Photo Essay

Some bumper stickers seen on a Toyota pickup truck in my area today.

The owner runs a copier service business, and he really wanted the W cabal investigated, indicted, impeached, and imprisoned.

A fresh change for me, since I still see so many W ovals around here.

Apologies for poor picture quality - these were taken with my phone, and transferred to my new Mac via Bluetooth.

Sir Elton John turns 60

One of my favorite musicians, and one of only two I've seen more than once, Sir Elton John, turned 60 today.

I had no luck catching the MSN Webcast of his birthday concert tonight at New York's Madison Square Garden.

But it looks like he had a great time - being introduced by President Bill Clinton, of all people.

I hope Sir Elton will continue to entertain people and run his AIDS charity for a long time. And I'll look forward to a telecast of tonight's concert in the near future. Better yet, my third Sir Elton concert attendance cannot come soon enough!

BBC

Getting used to the Mac

I've been rather quiet for the past few days, spending some time tweaking my Mac.

The iMac is a very beautiful machine, with everything housed inside a white 17-inch LCD monitor unit and taking very little space. The minimalist design, much like that of an iPod, is absolutely lovely - maybe I need to write some poetry with my iMac as the inspiration!

And it's working well. Even though I managed to corrupt the operating system (my fault - I didn't dismount the partitioning program before resetting), re-install was a piece of cake, and much cleaner than I could ever dream of in Windows. Otherwise, absolutely zero hiccups.

Speaking of partitioning program (Boot Camp beta), I did use it to install Windows Vista on the Mac, and turn it into a dual-boot system. Windows is working nearly flawlessly, and since it's a clean install, I don't have to deal with all the conflicts by incompatible OEM programs, something that seriously plagued my last computer. I've gotten my games and mapping software working very well in Windows, but that's where I will draw the line - everything else will be done in MacOS.

I am impressed with the programs included with the MacOS - including a text editor (TextEdit) that can open Microsoft Word files. But its limited features means that I need to use the Pages word processor, which came with the shareware iWorks suite ($79 to activate after 30 days), or Microsoft Word itself, which is installed as a 30-day demo and will cost $229 to buy (or $399 if I buy the entire MS Office). Pages has some undesirable quirks, so I will need to spend the big bucks on Word, then upgrade to the full MS Office suite when the next version (natively Intel compatible) comes out later in the year. (My novel work deserves the best word processor possible.) As for other programs, there are photo organization programs (but no editing programs), tons of multimedia stuff, and the Safari browser, which works reasonably well (though Blogger doesn't like it, forcing me to use Firefox). As Apple promised, these programs are well integrated into the system, and don't cause headaches like their PC counterparts often do.

I've also added Quicken, plus a freeware desktop utility. I've also found that uninstalling an application is just the matter of dragging its icon to the trash bin - far superior to Windows, where even using the uninstaller leaves residues in the Registry. I'll add Adobe Photoshop Elements in the near future to add photo editing capability.

All of this is costing me a bundle - $1,700 including tax for the computer, plus $200 for Windows, $229 for Word, $59 for Quicken, and $79 for Photoshop Elements - but I feel that it's money well spent, for a computer that's rock solid, reliable, and pretty at the same time. At least I have a decent tax refund this year that should cover everything...

Disrupting Nancy Pelosi

Jodie Evans and Gayle Brandeis of CodePink

Back to my work PC for now.

Last weekend, CodePink disrupted speeches by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Hilda Solis here in Southern California, in order to pressure them to cut funding for W's disastrous war plans. The two who were at the front line were co-founder Jodie Evans and communications goddess Gayle Brandeis (who, of course, is my writing mentor).

Gayle's account of the event was posted at the CodePink website, and now has been picked up by a number of major progressive blogs, a check on her blog revealed.

The Democrats have been put in charge of Congress for a reason. The American people are sick and tired of W's war plans that lead nowhere, and do nothing to make America safer. Now, the Dems need to stand up to the popular sentiment and cut off funding for W's war schemes, and redirect it toward middle class tax relief, infrastructure improvements, or social programs. The Dems are scared of appearing weak on national defense, but it will be even worse to let the war go on unchecked, and leave domestic homeland security weak. Pressure tactics like this are a very good thing.

I look forward to a day when I will be in a better neighborhood with a better living arrangement, free to participate with the likes of CodePink and other great progressive groups. For now, the best I can do is to send my writing mentor warm wishes, as she keeps sending out more CodePink email alerts.

The new computer has arrived

The new Mac has arrived, and I am testing its functions by connecting it to my work wireless network.

So far, so good.

Once I get home, the hard part will await - re-installing my data from backup.

But it's a start, and the Mac revolution has started for me!

Another poignant letter

From the parent of a soldier who died in Iraq.

Richard Landeck, who lost his son Kevin six weeks ago in Iraq, sent a pointing letter to W, which has not been answered. Frustrated, Mr. Landeck shared the letter with Eric Zorn of Chicago Tribune, who made it public on his blog.

W's misadventures are just becoming too costly to bear, especially for people like Landeck and Cindy Sheehan.

Chicago Tribune - Eric Zorn

And here is the letter itself:

Feb 4, 2007

Dear Mr. Bush:

This will be the only time I will refer to you with any type of respect.

My son was killed in Iraq on February 2, 2007. His name is Captain Kevin Landeck.

He served with the Tenth Mountain Division. He was killed while riding in a Humvee by a roadside bomb just south of Baghdad. He has a loving mother, a loving father and loving sister.

You took him away from us. He celebrated his 26th birthday January 30th and was married for 17 months. He graduated from Purdue University and went through the ROTC program. That is where he met his future wife. He was proud to be a part of the military and took exceptional pride in becoming a leader of men. He accepted his role as a platoon leader with exceptional enthusiasm and was proud to serve his country.

I had many conversations with Kevin before he left to serve as well as during his deployment. The message he continued to send to me was that of incompetence. Incompetence by you, (Vice President Richard) Cheney and (former Secretary of Defense Donald) Rumsfeld. Incompetence by some of his commanders as well as the overall strategy of your decisions.

When I asked him about what he thought about your decision to “surge” more troops to Baghdad, he told me, “until the Iraqis pick up the ball, we are going to get cut to shreds. It doesn’t matter how many troops Bush sends, nothing has been addressed to solve the problem he started.”

Answer me this: How in the world can you justify invading Iraq when the problem began and continues to lie in Afghanistan? I don’t want your idiotic standard answer about keeping America safe. What did Sadaam Hussein have to do with 9/11? We all know it had to do with the first Iraq war where your father failed to take Sadaam down.

Well George, you have succeeded in taking down over 3,100 of our best young men, my son being one of them. Kevin told me many times we are not fighting terrorism in Iraq and they could not do their jobs as soldiers. He said they are trained to be on the offensive and to fight but all they are doing is acting like policemen.

Well George, you or some “genius” like you who have never fought in a war but enjoy all the perks your positions afford you are making life and death decisions. In the case of my son, you made a death decision.

Let me explain a few other points he and I discussed. He said when he and his men were riding down the road in their Humvees, roadside bombs would explode and they would hear bullets bouncing off their vehicle. He said they were scared. He thought “why should we be the ones who are scared?” He asked permission to take some of his men out at night with their night vision glasses because as he said “we own the night” and watch for the people who are setting roadside bombs and “take them out.” He said, “I want them to be the ones that are scared.” He was denied permission. Why? It made perfect sense to me and other people who I told about this.

When he was at a checkpoint he was told that if a vehicle was coming at them even at a high rate of speed he could not arbitrarily use his weapon. He had to wave his arms and, if the vehicle did not stop, he could fire a warning shot over the vehicle. If the vehicle did not stop then, he could shoot at the tires. If the vehicle did not yet stop he could take a shot at the driver. Who in their right mind made that kind of decision?

How would you like to be at a check point with a vehicle coming at you that won’t stop and go through all those motions? You will never know!

You or Cheney or Rumsfeld will never know the anguish, the worry, the sleepless nights, the waiting for the loved one who may never return. If the soldiers were able to do their jobs and the ego’s of politicians like you, your “cronies” and some commanders had their heads on straight, we would be out of this mess which we should not be involved with in the first place.

My family and I deserve and explanation directly from you……not some assistant who will likely read this and toss it. This war is wrong.

I want you to look me and my wife and daughter directly in the eye and tell me why my son died. We should not be there, but because of your ineptness and lack of correct information I have lost my son, my pride and joy, my hero!

Again, you, Cheney and Rumsfeld will never understand what the families of soldiers are going through and don’t try to tell me you do. My wife, my daughter and I cannot believe we have lost our only son and brother to a ridiculous political war that you seem to want to maintain. I hope you and Cheney and Rumsfeld and all the other people on your band wagon sleep well at night….we certainly don’t.

Richard Landeck
Proud father of a fallen soldier

More computer woes

I wasted an entire evening trying to revive my HP laptop with a new hard drive. I'm more convinced than ever that it is a pile of junk.

I tried a clean install of Windows XP with the Windows recovery CD (which was an OPTION at $10 when it should've been standard) - to no avail; the CD refused to recognize my new hard drive. Normally, it should be giving me an option to partition and format the drive so that Windows can be installed; not here.

Just to be sure that I had a good hard drive, I ran diagnostics using the computer's BIOS and full-recovery DVDs - they came back fine. I used all other options at my disposal, but the only route seems to be the full-recovery DVDs, which restore not only Windows but all the other junk from the factory. The problem is, the software for burning the full-recovery DVDs never worked, and I couldn't make the last disc of the 4 DVDs required.

I also tried to boot with a Windows Vista DVD, but since it was an upgrade version, it wanted me to install XP first.

A search through HP and Microsoft's support sections led me nowhere. The only possible cause may be that I may need a third-party driver to get the hard drive recognized, but I am using a standard SATA hard drive, and shouldn't need one. And if I did need one, I have no way of loading it into the system, as USB drives don't work in Windows setup.

It looks like I have a $2,000 mistake in my hands, just out of warranty and completely unusable. Even if I had warranty, I don't look forward to hours of talking to Indian techs who keep asking me the same basic questions 6-7 times. I will try to return the hard drive tomorrow, and wait for my Mac to arrive. I am well aware of the high reliability and the absence of hardware conflicts in Macs, so this should hopefully be my last brush with PC woes, at least at home. (Work will continue to run on PCs.)

Computer dead again

Blogging will be slow over the next several days, since the hard disk in my HP laptop decided to crash.

This is the second time my year-old computer decided to go down, taking all my data with it. Fortunately, I have backups of most of my stuff, but the most recent stuff - such as the newest novel outline, photos from Vancouver, etc. - are history.

Granted, it would be easy to pop in a new hard drive and re-install Windows, but I am in no mood to do so, given that HP's disk restore utility was unable to copy itself to a backup DVD, and therefore absolutely useless. (There also were several other useless utilities, such as an automatic update program that never worked.) This isn't even the first time an HP product has let me down, either; I've gone through a few horrible HP printers and a desktop.

Even if and when I get around to a new hard drive, I have lost so much trust in this system that I will only use it as a spare for checking emails.

Even worse was that the hard disk decided to crash while I was posting to another blog about the Moonies' destruction of American democracy. It is as if HP is Moonie-owned or something, the way the system crashed on me at precisely that moment.

For now, I am on an obsolete Dell laptop without wireless capability. It's on its last legs as well, acting funny at times. Looks like I will have to shell out a small fortune for another new computer - and this time around, I am ordering an Apple Macintosh (iMac to be specific). Macs these days are so compatible with PCs (complete with Intel processors) that the transition should not be too difficult at all.

Being LGBT in Mexico

Just picked up an article on the BBC website, regarding the increasing acceptance of LGBTs in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.

Christian Chavez, a member of pop group RBD (whose hit, Tu Amor, plays very often on Sirius), recently came out as gay, and was widely supported. In addition, major cities like Mexico City, with left-leaning local governments, are legalizing civil unions after several years of struggle.

However, LGBTs in Mexico still face tough enemies in their fight for equality. They are the same ones as those in the US: Christians and a conservative political party (PAN, which is really a puppet of the Republicans). There is no way to sugarcoat it; Christian theology is explicitly and clearly anti-gay.

BBC

Playing Joseph Mengele

Yes, as in the infamous Nazi doctor who used concentration camp internees for medical experiments.

A Baptist theologian now believes homosexuality has a biological component, but still believes it to be a sinful disorder that must be treated at the pre-natal stage with a future technology. The Roman Catholics agree.

Aren't these "religions" against genetic manipulation of babies, and don't they consider the unborn fetus to be the most precious life form of all? Talk about major hypocrisy.

The way I see it, the only thing that hurts about being gay is all this prejudice from the Christian, Muslim, Confucian, and other patriarchal death cults of the world.

MSNBC

Busy weekend

I had a busy yet wonderful weekend, attending the Gather the Women event in San Bernardino and visiting Las Vegas afterwards.

The Gather the Women event, featuring workshops and vendors, was organized by the Inland Empire group Women Creating Peace. I was able to meet with many different women, including a Mary Kay saleswoman advocating creation of the Department of Peace (we had quite a talk, given my own Mary Kay past), a universal healthcare activist, members of Riverside-based chapter of Women in Black, rei-ki masters, and many more.

I was especially happy to be able to work on my novel by doing relevant writing exercises with my writing mentor.

I tried to extend the womanhood theme by attending Girl Bar upon arrival in Las Vegas, but I was too tired to enjoy it, cutting my visit short. Nevertheless, I am rejuvenated from my packed weekend, and am ready to face the world again.

Yellow Peril, revisited

Last December, I found a TruthOut article on the Moonies - if I remember correctly, on a tip from another site. It was such a disgusting reading material that even though I made sure to share it with peace activist Medea Benjamin, I didn't get to read it in depth myself until now. And as I see it, the web of influence goes well beyond Moon.

TruthOut article

It appears that much of the initial influence for Moon was made possible by South Korea's government, specifically the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) led by prominent right-wing politician Kim Jong-pil. Kim, of course, was also the prime minister under president Park Chung-hee, a 18-year fascist dictator widely credited with industrializing the South Korean economy (though on his terms, not on the businesses' or the laborers'). As the US tried to withdraw from the Vietnam quagmire, the South Korean government feared a similar ending for itself in case of another Korean War, so it tried to influence US politics through Moon. Moon was convicted and jailed for tax fraud in the Jimmy Carter era, but under Reagan-Bush, he came back stronger than ever, launching the Washington Times.

South Korea was not alone. Other dealmakers included the government of Republic of China on Taiwan (Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek), which also was fearful of the Communists on mainland China. In addition, Kim Jong-pil was instrumental in getting the Japanese mafia - yakuza - involved. Other players in this setup include various racists and Holocaust deniers (Moon himself is a Holocaust denier, if I remember correctly).

One thing that assured Moon's free pass was his status as the leader of a "religious organization" - enjoying many protections and freedoms under the US Constitution's First Amendment. In addition, Richard Nixon gave Moon freebie permanent residency in the US, allowing him to function much more freely than a visitor could. Moon eventually used his US operations as the base to further expand his influence, interfering in politics of Latin American nations. It is alleged that much of Moon's deep pockets results from the multi-step money laundering done through Latin American drug trade and Japanese yakuza operations.

Moon's deep pockets were instrumental also in ensuring the survival of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, and in continuing to run the Washington Times, successfully smearing centrist and liberal politicians and even casting doubt on the mental capacity of Al Gore.

One thing that must be noticed: Moon loves America when it is in Republican hands, and loathes it when it is in Democratic hands. During the Clinton era, Moon was sharply critical of American individualism and freedoms. This shows Moon's true colors as a backward Korean patriarch who thrives on conformity and uniformity. He is the true enemy of American ideals.

Sometimes, because of all the sweetheart no-bid contracts, Halliburton seems to be a subsidiary of the government of the United States (or vice versa). But after a close examination of the Unification Church, I have concluded that the US government, Halliburton, the Republican Party, the South Korean government (and the Grand National Party), the Taiwanese government (and the Kuomintang), Japanese yakuza, and Latin American drug lords, all are mere puppets of the Unification Church. They all are the enemies of the people of the nations involved, especially those who are women, LGBT, or love their freedoms.

There is one way to fight back. The Moonie puppet political parties can, and must, be voted out of power, in all these nations. While the US is seeing a failure of neoconservative ideals (so well championed by Moon) and is ripe for a swing back to a Democratic rule, things look much bleaker in South Korea and Taiwan, where between right-wing media and incompetent left-wing politicians, the voters are set to vote the Moonies back into power.

I am also for rescinding the proclamation of January 13th of every year as the "Korean-American Day." Given that the day - the only one of its kind for any ethnic minority in the US - really seems to celebrate the Moonies' influence in US politics, it is unconscionable to keep celebrating it.

The conservatives whine about the Muslims' destruction of European democracies and freedoms. They better look in the mirror for a similar Christian destruction going on in America - thanks to their Moonie buddies.

Libby is guilty

Former Cheney aide Scooter Libby is now guilty of two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements, and one count of obstruction of justice.

Although it highlights the culture of corruption in the W regime, this is only a symbolic move, as Libby is seen by everyone as a sacrificial lamb, and W and Cheney are considered the true guilty ones who masterminded the outing of CIA Agent Valerie Plame and fabrication of evidence for the Iraq War.

Libby may get as much as 30 years in prison, but actual sentence will be much less, and W will most likely pardon him in the twilight days of his presidency.

A small victory for justice, but not big enough and not significant enough, I am afraid.

BBC

Japan is unrepentant for its war crimes

Specifically, when it comes to the issue of forcibly rounding up women from occupied territories, usually China and Korea but also many others including Dutch Indonesia, as sex slaves for its military during World War II, Japan says it was really done by private contractors, and was not the government's fault. (But it bears remembering that Japan's atrocities went well beyond the sex slaves - China still remembers the Rape of Nanking very painfully.)

Sounds a lot like what the US, under W's leadership, is doing in Iraq, hiring the likes of Halliburton/KBR and Christo-fascist Blackwater to loot what little is left of Iraq.

South Korea's foreign minister is up in arms. Unfortunately, given that South Korea's then-fascist regime had made huge concessions to Japan in the 1960s for its financial investment and aid, and had decided to shun the former sex slaves under its "blame the victim" mentality, it is in hardly any position to complain legitimately.

As long as right-wing nationalism rules in both Japan and the US, I don't expect much improvement anytime soon. Fortunately, the US Congress is trying to pass a nonbinding resolution to condemn Japan's sex slave operations during World War II, but even if it passes, Japan won't budge, claiming that the testimonies by former sex slaves do not prove anything substantial.

As Japan's right-wing nationalism grows once again to dangerous heights, it will matter less and less among the nations of Asia, and even the Asians' undying love for Japanese pop culture, electronics, and cars will become more conditional. The US is well advised to learn a lesson from Japan's mistakes.

And American liberals are also well advised to throw out their "only whites are capable of hateful atrocities" mindset. The Japanese in the 1930s and the 1940s have proven beyond all doubt that given enough power, anyone of any race/background can become a hatemongering monster.

BBC

Toyota soars amid more domestic woes

I picked up two automotive news articles yesterday, which further confirm the woes of the domestic auto industry.

In the first, Toyota announced its eighth US assembly plant in Mississippi, with the blessing of local residents and even prominent politicians such as Trent Lott. While Lott's blessing further cements Toyota's image in my mind as a reactionary anti-labor company, Toyota also has wide support from, among others, the mostly Democratic California congressional delegation, partly because Toyota has assembled Corollas in California since 1988, and partly because Toyota has so many customers and suppliers in California. Michigan's congressional delegation is crying foul over Toyota's continuing to build half of its US-market cars in Japan, but that cry isn't going far.

The second story is somewhat related: Toyota and Honda are so popular, because their cars are the most reliable on the market (no surprise). Buying Japanese, in general, is still the best way to get a quality car, based on the findings of Consumer Reports. Actually, let's make that "buying Asian," as the report also says that the Koreans have caught up with the Japanese on the reliability front. The surprise came from the low reliability levels of the Europeans, including Mercedes-Benz, once a hallmark of reliability but now dead last in the rankings among 36 makes. A 10-year-old Lexus is probably more reliable than a brand-new Mercedes, they say. (I guess my next car won't be a Mercedes.) The European luxury cars need to get simpler and easier to service in order to win back customers. In all, Asian cars have 11 problems per 100 vehicles, Americans 16 per 100, and Europeans 19 per 100.

I live in a community where only Pat Buchanan supporters drive American vehicles; everyone else has switched to imports long ago, and so have I, with the retirement of my nightmare Ford Contour. And all of this is for good reasons. The Big Three need to change their culture fast, if they want to matter at all. At least GM is trying with its revamped Cadillac line, but Ford and Chrysler are nowhere to be found. And blaming the UAW won't work either; Mazda uses UAW labor, but doesn't have the problems of the domestics.

MSNBC on Toyota
MSNBC on Car Reliability Ratings

While the Mann blabbers away...

Steve Stanton, soon to be Susan, a competent city manager as far as anyone has known, is losing his job to bigotry, as I mentioned earlier today.

This is so unfair.

Supporters of Stanton have set up a website. Please visit.

Save Stanton.com

(The site also says that Stanton asks to be referred to with male name and pronoun until his transition officially begins.)

The Mann is at it again

Mann Coulter

It looks like Mann Coulter has labeled John Edwards a "faggot."

Why is s/he so interested in the sexuality of male Democratic politicians? Looks like the Mann is suppressing some hidden desire within him/herself. Not that Edwards (or Clinton or Gore) would ever be interested anyway.

Daily Kos

Florida city official fired

For attempting to transition on the job.

"If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he’d want him terminated."

While many spoke in defense of Largo city manager Steve Stanton (soon to be Susan), many others used mean-spirited Christian diatribes to get him dismissed. The city's mayor and the lone African-American city commissioner voted to keep him, while their five colleagues voted to fire him.

I will never forgive the state of Florida and its Christian death cult, for bringing to the rest of the nation the 2000 presidential race fiasco, the reactionary Cuban McCarthyism, Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, intolerance, and more. I have never set foot in Florida, a state that has been making transgender lives miserable by denying recognition of the most basic rights, and I will never visit Florida for the rest of my life. In fact, when global warming raises sea levels and floods most of the state, all I can say will be "good riddance from your hate-filled God."

And doesn't Mann Coulter have a residence in Florida? Why don't we fire THAT sodomite instead?

(Though, I must admit, Southern California, with its Korean and Vietnamese McCarthyism and shared Disney dominance, not to mention Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, is not much of an improvement.)

MSNBC

Ten Things Every Brand Should Know...

... about Asian-American youth, anyway.

This is a very interesting list, which I picked up off of the Angry Asian Man blog. It was compiled by SnapDragon Consultants by actually surveying Asian-American youths aged 14-23, and released to mark the Chinese New Year.

The findings are very interesting, yet very true based on my own experiences in high school and college. Especially the part about Asian-American teens being fans of adult contemporary music - I still remember zillions of Michael Bolton and Celine Dion fans from high school. And I certainly object to "Where are you from" questions - whether I am sitting within the US or on a visit to Europe!

Here's the list.

1. Many Asian-American youth feel excluded and misunderstood by most brands. It's made worse by the fact that they see advertisers actively wooing the African-American and Hispanic markets.
2. Mixed race kids are proudly identifying as Hapa, a once derogatory word in Hawaiian to mean "half." Hapa is also slang for marijuana in Japanese (spelled Happa). Hapa is supplanting terms like Amerasian, biracial, and blasian.
3. Asian-American youth are secret fans of "easy listening" adult contemporary music. Lite FM is a hidden passion.
4. There's a "hero gap" among Asian-American kids, which is being filled for many by activists from other cultures. Martin Luther King is a role model and hero to many young Asian-Americans.
5. Most Asian-American kids refer to white people as "white people" the same way African-Americans do.
6. Underage gambling is huge. The "new" American poker obsession is nothing new to Asian-American kids. Gambling has a long history in Asian culture. Many students Rigg spoke with are avid online gamblers and card players. Some organize private online poker tournaments.
7. Asian-American kids want an end to the hyper-nerdy images of themselves on TV and want to see more punked-out skater and graffiti DJ images which reflect a different energy. The feeling is: Enough with the math geeks, future doctors and violinists. Asian-American kids crave street credibility -- not just academic accolades.
8. Asian-American kids universally hate the question: Where are you from -- especially since the answers are usually something like "Westchester" or "Boston."
9. All things Korean are hot and getting hotter. Fashion. Foods. DJs. Online communities. Korea is the new Japan.
10. The 15 minutes of seemingly benign American Idol fame for William Hung had a surprisingly negative effect on Asian-American students. There's a feeling that Hung perpetuated the worst stereotypes about Asian people and gave non-Asians permission to indulge in two years of racial stereotyping and mocking.

Yahoo article

"That's so gay"

It's a phrase commonly used by teens, sometimes in a homophobic context, sometimes not. People are doing a lot to put this phrase out of taste, however.

But I never thought this phrase could trigger a lawsuit. In Santa Rosa, a Mormon teenage girl was reprimanded by her school for saying "that's so gay," and her parents sued the school. The parents are charging that the school did nothing to block the anti-Mormon taunts that the girl had to endure, and that the girl did not say the phrase in a homophobic context.

I am hardly sympathetic. Just like the words "nigger" and "spic" are never in good taste, the phrase "that's so gay" can and does hurt, and unsuspecting teens need to be taught its ramifications. Moreover, why are the Mormons asking for protection of their prejudices, after spearheading the successful 2000 drive to ban gay marriages in California?

MSNBC