Off the rails

Service was disrupted after a passenger was spotted jumping off a speeding bullet train between Hamamatsu and Kakegawa stations in Shizuoka Prefecture.

A drunken man injured his leg after being hit by a train while staggering on the edge of a platform at Tokyo’s Okachimachi Station.

STATS

62

Lawmakers who paid their respects at Yasukuni Shrine, one day after leaders of Japan and South Korea urged to end their disputes over historical issues

3,119

Traffic accidents caused by drunk drivers across Japan for the six-month period from Sep 19, a drop of 22.5 percent from a year before, according to the National Police Agency

It’s the crime of the century

This calls for the Dark Knight

Assault on the Koban

Backed by “Sky Rockets” in flight

Searching the Midfield for DNA

See what Silk does to a man

When the escalator attacks

It Bites

What do you want to know about the Japanese AV business?

Perhaps some questions are best left unanswered. Or, maybe not.

What is the meaning of Boogie? Wikipedia has one answer. I (unsurprisingly) have another. Boogie is what makes me boogie. Or…..alternatively….songs that have boogie in the title.

i. e.

Songs to which I have, on occasion, boogied.

Bathtub

Bertha

Bishop

Bodacious

Hmmm, what ‘b’ word goes with Stevie?.?.?

Abraham hung out at his father Terah’s idol store one day, while Terah was out doing some errand or another.  Abraham wasn’t terribly impressed by the idols.  He had some other ideas about what made the world go round.  The story goes that while Terah was gone, Abraham smashed all the idols except the largest one.

When Terah came home, he asked Abraham, “What happened?”  Abraham replied that all the idols had gotten into a big fight and the largest idol won!

Now of course Terah knew this was hogwash but he couldn’t very well respond that it was impossible for idols to get into fistfights without admitting that idols were not real and not worth worshipping.

I like Biblical stories.  Even though I am hardly a Biblical scholar of any kind, I find them useful as basic descriptions of so many of the joys and miseries of humanity.

Imagine being Abraham.  Imagine knowing something that no one else knew or talked about.  Imagine realizing that all your neighbors and friends and family really knew that what they were hanging on to was false but somehow they all tacitly agreed, not even consciously really, to continue the charade … and not only that, but to fight with and ostracize anyone who tried to break that tacit agreement.

Imagine challenging that, confronting your community, or the powers in your community, with what you had discovered, that everything underpinning this society was a lie.  The idols were just pieces of plaster or wood and had no meaning or power whatsoever.

That would take a lot of courage.  But I think it would take an equal amount of courage to admit this to oneself to begin with.  No one wants everyone yelling at them, and I think often we gloss over uncomfortable truths for the sake of social harmony.  And maybe that’s not always a bad thing.

But to take on the taboos, oh that takes a lot of courage, both towards oneself and others.  For after all, if no one agrees with you, there could be big doubts — have you gone insane?  Are you deluded?  How can you be so arrogant as to proclaim someone else is wrong when everyone disagrees with you?

American idols.  No, not the TV show, heh.  Money.  Youth.  Fame.  Power.  These are the things our society virtually worships.  Those individuals who possess these qualities are treated differently, better than others.  We have all seen that.

Talent?  Oh that’s funny.  If we look back at our great artists, musicians, writers, so many of the really great ones suffered tremendously in their lifetimes and only afterwards were given respect by society.

So ability itself is really not valued so much in today’s idol-worshipping America.

I don’t use the word “worship” lightly in this context.  We see this happening with our present misAdministration.  We see it with our media.  And we see it with our powerful corporations.  Those are, of course, only a few examples.  Americans believe we can appease these powerful idols by looking away from the truth, buying into the lies we are fed every day.  We do this for the best of reasons — to protect our families, to keep our friends, to help our communities.  We feed into false hopes and pay homage to our American Idols, never questioning why we do this, what it is in our own minds that lets us swallow these lies and call them truth in our very actions.

Janis Joplin sang “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”  Americans are now losing a whole lot … homes, jobs, chances for health care, air to breathe and water to drink.

At times like these, freedom starts to have a bit more resonance to folks.

I read that the French Revolution started when women came to the bakery one day and there was literally no bread at all to be had.  They were pissed off.  They had nothing left to lose.  The structure for the Revolution was there already, folks were very discontented and angry with the “let them eat cake” monarchy.

But it was not having any bread that sparked the whole thing, something very mundane and necessary and homely.  This realization broke through not only the idolatry towards the royalty of the time, the sense that it was true the King and Queen were somehow “better” and “more deserving.”  It also broke through the whole notion of going along to get along.  Folks realized that even with their own sacrifice of the truth for lies, it still didn’t give them even the minimal food they needed to stay alive.  At that moment they were free.

I think it’s time to smash some idols.  America is ready to hear the truth.

Happy Friday to one and all.

our very own masslass would really like to do a pony or two every once-in-a-while. but she’s just too damned shy. so i offer this v.v.v. funny list on her behalf.

enjoy………………

The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year’s winners. Read them carefully. Each is an artificial word with only one letter altered to form a real word. Some are terrifically innovative:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.  The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

7. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.  (This one got extra credit.)

10. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right?  And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s, like, a serious bummer. (hahahahahahahahahaha… loved this one)

11. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

12. Glibido: All talk and no action.

13. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

14. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

15. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

16. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

And the #1 pick:

17. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.

 

During the primary race in Oregon there have been a number of signs that Republican Gordon Smith fears his possible Democratic opponent House Speaker Jeff Merkley. Whether it was his campaign’s decision to release their fundraising numbers early to counter the positive fundraising press the Merkley Campaign was receiving or his ridiculous email blast I wrote about yesterday. Now, Smith’s campaign is on the attack like never before and they’ve got their sights set on Oregon Senate candidate Merkley. Could this be another indication that the Smith Campaign does not want to face Jeff Merkley in November?

Republican Gordon Smith recently aired an attack ad against both Democratic primary candidates Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick. Now, Smith and right wingers are focusing their attention on Jeff Merkley. Besides the fact that the right wing hack bloggers like RINO WATCH endorsed Merkley’s primary opponent, Gordon Smith also just aired a very misleading ad against Jeff Merkley. In the ad Smith claims that Merkley “took thousands from lobbyists and special interests while in session.” The Merkley Campaign has sent out an email to its supporters completely denying the claim. Here’s a snippet from the email:

While Jeff Merkley refused to accept even a dime from lobbyists and special interests during the legislative session, Gordon Smith was raising money from lobbyists and special interests in Washington D.C. while the Senate was in session.

Jeff Merkley led historic bipartisan ethics reform to ban gifts from lobbyists, close the revolving door for legislators, and restore the independent Ethics Commission.  Merkley went beyond the rules for federal candidates and refused to accept any funds during session from lobbyists and special interests.

So, how much money has Gordon Smith raised from PACs this election cycle?   Gordon Smith has raised nearly 1.5 million from Pacs just this cycle alone. Check out how Gordon Smith matches up against both Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick when it comes to special interest donations. Gordon Smith has taken over $300,000 from the insurance industry, which tops his donor list. Smith has also raised nearly $175,000 from lobbyists while Merkley has only raised $5,100 and Novick $3,300. Now do you understand why we have to fight back against this? Gordon Smith is airing a misleading ad against a strong progressive candidate while he’s the one tied to special interests and lobbyists!!!!

Gordon Smith does not want to face Jeff Merkley

By leaving Steve Novick out of Gordon Smith’s latest negative ad campaign and focusing on Merkley, Smith is telling us he does not want to face Merkley in November. I wouldn’t blame him, considering Merkley is one of the most well rounded politicians I have ever supported. Merkley’s political beginnings started at the Defense Department, where he was a national security analyst. Merkley analyzed weapons programs and nuclear arms treaties for the Pentagon and Congress. When Merkley returned to Oregon he became the executive director for Habitat for Humanity. Merkley created affordable housing programs and Youthbuild which helped disaffected youth get back on their feet. After his community work, he was elected to the House to represent district 47. Merkley was elected Democratic House Leader in 2003 and then elected House Speaker back in 2006. He led the greenest and most labor friendly session in 30 years. Merkley was able to get a ton of progressive legislation passed, while Smith otoh has led on absolutely nothing as Senator. If I were Smith I wouldn’t want to go up against Merkley who has been able to deliver for Oregonians while Smith has given us nothing but a massive salmon kill.

Will you help Merkley fight back?

The Merkley Campaign has been incredibly effective in fighting back against such smears. We need to help the Merkley Campaign keep their message alive and not let Smith’s attacks go unanswered! I don’t know about you, but the fact that Smith is scared of Merkley is a good reason to support their campaign in any way you can. I set up an Act Blue page for Jeff Merkley and I hope you’ll consider donating to his campaign. Merkley can beat Smith, and there’s no doubt in my mind he will become a progressive champion for us in the Senate.  

1. From The Guardian comes news of Another record as oil passes $126. OPEC is going to try to increase production… to take advantage of the high prices. “The price of crude was up by around $2 a barrel in trading, reaching a new peak of $126.20, amid concerns about shortages of diesel in the United States, the weakness of the dollar and the possibility of geopolitical tensions in oil producing countries.”

   Of course, Bush has done what he could to increase “geopolitical tensions in oil producing countries”. Jerome a Paris predicts $200 a barrel oil will happen on January 20, 2009, Inauguration Day. A day when “a new president that has not prepared the ground for serious action will be blamed for everything that transpires”.

   Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports Big Oil launches advertising campaign.

   Faced with a national outcry over the high price of gasoline and soaring profits for energy companies, the oil and gas industry is waging an unusually pricey campaign to burnish its image.

   The American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s main lobby, has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign, which includes advertising in the nation’s largest newspapers, news conferences in many state capitals and trips for bloggers out to drilling platforms at sea.

   The intended audience is elected officials and the public, with an emphasis on the latter. The industry is trying to convince voters — who, in turn, will make the case to their members of Congress — that rising energy prices are not the producers’ fault and that government efforts to punish the industry, especially with higher taxes, would only make pricing problems worse.

   Just what we need is oil-industry astroturfing in blogs.

   The lobby has started courting online journalists as well. In November, the institute said it invited bloggers to Shell’s facilities in New Orleans and then took them to visit the offshore platform Brutus. The same month, the institute also brought bloggers to Chevron’s offices in Houston and its Blind Faith platform under construction in Corpus Christi, Tex. There are more tours in the works.

   Blind Faith: big oil is our friend.

Four at Four continues with 2 corrupt senators, Army “stop loss”, and Pelosi’s war funding bill.

2. Still more shocking news of corrupt Republican senators cutting deals on behalf of their business partners and financial supporters. The New York Times reports Senator Shelby’s ties to real estate draw criticism. “He has made millions as a title insurance executive, landlord and real estate developer in this college town, where the economy, despite trouble nationwide, is still growing nicely. Now, as a United States senator, with the mortgage mess fueling a national economic slowdown, Richard C. Shelby has more say over the revamping of housing finance laws than almost anyone else in Congress… as the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, he is using his clout and the Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate to help determine what gets in, or almost as important, what is left out, of legislation… Mr. Shelby’s ties to the mortgage industry and the Alabama real estate market, and the generous campaign donations he receives from financial services companies, have distorted his perspective and led him to delay critical legislative remedies.”

   While the Washington Post reports Senator McCain pushed land swap that benefits backer. “Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.”

   WaPo claims McCain was “initially reluctant to support the swap”, but after being visited by lobbyists, “two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff)” and Steven A. Betts, a major campaign donor and long-time supporter, the Maverick signed on. When the legislation passed in 2005, Betts’ SunCor Development got the job of building up to 12,000 houses on the land.

   “A town official opposed to the swap said other Yavapai Ranch land sold nine years ago for about $2,000 per acre, while some of the prime commercial land near a parcel that the developers will get has brought as much as $120,000 per acre.” The land swap avoided a process that would have allowed more citizen input.

   As McCain positions himself as a champion of environmental causes, observers of the Yavapai Ranch swap say it shows a paradox in the senator’s positions. At times, he has fought to protect the delicate desert ecosystem. But when wildlife concerns have thwarted development, his loyalties have shifted.

   Everything is for sale with McCain, including himself.

3. The Los Angeles Times reports U.S. Army’s ‘stop-loss’ orders up dramatically over last year.

   The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army involuntarily under the military’s controversial “stop-loss” program has risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year, officials said Thursday…

   The number of soldiers held in the Army under the stop-loss program reached a high in March 2005 of 15,758. That number steadily declined through May 2007, when it hit 8,540. But since then, the number of soldiers subjected to stop-loss orders began to increase again, reaching 12,235 in March 2008.

   In April 2007, [Defense Secretary Robert M.] Gates ordered combat tours extended to support the U.S. troop buildup and to address concerns about uneven tour lengths. But because many soldiers were due to leave the service at the end of their combat tours, Army officials had to order them under stop-loss provisions to remain.

4. The Washington Post reports ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats join Republicans in opposing Speaker’s war funding bill.

   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday postponed consideration of a bill that would continue funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a bloc of conservative Democrats balked at the high cost of including several of Pelosi’s favored domestic spending programs…

   The Blue Dogs have objected to the creation of a program that would guarantee veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan a year of in-state college tuition for each year served in the war zones. The Blue Dogs said the House had not found any additional money, through spending cuts or tax increases, to pay for the program, a violation of pay-as-you-go rules imposed by House Democrats in early 2007.

   “We have a duty as a country to tend to [returning soldiers]. But we also have a duty as a country to pay for them,” said Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.), a leader of the Blue Dog coalition…

   House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) yesterday called the domestic add-ons “unnecessary extra spending” and … Bush has announced his opposition to any bill that contains veterans’ benefits and unemployment insurance in addition to the war funds.

John Edwards has joined with several organizations to try to cut poverty in America in half in the next 10 years.

Watch the video with John Edwards and join the movement here: http://www.halfinten.org/

One in eight Americans now lives in poverty.  A family of four is considered poor if the family’s income is below $19,971-a bar far below what most people believe a family needs to get by. Still, using this measure, 12.6 percent of all Americans were poor in 2005, and more than 90 million people (31 percent of all Americans) had incomes below 200 percent of federal poverty thresholds.

Millions of Americans will spend at least one year in poverty at some point in their lives.  One third of all Americans will experience poverty within a 13-year period. In that period, one in 10 Americans are poor for most of the time, and one in 20 are poor for 10 or more years.  

Poverty in the United States is far higher than in many other developed nations. At the turn of the 21st century, the United States ranked 24th among 25 countries when measuring the share of the population below 50 percent of median income.

Inequality has reached record highs. The richest 1 percent of Americans in 2005 held the largest share of the nation’s income (19 percent) since 1929. At the same time, the poorest 20 percent of Americans held only 3.4 percent of the nation’s income.

It does not have to be this way.  Our nation need not tolerate persistent poverty alongside great wealth.

http://www.americanprogress.or…

Do you care?  Do something and join this effort.

Half in Ten: From Poverty to Prosperity

The Center for American Progress Action Fund is committed to cutting poverty in half in 10 years. Under the leadership of Senator John Edwards, CAPAF has joined with ACORN, the Coalition on Human Needs, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to create the Half in Ten campaign.

In 2006, the Center for American Progress-our partner organization-convened a diverse group of national experts and leaders to examine the causes and consequences of poverty in America and make recommendations for national action. The resulting report from the Task Force on Poverty calls for a national goal of cutting poverty in half in the next 10 years and proposes a strategy to reach that goal, guided by the following four principles:

Promote Decent Work. People should work and work should pay enough to ensure that workers and their families can avoid poverty, meet basic needs, and save for the future.

Provide Opportunity for All. Children should grow up in conditions that maximize their opportunities for success; adults should have opportunities throughout their lives to connect to work, get more education, live in a good neighborhood, and move up in the workforce.

Ensure Economic Security. Americans should not fall into poverty when they cannot work or work is unavailable, unstable, or pays so little that they cannot make ends meet.

Help People Build Wealth. All Americans should have the opportunity to build assets that allow them to weather periods of flux and volatility, and to have the resources that may be essential to advancement and upwardmobility.

http://www.americanprogressact…

The Report (Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half by the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty) is here:  http://www.americanprogress.or…

Join here:  http://www.halfinten.org/

More after the fold.  

From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half

By The Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty

Thirty-seven million Americans live below the official poverty line. Millions more struggle each month to pay for basic necessities, or run out of savings when they lose their jobs or face health emergencies. Poverty imposes enormous costs on society. The lost potential of children raised in poor households, the lower productivity and earnings of poor adults, the poor health, increased crime, and broken neighborhoods all hurt our nation. Persistent childhood poverty is estimated to cost our nation $500 billion each year, or about four percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. In a world of increasing global competition, we cannot afford to squander these human resources.

The Center for American Progress last year convened a diverse group of national experts and leaders to examine the causes and consequences of poverty in America and make recommendations for national action. In this report, our Task Force on Poverty calls for a national goal of cutting poverty in half in the next 10 years and proposes a strategy to reach the goal.

Our nation has seen periods of dramatic poverty reduction at times when near-full employment was combined with sound federal and state policies, motivated individual initiative, supportive civic involvement, and sustained national commitment. In the last six years, however, our nation has moved in the opposite direction. The number of poor Americans has grown by five million, while inequality has reached historic high levels.

http://www.americanprogress.or…

They recommend 12 key steps to cut poverty in half:

1. Raise and index the minimum wage to half the average hourly wage.

2. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

3. Promote unionization by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act.

4.  Guarantee child care assistance to low-income families and promote early education for all.

5. Create 2 million new “opportunity” housing vouchers, and promote equitable development in and around central cities.

6. Connect disadvantaged and disconnected youth with school and work.

7. Simplify and expand Pell Grants and make higher education accessible to residents of each state.

8. Help former prisoners find stable employment and reintegrate into their communities.

9. Ensure equity for low-wage workers in the Unemployment Insurance system.

10. Modernize means-tested benefits programs to develop a coordinated system that helps workers and families.

11. Reduce the high costs of being poor and increase access to financial services.

12. Expand and simplify the Saver’s Credit to encourage saving for education, homeownership, and retirement.

Read more here:

http://www.americanprogress.or…

A personal observation.  This is what issue activism is all about.  If we want real change, and god knows we need it, then it is up to each of us.  A Democratic President is a good start, but unless we act, it won’t make the change we need.  People make change, leaders don’t.  What kind of world do you want to live in?

Join here now and make real change: http://www.halfinten.org/

cross posted from The Dream Antilles



La Bloguera Yoani Sanchez

Well, to no one’s surprise, Cuba wouldn’t relent and permit Yoani Sanchez to travel to Spain to receive the Ortega y Gasset prize, despite my post yesterday urging Raul Castro to permit her to go.

AP reports:

A Cuban woman who gained worldwide acclaim for a blog that offers stinging criticism of the Communist regime was honored Wednesday with a Spanish journalism award – in absentia.

Cuban authorities did not approve Yoani Sanchez’s request to travel to Madrid for the award ceremony. But the 32-year-old woman was still able to make some points.

“Nothing of what I have written in these 13 months speaks as loudly as my absence from this ceremony,” Sanchez said in a tape recording.

She said the fact she had to address the group through a recording was “the clearest evidence of the defenselessness of the Cuban people with respect to the state.”

Meanwhile, her blog receives more than 1 million hits a month (my blog receives less than 1 thousand).  And it continues to voice opposition to repression in Cuba.  It’s gotten some attention from Andrew Sullivan, but in general, there hasn’t been much of an uproar, or support in Blogtopia for her right to travel or for her right to express herself without being penalized or calling for her to be allowed to leave Cuba long enough to visit Spain.

Why is that?  What exactly does it take to have bloggers advocate for freedom of expression across the entire Internet?  When are we going to understand the connections between all of us in the typing class?  When are we going to support freedom of speech, even if we don’t agree with the politics or content of what is being written?

I’m asking because I remember Martin Niemoeller.