Far East Cynic

Well, not really since, you can drink in Bahrain. Was pretty lucky today. Cathay Pacific upgraded me to business class so the ride out from Hong Kong was pretty good. I was able to put the seat back and actually get some sleep and cure my hangover jet lag. At least, I was able to make up for the sleep I did not get last night.

Went to Lan Kwai Fong last night and made the circuit of some of my favorite bars. For some reason , I always end up in Insomnia right about the time they play ” Its my life” by Bon Jovi. That’s fine with me, as being there in Hong Kong, drinking lots of beer doing the things I want to do, is my best revenge against the useless bastards who thought they had a right to interfere in my private life 8 years ago. The details I’m not prepared to go into here just yet, suffice it to say there are 2 useless excuses for medical / counseling professionals ( one of whom, sadly to say occupies a position of influence with Third Fleet) that I would be just as happy see them hit by a San Diego transit bus tomorrow. So as the band belts out the lyrics, I can take some smug satisfaction in the fact that despite their unethical and illegal actions (in concert with my ex which was the final straw), I survived and landed on my feet. Sucking down a cold beer and singing along with the crowd, is my symbolic way of letting them know, like Papillon, that, “I’m still here you greasy bastards!” :

This ain’t a song for the broken-hearted
A silent prayer for the faith-departed
I ain’t gonna be just a face in the crowd
You’re gonna hear my voice When I shout it out loud

Chorus: It’s my life
It’s now or never
I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive (It’s my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said I did it my way
I just wanna live while I’m alive
It’s my life

This is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow’s getting harder make no mistake
Luck ain’t even lucky Got to make your own breaks

Chorus: It’s my life And it’s now or never
I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive (It’s my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said I did it my way
I just want to live while I’m alive ‘Cause it’s my life
Better stand tall when they’re calling you out
Don’t bend, don’t break, baby, don’t back down

Chorus: It’s my life And it’s now or never ‘
Cause I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive (It’s my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said I did it my way
I just want to live while I’m alive

Chorus: It’s my life And it’s now or never
‘Cause I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive (It’s my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said I did it my way
just want to live while I’m alive
‘Cause it’s my life!

Of course after that, rather fired up, I decided go jump in the gene pool in Wanchai. Got home late (3 am!)…..so I was sleepy on the plane and I’m sleepy now. More to follow as I can get it out around my work.

Ja ne!

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Ah Narita airport. Site of unending construction, aircraft flying, lines in Immigration and dark gray skies. Back here again for a quick jaunt to Hong Kong then catch the express train plane to hell Bahrain. A week’s worth of work there, then hope to be able to buy Spike a beer or 4 in Hong Kong on the way back. Maybe I should ask him to introduce me to Tu…..maybe that’s not a good idea. But I’ll be back through in a week and the offer for a beer still stands.

I’ve said before I love traveling and I do. The crowds at the airport, free beer in the lounge ( a concept unheard of in America…..) and then board the plane. Always gets me excited. I woke up an hour and a half early this am and could not go back to sleep. Kind of like the kid on Christmas morning. Especially knowing I get to visit the “fragrant harbor”.

I have been watching the news coverage of Katrina. The blame game that is now being played out is interesting. It would be funny, if the whole thing were not so down right tragic. Was reading this morning that New Orleans actually had a plan to evacuate people but did not use it! Been trying to find the post I was reading this morning that had an actual link to the plan to use school busses but I cannot find it and there is a big guy standing behind me looking incredibly annoyed that I’ve over stayed my time typing this up. So trust me on this one and you can find links to the same story out there.

I’m not sure if this storm will be a blessing or a curse for Bush. Certainly I’m no fan the President and I think there are lots of things to criticize about him , but some of the charges that were made about Katrina are just moonshine. There is really only one thing I think you can criticize the President about here, and that is that he did make budget cuts to the Corps of Engineers to pay the cost of the war. The Army, like the other services had to sacrifice guns and butter to pay for George W’s Iraq fiasco adventure. So maybe more construction could have been done to the levees. However in the end its clear that the State of Louisiana and the City, simply did not follow the old adage of safety. “If there is doubt, then there is no doubt”. They should have been firing up the buses at the first sign of the storm coming any where near New Orleans. If they had, a lot more people could have been saved. Instead they opted for plan B: do nothing them blame everyone else. To blame Bush for the pace of the response is ludicrous. It takes time to assemble an effort like this and like it or not, when the military does these things they are “pick up” teams. Anybody who says,” well the Tsunami effort was quicker” wasn’t there watching the logistics effort spool up. It took 5 days to get sufficient aircraft to the region and longer to get the ships in position. (And the Navy was the first to get moving by the way, not the quiche eating service in light, pale blue—true story, no matter what the USAF says.). It will get better.

It is, however obscuring coverage of the war, which is something George Bush welcomes. He needs to be careful though, high fuel prices and bad war news coming in the run up to Christmas will put in back in the hot seat. Which is good. Its where he deserves to be. But blame the man for things he controls, not the things that are not his to influence. He did not get up one day and pray to God for a hurricane to strike New Orleans. I wish people would stop acting like he did.

Gotta run and go board the plane!

Skippy-san

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Pictures from my friend’s trip to Canada. He says he loved seeing the CN tower:

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Not much to say tonight, tomorrow is a work day up here. After going out to an Izikaya,(Japanese drinking restaurant) have had more than my fair share of beer and food. A good time, but now I’m sleepy.

Have been watching the Typhoon coverage down in Kyushu. Nagasaki and Kyushu are being hit hard. However, loss of life has been small:

Typhoon Nabi, whose name means “butterfly” in Korean, was traveling north-northwest at 15 kph (10 mph), heading directly for the densely populated southern island of Kyushu.

The Meteorological Agency expects Nabi to swerve to the east over the next 24 hours, putting it on course to batter much of Japan and southern and eastern parts of South Korea.

Television pictures showed coastal areas of Amami Oshima being engulfed by waves that national broadcaster NHK said were up to nine meters high.

At least four people were injured on Kyushu as the storm approached the island,
police said.

Japan’s top government spokesman, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said the country’s military, police, firefighters and coast guard were on standby.

Hundreds of flights in and out of Kyushu were canceled on Monday, NHK said. Trains were also canceled and expressways closed in southern parts of the island. Nearly 20,000 households were without electricity on Kyushu, NHK said.

South Korean airlines have canceled about two dozen domestic flights to its southern cities
due to high winds and airline officials said the number of cancellations would likely increase as the typhoon draws near.

South Korean weathermen said the worst of the typhoon would hit from about Tuesday afternoon

Comparisons with Katrina are invalid in my opinion because the populations are so different. Japan makes disaster preparedness a priority, and while it seems silly every year when they have “Disaster preparedness day”, it pays dividends at a time like now. Also because of the earth quake danger, while smaller, the homes are built sturdier. Give it a week and Kyushu will be back in business. The terrain is different also with lots of mountains which help disperse the storm. Certainly there are no levees to break.

Also Japan spends a lot of money on Civil Engineering projects, and at times like these the government overspending pays dividends. That type of government pork would not be acceptable, even by the standards of the current US Congress.

Still, perhaps there is a lesson here for the future. Preparedness pays. Gotta work tomorrow so need to sign off now…………

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Just read that Bush has nominated Roberts to be Chief Justice. How he could bypass, 7 sitting justices to promote a newcomer who has not even been confirmed for his previous nomination is beyond me. WTF?

Guess he never read about Abe Fortas while he was slouching his way through Yale………..

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I had a nice little post typed up about a nice day today when Blogger ate the damn thing. There is nothing more frustrating than going to hit “Publish Post” and getting the white screen of death! “Cannot find server” my ass!! Tried to recover in the history file, no chance paddles, you’re screwed!

Anyway, if I can remember it all, I had a nice day today. Thanks to the incompetence of the people at blogger, I lost my nice words about driving up to Aomori City today. Now its 3 beers later and I’m struggling to remember my brilliant prose. It was a nice drive through some pretty countryside. Ended up heading up to the city parallel to the coastline so got to see about all of the harbor. We walked around the central city and the S.O. dragged me to literally every pottery and China shop within walking distance. However when I tried to sneak away to a manga shop while she looked at Arita plates…..well that did not set well. GRRR!!! (Pictures to follow…and the Manga was good. Pretty risque stuff.)

I’ve found a new toy I have to buy. The rental car we have is equipped with a GPS car map system. It made life a lot easier when the S.O. could not remember the lousy directions here friend had given her. Add to that the fact that she has a TERRIBLE sense of direction and really cannot master maps. Had I left it to her we would probably still be on the road. However thanks to the Pioneer corporation and some unsung engineers we were back in business in no time:

When it became apparent that she did not know where we were going, I stopped the car and fell back on my Navy training. Read the instructions (which were in Japanese…a feat unto itself for me!) , programmed in some waypoints and then proceeded to fly drive on instruments. Arrived on time with no further delays. Wish I had access to one of these 28 years ago when I was in the training command trying to learn how to do point to points! And unlike the training command, there was no instructor yelling at me, “What the F**K are you doing?”; rather a cute female voice telling when to turn at the next waypoint. ( You could even pick one of 6 cartoon ladies to put on the screen, is this a great country or what!) Everything on the map was in Japanese, but fortunately I can read enough to figure things out. When I needed to I turned to the S.O. and said, “what’s that?”. Proves the 4 “ates” still work: aviate, navigate, communicate and radiate.

Despite it all we both had a good day.Ate ramen for lunch and went to some of the city’s highlights. (there are not that many). Then this evening, a friend of mine who works at Misawa invited us to the fireworks they had on the beach on the north side of the base. It was great because of the water and the fact that it was in the country, you could see them very clearly. They even had music to go along, including one of my favorites at the end:

If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.
I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

Yea, I may loving living in Asia and intend to do so for a lot longer, there will always be a blue passport in my possession. That particular song still chokes me up. And today, Labor Day, it may be a fitting song to think about when so many Americans are overseas doing thankless jobs as well as those in the US doing their best to fix a mess they did not create. So tonight, lets remember them.

Hope I got this right. First time around the words flowed like butter off a knife. Anybody got any suggestions how to do better than Blogger?

Skippy-san

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Trip up on the Shin was great! I still have yet to understand why within 40 minutes of boarding any train, I am fast asleep. Both me and the S.O. heads on each others shoulders sawing logs while the country side went whizzing by. Got some good pix, but I have to get a cable for my digital camera.

However, the bad news is the Typhoon figured out I’m up here and has decided to chase me:

Great, so much for golf weather Wednesday!

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Just found out that William Rehnquist has died. Sad news for America, because I always felt he did an excellent job navigating the judicial minefield that both parties had created by asking the courts to support their political agendas. A great man. May God give you rest and peace.

The drama of picking his replacement will now begin. There are some big shoes to fill:

Saturday night, Ruth Wedgwood, a constitutional lawyer and close friend of Rehnquist, said, “He was an interesting man. He had an interesting life. Over time, I think he became a much more unifying figure in the court.”

His death, she said, puts a “great burden” on the Senate,which will be responsible for confirming a replacement.

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I hear the train a comin’
It’s rollin’ ’round the bend,
And I ain’t seen the sunshine,
Since, I don’t know when,
I’m stuck in Folsom Prison,
And time keeps draggin’ on,
But that train keeps a-rollin’,
On down to San Antone.–Johnny Cash

Thank God I’m not in Folsom prison , but I do like trains. So today I’m jumping on the Shinkansen (Bullet train) and heading up to Aomori Prefecture. Even taking the S.O. along.

I’ve always loved trains and while I could fly up there, I almost invariably take the train when I can. People always ask me why as its not an inexpensive proposition (13,000 yen one way….X 2 since I had to buy the S.O.’s ticket). It takes 3 hours which is about the same as a plane when you factor in check in and security.

For me, its just more fun! Why do I ride the train? Because I can. America will never have a rail service like Japan’s and I don’t like driving long distances.

So there may not so many posts for a while depending on internet access. I’ll post some pictures when I get back though…before I leave for Hong Kong!

Skippy-san

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The Nancy Kissel case is over. The papers having wrung every bit of juicy newsprint out if they could, are now free to go back to their normal pursuits. As for Nancy, well she probably needs to take up reading and become friendly with the prison matron…..she is going to be there a long, long, time:

A Hong Kong jury Thursday convicted an American of murdering her wealthy investment banker husband by drugging him with a milkshake laced with sedatives
and beating him to death in the couple’s luxury apartment.

Nancy Kissel — dressed in black, as she has been throughout the trial — was expressionless as the seven-member jury returned the verdict in the November 2003 death of her husband, Robert, of New York. The conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. Defense lawyer Alexander King, who argued that his client killed her husband in self-defense and was the victim of abusive sex, refused to say whether she would appeal.

The verdict in what became known as the “Milkshake Murder” trial came after dozens of witnesses spent nearly three months testifying in one of Hong Kong’s
longest and most high-profile murder trials. The often sensational testimony about abusive sex, adultery, cocaine and money gave the public a rare peek inside the private life of a wealthy foreign couple.

Robert Kissel’s father, William, said he was thrilled by the verdict. “It’s a 65-day trial and it’s unanimous. That’s justice,” he said. “All the allegations made in the court (about Robert) are false, untrue,” William Kissel added. “And Robert, I pray, can now rest in peace and his children can go on with their lives in peace knowing their father loved them and they are his dear children.”

Nancy Kissel’s mother, Jean McGlothlin, said: “Right now, I’m just going to try and get by.”The prosecution portrayed the 41-year-old defendant as a cold-blooded killer who murdered her husband — a top investment banker at Merrill Lynch — as he prepared to divorce her and seek custody of their three children. Robert Kissel, 40, was furious that his wife had an affair with a repairman who lived in a trailer park near the couple’s vacation home in Vermont, the prosecution said.But the defense argued that the husband was an abusive workaholic who snorted cocaine and often forcefully sodomized his wife, driving her to seek comfort from a lover. It said Nancy Kissel, who was born in Adrian, Michigan, and also lived in Minneapolis, killed her husband in self-defense as he was attacking her with a baseball bat during an argument.The prosecution said she tried to cover up the crime by rolling up her husband’s body in a rug and having it hauled away to a storage locker rented by thecouple.Nancy Kissel testified that she couldn’t clearly remember what happened following her husband’s death. Investigators found his body in the storage locker two days after the killing.

She definitely will not be playing golf in Florida………..

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Another week, another typhoon. That’s right, Typhoon Nabi is bearing down on Okinawa and is disrupting our carefully planned effort to get stuff moved to the Philippines and Utapao. It’s also putting a crimp in my plans to play some golf before going up to the Tohoku region for a change of scenery. Plus, like Katrina, this storm is a strong one:

If you have good eyesight you can read in the right hand table that winds are projected to be over 150 miles per hour. And it is bearing down on Kadena. Ergo most of my day was spent figuring out how to get people and cargo in and out of Kadena before the USAF pogues closed the field and began locking the hangar doors……

And if it should, as has happened before, turn Northeast………Oh boy!

In other news, Stars and Stripes ran the following front page:

Its not the top headline I want you to read, its the bottom one!

This article is about married couples serving together in Iraq and unable to have sex. Call me old fashioned, but why in the F**K is this an issue?!?! Can anyone tell me why the Army is assigning married couples to the same unit?! I thought there were prohibitions against that in law, and service regulation?! WTF? It would seem to me the Army would be able to work around this by assigning couples to different units on different rotations…….That used to be the way it worked in the Navy. Or have all the services been watching too much Star Trek lately? Maybe in the Federation, it works ok, but in the real world, its full of unneeded complications………..

Sounds like its time to head for the refigerator:

Oh well, only a week to go and I’ll be in Hong Kong, walking up through Lan Kwai Fong looking for these:

Have to wait to see how the hunting goes!

Wanted to post some good news today! For bad news, well, there is always time.

Skippy-san

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