12.10.07
Wife of “Canoe Man” arrested in UK
According to this article on CNN,
The wife of “Canoe Man” John Darwin, presumed dead until he walked into a London police station earlier this month, has been arrested on her return to the UK, police have told CNN.
Anne Darwin, 55, was arrested by officers when she arrived at Manchester airport in northwestern England onSunday on a flight from Atlanta, a spokesman for Manchester police said.
She has not been charged and is now at Hartlepool police station, located in the region, for questioning. The police are investigating fraud allegations.
Her husband, John Darwin came to worldwide attention after he walked into a police station in London on December 1 and told police officers he was suffering from amnesia, and that he had no memory of the last five years.
He did so after the remains of a red canoe he paddled into the North Sea, off northeastern England, washed up on shore near his home of Seaton Carew, in March 2002.
12.09.07
Oprah Draws Crowds for Obama
Nearly 19,000 people showed up at the Iowa rally hoping to get a free car
In Des Moines and South Carolina this weekend, over 40 thousand people attended rallies featuring talk show titan Oprah Winfrey — oh, and Senator Barack Obama was there too.
Oprah’s public support for Obama marked the first time the famous yo-yo dieter has endorsed a presidential hopeful. Oprah cited her concern about America’s future as the impetus for her support of Obama saying, “There are times that I even worry about what happens to our country.”
Thanks, Oprah. We appreciate your concern for us little people.
Meanwhile in Des Moines, Hillary countered Oprah’s endorsement by introducing her 88-year-old mother Dorothy Rodham and daughter Chelsea Clinton to the campaign trail.
Apparently, Maury Povich was busy this weekend.
Penn State Students Mock Virginia Tech Victims
Just One Wild and Crazy Guy
So what were you for Halloween?
Spider-Man? Borat? A skank prostitute?
What about victims of the Virginia Tech Massacre?
Apparently that’s what two students –a young man and a young woman– at Penn State decided to dress up as at a recent Halloween party. Now the dopey duo is in hot water after pictures of them dressed in Virginia Tech paraphernalia marked with bullet holes and covered in fake blood surfaced on social networking site Facebook.
One of the students defended his choice of costume in an interview on a local television station saying, “The thing is, everybody’s making a big stink about Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech was 32 deaths out of the 26 thousand that happen in America everyday. That’s the problem with college students. They all live in an ivory tower of privilege. They don’t understand, when it all boils down to it, it’s someone wearing a costume.”
In a statement released to the media, Penn State said quote: “We are appalled that these individuals would display this level of insensitivity, indifference, and lack of common decency and sense by dressing up in this manner.”
It is unclear if any disciplinary action will –or can– be taken.
I can’t say I’m surprised to hear about this. After all, we’re living in a society that is becoming increasingly desensitized to violence and void of basic human emotions, of say, respect, sympathy and compassion.
You can blame violent video games, trashy reality shows or the media for playing into the twisted postmortem legend fantasies of psychos like Virgina Tech killer Seung Hui Cho and Omaha mall shooter Robert Hawkins all you want. However, at the end of the day, the loss of basic moral principles is a personal decision made by the individual.
The question here isn’t whether these two Penn State students have the right to mock and laugh at innocent victims who were senselessly murdered because, according to our constitution, they do.
Instead the question should be: does having the right mean they should?
Japanese Wannabe Convicted of 2 Murders
He Thinks He’s Turning Japanese:
Convicted Murderer and Imaginary Ninja Master Steven Sakai
In New York, a former strip club bouncer who was obsessed with Japanese culture –particularly sword fighting and ninjas– was convicted last Friday of murdering two people in 2005.
The bouncer, born Steven Sanders, was apparently so smitten by the Land of the Rising Sun that he even changed his last name to the Japanese surname “Sakai”.
But here’s where things get really wacky: During his testimony, Sakai adopted a thick Japanese accent, which included mispronouncing his L’s and R’s. This is despite the fact that Sakai was born in Queens and has never left the country.
Perhaps an inspiration for Mr. Sakai?
Nevertheless, Sakai’s bizarre behavior left many in the courtroom baffled, with lawyers, stenographers, clerks and officers debating about the authenticity of the accent and wondering why his mother didn’t share it. There were also plans to test Sakai’s knowledge of Japanese, which were later abandoned.
During his testimony, Sakai claimed the police injected him with drugs and that he also took secret flights overseas to compete in martial arts tournaments.
After years of enduring Asian kids “acting Black”, I guess it’s refreshing to see someone from the African American community returning the love.
12.07.07
Hollywood’s Most Notorious Anti-Asian Movies
If I had all the time in the world, I would find all the Hollywood movies with characters in yellowface. What is yellowface? It is the act of non-Asian characters wearing makeup to obtain East Asian facial characteristics. Needless to say, these characters engage in ultra offensive portrayals of how they think Asians behave in real life. Do you know where these stereotypes - funny accent, slanted eyes, buck teeth, etc. - of us started?
Listing these types of movies would bring light to Hollywood’s racist side - the side I wish more Asians were aware of. Unfortunately I dont have much time these days.
Enter Philip W. Chung of Asianweek. Thank god this man has put together the most up-to-date list of yellowface movies. In the article, “The 25 Most Infamous Yellow Face Film Performances,” Chung ranks the twenty-five most offensive Hollywood movies. Keep in mind it’s only the top twenty-five. There are so many more.
Think yellowface movies are just historical footnotes? Nope. Three of them were released this year!
Here’s several famous culprits that stand out in yellowface history:
Eddie Murphy
Ricardo Montalban
Tony Randall
Katharine Hepburn
John Wayne
Rob Schneider
Mickey Rooney
Nicolas Cage
Do any Asians feel comfortable seeing these roles? I would hate to pay for a movie only to see such racist crap.
So what are we to do? BOYCOTT anything and everything that’s offensive to any Asian.
12.06.07
China Bashing in Philly Newspaper
“Why are you buying anything from China?” by Stu Bykofsky
Anna Perng from OCA, Greater Philadelphia Responds
What a great way to fuel animosity towards China.
China’s Population to Reach 1.5 Billion by 2033
This isn’t necessarily good news.
China’s population, now estimated at 1.3 billion, is expected to increase by another 200 million by 2033, according to a new study by the People’s University in Beijing.
Zhai Zhenwu, head of a population research institute at the university told the Beijing News, “Currently, China is adding 16 million people a year. By 2012, annual (population increase) will reach a peak of 19 million.”
Obviously the population would be much higher –and perhaps uncontrollable– if it weren’t for China’s one child policy and other population control laws introduced in the 1970s. Unfortunately, it is also due to these same rules that there is an increasing disparity between the number of men and women, which will inevitably lead to other major problems, including a population slowdown and waaaaay too many single dudes, unless China revises their population control system — and fast.
Sleepwalking Slasher Cleared of Attempted Murder
For as long as I remember, I would always lock the bedroom door before I went to sleep. This may have a lot to do with the psychological scarring my pop inflicted upon me when I was five after he took me to see the Charles Bronson movie 10 to Midnight. The movie was about a serial killer who liked to strip naked and then brutally murder young women, by the way.
These days, when my folks stay over, my mom always chides me for keeping up this little habit of mine. She thinks I’m paranoid and immature. For a while, I thought she may have a point.
And then I came across this little story:
In Hong Kong, a woman who repeatedly stabbed and strangled a friend while sleepwalking was released from prison last Thursday after being cleared of attempted murder.
Thirty-year-old Zheng Wei-dong was found not guilty of trying to kill her friend after a jury decided she had been in a state of “insane automatism” when she attacked her friend. Psychiatrists testified Zheng had fallen asleep and acted out a violent dream when she wandered into the room of her friend last December and attacked her, saying: “I am the devil and I am killing you.”
After repeatedly stabbing her friend’s neck, almost severing the jugular vein, Zheng then tried to smother her with a pillow. Zheng’s lawyer brilliantly argued that his client posed very little threat to society.
If only Zheng’s friend had just LOCKED THE GODDAMN DOOR!