So what's it gonna be, America?
Four more years?
More of the same?
Another court decided rule that ignores the people?
Is this going to be the year we officially lay the myth of American democracy to rest?
I have to tell you, I'm not hopeful.
02 November 2004
30 October 2004
Know thy...enemy?
I suppose that before the "War on Terror," which is coming to look like the "War on Middle Eastern Dissent" specifically, the US had been most interested in fighting the "War Against Communism."
So really, would there be anything scarier than "Communist Muslims?"
Well, if you find government tolerance of a misunderstood minority scary, or the protection of egalitarian educational policies unnerving, then no. This is as scary as it could get.
You big babies.
So really, would there be anything scarier than "Communist Muslims?"
Well, if you find government tolerance of a misunderstood minority scary, or the protection of egalitarian educational policies unnerving, then no. This is as scary as it could get.
You big babies.
27 October 2004
October is the cruelest month...
In Japan anyway.
Just so you know:
This month, typhoons number 9 and 10 hit Japan, dumping the equivalent of half a year's worth of rain in two weeks. Hardest hit were the southern and western parts of Japan. Number 10, which was the deadliest in 60 years, did nothing to Tokyo except give it a much-needed shower.
Last week a cluster of earthquakes hit the Niigata area in northern Japan. The deadliest since the Great Kobe quake of 1992, 31 people were counted dead, several hundred injured and many thousands more are now homeless. The train lines are buckled and the highways are crushed. As residents struggle to find protection from the bitterly cold nights, municipal shelters are filled beyond capacity. Many people who have taken to sleeping in their cars have become prime candidates for "economy-class syndrome," in which immobility and lack of space lead to muscle cramps, high blood pressure, blood clots and possibly death. Tokyo did nothing besides pre-empt the laughably named "Golden Hour" programming block of miserable, Friday night TV.
Because of the unusually high amounts of rain that fell this summer, the nuts and berries that make up the bulk of the average black bear diet have been unavailable. Leading bears to forage for food in human towns. And as people have tried to confront the bears, a number of attacks have occurred. But in general, the bears have only been attacking the weak and the stupid who live in mountainous, rural regions.
So to sum up: The country bumpkins are taking it on the chin, but we hip, sophisticated city-dwellers are doing just fine.
For now.
Just so you know:
This month, typhoons number 9 and 10 hit Japan, dumping the equivalent of half a year's worth of rain in two weeks. Hardest hit were the southern and western parts of Japan. Number 10, which was the deadliest in 60 years, did nothing to Tokyo except give it a much-needed shower.
Last week a cluster of earthquakes hit the Niigata area in northern Japan. The deadliest since the Great Kobe quake of 1992, 31 people were counted dead, several hundred injured and many thousands more are now homeless. The train lines are buckled and the highways are crushed. As residents struggle to find protection from the bitterly cold nights, municipal shelters are filled beyond capacity. Many people who have taken to sleeping in their cars have become prime candidates for "economy-class syndrome," in which immobility and lack of space lead to muscle cramps, high blood pressure, blood clots and possibly death. Tokyo did nothing besides pre-empt the laughably named "Golden Hour" programming block of miserable, Friday night TV.
Because of the unusually high amounts of rain that fell this summer, the nuts and berries that make up the bulk of the average black bear diet have been unavailable. Leading bears to forage for food in human towns. And as people have tried to confront the bears, a number of attacks have occurred. But in general, the bears have only been attacking the weak and the stupid who live in mountainous, rural regions.
So to sum up: The country bumpkins are taking it on the chin, but we hip, sophisticated city-dwellers are doing just fine.
For now.
24 October 2004
Swine!
Thompson was right about the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton elections. Has he got the line again?
29 September 2004
28 September 2004
I must be hallucinating or something...
I've been asked to try and make my classes "more fun and less serious" by the Japanese teachers who feel completely incapable of approaching me in English, Japanese, crude pictograms, or interpretive dance. Given that I have no actual curriculum, and am prohibited from using things like phonics or written materials (in English or Japanese as some of the kids are scared of reading), all I really can do is try to play games in English that the students will make no effort to understand as their teachers will, if they deign to show up, immediately translate everything into Japanese for them, and encourage them to pronounce words like Charlie fucking Chan.
So I'm left to "teach" these kids something in 35 minutes that they'll remember for six weeks so I can try and build on it for next time and still make it "a fun chance to experience English while lessening the fear of a foreign language and increasing international understanding."
I feel like I'm trying to build a wall out of pickled eggs. It's a pointless mess that just winds up making your eyes sting from all the vinegar fumes.
But replace "vinegar fumes" with "mind-bending incompetency of my managers and inattainable goals of the Minstry of education" and "your eyes sting" with "the bile rise in your gorge."
So I'm left to "teach" these kids something in 35 minutes that they'll remember for six weeks so I can try and build on it for next time and still make it "a fun chance to experience English while lessening the fear of a foreign language and increasing international understanding."
I feel like I'm trying to build a wall out of pickled eggs. It's a pointless mess that just winds up making your eyes sting from all the vinegar fumes.
But replace "vinegar fumes" with "mind-bending incompetency of my managers and inattainable goals of the Minstry of education" and "your eyes sting" with "the bile rise in your gorge."
24 September 2004
Everything old is new again...
09 September 2004
Another carnivorous robot? Ahem. "YAAAAAHHH!"
Sure, this seems like a good idea now. It isn't that long ago some clever fellows gave us the Slug-bot, another little doozy of an automaton.
Really, what disturbs me the most is the thought that by the time the robots are well designed enough to weed out the slower, weaker, stupider parts of the human race I'll probably be one of those old, slow members of the herd.
Which is not to say that I'm really in favor of eugenics as much as I want to go on record as saying "meat-eating is generally pretty cool, but it becomes scary when you remember that people can be meat too."
Really, what disturbs me the most is the thought that by the time the robots are well designed enough to weed out the slower, weaker, stupider parts of the human race I'll probably be one of those old, slow members of the herd.
Which is not to say that I'm really in favor of eugenics as much as I want to go on record as saying "meat-eating is generally pretty cool, but it becomes scary when you remember that people can be meat too."
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