Archive for October 2008


China: appearance vs. reality

October 19th, 2008 — 12:34am

I’m still aggravated by the whole Yang Peiyi/Lin Miaoke thing from the Beijing Olympics in August, but reading this just brings that aggravation to a whole new level: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7677529.stm

I focus plainly on these lines:

Suppliers are believed to have added the banned chemical, normally used in plastics, to watered-down milk in order to make it appear higher in protein.

Again, we see China putting “appearance” before reality and, this time, paying dearly for it. While I know it may seem simplistic to compare Yang Peiyi’s brush off with tainted milk that had killed four children, the fact is, this stresses the same exact problem. Instead of taking the steps to ensure that they had a quality product, they (China) took a short cut to make people believe what they were presenting was something more than it was. This is unfortunately telling and I’m just saddened that families just trying to live through communist oppression have to almost fight for their children’s lives.

During the earthquakes that ripped through the country, we saw another appearance China gave its citizens: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7430146.stm. The focus here is that all the other structures surrounding the school, hotels and places intended to bring income to the country, survived when the school, as it turns out, was built poorly. It placed the school in a “safe” area only to build it with “unsafe” materials and shoddy workmanship so that when it was placed to the test, it failed miserably and again, China’s families must suffer the effects of their government’s insistence on putting appearance ahead of reality.

I’ve been disgusted a lot in the past few weeks, but this just leaves a taste in my mouth that I just can’t remove.

2 comments » | Politics, Rant

It’s finally happened…

October 18th, 2008 — 4:59am

…I’ve missed an episode of SVU and, to top off everything else, I think my undying love for The X-Files is finally starting to take a downturn. I realized the latter a few days ago when I go through old files on my computer and saw I had not updated the TXF site in months. (As I write this, I decided to take a little break and post some kind of update and found that David Duchovny split up with his wife. Does any Hollywood marriage last!?!) It is a strange feeling for me to not have some X-Files story building at the back of my mind or to not have a bits of an episode playing in my daydreams. Lately, I have been writing more often and have had little to no time to watch anything at all, hence the reasoning for missing SVU.

I wonder if this is a sign that I’m getting older. A part of me says “no” since I still play the Sims like it is something I’m paid to do and I watch (emphasis because it usually just plays in the background while I play Sims) Daria and Futurama in non-stop loops as playlists on my computer. Then another part of me causes my head to nod and say…”yep, I’m getting old.”

I turned twenty-four last month and I let the occasion pass without much fanfare partly because I was bracing myself for the one anniversary (I hate using that word to describe this, but there really aren’t any synonyms for it) of Edrith’s passing and partly because I just don’t want my birthday to seem like a big deal anymore. All the “fun” ones have passed and only the old ones remain; 25, 30, 40 etc. I’ve got friends who are living together, friends who are getting married, friends who have got married and are about to start a family, friends who already have several children…I’m getting older and every so often I think about how far I have come, but mostly how little I’ve moved since I turned eighteen and became an “adult.”

Supposing I look at the positives, I am successfully living on my own first the first time. I say successfully because I haven’t got tuition hanging over my head and can actually focus on paying off some debt while still managing my apartment and preparing to add my college loans to the fold. I am also starting to figure out who I am: a writer. It has always been a part of who I am, but I’ve been sensing now more than ever that this is the path on which Jesus has set me, rather than something that I just want to do. When I think about any job or career path I’ve ever had, everything always came back to writing. I somehow found a way to write on the job or found myself working just to support myself while I write. I know it’s best to take advantage of these times now because I know marriage and children would never allow for that kind of behaviour…if I ever get married and change my mind about over-population and my general forecast about the state of humanity. I guess there were some negatives to add, but thank God (literally) they’ve been pushed away by thoughts about this story and that story I’m planning to write.

Something interesting I’ve experienced, however, that has got me really think is the idea of rejection. The closest I came to not getting specifically what I wanted, ie: entrance into a creative writing class at OSU, and the fact that my creations have been rejected multiple times from ModtheSims2 presents a completely foreign sensation to me. I’m not used to dealing with rejection, though I’m happy I haven’t resorted to tears or swearing over something I don’t care about too much, but there is something so unsettling about working so hard at something only to not have it well-received. On the other hand…perhaps this is Jesus’ way of telling me my time is better spent on other things…*rubs chin*

Oh well…this is my second completed written “project” in two days, so here’s to praying that this is one step in the right direction in the way of writing the “Great American Novel.”

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Original link

On a side note — Daggonnit, John! Why couldn’t you start later in the afternoon so that I could make it to Westerville after church!!! I guess I should be somewhat satisfied though because it if was both John and Sarah, I would have to be giving 11:00AM service “my best” as I flew across the city to see them both. Honestly, that is a once in a lifetime event and I met Bush when he was running. Of course, that’s not much to brag about, but still kind of cool on its own…

1 comment » | Deep Thought, Jesus, On Me, Writing

Just disgusted…again

October 11th, 2008 — 11:10am

Palin abused power, probe finds.

Let’s forget the fact that this alleged incident was years ago and focus on the facts. A guy gets fired because he was not doing his job right and all of a sudden an ethics probe finds that a presidential running mate is accused of some wrongdoing? I like the fact that since the liberals have run the “McCain is too old” thing into the ground, they plunged how many thousands of dollars into rushing this “finding” on Palin just weeks before the election. Kind of like how the Bush administration helped Dick Cheney keep the fact that he shot and killed (and I know that man is gone and buried in a quiet funeral because the entire story has been keep so quiet since the incident that it is unnerving) a man while hunting, but I’ve never had anything good to say about Bush so I won’t get into that.

No one fails to mention that the probe began before Palin was selected as McCain’s running mate, but I follow the news as well as, if not better, than most of the American people and I can’t remember a darn thing mentioned about the probe until after Palin was selected. It makes me wonder that if this probe was so inflammatory why this information was not spray painted all over Palin by the Democrats as soon as she was selected as McCain’s VP. The fact that this committee so conveniently concluded their findings just weeks before the election stinks of liberal string-pulling and taking out all stops trying to win the election in the most underhanded measures possible, not unlike creating fraudulent voter registrations to beef up the numbers for their candidate.

What fascinates me most is that this in-depth probe could conclude so quickly. Monegan was in a dispute for the budget (in this economy, which has been in a downturn for years) with the governor of his state and when he gets fired because of his ineptitude, it must be an abuse of Palin’s power. Quite honestly, if she wanted to get at her ex-brother-in-law, there are many options available for her and there was nothing at all to be gained if Palin fired him because he allegedly would not fire Palin’s sister’s ex. Why not go after the ex directly? For God’s sake, she’s the governor! I’ll say it again, there are far deeper and more sinister ways to “get” someone if she wanted to do it.

This disgusts me like anytime I hear about a black person getting fired by their white boss and then accusing the boss of obvious racism when said black person came to work late everyday and had substandard performance. People, specifically liberals who are attempting to incite voter fears about a small constituency of Republicans (who also exist in greater numbers as Democrats, though highly shrouded through politically correctness and general garbage, as well), don’t want to focus on the facts. It is always easier to assume that a conservative has abused her power than to consider that there is more to a story than its face value.

To make this matter entirely disgusting is its complete lack of facts. Here’s a question, Monegan: if Palin was hatching some under-handed revenge scheme, why didn’t she give you the means to make the firing easy? And, if these means were available, why haven’t you mentioned this and why hasn’t this been discussed in the probe? Perhaps this is just an example of a disgruntled employee having another stab at his former boss at a time that just happens to be advantageous for the Democrats.

What is really going to make the country fall into a hell-hole is if Obama loses and we have to listen to the liberals scream racism day in and day out for the next four years. I can hear it now: “Look how racist our country still is! Palin has abused her power and McCain/Palin still got elected!”

Sigh…

Hopefully, Ohio is still as “racist” as I assume it is and our track record for choosing the president will not be tarnished in November so that I can hold my head high instead of singing the “Blue State Blues” for the next four years.

Comments Off on Just disgusted…again | Politics, Rant

OMG…I’ve found Michelle Malkin

October 11th, 2008 — 12:53am

I’m not even quite sure how I found her blog either. I suppose I could search a bit and…remember that I’ve been branching out from the BBC recently just to see what the “others” have been printing in their news. I can’t say why, but I just can’t trust US-based newspapers anymore. Not to say that the BBC can be trusted either, far from it, but getting that independent view of the country far outweighs the leftist subtleties in American papers. Anyway…

So, I’ve found Michelle Malkin‘s blog and have had to literally (and I don’t actually mean ‘figuratively’ and am just using ‘literally’ because I’m ignorant either) pull myself away from the computer to keep from spending the entire night reading posts and desiring for the ability to comment. I love what is said in most conservative blogs. I think it is just a breath of fresh air after being bombarded with liberal sentiments at nearly every turn I make just because people see my skin colour and know I think the way they do, but I always approach anything wholly conservative with raised eyebrow and heavy skepticism.

Unfortunately, when it comes to conservatives, the radical racists love to associate as well and ruin just about everything they touch. It reminds of a Facebook group in the Ohio State network that was up a year or so ago where a bunch of kids started a “white kids” group and it, of course, was ruined by a bunch of bigots posting crap about Oprah and white power and blah, blah, blah. On face value, it was no different (well, it actually it was, but I’m trying to get to my point sooner rather than later) than the “OSU Black People” or the “I should’ve gone to a blacker college” groups of which I am members on Facebook. The only problem is that bigots latch onto anything that sounds conservative or geared towards whites and destroy it. With this in mind, I delved into Malkin’s articles assuming she looked something like Suze Orman, but could make a lot of sense to young, conservative black woman in a way that intelligent conservatives tend to do.

Right when I completely fell for her lack of any sense of political correctness, I started clicking around on the site and saw that she was of Filipino descent. Now, I’m almost ashamed to admit that the fact that she wasn’t just “another” white Conservative I agreed with and would look like I can’t relate to my race for finding her articles worthwhile was what caused me to not just Bookmark her, but also RSS her site, yet…when I really think about the person I am and the people I find “heroic” or simply admire, it doesn’t seem so shameful.

There is Oprah, of course, (I don’t care how much she spends endorsing Obama, she’s still a Republican since few billionaires aren’t and even if she somehow isn’t – on paper – I learned through some people that you can’t put faith in any icon or hero except for Jesus, but that’s a post in its own right.) who I admire simply because of who she is and also the fact that she is black, being who she is, and I know there’s no chance I’ll ever put Dr. Rice on the back burner just because she’s got a long-needed rest coming, so there’s no denying that I feel an immediate affinity for successful black women because they embody what I’d like to become and, though Malkin’s not black (if she were, I’d be quoting her posts like other people quote Scripture) seeing that she’s not white, but still thinks in somewhere near the same lines as me, another non-white conservative, just makes me like her all the more. There is something so comforting in seeing a conservative being a conservative simply because she can, regardless of race…

I love being a conservative just how I like busting liberals who think that because I’m an American who is black, I automatically have to fit their racist liberal mindset of me and I love “discovering” the fact that I’m not the only person in the world who thinks the way I do.

To quote her from a little something I found through Wikipedia:

I’m not Asian, I’m American, for goodness’ sake.

…and, to phrase it in the urban vernacular to which people who share my skin colour associate: You go, girl!

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