Dar Kush

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To Thine Own Self Be True

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I can't think of a single real mistake I've ever made in my life that didn't boil down to dishonesty. Lying to myself, lying to others. And in truth, they are often the same thing. "Do not think dishonestly" in A BOOK OF FIVE RINGS is often translated to "Harbor no sinister designs." Liars weaken the fabric of their relationships, as well as complicating their lives to an absurd degree. It is so damned difficult to remain on the path of personal growth. A few good lies can trash all your efforts.

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Some time back I spoke of this, and a few martial artists noted that much combat relies upon deception. Am I then saying that these warriors are morally defective? No, not in any way. The Way of the Warrior is, in my opinion, as exalted as any other Way of life, including that of the Priest, the Healer, the Artist, or the Teacher. But most would agree that violent confrontations, and most certainly war itself, is to be avoided if it is possible to do so without violating ones morals and values.

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I meet damned few people who don't seem to feed their egos with lies: either to justify their positions, their pasts, their actions, their political affiliations. As someone noted: it is common to delete information when arguing, if the information would help the other side.

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But if you do this, you can't say you were interested in the truth. You wanted to "win", pure and simple, whether you were right or not. I remember an argument with a friend, about Muslims and whether the Muslim world would ever be in harmony with the west. His stated belief was that Islam is incompatible with Democracy, and challenged anyone to mention a single Muslim country that wasn't a dictatorship. I mentioned Turkey, and he smoothly rolled into an explanation of the special circumstances that made this "an exception that proves the rule." I realized pretty quickly that he knew the answer to his question before he ever posed it. Not in the slightest do I believe he would have mentioned Turkey if I hadn't. His intent, from that point of view, was not an honest discussion: it was victory for his point.

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Now, this is the way the game is usually played. As I said, Clinton clearly had no interest in clarifying what had happened between him and Monica. The fact that he "didn't exactly lie" is only partially comforting--we deserve better from our leaders.

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But in fact, I am literally the only person I've ever heard actually help someone with their argument if I know information that will make their position stronger. And people look at me like I'm nuts when I do it. Oh well.

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The trouble is that dishonesty creeps back on you. People lie about their finances, their relationships, their bodies. They lie to themselves about the long-range results of short-term actions. And the results can be pretty ghastly.

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I've seen a lot of world cinema, and the result is just perfectly in line with my observations about racial images in American film. In general, Japanese film is about Japanese. Chinese film about Chinese. Indian film about Indians. With very rare exceptions, the people who are the dominant cultural/ethnic group of a country will pretty much control the images so that they reflect their own reality, their own belief that they are the best. And they'll shade history to make themselves look better. (I remember sitting in the Kokusai theater in L.A. waiting for a Zato Ichi movie, and there was a coming attraction for a film set during WW2. "Defeated in War--but not in fights!" the subtitle said. I loved that: everyone needs to believe.)

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Nicki graduates college this Saturday. Wow...hard to believe. My little girl is all growed up. Sort of.

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The Hangover (2009)

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Look. If you liked "Porky's" and Apatow movies, you're going to love this story of four guys on a bachelor party weekend in Vegas. Let's just say they wake up with various contusions on their bodies and bizarre amokness in the suite, and no memory of how it all happened. Oh...and the groom is missing.

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The entire film is these doofuses trying to figure it all out. The movie is seriously hilarious, and if you stay through the closing credits, you will wonder where the hell the MPAA was. I'm quite sure there is going to be some serious controversy around a couple of images THERE, and I kid you not. Very, very funny and profane and just a bit touching. A "B+" for fans of raunch.

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WARNING: SAMBO ALERT

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Well...The only black characters with speaking parts are:

1) A convicted rapist (Mike Tyson)

2) His fat bodyguard

3) A REALLY fat black woman.

4) A drug dealer, and an incompetent one at that.

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Now, this is in a movie where every white woman with a speaking part is a slender sex object. Once notices these things after a while. And there is a single lead Asian character who is VERY effeminate. Now, most of the people in this movie are caricatures. But the non-white characters are specifically RACIAL caricatures. In other words, the script writer and director didn't write funny characters--they wrote funny Black characters, or Asian. Their ethnicity loomed larger in the minds of the creators than anything else about them. While the leads were "guys," there wree no specifically racial stereotypes applied to them (jokes about "can't dance", "racist", "short penises" or whatever). Except maybe that one gets sunburned.

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The fact is that none of this kept me from enjoying the movie. But if you want to know why Asians, and I would think ESPECIALLY Asian actors are irritated when whites "don't understand" why it is insulting for white actors to go Yellowface, there it is. When Asians and Blacks go "whiteface" then, sure. When Asians get to play lead in movies without being martial arts experts, sure. When black or Asian actors get to be sexual, then we'll talk about white actors being sexual with black or Asian women. Otherwise, it's as if there is segregation, but white people can still move into black neighborhoods. If blacks complain, then they are considered racist. This is just dishonest bullshit, but it's typical: fish can't see the water they swim in.

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If I was an Asian actor, and was constantly told there are no roles for your "type" and when there ARE roles, they go to white people in makeup...I'd be pissed. And if I wrote about being pissed, and white people criticized my right even to be upset in a peaceful, intelligent manner--I would consider them blind, deaf, and dumb...like foxes. That they are oblivious because it serves them to be. After all, the millions of dollars in salary and residuals remained in the white guy's community, putting THEIR children through college, paying THEIR medical bills. And those Asian actors are working at Burger King. No one is talking about burning down studios or theaters...but when you hear that it's unreasonable to even be upset, someone is lying to themselves, or simply doesn't want to notice the degree to which the deck is stacked.

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Why don't we hear more from Asians about their exclusion? I think because there is a safety valve: Asian cinema itself. If there were no movies imported from Japan, Hong Kong or Mainland China, it would be different. But there are thousands of movies and television shows depicting the lives of Asians in a full-spectrum manner. Any time you want to see it, you can just turn to the Japanese or Chinese-language channel, go to an Asian theater, pop a John Woo or Akira Kurosawa film into the DVD player and...voila. Latinos have a similar advantage: a Spanish language station in every town with a significant population, and stores selling thousands of films and television shows produced in Latin America or Spain.

And while that doesn't reduce the sting of specific rejection by your home country, if you want to show your children heroes who look and sound like them...you have infinite choices. Black Americans, I think, have bleeted so long and loud because we have no where else to go, and nothing to turn to. Either we make this country work for us, or we're screwed.

Personally, I love the amount of change I've seen. As I've said, when 5-10% of the Senate is black, I'll believe things have evened out. But this century is off to a damned good start.