Did not realize my last post had published! That was a little premature. I apologize for the lack of updates. Truth is, without a camera its hard to make interest of my life in Taiwan. It's been a couple of months now and things are neither perfect nor terrible; my life has has once again taken its inevitable dip into mediocrity! Fear not, though. I recently received my d7000 and have been taking pictures diligently. Will you see any of those pictures on this post? Not likely! But it's in the works, as soon as I figure out how to change my f(stops). So, let's talk politics. Last week was the primary elections over here in Taiwan. Ma Ying-Jeou, the incumbent, won over Tsai Yin-Wen, the challenger. My parents came over to vote in the elections and stuck around for Chinese New Year. They both breathed a selective sigh of relief when Ma was reelected. Politics out here are very partisan. The 'main issue' is Taiwanese Independence or lack thereof - should Taiwan declare itself a sovereign state, or should the Republic of China status quo continue? I don't think either party was as seriously ideological as they try to claim to be. The reality is Taiwan is stuck between the United States and China. They really can't realistically do something as drastic as declare full independence because China would then fire all ze missiles! On the other hand, I'm not really sure the KMT really wants to fully reintegrate with the mainland, at least not anytime soon. It's been a couple of generations. Under Ma, trade with the mainland has reached unprecedented levels. Both nations seem to be reaping the benefits of cooperation. Every businessman I've met here in Taipei does business in China. The younger (people my age) generation doesn't even fetishize Taiwanese/Chinese Identity to the extremes the past generation has. Why would they? All of them were born in Taiwan, and so were their parents. Thing'll change when we (they) become the ruling generation. It won't be that big of a deal. Obama's State of the Union was today. I think he did a pretty good job. I think he's been doing a pretty damn good job so far. I think he's done some amazing things, like reform healthcare, kill some motherfucking terrorists, and help end bigotry. As far as the economy goes: well, he's doing the best he can. It's mostly out of his hands, anyway. Economies are cyclical, they always go up and down. In the end it's about who gets elected into office at the right time to claim the credit. The economy is going to get better in the next four years. If the Republicans win, they'll take all the credit and then probably fuck it all up again. That's basically how we got into the mess we're in right now. Bush Jr inherited an economy in pretty good shape, cut taxes for the rich, faced a recession thanks to 9/11, lowered regulations, declared two wars and drained our entire surplus in the process. Deficit, housing crisis, Obama gets elected into office, has to clean up the mess. Spends first term trying to reform healthcare (which history will ultimately judge as a good thing, I'd bet my hat on) and runs out of time and votes as the Republicans come back into the House and begin to stonewall him on everything. Isn't it funny that for the past two cycles we've had democratic presidents spur the economy only for the republicans to sweep into office, take all the credit, and then royally fuck it up again? Isn't it ironic that the ones railing loudest against our big huge fucking deficit are the ones that approved spending all that money in the first place? Isn't it strange to think that it's been in the Republican-controlled Congress' best interest to do jack-shit in order to fuck up Obama's approval rating because-obviously-he-isn't-doing-anything-about-the-economy so they can win the executive again? Isn't it sad that it all may happen again? Makes me feel really cynical about politics. I've always said I'm a pretty moderate guy. Socially liberal fiscally conservative, don't-give-a-fuckism. But man, the current state of affairs really makes me sad. I think Newt and Romney both can do an okay job. Romney is a closet moderate and Newt is kind of a pragmatic asshole who nonetheless will do some good shit - probably while fucking around on his tenth wife. (There's a joke about Newt being more Mormon than Romney in there somewhere). Regardless, all three have to work within the confines of the system our modern world has propped up. Western hegemony and all that; money talks, the commies lost. The only one serious about changing that is Paul, and that's why everyone is calling him a nutjob when they're not busy ignoring him. Real change is scary. Btw, how fucked up is this super-PAC thing?! More like super-TROLLS mirite? FUCK if I don't want to see Obama succeed! I want him to get another term so he can be all smug as hell when the economy recovers and put his cool shades and be like fuck yeah I'm boss. But it might not happen because he's black. | 
