Category Archives: politics

22 Nov

Post election reactions in Alaska

I’m quite fascinated by the commentary going on in my home state.

In the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, a fellow named Ken wrote a letter to the editor to ask

Now that Obama is going to be the new commander-in-chief, what does this mean for Alaska? Will Obama choose to reduce the military status in Alaska? If he did, what would that mean for Fairbanks? Will he choose to try to block the natural gas pipeline out of revenge to try to hurt Sarah Palin? I believe these are the things Alaskans are going to face in the next four years. What say you Fairbanks?

Responses vary, but focus mainly into

1) You Obamabots sure are gonna be sorry when the military bases are closed down, and they take away our guns and the Russians come!
2) Sarcastic liberal responses. Yes, I hear Pres-elect Hussein is printing out Korans and massing African witch-doctors to destroy Christianity as we speak! Buy all the ammo you can now!
3) Umm, has Obama even been to Alaska? He’s probably more worried about the economy than your guns.
4) Arguments over the use, legality, and appropriateness of various guns.
5) You can’t trust democrats/republicans/politicians.
6) Arguments about literal readings of the bible versus not so literal interpretations

Read for yourself, here’s a smattering.

Alaskan who now feels more cocky about being blue:

With all the pressing issues affecting this country, Ken, I think you can sleep well at night knowing that reducing the military here in Alaska may not be at the top of his “to do” list.

Alaskan who paid attention in high school government class:

The President cannot withdraw soldiers without a two-thirds vote from congress.

Alaskan who probably moved there to get away from the gu’ment:

We had our chance to warn the voting public before the election and it “didn’t take” – now we’ll just have to wait and see. I hope, as I’m sure you do, that things won’t be that bad but we’re just going to have to wait and see. You might want to buy a couple of boxes of bullets while you still can but other than that, there’s nothing else we can do now…

Alaskan who begs to disagree with the previous:

lol, warned? more like paranoid drivel from frightened little people.

Another Alaskan not impressed by the above:

I keep forgetting how many unhappy, end-of-roaders come to Fairbanks, paranoid to the point I can’t help but laugh. It’s insane to assume Obama will take “revenge” on Alaska. That says more about YOU, than it does about him.

Alaskan who has more rights to the title than most others:

Obama must support Indian Country in Alaska!

Alaskan who is actually thinking clearly:

Ken, you must be used to politicians who are petty and/or have lots of time on their hands. I seriously doubt that Obama has given much thought at all to Alaska, one way or the other. And why would he need to ‘get back’ at Mrs. Palin? SNL and the entire country already did that, through laughter. As far as military installations, Alaska is vitally important to our national defense, so why would they be closed? After all, Russian Pres. Medvedev can see Alaska from his house.

Alaskan wondering:

Has Obama ever stepped foot in Alaska? Does he have any clue what’s up here, who is up here? I have a hard time believing he hates us, but does he care about us? Will be interesting to see…..

Alaskan commenting on Alaskan politicians:

Well, it’s common knowledge that Palin goes out of her way to punish people who have the audacity to vote for her opponent, and Young has stated on camera that he only represents the people who vote for him. I haven’t heard anything of the sort about Obama so I doubt it’ll happen.

Alaskan taking this question seriously, and distrusting politicians:

I don’t think Obama is vindictive, or that he’ll come after Sarah. That’s her MO, not his. I do fear though, that he’ll escalate the war in Afghanistan, and that he won’t hold the criminals in the White House accountable for the trillion dollar slaughter of over a million people who weren’t a threat to us. It’s the crime of the century but they’ll get off scott free. He’s one of them.

Alaskan making vague inflammatory comments:

According to the press, Al Qaeda knows what Obama is.

Alaskan making vague inflammatory comments II:

koolaide was invented by the liberal media

Alaskan making vague inflammatory comments III:

Osama Bin Ladin has condemned Obama and Biden. Weird.

Alaskan who isn’t worried:

I wouldn’t worry about Obama he’ll let us drill for oil and open are resources he’ll just tax the hell out of it like he said about the coal industry and have a lot of government regulations to render it impossible to do any thing in are state. So I wouldn’t worry about Obama.

Alaskan who isn’t worried II:

no worries the rednecks down south will get’er done before he can get us!!

Idahoan who wants to get his two cents in:

I would like to know how do you bury your guns and money when the ground is frozen?I wish to move to Alaska but I need to know how you dig a hole in frozen ground. Otherwise I will stay in Idaho. Alaska seems more suited to me though.

Alaskan offering advice to the above:

you use a weed burner to thaw the ground first. it’s laborious and time consuming, but it works. dunno, think i’d want quicker access to those guns anyhow.

Alaskan who is somewhat sarcastic:

Yes,Ken. Obama will close Alaska completely I’m sure it’s been his plan from the get-go. ASo,list your home on Craigslist at a reduced or even free price,turn your guns into the authorities .If you have large flat panel T.V. I would be interested in that, turn your pets loose. Good Luck and get some sleep.

Alaskan who is somewhat sarcastic II:

I also hope Obama cuts the military in Alaska. I may get to practice my Russian.

Alaskan who is somewhat sarcastic III:

In addition to going out to buy up all of the ammo, you guys better start buying up bibles. I heard that after President HUSSEIN (B.O.) is sworn into office, he’s going to outlaw the bible and replace it with the Koran in every store in America!!!

Quick, run!!! Cling to those guns and religion!

Alaskan who is somewhat sarcastic IV:

did you no that obama and palin are both robots. Yup heard it on a.m. radio so it must be true…

Alaskan who believes in the office of the president:

I’m a patriot, and while I did not vote for Obama, I believe in supporting the president until he/she(someday) does something to lose my support (lying to a grand jury Clinton), (failing to close US borders Bush). As is stands now, I don’t think Obama will be vindictive towards Alaska, but that of course can change.

Alaskan who is pessimistic about the economy:

Remember All the Great-Things that you put on the Community Discussion board about the Son of a Goat Herder, “Obama”, it will give you something to talk about, while you’re standing in the Soup & Bread Line!

Alaskan who is more fond of the caps lock than the president-elect:

where is the CHANGE your canidate PROMISED??? SMART GUYs!?! i can’t believe you would vote for OBAMAMAMAMESSIAH. where will you MOVE when he has to SELL ALASKA back to the RUSSIANS because we HAVE to PAY for all the HOMELESS!! i HEAR they need JOBS in the YUKON

Alaskan offering advice to either president or fellow commenters:

It is impossible to please everyone. Most people are lucky if they can please their families, and if you have teenagers in the house, that NEVER happens. So, start with yourself and work your way out, see how far you get, and if you make it to the Presidency, make sure you drop by here once in awhile too defend yourself. Becuase regardless of what you have done or will do, we will be judging, with our crystal gavel. Mr. Obama, goodluck. Check your rose colored glasses at the door, you dont need them where your going.

Alaskan whose username is “prophetone”:

Since the fourth of November we have seen in Alaska panic buying of all firearms and ammunition. Further more at Fort Greely there has been close to 100 lay-offs. We don’t need Sarah Palin as a US Senator, send Todd or her sister instead if given the opportunity, but delete Mark b. The news media will continue to hammer and down play the great governor of our state. Obama will continue to divide as every Democrat would. The only good Democrat is a Democrat that doesn’t vote. All over our nation people either have or are choosing sides. The next four years will be tumultuous and cataclysmic. The line has been drawn, now choose who you will serve.

Alaskan environmentalist:

I can only hope that Obama will reduce the military presence in Alaska. As for ANWR, with a democratic president and a democratic congress, I think you can forget about drilling there. yay!

Alaskan responding to the environmentalist:

I think I’m rather correct in assuming that most people who voted for Obama feel the same way as you. Alaska sinks further into Third Worldism. If you think that selling trinkets to tourists is a great thing, then I encourage you to do more. Personally, I do not share this dream. I dream of exceptionalism for my people.

Alaskan who suggests relying on liberal media rather than right wing talk radio, and doesn’t believe in excessive firepower:

No Pat Robertson, SkinHeadUSA, & Sarah Palin are not sources & neither is Rush Limbaugh, he’s an entertainer thus he makes money by stirring you up. Let’s go for something a little more mainstream. Maybe CNN, WSJ, Washington Post or even NPR. If you just look at the data, how families do under Democratic vs Republican administrations. http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008…

P.S. He’s not going to come and take your guns, nor is hey gonna dismantle the base in Fairbanks. He will however probably take away your AK-47’s, M-14’s, M-16’s, G-3’s, AR-10, FAMAS’s as well as a number of other assault rifles. How can you possibly justify having an assault rifle? You can’t hunt with it, there’s no shooting events for 700 shot accuracy.

Alaskan in favor of more firepower:

in truth, AK-47s, M-14s, M-16s, AR-10s, and especially the FN FAL make superb hunting weapons. When I was in Africa, I observed that the majority of large animals, including Cape Buffalo and Elephants are taken with these weapons. Especially set to short burst or full-automatic. Of course, the FA version of these firearms are outlawed already in this country for hunting. So, you have no argument there. Just misinformed fantasy.

BTW, the Ruger Mini-14 semi-auto (.223) is the most popular caribou and wolf hunting rifle in Alaska villages, especially amongst reindeer herders.

Alaskan for sensible use of firepower:

So what’s left to eat after you kill a moose with an AK-47? I think if you can’t kill an animal is Alaska with something as simple as a 308 then you shouldn’t be hunting.

Alaskan (who don’t like gu’ment above) on the use of firepower:

The wording in the 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with hunting, it has to do with a militia. …AK-47s, M-14s, M-16s, AR-10s, and… FN FALs are especially what is needed because we the citizens are the first line of defense. …There was a movie made probably 25 years ago called “Red Dawn” about a hypothetical invasion of the United States by Russian, Cuban, and Nicoraguans (sp?) and how a group of highschool kids in Wyoming or Montana or some such place “out west” escaped to the mountains and fought back in a guerilla campaign. I’m guessing that most Liberals find that story highly illogical but I can also tell you that most conservatives don’t – we find it very possible and very frightening (and we therefore want to have weapons close at hand that are suitable for killing invaders should the ‘hypothetical’ ever enter the realm of ‘reality’).

Alaskan who might be named Charlie Brown:

Good Grief. Knock it off you crazies from both sides. I don’t think Obama is the Anti-Christ, nor is he The Savior. He is, however, a democrat. To me that platform just by it’s very nature is not going to be pro-Alaska development. It’s not going to be pro-gun. It will be pro-environmentalist, It will be pro-social programs. It is what it is, that’s not paranoia and it has nothing to do with Palin. It’s fact and frankly I assume it’s what the democrats who voted for him want. Of course he will be my president too, so obviously I will pray for the very best for my country during his term, as I do for all of my political leaders.

Alaskan who is a fundamental Christian:

I also do not believe Obama is “The Anti-Christ” but I believe he has the spirit of the Anti-Christ. If anyone really cares, go back to all the speeches he gave about doing away with all nuk’s and uniting the world as one. Never did he ever say uniting the world threw Jesus Christ. So this is why people say he is Anti-Christ. Now for all the dem’s out their you will say what is wrong with wanting world peace? And I say to you that true peace comes threw Jesus Christ and with out Jesus Christ you will never have world peace.

Alaskan who must be a dirty heathen:

And there you have it folks. This particular Christian will not be satisfied until the entire world has been dominated by his religion… Isn’t this what all of the Christians keep “chicken littling” about the Muslims? “They want global domination” “They are trying to take over the world” blah blah blah

…and now we are down to a handful of people arguing over literal readings of the bible versus viewing the old testament as a mythology, and whether Obama, being in the latter camp, is a decent or depraved person.

Finally, one commentator linked to this:

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.
05 Nov

Thoughts on the election

After classes yesterday, I trekked back to my former neighborhood to vote, and by the time I made my way home it was nearly six o’clock. I started watching news sites and had just figured out how to get the Daily Show election special to stream live on the computer when it was time to go to my kung fu training. After a bit I decided I would probably get more, long term, out of going to training than watching talking heads, however amusing, so I took off for that. (It was an extremely small class.)

When I got out at 9 pm, we had no idea what had been happening with the election, but were hopeful. I found that I had a text message from a friend, cryptically, hopefully, reading ‘yay obama!!’ I biked home as quickly as I could. I saw a few scattered fireworks being shot off, and heard people yelling at televisions. As I burst in the door, one of the news websites was playing a video of McCain’s concedance.

My boyfriend got home pretty soon after that, and we decided we should go out and lift a glass for the occasion. We walked up to 15th, the closest street with a strip of bars, restaurants and coffee shops. There started to be cars honking and people yelling in the street. We picked a bar which had a sign outside reading “$1 pints after 10 pm if Obama is president.” It was a few minutes after 10, so we went in and spent $2. It was pretty packed, and there was a television on the wall which showed a mob of people in the streets downtown near Pike Place Market, where a big club was having an election night party which appeared to have spilled into the street. After about a minute, we decided we probably wanted to be on the street as well, and closer to downtown, so we chugged the beer and headed to Broadway, epicenter of a densely populated neighborhood just uphill from downtown.

There were a lot more honking cars, and when we came to Broadway, there was a throng of people in one intersection, cheering and chanting and dancing. Two buses were pulled over, obviously stopped by the crowd, which was waving Obama posters and generally grinning like maniacs. A car approached from down the street with a guy standing partway out of the sunroof, swirling a large American flag on a pole. They progressed slowly through the crowd, with the driver tagging people’s hands as they passed, and people jumping up on the bumper to gain height and shout more. A few more cars made it through, with people climbing up to gyrate on the roof of one SUV. Then there was a flurry of action as one of the buses started up and proceeded forward. A few people acted as traffic directors, parting the crowd before the bus. Although it was allowed forward progress, the people immediately pressed up to the sides of the bus, pressing Obama posters against the windows.

Chants of ‘YES WE CAN,’ ‘O-BA-MA’ and ‘YES WE DID’ repeatedly broke out. There was a guy in a lion costume, no doubt left over from Halloween, who was, as my boyfriend said, ‘high as a kite’ (on drugs or jubilation, or both?) who was a particularly frenetic dancer.

After a bit we thought we should head towards downtown and see about the street party there. We headed down Broadway and found a larger mob at the intersection of Broadway and Pine. This one was blocked off by police cars with flashing lights. The cops were standing in groups halfway up the block, chatting benignly and watching the crowd, which was similarly waving flags, chanting, and dancing.

We joined the crowd, and never got downtown. We were there for two or three hours, just being joyful. People climbed up on the lightpoles to wave flags and posters. We saw a group of topless women who were yelling ‘Titties for Obama!’ I saw a big cardboard cutout of Palin being passed around for a while, and then just her head. Also a cutout of Obama. Someone passed out Obama 2008 pins. Eventually we ran into one friend, then another. A friend of a friend was going around with a paddle and smacking people on the ass, saying “We saw a spanking tonight! O-B-A-M-A!” The mob from the first intersection arrived and merged with ours, then I think a bunch of people from the university district turned up there as well.

The first intersection we were at, there was a camera crew from the local news station, and at the larger mob there were a number of press folks circulating around. A woman from the Seattle Times came up and asked if she could photograph the guy who was spanking people. She asked me what my reaction was. I said something along the lines of, ‘This is amazing! I feel like when you see things on the news in other countries, when they’ve overthrown their dictator and everyone is celebrating in the street.” Since she didn’t take my name or anything, I doubt I’ll show up in the news. I think the Seattle Times endorsed McCain. What were they thinking?

There’s a club on the corner as well, and for a while they put a speaker on the roof, and someone dancing in a sparkly top (due to it being a gay bar, hard to say if it was a lady or a drag queen dancing), and some invitations to come and live it up in the club. I think everyone was pretty intent on the street party, though, and after a bit the speaker disappeared, and the intersection just got fuller.

The best part about a jubilant mob in Seattle? They clean up after themselves! Around 1 am someone appeared handing out trashbags, and there was a lot of gathering up beer cans and broken bottles, and getting them in the bags and on the curb. That was pretty awesome as well.

A bit after that, we, and the people we had found in the “Obama Mob,” as one person was gleefully calling it, extricated ourselves and went to a diner downtown for some greasy food. We didn’t get to bed til nearly 3 am, as a result of which I have blatantly skipped my morning classes.

Last night was the first time I’ve seen spontaneous singing of the national anthem. Or participated in such. I’ve been scared to be American before (once or twice in Russia or China), I’ve been saddened and ashamed of things we have done. But right now…. I’ve been tearing up a little reading news stories this morning. My boyfriend, ex-Soviet cynic that he is, expects disillusionment within six months. But, I think right now we can dare to hope!

And, here’s someone’s video from the first intersection we were at:

07 May

Thoughts on the Great Firewall

So, life behind the wall, my dear readers in lands of unfettered speech, is incongruous.

A few days ago, I discovered I could no longer look at my own blog (I like to check that it is showing the most recent photos, and catch typos), or anything else with ‘blogspot’ in the url. Seems this is a widely recognized phenomenon, and it has happened before.

On the other hand, there are reports that a month ago you could get to en.wikipedia.org from Beijing internet. The tagline ‘China’s Net wall falling?‘ seems to have been a little over-hopeful, though.

And, while you can’t easily read what others are writing on blogspot (there are ways around, in most cases), you can still access blogger.com, which is the portal for writing posts.

What’s the message from the powers that be here?

You can talk as much as you want, but no one is listening.

It seems that one of the overarching strategies is to prevent collaborative thought by possible dissenters, though it’s fine to use mass communications — text messages, inflammatory opinion pieces in newspapers, online bulletin boards — to incite the occasional anti-Western riot to let off steam amongst the common masses. But the impression I have (admittedly derived from my oh-so-brief, shallow toe-dip into the country) is that those mob actions don’t happen from independent thoughts of the participants, but from seeds carefully planted and tended by somewhere in the government (though I have no good impression of where in the government). And when they feel the movement has grown enough, before it flowers and spreads seeds which might hybridize into something they didn’t intend, they nip it, and stomp it, and life continues as before, until the next brief incident.

I’m curious about the thought from one of the above links that this has something to do with the Olympics. Close down the factories, prevent pollution of the air. Close down the blogs, prevent pollution of the mind.

On the topic of a different country, I saw a note today about a review of a new dystopian novel set in modern Russia. I still read the occasional bit and piece about things there, though at the moment I’m trying to catch up and figure out what’s up with China (if possible!). Today I’ve been continuing to read Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones, and he mentions a bunch of blond, Indo-European mummies found in the Xinjiang province (out in the west, where Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s desert scenes were filmed, and were the Uighur people are), which made me think of the Scythians, and the question that one of my fellow students explored while we were studying in Russia.

Russia is in a fairly unique geographic position, straddling both Europe and Asia (I suppose you could say Turkey is as well), and my friend Liz focused her independent project on exploring the idea of whether Russia was European or Asian. She had some interesting responses. In St. Petersburg, most felt they were quite European, barring the occasional person originally from Central Asia. In Irkutsk, in central Siberia, I think the question was more murky. She didn’t stick around in Irkutsk too long to investigate, she went back to Moscow and met with Alexander Dugin (the sort of political figure that I would simply call ‘curious,’ if I didn’t suspect he may pull some actual weight), the leader of the Eurasian movement, which hopes to restore the Russian Empire in its great breadth.

In Irkutsk, though, Asia was awfully close, in ways that I’m realizing more, from my Beijing perspective. First, culinarily — on both of my trips in the Russian east, I’ve had shrimp crisps, which are plentifully available here in China. Ditto for pelmeni, which you might call wontons, or dumplings — noodly, doughy bits boiled in broth, and with a filling of some sort. As with Italian pasta, the Siberian version surely originated here. The third main Asian food that I learned to enjoy in Irkutsk is squid bits — dried, shredded, and flavored, they are a little sweet, a little salty, and sometimes quite spicy.

Perhaps the US has exported Hollywood and Coca-Cola around the world, along with Marlboros and innumerable other cultural aspects, but Asian food has also spread colonially, with and without accompanying Asians. No Russian needs to go to a Chinese restaurant for their pelmeni. There are, though, plenty of Asians in Russia, along with many other non-slavic groups. Some are more recent foreign immigrants — Chinese fall into this group — but plenty of groups from the FSU — lots of Central Asians. Plus Koreans — one of the things you can get in the markets in Russian cities is ‘Korean salad,’ which Americans have learned to call ‘kimchee.’

The markets can also be plenty similar, in Russia and in China. Both sport multi-floor shopping buildings crammed with stalls selling clothing, electronics, and other consumer goods of questionable origin. In Irkutsk, my sisters recommended avoiding the street-level of the market, where it escaped the building and sprawled through narrow alleyways — that was where the thieves were.

Last weekend we went to the Russian district of Beijing, hoping for a good meal of Russian food. I want blini. I’ve been wanting blini since before I left Seattle, but never got around to making my own. Unfortunately, the Russian district, as we found it, featured pedicab drivers who call out in Russian поехали, and машина, instead of Hello! to get you to turn your head if you speak English. There was a long line of little shops selling fur coats, each named with a feminine Russian name — Anna, Svetlana, Natasha, Sonia, Masha — and promising high quality. We ended up eating at Uighur restaurant instead.

Blond mummies. Hmm. According to Hessler, they were very interesting, and subject of a couple Western documentaries and magazine articles in publications such as National Geographic before the government here decided they were no longer accessible to foreign media. Why? Again, from Hessler (because I don’t know enough the come up with these theories myself) because of the official emphasis on one united China, forever and ever, through history. Civilization started in Central China, and spread outward, to all the Chinese people. Blond mummies don’t fit the story. But, apparently Uighurs in Xinjiang occasionally turn out blond, for no discernible reason.