It's almost like it's my life.

CIA success[?] story in Japan.

How The CIA Helped Put the Yakuza And The LDP In Power:

"...in post-war Japan, the CIA, using large amounts of cash, reinstated former war criminal Kodama Yoshio and hand-picked one of Japan’s Prime Ministers–in order to supress communist/socialist movements. Kodama had extensive yakuza ties and huge amounts of capital made in the black markets in China. ($175 million estimated). The Tokyo CIA station reported on September 10th, 1953, “(Kodama) is a professional liar, gangster, charlatan, and outright thief….and has no interest in anything but the profits.” It still didn’t keep the CIA from doing business with him up to that time and behind the scenes later. The chapter also notes how the CIA was able to ensure that Nobusuke Kishi became Japan’s prime minister and the chief of its ruling party, in order to ensure that Japan didn’t go red. The president himself seemed to have authorized huge cash payments to Kishi and his other lackeys within the LDP."

What TSA screeners really think of you.

Porno scanners vs grope fest, which will you choose? The fear-mongering security-theater cowed-obedience of modern air travel fills me with loathing, disgust & anger.  This post, by a former screener... and you know, I try not to judge, I really do [though you'd never know it reading the blog, I'm sure.  Where, after considerable consideration, I judge like a motherfucker] but the poster of this diatribe telling you how stupid you are for worrying about being seen naked by minimum wage employees or getting felt up & molested if you'd rather not [thought, to be fair, she even calls 'bullshit,'] is "...37 years old. Four boys, three fathers. Once married, once divorced" - you know, what appears to be, on the surface, the queen of poor decision making.  This is who'll be checking out your naked pics or feeling you up.  Nice.

Shut Up And Get In The Scanner - TSA | Mom vs. the World:

"As a former TSA Federal Security Officer aka “screener” I have seen some incredible stuff come through the airport.  I have worked in every position over the 5 years I was there.  I have screened you, your carry on luggage, your checked luggage and even cargo you may have sent someplace.

...I have seen the way parents treat their kids and kids treat their parents in the airport and security checkpoint. A good deal of you should be embarrassed and humiliated by that. I have seen 12 year old girls dressed like Tijuana whores with mommy right next to them dressed the same way. I have seen husbands and wives get into fist fights over who is carrying a bag. I have seen grown men and women throw hissy fits like a two year old child because they were asked to remove their shoes. This is the stuff you should be ashamed of and worried about TSA officers seeing. This is what should make you feel humiliated because trust me, we may be professionals but when you come through the checkpoint with crazy stuff in your bag or acting like an idiot, we are going to talk about you after you leave. Oh hell yes we are. It is going to become the highlight of the conversation at TSA officer gatherings.

...Oh and the way some of you dress when you come to the airport, well you might as well be naked. Your pants hanging down around your knees, skirts so short you put Sharon Stone to shame (put on some panties for goodness sakes). See through clothes, lingerie as dresses, tank tops that you are too big to be wearing. Short shorts with your ass on display, clothes so tight they look painted on. The cleavage on display so often even the guys barely notice it anymore. I wish I could say this was isolated to a few minor events but it was daily and numerous times a day...

The Invasive Pat Down - Ok that one is bullshit. It is a terror tactic by TSA to get you to walk through the more thorough body scanner. I can’t defend TSA on this one. I have talked to the TSA officers and it is no more effective than the old pat down procedure. They tested it out with trainers and each other. It is purely a terror tactic by TSA. Shame on TSA and anyone who has to get one should write a complaint in afterward. You still have to get it though if you want to get on the plane. Throwing a fit will not get you out of it.

TSA is the most hated government agency. TSA officers are very aware of that fact. We get that some of you come through and even though you hate it, you suck it up and do what you have to do. Then there are some of you who intentionally make things difficult. Screw you and stop it. It is a Federal crime to mess with a TSA officer trying to do their job and you will get arrested. You want to make a point and show your outrage to the world. TSA headquarters is in Virginia. Get on your little bike and ride. Go protest out in front of the headquarters, file your lawsuits, write in your complaints and do your tv interviews but stop messing with the TSA officers trying to do their job. Stop making a point of going to the airport just so you can cause a scene and draw attention to your cause. We get it there are some people who think everyone should have absolute rights and freedom to do whatever they want but it doesn’t work that way. Once you are at the security checkpoint you are on Federal territory and you need to keep yourself in check or you will end up arrested.

Now if you want to fly, suck it up and accept that you have to submit to the security procedures. Yes you think they are stupid or unnecessary but TSA officers and TSA don’t care what you think. They try to make it all warm and fuzzy but they can’t because it is security not a trip to Disney World. Shut up and get in the scanner or don’t fly."

"...let’s stop calling it “states’ rights.” States don’t have rights. States have powers. People have rights."

Radley Balko FTW.

Morning Links | The Agitator:

"While we’re at it, let’s stop calling it “states’ rights.” States don’t have rights. States have powers. People have rights. It’s no coincidence that this point was lost the people who used the “states’ rights” mantra to deny people—mostly black people—their rights."

I don't know where it's from...

...but it's clearly something awesome.

Why people don't like government.

Amongst other reasons.

"Notes From Tokyo" lists "Reasons to love living in Japan."

And nails it in one, actually.  But my faves below.  Ah, natsukashii.

Reasons to love living in Japan « Notes From Tokyo:

"1. Public intoxication: It’s legal, it’s fun, it’s a way of life. If you pass out on the sidewalk in America, you’re a bum. If you pass out on the sidewalk in Tokyo, you’re the average, hard-working business man... 

15. Sleeping in public: I really like this one! In Tokyo, it’s totally normal to sleep on the train, or to put your head down in Starbucks or MacDonald’s to take a short nap. It can be really rejuvenating! But you do the same in America and chances are you’ll wake up with your wallet missing. Either that, or people will just assume you’re sick/homeless...

17. Japanese kids are just cuter. And maybe its something in the water, but they’re all well-behaved, too!  [Um, well behaved?  All of them?  Nah.  But def cuter.  There's just something about chubby Asian babies/kids. - Rob]

43. Combinis or convenient stores. Always there, always open. Always have something delicious inside waiting to be eaten by me...

48. Japanese girls are hot. And when they’re not hot, they’re at least amusing to look at...

51. Tatamis: Japanese flooring made out of rice straw. It’s beautiful and smells nice. It makes sitting on the floor enjoyable...

55. Good costumer service.  [God, yes.  The contrast w/Liberia, the nation of "I will grudgingly do my job, a little, when I feel like getting around to it, is... high.  I miss Japanese customer service everytime I go out.  No joke. - Rob]

60. Yakuza. Asian gangsters are way cooler than white ones. Especially since they get such bad ass tattoos...

61. The mind your own business mentality. If you’re bleeding from the eyeballs in the middle of the road, this mentality can prove to be fatal. But if its 6:30 in the morning and you’re obviously just coming home after a long night of partying dressed in sequins and spandex, stuck on a crowded train smelling of cigarettes and booze, the fact that everyone around ignores you because they don’t want to embarrass you is actually kind of comforting. Japanese people are trained to strictly mind their own business, which is why in Tokyo there are so many weirdos that can get away with almost anything. In fact, it seems the stranger your behavior, the more people pretend you aren’t there..."

I live in "Shit is all Fucked up" but I'm from "Jesus and Meth."

Via The World According to Stereotypes [PIC]

Convincing argument for atheism.

Yes, this - "Letting your mind wander is a major cause of unhappiness."

Focus on what you're doing. It's good for you. Very zen.

Letting your mind wander is a major cause of unhappiness:

"People spend 46.9% of their waking lives thinking about something other than what they're actually doing. It's a terribly inefficient use of one's mind and, worse, it actually seems to make people unhappy.

...whether we're doing it for low or lofty reason, letting our minds wander actually seems to make us demonstrably less happy. So says a new study from Harvard researchers Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert..."

Proof the world is getting better.

Or at least more geek friendly.

Via Of books and bats and sealing wax

"This Is How Michael Caine Speaks" - Brydon VS Coogan.

Brydon takes it, imho. Though Coogan's 'loud' & 'broken' is spot on.  Too funny.

Best review of GWB's memoir - "Astounding as it appears, we misoverestimated him."

Hilarious & on point.

Matthew Norman: How did this wastrel ever find his way to the White House? - Matthew Norman, Commentators - The Independent:

"...It takes a certain minimal intelligence for the truly dim to have a notion of their own dimness, but this is denied him. Unlike Mr Tony Blair, who emerges from his well-calibrated if often chilling memoir as a man of colossal cleverness (though not intellect), W has the self-awareness of a bison. There seems even less to him than met the eye, and there was precious little of that. Astounding as it appears, we misoverestimated him.

...For the two imbecile wars he began, for condoning torture by denying waterboarding was torture at all on the grounds that his lawyers said it was legal; for turning the surplus he inherited from Bill Clinton into the crippling deficit that is bringing the age of American hegemony to a startlingly abrupt end; and for being the pitiably Wagnerian fool who stumbled on to the grandest stage without any apparent clue why or for what earthly purpose, there he will forever remain."

Japan's 'homogeneous' recalcitrance to change.

Some excellent points made in the full article, at the link.

'Homogeneous,' 'unique' myths stunt discourse | The Japan Times Online:

"Last month I attended an international lecture by one of Japanology's senior scholars. I'll call him Dr. Frink. Decorated by the Japanese government for his contributions to the field, he talked about Japan as a 'unique' state that never really changes, even as it slips to third place behind China's economy.

One reason he gave for this was that 'Japan is still the most homogeneous society in the world.' He defined homogeneity by citing Japan's tiny percentage of resident foreigners.

That was easily disputed after a quick Google search (the lecture hall had Internet; welcome to the 21st century). I raised my hand afterwards and pointed out that some 60 countries were technically 'more homogeneous' than Japan, as they have smaller percentages of foreigners, foreign-born residents and immigrants.

...this column will focus on a much deeper problem in Dr. Frink's school of scholarly discourse: The fixation on Japan's "uniqueness," and how a cult of Japanese homogeneity interferes with good social science.

Search academic databases for publications in Japan Studies. Quite a few of them (some with Japanese authors espousing their own uniqueness) toe the line of "Japan behaves this way because it is homogeneous, etc." Scholar Harumi Befu has written books on how this has crystallized into a pseudoscience called Nihonjinron, affecting debate worldwide.

There is a political dimension to all this: the politics of maintaining the status quo.

The Japanese government funds chairs and departments (especially in Japan) to influence the direction of Japan Studies, and is nowadays attracting students to focus on "soft power," "cool Japan" cultural exotica.

The point is, ruling elites in Japan are perfectly happy with Japan being portrayed as preternaturally intransigent — due to historical, cultural, geographical or whatever reasons — because they like Japan as it is.

However, for the rest of the people living in Japan, this status quo is sending us down a road of obsolescence..."

Oh god, have officially decided when I'll miss Japan the most - KFC @ Christmas.

Sigh. Tears. I now live in a country without a single KFC. It's just wrong, is what it is.

Fried Chicken + Christmas in Japan | Japan Probe:

"The Christmas season is approaching, and in Japan that means it’s time to eat some fried chicken! Kentucky Fried Chicken is the traditional powerhouse of x-mas chicken in Japan..."

"Put me in the gas chamber - and watch me inhale..." Ice-T Old School FTW.

Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers - Atheists Don't Have No Songs.

Having Sundays Free WIN.Via Steve Martin's gospel song for atheists - Boing Boing

Japan remains a magical place.

Via "Welcome to Japan" Bra - fuckedgaijin

Bloody Samurai - V8/Vodka/Wasabi/Worcestershire/Salt&Pepper - I'm a genius/you're welcome.

Obviously a variation on the classic Bloody Mary.  And while there are versions called Bloody Geisha/Bloody Ninja - where you replace the vodka with sake [must try, btw] and Bloody Shogun - replacing the horseradish w/wasabi and the worcestershire w/teriyaki sauce - I haven't found a variation [online, at least] of what I've thrown together.

So, first we take the classic Bloody Mary (cocktail) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"...recipe as taught by the New York School of Bartending:
1 oz. to 1.5 oz. (30-45 ml) vodka in a highball glass filled with ice.
Fill glass with tomato juice
1 dash celery salt
1 dash ground black pepper
1 dash Tabasco sauce
2-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp. horseradish (pure, never creamed)
Dash of lemon or lime juice
Garnish with celery stalk.
May be shaken vigorously or stirred lazily, as desired."

Then, we adjust for the lazy Japanophile. Omit the celery salt, the tabasco, the horseradish, the lemon or lime juice & the celery stalk. Use V8 or tomato juice, vodka or sake [see below], worcestershire, salt & pepper. Fewer ingredients, the better. And it must be shaken, not stirred, especially since you're omitting the celery.

So now, the official recipes for the:

"Bloody Samurai"

V8 or Tomato Juice [to taste]*

Vodka [to taste]

Wasabi [to taste]

Worcestershire Sauce [to taste]

Salt & Pepper [to taste]

Shaken, with ice.

"Bloody Samurai's Revenge"

V8 or Tomato Juice [to taste]

Sake [to taste]

Wasabi [to taste]

Worcestershire Sauce [to taste]

Salt & Pepper [to taste]

Shaken, with ice.

*All ingredients "to taste" because who am I to tell you what to do? You know what you like, ignore me.  Besides, I don't measure anything. [I have this recurring memory of Dom DeLuise, in his cooking stint, appearing on some daytime talk show shouting "Measure Everything!" while throwing ingredients around haphazardly like a madperson. Defines my cooking and drinking styles, that - And Dom DeLuise was a funny dude.]

All I know is I dig the saltiness of the tomato juice, the savory feel of the worcestershire and the spicy kick of the wasabi. Plus, you know, the alcohol doesn't hurt.

World's most accurate, least appropriate religion metaphor.

Funny, tho'.