The Real Charlie Chan

I listened to a fascinating feature on "Fresh Air" yesterday. It was a review by Maureen Corrigan of a book by Yunte Huang called, simply, "Charlie Chan".


For you young whipper snappers, Charlie Chan was a fictional Chinese-American detective first appearing in a series of novels by Earl Derr Biggers beginning in 1923.

He was portrayed in a series of American movies by, wait for it..., Caucasian actors.

First by Warner Oland (who was actually Swedish)...


...and later by Sidney Tolar.


These movies were very popular 75-80 years ago in both America and China because they portrayed a positive, intelligent, professional Chinese person in America as opposed to an evil, "Yellow Peril" Chinese stereotype like Dr. Fu Manchu (ironically, also portrayed in the movies by the Swede Warner Oland!)


Today, our modern Politically Correct culture looks back on these movies and Charlie Chan's subservient attitude, broken English and pseudo-Confucian wisdom with the same disdain as we reserve for "Amos 'n' Andy".


Huang's book gives Charlie Chan a second look.

What I learned from the show that I didn't know before, was that the character of Charlie Chan was based on a REAL PERSON.

Meet Chang Apana.



This was the most stylin', bad assed motherfucker you'd never want to meet. He was a Chinese-Hawaiian detective with the Honolulu Police Department from 1916 to 1932. He wore Panama Hats and smoked Cuban cigars. He didn't carry a gun. He carried a fucking bullwhip.

He still holds the record for number of people arrested at one time by one officer for his arrest of 70 gamblers, who he lined up and marched back to the police station one night.

Somebody needs to make a movie about this guy. Doesn't even have to be in 3D or anything.

But we all know there is only one man who can portray this early 20th century, Chinese-Hawaiian, cigar chomping, ass-kicking fashion horse.

That's right. Samuel L. Jackson!

Feisal Abdul Rauf and the "Ground Zero Mosque"

"Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (Arabic: فيصل عبد الرؤوف‎, born in 1948 in Kuwait) is an Arab-American Muslim imam, author, and activist whose stated goal is improvement in relations between the Muslim World and the West.

He has been Imam of Masjid al-Farah, a New York City mosque since 1983. He wrote three books on Islam and its place in contemporary Western society, including What's Right with Islam is What's Right with America. Abdul Rauf founded two non-profit organizations whose stated missions are to enhance the discourse on Islam in society. He has condemned the 9/11 attacks as un-Islamic and called on the U.S. government to reduce the threat of terrorism by altering its Middle Eastern foreign policy."

This is the man behind the movement to build Park51, a proposed 15-story structure, including a mosque, cultural center and auditorium intended to promote greater interfaith dialogue. It has been portrayed by critics as the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque".

This is the "mosque" that people are so up in arms about:



It's not exactly like they are attempting to plop something like this into the crater left by the destruction of the World Trade Center towers.

What critics of Park51 fail to acknowledge is that Islam's roots in New York City are in the area around the site of the World Trade Center, and they predate the Twin Towers: in the late 19th century, a portion of lower Manhattan was known as Little Syria and was inhabited by Arab immigrants - Muslims and Christians - from the Ottoman Empire.

Based on this Time Magazine article, conservatives should be embracing the Imam and supporting the mosque.

"And yet Park51's main movers, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, are actually the kind of Muslim leaders right-wing commentators fantasize about: modernists and moderates who openly condemn the death cult of al-Qaeda and its adherents - ironically, just the kind of "peaceful Muslims" whom Sarah Palin, in her now infamous tweet, asked to "refudiate" the mosque. Rauf is a Sufi, which is Islam's most mystical and accommodating denomination."

America was founded on the principals of religous freedom and tolerance.

When we exercise intolerance, we are lowering ourselves to the level of not just the modern day terrorists, but to the intolerant forces that drove the founders of this country from their European roots and inspired them to form "a more perfect union" in a far away land.

By allowing the mosque and cultural center to be built, we are demonstrating through our actions that America's founding, secular, values of freedom and tolerance are the path to a better future for all of our citizens, in contrast to the intolerant, brutal, medieval values of religious fundamentalists of any religion.

What transpired on 9/11 was not motivated by Islamic beliefs and it was not carried out by devout Muslims.

What transpired on 9/11 was a criminal act carried out by disgruntled Mujahideen extremists whose political goals and agendas were forged in the crucible of the Cold War powers who funded, manipulated and abandoned them.

Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. which killed 168 people including 19 children, was raised Catholic and was heavily influenced by the Christian Identity Movement.

But to the best of my knowledge, there has been no public outcry forbidding the building of new churches in Oklahoma City.

In a country governed by the Rule of Law, we hold individuals responsible for their actions. We do not condemn other members of the criminal's family, ethnicity, religion, or country of origin for the actions of the criminal.

Let the Park51 complex be built and let it be a source of tolerance, healing and learning.

Electric Cars Aren't Green!

The Chevy Volt, The Next Big Hybrid, is getting a lot of buzz.



The Nissan Leaf, the first all electric plug-in auto is up next in the batting circle.



In the wake of BP's crude splooge in the Golf of Mexico, everyone is clamoring to dump their fossil fuel powered vehicles and jump on the electric car bandwagon.

But electric cars are just the latest cup covering the unavoidable fossil fuel pea in an elaborate environmental shell game.



OK, so you buy your electric car and free yourself from fossil fuels thus reducing your carbon footprint, slow Global Climate Change and make the world a better place. You can feel good about yourself and look disdainfully upon those gas-guzzling, JO Co, SUV driving bastards.

WRONG!

Where do you think electricity comes from? It's not transmitted through the ether to your home through unicorn horns and rainbows.



Almost 70% of electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels! All electric cars do is cause us to burn more coal to generate more electricity.

Sure, you can load up your recyclables in your electric car and brag about how you don't have to pay $50 to fill up your gas tank any more. "I just plug it in and recharge it!"

But now your electric bill has gone from a couple of hundred dollars a month to double that because your car is sucking on your electric tit all night long, drinking electricity generated by burning coal!

You can be all smug about driving a "zero-emissions" car that doesn't even have a tailpipe, but the local utility company's power plants spewed tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere to generate the electricity that powers your "zero-emission" vehicle.

The only way that electric vehicles make any sense is if we transition away from electricity generated by coal and natural gas to electricity generated by solar, wind, geothermal and tidal forces.

Until then, electric car buyers are just masturbating to images of Ed Begley, Jr. while continuing to kill the planet.

I Don't Care

Just for the record...

I don't give a flying fuck at a rolling donut who the mayor of Kansas City is, who serves on the City Council or why, who the political power players are, whether or not the KC school district is accredited (it's not), or how many urban criminals kill each other this summer over drug deals gone bad.

Fix your shit or not Kansas City. Makes no difference to me.

I. Don't. Care.