Sitemeter

I've added Sitemeter to the sidebar. It keeps track of traffic on this site but it's cool because anyone can check it.

A referral page is a site that redirected someone here. For example, if you follow a link to this site from Facebook, I can check my referral page and see that. Also, if you search for something on Google and my site comes up, I can not only see Google.com as a referral site, I can see for what was being searched. So here are some Google searches that get my site as a result:

kamo river photo

no 1 travel japan

pizzaria em kyowa

"under $3" visa

US government nagoya jobs

phi phi guesthouse

American Fascism-Lite

The 10 steps that all fascist states take according to Naomi Wolf:

1. Invoke an internal and external threat
2. Establish secret prisons
3. Develop a paramilitary force
4. Surveil ordinary citizens
5. Infiltrate citizens' groups
6. Arbitrarily detain and release citizens
7. Target key individuals
8. Restrict the press
9. Cast criticism as "espionage" and dissent as "treason"
10. Subvert the rule of law

Now, this is a pretty good list. If we are actually seeing these things in America, we should be worried regardless of the causes. She claims that while we have seen some of these things in the past, never before have they all been in effect simultaneously like they are now. For example, Lincoln suspended writs of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War and we have faced very real threats before, both external and internal.

I love conspiracy theories so I got sucked into this book, but a few of these items don't really stand up to scrutiny. I don't see a paramilitary force like Ms. Wolf does. I don't think you can compare Hitler's SA or SS and Mussolini's Arditi to Blackwater. Hitler's Storm Division (known before 1921 as the "Gymnastics and Sports Section") assaulted perceived enemies of the Nazis, harassed Jews, brawled in meeting halls, and destroyed Jewish businesses on the famous Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). It was a way for the Nazi leadership to intimidate the German people without responsibility for the violence. The SS was created as a paramilitary force, answerable to Hitler and not the German people. This is not Blackwater. Blackwater is terrifying and should be dismantled for different reasons. It's not the SS.

Blackwater is a contractor to the State Department in Iraq (they actually have operations in 9 countries, including the USA) and do things like protect diplomats and support American troops. They are civilians, so they're not subject to military tribunals. Right before the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) dissolved in 2004, it declared Special Order 17 which prevents all US troops and contractors from being subject to Iraqi laws. So, the question is: What laws are Blackwater subject to? Who has the authority to try them for crimes? Well, I'm not sure. But lawsuits have been brought against Blackwater by Iraqis and Americans alike and are now being tried in US courts. But all of this is different from the extra-legal status of the SS. I don't buy that they're comparable. If they are comparable, then it's only from Iraq's point of view. Actually, from an Iraqi point of view, that comparison is probably spot on.

Naomi Wolf doesn't make the mistake of declaring fascism in America. She holds back and says that we have "symptoms" of fascism, but that we're not quite there. It's more like fascism-lite. We have tolerably weak versions of these 10 symptoms and that's why its dangerous to our democracy. I don't think Americans would stand for a paramilitary force patrolling our streets, but we will tolerate a paramilitary force patrolling the streets of Baghdad. We wouldn't tolerate torture in the Medieval sense, but it seems like we will allow torture-lite. I guess it's just up to Americans to decide where to draw a line.

Technorati tags: Naomi Wolf, The End of America, American Fascism, Blackwater

Subversive tendencies

Thanks for the comment Bruce. With your support I'm going ahead with this nonsense.

It's the day after Christmas and thank Jesus because now the public libraries are open again. I walked downtown today to pick up Naomi Wolf's book "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot" and a book on how to teach yourself Arabic. I requested that Naomi Wolf book from the Western Mass library system after seeing her on the Colbert Report earlier this year (the YouTube link follows this post). While Ms. Wolf strikes me as a little nuts, her message sucked me right in. Unfortunately the only library in the Western Mass system to have a copy was in Amherst and there was a waiting list.

Daniela and I decided on Christmas Day to learn Arabic together, so I picked up a book with some CDs at the same time (I'm not going to stop learning Japanese, I'm just going to add Arabic to what I'm doing and I know how ridiculous that is). So, after leaving the library I stopped in at the Greenfield Farmer's Market to buy some green tea. While I was fumbling with my wallet at checkout, the girl at the register noticed both of my books: Introduction to Arabic and "The End of America." Yeah, that's right. I'm UP to stuff.

On Christmas Day, Daniela and I compromised on how to celebrate. We acknowledged Jesus Christ's divinity by eating Chinese food. That's your traditional Catholic/Jewish Christmas. While we walked down to the China Gourmet, we talked about Christian holidays (among other things). I said that they were actually a collection of pagan holidays and customs co-opted by Christians in order to teach and spread Christianity to pagan cultures. For example, both the hanging of mistletoe and the Christmas tree were pagan German traditions. Saint Boniface used the fir tree's triangular shape to help teach pagan Germans about Christ and they learned to revere it as a symbol as they had previously revered the Oak tree. December 25th was chosen as Christ's date of birth in the 3rd century because pagan Romans and Persians celebrated sun festivals around the same time. So, Christian traditions are actually a collection of pagan traditions subverted and redefined. We thought it was interesting. That's all.

Technorati tags: Naomi Wolf, The End of America, Christmas, Pagan

Naomi Wolf on the Colbert Report

エンキョリレンアイ

I decided to bite off way more than I can chew: I have begun reading a novel in Japanese. The novel I chose was written by Rui Kodemari (小手鞠 るい) and I just figured out that the title means "The Long-Distance Relationship" (エンキョリレンアイ).

I bought the book at a Good Will in Ashland, Oregon for a dollar. It was the only novel in Japanese and I thought that at some point I could use it to study. At that point, I had no idea what it was about. I can follow the plot, but the more abstract the sentences become the less I'm able to understand them. Some of the metaphors are giving me a real problem. I think she compared this guy's smile to light filtering through the leaves of trees, but I can't be sure.

It seems to be a trashy love novel. I'm cool with that. A love novel still trumps the children's programming that I watched in Japan. I remember at least one cartoon about a village of vegetables and a village of fruit (separated by a river) who learn that a healthy diet consists of cannibalizing residents of both places...

This novel is about a young woman looking back at the origins of her relationship with someone who may or may not be a foreigner (the "voice" as she keeps referring to him). I guess he's in New York and she's in Tokyo (it hasn't been said yet but that's what is implied on the jacket) and she met him while working part-time in a bookstore in Kyoto.

I'm only 12 or 13 pages in...

I guess none of this merits a post. Dammit.

This weekend to Christmas

Last night I got a beer with Tracy at the Pint and picked up a job application. I thought I could do something part-time before I left for Vegas in early February. I don't really need the money but I thought it would be fun to do something outside of my routine.



I told Tracy my plans last night about taking the Foreign Service Exam and she tried her best to scare me out of it. She was supportive in the end, but she told me about her friend Mark who currently works in Yerevan, Armenia for the State Department. He went to Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and was one of the few people from his class to pass the test. If his friends who took the test, and had been preparing for four years to take it, couldn't pass it what chance do I have? An additional concern of mine is that he took the written test in March but didn't get the oral assessment until September. I wasn't expecting such a long wait between taking the test and getting an interview. It's not a problem because I think this is what I really want to do, but if I can expect a similar wait, I should be taking that test as soon as possible. I don't want to take the test at the end of my time in Las Vegas and then have an additional 7 months to wait for an interview.

Unrelated: I went to the Salvation Army yesterday and bought a pair of pants. This isn't interesting, but I think I donated the pants that I bought.

Change of plans

Nothing is set in stone yet, but I don't think I'm going to return to Japan to teach English. I love learning Japanese, I love the food, I love the people, but I don't love teaching English and that's the problem. Also, teaching abroad is a very temporary solution to the problems that I'm having. I don't see anything long-term in this job (unless I got a job teaching at a Japanese university or returned to the US and taught Japanese in an American one), and I think that's becoming more important to me.

When I returned from Japan in May, I didn't have a job, I had spent quite a bit of the money I had saved (albeit to travel through nine countries), and I had no idea what to do with my life. If I leave again, I'm only going to return to this same spot in a year or two. I'll be 28, have a little money saved up, but still be without a career or even long-term goals.

So, as of right now, here is my new plan: move out to Las Vegas with Daniela and work in her aunt's bakery, while I study to take the Foreign Service Officer Exam. That's the test you take to get a job working in an American embassy abroad. I would be abroad, I would be learning a new language, and there's potentially a career in it. More to come as I figure this out.

Post-Japan plans?

First, try some of these:

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16. In American education, which of the following issues or policies has generated the LEAST amount of controversy?

(A) School vouchers
(B) School busing
(C) Local control over the curriculum
(D) National, standardized high school exit exams

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34. An administrator with overall responsibility for all administrative operations in a large operating agency is considering organizing the agency's personnel office around either of the following two alternative concepts:

Alternative I: A corps of specialists for each branch of personnel subject matter, whose skills, counsel, or work products are coordinated only by the agency personnel officer

Alternative II: A crew of so-called "personnel generalists," who individually work with particular segments of the organization but deal with all subspecialties of the personnel function

Of the following, the one that is the biggest drawback of Alternative I, as compared with Alternative II, is that

(A) training and employee relations work call for education, interests, and talents that differ from those required for classification and compensation work.
(B) personnel office staff may develop only superficial familiarity with the specialized areas to which they have been assigned.
(C) supervisors may fail to get continuing, overall personnel advice on an integrated basis.
(D) the personnel specialists are likely to become so interested in and identified with the operating view as to particular cases that they lose their professional objectivity and become merely advocates of what some supervisor wants.

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68. Native Americans have been much admired for their skill at arts and crafts and at artistic design, but are seldom given adequate credit for their intellectual achievements. All of the following are Native Americans who are correctly paired with their achievements EXCEPT

(A) Sequoya--developer of the Cherokee phonetic alphabet and creator of a literate Indian nation
(B) General Eli Parker--civil engineer and draftsman of the articles of Lee's surrender at Appomattox
(C) George Caitlin--author and artist
(D) Dr. Charles Eastman--physician, YMCA director, organizer of Boys Scouts and Camp Fire Girls

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These three questions were taken from Arco's "Master the American Foreign Service Officer Exam" test prep guide. I took the diagnostic test last month and got 17 out of 49 wrong. Not a great start. I took the first of three full practice tests a day later and scored similarly: 60 out of 180 wrong. Studying a little bit seems like a good idea.

Passing the Foreign Service Officer Exam is a necessary step in getting a job in an embassy. I have enjoyed living outside of the U.S. but teaching English isn't what I want to be doing in 10 years. Working in an embassy seems like a desirable alternative. I'm learning about what I would be expected to do for the Foreign Service (I must choose from one of the five specializations) and how feasible a career would be. I have two main reservations. First, I would be representing the U.S. government abroad and I hate the Bush administration. On the bright side, Bush doesn't have much longer in office. And secondly, as an officer, I would be expected to accept any assignment handed down, which means that I could be assigned to Baghdad as early as 2009.

But first, the test:

The test is divided into English and Knowledge-based questions. There are 110 questions in the English section and you are allotted an hour to finish them. The Knowledge section consists of 70 questions, but you're given an unnecessarily long 2 hours. This doesn't include the time required for a personality test and an essay section. The test guide I picked up says very little about the essay.

After reading through two books on English grammar and usage, I significantly improved upon my test score (48 out of 180 wrong). I'm currently rereading some Economics textbooks from college, after which I'll take the last practice test and hopefully see a little further improvement. I'm not in a rush though, as I'll have plenty of time while in Las Vegas to study and read up on the Foreign Service.

The answer to each question is C.

Technorati tags: Foreign Service Exam, Department of State, Arco, Embassy

りんご - "旅"

Japanese rap. The name of the band is Apple and the song is "Traveler." I think.

つしまみれ - "エアコンのリモコン"

A Japanese pop band that I like.

The past week

I'm currently at Daniela's apartment in Cambridge. I've always loved this area. Harvard Square has everything you could want: over-priced restaurants, punks hanging around the station, beggars, and pretentious students blocking the sidewalk. There's also a grocery store on Broadway, a movie theater nearby, Pinocchio's, and plenty of used bookstores. I was just reading 'Bend Sinister' on Daniela's broken couch while she took a post-breakfast nap in the other room. The couch should have spring-laden supports under the cushions, but the furthest one back has snapped in half, so you sink into the couch when you sit on it. It seems more like a rectangular bean bag chair now than an actual couch.

Why have I been in Cambridge for a week and how did I get here? Good question. Daniela had reserved Zipcars for my birthday and for the following Friday, unsure of which day she would actually drive out to see me. She wound up driving out to Greenfield on the 28th, the day before my birthday, but then forgot to cancel the Zipcar she had reserved for the weekend. If you try to cancel your Zipcar reservation within 24 hours they charge you the full cost anyway, so she drove out to Greenfield a second time, twice within 3 days. We hung out in Greenfield on Friday night and Saturday afternoon -- playing a little guitar hero, watching some Arrested Development, probably blazing although I can't remember, and waiting for a guy to buy some of our old furniture from the North End. I decided to come back with her to Cambridge and to stay until Monday morning (the 3rd). That was almost a week ago.

Daniela is still working at Dana Farber (although her last day is at the end of December) so I've had to keep myself busy during the day. On Monday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the ukiyo-e paintings currently on display. As always, I was able to get in for free using my Brandeis student ID. That was key in deciding how I would spend my day by the way. Not receiving a regular paycheck makes doing things for free all the more appealing. I spent Tuesday reading 'The Time-Traveler's Wife' because Daniela was hosting a book club meeting that night and I wanted to participate. I only got through the first 100 pages (it wasn't a great book), but meeting Daniela's friends was cool and Daniela had bought a ton of food. There may have been 10 of us, but I was the only guy in attendance. I forced everyone in the room to agree with me by challenging them to arm-wrestling matches.

On Thursday I returned to the MFA and spent most of my time looking at Roman and Greek art. Thursday was the third night of Hannukah and Dave and Kelly decided to throw a party at their place in Brookline. Daniela brought matzoh ball soup, Vanessa made rugulah, and we made latkes. Add wine and dreidels for best results.

Based on my own experience, Jews simply cannot win at dreidel when goyim are playing. When we played during college, the only two non-Jews playing (Conor and I) easily dominated. Wait... was Santosh playing with us that time? I can't remember now. Anyway. This year, the first two people to be eliminated were Daniela and Dave. The only two Jews. Maybe it's some kind of cosmic lesson about humility. The lessons learned from playing dreidel are reserved for Jews only. I take pride in the fact that I was the third person out though. I guess after ACTUAL Jews, I was the next most-Jewish. God's people? Count me in. Or close anyway.

Last night Dana Farber held a holiday party at some hotel downtown. I had already met a few of Daniela's friends from work (Michaela, Katie, and Mara) but it was still intimidating. It shouldn't have been. All of her co-workers are great. It's actually kind of weird. Not a jackass in the bunch. I was drinking whiskey on the rocks all night. Now, that sounds like a manly drink (or so I was told several times throughout the night) but that's not at all why whiskey is my drink. In Japan, it was the most cost-efficient thing you could drink at a bar. Beer was usually expensive (or at least more so than liquor or sake) but there were quite a few cheap domestic whiskeys. So I've carried it back with me, and now I give off that man's man vibe (the beard helps) a little bit better. Dancing like a butterfly doesn't help that image, but I do like to dance. After D and I lost our buzzes and got tired and sweaty enough for one night, we turned in.

Actually, I just thought of an anecdote. Daniela's co-worker has a friend that said a lot of really nice things about me before we even met. "Oh, Benn looks really funny and clever, and you can just tell he's a great guy. The kind of guy I would like to marry. Do you think he would marry me?" Or something like that. It was like, funny and creepy only because she had never actually met me before. So, Daniela got a rape whistle from work, and I decided to wear it to the party in case this girl cornered me. It feels kind of mean now, but everyone who saw the whistle and asked about it thought it was pretty funny.

We'll probably finish the rest of this ficus (Seriously, this is great stuff) and catch a movie tonight. Expect me back in Greenfield on Monday.

Technorati tags: Hannukah, Cambridge, Dana Farber, Book Club