en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/10/14/999b572b4133726c43ce8121d26febcc.html
Since my dad passed away, I had some time to think over the whole situation. I think if the health care system was better in America, he would've had a chance. However, because he wasn't insured and my family was paying through social security, the doctors provided him with horrible treatment. We'd frequently receive calls about how my dad would throw up or get sick in the summer. For god's sake, he was in a nursing home in Southern California and he'd get sick! That says a lot.

I'm quite certain if he were someone famous or one of these people who had a ridiculous some of money to pay for his treatment, his stroke would've been treated and he would've done fine. It's like that movie John Q and the scene where John Q spotted the doctor who was talking to his pals who had better money and thus would receive better personal care. I have no doubt in my mind that this is a reality.

What's more insulting is that my mother has a $400k medical bill that she obviously will never pay off. My poor dad died because the stupid hospital and staff couldn't provide proper treatment. Why should my family owe these people any money for rotten service? It's one thing if my dad had a gunshot wound through his heart and had been bleeding. But it seemed that the doctors barely monitored him.

Then I found out that my dad, just before he passed away, had gone to the hospital across the street from his nursing home to be treated for a fever. Later apparently he died of sickness because, according to the doctors/nurses, "they couldn't find a vein to inject him with medication/whatever." Excuse me? You're trained professionals. You're telling me that with all your experience, you couldn't handle a simple case? Then the doctors/nurses played it off with (feigned) surprise. I have no doubt that these people didn't give a crap because they were 1) incompetent; 2) not paid enough to treat my father with proper care.

Here's a message to American medicine:

FUCK YOU!!!!!!

You killed my father, you let him suffer and I'll never forgive you. You deserve to bear my eternal grudge and a curse that your profession will be driven off the face of this earth due to your unbearable greed and the fact that America's healthcare system is driven by politics rather than sensibility.

People equally deserve the right to the same level of treatment no matter what their economic status. Medicine and health ought to be a service granted to people in the world on an equitable basis. Obviously, America does not feel that way and treats it simply as economics and capitalism. I don't give a rats ass how much you fuckers studied in college or how many late nights and ulcers you got just trying to get into medical school. While the people in IT have done a superb job in trying to advance the lives of people, I've seen no cure for AIDS, cancer or whatnot. I just see large numbers attached to medical bills. Your ancient practices and ways of thinking are what causes the whole politics of medicine. The only people truly advancing the arts of medicine are those in IT because we are the ones providing the systems, databases, and technologies to make these idiots do their jobs properly. And they can't even get that right.

My challenge to the true future practitioners of medicine is this: find your equivalent of Open Source and Social Medicine. What Open Source, social computing, and the internet have done to free IT from the shackles of companies like Microsoft, medicine must also break from their bond of ancient ways of thinking. Forget forcing students to study useless subjects like evolutionary biology if they're going into medicine just to provide some useless professors' with job security. Forget the MCAT and elitist mode of entering into medical school. Forget studying the long, difficult ways of thinking like Organic Chemistry, physics, etc. Medicine needs their short cuts like the perl/CGI, the HTML, the PHP and Mysql to make their profession useful.

We need revolutionary kids building medical solutions in their homes with nanotechnologies, 3D prototypes, etc. We need to bring down the barriers to entry to let a new generation of people into the medical profession. Maybe we need to even outsource medicine oversees since American doctors enjoy being overpaid and thus requiring a threat to their professions to make it more compelling to do a good and qualified job.

In any case, what's available in America is unsatisfactory and unacceptable. I have no problem flaming the practioners in America and I have no problem receiving their ardur. They don't deserve an ounce of my respect. I consider firemen to be real heroes by comparison. If you want my respect back, do something to change this situation rather than being the greedy, BMW driving, snobs that rob needy people of their money.]]> Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:28:19 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/10/14/999b572b4133726c43ce8121d26febcc.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/11/16/66a29340fe8f0d9a4e9126c38a8f659a.html
The best part about that article (actually it's not referenced below and I cannot find it) is that contact sports are validated. We're talking about acts of violence. Reminds me of the whole South Park movie where they say how acts of violence is okay as long as no swear words are used. Does anyone realize how stupid this sounds!???!?!!?!

When you see something as ludicrous as this, you have to think about a bigger picture. What society has become (as we continue to say for years). Well, the way I look at it is that social convention (which is what we're seeing, not any real validations of ethics nor morality here) is just stupid and lacking in common sense. So they use an overarching rule to prevent the schools from receiving lawsuits from possible sexual harassment and make the students, rather than the parents and teachers, accountable for these acts.

What these schools do not realize is that they are creating hostile and prohibitive social environments. Then again this is what the midwest of America is all about. Prohibition, inhibition and repression. It's why America mostly suffers since we have to tolerate their inability to tolerate. Makes me wish that a huge tornado swept through the midwest and cleaned up these dirt patches. No loss there.]]> Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:25:12 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/11/16/66a29340fe8f0d9a4e9126c38a8f659a.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/11/16/ff5f722f363f0e413456b583ff31ca21.html
I was reading about the whole RIAA/MPAA cases, Gene Simmons acting like an old fucker and shooting down his fans (hey, weren't you once labeled a devil worshipper by Christians in the US???), thinking of Swimming with Sharks, P2P, etc. and came to the conclusion that morality doesn't exist. Morality too is just social convention.

The only time social convention should impinge on a person is when a gun is held to the back of their head. That's the only time when I can see obeying social convention is a must. Think about that.

Laws are merely social conventions that we adopt to hold prevailing philosophy and inject a "common sense" (as opposed to common sense without the quotes) into people via those that have the authority. Cops and the military, for instance, are not by themselves authority. They are tools of authority but make no decisions themselves, except in cases of despotic regimes where military power is the rule. But in cases like the US or Japan, these groups only enforce things. Yet we fear them because people subscribe to the thought that these agencies are the law (like the Anthrax song).

But if laws are merely social convention that are imposed on us through another form of authority, such as the shareholders of a company, the CEO of a corporation, some government official, a rock star, or even a religious group, then you can say that it's really the minority that hold power because of a certain reason. In the case of a corporation, it's the amount of money and influence that they hold with the government, In the case of a rock star, it's because of their social status that we hold them above ourselves. In the case of religious groups, it's because of numbers (which would defy my earlier statement in some ways, but you also have to religious that there are numerous religious groups that come into conflict and yet not hold the same level of influence as some like the Christians or Catholics in the world in terms of how we behave).

The point I'm trying to make though is that we end up following laws not because we realize that they are good for us in some idealistic, moral and pure manner, but because we fear them. We fear that someone else has an invisible gun in the back of our heads, ready to pull the trigger when we step out of line. But when you break down how these laws work, how they're erected, how they're supported, it makes little sense to the individual on the other side of the law. These laws are created to bind us to the wills of the few individuals in power because they hold their power through their resources.

It's kinda sad that we have to follow some of these flawed conventions of thought. When I read Gene Simmon's quote, I thought here's a guy who at one time probably was poor, hungry and desperate like the rest of us. In his day, he rebelled and did rock and roll, which defied some other social convention at the time. Now, people of my generation and younger, who are poor and just seeking a certain need are being verbally thrashed by someone who's nothing more than a hypocrite of his own making.

Some of the comments on Slashdot referenced Swimming with Sharks, particularly Buddy Ackerman's quote of, "If you weren't a rebel by the age of 18, you had no heart. If you didn't go institution by the age of 30 you had no brain." So I guess this fits what people like Simmons, who managed to make a career off the backs of many loyal followers has done. He's gone institution, turned his back on any beliefs he once had, and just is out for his own pocket book.

It's refreshing to see that perhaps the reason why people like that had angst is because they were a greedy asshole all along with little care towards the people who made him. The only care people like this have are their own image and how many girls they can bang at night to brag to their friends. I still will like their music and what they've done for rock and roll, but as individuals they can enter the atmosphere in a ball of flame and get incinerated in a blaze of glory and be real rock and roll.
]]> Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:49:12 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/11/16/ff5f722f363f0e413456b583ff31ca21.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/11/1519d773cda0cf7fc29cfa5bf6c4cafe.html
Obviously, this is an impossibility when you fly international. So it seems that domestic flights in America are becoming worthless to anyone who isn't a celebrity (who probably can afford their own plane) or a business person.

I've already sworn this if I ever travel within the US again, I'll never fly. The airline quality for domestic flights is like going to a state penitentiary. They stuff you in small lines, shove you into tiny crowded spaces, starve you on the plane and your subject to tons of rude people and their whiny brats for several hours.

The good thing is that the only place I really travel to domestically from LA is Las Vegas. But I suppose if I wanted to go to some other state, I'd just as well take the road. I think it'd be much more interesting, scenic and you can really see the country.

As far as America's airlines' finances going south, I have absolutely no pity. They've brought this onto themselves with awful service and that horrible bureaucratic Homeland (In)security department as well as the Total Shit Admistration (TSA). None of these companies have even attempted to be proactively customer friendly, which is why the demand for tickets keep lowering. At least the service for companies like JAL and ANA out here in Japan are quite good so it's actually worth paying for the price of a ticket in those companies. But if suddenly all the US airlines went bankrupt simultaneously and all the jobs were lost, I wouldn't shed a tear. Treat your customers with respect and maybe they might actually start flying again. Until then, take a bus or drive your car.]]> Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:15:57 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/11/1519d773cda0cf7fc29cfa5bf6c4cafe.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/d20d562883f8c10ee6e32f94f09c1e3b.html
Adam Smith did not seem to address in detail what occurs in the trickle down economy when a recession/depression or negative stimulus occurs. But I think many people favor his beliefs because it allows people to act selfish (something that apparently even he remonstrates as immoral to his system). The other thing he never considered is how to placate those who convert a capitalistic system into a monopoly. Supposedly, America has a checks and balances system, but I think that system has long been corrupted by lobbyists, special interests and those with deep pockets to regain the mentality of the monarchy.

Also, America is definitely not a free market economy. All those trade restrictions and rules imposed kill the idealistic version of a free market economy. I hate the fact that people call America a mixed free market economy. Call it what it is: whatever the flavor of the time government chooses to support their ideology.

So how can one survive in this world? There are no new lands that people can move to, with the governments imposing more restrictions to continue to control us. Mars is just a fantasy just like the moon. Only the elite of the society can have any hopes of venturing into space.

Well, I think the answer lies in two parts. The first part is that you can move to a desolate mountain, forest, or part of a country side, cut off your TV and other forms of media access and live off the land in a commune. Maybe even not be part of a commune. Grow your own vegetables, fruits and be located just close enough to the outskirts of a town to get your necessities. Of course, you should pay your taxes and whatnot but essentially you have to become invisible to the world.

The second method is to establish a large corporation with all your friends, purchase a large lot of land, develop on it, and create your own city. Don't believe this is possible? Just think of some of these companies like Google, Yahoo, MS, EA, etc. These are all self-sustaining communities. You still do everything legally like pay for property tax, etc. but you don't let outsiders come in. You create your own elite club, just like how the governments have their golf clubs and fraternities that more elites pay to get into so they can maintain these communities of mutual thought. In these situations, you cannot allow your own selfishness to alienate you from the realization that others are attempting to control you by some means. Only by subscribing to a limited collective where beliefs are common between people, are you able to survive in the postmdern world.]]> Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:47:23 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/d20d562883f8c10ee6e32f94f09c1e3b.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/4/14/44c7ef1d284786a3208e30658f74048b.html
The funny (or rather sad) part is that you really only see the American airlines groups seeing so much difficulty. My belief is that the TSA and Homeland Security have effectively rendered air travel inefficient and inconvenient to the majority of the people. Taking away traditional services and charging for extra baggage for the majority of Americans simply brew resentment by most cost conscious Americans. Add to that, the naturally hostile environments of airports with the mistrust of baggage handlers, who supposedly are there to ensure our security, and you've got a natural recipe for a meltdown.

Of course, another huge issue is the recent whistleblower scandal at Southwest Airlines and the FAA. That was a really scary one for myself as I had been somewhat of a fan of Southwest Airlines since I used to take them quite frequently back at my days in UC Berkeley. Hearing about the backdoor bargaining between inspectors and the airlines demonstrate more evidence of the nefarious nature of the airlines industry.

As I previously had stated (or cursed), I am NOT sympathetic to the airlines industry taking this fall. They've essentially brought it upon themselves. The airlines industry is running things like a business, which seems like an odd statement considering it is a business. However, as I previously mentioned, the whole thing is about service. The problem I see with the airlines industry in the states is that the service is simply awful for the price you pay. I think most people aren't willing to pay any price at this stage for essentially being treated like a criminal or feeling insecure.

In order for the American airlines industry to recover, they must fix this blemish on their image. Start by doing things to improve customer service. Instead of taking away services, add more for free. Tack on charges, but improve the customization experience done by the flight attendants. Do things to expedite travel and make people feel less insecure. Having a guy with a big fucking gun and a fat woman insulting you by the gate do not aid in this perception! We want friendly, trustworthy service. Perhaps, the American airlines groups should hire nothing but Japanese customer service representatives, since it seems that most other ethnic groups just don't get the idea of what treating a customer with the best respect means.

Of course, they won't listen to my suggestions, even though they are completely valid. And they'll continue to plummet in terms of profits. But this is what they need to do in order to get back on track.]]> Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:56:02 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/4/14/44c7ef1d284786a3208e30658f74048b.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/4/21/a78789530ddda16913e52eefe090f264.html
The thing is that America really needs to do something about their dependence upon oil. There's no doubt that nothing will get done as long as Bush and his cronies are in charge. But in general, whether another Bush gets installed in the long term or not, America needs to do something within the next 2-3 years, especially with states like California (Los Angeles in particular) and other car dependent states.

I don't think Americans realize just how screwed up they are if they're living in the states. You've got so many factors that are messing the economy up big time:

• Oil shortage
• Sub-prime loan problem
• Home foreclosures
• Credit Crunch/Financial institutions blowing up
  
• Airline bust
• Detroit's sinking economy due to heavy (and better) competition from East Asia (i.e. Japan, Korea and soon China and India)
• Outsourcing of jobs to India, China, Indonesia, etc.
• The trillions of dollars of debt Bush has gotten America into due to the unnecessary war
• Farm/food shortage

These are some heavy implications that lead me to believe that even if a Democrat gets the election in November, the country will be wrecked for 16 years. The current responses I'm seeing in the economy are piss poor and dodgy at best:

• More military force in the Middle East/military spending
• Budget cuts in NASA/Space exploration
• Other countries buying land in America
• Outside creditors coming into bail these major financial companies out (e.g. the India billionaire becoming a large stakeholder in CitiGroup)
• The complete fracturing of the airline industry, with mergers to create less competitive environments and the cutting of staff and good services
• Complaints from Detroit/auto industry that they are unable to meet the demands of better fuel efficiency

These aren't positive ways to stave off the current issues. In fact, I think these so-called "solutions" are simply using cheap duct tape over a severed artery. Instead, of figuring out how to help the majority, American corporations are trying to appease shareholders by cutting cost to show pathetic growth or even revenue. The only two areas saving America at the moment are online technologies and the Green movement. But most of that are illusions of growth that are going to perpetuate more mini bubbles of illusion in an attempt to veil the true core issues facing Americans now.

I think America needs to start with figuring out how to resolve the energy/oil crisis problem. That seems to be the biggest thing hitting people unnecessarily. Here are some ideas to help America bounce back in this regard:

• Force the government to absorb oil cost for each dollar spent on the war here on out. In other words, if the government cannot resolve peace in the Middle East immediately, then they should either withdraw, or do something locally to create a shield for the American public on a problem the government has created.
• Force the CEOs, shareholders and chair people from the automotive industry out immediately (by gun point if necessary) and force those companies to focus completely on research on energy efficiency. Use those people's bonuses, salaries and stock options to fund research projects in these areas. Considering how much they make, that would be plenty to get something more efficient than hybrids out to the public.
• Get states like California to put more public transportation infrastructure into place. The Metro is pathetic. They have plenty of land which is far more stable than Japan and can utilize all that space underground to build efficient subways. If places like Beverly Hills, Orange County, or yuppy zones disagree, tax those muthafuckers and have them collectively fund the projects. Maybe we can kick those gay bastards out to Connecticut with all the other yuppy cocksuckers.
• Give businesses like eSolar, Energy Innovations, etc. massive tax breaks for creating working solutions for the general consumer. Make Texas fund it since it was Enron who screwed California over.
• Penalize gas guzzling idiots by increasing taxes on people who drive vehicles that have mileage under 24 miles/gallon. Those bastards can already afford the cost of gas if they have a gas guzzler in the first place, so hopefully we can clean the streets up of urban tanks and replace them with more fuel efficient, less space wasting solutions.

I don't joke around when I say these things. The way American politics is structured, nothing is going to get done without brute force to knock into the public's dense heads that these actions are absolutely necessary to get the country back on track.]]> Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:38:01 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/4/21/a78789530ddda16913e52eefe090f264.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/4/21/6a587de85f0d7ce01520a55b0e9c1e99.html
Clinton called for investment in alternative energy, higher fuel economy standards for vehicles and a one-year moratorium on additions to the nation's strategic oil reserves.

To me this quote lacks details and concrete evidence to demonstrate that Clinton has any inkling on truly handling a critical problem in America. Let's pick apart each point one by one:

• Investment in alternative energy. Sounds great, but does she even know what alternative energy is? What sources? How much is an investment? Do we invest in research money by planting billions of dollars in scholarships at the university level?
• Higher fuel economy standards for vehicles. Look the Democrats tried this. Certain states tried this. But the whiny crying Detroit automobile factories for whatever reason decided that they can't do this for whatever reason. Now, if Clinton pushes for this, doesn't that alienate one of her biggest allies going against McCain in the coming November election? Also, what are these higher standards? What numbers can we have? I don't think that a minimum of 33 MPH/gallon is that great of an enforced standard. Why not shoot for 100 MPH/gallon? It's like they're aiming for the lowest common denominator rather than shooting for a number that would alleviate a nasty problem.
• One-year moratorium on additions to the nation's strategic oil reserves. How much oil do we have? Is this enough? What happens afterwards? Doesn't that mean that prices will simply spike up once again once that one year grace period finishes? Doesn't this still mean these wealthy oil muthafuckers still get away with murder in hanging the American public by a noose over their control on the gas prices?

Later, she adds:

There are many places in our country, and there are many families that are already in recession. They are under so much economic stress.

There's really no content in what she's saying here. It's empty words that focus on key fears on the American public. BUT IT DOES NOT ADDRESS EXACTLY WHAT SHE WILL DO.

To me, to win this election, the upcoming hopeful needs to focus on small, concrete key victories that people can believe in. Not grandiose ideas. I think a lot of the American public, especially young people who will be affected most, are becoming disgruntled by the American government. Doesn't matter if the next politician is a Democrat, Republican or anything. There's no trust that the American public can gain since these politicians end up destroying their own credibility. In the end, the race becomes a mere episode of Plato's "Lesser of Two Evils." And again, that doesn't mean it's good for people.

At this point, Clinton is just delusional about her chances and platform against Obama. She should really concede and support Obama 100% to beat McCain with certainty. Instead, this whole scenario is just about Clinton's ego. Sorry, but that's not why we elect people into power (well, at least that's what I hope a sensible believes in).]]> Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:55:34 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/4/21/6a587de85f0d7ce01520a55b0e9c1e99.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/2/cd75583f8b089f20cdba5218ea3102fb.html
I don't see any good reason for any of the Democrats to do anything but approach this situation like this, coming election or not. I mean, where is the money coming from? What benefits does it have for the local tax payers and low to middle class Americans? I prefer seeing nothing get done than wasteful spending, which clearly is an indication of what this bill is.

Again, hopefully when this jackass gets out of office, they'll do a serious audit against him on all his dealings and put this guy in a prison in Guantanamo for life for crimes against humanity. Anything less would not be civilized.
]]> Fri, 02 May 2008 14:10:34 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/2/cd75583f8b089f20cdba5218ea3102fb.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/3/1a8b9f892627cedea802a61723da5fc3.html Ford, GM and Chrysler are basically dead weights because of their inability to adapt to the changing climate. They have stopped innovation in favor of pandering towards glut. However, where Detroit has failed, others may succeed within America.

Apparently, Tesla Motors has just released their sports car, which looks quite sweet honestly. Now, it is only on order for the moment and at a hefty price starting from $109,000 and won't be released for another 15 months. Stores so far are being planned initially in LA while the company itself is based in Silicon Valley. The big model coming out is the Roadster. But the chief selling point of this two door baby is that's got an all electric engine.

Of course, part of the hoopla has been the help of investors Sergie Brin and Larry Page of Google fame. But this isn't the only player in this game. Down in Carlsbad California, we another player coming out with an incredibly efficient model. This company, Aptera Motors, is producing an electrical model and a hybrid plug-in model as well. Their model looks more futuristic, a bit spacey, if you will, compared to the more sleek and sporty Roadster. The mileage can be impressive 300 mpg at 65 mph. Not too shabby. Also, the price tag is more competitive to a Prius at roughly $27,000 for the electric model.

Then over in Boston you have another innovator, not so much in terms of attempting to reduce our dependence upon oil reserves, but on where we're trying to go. Terrafugia is trying to get us one of the first real "air-cars". While it'll probably be impractical for the majority of the people, it's definitely a start on our way to the Jetson's lifestyle we've all been dreaming about. These puppies allow travel between cities, where commutes might be from San Francisco to LA. It's kinda like driving a prop jet, except that after landing, you continue to drive your car to the office and park it . Certainly, I hope one problem this will solve is forcing people to use the messed up airlines industry and put more control into the driver's hands again.
Certainly, Japan and maybe Korea are getting a leg up over America in terms of the current market. However, what I'm starting to see emerge quite quickly looks promising if these new companies can deliver in the next 2-3 years, where travel and oil are going to be critical issues to most consumers. Electric, hybrid and aviation are certainly going to free us from the dependence upon these bottlenecks that we're currently facing. However, if there's one thing I can depend upon in the American market, it's the ability to adapt quickly and move fast when they need to. And right now, we need to move fast to compete and survive.]]> Sat, 03 May 2008 02:35:00 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/3/1a8b9f892627cedea802a61723da5fc3.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/23/b6d8f133491983f41a1c4db7cc8c8e2b.html
Reading this article made me re-think the whole anti-carbs situation in America. Living in .jp, it's obvious that low carb diets are not the recourse for losing weight. The Japanese obviously eat a high degree of noodles and rice. While certainly there's a correspondence between carbs and digestion, it isn't to say that you can solely place the blame on carbs in looking at one of the current most slender people on this planet. Of course, the thing with the Japanese is that they simply eat less than other people (mostly because of lack of resources). Not to mention places like Tokyo are intense walking zones.

In America, you go to a family restaurant these days and you'll monstrous sized portions. Eating one of these meals (or two) every day, and you'll easily gain weight from the portions. I doubt that the contents would help any. The funny part is that it seems that the portions are growing allowing with the prices.

Other people are blaming America's overabundance and excessive lifestyle as being another (or THE) source of America's obesity. I wouldn't doubt that. But if you add the psychological point that people want to get their money's worth, then things like buffets and not wanting to waste food as more areas to blame when it comes to these notions.

However, I have another proposition. What if there's a government conspiracy backing the farmers and food industry in all of this? I mean, shouldn't the FDA step in at some point and fight this? Or are they the ones approving this? And if so why?

The recent scares in spinach, scallions, chicken, etc. make me wonder if the government/farmers don't want Americans to participate in a healthy diet. Why is it that fast food and soft drinks are so cheap compared to a regular salad and water (water for godsakes!!!!)?

The other day my friend got sick after we hit Johnny Rockets. We shared fries and onion rings, but I had the patty melt and he ate a salad. Afterwards, he became extremely sick. He narrowed his problem to Johnny Rockets because I certainly wasn't ill before meeting him nor was he. Obviously, the fries and onion rings had nothing to do with it because I would've befallen similar conditions. So it must've been the salad....

Another thing that made me think of recent obesity was the lower quality of beef. Perhaps my memory is failing, but I just don't recall that many obese people back in the 80's. As the food industry grows, it's an automatic assumption that technological advances would attempt to find ways to improve efficiency (making crops grow faster, killing insects through pesticides, fattening cows, etc.). My question is whether a link exist between American produce (and vegetables), the hormones used to grow such things and America's obesity?

Now, I imagine that only the lower end of the spectrum will be affected by this; in other words, the fast food industry. Who else needs to feed at incredible rates? Not to mention for low cost? You'd never do something like this to a 5* restaurant because your elite clients would move to some place else. So what we're looking at is the lower to middle class being affected the most by this situation.

Something else struck me about the American lifestyle. Eat, get fat, have no energy to exercise, and watch TV. This is the lifecycle of a heavily consumer based society. In other words, the lower and middle class would be perpetually locked into this. The lower class can never get out because they have no money to begin with, probably little to no education (unless they're a hippy in UC Berkeley). The middle class would stay in their class realm because they never bother to take their middle class spending (DVDs, TiVOs, family restaurants, gas skyrocketing, etc.) and put it into higher levels of investments while being subjected to inflation.

Better yet, this cycle would create more stability for the government. Fat, passive Americans with the lack of ability to critically think about their problems, instead still obeying the ritual of their TV sets.

A friend of mine in .jp mentioned how it was the tobacco industry that would help accelerate the death rates so that people would not be able to pick up on their pensions. It's a really scary thought to hear that. However, with the damning of that industry, it's possible that the American government and other financial institutions have formed some pact to shift this into something more innocuous and nefarious: food. People obviously need food to survive and so if the government can accelerate the rate of death through heart disease, stroke, complications through diabetes while keeping people passive and obedient, people would not be able to collect on social security, pensions, etc.

I have this odd feeling about this weird conspiracy linked between entertainment, the food industry, the government/politicians and the finance markets where they're attempting to lock down people. The internet, like the psychedelic drugs of the 60's/70's, has allowed people a new mode of freedom. So they'll attempt to censor that too.

Either way, I'm starting to think the only way to live is in a commune away from "civilization."]]> Fri, 23 May 2008 13:40:17 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/23/b6d8f133491983f41a1c4db7cc8c8e2b.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/24/16fa5fecd862809e37bb5ccddcc9a5e9.html
However, I'm questioning the whole so-called rising price of food. Supposedly, there's a global food shortage going on with places like Thailand experiencing less rice, Japan having less dairy (hence boosting the price of mayonnaise) and now the US in various forms. It's kinda funny how the US is experiencing these prices hikes. Gas, housing, now food.

My paranoia intuition partly tells me it's the government covertly telling people to cut down on the excessive lifestyle, which might not be necessarily a bad thing. Higher gas prices means more conservative vehicle usage. Expensive food, even at fast food places, means cutting down the calories. I mean, you can't mandate people to cut down on the excessive lifestyle, but if you raise the prices, people naturally will scale back since people are cost conscious.]]> Sat, 24 May 2008 22:07:59 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/24/16fa5fecd862809e37bb5ccddcc9a5e9.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/30/29aa29161f2270715f59c696ed3f2b46.html
I think the only people in Japan who would resent such a proposition are old people. The old people here are really useless. I mean, being useless and invisible is one thing. Being useless and imposing their will on people here with little basis in the modernizing, globalizing world just is hurting their descendants. These people can eat all their "natsukashii!" foods in the summer and choke on their mochi during o-shogatsu for all I care. But let the young people finally take control of this country.

I figure that the only real way that the young people here have any chance at all in surviving the next 30-40 years is if America fully annexes this country. I mean, if it's true in what they're saying about how most students are moving towards arts and finance, then this country is truly screwed! Back in the 80's from what I remember, it was the Japanese who excelled at math and science. Now, there's a said deficiency. So does that mean kids are growing up dumber here?

It's funny because when I talk to my coworkers, many say that at one time they were good at math, but can't remember a thing. So my guess is that most people memorized for tests and then promptly forgot it once they passed their exams to get into the next level of education. Then once college rolled around, people immediately went brain dead as autopilot took over.

Not that the American education system is that much better, but at least the few necessary skills that can be imposed in this annexed new world would be English skills (or at least greater emphasis starting from kindergarten) and critical reasoning. Then allow students from Japan to be able to participate as US citizens at the university level and completely dispense with the jyuku system.

Another positive aspect in annexing Japan would be to get rid of the completely corrupt judicial system here. The jury duty system in the states sucks big time, but the court system in Japan is ruthless and lacks a balancing system. Sure, the court system in the states is bad too, but I do feel slightly more assured in that system than the notoriously bad system in Japan.

Maybe Japan can provide better dieting practices, work ethic, service capabilities and higher demands for better quality in America as a trade off. Now, working over time isn't that good either, but at least the work ethic and diligence that most Japanese exhibit (while not necessarily efficient) is something I'd like to see more in America, rather than this ultra lazy and indignant attitude. Also, teach Americans manners for their service industry. The American service industry is absolutely pathetic.

Well, I doubt my dream would come true. But it's also nice to ponder such ideas....]]> Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:07:08 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/30/29aa29161f2270715f59c696ed3f2b46.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/ef5e419d2756d9e63d8b079e75dd7cb8.html
I urge everyone to stop viewing any of Viacom's products. That company has done more damage to the world with their crappy MTV compared with any other media industry. Heck, the makers of South Park had even stated in one of their episodes how MTV is solely responsible for damaging most of America (or in my opinion the entire world). In a way that is ironic considering that Comedy Central is the parent company for both networks. But that just goes to show how it's all inside jobs.

Well, the American justice system is just so damaged when it comes to copyright and intellectual property. Funny how a company like MTV or VH1 can hold something with the words "intellectual" and manage to get away with major lawsuits.

Maybe someone should sue the US government and WTO to force everyone to change the entire notion of "intellectual property" to just assets. If that were the case, I think people would have a better chance of arguing how most things cannot be protected since there's very little academic stimulation involved in all this.

Going back, I really hope that Google fights this case. I hope even further that someone investigates the judge and finds out how much he was bribed behind the scenes by Viacom. This is just plain wrong and it affects people not just in the US but around the world.

For myself, I don't have problem of Viacom shutting down entirely if one day people stop purchasing their goods, clicking on ads or draining them of resources after pirating their stuff. I want them to go out of business. I want all those people to lose their jobs and think even harder about being overly greedy. I shed zero sympathy for any of the staff members. As long as they support that fascist company, to me they are nothing more than Nazi soldiers obeying an order for the simple sake of money.]]> Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:00:35 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/ef5e419d2756d9e63d8b079e75dd7cb8.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/9b3c7b6ce7833ca957ff34ce56ba5913.html
Taking these two elements together that made me think hard. Let's examine just how messed up America is right now:

• Subprime loan problem
• Credit Crunch crisis
• Financial sector completely decimated
• Bear stock market
• Dying housing sector
• The auto sector is almost completely wiped out with manufacturers ONLY NOW starting to wake up to the reality that their cars are economically not feasible even with employee level discounts
• The gas crunch
• The energy crunch
• The decimated airline industry
• The food industry
• Worsening education system
• Massive job losses and layoffs
• Continuing funds being siphoned off to the wars on fictitious terror
• Continued outsourcing

Of course, this situation is percolating globally, but America is feeling the brunt of the damage. Some call this a recession, but I call it a depression. America is just getting annihilated by everything they setup in the 90's.

A short while back, I was interested in researching land prices in Vegas. In doing so, I uncovered some interesting bits like how much of the land is being bought off via foreign sources. A good example is the new City Center project. Apparently, Dubai is funding that one. The Wynn hotel is another where a Japanese guy named Okada owns a 10% stake in the hotel.

Then you look back to the financial sector with Citigroup. At one point, Citigroup was the largest and most powerful financial company in the world. This past year as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis and windfall credit crunch, Citigroup was forced to write down over $500 billion of assets. That's half of what they had at one point. On top of that, they made a bargain with a powerful investor in India who agreed to help bail them out for a huge stake in the company.

I'm not certain if these are the only cases where foreign investment is arriving in America to bail the country out. In some way, it reminds me of the 80's back in Japan's economic bubble heyday. At that time, it simply was that Japan had all the money and was buying up property in America. But all that investment turned bad when the loans went belly up. However, in the current situation, we're looking at something entirely different. Now, we're seeing a scenario where many major sectors in America's economy is weakening so much that America and American companies are looking for foreign sources to help prop them up.

So one major scenario to think about is whether or not America, as we know it, will be "owned" by Americans anymore.

Certainly, land and companies are starting to look like bargain prices. I mean, I was examining Omaha, Nebraska the other day since my coworker had studied there. I found that a regular house (many built around 1900-1910) would go for about $10000. That's amazing! What was more amazing was that the average cost for a home in LA in my area, which would be between $400k-$600k, would get you something like a mansion from the show the Rich and Famous!

Of course, most people wouldn't want to live in some place like Nebraska, but you have to think that economically that's what's affordable. I've read about how many people are moving away from places like LA on the basis that it's simply too expensive and going to cheaper areas like Arizona. If that happens, then you'll see numerous foreclosures and real estate being driven down even further. Obviously, the people who left won't be able to buy back that real estate because they were the same people who couldn't afford it in the first place. But someone will naturally have that kind of money to turn that type of property around. And LA, being a hot zone for anything, is naturally a spot some other outsider might want to pick up.

If you examine logistically/geographically how this might look over time, it would appear that lower to middle class America might slowly be forced "inward". Some interesting stories on the net even talk about scenarios like this or weirder ones. I recall reading about a story where some families are moving away from cities to something like co-ops or isolated regions in the country where people can live off the land. Some people are buying homes and stock piling food in case of riots or a major food scare. One of my friends in Tokyo had a deep discussion with me about how he has a house on a hill top in Marin County near San Francisco. He picked that location because of the fact that it's isolated, near a body of water (a ravine in his backyard) with deer and other animals; in short, if something happened, he would be able to protect his family. He didn't say specifically about carrying firearms, but I wouldn't doubt that he'd have a pistol or rifle somewhere in his place.

With the Katrina incident back in New Orleans a few years back, we saw a different side of America, a hypothetical scenario that actually came to life. That scenario was if somehow the government lost complete control in a huge natural disaster. With Bush in power, the government responded far too slow and the city became a cesspool of violence. The situation devolved so badly that people would go to Walmart to steal weapons just to protect themselves, even carrying weapons above their homes.

That incident was far different from 9-11, since at that time America was able to focus the blame on a perceived common enemy of Bin Laden (who in my opinion is a theoretical human just like Saddam Hussein). 9-11 bonded people to some degree as politicians were able to manipulate people's natural hostile attitudes into rallying for a cause. Katrina, on the other hand, was an act of nature and left people desperate with the fear of their lives.

So we come to the final possibility of the future of America: a completely torn America. America's current hope for economic survival lies in technology and green energy as well as its abundance of creativity. So areas like California, Washington, NYC, etc. might still do well. However, middle America (really meaning most of "middle class" America) is in for a lot of trouble. The points I made at the top of this blog are a sheer indicator that America on a whole will suffer greatly in the coming years because of the major downturn in the economy. Before, during the dot com burst, the only real industry that was affected in a negative way was most technology companies. This time, we're seeing not one sector, but multiple sectors that support middle class America slowly being devoured from the trickle down economic failures of capitalism. Since the middle class is what composes the US, what happens when that how structure falls apart?

We've seen the worst come out of America in recent years with Katrina. That was a hint at the possibility of the animalistic nature of humans. But now, we're seeing the government fail the US and doing little except passing rounds of champaign between all the elite class. The government has recently failed in protecting the citizens against the ruling class. For instance, there was no bail out for the US citizens by taxing the oil companies. There's been no limiting of job losses from American soil. There's been nothing done to prevent the constant gouging by the airlines industries to save their precious shareholders and executives' compensation packages. Oh, but there was laws passed for the credit card companies to make it harder for people to declare bankruptcy and receive protection. Oh and Hollywood and the music industry constantly receives favoritism by the government to penalize electronics manufacturers and the internet industry (since Hollywood and the music industry are traditional financial supporters of the democrats, which is kinda ironic in some ways considering that the Democrats are supposedly for the common man).

With the upcoming election, as I have mentioned, it really doesn't matter who wins. Actually, if Obama loses, it's actually great for him because he doesn't have all the pressure of immediately fixing up the mess that Bush and his cronies have created. But if he does win and people are dissatisfied, I'm guaranteeing that the world and the American people will lose complete faith in American politics.

So in this scenario, outside of more foreign sources buying up the remnants of the political and economic fiasco in America, we might even see America as a country actually split. The government has not guaranteed nor provided universal health care. There's no pension plans and social security is a joke. The FDA cannot guarantee that food is safe. The damn justice system's copyright and intellectual property mess screws up virtually everything because only a few groups (namely large corporations rather than the artists and creators within the corporations) actually gain any benefit from this system. Medicine likewise is held up because of the patent system within America and religion completely fucks up everything by basing things on an archaic and unfounded principle! And I seriously doubt that when someone walks up to you with a shotgun, that you're going to be pleading with God. The God will be the shotgun that you're begging mercy from.

In this scenario, people will finally see in America and the world how impotent the American government is. Perhaps, the government might attempt to implement national martial law, but I can't imagine them holding their own country hostage. It'd be like a government coup, except this time from a hypocritical America!

The only thing as I had mentioned before that promises any hope for America are the mega corporations. The mega corporations are the only things left that provide anything for people. It'll be mini fiefdoms. I mean, it's already like that minus the actual soldiers with physical weapons shooting each other. The soldiers are simply corporate lobbyists. But with this scenario, I see the corporations becoming their own states. Most already are. Google? Check. Walmart? Check. Microsoft? Check. etc.

I honestly don't see why we have a government these days. There's little that it provides people. Education? Not really. Why send your kids to public education? The court process makes no sense because it's all purchased by companies. Military? Heck, i don't want people with guns around my neighborhood! I don't feel safer! The fucking country can't even decree that guns are illegal because of special interest groups (NRA) even though common sense dictates that no guns means less violence by default. Didn't anyone learn anything from the Cold War era? We can't trust it for food. We don't money from the government; they simply take it away in giving nothing back to us. They barely can maintain the roads. They don't provide us decent public transportation (at least in most areas that aren't major cities). We can't get health care except when we pay for it. So what good is the government when they're not even interested in helping the average citizen out?

Despite saying this, I personally don't hate America nor the citizens. It's the same with Japan. I do blame many problems on the elite ruling class though. I think every country faces this. It all boils down to resources in the end. If we had infinite food, land, and hot women, etc., you wouldn't see any problems in this world. So as Marx mentioned (and was unbelievably correct), it's the ruling elite who control the means of production. They own these networks to keep themselves in control. We're just puppets for their amusement. We have no meaning to them except to function for some dictated purpose. We have no control

Now, if middle class America ever wakes up to this fact, then they'll hopefully realize that all their material wealth is a transient illusion created to deceive them in believing that their reality is a glorified and meaningful one. But if say, like the victims in Katrina, suddenly faced a similar situation like a major fire decimating their homes, then the majority of them would suddenly become aware of the fact that materialism is indeed meaningless and that the government never had any intentions of doing anything for them, except perpetrating the belief that their lives had some value.

All I can offer to big businesses like the Viacoms, the recording industry, the banks, oil companies, fast food as well as the government is this advice: don't fuck with people's lives. Just look at Katrina and look where you're heading. You can continue building up your ivory tower and hiding within, but eventually either you can't find anymore materials, the people building your ivory tower stop supporting you, or that everyone catches up to you and takes you back down.


]]> Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:05:33 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/9b3c7b6ce7833ca957ff34ce56ba5913.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/19/15f43b790f821b708d9ef31590379bd1.html
Google is another one that got shot down big time and unmercifully by Wall Street the other day. The recent disappointing profit drop naturally caused former investors high on the tech giant to flee in panic with a $52 drop in price. Obviously, the stock has been overrated for some time, but the lack of confidence in the company demonstrates that across the board, the US stock market is experiencing one of the worst seasons.

Tech isn't being as hard hit last time, which is good news for myself. However, the overall outlook just isn't pretty. I have a feeling that several industries might completely collapse in the wake of this. The least stable at the moment are airlines and auto. On the other hand, it's obvious that we need transportation, so it's natural to assume that some replacements will be on they're way. Toyota and Honda will probably make the most headway in this area. It would be quite the coup to see Toyota or Honda buying out one of the distressed auto manufacturers to gain greater ground in the US. I mean, already we're seeing more plants being built for Toyota in the US, especially for the Prius as the demand for that car seems endless.

However, what also seems to be emerging rapidly is the electronic car industry. Tesla Motors is releasing their vehicle soon and has a fair number of orders. Of course, they are facing some lawsuits and other troubles as well as cater mostly to yuppies. However, they've also got a new sedan lined up for late 2010 production. The future looks bright for them. Aptera is another one I frequently blog about to keep your eye on.

Not sure what will happen for the airline industry. 9/11 was certainly the beginning of the end for the airline industry as we knew it. Some are blaming gas prices, but I think that the protocols implemented after 9/11 also gave rise to the industry experiencing an irrecoverable collapse. It's been said that the industry is heavily competitive and a money losing one at best. Without something like a Star Trek teleportation device though, we're still heavily dependent upon the airlines industry. One possible outcome from this is that the industry will simply become one for luxury and business executives. The prices for flights just aren't worth it as it relates to oil. For that part, I place most of the fault on the manufacturers for being lazy and not considering ways to upgrade the design of planes. However, it's a distinct possibility that commercial space flight might be the next real phase from this, using suborbital technology. Now, I think that it'll be tough and that at the same time that new industry would simultaneously need to consider fuel alternatives to oil. If that happens, it'll be the way to go.

Of course, we have to mention solar and other Green shops. The oil crisis is leading people to move extremely fast in this industry. Unfortunately, it's hard to say if the cost in the near term will resolve some of the major problems. It might cut some areas down like electricity for the home, business cost and maybe car cost if people move quickly onto electric cars. But I don't know if it'll affect other areas of cost like food.

Then you have finance. I personally think finance as we know it should disappear. It definitely will not be owned by Americans as before. Maybe a few large banks will still exist, but many seem to be in desperate need of a bailout. Citi's $2.5 billion loss is just an exorbitant number....and yet it's said they still beat the Street. That's just mind boggling. Maybe it's time for Wall Street to collapse and be rebuild into a new institution. I personally think that the finance sector is going to move towards a completely electronic version. You already have things like PayPal and ETrade. But I'm thinking AdWords and other forms of information will increase in value since the stock market has become unstrustworthy for investment.

Housing....one vision I had was people moving inward. The cost of land and housing towards the center are far cheaper than in places like California. But it's a distinct possibility that people might discover states like Nebraska, Kansas or Iowa and colonize those parts. I've read stories about how some poorer cities are being turned around. People would buy up real estate, put a fancy coffee shop and increase the value. As a result, people within the area no longer can afford it, thus driving out the poorer folk. There's actually a few South Park episodes like that. But it's an interesting idea of how housing might turn out.]]> Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:33:31 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/19/15f43b790f821b708d9ef31590379bd1.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/23/1448b6dbda56ebd24f6f322718fc4130.html
Also, yesterday I was reading an article about Jessie Venture, the independent Minnesota governor. While initially, I was more interested in his thoughts on pro-wrestling, naturally I wanted to read more on his views on politics. The guy is supremely interesting and intelligent. Surprisingly, despite his military background, he's definitely not a conservative. But one of the most interesting statements was him comparing Cuba's Fidel Castro and the US' two parties. He said that the only difference between the US and Cuba is that the US has one additional majority party that supposedly we can choose from.

His acumen was on target here. I never really thought about a point like that until that statement. But then something hit me: what if these elections are all bullshit in the first place? What if there is not even two parties, but just one party with two voices during election time to give the perception to the American people that we have a choice?

When you look at the upcoming ballot, truthfully the choices aren't great. Originally, I wanted to vote for Obama since he was the lesser of two evils. But the addition of Biden and his previous platform doesn't sit well with me. It's obvious that Obama wants to give the perception that he's covering his bases. However, the choice might be there for other reasons, namely to be able to cover a potentially conservative agenda should Obama be elected.

Well, what does that mean? Part of my theory on the history of US politics is that since possibly WWII or WWI even, the government has never been the same. Perhaps, the demonstration to the world of two successful global wars proved to the American administration itself that it had the power to control things, especially its people. As a result, in order to establish a firm grip over the world and its people, a new hidden agenda was established long ago to ensure the continuation of the strength of the US. And every year, this agenda seems to "strengthen" as the political process seems to gain more understanding of its people and adapting quickly to make sure people in America stay in line.

So for instance, there's no such thing in reality as the two parties. Obviously, the US elections are a joke because of the electoral college system. You can't have true choice when you're voting for a proxy to make your decisions. So that makes voters' roles meaningless.

The other thing one has to wonder is policy. After the Republicans got ousted recently, we've yet to see improvement in the US. Some people have pointed out some fallacies or 180 degree shifts with people like Pelosi. So again one has to wonder what the true point of voting in the Democrats in at the time was if they've done nothing to improve the situation? Sure, we have a lame duck president supposedly, but for instance, why did Congress approve a new budget for the war? I thought we ousted those GOP fucks to help stop this madness.

Some times I also think that the voices of dissent in the government are there to spood feed us into thinking that they're fighting for us. South Park had an interesting episode where they showed that the political process originally created was a "save my ass" type of thinking where people were allowed to be hypocritical yet safe at the same time. When you think about what's going on now, certainl this is the case.

Venture pointed out something else that was interesting in stating that America needs to take back the political process. It was something along the lines of my thinking or maybe what I've stated previously in a blog. That is, the American public might eventually sense that they cannot trust their own government. Ventura and I both believe that exterior forces won't be the thing that harms America the most. Instead, it'll be the interior forces that destroy the fabric of the American government.

The big problem is that, as I've mentioned before, the limited choice of parties in the American system, despite being called a democracy, really isn't about choice or making the right decisions. If the democrats win fall, people will have high expectations with the decaying American society. People expect a quick bandaid to be provided by the government. Clearly, this will not be the case, but it won't stop the strong wishes of a disillusioned American society. Politicians will talk and life will continue. But it's doubtful that any policy will expediently be installed to fix things like gas prices, the crumbling American economy, stifling job losses, ending the Iraq war. There's no easy answer for these in a realistic political manner.

As a result, the biggest problem will be the perception that the American government is weak and ineffectual. If things worsen, like many people irrecoverably lose their jobs, then the situation will be far worse than a natural disaster. A natural disaster you can blame on lack of foresight. But the government is in the hands of a small group of people. You can easily blame them and inflate history in such a way to show that there's nothing the government can do anymore to help people.]]> Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:07:28 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/23/1448b6dbda56ebd24f6f322718fc4130.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/28/64269dbcf30a4df436f9fc779abb8d16.html
Of course, at that time I was supporting Hillary. Big mistake back then. She's a cougar, much like her husband. Maybe more so by comparison. But that's all finished as the Clintons officially endorsed Obama the other day.

Now, we get to the interesting part. We've got another three months to go before things really heat up. But more importantly, Obama's slogans of change must now be concretely defined. A roadmap must be drawn. Many articles online are focusing on this part of the campaign. So far, we've heard rallies for appealing towards pathos, but hardly any for logos.

What Obama has to do is guarantee things. People don't really want to be disappointed, so you have to be concrete and realistic on what's possible. What can Obama guarantee for the American people that's a clear benefit for them?

Unfortunately, what I fear is coming up is going to be a war on age vs skin color. Neither really have any relevance in 2008. But both sides will assault each other or appeal those secular audiences in trying to get the votes.

Again, I prefer definitive statements. I want to know how much tax money will be spent. Or how much money will be devoted towards space exploration, education and energy renewal. Or fixing the completely broken TSA and Homeland Security offices. These are areas that concern me. But it's hard to see at this point what really will happen.]]> Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:37:46 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/28/64269dbcf30a4df436f9fc779abb8d16.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/30/14790b7397ab5d91acac2aa0f9dbbc52.html
However, the choice by McCain is probably going to be his death knell. I read an interesting comment comparing Palin to Dan Quayle. Well, I think McCain's choice is far worse than Quayle for himself because Palin is a woman. It's painfully obvious that McCain wants to respond to the power Obama-Biden bill in presenting an option for change. But this is the clearly the wrong candidate. McCain's choice was to placate conservatives and those wanting change. Shes' unknown though and she's just a typical conservative with a gender disguise.

In the end though, when you balance things out, the age and gender factor will weaken McCain's side and kill his chances of winning the election. Obama's campaigning is just far too strong, imo. I don't favor Joe Biden for the record, but Obama's side seems far more well rounded.

McCain's campaign is just more of the same. It's the ancient face of America. Obama is just sophisticated, cool and now (minus Biden). Truthfully though, neither group is ideal for me, but we'll have to wait and see.]]> Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:25 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/30/14790b7397ab5d91acac2aa0f9dbbc52.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/2/55703dcd7c3becf188403a229998baa9.html
As I mentioned in my previous article, McCain and the Republican's chief purpose in assigning a woman was to attract young and disillusioned voters by demonstrating that an old guy with an old party can easily change course. Now with this latest scandal in the eyes of the media, McCain's party certainly has hit a quick stumbling block, only a few days after Palin's announcement.

However, Palin absolutely cannot drop out of this situation nor can McCain drop her. It would make their entire campaign look weak and demonstrate that McCain and the Republican party's choices are not sound ones. Certainly, McCain was correct in stating that the media's attention has been grossly unfair towards them. But this is not a trivial matter as we're dealing with one of the most important elections in the history of America. So every detail and every issue will crop up as voters truly examine the candidates moves on the chessboard.

Just over on Yahoo, I spotted Obama immediately addressing the situation as calling Palin's daughter's situation "off limits." To me, this is Obama attempting to intercede and project a "good guy" image (whether he's sincere or not is a different story). But naturally, he's trying to turn the situation into a plus for him by posing as someone with some morals (we're talking politicians people!). Just like that, you're giving easy points to someone who's going to sweep up as many as he can to ensure 100% victory in November.

Yet, we're still at the beginning and about 2-3 months away. This isn't looking hot for McCain and I think the media themselves are taking a bias against the Republican party. Of course, we still have the electoral college to screw things up. But at least from the overall picture, I would say Obama has some nice points over McCain just on this issue alone.]]> Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:28:02 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/2/55703dcd7c3becf188403a229998baa9.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/13/8826d2f3cfab76f2c94dfad80e2f6c3f.html
Obama had mentioned:

"(He) fundamentally thinks this is a real reminder of the bad decisions made both on Wall Street and Washington and the need to modernize our financial regulatory structure to prevent these types of problems."

But what does he mean exactly by "the need to modernize our financial regulatory structure?" These words are vague and demonstrate no concrete forward thinking as to exactly how to handle the crisis. Yes, Wallstreet is to blame. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that Wallstreet is filled with crooks and nepotism. But that does mean that we need a concrete plan for pulling the banks and the people losing their money out of this situation.

McCain's crew said little more than:

"I have not heard of any proposal for taxpayer money (to be used) ... and obviously that would be something that is not anyone's first choice."

Well, naturally 99% of American citizens would be upset at bailing out a bunch of rich crooks. Yet at the heart of this statement is no concrete plan.

I did some reading the other night about the Great Depression. It's interesting to see what America did to partly bail itself out. One of the most critical aspects was heavily regulating Wallstreet. Apparently, many of those regulations were lifted in the 70's and 80's. One has to wonder how much money these people put into politicians' pockets to get those regulations lifted.

Still, if we're heading into a depression, the first we should do is restrict Wallstreet. I see Wallstreet as being too dangerous of a place to be the sole indicator of people's lives. You can't just let a bunch of money grubbing crooks being allowed to dictate the course of American's lives.

Partly, I think you gotta change the way people are allowed to make money on Wallstreet. Everything should be impartially driven, completely automated by computer systems (it will be but that's a slow movement). Remaining traders should have limits imposed in terms of the money they make. Analysts should not be allowed to work for the securities firms directly. In fact, there should be limits on how much money they make as well. Then you have the executives. You need to impose a lot of restrictions on their power. Prevent them from giving themselves raises, things like that. Anything to prevent corruption by greed. That's the key in controlling Wallstreet.

The biggest problem with Wallstreet is that it's a game and people bend the rules all the time by creating new rules to their advantage or slithering between holes. I see investment banking/Wallstreet as something where companies use to fund their companies to grow and where people can use invested money for retirement. The problems in Wallstreet occur when investment becomes gambling. You stop treating investment as a long term plan and transmorgrify it into a short term speculation.

Top to bottom, you have to investigate the way these places are done. The housing crisis should not have occurred because both home owners and lenders got greedy in seeing a chance to develop a non-existent market. The thing is that these people are financially trying to make money in new areas wherever possible. But there are limits to growth. Perhaps that's where a true regulatory body needs to step in and say, "Hey, here's the true market cap. Here's a hard restriction." Prevent bubbles from overexpanding. Use hard numbers based on real income, population, etc. to derive how much a sector is worth. Then cap it to prevent the bubble from bursting.

At any rate, neither candidate leaves me much confidence for the future of America with regards to the financial crisis. Hopefully, more Americans read between the lines when they vote. Actually, I hope that Americans won't vote at all to protest the fact that both candidates can't even handle a major situation like this.]]> Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:31:00 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/13/8826d2f3cfab76f2c94dfad80e2f6c3f.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/15/0260f46a5a5dc1c2609e8b68cda7c824.html
But I think that this notion of decadence is what is wrong with America and other first world nations. Part of it was exposed in the late 90's with the dot com explosions and the massive expansion of numerous people's wealth. But maybe one can argue that from 80's, the development of the whole drugs-sex-rock-n-roll culture that was glorified by MTV as well as the rise of television, cable TV and movies started this trickle of people worshiping TV images of hedonistic lifestyles rather than social progress.

From the 80's onward, the art of the US predominantly had become ultra-commercialized, completely corporate driven rather than evolving from the soul. You can't even call what resulted from the 80's and onward as art because of this. Perhaps the only art truly reflected from the 80's until now are historical images of the continual slide of America's decadence.

Why is it that people watch reality TV and allow aging prima donnas to stick around? Why do we fancy lifestyles that most of us cannot hold? Why not live our own lifestyles and find meaning within that rather than cater our lives towards a meaningless rat race?

I believe that what needs to occur in America is a massive purging. I have my own ideas of how to do this, but essentially, we need to remove the infestation of ultra-consumerism from dictating our lives. Perhaps, most of the ultra-consumerism ideals are mostly on the coastal or big city regions. But that's where we need to work the hardest in creating new idealisms for the country.]]> Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:06:35 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/15/0260f46a5a5dc1c2609e8b68cda7c824.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/16/5812b9b85ffb591cd3e3e6d397e47a3a.html
After the Enron mess, CEOs and CFOs now are fully accountable for their actions in corporate fraud. The whole meltdown of Lehman indicates the smoke and mirror tricks that allowed these people to make millions off of unsuspecting people. Right now, according to my friend, all the upper management in Lehman Brothers are in hiding. I bet right now, they're shifting their money and other assets overseas in Swiss bank accounts.

I think Obama's immediate policy ought to be finding these corporate crooks and persecuting them. I think the democrats and next president ought to freeze all these people's assets (everyone not just the CEOs and CFOs, but the upper management and traders that exploited this system), throw these people in jail, and redistribute their assets/money to the public in the form of a tax reimbursement. If you want to know about how to fund your tax relief, there you go!

In the case of Enron, one group was affected. In the case of a company like Lehman, we're talking global. Same with these other big finance companies. Funny how the feds are willing to bail them out but they weren't willing to bail out the dot coms.

Well, Obama just needs to pin the real face of the American enemy as the greedy corporate white collar crooks. Now, you have someone to verbally beat up in rallying the American middle class.]]> Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:45:48 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/16/5812b9b85ffb591cd3e3e6d397e47a3a.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/15/b40bfbce865337c159248a63ba9fb74f.html
McCain is just old, has a whore for a running mate and says stupid things that belongs in a nursing home where he should live the rest of his life. Now, Obama is just another wolf in sheep's clothing. He poses as a democrat but really is in for himself and his buddies. I appreciate his rhetorical stance initially but truth be told, he never reveals anything concrete to make me believe he can nor will do a thing for the American people. The one major thing that offended me was how he stated that he would invest money into American automotive companies to build energy efficient vehicles rather than seeing them offshored to Japan and Korea.

Excuse me?

Are we in the 1980's with the Reagan era?

People consume Japanese and even Korean products because plainly they are superior in quality. This is a key fact. Toyota and Honda were conceiving of hybrid vehicles while GM and Ford rested on their laurels making gas guzzlers that cost Americans and the oil mines a fortune. Even if you take away the hybrids, the Japanese cars in particular have been noted for their quality. As someone who has worked with wrenchheads before, I was recommended from the start to always buy Japanese or German since I would never have maintenence and parts issues. Ask my friends who purchased American made automobiles and see how they fared in the past decade.

The other thing is that these companies, especially Toyota, Honda and Nissan employ a great deal of people in America. Toyota, as a matter of fact, has a hybrid Camry plant in Kentucky of all places. That silly bit of rhetoric to me defies the fact that this is a black person that is using nationality in a racist/prejudicial manner to inspire fear and doubt! Of all things he should know better!

I admit to not following each speech as closely as I should to debate each point. However, the recent turn of events in the American government points to a system so corrupted that the nominees are nothing more than figureheads with a signature. Until the people are truly represented by being able to directly vote for the bills themselves and find a voice that isn't squashed by special interest groups, corporate lobbyists and other groups with hordes of cash, then the American government system will remain perpetually flawed.

I used to believe that this election would be the most important one of our lifetimes. But I think that elections are nothing more than fanfare for highlighting a few people who managed to slither up the totem pole of society.
]]> Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:09:35 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/15/b40bfbce865337c159248a63ba9fb74f.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/19/89dcccf3f57e1d9513b1f77fac045bca.html

• Zero purchases of music. I haven't purchased music in ages so this won't change. But considering that Pro-IP law that was passed, I will broadcast a counterattack to the RIAA's plans for creating a copyright czar by stating that I will not support them one bit. I encourage everyone to stop purchasing music. If you must purchase music, do so in the form of directly supporting the artists by attending live events.
• Zero purchases of movies, DVDs, or other videos. Just like my stance on music, I will completely eliminate any spending at theaters, video rental, online purchases, etc. Besides, when was the last really good movie made (okay, The Dark Knight was an exception, but those only crop up once or twice a year these days).
• Energy reduction through elimination of watching TV. I never watched TV before and I hope to help my watch reduce her habits as well.
• Shrinking of my food budget. Actually, what this means is less crappy fast food. This will help two things: 1) Improve my health; 2) help my pocket book. More people should consider this. In the last recession back in the dot com bubble burst, people went on a diet of Krispy Kremes and became the fat nation. In this recession, rather than becoming depressed and slinking into bad habits, people should save their money and just eat less. If you must spend, use that extra $35/month for a membership to the gym. Or if that amount is too high, just walk around your block five times.
• Shrink my game playing usage to one company: Blizzard. Since EA sucks and Ubisoft completely screwed over the entire Might and Magic series with their half assed rendition, the only computer game company worth purchasing anymore is Blizzard. In the next year or two, the only games Blizzard will produce that I'm interested in are Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. At that rate, I'll definitely save a ton of cash per year.

The main message I want to send people is this: stop over consuming!!!!!!!!!

The problem before the recession hit was that people were already in a mode of overconsuming, which is why people in the US became fat, lazy and stupid. The recession is a great thing because it'll force people to put their thinking caps on when it comes to money and their lives. Instead of wasteful spending, hopefully people will realize that they cannot live on borrowed money their entire lives and just live on what they have. America still has more than many parts of the world, but there is a limit on how much people can consume. In America's case, they have mostly been manufactured into a state where they unquestioningly buy things....worst yet, junk that destroys themselves.

Just because you're depressed doesn't mean you should go on a buying binge to make yourself feel better. That feeling of happiness from materialism only last temporarily. This is why the illusion of wealth in America has gone on so long and only recently been exposed as a national fraud. Most people are stupid, lazy and poor and cannot nor should not emulate the lives of the fake rich people on TV. Turning off your TV and returning to what's in front of you (i.e. your homes) will show you that you are not in that calibre and that you need to work hard, think and do things smart to get to that level. Until then, simply stop overconsuming and buy what you need.]]> Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:48:57 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/19/89dcccf3f57e1d9513b1f77fac045bca.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/5/803ecdd575e30faab71f6eea118cb534.html
For tonight, I can relax and maybe even have a few drinks that I have denied myself for a while.

Now, that this is all over (for the next 4 years), I can say this to the new people in charge: thank you.

After that, let's get back to reality: you guys are going to be really busy.

The next four years will be some of the hardest that you'll face. But hopefully, the right decisions will be made. Here's some that I would like to see:

• Cut war spending
• Cut taxes to the lower and middle class
• Increase teacher pay, but also increase the difficulty of becoming teachers in the US
• More investment into technology
• Independence from oil
• Increase taxes on the wealthy
• Investment in public transportation in major cities like LA where there's clear clogging of the roads
• Taxing oil companies over the past few years and doing investigations to see whether or not they were conspiring to hurt the US people
• Putting more money into the space program so that we at least we have more options for places to live in the future
• Increasing regulation on monopolistic industries like phone and cable
• Regulating Wall Street and putting all those greedy bastards into jail where they belong

I doubt all of these things will happen. But it's a couple of concrete suggestions (I like the last especially)]]> Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:12:05 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/5/803ecdd575e30faab71f6eea118cb534.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/22/2c8f4b0ff021e2a041aa50f1539eece8.html
Or has it?

My belief is that the price of oil has fallen not because of the demand, but because Bush and Chenney are getting kicked out of the Oval Office and their crony friends in oil (and whatnot) are now running with their profits. If McCain's party had won the election, I believe that oil would still be at an all time high. Now though, the oil companies have done their damage and are slowly deflating the cost before the next president comes into office and investigates them.

It's really an odd occurrence if you think about it. Why would oil suddenly drop so dramatically within the past few weeks just around the election period? Sure, stocks have gone done but that's because the market has been inflated and people have retreated. But I doubt that the real demand for oil would shoot down so far so fast.

Could loss of jobs relate to the drop in oil prices? Possibly. It is entirely possible that people who are being laid off now are staying home. But the raw number of people that should be effected until now probably wouldn't number this great of a difference.

Also, naturally supplies could not have magically appeared out of nowhere, so the demand could not have shrank by that much. So I have no other choice but to eye the oil manufacturers and their link to the current administration for this price crisis. Hopefully, the next administration will put a special eye on these companies and Chenney in particular. Lowering the price is not an apology for what has gone on in the past 8 years.]]> Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:49:29 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/22/2c8f4b0ff021e2a041aa50f1539eece8.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/22/5d0fd7829ced8618a283de3319d4ee83.html
While that is a legitimate excuse as far as general cost go, I feel that there's another area of blame we can examine: limited selection of ISPs.

In Japan, most notably the larger cities like Tokyo, the broadband has been excellent. Dial-up never took off due to the high cost per minute of usage. However, the small area allowed for companies to easily install fiber lines to homes. But there's an important thing to note here. It is true that NTT holds a huge dominance in Japan, but the proliferation of ISPs helped increase competition and drive the prices down. Add to the fact that fiber became a reality for many homes and you had a very competitive market with excellent service.

America is suffering from lack of competition since we've got a few really crappy, lazy, bureaucratic and greedy monopolies going on. Recently, I looked at other options for internet in my area and only found that I could install an ADSL line with 3-6 mbps upload max. Compare that to my Flets ADSL in Japan, which gave me in the upwards of 100 mbps and I find myself crying.

And what's worse is that the ISPs here have awful service. Try calling Time Warner and see how long they keep you on hold. They must have one service representative per one hundred users at best!

This really blows considering how much you pay for crappy service. And now these companies want to start throttling customers here. This is really sad because they know there isn't any competition.

No wonder the rest of the world is kicking America's ass. America has been spending more money on useless wars than on internal infrastructure to make itself competitive. And they let these big dawg corporations get away with monopolistic murder.
]]> Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:04:28 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/22/5d0fd7829ced8618a283de3319d4ee83.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/22/0da5ded7b854d4c9279cf9524d2ff863.html
Sure, millions of jobs will be affected should these companies continue squandering their money on god knows what. But it's not unlike this situation is well deserved. We could easily traceback several years ago when the US automotive industry had numerous opportunities to halt production on their oversized, costly and economically inefficient SUVs and completely switch to hybrids. It was painfully obvious back then as it is now that a new form of engine was needed to help combat the likely scenario of oil shortages. Any sane person or someone who could read a newspaper would realize that. However, some brilliant people on top and in accounting probably only saw large figures for each sale rather than the long term impact. What, did these people believe that magically oil was going to rain down from the heavens and allow their behemoths to become affordable?

The fact that these companies made poor decisions must force them to be held accountable. Certainly, it's going to be extremely scary for millions of people to lose their jobs. But lessons like these need to be taught to demonstrate that greed and hubris are sins.

These companies long have needed to fall. They've done enough damage. Asian car manufacturers are what's leading the charge now, simply because they put a little thinking into their products, something that the lazy American automakers have refused to do.

Personally, I think the people who deserve the bail out money are companies like Tesla Motors, Terrafugia or Aptera Motors. These are the companies of the future. If the Big Three have a concrete business plan, it ought to be to purchase these companies and let them shape the future of America's automotive industry. We don't need to sustain old, worn out, and lazy companies. We need to bolster the new, innovative companies that are going to lead America so that demand for these vehicles come not only from inside the country, but outside as well.
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