Infused !

Our lives are short short
If only, one more season
Ready to Reelax

Christmastime

Thrown-away Homeless
Beaten Down Americans
Neglected Trauma

Each tramp, Same struggle.
Envy of entitlement?
"No room at the inn"

                      -- by Genki

Curse My Mama?

Canadian Seth Rogen is a talented comedy actor. He's expanded to Director & Writer for the controversial film "The Interview" -- where a national leader is assassinated.

Concerted push-back & sabotage have led Sony Pictures to partly disavow the film. Complaints about the film were summarily dismissed, and the scandal is trumpeted as an attack on free speech.

But the movie seems in poor taste. I've not seen it - nor have I met Seth Rogen's parents. But imagine creating a funny skit of Seth's family attacked, including rape, murder, etc. Ho ho ho - fictional comedy? Terrible! -- why antagonize & dirty what people hold dear? Some 'artistic' acts are legal, but perpetrators may regret being coarse, crude and cruel, and profiting directly from causing distress to others.

Now those irritated by Rogen are fighting back. They use illegal tactics. They've scared many businesses with threats of desperate retaliation.

Seth's project was ill-conceived. Attacking religion, or family, or nation (or other areas held dear) is dumb & dangerous. Seth's an insensitive young Canadian businessman, too eager for dollars...

Should We Care?

Japan marches toward remilitarization.

The Abe government, underwritten by American militarists, drags Japan to chauvinistic bellicosity. Japan's right wing is happier than pigs in shit; the typical citizen is quietly skeptical.

Surely Chinese interests can subdue Japanese extremism?

Should non-Japanese people care? We're permanent outsiders, not welcome among decision-makers or the common folk.

But we do care - for lives wasted needlessly...

Militarists manipulate nation-states, for big money.

The people of Japan are scheduled (again) to suffer needlessly...

Christmas Haiku

Playing in the dirt
Young kids don't stink of evil
Palestinian!

Parasite Scoundrel
On lands owned for centuries...
Palestinian!

You are in the way...
Disappear or be bulldozed!
Peasant local folk.

We're led and deceived:
Just a child, playing at home
Terror Extremist

Moderates gave up
Subduing the crazies
Consenting to hate

Local people's rights
Displaced by squatter zealots
Burning rival kids.

                            -- by Genki

Goon Balloon

Raytheon and The US Army soon launch their Goon Balloon -- two giant spy blimps.

The massive goon balloon (officially JLENS) will continuously monitor America. The first two, tethered over Maryland, watch East Coast USA

 You'll never be lonely, thanks to Goon Balloon Eye in the Sky!

Blasé Abe

Japanese supporters of re-militarization are cheered by last week's victory of Shinzo Abe and the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Abe claims the election was a clear mandate of support for his (poor) administration.

But most disagree.  (link)

Hawaiians Betrayed

Hawaiians Betrayed
Forgetting how to 'shaka'
Barry turns his back.

Mulatto brother
Forgetting needs, and your friends
Texting from trouble

Alone in the night
Surrounded by Injustice
An unvoiced prayer

                -- Haiku by Genki

Filial Piety

Language directs our perception & activities (...how much?)

Is the word "filial piety" deliberately obscure?

For certain concepts, might we benefit from simpler & more straightforward English-language words?

entrepreneurialism
a long & unwieldy word...
Language entrepreneurs: Please coin a new word !

filial piety
WTF? could this be more obscure?
(Chinese: 孝顺 --- Japanese: 親孝行 --- Korean: 효행)

zeitgeist
I like the imagery; but not enough people know the word

meme
Coined somewhat recently; should be better-known

smartphone
I hate this word - Look at a "smartphone" two years old: it's obsolete & no longer smart (but still a 'smartphone') ... these tools have many functions ... one better term is "commby" (communications + by = short & cute)... New name needed! (generic, not a brandname)


< this list will be expanded >

Spying on Tourists?

Visitors to Japan often complain about lack of free wi-fi (see links to stories here & here). Most residents subscribe to paid nationwide access systems; wi-fi access for short-term visitors is poor, often nonexistent (pay-as-you-go SIM cards are also strictly controlled).

But major provider Wi2 will offer an app allowing "free" access.

One BIG caveat:
"Wi2 said the Travel Japan Wi-Fi app will also collect information on user habits, such as GPS records of their travels, so the activity can be analyzed and used to focus tourist marketing strategies." (link)

Will your data be properly used? Can they securely protect all your data, after tracking your movements and habits? Costly free wi-fi?
Bad...

Torturing Assholes

All the world should be outraged by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA torture (link here to executive summary -- full report remains secret).

Many torture horrors are admitted, generously labeled "abuses and countless mistakes" (p.2 in U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's foreword). It must be remembered government inflicted these torments on people prior to trial or conviction. Most captives were never legally tried, and some were tortured to death.

Surely government agents & outside contractors treated prisoners / captives / hostages with barbaric cruelty. This included (p.100) stripping the detainee, pushing their head down below their body, jamming a hose up their arse, and powering water into their guts -- the report's euphemism is "rectal rehydration as a means of behavior control"...

Oversight has been minimal and ineffective. The severity of American tortures, and the number tortured, is still wholly unknown.

Highlighting detainees subject to "enhanced interrogation techniques" the CIA's Director ordered officials to keep the count at 98 (report p. 476) -- so any "true" torture count is horribly tainted. But surely those mistreated, including our own armed forces, number in the millions.

Wartime diaries can supply great insights into warfare - and (link) recent beatings, muggings, and torture by less-responsible American forces.

The result of all such brutality? America is feared, but justifiably hated around the world.

Who'll be thrown to the wolves? The outsourcing company formed & hired for interrogation billed the CIA over $81 million (see Findings & Conclusions, p.11 of 19). Such funds seem substantial for a limited partnership (Mitchell Jessen and Associates) but the two main American psychologists are now being dubbed "Torture Teachers" (see also "The American Mengeles: Drs. Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell").

Shareholders in Halliburton & Blackwater corporations gained billions in taxpayer monies. Even the cost of the Senate report was over US$40 million. Damage to U.S. reputation? Priceless. Remember the smirks of George Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and their henchmen? They beggared the USA. Imprison all these swindlers with their colleague Bernie Madoff !

U.S. involvement in the ongoing wars for the Middle East cannot be justified. Claims of "keeping us secure" are bullshit - top people at the policy level didn't & do not care if Joe America lives or starves to death. The rich got richer.

http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf