So basically, there was an article yesterday about a guy named In-Goo Kwak (not our 44s Kwak) who started a Mixed Martial Arts Club at his high school where he is a senior. He’s passionate about the martial arts, and he lobbied for two years before administrators would let him have this club. He finally made it a reality when they saw he was serious and professional.
My question is this: Are high schoolers too young to have an MMA club? Kids in high school fight all the time, and I wonder if it’s wise to give them tools to hurt one another. The counterargument would be that high schools have always had other martial arts like wrestling…and hockey. Also, they don’t let the kids hit each other.
Palin grabbed an enormous share of the attention, but there was a lot of serious thinking going on among other governors and would-be governors. Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota and a finalist in the Republican vice-presidential sweepstakes, spent a lot of time trying to reconcile the emerging reform vs. tradition split in the party. “Our country is changing,” Pawlenty said. “And we have not done a very good job translating our values and principles, which are as true and as valid as ever, into the context and circumstances of our time.”
But before the governors could set about translating those values and principles, they had to get their heads around the extent of their party’s loss. “You cannot be a majority governing party,” Pawlenty continued, “if you lose all of the Northeast, all of the Great Lakes states, all of the West Coast, increasing numbers of Western states, increasing numbers of mid-Atlantic states, have a big deficit with women, have a big deficit with modest income voters, have a big deficit with Hispanic voters, have a big deficit with African-Americans, and expect that’s going to be a success formula for the future.”
Three dead in Santa Clara office park shooting
Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, November 14, 2008
(11-14) 18:30 PST SANTA CLARA, CA. — Santa Clara police investigating a triple homicide at an office park in their city said they are looking for a Mountain View man recently fired from that company.
Santa Clara police Lt. Mike Sellers told reporters that investigators are searching for Jing Wu, a 47-year-old Asian man from Mountain View in connection with the shooting.
Sellers said police dispatchers received a 911 call at 3:53 p.m. reporting multiple gunshots in the office park. Police responded rapidly and found the three deceased victims in an office area. After searching the office, police locked down and swept adjacent buildings.
Sellers did not name the company where the shooting happened, but the address released by police is the home of the four-year-old semiconductor company SiPort Inc. A Jing Wu is listed as working at that company in an online business network. The listing showed him as a lead product test engineer.
This is a fantastic (and lengthy) article from Der Spiegel summarizing the immediate challenges facing the Obama administration, and the world’s perceptions and hopes. I’ve included some interesting excerpts below, mostly to do with foreign policy.
Parents watching President-elect Barack Obama’s acceptance speech probably noticed the hands first, Sasha’s right hand holding her father’s left hand, firmly and trustingly. The daughter looked up at her father, who returned the glance, and both smiled. For historians, it was Obama’s reference to Abraham Lincoln, the greatest of all American presidents, who embarked on a civil war for the unity of the country and the freedom of black slaves. For those with a love of language, it was his masterful speech on the responsibilities of today’s citizens, and on solidarity and honesty. The victor’s acceptance speech became an appeal against megalomania and triumphalism, and for humility and respect for what is to come. It was a mature speech.
…
Finally, the strategist was, as always, already looking ahead, preventing the fireworks display that had been prepared. He saw this man on the stage, against a backdrop of Chicago’s skyscrapers, trees and floodlights, and he saw 150,000 people and not a single one of them who was not moved, not a single person who was not aware that this was a special night. Who needed fireworks?
The Economist has written a very interesting article on The Republicans’ struggle to find a new self-identity in the face of the election defeat and the results of some fairly disastrous policies from the last eight years. This excerpt caught my attention:
Doubts now exist about the make-up of the party. The broad Republican coalition made sense in the Reagan era, and was held together in part by the threat of communism. Stitching together religious moralists, low-tax business types, leave-me-alone libertarians and “national greatness” conservatives is now much harder to do. Nor is any of the groupings, alone, large enough to form a solid base for the party as a whole.
Speaking in developmental, or integral terms, the Republican party, probably since Nixon, has inhabited a “mythic-rational” structure of consciousness (”blue-orange,” using Spiral Dynamics classifications). Broadly speaking, it is composed of the ethnocentrics who subscribe to a “mythic-membership” view of the world, and rationalists who embody “Classical Liberal” (as opposed to today’s modern Liberal) notions of the truth and virtues of autonomy, objectivity, efficiency, and power.
I just watched the latest episode of Dexter (season 3, episode 7), “Easy as Pie.” Dexter is an awesome show; it doesn’t have the depth of, say, The Wire or Deadwood, but it’s entertaining as hell, does have some things to say on morality and psychology, and boasts some great characters. One of my favorite is Vince Masuka, possibly the greatest recurring Asian character in any American TV series. He doesn’t play a huge part, but he’s always hilarious and memorable, and this season has even “humanized” him a little bit, when his feelings are hurt by everyone’s disregard for his forensics paper and presentation.
I mention this latest episode because it specifically goes into Masuka, Asians, and the media, and has some funny-ass lines about an Asian murderer “making us look bad,” and how it’s racist that Dexter thinks the killer looks like Masuka, except that, well, he does. Youtube doesn’t have a clip yet, so for now, I offer “Mikaylee’s” compilation of beautiful moments from seasons 1 and 2.
It’s a little after 6:00 am on the west coast, and I haven’t slept much tonight. I watched the election results in a living room with a few friends, and my eyes stung with tears as Obama made his victory speech. I have spent hours since then reading American and international commentary, staring at photos of Obama, his family, and people all over the world, and contemplating what this means.
I have found it difficult, sometimes, during the last couple years to deal with what I perceived to be the melodrama and unbelievable rhetoric — both positive and negative — surrounding American politics. By this I mean that it was hard to really believe in what anyone was saying or feeling, particularly given the circumstances which have defined my adult life. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I became cynical, as my nature, and my view of the world, is idealistic at heart, but it’s certainly fair to say that a great skepticism, and a great sense of irony grew within me, and almost everyone I knew within 2 or 3 years of my age.
I have to admit, two summers ago I would have bet a lot of money against seeing this day: I thought back then that the Clinton machine, decades in the making, was certain to defeat Obama, and that we would be seeing two old, white baby boomers duking it out yet again. Instead, we have something strange and hopeful: a younger, intelligent, charismatic, worldly, socially-aware Black man so close to being the leader of the most powerful nation the world has ever seen.
I’m reminded of 2004, when we first started this site, and when one of my favorite old members, “Pimp Kim Chee,” a Korean from Chicago (and one of the funniest and smartest writers this site has ever seen), wrote “Obama for president” after watching him speak at the Democratic National Convention. And somehow, it’s a few votes away from coming true.
There are a great many factors which contributed to this: a demographic shift which introduced millions of new young voters, more sophisticated use of the internet, one disastrous war and one unraveling occupation, a financial crisis, the country’s racial history, and of course, Obama’s own personal merits and charisma.
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