Me likey karaoke

So I was sitting at home on Saturday, minding my own business, when I get a call from Dave and Tim. They were walking around Ximen Ding. Ximen Ding is like a small Times Square in Taipei. So they came over and we hung out for a while, and then we decided to meet some other people at a KTV. Now, for those of you who have never lived in Asia, KTV is Taiwan's version of the karaoke room. Karaoke rooms are huge in east Asia. In Korea they were called NoraeBang, in Taiwan it's KTV, and I don't know what they're called in Japan. But the principle is all the same. You go with your friends and rent a small room, and you sing karaoke together.

They were more numerous in Korea, but I've been to these places about ten times. They can be surprisingly fun, but the experience will be totally different, depending on whether you go with a foreigner crowd, or with locals. When you're with a bunch of other foreign teachers, you end up going to these places at 3, maybe 4AM. You've been drinking all night and it's a blast.. You can either bring in your own booze, or just buy it there. It's always a total free for all. The staff barely speak any English, and they don't want to have to deal with having to tell you to stop running around screaming, spilling beer on the equipment, sleeping on the lobby floor, etc. It's easier for them to just point and laugh.

But when you go with the locals, it's totally different. First off, while we stop in for a few hours at the end of the night, they will go for the entire night. Maybe 9PM to 2AM, and they're in there singing away the whole time. And you will never here any rock music, or even hip hop. They never play any "good" music. And it's not that it's all Chinese. They will sing quite a few English songs, depending on how well they can speak it. But they pick the lamest songs. This last weekend, they were singing Ashley Simpson...the guys, not the girls. They sit on the couches and let one or two people sing the song. Then when the song is over, they pass the mics to the next person. Totally different from the constant passing and mad grabbing of the mic when we go.

Then there's the songs. The selection of English songs can go from satisfactory at best, to down right awful in the worst cases. Sometimes the band's or song's name is written in the native writing script. This wasn't so bad in Korea, since the Korean writing system is easy to learn, and it's easier to write foreign words with. But in Taiwan it's ridiculous. They had, maybe, 100 English songs, but half the bands were written in Chinese. You'd be surprised how many songs you can't recognize without the band's name.

They're usually pretty cheap, much more so in Korea. In both Taiwan and Korea, they have really nice places. Marble, leather couches, catered food, the works. But in Korea they had lots of dive places. The nicer places can go as high as $100 and hour , but for around $1 a person, you could go at it for a few hours at the dives. Taiwan is lacking for dive KTVs, which is kind of surprising, considering it's a poorer country. Well, scratch that. They have some cheaper KTV's but they're only cheap because they send hookers in. Then you have to pay the hookers. So it ends up being more expensive, or at least, that's what I've been told...

Taiwanren bu shi huan Zhong Goua Da

In case you weren't aware, The US government does not maintain official relations with Taiwan. There is no Ambassador here. If I need help with anything, I go to the American Institute in Taiwan. It's the same way with China and Taiwan. Both countries employ quasi-governmental organizations that handle diplomatic relations and provide assistance for citizens.

Well, two days ago the Vice-Chairman of the Chinese group, known as ARATS, was in Taiwan, giving a speech apparently about media exchanges...whatever that means. Anyway, during the speech he said that "there will never be war in the Strait if there is no Taiwan independence". Strong words for an extremely polarized country, split down the line on the question of Taiwan's independence. So when the guy leaves the building, he gets mobbed by a bunch of people, and knocked to the ground. It's huge news over here. Apparently it's been on CNN and the BBC, but I doubt many people in the West are aware of it.



Yesterday the former President, Chen Shui Bien from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, gave a speech where he said that the guy deserved it. He is also currently under investigation by the ruling Koumingtang, for money laundering.

A recent poll by Global Views Monthly, shows that barely over half of the population of Taiwan even wants the Chairman of ARATS, who is scheduled to visit next month, to come to the island. Massive protests against the government are common, and the economic downturn has given the current President, Ma Ying Jeou, George Bush like approval ratings, although not quite as bed as the Democrat led congress. If things with the economy gets worse, hitting both China and Taiwan particularly bad, things should get interesting

Where the hell am I?

Someone turned me on to this funny video. It's at a Carrefour, which is basically a French Wal-Mart. They're quite common in Asia. although not in Korea, where only homegrown shopping exists. Big shock there. Any way, check it out, it's the type of thing you see here on a daily basis. And remember, vote for Dean Barkley for Senate. Send a message to the DFL that you won't be a sucker for a comedian with a famous name. And tell Norm that you won't support this "bailout".

Hell ya Mankato

The MSU Reporter has a poll running, asking people who they will be voting for. Now, of course this is not a scientific poll, and the only people voting are those who actually go there and click on it. But, and here's the link, John McCain is leading over Barrack Obama by 20 points. That's a pretty big lead. Especially when we are told daily by the Obama campaign that they are energizing young people to vote. And they can't even win in a college university online poll.

Doin the absentee thing

I received my absentee ballot two days ago and I've been agonizing over it ever since. The recent "bailout" has really angered me. I truly believe it will go down in history as a monumentally idiotic decision, and someone needs to pay for it. I thought long and hard about it and I've come to the conclusion that not voting for John McCain would be foolish. Too many supreme court justices will be retiring soon and I just don't want to see Barack Obama appointing their successors.

John Kline not only voted for the revised bill, but he voted for the original as well. But Kline has always been strong on Social Security reform, and a solid Republican in most other instances, so on a whole I'm satisfied with him. That leaves me with Norm Coleman.

His support for this bailout has really irked me the wrong way. He's never supported drilling in Anwar, he's weak on social security, he's not averse to Federal meddling in education, he wants Federal IDs. All of that I can forgive however because he was strong on corruption at the UN, free trade, and more or less strong on tax reform. On top of that, I think he works well in the Senate. Many of my friends were angry to find out Norm strongly supports guys like Ted Stevens. I think that's a good thing. The only Minnesotan we have in congress who can pull strings is James Oberstar. Coleman sits on important committees and it would be advantageous to have a Minnesota Senator get some seniority.

But this bailout is so wrong for our country, that I feel I would not be doing my duty as a citizen if I didn't axe someone for it. So, after talking to numerous people, as well as hours of contemplation, I've decided that I will not be voting for Norm Coleman. Instead, I will be voting for Dean Barkley. Blueman, a democrat, pushed me over the top in his support for Barkley. Independents usually don't carry much clout in congress, however, the tea leaves definitely point to a near 60% majority for the democrats in the Senate after the elections. That type of situation can give some influence to a swing voter who can add a crucial vote to break a filibuster.

This was not an easy choice to make, and I don't do it lightly. I urge all of you to really take a close look at your favored candidate in the race. Especially you democrats. How members of the Minnesota DFL can support a comedian with no connection to our state and no political experience is beyond me. And I certainly don't understand how these same people then can criticize Sarah Palin. Al Franken is a joke and it's a real statement about the DFL that they would nominate this carpet bagger over the lifelong activist Mike Ciresi. Franken says he would not have voted for the bailout, but he has absolutely 100% no record to look at. At least Barkley has public service on his resume.

I don't want to sound clichéd, but a win for Dean Barkley would send a message to both parties in this state that we won't accept votes for disastrous public policy, nor washed up has beens with name recognition,. Wannabe Hasbeens, maybe. But Washed up Hasbeens, I think not.

Back home

Whew, I made it back home yesterday, I think around 3:00 PM. I had a blast. the weather forecast was not good, so there weren't as many people as I expected. And some of the bands were flat out awful, particularly the ones during the late afternoon, early evening. But the DJs were great. I particularly like S.U.N. Project. Great music. The Money Shot Horns were decent too.

The food was pretty good too, especially the chicken. Mmmmm, mmmmm. And beer was cheap and, at least at first, cold.

The best part of the festival was the setting. It was located at the top/side of a mountain. The mountain itself was located in a National Park. There were lots of trails for exploring. I didn't see any tigers, but we did see plenty of gigantic spiders. Pictures will be coming shortly.

Overall I had a great time, and I have to say, the haters were relatively mute. Of course some Bush hatred was dropped more than a few times, and one of the promoters got up on the staged and urged us all to become vegans to help the environment. An odd statement I thought, considering that none of the food vendors actually had any vegan food. Come to think of it, I don't think there were more than three items you could buy that had no meat in them.

Oh, how I love Asia

I'll be in the jungle for the next few days so you won't hear from me. Before I go though, I just wanted to leave you with something to watch. It's a short snippit from a documentary about Binlang, or Betel nut; the Asian equivalent of chewing tobacco. It looks like a big clove of garlic rapped in a leaf. It tastes like ass, but it definitely gives you a serious jolt of caffeine like energy. Binlang definitely has the same connotations here as chew does in The US. It's seen as lower class, rural, gross, and only for men. Taxi drivers use it alot because it gives them energy, but they don't have to pee all the time, like they would if they were drinking coffee.

And then there are the girls. Attractive, and extremely scantily dressed, they stand outside the binlang shops and jump around, eat lollipops, pick things up off the ground, anything to bring customers to the stores. It's really something to see. And the guys eat it up. It's like a national pastime. Every store tries to outdo the other, not in quality of its product, but in the attractiveness of its girls. The stores don't even process the stuff. All the people working in the tiny shops on the street selling milk tea and cigarettes spend their free time rolling it up. They mostly ignore foreigners, though, but only because they know we don't chew binlang. So watch the video, and enjoy your weekend.

Hippie Fest, Yay!

I'm going to this music festival this weekend, out in the jungles of Taiwan. I'm pretty excited, since this will be my first chance to really get out of the city. I did have a chance to go to the beach last month, but that was only a day trip.

Having lived overseas amongst the English teaching community, I'm well aware, however, that I will likely be the only Republican in attendance. Wait, scratch that, I will be the only person at the entire festival with any inklings toward liberty and freedom.

If there's one thing I've learned while living over here it's that there are only about four kinds of English teachers over here. The first type is the Vegan/Enviro/Leftist who has a strong disdain for their home culture, and an intrinsic infatuation with Eastern culture. The second type are those who truly want to teach English. These are the ones who wanted to join the Peace Corps, but actually wanted to make some money. I think it goes without saying that these people are almost to a man, leftists. The third type are the ones who just want to do something different, didn't want a normal job after college, or just want to travel for an extended time. These guys run the gamut from strong leftists to ambivalence. Every once in a while you will find a right winger, but they are always Ron Paul types. Then you come to the fourth type. This is the category I fall into. These are people who came here for strategic reasons, usually to learn the language and culture and parlay that into future career opportunities. These people also come from all parts of the spectrum but it is only in this group that you will find center right people.

So, needless to say, political discussions are quite common over here. There is no common sport that everyone can talk about. North Americans have their sports and European/Australian/New Zealanders have theirs. Everyone comes from a different country so local, non-political events can't be discussed. People often talk about their travels, but once you've heard one guy's story about Kho Pangan, Vientiene, or Boracay, you've heard them all. So every discussion comes back to either politics or what's happening in the country you're living in. And I think it goes without saying that the English teaching community is not exactly enamored with the US and any form of liberty.

So you just have to learn when to hold your tongue and when you can have a proper discussion with someone. I know that at this hippie fest I'm going to have to hold my tongue, a lot. But that's ok, it's nothing new to me.

Sigh

Sigh I'm not going to blog about this, but there's more Obama fanatics on video here. If you watch this and are not frightened, then you just don't know history. It's people like this, fanatics devoted to individuals, rather than ideas, who have caused the greatest disasters in history. It was people like this who supported Julius Casear in his usurpation of the Roman Republic. People like this brought Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo power. Fanatics like this caused the Russian Revolution, brought Mao Tse Tung to power in China, and crowned Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of France. Notice that none of these people brought anything but death and destitution to their people.

Now contrast that with fantatics who follow ideas and movements, rather than individuals. The American and French Revolutions come to mind. The protests at Tianamen Square in China, the Meiji Restoration in Japan. These movements all had leaders, but the leaders did not require songs be sung about them, and pledges made to them.

The fact that there are fools out there who make blind allegiances to individuals is sad, but such is the history of mankind. What is really sad is that the left in this country will view anyone, myself included, who brings this up as nothing more than someone grasping at straws with ways to criticize Barack Obama, probably a racist as well. This should be a non partisan issue. Barack Obama should stand up on national TV and tell the nation that singing songs about him and pledging allegiance to him is disgusting and un-American. I doubt I'll see that anytime soon though.

Well there I go, ranting. I'll tell you what I've been up to tomorrow.

The Obama Kids

I finally got around to watching Obama kids video. This is really something. If you haven't watched it you really should...I couldn't stop laughing, with a bit of sadness in there too. Anyone who has watched Jesus Camp, and was outraged, should be outraged at this too. They are one and the same and if you don't feel the same kind of sadness for the blatant indoctrination, then you are a hypocrite.