Fred Korematsu Day

There's a lot I can say about Fred Korematsu and the importance of his display of civil disobedience but I'll let Wikipedia handle that. I for one am thrilled that Mr. Korematsu's efforts are being acknowledged and the only thing I feel weird about is that Arnold Schwarzenegger had something to do with it. Schwarzenegger. The guy I grew up watching blowing people to bits. It's all still weird for me...

Fred Phelps

I felt motivated to write a strip about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church after hearing about how they were going to hold protests at all the victims of the the Tucson, AZ shootings funerals. Pretty unbelievable. I've know about them for quite some time and always wondered what could motivate someone to act in such a venomous and hateful way. The only logical thing I can think of is Phelps and his followers actually believe they are carrying out God's message. And I'm not so sure that's all that logical. I wonder what dinner at the table is like with this guy.

Arizona

I normally post on Sundays but due to the timely nature of this week's strip I thought I should post sooner than later. A lot of blame is being thrown around in the political world which isn't surprising. People like Sarah Palin and Gabrielle Giffords's Teaparty endorsed opponent Jesse Kelly getting the brunt of it.

Since the tragic events of Tuscon, AZ I've been listening to a lot of conservative radio to see what the reactions have been. Rush Radio to be specific. I wasn't listening to make myself outraged or give myself something to become upset over, instead I was listening for what the main points being brought up were, how listeners were reacting and finally, because I'm weird, what the ads were selling.

Host talking points: most common topic was the left wing using this tragedy as a political opportunity to blame the right for rhetoric that goes beyond political discourse. The most common retort to this accusation was the left's past history of doing the same thing.

Also popular with the talk radio hosts was bringing up how the shooter was simply mentally unstable and didn't have any specific political agenda.

Side note, the local radio hosts were far more moderate in their views than the bigger names like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
Listener talking points: very mixed bag of reactions to my surprise. Most were completely pissed off at the left wing attacks on the Teaparty and Republican leaderships. Some voiced how they weren't surprised that someone did this since the government is destroying our country as we know it and it was the only way to get politicians to listen. And others still were very moderate in their reactions and focused more on the shooting as a sign of the times in general and talked a lot about the senselessness of the young girl who was killed.

Ads: interesting to note these as they gave me the clearest idea of who Rush Radio was trying to reach. Ads about prostate health, saving for retirement and ads featuring the other hosts (Hannity, Beck, Rush) dominated the ad time.

Strange but True Stories

This strip was based (mostly) on a recent experience. I was in a pizza shop with my son and there was a kid there with his dad. As we're figuring our what we wanted the kid walks right up to me and asks, "Are you Japanese American or Chinese American?" I was stunned. Not offended or anything, just completely caught by surprise. His dad was mortified. I was thrilled that the kid tacked on the "American" part. Then he said something that totally wasn't Japanese and told me it meant something like "Good morning." I politely thanked him and said "Good Morning" back is English so as not to make him feel bad.

And of course I got a kick out of the fact that I was in a pizza joint owned by a Greek guy that was right next door to a Japanese restaurant when this happened.

My Favorite Person at the Moment

Simon Sez

Oh, yes he did. Or resident ragin' Asian is at it again. He does have a good point, though. 2010 was a pretty active year for Asians in the news. The November elections brought a lot of anti-Chinese imagery out into the open and video games like Homefront didn't help much to ease American's feelings towards Asians over seas. And unfortunately it was some of the ones in the states that paid the price for it.