Thursday, February 28, 2008

JTO editors just noticed

that the mythical love and respect for nature in Japan is mythical:

What is worse is how ugliness has penetrated Japan's historic heartland, and no one seems to care.

Mikako Hayashi, associate professor of restorative dentistry and endodontology at Osaka University, remembers her return to Japan after 16 months doing research at England's Manchester University and exploring the historic spots there. She says: "As the aircraft banked on its final approach, I looked out of the window to see the countryside of my homeland — and it looked as if some demon giant had tipped a huge garbage can over the landscape." Japan Times Online

Some childish idiot would say something like, "Well, duh?"

Well, duh?

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Obama and change

I mentioned earlier that I am considering voting for a Democrat for president for the first time in my life. None of the the others ever tempted me--except for Bill Clinton in 1992 and I decided that I couldn't really trust him. One of the things that led me to that conclusion at that time was all of the Hollywood loony left jumping on Bill's boat. It was his followers that dissuaded me more than anything he did or said. I figured if they are so eager to support him, then they are expecting something in return---support for their left-wing elitist causes. (It turned out to be about accurate, although Bill did not go with some of the extremists in his party, and I believe---in spite of his ability to disgust anyone with his character, words, and actions---his administration was a net good for the U.S., especially compared to the guy in the White House now.)

This hasn't happened with Obama yet, even though he does have a lot of the loony crowd behind him. When he says change, I am hoping he means change as more than going back to the 1970-80s pet "liberal" theories and policies.

One of the changes that I think is most needed is someone who can bring the left and the right together so that there can at least be a rational discussion of issues so that we can start to address them. If the hardcore loony-left and the nutty right continue to set the debate as between good and evil, (good defined as the side you agree with and pure evil the other side) then Obama will have little chance of changing anything and we'll continue down the same path that we have since the early 90s. I just hope he continues to focus on the positive and not get involved in the "politics of personal destruction" of some in his party. (Karl) Rovism is not limited to the Republicans.

This will be the first time in years that we don't have two presidential candidates who are in the pocket of the extremes in either party. It may turn out to be a good race with two good candidates, either of which I could accept.

Enough of U. S. politics. Japanese politicians like the right-winger Abe who had to resign because he could not control his bowels, Justice Minister Hatoyama, and "manga" Aso are more fun. They are at least as long as they don't get the country into some disaster, which they would if they had any real influence in the world.

(And no, I did not vote for either Daddy Bush or Little George.)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Thinking of getting drunk in Roppongi? Justice in Unique Japan

Hatoyama: As the Japanese place so much importance on the value of life, it is thought that one should pay with one's own life for taking the life of another, whereas Europe is a civilization of "chikara to tousou" ("force and strife"). So, conversely, things are moving against the death penalty. This is an important point to understand. The so-called civilizations of "chikara to tousou" are the opposite of us. From incipient stages, their conception of the value of life is weaker than the Japanese. Therefore, they are moving toward abolition of the death penalty. It is important that this discourse on civilizations be understood.

...the philosophy here espoused by Hatoyama and other senior Liberal Democratic Party conservatives, including former Education Minister Ibuki Bunmei (now LDP secretary general), is heavily influenced by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, and affiliated scholars like environmental archaeologist Yasuda Yoshinori and comparative economic historian Kawakatsu Heita. “Yasuda is the most prolific proponent of the environmental determinist school of thought, according to which Japan is a "civilization of beauty and compassion," in contrast with Judeo-Christian and Islamic states, and even China,” writes Wetherall. “His books are standard reading for romantic nationalists.”

Well, then folks in Texas must place more importance on life than most others on earth if you consider the number of executions. So must China. An old quote from someone whom many non-Japanese consider an idiot, but I suspect is not an especially uncommon belief in Japan.

Those UN [from the UN Committee on Torture] comments echo earlier reports by the Japan Bar Association, Human Rights Watch, the International Bar Association and other UN panels that say Japan’s treatment of criminal suspects is unfair and leads to coerced confessions. In about 99% of criminal trials, defendants are found guilty, and in the bulk of cases, the defendant has confessed to charges. Lawyers are not allowed to be present during interrogations, either before or after indictment. Suspects often allege psychological and sometimes physical abuse.

You don't want to be arrested in Japan. You want no trouble with the police. There ain't no innocent until proven guilty. You are screwed as soon as you are arrested. So is your lawyer it seems:

....lawyers – the last line of defense in this potholed legal landscape – are not immune from harassment. Tokyo lawyer Yasuda Yoshihiro was arrested in 1998 and held for 300 days...

but the judges will make sure justice is upheld:

...Takano Takashi, a lawyer and professor at Waseda University’s school of law. “I’ve seen many judges sleep during trial.”.... after 25 years practicing law, just five of his clients have been completely exonerated. “Some lawyers go their whole lives without winning a case,” he explains.

If you get arrested, guilty or not, just bend over and kiss your own ass goodbye. Now you know one reason Japanese crime is relatively low. You also know why people are so reluctant to involve the police or other authorities in matters, even relatively serious ones. Now do you really want to take any chances here?

All quotes from Certain Justice. Japan’s Detention System and the Rights of the Accused by David McNeill. Japan Focus.

Another Innocent Victim of sneaky foreingers?

A guy suspected of murdering his wife in 1981 in L.A. was arrested in Guam and faces extradition to the US. He had been previously convicted of attempted murder in the case in Japan as I understand it, but acquitted of murder. (She was shot in the head and him in the leg while they were supposedly taking photos of a parking lot!)

His defense attorneys and some others on news programs are expressing out rage the the US would arrest a guy acquitted of murder in Japan. Unfortunately, these lawyers seem to know nothing about the law, or else they are just trying to baffle folks with bull.

The murder was in the US. US law was violated. There is no statute of limitations in the US for murder (unlike in Japan). Just because the people involved were Japanese does not mean that the US has no jurisdiction in this case. Japan actually is the one with no jurisdiction. (Most programs that I have seen have someone who has a clue at the very end of the piece explaining why this guy is being arrested now and some of the background and likely new evidence in the case.

This seems to be big news as it has been all over TV for 2 days. Not really sure why, but it was a big story when it happened too.The Japan Times article is here.

10 days and counting

Still awaiting a response, even a "f**k you" from the Denenchofu, Tokyo McFilthys---oops, I meant McDonalds. I suspect I will get none unless I can find some way to embarrass them.

In the mean time, more food fraud from another Japanese company. I am waiting for the Japanese government to take action to clean up Japanese food companies, but I suspect that they are about as concerned about taking action to clean up domestic food as McDonalds Japan is about cleaning up the Denenchofu McDs.

A catering subsidiary of Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said it recently sold about 15,900 expired "bento" (boxed lunches), sandwiches and other food items at train stations and on bullet trains after deliberately extending their expiry times by several hours. From the Japan Times via Kyodo News.

It's supposedly only a few hours, but the responsible company is still trying to deceptively pawn off old food on customers. Good service. The customer is god.

Full story in the Japan Times Online here.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Oh, what a topsy-turvy world!

I just went down to the local 7-11 and I saw a new type of candy---CHOCOLATE HAMBURGERS!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!! OH MY GOD!!! ONLY IN JAPAN!

How weird. How utterly unfathomable. How could anyone think up chocolate burgers? How could anyone think up candy in the shape of other food??? Oh, the mystery of the Orient. How weird and strange it is here. How weird and strange the people are. I think I can never understand them. Of course no westerner could possibly do so. It is too different. It is on a different plane. Logic does not apply. Chocolate hamburger candy. Eeeewwwww.

After I saw that, I was so confused that I went outside and started running around in circles hooting like an owl and I am not even a journalist out for the night in Roppongi. I may apply for a job as one though, either with the Financial Times----or should the FT find that I am not sufficiently confused by mysterious Japan---the Boston Globe.

Candy shaped like normal food. Wow. What will be next? Candy cigarettes? Little wax bottles of fake soda? Who knows? It could happen in weird Japan. Oh, wait. They had candy cigarettes and fake soda in little wax bottles in the US when I was a kid. Now I am even more confused. I may qualify for a top management position at the FT.

The Mystery of the Orient

As I sat on the train at 630AM yesterday morning beside a guy who had his left index finger knuckle deep doing his annual nose cleaning, I began to once again ponder inscrutable, mysterious Japan. As he rolled some of his nasal contents between his fingers and flicked them on the floor, I was confused by what might seem to be a lack of manners despite the well-known fact that the Japanese are the most polite, well-mannered people in the universe. I then thought about a guy from Europe who asked me how there could be such a close relationship with nature in a country in which "they have done more to destroy nature than any other." He had just returned from a ski trip where there was blaring music all day, all over the ski resort.

I thought of last weekend when I went to the mountains myself to relax and enjoy nature and to get away from the noise, pollution, and man-made artificiality of Tokyo, and was followed on a mountain trail by some old guy with his transistor radio blaring full blast scaring every living thing away and destroying any thought of nature. I wondered how this could represent the mysterious close relationship with nature which is so invisible here.

I thought about my recent experience with the unhygienic food handling at the Denenchofu, Tokyo McDonalds and how McDonalds Japan has to date failed to respond to 2 complaints I made. I could not seem to connect this with quasi-mythical Japanese good service. The idea that" the customer is god" is hard to reconcile with this behavior. Perhaps there is another idea that the merchant is atheist. I dunno. It's all part of the mystery of the Orient.

What got me thinking of all this was a post on the blog Shisaku about an article by David Pilling in the Financial Times which Shisaku (aka MTC) calls "the worst essay on Japan published in a major newspaper in the last 20 years." That is quite a claim since the competition in the worst article category is so strong. (The full article no longer appears to be available to non-subscribers.)

I had tried not to read it as the first few lines told me what it was all about. What was surprising is that the "journalist" (?) who wrote it has been in Japan since 2002. Usually one loses the fantasyland view of the mythical uniquely unique Japan after a few years---at the latest. Apparently, it's different for idiots---sorry, I mean journalists.

I'm sorry, but I don't see what is so mysterious about Japan. Everything here is understandable and explainable just like anywhere else. There are reasons things are the way they are. It ain't magical. However, if you believe the nihonjinron mythology, then things do get confusing. As long as you understand that it is 99.99999% horse manure, and look at how things are instead of how folks like Edwin Reischauer and Masahiko Fujiwara claim them to be, the mystery tends to disappear.

What is troubling about this sort of nonsense is that it is written by someone who is supposed to be trained in fact-finding and observation. We are depending on people like this to tell us what is "really" happening in Iraq, or China, or France, or even our own country. It is very obvious that we have to take what they say with a huge grain of salt.

Anyway, I wasted a whole day thinking about it and was still thinking about it as I was being pushed and shoved unnecessarily on the train home while listening to two drunken old men shouting and giggling all the way. Ahhh....how uniquely polite. (Oh, yes, I know that there is an explainer excuse for this behavior that would let us know how this rude, impolite behavior is not really rude and impolite in Japan because the drunken old ojiisans were "outside" their group. To those folks I politely say "horse-poo, you silly boy--or girl".)

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Denenchofu McDs and unsanitary conditions Pt. 2

I have learned that McDonalds USA will not respond to questions/concerns about non-USA McDonalds. Like many of these international companies, they aren't going to be burdened by their company's foreign problems. I have an idea that McDonald's Japan will do nothing unless they get caught sickening someone. (They were one of the companies caught changing sell-by dates last year. The company claimed it was just one restaurant that was doing it. Right. I believe it.)

The US site does have a way to complain about an individual restaurant---if it is in the US. Contrast that with the Japan site which has no direct route for customers to complain. There is a contact form buried deep in the site. I had a tough time getting it to work as I had to write my name in kanji, even though I can't. (I have no name in Kanji). So finally, I gave up and filled in 本本。I sent a letter yesterday, but I don't wanna wait forever.

McDonalds Japan does have all kinds of information about how safe the food is. If you want to challenge that idea, it seems that they aren't too eager to hear from you. Very neo-bushido. Fujiwara Masahiko would love it. It is (safe) because it is. Contrary opinions are not to be uttered.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Good Ol' Denenchofu McDonalds (Unhygienic food handling)

I never learn. I did it again. I went to the Denenchofu Tokyo McDonalds to get some "food." I haven't been going there much recently because (as I have written before) it was one of the dirtiest McDonalds that I have even seen. I think that the main reason was because they never had enough staff on hand---there are often only 2 employees in sight and one is cooking and the other manning the registers. I thought that they may have improved. I was wrong, it seems.

Last night I went in to get 2 hamburgers---the cheap ¥100 jobs. There was a young guy in a manager's uniform on the registers and one guy cooking (well, whatever McDs does to its burgers). I placed my order when it was my turn and the manager could get a second between collecting and bagging previous customers' orders. He was jugging all this and wiping the sweat off his face from the constant running back and forth. He took my cash with his un-gloved hands. After he had taken an order from the customer after me, he ran back to help the seemingly overwhelmed cook. He pulled the french fry basket out of the oil and put uncooked fries in. Then I noticed him glance at me. For some reason I got suspicious and moved to where I could see him better.

He next grabbed a spatula and put my burgers on the buns. Then he took his dirty, cash-handling, sweat-wiping hands and placed the top of the buns on the burgers and picked each up them up and placed them in the wrapping.

I asked the woman next to me if she saw that. Apparently she did not. I was thinking of telling the guy to shove them somewhere uncomfortable. I should have simply asked him if he had washed his hands before touching them and then told him to make 2 more. But I didn't as I knew that I would have said something too harsh and would have looked the bad guy in front of all the customers. I did not eat the burgers, but threw them away.

After I got home I e-mailed McDonalds USA about it in the hope that they will do something (hahaha). McDonalds Japan had no way to e-mail that I could find. Then I found McD Japans postal address on the USA site and wrote a letter to them. I am going to try to find some sort of Japan or Tokyo government agency similar to a state health department in the US to file a complaint with. So far nobody knows what department or agency that would be. That may mean that there is no such agency or department that makes it easy for citizens to complain about unsanitary food service

Not much will come out of it I am sure. Denechofu McDs will be just as dirty next month as this. I won't be going again unless it is to take some photos at one of it busy times when garbage cans are overflowing and the floors and tables are filthy. And the manager is fingering your (or your child's) food with his dirty hands.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

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.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Fatherly love and crooked cops

More on the murder of young sumo wrestler by his stable master and fellow wrestlers:

(Stable master) Yamamoto publicly denied striking Saito inappropriately, though he did admit to striking him on the head with a beer bottle during dinner that day. He told reporters shortly after Saito's death, "This was an ordinary practice. How could you think I would do anything to hurt someone I consider my child?"

The sloppy, sleazy, investigation by what passes for law enforcement officers:

Initially, the boy's death was listed as "ischemic heart failure", until his family viewed his body. They say his body was covered in bruises, cuts and burns. They begged police to open an investigation, believing he'd been punished for trying to flee the stable.

They overlooked the severe bruising as the stable master claimed it was a normal result of training. Of course! And a beer bottle upside the head is just tough love by a gentle sadist---oops I meant father. Full article here.

The father made a curious statement:

"I do understand that the master's orders are absolute, so maybe they couldn't help it, but if they had reconsidered, this would not have happened."

The above is the English translation from JT Online and it is the second time I have seen it. Perhaps this is un-Japanese of me, but even though they were kids (17 or so) I would assume that they should have some basic knowledge of right and wrong. Then again, maybe this is normal in the sumo world. Come to think of it, it's like Fujiwara's perfect government. An elite tells you what to do and you do it. Your only right is to complain, but you still do it. Bushido?

Friday, February 08, 2008

Japan to Protest Australia's Release of Whaling Photos

Japan says it will complain to Australia about its release of graphic photographs of whales being killed by a Japanese fleet in Antarctic waters. More here.

Whatever one thinks of whaling* (for research, of course) this is a bit strange. Perhaps I have missed something, but I don't believe that I have ever heard of a country protesting such a thing before.

*It turns out that one of the whales was a calf. Japan got caught, so what are they protesting? This was too much for C.W. Nicol who is no anti-hunter and has been a supporter of Japan's right to hunt whale within the laws of the IWC. He appears to no longer hold this belief as Japan is not following those laws. The crooks are angry at being caught.

Justice Delayed

I was going to post about the reports that the (alleged) murderers of a young sumo wrestler were finally arrested 7 months after they (allegedly) beat the boy to death, but I've been beaten to it here. Even though arrest nearly always means conviction in Japan, I have less confidence in that outcome in this case than I would if some guy off the street were charged with a similar crime. These sort of sumo scandals are not surprising, nor is the reticence of the "police" to act.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Tainted food scandals

continue. As expected, the latest case of food-related fraud by Honey Co. of Japan has been pushed completely off radar by the sensational gyoza/ pesticide case. According to today's Japan Times, Japanese officials investigating the plant which packaged the gyoza in China found no problems. Chinese investigators believe the pesticides were added after the gyoza left the plant. (Most coverage of the gyoza mess that I have seen has been relatively even-handed.)

This continues to be the biggest story in Japan. Bad food has been in the news for over a year now at about the same time that tourism has increased in Japan by people who are interested in Japanese food. Wonder how long that trend will last?

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Another food scandal

Just after the problems with pesticides being found on Chinese-made gyoza (possibly intentionally added in China) another Japanese company has been caught selling old/recycled food products as new. This was intentional too, of course. The difference is that we don't know if anyone got sick because of it. One might note that according to a news article that I read a few days ago, at present the only time that a local government is required to report food poisonings is if 50 people or more are sickened, so it does raise questions about whether or not anyone has been sickened. (I don't recall where I read the article.)

A Miyazaki-based syrup maker (Honey Co.) has for decades been repackaging and reshipping snow cone syrup that had been returned due to defective cartons after reheating it and attaching new use-by dates, according to the company's president. More here.

I still have not heard of the Japanese government taking any action to increase inspections/insure the safety of Japanese food products. I doubt they ever will unless disaster hits and it cannot be blamed on foreign companies/countries/people. Bet Aso is happy that the latest Japanese food scandal is being underplayed because of the gyoza scandal.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Kanagawa Prefecture Education Board goes Blinky

A few years ago, the rightist bigot and Tokyo governor Shintaro "Blinky" Ishihara got Tokyo prefecture to attempt to force all school teachers to stand during the playing of the national anthem. Many object to this as they remember the role of teachers in WW2 in helping the state instill jingoism and obedience to the emperor in students. Blinky and the Tokyo government have lost court decisions challenging the legality of this order, but they are appealing it.

Kanagawa prefecture, the home of a politician who became a little controversial among the foreign residents (like Ishihara, his remarks/beliefs didn't cause much of a reaction among the native-born citizens) who said that ALL non-Japanese in the prefecture were criminals and who refused to apologize or retract his statement, has an Education Board that wants to step up to the plate and punish citizens who disagree with its stance:

The Kanagawa prefectural education board decided Monday to continue collecting the names of teachers who refuse to stand when the "Kimigayo" national anthem is sung in school ceremonies, board officials said.

The board's decision defies a recommendation by a prefectural panel on protection of personal information that it stop the practice.

"It's undesirable there are such school staff members who don't stand (to sing the anthem), as enrollment and graduation ceremonies are important events," said Takaichi Hikichi, head of the education board. More here.

Blinky, "Beautiful Country" Abe, "Comic Book" Aso, and I assume "Barcode-head" Fujiwara must all be panting, giggling, and blinking rapidly with delirious glee.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Likely future PM Aso again displays his

deep thinking and superior intellect. From the right-of-Abe fellow who plans to increase outside acceptance and understanding of Japanese "foreign policy" through comic books, a new comment on the latest food scandal in Japan.

No, this is not another Japanese company being caught using old, out-of-date or semi-spoiled ingredients. It is not a Japanese company selling pork intentionally mislabeled as beef. It is not a Japanese company selling ordinary chicken at very high prices while claiming it is a more expensive type of special chicken nor is it a Japanese company involved in any other type of food-related fraud as has been commonplace recently. This time it is another problem with Chinese imports:

Former Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Saturday that Japan's agricultural cooperatives should be grateful to China for enhancing the value Japanese-made food with its allegedly dangerous dumplings.

I am a bit confused as I cannot trust Japanese food unless it is obviously fresh food. I cannot trust frozen products, cakes, processed foods, dairy products and the like because of the huge number of scandals involving those. As far as I know, the Japanese government has put no increased safety measures in place to insure the quality of Japanese food. So I am a bit confused as to what Aso means. Does he mean that even though you cannot trust the quality and safety of many Japanese food products, at least they are no worse than Chinese products?

Friday, February 01, 2008

Japan and Hatoyama kill more 3 people because they value life

more than the Europeans. (Well, that is what "Justice" Minister Hennayama---oops Hatayama has claimed earlier in defending Japan's executions.)

Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said that Japan, the only major developed country other than the United States to apply the death penalty, should hang inmates as a matter of course.

"For extremely vicious criminal cases, public opinion holds that death sentences must be handed down and carried out," Hatoyama said.

"We have considered a variety of factors so that we can carry out executions in a methodical manner, rather than thinking about the intervals and the timing," he told reporters.....The justice ministry identified the three executed men as Masahiko Matsubara, 63, Takashi Mochida, 65, and Keishi Nago, 37.

Damn, we don't want any thinking by Hatayama. Imagine, having to actually think about signing a death warrant to kill someone. That would be troublesome for a man who values life so much more than non-Japanese. Full story 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.