Far East Cynic

Virtual memory available. I’m leaving for Korea early tomorrow morning. Taking the S.O. to a much promised jazz concert today and trying to get my I-pod set up with a ton of new downloads. Its squeezing out posting on the surge, the candidates, my sex life or lack thereof, and anything else you might imagine. There is no internet in the room where I will be staying-only in the lobby.

So today I’ve got a lot to say, just no time to say it. However I do have a question for you. Do you think Barry Bonds cheated? Asterisk or no in the record books?

Put your thoughts in the comments.

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I could write stuff like this:

Regardless of which side of the aisle you stand in, that’s funny. Especially when we live in a world where the market has just dropped 150 points in an hour and political pundits seriously discuss Hillary’s cleavage!

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-Profanity Alert!-

While I was out studying (fat lot of good it did me!) more than a few things happened. Presented here, in no particular order, are my thoughts about some of these breaking events.
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As for the Japanese test, the less said the better. Perhaps the words of a noted Scientologist best sums it up:

Looks like the University of Illinois!
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Three Words: Barry Bonds Blows!

As a loyal Pirate fan, there is really nothing else to say.

Enjoy it while it lasts, steroid boy, A-Rod will take your record soon enough.
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Only in the twisted world that passes for government in Hong Kong, could someone cite the American Electoral process as proof Hong Kongers don’t need democracy.
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Speaking of repressed governments, who says Singapore is not progressive?

There are people who will pay good money to see this!
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I bought Christopher Hitchens book a couple of days ago. I thought reading it over in Korea might put me in the right mindset to spend 3 weeks dealing with the evangelicals and other true believers.

There is only one problem though. Having spent more than a couple of hours in various pews inside the confines of the Holy City, its tough to make any progress through the book when you are constantly looking over your shoulder for the not so stray lightning bolt.
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Mili is on her way to Prague. And I’m going to Korea. Try convincing me again there is justice in the world.

She also told me something I never knew about asparagus. Excuse me dear lady, how exactly do you know this?
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In case you ever wondered why the S.O. puts up with me, here is why. Its a tough world for Japanese women. The bigger question though is why I put up with her. I’m still searching for the answer to that!.
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Do you hate your cat? This:

should be reported to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
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Stephen Colbert sums up bloggers and Dkos. A blogger is someone who: has a laptop, an axe to grind, and their virginity.

Does that last one count if you blog in Thailand?
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As may have mentioned before, the S.O. is positively estactic of the recent downfall of LDP in the polls. This little tidbit explains why in 500 words or less.

Abe-san’s response? Become a superhero!

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Op-For has a pretty good post up about the death of Officers Clubs. As one who enjoyed the glory days at: Miramar, Tinker, Howard, Oceana and a few that still remain classfied……..suffice it to say I echo their sentiments.

I also realized that I have been remiss in not linking to them. That’s fixed!
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Speaking of dead O’clubs, and did I mention I’m pissed off about going to Korea? More than a few times you say? Well that’s why I need one of these:

Taken from a pretty cool web site with pictures of Korea during the Korean war. I’ve been surfing the net trying to get in the mood.

Ja mata ne!

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Taking a fairly comprehensive Japanese test Thursday in an effort to tweak my resume.

So I won’t be posting here. I’ll be over here trying to make up for all the studying I should have been doing over the last 6 months……………

After Thursday though……….its Miller Time!

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Today is the 6th of August. It was the day in 1945 when the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the B-29 Enola Gay. In Japan, today is known as Genbaku no hi. That also began a 9 day period when Japan was literally and figuratively on the brink of the abyss. I wrote a detailed post about that time a couple of years ago. GI Korea has a pretty good history of the Atomic Bomb here.

Japan Probe has some pretty good coverage here.

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It’s August, I have to go to Korea for Ultimate FutiLity, and I am really depressed.

The Korea Folks know what I’m talking about. Because it is that wonderful time of year, when thousands of people converge upon the Korean Peninsula to see for themselves the world of micromanagement-as only USFK can perfect it.

They will go through the five stages of any exercise:

Initial Excitement-


Just don’t be late to work!

Learning how to do things the Air Force and USFK way:

It’s only tomorrow’s ITO!

The stress that comes from dealing with our ROK Allies and the other services:

Another happy VTC with CFC!

While learning to recognize all the things the Air Force holds near and dear:

Sir, the MAAP brief is hereby submitted for your approval……

Finally, that feeling that comes your way about the second week of the exercise:

Wait till they tell you the curfew has not been lifted!

Its also about that time that you realize that the only person really enjoying himself on the Korean Peninsula is this guy:

(The caption says in Japanese: “Fun with North Korea!”)

After that, its smooth sailing home……………..

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Deborah wanted me to post some photos of the fireworks. Only problem was-I did not take a camera. So here are some U-Tubes of last year’s fireworks. I was there, but trust me, the guy doing the smart-ass commentary is not me. I have no idea who did this or where they were standing (Actually it looks like they were over near Mikasa Park…). Enjoy:

The video that follows is from the 2007 Sumida River Hanabikai-Tokyo’s biggest, which usually draws over 150,000 people. I missed it the last few years, however I did go when I first came to Japan:

And finally, because it is summer time, something for me. A video of Chinatsu Wakatsuki. She was voted one of the top 5 best tanned celebrities. Nice flowers! (It is safe for work!).

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No, not THAT fisherman………..

It is Hanabi (fireworks) season here in Japan. That means from middle of July through the end of August you can see a different firework display every weekend-provided you don’t mind riding on a train with 1000′s of new found friends. Tonight was the one near where we live. We really wanted to see it, since next week I will be in hell Korea.

S.O. and I went out for dinner first. At the local shopping emporium they have just opened a brand new Ootoya (pronounced oh-toh-ya) restaurant. (Japanese food like mother used to make!). The great thing about Ootoya is that just about everything is a set, you get Miso soup rice and some vegetable or salad with your meal. Its tasty and cheap, and the service is generally quick. That’s especially important when the mall is full of Yukata wearing people who are also trying to make their way to the fireworks.

Coming out of the restaurant I picked up a flyer for the movie theater. I was surprised to see an ad in it for the latest installment of Tsuri baka nisshi (???????Diary of the stupid fisherman.

You think Rocky had a few too many sequels? This year will be the 18th iteration of the series. Starring Toshiyuki Nishida, the movies have become an annual ritual here in Japan. It is the story of Densuke Hamasaki, affectionately known as “Hamachan”, a man who is crazy about fishing, and not so crazy about having to work. Hamachan is your average salaryman-he’s married with a family, his wife loves him and he loves his wife, and he can’t get enough of fishing-any kind of fishing. Salt water, fresh water, whatever works.

In all the movies he is saved from any number of embarrassing situations at work by one great secret: “Hamachan’s relationship with the owner and CEO of his company, Mr. Suzuki. The two became fishing buddies, before they found out that they both worked for the same company–Hamachan the salaryman, and Suzuki-san the CEO. Within the company, they keep their relationship a secret. But on the ocean, Hamachan is the sensei (teacher), and Mr. Suzuki is the eager student. Mr. Suzuki clearly respects Densuke Hamasaki as an honest and honorable man. He only wishes Hamachan would have a more serious and stringent attitude toward his professional career. But that is not who Hamachan is”.(Quoted from Carpe Caprio).

I thought they did not make them anymore, particularly because you can see Nishida-san on TV again and again. Seems I was wrong. I’ve watched about 4 of the movies with the S.O. and they are funny-in a stupid sort of way. In one of the movies, Hamachan and his wife are trying to figure out how he can get some time off from work so he can go fishing. His wife tells him that he has no more vacation left, nobody believes the stories about sick kids and they have run out of relatives on both sides of the family to “die”. They despair on what he can do. The next day at work he hits on a scheme sure to succeed- he talks the office manager into sending him on a business trip to Okinawa with Suzuki-san. Long story short they wreck the boat and end up having to be rescued at sea.

Its been popular enough to allow a cartoon series to made about and some pretty slick marketing campaigns have been launched off of the movies. Some pretty cute ladies have been able to launch their movie careers by playing roles in the movies. Miyoko Asada has played his wife Michiko since 1994. (Pictured on the right).

Given a choice between the Simpsons Movie and this one-I’ll take the Simpsons Movie. However its still some pretty good fun and an interesting insight into Japanese entertainment culture. Since its August and that means all the Senso Dorama (War Drama) will be on the TV-its good to get a laugh.

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Mountain Runner and Tom Barnett ask and answer a really good question:

If the surge is working, why are we still losing?

Barnett goes to the heart of the question that really bothers me-namely if the surge is going so well, why are we being told that American troops will have to stay and stay and stay?

The question for now, I guess, is, does the Petraeus-Fallon-Mullen trio overcome the neocon camp still resident under Cheney? If not, can they at least temporize things until Bush is out of power?I would go farther than MountainRunner–and cynically so–to say Bush’s surge (not Petraeus’) was always about buying just enough internal security to facilitate drawdown and redirection on Iran.

And while you are at it, take a look at some of Mountain Runner’s words on the private contractors in Iraq-he raises some valid and provocative points.

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SJS thought he was going to give me a pass on this meme, but little did he know I had already been tagged by Mili with essentially the same meme. I was just ignoring her till now.

“List eight habits or facts about yourself, then tag eight more people”

Now since I am a pretty open book here and it’s no big secret that I have a voracious appetite for beer and wine, Asian women and the “prurient” interests, SJS feared he was going to have to have one of those TV commercial moments with me:

” You know, I have followed your character since the start and your life makes for some really compelling drama……………but your love of Wanchai girls is really too adult for the kids. So, I’m going to have to block you!”

Oh really…what do you guys think this place is, Seelai?

Anyway. Here goes:

1. I love to play golf. I still suck at it having maintained a 26 handicap for the past 3 years with no improvement. You knew that already. What you probably did not know is that I am a good bowler with a 190-200 average. Besides snow skiing, those are the only sports I can do half way decently. Racquetball, tennis, basketball,scrabble? I suck.

2. I love the romantic drawings of Seizo Watase. I forced the S.O. to hang one of his prints in our place-similar to this one- showing a man and a woman heading for an airplane. His work is my imaginary view of how romance should be:


The S.O. looks great, doesn’t she?

3. I’m a big Star Trek fan. I like all the series except for Voyager. As I have pointed out before, yes it has a lot to do with the whole Janeway female captain thing. Deep Space Nine was my favorite in the series.

4. I’m fascinated by Time Travel stories-and counter factual history. I bought the DVD set of the original Time Tunnel series and I watched it on TV back in 1968.

5. I would love to be a print journalist. I watch any and all movies about newspaper reporters and have 7 books about Edward R. Murrow ( who I know was a radio journalist-but he started with UPI). In the only nice thing I can find to say about my ex-wife, I am glad she introduced me to the New York Times. (Despite what so many people say-its a great paper!).

6. I was an Eagle Scout. I have canoed down the Allegheny River twice and the Monongahela River once. I’ve also been to Philmont twice. (Yes I climbed Mt Baldy both times!)

7. I love to cook. However I don’t have a natural sense for it-thus I own 27 cookbooks. In the exchange, I am a sucker for buying the little Betty Crocker books at the checkout counter.

8. I desperately want to work and live in either Hong Kong or Singapore. ( You probably already figured that one out already…I’ll be happy to send any there my resume!).

Nothing new to see here folks, I’m afraid.

I’m a simple man with simple pleasures.

Feed me, burp me, and put me to bed.

I’m supposed to tag 8 people now, but this meme has been the rounds so I’ll leave it at this-if you are on my blogroll to the right, consider yourself tagged!

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Check ‘em out!

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Its not just me that is concerned. So is Hemlock:

RUPERT MURDOCH buys Dow Jones, and I am privileged to be sent an advance copy of tomorrow’s edition of the best reported, best edited and visually most Victorian newspaper in the world….

Back to the SCMP?

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That’s the future of the once proud newspaper, the Wall Street Journal. It was announced today that the paper had whored itself been sold to Rupert Murdoch for an obscene amount of money.

Despite the fact that their editorial policy is to the right of Attila the Hun, the Wall Street Journal was a respectable newspaper that offers detail and context in its news stories and has provided insightful business news to its readers. Now that it has been sold to a fucking psychopath will it stay that way? If the experience of any of the other news outlets that Murdoch has engorged himself with is any guide, the future is not real bright.

It’s not just bad journalism, it’s bad business to let Murdoch take control of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal.

Truer words have not been spoken:

Be swallowed or die? The deal makers — including Dow Jones board members and executives who stand to reap millions from the sale — tell the Bancrofts that the economy can no longer support a relatively small, independent, serious news-gathering company. They claim that traditional reporting must be subsidized by entertainment ventures ranging from “American Idol” to the famous Page 3 girls of the U.K.’s Sun newspaper. But that model isn’t business — it’s charity. It’s also dead wrong.Prior to the appearance of Murdoch on the scene, we at Dow Jones had begun an aggressive process to build new platforms, opportunities and investments to strengthen the company. Zannino himself, in an internal memorandum issued after the Dow Jones board endorsed the sale, acknowledged that this plan was “beginning to pay meaningful dividends and we have a very bright future as an independent company should the News Corp. bid not come to pass.” The next day, Dow Jones reported that quarterly earnings had risen 16.2 percent.

Many of the world’s most successful companies have staked their fortunes on independence instead of so-called synergy. In another industry struggling with change, car giant Daimler is trying to rescue itself from an ill-fated acquisition of Chrysler. Meanwhile, rival BMW has been promoting its independence. “No, we will not sell out to a parent company that will meddle in our affairs and ask us to subject our cars to mass market vanilla-ism,” the automaker’s advertising says. The fact is that even within a single industry, companies succeed because of management leadership, focus and execution of a sound strategy, not just size.

Dow Jones wasn’t for sale when Murdoch appeared, and for good reason. The process of transformation that we had begun, creating new value while perpetuating our original mission, was working. Selling out now will only short-circuit that process — and guarantee that the Murdochs, rather than the Bancrofts, reap its rewards.

It is a shame really. Because the US needs both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Guys like Murdoch want you believe that is no longer so-that independent thought, research, and opinion has a place only in the past. That the consumer market for news is so warped by TV and the Internet, that its OK to treat your readership like sheep.

Edward R. Murrow understood why this really sucks:

It may be that the present system, with no modifications and no experiments, can survive. Perhaps the money-making machine has some kind of built-in perpetual motion, but I do not think so. To a very considerable extent the media of mass communications in a given country reflect the political, economic and social climate in which they flourish. That is the reason ours differ from the British and French, or the Russian and Chinese. We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense. But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live. I would like to see it done inside the existing framework, and I would like to see the doing of it redound to the credit of those who finance and program it. Measure the results by Nielsen, Trendex or Silex-it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to try. The responsibility can be easily placed, in spite of all the
mouthings about giving the public what it wants. It rests on big business, and on big television, and it rests at the top. Responsibility is not something that can be assigned or delegated. And it promises its own reward: good business and good television.

Perhaps no one will do anything about it. I have ventured to outline it against a background of criticism that may have been too harsh only because I could think of nothing better.

What he said. Stock tips from Bill O’Reilly and Michelle Malkin? Coming to a once great paper near you.

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