, blogs and YouTube! It's bad enough middle schoolers don't understand that, it's even worse when adults (especially those working at universities, like Rosen) don't understand that!

Rosen ended up resigning from his job. He later made a lame apology, which was too little, too late!

Now on to another stupid statement on Logan's situation.

And the ever-heinous Debbie Schlussel was quick to jump on her regular line of racism, noting how the assault happened in a "country of savages," because that never ever happens anywhere else, and it's never committed by light-skinned people! She then twisted the knife by going after Logan herself, saying, "So sad, too bad, Lara. No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows... How fitting that Lara Logan was 'liberated' by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the 'liberation.'" Debbie Schlussel, what's it like to be so liberated from the burden of having either a mind or a soul?

Does Schlussel remember Woodstock 1999? Women were sexually assaulted at this rock festival in a rural section of New York. And no, Islam has NOTHING to do with it. Most of the concert audience were European-Americans. This incident, like the MAJORITY OF RAPES IN THE US, are white-on-white rapes. That's right, women like Schlussel are WAY MORE LIKELY to be raped by someone like Ben Roethlisberger than some North African Muslim dude. And let's not forget, about 1/6 of women in the US will get raped in her lifetime!

The Lara Logan incident has WAY MORE to do with young adult males acting stupid in a crowd than with Islam.

Yes, many Islamic nations have problems with sexual abuse. So do nations in Europe and North America. As I mentioned earlier, 1/6 of US women get raped in their lifetime. It includes women in your family, your school, your workplace. What, they didn't tell you? HELLO, most of us don't talk about traumatic experiences with 98% of the people we know!

Now, to the smartest statement about Logan's situation, from that same link. http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/15/lara_logan_rape_reaction/index.html

Here’s what you do say when something like this happens. Like countless women around the world, Lara Logan was attacked in the line of duty. She was assaulted doing her job. It was a crime of unspeakable violence. And your opinion of how she does that job, the religion her assailants share with a few million other people, or the color of her hair has nothing to do with it.

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4) Other interesting articles on the Egypt situation

http://reason.com/archives/2011/02/16/democracy-isnt-enough "democracy isn't enough" by david Harsanyi

http://reason.com/archives/2011/02/16/got-to-be-free "Got to Be Free: Did Bush's foreign policy set the stage for Middle Eastern democracy?" by Jacob Sullum

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder020311.php3 " Egypt: Obama channels his inner Neocon"

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah020211.php3 "Hope Amid the Chaos in Cairo" by Jonah Goldberg

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/opinion/01brooks.html?_r=1 "the Quest for Dignity" by David Brooks

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More on Lara Logan's situation

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158616/attack-lara-logan-war-words

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158696/what-we-still-havent-learned-about-rape

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A video tribute to the protesters in Tunisia and Egypt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGzZauLp6Mo

that song "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions, was originally made in tribute to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It matches this situation too!

For the Berlin Wall video with this song, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCpQU-x-s4Y&feature=related

food fight

Earlier this week, there was a big food fight at Kaiser High School! The principal reacted by not allowing the students to eat in the cafeteria for the rest of the week.


http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/115658864.html

And looking at the online comments, you can sense many have this attitude of "this is just harmless fun"

Harmless fun? When innocent bystanders get hit by food? When kids throw food as a subtle way of intimidation of vulnerable students? When someone could slip & fall because of wasted food on the ground? When this incident could easily turn into a real fight? When taxpayers pay all that money for the purpose of "keeping kids from starving", just to see all that food wasted by a bunch of ingrates?

Even more stupid is those comments that goes along the lines of "you were a kid once, you enjoyed it, why you picking on us kids now for having that fun?"

Parents and teachers are supposed to teach what's right & wrong! While they may not have perfect behavior in the past, they realize that their past mistakes are wrong! They realize that the main part of their job is to prevent their kids from making the same mistakes they used to make!

They don't want their kids to make the same mistakes because they don't want their kids to grow up having to regret the harm they did!

And most importantly, they want the kids to became well-behaved, productive citizens. You CANT do that by making excuses like "I used to do that, so I'll let you get away with it"

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Some of the online commenters even had the nerve to suggest the school was being a dictatorship for taking a food fight seriously.

Those kids have no idea of what a dictatorship really is!

The true rebels against dictatorships are protesters in Egypt and Tunisia who were brave enough to risk getting attacked by riot police to express their anger at the dictators who ruined their country!

True dictatorships are countries like Iran, China, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba and Zimbabwe where peaceful protesters get attacked by riot police and get brutally tortured in prisons.

Those kids taking part in the food fight are spoiled brats who are clueless about what real hardships are! They are ungrateful for all the subsidized (ie taxpayer funded) food they are allowed to have in the first place.

They won't get a brutal beatdown by authorities! They'll probably just get detention and suspension!

People in most foreign countries are not that fortunate!

Linda Lingle's legacy

It's been at least a month since Linda Lingle's time as Hawaii's governor has ended!

Linda Lingle was a Republican governor in a state that usually votes Democrat. So just her election alone was a major change for Hawaii.


Since the 1950's, the Republicans had a hard time winning major elections in Hawaii. Sure, some of the candidates won a few elections (ie. Pat Saiki, Frank Fasi) but Democrats won way more often. In the late 1990's, when Hawaii was trailing the other US states economically, people were willing to give the Republicans a 2nd look. Linda Lingle, a moderate Republican, was able to get the votes of many of those who usually vote Democrat! While Lingle lost a close one in 1998, she got elected governor in 2002 & 2006!


However, towards the end of Lingle's term, her popularity had dramatically declined. The economy was going down, and the state government had to cut the budget. The most unpopular move to reduce the budget was Furlough Fridays. This will be discussed later in the editorial

1) Lingle's electoral campaigns

I still remember when Lingle was running for governor back in 1998. It was the first year I was eligible to vote.

Lingle was running against the Democrat incumbent Ben Cayetano.

I have to laugh when people claimed "negative advertising doesn't work in Hawaii" because Cayetano won that year due to negative advertising. He had ads stating "the people are not stupid" in response to what Lingle was saying. There were ads featuring disgruntled Maui residents who weren't satisfied with Lingle's time as Mayor of Maui County. Inouye stated he supports Cayetano because "he knows what it's like to raise a family" which was an indirect attack on Lingle being childless. (which was why I found it ironic that Inouye claimed to be against negative campaigning last year)

Had Lingle ran more hard-hitting ads against Cayetano, she might've embarrassed Cayetano and defeated him.

But it wasn't meant to be. While many people in Hawaii were getting tired of Hawaii stagnating under Ben Cayetano (and Democrats in general), it wasn't enough. That election was more competitive than recent governor elections, but still the Democrat won.

However, Lingle didn't give up. There was an increase of Republicans in the state legislature. There was new energy among Republicans. There was also increasing diversity among Hawaii Republicans. While the party still had its strongest support among the European-Americans here, there were more Asians and Polynesians joining the party too.

Cayetano and his LT Gov. Mazie Hirono continued to embarass themselves. The UH professors and public school teachers went on strike in the Spring 2001. Hawaii was still seen as economically stagnating compared to the rest of the US.

So in 2002, Lingle defeated Hirono, and became the first Republican governor in decades.

In 2006, her popularity was so over-whelming that few Democrats even dared run against her. Lingle easily defeated previously lesser-known candidate Randall Iwase.

2) Economy

One of my friends who doesn't follow political news as closely as I do, has blamed Hawaii's economic problems all on Lingle, and claimed that Ben Cayetano's time was better.

I had to laugh at that one, because apparently, that guy has selective memory.

Things were actually going well under the first 6 years of Lingle's administration. They were a major improvement from how it was under Cayetano.

The economic problems last 2 years under Lingle were basically a by-product of the economic meltdown on the mainland. And other states had it worse than Hawaii!

But Cayetano's administration was worse for Hawaii economically, because Hawaii was going down economically when the rest of the USA was going through one of its greatest economic booms in history!

Under Cayetano, Hawaii was known for its excessive bureaucratic red tape that discouraged entrepreneurs from investing in Hawaii. The attitude from the government was "what, you don't like our regulations, our red tape, our tax policy? Too bad". The problem with attitude is that entrepreneurs will invest (and create jobs) somewhere else. Which is exactly what they did!

Under Lingle, Hawaii had a more welcoming environment for investors and entrepreneurs. Times were very good economically, to the point where Hawaii's unemployment rate was lower than other states. IT was at a point where employers could afford to hire more than what was available.

And things were so good economically, that Lingle was able to get re-elected overwhelmingly in 2006.

But Hawaii wasn't immune from the worldwide increase in oil prices, nor was it immune from the slowing economy on the continent, which made potential tourists not being able to come here!

3) Furloughs


With the declining economy came declining tax revenues. Not enough money to pay state workers. Though there were some layoffs, the government could only lay off so many workers. So there was furloughs. For 2-4 Fridays a month, many state offices were closed. This was done so the state didn't have to spend so much on payroll and energy costs.

However, the people of Hawaii were extremely offended by furloughs happening to the government-run school systems.

Because of Furlough Fridays, Hawaii was known nationwide as the state with the least amount of time kids are at school. There were major concerns of students falling behind in their studies. Teachers didn't have as much time as they used to have in going over their lessons.

There were also concerns over who was going to supervise the younger children on Furlough Fridays, especially if both parents were working that day. Obviously, most parents wouldn't want to leave their elementary school aged students at home by themselves. And even with teens, while most parents are OK will leaving them at home by themselves, there were concerns that teens with nothing to do are more likely to engage in sexual or criminal activities.

While Lingle approved the Furlough Friday plan, she was not alone in that part. The Department of Education and the Hawaii State Teacher's Association also went along with that plan. Teachers went along with it, fearing that if they didn't, they would be laid off.

After the First Furlough Friday hit October 2009 , there were months of negotiations of how to end the need for furloughs in the public schools. Some suggested tax raises. That would've made the state's economic situation worse, since that would mean entrepreneurs (job-creators) will start to look elsewhere. Credit to Lingle for not going along with that idea.

It wasn't until it was too late for the 2009-2010 school year that Lingle, the legislature, DOE and the HSTA agreed on a plan to reduce furloughs within the government school system. Furlough Fridays were finally over, though there were a few furlough days scattered through the school year.

It was also too late for Lingle's reputation. Ever since the Furlough Fridays had started, the people of Hawaii turned against Lingle. Though Lingle was no longer up for re-election, her Lt. Gov Duke Aiona was running for governor in 2010. So the voters took their frustration out on Duke Aiona, causing him to lose the governor's election to Neil Abercrombie.

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html#1592160011337005645

4) Linlge on "Moral Issues"

Linda Lingle usually had distanced herself from the extreme religious rhetoric that is popular among Republicans on the continental US. The kind of rhetoric coming from folks like Jesse Helms, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell is a big turnoff to many of Hawaii's people.

Sure, many people in Hawaii might conduct themselves in a "conservative" manner, but they are turned off by this "Christians are better than others" attitude. Especially since many of Hawaii's Asian people are Buddhists. And many others claim no religious affiliation, more so than most states in the USA.

Also, Hawaii was among the first few states to legalize abortion. Again, while I'm sure most parents here prefer their kids not engage in pre-marital sex, they are also realistic enough to realize people are going to do so anyways. And many would rather get an abortion than to take care of kids they either not emotionally or financially ready to take care of!

Lingle was pro-choice on abortion, which is opposite of what most Republicans believe.

So because Lingle was able to position herself as a "moderate Republican", she didn't seem as scary to Hawaii's voters as other Republicans like Jesse Helms, Newt Gingrich, Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell.

However, many people in Hawaii are still uncomfortable with gay marriage. In 1998, ( the same year Lingle lost her 1st attempt at the governor's office), the people of Hawaii voted against legalizing same-sex marriage. And at the same year, there were rumors of Linda Lingle being a "lesbian" which she denied. But since she claimed to be a "moderate Republican", people were wondering which way she would go.

Well, in 2010, there was a bill in the state legislature to legalize same-sex civil unions. It had a majority approval in the state legislature. However, Lingle vetoed that bill!

Lingle claimed that the people should vote on that issue. I'm thinking she vetoed that bill in order to protect Duke Aiona's chance of getting elected.

While 68% of the Hawaii's people voted against same-sex marriage in 1998, let's not forget that those born between 1981 and 1994 were not eligible to vote that year but will be eligible in the next election in 2012. The younger generation is more liberal on gay issues. They will not look kindly on Lingle's veto!

5) Conclusion

Lingle's time as governor is done. While it was seen as a promising new direction for Hawaii, it ended up being affected by economic ills at the end.

While the start of Lingle's administration was seen as a time for a Republican revival in Hawaii, it now seems that the party needs to start over again. There is only 1 Republican in the state Senate. Republicans are still severely outnumbered in the State House 42-8!

Republicans nationwide are increasingly identified with "Obama-hatred" which offends many people in Hawaii. Local Republicans can still be critical of Obama's shortcomings, but would have to work extra hard to distance themselves from people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

While I think Aiona gave it his best shot last year, I do think Charles Djou and Lynne Finnegan might be the better leaders for the party's future.

It'll all depend on Neil Abercrombie handles things. If things go well, the Democrats keep control. If not, the Republicans might rise again.

Tucson shooting

Last Saturday, there was a shooting in front of a Safeway in Tucson, Arizona. While the victim that got the most attention was a Congresswoman named Gabrielle Giffords (who survived), there others who got shot! One of them was federal judge John Roll , and a 9-year old girl named Christina Taylor-Greene!



Of course, there already so many other controversial topics discussed in reaction to that shooting.

1) Political Motives

Being that the Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was a Democrat, I first assumed that the shooter might be a right-wing extremist. After all, if a Republican was attacked, I would assume the attacker would be a left-wing extremist!

So yeah, some left-wing liberal pundits (ie. Paul Krugman of the NY Times) blamed the shooting on right-wing propaganda promoted by Fox News and talk radio.

But it turns out that the killer (Jared Loughner) was a schizophrenic, whose previous rantings are a bunch of lefty-anarchist conspiracy theories. Loughner claimed to be influenced by books written by Adolf Hitler and Karl Marx. No evidence Loughner was influenced by Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck!

So when that fact was revealed, some right-wing conservatives were like "how dare those left-wing liberals pimp this tragedy to promote their anti-conservative agenda".

But many right-wingers pimp tragedies all the time. Especially those committed by Mexican and Muslim immigrants. Not only that, they pin the blame for the tragedies on politicians who favor a more lenient immigration policy.

One of those hypocrites is Michelle Maglalang Malkin! She seemed so offended when left-wing pundits blamed the Tucson shooting on Republicans. But yet, she blames EVERY crime committed by immigrants on politicians who favor a more lenient immigration policy. Michelle Maglalang Malkins LOVES TO PIMP the victims of immigrant criminals.

You think I'm exagarating? Michelle Maglalang Malkin accused comedian Stephen Colbert of lacking compassion towards victims of Mexican criminals.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin100410.php3

But Colbert NEVER mocked victims of immigrant criminals. Colbert was mocking those who claim "immigrants steal our jobs" but don't even apply to work in the farms where many immigrants work.
Because Colbert mocked those who said "immigrants steal our jobs", TRAGEDY PIMP Michelle Maglalang Malkin accused Colbert of lacking sympathy towards Jamiel Shaw and Cheryl Greene.

And Michelle Maglalang Malkin pimp the deaths of Shaw and Greene (both African-Americans killed by Mexican gang members) in a lame attempt to get more African-Americans to share her hatred of Mexicans!

What Michelle Maglalang Malkin CHOSE NOT TO MENTION that despite the deaths of Shaw and Greene at the hands of Mexicans, most African-American murder victims were killed by other African-Americans. And Latino criminals tend to target other Latinos more than other ethnic groups.
http://www.streetgangs.com/topics/2007/092307blacklatino.html


And Jamiel Shaw's murder had less to do with the color of his skin, and more to do with the color of his clothing!
http://www.streetgangs.com/street-gangs/jamiel-shaw-gang-race


That doesn't excuse the murder, but it shows that Shaw's murder, like the Tucson shooting, has been pimped by those with political agendas.
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Another hypocritical tragedy pimp is Pat Buchanan. Buchanan was also offended when left-wing liberals pinned the blame for the Tucson shooting on conservatives. Yet, Buchanan blamed pro-immigration advocates for the Virginia Tech shooting, committed by a LEGAL immigrant from South Korea, who came to the US as a child.
http://townhall.com/columnists/PatBuchanan/2007/05/01/the_dark_side_of_diversity

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Sarah Palin got the backlash over the Tucson shooting, due to the fact that on her website, she put a map in which sniper targets were placed on Congressional districts of her opponents, one of them being Gabrielle Giffords. While there is no evidence that Sarah Palin had any influence on Jared Loughner, her use of sniper targets on a map is still a stupid idea.

After her critics pinned the blame of the Tucson shooting on that sniper target map, Palin accused her critics of pinning a "blood libel" on her. Then the tragedy pimps on the Left pretended to be offended by her use of the words "blood libel", saying that those words were associated with the rampant anti-Jewish backlash in Europe centuries ago. But we all know that's not what Palin meant, she used the word "blood libel" to accuse her critics of falsely tying to the Tucson shooting.

2) on the Mentally Ill


After every tragedy, there's always a scream of "we need to do something" even though many times, doing something is worse than doing nothing.

Because Loughner was already known to be mentally ill, people are using this tragedy to demand that the mentally ill be held in an institution against their will, even if they haven't committed a crime.

People say crazy and stupid stuff all the time. But a truly free society doesn't imprison people without due process! You need to have evidence of harm in order to institutionalize someone. You can't just institutionalize someone just because they said idiotic things. Because once that happens, people running the government will decide what crazy thoughts deserve institutionalization. In countries like Iran, China, Cuba, Venezuela and Belarus, the government considers any protester of being "mentally ill" and institutionalizes those who have legit grievances against the government.

3) Gun Control

Because this incident involved a gun, many left-wing liberals are now advocating for more restrictions on guns.

The irony is many of those same left-wing liberals complain about conservative politicians violating our civil liberties and being over-zealous in imprisoning people. Yet, gun control policies will ...... lead to more civil liberty violations and lead to more over-zealousness in imprisoning people!

2 of those hypocrites are New York Times writers Bob Herbert and Nicholas Kristof. Herbert has written many articles protesting the police using intimidation tactics against non-violent African-American and Latino youth in a lame attempt to "stop drugs" or "stop illegal guns". Herbert especially complains about that happening in New York, which has mega-strict laws on guns. So, yeah, Herbert's gun control fanaticism is leading to the very civil liberty violations he is complaining about.

And Nicholas Kristof, who was recently complaining about the federal and state government resorting to imprisonment too easily, yet when gun control laws exist, you are asking the government to ...... resort to imprisonment too easily. DUH!

And his latest article is filled with anti-gun BS!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/opinion/13kristof.html

Likewise, suicide rates are higher in states with more guns, simply because there are more gun suicides. Other kinds of suicide rates are no higher

Yeah, but Japan ban guns, but still has a higher suicide rate. You don't need a gun to commit suicide. You could easily jump off a bridge or drink poisons.

The chances that a gun will be used to deter a home invasion are unbelievably remote, and dialing 911 is more effective in reducing injury than brandishing a weapon, the journal article says.

That is mega-stupid. It's impossible to say something more stupid than that! You think the intruder will let you call 911? Off course not, he could just cut your throat before you could even describe anything to the 911 operator! Criminals know that, that's why they prefer to burglarize when the residents aren't home or if they know their victims don't have a gun!

I even remember back in 2006, when working at Central Middle School, when a student went beserk at me, when I called for security, that kid slammed that phone on the ground before I could even say anything! Luckily, that kid wasn't that big, so he couldn't do much physical damage to me even if he tried! But if your ex is big, he's not going to just knock the phone out of your hand, he will choke you to death! Best to be armed before he barges in the door!

And because most homicides in the home are by family members or acquaintances — not by an intruder — the presence of a gun in the home increases the risk of a gun murder in that home
Another stupid statement. If you're not living with a dysfunctional family, you could have tons of guns in your house, your relatives aren't going to kill you! But if your ex-boyfriend is 3x your size, he could use his strength to break in your house and choke the living crap out of you before you can even complete your sentence to the 911 operator!

Improve background checks and follow Canada in requiring a 28-day waiting period to buy a handgun.

A-28 day waiting period? Your ex, your angry co-worker, your employee you just fired, is not going to wait 28 days to slash you with a knife or knock the living crap out of you!

Yet, so-called "humanitarians" like Kristoff advocate that you be totally defenseless against those who can slash your face, stab your kidneys, choke you to death or break your jaw?

Kristoff then goes on with stats about "firearm suicide rates" and firearm homicide rates", but really, those stats are NOT AS IMPORTANT as "overall suicide rates" and "overall homicide rates". "Suicide through gunshot" is NOT more tragic than "suicide by hanging."

And don't give me this crap that "innocent person beaten to death in a hate crime" is better than "burglar got shot because his potential victims". In fact, I believe burglars, carjackers, store robbers, rapists, spouse abusers and other punks DESERVE TO BE SHOT AT! You think I'm being mean? What about the mean-spiritedness of burglars, carjackers, store robbers, rapists and spouse abusers who use knives, baseball bats and superior physical strength over their victims. Compassion for those punks is compassion wasted!

Kristof also dismissed John Lott's research proving that allowing for concealed weapons do deter criminals. John Lott answers back at Krisof at http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/01/14/arizona-shootings-gun-violence-research-facts-vs-new-york-times/#ixzz1B4POI9HT

John Lott answers to more anti-gun BS at http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/493636.html

And don't give me this "you don't need a gun, the police will protect you", because I wrote why that's bull-stuff at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2008/12/police-cant-protect-you-everytime.html