Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 in review

Another year has come and gone.

Another "end of the world" I was able to survive.



This year has been a year of renewals.

For one thing, my apartment got an internal makeover.

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-war-against-clutter.html

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-apartment-gets-make-over.html

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/10/32-years-of-living.html (part 1)

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I have also switched my long-term career goals. Whereas I started this year with a goal of becoming a full-time teacher, I have switched my goal to eventually becoming a full-time librarian.

About my switch in goals
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/change-in-direction.html

I am scheduled to start the master's program in Library and Information Science (LIS) at UH-Manoa starting January 2013. I'm just waiting to wait for the orientation program (few days from now) and my financial aid to be 100% approved and dispersed. Afterwards, I'm good to go!

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I have also returned to Macy's as a holiday seasonal worker on 12/1/12. This time as a flex-sales worker at the Ala Moana store.  Being a flex worker means I pick and choose the leftover shifts available.

I was finally able to get new stuff on employee discount again. And yes, I did wear the Santa hat the entire 2 weeks leading up to Christmas :)


(taken Christmas Eve)




2012 in review: music & sports

 Music


The biggest song of the year has got to be PSY's  "Gangnam Style". It was the first song in an Asian language that become a big hit on mainstream US radio stations.  The fake-horse dance will forever be a classic.

However. the craze has died down ever since the US media reported what PSY said about the US troops back in 2004, where he mentioned about "kill those Yankees" and "kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers / Kill them all slowly and painfully". 

Psy said it was in protest of US foreign policy as well as a US tank running over 2 Korean girls.  It's one thing to protest foreign policy or to criticize some bad apples within the US military.  But saying "kill those yankees" is almost the same thing as US racists saying "kill the japs" or "kill the gooks" during the various US wars in Asia.

 PSY later apologize for his words.

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Chris Brown was able to not let his controversial past stop him from making hits.

His hits included

Pitbull featuring Chris Brown "International Love"
(good song with great beats and great vocals. but then again, Pitbull only mention flirting with girls from Latin America, Europe and Lebanon, ignoring large chunks of landmass with billions of people. Also, Chris Brown sang about 3 cities in the same country. The song could easily be more international)


Chris Brown "Dont Wake Me Up"

Chris Brown and Lil Wayne "I Can only Imagine"
(prominent producer David Guetta is usually credited for this song, though he doesn't do vocals)

The Game featuring Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Tyga, Wiz Kalifa "Celebration"
(this was inspired by Bone Thugs N Harmony's classic "1st of the Month")


In other Chris Brown news, his bar fight with Drake injured innocent bystanders. All this because Drake actually showed Rihanna some respect. Well, if Brown didn't beat her up, Rihanna would've still been his girl!

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I nominate Flo Rida as the LL Cool J of this generation. The reason I say that is both are very muscular guys who emphasize a more positive and sensitive side on their records, while still making some dance hits as well.  They're radio-friendly but that doesn't make them soft, in fact, nobody in their right mind would ever question their manhood or their street credibility. 


Here are my favorite Flo Rida songs of the year.

Flo Rida "I Cry"

Flo Rida "Wild Ones"

Flo Rida "Good Feeling"
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Justin Beiber has gotten a bit older, and is now making hits for a slightly older crowd. His best song this year is "Boyfriend" with a mix of hyphy beats and acoustic guitar in the mix.

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Nicki Minaj had some controversy with "No Mercy". Yeah the song had profanity, sexually graphic lyrics, expressed gang affiliation (praising Bloods, insulting Crips), and other stuff not for the radio. But NONE OF THOSE THINGS were the main part of the controversy.

It was that Minaj said  "I'm a Republican, I'm voting for Mitt Romney" . Sure, her words are rarely meant to be taken seriously or literally, but it did inspire a lot of hatred over facebook/Twitter.  The attitude was "how dare a minority favor Romney over Obama". The left-wing mob seriously needs to chill!

Meanwhile, my favorite song from Nicki Minaj this year was "Pound the Alarm".  Great party jam. And the video makes me want to visit Trinidad and Tobago!

I also like the Nicki Minaj remix of Alicia Key's "Girl on Fire"

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My other favorite party jams include

Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen "Good Time" 
(the ultimate boy/girl pop jam of the year)


Carly Rae Jepsen "This Kiss"


Sia "Titanium"

Blush (feat. Snoop Dogg) "Undivided"
(Blush could be the next stars from Asia to make the US mainstream charts. Stay tuned)

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Some rap hits I haven't mentioned already

Big Sean, Jay-Z, Kanye West "Clique"

Far East Movement feat. Justin Bieber and LMFAO "Live My Life"

E-40 "Function"
(who said "hyphy is dead"?  It still lives on!)

Kesha "Die Young"
(this song was meant to express"life is short, let's just live it up" but it got pulled from some radio stations after the Sandy Hook shooting, as if people are too stupid to take the song title literally!)




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some alternative hits

Foster The People "Houdini"
(loved the drum intro, but the whole song was great too)

Bush "Baby Come Home"
(this band was part of the 1990's alternative wave. I didn't care much for their music back then, but I love this song!)

M-83 "Midnight City" and "We Own the Sky"

Grouplove "Tongue Tied"

Gotye feat Kimbra  ""Somebody that I used to Know"
(I rarely listen to depressing emo songs, but the way Gotye sing this song, it's a perfect song to imitate at a karaoke party)

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If I had more time, I could list more songs from this year. But these songs are the ones that stick out in my mind.


3) Sports

This year, UH got a new football coach, Norm Chow. Chow was a legendary assistant coach, who had coached at BYU, Southern Cal, UCLA, Utah and North Carolina State, as well as the NFL's Tennessee Titans

However, all the hype around his hiring didn't help the team win much this year. The team went 3-9 this year. Lucky thing there were 2 junk teams at the end of this year's schedule. Otherwise, the team would've been just slightly better than von Appen's 0-12 team of 1998.

Some mentioned the Chow's stubbornness in allowing starting QB Sean Schroder to stay in the game even after taking multiple beatings on the field. You can only take so much hits before you start to lose focus. This was magnified with the O-line being filled with inexperienced guys.

As for the D-line, it faced way too many injuries this year.

And the defense in general struggle to stop great running backs (ie Nevada's Stephon Jefferson).

What makes that even more depressing is that a former Hawaii high school football star is making TONS of tackles for a mainland university  :(     :(      :(         .

Imagine what Manti Te'o could've done for our defense if he played for UH instead of Notre Dame!
So now Norm Chow has the uphill battle to convince Hawaii high school stars to play for their hometown team instead of being tempted by offers to play for Notre Dame, Oregon, Stanford or other continental US schools.

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This is what I said in an earlier blog post about Norm Chow's rule against long hair.

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/10/32-years-of-living.html (look under part 4)

(unfortunately, new coach Norm Chow wanted his players to have short hair! This is also the worst football season since the von Appen days. Coincidence? As one caller to a talk radio show said "the rules against long hair is ruining the team spirit!" Take that Norm Chow!)
I also mentioned the issue on this blog post

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/08/vili-warrior-retired.html

For one thing, the new UH football coach started imposing regulations on the player's grooming style.

Under the new rules, the UH football players will no longer be allowed to have long hair, WHICH IS THE MOST STUPIDEST RULE ON EARTH!

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-02/sports/sns-mct-free-time-is-over.-chow-time-begins-for-real-today-20120802_1_camp-chow-time-norm-chow


The long hair was a major part of the UH-Warrior mystique in the previous decade. It made the UH haka/ha'a more real when the Warriors had the wild hair while making their chants!
check that blog post for more on that issue.

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UH got a new Athletic Director Ben Jay.

He came from Ohio State, which has a much larger budget!

Now, not only does Jay have to work with a smaller budget, but also the greatest travel expenses in all of college sports. Hope the oil prices don't rise too much!

Also, with so many colleges switching conferences, we hope UH doesn't get left behind in the next round of conference shuffles.

While almost all of us want the UH to be part of the Pac-12, that is unlikely, unless UH football surpasses what Boise State accomplished the last decade!

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The era of instant gratification and impatience in our modern sports world has gone to a new low.


So far, I know of 2 NBA teams (Lakers, Nets) that fired their coach for not winning enough, and the season is NOT EVEN half-way done!

  Let's see, in sports, you get a second chance if you have committed spousal abuse, sexual assault or drunk driving.  But if your team hasn't won enough before the middle of the season  you have no second chance?


 If I was the commissioner of a pro league, I'll make a rule stating "once the season starts, you're stuck with the coach and the players you hired. The only exceptions would be legal or moral violations".


 This way, the coaches and players have a chance to improve on their weaknesses.   If at the end of the season, it still doesn't work, then they can release coaches and players.  

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Beyond the Weapons, now focus on the mindset

There's a saying "you can do whatever you put your mind into"

That's usually said to inspire people who are down on their confidence, to inspire them to achieve positive things.

But if you got bad intentions, yes you can do almost anything you put your mind to it.

And if you got a gun (ie. Jovan Belcher, Adam Lanza), knife (ie. OJ Simpson, Min Yongjun ) or just huge size (Matthew Kupa) you could use those things to your advantage.

Whereas my previous blog post focused on the reactions to the guns used by Jovan Belcher and Adam Lanza, it's time to focus on what drove them to act that way.

After all, even if Belcher or Lanza didn't have access to a gun, they're still screwed up psychos who can find another way to do some major damage.

After all, OJ Simpson didn't need a gun to kill his ex-wife and her new boyfriend! Min Yonjun didn't need a gun to stab a bunch of kids at a school in China. (btw, that happened the same day as the Sandy Hook killings)
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/18/content_16027099.htm
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/china_up_in_arms_over_governments_newtown_coverage/singleton/



And Matthew Kupa didn't need a gun to beat the living crap out of a smaller, older man.
 http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-lenient-is-too-lenient.html
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/149899015.html?id=149899015



In the case of OJ Simpson and Jovan Belcher, the issue is domestic violence

In the case of Adam Lanza and Min Youngun, the issue is mental illness

In the case of Matthew Kupa, the issue is excessive leniency for violent bullies.


1) Domestic Violence

Those who commit domestic violence tend to be control freaks.

This was definitely true about Jovan Belcher.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/171607/kasandra-perkins-did-not-have-die
Indeed, it has now come out that Belcher had a history of violence and controllingness in relationships with women. While at the University of Maine, campus police reports were filed when Belcher punched his fist through a window during a fight with a woman and again when police were called to break up an argument he had with his girlfriend after she failed to check in with him at a designated time. Belcher’s relationship with Kasi has repeatedly been called strained—so much so that the Kansas City Chiefs provided the couple with relationship counseling. (Which is actually not the right move, according to domestic violence experts.)

Reports indicate that Kasi was leaving or had left Belcher with their daughter. Women are most likely to be killed by their abusive partners when they try to leave—in fact, victims who leave an abusive relationship have a 75 percent higher risk of being murdered. Pregnancy and childbirth exacerbate violent relationships and young black women are eleven times more likely than white women to be murdered while they are pregnant or in the year after childbirth.

This is not rocket science—we know how women die when they are killed by their partners. We know what precedes it and we know what the relationship looks like before it happens.

We also know the excuses that are made for the men who kill. When University of Virginia student and lacrosse player George Huguely V beat his ex-girlfriend (she had just left him) Yeardley Love to death, he insisted it was because of an alcohol problem. Articles said he snapped. I’m sure his friends liked him. People were shocked. But in the weeks leading up to her death, Huguely sent Love an e-mail threatening to kill her, and witnesses had seen him physically abusing her.


Look at what I highlighted! Belcher got belligerent when his girlfriend "failed to check in with him ata a designated time."  Police had to be called! This is control freak behavior!

When someone tries to break away from a control freak, the control freak can't handle that! This is why spouse abusers (ie. Jovan Belcher, OJ Simpson) resort to murder!

After all, OJ Simpson couldn't handle it when his ex-wife had a new boyfriend. His stabbed them both to death!
This is why sports pundits like Bob Costas and Jason Whitlock sound extremely stupid when they said that if there was no gun, both Belcher and Perkins would be alive!

The root of the problem isn't the knife or the gun! After all, both Simpson and Belcher have used their size and fists to beat their spouses WAY BEFORE THEY KILLED THEM!

The root of the problem is being a control freak!

This is the type of stuff that parents and educators need to warn their kids about!  How to avoid control freaks and more importantly how to avoid becoming a control freak!



2) Mental Illness

Many people blame parents if their children turn out to be screwed up people!

But children are NOT blank slates!

Children have minds of their own! Sometimes, very sick minds!


Here, a woman with a son struggling with mental illness speaks


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-mental-illness-conversation_n_2311009.html
 
I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan -- they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.

That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn’t have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.

We still don’t know what’s wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and teachers and school administrators. He’s been on a slew of antipsychotic and mood altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans. Nothing seems to work.

So what could we do about it?  Let's read more!  
When I asked my son’s social worker about my options, he said that the only thing I could do was to get Michael charged with a crime. “If he’s back in the system, they’ll create a paper trail,” he said. “That’s the only way you’re ever going to get anything done. No one will pay attention to you unless you’ve got charges.”

I don’t believe my son belongs in jail. The chaotic environment exacerbates Michael’s sensitivity to sensory stimuli and doesn’t deal with the underlying pathology. But it seems like the United States is using prison as the solution of choice for mentally ill people. According to Human Rights Watch, the number of mentally ill inmates in U.S. prisons quadrupled from 2000 to 2006, and it continues to rise -- in fact, the rate of inmate mental illness is five times greater (56 percent) than in the non-incarcerated population.

With state-run treatment centers and hospitals shuttered, prison is now the last resort for the mentally ill -- Rikers Island, the LA County Jail and Cook County Jail in Illinois housed the nation’s largest treatment centers in 2011.

No one wants to send a 13-year old genius who loves Harry Potter and his snuggle animal collection to jail. But our society, with its stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare system, does not provide us with other options. Then another tortured soul shoots up a fast food restaurant. A mall. A kindergarten classroom. And we wring our hands and say, “Something must be done.”

Yep, until someone commits a crime, you can't really do anything about someone's dangerous tendencies! That's how civil liberties work!   However, even if the insane person goes through the justice system, he could still be let out.

For example,  a man named Benjamin Davis stabbed a bunch of people at Koko Head hiking trail.

And he has been given excessive leniency

http://www.staradvertiser.com/newspremium/20120809_Victim_decries_stabbers_OK_to_go_to_school.html?id=165555566


The victim of a vicious attack on Koko Crater said he's "disgusted" by a court decision this week that will allow his assailant to attend college classes unsupervised.

Nicholas Iwamoto, 26, was stabbed 18 times and thrown from the crater rim by Benjamin Davis on Feb. 1, 2009. He broke his neck in the fall and fractured his skull. Although Davis was acquitted of attempted murder by reason of insanity, the state ordered him into the custody of the Hawaii State Hospital so he could receive mental health treatment.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Richard Perkins ruled that Davis could attend English classes without supervision at nearby Windward Community College.

  After the controversy, Benjamin Davis was given a police escort to attend community college!

But this shows you the system has been negligent when it comes to dangerous people.

I'm for allowing inmates receiving an education, but they should NEVER be let out unsupervised!

A guy as dangerous as Benjamin Davis could easily escape if he is unsupervised. And then what?  He could easily strike again!


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3) Excessive leniency

Another case of excessive leniency in Hawaii is the case of Matthew Kupa. I have already mentioned this case in another blog post.

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-lenient-is-too-lenient.html

On March 26, 2010, 57- year old Andy Ganigan was minding his own business after he left a lounge in Waipahu. He was then attacked by a much larger intoxicated man named Matthew Kupa! Kupa kept hitting Ganigan's head even after he could no longer fight back. Kupa then had to be restrained by 2 other people.


http://www.staradvertiser.com/sportspremium/20120329_andy_ganigan_fights_for_his_life.html?id=144853325

Matthew Kupa claimed that he couldn't remember what happened that night, even though there were multiple witnesses at the scene.

Let's face it, if you hit some in order to defend yourself, you would say so to everyone, especially in court. If you hit someone who pushed you or threatened you, you would admit that in court. Even if you over-reacted to someone who was bullying you, you would just admit that in court. Those are all things you would remember for as long as your brain can function properly.

But Kupa claimed he doesn't remember what happened the night he attacked Ganigan, because if he stated the real reason for the attack, he would be in more trouble.


Meanwhile, Ganigan's brain was so damaged that he could no longer do simple tasks like brushing teeth or opening a can of juice. He was unable to remember names. He experienced tremors and needed 24 hour care.

The prosecutor asked that Kupa receive 10 years in prison. The judge Glenn Kim went even lower than that, and just gave Kupa 18 months (not years) in prison and 5 years of probation.


Yep, in less than 18 months, Matthew Kupa will be out of jail. Meanwhile, his victim (Andy Ganigan) suffered for 2 years with extreme brain damage until he passed away earlier this year!

What does that tell the Matthew Kupas (and his wanabees) of the world? They are getting the message of "we don't take your actions seriously!"


So yeah, make whatever laws you want about guns. Make whatever laws you want on any weapon in general! But if violent criminals like Benjamin Davis and Matthew Kupa are set free, they will continue to ignore the law and cause trouble!


 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A real conversation about guns

Whenever some gun-related tragedy occurs in the USA, the anti-gun activists keep saying "when are we going to have a conversation about guns in this country?"

Those screams have gotten louder with the last few weeks.

A few weeks ago, NFL player Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend (Kasandra Perkins)and then went to his team's practice facility and  shot himself in front of his coaches.


And last week, Adam Lanza shot a bunch of children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary.

But even before these incidents, we already had constant conversations about guns in this country.

But the gun control advocates DONT WANT A DIALOGUE on the issue, they want a monologue, where they do all the talking!

A. Barton Hinkle sets the record straight on this issue
(even though it was published a few days before the Sandy Hook incident, it still applies)


http://reason.com/archives/2012/12/12/gun-control-ad-infinitum

Gun control, according to a recent blog post by Timothy Egan ofThe New York Times, is “the issue that dare not speak its name.” Egan is upset that people who do not like gun control recently said mean things about sportscaster Bob Costas, who does. This proved to Egan that “you cannot talk” about guns in America.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg agrees. Thanking Costas for speaking up, he tweeted: “A frank discussion about gun laws and gun violence is a discussion we need to have.”

Bloomberg has an ally in NPR’s Neal Conan. In a “Talk of the Nation” segment back in March titled, “Trayvon Martin Story Sparks Difficult Conversations,” Conan lamented: “I feel we're missing the opportunity to also have a discussion about guns.”

Liberals aren’t alone in talking about how nobody’s talking about gun control. “This country needs an honest debate” about the issue, says Juan Williams of Fox News. “The issue should be debated as a matter of public safety. But anti-free speech forces have prevented this debate from happening.”

Williams is absolutely right. Remember the movie-theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., earlier this year? After that horrible crime, there was no discussion of gun control whatsoever—at least if you don’t count the several thousand news stories such as, “Gun Debate Reignited by Aurora Shooting” (Chicago Tribune) and “Aurora Shooting Highlights Gun Debate” (MSNBC) and“Aurora Shooting Sparks Gun Debate” (AP) and so on.

Yet despite those stories, plenty of gun-control advocates felt enough wasn’t being said.
 
Yep, we have LITERALLY thousands of articles, newscasts, etc on gun control after every gun-related tragedy.

So why do nationally known politicians, pundits keep saying "we need a conversation about guns in this country?" when we have TONS of articles on that issue?



As should be laughably obvious by this point, gun control is something Americans almost never stop talking about. The trouble—from the liberal perspective—is that the discussion keeps going the wrong way. Despite the horror at Virginia Tech, in Tucson and Aurora and too many other places to list, Americans consistently decline to adopt sweeping gun-control measures. Just a week after the Tucson shooting, 69 percent of survey respondents still told CNN the episode had not changed their views on gun control.

So in other words, the gun control fanatics will keep saying "we need a conversation about guns in this country" until everyone with a different opinion from them stays silent!

Well, screw that, I refuse to be silent about how WRONG the gun-control fanatics are!

The reason why many people refuse to be converted to the gun control cause is because we know guns aren't always bad, in fact they can save lives!

Just a few examples cited by my previous blog posts

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-stand-your-ground-really-is.html ( I cited a Detroit news story in which a resident shot someone intruding his home)


http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/04/2-decades-since-la-riots.html (about the LA riots)

In the 1992 riots, that's exactly what happened. While many stores in general got looted, the Korean-owned stores got it even worse, they got burned down and their employees brutally attacked!

The police weren't around. As I mentioned earlier, the police backed down.

So the Korean store owners had their shotguns in case more looters came to start trouble! The Koreans weren't afraid to stand their ground! After all, no one was going to help them, so they helped themselves!
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2010/04/nukes-guns-jobs-and-jealous-ones.html (part 2 mentions the incident in Wahiawa in which a woman shot 2 intruders)



And here are articles cited by my previous blog posts

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/01/14/arizona-shootings-gun-violence-research-facts-vs-new-york-times/#ixzz1B4POI9HT

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/493636.html


And my responses to those who say "why have a gun, the police will protect you"

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2008/12/police-cant-protect-you-everytime.html

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/07/police-cant-protect-you-everytime.html

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/09/police-cant-protect-you-everytime-uk.html


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The police won't always be there to protect you. That's reality!

Guns have already been invented! That's reality!

You can't get rid of all those guns without the government resorted to police-state tactics and massive civil liberty violations! That's reality!

You can make whatever law you want, the bad guys will break those laws! After all, they're the bad guys. Bad guys don't follow laws! That's reality!


If the bad guys have guns, then what are supposed to do?

Bring a knife to a gun fight? Bring only your fists to a gun fight? Just give them a hug?

Well, I'll show you what the Israelis do!


photo from http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/how-to-stop-the-slaughter-of-the-innocents/

That's right, there's an armed guard at the schools!

Even though Israel is surrounded by hostile enemies with bad intentions, they DONT have as many school shootings as the USA!

A facebook friend even mentioned to me that during his trip to Israel, there's an armed guard escorting Israeli children on a field trip!

The Israelis have real life experience knowing that you MUST protect the children with real weapons. Just relying on your command presence is NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH when there are violent psychos who think you shouldn't even exist!

Sure, pretty much every Israeli adult has been trained in armed security since it's a requirement that nearly every Israeli adult commit a few years to military service.

While we won't have a draft in the USA anytime soon, we need to have armed guards in our schools, malls and many other gathering places. Some armed guards as obvious as that photo above, and some undercover armed guards as well!  If it means spending some extra money for the training, SPEND IT!

The bad guys are ready to win the arms race. The good guys better win the arms race!

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The article I got that photo from also mentioned some real life incidents in which armed citizens used their weapons to protect others. 

http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/how-to-stop-the-slaughter-of-the-innocents/

It’s a fact that many mass murders like the one we witnessed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School were averted because innocent children and adults were not left defenseless. Here are just a handful of examples:

  • On Oct. 1, 1997, Luke Woodham, 16, part of a satanic cult, stabbed and bludgeoned his mother before driving her car to Pearl High School in Pearl, Miss., where he shot dead two students and wounded seven others with a rifle he made no attempt to conceal. He then got back into his mother’s car and planned to go to Pearl Junior High School to kill some more. But assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a .45-caliber pistol from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham.
  • On Jan. 16, 2002, Peter Odighizuwa, 43, of Nigeria, went to the Appalachian School of Law campus in Virginia with a handgun and killed three and wounded three others. At the sound of gunfire, two other students – both police officers – retrieved guns from their cars. Meanwhile, another police officer and former Marine jumped Odighizuwa and disarmed him by the time the other officers got to the scene.
  • On Aug. 23, 1995, a band of crack cocaine addicts entered a store in Muskegon, Mich., with a plan to kill everyone and steal enough cash and jewelry to feed their habit. One member of the gang shot store owner Clare Cooper in the back four times. He still managed to grab his shotgun and fire on the gang as they fled. They were all apprehended.
  • On Dec. 9, 2007, a 24-year-old gunman named Matthew Murray launched an attack on the congregants of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs that left two victims dead. A former police officer, Jeanne Assam, a member of the security team for the church, shot Murray 10 times, killing him, as he was shooting at her. Murray had killed four others at a church 70 miles away earlier in the day.
  • On July 24, 2012, Richard Gable Stevens rented a rifle at a shooting range in Santa Clara, Calif., and herded three employees out the door, saying he intended to kill them. One of the employees, however, was carrying a .45-caliber handgun and shot the assailant.
  • On Dec. 17, 1991, two men armed with stolen pistols herded 20 customers and employees of a Shoney’s restaurant in Anniston, Ala., into a walk-in refrigerator and locked it so they could rob the establishment. However, one customer was armed with a .45-caliber handgun hidden under a table. He shot one of the gunmen dead. The other robber, who was holding the manager of the restaurant at gunpoint, began firing at the customer. But he was wounded critically by return fire, ending the incident.
  • On July 13, 2009, an armed man entered the Golden Food Market in south Richmond, shooting and wounding a clerk while firing at store patrons. He was shot by another customer who had a concealed-carry permit, likely saving the lives of eight other people in the store.
  • On July 29, 2012, Charles Conner shot and killed two people and their dogs at the Peach Tree RV park in Early, Texas. Vic Stacy got a call from one of the neighbors, got his .357 magnum and shot Conner as he fired upon the first police officer to arrive at the scene. Stacy was credited with saving the life of the officer.


And from http://www.hotdogsandguns.com/2012/12/shooting-at-hobbit-movie-thwarted.html



Again, you can EASILY find more real life examples of people using guns to defend themselves.

You can read books like "More Guns, Less Crime" by John Lott or "Armed and Female" by Paxton Quigley (a former anti-gun activist who woke up to reality)

You can check out http://www.americanrifleman.org/BlogList.aspx?cid=25&id=21 which compiles news reports from around the USA about REAL LIFE cases where people used guns to defend themselves!

You can check out the Second Amendment Sisters website, which states "Self Defense is a Basic Human Right"   http://www.2asisters.org/

You can check out http://reason.com/archives/2011/12/21/controlling-guns-controlling-people (here a former anti-gun person mentions how the modern gun control movement was started in over-reaction to the Black Panthers, who advocated for African-Americans to use their 2nd amendment rights to defend themselves)


.................................................................................................................................................................................................... or you can shut your ears, close your eyes, yell "I can't hear you" when confronted with such facts,


After all, if you hate guns so much, and you chose to just read stories you find "emotionally correct" about guns, you can always check extremely biased media outlets like MSNBC (or anything NBC for that matter), The Nation, Salon,  NY Times, and other sites run by limousine liberals.

The choice is yours

Monday, December 10, 2012

In memory of Mamalaya

Mamalaya is the name of my father's mother.  She passed away a month ago.

 I have only met her once, back in  the summer of 1992. This was during a trip me, my dad and my brother took to see my dad's side of the family in Mexico. I was 11 years old back then.

Unfortunately, I have never seen her since then. She was unable to visit us in Hawaii.  And I haven't been able to visit Mexico since then.

I was invited to come with my dad (along with mom, my maternal grandma, my brother, his wife and kids) to visit Mexico back in March 2007! The problem was I just couldn't afford to miss work.

My dad did mention that we can take a trip together to Mexico in the future. However, if I'm invited, I'll probably just go for a few days only. Even though it's too late to see Mamalaya again, I would like to at least meet my other Mexican relatives before it is too late.


---------------

My father and Mamalaya are both from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, which is located in the southwest part of the country. Oaxaca has a reputation as a state with a mostly poor, rural, indigenous population. You can sort-of compare it to Oahu's Waimanalo or the continental US rural Native American communities.

Mamalaya is of pure native Mexican ancestry, in her case, from the Zapotec tribe.

She married a member of Mexican military, who we called "Papa Poncho."  Papa Poncho is of Spanish ancestry, and he was from the Mexican state of Jalisco.  So you could easily say that Mamalaya and Papa Poncho coming together is having people from 2 different worlds coming together.

My father had more of the Zapotec physical features from his mom, whereas his sibling had more of the Spanish physical features from their dad.

Being that Papa Poncho was in the Mexican military, the family moved around a lot, never staying in one town for too long. While they spent most of my dad's childhood in Oaxaca, they later moved to Papa Poncho's hometown of Guadalajara, Jalisco.

For a long time, Mamalaya remained in Guadalajara, even after Papa Poncho passed away in 1989.

[side note: I did meet Papa Poncho once back in 1988 when he visited Hawaii. He passed away a year later]

In her later years, while she still lived in that home in Guadalajara, she still spent some time in her home state of Oaxaca.

------------

As I mentioned before, I have only met Mamalaya back when I was a pre-teen back in 1992. Unfortunately, Mamalaya have never seen me during my adulthood, though I'm sure she got some updates on my life from my father.

Being that I am so far away, circumstances have made me distanced from my relatives in Mexico.  My father does visit Mexico every year, but the timing hasn't been right for me to take a visit.

It is my hope in the future that I will be able to re-visit my relatives in Mexico. Many of them have only seen my as a kid, have never seen me as an adult.  Also, I have yet physically see Mexico from an adult point-of-view, whereas my visit to Mexico  in 1992 was from a child's point of view.

Even if it's for a few days, it is my hope that my father and I will be able to find the right time when we both can visit Mexico together. Life is too short, and I hope the opportunity doesn't slip away.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Black Friday mess

Last Friday (11/23/12)  was Black Friday!

That is the day after Thanksgiving, and the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season.

It's also the day the stores open early for the massive amounts of people coming in for the sales.


It's that huge mass of people all in one place that has created the problems.


You can watch plenty of YouTube videos were  as soon as the store opens, people just rush in, pushing, shoving, not giving a damn if they trample another person in the process.

And in the tragic case  4 years ago in New York, a security worker got crushed to death when so many people rush their way into Wal Mart all at once!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqeY7j5TuuE

Last year, someone pulled out a pepper spray to use on anyone who dares touch an Xbox she wanted.

This year,  a person pulled out a gun and pointed at the person who wanted to fight him.

 But in many other cases, there are pushing, shoving and other forms of fighting over stuff!


This is just a few examples of the Black Friday madness I am talking about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEb18fkA-bU&feature=share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkQVAb1DbjA
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So many thoughts on all this


1) Malls, stores, etc better start enforcing a single-file line for Black Friday openings. Otherwise, they are asking for trouble.



The Apple store does this whenever a new item is about to be on sale.  A line is formed, with security enforcing the rules along the long lines.



2)  On Black Friday, there needs to be police in riot gear and tear gas ready.

Dont call that overkill!

Because the madness of people pushing & shoving their way into the stores is what's really overkill!


 3 ) all these people pushing and shoving their way into store need to GET A LIFE!


 Seriously, you could still live a decent life without a cheap plasma TV or whatever LUXURY CRAP you are fighting over!


Plus, it's the day after Thanksgiving, you know.......... the day you celebrate what you are thankful for!


Those losers pushing, shoving and fighting over luxury crap on Black Friday are a spoiled bunch of ingrates!


If they think it's do damn important to literally fight over the latest cell phone, plasma TV, video game systems or other luxury items, then they should be sentenced to a full-year living in a refugee camp!


Maybe once they experience the hell many that many Sudanese, Somalis,  Afghans, Syrians,etc have to go through, the Black Friday pushers and shovers will truly learn to be thankful for what they already have.



 In other words, learn the true meaning of Thanksgiving!


 


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

An all-mail election is dangerous

Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie has announced that he favors an election in which all ballots are sent in by mail.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/newspremium/20121127__Governor_wants_all_elections_conducted_via_mail.html?id=180950321



Some saying that having all-mail elections are convenient, being that people don't have to stand in long lines, plus there's less need for election workers.





However, an all-mail election system takes away THE MAIN REASON why our democratic system is great.




That is ---- You can go into a voting booth and NOBODY CAN SEE HOW YOU VOTED!

You can vote here without worrying about anyone looking over your shoulder.


That is to protect the voter from intimidation and peer pressure.



Having a voting booth with privacy settings allows you to vote how you truly think, instead of vote for who my parents like or vote for who my friends like or vote who my spouse like.




With an all-mailing election system, you could easily have such scenarios including but not limited to



1) young adult living at home with his parents while attending college.  Parents say "you better vote this way or else I'll stop paying for your college tuition!"




2)  someone living with an abusive spouse! You know what can happen with that!




3) The employer tells employee  "you better bring your ballots to my office and I better see you vote the right way!"  Same could apply to union bosses as well.


----
These are all possible scenarios of voter intimidation that could happen with mail-in balloting systems!



Even if the government makes bans on such scenarios, it could still easily happen with an all-mail election system!


Unless politicians want voter intimidation (maybe that's why they want to do away with voting booths), they should say HELL NO to an all-mail voting system!



PS: yes, I did work as an election poll worker this year (and in 2006). Some might call that a "conflict of interest" when writing this blog post.

 But I believe in having polling places, otherwise, I wouldn't have helped out as a poll worker.