Oct 16 2007
To break out the straight razors.
My former brother in law used to have a piece of paper taped to the refigerator. It said:
I will shave from the waste waist down and the knees up the day the Tribe wins the series.
I’m pretty sure he never figured on this.
Update! Must have been thinking of my ex when I typed this-It’s waist not waste. Freudian slip.
Update to the Update! 7-3 baby! Break out the Burma Shave!
Oct 15 2007
I always loved the bumper sticker that was around in the 70′s, “Gas, grass or ass-nobody rides for free!” . It is a pretty apt description of most male-female interactions in my opinion.
Yesterday was a cloudy, cool day here. The S.O. and I had played golf on Saturday and I was in a good mood having shot a score that is nothing short of a miracle for me-(93). Today I wanted to go out and about.
On thing I really wanted to do yesterday was to go down to the ferry pier and join the line of Japanese visitors looking to take tours of the ships supporting the Pacific Security Initiative. Ships fascinate me and always have-that’s why I went into the Navy I guess. The government of Japan is hosting a Maritime Interdiction Exercise “Pacific Shield 07” in the eastern sea area off Izu Oshima, and at the Ports of Yokosuka and Yokohama, from October 13 to 15. Moored at the ferry pier were the following ships:
HMAS Perth:
(HMAS Parmatta pictured)
JDS Makinami:
The problem was, as it so often is, the S.O. did not want to play ball. She wanted to go pick up “her stuff from the recycle shop”. Translated into man-speak it means, “Please come with me and pay for the tansu’s I want. Then move them home.” Like we need another piece of furniture in our place.
“We are burning daylight cowboys”-gotta get going.
So I tell the S.O., “Ok-tell you what, I’ll drive you up there and then we can go do some other errands.”
Off we go. I’ve got the route and the timing planned carefully in my mind. Get to the recycle shop. 8000 yen poorer and the car loaded I am ready to go. As the theme from Final Jeopardy hums in my mind she is still looking.
And looking.
FINALLY, she’s done. Into the car and off down the road. Gradually it begins to dawn on her. “Where are you going?”.
” I told you. I want to go see the ships-remember I said they were open for tours today?”
“No. Lets go home”.
” Nothing doing. Lets go see the ships. If you want to go home you can take a taxi from the ferry pier.”
That shuts her up-taxis cost money after all. And there was no way in hell she was walking the 3km to get home. You want it bad- you get it bad.
Now in fairness, she got into the spirit of things once we were able to get parked and got through the metal detectors and the bag searches. ( Welcome to life in the brave new world…). I wanted to go see the Japanese ship first-I think JMSDF ships look good-but she wanted to go see the HMS Monmouth. Which made sense since the British, Australian, and French ship were all moored along side each other 3 abreast. We went to the JMSDF ship later. Interestingly enough, the British, French and Australians allowed the tour route to go inside the ship and up and out through the bridge wings. The Japanese left the herd confined to the main deck. No entering via any hatch anywhere. There is a hidden meaning there somewhere.
The British had the best gedunk (Navy term for souvenirs for the non-initiated)-Rugby shirts, cuff links, Golf shirts, “Black Duke” T-shirts ( which I assume is the nickname of the ship) and pictures. Another 6000 yen gone in Cuff links and shirts.
On home to unload and move “the stuff”. This in turn required several iterations of placement and moving around our place. All the while not trying to break anything which in the cramped quarters of our place is no mean feat. However in the end she seemed happy and I was looking forward to a nice quiet evening and some conjugal bliss to follow.
Which makes the fact that I ended up sitting back on the couch watching sports center all the more mystifying……………Guess that will teach me to assert my rights as a man.
Nobody rides for free.
P.S. (Ship pictures to follow as soon as I figure out how to get them out of the S.O.’s phone……..)
Oct 13 2007
PROFANITY ALERT!
Spike has it right-America has gone off the deep end socially and politically.
I also owe every freelancer from Orchard Road to the LA Cafe to Wanchai an unqualified apology.
You see, I used to call Michelle MacaganlangMalkin a whore. Now I realize that by doing so, I’m doing real whores a huge disservice. They at least perform some sort of useful service for the money they receive and unlike Malkin-actually know how to do something useful with their mouths and fingers. Then again real “sales professionals” know a thing or two about keeping the customer satisfied-for at least a while.
So to all the girls I have seen and hope to see again in the above listed locations, you have my sincere apologies for putting Malkin in the same league with these hard working women.
Oct 12 2007
Here in Japan the clock is ticking. The one on the special Anti-Terrorism law, the one that authorizes JMSDF ships to refuel ships supporting operations in Afghanistan. This week the oldest ship in the United States Navy was drawn into the argument. The Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) is vowing to defeat the bill and are citing this as an example of where the law could lead:
A Japanese peace group said last month that the logbook of the U.S. oil ship Pecos and other materials suggested the Maritime Self-Defense Force ship Tokiwa in February 2003 gave illegal logistic support for the war in Iraq by indirectly supplying oil to the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, which took part in the war.
That was the start of the argument this week. Japanese TV has run so many videos of refueling hoses going across, you would think I was back aboard the USS Coral Sea showering in aviation fuel that always found its way into the water system. (I’ll have to tell you the story of how my roommate once set our sink on fire sometime…….Like any proper naval aviation professional, I got my conning along side qual-but mostly I slept through along side times).
Now the ship count is expanding:
Minshuto member Kazuhiro Haraguchi alleged in a Lower House Budget Committee session that the MSDF fuel went to the Aegis destroyer USS Paul Hamilton, “one of the core ships used by the United States in the Iraq war.”
Haraguchi said the fuel provided by the MSDF was used in the Iraq war, a violation of the anti-terrorism special measures law.
The law, under which the MSDF has been providing fuel in the Indian Ocean, is limited to supporting coalition efforts to fight terrorism in Afghanistan.
Government officials have been denying for the past few days in the Diet that the fuel was diverted to U.S. ships involved in the Iraq war. The government plans to submit a bill to the Diet to continue the refueling operations after the current law expires on Nov. 1.
The Paul Hamilton is said to have launched at least 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles during the Iraq war, the most by any U.S. Navy ship.
If this all seems odd to you, rest assured its just like politics in the US. This is about the opposition party flexing its muscles. When Abe-san was in office it seemed like it was working, mainly because Abe behaved like a buffoon. Now that Fukada is Prime Minister-well the DPJ have a much tougher fight on their hands. Only, Ozawa-san (DPJ leader) like Nancy Pelosi has yet to realize it.
However for now, DPJ is going to keep trying-partially enabled by the fact that anything related to the Iraq war is very unpopular here. Moreover, there is an undertone of feeling that Abe and his policies were going too far when Japan had more important domestic issues that still need to be dealt with. However the debate is definitely an odd one. I still amazed at some of the evidence the DPJ and the peace group are producing. Like the Kitty Hawk deck log. How the heck did they get that? They also have a copy of the Kitty Hawk’s command history.
Its been interesting to watch some of the TV coverage-there was shouting in the Diet today-but I could not tell if it was about this issue or the bigger issue of postal reform. Prime Minister Fukada has asked Ozawa-san to meet with him to discuss a compromise-lots of folks think it will be tough for him to dodge that.
And in the mean time………like sands through the hour glass, the clock keeps ticking.
Oct 12 2007
Spent time after dinner drinking these:
Thinking about these:
And fixing these:
LINKS
Check em out!
Oct 11 2007
Loans for divorce that is. The Mainichi Shinbum is reporting that a small bank in Gifu Prefecture is offering divorce loans:
Love is grand. But divorce is 100 grand. At least! But now there’s a bank out there to help the growing number of Japanese couples who want to untie the knot, notes Sunday Mainichi (10/21).
Ogaki Kyoritsu Ginko, a small bank based in the sleepy Gifu Prefecture outpost of Ogaki, started on Oct. 1 to offer Japan’s first-ever divorce loans.
Anybody aged 20 to 66 with an annual income in excess of 2 million($17094) yen who’s thinking about ending an unhappy marriage can borrow up to 5 million yen to cover the cost of pulling the plug on a partner.
The bank came up with the idea after seeing that 257,475 Japanese couples divorced in fiscal ’06 — that’s virtually every second Japanese marriage — on top of the widespread belief that ending a marriage costs a small fortune. Not that the bank’s looking to make a killing on its loans called the Re Life Plan, charging just 5.825 percent interest as opposed to the 18 percent to 20 percent consumer finance loansharks would normally charge to lend out similar amounts on no-collateral lending like the bank’s divorce loan.
That’s what I call a sub-prime loan!
Oct 10 2007
I’m sure E @ L would agree:
Putin positions himself as Russia’s Lee Kuan Yew-One hears much about the “death of democracy” in Russia these days, especially as current President Vladimir Putin muses openly about slipping into the office of prime minister to sidestep constitutional term limits. As a former Sovietologist with a degree in Russian literature, I find this story line all too familiar. But rest assured, I likewise see America’s Cold War victory remaining secure.Russia enjoyed no real democracy in the 1990s, instead suffering an economic chaos that left society prey to all manner of gangsters. Not surprisingly, average Russians craved a return to order, which finally arrived in the political ascendancy of Putin’s “siloviki,” or “power guys,” who spent their formative years working for the KGB.
During its final years, the dysfunctional Soviet system muddled along thanks primarily to those who operated “on the left” (na levo), or in the black markets, and those who operated “on the right” (na pravo), or in the security services. The former kept the decrepit economy from collapsing; the latter kept the decrepit regime from collapsing.
Democracy is not on Singapore’s menu-stability and the advancement of Chinese Singaporeans is. At least now we know where the good Vladimir learned it. (Or did MM Lee really spend time in the KGB?).
Oct 10 2007
My favorite DOD punching bag, Dr Davd Chu-he of “I’d rather side with lawyers than do the right thing for military retirees” fame-really had nothing to do with this. Except in the fact that the tone he sets as Undersecretary for Personnel Readiness, sets the tone for rules enforcement such as this:
“It’s pretty much a slap in the face,” Anderson said. “I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership… once again failing the soldiers.”Anderson’s orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.
Yea, its not like they were busy or anything. Cause if you actually give a Soldier the benefits he’s earned-you know, like more Soldiers might want them. Can’t have that!
The stingy man indeed……….
Oct 09 2007
One of my favorite commentators, Fred Reed is taking a sabbatical. To some degree I share his frustration, although his readership is large and mine is not.
More than burnout is involved. People write columns in the (faint) hope of changing things. No, a web site will not alter the majestic course of the planets in their orbits. It was once possible, however, to believe that enough people hollering in the electronic town hall that is the web might push things in a desired direction. In the past, this has worked—not cleanly, nor quickly, nor quite as the senior-civics texts said. But it has sort of worked. Now it doesn’t. Today the United States is politically and socially constipated. Nothing moves, or at least not in a desirable direction. Crooks, frauds, revivalists, the over-empowered under-brained, believers and mouth-breathers and unabashed lunatics—all of these have so firmly gummed up the gears that improvement founders. Someone seems to have poured glue into the political kaleidoscope. Little point exists in curmudgeing at the bastards.A few examples to make a point: The schools are terrible, we know they are terrible, we have known it for decades, and yet they only get worse. The universities are become dumbed-down propaganda chutes, and we know it, yet they only get worse. The War on Drugs is an ineffective farce continued for the benefit of drug lords, and we know it, yet we continue. The racial situation is both grim and stagnant. We have no military enemies, yet spend ever more on “defense.” None of these foolishnesses can be changed. If they could be, by now they would have been.A train wreck once started goes to completion.
And the policeman cometh. He cannot, I think, be stopped. The abolitions of the Bill of Rights, the ever increasing surveillance, the diminished recourse of citizens against the government—these are not business as usual. They have happened before, in bits and pieces, but now they become respectable. The CIA has always tortured people and the FBI has always engaged in illegal phone-tapping and political persecution. Yet in the past they didn’t want to be caught because consequences might follow. These are now federal policy, openly admitted. The government keeps records of the books you read in the airport. This is something different.
And it can’t be stopped. Actually it is wild and fun when viewed as entertainment. What a show: The United States is close to one-man rule. Congress is complicit, the Supreme Court a nursing home. No serious opposition exists. If Bush leaves office in 2008, the incoming president will continue the trends of today. The effects begin to show. People grow ever more docile, accustomed to intimidation, to searches without cause. Several writers of my acquaintance no longer question federal policy. They are afraid.
And we are going to see this show through to the end. In a dismal way it is funnier than Oprah.
More than just a little pithy………
Oct 08 2007
I watched This Week today on AFN. I love watching George Will. Because lately he has been on a roll-telling the Emperor that he has no clothes:
Social conservatives should grow up. If they want to rally around somebody, why don’t try that? Huckabee needs support and money now. If the social conservatives are half as important as they think they are, they would rally around one of these people [..] And then decide what you care about. If you care about judges, then you’re gonna get satisfied by Giuliani, then get in line and play politics. But there’s a vanity in this group right now. They call themselves “values voters.” I’ve news for them: 100% of the American electorate are values voters; they vote their values…And this, this, kind of semantic imperialism that they have where they say “we vote values”. Everyone else votes what?
Oct 08 2007
By a not so great golf game. Ask me again, why I love living overseas.
Oct 04 2007
Well today was a downer just like I expected it to be. My brain is mush.
Worst part of these past few days is knowing that with a little more thought and a lot less ego on the part of those setting up this particular fiasco evolution we could be a lot farther along.
But we are not.
And the hits are going to keep on coming all the way through Saturday-who thinks working on a Saturday when you are in a foreign country is such a good idea anyway? Not me.
I’m having to post from a shared computer-so posts will be short this week-but I would encourage folks to read the following over at Sourrain’s place. It is a different take on the immigration debate from a country that has some real problems and they don’t just concern learning Spanish.
Has anyone seen Madame Chiang? Its like she dropped off the face of the planet.
And finally-anybody got any good info for fun in Pusan. I’m told it used to be a happening place-with used to be being the operative word(s). Last two nights I’ve been in bed by 10-NO LIE!
Oct 04 2007
You can just smell a lousy day coming your way when you get up……….
Today is one of those days.
Pusan weather has been nice-as for the city, well its a Korean city. It is what it is. Off to work now to see what bad news awaits me.
Oct 03 2007
Got in yesterday after the flight from hell…………..
Still getting connectivity up. I’ll try to post more later. But I spent last night horizontal for 10 hours catching up on lost sleep.
