I was on the road yesterday but did not forget that it was the 31st year after the death of Vincent Chin.
On a day when Edward Snowden continues his trek for freedom, another Giants loss, and a week of monumental constitutional decisions, there was little time on the news spent marking Chin’s story.
Check out my piece on the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund blog to read my column based on the interview with Chin’s killer, first posted last year, the 30th anniversary of his murder.
Just as the news broke yesterday about the National Security Agency’s monitoring of common Americans, I was paying my Verizon bill, wireless and residential, and on-line yet. (Yes, I live in one of those godforsaken areas that was part of the GTE monopoly that became Verizon).
For a second, I thought about not paying the bill out of protest. But then I figured maybe the government might be concerned if they couldn’t keep tabs on me. They might miss me or think the worst, like maybe that I have gone over to the dark side—joining those who really want privacy in this overexposed, everything out-in-the-open-kind-of-world.
I think that is soon to become the hipper thing these days, anyway.
When everyone zigs, it’s cooler to zag.
Instead of living life so openly, secrecy will be in-in-in. Would Garbo have a Facebook page? Never. And the smart ones won’t.
But don’t tell anyone about it yet. Let’s keep it secret so it will be even hipper. Top Secret. Like the NSA surveillance actions.
Just think of all the stylish changes that will occur. We will all have to meet in person, running around in trench coats, the new look. Fedoras too? Maybe even self-destructing cell phones like in “Mission Impossible.”
The trend toward secrecy is already going strong. How many passwords do you have? And all those e-mail aliases? All that on-line secrecy stuff means we are all being prepped for a life of duplicity–in real life.
Now we have to think about protecting ourselves–from the government.
The government already knows a lot about me. But I guess that isn’t enough.
Maybe this is really a ploy to keep foreigners from wanting to immigrate here. Seems extreme. But so did government’s wholesale surveillance of Americans’ communications records.
Here’s what the U.S. is telling all those potential immigrants—it was as clear as a text message from Verizon Wireless:
Dear Visa Applicant:
Stay home. Yankee Freedom? It’s an illusion.
You won’t really have the freedom here that you think you’ll have.
Have faith in the Third World. We’ll send our American fast-food and products over to you, because you are a market for our companies. But you folks coming here? For what? Freedom? Don’t believe everything you read in Captain America comic books. (We’ve seen his phone records, by-the-way). Honestly, you may have all the freedom you really need right where you are.
It’s all relative.
Do you really want to give up all the great things you have in (insert Third-World country here)?
Signed, your friends at Not-Your-Homeland-Security
UPDATE:
You can read my thoughts on Snowden, the LEAKER (I guess he’s more leaker than whistleblower, but let the AP Stylists debate that). The question really is has he done a service to all freedom loving Americans, or is he a traitor?
One thing I know is my reaction to Snowden is markedly different than it was to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. In fact, my knee jerk reaction was to side with the GOVERNMENT. How dare we be so violated, right?
The idea of the leaks seemed intrusive. But as we found, those leaks were so broad and nebulous that there was still a lot of sifting to be done for some real nuggets. As a result, I’m not sure if anything really came out of those leaks that really made an impact in my life.
And that’s the difference. Snowden’s leaks are a direct affront on American civil liberties. The NSA’s actions, while broad, touch me as a Verizon customer. I don’t have to wonder whether Gadhafi’s sexual escapades really matter. I know that in a broad collection of data, my digits are caught in the net. That’s not the way it should work in America. Maybe all the young techies who live in full public view in social media don’t mind, but people who remember and value privacy, as well as those who value the freedoms given to us by the constitution, need to be heard from now.
All the bullpen talk over the last few days must have done something to Tim Lincecum.
But he won’t let anyone think that.
The one-time, unquestioned Giants ace turned in a throwback performance—a solid 7-inning start, his best since Mother’s Day (May 12)–holding the Toronto Blue Jays to just one run on three hits, walking just one batter, and striking out six.
Lincecum was in control. In 100-pitches, 61 for strikes, he showed everyone why he’s not quite ready to be relegated to the pen.
Later, Lincecum insisted that news reports where he discussed a bullpen move weren’t on his mind on this night, when he was just focused on being a good starter.
That, he was.
It wasn’t exactly an auspicious start. Lincecum was ahead of Former Giant Melky Cabrera 1-2 but then gave up a single. The defense saved him with a 6-4-3-double play. But then the next batter, Edwin Encarnacion hit a 1-0 fastball into centerfield for his 17th home-run of the year to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.
Lincecum later said that pitch to Encarnacion was a “good pitch,” not a mistake. “You tip your cap to him,” said Lincecum. “And you move on.”
But with 2-out and clean-up hitter Adam Lind coming up, would it be the beginning of that typical Lincecum pattern this year of the one-big inning, early?
Not on this night.
Lincecum restored confidence striking out Lind on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
And then the Giants, as they have most of this season, came back to pick-up Lincecum. In the bottom of the second, Andres Torres hit a 1-1 pitch from Toronto’s Josh Johnson on a line over the centerfield wall. Hunter Pence, who had singled, scored ahead of him to make it 2-1.
That’s all they needed, as Lincecum was ready to throw a gem of a game.
In the second, despite a hard hit ball by Toronto’s Colby Rasmus, it was a quick three-batter inning. As was the 3rd.
The 4th.
The 5th.
And the 7th.
The noticeable exception was the 6th. He faced one more batter. The inning started creakily, with Lincecum giving up his lone walk of the game with one-out–to his opposing pitcher Josh Johnson. Pitchers are supposed to be outs, as Lincecum has acknowledged in the past.
Would it be his undoing in a close one-run game?
Cabrera, the former hero and doper, who had been dodging boos and indifference all night from conflicted fans, then singled to right.
But then it was Lincecum against the dangerous former home-run champion, Jose Bautista.
Bautista hit a liner to Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who quickly relayed to second baseman Marco Scutaro to get the lead runner Johnson.
Scutaro had the ball for split second, then in a scooping motion with his gloved, dropped the ball.
Did he hold it long enough? Did he even beat Johnson to the bag? Second base umpire Alfonso Marquez said he did, though Blue Jays skipper John Gibbons continued arguing as the inning ended . Giants Manager Bruce Bochy later said he’d probably be out there arguing too. But he thought Johnson was out.
With solid defense behind Lincecum like that double play, and hard hit fly balls to left run down by Torres, Lincecum shutdown the Blue Jays methodically. He had the fast-ball command early, and got his slider and change-up over for strikes.
The bull-pen came in to hold the game with Affeldt in the 8th, and Romo in the 9th. The closer needed 20 pitches to get the Blue Jays’ heart of the order out.
But even in the final inning, the Jays were a threat, with the tying run on first, and the winning run at the plate in the person of Edwin Encarnacion.
The Blue Jay slugger’s 17th homerun in the first inning was his team’s only run. His soft liner to second base would be its last out.
So the Giants bullpen did its job.
And for a change, so did the Giants starter named Lincecum.
A lipstick-smeared president marked the end of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in the East Room. He paid tribute to the contributions the AAPI community has made to the country, hailed the importance of immigration to America and called for lawmakers to find a way to fix today’s broken system. But before he could get to the tributes or the praise, he had to explain away the red smear on his right collar. After greeting the almost 300 in the audience with “Aloha,” he praised the warmth of their welcome. “A sign of the warmth,” he said, is “the lipstick on my collar.” He blamed the aunt of Jessica Sanchez. Sanchez, of Chula Vista, Calif., was the runner-up in the 11th season of American Idol. Making sure everybody could see the offending mark, the president pivoted, pointed to it and said, “Look at this.” He added, “I do not want to be in trouble with Michelle, so I am calling you out.”
