The Supreme Pontiff

Pope Benedict XXVI is retiring.

Resigning.

Quit.

Or he just had enough.

He will be the first Pope in 600 years to leave the papacy while still alive. So it’s no surprise that speculations spread like wildfire throughout the world, many of which point to scandals, betrayals, and just simple politics that forced a major world leader to exit prematurely.

The Pope is not just the leader of a church, even as the Catholic Church is the world’s largest religious organization. He is the Bishop of Rome, which in some way signifies his succession from the emperor of Rome and the spiritual authority of all subjects of Rome, which in the eyes of the Romans at the time, the entire civilized world. Secularly the Pope is also the head of state, and if you like, the king of Vatican City, which is a sovereign country. Finally the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, which is also a earthly corporation, and as such the world’s largest privately held corporation with assets and holdings probably in the trillions. This makes the Pope arguably the richest man on earth.

With money comes politics, greed, and intrigue. Even the holiest man on earth would have a hard time keeping his faith while trying to deal with all the evil that comes with wealth and power. Most Popes simple grew tired and old, sickened and died. There were a few who had done quite well, because they became the devil who they’ve vow to fight.

Pope Benedict chose to leave while still alive. It is not for anyone to judge his decision, but he made a choice that no Pope has made in over 600 years, and that alone takes tremendous amount of courage.

Good or bad, I congratulate Pope Benedict XXVI for walking away from the glitz and power, from the wealth and influence, and return to the simple man that he is and should always be, a servant of God.

 

The border

I cross the U.S./Canada border often, by car and by air, on both business and personal, and I’ve never got into any trouble. So I share some observations and tips to my fellow travelers, especially after hearing stories from those who got denied, delayed, or even prosecuted because of ignorance and stupidity. U.S. and Canada shares the longest undefended border in the world and it is not difficult to cross, as long as you keep my advice in mind.

1. Know the rules

The United States and Canada are two separate countries. No matter how similar they seem, each country has unique rules and regulations governing border crossing. So don’t assume anything, check before you go. The border officers are nicer to those who know the rules.

2. Follow the rules

You will never get into trouble if you don’t break any laws. So stay clean. If you’re allow only $200 worth of goods coming into the country, don’t bring more, and be prepare to proof anything you say or declare. If you must bring a weapon into the country, declare it to the officer and show all necessary documents.

Tips to avoid having the officer spend a couple hours verifying your innocence just because you said something stupid or behave inappropriately.

1. Remember they are law enforcement officers no different from the police. During the interview they are authorized to ask anything, and I mean anything. It’s your responsibility to provide the answer to their satisfaction. It is best to tell the truth. CBP officers are well-trained to spot lies quickly, so don’t think you can out wit them. Also, always treat the officer with courtesy and respect like you would with any police officer. Don’t forget that while you’re being interviewed, the officer is representing the law and the people of that country. If you show disrespect to the officer, there is no reason why they would believe you’ll respect their country and its people. Would you let someone in your house if you don’t believe they will respect your property?

2. Keep your vehicle or luggage tidy. If the officer can’t tell from a quick glance what’s in your car because it’s full of junk, you might be subject to a secondary inspection.

3. Don’t be talkative or trying to be funny when answering questions. The officer doesn’t want to spend any more time with you than you want with him. They have a job to do and the lines can be long. Don’t irritate the officer, it only make it seem like you have something to hide.

You should know by now whether you spend 1 minute or 5 hours at the border depends on how well you answer the questions. Here are some tips you should remember:

1. The officer typically ask 3-5 questions. There is no way to predict what they will ask and in what order. But you can at least expect they will ask about a) your citizenship; b) where you are going; c) how long you intend to stay; d) what you are bringing in and so on. Answer the questions firmly, be specific, and be concise. Here’s an example of poor response that would most likely invite even more questions and even further inspection:

OFFICER: Where are you going?

ANSWER: To go shopping.

OFFICER: Where are you going to shop?

ANSWER: I don’t know yet, probably some mall because my girlfriend needs some cloths. Her mother just ruin her jacket last month while skiing……

By now you have managed to irritate the officer without providing any information he is looking for. He can very well decide to send you inside so other officers and grill you.

Now here’s a better way to respond.

OFFICER: Where are you going?

ANSWER: To Detroit.

OFFICER: Why?

ANSWER: Shopping for clothes.

OFFICER: What store?

ANSWER: Macy’s

OFFICER: How long are you staying?

ANSWER: I leave Sunday night.

The whole interview lasts only about 2-3 minutes.

In the second case, the respondent provided information that are specific and concise. The officer didn’t have to waste time trying to figure out what he needs to know from you. Note also that no information was given if not ask for. If he didn’t ask, don’t tell.

Finally, remember that none of this is personal. No border officer is out there to give you a hard time as long as you behaved appropriately. If you suspect any wrong doings on the part of the officer, deal with it later with the supervisor or directly with the office of Homeland Security. Do not defy the officer during the border crossing process. Follow these tips and most likely you will have smooth passage.

Believe me, I crossed the border hundreds of times, and I’m not a truck driver.

Kiyomori – The First Samurai

By now many have heard of The Last Samurai, made famous from Tom Cruise’s 2003 epic movie loosely based on Saigo Takamori, who committed ritual suicide after a failed coup against the newly established Meiji government. His death marks the end of the samurai era in Japanese history, thus he is often referred to as the “Last Samurai”.

Then who is the first?

For me, that title belongs to Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181). He is the subject of the 2012 NHK Taiga Drama, starring Kenichi Matsuyama. Kiyomori is one of the more famous historical figure in Japanese history, for a more comprehensive biography, just look him up in Wikipedia.

The term ‘first’ or ‘last’ samurai is a relatively Western concept. In reality there is no such reference to any figure in history. The word ‘samurai’ by definition means servant, or the one who serves the master. A more appropriate word to use is ‘bushi’, which literally means ‘martial person’. Bushi defines an entire class of population in historical Japan whose primary preoccupation is to be skilled at combat, and be ready for war when the lord summits them. Since ancient times bushi has been the instrument for power between the imperial family, Buddhist priests, and the nobilities. The Japanese imperial lineage may be unbroken since Emperor Jimmu, but their hold on power were certainly sporadic and few in between. It was common for the nobilities, who were descendants of earlier emperors, and monks, who were also nobilities but converted to Buddhism, to rule instead of the emperor. ‘The real deciding factor lied in which fraction was in command of the bushi, or military power.

By early 11th century, bushi clans had consolidated and centered around two families – the Minamoto and the Taira, each tried to gain favor of the court and were often at war with each other.  In 1153, Kiyomori succeeded his father as the head of Taira clan, and six years later, in 1159, annihilated the Minamoto and Fujiwara clans in the Heiji rebellion, effectively removed all his political rivals. After the victory Kiyomori became the most powerful man in Japan, and instead of supporting the emperor, or a nobleman, he decided to keep the power for himself. Kiyomori became the first military leader to rule Japan, created a precedence that lasted almost 800 years until Meiji Reformation. Kiyomori was not the first Shogun, that title belonged to Minamoto no Yoritomo, who later defeated the Taira after Kiyomori’s death.

Kiyomori was a great commander with tremendous personal charisma. He laid the foundation for samurai-controlled government in Japan and military leadership. He was deservedly the First Samurai.

Take back the White House, from what?

During a regular campaign stop in South Carolina, Mitt Romney stepped off the bus and was greeted by a man, who enthusiastically shook Romney’s hand, and in a pleading voice said “please, please take back the White House, back to who it belongs.” Similar pleads played out everywhere throughout the Republican campaign.

Did this man simply meant taking back the presidency from a Democrat? whose ideology, philosophy, and administrative records this man understood so thoroughly, back to a Republican candidate whose ideology, history, and position on issues he also understood so clearly?

Of course not, if so, we would hear this plead at every election. No one asked John Kerry to ‘take back the White House’ from Bush, or Bush from Clinton.

The only reason we hear that now is because Obama is black, and it didn’t matter he’s only half black.

A poll conducted just days before the South Carolina Primary shows the most important quality voters expect from their GOP nominee is the ability to defeat Obama. In other words, it doesn’t matter if that person is fit to govern, has the right solution for the current problem, or possesses the integrity and skills as Commander-In-Chief. All they want is that the candidate is white. They would never admit it, but it’s better to have a white scoundrel in the White House then to have a black, handsome intellectual whom so far has accomplished more than any previous presidents in the past several decades.

Critics have accused President Obama for dividing the country more than uniting it. Yes, the country is more divided than ever, but the epicenter of the division is still in Washington, particularly Congress, where many representatives and senators represent districts that believe the White House only belongs to whites. I cannot think of anything that’s more unfair and unreasonable than to blame President Obama for the division. That’s like blaming FDR for starting World War II.

Majority of Americans are honest and fair people who just want to have a job, raise a family, and have a little fun in life. Stop wasting energy on judging people based on race or gender, let’s focus on picking the candidate who most likely can make that happen. If someone from Mars can give me happiness and prosperity, I vote for him too.

Mitt Romney takes Iowa, NH

The dust has cleared a little. Mitt Romney won the Iowa Caucus Tuesday night and is expected to take New Hampshire Wednesday. An added bonus was he also picked up the endorsement from John McCain.

The surprise to everyone was Rick Santorum’s  strong-second finish — The only candidate without being on the spot light as a front runner. So far, being the front runner had only been negative, just ask Herman Cain.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Michele Bachmann ended her bid. Rick Perry will go on to South Carolina, but will likely drop out of the race soon. Newt Gingrich is still trying to figure out where to go, so does Ron Paul.

It is starting to look like Romney will win the GOP nomination and face Obama on November 2.

But does he has what it takes to defeat Obama?

This posting is not about the issues and where they stand. There are lots of materials online about that. Besides, I’m still not clear where Romney stands besides being anti-Obama. I’m looking at it from a layman’s view, and laymen make up the majority of voters.

Both Obama and Romney are handsome. Romney looks as though he just jump out of a ‘Just for Men’ ad with his impeccable haircut and clean shaven face. But to me Obama has an edge for his powerful and determine stare. Romney is charming, but Obama is more charismatic.

President Obama as a candidate four years ago made his position crystal cleared. As president he gave in a little and swayed a bit as part of the compromise, but we always knew how and why. Regardless of his achievements and controversies, Mr. Obama will go down in history as one of the great communicators. Like it or not, Mr. Romney will have face this powerful speaker in debates and speeches. I’ve listen to Romney in 2008 and in 2011, and I still cannot figure out what he’s saying, besides everything about Obama is wrong.

I have nothing against Mr. Romney and the GOP has legitimate issues and views that are necessary for checks and balances. If Mr. Romney’s position and proposed policies offer a truly comprehensive alternative to Mr. Obama’s, and are deemed by the people as more likely to improve their lives and solve the country’s many problems, then he deserves to win the election. But if he merely represents the unspeakable views by many out there that a non-white person should be replaced by a good-looking white man as occupant of the White House, then he should lose.

Taliban

Washington Post story on the Taliban opening an office in Qatar. A move the U.S. and EU welcome as a sign of improve relationship and possible end to the 10-year conflict in Afghanistan.

Student of history will remember at the end of World War II, the Allies ended the war by marching all the way to Berlin, forced Hitler to shoot himself, and put the rest of the Nazi leaders on trial. Even before that, at the Potsdam Conference, the Nazi party, along with the SS and the Gestapo, were declared “criminal organizations”, thus making it a crime to belong to any of such group. Regardless of one’s believe and political affiliation, this move left no doubt that the ideology and practice of Nazism is criminal and evil, and for the benefit of mankind it should be annihilated and its lessons learned.

Allowing the Taliban to set up office abroad is as silly as allowing the Nazis to set up an office in Switzerland so they can deal with the Allies under peaceful conditions. The Taliban are similar to Nazis in almost every way in origin, believe, and practice:

a) Nazism was born out of the hills of Bavaria, the product of German hillbillies, many of whom, including Hitler, were veterans of WWI. The Taliban are  mostly hillbillies from the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, many of whom were veterans of the Mujahideens fighting the Soviet invasion.

b) Nazi ideology was based on the pseudo-religion of Aryan racial superiority. Taliban ideology is based on a twisted interpretation of Wahabism, which itself a twisted interpretation of Islam and the Koran.

c) Both the Nazis and Taliban use terror to achieve their political goals.

d) Both deifies their leaders.  Taliban saw Omar as God’s representative on earth.

e) Both demonized one or more groups without justification. The Nazis targeted Jews, Taliban hates the West, especially Americans.

f) Both strive for world dominance in the believe that their ideologies are the true ways of the world and it’s God’s will that they make others conform.

One difference between them, and this is just my opinion, the Nazis are evil, but not annoying. The Taliban, along with other Islamic extremists, are annoying. They are certainly more annoying than they are evil.

In my readings of Islamic tradition and history, and of Islam as a religion, I came across a highly sophisticated religious tradition that I have the utmost respect for. Anyone with even a modest understanding of Islam will know that it is a peaceful, respectful, and highly tolerant tradition. Of all the great religious traditions of the world, Islam has the earliest notion that women are equal to men, an idea neither Judeo-Christian nor Hindu-Buddhist traditions shared. What the Taliban has done not only constituted crimes against humanity, but also crimes against Allah and Islam. They are not religious fighters, as they claimed, but rather just a group of Afghan mountain hillbillies gangsters and thugs, nothing more. The civilized world, faced with enormous evil such as Nazism, unfalteringly insisted their members be either put on trial or simply kill-on-spot, should treat the Taliban the same way.

Passwords

In the news recently, another report regarding the use of passwords on the web was released. To no surprise, some of the worst passwords people used to secure their logins has been perennials like: 123456, abcdef, password, princess, etc. Similar results from other studies are published routinely with little or no new revelation. We are advised to use long passwords, preferably no shorter than 6 characters, with at least one numeric character, one special character, and one upper case character. It is also preferable that the password contains no recognizable word, or at the least, no easy-to-guess word. I figured an ideal password would look something like: t6MzykQ$woo44309!

It all makes perfect sense, and I’ve been trying to follow the advise. But something else troubles me and I can’t find any study or report that deals with those issues.

For one, more and more websites are now requiring you to register and login with a password in order to access its contents. I can understand the need for security on sites that store sensitive data, such as banks, hospitals, insurance etc. But why do I need a complex password to login to, say, a book club just to see the current reading list? or to get a few coupons from a manufacturer?

Second, there are so many sites that need logins I have to compile an address book just to keep track of them, and that list is bigger than my telephone contact list. Even if I use easy-to-remember passwords, there are still far too many to keep track of. If your work primarily involved the Internet, where you constantly getting in and out of sites, typing long and complicated passwords can be annoying and inefficient.

For the sites that really require verification of the user’s identity, such as banks, more security measures are applied following a successful log on. This includes additional verification questions such as mother’s maiden name, childhood pet’s name, where you first vomited as a child, etc. I’m not sure that’s as effective as one might think, considering that a large portion of intrusions are committed by close friends and family members, especially spouses or ex-spouses, who already know the answers to these supposedly intimate questions. A stranger may not know where you went to high school, but I sure know who I went to high school with, and if I’m a hacker, I should start with them.

There are a lot of websites I need access to and I have a lot of passwords for them. I sort them out  by assigning different security requirements for them – complex passwords for the most secured, and simple ones for those that don’t really need much security. I don’t use obvious words, but those with special significance only to me. In addition, I use words from other languages, which make it simple for me but impossible for other to crack. I often advice my friends to translate a couple of terms that have special meanings to them, and translate it into some lesser known language such as Estonian or Burmese before committing to memory. The result is a small supply of passwords that no one can figure out.

Great Airlines (Final)

After 5 installments of the Great Airlines series I realized that there are many more to write about than I have the time and patience for. So here is a simpler list, which I’ve also included many classic airlines that were legendary during their time.

1. SAS (Scandinavian Airline Systems)  – The national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden has been an icon for everything Scandinavia is known for.

2. Japan Airlines –  Until the emergence of the Asian Tigers, and the subsequent economic developments of other Asian countries, Japan Airlines was the sole tier-one carrier in the region, and the only truly international carrier.

3. Air France – Like British Airways, Air France’s extensive global routes are the reminiscence of its colonial past, along with the embodiment of its national spirit.

4. United Airlines – Love it or hate it, United is a great airline. It’s big, it’s old, it’s iconic.

5. Emirate –  A relatively new carrier compare to most, Emirate has also managed to achieve more than most airlines ever did.

Other runner ups, just slightly short of being call Great Airlines, include: Alitalia (Italy), Iberia (Spain), Air India, Varig (Brazil), Korean Air, Malaysian, Austrian, South African, and LAN (Chile).

Great airlines of the past

1. Pan Am

2. Swissair

3. Sabena

4. Aeroflot

5. TWA

6. Braniff International

7. Eastern

8. Northwest Airlines

9. Aloha

 

Bachmann’s Answer to Taxes

I didn’t watch the last nights GOP debate in Orlando, but I saw the transcript.

What caught my attention was Michelle Bachmann’s remark on taxes. She said that every American deserve to keep every dollar of his/her earning. That money doesn’t belong to the government. Then she went on to attack Obama … yada yada yada.
Here’s my advice to Ms. Bachmann and the Republican supporters, especially the good ol’ folks of the Tea Party – cast all your vote for her, elect her President!
After Ms. Bachmann swears in as President of the United State, she can immediately go to work on delivering her campaign promises. This is beginning to seem fun.
First, President Bachmann will push for a bill that makes all forms of tax illegal. She will urge all those anti-tax Republicans in the House to pass it quickly, because it will encourage consumer spending and kick start the economy in a quick way.
Second, President Bachmann will deregulate EVERYTHING. No more government interference on business – oil company can drill anywhere and everywhere, while charging whatever prices they wish. No more regulation on heath and insurance industries – if you can’t afford to see a doctor, too bad, because you’re poor. In free America, it’s your own fault to be poor. No more restriction on ownership of weapons, the average Joe is free to possess Tomahawk missiles if he chooses – the U.S. is the world’s largest weapon supplier, so that’s only growing market share and good for business.
Third, after making the federal government basically irrelevant, and to act on the Tea Party view that all government spending is evil, President Bachmann should proceed to dismantle most government departments. The Department of Health and Human Services needs to go, so are EPA, HUD, Labor, Intereor, even the State Dept., who needs diplomacy when we’re arm to the teeth. The only government President Bachmann should keep is Defense and Homeland Security, because she’s going the need it.
Finally, after dismantling most government entities and getting rid of the employees, President Bachmann can fire herself from the job, saving the tax payer another $400K. By then there would not be any taxpayers left, so this would be an fitting finale to this absurd political act.

Great Airlines Part 5

11. American Airlines

Many right here in the U.S. scorn at the thought that I include American on the list of great airlines. Four U.S. carriers beside American are made the list − Delta, Southwest, United. In the future I intend to present Great Airlines of the Past, and will also feature classics such as Pam Am, TWA, and Braniff, all of which deserve the title.
For start, American, like Delta, United, are huge. U.S. carriers have the distinction among world airlines of being monstrously massive. Anyone who has been to Dallas Fort Worth Airport at rush hour knows this. It is as though most of AA’s fleet, some 600+ aircraft have all descended on one place. The shear logistics of operating an airport and move thousands of passengers and bags is an awesome spectacle and a marvel of human organization. Yes, the food, or the lack of, will be a source of complaint, so are the delays, and the lost baggage. But if one comes to DTW at 6 p.m., and realize there are only a few airlines worldwide with an operation as large as American, one might be a little more forgiving.
Bottom Line: American has a long and proud history with many milestones in aviation. Together with Pam Am and United it is a national icon and flag carrier. American is a global airline, but for most of it’s history American’s international routes focuses on Latin America. Wherever it goes, the airline proudly symbolizes the ideal and power of the country it represents.

Next: SAS