Two wins for An Inconvenient Truth

Former Vice President Al Gore

An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary film on global warming by former Vice President Al Gore, won the Oscar for Best Documentary last night. Its theme song, "I Need to Wake Up" by lesbian icon Melissa Etheridge, picked up an Oscar of its own.

I recently watched the documentary myself, and it was a very moving one - showing Gore's commitment to environmentalism over his entire political career, and the ridicules he had earned from skeptics over the years. But the fact is clear, and has been backed up by other studies: global warming today is well beyond the normal fluctuations of Earth's temperature over the past half a million years, is only getting worse, and is very likely human in origin.

Perhaps Gore's loss in the disputed 2000 presidential race was a blessing in disguise. Dropping out of the political limelight has enabled Gore to re-direct his energy toward his environmental passion, and re-launch his image and career in ways no political pundit thought possible. Now, Gore is even promoting a series of rock concerts to be held around the world to preserve the environment. The former "Al Bore" (even though he never was that much of a bore, I know from my personal observations) is suddenly cool and hip.

I hope that the environmental movement, which picked up steam in the early 1990s with Earth Day, will pick up even more steam with Gore's efforts. And while at it, I am confident that those who say "environmental protections cost jobs" will be proven utterly wrong, as all the extra work needed to preserve the environment will create new jobs to more than offset possible job losses. Disregard for the environment, in fact, is already costing jobs, as in the case of big layoffs at American car companies, which have concentrated on gas guzzlers for too long.

Stop Global Warming

US cedes control of South Korean military

Word has gotten in that the United States has reached an agreement to transfer South Korea's wartime military command back to the Koreans by 2012. The original plan called for a quicker transfer by 2009, but the Koreans were not too comfortable with the idea, given constant North Korean threats. A new pact spelling out the terms of the two nations' alliance will replace the current US command.

This also goes hand-in-hand with decreased US military presence in South Korea. When I was visiting the Korean DMZ in 2004, I was told that the US was in the midst of transferring all forward positions to the South Korean forces, and moving its operations further south. (Part of this involves building a new megabase 40 miles south of Seoul, something opposed by many, including residents and activists. CodePink's Medea Benjamin went to South Korea last fall just to oppose this base.)

This deals a bad blow to the Confucian mindsets of South Korea's conservatives and their Korean-American brothers, who have always looked to the United States, preferably under Republican rule, as the "older brother" to look up and worship. They have constantly told me that they support the Republicans because the Democrats would call for military spending cuts (and therefore decreased American presence in South Korea), but the most sweeping US military cuts on the Korean peninsula was made by none other than that Republican "war hero," W.

I always remind the Korean conservatives and the Korean-Americans that the W regime is notorious for dishonoring agreements with foreign nations, and that depending on the US for the control of the South Korean armed forces is even more risky. I also tell them that when South Korea offered 3,000 soldiers for W's Iraq War as a sign of gratitude for the US role in the Korean War, few of their American conservative idols were grateful. (In fact, most American conservatives were asking to re-deploy Korea-based US troops to Iraq instead.) I even tell them that if the Koreans don't want to control their own armed forces, perhaps they should consider giving up the rest of their sovereignty, and joining the United States of America as the 51st State. Hopefully they remember how humiliating it was the last time around, when they signed treaties in 1905 and 1910 to join the Japanese Empire.

BBC

Heteronormativity

It's a word that clearly describes the prejudices around me right now.

It is heteronormativity that prevents my folks from seeing my true gender identity - since I like women and technical things, I can't possibly have a female gender identity, they say. They even went as far as saying that if I liked men, they would do everything to help out my transition into womanhood.

It's heteronormativity that makes homosexuality a capital offense in Iran - unless the person in question wants to change his/her gender and become a heterosexual in the new gender, in which case the government is far more accepting.

Heteronormativity is also a severe problem even in East Asian societies, including Thailand and China, mistakenly identified by Westerners as gay-friendly; most gay men I've known from these societies live out their lives as hyper-feminine men. That, or the appearance of womanhood but a male identity at the core. (I've read quite a few interviews of Thai kathoeys, and many indeed fall into this category.) There are some high-profile, socially well-accepted, female-identified transgender women in these societies (examples include Jin Xing in China, and Harisu in South Korea), but they are accepted only because they fit the hyper-feminine heteronormative ideal, and would've had far worse fates if they did not fit in. There is a reason why "tranny dykes," like me, are a common phenomenon in the West, but virtually unheard of in Asia (or even Asian communities in the West, for that matter).

I just read through a Wikipedia article on this subject, and it's a disturbing read - especially when it comes to violence against transgender women, and the society's indifference to it (thank you, Rudy Giuliani, despite being a crossdresser yourself). In fact, Giuliani's transphobia will make its way into my novel, where a transgender character is murdered in NYC in 2001; all these hate crime reports will give me an idea on how the character will die, and how frustrating the authorities will prove to be for the surviving significant other.

Heteronormativity, like homophobia, must go.

Wikipedia: heteronormativity
Wikipedia: kathoey
Southern Poverty Law Center on transphobic hate crimes in DC

Protest to Stop the War

I just had this delivered to my inbox. It's a very moving Daily Kos diary, submitted by Karen Bradley of Democracy Cell Project.

Active servicemembers are speaking up against the illegal and immoral war, and taking matters into their own hands. The question is: are the representatives listening at all, and even if they do, willing to take a stand to restore the integrity of the nation?

Daily Kos

Real Tax Burden

I've just come across an article where two researchers calculated the tax burden for many different brackets of Americans. This isn't just the federal income tax, which currently ranges from 10% to 35%, but *all* taxes, including state income tax, sales tax, payroll tax, benefits tax, property tax, and more.

The conclusion: just about all Americans pay about 40% of their income in various taxes, regardless of income bracket. In other words, flat taxation is here.

Honestly, I am not surprised by the findings, given that the sales tax, which takes a bigger bite out of the poor and the middle class, keeps creeping up - in fact, it's the only tax that the Republicans like. The rich may have a higher income tax bracket, but they also have more ways to legitimately cut their taxes through deductions.

Modern economics works on a progressive taxation system, with the assumption that the rich need more public services (i.e. infrastructure) in order to function and make their money, hence justifying the higher tax rate. Not to mention that even after paying a higher tax rate, the rich still have more wealth to use as they please. But the right-wing stranglehold on the media and the information flow has turned the flat tax, once a far-right lunatic fringe idea, into a mainstream concept - and reality.

The article finally urges the readers to check if their politicians, regardless of party affiliation, have any clue regarding the real tax burden, and vote out clueless politicians.

MSN Money

And someone else is getting rich off of the soldiers' miseries

CNN reports that even as Walter Reed suffers, the Army has opened a privately funded rehab center, which is state of the art.

This definitely is Grover Norquist's theory in action. Shrink the government until it can be drowned in a bathtub (or Katrina floodwaters), then let the well-connected vultures take over and make obscene profit.

I can only see where this is going - government services will continue to deteriorate and be cut intentionally, just to "prove" Norquist right - that private sector "can and will do things better." The problem with that view is that the private sector will only go where it smells money, which means that some unnecessary pork barrel projects may have to be created just to satisfy a contractor (i.e. approving funding for warplanes that the Air Force doesn't need or want). And while the private sector is more efficient, it is because (1) it is less accountable than the government, which has certain procurement rules, and (2) it usually has to compete (and healthy competition is an idea that's dying out in the US economy). When there is no competition (i.e. all those KBR/Halliburton contracts), the private sector can be even more wasteful than the government - while still being less accountable.

The government is also needed where there is a need for a service that doesn't make short-term profit, but is a long-term common good. Running a passenger railroad is a good example, as passenger trains are money-losers by themselves but help de-congest the highways and the airways, and cut pollution, therefore helping the society in the end. Of course, there is Amtrak, but the current policy is to subject Amtrak to impossible financial goals without investing in it, then use that as an excuse to eventually destroy Amtrak.

Capitalism works only when the market forces are well-distributed among many, and the many are able to influence the system. It breaks down when only the few (i.e. Halliburton and the oil cartels) have the means to effect the market with, and use those means to manipulate the market only to their short-term gain. Unfortunately, the latter is what American economy is looking more and more like. For all you people parroting "free market economics" - the free market has been destroyed, sorry.

CNN

Wounded war veterans neglected

Walter Reed Medical Center, where wounded soldiers come home to recuperate, turns out to be in an appalling condition.

Years of reckless warfare, and the resulting post-traumatic disorders, not to mention general neglect and underfunding, have turned the hospital into a living hell, and this is the last thing that troops who fought so hard and selflessly for the nation deserve. The wounded must take care of other wounded, and those suffering from psychiatric trauma must protect others at risk of suicide.

I've been following the discussion at Democracy Cell Project regarding this matter, and people are too upset for words.

If this is what is called "supporting the troops," the US has become one hell of a sorry country, a shameful shadow of its former glorious self. And all that the W regime wants to do is to cut the Veterans Administration budget further. W only cares about weapons and the money they make, not the troops who sacrifice so much.

Washington Post

Korean suicides

Suicides have doubled in South Korea in the last five years, and the epidemic - which took the lives of quite a few popular entertainers - is such a problem that officials are scrambling to find solutions, such as making pesticides - a common method of suicide - less toxic.

In my own visits to Seoul, I was able to spot plenty of "respect the sanctity of life" public messages, especially in the subway. It took a while before I realized that these were suicide prevention messages, not an anti-choice message.

According to BBC, South Korea has the highest suicide rate among the 30 members of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is comprised mostly of developed nations.

Here in Los Angeles, ethnic Koreans have the highest suicide rate of just about any ethnic group. The success-driven, comparison-driven, conformity-driven Korean culture is lethal for those who cannot keep up nor fit in, and in the context of the Korean-American community, the spread of unforgiving fundamentalist Christianity is even more lethal. I am also well convinced that many of these suicides are forced honor suicides, for family members who have "brought the family great dishonor" - not much different from honor killings in the Middle East.

South Korea is a clear example that high-tech industries and wealth alone do NOT make a developed nation. And I certainly do not appreciate the likes of Unification Church, which comes from this kind of background, corrupting American democracy while at it.

BBC

Meanwhile, in my garage...

I'm on a roll today, in regards to posting to this blog. Quite a few things have happened in my garage since I retired my nightmare car, a 1999 Ford Contour, last year.

My 2004 BMW 3-series, on a visit to San Francisco in 2005.

My three-year lease of the BMW 3-series ends this week. However, in recent weeks, I had the car paid off, and now I have the title (which I still need to turn in to the DMV, in order to remove the leasing company as lienholder).

Given that I had a chance to buy a low-mileage, high-efficiency (at least on the highway) luxury car for a mere $21K, instead of a brand-new example for $35-40K (or spend the same $21K for a much lesser vehicle), I decided to go ahead and keep my BMW. I'm hoping that it will give me several more years of reliable service and lots of road trips.

Wikipedia file photo of a 2001-2002 Honda Accord

The car will remain a low-miler, as I had also acquired a used Honda Accord as a daily driver; a leftover car from my sister's divorce, it came my way because I needed something that was efficient in city driving (and low-key, as the BMW stands out too much at some of my work sites). I get 25 MPG in mixed driving with the Accord, a respectable number - though nowhere near the 35-40 MPG I could expect in, say, a Civic hybrid.

My two-car lifestyle can be seen by some as being wasteful. But at least, the two cars are completely paid for, and I no longer have to guzzle so much gas in daily city driving. Both cars are considered the best all-around choices in their respective classes.

And the best thing: it will be a while before I will have to worry about buying yet another car. I could succumb to the SoCal "you are what you drive" culture, and buy something really expensive then, but more likely I'll look at a hybrid, a diesel, a subcompact, or something just as ecologically responsible. Or I will do both by buying a luxury hybrid - I expect quite a few to be available over the next several years. And most importantly, I could be more choosy about the manufacturer's practices by the time I return to the new car market; for example, if BMW continues to coddle Benedict XVI and Mercedes-Benz comes up with a much better C-class, I will gladly switch.

XM and Sirius merge

The only two providers of satellite radio in North America, XM and Sirius, will merge into one company, according to reports today.

I wonder if this will be as detrimental as the rise of Clear Channel was to terrestrial radio; Clear Channel homogenized programming across all the stations it bought, and its stations lack originality (i.e. too many stations named "Star" or "Kiss").

At least I hope the combined company will continue to provide quality programming as a nice, premium alternative to terrestrial radio. In addition, the combined programming better be available on both XM hardware and Sirius hardware, which are, for now, incompatible. If I can listen to XM programming like Major League Baseball and Air America Radio on my Sirius-equipped cars, that'll be a good outcome of this merger. (I'm kinda bummed right now that Sirius dropped C-SPAN from its lineup...)

MSNBC

An old humor on California

This letter circulated right after the 2004 presidential elections, but I only ran into it now.

Even though California is NOT a blue state (it's purple at best, with the south and the inland areas being solidly Republican), this is a good read anyway.

Dear President Bush:

Congratulations on your victory over all us non-evangelicals.

Actually, we're a bit ticked off here in California, so we're leaving. California will now be its own country. And we're taking all the Blue States with us. In case you are not aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and all of the
North East.

We spoke to God, and she agrees that this split will be beneficial to almost everybody, and especially to us in the new country of California. In fact, God is so excited about it, she's going to shift the whole country at 4:30 pm EST this Friday. Therefore, please let everyone know they need to be back in their states by then.

So you get Texas and all the former slave states. We get the Governator, stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay. (Okay, we have to keep Martha Stewart, but we can live with that.)

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Old Miss'. We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get all the technological innovation in Alabama.

We get about two-thirds of the tax revenue, and you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms to support, and we know how much you like that.

Did I mention we produce about 70% of the nation's veggies? But heck, the only greens the Bible-thumpers eat are the pickles on their Big Macs. Oh yeah, another thing, don't plan on serving California wine at your state dinners. From now on it's imported French wine for you. (Ouch, bet that hurts!)

Just so we're clear, the country of California will be pro-choice and anti-war. Speaking of war, we're going to want all Blue States' citizens back from Iraq. If you need people to fight, just ask your evangelicals.

They have tons of kids they're willing to send to their deaths for absolutely no purpose. And they don't care if you don't show pictures of their kids' caskets coming home.

Anyway, we wish you all the best in the next four years and we hope, really hope, you find those missing weapons of mass destruction. Seriously. Soon.

Sincerely,
California

McCain: Overturn Roe v. Wade

John McCain, the other Senator representing the Third-World Banana Republic of Arizona, now calls for overturning the landmark decision that legalized first-trimester abortions, as he starts to pander more and more to the Christian base of the Republican Party.

I still haven't forgiven McCain for his failed 2005 attempt to help turn California into a right-to-work state, and his so-called "state" for what it's done to me in the past.

MSNBC

For my next Vegas visit...

I've just learned that Paris Las Vegas hotel/casino has become the first Strip resort to specifically market to the LGBT community. Its parent company, Harrahs, which also runs Caesars Palace and a few other Strip hotels, is definitely known to be more transgender friendly than its main competitor, Mandalay, which runs Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, and many others (even though Luxor has been nice to me too).

With all those ID requirements for hotel check-ins and gambling, Las Vegas can be intimidating - especially to someone like me, whose ID situation is dicey. Any resort that can make the situation less dicey and more comfortable, by training employees to treat me with respect, will earn my business.

I'll be looking forward to a stay at Paris Las Vegas soon, and hope other casino resorts follow suit. And while at it, I would also appreciate a women's counterpart to the Blue Moon Gay Resort, which, despite its attractive prices, caters to men only.

Paris Las Vegas

Passenger's Bill of Rights

The Valentine's Day snowstorm in New York City was a nightmare for JetBlue Airways' passengers - some were stranded in their planes for hours, with no fresh air, no food, and overflowing lavatories. All because JetBlue wanted the planes to be ready for a weather break that never came.

And there are currently no regulations that spell out how long passengers can be held in an airplane in situations like this.

Senator Barbara Boxer has proposed a Passengers' Bill of Rights that, among other things, requires airlines to allow passengers to deplane after three hours of delay. It's picking up support among passengers, but the airlines are crying foul, saying that a plane returning to gate to deplane passengers loses its place in line, and gets even more delayed as a result. This shows the mindset of the airlines, which, like the railroads before them, treat their customers as a very temperamental cargo as opposed to human beings.

The airline industry was getting bad raps throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, before other shady industries - like high-tech and oil - eclipsed them, and multiple bankruptcies and the plight of the industry made people more sympathetic to the airlines. (In my case, I started a novel around a fictional United flight attendant.) Now, it looks like the airlines are about to squander the goodwill, with indifference to the needs of customers (or even racial profiling "in the name of security"), more lost luggage, and more crowded and delayed planes than ever (hint: stop using so many small planes, and use fewer, larger planes - they cost less to run per passenger too). This is also why US airlines do poorly when compared to the leading foreign airlines, which still put passengers first.

I'll keep this in mind as I shop for airline tickets for this year's batch of weekend trips, including to Chicago and Toronto.

MSN Travel
Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights

The "anti-Wal-Mart"

That's what MSN Money calls Costco.

Between its low margins, quality goods, generous employee compensation, and a CEO who only takes a six-figure income and asks only for one-year contract at a time (to hold himself to high operating standards), Costco has fierce member loyalty and stable income, and as a result, is a good bet for investing, according to this article.

To me, Costco is also proof that capitalism doesn't have to be all greedy and top-heavy. After all, I've repeatedly said, capitalism breaks down if the masses don't have enough wealth with which to participate in its processes and determine the all-important market forces.

Even though bulk buying is not my style, I have nevertheless enjoyed shopping at Costco, and I will continue to shop there for a long time to come.

MSN Money

It's a MAN, baby!

A quick surf through Daily Kos' own Wikipedia entry on Mann Coulter led to this classic quotation:

"I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote. No, they all have to give up their vote, not just, you know, the lady clapping and me. The problem with women voting -- and your Communists will back me up on this -- is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it. And when they take these polls, it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care."

Only a man could possibly be calling out for the wholesale disenfranchisement of womensfolk, because of the way women think. Proof that Coulter may look like a woman on the outside, but the mentality is still all man.

dKosopedia entry

Set a Deadline

Senator John Kerry is asking for the public's support as he tries to set a deadline for American withdrawal from Iraq.

The war has proven costly, and Americans are caught in the middle of a civil war. Iraqis need to realize that they need to govern themselves - something Kerry has himself stressed. America has many other priorities that it needs to tackle, and withdrawing from the quagmire will help tremendously.

I have signed, and ask that everyone sign as well.

Set a Deadline

Widespread Internet monitoring

At least that's what Lamar Smith, Republican Congressman from Texas, is proposing, with support from fellow Republicans such as Dan Lungren of California.

Smith wants to require all ISPs to log all activities indefinitely. Under the cloak of preventing child pornography and curbing terrorism, this proposal, called the Safety Act, goes far beyond, and ends privacy on the Internet as Americans know it.

This is an outgrowth of a failed previous attempt at a similar legislation, by Republican Senator Jon Kyl of the Fascist Third-World Banana Republic of Arizona.

From now on, nobody will ever tell me again that the Republicans are the party of small, lean, responsible government. The Republicans are all about big, authoritarian government - and so are the neoliberals, the self-proclaimed "libertarians" who support 99% of the Republican agenda.

For more details, and action ideas, please read The Seminal. And thanks to Rick Albertson of Democracy Cell Project for his action alert there.

And before I go to bed...

I'm posting like there is no tomorrow. Here's another entertainment post.

My favorite actress, the ever-talented Jennifer Aniston, is 38 today.

I am hoping that her day was good.

Dixie Chicks are triumphant

The outspoken Dixie Chicks, who have received death threats from country music fans just for being honest about their feelings toward W, have been rewarded with multiple Grammy Awards tonight.

If this doesn't say vindication, I don't know what does.

I may not appreciate country music, but I am supporting the Dixie Chicks all the way.

BBC

New Look

I have loaded a new template, as part of the upgrade of my blog by Blogger.

Now, I can also label all my posts by topic.

I am enjoying the changes - and I'll keep blogging on!

Australia meddles in US politics

John Howard, the bastardly Prime Minister of Australia, said that if he were Al-Qaeda, he would wish for Barack Obama to be elected the next President of the United States, because his withdrawal plan will encourage them.

Obama says he's flattered to be criticized by a W puppet.

This isn't the first time Australia has been caught meddling in US politics; Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has been at it for a long time.

Despite this, I don't see any efforts to boycott Australia around me - because progressives realize that individual Australians are still good people, and conservatives love that rare ally. But if France can be boycotted just for not participating in the Iraq War, there is plenty of justification for boycotting Australia.

BBC

Support the Troops

As in, provide them with the best defensive equipment available, if they are to be put in harm's way, as in Iraq.

I just came across a diary at Daily Kos that shows that personal armor for American troops in Iraq are apparently being supplied with political paybacks, not safety, in mind. The diary claims that Dragon Skin, which is being supplied to the Secret Service, is superior to Interceptor currently supplied to the troops, and calls for a side-by-side test to settle the debate once and for all.

The problems are that Interceptor is being made by a heavy Republican donor, and that the government tester for Dragon Skin used to be the engineer for the Interceptor. Moreover, the troops are forbidden from wearing Dragon Skin, or any other non-Interceptor armor.

Thanks to Madame Defarge at Democracy Cell Project for sharing this.

Daily Kos

Mary Cheney

A very interesting article on the hypocrisy of Mary Cheney (and other despicable gay Republican scums), courtesy of Seattle-based The Stranger.

Gay Republicans are one of the extremely few cases where I fully support the use of capital punishment, in accordance with their Biblical law.

The Stranger

Molly Ivins passes away

The voice of conscience in Texas, Molly Ivins, lost her battle with cancer yesterday.

I've always enjoyed reading her - particularly her book on W, Shrub.

May she rest in peace.