The Village Idiots

I’ve been reading/listening to post-election analsyis, and based on these comments, I’ve been wanting to write something about McCain’s campaign. But even with a nagging sense to do this, a larger part of me just felt too tired and burnt out. The article entitled, “McCain’s Fall,” from the most recent New Yorker changed my mind. It was one of the many articles discussing “Candidate McCain” versus the old McCain. This article, and many others like it, express disappointment in McCain the candidate. Several people I know who like McCain have also said that if the McCain of 2000 were running, they would have voted for him. I understand these feelings, as I also like the McCain of the past, and I felt some disappointment in “candidate McCain.” Indeed, I could not vote for McCain, a decision that was not without a little sadness. At the same time, these articles and comments bother me because I think the characterizations are unfair, the criticism often misplaced and, above all, I believe they fail to fully understand McCain and his decisions. The main reason for this is a failure to see McCain’s decisions within a broader context. That’s what I want to do in this post. It is a response to those authors and people who liked the old McCain, but have expressed disappointment and even outrage during the campaign. In this post, I will address several specific issues. First, I want to talk about McCain moving to the right just before and during the campaign and offer explanations that may put McCain in a more favorable light. Next, I want to make a case for why these shifts are ultimately not so bad as supporters of the “old” McCain think. Finally, I’m going to end by looking at McCain to anticipate what we can expect in an Obama presidency. Read more »

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread on Obama’s presidency as way to monitor it and record our opinions as they evolve over time. I tend to forgot about the promises of a candidate and my initial opinions over time, but this will be a way to remember them. What are your initial feelings, concerns and hopes with regard to Obama’s presidency? Read more »

Don and I were talking about this the other day, and I know Joel expressed interest in starting a thread on this topic. The discussion will center on the best ramen places you’ve eaten at a restaurant (versus the packaged variety). I think we could also include saimin in the discussion, too. I like ramen, but I don’t think I’ve been to enough places to discriminate the good from the great. I’ve been to Goma-Ichi, Goma-Tei, Ezogiku, Tai-Sei, Sanoya, and probably some others I can’t remember right now. I love the tan-tan shiru at Goma-Ichi. In general, I like the ramen that has the layer of Chinese style gravy (gomoku variety). You can get those types at Ezogiku and Tai-Sei. So what’s the best ramen you’ve eaten?

There’s a lot of talk about the economy now, and I get tired of the simplistic and ideological nature of these discussions: we need more regulation (government intervention) or we need less (free market). Along those lines, politicians and journalists often talk about our economy as if it is an absolute free-market. That’s why I really loved this Atlantic website article, “Libertarianism is dead…vive le libertarianism”. (I have no idea about the meaning of the title, if I understand the article correctly.) I didn’t fully grasp the more technical aspects of the piece, but I appreciated the way the author talked about the economy, and I liked the point of the article–that we live in a mixed economy and the problems were of a systemic nature; simply adding more regulation or less is a bad way to approach the problem. This is one of the few times I’ve seen someone discuss the economy in a more complex and realistic way.

One of the unfortunate consequences of McCain selecting Sarah Palin for VP (among many) is the fact that she has all but eliminated the question of Obama’s readiness for presidency. Next to Palin, Obama looks overqualified. That’s unfortunate because I still think examining Obama’s readiness is a legitimate issue. Indeed, for me, it’s the one thing holding me back from giving him my wholehearted support. Let me try to raise some of my concerns. Read more »

Talk about favorite Christian books, both non-fiction and fiction. Talk about your favorite Christian authors if you have any.

I know Joel likes sports films (especially the Cinderalla story motif). He also likes films with a good twist, a la Twilight Zone episodes. Action, sci-fi and mainstream drama are also favorite genres. Some of Joel’s favorites: Raiders of the Lost Ark and Rocky.

Participants at the V-I share common interests and tastes in film and books, but not so much in music. (Actually Mitchell and Kevin seem to have similar tastes in music.) It’s a little disappointing to write about music we love and get so little feedback; we don’t seem to connect with music. To address that gap, I’m willing to explore music that others reallly love. I’d like to share the same enthusiasm you have for the music you love and if that’s not possible, maybe I can at least develop some appreciation for it. With that in mind, I pose the question: if you had to choose one cd as a way to introduce your favorite music–and possibly get others interested in the music you love–what would it be? Please share some thoughts about the music, too.

While access to information has increased, the reliability and quality of information has decreased. It almost seems like the media has thrown in the towel to the notion of objective journalism. Is it just me, or has the shift towards a more partisan and editorialized jouranlism been increasing? I have a hard time finding sources of reliable information, meaning journalists that don’t allow (or at least minimize) the political bias from affecting their reporting. Finding sources of information that are thorough and rigorous is also very difficult.

What news sources out there meet the criteria listed above? How do you go about forming your opinions about politicians and issues?

Garry Wills has a background in the classics, taught Greek and now teaches history at Northwestern. Wills is a Catholic and his theology is conservative in the sense that he believes in the divinity of Jesus and his resurrection. Wills explicitly states that the book, What Jesus Meant, is his personal interpretation of Jesus and his teaching, and describes the book as “devotional.” At the same time, Wills wants to challenge social-political beliefs held by various groups, but mainly the Religious Right (the Vatican, and Liberal Biblical scholars are also targets).

In this thread, I’ll lay out some of the arguments I found interesting or provocative in the hopes of sparking an interesting discussion. Read more »

Don asked this question in a conversation, and we never really got to discuss it for some reason, which is a shame because I would be interested in what other people like to eat when going out. I want to encourage people that don’t live on O’ahu to contribute their favorites, too.

Here’s my take on Chris’ taste in films:

Independent films that feature young alienated characters that remind of people in the Grunge scene of the 90s. Some of the films that have these type of characters: Buffalo ‘66, My Own Private Idaho and other Gus van Sant films.

I think Chris would like films with political overtones and smart social commentary slanted towards the left. He’s definitely open to art and foreign films.

Also, films that have a spiritual/Christian themes and good sci-fi.

How’d I do? Btw, I have no idea what makes your top ten. How about listing them?

Here are some films: Read more »

At the top of the home page, you’ll see buttons that will lead you to separate pages. The movie and restaurant pages contain an index of the threads on individuals restaurants or movies. Each thread contains all the posts on that particular restaurant or movie. For example, if you go to the movie index page and click on Dark Knight (2008), you’ll see on the posts on that film in chronological order.

My hope is that posters who go to restaurants and films go back to these threads and add their comments.

Hi Fellow Idiots! Saturday, September 27, 2008 is designated as the “Day of Action.” As some of you may know, I participate in Kanu Hawaii and they are advocating for participation on this day (and other days, too, of course!) But Sept. 27 is supposed to spotlight volunteerism and maybe get people more involved in their communities.

Anyway, there are a list of events happening in Hawai’i here: I thought if anyone was interested we could sign up for an event together (or smaller groups of us can sign up for different events) or maybe even create our own event to do that day. Any thoughts? Helpful suggestions?

For the non-Hawai’i Idiots, I’d love to hear what you are doing in your communities, too!

Grace and I went to a “primer” regarding the State Constitutional Revision by Convention (ConCon) this past Saturday. We saw Karen N. there, which was great, because we had not seen her in so long. Did you know her twins are 4 years old already? Anyway, I digress.

Rober Williams (law professor from Rutgers, Anne Feder Lee (author of the Hawaii State Constitution, A Reference Guide) were the main speakers for the first part which was basically an introduction about amending state constitutions. Then there was a panel discussion that added Jon Van Dyke (Con Law professor at UH) and Amy Trask (a law student who did her paper on Con-Con), while Avi Soifer (dean of UH law school) served as moderator. Read more »

The WordPress bookmarklet is basically a shortcut that allows you to execute a bunch of preset commands with the press of one button. It was discontinued in the version of WordPress we most recently were running, but it’s back with the current version, which I upgraded us to just minutes ago.

If you are logged in with your V-I account, click WRITE from the dashboard. This is where you usually go when you post a new message on V-I. In the right sidebar, you’ll see

If you click and drag the Press This link to your bookmarks bar in your web-browser (the exact mechanics differ from browser to browser, but they all pretty much work the same way: just click the link and drag it to the space beneath your URL window). Here, you can see I’ve dragged it between my bookmarks for 3layers and the Online Stopwatch (two sites I have bookmarked because I use them frequently during the teaching day):

Now, whenever you want to create a new post about something you’ve read online, you won’t have to copy and paste the text you wish to quote and you won’t have to copy and paste the URL you wish to point us to. Simply highlight the text you want to quote from whatever website you’re at and click the Press It bookmark. You will be directed to V-I’s familiar post-writing screen, but the text you highlighted will already be in the message, and so will a link to the site. You can add any other text you want and then publish the post.

Note that this only works for creating new posts, not for adding comments to existing posts. However, it can be a fun, useful thing. I encourage you to play around with it, especially if you stumble upon an interesting website you think the rest of us would like to check out.

Caution: If you do not have exclusive use of the computer you’re using, using the bookmarklet could be dangerous: It gives other users a direct line into the backend of the V-I. Since I’m the only one of us with true admin access, no real damage could be done except the deletion of all our posts or perhaps some kind of inappropriate posting. Since I do regular (okay: semi-regular) backups of the database, I’m not too worried about the former. You run the same risk anyway if you keep yourself logged in to the V-I on whatever computer you’re using. If you do use the bookmarklet on a shared computer, be sure to delete the bookmark when you eventually give the computer up or change jobs.

Please contact me (or leave a comment below) if you’ve lost or forgotten your login info.

Based on some of Reid’s suggestions, I’m working on a new look for VI (same basic look and feel as right now, but different layout) and it’s very close to preview-ready, but until I get it set, I set up an Audio page (click the tab at the top of the page) for the sharing of music between idiots. As of right now, you can’t put songs in it yet, but that’s coming really, really soon. I had to see how well this worked first, and my first reaction is that it works well! If you’d like to hear the Rush lyrics I shared as they appear in the song, here’s a chance.

I’d especially encourage you, after you’ve heard the song the first time for the lyrics, to hear it again and listen to the drumming! Neal Peart is the greatest rock and roll drummer in the world. This is really one of Rush’s keys-and-bass-driven songs, but you gotta love those drums.

Reid, 28, August, 2008, 9:29

(at the Makai end of Lewers; on the new beachwalk)

We went here for my parents’ anniversary dinner. I’ve enjoyed the food at the other Roy restaurants, but if this were my first experience, I probably wouldn’t go back. From the menu, the evening didn’t start out well. When you look at a menu and nothing excites you, that’s a bad sign.

I don’t want to write much, but I do have pictures, and I’ll try to comment briefly on each.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3253/2798572711_112c5fcab8_m.jpg[/img]

I ordered the prixe fixe menu, which came with an appetizer, choice of entre and choice of a desssert. With paired wine the total was $54. The picture above is the trio appetizer: blackened ahi, baby back rib and chicken spring roll. Everything was good on this, although not outstanding.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/2798573629_da7c4e665a_m.jpg[/img]

This is the dim sum canoe for two ($27.50). I didn’t eat this that evening, but I had it before. In addition to the appetizers I had, the plate came with skewered shrimp and crab-cakes. The crab-cakes were pretty mediocre.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3053/2799424850_cb5290de2e_m.jpg[/img]

This is the shrimp with pancetta dish that my mom had. I just tried the shrimp, and I wasn’t impressed. Larri tried it with the vegetables and she thought it was good. My mom liked it, so that was good.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3256/2798576301_88b1bb1b05_m.jpg[/img]

My dad got this dish, chicken wrapped in prosciutto. We were all surprised because my dad almost always orders some kind of steak (usually, teri), but he explained that he had eaten a steak the night before. This was OK.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3051/2798577077_1ebd885d14_m.jpg[/img]

I had a choice of three entres: a salmon dish (basically grilled salmon), a dish I can’t remember and a short rib. This the short rib which came with a tiny cup of poi. The cut of meat was pretty big, but it was basically a pot roast, sans the gravy. I’ve liked the short rib at places like Mavro and 12th Ave, and this was not even close. My mom’s pot roast is just as good, if not better.

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2115/2798577919_11d4648aec_m.jpg[/img]

Larri got the ono. It was OK.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3165/2798578795_d2865dc837_m.jpg[/img]

This was a crab, artichoke au gratin side that came with Larri’s dish. It wasn’t that good, but I had a small bite.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3241/2798579841_35557d19e6_m.jpg[/img]

This is the rib-eye that my brother got. It was OK, but it was huge. It came with a bbq sauce, Southern style, which was OK, but I prefer steak without sauces.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3291/2799429858_142d0285cc_m.jpg[/img]

Here’s the salmon dish my sister ordered. I didn’t try it.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3059/2799430886_4e4a19b3c8_m.jpg[/img]

My brother’s wife got this Roy’s Classic Tribute: blackened ahi, hibachi salmon and misoyaki butterfish. I didn’t get to try this.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3114/2799431900_d4665bd0d8_m.jpg[/img]

This was the lamb dish my sister’s boyfriend got. It was pretty good. I especially liked the pineapple-mango (?) chutney.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3096/2798583039_150197c672_m.jpg[/img]

Here’s the pineapple upside cake, which Larri got. It takes a while to prepare and comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was OK.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/2798584127_ba895b8a9e_m.jpg[/img]

This was the mac nut tart a la mode. It was OK. I liked the fruit sauces on the side, but I would have preferred the nuts to not be chopped.

I also took a picture of the chocolate souffle cake, but the picture wasn’t great.

I apologize for not listing all of the ingredients in the various dishes, but I couldn’t remember them, and frankly I don’t think it matters. The dishes were just OK, imo. (choc souffle cake was still pretty dang good though). They weren’t that good when you think of the price you’re paying. If this is typical dinner at Roy’s, I won’t be interested in returning.

I want to start a recommendation thread for Marc, but I have to admit that I only have a vague sense of Marc’s tastes. But I want to start this thread, so I’ll ask Marc to talk about some of the films he’s enjoyed as well as write something about the types of films he likes.

For anyone interested in the current Democrat Convention and/or the upcoming Republican Convention, a space for your thoughts, questions and rants.

The two big speeches of the opening day of the Democrat’s convention was Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama. Critical Dems (the loudest of whom is probably James Carville) said it was a boring and lackluster beginning, because they didn’t take a good enough swing at McCain, W. and his failed policies. Hillary is up tonight amid rumblings of a Clinton camp still unhappy with the Obama camp’s way of not adequately acknowledging their contribution.