Once again, Mr. Obama is being faulted for bowing to a foreign leader.  Here is the video of our president briefly genuflecting to Emperor Akihito of Japan.

Barack Obama bows to Japan’s Emperor Akihito

All the president is doing is showing his respect for another culture’s traditions.  I happen to believe that many traditions are antiquated nonsense, such as saying “god bless you” after someone sneezes, but a diplomatic rendezvous with one of the world’s most powerful leaders is not the best platform to assert your views on outdated conventions.

Critics of Obama’s graceful curtsy can call it a sign of weakness all they want; it only shows how cripplingly insecure they really are.  I doubt the president’s momentary bending at waist will trigger a massive overthrow of the United States government.

“He bowed to the emperor? That’s the sign we’ve been waiting for! Bust out the nukes boys.”

Respectfully bowing is the very least of our worries.  If another country wanted to destroy our nation, I’m sure we’ve given them plenty of other, more relevant reasons, such as the two wars we are currently fighting, or the career of Nicolas Cage.  And let’s not forget the hand-holding stroll through a park former President Bush took with Saudi King Abdullah.  At least Obama didn’t treat the emperor like a nursing home resident.

So I think our country is going to be just fine.  No Pearl Harbor 2 (Pearl Harder), and no more Pokemon designed to secretly poison our youth against us.  After all, this country did nuke the hell out of two Japanese cities not that long ago – the least we can do is be a little nice.

There’s really only one video I’ve seen this week that’s worth repeating (besides Rep. Buyer’s amazing interview) -

1) Auto Tune the News

But in honor of the recent IU conference on Black impact on Rock , I thought that it was worth mentioning the rapper from “the only place more dangerous than Kandahar,  and that’s kind of hard”,

2)  Somalia

It’s nice to know there’s modern music out there that’s not autotuned and doin the stanky leg.

In my previous post, I linked to an interview of Buyer from CBS, but I missed THIS link to an amazing video of him singing in session about smoking lettuce.  There’s also a cameo by Joe Biden. No further words could do this video justice.

A battle is waging now between two Chinese government agencies, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and the Ministry of Culture regarding the regulation of online gaming, particularly the widely popular World of Warcraft. The game literally has China divided over the issue of online media regulation.

Here’s an article about it from Friday’s issue of the New York Times.

Apparently there’s billions of dollars at stake. That aside, the impact of this game is a bit frightening to me. I guess I don’t really see the allure of a virtual fantasy world. Or maybe my issue is that I don’t have much of a problem with actual reality.

Take a walk or go camping. Or if you are infatuated with the world of medieval fantasy, erect a paper mache dragon and slay it with your mighty cardboard battle axe. That’s cool too!

I swear, the real world isn’t so bad once you give it a chance.

And finally, here’s a link to a hilarious parody of World of Warcraft produced by The Onion. Oh, the irony…

Earlier this week, I wrote to advocate the placement of artistic stone work on the New Housing 2010, also known as the replacement Ashton.

In that column, I talked about the multitude of stonework exhibited on this campus, and the tradition it represents. I wanted to point out a great photo gallery which contains a lot of pictures of exactly these artworks. The full gallery is found here. I want to specifically show you the duck, which is on the top of Goodbody Hall, as well as “Truth, Daughter of Time,” which is on the exterior of Ballantine Hall.

We need to embrace this tradition of stonecarving, and make sure it is continued with the new Ashton, as well as all new buildings on campus. We are in the heart of limestone country, and its production is a part of the cultural and industrial history of Indiana. For example, the Benton Murals depict limestone quarrying, and a recent exhibit at the IU Art Museum in celebration of Limestone Month featured watercolors by Indiana artists depicting the limestone quarrying.

This is a friendly note to keep on searching the internets for interesting and original blogs that will keep your mind off of the grind and wind of exams coming up, not to mention family time. Here’s a sprouting one with both meaty commentary and a few surprises to keep you up to date in the visual arts world: http://www.theredcircle.com.

You might even be able to convince yourself that it is part of your cultural education. There may be hundreds more that are similar, however, there are only a few that are worth the time you could be using to study Finite.

There are a lot of powerful names being thrown around in our society everyday – but what do they all mean? Let’s have Merriam-Webster break them down for us.

Democracy: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

Democrat: an adherent of democracy; one who practices social equality.

Republican: one that favors or supports a republican form of government. (not quite specific enough, so let’s see Republic as well)

Republic: a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.

Socialism: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.

Communism: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed.

I chose these names because they are labels that are used every day in the media, and although it’s always nice to refresh our memories on the actual definitions of these words, it’s even more important to realize their similarities. But what do they have in common you ask?

They are all d-i-v-i-d-i-n-g terms. They all impede true progression because they create a system of good and bad, black and white, winners and losers. They don’t advocate free thought or original ideas – instead, they compartmentalize every thought and social action into these few, powerful terms. But are these terms truly all-encompassing? Are there no compromises in these rigid words we use? Our way of thinking has become so focused on where we fit within these ideas (and that is exactly what they are and nothing more) that we spend all of our time defending our “side” or our “category” that we slip deeper and deeper into the holes that these words have dug.

And if you disagree with the power of these terms, of their ability to spark an immediate and powerful image to your mind, have someone say them aloud to you. Americans, have someone say Communism and try not to think of the color red, the cold war and the 1972 Olympics. I’m sure for some of you, an Orwellian nightmare sweeps through your head as you try image a country that you have never visited or discovered on your own. It’s these images, and the symbolic power we give these words, that makes them so detrimental to our society’s growth.

Until we, our elected officials and politicians even more so, are able to climb from the tombs of social class and categories that we have locked ourselves in, this country will continue to face the same struggles every new term.

Liberty University, a private university founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell, recently banned a student Democrat club, claiming that “the Democratic party violated the university’s principles, because it supports abortion, socialism and the agenda of gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

Although Liberty University is a private institution and therefore should be allowed to perform such an action, this instance makes me wonder how they came up with their name. After all, banning a student organization, especially one as benign as College Democrats, contradicts the idea of “freedom from restriction of doing or thinking something.”

As well, according to the University’s statement, “Everything we do here is designed to develop Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge and skills essential to impact tomorrow’s world.” That’s fine, they admit their Christian bias. But I wonder then, why are “socialist” values objectionable?

The college experience should certainly challenge and test our beliefs, but its ability to do that is gone when the university itself doesn’t facilitate free discussion.

Freedom of Religion is perhaps the most frequently misunderstood right Americans are granted in the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

When they noticed a Ten Commandments monument in a public park in the Pleasant Grove City, Utah, the Summum church, a small and eccentric group, decided to dedicate a copy of its ‘Seven Aphorisms’ to the Church. The city rejected the monument, claiming that the other fifteen donated monuments in the park, including the Ten Commandments, were reflective of the city’s history, implying that the Seven Aphorisms were not.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the city could legally reject the ‘Seven Aphorisms’ monument.

Associate Justice Samuel Alito framed the issue as being a question of a government’s right to expression.  While I’m not well versed enough in the law to comment on government expression, I do wonder if ‘government expression’ could lead to the municipal governments ‘expressing’ a preference for things like, the Ten Commandments, say.

Despite the fact that the Ten Commandments will remain in the park – that wasn’t what this case was about – the ruling against the Summum church is most definitely a victory for those who care about a separation between church and state.

We shouldn’t think about this case as encouraging an unhealthy liaison between church and state because the local government is allowed to keep a monument to only one religion in its park. Rather, this ruling constitutes a decisive victory for civil rights activists.

The most important message of the ruling is that the way to deal with religion in the public place is not to sanction more religion. That the Court has not encouraged the government to become more involved in the religious debate as a way to promote religious equality is extremely heartening.

The relationship between church and state is healthiest when non-existent.

This is one of those unbelievable stories that could happen only in Alaska, folks. Alec Ahsoak, a 53 year old from Anchorage, was beaten with an iron pipe outside a mall just days after winning a $500,000 lottery drawing benefiting Standing Together Against Rape (STAR), a local charity for victims of abuse. The catch? Ahsoak was a three-time sex offender. Reading the news reports, it’s unclear if Ahsoak was attacked because of jealousy or the fact that a rapist is BENEFITING from a fund that helps rape victims! I would venture to guess it’s the latter which explains why Ahsoak was planning to donate $100,000 of his winnings to STAR.

It’s really tragic that someone chose to take the law into their own hands in this case since violence only begets violence. The McClatchy article also mentions that Ahsoak was trying to turn his life around and was in “treatment for over a year.” There are additional reports that Ahsoak had a troubled life which included bouncing around in foster care from age 4 and struggling with alcoholism at the age of 17. All very sad but what about his victims who were 4 and 5 at the time of the abuse? What about justice for them? While I don’t think that Ahsoak should be forced to give up his winnings, he should do the right thing and donate most, if not all, the money to STAR or his victims. This may never really help his victims heal but it’s a step in the right direction.