Next Gen Politics

Now that most of the noise from most of the media is starting to die down. I decided to weigh in on the topic of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”, or Torture, as the other half calls them. I’ve thought a lot about what exactly bothers me about this, and I guess it comes down to this. It’s just not an American thing to do. We have moved beyond talking about whether it’s ethical, legal, or moral, to having a public discussion about whether it’s effective. We’ve missed the point.

The first reason why I believe it’s wrong, is the one reason that Neo-cons will use to brand me as a flaming liberal. I grew up in a country that believed that someone was innocent until proven guilty. These suspected terrorists, (even the Bush administration called them by this name), have not been convicted in a court of law. Not even by a military judge who, some could argue, would be slightly biased to begin with. Most of the detainees that we have in Guantanamo Bay, were put there after the U.S. created a monetary bounty for suspected terrorists in nations where tribal warfare is the norm, not the exception, and in countries where holding a grudge isn’t something you do for a couple of years but for a couple of centuries and beyond. Add to that the fact that, these nations, where we rounded up these “suspected” terrorists, are some of the most poverty stricken nations on earth. If they have to choose between their child eating and some guy who their grandpa was insulted by, who do you think they will choose? They will give up an innocent stranger based on his name, his religion, his ethnicity, or some slight by his family generations ago. We have a jail full of people who were picked up, not because we had accurate actionable intelligence, but because we paid people to turn their neighbors in. Sounds a lot like McCarthyism to me, only instead of being blackballed, many of them were tortured….by us.

The second reason I feel that these “techniques” are wrong, is that they are ineffective for anything other than for getting false confessions. During WWII the Japanese used these techniques to get false confessions from enemy servicemen. They would use these false confessions as propaganda against their enemies nations. They were used again in the Korean War by the Chinese, again to get false confessions for propaganda. Let us note that both times that they were used, they were used to get false confessions, not true confessions. Why would that be? Because anyone that has undergone this type of torture would say anything to make it stop. You are literally drowning. Have you ever been pulled underwater by someone at the pool, or when you were little did you ever fall in the deep end? You would have sacrificed your mother to get a breath of air. Getting someone to say that Saddam Hussein was buddies with Osama Bin Laden, should be easy. Ironically, however, they never got a single detainee to say that there was a connection. So they water boarded two detainees, over 200 times. 83 times in August 2002 against Abu Zubaydah, according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum, and 183 times in March 2003 against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Notice the dates. It was before we went into Iraq. The Bush administration was using techniques known to cause false confessions, just before we went into Iraq. You can draw your own conclusions.

After WWII, the U.S. tried, convicted, and executed Japanese soldiers who used these techniques, and these techniques have since been used in the U.S. military’s S.E.R.E. school, to train our troops how to withstand this sort of torture. Somewhere along the way, though, the people training how to withstand these techniques forgot their history, and when the V.P. called asking for techniques to make people talk in 2002, (yes, that’s right before we even went to war), these S.E.R.E. instructors raised their hands. The question is, did the Bush administration under V.P. Dick Cheney, want to use these techniques to get false confessions about a tie between Iraq and Osama Bin Laden? We may never know.

Finally, the third reason I think these techniques are wrong, is that, they are a poor reflection of us as a people. We have for over 200 years been a beacon to those that wish to live more freely. How then, after centuries of taking the moral high ground, do we throw those values under the bus the first time we are attacked? Our founding fathers new a thing or two about the threat of violence or invasion from outside forces, much bigger than the Taliban, but when given the choice between a completely secure state and a state of liberty, they chose liberty. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither”. We have been taught this quote from the time we were 5 years old in school. So often perhaps that we have become numb to it’s profound implication. This statement implies that we should be willing to give up security, if we have to choose between the two, not the other way around.

Beyond issues of guilt or innocence, effectiveness or ineffectiveness, liberty or security, is the question of how far we are willing to go to ensure that security. Would we beat them? Cut them? Cut off a toe or a finger? How about we round up their children and beat, cut or cut off their children’s toes in front of them? Kill their wives  and children in front of them? How far are we willing to go? I hate to use the overused and often inaccurate cliche of the slippery slope, but when we say it’s alright to beat someone in custody, to strip them naked and put them in a pyramid, to expose them to extreme heat and cold, to deprive them of sleep for months, to slam their heads into walls, and to simulate drowning, how much further is it to cutting off a toe or killing a family member? Ask yourself what makes one action justified and the other not. If there is a line that we will not cross, then we need to examine that line. Why is it here and not back there?

I think that in all the chaos of 9/11, we forgot one of the things that makes us Americans. The idea of freedom from just this sort of violence. Their innocence or guilt, is irrelevant. We should not stop these techniques because it hurts them, we should stop these techniques because it hurts us. We must show the world that this is not America, and those who perpatrated these actions, either directly or indirectly, from the bottom all the way to the top, need, for the sake of our national credibility, to be brought to justice.

This is an Paper I wrote in 2004. As we have learned this week, it is as relevant today, as it was then. Korea has yet again defied the international community, in what is sure to be a ploy for more aid for the dictatorship. We cannot afford to continue to make the same mistakes we have in the past. Though it may be difficult, we must be strong if we are to avoid further provocations in the future.

Recommendation of policy towards North Korea

This letter is written in hopes of affecting the US foreign policy towards North Korea; its contents are meant to inform the president of North Korea’s history and present state of affairs. By carefully evaluating N.K.’s past decisions and reactions to foreign pressures, it is my belief that we can come to an agreed policy to end the nuclear issue that is concerning many countries in East Asia, as well as the US.

History

Chinese and Japanese influences have been strong throughout Korean history, but the Koreans, descended from Tungusic tribal peoples, are a distinct racial group. The documented history of Korea begins in the 12^th century B.C. when a Chinese scholar, Ki-tze, founded a colony at Pyongyang. In 1231, Mongol forces invaded from China, initiating a war that was waged intermittently for 30 years. The war ended when the Koryo kings accepted Mongol rule. In 1392, Yi Songgye, with the aid of the Ming Dynasty (which had overthrown the Mongols in China) seized the throne.

The Yi dynasty, which was to rule until 1910, built a new capital at Seoul and established Confucianism as the official religion. In 1592 an invasion of the Japanese conqueror Hideyoshi was driven back by the Yi dynasty with Chinese help, but only after six years of devastation and suffering. Manchu invasions in the first half of the 17^th century resulted in Korea being made a vassal of the Manchu dynasty in 1637. Korea attempted to close its frontiers and became so isolated from other foreign contact as to be called the Hermit Kingdom (a term that is today still very much applicable to North Korea). All non-Chinese influences were excluded until 1876, when Japan forced a commercial treaty with Korea.

To offset the Japanese influence, trade agreements were also concluded in the 1880’s with the United States and Europe. After the victories by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japan’s control was tightened over Korea as it moved through Korea to attack Manchuria. These Japanese troops were never withdrawn from Korea, and in 1905 Japan declared a virtual protectorate over Korea. In 1910 Japan formally annexed the country. The Japanese instituted vast social and economic changes, building modern industries and railroads, but their rule was harsh and exploitative. Korean children were forced to learn Japanese and the Japanese government outlawed the Korean language. Buddhism was forced upon the Korean people who were forced to worship at Buddhist shrines. Sporadic Korean attempts to overthrow the Japanese were unsuccessful, and after 1919 a provisional Korea government, under Syngman Rhee, was established at Shanghai, China.

During WWII, at the Cairo Conference of 1943, the US, Great Britain, and China promised Korea independence. At the end of WWII Korea was divided into two zones; Soviet troops were north and Americans were south of the line of latitude 38 degrees north. The Soviet Union thwarted all UN efforts to hold elections and reunite the country under one government. When relations between the Soviet Union and the US worsened, trade between the two zones stopped. As a result great economic hardships effected both the North and South, as both were economically interdependent with industry and trade being concentrated in the North and agriculture in the South.

In 1948 two separate regimes were formally established, the republic of Korea in the South, and the Democratic People’s Republic under Communist rule in the North. By 1949 all Soviet and American troops were withdrawn, and two rival Korean governments were in operation, each determined to unify the country under its own rule. In June 1950, with the grudging approval of both the Soviet Union and China, the North Korean army launched a surprise attack against South Korea, initiating the Korean War.

After years of bloody conflict a truce was called and an armistice was signed, ending the devastating and bloody conflict in Korea. As agreed upon in the armistice, a demilitarized zone was established along the 38^th parallel. In 1971 negotiations between North and South Korea provided the first hope from peaceful reunification of the peninsula. In 1972 an agreement was reached for the establishment of joint machinery to work toward unification. The countries met several times throughout the 1980’s and 90’s with little to show for their time. The problems blocking reunification continue to be substantial and are primarily the cause of the North Korean Government. Acts of terrorism that were widely attributed to the North Korean government have Included a 1983 bombing that claimed the lives of several members of the South Korean Government and the 1987 destruction of a South Korean Airliner over the Thailand-Myanmar border which was widely believed to be the work of the North Koreans. In 1996, North Korea abruptly said it would cease to recognize the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, and North Korean troops made incursions into the Zone. In 1999 a North Korean Torpedo boat was sunk by a South Korean vessel in South Korean waters following a gun battle, and there was another deadly naval confrontation following a North Korean incursion in 2002.

North Korean politics

North Korea, although nominally a republic governed by a representative assembly, is actually ruled by the Communist party. (The Korean Workers Party) Until his death in 1994, Kim Il Sung, who had been premier during the Soviet occupation and then president since the countries inception in 1948, controlled all governmental institutions.  Never intending to create a true socialist or communist state, Kim Il Sung became the supreme leader of a cross between a Confucian kingdom and a totalitarian socialist state. Capitalizing on the nations history of being heavily influenced by imperial powers, the Kim regime strengthened its hold on the people by convincing them of eminent danger of invasion by foreign powers, namely the US. The N.K ideological theorist Hwang Jang Yop described N.K. as a “feudal state” after his defection in 1997. (North Korea (Through the looking glass), Kongdan Oh & Ralph C. Hassig, Brookings institution press, 2000, pg.09) By the mid-1990’s the rapid economic growth of North Korea’s early years, fueled by Juche (Ideology of self reliance) had given way first to stagnation’s and then to hardship. Increasingly, Kim’s son, Kim Jong Il, had assumed the day-to-day management of the government and, at Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994, the son took over leadership of the country. He was named secretary of the Communist party in 1997 and consolidated his power with the title of National Defense Commission chairman in 1998. Kim Jong Il continues his fathers’ legacy of totalitarian socialist politics in North Korea, and every aspect of North Korean’s lives are planned out for them.  In order to consolidate his power, Kim Jong Il has appointed himself atop all of the most important committees and assemblies. He is the Supreme Commander of the Korean people’s army though he has no “real” military experience. In order to maintain his power base, Kim Jong Il, Purged nearly all of his fathers appointed generals and those that were not purged were virtually stripped of all power. Kim Jong Il, then replaced these purged men with those that were loyal to him. Anyone person of authority in North Korea, has their authority only by the support of Kim Jong Il, and if that support is taken away, that person will be purged and lose all authority. From the behavior history of the Kims’, most importantly Kim Jong Il, we can surmise that, if any measure of success is going to be accomplished, in this crisis, it will only happen with the agreement to terms by Kim Jong Il.

The Crisis

Beginning in the late 1950’s North Korea began a nuclear research program, and by 1991 had built a 200-MW nuclear reactor. The fear from the international community was that the spent fuel from the uranium-fueled, graphite-moderated reactors could be processed in to weapons grade plutonium. In June of 1994, through the efforts of former president of the US Jimmy Carter, North Korea announced that it had agreed to freeze its nuclear facilities in return for 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil every year until the international consortium had completed the construction of two 1,000-MW light water moderated reactors, whose spent fuel was much harder to make weapons grade plutonium. There were other concessions, but these were the most important. What we will see is the beginning of North Korea’s strategy to gain more international economic welfare at any cost while giving as little as possible back in the form of concessions.

In 1998 through US intelligence channels the US government became suspicious of an underground facility and as per the agreed framework, requested to be allowed to send in inspectors to evaluate the situation. North Korea denied the US request on the basis of national sovereignty. This impasse initiated another round of talks. North Korea denied inspectors, but would allow a one-time visit if the US agreed to pay $300 million or 600,000 tons of food aid for slander if the facility turned out to be non-nuclear related. The US refused citing their right as per the framework established in the 1994 agreement. In March 1999 the US was allowed to “visit” in return they would provide a substantial amount of Potato seeds and food for potato farmers in a humanitarian gesture. When the US inspectors reached the installation they found an empty tunnel. The North Koreans had manipulated more aid out of the international community.

The discovery and confession of an ongoing nuclear program by N.K. has shown that this regime cannot be trusted to keep its agreements, and that its only concern is getting as much aid as it can and at the same time developing nuclear arms.

US Problem In Regards North Korea

The US wants to end the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the international community. The US has entered into agreements with N.K. in order to ensure that no more nuclear weapons will be manufactured to further unstabalize the world, and more specifically its allies in East Asia. To ensure these agreements the US has contributed significant resources (I.E. oil, food, agriculture products, and money). Every significant agreement by N.K. to the US has been pulled out of or stalled. The problem is that the US can no longer be certain that N.K. will abide by any agreements it makes, and will most likely pull out of any agreement when it no longer suits them, or if they think they can achieve a higher level of aid through “black-mail”. The denuclearization declaration of 1992 in which North Korea agreed to stop developing nuclear and nuclear reprocessing facilities is a perfect example of North Korea’s ability to pull out of agreements they don’t like. The North Korean government blatantly broke the framework agreement with its uranium enrichment program.

US Goals In Regard To North Korea

1.) Regional stability

It is in the US’s interest to have a stable Asia. Many US companies operate in or have business relationships with China, South Korea, Japan, as well as South Western, Southern, and South East Asian countries. Any instability in this region of the world would have a profound effect on not only the US’s interests, but also the global economy. This can only be achieved through the success of the next goal.

2.) Irreversible, verifiable dismantling of all North Korea’s atomic arms programs, including, but not limited to, North Korea’s uranium and plutonium programs.

It is the US’s policy as well as many other countries policy to stop the global proliferation of Nuclear weapons. North Korea has stated, “Raising the “purely fictitious” uranium issue would only prolong the crisis.”  However,  “US officials and arms control experts say it would be meaningless to exclude the uranium program from efforts to disarm North Korea because, unlike the reactor-centered production of plutonium at Yongbyon, uranium enrichment can be hidden.” (Reuters.com. U.S., North Korea lay their cards on the table. (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4435626)

Alternative Strategies For Achieving US Goals

1,) Removal of the Kim regime through military means

a.)    “…Immediately after Kim and his regime have been swept from power, North Korean society may well face anarchy.”(North Korea: The hardest nut, Kongdan Oh & Ralph C. Hessig, Foreign Policy Nov./Dec. 2003, pg. 45)

b.)    In order to have a stable transfer of power, a country must have a stable foundation to start from. North Korean citizens are told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, from the time they are born until they die. The elite in N.K. are not much better prepared to take the reigns of power. Those in power are there because they have shown loyalty to Kim and his regime. They have not had to be efficient at their jobs so long as they were loyal to the leader. Already trained in corruption as a survival tool, a more likely scenario would be the elite grabbing all the wealth they can as soon as Kim is absent. The military is the only group that may be able to take control of a North Korea rid of Kim, but would most likely do so in the name of Kim Jong Il, and a dictator would be replaced by a dictator; a scenario that I find unacceptable.

c.)    A second effect of the toppling of the Kim regime would be the mass exodus of North Koreans fleeing into the neighboring countries. The mass immigration of North Koreans into surrounding countries would severely damage their economies and by doing so have an economic effect on the US, another scenario I find unacceptable.

2.) Continue Dialogue with North Korea In Hopes of Eventual Peaceful Dismantling of Nuclear Facilities

a.)    The problem with this strategy is that there is no precedent for its success. “…The North [Korea] also has a history of engaging in “strategic deception”-Signing agreements to convey reliability but purposefully cheating on them to its own advantage.” (Think Again: The Korean crisis, Victor D. Cha & David C. Kang, Foreign Policy, May/June 2003, pg.22) North Korea has a history of signing treaties, but when they “change their minds” the terms of the agreement are “ambiguous” or suddenly forgotten altogether. We cannot trust them to keep their word on any agreement. The international community has given billions of dollars in aid to North Korea, in hopes of obtaining compliance with non-proliferation interests, but nothing has come to full fruit. It is apparent that North Korea is only pretending to comply in order to either a.) Buy time for their nuclear program to produce weapons sophisticated enough to detour the US from imposing our foreign policy on them. (I.E. long range nuclear missiles capable of hitting the US.) Or b.) Get as much foreign aid as possible in order to maintain the Kim regimes power in North Korea by appearing to be the provider for the people, while at the same time hoping the failing economy can bounce back.

Strategy Most Likely To Achieve Us Goals And Address International Concerns

The strategy I believe to be most likely to achieve US goals and at the same time address international concerns over nuclear proliferation is one of inaction. I believe, as I have argued earlier, that a military coup, revolt, or military action on US’s part would only leave a state of anarchy where those in power would rob the nation of any wealth it may posses, while at the same time causing an economic disaster for the surrounding countries trying to absorb massive amounts of North Korean immigrants.

A strategy of inaction would involve ceasing all aid. (I.E. oil, food, agricultural products, and money) Kim Jong Il’s dependence on foreign aid will be our tool. All of the aid that is provided the Kim regime only strengthens its grip on the country. Every bag of food we provide is food that he tells his people he provided for them, and in a way he has. Everything that we provide him makes him stronger.

Truly implementing this policy will have serious side effects that we must be aware of.

1.)    South Korea will not like the idea of starving out their neighbors to the north. Our policy should be that we are their as a deterrent to military invasion by the North, not as humanitarian relief. If South Korea is worried about North Korea, then it should provide the aid required to sustain it, or convince North Korea to irreversibly and verifiably dismantle its nuclear programs. This will serve two purposes: a.) Cut the US out of the cycle of bartering with North Korea for maintaining the status quo or for minor concessions. And b.) Make South Korea take a bigger responsibility for its stance toward North Korea.

2.)    The international community will not like the idea of the wealthiest nation on earth refusing aid to a starving nation. We must take the position that it is not the US that is starving the North Koreans; it is their repressive government. North Korea has many resources that could be utilized to fuel their economy; it is the Kim regime that is refusing to feed its people with the fruits of the countries natural resources. North Korea must be held responsible for its actions and political positions.

3.)    North Koreans will die by the tens of thousands of starvation. This is the reality of taking this stance against North Korea, but the total number that would be killed by war would be far greater. The US helps those countries it can, but the countries that we help must be willing to change their policies so that their dependency on foreign aid decreases, not increases, as in North Korea’s’ case.

4.)    Taking away aid from a country that is already economically devastated might cause the Kim regime to sell nuclear and missile technology in order to feed themselves. This is a possibility but should not detour the US from taking a hard line approach. If North Korea decided to sell nuclear technology then it would be up to the international community to access the punishment for that action, and to stand by their decision.

This approach has many possible negative results, but it is important to force North Korea to do more then promise change. We must not reward North Korea for merely pledging to change; we must make them change in order to receive their rewards. It is not my opinion that we should not aid North Korea in its economic recovery, only that if we are to do so, we must have good faith between our nations. We can no longer afford to give aid to a country that has become solely dependant on aid with no signs of economic reforms on the horizon. In addition to this, we as a country cannot get in the habit of giving aid to hostile countries in return for their compliance on treaties they have already agreed to. Aid is a privilege not a right, and it should remain that way. North Korea seems to think that they have the right to receive US aid regardless if they abide by their treaties or not. We must show them that they cannot bully their way to a US welfare check. My recommendation is to immediately freeze all aid, both public and private, to North Korea, until they verifiably and irreversibly stop all atomic weapons programs, at which time a team of UN inspectors will determine North Korea’s level of compliance. Only after UN inspectors have been allowed complete access and have determined that atomic weapons are not present should the US resume aid to the North Korean government.

Sorry for the hiatus folks. I was busy planning and staring in my own wedding. Since January my wife and I have been feverishly planning, meeting with staff of the hotel, meeting her parents, and making arangements for guests to attend. As you do the math in your head, counting from when I last posted to now, you can see that it was a mad rush to the finish line. Thanks to the tireless work of my wife and her mother, the wedding went off without a hitch.

Isn’t she beautiful? I don’t know how I tricked her into this, but WOW!

This picture is from the second party. If you’re curious about the wedding, check out my personal blog. There is a link to the left titled, “Dispatches From The Land Of The Rising Sun”. Hope you like it.

That being said, Scot and I have been talking and planning and will begin updating the site with new articles this week. thank you so much for your patience. If you have any specific topics you want covered, feel free to e-mail us and let us know. Also, if you’d like to yell at us for dropping off the face of the earth, we’ll take that too. Stay tuned folks. Great things are in store for the site in the coming months. I promise.

Today history was made as the 44th President of these United States of America was sworn in. In addition to being the first African-American President in the United States, President Obama became the first African-American executive of any western nation. Upon his shoulders lies not only the hopes and dreams of the African-American community, but that of the nation and the world.

In his speech, President Obama, called on the nation to come together as one people with one purpose, that is to make our country better and to restore her to her rightful place in the world, as a beacon of liberty, freedom, and prosperity. He called on all Americans to think differently about their communities and their nation. Reminiscent of President Kennedy’s Inaugural, President Obama called on all Americans to think less about what they want, and more about what the nation needs. We need a renewed culture of volunteerism, of civic duty and responsibility, a society that cares for the individual, but also recognizes the need to put country above self. President Obama spoke of the sacrifices of our forefathers, who created in this nation the perfect template for justice and liberty, and protected it from those that would have liked to have seen it disappear from this world.

President Obama called on every American, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Atheist,Gay, Straight, every American, to join him in a focus not on ourselves, but on picking our nation up off the metaphorical ground, dusting her off, and helping to lead her into a new era of prosperity, liberty, justice, and freedom.

President Obama pointed out that this is not an impossible task. He said that we, as a nation, are no less hard working today than we were a year ago; We are no less inventive, and no less detirmined. We must find that spark of intrinsically American perserverance, and rekindle it into a flame that will light the way back to the path that our forefathers paved and defended. As he said in a prior speech, “We as a nation will get there.”

(The Text Of President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address)

“My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers … our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world … that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).”

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.”

At 6:15 a.m. on December 9, 2008, FBI special agents arrested Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, the governor’s chief of staff, on federal corruption charges. Patrick Fitzgerald, immediately, released audio tapes of conversations Blagojevich had with various people, apparently discussing President-Elect Obama’s recently vacant Senate seat and the Governor’s impending appointment of someone to fill it, and held a press conference where he made comments about how Illinois was one of the most corrupt states in the union.

Fitzgerald, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, described the corruption as “the most staggering crime spree in office I have ever seen.” The corruption charges involved conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. The Justice Department complaint alleges that the governor conspired to commit several “pay-to-play” schemes, including attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacated United States Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Despite calls from both sides of the aisle, on the state and federal level, for the Governor to step down and not appoint anyone to the seat, on Dec. 30 Blagojevich appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the seat, and on January 9^th, the Illinois House of Representatives voted to impeach Blagojevich by a 114-1 vote.

Those are the facts; cut, dry, and undeniable. With those facts out, there are a few issues that the media seems to forget about. Make no mistake that Rod Blagojevich is a creepy guy and deserving of any punishment he gets, but that being said, before we bust out the pitch forks and torches, there are a few things to keep in mind.

First and foremost, we need to remember that every citizen in the U.S. is innocent until proven guilty, in a court of law. I know a lot of people won’t want to hear that. I know a lot of people will be turned off by mentioning something so simple, but so fundamental to the criminal justice system in the U.S. Regardless of whether the Governor is a dirt bag, which I think most people would agree that he is, he has been convicted in the court of public opinion before he has even stepped into a court. This is thanks mostly to Patrick Fitzgerald’s unbelievable decision to release to the public, the scandalous audio tapes before Blagojevich had time to explain or defend the conversations. Granted after listening to the entire tape in context, no doubt, our minds would be even more made up as to the Governors guilt, but regardless, we were not afforded the opportunity, and arguably it was unprofessional at best for Fitzgerald to release them at all, during an on going investigation. Releasing audio of corrupt officials is something the press does, when the Federal prosecutor does it, it is a sign of desperation.

So why then did Fitzgerald release audio tapes to the public? Why after 5 years of investigation into Gov. Blagojevich’s office, did he decide to act on taped solicitations, rather than wait for the money to change hands so that the case would have been open and closed? Why didn’t Fitzgerald, after 5 years, have something more concrete to base his indictment of a sitting Governor on? It has been said that Fitzgerald acted in order to pressure Blagojevich to resign and deny him the opportunity to presumably sell or to appoint himself to the seat. If the Governor had appointed someone, or even himself, to the seat, then had later been convicted, it would have created a mess and required a special election to remedy; a move that most people called for anyway, (including Sen. Dick Durbin), that was mishandled by the state legislature, and ultimately never happened.

Is that what we want our federal government to do? It seems that there is a state sovereignty issue here and we shouldn’t think lightly of the federal government, trying to influence the inner-workings of the executive branch of government at the state level. Let me reiterate that I am not defending the actions of Governor Blagojevich. From what I’ve seen, I believe that he is most likely guilty. I am merely arguing that the way the Justice department has handled the situation is highly unprofessional, and is an attempt to affect an act by a fairly elected state official. If a crime was to be committed, Fitzgerald should have waited until the crime was committed. The alleged purpose for Fitzgerald to act preemptively, to prevent an appointment by the Governor, had little or no effect, and only succeeded in making the federal prosecutors office look silly. It is not the justice department’s job to prevent crime, merely to execute the laws that the legislative branch creates by enforcing the law.

By convicting Governor Blagojevich in the court of public opinion before true justice could run its course, Fitzgerald succeeded only in backing lawmakers into choosing a side. When given the choice of backing a suspected felon, who admittedly looks pretty guilty, or taking the high road to oppose any appointee that the Governor made, Fitzgerald, Sen. Ried, and President-Elect Obama, (Obama has since backed off and Harry Ried was forced into backpedaling as well.) played right into Blagojevich’s hands, and are now, most likely, going to be forced to admit Blagojevich’s appointee.

Who is right here? Ried and many Senators had claimed that any appointee from Blagojevich is tainted and should not be admitted. Blagojevich claimed that as he has not been officially convicted of any crime, as of yet, and is still the sitting Governor, he has not only the legal right, but the legal responsibility to appoint someone to fill the vacant seat so that the state gets the representation that it requires. Unfortunately for Sen. Ried, Blagojevich is right on this one. The Governor, as much as we may abhor his actions and attitude about this scandal, is still the Governor and has not been convicted of anything. The letter of the law states that he is innocent until proven guilty, and therefore must, until he is removed, fulfill his duties as Governor.

Let’s put aside the question of whether Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution, which states that “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members”, is fair or whether is denies states the right to freely choose their own representatives. Let’s put aside the fact that a Federal prosecutor saw fit to take it on himself to attempt to pressure a sitting Governor to step down and not appoint someone to a vacant senate seat which he had a legal right to do. What Governor Blagojevich did in appointing Roland Burris, was to throw a huge stink bomb into the U.S. Senate. He dared them to deny the appointment of Roland Burris, an African American, into an entirely white Senate. Burris, former Attorney General and State Comptroller, is without political blemish, and there is no proof that he ever offered Governor Blagojevich anything for the seat. There was absolutely no reason to turn him away other than the fact that he was appointed by Blagojevich. By turning Burris away from the Senate Harry Ried played into the symbolism of turning a black man away from a “white” institution.

Eventually Roland Burris will be seated, Blagojevich will most likely go to jail, and we will all move on. Until then, it looks like Blagojevich is the smarter chess player, forcing Illinois and the nation to look at him as a sitting Governor rather than the corrupt politician that Fitzgerald had tried to expose and prevent him from appointing someone to the Senate. This case is a cautionary tale of how good intentions can blow up in your face if you are over zealous. Fitzgerald has a history of being given a plethora of indictable offenses, and choosing to champion an inconsequential offense in a way that has little or no impact. We saw this with the Scooter Libby indictment on perjury charges, after investigating whether someone in our government, (i.e. Vice President Cheney), gave up a covert operative to settle a political grudge. Did he go for the serious charge, no, he went for the crime that had nothing to do with the original investigation. In Blagojevich’s case, Fitzgerald didn’t go after indictments in the 12 other investigations (at least) focusing on the Governor; he chose to go after the one crime that Blagojevich hadn’t committed yet, thus giving Blagojevich political cover to do the one thing that Fitzgerald, rightly or wrongly, was trying to prevent; Make an appointment to the U.S. Senate.

[Editors note- According to Politico.com, "The Roland Burris saga is over, as Democratic Senate leaders have accepted his credentials, clearing the way for him to be sworn in as the junior senator from Illinois by the end of this week"]

I’m back from The U.S., and it was an amazing trip, filled with friends family and work…lot’s and lot’s of work. Thanks Scot. Unfortunately, I need to take the rest of the week off from writting articles in order to recover from the jet lag, but I will return this weekend. Thank you for your continued patience while I recuperate from the exhaustion of 17 hours of time displacement. If you are curious about my trip, check out my daily blog, “Dispatches From The Land Of The Rising Sun”, which I’ve begun to update again. Have a great week, and we’ll see you this weekend.

02/02/2009 (Monday)

Holy moly! Have I been a flake or what? It’s been two weeks since I so much as said hello to you all. Have you ever gotten in one of those survival modes? You know, the ones where you just go to work, come home, eat sleep, that kind of thing? Yeah, well add a couple parties, a few trips to the girls house, a few trips to Costco, and new announcement, and that has been about it for me. WAIT!! Did he say announcement?

Yes I did folks. In addition to the bomb I dropped on you last month about my considering a run for political office, I’m also getting married. I’ll be married to “The Girl”, as I call her here to protect her anonymity, on March 25th in Osaka, Japan. We will have been together for exactly 4 years when we say “I do”, and as far as our families are concerned, it’s about time. We are doing it for the right reasons. There are no babies on the way, no reason to rush, it’s just time. We both agree that we want to be with each other for the rest of our lives, what ever that means, and so we are gonna make it official.

I hope you’ll all forgive the infrequency of my posts recently. Juggling all of that and being in a writing funk ta boot, makes it a little challenging to post everyday. I know that sounds like a poor excuse, but seriously, I caught myself writing “I’m going to bed” and “I just got up” as if they were two separate entries. No one wants to hear the same story everyday. If you have specific questions about Japan, that would really help me to find focus, and would solve my problem. So please e-mail questions to: nextgenpolitics@gmail.com Subject line: Japan questions.

So that being out of the way, I’ll tell you that today I woke up at the girls house, dropped her off at the train station and headed to Costco. I never know what I’m going to get when I go there, and today, I got almost nothing. Peanut butter, bagels, and some cream cheese. Yeah, I’m really living the Japanese diet, can you tell? Anyway, I’m home now. I played a little CoD: World at War with my buddy online, and then cleaned my bathroom. I’m feeling sort of motivated today. I may even write something for the main page. I make no promises though…

So, with that, I’ll sign off from the land of the rising sun. See you next time.

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01/16/2008 (Friday)

Today was a fun one. A lot of drama happened that I can’t talk about because some of my students read this now, but it worked out. I had a steady, but not crazy day. My 4 year old came to class and was as adorable as always. My older ladies class was today and I love that class. I had a long talk with a co-worker about relationships and what makes someone “know” that they’ve found “The One”. At the end of the day, I rode my bike home and played a little Call of Duty with my buddy. That was my exciting day. I’ll try to have more to write about soon. I will be taking a trip to Osaka on Sunday, so I’ll try to take some pictures and have some stories for you. So from the Land of The Rising Sun, I’ll sign off. See you all soon.

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01/15/2008 (Thursday)

Today I didn’t have a class until 5pm, so I got a lot of paper work done while I was waiting. As a teacher at our school, we are responsible for writing progress reports, initial counseling report, and renewal counseling reports. Because I have mostly “group lesson” classes, I end up with quite a few every month. In these reports we show the student what their level is in about 8 different areas like grammar, vocabulary, fluency, expressions, pronunciation, attitude, homework, and listening. There may be more, but I can’t think of them right now. We have to choose a number between 1 (being the lowest) and 5 (being perfect). In Japan they don’t give anyone a 5. I get evaluated every 6 months and getting a 5 means you have no room for improvement, which is, at least in their eyes, impossible. This may lead one to wonder they put it on the sheet if it’s impossible, but hey, who am I?

A buddy of mine bought me a video game for Christmas, (actually we gave each other video games for Christmas), so when I got home we played the new game. Call of Duty “World at War”. I recommend this game to anyone that loves first person shooters. I was a bit skeptical at first because I didn’t know how older weapons would hold up against the last Call of Duty game that was set in the present. It’s a good game. There are a lot more single shot weapons, which can be a bit frustrating, but there is also some automatics weapons as well.

And that was my exciting day in Japan. If you are wondering why I haven’t been blogging everyday, this is why. First I’m really busy at work and with personal things, and secondly, not that much has happened lately, so everyone once in awhile, I will skip a day. I hope you all understand. I’m sure you were getting tired of reading, “I woke up…..I went to bed” as if they were two separate journal entries. With that I’ll leave you. Have a great day, and I’ll see you later.

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01/12/2009 (Tuesday)

Today was a very cold day. With all this talk of global warming, you’d think it would be, I don’t know….warmer. Anyway, I rode my bike to work today. I’m still trying to get rid of this extra weight that I put on while I was home. I eat about half the lunch that I used to, and I ride my bike 20-30 mins each way to work and home again. I can tell I’ve lost at least a little, I was a little heavier than I would have liked before I went home, now I have to work even harder to get the weight off.

My classes were pretty easy today. My first class was canceled, so I didn’t have a class until 4pm. After that I had 4 classes. It was pretty easy. My kids class was a revue unit, (I have no idea why they insist on a review unit for 5 year old’s), and the girls had fun. They didn’t really want to do the activities that I had planned, but again, they are 5 years old.

Scot called today to give me some homework, and other than that I didn’t really do much. I wanted to go out for sushi after work, but no one wanted to go to the sushi place. It is about a mile away, and since it was 9:30pm when we finished work, I think everyone just wanted to go home. I rode my bike in the freezing cold, but made it home safely. Nothing too exciting to write about. Maybe some crazy thing will happen tomorrow. Until then, I’ll sign off. Have a great day.

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01/11/2009 (Monday)

As you can tell, I didn’t post yesterday. I’m going to do that from time to time on the weekend. Sometimes I will take a trip and it’s a bit much to bring my computer with me. (it’s a 10lbs Dell XPS Notebook) I do have internet access at the girls house, but her computer is in Japanese and a real pain in the butt to use.

Anyway, Yesterday I went to Sannomiya to meet the girl. While I was waiting for her to finish work, I headed to Tokyu Hands department store. That store has everything, including the Franklin Covey Inserts I needed for my planner. I then headed to a Starbucks nearby to put the pages into my planner. The girl was supposed to finish work at 6:30pm, but like usual, she was late; an hour late. grrrr. It was OK. I sat in the lobby of her hotel and watched the news on my iPod while drinking my tea from Starbucks.

After she finished work, we headed to a food court nearby. I ate Panda Express, on the recommendation of my Dad, and she had some Chige (korean Soup). After dinner we went to a game center and played some metal games for a couple hours. They don’t have things like this in the U.S. anymore, but they are pretty fun. Finally we headed home and went to sleep.

I woke up this morning and the girl made me a piece of toast and a cup of coffee. I walked her to work, and headed home. My goal today was to write an article for the website. I had a couple ideas, but kept getting caught on how to start them. After taking a nap, reading a couple comics, watching Meet The Press and NBC Nightly News, I finally got started and wrote an article about the Rod Blagojevich Scandal that is sure to have some people scratching their heads. If you don’t know me, you might think I was defending the guy. I absolutely was not. I think he is as creepy and slimey as they come. I was arguing that the way the Federal prosecutor and Harry Ried handled the situation played right into his hands and made them look silly. Anyway, I expect some questioning comments tomorrow.

After I finished that article I met a buddy online for some XBox 360 shooter gaming. We played for an hour or so then I told him I had to go. That is my weekend. Not too exciting, but exactly the kind of weekend that I needed to readjust. This week is going to be a good one, I can feel it, and with this weekends rest and fun behind me, I should be good for the frustrations and challenges that are to come. Wish me luck. With that I’ll sign off. See you all soon.

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01/10/2009 (Saturday)

Today was bad. It started out good, but I think I jinxed myself, because not 2 hours into the day and one of my co-workers got sick and I had to teach one of his classes. I’m pretty tired from jet lag already, but adding that class put me over the edge. I was exhausted.

After work I gave a bottle of white wine from my home town to the owner of the Korean restaurant, (if you remember the guy that gave me the bottle of 17 year old whiskey), and another bottle to David at Murphy’s Pub. I ended up staying at Murphy’s for a few hours and talking politics with a guy from Nigeria, David, and then later one of my buddies showed up and we went to another bar. It was an OK day, but I am seriously pooped. I’m planning to do some writing tomorrow, so stand by for the return of Next Gen. Have a great day everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

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01/09/2009 (Friday)

Today was a doozy. 6 classes in 8 hours. 1 kids class, 1 private lesson that had not outline on how I should teach it, but had a book that they wanted me to teach from, and 4 normal classes. I didn’t get to catch my breath and eat lunch until 5pm. Awesome! There are some classes that no matter how tired I am, I can manage to teach with lots of energy, and I had 3 of those today, but the other three, I’m sorry to say, were not 100%. Of course my Friday kids class was great. I gave her a box of 24 Crayola Crayons that I bought in the U.S. for her. Has anyone else noticed that the names for colors has gone a little out of control. They have three shades of orange, none of them called orange mind you, and no light blue. Though they do have blue-green, some kind that starts with a “c”, indigo, blue and blue-violet. Seriously, do they think we need that many shades in a box of 24? Give kids the basic colors first, THEN add the crazy stuff. Wow! Rocket science!

After work, we were rushed out of the office. I guess the manager wanted to get home to his wife. If I was married, I’d probably want to do the same. It was pretty cold, and had rained earlier in the day, but I managed to ride my bike home. When I got home I met a buddy online to play a little “Bad Company”, on XBox. After about an hour, we called it quits and that was my exciting night.

Tomorrow is Saturday. It’s actually an easier day than most other days for me. I have 5 classes in a 9 hour day, with an hour and a half lunch. Should be an easy day, but let me knock on some wood really quick….OK…done. So with that I’ll sign off. Have a great day. See you all soon.

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01/08/2009 (Thursday)

I used to think that I got tired at work, not from physical exertion, but from mental exertion or maybe even naked light fixtures affecting my eyes. Today I had an epiphany. The days that I have low level and kids classes, are the days that I’m the most tired, so that got me thinking; what is it about those classes. Today, in the middle of one of my classes it hit me. Low level classes require a much larger amount of physical motion and expression, as well as a lot more energy to keep the students attention. A teacher tends to use their hands much more, speak much more clearly and project their voice more, which requires more diaphragm support. In low level and kids classes teachers tend to be a lot more “genki”, (energetic, enthusiastic, or happy.) Compared to other teachers that I know, I tend to be even more over the top with low level students. I joke a lot with physical humor, and move about the classroom much more energetically. That may not be that interesting to you, but it blew me away that it took me nearly 2.5 years to figure that out. Well, one mystery solved, at least.

Today I woke up an hour before I wanted to. I’m still getting over the 17 hour time displacement thing. I usually don’t have a problem, and I wouldn’t say that this is a big problem, just that I feel tired throughout the day, and I’d rather not. I think all the food in the U.S. did a number on my stomach too. It wasn’t the food’s fault, on the contrary, American food is the best in the world, I don’t care what anyone says. No, the fault for my stomach ailment is fully mine. I ate like I was on death row and trying to use the “too fat to hang defense”. I at all my favorite restaraunts, and tried all my favorite dishes. I’m a bit of a food tourist, and one thing that I really hate about being away from home, is that I miss the food. I gained something like 12 pounds in 16 days. Amazing right? What damage to myself could I have done with a month? Anyway, my stomach was none pleased and I’m paying for it now in a constant discomfort. Not a pain, just a slight discomfort. I’m sure it will go away soon. I’m drinking lots of water, eating granola, and I don’t eat dinner. It will pass.

Today was a typical Thursday. Slow in the beginning and nuts at the end. Nothing too special to report, other than I never realized how much I loved the kids in my kids classes until I was away for 2 weeks. I spoiled them this week with cookies that my mother made. She is the best baker in the world. Thanks mom. The cookies were great, and the kids loved them.

Well, that’s about it for today. So, from the land of the rising sun, I’ll sign off. See you all soon.

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01/07/2009 (Wednesday)

Wow! It’s been a long time hasn’t it? Well, I flew home for the holidays, and not having brought my computer to the states, I was at the mercy of my family for internet access. I guess you can see how well that went. My mother has this great laptop with a fingerprint access; unfortunately for me, I don’t share her fingerprint. My sister has a laptop, but it wouldn’t recognize my external hard drive with all my next gen files. Nice.

So, anyway, I went home on the 18th with my girlfriend. I’m from Washington state, and anyone from Washington state knows that Seattle doesn’t snow much, that is unless you enter the twilight zone like we did. It was like a blizzard. Busses were flying off bridges with people climbing out windows, police were afraid to take their patrol cars out into the streets. Downtown Seattle was essentially shut down for almost a week. Maybe if you are from a part of the world that gets a lot of snow, you don’t understand what the fuss is about, but for Seattlites, this was bad.

My friend and Next Gen Tech Guru, Sarah, picked us up from the airport and drove us the 4 hours to my home town. I say 4 hours, because that is how long it is supposed to take, it took much much longer. Here is a picture of the roads:

The girl and I finally made it to my house in the early evening and settled in. We spent most of the 5 days shopping and seeing family, and one day we took a trip to one of the many wineries in my home town. We did a wine tasting of about 8 different wines. We chose a few to take back to Japan and ate some fancy cheeses and bread. I had never been to a winery before, and it was a really nice experience. I recommend it to anyone who likes wine. I don’t know much about them, and even I had a lot of fun.

Another night at about 12am, I decided that if there was going to be an unseasonably large amount of snow, we should at least go sledding. I roused my nephew and the girl for some pre-sledding food, met my little sister, and headed to Walmart to find a sled. My home town doesn’t usually get snow until the middle of January, so it should not have been a surprise that they had no sleds, but we were disappointed. Because I am a Marine, I don’t give up so easily though. Adapt and overcome and all that, right? I bought two Rubbermaid storage containers with lids and loaded them in the car. We had a great time and I have some nice pictures to prove it.

Yeah, it was as fun as it looks.

After the girl left, I spent some most of my time seeing friends and family, and when I wasn’t doing that I was laying the ground work for a potential run for Congress. Yeah, you heard me right. I wanted my “Dispatch” readers to hear first, but I’m in the exploratory phase of a run for congress in my home state of Washington. We aren’t 100% sure yet, so we haven’t declared, but I have a good team put together that is enthusiastic about change for our state, and we are testing the waters. Of course as the process unfolds I will keep you all up to date. Wish me well.

Anyway, I was very busy meeting party leaders and others that are interested in working on a campaign, so my mom wasn’t very happy. I hung out with her a few times, but not a “whole day with just us”, as she said. Sorry Mom. Love you.

After over two weeks of living out of a suit case I was happy to get back to Japan, so that I could finish out my contract and get to work back home in Washington. Being home reminded me of all the things I love about my hometown and state, and of all the work that is ahead of me to fix the things that I, and many others, think should be a little different.

So there it is, I’m back. If you have specific questions about my trip or my future plans, I’d love to hear from you. Send a message to nextgenpolitics@gmail.com. Subject line: Questions for Jay, and I’ll get back to you personally, or if you would like, I’ll respond on the site. So with that, I’ll let you go. I have a horrible case of 17 hours difference jet lag, so I’m off to bed. See you all soon.

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12/17/2008 (Wednesday)

Well as you have probably noticed the posts are coming fewer and more far between. I have been spending all my time packing and getting ready to go back to the states for the holidays. I’ll be in the US from the 18th of December until January 5th. During that time I’m going to try really hard to at least keep good notes of what I’m doing and take good pictures for you all. If I can, I’ll make a couple posts, and if something really gets my goat back home, I’ll even write and article. I’m planning to play it by ear, and I really need the rest, so please understand if I don’t post while I’m home. I haven’t forgotten about you, and in the new year, we’ll be back on schedule. So until my next post, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. You’ve all made this new year an amazing one for me. See you all soon.

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12/15/2008 (Monday)

Today was a Costco day. I woke up fairly early for a weekend, did some laundry, and headed out with my huge backpack to get some groceries. I’m leaving for the US in a couple of days, but I thought that it would be better to come home to a full freezer than to have to worry about it when I got home.

Today was rude day in Japan apparently. No matter where I went or what I did, I kept getting walked into, cut in front of, and people kept walking really really slow in front of me. I arrived at Costco at about 2:30pm on a Monday, but the place was more full than if I had gone on a Saturday afternoon. It was insane. Don’t these people work? I have Sundays and Mondays off, and apparently so do they.

I had my pizza and hot dog, then fought with the crowds to get my groceries. After leaving Costco I went to Sannomiya to kill some time waiting for the girl to get off of work. She got off work about an hour and half later than she was supposed to, which actually is pretty normal, so I ended up waiting in the lobby of the hotel for her for about an hour. The staff just assumed I was a guest I suppose.

She finally finished and we headed to a Korean restaurant that we both like to have some Korean soup, Chi-gei. ( I don’t know if I spelled that right, probably not.) We were both surprised to see that 2 bowls of soup, two bowls of rice, an iced tea, and a small plate of Kimchi came to about $42. That was a lot more than we expected. Good thing we both had some money on us.

After dinner I walked her back to the train, kissed her goodnight, and headed home. After struggling with the over stuffed train, (the most full I have ever seen it), and the stuffed buss, (usual amount), I finally made it home. What A day. I was exhausted.

So that’s my day. I’ll end it there. See you all soon. Have a great day.

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12/14/2008 (Sunday)

Before I get into my extremely boring and ordinary Sunday, let me first apologize for the sorry excuse for a post yesterday. I just didn’t have the energy to write a post. All last week, I felt tired. I think my body knows I’m going home soon, and has started to move into holiday mode a week early. So, again, sorry.

Yesterday was a pretty busy day. Usually I only have 4 or 5 classes on Saturdays and they are pretty spread out. Yesterday I had 6 classes, 4 of which were right out of the gate, and to make matters worse numbers 2 and 3 were private lessons at the lowest level we offer. Usually these classes are taught by Japanese teachers, so we don’t have much experience teaching them. My being assigned these classes could be seen in two ways. 1st it could be said that since I don’t have much experience teaching these low level classes, that any experience I could get with them could only make me a better teacher. Fair enough I guess. On the other hand, it could be seen as an incredible disservice to the student to have a teacher teaching a class that they have no experience with, and one in which the text book is written in Japanese. Of course the teachers guide has English translations, but the class structure is completely different then the 99% of classes that I teach. I’m sure you can see from this that I wasn’t pleased, nor amused.

The management totally mismanaged the day. They had us doing interviews at the only times we were able to eat, so we were forced to wait to eat until the day was almost over. Keep in mind that our day is 9 hours long on Saturdays. It was not a happy day.

After work we had our Annual Christmas party. It became apparent during the week that our new manager and assistant manager had no idea the importance of this event to our students. They planned nothing, they contributed nothing, and they didn’t care. The only question my manager asked about was what kind of food would he be able to eat at the party. Lame. I was so angry. Our assistant manager was positioning herself near the buffet, thinking that she was going to be the first to eat, when, in Japan, and at our school, you should let your students eat first. It was pathetic. She seemed to think the party was for her. I was disgusted by her and my managers behavior, and I felt bad for the students. We had about half the students participate as usual because myself and a Japanese teacher were the only ones that were doing anything, and we are the busiest teachers at our school. It was just sad.

In the end, I think those that came had a good enough time, but nothing like the two years previous. After the party, the other foreign teacher and myself took some students out for a 2nd party at a local Spanish bar. I tried to go to an ATM to get some extra cash, but one of the wonderful things about Japan is that their bank ATM’s close at 9pm and their convenience store ATM’s close at about 11pm. Luckily I had about $20 on me for the evening.

I only stayed for one drink because the beer wasn’t very good and it was really hot. I was sweating in the bar in the middle of December. After I left, I rode my bike home, and by the time I got home I was exhausted.And that was Saturday.

Today, I was very lazy. I slept in until about 12:30pm. After waking up and walked to the convenience store to pick up some milk for my breakfast and when I got back I made myself my bagel and coffee and watched episodes 9 and 10 of “Fringe”. That’s a great show, by the way, if anyone is interested. I get my episodes on iTunes for about $35 per season. So far this year I’ve been watching Heroes, Burn Notice, Lost, Fringe, and Life. I’ve haven’t watched so much TV since I was a kid.

While I was watching T.V. I was also doing laundry, and after the show was over I hung up my laundry which consisted of about 10 white T-Shirts, 3 “pajama” T-Shirts, and some socks. In Japan almost no one has a dryer. Apparently they think it’s wasteful to use that much energy, and they may be right, but in almost every house they have a drying fan setting in their shower room and it takes about 7 hours to dry anything, so I can’t imagine that a fan running for 7 hours would use less energy than a dryer that runs for 45mins, but I could be wrong.

After hanging up my clothes I met my buddy online for some first person shooting action. We haven’t met online recently because I was so busy with the election and also because my XBox was broken recently.

After a couple hours we took a break to eat dinner and now I’m updating you all. As you can see, today was a much needed lazy day. Tomorrow, I’ll go to Sannomiya to do some shopping then off to Costco for my groceries. I’m sure I’ll have a slice of pizza while I’m there. Until tomorrow, have a great day. See you soon.

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12/13/2008 (Saturday)

Today was the schools official Christmas party. Needless to say, I’m dead tired. I’m sorry, but I’ll have to post late. Please check back tomorrow for an update, I’ll put up some pictures to make it up to you. Have a great day folks.

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12/12/2008 (Friday)

Today I was woken up at 4am by my good friend Scot. He had meant to leave a message and didn’t realize that I was anal enough to keep my cell phone on and within reach at night. Go figure. I finally got up and moving about about 10am. I did some dishes and made my breakfast. After breakfast Scot called again and we talked about the season and our project.

I left the house and rode my bike to work. I had to maneuver around every person in Kobe, I think. It was horrible and at one point I almost got hit by a careless truck driver. I arrived safe and sound at work, and got ready for my classes. The day went alright. Today was my class with my 4 year old that I love teaching. She decided that it would be more fun to stand on her hands with her feet against up on the wall and walk along the four corners of the room, telling me how impressive it was, than study English. Now, seriously, what do you say to that? Well, I said, “that IS impressive!” I love that little girl.

After school, I rode my bike home feeling a bit reflective and relaxed. I thought about my coming trip home and how nice it will be. In fact, I thought about everything except the fact that I had left my wallet at work. Now, this may sound like a small thing, but you have to understand that almost everything in Japan is in Card form; my bus pass, my bank card…..my apartment key. Yeah. Nice.

I turned my bike around and started calling frantically to anyone in my office that might have a key to the school. The problem is that getting into the school is the easy part, it’s getting the locked elevators up to the second floor that is the difficult. For this reason I had to call my manager, who was on his way home to his wife and kids. I felt about 2 inches tall. I met him at my office and to my surprise he didn’t even seem upset. In fact, he handed me my wallet, then handed me a can of Guinness beer and told me to have a good night and that he’d see me tomorrow. Is that not the coolest thing? Seriously, I don’t deserve my co-workers.

I finally made it home after coming home than back to work then home again. I watch an episode of Fringe, and then a friend called. That is my day. So with that, I’ll call it a night. Have a great day. I’ll talk to you soon.

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12/11/2008 (Thursday)

Today was a super slow day until 5pm. My 2pm private lesson canceled so I just prepared for classes that I won’t have for a month or so from now. All in all it was an OK day. I had a couple counselings and my group lessons were pretty good. I had to teach some really tough topics though, hypothetical’s in regards to ethical questions. Tough to teach to someone that isn’t a native speaker.

I had to start telling my classes that another teacher would be teaching their classes while I’m away in the U.S. for vacation. It was pretty cute when one of my 9 year old students told his mom he wanted to send me a Christmas card to the U.S. I love those kids.

My lunch today was two delicious Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. So good. I think I’ll have it tomorrow too. I rode my bike to school again today, and again today it was warm enough that I was sweating when I got to the school and when I returned home. This weather is so crazy. Flip the switch to winter already, will ya?

Nothing else really to write about. I downloaded the first season of Fringe. So that was pretty good. I highly recommend it. So, with that, I’ll leave you to your day. Talk to you soon.

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12/10/008 (Wednesday)

Well, I’m a little late, sorry about that. To be honest, last night when I got home, all I could think of was my sweet sweet bed. I’m not really sure why I was so sleepy. Work was pretty easy. I only had 3 classes, one of which was a kids class.

I started riding my bike to work again, since the weather warmed up the last couple of days. The weather in Akashi is strange. More strange than the Tri-Cities, (my home town), and that’s saying a lot. Just this weekend, it was so cold that people were saying that they had never seen it that cold in Akashi before. It’s only the beginning of December, but last week it seemed more like the end of January. Because of the huge shifts in temprature, a lot of students and teachers are getting sick, which means eventually they will give it to everyone else. Luckily, I have a crazy strong immune system, and I’ve already gotten sick once this year, so I don’t think I’ll be getting sick again. Thanks Mom and Dad for the super genes.

Honestly, there wasn’t much else going on yesterday. I’m still working on that project I hinted at before, and as soon as I get the OK from Scot and Sarah, I’ll let you all in on it. It’s going to be exciting. Well, I guess that’s about it for today. I’ll write more tonight (my time-tomorrow morning your time). Have a great night. See you soon.

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12/09/2008 (Tuesday)

Welcome back folks! Not a lot happened today, and I spent most of the first part of the day in my usual grumpy mood. I don’t know why my attitude is so negative in the mornings. If I recognize the problem, should I be able to prevent it? Anyway, I was not a very nice guy this morning and felt a little bad about it. My poor co workers have to listen to me for at least the first couple hours of everyday complain about everything they do that annoys me. I really need to stop that. I actually love my co-workers like family. They are going to start hating me, if they don’t already.

We had our first business meeting in about 2 months today. I guess someone at Honbu found out about us not having them and put some pressure on our manager. I really think that these meeting are pretty worthless for teachers. They are meant, I’m sure, to make us feel like we are part of the team, but the meetings offer us no opportunity to change anything. If we make suggestions, the management would say that it was a good idea and ignore it. Japanese companies are very resistant to change. I’m surprised they are very successfull. If not for unflinching worker loyalty, I’m sure that they would not do so well.

I taught a kids class, 4 other “normal” classes today, and the A/C in my room was broken. Nice! I warned the manager that the system was broken and needed to be looked at on Monday, but he forgot. Then this morning my co-worker reminded him, and he forgot. finally at about 6pm I reminded him again and he called them. He is really busy everyday and has a lot on his mind, not to mention that he has only been a manager for about 5 months, but seriously, we were melting.

After work My co-worker and I were invited to a students house for a Nabe party. Nabe is a Japanese kind of stew that the Japanese eat in the winter. It’s really easy to make and it is awesome! A nabe party is when you get a bunch of your friends together to eat nabe. Not so complicated, but this is a really popular thing to do in the winter. If you come to Japan in the winter, don’t leave until someone takes you home for a nabe party. You’ll thank me later. Anyway, we sat around talking about our love lives, work, politics, and debated whether a tomatoe was a fruit or vegetable. For the record, scientifically it is a fruit, but for cullinary purposes and for that of tarrif laws in the US, it’s a vegetable. We seriously busted out wikipedia.org in Japanese and in English. -side note- pumpkins are also fruits.

After the party, I rode my bike home and wrote a nasty letter to iTunes for not having my Heroes podcast in my download que. It’s on their page, but not in my que…frustrating.

So with that, I’ll go to bed. Have a good day. See you soon.

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12/08/2008 (Monday)

OK, so I’m a lazy guy. I know. Saturday after work there was a big end of the year party with some of my students and fellow teachers. These parties are called Bon en kai. All over Japan in companies they are having these parties. They are so common in fact that many companies have multiple parties, divided by departments. Not only companies, but clubs and organizations will have them too. For this reason many people have to go to 2 or more of them a year. After the new years there are other parties to celebrate the new year. I can’t remember the names of these parties off hand, but it’s the same basic idea, but for the new year.

We held our party at my favorite bar Murphy’s and we had all you can eat and drink. I didn’t drink as much as last time we had one of these, but I still hurt a bit when I woke up. Here are some of the pcitures from the party.

Yeah they throw gang signs in Japan too, and they look just as ridiculous here.

All the guys at one table, and guess where all the girls were? Yep, at a different table. No matter the country, boys are clueless when it comes to girls.

We tricked a couple girls to come over. Don’t the boys look happier?…Well except for the guy on the right. He’s always a bit nervous. Super nice guy, though.

I always have at least one arm around a pretty girl. *Psst* Hey, guys….over here….like this!

This was the end of the party. The place had cleared out by this time, but I stayed to talk politics and get schooled by the owner in a game of scrabble…and I’m the English teacher…just sad. Blame it on the beer.

The next day I woke up with a killer head ache and sent my XBox back to Microsoft to have some warranty work done. I had the red ring of death, and luckily my buddy near Tokyo speaks Japanese enough to get them to come pick up the paper weight for repairs.

After I sent the brick back, I got showered, dressed, and headed off to meet the girl. We wanted to try the new mall in Nishinomiya again. After we got there we immediately regretted it. We ended up going back to her house to order Dominoes. She had drank too much the night before at a party with her co-workers and we both wanted something heavy and greasy. I ordered my regular pepperoni and pineapple pizza, (don’t mock me, it’s good. Try it!), and the girl ordered some eggplant vegatable thing. It was nasty. After eating it was still about 8:30pm so we went back to the mall and it was closing up. I wanted some gummy bears and she wanted to see which shops were still open.

After we got back, she put on season 1 of Sex and the City, while I pretended to be asleep. I wanted to hate it, but it was pretty funny. Damn those funny women. Oh well.

I woke up this morning, and rode with the girl to Sannomiya and headed home to meet Scot for a quick meeting. After that, I did some internet work, and basically sat around all day. I should have cleaned my room, but I felt really lazy, so I didn’t. Oh well, I’ll do it next weekend.

All in all it was a decent weekend. Next weekend there is the official company party, so I’m sure the weekend will turn out similar to this one. I hate this time of year in Japan. Have a mentioned that I really don’t like drinking. From reading this you might not know it, but it’s true. You just, honestly cannot survive in this culture without drinking, at least not as an American. They expect us all to drink more than two of them. I’m not doing wonders for our image, but I drink enough to not be rude.

With that I’ll sign off. Sorry for the late post. It was a crazy weekend. Next weekend may be the same, so don’t get too mad. I’ll take pictures. Have a good night. See you soon.

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12/05/2008 (Friday)

Today when I got to work I knew immediately that it was a mistake to have come in. I was sick and I told my boss that I probably should go home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, if they can’t find someone to teach your class and you are not passed out, you’re teaching. Guess what? I wasn’t passed out.

I struggled through the day, but I made it. They offered to let me call in sick tomorrow, but I have a big party tomorrow and I didn’t want students seeing me at a party after missing classes. So, anyway, I’ll be going in tomorrow.

So, again, I’ll have to keep this short because I’m sick. I’ll be taking a bunch of pictures tomorrow at the party, so I’ll share those with you soon. Have a great day.

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12/04/2008 (Thursday)

Again, today, I felt sick. It’s in my stomach so I don’t know if I ate something bad, (unlikely, as it’s lasted this long), or if I’m genuinely sick. I plan to go to bed early tonight, to see if it’s just stress and lack of enough sleep.

Today was my rough day. One private lesson at 2pm then a kids class at 5pm followed by 3 group lessons. I know that doesn’t seem like a lot, but having 4 classes in a row is actually really rough. They usually try to avoid that, but there just wasn’t any other way in this situation. I survive every week, so it’s no big deal. The only thing that made it slightly worse today was the fact that I was sick.

A few months ago I went with my girlfriend to get a massage. The lady that gave me my massage spoke really good English and I encouraged her to come to my school and continue her English studies. Last week she finally came in for an interview, and today was her first class. She did really well. There was an awkward feeling in the room though because the class she went into was usually a one person class because everyone else had moved up in levels. The girl in that class and I had set a different tone for that class, and the introduction of a third person, kind of threw us off a bit. I know that sounds strange, but if you’ve ever taught classes, you might understand the importance and the uniqueness of each classes “feel”. The new girl was a bit hesitant and the other girl was very gracious, so I’m sure the class with take off again in a couple of weeks.

After class I rode my bike home. the weather here is a lot like my home town, with lots of starts and stops when the seasons begin to change. It was really cold for the last couple weeks, then today it was warm. Of course that play havoc with peoples health, and also makes it difficult to choose a coat to wear in the morning. I ended up with a silk lined pea coat that was much too warm for the weather. By the time I got home, I was pretty sweaty. Nice.

Because I’m still feeling a bit sick, I think I’ll end it here. So, I’ll see you all soon. Have a great day.

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12/03/2008 (Wednesday)

Today I felt sick all day, but managed to make it through. I had a kids demo for a class I usually teach, and of which I’ve done a demo for at least 5 times, so it was no big deal. After work I headed to Nishinomiya to have a pint and talk politics with the boys, and this time my girlfriend came with me. It was great. My friend just got accepted to grad school so we celebrated a little more than usual. I’m currently at the girls house, so I can’t write much more. So with that, I’ll let you go. Sorry it’s so short. I’ll catch up to you tomorrow. Have a great day.

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12/02/2008 (Tuesday)

Today was a pretty uneventful day. I got up, had my bagel and coffee, ironed my shirt, and headed out to work. My first bus was about 5 mins early so I missed it, and my second bus was about 12 mins late, so I was almost late to work. I clocked in 2 mins early. SAFE!!

After my first class, I went next door and got my hair cut. The staff doesn’t speak English, so I kind of take my life into my own hands when I go in there. They’ve never completely destroyed my hair, but often they don’t cut it exactly like I would have liked. I guess it’s my fault for not learning Japanese after living here for over 2 years. Shame on me, right?

The day went pretty smoothly, and I really can’t make any complaints. Nothing about my day really stood out to me. One disadvantage about living overseas for this long is that in some ways it becomes hard to see distinctions between my home culture and my adoptive home culture. I’m sure when I go home for Christmas, I will have more to say. Things will stand out, and culture differences will scream at me to point them out.

So, with that, I’ll sign off. I’ll see you all soon.

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November Blog

12/01/2008 (Monday)

Today I woke up at the girls house and walked her to work. After I dropped her off at work, I started my phone calls to the U.S. I called Sarah to talk about our newest project, then called Scot to check in with him. After that I called my travel agent to pay for my plane ticket to the U.S. on the 18th. This whole time I was walking around Sannomiya and it was a beautiful day.

I ran into this display. Every year the a lot of people in Kansai make stuffed animals with a pattern provided by this charity. They submit the stuffed animals that they create with this pattern to this display and then the bears are shipped overseas to be given to poor children. Pretty cool right? My girlfriend’s mom does this every year, so we come here to see all the other animals that were created. Here is a picture of just one side of one of the four main displays.

Pretty impressive, right? I guess the people who make the animals can choose what to make them out of, because some are knitted, but most are made with cotton cloth.

Although Christmas is considered a “lovers holiday” in most of Asia, the tradition of charity and caring for your fellow man has managed to be passed along with the holiday. This is the sort of thing that makes Christmas special for me.

On the way home I had lunch at a curry restaurant and then headed home to do my laundry and get ready for the start of another week of work. After I did a little work, I took a nap for a couple hours then watched “Chinatown”, with Jack Nicholson. I had never watched it, and it was the $.99 movie of the week on iTunes last week. It was worth the more than 2 hours it took to watch it. If you are a fan of noir detective movies, you’ll definitely like this one. I am currently downloaded “The Two Jakes”, which is part two. I’ve seen most of this movie, but I’m not sure I’ve sat down and watched the whole thing. I can’t wait until I have time to watch it.

With that, I’ll sign off folks. I hope you all have a great day. See you soon.