Far East Cynic

I came across this article the other week in the Japan Times. Its a pretty good piece of satire about Tokyo’s governor, Shintaro Ishihara. It is reprinted here for your enjoyment from the October 4 edition of the Japan Times:

THE ZEIT GEIST

Hidden wisdom of ‘the guv’ A re-assessment of Tokyo’s controversial governor is overdue.
By BARRY BROPHY and CAI EVANS

Adored by large sections of the Japanese public, reviled in equal measure by the foreign community and courted tirelessly by the domestic media: There are few more divisive figures in Japan today than Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara. The septuagenerian populist can rarely open his mouth without offending at least one section of society. Over the course of his career, Ishihara has incurred the wrath of (among others) the Chinese, Koreans, the French and old women everywhere, and written a musical version of “Treasure Island.” He has consistently used his position as a bully pulpit from which to unleash random tirades on issues encompassing reproductive science, history, crime, the U.N. and rocket science. But does the fact that the former novelist and keen sailor is always blunt necessarily mean that he is always wrong?
After all, history is full of examples of visionaries who were regarded as rather eccentric by their peers, only to have their uncanny prescience celebrated by future generations. Notable examples include Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci and B-movie director Russ Meyer. This week we examine a selection of well-publicized Ishihara-isms in an effort to shed some light on what the governor might really be trying to tell us.

* ON OLD WOMEN: Old women present the greatest obstacle to the progress of civilization.
The issue of Japan’s aging population has been much discussed of late, though only Mr. Ishihara has had the vision to recognize the real threat it poses to the Japanese way of life. As the number of old women grows, so too does Japan’s pension burden. This will leave less money to invest in the kinds of bold cultural projects Japan has become famous for, like TV antennas, motorways and statues of comic book characters. Moreover, as the number of hunchbacked old women roaming the streets with shopping carts increases, so too do the chances of getting stuck behind them. This will cause Japanese to be late for everything and thus no different from the slovenly foreign community.

* ON INFERTILE WOMEN: It’s pointless for women who have lost the ability to reproduce to keep on living. Better child-care facilities, more generous corporate laws on parental leave and significant tax relief for married couples who have children; these are just three irresponsible measures that have been mooted as potential remedies for Japan’s crippling birthrate problem.
But Mr. Ishihara may have paved the way for an ingenious alternative solution that carries few of the prohibitive cost burdens associated with the above. If all Japanese women who claim they “can’t” (for many, read “won’t”) have kids are simply threatened with immediate extermination, we reckon they’ll set aside their frivolous quest for parity in the boardroom soon enough, and start paying more attention to their true purpose on Earth: having lots of babies. And frankly they should be happy they’re even allowed to do that.

* ON FOREIGN CRIME: The types of crimes committed by foreigners are something that in my opinion Japanese would absolutely not do. The foreign community was outraged by Mr. Ishihara’s suggestion that foreign criminals were somehow more evil than their Japanese counterparts. But his logic is flawless. A look at the types of crimes committed by foreigners in Japan shows that the vast majority are those that no Japanese could or would do — visa violations.

* ON THE WAR: If Japan hadn’t fought the white people, we’d still be slaves of the white people. Sorry — even we can’t see what he’s getting at here.

* ON THE WAR AGAIN: Japan and Korea agreed to the annexation of the Korean Peninsula according to the unanimous will of the Korean people.
Or here.

*ON IMMIGRATION: Japanese don’t want to do the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs anymore. Why not have foreigners do them? We couldn’t agree more — and we think this initiative should start with the dirtiest, most dangerous and most difficult sector of all: politics.
Mr. Ishihara previously acknowledged the risks inherent in Japanese political life when he shrugged off the planting of a bomb at the home of Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka in September 2003 by suggesting he might have deserved it. Therefore, he is absolutely right that no Japanese person should have to risk life, limb and ignominy by being forced to run the country. We hereby declare that all of the top political positions in the land should be filled by foreigners, starting tomorrow. (Skippy-san comment: Where do I sign up?)

* ON THE U.N.: When real decisions have to be made, money crosses palms and people disappear to the toilet. Mr. Ishihara clearly knows more than we do about the curious internal workings of the U.N., though why events occur in that order continues to elude us.
Nevertheless, we must take him at his word, and insist that deliberations on issues of global import be moved from the lavatories to the debating chamber from this day forward. To be honest, we are surprised that this idea hasn’t occurred to anyone before. As for the question of money crossing palms, we feel that Mr. Ishihara’s fears are misplaced, at least as far as Japan is concerned. The Japanese government has taken great pains to stress that an ongoing debate in Japan over whether the nation should cut its annual contributions to the U.N. is entirely unconnected to its bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. We feel, therefore, that Mr. Ishihara can rest easily at night: Japan, at the very least, knows that political favors cannot be bought and sold at this venerable institution.

* ON HISTORY: Japanese people know historical facts deeper than the media, so they are not clamoring against my remark. It is difficult to dispute this line of argument; few other countries spend as much time and energy discussing the content of their official school history textbooks.
It stands to reason, therefore, that the resulting printed matter must be of the highest educational quality and value, imbuing Japanese schoolchildren with a deep historical knowledge of events in the country’s past. The media, on the other hand, is dominated by treacherous liberals who never went to school and whose filthy propaganda is designed to distort the truth, destabilize the government and erode national pride.

* ON THE NANJING MASSACRE: Nanjing is a story made up by the Chinese.
See above.

* ON THE FRENCH: It’s no surprise that French is disqualified as an international language because it’s a language that can’t count numbers. But why stop at the language? French bread is a weird shape, French cheese smells funny, and the people can’t even say the letter “r” properly. It’s a wonder we let them join in anything at all — and quite right that a French school in the capital was hit with a tax bill of 100 million yen by Tokyo a week after a French-language teacher sued Mr. Ishihara over his remark.

* ON THE SPACE RACE: The Chinese people are ignorant, so they get excited about (launching a manned rocket). We agree entirely with the assertion that it is absurd for an emerging industrial power to get overly excited about its first ever launch of a manned space rocket. It says a lot more for a nation’s cultural sophistication that a story centering on the mystifying appearance of a charismatic sea lion in an urban river ends up dominating that nation’s airwaves for weeks on end. (Skippy-san comment: That last bit is a true story. “Tama-chan” was a sea lion that somehow got way up the Tama river and it was on NHK everyday for a week…….And the Chinese did launch a rocket yesterday!)

Subscribe in a reader

Can anyone tell me what is going on with the American Stock Market? Every time I turn on my computer lately, the market has dropped by another 50-100 points. Wasn’t the Dow supposed be over 11,000 by now?

It matters because one of the biggest joys that the S.O. has educated me on, is the power of saving money. (She has it down to a science………Ebeneezer was a spendthrift next to her). Back with my ex, all that would happen is that I would save it, she would find new and interesting ways to spend it. Now I have a regular program of “pay myself first”.

So I have money automatically come out of my pay and go to my mutual fund(s). At the end of the month I go to the web site and see how much money I’ve gained. Lately however all I am seeing is:

(RED INK!!)

Somehow, I don’t think this is the way dollar cost averaging is supposed to work.

Subscribe in a reader

Been a busy couple of days. As I had expected the first diversions of transportation have started in order to support Earthquake relief in Pakistan. While I understand the need, it could not have come at a worse possible time in terms of competing requirements. Earthquake relief will ( and should) win out, and we will flex as best as we can, but this little drill is starting to get old. More to follow I am sure.

Which got me to think a little bit. What a year this has been! First was the Tsunami, followed by floods and earthquakes in various countries, plus the London bombing now followed up by the (2nd) Bali bombing. Look at the toll in earthquakes alone:

Date Location Magnitude
Feb. 5 Celebes Sea 7.1
March 2 Banda Sea 7.1
March 28 Northern Sumatra, Indonesia 8.7
June 13 Tarapaca, Chile 7.8
June 15 Off coast of northern California 7.2
July 24 Nicobar Islands, India 7.3

And of course, now the earthquake in Pakistan.

Hurricanes, bombings, wars, earthquakes, pandemics. It just seems like it never lets up this year. By my inaccurate math at least 80,000 people have been killed due to the wrath of mother nature this year. That number is actually on the low side which makes the toll all the more troublesome. One can’t pick up a paper these days without reading about a disaster somewhere and the monumental relief effort that is being organized to clean up the wreckage.

And then of course, there is the little matter of the war. By all accounts 20,000 Iraqis have died as well as 2000 brave Americans and 50 British. And it is still going.

Its just too much sometimes.

I do know that the pace of these types of things only seems accelerated. If you go back to the 1920′s or 1930′s they had an equal number of disasters then.

The difference being that you only read about them in the newspapers. Now in the age of instant information its always right in front of you.

Maybe someone needs to apoligize to Mother Nature. It would seem she is mad at mankind. Perhaps, for not yet finding a saner way to run this planet.

Subscribe in a reader

Today should have been a good day. And on the surface it was, even though the rain put a crimp on me playing golf again for the second time this holiday weekend. (Did get in 9 holes before the deluge started up again….but, I’ve played better…..). Took the S.O. to see “Valiant” as if a cartoon movie comes to town, there is no way I can get away without seeing it(S.O. drags me to every one). Ok movie, good mindless entertainment, but Shrek ( or even Shrek 2) its not. I’m in cranky mood and its going to be a few days before I snap out of it, more than a few if the S.O. keeps complaining about my trips back to the refrigerator for another beer to dull the pain………

As an aside, John Daly lost. To Tiger Woods, the golfing machine. John Daly is for me, the face of the everyman golfer. He’s my kind of golfer. Married four times, likes his beer, plays his own game, and makes the same mistakes “real” golfers make. Like missing a 3 foot putt that cost him the tournament. This was after shooting a 69, but missing two birdie putts that would have put it away. One of those putts just grazed the cup:

It was a titanic struggle that ended with a whimper.

Despite their 350-yard tee shots that soared majestically against the blue sky over Lake Merced, the American Express Championship came down to a putt that
would have been a gimme on most municipal golf courses.Daly, who seconds earlier had a 15-foot birdie putt to win, missed a 3-footer for par on the second extra hole to hand Woods his 10th title in the World Golf Championships.

“That’s not how you’re supposed to win a golf tournament,” Woods said. “We’re in a playoff, we’re battling, and J.D. played beautifully all week. It shouldn’t end like that.” It was a somber conclusion to an otherwise spectacular
tournament at San Francisco’s municipal gem.

I’m in a funk and have been for the last couple of days. The S.O. has tried to ascertain it, I’ve just blown her off. Its not something she can help with, much less solve. ( In fact, her presence simply aggravates my mood since the weight of having her involved in life decisions I need to make, is part of my ill humor……). If I had the time and the vacation, I would get on a plane to anyplace and go away for a while all by myself, but for the present at least that is not on the table.

I’m sure you have noticed its affected my blogging. I’ve tried to write something pithy and worthwhile, but I just don’t have the words within me. Plus, surveying world events and the news, does not leave me any cause for good cheer either. Earthquake in Pakistan, the war ( pick any one of the four that America is involved in…..), being bombarded nightly by the prospect of Avian flu killing millions, possibly even me, and as a bonus until that happens, I get to read about more of the buffoonry that is politics in today’s America.

I’m also frustrated with my writing. I can’t write with same serious sense of self importance like Lex does, nor can I seem to find that irreverent sense of balance between the absurd and the important that Expat at Large seems to pull off effortlessly. I can’t lower myself to the rabid partisan banter that so many of the right wing blogs stoop to, and I am not prepared to write the stirring ” Look at all the good news in Iraq” stories that so many of other mil bloggers are able to do. The war in Iraq represents a running sore in the national security interests of the United States and to be honest the only good news for me from that Godforsaken country is anything that hastens the return of American troops for good. I’m sure a lot is being done to benefit ordinary Iraqis. In fact I know it is. However in this case, I cannot escape the conclusion that what is good for KBR GM is not necessarily good for America.

It does not mean I have shut down entirely however. I’ve been working on a long post about Japan / American relations that is intending to suggest that all is not as well as it appears to be. More research is required however and this kind of thing needs a long critical look over, before I punish you folks with my conclusions. Its going to come but, like good wine, I’ll not serve it up before its time.

I’ve also been active in an e-mail discussion about the religious discrimination law suit that has been going on involving the United States Air Force Academy. It started with a member of our e-mail list being baffled as to why the USAFA, after 3 years of negative publicity is still the subject of lawsuits on the subject. My reply :

I have a slightly different take on the situation. There have been evangelical Christians on the campus of the USAF academy since its founding. The difference today, however, is that the evangelism has become more aggressive and also intolerant of other viewpoints. For that we have the evolution of the fundamentalist parts of the Christian church to blame and its misguided efforts to delve into partisan politics; with a lot more success than it deserves. The end result is that the folks who taught the young cadets where the proper boundaries of witnessing lay, mis-taught their young charges. So who is to blame? The teacher or the student who listened to the misguided lesson of the person telling him what the word of the Lord required..? I say the teachers of that type of intolerant theology are to blame, some of whom were no doubt on the chapel staff of the Academy and enabled by a Commandant who could not see the clear conflict between his deeply held beliefs and the requirements of the constitution and military law and custom.

That leads us to the second problem. Those who might have spoken up against this excursion into reactionaryville, were most probably afraid to do so. After all, those who spoke out against other misguided changes were pilloried including those who spoke out against the feminization of the academy life and the resultant dilution of the value of the experience. The inability to speak up and have meaningful dialogue, e.g. the “get on the bus or be run over by it syndrome” prevalent since Tailhook, I submit added to the ability for things to get out of hand.

I have a hard time believing it was anymore endemic than at say, Clemson or USC, BUT at either of those institutions the ability to avoid ranting lunatics is much easier. Not so at the USAFA.

Lets see, I’ve hit politics and religion, all that is left on the list of “do not discuss” subjects is women. Not to worry, I’ll talk about them another time.

Hey Skippy! I’m only 15 and I’ll make more money this year
than you will your entire life! What’s not to be depressed about?

GRRRRRRRR!!!!! Wonder if I can take Prozac……………….?

Subscribe in a reader

This needs no explanation:

Subscribe in a reader

Expat at Large (see link on the right……) posed an interesting history question. Can you guess the right answer?

Someone said this of a President of the United States of America:

Trusting to escape scrutiny, by fixing the public gaze on the exceeding brightness of military glory—that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood—that serpent’s eye, that charms to destroy—he plunged into war.”.

Name: a) the President, b) the writer, and the war.

One other point. if you cheat and go to E@L’ s blog, please do not become incensed at the rampant anti Americanism over there……..everyone is entitled to an opinion.

I still think the answer will surprise you. I guessed the war correctly, but not the author. (Shamelessly borrowed from E @ L’s blog…….) .

Lazy morning this morning. S.O. had to work and I woke up and took a look at the dark clouds outside…..plus the rain falling and said “Naw”, I’ll wait to play golf.

Been watching the non famous film, but nonetheless one of my favorites, “About Last Night“. The film is a good commentary on how women overwhelm the life of a perfectly good single man and force change upon them that they are not comfortable with. ( This is a subject I know a lot about ………). And also the lengths that those same women will go to make things “work”. So despite being ostensibly a “chick flick” , its a great guys movie too……Primarily for the lines Jim Belushi has. Elizabeth Perkins gets a few good ones in too:

Joan- (Elisabeth Perkins) “You are a schizophrenic, psychopathic, mal-adjusted social misfit, who is CLEARLY in the middle of a deep, homosexual panic.”

Bernie- ( Jim Belushi)- “Yea, Yea, Yea…… So do you wanna dance or not?”

One of the great things I think the movie highlights is how your friends are often able to see things you cannot, blinded by the crippling mirage that is love, such as we are. The reactions of the main characters when this is pointed out to them are typical. People can really identify with what these characters are going through. Many individuals like me question their existence and what they want out of life, all while trying to find love and/or sex as a means of fulfillment. ( Given a choice, now, I’ll just take sex, thank you very much.)As for the rest, well it just works better if I figure it out on my own…..les expensive too.

Some final useless trivia about the movie:

The original title of this film was “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” (taken from the play it is based on). The title was changed after many newspapers and TV stations refused to run ads for a film with such a title.

Phoebe Cates auditioned for the role of Debbie, which eventually went to Demi Moore.

Originally this movie was to be made with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, but after John asked his brother ‘Jim Belushi’ , who had starred in the play previously, Jim said that he didn’t want John to take the part because Jim didn’t want to be compared with his brother.

Danny, you are going to do all right.
You’ll meet a nice girl, settle down…
then she will divorce you and take all your money!
Have I got the plot about right?

What a week! First it has been a very busy week, filled with lots of work, a lot more than there should be for the start of a new fiscal year. Of course, just like me, Congress cannot do the one thing they have to every year on time: pass a budget. So we are spending transportation money with no idea of the final top line………..Come to think of it, that’s just like Congress too!

Then I came across this little tidbit:

For those of you residents of bloggerville who have been on vacation or in a cave, let me bring you up to date. It seems that in West Midlands U.K., the British council there is mighty afraid of offending Muslims. So they banned:

NOVELTY pig calendars and toys have been banned from a council office’s in case they offend Muslim staff. Workers in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, were told to remove or cover up all pig-related items, including toys, porcelain figures, calendars and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.Bosses acted after a Muslim complained about pig-shaped stress relievers delivered to the council in the run-up to the Islamic festival of Ramadan. Muslims are barred from eating pork in the Koran and consider pigs unclean. Councillor Mahbubur Rahman, a practising Muslim, backed the ban. He said: It’s a tolerance of people’s beliefs.

Oh really?

What’s next? Banning Charlie Brown comic signs, because they might offend losers? Not allowing me to post beer and babes because they might offend recovering alcoholics and fat women? Maybe we should remove all art work and “I love me” plaques off of office walls because it might offend unsuccessful people?

Only one response to that. It’s just not fit for small ears……

There has been a body of thought that says , “well this is just a British phenomenon”. Think again folks, Americans and other countries have been just as guilty of the same silly sort of foolishness. Consider in America:

In December 2001, in Kensington, Md., an annual firefighters Santa Claus festivity to light the Christmas tree was objected to by two families. The city council, in the name of Political Correctness, voted to ban Santa from the parade. Fortunately, due to citizen outcry, the decision was reversed in the end and many people protested by dressing up as Santa.

“A team of Indiana firefighters, volunteering to help rescue victims of Katrina, went to Atlanta, where Federal Emergency Management Agency staffers told them that their job was to hand out fliers and that their first task was to attend a multi-hour course on sexual harassment and equal employment opportunity.”(From US News and World Report)

Stephanie Bell, a fourth-grade teacher at Williams Elementary School, taught the word “niggardly” to her class last week in an effort to improve her students’ vocabularies. Now, a parent wants her fired.

There are plenty of other examples that show the lunacy is not just confined to Britain. Quite simply this is accommodation run amok. Were I the king of the world, immigrants would hear the following speech upon arrival in Britain:

” Ok folks, here is the deal . Because the United Kingdom is an enlightened nation, because we believe in opportunity, we are allowing you to enter the heart of what was formerly the seat of the greatest Empire that ever strode the earth. The English language, English measurement, English scientific method, British systems of justice, social justice, and law have become the gold standard by which the rest of the world is judged. Because of the prowess of our explorers and discipline of a great Army and Fleet that we built, we stole a march on humanity of over 200 years , that only now are the pitiful countries you emigrated from starting to even begin to walk towards.

So! If you want to come here and receive the benefits of being in a modern Western society which is far superior to the one of your birth, then, by God, you better understand a few things:

1) You can worship as you wish. However I too can worship as I wish and there are more of me than there are of you.

2) You cannot just choose to live apart. Assimilate into this great culture, Goddamn it! You want to hold on to the tired old values of the old country? Fine, but keep them at home. This is and will remain a Western country with Western values. Assimilation into this society, wearing real clothes and interaction with real people will serve you a hell of a lot better than wearing stupid caps and growing beards.

Don’t like it? You know where Heathrow is.

3) English is the language of this country. LEARN IT! USE IT! Its not wrong to expect residents of England to learn English, anymore than it is unreasonable to expect residents of Japan to learn Japanese. We are through accomdating you, its you that need to accommodate us. Impossible you say? Well, the experience of 150 years of European, Indian and Chinese immigration proves you wrong.

4) Don’t like it? Get over it.

This would be good advice for the INS to give people applying for green cards too.

Lets all join the cause.

Post a pig on your blog!

Accordingly I’m going to link you to a pig here.

Go drink a lot of these!

Then rip the Burkas off a couple of these:

Hey Skippy! Let me make you some pork chops!

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh!” he whispered. “Yes, Piglet?” “Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
~ AA Milne

Subscribe in a reader

CDR Salamander has a post up, noting the demise of another mil-blogger, Armorgeddon. Basically, Big Brother is saying he is violating operations security and so in self defense he is going to stop posting before the heat really comes down. This post has more details.

Something is just not right here. From what I saw he violated no rules of security. So what else was it? Non Army approved content maybe?

More to come………..

Subscribe in a reader

Go check out here and here, courtesy of Lost Nomad. You will not be dissapointed.

Subscribe in a reader

So much to say, too little time to say it. Got caught up on a lot of my magazine reading on the trains today, till the last one, when this great looking piece of tuna with nice perfume stood next me for the whole ride to my station………No concentration then!

Went to a festival in Isehara yesterday. I was invited by a Japanese guy I have played golf with a couple of times and come to find out he is connected to Isehara’s chamber of commerce! Did not know that. Nonetheless the day was a lot of fun and ended up going with him and friends to one of his favorite watering holes to eat sushi and drink beer. Needless to say, my weak Japanese got more than a work out as only he spoke English and his English is about as good as my Japanese! However with beer, all things are possible!

This festival was to celebrate “Doukan” (???, Doukan Oota, a famous samurai. The real purpose of the festival is draw people to the city center of Isehara, located at the base of Mt. Ooyama (a great place to go hiking by the way!), and get them to spend money on food and beer. To accomplish the latter they brought in some talent from Tokyo:

The girl underneath the umbrella is Shouko Noda (?????? of the television show, Ururun(literally means eyes wet with tears). Its a travel show where an semi famous person goes to homestay with a family in another country (usually less well off than Japan) and at the end they always leave crying……:

She is the girl on the left in this photo from the show…..

Here she is being welcomed with the actor whose name I now forget, but who was hired to play doukan:

And of course no matsuri would be complete with out taking the Mikoshi for a ride!

After that…it got dark. And then I drank beer……..(fade to black!)

Skippy-san

Subscribe in a reader

Short posts for a couple of days, as I have to be on the trains a lot and away from computers going back and forth to Tokyo for personal business.

26 people dead in Bali. All the usual common denominators are there, Al Quaeda linked organization, Islamic extremists, and a country that allows previously mentioned extremists to roam around. Bastards!

Since the 2002 attacks, Jemaah Islamiyah has been tied to at least two other bombings in Indonesia, both in Jakarta. Those blasts, one outside the Australian Embassy in 2004 and the other at the J.W. Marriott hotel in 2003, killed at least 23.

The group’s alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, who has been jailed for conspiracy in the 2002 attacks, through a spokesman denied any personal connection to the weekend explosions. There was no statement from the group, which wants to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia.

Bashir is known for strong anti-Western and anti-Semitic views but has always maintained his innocence. Fauzan Al Anshari, his spokesman, said the cleric had no involvement in Saturday’s explosions.

“No Muslim would carry out those bombings,” he said. (From Excite News)

There is only one reply to that and it is not printable. I’m sick to death of hearing that Islam is a religion of peace. Its not. It never has been. Its an albatross around the neck of the Arabs and sadly because of some bad turns of history, people in Southeast Asia. Until they rid themselves of this apostate religion, we are going to be stuck putting up with these types of things…..

I, for one, am tired of it.

Subscribe in a reader

Beautiful day today. Not hot, not cold. A great day to play some really bad golf.

Came home crossed paths with the S.O. who was on her way out. “Ah an opportunity!” , methinks. ” I can squeeze in a nap!” Well its 3 hours later and she is still not back. I know where she went, as she was volunteering today with some friends to help out at a charity auction. She knows I hate those things, so this year she took pity on me and let me stay home. Besides, another piece of furniture will not fit in our apartment and I think she has finally realized that.

Moving on with some random thoughts:

To boldly go where Skippy shouldn’t go. A little cat blogging:

The new vermin kitten……

Thought maybe the folks at home might want to see the cat before the S.O. loses it one night and dumps her out the door. Actually she is getting better and we are both feeling confident enough to let her out from time to time from her prison home in the laundry room. Maybe she has finally figured out the whole litter box thing.

Cat blogging is not going to be a usual feature here though, so don’t get used to it.
More sex please!

Did some surfing today following up on my recent posts about blogging and censorship. My surfing led me over to Queen of the Sky’s blog. For those who may not know, she used to be a flight attendant for an American airline that is now in bankruptcy…..( used to be that would narrow it down, not anymore since just about all of them are). She was fired for posting pictures of herself in uniform on her blog. The useless twits at this airline said they were inappropriate. I’ll leave you to judge for yourself, you can see them here. She also tells her side of the story here. That in turn led me, through links, to a whole host of other stories of employers who think that the US Constitution is theirs to shred and discard at their own whim. Take a look at this story, this one, and this one for some examples. You should also look here for some context and also some fair points about work usage of computers. These meanderings of course led me over to the sit for the Committee to protect bloggers. You have seen me post there banner here a couple of times:

Its a wealth of knowledge. They have even posted a guide for anonymous blogging. There is also a good link to the EFF (Electronic Freedom Foundation) with some good common sense guidelines to protect your self from the evil ones who think they have the right to tell you how to live your life and what you should think… I probably should have read that before I started blogging. Oh well.

I guess what I find disturbing is not the fact that companies and the US government and Armed Services behave in a reprehensible manner with regards to free speech. That needs to be expected. ” The man” will always work to defend itself. It’s the number of supposedly self respecting individuals who defend the practice that really bother me. In effect these folks are saying that, even though many of the thoughts lie within the realm of protected speech, conformity to a certain vision of what is a correct lifestyle or ideology., is more important than defending the bedrock values of the American republic. Its astonishing. No wonder companies like Yahoo are aiding and abetting the efforts of the Chinese communists to erect the “Great Firewall“.

So it leaves a couple of choices. I could stop, which would be letting the bastards win. Or I can accept my old pal Popeye’s advice: ” I am what I am!” . With me what you read is what you get…..warts and all. I shall not go quietly into that good night…………..

If you don’t like what I’se saying, you know where the back button is!

Old ideas may yet be the best:

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
George Orwell

What he said!–Skippy-san

Subscribe in a reader