Another passing

Got word that this morning, Linda Andrews, the wife of my Democracy Cell Project friend John Andrews ("ABQ John") in Albuquerque, New Mexico, passed away due to long-standing pulmonary problems.

I've been told that Linda helped John with moderating the Kerry-Edwards blog back in 2004, and continued to be active when that blog turned into Democracy Cell Project. The Andrews family has also been active in investigating the alleged voting irregularities in New Mexico.

My thoughts are with the Andrews family, and I look forward to continuing to work with John to honor Linda's activism.

Benazir Bhutto dead

Sad news in Pakistan - the popular and moderate female former prime minister, running for next month's elections, was assassinated today, by extremist elements of the Pakistani society.

Although fingers are being pointed at al-Qaeda, another thing to note would be President Pervez Musharraf not providing enough security for his rivals, including Bhutto. In fact, Musharraf has been getting away with just about anything and everything, including possession of nukes and the recent martial law, as an ally of the US.

Today's sad news is a reminder that extremism of any kind is unforgivable, including Christian extremist within the US borders. The US is also well advised to be more careful in picking its friends; if the Taliban had not been propped up as resistant fighters to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, al-Qaeda would not have become influential, and propping up Musharraf would not have been necessary either.

BBC

Wrapping it up

Today was spent in Sacramento, then back in San Francisco. A few minutes from now, I am heading out again - to the Unitarian Church in Berkeley for its Christmas Eve service.

I started at Sutter's Fort, built by Swiss immigrant John Sutter to house early settlers of Mexican California. It was a very interesting place, but few photos were worth it (especially since the current fort is a reconstruction).

Afterwards, I stopped at Old Sacramento, where I saw this horse-pulled carriage.

A popular item in Old Sacramento - the Governator T-shirt.

This very photogenic dog wishes a Merry Christmas.

Instead of returning to my hotel, I headed for San Francisco's Castro gay district, to buy a ticket for tonight's Gay Men's Chorus concert, featuring various holiday music from many religious traditions. Honestly, I was a bit apprehensive about bringing my BMW to Castro, due to BMW's anti-gay and anti-San Francisco track record, but fortunately, I was far from alone in driving a BMW there.

For the concert itself, which took place at 5PM (there also were 7PM and 9PM shows), I took BART and Muni. It was quite a spectacle for my ears - lots of familiar Christmas carols (including one from Russian Orthodox Church to remember the rampant homophobia in Russia), a few Chanukah numbers, a few Native American solstice songs, and some sing-alongs. It was a short concert, but definitely worth the $22 ticket price, and definitely worth coming up to San Francisco for. And a nice crowd too - both the choir and the audience were well-mixed (and the audience had plenty of straights, women, and suburbanites).

I also stopped by at A Different Light bookstore near the theater, to buy a Helen Boyd book.

As I started my trip back to my hotel, I saw this series of gay men's dating service posters, at Castro's subway station. I don't think I could see something similar back home - even in West Hollywood. Gotta love San Francisco!

I only wish I could stay a few days more, to get more into the Bay Area groove. Now, I'm enjoying the Bay Area much better than I ever did as a resident several years ago. But tomorrow, I must drive back south...

Another Bay Area day

I started out in the morning by visiting the Unitarian Church in Berkeley, where I met with many church members - some of whom recognized me from my previous visit last New Year's Eve. It was great to talk about spirituality, and how I am developing in that department - though I also had to bring up my residual bitterness toward Christians. The church service emphasized the beauty of all sorts of different families.

I continued on to Concord, where I not only found a move-in special for my former apartment, but also my former unit vacant. It was as if they wanted me to move right back in, right into my past life, and resume it immediately. I would love to - minus the job insecurity I had when I lived there in 2000. I reminisced the past by visiting the North Concord BART station and Sun Valley Mall, two places I had frequented as a resident.

I continued to San Jose, coming close to the spot in Fremont where I had wrecked my car in 1999 - another bad Bay Area memory that I want to forget. Once in San Jose, I came across a Christmas festival in front of The Tech. The Tech itself was disappointing, even more so than last time, but its Body Worlds 2 exhibit was awesome - and I appreciated seeing some female bodies, unlike the original Body Worlds which was almost all male.

I wrapped up by circling the Apple main campus on Infinite Loop in Cupertino. Apple's campus extended for several blocks south of Infinite Loop, but in the dark, I couldn't see much.

Time to take it easy, as I plan on hitting Sacramento tomorrow.

San Jose's Christmas festival, in downtown next to The Tech.

A Coca-Cola Santa truck visits the festival.

Entrance to Apple's Campus, 1 Infinite Loop. It looked a lot like the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington - minus the soccer fields. But it does occupy a lot of real estate, just like Microsoft.

A few images of San Francisco

I have returned to my hotel room for now, due to sore feet, thanks to my newish ankle boots, which were a very tight fit thanks to my socks and tights. I will, however, still head back out in a bit, for some late night ice skating at Yerba Buena Center.

In the meantime, here are a few images from today.

A view of the Chinese Community Center, as seen from the Muni #30 bus on Stockton Avenue. It stood out with a high-flying Nationalist Chinese flag on top. Also nearby were churches and other community services, as well as many businesses. Stockton Avenue is the working Chinatown, while next block over, Grant Avenue is the touristy Chinatown.

The infamous City Lights Bookstore, where the Beatnik Revolution took off in the 1950s, leading eventually to the hippie and gay rights movements of the succeeding decades. There is a nearby museum, The Beat Museum, that explains the movement, but since I don't have good knowledge of the movement, I skipped the museum. However, I did buy a George Lakoff book here at City Lights, after about an hour of browsing through a lot of left-leaning titles. I also learned that I missed a Dennis Kucinich function by a day - I could've caught up with Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin, who were speaking there last night, again.

San Francisco has recently painted many of these "Look" signs on the crosswalks - much like London (but as shown here, unlike in London, they tell you to look both ways). This particular example, in North Beach next to City Lights Bookstore, is also in Chinese, as Chinatown is just a block away.

Tomorrow's agenda will include the Berkeley Unitarian Church and San Jose's The Tech Museum of Innovation. I will also tour the Apple campus in Cupertino.

My novel blog has some novel-related photos.

Just arrived in San Francisco

I have just arrived at an airport hotel near San Francisco's airport - and looking forward to three more days of exploring the Bay Area.

Hoping it will be a wonderful experience for my novel AND my well-being. I need to rest now...

W gains another foreign ally

While losing Prime Minister John Howard of Australia was quite a blow for the W regime, he made up nicely in South Korea, with the election of Grand National candidate, Lee Myung-Bak, for president. In fact, W was so elated, that he was pretty much the first foreigner to call Lee to offer congratulations.

While Lee has had a stellar record of achievements both at Hyundai and as the mayor of Seoul, his party - a puppet of the Republicans, and one that provided Reverend Moon to the US - is suspect at best. What's even more notable is that the leftists were so badly splintered and disorganized, they never had much to offer to the South Korean voters (except mudslinging in a possible scandal for Lee).

I also draw many parallels to the French election earlier in the year, with center-right candidate (Sarkozy in France, Lee in South Korea) promising to cut unemployment for younger people, the leftist candidate (Royal in France, Chung in South Korea) not giving much of a challenge, and the strong showing of a far-right fascist candidate (Le Pen in France, Lee Hoi-Chang in South Korea).

The disorganization of the left is evident in the US and its Democratic Party as well, despite the Democrats holding better hands right now. The Democrats, if they are to continue to exist at all, must learn from both the success of Labor and Kevin Rudd in Australia, and the failure of the French Socialists and the South Korean left. But given that the Democrats are too busy screwing over their base, and too busy sucking up to unelectable Hillary, I won't hold my breath.

Change of plans

My trip north is still on track, but due to the huge amount of driving involved - and the inclement weather - the redwoods will be off my agenda.

I will head instead for Sacramento, to visit Sutter's Fort and Old Sacramento.

It'll be three packed full days in San Francisco and Sacramento, for sure... and looking forward to them.

Some political types are suggesting that I camp out at the house of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, based in San Francisco, to protest her weak stance toward the W regime; I wish I could, but I don't know where she lives (besides, I need to get my mind off of politics for a few days...).

Baseball drug scandal

It's the big news item right now, as dozens of top baseball players are implicated in a report.

Baseball has been slipping away from me due to the theocratic tendencies of some teams (and the Major League Baseball commission itself), and due to the teams no longer being made up of "hometown boys" (thanks to so many trades). Add a widespread steroids scandal, and the sport is probably tarnished beyond repair.

Time to start looking at Little League, Japanese, or even Cuban baseball, I guess.

BBC (but the analysis is from an American)

Analyzing Republican presidential hopefuls

Two dance professors in the Washington DC area analyzed, for Washington Post, the body movements of Republican presidential candidates in their latest debate, and came up with explanations on why some candidates (Huckabee, Paul) resonate better with voters than others (McCain, Giuliani, Romney).

One of the professors is a friend of mine - Democracy Cell Project's Karen Bradley.

Washington Post

Better World Auto Club

Living in Southern California - the birthplace of the 20th Century car-based culture - driving is a fact of life for me, despite what some Northern California Democrats and Greens may think of motorists. But just because I have to drive doesn't mean that I have to oppose mass transit, environmental initiatives, or even recognition of same-sex domestic partners.

Unfortunately, those issues are what AAA, the grand-daddy of automotive clubs in America, oppose - to a point where even the car experts at NPR's CarTalk call AAA's positions ridiculous. AAA, and its friends such as the oil industry and the pro-car Republicans, do not realize that more reliance on mass transit will clear up the highways, and actually make driving fun once again. But common wisdom is that AAA is like a utility - a necessary evil that one has to live with, such as the local telephone company or the cable TV provider.

Common wisdom is wrong, however, since AAA is far from the only game in town. In fact, when fellow blogger (and my writing mentor) Gayle Brandeis let her AAA membership lapse, and switched to Better World Club, I took notice. After asking her a few questions then (and again a few days ago) regarding her experiences, and after getting some more Internet feedback, I decided that a switch would not hurt - even though I am not eligible for the 15% hybrid discount that Gayle got. I did get free initiation ($10 savings), however, upon providing my AAA membership number. My membership will be active on January 10th of the new year, when my AAA membership will run out.

I've taken a quick look at the members-only area of the Better World Club website in the meantime, and the services look impressive. The hotel discounts, though not as extensive as AAA's, are serviceable - I can get discounts at Choice Hotels, Ramada Inn, Days Inn, and their affiliates. Basic towing is limited to 5 miles (as opposed to AAA's 7 miles), but if I am happy with my membership experience, I will gladly upgrade to premium (100 miles, same as AAA), which I will need as my cars get older. I can also request guidebooks and maps, though I don't count on needing much of either (even during my AAA days, I needed very little of them).

Of course, the best part is that I belong to an auto club that more accurately reflects my personal philosophy and values - and that I can drive with less guilt and more awareness. I will post updates if anything good or bad happens with Better World Club.

Better World Club

New travel plans

I am planning yet another trip to Northern California, to make up for not going there for Labor Day Weekend. This trip is now scheduled for Christmas weekend, less than two weeks away.

Unlike the last two trips, I will extend the trip to Silicon Valley, and take a look at the latest technologies at The Tech in San Jose. I do remember visiting that museum several years ago, and looking at some old relics such as a 7" floppy disk. But I also want to take a look at the new technologies that came out after my last visit. It'll be in keeping with my status as a nerdy blogger, something my last post discussed briefly.

If all else fails, I could spend time looking at the second installment of Body Worlds (I've already seen the first installment). I'm being told that the second installment is more dynamic - and more female (the first was almost all male).

Also planned for the trip, on a less nerdy note, are visits to my former lair in Concord, my novel sights in San Francisco and Berkeley, a Unitarian Universalist congregation, City Lights Bookstore, ice skating at Yerba Buena Center, and weather permitting, a trip to the redwoods in the far north of the state.

Hoping to make this trip another one for the memory lanes.

I guess I'm a nerd

Here's a discussion at Democracy Cell Project, started by fellow blogger DiAnne Grieser, on the impact of the bloggers/nerds in the political process:

NerdCore Rising: The Blogger Nerd

Here is a video provided through YouTube, by Negin, who produced a movie called NerdCore Rising. The video was shot at last summer's Yearly Kos Convention, with the interview covering many bloggers - from DiAnne to the heavyweights like Kos himself.

The white American liberals' perception problem

As I wrote my post on Venezuelan politics yesterday, and briefly discussed the American liberals' support for the policies of Hugo Chavez, I had several thoughts on the state of white American liberalism, and how out of touch it feels to the nonwhites like me - the very ones they are claiming to stand for.

According to the white American liberal orthodoxy, Venezuela is a commendable example of a nation breaking free of Western European cultures' influences, by charting its own course of spreading the prosperity to the weak, and defying the imperial fascist tendencies of the W regime. Chavez came to power, by running on a populist platform, and by defeating a pro-Western candidate, former Miss Universe Irene Saez, who had met with President Bill Clinton during his visit to Venezuela. While it is true that there is a lot of oil wealth in Venezuela, and it has not been distributed fairly in the past, even Chavez hasn't been able to make much of an improvement, despite his flashy grand social programs. Fixing Venezuela's problems requires long-term visionary plans by several successive regimes, and the power-hungry personality of Chavez is now working against that.

But nobody on the American left dares to suggest that Chavez is power-hungry. In fact, they continue to point to his high approval ratings - but that's pretty much the only thing that's going well for him now. In particular, no white American liberal dares to point out the discrepancy between Chavez's supposed regard for human rights in Venezuela, and his friendships with Ahmadinejad and Mugabe, the world's worst human rights abusers.

The white American liberal premise seems to be that dictatorship and imperialism are evil values of the Western white man, transplanted into the Third World by centuries of colonialism. By extension, racism, sexism, and homophobia are related Western white man values to enforce control over the Third World inhabitants. I couldn't disagree more. First of all, democracy is another Western white man value (it started in Greece) - does it need to be thrown out too? Also, almost all cultures in the world have historically considered themselves superior to others, so racism is a universal value, regardless of culture. As for sexism and homophobia, they are severe problems with Confucianism and Islam, purely Asian value systems that the white man has had nothing to do with. The white American liberal may be enamored of the existence of Indian hijras and Thai kathoeys, but they do not enjoy the social acceptance that the white American liberal thinks they do.

Speaking of Confucianism, just about the only thing it has to do with the Western world would be its adherents' receptiveness to primitive fundamentalist Christianity (as evidenced by the Christians' success in Korea and failure in Japan), with the shared values of sexism and homophobia, but even that doesn't change the fact that those values are home-grown in Asia and not by the white man.

In fact, the fact remains that despite the self-loathing of white American liberals, the Western world still continues to offer the most personal freedoms and the most opportunities. And in fact, it's this aspect of the Western world that allows the white man to be critical of his own values, and seek better values from elsewhere. Non-Western cultures, being more communally minded and never believing in individual happiness, work differently, and are much less tolerant of differences. Back to Venezuela, that's why Hugo Chavez wants Halloween, a "decadent custom of the Western imperialists," banned.

Of course, for someone like me, a culture that values individuality and diversity is a MUST, and that's why I've been outspoken in my criticism of Confucianism and some other conformist non-Western cultures and values; of course, the clueless white American liberals have dared to accuse ME of self-hatred. If anyone's guilty of self-hatred, however, it's them, not me. The fact remains that if Venezuela were a white man's country in Europe, these same white American liberals would've ripped it to shreds, and it's only because it's a Latin country in the Third World that they tolerate and celebrate its "defiance." And the fact remains that Toyota and Samsung can be at least as neoliberal and antisocial as Halliburton or any other white man's company.

All this reminds me that just like conservatism, white American liberalism is orthodox and rigid - and less tolerant of dissent than it wants to admit. My goal will be to seek out the truly educated people, whose liberal backgrounds are rooted in actual understanding of the issues they claim to support and embrace, not the lemmings who blindly follow the feel-good issue of the day.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela...

Venezuela's state flag, with new Chavez-ordered seal of 2006.
Civil flag lacks the seal.

Venezuela just held a referendum a few days ago, on 69 constitutional changes proposed by President Hugo Chavez. It was barely defeated at the polls, the first defeat for Chavez since his first rise to power in 1998.

There were some very progressive ideas floated about in the "reform" package, such as shorter work week, lowering of legal voting age to 16, social security for the self-employed and the informal economy, and equality for women and gays. Many on the left, including American liberals, hailed these provisions of the package as forward-thinking.

What did Chavez in this time, however, was his mad power grab; not satisfied with his current ability to rule by decree, he had proposed to eliminate term limits for the presidency, and asked for the ability to suspend the legislature in national emergencies. These were the two factors that had caused many Chavez supporters to stay home, allowing the opponents, who otherwise failed to gain much ground, to prevail. Chavez had argued that he needed to stay in power past the term limit in 2012, in order to continue his socialist revolution and redistribute power to the outcasts of the society, including black Venezuelans. But this is an argument dictators of all political persuasions like to make.

Dictatorship is dictatorship, whether we are talking about US-backed fascist ones (like 1970s Chile) or autonomous socialist ones (like today's Venezuela). At least Chavez is abiding by the results of the close election, and that's one silver lining. The best thing for Venezuela to do is to continue to hold democratic, free elections, and let the people, including the college students who have been the opposition leaders, decide whether Chavez's ideas are acceptable or not. And Chavez needs to go when his time is up, and groom a successor before then, if he wants to leave a legacy.

It is also worth noting that despite his supposed commitment to human rights in his country, Chavez continues to befriend some of the world's worst human rights abusers, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Last, but not the least, the US needs to stay out of Venezuelan affairs. W has been extremely unhappy with Chavez's revolution, and wants it stopped at all costs. But if democracy and freedom are to prevail, the best course of action is to let the everyday people of Venezuela - be it the working class or the intellectuals or the entrepreneurs - speak out for themselves, not install a fascist puppet regime.

I will see how Venezuela continues to evolve over the next several years, including, of course, whether Chavez will leave office on time and let a democratically elected successor take over.

Watching another concert DVD...

Mariah Carey's The Adventures of Mimi tour covered many cities in the US and Canada (plus a few in Japan) last year. I had a good time attending her Las Vegas stop - my third time attending her concert. To re-live the memories, I bought the concert DVD set, which came out today, and watched it during work break.

The DVD set covers her stop even closer to where I am - in fact, the closest stop to me (Orange County, California, at Anaheim's Honda Center). So instead of talking about Sin City and gambling (as I remember), Mariah got to talk about being in Orange County and California. But aside from that, plus the presence of three members of Boyz II Men just for the Anaheim show, it is a good reminder of what I had experienced in Vegas.

Mariah sounded a bit tired, thanks to all the rigorous touring she did, but her vocal range and depth were still first-rate. And while I am not a fan of her fashion sense, and wasn't too happy with the costumes, at least the visual spectacle was nowhere as bad as the sorry joke that I had experienced at my previous Mariah Carey concert (2000 in San Jose, California). The background musicians kicked in when appropriate, letting Mariah's voice do the talking - and I liked that.

The crowd was very well-mixed, from children to young couples to older women, showing Mariah's appeal to both older adult contemporary listeners and younger R&B/hip-hop fans. That's how I remember the Las Vegas crowd too. The playlist was well-mixed to appeal to both fan groups. I sincerely appreciated the inclusion of two of my favorite songs - "Hero" and Jackson Five's "I'll Be There." The sight of a teary-eyed fan during "Hero" was a good reminder of my own tears at the Las Vegas show.

A good, if a bit sugary, watch/experience - though another concert DVD, a 3 1/2-hour Elton John spectacle from New York's Madison Square Garden, which I had watched just two days ago, had spoiled me, and I was yawning through a few of the numbers today by comparison. Speaking of Madison Square Garden, that was the venue where I had seen my first Mariah Carey concert - way back in 1995. It still remains the favorite among my three Mariah Carey concerts, partly because it was in her hometown.

I'll be happy to attend yet one more Mariah Carey concert. I have yet to see her in person here in Southern California, and I wish to change that next time.

Elton 60

Back in March, one of my favorite musicians, Sir Elton John, celebrated his 60th birthday - by doing his 60th show at New York's Madison Square Garden, the most shows by a single artist.

Recently, Sir Elton became a victim of my pent-up frustrations toward the British, as their government continues to play W's poodle. But I put that away today, to watch a 2-DVD set containing this 60th birthday performance, which dragged on for 3 1/2 hours. The DVD set is titled Elton 60 for obvious reasons.

Despite the length, I found it to be a great, energetic show. I compared this performance to my own in-person experiences with Sir Elton - the Red Piano show in Las Vegas in 2004, followed by a conventional concert at Anaheim's Honda Center in 2005 - and this show reminded me why I had enjoyed both of those past performances. Between an excellent playlist, great facial expressions by Elton, a great band and an excellent choir, and other fans enjoying themselves, there was hardly anything to fault.

Even though Elton no longer sounds as good as he did in his younger days, he's still a top-notch performer capable of giving the crowd a very good time. And the diverse mix of the crowd - men and women in roughly equal numbers, and all sorts of age groups represented - cemented that fact; Elton is one entertainer who truly transcends generations.

I also enjoyed spotting other celebrities in the crowd - Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Clinton, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, David Furnish (Elton's spouse), and more.

I look forward to my next Elton concert. It won't be as grand as this Madison Square Garden show, but it surely won't disappoint.