Dealing with Repugnut Spam.....

To Hell with "reaching across the aisle" -- we're knee-deep in a do-or-die global class war instigated by the Bush-Reagan clan, and anyone who says different has either been sleepwalking through the last three decades or is a pathological liar.

Finding something fetid in my email box, I jotted off a polite little "thanks but no thanks" to the sender; to wit:

Sorry, but I can't stand Republicans. Amoral, evil, conniving, selfish, opportunistic, smug, heartless, greedy plutocrats one and all. Domenici was such a worthless bastard his own party threw hium under a bus - doesn't speak well for you that you were his loyal stooge.

But hey, thanks anyway, have a great day. Try not to napalm and eat any non-white children today, kthxby

A month later, the original sender's witty rejoinder arrived:

Go fuck yourself

So much for compassionate conservatism. Not to mention family values.

Song of the Day:
Handlebars - the Flobots

Tokyo Train Follies

So, riding the train to my "albaito" (part-time job) today, I was in a rush and thus chowing down on a "bento box" (convenience store dinner), when the 50-something woman across from me remarked approvingly in Japanese, "My, how well you're able to use chopsticks!" and tittered to the woman beside her "isn't that so clever!"

To me, this is the "friendly" equivalent of "Gee, look at the monkey; it looks almost human! Isn't it clever!"

Having been raised in Vancouver, with weekly visits to Chinatown, it's safe to say I've been using chopsticks pretty much as long as she has, but, since that's a little lengthy to say, I just said, "Well, I HAVE been living in Tokyo six years, ma'am."

To humble herself for the comment, she twittered to her seatmate, "You know, I never could get the hang of those fork-and-knife things...."

I couldn't resist saying, "How are you with cups?"

Don't think she got it though.

Time to get a scooter.

You Have the Right to Remain Silent....

The Repugnican brownshirts are gearing up intensely in advance of their conventions. They apparently anticipate trouble from American citizens on a scale warranting the use of the same weapons allegedly being deployed on terrorists in Iraq.

Now, color me naive, but if a government's acting in the interests of its citizenry, why on Earth would it need to turn weapons on its constituents employers?!?

There's also the nagging question about those thousands of acres of prisons they're building in the US....

Oh, wait a minute - no worries; Halliburton's on top of that one - at least if you believe such a fringe publication as BusinessWire. And guess what? Your personal interests are hardly at heart.

No wonder Bush is planning to go into hiding after his blessed retirement.

Sigh... plus ca change...


Lyrics of the Day
"The hills find peace
Locked armed guard posts
Safe from the screams
Of the children born as ghosts

Gates, guns and alarms
Shape the calm of the dawn
Peering down into the basin
Where death lives on

Where young run foaming at the mouth with hate
Where burning batons beat the freezing who shake
Under the toxic sunsets they dine and toast
Their walls deny the terror faced

By the children born as ghosts
Born as ghosts
A warning, you sufferers, begin to speak our words
Born as ghosts
A warning, you sufferers, begin to speak our words
Born as ghosts
A warning, you sufferers, begin to speak our words
Born as ghosts
Were the children born as ghosts

Born as ghosts

One book and forty odd
Stuffed in a room
Ah, the school as a tomb
Where home is a wasteland
Taste the razor wire

And thought is locked in the womb
The tales that tear at the myth of the dream
(myth of the dream, myth of the dream)
A suffering that shocks the lives off the screen
(myth of the dream, myth of the dream)

Born as ghosts
A warning, you sufferers, begin to speak our words
Born as ghosts
Born as ghosts"
-- "Born as Ghosts" - Rage Against the Machine