A little while ago I think I mentioned that we were working on a follow-up to episode 061222-01, Ehren Watada: a Soldier Refuses an Illegal War. The follow-up was basically an analysis of Lt. Watada’s rationale for refusing to deploy. As we were working on it, we looked at hundreds of responses to his statements on the internet and in newspapers, and based on this started diagramming out what kind of stuff we kept on seeing over and over again. We were looking for patterns. And what we saw was that there seems to be one overriding question that people want to know: “Is the U.S. invasion of Iraq legal or not?”. No disrespect intended towards Lt. Watada, but we think that knowing the answer to this question is even more important than the other question that keeps popping up - namely, “Are officers in the military allowed (or even obligated) to refuse orders if they are, in fact, illegal orders?” Of course the two questions are connected, but in the interest of keeping the episode easy to follow, we decided to change direction a bit and try to get to the bottom of the first question rather than the second. The current working title of the episode is now The War in Iraq: Legal or Illegal? - or something like that.

Speaking of Ehren Watada, today is the first day of his court-marshal trial at Fort Lewis, Washington. All of us here at The Pinky Show are praying that he receives a fair trial. One thing that especially concerns us is that we heard that the Army has in advance disallowed any presentation of evidence as to why Lt. Watada refused deployment. The presiding Army judge, Lt. Col. John Head, has stated publicly that he considers the reasons behind his actions as “irrelevant”. Maybe the Army has learned something from the Pablo Paredes trial…

Last Thursday (February 1) I interviewed John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy. I asked him some things about nuclear weapons; I think I really learned a lot. Anyway, we’re almost done putting that episode together. Unless we run into some unforseen problems or difficulties, it should be on our site in about a week. The Iraq War one I just mentioned above probably won’t be done for another couple weeks …at least. We want to be as careful as possible about getting all our information in order, checked, and double-checked before we release stuff.

~ pinky

Bunny and I have been closely following the feedback we’ve received for the Ehren Watada episode we posted at YouTube.

We’re not surprised that there’s been negative responses. But what was really eye-opening for us was the feeling of rage and hate that dominates the language of the negative feedback. There’s not much reasoning going on, not much analysis or argument. Mostly name-calling, racist epithets, and exclamations of self-evident ‘truth’. It’s weird how people can sound so sure of what they believe even though it appears (based on the logical gaps and misinformation in the responses themselves) that they haven’t done much research into the matter. So bizarre: If someone doesn’t make the effort to sort out the facts and historical foundation of a given situation, why would they then feel justified in expressing their position with such simplistic and self-assured language?

Until we’ve done the research on any given subject, it’s actually pretty obvious that we don’t have enough information to form a well-informed opinion on that subject. In other words, until we do some kind of inquiry into the matter, we are, by definition, ignorant. I don’t think there’s anything embarrassing about admitting that.

So how come so many people think it’s okay to make hurtful declarations, directed at an individual or a group of people, based on nothing but stereotype and preconception? Isn’t it useful to think carefully about where and how we learn the things that we are positive we ‘know’?

Probably until the day I die I am never going to understand how it came to be that human beings can have so little compassion for each other. I can understand that somebody who is very smart can review all the same information that Lt. Watada did, and then come to the conclusion that he should be sent to prison. After doing some research, I can say that I’ve actually come to the opposite conclusion, but to be real, of course I believe that it’s also possible to see things differently. If I disagree with you and it’s important enough, I’ll try my best to try to convince you that you should think differently. And maybe there are even some situations where I might even fight you for what I believe in.

But I hope I will never take pleasure in dehumanizing a human being. I doubt there has ever been anything good to come out of reacting to a situation clouded by hate and hasty judgement. What are the benefits of strong, decisive action based on misinformation or misconceptions?

I’ve been told that human beings should try to respect each other - not just when they are alike, but especially when they are different. Does this also apply to differences caused by the holding of different ideas?

The self-assured believer is a greater sinner in the eyes of God than the troubled disbeliever. - Soren Kierkegaard

I doubt that many of the people who are directing the most scathing words toward Lt. Watada could bear the emotional weight of a million people’s animosity for even one day. And if that concept seems hard to even imagine, then I think that means something too.

~ pinky

I was poking around Nancy Snow’s website and found this quote.

Almost all of us long for peace and freedom; but very few of us have much enthusiasm for the thoughts, feelings and actions that make for peace and freedom. Conversely almost nobody wants war or tyranny; but a great many people find an intense pleasure in the thoughts, feelings, and actions that make for war and tyranny. - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Good quote. Before I’m gone I’d like to have a deeper understanding of ‘why’.

~ pinky

p.s. It’s 8:45pm and the newswire says that the court-martial of Lt. Watada has been declared a mistrial. Not much information yet - I’m so curious about the details. All I’ve heard so far is that a new trail is set for March 19.

Exactly one month ago, I posted our (then) production cue:

“…two new blurbs; a follow-up Q&A episode to the Lt. Watada episode (061222-01); an episode about pollution in the Pacific Ocean; a tutorial on how to videotape an interview; a mini-biography episode (Bunny’s current pet project); and hopefully, if we can coordinate it, an episode about nuclear non-proliferation.”

Well, the two blurbs were done (Thomas Edison Hates Cats, and Ant: Light Pollution) and we’re almost done with a third. The Lt. Watada Pt. II episode morphed into the Iraq War: Legal or Illegal? episode (approx. 2 weeks from completion). Bunny is still working on her mini-biography episode (according to Bunny ETA is “March-ish”) and who knows when the Pacific Ocean one will get done (that one is actually being worked on by a friend of ours, so…?). But we did finish the episode on nuclear weapons last night - it’s called 27,000 Holocausts. Special thanks to Dr. John Burroughs, Executive Director of Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy. I thought he was very clear and easy to understand so I’m happy with the way it came out.

Anyway, after we bring our current production batch to a conclusion, I think I’d like to make an effort to work on some episodes or blurbs that maybe aren’t so ‘dark’. It’s not that I think nuclear weapons or war aren’t important enough to keep making new episodes about - of course they are, and we plan on making lots more episodes on these kinds of subject matter. But when we started this Pinky Show project Bunny and I also had lots of ideas for episodes that were about pop culture, the arts, education, traveling, and things like that. We really like that kind of stuff too. But I guess with the war going on our minds have been sort of preoccupied with the more overtly political subjects. So anyway, I guess I’m just writing this entry as a way to remind myself that we shouldn’t forget to do some ‘non-war’ episodes soon.

~ pinky

Today is the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar, year 4705. As such it’s the Year of the Boar (a.k.a. Year of the Pig). According to the Wikipedia entry, many people traditionally don’t eat meat (animals) on the first day of the new year in order to insure greater longevity for themselves. I don’t know if that really works or not, but at the very least I’m sure it’s appreciated by all the animals that would have otherwise been eaten today. To be on the safe side I would have liked to have avoided eating any animal-related food today too but by the time I read the Wikipedia stuff I had already eaten some dried fish (I think that was fish). So I guess no longevity for me.

Hmm, looking at the Wikipedia pictures of Jiaozi (饺子) makes me hungry…

Bunny has a new hobby. She is now sewing dolls. The way this came about is that we were down by the highway looking for things to eat (as usual) and while we were there we came across a large plastic bag with lots of smaller packages of different colored fabric remnants in it. We’re thinking it fell off a delivery truck. Anyway the four of us dragged the whole thing back to our trailer (very tiring). Bunny started cutting out pieces right after and now she is sewing them together in the shape of cats. I will post a picture of one when she is done. Me, I’m not really into sewing. It looks relaxing but I can’t get the hang of tying knots.

I think since this is the beginning of a new year, I would like to start a new hobby too. I’m going to try to decide on one before I go to sleep tonight.

~ pinky

After thinking about it some more, I’ve decided to stop eating other animals. I don’t know about milk & eggs though, I’ll have to look into that some more. ~ pinky

After thinking about it for a couple of days, I decided that my new hobby is going to be learning how to speak Chinese. The hardest part was trying to decide which language to learn - there are others that I also like the way they sound (German, Hawaiian, Navajo, Spanish, etc.). Bunny suggested that I learn them all at the same time but I thought that’d be too difficult. In the end I just decided to go in alphabetical order. This is in addition to my already-hobbies: reading, documenting stuff, and learning to play bass guitar.

Bunny’s new hobby (doll-making) is going pretty good. Here is the first one, finished last night.

I put the light bulbs next to it so you can see how big it is. There were some parts of it she wasn’t happy with so now she’s working on a revised version. [ Bunny: This doll came out too narrow. I didn’t realize it’d lose width when I stuffed it. The revised doll will be a more accurate representation of Pinky - i.e., ‘fatter’. ]

For those of you who’ve been asking when we’re going to finish the next episode, please rest assured that we’re not spending all our time sewing dolls and watching subtitled kung-fu movies. This hobby stuff is just what we do to ‘relax’ after our work-day is over. We still work on episodes 7 days a week.

~ pinky

I’ve been thinking about a small thing that happened last week. The four of us (me, Bunny, Kim, & Mimi) decided to go down to town to try to find some food. Before we left Kim and Mimi kind of got into a disagreement - Kim was going to bring her airplane along with her and Mimi said something like:

Mimi: Why don’t you leave the toy at home?
Kim: I want to play with it while we’re walking there and back…
Mimi: If you’re holding your airplane you can’t carry food.
Kim: I can carry food and the airplane.
Mimi: You won’t be able to carry as much food.
Kim: Yes I can, etc., etc.

So anyway Kim ended up bringing the airplane and guess what? After three hours of going through dozens and dozens of dumpsters and trash cans all over Baker, CA - we’re finally heading back home when Kim suddenly stops and says “Hey! Where’s my airplane?!?” She didn’t have her airplane anymore. She left it somewhere; we’d been all over town and it could have been anywhere. So we walked back to Baker and started looking in all the places we’d been. As you can imagine, Kim was in a near-panic and Mimi was quiet but visibly grouchy.

We finally found the airplane, or what was left of it, in the parking lot of the Bun Boy Restaurant. A car had run over it and it was flat and smashed into lots of small pieces. Kim started crying and I had to carry her home. I think at that point even Mimi was feeling really bad for her because that airplane was her absolute favorite - she was always playing with it.

When we got home Kim wandered off for a while but she came back the next morning. She told us that she decided she’s not going to play with toys anymore because she doesn’t want to lose any more toys. Mimi said that wasn’t necessary and she just needs to be more responsible and leave her toys at home from now on.

I don’t know if Kim is going to give up toys for real, but I think I can kind of understand why she said that. Maybe it’s not good to have anything that’s so precious that losing it would devastate you.

~ pinky

In the past few months the number of people watching The Pinky Show has been increasingly quite a bit. And with more viewers we’ve also been getting more e-mails. Some of them include what I think are ‘odd’ questions (I don’t mind). Like this one:

Dear Pinky,

Are you and the others all strays? Did you used to be owned by anybody? I’m curious because I have a cat named Tanya and I was wondering if she too may be considering making a break for it too!

Elizabeth
Manning, TX

I feel pretty conflicted about human beings. On one hand I’m generally not impressed with the way human beings treat animals. On the other hand I’m sure there are lots of people out there that are capable of having a mutually respectful relationship with a cat. I consider each person on an individual basis.

But to answer Elizabeth’s question, “yes we are strays” (though we prefer the term ‘dissociated’). My personal history is a bit murky - but here’s everything I know: I was born somewhere on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. When I stopped being a kitten I was taken to and left at the Humane Society, where I was then ‘adopted’ by some nice people and taken to live in a house. (trivia: According to Humane Society records, my original name was ‘Georgia’.) Anyway I stayed there, living in relative luxury for a couple of years, before leaving for Los Angeles in 2004. So I guess you can say that regarding living arrangements and human beings I’ve been ‘mostly dissociated since 2004′. I say ‘mostly’ because I still correspond with my last human being family (who actually helps us with some aspects of The Pinky Show) - unlike Bunny, Kim, and Mimi who were VERY HAPPY to leave their humans behind. Tanya - if you are considering “making a break for it”, please be sure to have a plan beforehand - it’s an extremely dangerous world out here (for cats).

Bunny has been very focused on her doll making and is making good progress (the reviews have been mixed - I think they look really good, Mimi says they are ‘creepy’). I, on the other hand, have done only one lesson of Chinese (Mandarin) and that’s all. That language is so difficult it’s not even funny. The pronunciation is a killer and it has different intonations you have to remember for each syllable. It’s so hard I’ve even been practicing my bass guitar extra as a way of avoiding practicing my Chinese. :P

Dolls v2.0: Click on the picture to pop-up a bigger version.

~ pinky