2021-04-19 Meetings all day

9:00 a.m., I started yesterday being the moderator of a private event with a North Korean refugee. It was easy, I just had to do the intro, then handle Q&A.

10:05 a.m., I had a mentoring session with a North Korean refugee staffer.

10:55 a.m., I gave a speech to high school students about FSI. Mentoring speakers has also helped me sharpen my own public speaking.

12 noon, I had a mentoring session with the refugee speaker from the 9 am session to review her speech. She apologizes, thinking she might be stealing too much of my time, but when there is someone eager to learn then it is hard for a teacher or mentor to say "no."

1:30 pm, the co-founders went to the bank to handle some official organization business.

2:00 pm, lunch.

2:30 pm, A future North Korean refugee author came to visit me to get advice about her book.

3:45 pm, I had a mentoring session with a North Korean refugee staffer about her tasks yesterday.

4:45 p.m., Eunkoo Lee and I had an interview with a high school student in the FSI Global High School Union, the student is writing an article for her journalism class.

6:00 pm, I finished editing a newsletter being put together by a high school student.

7:00 pm, edited a speech by one of FSI's Keynote speakers.

8:00 p.m., I finally got to work on a new project, I worked on that until 12:30 a.m., wrapped around answering various messages and requests.

12:40 a.m., I received a message from a staffer, she had been working late. She sent me about 20 PDFs related to a project.

And other stuff, such as planning for our May 15th conference, answering many messages from people, including some people who are impatient that I didn't answer their messages and some people who want to chitchat with me like I have retired. Lots of work, but I didn't focus on fundraising, marketing, and other things to build up the organization.

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Manufactured cases

My former Cato Institute colleague Bob Levy is profiled by the Associated Press for his role in the challenge to the DC gun ban. One great thing about Levy is that he tells it like it is. As the article quotes: And Levy freely admits the case is manufactured, not one that bubbled up by chance from the district's steady flow of criminal cases involving guns. He wanted presentable plaintiffs to make a case for gun rights, not criminals. "We didn't want crack heads and bank robbers to be poster boys for the Second Amendment," he said. Is there a problem with this case being manufactured? I heard a talking head on the radio complaining a while ago that this case wasn't from real DC residents, that it was from outsiders. What's wrong with that? There may be some times that it takes an outsider to challenge an injustice or bad law. Did DC residents claim that Martin Luther King Jr. was an outsider who should have minded his own business? And about the case being ...

2020-11-26 My basketball story

This photo was uploaded today by my aunt Annette. This was back in the day, when 1) I had a head full of hair and 2) played basketball a lot. That first year of playing organized basketball, I focused on playing defense. It seemed that everyone wanted to shoot the ball, so I passed the ball and played defense. I probably led the league in steals, rebounds and blocked shots. I enjoyed taking on the best player from the other team, I felt like I would get better, quickly. The second year, I was a different player. I will never forget the first game that second year--we lost 29 to 26, I scored 18 points. I probably led the universe in scoring that second year, although we didn't win much. One thing I learned from that experience is that one great player 9 (at least in his own mind) can't beat a team. An eye injury ended my pro career before it began, to this day I still have floaters in my eyes because of the injury. I started wearing glasses, but the problem never went away. On t...

"Yoegi Anjuseyo!"

* I have a short reflection in today's Korea Times about an encounter with an unfriendly looking Korean man on the subway. It was a reminder not to be too quick in judging people in Korea. 09-13-2011 16:47 'Yeogi Anjeuseyo!' By Casey Lartigue Jr. The recent incident in which an American English teacher bullied an elderly Korean man and other passengers on the bus reminded me of a more pleasing incident from years ago. I was on the subway, taking the train outside of Seoul for a work assignment. I have the habit of standing on the subway to strategically position myself near the doors in case my stop magically appears. On that particular day, there was a Korean man STARING at me. Not just looking at me, but intensely staring at me. He had an incredible frown on his face. Not just for one stop, but for several stops the guy just kept staring at me. If I had known more Korean then I would have been able to curse him ...

Rich talking back

The rich are talked about very often in negative terms, but how often do the rich respond in kind? Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who inherited most of her money but apparently has also done very well with it, recently railed against class warfare and had some advice for the non-rich : "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she writes. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working." She complained about politicians raising taxes, regulations that slow investment, and other anti-business policies that harm the poor. "If you want to help the poor and our next generation, make investment, reinvenstment and businesses welcome."

Park Jin welcoming remarks to FSI (and Casey Lartigue)

National Assembly member Park Jin makes the welcoming remarks at FSI's conference featuring North Korean diplomats. Park Jin | Greeting message to FSI and Casey Lartigue mention - YouTube

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