Thursday thoughts.

So I guess Soul Assylum had a free concert down at Pike Place today to celebrate the Market's 99th year.

Can we all pronounce together? PIKE. (no S!) Place. Market. PIKE. There is no "S" in Pike.

Stop saying "pike's." Thanks.
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So I heard today on NPR a soundbite of a Chinese diplomat saying "Why blame China? Forget it! It's high time you learn to just SHUT UP." Why did our friend say this? Because the Bush Administration was criticizing China for building up it's navy.

Maybe I'm remembering the details wrong, but I have to agree with the Chinese diplomat. Who the hell is America, telling people not to build their own military? Really, the stupidity (not to mention the hypocrisy) of the argument doesn't merit a diplomatic answer. American foreign policy is too stupid to take seriously.
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A commenter on my other blog, 我很有意思! wrote in to let me know that I needed to stop using the word 日, which is used in the word "journal" and "Japan," but in some contexts, means the F-word. Oops. I've gone through and corrected my previous entries with the correct hanzi, "热,"which I should have used in the first place. I mean, 日isn't even the right pinyin! chuh!
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I got a haircut today. I was working on a bushy, floppy mop. When I sat in the chair, I told the lady, I want a DIFFERENT haircut. I'm tired of the standard short on the sides and back, lay down flat in the front with a part on the left side that I always get. The Standard Asian Haircut.

Make me look like a Japanese cartoon superhero, I said! Or even make me look like a coconut, it doesn't matter, just not the same as before.

At the end, when I put on my glasses, I had the Standard Asian Haircut, short on the sides and back, lay down flat in the front, part on the left side. I looked like my grandfather's portrait. Again.

Oh well, better luck next time. The good news is that I filled up my punch card. The next Standard Asian Haircut is free!
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Hey, everyone, warantless wiretaps are illegal! Who knew! Actually, I knew. These people swore an oath.... to protect US sovereignty at whatever the cost? No, actually, their oath was to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

Sorry, kids, the U.S. Constitution is what MAKES. US. AMERICAN. You would distroy our way of life in order to save it. Do you think we're gonna hear an apology from the people who wanted to curtail our rights in the name of security? Nah, they'll probably just accuse the activist judges of being soft on security, and then win another election.



I don't know what's going to become of Lt. Watada and his refusal to fight an illegal war. They want to get him for conduct unbecoming an officer... saying mean things about his superiors. What I wonder is if there even exists a way for a man who honestly believes that the war is illegal to object to it. What would they have wanted him to do? Yes, fight, but if he objects? What was he supposed to have done? He asked for a discharge, they said no.

They'll probably send him to jail for longer than his deployment would have been. They'll put him away. But seriously, conduct unbecoming an officer? Maybe if he pooped on someone's chest on tv or something, but all he did was say that he would disobey an order he considered illegal and immoral. Isn't that what an officer is supposed to do?
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