Crooked

Usually I don't talk about sports news...but almost HALF the referees in the NBA are gambling? WOW. That's all I have to say.

Local News and Odd News

In Yahoo Odd News...San Luis Obispo women's prison worker (male) is in trouble for having inmates flash him. What an ass. Why do they have men working with female prisoners? Man can hardly work with women in a normal job.

And then in funnier news... Sioux City Iowa SUX. That's their new airport code...SUX...they didn't like it at first, but now I guess their "embracing" it.
So that's some nice news to start my morning with. I won't try to explain the SUX thing to the students...or maybe I will, I don't know. I'm hungry.

Star Wars Korean

Shin Neung-kyun, Korean name...American name Nelson Shin. He's a professor in South Korea, originally from North Korea. He invented the Light Saber in Star Wars. This was reported in the CNN show Eye On South Korea and it's also in Wikipedia. He's a famous animator who's done shows like The Simpsons and X-men...and more. So there you have it. He's handsome in my opinion- he looks like my grandmother.

Line up change in China

BEIJING - President Hu Jintao won a second five-year term as China's Communist Party chief Monday, heading a new leadership lineup that features potential successors yet could invite a divisive battle to succeed him.-By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer found on Yahoo news.

I don't really understand why the term "won" is used here. It's not like they're a democracy. I have to look more in to that. So, Hu Jintao...after his "win" made some leader changes in key areas. I'll be looking in to this more.

Bomb in Manila-Makati

A bomb went off in the mall up in Manila in the Makati area. That's the finance area where all the foreign investment is. So I thought, makes sense...but today on the news I saw that some army guy here is being investigated because he said the government did it...um does this guy value his life? Bizarre. You'd be better off blaming Al-Queda, dude. Shut up.

Hilarious Cheney Obama Cartoon

This cartoon of Cheney and Obama has me rolling. Good stuff from Bill Schorr!
And in case you haven't heard: They're distant relatives. Fox news has been trying a long time to get an Obama- Muslim connection going. This development wasn't what they had in mind, I'm sure. Ironicly, I wonder if *this* will hurt Obama! LOL as they say online. ["It's funny because it's true!" ha ha]

Dear Josh Grossberg,

Open letter to Josh Grossberg:
Dear Josh Grossberg,

I hope you google yourself (ew!) and find this. I just read an article about George Lucas' TV projects that you wrote, and I wanted to tell you that I enjoyed your writing! Perhaps you're a fan? [Um, not of yourself...I mean of Star Wars] I realize that I might lose all credibility when you see my screen-name is 'jedimasterbooboo'...but I loved the article- thanks!

I tried to find a picture of you for this entry. I used Yahoo search and clicked "images" Wow! I didn't know you were a changling. I couldn't decide which one to use, you take on so many forms.

Sad

This is a Korean actress who's father is American. I guess people in Korea recently found out about this and now her life is bad. I don't know the details because I can't read Korean, but one of my students told me the news story says that sometimes she wants to die. Nice.

Students read my blog now and again, so I won't be completely candid about how I feel. End Entry.

People Die

I was reading some biographies of former high school classmates and I saw one that really made me sad. There's a girl from our graduating class that got married and had children and step children, then her husband got cancer and died last year. Now I have to go to class and I feel down. Death is a sad thing. Jesus cried when people died, he didn't say, "hey it's all my plan!" The bible says that death is the enemy. It's a horrible thing to go through and I feel for that person.

Ireland Abstains From Potato Vote

GMO HOT POTATO ISSUE
The European Union can't agree on allowing the new genetically modified potato to be used as animal feed. As usual, these stories don't provide enough information for the average person to get a feel for the whys behind GMO controversies. Around 1999 I did a bunch of research on this, and it's actually pretty interesting.

Several EU countries voted on the issue...
Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and Portugal abstained in the vote.

Also, if you love potatoes...go to www.potatonews.com

In related news
New potato chips from Golden Flake coated with caffeine
BIRMINGHAM (AP) — For a generation already buzzing on energy drinks, here's a new snack — potato chips coated with caffeine.
Potato Buzz

That doesn't sound good to me at all.

JC and Autism

So I walked in the door from work the other day and my oldest son said he saw Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live and she said that Jim Carrey was her boyfriend and that he's got a knack for communicating with her autistic son. Doesn't surprise me.

I chose this picture because this is my family's favorite Jim Carrey movie.
I don't really like reading things about Austism. It's the same stuff over and over again. Irony?

They call this one...

"Cheney's Got A Gun". A while back in the news, it was reported that Dick Cheney shot this guy while hunting, and then the guy apologized to him. Kinda bizarre, but then...

It wouldn't be on my blog had I not found this super-cool lego replica of the incident.

It's Tuesday Now

Just keeping you updated.

There was another Wisconsin shooting among young people, very tragic. I don't have much to say about it. Peace out.
------
From the story:
CRANDON, Wis. - A young sheriff's deputy who opened fire on a pizza party and killed six people reportedly flew into a rage when he was rebuffed by his old girlfriend, and others at the gathering called him a "worthless pig." - Yahoo News Link to shooting article.

Ok, I have a little something to say. The news keeps talking about how he was a "police officer", which...I don't think he really was. He was a little deputy trainee. His choice of occupation has very little to do with this tragedy, in my opinion. And I'm not one for giving cops a break.

Friday

I don't know what this means, but that makes it cool.
My students on Fridays will do anything to watch a movie in class. So far today I've watched two movies halfway through. Our classes are long, but the students are coming REALLY LATE. They brought me Oceans 12 for the first period. I couldn't hear it because of the notebook computer volume...but if there's a movie that I can't hear...it's good that Brad Pitt is in it...something to look at.

Second period they brought me "The Holiday". It has Cameron Diaz and Jude Law, and I don't care for either of them. It's also got Kate Winslet and Jack Black. The first half of the movie is cute, but also reminded me how much I hate men, and how serious a problem it's becoming. Maybe Monday I can see the rest.

Next class will be a famous Korean movie called "Tatja" which is about gambling. Its English title is called "The Hoodwink".

My last class can't have a movie because it's got a certain format to it...they don't need one anyway.

YESTERDAY: So I'm laughing at my post from yesterday, as if NO NEWS can come from Marinette or Peshtigo...like it's just not possible! But beyond that I think it's pretty interesting that Hmong Chinese live there. I can't imagine how they do it. I know that they came from Laos, but I'm wondering what Chinese they speak, if it's Mandarin or Cantonese.

The only way I would ever ever ever ever even consider moving back there ....the only way I would allow that thought in my head for longer than 30 seconds is to think about the possibility of teaching ESL to the Hmong. That sounds interesting. I'd love it.

Marinette Wisconsin??!?!

I'm reading Yahoo news and I see a headline for Marinette? This is where I grew up! People are murdering eachother while hunting. This is a Hmong Chinese issue. The story is bizarre.
People killing each other near Peshtigo...Squirrel hunting!

James Nichols, 29, is accused of shooting and stabbing Cha Vang, 30, after the two got into a dispute while hunting separately for squirrels Jan. 5 in the Peshtigo Wildlife Area.

Vang's death rekindled racial tensions in northern Wisconsin, where a Hmong deer hunter fatally shot six white hunters three years ago.

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"fatally shot"...SIX hunters? How does one accomplish that?
I know some people from around that area read my blog. What's up? Do you know anything about this? Probably just what's in the news? I'm not reading local news, this came up in national Yahoo news.

Mad as #$%%!

I've had it!
I just saw a video from the BBC World about a North Korean defector who has commit suicide. I'm so angry with all the tragic stories of these defectors, it's so unjust. What they go through is horrid. To put up this blog entry I searched for photos of "North Korean defectors" and I found this terrible photo of a woman in China trying to make it through the gates of an embassy and the Chinese gestapo, two of them pulling her down, one has her from behind, the other is blocking the gate. On the other side of the fence is her tiny little girl who made it through watching the whole thing. If you type in North Korean Defectors on Yahoo and click images you can see it, but I couldn't steal it for the blog, it didn't work.

That woman in the photo is likely dead now. She was sent back to NK, and usually there is an excecution. Yeah, I'm pissed at China, but they're quite open about their stupidity. I'm mad at South Korea which is where the defectors go to commit suicide after being treated like shit by South Koreans. I'm mad at the USA, but to know why one would have to follow the involvement of the US in the situation. South Korea is like the little brother who can't make a move without the US big brother, and big brother is kind of an ass. The US doesn't even treat South Korea with that much respect, especially when compared to Japan.

HELP these people...anyone...
I mean how much sense does it make to condemn North Korea if we don't Let The People GO!?!

Creepy Cheney revisted

I know this is old, but last night my son said something like..."teenagers lurking in the bushes..." and I said, "like Dick Cheney" and we were both cracking up remembering this video. For some reason this is so funny to me, and I can't even make a joke about it or funny commentary, it just is what it is...and his facial expressions, so funny!

So here, enjoy. And I don't care if Radiohead hates their own song now, and cool people don't like it anymore...I love it!

CNN's blonde highlights of China.

Hey, I'm really dizzy right now, but I'll just post this one thing and log off...I've got to.

I was having a nice family time in front of the tv watching CNN, I was talking to my youngest son, playing with him, and my oldest was playing his game boy and CNN was on, the interviewer was on a split screen with Phelps, the olympic swimmer. I was half listening. Suddenly, my oldest son, still playing the game boy burst out laughing. Why? My son says,

"The interviewer just said that the olympic games are going to 'put Bejing on the map'."

No, it wasn't the Daily Show. No, it wasn't Conan O'Brien, it was a real interview.
I mean if my 13 year old, who's hardly a news analyst is going to burst out laughing while multi-tasking on a gameboy...CNN's got some blonde highlights going on, my opinion. I mean the Duck that waddles around on the set of the Conan O'Brien show might be more aware of Bejing than some of the people at CNN if you know what I mean.

That said, Kristie Lu Stout is awesome and they should just let her do ALL the reporting and stop embarassing themselves. The other thing that I saw that I'd like to blog about is Dr. Sanjay Gupta going to a medicine shop there in Bejing, it was just so rediculous.

I've been studying China for years, and I know all about the horrible things that go on there, I don't want to minimize their shortcomings; But watching this coverage at times has been like watching my grandma visit China bewildered with everything in her cute grandma way. I could really live my life comfortably without seeing another perspective from Dr. Sanjay Goofball.

CNN Beef

CNN is making it a GIVEN that people are going to want to avoid made in China products. They just make it a given.

The real stories are being reported on BBC World and Asia news and the Australian news network. It's a very interesting story about some goings on in China and the fact that some feel they should protect themselves from China as far as trade and money goes.

It's a bit hard for me to articulate this because I might sound like China is perfect, which it's not and I don't care one way or another...my beef is with the news coverage. It's so weird. Just cover the story, don't tell me what to think and create a scare. CNN is actually attempting to create a scare or the appearance of one. The other news outlets are covering China stuff extensively, but CNN is like, "How to avoid Chinese products...oh look it's so hard."

The recent issue in China that was sad had to do with antibiotics, which aren't exported to the US...that's totally an internal issue. There's a pet food crisis. The pet food crisis affected people over seas. Anyway, there's interesting stuff going on...but CNN is just pathetic.

The international version of CNN is better than the US version, but still...

By the way, I should mention that it's very common for countries to go back and forth fighting over imports and exports and protecting their own businesses and whatnot. That's what this is about.

Take South Korea for an example. For years they have been broadcasting that US Beef is not safe. South Korean people were like 'hey, that's a convenient truth', we can stop the imports of US beef, and they did. Was there ever a real scare? My students ask me about mad cow disease sometimes, I'm like yeah, I'm not sure how many people have actually died from that. I didn't change my life at all, I know I was mad when Oprah got sued because she should be able to say whatever she likes. But other countries used that info to ban the import. It's politics. They recently lifted the ban, it was a hot South Korean political issue.

The latest CNN report about a woman who wrote a book detailing her trials of going without made in China for a whole year doesn't mention what her husband or she does for a living. I'd be interested to know.

I know the picture here implies the government controls CNN, but I like this picture. What's going on in this case is not control by government, but CNN supporting a certain ideology of the business community (not the lazzie-faire group).

Excuse Me!

Covered Body in the Pickup.
I hate to interrupt, but one of the South Korean hostages in Afghanistan has been excecuted. It's not on Yahoo news when I log in, and so I went to CNN dot com.
Here's what was there:

Latest News
Vick pleads not guilty to dogfight charges
FBI head, Gonzales differ on hospital showdown
NASA suspects space-bound kit sabotaged
Men framed by FBI for murder to get millions
Family tries avoiding everything 'Made in China' (by the way, CNN, the Corporate News Network, is on a Jihad lately against China, that's another entry...yes I know there are concerns, but the news coverage is laughable. I mean look at this...it's not even about the issues, it's about scaring people- How To Avoid Chinese Products...shame)
Report: Drunk astronauts allowed on shuttle
Gene therapy patient dies; trial shut down
CNNMoney: Dow suffers 2nd worst day of 2007
KPHO: Man accused of Tom Cruise extortion plot
Ticker: Clinton on Obama: This is getting 'silly'
Pilots blamed for Kentucky plane crash
High-speed pursuit ends in a fiery crash
500-pound man told he's too fat to adopt
Big, odd and useless projects that failed
CNN Wire: Latest updates on top stories

OK, this is distressing. So I clicked on the international CNN page:

Here is the international page for CNN
Top Stories
Afghans enter hostage negotiations
Tour rolls on in shadow of scandal
Thousands arrested in Zimbabwe
Men framed by FBI get millions
Blast at desert spaceport kills 2
Pilots blamed in Comair crash
Wires cut in space-bound computer
9/11 rescue dog dies of cancer
Drunk astronauts 'let on shuttle'
Emotions flow after nurses return
CNN Wire: Updates on world's top stories

Excuse me, but what?
The Bush administration promised that they were going to Iraq to fight "them over there". So people said, "How come Iraq? I thought Afghanistan..."
"Shhh" they said, "You don't love America."
"Mr. Bush, are you going after Osama Bin Laden?"
"Saddam Hussein is a bad guy."
"Yes, we knew that when you put him in his regime...any way...Osama.."
"You hate America. We are fighting them over there."

One day back in the Clinton administration, Bill bombed Afghanistan. Remember? Or maybe we don't remember because that was during zippergate. People said, oh, look wag the dog. Well, no Afghanistan was important zippergate was not.

He was bombing Osama Bin Laden's hideout and missed him. He had no support as the country was torn apart by Kenneth Starr's Whitewater rampage that ended in nothing useful whatsoever for anyone. Bill left office, and passed on the documents to Bush about what was up with Bad Boy Bin Laden. We know what happened next. Nothing, and then something...9/11

Now ITS NOT EVEN NEWS that the Taliban in Afghanistan continually kidnap and sometimes excecute people.
So HOW about fighting them OVER THERE?

LIARS

Go get these people, or you're over there for nothing.
Oh yeah, we already knew that.


Why are South Korean troops in Afghanistan? You think SOUTH KOREA has some beef with the Middle East? They're supporting US troops. I see in the news today that there is fighting going on there, and some Taliban have been taken out...and some NATO troops have gone down.

My question is, at the very least, why is this not a big news story in the US?
The US is the one that should be busting those hostages out or negotiating. I know that I don't fully understand the current Afghanistan situation, but I know that it's our beef (US) and others are supporting the cause. Shouldn't they be helped?

LIARS Bush, Cheney and the whole Lot of you.