Burn the Flag Burning Amendment

In a few days the U.S. Senate is voting wasting its time on the Flag Burning Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — the only amendment that would actually curtail freedoms granted by the Bill of Rights. Apparently the American Legion has lined up 66 senators to vote for the amendment, including some senators who should know better like Senator Clinton. That's just one vote shy of the two thirds needed for passage.

Here are some random thoughts and questions that should help illustrate why this amendment is a dumber idea than even Prohibition:

1. Does the American Legion want incidents of flag burning to increase? That's surely what will happen if flag burning becomes an act of civil disobedience. Maybe flag burning helps their fundraising? I guess it's much harder to, you know, get better healthcare and pensions for veterans after supporting a presidential candidate who got into office and then cut them.
   
2. What happens when some entrepreneur launches a 24 hour live flag burning TV channel on the Internet, based outside the United States? Will there be a constitutional amendment to shut off the Internet? I can just imagine this channel's program schedule: "Slow Burn," "Stars and Stripes Not Forever," and "These Colors Do Run with Geraldo Rivera."
   
3. If someone burns a flag with 48 stars, does that count? How about 51, to protest the lack of D.C. statehood? How about 14 stripes? How about if the red stripes are not quite Pantone color matched?
   
4. As everybody with half a brain knows, the proper way to dispose of an old, worn out U.S. flag is to burn it. How exactly are the police supposed to distinguish between lawful and unlawful flag burning — whether the person(s) doing the burning have long hair or not?
   
5. Will the police be able to shoot if a suspect holds a cigarette lighter near a U.S. flag and refuses to drop it?
   
6. Will it still be legal to have U.S. flag toilet paper, toilet seats, bikinis, hankerchiefs, underwear, doormats, cow manure shovels, diapers, toothpicks, or condoms?
   
7. Most U.S. flags are manufactured in China. Why shouldn't it be legal to burn Chinese made flags — and at the same time raise lots of domestically manufactured flags — to protest the loss of U.S. manufacturing?
   
8. Why not add some more items to the do-not-burn list that are at least as deserving of respect and honor? How about the Christian cross, the Star of David, and, especially, the U.S. Constitution to start? But why stop there? How about banning the burning of any image depicting the President (except for Bill Clinton), the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Pope? Should it also be illegal to burn the Bible?
   
9. This morning some bread caught fire inside my toaster. If my apartment or house catches on fire, and a neighbor's U.S. flag gets burned, will I have to defend against another charge of reckless flag burning? If it's just before the 4th of July holiday and the U.S. flag paper plates burn up, will there be a separate count for each plate?
   
10. Will there be a new legal specialty for flag burning cases? Which specific tax should Congress raise to pay for law enforcement?
    
11. What's the penalty going to be for flag burning? If you burn a flag three times, could you get life in prison under "three strikes and you're out" laws?
    
12. If you burn a flag, can you be denied federal student aid? How about SBA loans or, ironically, veterans benefits?
    
13. Is burning a flag, like being gay, cause for military discharge — and a nice, quick way out of Iraq? (Recruits swear to defend the Constitution.)
    

For the record, I have never burned a U.S. flag. OK, it's possible that I tossed a back issue of National Geographic into a trash incinerator, and that issue may have had a U.S. flag pictured on page 76. But, like all except approximately two wacky Americans, I'd much rather clean my toenails than burn a U.S. flag.

I have a better idea: how about if the U.S. Senate votes against this bad joke 100 to 0, and how about we all simply ignore flag burners? (Are there any?) The only thing flag burners want is attention, and this amendment is the surest way to lavish it on them.

UPDATE: Time to throw the President in jail.

Weaker U.S. Dollar

The U.S. Dollar continues to lose value — a surprising trend given recent U.S. interest rate hikes that should be attracting international investors.

A stronger Japanese Yen is actually good news for me. My per diem is set to a fixed yen amount but paid in increasing U.S. dollars. I'm living within the per diem most days, so the minor surplus is a bit larger in dollar terms. Of course family members visiting from the U.S. see the issue differently.

41700 Yen Pajamas

Today I spent several hours at Roppongi Hills including a visit to the observation deck, a tour of the Mori Art Museum (highlighting works of art from Berlin and Tokyo from the 1880s through the present), and a stroll amongst the high-end shops. Yes, you too can own a pair of extremely expensive, ordinary looking pajamas.

The Mori Art Museum's curators found some remarkable pieces, and, despite my initial concerns, they handled the war years reasonably well. The exhibit featured paintings, photography, architecture, magazines, books, video, sculpture, furniture, and even mechanical "life forms." There were some pieces I still vividly remember. For example, a large painting ("B-29s") depicted American bombers high overhead, faintly visible, with a huge blue sky all around. There was some hint of disturbance, but mainly the overwhelming feeling of the piece was resignation. Another piece, a sculpture, contained materials from Auschwitz, including hair, what appeared to be dried human skin, and a searchlight. The searchlight, at the bottom of the piece, was pointed at the viewer, suggesting the Holocaust is an ongoing inspection of all humanity.

The one piece that I remember most vividly was Iwami Furusawa's "Demonic Music" (1948), a frightening blood red image of a nuclear explosion. Organ pipes rise from the top of the mushroom cloud, and horrific devils spew from their tops.

Excellent Raspberry, Hangzhou, Doctor Who

AM/PM switched the flavors, so now maple has given way to raspberry swirl. The flavor changed, but JSD is still serving.

Although I didn't have much time to enjoy the views during a brief trip Monday and Tuesday, I can recommend a visit to Hangzhou, China. A lake dominates the center of Hangzhou with trees, flowers, and other semi-natural beauty ringing the entire lake. Beijing was not what I'd call "beautiful" — although that's not necessarily a criticism — but Hangzhou is different. The pollution was a little less severe, too.

Season 2 of the new Doctor Who started airing this past Saturday on BBC domestic U.K. television. I particularly enjoy the multi-episode story arcs that work so well in genre television. The season's first episode, "New Earth," brings back the Face of Boe and Cassandra in a story about bioethics. This episode also sets up some unresolved plot elements to keep the audience anxious for more. For example, viewers learn the Face of Boe will return once only. Thank you, BBC, for bringing this classic series back under the able stewardship of Russell T. Davies.

Excellent Maple Ice Cream

There are convenience stores everywhere in Japan, but the AM/PM store here at the IBM office is a cut above the rest for two reasons: maple soft serve ice cream and the "surfer dude" working behind the counter who sells it.

The ice cream costs just 170 yen, so it's a good value in quality junk food. The optional caramel swirl is another 30 yen, and that's good, too. But the sheer entertainment value of Japanese Surfer Dude is worth at least 400 yen. Yesterday, when I ordered some of the good stuff, I happened to say "Excellent" as I received an extra large dose. JSD, in his best Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure style, stuck his thumbs up and out and vigorously echoed, "EXCELLENT!"

JSD really enjoys his job. Customer service employees almost universally do in this service-oriented society. I know the feeling.

Go Big Blue!

IBM Japan sponsors a professional rugby team, an American-style football team (with a lovely IBM Big Blue cheerleading squad), and even the IBM Philharmonic Orchestra.

I guess it's further proof that IBM is both the largest and most diversified information technology company in the world. And if the sales representatives need more enthusiasm after a disappointing quarter, we've got cheerleaders!

The Earth Shook

We just had a minor earthquake here registering 5.1 on the Richter Scale. I was sitting in the big, open air office at IBM. It was odd seeing the walls move in relation to the ceiling, shrinking and enlarging those usually precise right angles for several seconds. The experience was similar to sitting aboard an airliner undergoing minor turbulence and watching the gap between the interior fuselage wall and the overhead bins expand and contract. At that moment one wonders how smart the structural engineers were.

As it happens I was having a conversation with an IBM technical specialist about risk, to put it simply. We had different opinions about how to manage risk in a specific customer situation, but I think we came to a tentative agreement after the earthquake.

More Springtime Beauty

Tokyo Spring

Beautiful.

Cherry Blossoms & Bangkok

Japan is quite beautiful this time of year as spring begins. The justifiably famous cherry blossoms last many days, and people go to the parks to stake out prime picnic real estate to observe nature's beauty. The whole scene is a bit like Vermont's autumn foliage season. I spent some quality weekend time visiting one of Tokyo's many shrines, a couple parks, and my local neighborhood cherry blossoms to soak in the views. (Photos will appear soon.)

Last week I flew to Bangkok to meet with a major transportation-related company, and the meetings went well. While I was there the opposition parties launched several protests against the current government. The opposition parties asked their supporters to effectively vote "present" in the election on April 2, and they managed to significantly reduce the government's vote totals according to early results. Opposition forces demand the resignation of Thailand's prime minister for alleged corruption. The opposition had a great idea, I thought: use an upscale Bangkok shopping mall as their protest forum. The mall is quite comfortable, has plenty of restrooms, climate control and shelter, and it helps capture their criticism of the PM who also happens to be Thailand's wealthiest man and one of the few Thai who can shop at the fancy mall.

Thailand's newspapers were full of dire warnings about how the protests would disrupt life as we know it, but of course they were perfectly peaceful, and Bangkok's relatively new public transportation system kept the city moving even when the car traffic wasn't. My guess is that Thai newspaper barons like to sell newspapers.