Shut Down Militarism!

Too many misadventures. Too much reciprocal suffering. It's overdue we pull back military & weaponry to our own borders.

Send abroad teachers, engineers, doctors & nurses -- not militant combatants.

Our leaders should no longer engage in 5000-year war. Pull back, stay at home, build better lives for our own people. Doing otherwise is expensive, wasteful, doomed to fail, and cruel.

Grieving over "viciousness and barbarity" is a continuing cost of militarism to everyone.

Anti-militarist peoples of the world, Unite ! 

Goto Desert Death

Journalist Kenjo Goto was murdered last week in the Syrian desert by militant captors. Goto was a Japanese freelance video journalist with some twenty years of experience around the world's conflict areas. Remembered in many ways, he had strong concern for others and an active sense of tolerance:
 

後藤健二 @kenjigotoip  ·  7 Sep 2010

目を閉じて、じっと我慢。怒ったら、怒鳴ったら、終わり。それは祈りに近い。憎むは人の業にあらず、裁きは神の領域。－そう教えてくれたのはアラブの兄弟たちだった。

"Closing my eyes and holding still. Anger & yelling halt everything. It's close to a prayer. Hate is not for humans; leave judgment & justice to God. That's what I learned from my Arab brothers & sisters." 

For the past 70 postwar years, Japan has allied strongly with the USA, while being largely pacifist in its global profile. But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lusts after change, backed by an extremist right-wing and encouraged by Uncle Yankee (U.S. bases still occupy key areas of Japan, with parallel manipulations in Korea). They've embarked toward a new era of military recklessness, polluting Japan's global goodwill, and destroying the immunity often enjoyed by Japanese citizen-pacifists worldwide.

Mr. Goto graduated from Hosei University (法政大学社会学部 卒業生), which stands strongly for "Freedom & Progress" 「自由と進歩」 (link) built firmly upon Japan's renunciation of war (戦争を放棄した日本国). Pacifism is not passive acceptance of the radical right & the never-ending threats of chauvinistic nationalism & "top secret" government. Japanese people can still maneuver to escape militarism. Prime Minister Abe, now spattered with his countrymen's blood, can still avoid following his Yasukuni-enshrined predecessors to ignoble infamy and militarist waste.

(graphic death photo)

Rest In Peace, Kenji Goto
後藤 健二  1967-2015

War Crimes 'R Us

In the USA last week, 79-year old US Senator John McCain lashed out when Code Pink activists criticized Henry Kissinger. McCain called the non-violent protestors "Low Life Scum!"

But for their atrocities in Vietnam, both Kissinger & McCain are yet-to-be indicted war criminals: actual murderers. Their politics have proved deadly, extreme & expensive.

Bad People !

Not MISD

Our societies suffer when controlled by:
Militarists
Industrialists
Social Darwinists

These riffraff claim to work for the common good. But their militarism gambles with our lives. They spend our public funds and resources for their pet projects. They've captured our governments, creating demand for their own products. They use our own money to corrupt & subvert. They destabilize nations, sell guns & weapon systems around unbalanced regions, and take home fat profits. They've contempt & hatred for almost everyone. They threaten our humble homes, while they themselves live in palaces.

Their systems are not business exchange - instead it's mugging or extortion. We're forced to pay them, for little positive in return. Their servants, not properly paid, turn on master, spilling official secrets; so their 'dog-eat-dog world' is unsustainable.

The hell they forced on us will not be missed.

Heroism: Love & Loss

I post this for family. Others will be disturbed. Beware!
Here's my Dad, checking-in to die (27 Dec).
He's wholly lucid, mentally sharp.
Remaining life, just 69 hours.

Basically, losing a kidney to cancer (in June 2014) left my Dad's 81-year old system unable to properly circulate & process as necessary. The day prior to checking-in etc., he'd commented sardonically "They call these our 'Golden Years'..." He'd been severely swollen & in pain for many months, and prepared for proper exit. Glad to be there...

A painful post... (even with the healing energy of juniper berries).
More to come...

More Haiku

Extremist Anger
Militarist Majesty
Addicts to avoid.

Everything at threat
Militarists risk us all
Zeus to the corrupt

A simple talent?
To listen and to witness
Community's breath

Today I went out
Anticipating wonder -
Springing through hot sunshine

                     -- Genki

Haiku

Pity us Chosen Angst & War, 5000-years! Relief  Unwelcome. Militarist fibs Teaching hate, devouring profits Raising hero schmucks "Always on My Mind" - ? Bang as Bibi's sons conceived: Yasser Arafat ! Wind & rain persist Surviving tribal madness. Live and Be Well!            --- Haiku  by  Genki

RIP: Rev. Jane Dibden

Sad to lose this friend:

Jane Dibden of Forgan, OK, died 5 Jan 2015 in a tragic traffic accident.

Formerly of Maine, Reverend Jane Ellen Dibden was a 1976 graduate of Mt. Blue High School in Farmington; Colby College (1980); and Oral Roberts Univ. Seminary (1989). Mother of five & spiritual inspiration to thousands, faith infused her life.

Local information is that Rev. Dibden left home about 3AM for a dropoff at Amarillo airport (160 miles). Returning home in northern Texas south of Perryton about 7AM, she came to a complete stop at end of State Highway 70, but mistook oncoming Rt. 83 traffic. Her 2003 Buick LeSabre was struck & crushed on the driver's side by a southbound 18-wheeler hauling fracking fluids, instantly killing Jane. The truck driver was physically uninjured. We pray for those who mourn you Jane Dibden: Rest In Peace with God.

Donations & support welcome:
Dibden Family Fund, First Security Bank, Box 947, Beaver Oklahoma 73932 USA

Her Light was never hidden; she shined brightly always, a beacon for All.

Obituary : The Reverend Jane Ellen Dibden Schwab

RIP: Donald Drummond Lambert

Donald "Capt. Red" Lambert, former resident of West Yarmouth, MA died on 30^th of December, 2014 on the island of Maui, Hawaii, at the age of 81.

Capt. Lambert was better known as "Capt. Red" to all who knew him.  Born in Boston, he held a Bachelor's degree from Boston University and a Master's Degree from Bridgewater State College.

As a youth he was an Eagle Scout, and later enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving in both enlisted and officer ranks.  After he received his commission, he served in several capacities, one of which was an Atomic Defense Officer.  He was a participant in the atomic testing in the Nevada desert in the mid 1950s where he participated in the largest nuclear blast ever detonated in the U.S.  He was one of the first in New England to take up SCUBA diving, owning one of the very first aqua lungs imported into this country and later operated a dive shop in Hyannis. He was also a pioneer in the sport of sky diving in the early sixties and was eventually severely injured in a freak accident during an exhibition at Lake Elsinore in California. Upon his honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, he settled in West Yarmouth, where he served as a Yarmouth police officer, Harbor Patrol officer, Assistant Shellfish Warden and Assistant Harbor Master. 

Capt. Red was a member of the Masonic fraternity and served as a Master of Howard Lodge A.F. & A.M., South Yarmouth.  He was later employed by the Town of Bourne as a teacher and taught at the Jr. High level for 30 years.

During the summer seasons he was employed by Hy-Line of Hyannis as a Senior Captain for over thirty-five years and operated all types of vessels from sight-seeing and fishing boats to large passenger ferries between Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. For many years Capt. Red provided live marine weather reports via local AM radio while navigating Nantucket Sound. He loved the sea and was also a commercial fisherman when time permitted.  He was known up and down the East Coast and was considered to be an exemplary boat handler.  He took great pride in the fact that several of his former crew chose the sea as their livelihood and went on to earn their licenses as Merchant Marine Masters. Capt. Red loved motorcycles.  He started riding at the age of 16 and rode regularly till his final months.

He leaves behind his wife of 58 years, Louana Lyman Lambert (link) and six married sons: Dr. Bruce Henry Lambert of Stockholm, Sweden; Capt. Kriss Alexander Lambert of Washington State; Ross Francis Lambert of West Barnstable; Capt. Keith Drummond Lambert of Kihei, HI; Dana Lyman Lambert of East Dennis; and Dr. Ryan K. Stuart Lambert of Honolulu, HI; 3 grandchildren: Connor, Kailani & Brooks; many inlaws & extended family. 'Ohana in Hawaii include the Lyman, Mills, Mattoon, Payne, Farden, Ewaliko, Brickwood and Kualii progeny; family elsewhere include Drummond, Diamond, Brockleman, McGowan, Gripp, Gibbons, O'Donnell, and Robertsons. Burial at the convenience of the family.

Obituary : Donald "Capt. Red" Lambert / Donald Drummond Lambert

Poisoned Japan

Fukushima remains a running sore: a nuclear disaster area continuously leaching poisons & pollutants into land, air & sea.

The nuclear industry tries to deceive Japanese people & the world. Pet politicians & submissive media smother popular protest, but this ongoing disaster's a major sinister threat to health.

What's the full cost to Visit Japan?
How big is the danger zone & how dangerous is life there?
What's the threat to health & reproductive ability?  (link)

Dirty Secrets Threaten Tokyo Olympics 2020...

secret silent shame
masks government strategy
Profits trump People

Baby eats fallout
Fukushima mutations
Newborn isotopes.

Cesium surprise
Losing even eyelashes
Lymphatic Luckless

Fearless global stars
Nuclear Olympic torch
Leave Japan Glowing!

 

Bossa

I'd like to blame You
For our crooked den of thieves
-- let tongue rest, or lose

MArketing

I remember birth
Although most people do not
I've other talents ...

       -- by  Genki

Processed Food

Forgetting Sacred
Turkey breast or flavor flecks?
Cheaper mo bettah

Enjoy Natural
Synthetic sympathetic?
Scratch off shame & guilt

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

Secretive Nippon?

Japan creeps closer to uncontrolled fascism, as the new "Special Secrecy Law" -- 特定秘密の保護に関する法律 -- comes into effect from today.

The Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office has already begun review and purge of people suspected to be sympathetic to anything outside Japan (link). Japanese people who've studied or worked abroad are now under suspicion.

This year's Nobel Laureate Physics, Shuji Nakamura, was stripped of Japanese nationality on becoming a naturalized American (he's a Professor at UCal Santa Barbara in the USA). Is Japan's government embarrassed? Most news in Japan simply ignores the inconvenient truth.

(Nobel co-laureate for Physics Kasumi Amano's wife has been working this year in Russia. Do foreign contacts make her less-pure & suspect?)

The rot (?!) reaches to the very top. Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Princess Masako, were both sent overseas to study at Oxford University. Is such excellent background now a negative liability?

Surely something is rotten in Japan -- but it is short-sighted domestic xenophobia. Japan's politicians, sad & feeble, seek Remilitarization -- against the wishes of most of the population. Narrow-focused domestic politicians & bureaucrats are once again secretly able to drag the nation to fascism & ultimate destruction.

One loud winter yell
As darkness falls on Japan.
Yoshi goes to war...

Now under Official Suspicion for Non-Japanese Experience?

Crippling Business in Korea

Korean newspapers have recently been full of allegations of horrible pricing. Foreign auto parts can be expensive if bought in Korea (link). Even the yet-to-be-opened Ikea has been criticized with front-page news stories: some product prices may be higher in Korea than elsewhere.

Korea: Welcome to Capitalism!

This populist criticism is stupid, and a form of protectionism. Korea embarrasses itself. Foreign companies wanting to do business in Korea must recognize the discriminatory system. Kentucky Fried Chicken and Lone Star (link) have suffered from this xenophobia and foreigner-bashing.

Of course prices are different internationally. Companies typically seek to charge whatever they can get - and they price strategically. Some products are cheap. Others are expensive - Don't buy when you don't wish to pay...

Outside Korea, small dishes of kimchi, namul and banchan (반찬) cost money at Korean restaurants -- inside Korea, these side dishes are usually free - provided at no cost, and with generous refills.  Should restaurants worldwide be forced to give those foods away, because they're free in Korea? Does this mean Korean restaurant owners operating in Europe and the USA are evil and should be punished?  Surely not - pricing is a business decision. When a business operator asks too much, they cannot sell their products, and soon will need to close. Search for profit is the (only) reason foreigners launch commercial activities in difficult Korea. That's business.

Wake Up Korea !

Free veggies  (Korea only?)

Shameful Triumph Japan

Three Japanese-born researchers this week will receive the Nobel Prize for Physics, but one is now an American. Japan's government forced Dr. Shuji Nakamura to give up his Japanese nationality on becoming a naturalized US citizen.

Though news reports in Japan crow noisily about the three Japanese laureates, Prof. Nakamura is not Japanese, and in some sense is an OUTCAST. So sad, shortsighted and unnecessary!

One day Japan will recognize multiculturalism has many strengths, and global individuals will not need to give-up being Japanese. Japan today remains inward-looking, often xenophobic and racist... Nobel prizewinner Nakamura is American, no longer a son of Nippon. Fiction hides fact, even in Japanese science & technology.

War on Islamic States

Our War on Islam ?
Syria, Iraq, Iran
And whoever else!

Zionist soldiers
Or American Defence?
Got Hagel Fired.

Japan Goes Postal

Japan's Postal Service has become a bureaucratic nightmare.

The old dependable Japanese post office is dead. Now we suffer under Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd. (日本郵政株式会社), a new and wholly government-owned administrative frankenstein.

Squadrons of robotic & obstructionist younger workers have been hired to reeducate the population on the authority and primacy of bureaucrats.

Japan is still rigid & semi-feudal. The population must regularly petition officials for all sorts of silly permissions, who then must stamp OK on every page. Such antics keep Japan uncompetitive.

Yesterday I was part of an uncomfortable group watching a worker individually weigh 94 business letters (all same weight & price). I've experienced bureaucracy in mailing a postcard. Japan's bureaucratic time-wasting need not account for itself.

These nutty officials are polite but firm - Just what Japan needs in its brutal drive to Remilitarize under Abenomics.

Stuffy officials handling people as dirt...
Wielding "Essential in Japan" permissions.

Fear - Gear - Profiteer!

Fear Gear Profiteer
Make-a-killing endless war
Industrial Schmucks

War Economies!
Obama Netanyahu
Can't Consider Peace ...

              by Genki