Too Many “Should Haves”
It should have been easy to check (and find out) that Bristol was pregnant. It should have also been easy to notice that Palin was in the midst of a controversy in her home state of Alaska, which has the potential to develop into a huge scandal.
Finally, the McCain campaign should been alarmed that although Palin delivered a rousing speech to the Republican base, it was one that was ridiculously easy to tear apart and fedd to moderates who would promptly flee from the party in its wake—at least, if Obama cared to do so.
In a campaign now run extremely professionally by veteran campaign staff, and characterized by meticulous planning, it was more or less impossible that the McCain campaign didn’t know about all of these problems beforehand. This is especially true, even for Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention, given that Palin’s speech was almost completely pre-written, without excessive veering from the teleprompter.
Only one conclusion seems to make sense. She was meant to be attacked. Read more…
Posted on September 17th, 2008
Filed under: Politics by James Wang
A Curiously Sudden Resurgence
The media has recently been abuzz, in the aftermath of the Georgian invasion by Russia, about how Russia is now resurgent and (suddenly) one of the great challenges ahead for the next president.
As if, of course, Russia was not before this. While the next president does have to deal with Russia—a great-power, at the very least—this certainly isn’t a new occurrence. The only difference is the level of brashness that Russia is now willing to display in international relations. We, or rather, many pundits and the media, thought that Russia was weak and cowed just because it was hesitant to cross the America’s path. After all, not only was it reluctant to be defiant towards the U.S., it offered its wholehearted support on various diplomatic issues and in America’s “War on Terror.”
Despite all of the buzz now, though, the only significant factor that has changed between then and now is how much military and diplomatic power the United States has to deploy. What changed was that the United States invaded Iraq. Read more…
Posted on September 1st, 2008
Filed under: Politics by James Wang
The Shrill Voice of False Western Hope
The Olympics have ended, but that doesn’t mean that the hopes and dreams that came with it have. At least, not the hopes and dreams that the “West,” or at least the western media had for China.
Yes, the Olympics have ended but that doesn’t mean that the population has suddenly “awakened” or is now “agitated” or any other of the popular descriptions that the press is using to say why it must be “inevitable” that democracy must sweep across China, or at the very least, the Communist Party would have to make concessions—after all, if memory serves, isn’t that what they used to say about China even before the Olympics?
The fact of the matter is that the Chinese population, upon the end of the Olympics, now feels a sense of pride and confidence that they did not have before. Beyond that, they feel proud of their achievements and what they showed the world during the Olympics—compare that to before when even the population was scared that upon China’s grand entrance into the world stage would be marked more by embarrassing laughter instead of crowning awe.
No, it’s not likely right now that the Chinese are very angry or “agitated” against their Communist “masters.” Read more…
Posted on August 27th, 2008
Filed under: Politics by James Wang
The Buzz
There’s been quite a bit of discussion on the blogosphere about Google’s recently launched service, Knol.
Basically, Knol is meant to be a Wikipedia-like site where users post articles. The difference is that these articles feature authors (who have a persistent identity on the site) prominently—thus encouraging authorities on various subjects to write about them.
However, the current complaints about Knol have primarily been some variation of these two:
- Knol is a Wikipedia killer, and is meant to start knocking wiki results off of Google top searches.
- Google is attempting to self-promote and is placing its own Knol content above other, longer-standing, and more authoritative content in searches.
I have little doubt, personally, that the first point is true. Read more…
Posted on August 8th, 2008
Filed under: Science & Tech by James Wang
Major Sitework
Google Analytics tells me that a surprising number of people (more than I expected, anyhow) are actually visiting and reading this blog, so I feel that I should let everyone know that I’m trying to do some major sitework at the moment, so posting has been slow.
Overall, my main goals in this overhaul are these:
- Make it easier to find interesting articles, especially I write more. This is my overarching goal in this rework.
- Create a front-page with major categories, recent articles, and featured content. This goes along with the first point, though is more specific.
- Update the sidebar to be more useful in navigation and finding interesting articles. Perhaps have Adsense be less prominent or deemphasized, especially since I’m not looking to make much off of it (originally, I was hoping it would offset some hosting costs).
After this, I expect to be posting at a far more rapid clip, especially since I’m deliberately designing the site in a way where it will look very odd if I do not. Think of it as self-motivation, on my part. Read more…
Posted on August 7th, 2008
Filed under: Off-Beat by James Wang
When We Can’t Trust our Experts
CNN recently posted an article about the head of a prominent cancer research institute issuing a warning to his faculty and staff to limit cell phone use because of potential cancer risk.
So? Does this mean that we should start limiting our cell phone use as this expert who should know best says? One of the problems in American society is that we don’t trust our experts enough. Even though we have among the best engineers, scientists, and thinkers in the world, Americans tend to give equal credence to both real experts (PhDs, researchers in the field) and individuals who simply appear with the real experts on “panel discussions” on T.V. (who range from religious fanatics to average joes who simply declared themselves experts).
However, this ridiculous fearmongering makes it almost understandable to me why Americans have this chronic mistrust of people with fancy titles and degrees. Although no other cancer institute or respectable doctor has declared anything of the sort, Dr. Ronald B. Herberman and his compatriot, Dr. Devra Lee Davis has taken it upon themselves to inform the public about the dangers of cell phones. Read more…
Posted on July 28th, 2008
Filed under: Science & Tech, Society by James Wang
The “Wisdom” of the Protesters
This is a repost of an article I originally posted in the notes section of Facebook.
One of the reasons I’m usually quite disdainful and hostile towards most grassroots protesters is they have a nasty tendency to make whatever they are trying to protest against worse rather than better. Movements with a leader and an overarching strategy, like those led by Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, that’s one thing. The recent Beijing protests are an example of another.
I’ve seen an outpouring of utter ignorance by ideologues who have no idea what they are doing or what they are talking about. Take the head of Darfur Now! who wrote an opinion piece for CNN—she was wondering why there wasn’t a global “raising of voices” against China for all of its sins. Though she sounded somewhat dismissive of the Chinese people themselves (in a patronizing, dare I say, racist way?) I still think she was mainly referring to the Chinese people themselves. Ironically, in the same article, she was praising the attempt of protesters to storm a little disabled Chinese girl in a wheelchair and douse the Olympic torch she was carrying at the time.
Perhaps I might suggest that this particular event might be part of why there isn’t more outrage in China? Read more…
Posted on July 1st, 2008
Filed under: Politics by James Wang
Why She Lost
Hillary lost because she was trying to have a victory celebration instead of a campaign.
It wasn’t because of media bias. It wasn’t because of antifeminism. And indeed, it was not, at least not entirely, Obama’s oratory skill and personality. No, Hillary lost because she went into the campaign like a victory celebration and not a battle. Now, instead of being swept into the presidency with a grand flourish, she has endured accusations of playing the spoiler and now has been forced to accept the reality that her bid for the presidency is over. She had underestimated the fight she had ahead and paid the price.
Then again however, her initial actions were understandable given the situation she faced at the time. She’s been waiting for so long for this type of political fulfillment. Now that the day’s finally here, why not celebrate a little? Why not reward those who had been with her all those long years that, through her and her supporters’ blood, sweat, and tears, had finally culminated to this—the presidency? Read more…
Posted on June 30th, 2008
Filed under: Politics by James Wang
Welcome to DePolitik
I’m glad that you’re dropping by! Though this may be the first, I hope that this won’t be your last. However, let’s move on to the important information that you’re here for.
My Mission
This site is created in the hope of presenting the various events and issues that face all of us—especially Americans, based on my own context, but many issues that I expect will interest everyone—without bias. Hence, the name, De-Politik. Hearing this though, I don’t blame you if you’re skeptical. In fact, you should be. Although we often hear about how much spin these is in the media now, the fact is that everyone presents their own views how they see it. Everyone is biased.
As such, I’ll present you the argument, and let you decide whether or not you accept it. After all, all of us deal in opinions. Just some of us are more honest about it than others.
I’ll be posting some backlogged articles for a bit, but will soon get to fresh content. Sit back, and I hope you enjoy.
Welcome to DePolitik.
Posted on June 30th, 2008
Filed under: Off-Beat by James Wang
