Just about ready to head out to Incheon to catch that long ride across the Pacific. A much anticipated family reunion awaits at the completion of my journey.
It appears to be a beautiful day to fly. And applying the logic of T.S. Garp, I’m guessing 9/11 is the safest day of the year to fly as well.
See you on the other side.
You know, this Camille Paglia may be my favorite liberal. She calls ’em like she sees ’em, and I can’t help but respect that. Sure, she rags on the Repubs which is to be expected and frankly in some cases it is more than a little deserved. While I disagree with her on Afghanistan, she seems to get it right more than she doesn’t. Here’s a sampling:
By foolishly trying to reduce all objections to healthcare reform to the malevolence of obstructionist Republicans, Democrats have managed to destroy the national coalition that elected Obama and that is unlikely to be repaired. If Obama fails to win reelection, let the blame be first laid at the door of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who at a pivotal point threw gasoline on the flames by comparing angry American citizens to Nazis. It is theoretically possible that Obama could turn the situation around with a strong speech on healthcare to Congress this week, but after a summer of grisly hemorrhaging, too much damage has been done. At this point, Democrats’ main hope for the 2012 presidential election is that Republicans nominate another hopelessly feeble candidate. Given the GOP’s facility for shooting itself in the foot, that may well happen.
Why did it take so long for Democrats to realize that this year’s tea party and town hall uprisings were a genuine barometer of widespread public discontent and not simply a staged scenario by kooks and conspirators? First of all, too many political analysts still think that network and cable TV chat shows are the central forums of national debate. But the truly transformative political energy is coming from talk radio and the Web — both of which Democrat-sponsored proposals have threatened to stifle, in defiance of freedom of speech guarantees in the Bill of Rights. I rarely watch TV anymore except for cooking shows, history and science documentaries, old movies and football. Hence I was blissfully free from the retching overkill that followed the deaths of Michael Jackson and Ted Kennedy — I never saw a single minute of any of it. It was on talk radio, which I have resumed monitoring around the clock because of the healthcare fiasco, that I heard the passionate voices of callers coming directly from the town hall meetings. Hence I was alerted to the depth and intensity of national sentiment long before others who were simply watching staged, manipulated TV shows.
But this is the part that really resonated with me. See, I still think I’m a liberal. It’s just that the left left me.
Why has the Democratic Party become so arrogantly detached from ordinary Americans? Though they claim to speak for the poor and dispossessed, Democrats have increasingly become the party of an upper-middle-class professional elite, top-heavy with journalists, academics and lawyers (one reason for the hypocritical absence of tort reform in the healthcare bills). Weirdly, given their worship of highly individualistic, secularized self-actualization, such professionals are as a whole amazingly credulous these days about big-government solutions to every social problem. They see no danger in expanding government authority and intrusive, wasteful bureaucracy. This is, I submit, a stunning turn away from the anti-authority and anti-establishment principles of authentic 1960s leftism.
How has “liberty” become the inspirational code word of conservatives rather than liberals? (A prominent example is radio host Mark Levin’s book “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto,” which was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly three months without receiving major reviews, including in the Times.) I always thought that the Democratic Party is the freedom party — but I must be living in the nostalgic past. Remember Bob Dylan’s 1964 song “Chimes of Freedom,” made famous by the Byrds? And here’s Richie Havens electrifying the audience at Woodstock with “Freedom! Freedom!” Even Linda Ronstadt, in the 1967 song “A Different Drum,” with the Stone Ponys, provided a soaring motto for that decade: “All I’m saying is I’m not ready/ For any person, place or thing/ To try and pull the reins in on me.”
But affluent middle-class Democrats now seem to be complacently servile toward authority and automatically believe everything party leaders tell them. Why? Is it because the new professional class is a glossy product of generically institutionalized learning? Independent thought and logical analysis of argument are no longer taught. Elite education in the U.S. has become a frenetic assembly line of competitive college application to schools where ideological brainwashing is so pandemic that it’s invisible. The top schools, from the Ivy League on down, promote “critical thinking,” which sounds good but is in fact just a style of rote regurgitation of hackneyed approved terms (“racism, sexism, homophobia”) when confronted with any social issue. The Democratic brain has been marinating so long in those clichés that it’s positively pickled.
Yeah, you go girl! Tell it like it is. Sock it to ’em.
I thought I’d take a break from politics and talk a little bit about a story in the Stars and Stripes on “juicy bars” being a conduit for prostitution. The Stripes story covers the scene up in Dongducheon near Camp Casey in Area I. I don’t have any first hand knowledge of that bar district, but GI Korea at ROKdrop offers his take here.
My perspectives are based on what I have observed in Itaewon and also what I saw during my travels to the Philippines. I admit up front to being somewhat conflicted on the issues raised in this story. I certainly understand and adhere to the DoD prohibitions regarding prostitution. However, I’m not at all convinced that the “human trafficing” aspect is as widespread as this story would lead you to believe. For me at least there is a huge difference in a woman choosing to be a prostitute as opposed to being forced to do so. While that may sound obvious, the line can sometimes get fuzzy. Now, I have never met anyone working in the bars in Itaewon or the Philippineswho wasn’t doing so by choice. On the other hand, I’ve met more than a few who were working in the bars because they had no other choice. Yes, you could choose not to work the bars but for some that means choosing not to feed your family. Some choice, huh?
As I mentioned above my experience is limited to Itaewon. And I think the bars like those mentioned in the Stripes article probably only exist here up on “hooker hill”. And those are all off limits to DoD personnel and regulary patrolled by the MPs and Korean police. I expect some soldiers break the rules of course, but I’m guessing that’s not the clientele keeping these joints in business. So, I don’t think you can fault the actions taken or otherwise blame USFK for whatever overt prostitution still taking place in Itaewon.
Before we get into my critique of the Stripes article, let’s begin with some definitions and a caveat. A juicy bar is a bar where a young woman (degrees of attractiveness vary) will sit and keep you company as long as you are buying her drinks. These drinks are expensive (at least W10,000 but usually W20,000 in Itaewon) and normally consists of juice and little or no alcohol. So, you meet juicy girls in juicy bars. Some juicy bars also provide sex for a price (either on or off premises), others do not. I am not aware of any bar openly selling sex in addition to juice that is not on the off limits list for Itaewon.
Which is not to say that a juicy girl in a “legit” bar won’t engage in sex, but it would be more along the lines of a personal transaction without the knowledge or participation of the bar. I don’t know if that makes it anymore prostitution than does spending lots of money on a traditional date with a “regular” girl that ends in lovemaking. Perhaps we all have our price in that regard.
Not all juicy bars are created equal. Some are sleazy like those pictured in the Stripes article. Others are quite upscale with very attractive women elegantly dressed (meaning sexy, not slutty). I’d say there are more of the latter type in Itaewon. Also, at most Itaewon bars and pubs the staff will gladly accept a drink offer from a customer. Some (like Dolce Vita) charge the regular price, others charge W10,000. I make a distinction here because these bars aren’t selling juice and generally the bargirl stays on her side of the bar. For example, I sometimes buy the bartender a drink in lieu of a tip.
The caveat is that I’m no expert in that I rarely visit “juicy bars”, usually only in a “boys night out” setting, and I never buy W20,000 drinks which puts me in the unpopular “cheap Charlie” category. So, since I won’t pop for an expensive drink it is unlikely that I would be solicited for anything more pricey on the “menu” if you get my meaning. Having said that, I have lived here almost 5 years and have friends and acquaintences more well versed in the juicy scene than I, so I also speak with the benefit of that vicarious experience.
Ok then, on to the article:
Prostitution and indentured servitude are everyday realities at many of these popular hangouts for American soldiers, according to past and present bar girls, many of whom were enticed from the Philippines to work in the South Korean bars with false promises that they could earn legitimate incomes as singers and entertainers.
“If you don’t sell a lot of drinks, [the bar owners] are going to push you to go out with a customer to make money,” said Jenny, a former bar girl who asked not to be fully identified. “I was shocked the first night I worked there.”
Ok, well at least in Itaewon all the legit juicy bars I’ve seen (not off limits) employ Koreans. The only exploited Filipinas I’ve met here are the ones who came to Korea as “mail order” brides to Korean men. I’ve heard some real horror stories about that.
Almost every Filipina I encountered in the Philippines was looking for a way out. Many, after the briefest acquaintance, were asking me to “sponsor” them to come to Korea, no strings attached. Of course I declined to help someone circumvent Korean immigration laws, but I question if these folks so desperate to escape the crushing poverty and hopelessness of their lives really don’t know what being an “entertainer” in Korea entails. Again, acknowledging that there are exceptions, I don’t believe the majority of these young women are being forced into sexual slavery.
And it’s all happening right under the noses of U.S. military officials and the South Korean and Philippine governments, women’s advocacy groups assert.
“Three governments are to be blamed for their irresponsibility,” said Yu Young-nim, director of My Sister’s Place, a social service agency that helps Philippine bar girls forced into prostitution in South Korea. “The Philippine government for not working hard to create job opportunities for its poor people, the Korean government for not managing and controlling jobs [given to immigrants] and the U.S. government for neglecting its responsibility to supervise its soldiers and for not helping these victims.”
Sorry, I think that is an unfair burden to lay at the doorstep of government. Hell, most of the “progressive” governments in Europe have thrown in the towel and legalized/regulated the prostitution industry. I certainly don’t think that closing all juicy bars is going to solve anything. USFK does a decent job monitoring the bars for illicit activites and places those found in violation of DoD regualtions off limits. Korea is a soveriegn nation and is responsible for enforcing its own immigration and anti-prostitution laws. Well, they are about as good at doing so as the USA is within its own borders. Most of the Filipinas I know in Korea are here illegally. And prostitution is rampant throughout Korea, not just around U.S. military bases. Hell, it’s not even that well hidden. You have the notorious glass houses, the double pole barber shops, and the room salons pretty much everywhere you go. And most of these are catering to Korean men, not foreigners.
And then there is the Philippines. Prostitution, although technically illegal, is big business there. And yeah, 20 years ago it was centered around the big U.S. military complexes at Clark and Subic Bay. Guess what, those places are still thriving long after Uncle Sam departed by serving sex tourists from around the globe. And a whole lot of those tourists are Koreans. So here’s the thing. If a Filipina in her desperation chooses a life of prostitution (again, it may be the only viable option, but still a choice if you will) should she sell herself for $30 in Angeles City, or 5 times that in Seoul? To be clear, I am not saying that trafficing does not exist. I am saying that the vast majority are choosing to use the only real asset they own (their body) to support themselves and their family. The smart ones come to Korea (and Japan and the USA) to maximum the value of that asset.
Do I feel good about that? No, not at all. I spent some time in the bars in the Philippines talking with the girls. And it was depressing as hell. So, at first I thought these young women are being exploited. But then I thought, if they didn’t have this they would have nothing. It seems to me that if a man can “sell his body” doing back breaking work as a laborer, it should be a woman’s choice to utilize her body as best meets her needs and circumstances.
So, close all the juicy bars in Korea and send the girls home. Be assured you will not be improving the circumstances of those unfortunates one iota.
U.S. military representatives say they believe most of the juicy bars stick to selling juice — and the few minutes of female companionship that each $10 glass can buy a servicemember. That is why they say they have not put all the juicy bars categorically off-limits.
“There is a constant review, all the time, of all these places,” said Charles Johnson, an action officer with the USFK working group. “A decision was made years ago that glass houses were off limits because … the thought is it is probably an unhealthy or immoral area that lends itself to prostitution. With the other establishments, it’s a case-by-case basis.”
I think that’s the right approach and all that can be reasonably expected.
Once the women secure their visas, the 300 or so promoters in South Korea who pay to import them essentially rent the women out to clubs on a monthly basis. According to a variety of sources, the women sign contracts ranging from three months to a year that entitle them to free room and board, and a salary (not including tips) ranging from about 700,000 to 900,000 won — or about $560 to $725 — per month.
Club owner Cho said their jobs “simply speaking … are to drink together and chat with the soldiers.” In exchange, soldiers are asked to buy them drinks, usually starting at $10 for a small glass of juice. The more money the soldier spends on drinks, the longer the woman sits with him, Cho said, adding that the club and the women split the juice money 50-50.
Well, you know what? That’s pretty good wages comparitively speaking. The bargirls in the Philippines I spoke with might make 10,000 pesos ($200) in a good month. The girls with legit jobs, like working at the mall make half that. And you can’t get a mall job without at least two years of college which is beyond the reach of poor families in the provinces. Again, I have tons of empathy for these girls and the harshness of their lives, but I don’t see any real advantage to taking away the only means of a viable income. I pay my Filipina maid $320 a month and she sends most of that home to support her family. So, these juicy girls are doing exceptionally well, relatively speaking.
“If you do not sell enough juice, the mama-san who controls the women in the clubs, they force the women to go to the ‘bar fine,’ ” Yu said. “ ‘Bar fine’ means prostitution.”
The former juicy bar employees said soldiers and other customers usually paid $150 to bring them from the bar to a hotel room for sex, with the women getting $40 of that money.
First of all, any bar that allows “bar fines” is immediately subject to being placed off limits. In the Philippines, a “bar fine” is called an EWR–Early Work Release. The way that works is the customer pays the bar a set sum, usually around $30. This entitles the bargirl to leave work early. The bar normally gives the girl half the barfine. What happens after that is contingent on what two consenting adults agree to do.
Now, I am not so naive as to not understand that the EWR concept is a convienent workaround to the prostitution laws. Still, at least in the Philippines, the bargirls can refuse an EWR request. They only go with the customers they choose to be with. Sometimes the EWR involves bar hopping or dinner or lounging at the pool. And yes, I am sure that in some (most?) cases it ends up with sexual intercourse.
Would these girls do this sort of work if they had better options? Some may, I suspect most would not. But it strikes me as being disingenuous to claim they are being exploited. Again, I have not ever witnessed any case of someone being forced into prostitution. I have however heard many sad tales about being the only means of support for children and family. Many of these girls hate what they do, but hate the alternative more.
I just can’t accept the premise that putting these people out of the only work that pays enough to provide food and shelter is making the world a better place.
Yes, let’s castrate anyone who enslaves or otherwise forces these young women into prostitution. But don’t take away one of the few options available in a desperate life for those who choose it.
Interesting post at Althouse this morning. It seems when Bush I gave a speech to students similar to Obama’s (which I concede was innocuous) the Democratic controlled Congress had a conniption.
The controversy over President Obama’s speech to the nation’s schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush’s speech — they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.
Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president’s school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president’s political benefit. “The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props,” the Post reported.
With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. “The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students,” said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. “And the president should be doing more about education than saying, ‘Lights, camera, action.'”
Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush’s appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. “The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC,” Ford began. “As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event.”
That didn’t stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it “cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers’ money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. — while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters.”
My main point in this controversy was the double standard. Obama gets a free pass where a Republican would not.
It’s not often that I find myself in agreement with uber lefty Jane Hamsher. But I found it hard to argue with her defense of recently deposed czar Van Jones. Ms. Hamsher notes, as aptly put by Tom Maguire , “he wasn’t any crazier than the rest of us”:
Ms. Hamsher further ruefully notes that in the face of conservative attacks “no coherent liberal critique was offered…”.
Indeed. Lord knows we have all been waiting for something coherent from our friends on the left for oh so many moons.
So today I’m celebrating the Labor Day holiday with a quiet day at home and then a doubles dart tourney tonight. But this day is much more special than that. Let me tell you why.
I recall a September 7th way back in 1975. I was playing in a softball game in Orange County, California. Around the 3rd inning or so, Bridget (my former wife) complained about not feeling well. Of course, I was all about the game and I advised her to just relax in the bleachers until the game was finished. At the beginning of the 5th inning, my sister-in-law Kathy who happens to be an RN told me I really needed to take Bridget home so she could lay down. So, in frustration I relented and told the guys I had to leave mid-game. I wasn’t happy about it, I remember that.
Yeah, I know. At 20 I was not the sensitive, caring, emotionally grounded individual that you see today. You see, Bridget was 8 months pregnant at the time. On the drive home she kept moaning about “the pain”. It seemed to come and go every several minutes. She said she might be going into labor. Of course, I knew better than that seeing as how she wasn’t due until October. Being 20 years old and wise to the ways of the world, I confidently told her that she was experiencing what is known as “false labor”. Despite my reassurances, Bridget continued with her moaning. So, just to prove my point and said “fine, let’s go by the hospital they’ll tell you the same thing.”
Which I then proceeded to do. And where two hours later my first born daughter came into this world.
Happy Birthday Renee! I love you.
No, wait. Who’s on the phone.
President Reagan came up in the comments the other day and coincidentally I came across this old Johnny Carson clip mocking Reagan in a good natured way. Funny as hell, but sad to reflect on how low and base political discourse has become in the 21st century.
Ah well. Enjoy.
” />
You know, watching what’s going on in America from 7000 miles away is something of a blessing. What with all the Obama worship and indoctrination of school kids and all, I just wouldn’t be a happy camper.
Still, it’s been in my mind that there is something strangely familiar about the personality cult surrounding The One. Then I came across a video and it all made sense. But of course, how could I have missed the similarity to the “Dear Leader” only 30 miles north of my front door? Duh!
” />
” />
“This is my Congressional Office…”
Um, no it isn’t. It belongs to the people. You are merely an office holder. Hopefully, not for much longer.
Brian in Jeollanam-do has an interesting report from the Kimchi festival in Gwangu. According to festival Chairman Kim Sung-Hoon:
You know why there are so many beautiful women in Korea and Korean women have such smooth skin? It’s because they have been grown on kimchi. If you want to age gracefully and have beautiful skin, eat Korean kimchi,” said Kim, a former agriculture minister.
Well, I have gone on record and there is really no disputing that Koreans are the most attractive women in Asia. I will brook no debate on that point.
Still, it would seem if kimchi was the secret to beauty the more you eat and the longer you eat it, the better, right? So inquiring minds want to know how do you explain the phenomonon of ajummas?
From this…
To this…
So, I have to ask: How much kimchi is too much?
I’ve been having ongoing issues with internet access of late. It works, then it doesn’t. Have the repair guy and it works a couple of days then stops again. So, I’ve gone without for since Thursday, and I really get antsy when I can’t play online. Anyway, they just came out and installed a new modem. Hopefully that’s the end of my worries.
I’ve been filling the void with CIV IV, but man does not live by gaming alone.
Good night at darts last night taking a first place finish with my partner Mike. I was on my game and Mike was on fire. Good combination.
I’m flying out to South Carolina on Friday for a little family gathering in honor of my parent’s 60th anniversary. Look forward to that.
And that’s how things stand with me these days.
I pledge allegiance to the Hope and Change
Of the United States of Obama
And to the socialist Republic for which He stands
One nation, under Obama
With lack of liberty and healthcare for all.
So help me God Obama.
I guess it’s official now. Obamaism is the new religion.
” />
UPDATE: Apparently, it was all just a big misunderstanding:
As one of the preparatory materials for teachers provided by the Department of Education, students had been asked to, “Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. “
Today, after Republicans accused the White House of trying to indoctrinate school children with liberal propaganda the White House and the Department of Education changed the section to now read, “Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short‐term and long‐term education goals.”
“We changed it to clarify the language so the intent is clear,” said White House Spokesman Tommy Vietor…
Two thoughts on Obama’s planned piped-in propoganda speech to America’s schoolchildren:
1. If I had school age kids, Tuesday would be a home school day.
2. If the former president had tried this tactic the left would have gone nuts.
Hope and change.
I guess I have a third thought: I wonder if the kids will be given an email address to report their parents should they fail to heed the message.
You are in for a couple of surprises today. Well, you already saw the first. In nearly five years of blogging I’ve never used French in a blog title. Don’t get me started about the French.
The second surprise is that I am a liberal. A classic liberal.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
–Lord Acton
Classic liberals have an inherent distrust of government, and especially unbridled government power. From my days of political awakening as an anti-war protester in the 70s (misguided though I was) it has always been so. The irony that I have spent a lifetime working for the government dosen’t change a thing either. Respect, yes. Trust, not so much.
Commenter Kevin asks why I think polls matter and cites the former President’s dismal poll numbers. Well, polls only matter to the extent that the indicate something of how likely voters feel about the the performance of our elected leaders. And clearly the majority of folks are not pleased. It seems they must matter to those in power as well, otherwise the “healthcare” debate would not have evolved into “insurance reform”.
Last I looked, Obama has Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. So, if polls don’t matter, why don’t our political betters get on with doing what’s best for us, whether we like it or not?
Frank Wilson notes that many Europeans “think that the U.S. Constitution confers certain rights on the nation’s citizens. As it happens, it does not. It simply acknowledges what the Declaration of Independence makes eminently clear, that those citizens “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” and that government exists “to secure these rights.”
That’s exactly the point. And what Obama and Congress fail to remember at their peril is this:
Americans regard themselves as citizens, not subjects. They may respect their government, but few feel servile toward it, and most are wary of it.
So, to answer Kevin, I’d say the polls are indicative of the fact that what we are witnessing in America today is not an angry mob of rightwing Nazi racists (as Pelosi and Reid would have you believe). It is rather a reflection that when average Americans perceive a threat to their liberty, the rise up in protest. It has been that way since the first tea party in Boston.
We will not go quietly.
Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. That’s down a point from yesterday and the lowest level of total approval yet measured for Obama. Fifty-three percent (53%) now disapprove. See recent demographic highlights from the tracking polls.
Here it is September 1 and it seems that Mother Nature in Korea keeps her eye on the calendar. Today was *almost* fall-like. Not cool, not hot, but really just a different feeling in the air if you get my meaning. And I have to say, autumn in Korea is pretty damn fine. So bring it on!
Lifted this picture from ROKdrop and it captures just how pretty Seoul can be when the air is not leaden with moisture (and yellow dust).
