Busy day tomorrow-and it will probably be a long one. So I am about to go to bed.

However the S.O. and I found a great place to have REAL chinese dumplings in San Francisco. Not Chinese food fashioned to American tastes-but real Shanghai style dumplings.

The place is over in Parkside-well south of Golden Gate Park on Tavaral Street. It is just a small, hole in the wall with only about 7 tables. But take it from the both of us-the dumplings are great.

It seems to be more of a local, Chinese favoring place-although they do consent to let Gweilo’s like me and the hated Japanese in as well. We were lucky and got a table right away. 15 minutes later we would have been waiting. We had Shanghai Soup Dumplings and what would be called in Japan sui-gyoza with shrimp and spinach in them. Both of us had the Chicken Wonton soup with wide rice noodles. All was good-along with some Anchor Steam Beer.

San Francisco I think, must be a lot like New York-lots of little restaraunts off the tourist path with excellent food, that only locals and select others know about. This place is one.

Kingdom of Dumpling

1713 Taraval Street

San Francisco.

It is not a bright shiny place-so if that is a downer for you give it a pass. But if you like a good place with good food (a hole in the wall, of which there are so many in Asia)-then go.

If you are going to be a darling of the Teabagger nation charged with defending the Constitution. You might want to actually read it:

WILMINGTON, Del. — Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.

The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O’Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons’ position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.

Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that “religious doctrine doesn’t belong in our public schools.”

“Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” O’Donnell asked him.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O’Donnell asked: “You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?”

Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.

“You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp,” Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O’Donnell’s grasp of the Constitution.

No time to post today. Jumping in the car and driving through Carmel and the Carmel Valley.

But just had to note this so you know where I stand on this-NPR got it wrong on Juan Williams. His statement was not bigoted, and represents how a lot of Americans feel. Whether Muslims and worthless Arabs like it. I don’t like gettting on planes with Arabs on them myself-sue me.  That Williams stoops to talk to idiots like O’Reilly and Hannity is not the issue-and I think was at the heart of the firing.

But that doesn’t make it right. NPR needs a reasonable man, and if they can allow other folks on the network-they can have Juan Williams on the network. I like him-and hate to see this happen.

More later-the beach is calling!

Then I could have seen all kinds of people go nuts because the S.F. Giants are going to the World Series.

And the Yankees are not.

So while its depressing as all get out to be back in Hicksville-there are at least a few things to be glad of.

H/T to Mark Warren.

Of the United States that is.

I spent the last week in San Francisco and also a night down in Monterey. After just over a month back in the smothering existence that is life in Shopping Mall-it was great to be back where there was lots to do and exciting things to see.  California may have a lot of problems right now-but it also has a lot of things going for it that other states can never hope to match.

Especially a backwards thinking chunk of farmland and fat people called Alabama.

There are only four large cities in the United States that I dream about living in from time to time. San Francisco is one of the them. (The other three are Reno, Pittsburgh and Boston). Contrast that with the 10 or so I would move to tomorrow in Asia and / or Europe. (See the bottom of the post for the list).

I know, I know, by saying I like San Francisco I might as well be like Miles: “Yeah, right. Yup, I’m a homo. Yeah. Yeah. Just make up whatever you want and that’s what happened. Okay? Write out my gay confession and I’ll sign it. Okay? ”

Nonetheless-San Francisco is the only large city in California I like. Los Angeles? Forget it. San Diego? Shopping Mall amplified 100 times. Sacramento? Aside from its proximity to Tahoe-nothing to recommend it.  There are lots of smaller towns in California   I like though-but mostly just to visit.

No,  San Francisco is the place in California I would not mind living. The problem is, the only way I want to live there is to actually live within the city, NOT out in its suburbs. And that takes money-lots of money to live the lifestyle I would like to live.  I am not blind-California is a state where you pay and pay and pay for the privilege of living there.

But San Francisco seems to me to have a distinct character-its neighborhoods are different and the  feel of the city is unique. Since I lived in Nevada for three plus years, I am very familiar with San Francisco. However when I was there in the 90′s, the city seemed run down, a wasted shade of it’s former greatness.

Today-the city seemed to be much cleaner. Even Market Street seemed clean. And while they still need to break out the billy clubs and have a brutal crackdown on the homeless people there, it did seem as if the numbers of those poor unfortunate souls was reduced. And we covered a lot of neighborhoods while there.

We utilized the public transportation and our trusty steed from Hertz:

Interestingly enough-this Altima was a hybrid. And I was very pleasantly surprised with it. It took some getting used to how quiet it was in city traffic-but it performed better than I expected it to racing down the PCH to Monterey.

The NLCS championship series was going on this week-and the town was out in full force to support the Giants. Since I had personal business to attend to on Wednesday, I was able to dispatch the S.O. long enough to be able to sidle up to the bar in one of the cities unique watering holes and watch the game.

Of course the S.O. dragged me down to Union Square-there the home of Tiffany and Bulgari ( Seems her birthday is coming up-as if I would be allowed to forget that!).

Fortunately, I was able to escape relatively unscathed, wallet-wise, and we meandered by trolley over to the Ferry Terminal for lunch. That place has become much more gentrified than I recall it being. It did have a great Vietnamese place for lunch though-which we took advantage of:

Great Pho Ga soup here!

It was evidently also the beginning of Fleet Week-but I did not see any Navy ships down by the bay.

But the weather was great while we were in San Fran-not so great down in Monterey. A clear blue sky greeted us early in the week:

You can see the rest of our San Francisco pictures here.

Oh yes, I promised the list of cities:

Asia:

Singapore
Hong Kong
Tokyo
Osaka
Taipei
Bangkok
Seoul
Kuala Lumpur
Shanghai

Europe:

Munich
London
Dublin
Brussels
Vienna
Frankfurt
Marseilles
Berlin
Koln
Maastricht
Prague

A box of chocolates-or a case of scotch. You never know how weird it will get.

After seeing rather quickly the burg of San Francisco, the S.O. and I drove down to Monterey. (This being after our abortive excursion to Union Square for the second time. No-I am not buying you Tiffany jewelry, just because you say you want it. Not without massive doses of softening up sex first!).

While cruising around Monterey- I had to go see the 17 mile drive. If for no other reason than to see a golf course I will never have the money or the skills to play:

And houses I cannot ever, ever, ever afford to live in:

All yours for one low price!

In the course of driving around the 17 mile drive though, we stumbled upon this interesting bit of photography:

Firebird + model = Who knows? But there was a whole host of support folks to make sure this model got her shots out:

A bizarre look if you ask me-but the car was nice!

The next day we were off to Point Lobos:

As you can tell the weather was getting bad-but it was still a great view and a neat place to go.

See the rest of the pix here.

Recently, I have seen several stories on TV about how “whore” is the new “ N”-word for women. Now a long time ago I pointed out that there was only one really bad word when it comes to women.

So whenever I hear someone talk about the “w” word being the equivalent of the “N” word-all I can think about it this:

I’m taking it back.

Today is the anniversary of three different battles. The nostalgics and historically myopic among the blogosphere will focus on St. Crispin’s day. The more nautically minded will focus on the fact that it is anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, an American naval victory-but as Herman Wouk pointed out, nonetheless a monument to the subhuman stupidity of warfare-”a giant blind man’s bluff played out with men’s lives and a nation’s resources“.

In today’s times- I prefer to take a repeat look at another battle-fought in the middle of a war foolishly embarked upon and then poorly executed. It is the best historical analogy that I can think of for our current predicament in both Iraq and Afghanistan-where now, as then, the pride of a nation’s youth has been ordered to pursue a far off war for purposes that were not in the overall British national interest.

The lessons of all three conflicts remain as Wouk so elegantly stated-”Either war is finished or we are.” It would appear we have yet to learn that critical lesson for humanity.  I keep hoping that next year I won’t have to print this story because there will be no more American troops in either Afghanistan or Iraq. The reality is that we will be involved in this war without end for a long time to come. So perhaps it is good to remember the results of the enterprise.

Background:

Whenever I see someone post one of those stupid “Miss Me Yet” posters with the picture of the stupid man who destroyed the first decade of the 21st century for  America-I can’t help but think they have the picture wrong.

It is the father, not the son who should be on the poster.

Him- I miss. Especially in today’s whacked out Teabagger world.

Cost of self financing your own campaign? 149 Million.

Cost of selling your soul to the Tea Bag nation? Pretty damn high.

Allow your opponent to hijack one of your own ads to make a point? Priceless.

UPDATE: Here is how they do it. And in a note to my commenters-“most election law is state law”.

We’ll skip any discussion of “curb-stomping” and how its all the victim’s fault-so therefore the stomped should be doing the apologizing.

Original Post:

You know, if the teabaggers want to stop being compared to brownshirts, they might want to stop acting like them:

NPR received a bomb threat Monday, five days after its decision to fire news analyst Juan Williams sparked a hugely negative reaction.

Sources at the news organization said the threat was received via U.S. mail and was immediately turned over to local police and the FBI. The organization did not publicly disclose the threat or release details, on the advice of law enforcement officials.

The letter didn’t reference the Williams firing specifically, but people at NPR, who spoke about it on the condition of anonymity, said the timing and tone suggested it was sent after Williams’s widely publicized termination.

Or this:

Tea Party members have started challenging voter registration applications and have announced plans to question individual voters at the polls whom they suspect of being ineligible.

In response, liberal groups and voting rights advocates are sounding an alarm, claiming that such strategies are scare tactics intended to suppress minority and poor voters.

In St. Paul, organizers from the Tea Party and related groups announced this week that they were offering a $500 reward for anyone who turned in someone who was successfully prosecuted for voter fraud.

The group is also organizing volunteer “surveillance squads” to photograph and videotape what it suspects are irregularities, and in some cases to follow buses that take voters to the polls.

In Milwaukee last week, several community groups protested the posting of large billboards throughout the city that show pictures of people behind jail bars under the words “We Voted Illegally.” The protesters said the posters — it was not clear who paid for them — were intended to intimidate people from voting.

In Houston, a Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots recently accused a voter registration group, Houston Votes, of turning in voter registration applications with incorrect information.

By what authority can they do this? And how long till we have to hear the words-Black Panther again?

Sitting here watching the Giants kicking ass and taking names. Barry Bonds or no-I’m just going to have to root for them.

They play real baseball in the National League after all.

Martin Wolf of the Financial Times has a pretty good diagnosis of why the folks have lost track of the context when it comes to the economy. Obama was just too damn cautious when he needed to be bold.

Unfortunately, the Republicans have succeeded in persuading a large enough portion of the American public that if the patient had been left entirely alone, he would be in perfect health today. This is surely a fairy story. But voters naturally pay little attention to calamities averted. They focus only on how far experience falls short of what they desire. Mr Obama gains no credit for the former and much blame for the latter. His aspirational rhetoric no doubt worsened the disappointment.

The president’s willingness to ask for too little was, it turns out, a huge strategic error. It allows his opponents to argue that the Democrats had what they wanted, which then failed. If the president had failed to get what he demanded, he could argue that the outcome was not his fault. With a political stalemate expected, further action will now be blocked. A lost decade seems quite likely. That would be a calamity for the US – and the world.

And in about five days, we are about to be raped by the same folks who put us in this position to begin with. Have some drinks and lie back and try not to think about it……………..

Richard asked me a while back-what the S.O. thought about life in America. I promised a response.

To appreciate the way her little mind thinks-it is important to understand a couple of key background facts. Otherwise the ideas won’t make a lot of sense; or they will seem more hateful than they really are. I’ve been with her long enough, I understand most of it-the rest I just ignore. Its a great arrangement.

Item #1: The S.O.-because she is Japanese is part of a unique group. Key on that word unique and then add the word superior. She believes that the Japanese are the most unique species on the planet. And that their culture is superior to anyone else’s. That sounds racist on the surface-and probably is. But don’t tell her that, she will never believe it. To her its a statement of fact-kind of like saying “ I know the sun will come up tomorrow”. A statement of the laws of the physical universe. So that tends to color her view of anyone who is not Japanese ( including me). To her, it is just the order of the universe. Let me add that she is a kind soul and will do anything for just about anyone-once she overcomes her inherent selfishness.

Item #2: Cleanliness is not just next to Godliness to the S.O.  It IS Godliness. She is obssessed with cleaning. Anthing and everything-and people who don’t set that standard ( as most Americans don’t) are not quite up there in the acceptability rankings. Another reason to marvel that she likes me.  But it goes a long way to explaining a lot about her.

So what does she think about the USA?

Regarding item 2-she thinks our standards for levels of cleanliness in public places are appalling. When she sees litter on the side of the road it disgusts her. She also does not understand why we don’t have brigades of cleaning ladies out at shopping malls.

Like all Japanese, she marvels at the sheer size of the country. When we first got back here-it was always something of a chore to explain to her the realities of the geography here. E.G. a drive from state to state was not a short journey, except in Rhode Island and Deleware.

That said-she does not understand why we don’t have decent trains here. On that we are in total agreement. We miss the train system in Japan.

She thinks Americans are by and large, incredibly fat. And she does not understand in the least why we put up with it. Bear in mind, her definition of fat-includes a lot of people who are only slightly overweight. But when it comes to other women-she allows no grace pounds. No hour glass figure-you are a porkette.  Since I view the world through beer goggles, I am just a bit more forgiving over here. ( Fat women need loving too!).

She thinks American cuisine is “greasy” for the most part-and she truly can’t get why we love fried food so much.  She also can’t understand why our portions are so large or why we eat so much.

She despises the way we tip in this country. She has no qualms about using and abusing the serving class here-and thinks the overall level of service in restaurants, hotels, and on airlines is atrocious. Coming from a country where they don’t tip and waitresses are supposed to be happy and apologetic when they hear the word “Sumimasen”-it is not surprising. But the tipping thing really drives her nuts. Since I am a tip your barmaid well kind of guy, she gets frustrated. I’ve learned to just ignore it. When she actually gets a J-O-B, and starts buying dinners-then she can tip how she wants to. She and I have something in common in that we both can’t stand the way passengers are treated on airlines in this country. She also does not understand why we put up with lines-specifically why they don’t have more people working ( as at TSA lines) to make them shorter.

She believes the fact that America is a car society has made Americans lazy. To that end, I think she has a point. I lost weight when I was in Romania walking about a mile from the subway to work each day.

She loves the fact that American houses normally have yards. ( I hate it-because I hate yardwork). The idea of growing things at your house fascinates her. I think she has planted every available square inch of available space.  Of course she never lived in a house before we got here-so its a novelty to her. I’ve been there done that. If I want to see grass-I can go to a golf course.

Regarding politics-she is amazed that I get so passionate about the subject. To her-based on her Japanese frame of reference- she thinks most Americans are too serious about the subject. Since in Japan, the bureaucracy runs the government regardless of who is in power-it kind of astounds her that we Americans fight about it so much.

She absolutely does not get the Tea Party. ( Another thing we have in common). But its for different reasons. I don’t get them because I know they are wrong. She does not get them because she does not understand why anyone would bother to care. She was surprised when I told her how many people don’t vote here though. Coming from Japan-she thinks of it as a duty, something you have to do regardless of your personal desire.

She loves the fact that we have a throwaway society. That means lots of stuff ends up in second hand stores and garage sales. It bothers her not a whit to buy things at Goodwill and then try to pass it off as brand name if she can.

American sports drive her nuts. She has very little use for American football. ( Too many rules). Yakyu (Baseball) takes too long. She likes to watch tennis and golf though. She will watch a golf tournament on TV where I usually will not.

American reality shows both fascinate and repel her. She has become addicted to “America’s got talent”, Project Runway, Antique Road Show, and Dancing with the Stars. She also loves the travel and gardening shows on public TV. She is, on the whole oblivious to the news. She hates shows with violence. She won’t watch Sci fi or war movies.

She is very deficient in her knowledge of 20th century history. The period of World War II is a blank to her-I’ve had to explain a lot of things that are common knowledge even among the dumbest of Americans. She really does not understand why we  venerate the Civil War. As far as she is concerned we should just forget it ever happened. She HATES visiting Civil War battlefields. (Something I like).

Which also brings up an important point. White people and African Americans are all the same to her. Other Asians? Not so much. To her there is a hierarchy of how she looks down on them. She can’t stand (in order) Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians and Filipinos. She hates Mexicans-but only because they do construction and therefore she faults them for the noise they make building houses in the neighborhood. Again-its different than actual overt racism. She will talk to any of them-politely and help anyone. But don’t kid yourself, she knows in her heart who is the “chosen race”.

That is actually a misnomer. As it typed that-I realized that she does not view her own people as the Israelis do.  That they have a special place with the Almighty because of their suffering. That does not capture it. The Japanese don’t have a special advocate because of Kamisama-He just built them to be superior from the start.

And she doesn’t understand me very much-she can’t understand why I like parties and wild times-she thinks I need to mellow out and enjoy domesticity. When I tell her I hate that lifestyle -she just shakes her head.

Its a wonder we get along at all-but we do. Perhaps our mutual selfishness works.

Bottom of the eighth and the Giants are kicking ass again!

The creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle has passed away. Criticize us boomers all you want-but we had some great cartoons.

Also, on a another sad note, James McArthur-he of the phrase “Book ‘em Dano!” passed away today.

Man I feel old.

I’m not a rally kind of person-I don’t think they accomplish much save for a chance to get out and meet people. I especially am not a fan of rallies where people dress up in stupid tri-corner hats and tell each other lies about American history and government.

But if I could have been there this weekend I would have made an exception for Jon Stewart’s rally. I hope t hey have great weather and the crowd is three times that at Beck-a-palooza. I hope they make fun of Sarah Palin-a lot.

Anyone who has read a lot at this blog knows that I have been fairly consistent in my opposition to the Iraq War. I was opposed to it from the run up to it in 2002-and I remain of the opinion that the war was a huge mistake. A human, a military and an economic disaster for the United States.

I have evolved to a similar conclusion about Afghanistan-although that’s a little bit different. We clearly had to extract vengance on someone after 9-11, and they were the most likely target. That we failed to massively inflict that vengance-and that we got side tracked by the war in Iraq is another matter. But now-from the perspective of 2010, it is clear to me that there is little more that can be done with a backwards minded people who cannot and will not help themselves. While we have fiddled in Central Asia-China has been on a roll. Of the two China is a bigger long term threat to US national interest.

For those reasons,  a lot of bloggers have been writing in praise of what Julian Assange did in releasing both the Afghanistan documents and the Iraq documents. I will not do so here. What he did was wrong. However wrong the Iraq war is and was-this action is unjustified and against the law. Many have tried to argue that there is some higher moral law that justifies his actions. I disagree.

For one thing-we already had on the table,  clear cut evidence that George W. Bush took the country to war under false pretenses-and used false information to goad our British allies into joining us. An action by the way at odds with their own public opinion.

 I am not happy about Wikileaks and I think what they did was and remains very wrong. I am REALLY disturbed about the fact that obviously military personnel on active duty are helping him. Those people should be tracked down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Equally as reprenshible, is the current thread making its way through the milblog world that Julian Assange should be killed.  Comments like-”turn his name over to the Mossad”, “blow up his car”, “he should be poisioned” etc etc. This from the same people who then have the balls to turn around and lecture me-or anyone else about sexual morality. Whatever damage Assange has done-advocating the kind of “anything goes” and “exact retribution” ideas betrays our ideals as a nation and makes us absolutely no different than the enemies we are fighting. If the country wants to go down that road-well fine. But don’t try to stand on some moral high ground and talk about “shining lights” on a hill. Its still immoral-just because its being done by our side does not mitigate that.

So the bottom line for me is that, the active duty people who helped Assange broke the law. They should be prosecuted under that law. Perhaps Assange should be extradited and tried under the law too. But only under the law that is applicable-not some whacked out version of vigilante justice.

Joe Manchin may be running away from the President like a screaming banshee-but he’s made some cool ads outlining the bleak future that awaits us.

What is it with freaking laser beams and WV anway?