Good riddance.

Church of Scientology hits rough patch.

One can only hope.

Viva la France!

I knew lefties were behind the curve, but this is getting ridiculous:

A darker side of Columbus emerges in US classrooms

@#%& emerges??!! WTF?!

You remember the "Unprecedented" flick about the 2000 presidential election? As if we've never had contested presidential elections with controversial outcomes, like then, then, and here?

Been told by a university instructor that Americans are "in the dark" about the 1940s Japanese-American Internment Camps, though we've had some rather public, official acknowledgments (see: here, for example), and more than a few of us have read books and maybe seen a few films (like this one, that one, and oh, how about... this one) on the subject?

How about the very recent historical revisioning of the Hiroshima bombing (a debate we've been having for at least the past fifteen years)?

Ya think "behind the curve" is being more than a bit charitable? Just maybe?

Because they're icky

I was thinking again this afternoon, after hearing Hugh Hewitt hawk "Intelligent Design" on his radio show, about how weird it is for me to have become this "right-wing" Republican five years ago.

How can I hang out with conservatives if I'm anti-death penalty, anti-tort reform, anti "Marriage Amendment", against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and for open border immigration?

Well, in case you hadn't read my previous post on the subject, it's because many leftists are just thoroughly icky people.

09/29/09 update: I guess I'm "pleasantly surprised" that a few people "get it":

Reminder: Roman Polanski raped a child

. . .but then again, I'll always have my disappointments . . .

New York Times: An Iwo Jima Relic Binds Generations

I don't think there are any Japanese letters among the remaining possessions of my late grandfather- he had a rifle for a while with some Sino-Japanese characters on it - but I otherwise have never come across anything I could fathom "returning".

As I've mentioned before, I don't buy into the "futility of war" line, and capturing Iwo Jima gave the American military a needed base of operations to further attack the Japanese home islands.

That said, it does bring back some painful memories of my viewing of Letters From Iwo Jima (I went on to view it an additional 2-3 times) . . .

First Buddhist Army Chaplain

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) is boasting this afternoon that the first Buddhist Army Chaplain is from Tennessee.

And wouldn't you know, a "Buddhist Military Sangha" blog I just stumbled into has further info.

I linked to a story about an Asian American Buddhist serving in Afghanistan about three years ago: here.

Of course, joining the military had been a dream of mine earlier on, and though I've been a bit bitter about being rejected, I do like to see stories like this from time to time.

Two things: my Nepali refugee family and Van Jones resigning

I guess I've never "kinda sorta" broke any news, so I'll just post this (via Ace of Spades HQ - flaming skull!!):

Obama's Truther Czar resigns

More importantly:

Two members of an ethnic Nepali refugee family (from Bhutan) I mentor got beat up/mugged in the Twin Cities this past week and it is not cool. As a matter of fact, I feel just terrible about it.

I'm kinda connected with the local Nepali American community here, but if anyone has any info on low-income housing, etc. please do let me know, OK? This just sucks (especially when I hear they almost wish they'd never left their refugee camp).

Related: though I do get frustrated with the anti-immigrant sentiment of many of my fellow right-wing neocons, it's quite clear that immigrant-bashing is an equal opportunity activity- and at least as prevalent among our "communities of colour" as among any group of "bitter clinger" white guys, and I just fucking hate it.

That is all.