Huh?

In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” NYT

I repeat, "Huh?" Obama is a big improvement over his predecessor in many ways---even though he has tended to continue very similar or the same policies---but the Noble Peace Prize?

As to whether the prize was given too early in Mr. Obama’s presidency, Mr. Jagland [Noble Committee chairman], a former prime minister of Norway, replied: “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”

Gobsmacking. Perhaps it was his Afghanistan policy. Or the withdrawal from Iraq.

I no longer understand anything. Going to buy videos games and sit in the closet and play them all day and night.

9PM: After rereading the article, I get the impression that Obama got the prize in part because he isn't Bush. Had he not followed Boy George---who managed to get nearly the whole planet to revile him---Obama would have had to wait a few years...
　

We can help

(Revised and reposted.)

Apologies to Billy Swan. (Oh well...soundtrack has been removed....)

Below is a post about Nakagawa Shoichi's remarks concerning the recent (and, unfortunately, entirely predictable) moves toward open protectionism by the US Congress. He was right in those comments, but he seems to have been a little less on target at other times during the G7 as observed (sorry) at Observing Japan. Are there any surprises left? I actually feel sorry for the man. What kind of idiots on his staff allowed that to take place?

Speaking of Observing Japan, Tobias Harris blog post is featured in an article by Andrew Dewitt/Tobias Harris: Japan's Twenty Year Response to Economic Crisis. (23 Feb, Sorry, I forgot to link to that at Japan Focus)

And speaking of blogs, the world's most succinct summary of Japan's governance is at Shisaku (where Nakagawa's performance is also covered). Fifty years of Boy George...

Security in Bush's America

I am not so sure that the US is safer than before even with all the power that the US government has taken for itself to spy on its own citizens.

Seven years after anthrax was sent through the US mail and killed several people, Uncle Sam investigated and smeared the wrong guy before grudgingly sort of admitting that maybe it may have possibly been less that perfectly correct about him. They admitted this after another scientist whom they were sure was the killer committed suicide which means that the FBI will never have to prove its latest suspicions in court, so we'll just have to trust them. Gee this is even better than the military trials at Guantanamo.

The new suspect---now assumed guilty without trial---had indications of mental problems for years. He may have been a stalker, he admitted being paranoid, he bought a gun (while under FBI surveillance and investigation) and threatened mass murder. Then, again while under government surveillance, he killed himself.

No doubt that the way to greater security is to trade a little freedom for it. Some naysayer once said that folks who do that deserve neither and will ultimately lose both. However, he had some skeletons in his own closest which would negate the validity of anything he said, according to some.

For Security. Trust us.

While the Japanese government can go overboard protecting us from terrorists (well, foreign terrorists. Well, foreigners anyway.) it is still far behind Uncle Sam, the beacon of freedom and individual rights throughout the world---thanks to Boy George and also to all of the Republicans and Democrats who bitch and moan then support him anyway. They must know something that we don't and like a free and open gubbermint, they ain't gonna share that info with us in order to protect us.

The Department of Homeland Security may now confiscate your laptop or any other electronic device which is capable of holding information in digital or analog form and do so without any suspicion of wrongdoing. This is necessary to preserve freedom in the freest country on earth. In fact, any move to restrict the ability of government employees to freely do whatever they want would, in the words of the freedom-loving Homeland Security Secretary, "have a dangerous, chilling effect as officers' often split-second assessments are second-guessed."*

I agree. Now if it weren't for that pesky US Bill of Rights, we could just allow unwarranted searches at the whim of any government official anywhere in the USA at anytime. Thank goodness that the Bill of Rights does NOT apply at border entry points to the US.

The USA does not discriminate against non-citizens with this policy. They will treat everyone equally---like common sh*t if they so desire.

Let's see. You get off of your 11 hour overseas flight to the US. You are a bit tired and touchy after being sardined in a tin tube at 40,000 feet eating the delicious airline food. (Do they still serve it, or are we getting 3 peanuts now?)

Your friendly, polite, customs officer comes up to you to ask you questions to determine if a sleazeball like you should be allowed into the US. Your US citizenship means nothing yet. Not a citizen? Look sorta Middle-Eastern? No problem. He or she asks you several idiotic questions scientifically designed to determine if you are a threat to all that is 'merican. "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?" (Joking, Little Bush's "Justice" Department asks that only of potential employees.) You get a bit irritated and give a reply which does not show proper respect for your bureaucrat questioner, "I admire absolute morons who achieve high office and then attempt to dismantle the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights and are successful at doing so with the support of supposed political opposition."

Wrong move. Your friendly Customs Officer cannot do a lot just because you have not worshiped him/her or Georgy properly, but he or she can take that $5000 dSLR camera that you foolishly brought with you and send it off for an unlimited period to be analyzed for terrorist plans, child porn, photos of plants that may be drugs, or grandma in her undies. Don't worry, your cooperation will rid the world of evil.

Of course, that sort of abuse would never happen. Customs officers are professionals. They are specially selected and trained so that they would never let peevish human emotions cloud their fairness and adherence to the law. Except in this case---they are adhering to the law.

Think Obama or McCain will change this policy if it is still in effect after the election? Of course. You can tell by their vigorous and unrelenting protests concerning the excesses of the Boy George "for security" policies.

*What could possibly be "split-second" about deciding whether or not one has a suspicion of wrong-doing?

(Edited again as neither I nor Blogger spellcheck can spell and I always think of something else after posting the first time. I too, hope to achieve higher office.)

Related article at reason.com.

Will January 2009 come soon enough?

I lived in Montana for about 2 years and it remains my favorite place on earth. When I think of wild, when I think of natural, when I think of the essence of the American West, I think of Montana. I remember the unbelievably frigid nights in the winter when I could hear trees crack from the cold; the crystal clear skies in which I could see more stars than I ever saw from anywhere else--even more than I remember growing up out in the sticks as a kid. I remember the Chinook winds which could bring a warm spell to break up some of the cold. I remember the wildlife, especially the elk season and the sound of there bugling, and the sometimes worrying but always exciting chance of seeing a grizzly. And I especially remember the smell of sage everywhere. It is also the place where I really got to know the girlfriend who later became my wife.

I was somewhat disappointed when movie stars began to buy up Montana land as I figured that they would bring Hollywood lifestyles with them and insist that Montana become citified. However, it seemed to survive even that well.

Now, thanks to the Boy George administration, the US Forest Service has completed a closed door deal to release 1.2 millions acres in western Montana for possible development into residential subdivisions.

"We have 40 years of Forest Service history that has been reversed in the last three months," said Pat O'Herren, an official in Missoula County, which is threatening to sue the Forest Service for forgoing environmental assessments and other procedures that would have given the public a voice in the matter. (The full and interesting NYT article here.)

Montana will survive, but it may lose a little more of what made it such a special place. As one person said in the article, a clearcut can grow back, but a subdivision of houses is there forever.

Thank you Bush. Please do not let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Are Japan's leaders merely readers on climate change? Japan Times headline.

A very simple answer: Yes, if that is not giving them too much credit. Since the Kyoto Accord was signed in Japan, there seems to be some belief that Japan is a world leader in fighting global warming. The nihonronists and members of the Department of an Imaginary Japans like to spout this as it goes right along with the "special" relationship with nature that Japan mythically has. Some of the right-wing nutjobs even count their own brand of environmentalism as part of their ideals, so no doubt they would love to believe that Japan is or should be the natural leader in this.

Strangely though, Japan did not ratify the Accords until Boy George pulled the U.S. out of the agreement. (OK, most countries curiously declined to act until Bush said the U.S. would not participate.) In addition, one often reads/hears about how difficult if will be for Japan to become even more energy efficient than it already, anyone who lives in Tokyo ought to be able to think of numerous was that Japan could easily reduce energy usage and emissions further. The use of proper insulation in homes and less wrapping/packaging, for example.

..."Fukuda's speech at Davos was compiled by officials of the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry...those bureaucrats are actually controlling policies on global warming to ensure they are ineffective and insufficient...

Tetsunari Iida, [from the Tokyo-based Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies] explained the government, greatly influenced by big energy industries, hammered out the targets — targets which have actually been preventing the promotion of renewable energy. Read the full article at The Japan Times here.

The good thing for the US is that Boy George will soon be a former president like Bubba Clinton and we won't hear much from him unless his wife---god forbid---runs for president. For Japan, it is likely that the same bunch of hair-dyeing, barcode-headed old geezers mainly from the LDP (and the bureaucracy) will still be running the country for the foreseeable future. So leadership from Japan on the issue is about as realistic as the uniquely special relationship that Japan has with nature.

Thank you Boy George and Hillary

...that whoever succeeds President Bush might restore something of the United States' battered image and standing overseas but that 'the magic is over.' . . .Washington Post.

Not that the U.S. was ever as loved overseas as Americans have been led to believe, but the change is palpable now---or at least people are more open about the dislike of many things American.

Not only should we thank Bush and Clinton (Hillary, without having bothered to read all pertinent reports available to her at the time, voted for a war that she now opposes), but all Americans who didn't take Colin Powell seriously when he said about Iraq, "If we break it, we own it."

US to ask Japan to improve fingerprinting of non-Japanese

Yes. There were rumors that the US had asked Japan to initiate fingerprinting of all non-Japanese entering Japan and it still isn't satisfied after Japan began to do it. The Bush Department of Homeland Paranoia---sorry, Security---would like to see Japan start getting prints from all 10 fingers.

I guess that criticism of Japan of the procedure was a little too stiff. No, Japan need not do everything that George Bush says, but it usually does unless it is protecting a company or market. No surprise that Japan would follow Bush here, especially if it means targeting non-Japanese.

It will be interesting to hear what the two final candidates for president will say about the excesses of Homeland Security---if they even believe that they have been excesses. I think most Americans are finding it acceptable, at least that is the impression I get from those visiting or newly arrived in Japan. Anything is ok as long as there can be some half-assed attempt to link it to "security."

The story is here.

Why America needs a change

I used to consider myself a Republican. I was, and am, more of a Libertarian than conservative, because conservatives want to restrict and control those people and ideas that they don't agree with as much as liberals do. However, to make a slight modification to something Ronald Reagan once said, "I didn't leave the Republican party, it left me."

And that is exactly what has happened with the new big government, intrusive, religious zealot-based Republican Party. I thought George Bush The Daddy was a poor president who seemed to get his jollies from invading foreign countries---although I think the first Gulf War was justified---but Little George is so bad that even Jimmy Carter said something along the lines that Little-Tiny was the worst president in history. Jimmy should know something about being one of the worst, but at least he did not start an unjustified war, and although he was and is a religious man, he let it cloud his judgment, whatever one thinks of his judgment.

Anyway, this primary election I am supporting Barack Obama. My choice on the Republican side is John McCain and although it may be hard to choose in a general election between the two, right now I am leaning strongly toward Obama. It would be the first time that I have ever voted for a Democrat for president, but I believe that he represents the best chance we have for a new direction in the US and hopefully can help put an end to the extreme looniness on both the left and the right. Perhaps I am dreaming. At any rate, both he and McCain seem to be honest, straightforward men. The nightmare would be a Billary (anywhere on the ticket) and "Leave-the-US-if-you-ain't religious" Romney. I wouldn't vote for either.

(No, I did not vote for Tiny George as I had learned my lesson from his Daddy. I did not vote for a major party candidate in the last two elections and I actually voted for the crazy-man, Ross Perot, in 1992).

I received the following e-mail forwarded from someone whom I fortunately do not know. These kinds of "thoughts" are way beyond what I believe---or I want to believe---the US should stand for. Unfortunately, I am sure plenty share these views. This is from the "religious" side, I suppose the religious right. I have no doubt that there are such nutjobs with mirroring views on the left. How embarrassing such stuff is:

Written by a housewife from New Jersey and sounds
like it! This is one ticked off lady.

Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it
or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on
September 11, 2001?

Were people from all over the world,
mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across
the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania ?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die
a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?

And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was
"desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it
wet?...Well, I don't. I don't care at all.

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the
Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a
crime in Saudi Arabia

I'll care when these thugs tell the
world they are sorry for chopping off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed
through his gurgling slashed throat.

I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in
Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by
hiding in mosques.

I'll care when the mindless zealots
who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children
within range of their suicide .

I'll care when the American media stops pretending
that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law
instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave
marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't
care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi
prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident,
rest assured: I don't care.***

When I see a wounded terrorist get
shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped,
you can take it to the bank: I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran
and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is
complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe
in your heart of hearts: I don't care.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's
spelled "Koran" and other times "Quran" Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and-you guessed
it-I don't care !!

If you agree with this viewpoint,
pass this on to all your E-mail friends. Sooner or later, it'll get to the
people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!

If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete
button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't complain when more
atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And
may I add: Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for
you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The American G. I.

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON,

AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM.

AMEN!

This person actually believes that she is supporting the military by accepting the crimes of a few poorly disciplined perverts as justified, or at least not worthy of her concern. She views the war as a religious war in which the US may disregard any and all treaties, laws, and morals and put its own troops at risk to make her ass feel better as she sits on it in her cozy apartment in New Jersey. By the way, as a military veteran, I find her misplaced and ignorant attempt to defend the criminal actions of the perverted guards and their superiors at Abu Ghraib prison offensive. Those actions were illegal under the UCMJ and no trained, disciplined, professional soldier would tolerate that. She is what a Christian is supposed to be?

A President Obama probably can't do much about this kind of person, but hopefully he can help bring a sense of what the US can be, instead of a US hiding under the covers in fear of faceless terrorists and of other religions and people. Christ, we don't want to be like another country that I know.

I write this knowing that the left in the US is not any better than the extreme right. I will never forget 3 wonderful Democrats whom I worked with talking about how they hoped that Saddam Hussein would not be captured (well after Tiny invaded) so that Lord John Kerry could get an advantage in the election, no matter whether or not it could shorten the war and prevent more deaths.The loony left is just as dangerous and nutty as the loony right.

***I believe the "college hazing" reference is straight from the Republican Elite's chief apologist, Rush Limbaugh. So perhaps this person is a dildo-head. Sorry, I meant ditto-head. See here.

The History of US Torture
A Japan Focus article---while it lasts.