Far East Cynic

Things are looking up here in Bloggerville. No post for the past two days as the S.O. and I went to observe our ritual “go to Tokyo and celebrate making each other miserable for another year” visit.  We stayed at a hotel in Tokyo, had a very nice dinner at one of those small out of the way restaurants that Shinjuku is famous for, and  looked at all the Christmas lights in Roppongi hills and the new development of Midtown. (Which by the way is built on the former site of the Defense Agency….).

My son is out of the hospital and he must be on the mend-he asked me for money. He seemed rather annoyed when I pointed out that his mother gets plenty of it from me, he should go ask her. Then again, as I pointed out earlier maybe she is too busy paying legal fees.

My Mom is doing OK and she sounded OK on the phone. My sister says she is doing about as well as can be expected and she is driving her nuts-so that too is a good sign.

While the S.O. and I were out and about, we decided the  second morning to take in the sights and sounds of Ginza. That is always fun-Ginza is a girl watchers paradise, even in winter. Maybe even more so in winter because it appears to me that it must be an unwritten rule for Japanese women that if they are going to be shopping in the stores there, they have to dress for the occasion. Whatever, seeing girl after girl in a short skirt and long boots sure got my attention!

I bought the S.O. a hat on Sunday. She was trying it on in a store-and she looked good in it. Very girlish, and very cute- if I do say so my self.  When coupled with the pants and jacket she was wearing, it made for a most attractive combination.  Jumpability factor was quite high-maybe even a 9.0 across the board-except the Russian judge gave a very low score for some reason.  However we had things to see first before we could attend to what was important to me.

Follow me to see the sights!

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Well, so far so good.

Had to go through the misfortune of speaking with my ex-wife, who answered the phone when I called my son. She hung up on me after telling me my son was not there. Situation normal. I have never understood those scenes in the movies where the two ex’s get along well. Even after almost 9 years, just the sound of her voice makes my stomach hurt. Bitch. I hate that woman.

Especially since, its clear she has not changed her thieving ways at all. My son let it slip the IRS is after her for non-payment of taxes. He is usually more guarded about talking about her situation.  Why am I not suprised? If they put her in jail can I stop paying alimony? My only regret is that I did not walk out on her sooner. It would have saved me a lot of money.

My son is getting better though although it appears he will be in the hospital till at least Tuesday. My Mom is Ok, but my sister warned me that she could be back in the hospital at any time. I made a decision right there, turned in some miles and will fly back for a couple of days after the new year. The timing could not be worse-but a man has to do what a man has to do.

Here in Japan there was all kinds of news last night. In Sasebo, a gunman walked into a Sports Club and started shooting. He killed two people and injured 6. The news commentators last night immediately speculated that it had to be a foreigner and possibly a Sailor. There is no proof or evidence, but ” Sources at the sports club said that recently Kuramoto had been stalked by a foreigner.”

What about a deranged Nihonjin trying to imitate a Colorado church goer? Nope-has to be a Gaijin.

Except it wasn’t a Gaijin. In an erie resemblance to several other shootings in the US the guy was found dead in a church.

NAGASAKI — Police on Saturday found a man in a camouflage outfit lying dead in a pool of blood near a Catholic church in the town of Funakoshi. Police said the 37-year-old man is suspected of being the gunman in Friday’s shooting rampage at a sports club in Sasebo, that left two dead and six injured. The church is in the town of Funakoshi, about 5 kilometers southwest of the sports club, police officials said, adding that a shotgun was found near the body of the man who has been identified as Masayoshi Magome.

Magome apparently committed suicide, as the sound of a gunshot was heard around 5:44 a.m. from the church’s direction, police said.

Police said Magome, who is from Funakoshi, is the owner of a white minivan in which two shotguns, one air gun and camouflage clothing were discovered after the vehicle was found early Saturday in front of the church.

According to police investigations, the suspect is said to have gone to the same junior high school as one of the two people killed in Friday’s 7:10 p.m. incident in the sports club Renaissance Sasebo, identified as Yuji Fujimoto, a 36-year-old fishing gear maker.

Lurid tales of Gaijins sell more papers I guess.

GRRRRR! I’m still mad at having to talk to my ex wife! God help me if we have to ever go to a wedding for my daughter. Not to worry-she will just probably send me the bill.

It freaking pours……….

My sister called and not an hour later my son’s girlfriend called. Regarding the latter, as soon as I heard the voice I knew it could not be anything good. My boy is in the hospital with pneumonia it appears……more detail to follow going to be there at least 6 days possibly longer.

As for my sister calling, it was to tell me that my Mom had ALSO been admitted to the hospital-but had been released today.  DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!

So for the time being, I sit and wait, run up my phone bill and try to get more info and figure out if I need to go someplace.  So if posting is light……..well, you were informed. Please keep my son and my Mom in your hearts and prayers.

In the meantime, go read this. Talk about it amongst yourselves. There will be test some time next week. I may have my faults, but I love my children always. This is a story of a man who clearly did not let love conquer his own devotion to a sick twisted religion………..

Out here…………………. 

For my son at least.  He is now a fully certified para-medic.

HOO! HOO! 

That is all.

A little background: About 4 months ago the rather large English teaching firm NOVA went down hard into bankruptcy. This was after about 11 weeks of not paying its teachers and making excuse after excuse as to why it could not make ends meet. The story got worse when it was revealed that, just like a an Exxon CEO or the President of United Airlines, the President and CEO of NOVA had lived a profligate lifestyle and literally taken the money and ran. Leaving a lot of wanna be swinging Gaijin high and dry. The stupid pink rabbit was their mascot and appeared in a whole bunch of TV commercials. Their ads were on every train-literally.

At the rate things are going that could be me you see begging in Shinbashi. Dig deep my children-and give!

Contrary to what some readers may think, that is not my personal life goal.

No post yesterday-I’ve been in an out of sorts mood and have been trying to shake off the crud that Korea always seems to inflict upon me. Decided to wine and dine the S.O. last night, stay away from computer,  and really make up for my prolonged absences and my overall foul mood toward her of late.

Wine? Yup.

Dine? Yup

Mission Accomplished banner hanging from my flag bridge this morning?-Not a chance. That’s what comes of letting her spend time with too many American women……………….

Why even bother?

Speaking of American women, a faithful reader and fellow victim of Pat Schroeder’s disease sent me a useful link to a Google forum on the US’s most evil law. I’ve added the link to my sidebar. Its a Google forum about Title 10-USC 1408. Also known as the unearned income law, or USFSPA.  The purpose of this forum is to bring together fellow suffers from Pat ’s  malady and together learn ways to cope and increase public awareness in order to one day find a cure. ( Right now the only cure is to have the ex-wife die-but as OJ found out that too gets expensive…..).

The original hope for a cure was to have the Supreme Court actually step up to the plate and do its job actually providing a proper interpretation of the Constitution-just as it did in 1981 when it declared that military retirement was not divisible as property, and should not be- because it is retainer pay. Today, however the court is clogged with BS cases about torture, school prayer, abortion, and other crap-instead of getting me back what is rightfully mine.

This is a travesty of justice worse than giving GWB Florida……………

What this small, but growing group of victims, wants to accomplish now is to help guild an effort to make the real costs of this evil law brought to light and get Congress to repeal-and if not that-amend this evil oppression of serving men and women.

“There are not that many people affected“, you say? Interestingly enough one of the folks actually petitioned DFAS under a FOIA request (Why is this not public record information?). Just under 100,000 whores Americans are receiving direct deposits of someone else’s hard earned retirement pay under the act. That does not include the folks who had to pay huge “buy outs” to get the little bitch  Mrs off their back, nor does it reflect the number of people who make direct payments to their shrews ex spouses without making DFAS the middle man. Factor that in and the number is probably two to three times that.

And the number keeps increasing with women now joining the ranks of the  fucked over victims.

One really good suggestion that has come to light is that one reason Congress is so apathetic as well as my favorite  sycophant  civil servant, Dr Chu, to the problem,  is that so few of them are affected by the law. Of the 18 announced Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, only Republicans John McCain and Duncan Hunter have served on the front lines. Three others served in noncombat roles and another two served in the reserves. Probably only one, John McCain served for a full military career and qualified for military retirement. Albeit I think no one will doubt that he earned his retirement the hard way!

But…………

He did not lose any of his Captain’s retirement in his divorce…...

Lets look at what he did give up:

John McCain gave up his interest in two homes
and agreed to pay $1,625 a month in alimony and child support when he
divorced his first wife 20 years ago, court records show.

The senator and Republican presidential candidate divorced his wife
Carol in 1980 when he was a Navy captain with a home of record in
Orange Park, Fla., about 12 miles south of Jacksonville.

McCain, 63, gave her his interest in homes in Alexandria, Va., and
South Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., according to records of the divorce
settlement obtained by The Associated Press and other newspapers.

The Arizona senator agreed to give her their furnishings, $1,325 a
month in alimony, $300 in child support. He also agreed to pay an
additional $500 monthly if she couldn’t find a job.

She was subsequently employed in the Reagan White House, according to
George “Bud” Day, McCain’s attorney during the divorce. Day also was
one McCain’s cellmates when they were prisoners of war in Vietnam.

Carol McCain, who has remained friendly with her former husband, did
not immediately return a phone call to her Virginia home Thursday
seeking comment.

McCain filed for the divorce, stating in court records that the
marriage was “irretrievably broken.”

Under the settlement, McCain maintained insurance policies worth
$64,000 with their children as beneficiaries, agreed to pay for their
daughter’s college education and paid $3,005 in joint debts. Carol
McCain got the family’s Audi, while McCain was allowed to keep a
Datsun 810 and his personal belongings, the records show.

Now in my opinion that alone is a heinous settlement-especially at 1980 prices-for a woman it would appear is, and was,  quite wealthy in her own right. And who could get off her ass and work. However percentage wise, compared to many of the victims of the USFSPA, it was quite mild.

The problem is,  McCain had the smarts to sell her out before Pat Schroeder’s abomination became law. However if memory serves the law did allow supposedly aggrieved ex- spouses to go back and file for what was “theirs”.

If only McCain were doing better in the polls. Then a group of veterans could get together and file a motion on behalf of the former Mrs McCain and get her divorce re-opened. Maybe if the good Senator had to give up 50% of his more than hard earned retirement-he might be a lot more sympathetic to those of us who do not have those kind of resources. If nothing else the court case could raise awareness of just how truly evil this law is-and how truly criminal the response of Dr. Chu and the department of Defense has been in sticking up for fairness and equity for serving and formerly serving Soldiers, Sailors, Airman and Marines. Hell, I bet in the right circumstances we could get some of the other candidates ( like the one who comes from a religion of multiple wives…….and sanctuary mansions) to pay for it!

I mean-it sure beats swift boating. And it helps a lot more people.

Yep, that would really make me happy. Almost as happy as opening up the paper and seeing:

My ex-wife run over by a bus.

Dr Chu identified as one Larry Craig’s secret lovers.

Seeing the USFSPA repealed.

None of which is going to happen. But a man can dream can’t he?

I’m glad the Olympics are in Beijing this year. It will give the rest of the world the chance to do what it did not get to do in 1980-drive home a point to a huge communist dictatorship by kicking some Chinese ass on the athletic fields.

I hate Jimmy Carter for 3 specific reasons:

1) He gave away the Panama Canal.

2) He kept the US Olympic team from going to Moscow and kicking Russian ass in front of the entire world.

3) I had to pay 15.5% interest on a house loan in 1981.

Japan Probe has an interesting post about the so-called politeness of the Chinese-shown so gracefully by the Chinese recently to USS Kitty Hawk. Witness what happened to Japan’s women athletes at a Word Cup match:

When the Japanese women’s soccer team unfurled a banner of gratitude at the Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium, it belied what had happened for 90 minutes before. Japan, trying desperately to get into the knockout phase of the women’s World Cup, had to endure not only the onslaught by reigning champions Germany on the pitch, but also a chorus of abuse from the almost 40,000 spectators, who had come not so much to cheer the Europeans but to jeer their Asian neighbours.

In this group A finale in the coastal city of Hangzhou 13 days ago, heckling and booing threatened to bring down the roof whenever the Japanese gained possession. A huge German flag was passed around the stands by a mostly Chinese, 39,817-strong crowd. The overwhelming partisan support for the Germans – who won 2-0 – coupled with obscenities directed at the Japanese, certainly raised a lot of eyebrows. “People paid a proper standing tribute to the German national anthem but once the strains of the Japanese anthem set in, most of them sat down and booed,” said a German journalist. “To be honest, it was really impolite.” Yet the Japanese women were undaunted. They returned to the pitch after the final whistle, held up a banner reading “Thank you China” and bowed to the stands in all directions.

[…]

“There is no doubt that Japanese athletes will have to live with the hostility [at the Beijing Olympics],” said Tong Zeng, a leading activist in the campaign to defend China’s sovereignty over the Diaoyu islands. “The resentment is justified and a natural response towards a sports team representing a former invader that denies its tainted past.” Asked whether the goodwill banner by the Japanese women conjured any sympathy, Tong replied: “It’s a heart-warming display of kindness, but again I don’t think it will do much to put an end to the heckling.”

Or this little demonstration of so called tolerance:

The man on the right is saying, “Kill Japanese! Small Japan should die!”

It might bring a more sympathetic reaction from me if China’s hands were not equally bloody- I guess we are not supposed to remember their own invasions. Or the 33,000 Americans killed by stinking Chinese commies during the Korean War. Or the threat they pose today to the United States and the rest of Asia.

its been over 60 years since World War II. Give it up!

Which is why I am hoping Western athletes go to Beijing and kick Chinese ass. Again and again. The Star Bangled Banner needs to become the Olympic’s unofficial theme song.

Its the best way to put China in its place.  Cause you are always winning when China is losing………………….

Comes from John Cole:

As a side note, what does it say about your party when people are deemed unelectable because they oppose torture?

QED!

It is cold here in Seoul today. The kind of wet, sink to your bone cold that exists in a place where wet snow is frequent. It was sunny today, but its clear I did not bring enough of the right type of clothing. I should have packed my long johns.

I had a series of meetings today spread out across Yongsan. One was way down at the south end of the post. It went shorter than expected, and finding a taxi was a non starter I started walking back. Thanks be to the Lord above, a chaplain stopped and gave me ride. I guess I looked miserable enough that he felt I needed salvation. He’s probably right.

Speaking of salvation, I have been noting with interest the recent coverage of the war in Iraq.  Everybody is supposed to be getting it now. The surge is working! Americans are winning! The light at the end of the tunnel is drawing closer. Those who continue to insist that we should get back to defending American interests, doing the right thing for Americans, and that if things are really getting better in Iraq, why can’t we start bringing American troops home and give them a break for all their hard work? Those people are ridiculed by by morons like Charles Krauthammer.

And that is what is most interesting to me. The answer to that last question continues to be a big resounding NO! So what does that really say about the “success” of the surge?

“Skippy, you just don’t get it-we are winning.”

Oh really? Tell me exactly what we have won Johnny?

A peaceful stable Iraq? Hardly. For all the talk of the “success” of the surge-Iraq is hardly a normal country. In the month of November lets look hard at the numbers.

US troops killed: 37. Less to be sure but hardly something like peace. If you look at the entire 5 years it represents the baseline, so to speak. Call me a pessimist, but I expect December and January will have about the same numbers.

I hope to hell I am wrong.

Iraqis killed: over 500.

Out of a population of 26 million, that number is hardly a good thing. That it is less than the 1000-1400 the country was averaging during 2007 is a good thing, but statistically it points to a return to a baseline. Iraq has been here before in 2005.

Lets not even discuss contractor fatalities shall we? The bottom line is that Iraq is still a dangerous place and averaging almost 2000 violent unnecessary deaths a month. That’s hardly a “normal” country.

Juan Cole probably has it summed up well:

What the recent publicity about the “success” of the troop surge has ignored is this: The Bush administration has downplayed the collapsing political situation in Iraq by directing the public’s attention to fluctuating numbers of civilians killed. While there have been some relative gains in security recently, even there the picture remains dubious. The Iraqi ministry of health, long known for cooking the books, says that a few hundred Iraqis were killed in political violence in November. However, independent observers such as Iraq Body Count cite a much higher number — some 1,100 civilians killed in Iraq in November. They reported that bombings and assassinations accounted for 63 persons on Saturday, the first day of December, alone. . . The current “good news” campaign from the Bush administration regarding the troop surge is only the latest in a long history of whitewashing the war since the 2003 invasion. First, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld denied that there was massive looting following the fall of Baghdad. Then he denied that there was a rising guerrilla war. . . ‘

The real issue with the success of the surge is answering the question, “when are we leaving?”. People might applaud the Democratic efforts to strangle the budget if they knew the real answer-we are never leaving.

Monday, during a videoconference, Mr. Bush and Nuri al-Maliki separately signed a “declaration of principles” that calls for one more year of U.S. occupation of Iraq by U.N. mandate to be followed with a more permanent arrangement under sanction of a bilateral treaty.

That’s pretty amazing when you think about it particularly when you consider that the Iraqi parliament just 6 months ago said that a permanent US presence is not an option. In June of 2007, Iraq’s parliament passed a binding resolution that specifically guaranteed them an opportunity to block any further extensions of the U.N. mandate. Maliki did not veto the law. This “principles” deal he just signed on to with Bush will involve yet another end run around his parliament to extend the U.N. mandate, and then another one to establish a two-way treaty with the U.S.

And why did he do all this? Because his own army is not hacking the program. So his only guarantee is to have the US prop up his ineffective government for a longer-if Bush has his way for years and years and years.

At a cost though. At a cost of about 40 US lives a month. I just do not consider that a fair trade. No amount of Arab lives is worth the life of one single American.

So yea, I just don’t get it. And I don’t plan to any time soon. Progress or not, Iraq remains a mistake and a distraction to the US for a whole bunch of reasons.

I’ve never been so happy to see a train in my life.

I took the train up to Seoul today. I have work up here for the next 3 days-I’m grateful for it, it gave me a reason to leave the project in Busan and Jinhae.Never in the history of man have so many toiled so hard for such little useful result. The poor guys who work directly for the project manager are stuck-they are great souls who are being abused if you ask me. They have little recourse.

As I mentioned before, the project is a necessary one. However the guy running it just cannot figure out how to do what I call “bounding the problem”. Had he done that and done some load shedding he would have realized that the only thing that mattered was the final deliverable-a presentation to some high powered people and an action plan. That is not so hard-PROVIDED you lay the terms of work out at the start then not change them. This guy just cannot do that. I think he is dyslexic. He has the “ear of the master though” and no one has told him that he is full of you know what-myself included since my role is tertiary and I am not in charge of the project. Suffice it to say, I know it could be run better. But with each passing day my influence wanes-I’m out the door from this job this summer. Where to, is anybody’s guess at this point.

So I exercised my escape clause today. I’m glad I did, I just did not have the patience to keep watching the train run off the tracks. The ride up on the KTX was nice-I paid the extra money for First Class tickets and I am glad I did. I had a nice seat and until sunset the country side was interesting to see.

A little bit of an adventure getting to the hotel. The Taxi driver did not speak English and I don’t speak any Korean. The number on the side of the taxi that offered interpretation did not work. Finally was able to get a hold of the hotel  operator who told the driver where he needed to go.

Up early tomorrow so its time for bed. Thank God and greyhound I am gone!