Quirky Asia Files: A Doll Village in Japan

I hate dolls like I hate clowns.  This is totally creeping me out.

Princeton's MRS Degree

Oh, dear.  Then again, what do I know?  I'm a childless unmarried monster.

China's "Little Emperors" Turning Out to Be Jerks

What a surprise ... NOT.  Hey, how's that one-child policy workin' out for ya?  Pffft!

Et Tu, Ricochet?

*Sigh.*

A Tale of Two Headlines

December 1: "More Babies, Please."

December 3: "Kate's Pregnant: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Announce They Are Having a Baby."

Oh, and congratulations!  Now before you go off whingeing about the hoopla, I just want to say this: Why?  This is pretty much like all the griping about the wedding last year.  Two young people are happily taking a leap of faith together and starting a family. Say congratulations and good luck to them as to any couple who are doing likewise, and leave it at that. I think it's delightful that folks are excited about a baby!  Such happy and hopeful news!

Report Recommends China Should Move to Two-Child Policy

WELL, DUH.  

So just how many years did it take you to realize that the one-child policy and its ramifications, from gendercide to forced abortions to corrupt adoptions, are gross human rights violations that are also, by the way, wreaking havoc with society?

Et Tu, "Weekly Standard"?

As a childless unmarried monster, I was not amused by this.   

Neither "economics" nor "culture" are the driving reasons behind my (apparently offensive and civilization-imperilling) personal lack of mini-Minervas. You know, some people don't have kids because - for just two examples - health issues are in play or they hold the quaint old-fashioned conviction that they want to get married first.  It's not, in that unfortunate wording in the piece, that we simply don't "bother to have children at all."  That kind of makes us childless monsters sound like self-absorbed dirtbags, and I jolly well do not appreciate that.

This whole thing might depress some people, but it frankly just ticks me off.  Hey, people, how about you walk a mile in my shoes  awesome high heels before you presume to judge me?   It's another round of modern socio-politics' favorite song: "You Played Nicely and Tried to Be Responsible?  You're A SUCKER."  The coda here: "Oh, and You're Evil Now Too."  Thanks, people, thanks a lot.  That really helps.  Pfffft.  Meanwhile, Feminist Ryan Gosling continues to amuse:

Call Me Maybe.

China's "Leftover Women"

Well, I had said before that China's social engineering was going to blow up in its own face, so who's surprised that it is?  I've posted before about the "Sheng Nu," and the New York Times has a new piece about the phenomenon: "China's Leftover Women."  Wow, if that isn't a shot in the self-esteem, girls, I don't know what is.  Whoohoo, Childless Unmarried Monsters R Us!  Pfffffft.  Bonus: Did you know that according to China's Women's Federation, our expiration date is age 27?  Not, of course, that I ever give any credence to any of the social agitprop that comes out of there.

Newsflash: China's One-Child Policy Is Wreaking Social Havoc

To which headline I say ... WELL, DUH!  What the hell did you think was going to happen?  While we're at this, let me once more bang my drum about the horrifying human cost of this entire enterprise, including forced abortions on unwilling women, the selling of babies ...

All the Single Ladies: China's "Sheng Nu," Part Deux

I had previously blogged about this, but here's a fresh news story on the topic. Ugh.  You don't have to be mainland Chinese or even Asian at all to be in similar straits, and by this I mean being single, educated, independent, and working all the time and being too busy to date, really.

All the Single Ladies: China's "Sheng Nu"

Well, given China's gender imbalance, this was inevitable.  As for sheng nu, the term is being translated as "leftover ladies."  Hey girls, we can all be childless unmarried monsters together!

Biden's Dipstick "Understanding" of China's Brutal One-Child Policy

Read this.  So the VP "understands" forced abortions, forced sterilizations, the ongoing violence against rural Chinese women, mass gendercide, and the demographic time bomb that's been the result?  Remember this and this?  Biden's a galaxy-class buffoon.  Won't someone tell him to keep his mouth shut?  

Asians Don't Count -- We're White

I've said this before, and it's true in practice ... and maddening.  Here's a fresh tale.  The term "minority" doesn't apply to Asians, even though statistically speaking, we make up the smallest segment of the American population.  You know I hate the diversity/identity politics/race-baiting/affirmative action game.  I also hate hypocrisy and cheating and rigging the game and double standards, and I say: how is this mess not basically racist discrimination against Asians?  PFFFFFFT.  Do you recall how in apartheid South Africa, Asians were counted as white?  UPDATE:  Also this.  

Human Trafficking and Gendercide in China

Disgusting ... yet somehow predictable in a place where "gendercide" is rampant.  Not, of course, that it increases respect for and appreciation of women as much as it ends up making girls more of an objectified commodity than before.  Ugh.

In another crackdown this month, police arrested 330 people suspected of involvement in the trafficking of baby girls, the newspaper said. The police operation took place across 14 provinces. 

... Women are sold to men in remote areas who are unable to find brides due to the sex imbalance resulting from China's one-child policy which has encouraged sex-selective abortions.

Nerd Notes: Researching Gendercide

Thoughts on the unnatural gender imbalance in Asia -- what some people call "gendercide," the selective abortion of girls.

Film Culture Commentary: Demographics, Marketing, and the Decline of Creative Storytelling

Read this and then definitely this.  Blurb:

... let's look ahead to what's on the menu for this year: four adaptations of comic books. One prequel to an adaptation of a comic book. One sequel to a sequel to a movie based on a toy. One sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a movie based on an amusement-park ride. One prequel to a remake. Two sequels to cartoons. One sequel to a comedy. An adaptation of a children's book. An adaptation of a Saturday-morning cartoon. One sequel with a 4 in the title. Two sequels with a 5 in the title. One sequel that, if it were inclined to use numbers, would have to have a 7 1/2 in the title.

Save us, Christopher "Inception" Nolan!

Quote of the Day: Profligacy in Government Expansion

Well, well, well ... a flash of common sense and reality?  

For years, it was assumed that a rapidly growing economy could pay for added programs. The result was the careless use of government for almost anything that made a good slogan or could support a lobby. The underlying economic assumptions were overoptimistic. Now, an aging society and uncontrolled health costs will automatically expand the size of government well beyond today's tax base. Demographics mean government will become supersized unless we trim its responsibilities.

We need a new public philosophy that acknowledges these realities.

Euro Notes: Europe's Easy Living is Unsustainable

The facts are not surprising. What is may be the fact that this appeared in the New York Times.

Here is a gloomy quoter from a 52-year-old Italian photographer, but it's applicable across all of western Europe:

“It’s going to go belly-up because no one will be around to fill the pension coffers. It’s not just me; this country has no future.”

The European model is failing, people. So why do you want to copy it?

Number One in the World!

Every country is best at something. Check out this glorious map from the always-fascinating site Information is Beautiful.

FYI, Taiwan is ranked #1 in the world for phalaenopsis orchids (and I can attest to the truth of it -- those gorgeous flowers are everywhere over there).

Japan, by the way, is #1 in the world for robots. No surprise there!

HopeChange Chronicles: Identity Politics for the November Ballox Box

Aaaaaand in the era of HopeChange and post-racial social harmony in the Age of Obamessiah, the man himself is apparently playing the race card for the 2010 elections -- since the Dems are facing plummeting popularity.

And Asians don't matter, apparently. I hate identity politics, but at the same time, I'm annoyed that Asians always vanish. You would think the only races in the entire country were white, black, and brown, and that's it. (Then again, given the way that Asians usually don't fit the narrative about minorities, we basically don't count as minorities -- need I bring up the lawsuits and ugliness in California education? Pffft.) If you want to talk about race, you should talk about ALL races. Or is that too complex and nuanced for your pat little prepackaged narrative?

You want to play cynical, reductive, divisive identity politics during interviews and do the demographic dance on the campaign trail? This independent, libertarian-minded, center-right, freedom-loving young Asian American woman refuses to participate. She's got real work to do. Go ahead. Call me a race/gender traitor. I dare you. I don't care.