Ty Pak | Author

Time 2020-10-08 15:07:39

Web Name: Ty Pak | Author

WebSite: http://www.typakmusings.com

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I watched her interviews with CNN, NBC, etc. Far from a clinical psychologist, she comes across as a malicious, vengeful niece, jealous of her uncle’s success, angry that her own worthier father didn’t get favored as much by her biased grandpa. But like John Bolton, the backstabber, she helps Trump, revealing her true colors, kindred to those of the fake news. In mid January, 2020, assured of the deadly potency ofCOVID-19 after confirming the death of thousands from it in Woohan alone, Chinacalmly unleashes the virus on the world, making sure thatit spreads rapidly, unobstructed, and ordering WHO, its press agent, to condemncountries, especially the USA, its mortal enemy, for taking any preventivemeasures such as travel ban or mitigation as xenophobic and paranoid.Yes, it is very capable, because that s the Chinesementality. Correction, the mentality of the creepy Chinese Communist Party, notChina or the Chinese people. We all have good Chinese friends, especiallyChinese Americans. They are just like us, friendly, considerate, open,rational, certainly not self-destructive.But when a group decides to impose its will on others, like a Communist party,it becomes self-righteous, tunnel-visioned, secretive, opaque (that is,non-transparent), conspiratorial, and won t stop at anything to achieve itsgoal of domination. In particular, self-destructionis no issue to these Communist worms who figure: (1) they have evened theplaying field, because it s not fair China alone gets devastated by theepidemic, which would have been the result had the rest of the world put updefenses as early as January 2020 and (2) if the pandemic kills off thepopulations of other countries, say, 350 million Americans, China would stillhave 1 billion left over, enough to pick up the manufacturing facilities and finallydominate the world.This is not a Chinese hater s delusion. I love China and itspeople. In fact, my best friends are Chinese. It is the creepy ChineseCommunist Party that has hatched this hellish scheme. All evidence points toit. For data watch the latest Valuetainment interview on Youtube of GordonChang, a Chinese American of extraordinary intellectual clarity and insight andthe author of Coming Collapse of China. I totally agree with your article, Money, the Root ofAll Blessings, N says, misquoting the blog title. I listen, flatteredthat he has read it at all. Generally, alums, especially high school alums,never read your stuff in the firm belief they know you too well to hearanything new that they don t know about already. But I strongly urge youto change the title to Money, the Ultimate Motivator. So leaving my study where I ve been locked in until the rest of the house gets cleaned and I am told to go straight up to the master bedroom, I glance around the wall and see that Isabella is wiping the floor of the kitchen with a mop. That s the secret. Vacuuming alone doesn t cut it. So the next couple of weeks I go around the house with a wet rag, picking up every resistant speck of dust or hair. However, this time I leave my hideout a little early and catchIsabella replacing the grates and drip bowls for our cooktop. Eureka! That sit. Before embarking on dish washing and house cleaning, my necessary, eternal maintenancechore, I take out the grates and drip bowls and remove any burned in or driedup drips of food, and also steel-wool the marble backboard, marble counter top,stainless-steel hood, knobs of the cooktop, making them factory clean. Some burnt-inspots, a quarter inch in diameter, take up as much as 15 minutes. Exhausted,naturally I go light on the rest of the maintenance. Day after day I focus onthe cooktop, until its upkeep takes only a few minutes, freeing me for the maintenanceof the rest of the house.It s been 5 months and we ve had some visitors sleeping over, an unfailing reason for an extra visit by Isabella. But there hasn t been a ding-dong and Isabella at the door. I don t know whether my wife has forgotten about it but of course I am not reminding her. So I have been able to save 300 bucks a month. Of course it s not much but you know we are not exactly raking it in these days. You know the dictum, A dollar saved is better than a dollar earned, because, ha, ha, we don t pay tax on it. I wouldn t have had a clue to my wife s fixation with the cooktop, hadn t I been powerfully motivated by Money, the Ultimate Motivator. Interrupting my writing of a new novel I feel compelled to reportthe brief phone conversation I had with a terminally ill high school alum(class of 1956), diagnosed to have only a few days to live, if that. You are a fighter and will fight your way out of this, I say, though keenly aware of the hollowness of what I say. Anything totell the boys like what you would do first thing once you get up and walk outof there? Don t lie. I know my end is near. I would go in peace wherever I am going if only I could visit with those I have been mean to and ask for their forgiveness. But there are so many of them, mostly deceased but some still living, starting with my parents, grandparents, siblings, alums, Sir, I am his daughter, she says. He hasno strength to keep talking. Thank you for your call. Sure. Tell him we K boys all love him and are rootingfor him, I hurry and hang up. What do you make of the hallowed saying (1 Timothy 6:10): Money is the root of all evil? I ask Y, a neurosurgeon and a church elder, at a Seoul National University class (1960) reunion. At our age, retired with no ass to kiss in particular and resigned to meet the Reaper, we can afford to be candid, especially among ourselves who have lived through WW II, Korean War, and immigration to the US. 돈은 만악의 근원이라는 거룩한 말씀 (디모데 전서 6:10)에 대해 어찌 생각하나? 하고 서울대 1960년 졸 동창회에서 만난 신경 외과의며 교회 장노인 Y에게 내가 묻는다. 2차대전, 한국전, 또 미국이민을 같이 겪었으며 이제 은퇴하여 특별히 누구에게 잘 보이려 아첨 할 필요 없고 염라대왕과의 조우에 체념하고있는 우리 나이엔눈치보지 않고 피차 솔직할 수 있다. Same difference, he huffs. Money is life, the magical little moment of sentience in thevast universe of apparent insentience, which we love and cling to. Money is theroot of all that s good and treasured, Pyramid of Giza, Great Wall of China, TajMahal, Apollo moon landing of 1969, human genome project 1990-2003, all takingbillions, trillions in today s dollars or, on a more modest scale, new house,car, furniture, or a birthday party at a good restaurant with family andfriends. 같은 소리지 하고 그는 발끈한다. 돈이란 생명이기에, 즉분명 무감각인 막막한 우주에 유일한 감각의 신비스런 한 순간인 생명이기에 우리가 애착하고 매달릴 수 밖에. 돈은 좋아서 우리가 소중히 여기는 만복의 근원이야. 기자의 피라믿, 만리 장성, 타지 마할, 1969년 아포로 달 상륙,1990-2003 인류 게놈 프로젝트, 오늘날 가격으로 수 억조의 돈이며 좀 작은규모로는 새 집, 새 차, 새 가구, 좋은 식당에서 가족과 친지들 데리고 생일 파티, 다 돈 이야. No. It s not a matterof degree but a total blackout to make us the proverbial blind fool touchingonly the trunk, tooth, leg, or tail of an elephant. But you are notalleging deliberate deception on the part of Paul, the Apostle, are you? He is an unwittingvictim like everybody else, a dupe of the human ingenuity that invents money, amedium of exchange convenient to carry around instead of the life-sustaininggoods themselves like a field of corn or a three-ton mammoth. To refine andexpand the scope of trade, the engine of civilization, money gets unitized downto the cent. Then follows the idiocy of the blind fool with the elephant. Hepicks up a coin or a bill, which is easy enough, spits at it, tramples it, ortosses it off, screaming it s the root of all evil, because it can be misusedto buy poison or a pistol to kill. 그는 다른 사람들과 마찬가지로 옥수수 밭 또는 3톤 크기 살덩이 매머드 같은 생명 유지 물건 자체를 운반 하는 대신 가지고다니기 편한 교환 수단으로 돈을 발명해 낸 인류 창의력에 자기도 모르게 속아 넘어간 희생자야. 인류 문명의동력인 교환의 범위를 세련 시키고 확장 하려면 돈은 자연 최소 단위 쎈트 까지 축소 되. 그러다 코끼리 만난장님 바보의 천치 행각이 벌어지지. 쉽게 동전이나 지폐를 잡아 들고 살인하는 독이나 권총을 사들이는데 악용되는만악의 근원이라고 소리 지르며 침 밭고 깔아 뭉기고 차서 팽개칠 수 있지. Because he was a communist,compassionate to the poor, as was Jesus, as was Marx or Lenin, Bernie Sandersor AOC. Communism is coterminous with the beginning of humanity who findscollaboration the best means of survival as a species but somehow ends up atthe end of the day with distribution of the benefits grossly uneven, especiallyas the scale of collaboration expands, village wide, city wide, nationwide,worldwide. No matter what you do, a handful gets a lot more than the vast masses,who, when unable to bear it any longer, rise up and burn down the mansions andcastles. 그가 예수처럼, 마르크스나 레닌, 버니 쎈더스나 AOC처럼 가난한 사람들을 동정하는 공산주의자이기 때문이지. 공산주의는 공동 협조가 종족 생존의 최적 수단인 것을 발견하나 결과적으로 특히 협조의 규모가 마을에서 도시,국가, 세계적 단위로 커져 갈수록 혜택의 분배는 구역질 나게 불균등함에 봉착하는인류의 시초로 부터 동시적으로 존재 했어. 무슨 짓을 해도 극소수가 대다수 군중보다 훨씬 더 많이 갖게 되기마련이고 이를 참다 못해 군중은 들고 일어나 대저택과 궁궐을 불지르고 말아. On the contrary, hetells them, the slaves, to bear their yoke, respecting their masters. He wantsto defuse discontent and prevent the mess, communist revolution, bloodshed anddisorder, by belittling money, that is, the good things of life, because youcan t take them with you when you croak. 그 정 반대지. 종들더러 멍에를 견디며 주인을 공경하라 해. 돈을 즉 생명의 유익물은되지면 가지고 갈수 없다고 깔보도록 세뇌 시킴으로서 불만을 해소하여 공산 혁명에 필수적인 유혈과 혼란을 방지하려는 거지. Should we then take thepastor of a church at his word who launches the Stewardship Campaign declaring,Your heart is where your money is, by emptying our savings account? 돈이 있는 곳에 마음이 있다 선언하며 연차 헌금 작정 운동을 개시하는 교회 목사의 말을 문자 그대로 받아 드려 저금 통장을 털어 바쳐야 할까? He doesn t expect youto be such a fool. If you are and end up homeless and turn up at his door, hewon t welcome you in as a saint with your heart in heaven. On the contrary,he ll chew you out and chase you off as an unworthy steward of the money Godhas put in your trust. Still, out of his Christian charity, he may tell youwhere to go to apply for Supplemental Security Income or Food Stamps, shakinghis head at the ballooning national debt to take care of such human trash. 네가 그런 바보 천치리라 생각지 않고 하는 소리야. 정말 그래서 노숙자가 되여 네가 그 사람 집 문전에 나타나면 마음이 하늘에 있는 성자라고 그가 너를 집안으로 모실 것 같나? 천만에. 오히려 하나님이 믿고 맡긴 돈을 건사 못한 악한 종이라고 너를 질타하며 쫓아 보낼 거야. 그래도 이런 인간 쓰레기들을 챙기느라 팽창해 가는 국채에 머리를 설레 설레 저으며 극빈자 보조비 (SSI) 나 푸드 스탬프를 신청 할 수 있는 주소를 일러 주는 기독교적 자애를 발휘할지 모르지. How do you like the hubbub of impeachment that isobsessing the country? I ask J, a Korean high school alum (1956), naturalizedand NJ resident for more than half a century. Better than a coup or assassination, J chortles. It s the genius of America to have in place this pressure valve of hatred so the boiler does not blow up but keeps working good as ever. Look at the economy, the envy of the world. Your body may be what you eat. At least, that s the saneinterpretation of the adage, You are what you eat. Certainly it cannot mean yourwhole being. Otherwise, all Koreans would be alike because they eat kimchee, andso would Americans because they eat apple pie. What feeds and determines us as individuals with personality,character, and judgment? Information provided by teachers, elders and sages, reveredfor their wisdom since time immemorial and currently also by the media, actuallypredominantly so, because they have personnel and resources dedicated to searchingfor news and facts far and wide, deep and dark. Inherent in this scheme ofcommunication is trust, because just as we don t expect our chefs to dish outjunk food, let alone poison, we must have faith in the integrity of our informants.But what if the trust is betrayed, as in the case of JimJones of Jonestown, Guyana, who in 1978 kills nearly a thousand of his cultfollowers, including 304 children, by serving up cyanide-poisoned Flavor Aid aswell as gunning down several of his top lieutenants? What if the media are staffedby pathological liars who, draped with the banner of freedom of the press, feellicensed to slant or distort to suit the agendas of their billionairepublishers, all seething with jealousy for Trump s stellar achievements in sucha short time (energy abundance, border wall, trade balancing, extermination ofISIS, revitalization and mobilization of America, etc.), and to infect thenation with the Trump Impeachment Derangement Syndrome which has morphed fromthe Russian Collusion Delusion to the Ukrainian Hallucination, thereby turningAmericans into morons, unable to distinguish black and white, and blocking Americafrom the path to greatness?We live in a third world country or worse if these con artists are allowed to scream with impunity Bombshell Evidence of quid pro quo when in fact their star witnesses say the opposite, zero evidence (see End of Impeachment: 2019 Thanksgiving Dividend, 11-26-2019, typakmusings.com). Surely the Constitution didn t have in mind this kind of willful misuse when laying down the freedom of the press.Just as we have FDA to forestall the marketing of harmful drugsand law enforcement and the courts to prevent perversion of our liberties, it shigh time we set up a Press Court to keep the media in line and stop theirgoing rogue and fake. We have a lot to be thankful for this year, near fullemployment, rising GDP, border security, demise of ISIS, etc., but they are toppedby one remarkable spectacle: laying to rest the Trump impeachment ghost.America is coming to its senses across the board at last and getting down tobusiness like crumbling infrastructure, trade imbalance, homelessness, lagging technology,medical care, and so on. How do I know at 7:35 p.m., Wednesday, Nov 26, 2019, that the House won t vote on impeachment when it reconvenes after the Thanksgiving recess? Schiff says so on CNN, his ever sympathetic platform. To the direct question whether the House will or not, Schiff is noncommittal: he will have to talk to his constituents and fellow Dems over the recess. Scandalized, the CNN mouthpiece, hereafter referred to as Cnn, tries to steer him to the right answer, a resounding Yes. Hasn t Cnn led the drumbeat orchestrating his fake media choir to scream Bombshell Evidence of treason and high crime, quid pro quo, bribery, extortion, obstruction, every hour, every day throughout the 2-week testimonies by the star witnesses, auditioned and groomed by Schiff himself, enough to convert the whole nation? But, then, to hear this lukewarm, backsliding response from what Cnn s fraternity/sorority has regarded as their prime choir boy? But, no, Schiff lives up to his reputation as a shapeshifter. He holds his ground: he has to reconsider, which in plain languagemeans, give up. I give him a lot of credit for this final shifting. At least his hearing is not impaired. He hears his own witnesses flatly and unanimously deny ever hearing Trump say the Javelins are conditioned on Ukraine s Beiden investigation. We have known this all along because they have all averred their second hand or more remote hearing, prompting one Dem Congressman ignoramus to blurt out that hearsay is more reliable than direct hearing. The so-called witnesses don t even get to meet Trump, let alone discuss with him his Ukraine policy. There was one exception: Sondland, who, with access to Trump, decides to settle once and for all whether all the presumptions and impressions swirling about regarding quid pro quo are true or not, and asks Trump, point blank, what he wants from Ukraine in return for the Javelins. Trump s answer: Nothing, no quid pro quo. Then the Javelins are released without Ukraine investigating Beiden. Brilliantly Schiff points out that the release is forced, Because he got caught. But other evidence shows that it is upon confirmation of Zelensky as a legitimate, non-corrupt Ukranian worthy of receiving the military aid, endorsed by a bipartisan group of investigators. To dispel this being caught theory transcriptsof the phone calls between Zelensky and Trump, long preceding possible being caught moments, are released for all to see in black andwhite. Beiden is noted as an example of corruption incidentally and no demand ismade on his investigation. Naturally, having seen enough of the Dem impeachment derangement, the Russian collusion delusion segueing to this Ukraine hallucination, and there s no telling what it may morph into next, the majority of Americans now demand return to sanity and serious work. Schiff has heard from his electorate and is wisely backpedaling, ready to jump off the impeachment train before it falls off the cliff. I don t think Nadler and Pelosi are too dumb to follow suit. I ve just watched a video on how ends the reign of anaging alpha male lion: mauling to death by a usurping young buck from thepride, perhaps one of his sons or grandsons, answers J, a Korean highschool alum of mine, class of 1956, naturalized and a half century resident ofNew Jersey. Tongue hanging out, torn and dangling, I had no idea theirtongues were so long, eyes bleeding and closing, broken legs dragging, helurches and collapses, panting. The whole body twitches, feet pawing weakly,futilely. Then the chest heaves once and all goes still. Instantly flies landon his tongue and eyes, ants crawl all over him. Vultures gather and peck athim. Hyenas arrive and chase them off, before tearing at the carcass. A leopardcomes along and claims the whole thing for himself but, bayed and harassed bythe hyenas, takes off with a chunk of the rump. The hyenas dig in furiously, snappingat each other, tugging, spilling enough bits and pieces for the vultures andother opportunists. In a few hours there is no sign of the lion, except forsome red seepages of blood on the soil, which however gets cleaned up in notime by ants, earthworms, weevils. No trace remains of His Highness, the kingof the jungle, as if he has never been. But that s life, an eternal cycle of something tonothing, then back to something and Did you really pray? Y asks B, when he finallyopens his eyes and rises to lead Y, his guest, to the fellowship hall long afterhis wife s organ postlude. Yielding to B s arm-twisting to come to their church sThanksgiving Sunday luncheon, Nov 24, 2019, an extravaganza, Y wants to resolvethe enigma of B, well known as an atheist among their Korean American highschool alums (Gyunggi 1956), living in conjugal harmony with a devout Christianthat his wife is, bar none, and driving her to church every Thursday for choirrehearsal and Sunday for the service and choir singing. Yeah, it s good therapy, B answers airily. Wishing something and fantasizing about it releases dopamine as quickly as meth with none of the latter s awful side effects. Hence the longevity of those in habitual prayer. Not necessarily. Intent contemplation of the object prayed for is by definition pleasing and therapeutic with or without a bystander like God who probably is yawning, bored, having heard them all. It is our semi-annual high school reunion, class of 1956. Seated at two tables are 15 octogenarian Korean American men who have worked and lived in or near New York the last 5 or 6 decades. At the third table are ten wives. Some of us have tried to integrate, thinking the segregation sexist and un-American, but old habits win out and even serve a purpose: the boys can be themselves, dropping the inhibitions they would retain otherwise, as shown in the following discourse. Mean and ornery as ever, answers J, whose wifeis at home, babysitting their grandchild. Actually worse, finding faultwith me the moment she wakes up and staying cranky and cross the wholeday. And her health? asks B, who knows J s wife to bea sweet woman. But, then, who knows what goes on between a couple in theirprivacy? Good, as good as in her youth or better, repliesJ with a hint of resentment. He hasn t been well lately. Perhaps you are the key to her well-being, enablingher to let go, observes S, an endocrinologist. Cussing and swearingis known to be wonderfully liberating and restorative. Doggone it! I never looked at it that way. So her meannessis actually what keeps her going, like daily medicine. Cuss her out, deploying the worst of juvenile profanities,long suppressed or forgotten. 지**할 년 ji**al nyun (m*f*ing bitch), B gleefully obliges, half covering his mouth, a watchful eye on the female table. Bring out the artillery, retooled and sharpened. What if she thinks I ve gone nuts, her the cause of it,and stops being mean altogether? Well, that s her misfortune, the beginning of theend, S philosophizes. We must all go some time. But not before me, J shouts. I want her,not the hospice staff, to take care of me. Go light on your medication then and wait for hers to swingback in, B counsels. There is a chance she might never be mean after myfirst deployment, J persists. Then you just fade into the sunset together, quiet andcourteous to each other. On Oct 27, 2019, the ghost of ISIS was finally laid to rest uponself-explosion of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, its founder, in a US military operationvividly captured on film and watched in the White House Situation Room. Cornered like a rat at the dead-end of atunnel, crying, whimpering, cringing, he pulls the cord on his explosive vest, thedetonation bringing down the tunnel over his head, crushing not only himself butalso his three sons. Yes, he had to draghis own children to their death. Is it what children expect of their father? Ofcourse not. He was not an ordinary father. He was a monster, who prided himselfon inspiring misguided youths of Europe, America, Africa, and Asia to join himin burning people alive, lopping their heads off, dunking caged prisoners in deepwater to drown, and committing other unspeakable horrors that set global moresand civilization all the way back to the primitive age. America, nay, theworld, can breathe a communal sigh of relief, giving credit where credit is due:Donald Trump, who, unfazed by the impeachment derangement of the fake media, doeshis job to protect America and the world, setting in motion the American militaryintelligence and might to pull off this masterpiece. Yes, when not suborned andsubmerged in the Washington swamp, the American intelligence can performwonders, unmatched anywhere. Hopefully, the video depicting the moment to moment specialforces operation from start to finish will soon be released in its entirety,its rating guaranteed to go off the charts, so the world sees once and for allthe mastermind of ISIS for the paltry, despicable psychopath and coward that hewas. For once the fake media will, unless suicidal, hold their tongue and watchbreathless. Wishing to return to our ancestral land, Korea, one nation fromMount Bagdoo to Mount Halla, we, Koreans dispersed throughout the world, urge:(1) the USA and Russia to declare the latitude of 38 degreesnorth, the infamous 38th Parallel drawn arbitrarily across the waist of Korea toseparate the post-World War II occupants, USA and USSR, after Japan sexpulsion, to be null and void upon their evacuation more than seven decadesago; (2) all nations, especially Japan and China, to stop egging the two Koreas on to remain divided and at each other s throats;(3) South and North Korea to tear down the DMZ, the relic of the 38th Parallel and painful, shameful reminder of the Korean War (1950-53) that killed countless millions of our people as pawns of the Cold War; and (4) all good people of the world sympathetic to our cause,whether ethnically Korean or otherwise, in or outside Korea, to rise up and jointhe supranational movement by contacting its world headquarters and countryoffices soon to be announced. If asked to name the most memorable of the score ofbilateral talks Trump has had with other heads of state while attending the2019 UN General Assembly in New York, one would have to pinpoint that singleremark, safer to talk on TV than on the phone, uttered by UkrainianPresident Zelensky, his comic genius hitting the bull s-eye: US Democrats andfake media grabbing at a straw after the debacle of their Russia witch hunt.Actually, it is safe, too, when heard by a slew of participantsand eavesdroppers, translators, staffers, advisers, intelligence agents on bothsides who can attest to the veracity of its transcript, which can bedeclassified and released, verbatim, unredacted, as it was on Sep 26, 2019, exposingand trivializing the anti-Trump psychosis. Except for its unexpected dividend: highlighting the Biden graft to the tune of billions, even eclipsing the Clinton pay-for-play, and compelling Attorney General Barr to prosecute the Clinton and Biden duo.Uncannily, far from hurting Trump, the whistleblower ends up helping him, so much so that it will surprise no one if the deranged anti-Trumpers now trumpet him as a Trump plant. Why is it that, as we age, we have harrowing regrets that just keep coming back? asks Y, 82, a high school alum (1956). In the spring of 1951 I shot a sparrow sitting on apersimmon tree at the boundary of my grandparents house, he narrates. Isaw it shoot up, then drop like a stone into the back yard of the house nextdoor, a dozen yards below the edge of the property, the grandest in the villagein Haynam, the southwestern tip of the peninsula. Our family had just fledsouth during the Big One-Four [1- 4-1951] Bugout when the Red ChineseVolunteers entered the war on the side of North Korea, pushing back MacArthur sforward deployments. Lest the bird should recover and fly away, I climbed downthe rock retaining wall to the neighbor s lot. A door opened from a room in therear and a girl stepped out, pretty with bright shining eyes, but with a neckswollen bigger than her face. She smiled brightly and said Hi. Without even aglance at her, let alone a response, forgetting all about the sparrow, I skedaddled. That s natural, a reflexive reaction to disease,perhaps contagious. You weren t mean like calling her names as you ran or didyou? No. Frankly I was scared as if I had seen a ghost. Butwhat still gets me is that she had a pretty face with such bright shining eyes,very much like those of Miriam, my 9-year-old granddaughter. She must have beenabout that age but never let out of the house, segregated from society like aleper. My sudden appearance outside her door must have seemed like an angeldescending from heaven to befriend her. But, a callous coward, I fled, crushingher little heart, dooming her to her fate, her disfigurement, incurable byprimitive Korean medicine at the time, and ostracism, through no fault of hers,like race, genes, Why couldn t I have been more kind to the poorgirl! Don t be too hard on yourself, I comfort him. We have all been little heartless monsters at some point, maybe we allstill are, just older, better at pretense. We hold these truths to be self-evident that, though equal withunalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we aredifferent as individuals and call for a government of the people, for the people,by the people, dedicated, on the one hand, to the realization of individuality throughcompetition that rewards innovation and diligence but, on the other, tocompassion for those falling behind to be provided with a safety net under the guidingprinciple that we are all one, the human family, rich or poor.Striking a balance between the two contraries, universaldesire to leave something to one s offspring and imperative for a level playingfield, a person may bequeath tax free to each of his or her heirs up to whateveris deemed a statistical optimum for a median lifestyle, say $1,000,000 in 2019values, the balance passing to the US treasury, the conveyor s name and amount recorded,published, and memorialized in a manner agreeable to the conveyor, such as namingafter him or her a conspicuous public monument, highway, bridge, building, park,beach, etc., if appraisal is commensurate to the value of the conveyance.Without such legislation many successful people have willed theirfortunes to churches, universities, foundations, and other causes. Ilhan Yoo, aKorean American, went back to Korea, founded a pharmaceutical fortune, and leftits entirety, billions in today s values, to South Korea, leaving nothing forhis children, not even a house to live in, because, he said, they were well equippedto fend for themselves thanks to their elite upbringing and education. The trillions of dollars reverting to the American public asa result will more than finance food, housing, and medical relief to the poor, regardlessof age.The title of this manifesto may be inverted toCommunist-Capitalist, or replaced by Conservative-Progressive, Conservative-Socialist,Conservative-Liberal, Competitive-Compassionate, Free Market-Regulated, Right-Left,etc., or their inversions, so long as they highlight the purpose, reconciliationof differences and animosities, extremes, that now threaten to wreck the Union. There are about 55,000 Korean repatriates in SouthKorea from their global diaspora, mostly Central Asia, China, and Russia, somewhatlike the Zionist movement of the Jews back to Israel, except for one difference:they live in Gorean ghettos to avoid being taunted and jeered as traitors? reports B, 82, a high school alum, naturalized and resident in NY for over ahalf century.Gorean is another way of anglicizing Korean, the sound 고 in 고려 phoneticallyfalling halfway between the two. Leaving Korea during the dark days of Japaneseoccupation instead of sticking it out. A typical case of 적반하장, the thief picking up a whip to chastise his victim! I shoutin indignation. Like the Jews two millennia ago fleeing Judea occupied bythe Romans, our people fled Korea, hating the very idea of treading the sameland, breathing the same air with the Japanese. To remain in Korea attendingthe schools the Japanese had built and seeking employment, promotion and successin their system was collaboration, betrayal, than which anything was better, evenunspeakable hardship in climes and cultures unknown that often turned out hostile,downright murderous Especially those who went to Siberia who after, getting settled, got brutally uprooted and dumped in Central Asia by Stalin in 1937, as described in your Polyglot: Union of Korea and Japan, amazon.com, now being serialized bilingually in the Korean New York Ilbo Daily. The descendants of these heroes and patriots should bewelcomed back to their ancestral land with open arms, not ostracized as somealien species. What is the South Korean attitude toward us Korean Americans whojumped ship a generation later, after the Korean War? Ambivalent, because we are still better off than most SouthKoreans despite their phenomenal increase in wealth. But if Trump fails and theAmerican might wanes, we will end up just another species of Goreans in ourghettos. What do you want? rasps J, 82, a high schoolalum, when I call at the hospice, not expecting him to come to the phone. I hadbeen emailing him that I was praying for his speedy recovery, that God wouldnot abandon his beloved servant. I had to hear your voice, I exclaim, ecstatic. We had survived war-ravaged Seoul during the mid-1950 s, rooming together. Hallelujah, praise be to God! Aren t you ashamed of yourself talking like a believer when you know you are not? I had to turn down his arm-twisting to make me come and livenear him in Washington, D.C., where he was pastor at a Korean mega-church. I speak English when speaking to Americans and Koreanto Koreans. Christianity is the language of Christians Absolutely. As sacred and inviolable are the grammar and idioms of one, so are the rituals and creed of the other. I intend to learn them perfectly, lest I be spotted as a second language learner. Okay, go on fooling the natives, but in whateverlanguage you may speak a terminal condition is terminal. I won t last more thana few days, so let s say goodbye. Hope to see you around, up there. Sure but not on the same floor. You ll be up on theroof top but me in the basement. Say, are we allowed to bring cell phones andlaptops? We are the accursed of the world, laments K, aKorean high school alum of mine (class of 1956), with no rallyingnational holiday that brings Koreans together like Christmas for Christians orFourth of July for Americans. What about today, Aug 15, 2019, 74th anniversary of liberation from Japan? I ask. Liberation? More like a day of infamy staging a changeof the guards from Japanese to Soviet and American. For once North Korea hasthe right idea, erasing the day from memory. Unlike the Americans throwing outthe British and gaining independence, we did zilch to ouster Japan. But on Mar 1, 1919, the country rose up to march andshout hooray to Korean independence, nearly 10,000 getting killed. Accomplishing nothing, only consolidating Japan s holdon Korea, which would have gone on forever, unless WW II had come along and wrenchedit off. No wonder there is no enthusiasm for it among Koreans, especiallyoverseas Koreans like us who or whose ancestors have fled the country to liveelsewhere like America. When Trump deplores the rodent infestation inEast Baltimore, CNN, NBC, and their ilk jump all over him as a racist, takingoffense especially at the word infestation. The next day BenCarson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, comes out swinging indefense of Trump and reaffirms the horrible conditions there. Deliberately choosingalmost identical vocabulary, he adds more graphic details based on his longresidence in the area as a pediatrician, how at times he ordered additionaltests for his young patients to delay their return to the rodent infested homes. But we don t hear a peep about his being a racist. For calling a spade a spade, using the same words,one is crucified but the other is not. Why? Because Carson is black and Trumpis white and they are going strictly by the color of the skin, not by merit. Butisn t that called racism? Damn right! So who is the real racist here?The fake media! Moreover, why is it that intheir ferocity we detect such a strident ring of authenticity? Because thesemedia pundits, mostly white, are projecting their inner soul, what s deepinside them, their ineradicable white supremacist racism. Educated humanists, they have struggled longand hard with this unholy, un-American demon, to no avail. So, like a brood ofchicks that mercilessly peck away at the wound of one of their number until itdies, they vent their frustration on a scapegoat, Donald Trump, whose successthey cannot abide. Interestingly, the key word that unleashes theirmania to gang up on the patsy seems to be infestation as itsdenotation easily transfers from rodents to humans, the blacks. This duality ofperception is innate in the white race, as shown in the sonnet sung by the Statueof Liberty, the mighty white woman with the torch, the protectivegoddess of immigrants. As she stretches her hand out to your tired, yourpoor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, she can t help droppingan aside, sotto voce, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Teeming,yes, infested, hideous!Would I as an Asian, a yellow man andtherefore colored and not white, be accorded the same immunity as Carson if I portrayedEast Baltimore as rat infested? Or does one have to be totally black, not justcolored (though to date I haven t seen a yellow Asian unless jaundiced)? Bizarreand grotesque is this latest American media binge of self-flagellation. percentage of the US population does the call to Communism by the Squad offreshmen Congresswomen resonate with? S asks. About 55%, because that many are dirt poor and would like nothing better than to take from the rich, I answer offhand. America, a democracy where head count rules, will turn Communist momentarily, S is alarmed.anytime soon, because of upward mobility. For example, getting paid $200 granda year in wages and a lot more in tips, living in multi-million dollar homes, hobnobbingwith the rich and famous, formerly enemies of the proletariat, and birthingkids who expect them to endow a library, lab, or chair to get into top schoolsdespite their low SAT scores, the Squad will soon sing a different tune, litaniesin praise of capitalism, and urge their followers to do a one-eighty. Just aswe have. remember you shouting Equal share of wealth for all in our social studiesclass one day. Most of us were with you, though the old teacher, startled, had to tell you togo to North Korea. During the early 50 s in Korea, the war still raging or justended, we were all starving and were mad at the elite, politically well-connected, with a lock on industry and finance. That s whywe came here. 5 dozen or so of us, high school alums in the class of 1956, have lived in theUS upwards of 6 decades, naturalized, in their 80 s, financially established,some with a net-worth approaching 10 digits thanks to the Trump boom. No chance of the Squad winning us over, S reflects. Only if they would read what the protagonist Peter Bach saysabout Communism in your novel, ThePolyglot: Union of Korea and Japan, amazon.com:A naïve, dangerous, and ultimately self-defeatingideology, Senator, based on a misconception of human nature. Humans will bemost productive when they compete for a larger, not equal, share of wealth. Ahuge bureaucracy, installed to replace free market competition, will in timegrind down and implode for lack of motivation and built-in indolence. But the Squad serves a purpose, I surmise, sounding awakeup call lest we get embroiled in upheavals like the French Revolution of1792 or the Russian Revolution of 1917 by making America anything less than aland of opportunity for lack of fluid upward mobility. 24, 2019, the day of Mueller s pathetic performance before Congress, will godown as another day of infamy that has irretrievably trashed those in the upperechelons of government, especially those with the power to investigate, indict,and imprison Americans. Dems and fake media are having a field day quoting Mueller s smug reaffirmationthat his report does not exonerate Trump, not aware that he thereby directly contradictspresumption of innocence, that is, exoneration, before proven guilty. By declaringthat his report does not exonerate, Mueller turns this principle onits head. As pointed out by Ratcliffe, nowhere in American criminal law is aninvestigator or prosecutor authorized to exonerate or not exonerate. Yet he,one time FBI Director, the nation s top law man, does not know it. Nevertheless,amazingly, the American system elevates a cretin like him to such eminence, as itdoes another specimen, Comey, who flagrantly fails to prosecute Hillary thoughfinding her extremely negligent.understanding or recognizing citations from his own report, thereby transformingthe Mueller report into a staff report, Mueller doesnot follow Collins s line of reasoning that having reversed his own previousdistinction of collusion and conspiracy, only thelatter criminally chargeable, by saying that in common parlance they aresynonymous, Mueller is concluding that no charge can be brought against Trumpfor lack of indictable collusion or conspiracy, not because he is a sittingPresident.has difficulty comprehending Jordan s simple question why he has charged somany of Trump s associates with perjury whereas he has let go scot free theinitiators of the disinformation that has launched Mueller s investigation andtied up the nation in knots, getting no real work done, namely, Simpson of Democrat-fundedFusion GPS who procures the infamous Steele dossier or Mifsud who first tellsPapadopoulos that Russians have dirt on Hillary, both said to have lied repeatedlyto the FBI in the report. When he does at last, he dodges, saying he can t gointo charging decisions, confirming the bias Jordan is highlighting, obliviousto his good news that such evasion on Mueller s part only dooms hisfate in the investigation of investigators being unleashed by Barr and Durham. well as arousing indignation the day of infamy gives pause to parents,especially naturalized citizens, who encourage their children to go to lawschool and seek government employment, in particular with DOJ or FBI, as it lookslike a short cut to power. Apartfrom repealing medical privacy to deter adultery would you consider stoning theguilty as set forth in the Bible? I ask B in jest, continuing ourdiscussion (see Down with Medical Privacy, a Shelter for Adultery, 7-19-2019,typakmusings.com).if enforced only against the woman, explodes B, who has six granddaughtershe adores. In the single reference to its enforcement the accusers bringto Jesus only the woman for stoning (John 8:4). By daring the sinless amongthem to cast the first stone he causes the mob to disperse but I am disappointedwith him for not demanding the production of the guy, her partner in sin,probably her seducer and more culpable, as a procedural requirement at theoutset. Perhapsthe bias against women was too entrenched even for him to rectify, I hazard. The Book was written by men who controlled money and owned women likechattel. Mygirls, educated professionals, are no men s chattel and won t stand for such lop-sidedjustice. My heart bleeds for the countless women that have perished so cruelly.Imagine a hail of stones pelting you from all directions. One hits you in the shank,breaking the tibia, but before you reach down reflexively to touch the wound, anotherhits you smack in the eye popping it out, and so on until you fall dead. reminds me of a picture I saw way back, a tribe of aborigines in Australiashooting poison darts, the kind used for hunting boars, at an adulterous man upin a tree, hopping from branch to branch to avoid being hit. Now everywhere both partners in sin equally share guilt and punishment. Civil,not criminal, because divorce, division of property, alimony, child support, custody,visitation, reconfiguration of social, occupational relationships are felt tobe punitive enough in a modern urban society. am suing Kaiser? seethes B, a high school alum of mine, naturalized, and6-decade resident in this country.wouldn t give me my wife s lab test results nor let me make an appointment forher, saying she should call. I explained she was at work and had asked me to takecare of it but that snooty receptionist refused, invoking medical privacy. I identifiedmyself as her husband, giving my Social Security Number, date of birth, etc.,but no dice. It s not just Kaiser but all medical service providers that are bound by the same rule. we had full disclosure early on, prior to having children. My grandfather diedof a stroke but otherwise no genetic disease to speak of on my side. Hers isclean, too. There is nothing we hide from each other. you, other husbands or wives may have things to hide from each other, thoughnot genetic. Someonecontracting an STD by extramarital sex will defend medical privacy tooth and nailso he or she can get it treated without the spouse s knowledge. Disgusting!So its sole purpose is to protect and encourage adultery on a national scale. Nowonder there is so much cheating and divorce going on. We should launch anational movement to abolish it and save the country from moral decay and perdition. Startat the grass roots, talk to our pastors and get it going within our churches, thenexpand to other churches in town, in the county, in the state, in the whole nation.The ground swell of moral indignation will compel the Congress to repeal medicalprivacy between husband and wife. Itmay be tough going because privacy of whatever stripe is sacrosanct in the Americanpsyche like a basic human right. Particularly tough will be the last hurdle,Congress, few of its members untouched by an affair, perhaps thereby accuratelyrepresenting their constituencies. Episode 38 of July 17, 2019, in the serialization of The Polyglot: Union of Korea and Japan, amazon.com, in the New York Ilbo Daily, attached below, is the scene where Seiji Oda, 25, a top-ranking Japanese official in the Government General, Korea, a colony of Japan (1910-45), is having lunch with Dr. Ina Yoon, 25, a brilliant ER resident at Seoul Imperial University Medical Center, who thinks Seiji a rich and influential fellow countryman with good connections to the Government General and capable of securing the release of her fiance, poet laureate of Korea, held on charges of sedition for inspiring the independence uprising of March 1, 1919, with his stirring verses. Epitomizedis the terrible conflict Koreans must have faced over the issue of Japanesename adoption (창씨), somewhat reminiscent ofwhat most Americans or immigrant groups worldwide must experience, at least inthe first or second generation: whether to assimilate to the mainstream orpreserve their distinctive identity and heritage, a matter of pride but also acause for marginalization. dilemma gives us pause about the simplistic denunciation of 친일파 chinilpa,pro-Japanese toadies, by some vocal Korean patriotic groups shortly afterliberation from Japan in 1945. laudable thing Syngman Rhee, South Korea’s first president (1948-60), does ismassive employment and advancement of the chinilpa.Not because he is wise or magnanimous but because otherwise the country wouldhave come to a screeching halt. Not only the educated and professional but thewhole Korean population was chinil ifthey went to school, looked for good jobs, strove for success. The predicament recurs throughout the novel, as it tracks the Korean diaspora to Siberia, Central Asia, Japan, and America. Readers are urged to forward the series to friends and have them write to EySong0726@hotmail.com for free electronic subscription and back issues. the contrary we feel preordained. Our marriage will bring about theirreconciliation, she said with finality and confidence. “Enoughsaid about me and Jongnay. It’s time you told me whoyou are. Why on a Sunday don t you stay home and eat the food your wifecooks? 반대로 우리는 그렇게 운명지여 졌다고 봅니다. 단 우리의 결혼은 두 집안을 화해 시킬 것입니다 하고 그녀는 단호하게 자신 만만한어조로 말했다. 나와 종내에 대하여는 할만큼 얘기를 많이 했습니다. 이제 선생님이 누구인지 말해줄 차례가 되였습니다. 왜 오늘같은 일요일 날 집에 계시며 부인이차려 주는 음식을 들지 않으십니까? Atfirst Seiji considered evasion with a joke but thought better of it after oneglance at her intense gaze, demanding a straight answer. your family has adopted a Japanese name, too, she said, well aware thatadoption of Japanese names, to be made compulsory in a few more years under thestepped-up policy of Japanization, was still only voluntary, though stronglyencouraged with various incentives like employment and advancement. As a resultmany Korean families had taken Japanese names, either completely or alongsidetheir Korean names. 이름을 채택하셨군요 하고 그녀는 일본 이름 채택이 수년 후면 강화된 일본화 정책하에 강제되나 고용승진 면에서 여러 가지 혜택으로 강력하게 권장되고 있으나 아직은 자의에 맡겨져 있음을 알면서 말했다. 결과적으로많은 조선인 가족들이 일본 이름을 완전히 또는 조선 이름과 병행하여 쓰고 있었다. “Hehas but hesitates, for fear our ancestors might turn over in their graves. So what is your Japanese name?” do you mean? she asked, puzzled. You mean you have made a cleanbreak with your Korean heritage? “Mr. Oda, are you by any chance related to Katsuo Oda,Minister of the Treasury and leader of the Liberal Party?”She had read about the Odas of Osaka, descended from Nobunaga Oda, the firstman to almost unify Japan. The family had controlling interests in the Bank ofJapan, Hinomaru Shipping, Shimizu Gumi Construction, among others.자유당 지도자 가쓰오 오다와 인척 관계가 되십니까? 그녀는 일본을 처음으로 거의 통일한 노부나가오다로부터 내려온 오사가의 오다 가문에 대하여 읽은 바가 있었다. 그 집안이 일본 은행, 히노마루 해운, 시미즈 구미 건축 기타 많은 업체의 지배 이권을 장악하고 있었다.are you doing in the backwater of Korea? Ina asked with an effort atnonchalance, disguising her alarm and bewilderment. She could not figure outwhy he had undertaken to be Jongnay s champion. Had it been some kind of trap? 조선같은 벽지에서 뭘 하고 계십니까? 하고 그녀의 놀람과 당혹을 감추고 태연 자약을 노력하며 물었다. 왜 이자가 종내의 옹호자로나섰는지 알 수가 없었다. 이 모든 것이 하나의 덫이였던가? Our first plenary meetingof the new Board last night, Jul 2, 2019, turned Park Place from an array ofstately but forbidding castles into a community of affable and agreeable denizens,all committed to preserving and enhancing the beauty and dignity, even grandeur,of their neighborhood, a shangri-la at the foot of the majestic forest thatrises gently, irresistibly to the crest, beribboned by the Palisades Parkwayand overlooking the Hudson with a panoramic view of Manhattan and its environs.Ownership here despitethe high taxes and maintenance bespeaks financial statusbut I cannot suppressthe urge to discover everybody s occupation, the one thing that tells moreabout a person than even net worth and therefore a taboo and assiduouslyavoided by well-mannered Americans. Well, who cares? I am the Korean boor, tooold to learn. My nosiness pays off and I know what my neighbors do, what theirvalues and goals are, to be exhilarated by their exceptional accomplishments intheir respective fields. Verily feel I live among the chosen. Meeting Sangjo Kim forthe first time and thinking him a kid just out of college, I ask pointblank howhe manages to live in Park Place, hinting that he is probably born with asilver spoon. Lo and behold, he turns out to be an established anesthesiologist!Michael Laginestra, accessible, always ready and glad to share his knowledgeand experience, generous with praise and encouragement, turns out to be amultimillionaire with business interests all over the country. Ben and SusanGutmann, my closest neighbors, who host the meeting, are captains ofindustrywith a global clientele, including Korean businesses. I know SamPark to beindependently wealthy, free to take on the nitty gritty of ParkPlace presidency, interviewing contractors, checking their references, inspectingtheir performances, a full time job, somewhat like Trump donating all hissalaries. I haven’t found out what SK Kim does, a tad older than Sangjo but notby much, who has the dash and verve of an up and coming CEO. Determined, nevertheless,to buttonhole him after the meeting, I look around and find him checking theterrain and storm drains with Ben Gutmann, as responsible Board members should.Jin, I am glad I haveasked for your business card, confirming everybody’s knowledge of your uniquequalification to sit on the Board, as there may be potential litigationsinvolving delinquencies and other issues that threaten the financial health ofPark Place.Like the homeowner who has put up a fence behind his house onthe mountainside and reengineered the storm drains to interfere with thecommunity system. Two notices of correction have been serenely ignored. Butnobody is really worried all that much. We can hire and get the work done, thensend him the bill, a deep pocket owning the biggest Korean supermarket chain inthe States, the bill certified by your law offices to be more persuasive. By the way, 11 of the 19 homeowners are Korean, immigrants ranging from one to six decades in this country but equally passionate in their attachment to real estate, second nature to them. Undaunted by the downturn in the NJ housing market because of the irrational property tax rate, they doggedly hold on for the next inevitable upswing, in the meantime making serious upgrades inside and out, with frequent reference to the Bylaws regarding the exterior. From their glowingemails immediately afterwardsI am glad other attendees have found themeeting enjoyable and informative. I hope this letter to you will put you inour group mail list. AlsoI write toapologize. Asked by the Board to bring as many home owners to the meeting aspossible and eager to show myself as a worthy asset, I screw up my courage and goover to your front door at 5:40 p.m. to invite your father to the housenext-door, presuming on my acquaintance with him, however fleeting. Apparently caughtat a bad time he refuses. So I try to give him some issues of the Korean New York Ilbo Daily which isserializing my novel, The Polyglot: Unionof Korea and Japan, running to the 27th installment as of today. A coupleof years my senior he would find the subject matter interesting, I think.But he declines, pleading his poor eyesight. That’s no problem, though,with online magnification. Attached therefore are the first introductoryarticle and the 16th installment, featuring the recurring motif, love at firstsight, that transformative vision of the opposite sex guaranteeing our survivalas a species. Perhaps you can help him write toEySong0726@hotmail.comandask for free subscription for daily email delivery and for back issues. I hopeyou’ll give it a read, too.I drop the Korean adage to describe the frenzyof some Democrats who still find fresh evidence of Russian collusion in everythingTrump does during and since his election, even after presentation of the Muellerreport to Congress on April 18, 2019, with necessary redactions. Eat what? snaps S, 62, a Korean whoimmigrated to the States in 1975 and puts on airs as an old timer, moreAmerican than American and ardently anti-Trump, as may be expected. From Greek phagein to eat and copros feces . His erudition is impressive. But what has it got to dowith a mutt, ddong-gay 똥개? Begging your pardon,Professor, he spits out the honorific, ddong-gay has 2 syllables,the first feces, the other dog, meaning a crappy mongrel. No, I protest, these dogs cleaned up after us. When as babies we made mess, generally diarrheal, they came in and licked up the anus, buttocks, thighs, bedding. Unable to afford cloth diapers that needed washing every time most families kept dogs for the purpose, disposable diapers unknown. Then, these dogs make the ultimate sacrifice, feeding I stop, noting that myhistorical perspective is lost on S, now busy tapping his fingers on his i-Pad. Look here, Professor, he thrusts the screen triumphantly before me. 똥개 is defined as mutt, mongrel, cur, with no mention of copraphagy, certainly not on human feces. Deflated, I go home and lookthrough the Korean dictionaries and encyclopedias, including the Korean versionof Wikipedia. Indeed there is no mention of the real etymology for my breed ofcanines. Equally untraceable is the adage, based on it. In a decade or twoafter I left Korea my native language metamorphoses beyond recognition, atleast as far as this word is concerned, the country in the meantime becoming amini-America: dogs are pets with animal rights, fed on dog food, toilettrained, picked after, and interred in cemeteries with tombstones, while eatingdog meat, once a national staple, becomes abhorrent like cannibalism. I can now understand S s disdainfor a fuddy-duddy like me, why he twists his mouth to get out Professor, as the stuffy Korean code dictates, instead of being on a first name basis.Only if he d read my post (see Donald, Champion of Political Incorrectness,Mandate the First Name Basis Across the Board by Executive Order One!,9-11-2015, typakmusings.com)! But that s in English. When speaking Korean, we haveno option but to stay in our lanes, registers of speech determined by seniorityand rank (see American English and Radical Democracy, 9-5-3025,typakmusings.com). In defiance I start writingan epitaph: To the memory of the noble breed, caprophagic canine serversjoyfully cleaning up after babies Suddenly I am struck bythe incongruity of this with the maxim, A poop-eating dog sees only poopeverywhere, the poop eater here definitely not held in high esteem. Then I recall watching atage 5 or 6 our beloved and faithful Goldie, so named because of his gloriousgolden hair, being strangled for his meat, probably the only source of animal proteinin those days. I still remember his glazed eyes of rebuke fixed on me. The epitaph now reads: To the noble breed of coprophagic canines despite human ingratitude. Strictly forbidden is citation or application of that irreverent dictum about canine obsession with excrement to Russian collusion delusion or anything else, however to the point, even among the fuddy-duddies who understand its metaphor. Mar 4, 2019, a couple in their thirties, both native-born Americans of Koreandescent, take their two daughters, 3 and 1, on a flight to Korea for a 2-weekvacation. Upon deplaning at the destination after 12 hours of flight, however,they get immediately engulfed in a thick fog of fine dust, the worst on record,and have to put on masks, to no avail. In a day or two everyone of them comesdown with one form or another of respiratory and pulmonary disorder, coughing,wheezing, scratchy throat, runny nose, the worst happening to the youngest, highfever and difficulty breathing from pneumonia. She has to be rushed to the ER byambulance. two weeks of vigils night and day and a succession of pediatric and specialistclinics and labs taking hours to navigate a few blocks, congested worse than inManhattan, they limp back home, miraculously alive, though the young one seemsstill to hover on the brink. should make the Chinese pay for this, mutters K, the 82-year-oldgrandfather, almost in tears, looking at his youngest granddaughter s haggardface. Deny responsibility when on airvisual.com andearth.nullschool.net you can track real time the dust airborne back to China, ruthlesslydeforested and desertified in its quest for rich-quick industrialization? go to Korea, K orders in disgust. I left it six decades ago because,among other reasons, it couldn t stand up for itself. it s still my ancestral land, the son declares. We ll go back maybenext year when the girls will have more immunity. Even if they don t, itsmedical services are superb and cheap, too, one-tenth of the US rates. Nowonder they live longer than us. Japanese colonial oppressionof Korea peaked as World War II was ending in 1945. A 7-year-old kid growing upin Korea, I heard my elders whisper, It s darkest before dawn, and saw it come true with Japan s withdrawalsoon afterwards. Then, duringthe last days of the 3-month North Korean occupation of Seoul at the start ofthe Korean War (Jun 25, 1950 Jul 27, 1953), I heard the adage repeated amongthe ordinary citizenry, not in collaboration with the conquerors and starved, inconstant fear of house raids and street roundups, futilely diving intomakeshift shelters against bombs and shells unleashed from the sky and the sea insupport of MacArthur s landing at Incheon to liberate the capital. Watching theUS Marines march into the city, I, a 7th grader, reaffirmed the truth of the dictum, Darkest before dawn. Later, myEnglish studies led me to its equivalents: It is always darkest just beforethe day dawneth, found in Thomas Fuller s travelogue (1650), probably puttingin print what s already around, or The darkest hour of all is the hourbefore day in Samuel Lover s Irish Songs and Ballads (1858). Koreanscould have adopted the translation from the English, Irish, and Americanmissionaries, the westernizers of Korea, but my cultural pride inclines me tothink it a universal motif popping up independently. Lately, duringa Korean high school reunion (class of 1956) of those living in the northeastof America the conversation turned to the threatened Barr probe into theMueller investigation and, lamenting the spiraling rancor of US party politics,I happened to drop the aphorism. We alwayswent out on our penetration missions across the DMZ predawn when visibility wasat its shortest, interjects B, formerly with the Korean Army SpecialForces. Not necessarily, offers K, a former air controller. Thick fog, smog, or fine Chinese dust in Korea can zero out visibility even at midday. Did you mount any of your missions during the day because of zero visibility? I persist.always shortly before daybreak, B clarifies. Remember it was the late50 s when there was no smog, no fine dust nor yellow rain, Chinesedesertification not starting until a couple of decades later when Deng hugs Nixon. Determinedto see how much factual validity there was to this old proverb I woke up at 4a.m. on two successive mornings, Apr 23 and 24, 2019, two hours before the 6a.m. sunrise in my area to give an hour s lead to the Irish hour, and watched. Atno point, especially at 5 a.m., did any dip, sudden or subtle, occur invisibility or illumination. myth laid to rest (see The Myth of the Pre-Death Panoramic Epiphany,12-26-2018, typakmusings.com)! Instead of triumph, however, I am gripped with grief over our gullibility or need for it. To dramatize and impart a finality to the message, perseverance no matter how tough the going, our collective imagination pounces on a fact statement not likely to be challenged for veracity: acutely sleepy before getting up for the day few would bother to fact-check. I wouldn t have, either, except for that darn B disturbing my metaphorical serenity. If asked about the success rate of those predawn missions of his, bound to be iffy as the basis is faulty science, he would have attributed it to the North Koreans wising up and getting ready. A Korean high school alum of mine, class of 1956, naturalized over half a century ago and resident in NY, is devastated, I report. Jilted, his grandson, 16, killed himself by jumping off a 500-foot cliff. A math genius, precociously enrolled at a ranking university, he was the hope and pride of the whole family. My friend, the 82-year-old grandpa, blames himself for coming to America to start his American dynasty. Actually, I feel partly responsible because, singing America the Beautiful, I had urged him to immigrate, though he doesn t seem to remember. The boy would have killed himself in Korea, unlessthe culture is different there and does not blow sex out of proportion into thehallucinogen, romantic love, that kills Romeo and Juliet, Tom reasons. Not to the extent of Greek and Roman deification of loveas a goddess with modern romantic sublimation via Medieval courtly love, complimentsof your greatest writers, artists, musicians, I point out. But Korea has earthy folklore and folksong galorethat takes for granted obsession with one s object of love, which perhapsargues its universality, I conjecture wildly, with perhaps anevolutionary design: to snare and bind a breeding pair so they stay together longenough to raise the young and ensure the survival of the species. So we end up with 7 billion and counting, 8, 10, 15, atrillion, he shudders. We ve got to reconfigure this blind engine, romanticlove, before it suffocates us all. Do you therefore dismiss love-engendered fatalitieslike my friend s grandson as some kind of natural selection? I challenge hisseeming insensitivity. Not at all, he retorts. Romantic love reconfiguredor, more correctly, gutted, will kill two birds with one stone, preventing yourRomeo and Juliet tragedies. Except this case is a little different: unrequitedlove, unlike Romeo and Juliet, the love birds. I add, With anAmerican twist: the girl s white parents didn t care for an Asian son-in-law,however smart. Poor boy! Tom laments. Only if he had tornoff the blinders and looked around at the dozens, hundreds of nubile femalesavailable and interchangeable, white, yellow, black, brown, Unfortunately, once caught in the trap of romanticlove, interchangeability is anathema, simply unthinkable. There is only one way to save humanity from the monomaniac fixation of romantic love: reduction of its ultimate goal, orgasm by coitus, to excretion, Tom declares agitatedly. The program should start early, like preschool. The toddlers will undress and pee and poop in plain view of each other to familiarize themselves with their excretory anatomy with gender differentiation, soon to be supplemented in elementary school by physical education that incorporates induced orgasm so as to reduce it to the third dimension of excretion in addition to the two they already know. Masturbation and communal manual excitation of thepenis or clitoris of the next kid in a circle, for example, a phys ed routinelike basketball, gymnastics, or what have you. You are kidding, right? I shake my head. Parentswill tar and feather you for even thinking such thoughts about their darlinglittle angels. But these angels do it anyway, only in secret and inshame, with untold psychological damage that renders them more susceptible toromantic love, Tom shouts. This way we bring it out into the openand trivialize it, so Romeo wouldn t kill himself because he knows there is awhole ocean of Juliets out there. Absolutely not. Penile penetration of the vagina is forbidden and allowed once or twice after marriage in estrus strictly for planned breeding purposes upon proof of the couple s financial capability by depositing, say, $10 million per child in escrow, to see the new born through graduate or professional school. You mean only 0.1% of the population can fuck their wives and that only as many times as the number of children they can have in their whole lives? I scream. Now you ll have the whole world coming after you. Only the primitive antediluvian males, prior to ournew phys ed regimen, but not the women, not even the antediluvians, who havenever really wanted it, only enduring it all these millions of years, partlybecause of the faint hope during estrus for this marginal means of achievingorgasm but mainly because of their economic dependence on men who thoughtvaginal penetration the only road to heaven. With the new educational system inplace a new era of peace and creativity dawns on humanity: with fewer of us around, population under control and freed from thescourge of romantic insanity, cooperation will be the guiding principle, not competition, and prepare us for intergalactic exploration. It s like pulling teeth but he gets his words out at last, I summarize Barr s Congressional testimony on Apr 9, 2019, and its impact. Spying has occurred against Trump, he says, the genesis and conduct of which should be looked into to ensure that governmental agencies with investigative powers operate properly, that is, drive in their assigned lanes, his figure of speech. Understandably, the Dems and fake media are up in arms, in a conniption fit, calling him Trump s running dog, not the Attorney General of the United States. Funny they use a canine metaphor because with his jowls and growls he looks a bit like a bull dog, grunts Tom, the misanthrope, my nonagenarian neighbor. He ll bite big time, though, a new traffic cop in town. They ll get what s coming, these Trump haters: massive and swift indictments and prison terms. But wouldn t it create a never-ending feud cycle, Dems biding their time to get back at Reps, and so on, in the meantime national security and economy kicked aside? I give him a synopsis of the four centuries of partisan politics in Korea which enables Japan to trample it down at will in 1592 and finally colonize it in the first half of the 20th century, to be liberated only in 1945 by the US. Wouldn t it be presidential of Trump to lean on Barr to go easy, content with the moral victory, burying the Dems and fake media in their eternal shame? Was your Korean dynasty a constitutional democracy like ours? Tom asks. No. Democracy is America s gift, barely half a century old. Then the Korean analogy does not apply. We have partisan politics, too, but in the end all parties submit to the rule of law as set forth in the Constitution, aware that the alternative, crime unpunished and justice ignored, is the road to hell. The evil-doer gloats over his escape as vindication and victory and waits for an opportunity to strike back, gathering sympathizers and fellow travelers, weakening and destroying the body politic. But the fake media keep spinning, I point out. Unrepentant and defiant, Schiff, Brennan, CNN, NBC go on characterizing the looming Barr investigation as a Spanish Inquisition. Luckily, we live in the internet age and won t be hoodwinked by them, there being countervailing sources of information like Fox News, tweets by Trump supporters, blogs like yours, showing what these Witch Hunters have done buying the phony Steele dossier to obtain the FISA warrant and authorizing surveillance on the Trump campaign and subsequent Mueller investigation, which violates the core American value, freedom from such tyranny. Even the hard-core Dems will recoil from the implications of the Witch Hunt and acquiesce in the culprits fall and punishment. Sure the convicted felons will grind their teeth and plot revenge but the public at large will ignore them and the feud cycle you fear will never get off the ground. How wide should Barr prosecute, CIA, FBI, Congress, fake media? I ask, shuddering. Let the chips fall where they may. You are mistaken, though, to think that Trump faces some kind of dilemma, whether to be magnanimous and forgive all those awful attacks, or clean up the house, drain the swamp, once and for all, to prevent recurrence of such misuse of power that may hamstring future administrations, somewhat reminiscent of Hamlet s soliloquy:To be or not to be, that is the question:Whether tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd by opposing end them. He opts to oppose and end the offenders. But Trump does not have to choose. Barr will do it, not as his running dog but as US AG to uphold the Republic. For four years after moving into the gated community neighbors had been telling me about Tom the Recluse, piquing my curiosity. Though sharing the same driveway I had not run into him until about a couple of months ago in February, 2019, when there was the first respectable snowfall of the season, dumping close to a foot overnight. At 4 a.m. I came out the front door holding the garbage wrapped in a shopping bag. It was too early for the snow crew to show up. Gingerly I pulled up one sinking foot after another down the walkway knee-deep in snow, hoping it would keep the deer and other scavengers away. I needed to sleep past the garbage pickup time having worked through the wee hours to post an article on my blog, typakmusings.com. Normally, upon hearing the truck around 8, I would run out with my offering to zero out the possibility of the bag being torn up and the mess scattered. I had the Borough take back its trash and recycle bins, hating to take them back in. Catching on, a few of the neighbors mimicked my practice, though I couldn t determine whether they had the bins returned, too. With a degree of satisfaction I had noticed Tom, the Recluse, to be among the copycats.A thud and a yell jerked me out of my trance. A figure lay prostrate at the foot of the 35-degree driveway. Throwing down my bag I ran to him, losing my footing a few times. The ice on the pavers must have caused the poor guy to slip and fall backward, then slide straight down on his back like a toboggan, his garbage bag flung aside. Let me help you up, I whispered, thrusting my hand under his shoulder. He stirred, came to, and tried to get up on his own, disoriented, arms flailing. I helped him up. Muttering, he pulled away, picked up the bundle, and placed it by his mailbox post. Are you okay? I asked anxiously. Grunting, he went back into his house through the open garage door, which came clattering down behind him. Stung by his rudeness, though forewarned, but concerned that the trauma to his head, unawares, might have serious consequences like a concussion or intracerebral hemorrhage, I went up to his front door and knocked. No response. I banged louder, shouting his name. No sound or stir inside. Panicked that he might have collapsed, possibly on the verge of death, I came back to my house and called 911. An ambulance and two squad cars arrived. The patrolmen and medics converged on the house, some going around to the deck in the back facing the woods. What s all this commotion about? Tom opened the front door, resplendent in full nightgown regalia. Are you all right, sir? one medic asked. Until now. They all turned to me for an explanation. But, sir, you had a bad fall and lay there, passed out, I said, pointing at the driveway. What do you mean? I have been soundly asleep. I am no somnambulist like some people, seeing things, he said, staring at me askance. Since we are here anyway, what if we check you out? the medic asked. No, Tom shouted back and slammed the door closed. Please look at this trench in the snow, I pointed out to the medics and patrolmen carefully picking their way down the slope back to their vehicles. That s where he lay sprawled, flailing his arms. His head would have cracked had it not been for the cushion of snow, the ambulance driver noted, believing me. I had just gotten back into the house after waving goodbye to the responders, swearing I d never play a good Samaritan again, even if someone dropped dead right in front of me, when the doorbell rang. Came to thank you for the neighborliness, though misplaced, Tom said. I am pretty resilient, well-nigh indestructible. But you almost got me into trouble, I protested. I had to send them packing and knew they would believe you, dismissing me as a crackpot geezer. This is my peace offering, he said, pushing a bottle of cognac toward me. No, take it back. There is no cause for it. Besides I don t drink. All right, then. Come around any time and we ll talk. Sure but do you have an email address? We can communicate that way. What is yours? I ll write you, so you can answer back. I gave him my card. He wrote a few days later, saying he had enjoyed my blog, especially my take on Trump, a former student of his at Wharton where he had taught marketing. We hit it off right away, fabulously. Come and worship with us at our church on Easter Sunday, Apr 21, 2019, I invite my neighbor Tom, 92, an ornery widower and recluse, few on the block ever see, let alone talk to. It is through an extraordinary circumstance to be reported in the next post that I got to be on speaking terms with him. We expect the sanctuary to fill up with as many as 500 people. How long is the service going to last? Tom asks. A couple of hours because of the Easter play and music, I answer expectantly. To breathe 5 gallons of fart? he demands.Getting over the puzzlement I rally, It s a big church, 50 feet wide, 100 feet deep, and 40 feet high, almost like being outdoors. Five gallons, 10, a drop in the ocean. But are you sure it would be that much? One farts a pint or 16 ounces in 24 hours, which makes nearly 3 tablespoons in 2 hours. Multiply that by 500. But worshippers would be on their best behavior and Bacteria don t teach manners to the gas they generate in the gut. How do you fart in church? The utter frankness and directness of the question, not asked except perhaps by my doctor, stuns me at first but soon disarms me. Slowly in small puffs, timing with the blast of the organ, lest even the most carefully modulated squeeze of the rectal sphincter should vocalize by accident. Let out loud and clear, as Benjamin Franklin bids in his 1781 essay, Fart Proudly, he thunders. To be shunned forever like a leper? I scream. Sneaks and cheats, these holier-than-thou Christians, strutting around and preaching honesty, decency, and decorum, only to turn viciously on the truly honest among them and eat them alive like cannibals! They are responsible for the decay of morality in America. Have you heard your pastor fart loud and clear? Well, I haven t paid attention exactly I mumble. He is the worst of the lot, not having to bother to regulate his sphincter like the sneaks out there in the pews but just as sneaky, taking advantage of his exalted position up at the altar, out of earshot, close to the organ to boot, cocksure that nobody hears his anal music. I tell you what. I ll join your church the moment your pastor farts and burps loud into the microphone as he begins his sermon. Yes, burping is just as integral to the health of our God-given gut. That would be a turning point in Christian ministry, perhaps more epochal than even the Reformation, but our pastor or any other ordained minister is no Martin Luther. I have an idea, though. Since this is such a radical, momentous departure, on the same order of magnitude as termination of political correctness, the role should fall on someone with proven leadership in such matters like Trump (see Donald, Champion of Political Incorrectness, Mandate the First Name Basis Across the Board by Executive Order One!, 9-11-2015, and Lighten Up, America, and Follow The Donald, George Washington of New America, 9-27-2015, typakmusings.com). Typically, he should open all his public speeches, say, the State of the Union message at the House, with a fart and burp duet, accompany the delivery with a medley of farts and burps, and close with a fanfare of the same. All his cabinet members will copy, lest they get fired, and so will others in time, Supreme Court justices, Senators and Representatives, then cardinals, bishops, pastors, the whole country, the moral imperative of honesty finally sinking in. I ll compose the letter, hoping you ll get it delivered. I understand you have a direct line of communication to Donald. Yeah, but your blog will serve the purpose better. Has he been lying about his White House connection? No, he wouldn t, not at his age, about such a triviality. I acquiesce, taking his refusal to be the herald as a compliment. Half of America, the younger misguided half, is rallying to the banner of communism. Yes, I say communism, calling a spade a spade, not a whitewashed euphemism. Actually, communism as originally proposed by Marx and Engels was a beautiful word, like utopia or brotherhood. Communism derives its appeal by stirring up envy, hatred of those with more money than oneself and promise of equal distribution. However, its toxicity is spelled out by Peter Bach, the protagonist of The Polyglot: Union of Korea and Japan (2018), amazon.com, pages 420-421, during his Senate hearing for confirmation as President Eisenhower s Special Envoy to South Korea in turmoil after the Student Revolution of 1960. He calls communism A naive, dangerous, and ultimately self-defeating ideology, based on a misconception of human nature. Humans are most productive when they compete for a larger, not equal, share of wealth. A huge bureaucracy, installed to replace free market competition, will in time grind down and implode for lack of motivation and built-in indolence. The truth of this characterization has been verified beyond a shadow of doubt by the sea trials of communism, Soviet, Cuban, Venezuelan, proving it to be unfit as a practical solution. We have to work with the free market system, accepting inequality as a necessary evil or blessing. Peter goes on to warn: But Communism serves as a wakeup call lest a free society should lapse into complacency. It should be constantly vigilant against perpetuation of gross inequalities, leveling the playfield to forestall upheavals like the French Revolution of 1792 or the Russian Revolution of 1917? How? The US has in place anti-trust and welfare legislations, as well as widespread private charity by the wealthy, which will serve as vents. If the balance is maintained, there won t be any explosive revolutions to wreck America. In other words, with progressive taxation, social security, supplemental security income, private charity, and other leveling devices already in place, we are managing. Granted that s not enough but we have to be patient and do what we can, in the meantime suppressing, defusing and reining in the discontent of the young and radical. To this end suggested is cultivation of insensitivity or immunity to envy, the green-eyed monster, the root cause of discontent, by looking to the Korean model.From time immemorial Koreans have coped with their less than dominant places in their social totem pole in reliance on a peculiar brand of egalitarianism, expressed by the phrase, a sheet of paper difference (종이 한 장 차이). For example, a bondservant can mentally stare down at his master, while bowing and scraping to do his bidding, because it s just the title deed that separates them. Similarly dismissive of his billionaire employer is a day laborer living hand to mouth. In time the idiom mutates to mean paper thin, reducing the vast differences in the pecking order to a triviality. This mentality may make them the world s worst hypocrites, obsequious outside but arrogant inside but sure gives them peace of mind and physical health by freeing them from envy, the mental cancer that eventually metastasizes to the body and kills.Lately the egalitarian motto has mutated again to a click difference, reflecting post-Information Revolution accessibility to the cutting edge of knowledge in any field, the seriousness of which cannot be overstated.If the previous paper thin difference is irreverence, rebelliousness, denial, a matter of attitude, this click difference is substantive. By clicking the right link on line one can instantly come to the cutting edge of knowledge in any field. If knowledge is power, this click difference is none other than universal empowerment, destined to erode and erase the invidious differences in the pecking order, rendering obsolete certifications, licenses, charters as artificial intelligence and virtual training in the professions and trades advance (see The Bounty of De-Schooling, 3-20-2019, typakmusings.com). This ultra-egalitarianism will prevent America from tilting too far to the left and keeling over and keep it on track to becoming an earthly utopia, where differences exist enough to keep competition going but not suffocate. Soomin Kim, 24, the charming, refreshing Miss Korea 2018, may hold the key to the enigma of Trump s election and success. Dubbed the controversial or off-beat beauty queen, the Dickinson College graduate with a degree in International Business, enters the pageant competition for fun. Not expecting to win she acts and answers freely, being herself, hugely enjoying every moment of it, and thoroughly enchanting her jury. That is exactly Trump s style off script spontaneity, speaking his mind, saying what he means, baring his soul, which resonates with his audience. Liking him they trust him to lead the way to the promised land and to date their faith in him has been amply rewarded by the booming economy, excision of ISIS, termination of the Russian Witch Hunt, and respect from foreign adversaries like China and Russia. By the way the Korean beauty is one of a kind. Above all she is a multilingual. Her Korean is witty and eloquent but she floors you with her native-grade English, as well as her ease and poise during an interview with an American journalist, explainable only by American birth and education through college before moving back to Korea, reverse immigration as Koreans call it, though not verifiable by cursory search through her videos and writeups. Or she could have gone to American school in Korea or studied with totally virtual English teaching videos before enrolling in Dickinson as a foreign student. While at Dickinson she studies a year at a Beijing university under an exchange program, again learning to speak Chinese like a native. Amazing! She has her heart set on becoming an international journalist and has already produced fabulous informational videos, but she may serve best as the first lady of any country, except she would steal the thunder from her husband, Individual One. That term turning up in Cohen s testimony gives rise to an impious thought. What a fine match she would make for Donald, who alone will be able to hold his own and not be eclipsed by her brilliance. Melania may actually want to call it quits and join the growing rank of his ex-wives and mistresses, giving Soomin a chance to be America s First Lady, that is, before 2025, in view of its multiple benefits.1. Equal Opportunity for WomenThe whole thing is of course subject to consent by Melania, who may actually want to explore. After all life is short. She knows she will be financially well provided and honored like all his former wives and mistresses, except she would have the extra prestige of having been a First Lady which, on top of her own merits as a modeling star, will make her irresistible to all types of men worldwide, even other heads of state, billionaires, athletes, especially the young bucks. 2. Global HumanismMarriage to the Korean beauty will demonstrate once and for all that Trump is no racist, interracial marriage being the true measure of one s freedom from racial or ethnic hang-ups (see The Polyglot: Union of Korea and Japan, amazon.com). 3. Hope for the AgedHis marriage to Soomin, half a century his junior, will be proof positive of vitality and libido even when within striking distance of the century mark and will make him a hero to all the Oncs of the world (see Immortality Club, 8-2-2018, typakmusings.com). On Monday, Mar 25, 2019, the best weapon Russians could have devised in their wildest dream against their arch enemy, America, at zero cost to boot, fizzles out beyond any hope of resurrection or re-deployment. American Democrats frenzy to sabotage the resurgence of America, otherwise known as MAGA, Make America Great Again, comes to an irreversible screeching end. Mueller, their own Special Counsel aided by a pack of highly motivated henchmen to take down Trump they still cannot accept as President, declares his zero collusion with Russia where, understandably, the belly laugh (see Russians Having a Belly Laugh, 7-19-2017, typakmusings.com) is turning into a heartbreak, as the country stares at a skyrocketing defense budget to match America s growing might, something it cannot afford, the price of oil, its only export, hitting rock bottom (see Low Gas Price, Not Mild Winter: Time to Pat Ourselves on the Back for Stumbling into Picking the Right Guy for the Job, 1-16-2019, typakmusings.com), a re-enactment of the post-Reagan Soviet years. Grandstanders, haughtily shaking your heads and pouring contempt on Trump for attacking McCain, the deceased, during his stirring rally at the Abrams tank manufacturing plant in Lima, OH, on Mar 20, 2019: You are nothing but a bunch of proverbial zombies, mindlessly chanting proverbs, well known for their ambiguity: if one tells you to go right, another is sure to tell you to go left. In Julius Caesar (1599) Shakespeare has Brutus publicly denounce Caesar as too ambitious and therefore deserving to die, which is followed by Antony s oration: I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.Does Antony just bury Caesar, as he promises? No, he doesn t stop praising, until he masterfully demolishes the accusations, rehabilitates, apotheosizes Caesar, and turns the wrath of the masses on Brutus and his clique. Note how Antony prefaces his defense of Caesar: the evil that men do lives after them. In other words, Brutus has every right to accuse and condemn Caesar, if only to be hoist with his own petard. However, if any of you zombies want to be the modern-day Antony to praise McCain and bury Trump, the Brutus, think again! First, it s not unseemly to attack a decedent simply because he is dead and can t defend himself. Unlike dogs or horses we are human precisely because our works, good and bad, survive us, as Antony points out. To dispel any doubt on this score, consider whether the probate court is unseemly just because it delves into the decedent s will and estate. Note its publicity, how typically a notice of the probate is published in newspapers inviting the whole world to the reckoning. Trump is doing the probate, going through the deceased s legacy to the nation, because he was a public figure. Topping the list is his instigation of the Russian Witch Hunt. It was McCain who, instead of tipping Trump off about the phony Steele dossier when he gets it, as a friend should, turns it over to the FBI and sets off the Mueller investigation that drags on nearly two years, wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and metastasizing to a Congressional investigation, now that the Democrats are in control of the House. Meanwhile fallen by the wayside is the proper work of government, America s security and economic wellbeing and world peace and prosperity. Next on the probate calendar is McCain casting the deciding vote to defeat Trump s bill to Repeal and Replace Obamacare, purely out of spite because all along, prior to the vote, he had been in favor. The Trump detractors should note that he does not talk about McCain s reputation as an American hero, though the heroism of his Vietcong captivity has been debunked by many, including Biden, the Democratic primary front runner. In fact, burying the hatchet Trump signs off on the military transport of McCain s body to Washington for his funeral at the National Cathedral, though with no thanks from the family or anybody else. On the contrary, unable to resist the temptation to jump on the Trump-bashing train, the Cathedral gratuitously comes out to deny the need for his approval to host the funeral, apparently unaware that by diminishing and blocking Trump out the funeral is deprived of the presidential cachet, presumably contrary to the decedent s wishes. How many hours a day do you guys spend Googling, You-Tubing, Wikipedia-ing? asks Paul, a retired psychologist and an Onc (see Immortality Club, 8-2-2018, typakmusings.com). Almost every waking hour, admits Richard, a retired tax lawyer. A sad commentary on my education, with which there is almost a complete disconnect. Inevitable under pressure to specialize, assents Bob, a retired ophthalmologist. In college we have to choose a major and, in grad school, a field. Then as a professional you specialize. What was your major, Richard? English. The disconnect between English and law school is total. All the poetry and prose I ve read and analyzed is absolutely useless. But there is another disconnect between law school and tax law, because you have to forget just about everything you study in law school, to learn the tax laws, federal, state, local, levied on income, payroll, property, sales, capital gains, dividends, imports, estates, gifts, fees, to make sure the government collects a quarter of the GDP. Then they revise and redact every now and then just for the heck of it to keep you on your toes and leave no time for anything else. Nobody has mentioned the 12 pre-college years of elementary and secondary schooling, Paul notes, meaning tacit acceptance of it as useful intellectual foundation for subsequent college and beyond for what it is, I presume. Are you kidding? Richard huffs. What rubbish I had to memorize for finals and the SAT, geography, history, math, science, and literature! What a waste of intellectual energy! Actually, I agree with the Korean system, prior to the 2007 American style reform, that allows a high school graduate to sit for the bar exam (see Revise the 3 R s to 4 R s and Make America the First All-Lawyer Nation to Root Out Violence, 11-22-2018, typakmusings.com). Ditto for medicine, Bob adds. You don t need to fool around with 4 years of premed. A high school grad can go directly into the regular medical course. Actually, in Korea before 2007 all professional schooling began at college level, I weigh in, College of law, engineering, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, agriculture, music, fine art, liberal arts, divinity, or what have you. But, Richard, didn t you say one didn t have to graduate from law college to take the bar? asks Bill, a retired captain and graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy. Why, then, bother to go to law college if it is not required to take the bar? For the cachet of LL.B. or BA in Law, I say. Many took the bar while in law college, the passage rate naturally higher than high school graduates. On the other hand, some law graduates couldn t pass year after year. That is enlightening, Ty! exclaims Bob. If Korean high school graduates could pass the bar, then our American kids can do the same and pass other professional exams, too, especially given the increasing sophistication of educational and professional YouTube videos, if they are allowed to watch them instead of wasting 4 years, trudging back and forth to high school classes, jumping through hoops. Granted we eliminate high school, grades 9 through 12, for independent study, posits Paul, do we leave alone pre-high school grades 1 8, elementary and middle, to provide the 3 R s necessary for them to read and understand the subjects, law, engineering, medicine, and so forth? Scrapping elementary and middle school is a cinch, given the abundance of state of the art online resources to teach the 3 R s, I assert. But even the traditional 3 R s are largely wasteful, cramming the young minds with useless names, dates, places, which should be replaced by a curriculum on rules or law (see Revise the 3 R s to 4 R s), so that by the time they graduate from high school they ll all be lawyers. But that means the demise of my profession? Richard moans. No, not everybody can be a good advocate even for their own cause and would rather hire those with greater aptitude for it who advertise themselves as Attorney at Law, Barrister, Lawyer, Esquire, I explain. It s only for law that I call for this, because law is one of the 4 R s and the entire population beyond the 12th grade should be able to access the courts as lawyers to prevent blood feuds and vendettas. The other professions, founded on the 4 R s, are certified by some national agency to ensure the practitioners qualifications. I stop to take a breath and resume. That proposal, however, was on the assumption that high school existed and enforced some form of certification like a GED test on the 4R s. Since this is no longer the case and no school exists including high school, it s not 4 R s any more but are open to all the professions or fields of knowledge to explore. Spared the waste and drudgery of going to elementary and middle school day in and day out for 8 years, children, not particularly precocious, can go on to prepare not only for the bar exam but for medical board exam, engineering exam, or even merchant marine test Bill had to pass at, how old were you? 24, but I see your point, Bill nods. We now do most of our navigational training virtually and I can imagine a teenager or even a preteen getting the hang of it just as well as a 24-year-old, provided he learns all the other stuff. So you make them start working that young? Richard asks, astounded. Certainly, I reassure him. I envision the average professional working age to be 15, which, combined with the retirement age of 90 (see 90 (=85+5), the New Retirement Age, Incorporating the Mortality Constant, 11-16-2018, typakmusings.com), will multiply the working population, stanching Social Security hemorrhage. I have just one concern, Paul interjects. What about cutting-edge scientists, writers, thinkers, typically ensconced in the ivory tower of academia? They ll find their niches in industries, the majority of them small, one-person outfits of self-employment and, unencumbered by academia, civilization will take off like a rocket. This is a corollary to abolition of schools across the board from elementary through graduate and professional, proposed earlier (see New Education in Response to Developments in Artificial Intelligence, 12-23-2018, typakmusings.com). Kindergarten and even preschool children amaze us with the rapidity with which they learn intricate games and follow Sesame Street and other children s shows online. As they grow older, they can connect online to the best video programs for different subjects, far surpassing any elementary through high school classroom presentations. Some are concerned that clicking a laptop or iPad may deprive the child of vital classroom socialization. Baloney! The child has enough social exposure at home, in the neighborhood, at church, birthday parties, sleep overs, concerts, parades. Besides slouching at desk in rows watching or pretending to watch the teacher hardly qualifiess as socialization. But even that can be adequately supplied virtually online. However, preteen children, especially those whose parents both work, may be sent to neighborhood daycare centers strictly to gather and have fun, not to learn. For this purpose a medium-sized home will suffice to service a city block or rural village, not a typical multistoried building with long hallways and series of classrooms, to be demolished if not converted to other productive use.Online self-education is made to order for college and beyond, as the student is now an independent adult with tremendous mnemonic and intellectual prowess, agility, creativity. There isn t a single discipline, liberal arts or science, that cannot be learned online, including a virtual biology or physics lab. However, virtual expertise may be confirmed and supplemented by field trips to actual facilities. In this educational system no degree, academic or professional, will be handed out. An employer will advertise a position and video-examine a candidate s competence. No inquiry will ever be made to the nonexistent college one went to. Professional qualifications will be similarly certified by passing a bar, medical board, or professional engineering exams, with practical demonstrations as needed. Nor is one-time certification the end of self-education. To excel in their work professionals will be Googling diligently till the end of their lives, as will anybody who enjoys learning and does his or her share in advancing civilization. America s recent uproar over some 33 parents being indicted for bribery, laying out a total of $25 million, to get their children into elite colleges is the epitome of myopia, ignorance and hypocrisy. Only $25 million? Peanuts and that s where the problem is. They were cheap and also dumb, choosing the back door, bribery, a low-grade crime, to give their children a break. The real offenders achieve the same purpose by going through the front door and shaking hands with the college president to stick a big check on his palm. With the billions, trillions so collected over the years these colleges build cutting edge science complexes, libraries, auditoriums, theaters, endowed chairs, becoming elite indeed. Instructive in this regard is Cohen s congressional testimony on the business negotiations for the failed Trump Tower across from the Kremlin (see Cohen, a Dream Witness for Trump, 3-3-2019, typakmusings.com). Offered right off the bat is the best suite in the building for Putin, a bribe to be sure but also a cost of doing business: a distinguished patron boosts its goodwill. It s a win-win deal benefiting both parties.Every college in the world will welcome Trump s children among its alums. But lack of such fame can be amended by money, a lot of money. Much has been said about Trump being not bright enough to have gotten into Wharton on his own. If that is true, Fred Trump, a dime a dozen multimillionaire, must have made a substantial donation. Democrats, where is your diligence, not digging into his ancestors graves? Is this obsession with a prestigious college diploma really good for civilization? No, because it is a travesty of real knowledge and competence, nevertheless religiously maintained so long as an employer s first inquiry is an applicant s alma mater. More in the next post.

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