Mitt Romney and the Problem of Wealth

Posted on January 9, 2012 by bigWOWO


Watch Romney Suggests Politics is Best Left to the Wealthy in People & Blogs | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

The Republican primaries are under way, and as is normal with any American election cycle, the craziness has once again begun. The latest craziness surrounds Mitt Romney, the Republican frontrunner. In the video above, Romney says of his father: “He had good advice to me. He said, ‘Mitt, never get involved in politics if you have to win an election to pay a mortgage. If you find yourself in a position when you can serve, why you ought to have a responsibility to do so if you think you can make a difference, you oughta have a responsibility to do so.’” See a ThinkProgress blog post here.

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Posted in Politics | Tagged | 6 Comments

Two podcasts that address racism in the military, and Danny Chen the person

Posted on January 8, 2012 by bigWOWO

1. Check out this old podcast (before I had my awesome mic!) in July of 2009 that I did with my good friend Hoang Nguyen for the Thymos Book Project: http://thymos.org/book-project/ It’s the first interview. (For those waiting for the book project, it’s coming out in the next few months!) Hoang is a former Marine who served in Iraq during the first Bush’s administration, and he talks about racism in the Marines. He talks about one issue he had with a Vietnam vet where he had to leave his platoon for a little while in order to prevent violence.

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Posted in Asian American, Citizenship, racism | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

When Your Fan Base is Full of Crazy People

Posted on January 7, 2012 by bigWOWO

Thanks, American Girl, for sending the video above. It’s a pro-Ron Paul video that attacks Jon Huntsman’s supposed pro-China tendencies, and it takes a swipe at Huntsman in part by taking aim at his adopted Chinese daughter. But it’s not made by Ron Paul. Instead, it’s (probably) made by a Ron Paul supporter. Ron Paul’s campaign says that it is “disgusted” by whoever created the video. I love this quote:

“Whoever did it should take it down immediately,” the campaign’s spokesman Gary Howard says. “Unfortunately, every candidate has supporters who do stupid things.”

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Posted in Asian American, Politics | Tagged | 24 Comments

The Trial of Danny Chen’s Abusers: In the U.S. or Afghanistan? / Killing a Man with his own tongue

Posted on January 5, 2012 by bigWOWO

Su Zhen Chen (right), mother of Pvt. Danny Chen

Thanks, American Girl, for sending this MSNBC article: Slain Chinese-American GI’s family wants soldiers tried in U.S. As you know, we’ve been following this case, in which Chinese American soldier Danny Chen was hazed by his army comrades. He eventually either killed himself or was killed by his colleagues. Eight soldiers have been charged in his death, with the most serious charges being manslaughter and negligent homicide against five of these soldiers. It appears that this is the first time manslaughter and negligent homicide charges have arisen from hazing in the U.S. military.

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Posted in Asian American, Citizenship, racism | Tagged , , | 27 Comments

Gordon Hirabayashi, Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 93

Posted on January 4, 2012 by bigWOWO
Gordon Hirabayashi

Gordon Hirayabayashi, one of three resisters to the Japanese American internment, has died at 93. It was announced by Jay Hirabayashi, his son, who also said that his mother Esther, from whom Gordon was divorced, died the same day, about ten hours later. See the NY Times obituary here. Check this out:

When the West Coast curfew was imposed, ordering people of Japanese background to be home by 8 p.m., Mr. Hirabayashi ignored it. When the internment directive was put in place, he refused to register at a processing center and was jailed.

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Posted in Asian American, Citizenship | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Paul Krugman’s Take on Debt

Posted on January 3, 2012 by bigWOWO


Check out Paul Krugman’s recent Times column on debt: Nobody Understands Debt. In the article, he makes the point that debt is misunderstood, that while excessive debt is a problem, it’s not nearly as bad as everyone is making it out to be.

Deficit-worriers portray a future in which we’re impoverished by the need to pay back money we’ve been borrowing. They see America as being like a family that took out too large a mortgage, and will have a hard time making the monthly payments.

This is, however, a really bad analogy in at least two ways.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Paper Pushers by the Stunt People

Posted on January 2, 2012 by bigWOWO

Longtime readers of this blog are familiar with our conversations with the Stunt People, including Eric Jacobus and Ed Kahana. Check out the hilarious comedy short above. It just came out. These guys fight together well! Even if we disagree on politics, these guys are great, and I hope they go far. You can also see their rooftop scene from Contour right here:

Posted in media | Tagged , | 4 Comments

My YouTube New Year

Posted on January 1, 2012 by bigWOWO

Last night, I was in the mood for the Carpenters’ song “I Won’t Last A Day Without You.” So I went on YouTube, and the autocomplete suggested the video above. Sarah Geronimo is from the Philippines, and I like her version and thought I’d share it with you. Evidently, it’s also a movie (the dude is an Asian American hapa, so let’s not get started so early this year!):

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Cheap Bites with Eddie Huang

Posted on December 30, 2011 by bigWOWO

My aunt is a friend of Eddie Huang and asked me to spread the word. Sunday, January 1st, at 8 pm is the world premiere of Eddie’s show Cheap Bites on The Cooking Channel, in which he goes around and samples cheap but good food. My home doesn’t have The Cooking Channel, but if you have it, check it out. It’s awesome that an Asian American is getting his own show. We’ve only got the Food Network at our house, and outside of Iron Chef Chairman Mark Dacascos and Judy Joo from the Next Iron Chef (whom I mentioned in passing on the Clara Shih post), we’ve got no one. Diversity!

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Philipp Rosler, Vice-Chancellor of Germany

Posted on December 28, 2011 by bigWOWO

Philipp Rossler

Thanks to Ben Efsaneyim, who wrote this story: One of Europe’s Most Powerful Men is Vietnamese. Philipp Rösler, according to Ben’s article and Wikipedia, is the Vice-Chancellor of Germany, and is originally from Vietnam. The Wikipedia entry says that he was adopted by German parents at nine months, joined the German army as a medic, and completed a medical degree. He’s every Asian parent’s dream! And now he’s in politics, where he’s moved up and up. Vice-Chancellor of Germany, the most economically powerful country in all of Europe. Wow. And not only is he a doctor, but he married a doctor too:

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Posted in News, Politics | Tagged , , | 10 Comments