Far East Cynic

All that airline travel must have caught up with me…… Took the S.O. to the Christmas party last night. Things were going well when, about 9:30 pm, my stomach felt like someone was using a thigh master on it and squeezing hard. I realized after a while this was not going away and this suit was expensive. Told the S.O. she could stay if she wanted to, but I have to go home…………

Spent the next 24 hours either asleep or in the shuttle mode between the bedroom and another room appointed with porcelain. Feeling a little better now, but have ingested nothing but soup and crackers.

I suspect this is a combination of flu and worrying over future life decisions. Somehow I liked it better perhaps when these things were decided on high and one simply went where instructed…………

With better health, better posts. Till then, gurgle gurgle gurgle…………

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Made it yesterday. I literally had to imitate OJ ( by running through the airport, NOT by killing my (ex)wife…….), and I made it on the plane to Tokyo with 5 minutes to spare. Now I am back in Japan and back at work.

Today was our Secret Santa gift giving and we had some other fun and games going on. However it seemed that when it came time to pass out gifts more than a couple of people did not get any. Later, when I asked why, they said that some people just did not want to participate and thought it was too much money……

WTF?

Cheap, chincy bastards. Who the f**k can’t spend 1-10 dollars on a gift for a co-worker? Hell, if it is that much of an inconvenience , I’ll loan you the fiver, you sick, pathetic, excuses for humanity, you.

Now mind you, some of these same people are folks who have few expenses, live on base, and very seldom venture out. So I cannot believe that somehow participating in a gift exchange is such a big deal. They are also the same people who cannot attend command events because they do not want to pay for a sitter or, God forbid, miss an English class (Teaching one, not learning the grammar they seemed to have missed the first time around in school) and make a 50 dollars or so. That got me back to thinking about Mark’s comments earlier about the Welfare State.

There is definitely an “entitlement mentality” over here. Lately I have seen some examples that are just hideous:

a) Person comes back from 2 weeks TAD, then after only 4 days at work takes off for 2 weeks leave. Then comes back and asks for more……..

b) Guy gets his mother in law sponsored as his dependent. Mom in law gets a job, then quits it 4 weeks before dependency recertification is due…………. only to go back to work as soon as they get the recertification.

c) Command sponsored dependent who gets in a fight out in town putting a Japanese national in the hospital. Sponsor cries foul when he and his entire family are de-screened and sent back home. ” Why are you punishing my kid, all he did was get into a fight!” —-Yea, well that is kind of the whole point…………

d) Guy who volunteered to sponsor folks, then worked with his sponsoree and other folks sponsorees to be the one who sold them a car. Turns out the guy was buying used cars, storing them off base then selling them at a profit to new arrivals…………

e) Folks who time their apartment searches to the very end so they can get the very last drop of transient living expenses.

These are a few of the things that just make me furious. 80% of the people overseas, do the right thing, play by the rules and participate in the base community. 20% wreck it for others by being greedy. They can’t be thankful for what they have, they have to try to milk more out of it…..

“We aren’t saving enough out of our COLA so I can buy that step tansu I want. Why don’t you moonlight for a while on the Dark Side? Palpatine does it and look at all the money he has…..!!!!!”

Not a rational post I know, but sometimes there are things that just piss me off. This is one. Thank you for listening………..Rational thought will return tomorrow.

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Some quick, stuck in the airport blogging.

Got the airport in a hurry because I was running slightly late. Turns out I could have slept in, since United cancelled my flight and now I am waiting for a later one. The whole thing is made even more exciting, by the prospect of having to race for plane to Tokyo when I finally do get to SFO. If I miss the plane, well, congratulations, I’ll be walking around downtown Burlingame methinks. Won’ bother me so much except our office Christmas party is Friday. If I miss that, S.O. won’t be happy since she likes those parties and looks pretty good when she puts the dog on.

Sitting in the lounge listening to someone doing a job interview. Since the prospect of having to change employers could loom on my horizon in the coming year ( restructuring could make my little good deal go away here……….) I’ve been trying to discretely not stare and take some mental notes. The interviewer sounded like a headhunter. He seemed very sure of himself. Makes me wonder about how well I can really fit into corporate America. I need to win the lottery and write my Hemingway style novel.

I’m tired. Still could not sleep so well last night. Laid on the bed and woke up and fell back asleep at various intervals………….Travel seems to affect me more these days, but oh how I love it so……..

One finally cup of coffee then gird up for the airport dash!

Ja ne………..

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Try not to do the whole Singapore to USA trip in one day…………

Actually it was not too bad until I got to Destination USA. There I had to go through what I call the rental car shuffle………..

It always seems that the company they use for rental cars, the van never comes. Then it took over an hour to get the car. This after 20+ hours in airplanes.

Next time I’m just booking my own…….

Still trying to get my brain adjusted, have been sleeping off and on and watching bad TV, including the President compare Japanese Democracy to Iraqi democracy. There is no compariosn and you think he would know that. To begin with the Japanese already had a govermental framework and an Emporer to rally around. Perhaps that is another history tidbit the President did not learn at Yale.

He did sound confident, even if he was confident about the wrong things. Still preaching to the faithful though.

Got to get some sleep.

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I am being a lazy slug today. I should be out and about, but for some reason I just don’t feel like it. So I sat in Starbucks and read the Straits Times from back to front. If they printed as much news as they did advertisements it would be a good newspaper. I used to get it via e-mail then they had the effrontry to start charging for it…….GRRR!

Anyway……..

They have a two page series of articles about Australia’s drug problem. This came the day after a large arrest of foreigners involved in drugs. After the row between the two countries over the execution of Nguyen Tuong Van this month , it makes wonder if there is more than journalist curiosity at work here.

Its not the series, its the way it is presented. ” Haven for Druggies and taxpayers pay for it. They can shoot heroin here, needles provided” You are then directed into the paper to read about it. It also takes you to a letter from an Austrailian telling the Prime Minister of Singapore that Singapores drug penalties are right on the mark.

I know papers have to attract readers, but this smacks of a campaign to show something else. Obviously one is supposed to draw the conclusion that Singapore is better off than Australia…….

Makes you go hmm…….who is driving the bus on these stories, the paper or someone else?

You can see the article at the Straits Times web site, but you have to have a password.

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Good day yesterday, but I really did not do a lot. Started out shopping on Orchard road. Was on track and doing well, but then I came to the Borders books at Wheelock place. That was it, the shopping train went off the tracks at that point. Spent just about an hour and came out S$100 dollars poorer. Ah but oh the things they have to see!

Bought some presents for the S.O.

Looked at DVD’s.

Stumbled upon this month’s edition of the Atlantic Monthly. Read this issue if you get the chance. They have a pretty good article by James Fallows about why Iraq still does not have an Army and how long it will be to get one. Bottom line up front: we will be stuck there for years, if we mean what we say. A great quote from the article:

“US trainers have made a heroic effort”, Ahmed Hashim, an expert at the Naval War Colleg, explains. ” But the Iraqi Security Forces are almost like a black hole. You put a lot in and little comes back out”.

Great, that’s a positive outlook. However the article is pretty good in my opinion. The magazine also has some articles about religion including one called, ” Is God an accident?” by Paul Bloom.

As you can probably guess I soon ended up at The Scotsman, a little bar I like here, drinking Tiger Beer and reading.

Oh well, at least it is time away………..

I also read Rumsfeld’s speech about how the war is being misreported. Lets just say , I think he missed the point. I for one think the media is actually doing a good job of staying on point. Namely what does this conflict do to benefit the United States. Not Iraq, but the US. Those are two different things.

Some other observations:

Am I the only person who appreciates the irony of the fact that the Thai embassy is next to Orchard Towers?

And Chijmes still rocks!

Got to run and pick up some more stuff.

Oh yes, I also had a first last night. I snored so loud I woke myself up. Hmmm…….

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Ok. I’ve got my self to the state where I can move. Coffee is a wonderful thing! My brain is even capable of reading the Straits Times……..Hopeful sign.

I need a few good nights down here as I come to grips with some personal issues. The S.O. has been great by the way, saying that I need to make any decision I need to and no be burdened by what she thinks. Problem is, no matter how hard I try to pretend otherwise, I do really care about what she thinks and I enjoy her company
( for the most part, there are times she drives me nuts!!!!!!!!).

Why is it that things change? I’ve worked hard to get myself to a state where I am happy and doing what I want….but for some reason it cannot last. Suspect this is going to be a long month while I think this through.

Till then:

Some of these-

And stay away from these!

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Great. Got to Singers last night and got to my hotel about 1 am. A prudent man would have gone straight to bed. I of course am any thing but prudent so you can guess where I went……..

Expat at Large has some good advice though. ” Hookers are expensive and there are only so many visits to Orchard Towers that your dignity can stand….”. Keep repeating this to yourself while you are walking around today Skippy…………

Speaking of Expat at Large, for some reason I cannot get his blog to come up. Wonder if it is on the “persona non grata list” in Singapore……Hope not. However all I get so far is a blue back ground……

Despite my hangover feeling this am, got up early hoping to get a jump on things. Its raining hard however! What’s up with that? So I am sitting here in an internet cafe, trying to dry out.

Hope is stops soon. I am also watching the News from the Chicago plane crash. I think I now know why people hate Anderson Cooper……….!

More to follow.

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Out the door tomorrow with a hop and a skip in my stride. Down southways first for a couple of days of shopping in my favorite city, then 18 hours direct to the US. Ho Ho HO! Since this is a trip with just me, I’ll be happy! I like to travel by myself, especially when there is no one to criticize where I go or how many beers I have……….

Got to do some Christmas shopping though.

Watched the news about the Saddam trial today. Here is a shot of him and his defense team in action:

Its about as ludicrous……..I’m not sure which or more painful, watching that or Howard Dean blow opportunity after opportunity…….Shoot em both and look for new…….

Out the door!

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Another reason to hate the modern era…………..

In the good old days if there was no male heir to the throne, one would simply recruit a couple of these to service his majesty:

Through which, one could preserve the imperial line from that which the standard course of events had failed to provide…….

Now we are left with meager legislation and no pruient interest….:

The Japanese government will submit a bill to allow women to assume the imperial throne in the parliamentary session starting in January, a top official said Thursday.Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said a 15-member team had been established to work on the legislation, which he said would mirror a recent report by a special panel on the issue.

“We are making preparations to hand in the bill,” he told reporters.

The panel last week recommended revising Japanese law to give an emperor’s first-born child of either sex the right to head the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy.

The revision, if approved, is expected to make Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako’s only child Aiko — who celebrated her 4th birthday Thursday — second in line to the throne, behind her father.

Where is the fun in that! Prince Tomohito hit the nail on the head when he said:

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Dan Froomkin of the Washington post asks an interesting question:

I’m not setting out here to debate the merits of what has been in Bush’s speeches of late. I am simply returning to a persistent question that has been in my mind. Namely, since much of the current “should I stay or should I go” distress originated with the Congress, why does not the President take his message straight to them and to the people. Surely the dynamic of a sitting president, confronting his Congressional critics directly would have a hell of a lot more image value than an address in front of a scripted stage event, such as occurred last week at the Naval Academy.

Look at some of these recent examples of Bush speaking in a controlled environment:

Before leaving the country on his recent trip to Asia, Bush made one last
speech — at an Air Force base in Alaska. A few days before that, he spoke at an Army depot in Pennsylvania. When he delivered a speech on Nov. 1 about bird flu, it was to an audience of National Institutes of Health employees.

Does prove the value of military training though. Always grab an opportunity to get some zzz’s, you never know when it may come again! Just like the old liberty rule: “Always eat before you leave the ship, you never know when you’ll eat a meal again……”

I’ve asked the question before and I’ll probably ask it again…….Nonetheless, enquiring minds want to know. When ?

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NAVY-42
ARMY-23

Yes its a good day! I was going to get up for the game, but when the alarm went off, the S.O. draped an arm around me, we pulled the blankets closer and I said to myself, “Nothing happens in the first quarter anyway, just few more warm minutes here in bed….”. Next thing I knew it was 8:45 am—-Hope somebody taped it!

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Root for or be sympathetic to the US Naval Academy. That’s right, its Army Navy game day. (0430 AM Sunday Japan Standard Time…….Maybe I’ll get up for it…).

Since I had what I consider to be a proper military education; at a “true” Military College ( all male and with a true cadet “system”.), I have a love / hate relationship with the service Academies. Especially the US Naval Academy, since I turned down an appointment there, in order to attend my beloved alma mater. It’s a decision I have never regretted.

It’s not that the service academies are not still good colleges, its just that they stopped being true military academies a long time ago. The decay began in 1976 when they admitted women, and accelerated in the 1990′s and early years of this decade as other scandals and issues overtook them. As a result, they have the symbols of an proud and storied institution, but none of the substance.

However, today is the day to put those major imperfections aside and root for the Brigade of midshipmen and their team. Army Navy is probably the last real representation of what college sports competition is supposed to be, but has ceased to be. The big universities are simply training grounds for the pros, and small colleges never get the recognition they should in Football ( Basketball is a slightly different story).

The players who take the field for the Army Navy game though, will not be on their way to the pro’s though, at least not as in pro football. They will spend a minimum of 5 years, most a lot longer and in today’s military in an increasingly dangerous environment. So it is really a game that all American, and for that matter the world can watch. And cheer and root for a little honest competition.

Then tomorrow, my usual sniping at them can resume. But for today: GO NAVY!!!!!

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After the inauspicious start this morning, things just went down hill from there. This is going to be a depressing post, so if you tuned in looking for happy vibes from moi, you can just stop reading right now.

Received word that an acquaintance and fellow officer from my past life dropped dead of a heart attack a couple of days ago. Guy is was 3 years younger than me. They had just moved to a new house and jobs just a few months ago. Guy was not a smoker or overweight, was in good shape and had every thing to live for. Just shows how unfair life can be. Now his wife has to figure out how to pull her life together and deal with being a widow. Grrr !

And it is also disheartening to see that one of America’s noble “democratic” allies, decided that it was necessary to hang a 25 year old man in order to “save face”. Lots of commentary in Singapore and other blogs on the subject. Expat at Large has some good commentary. So does Singabloodypore ( a particularly apt name for the city state today), and Xenoboy points out that this execution is not about justice, its about not backing down, with Nguyen Tuong Van as simply the instrument of showing “Singaporean superiority”. Hemlock describes it best when he wrote a while back:

And today he wrote:

I stumbled across some really sad blog sites. From the Mudville Gazette comes this link to a blog by a woman widowed by the war in Iraq. As Mrs Greyhawk points out:

There is also a pretty good piece in a recent Time magazine talking about the harsh realities of being a CACO ( casualty assistance officer). Its a sad story, a poignant one, but of course since Time is part of the MSM, I’m not supposed to give them any credit for telling a good story. The article istastefully done and it points out the only fact that really matters about the war in Iraq. Americans are making sacrifices for a bunch of Arabs, who are so wedded to outmoded tribalism and an apostate religion that they will not be near as appreciative as they can or should be.

And while we are on the subject of telling the “good news” about Iraq, or the common complaint of not telling it by the news media, I think Chris Albritton offers the best rejoinder:

In other words they are doing the job of a journalist.

Which is getting tougher and tougher in this crazy world. I’m tired of the daily diet of tragedy. Perhaps the early Christians had it right-Maranthra!

One discouraged and frustrated Skippy-san

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Ah, you got to love the time difference between the states and here. That way I can get one of my ex-wife’s shrieking phone calls at 4 in the morning. The S.O. was less than thrilled about it as was I.

I get one of these about every 6 months or so. Usually it happens when she feels that I have been late fufilling one of the obscene financial slavery obligations that are in the divorce decree. Hell, even a mortgage company allows you a grace period.

So now I will have to contact my attorney , who does nothing for free and figure out what options are available to me. This ought to be one really fun month.

American divorce, its the gift that keeps on giving……..

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