Why I love Eschaton--reason #364
Because you get great ideas from the posters there, like this one from Falstaff on

writing a neo-con to english dictionary

Massacre? What Massacre?

Japanese politicians continue to revise history to smooth over what the media here often refer to as "that spot of unpleasantness back in 40s." One alleged human being from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party - Masahiro Morioka, the parliamentary secretary for the Health Ministry - criticized the Chinese government for demanding the Japanese Prime Minister stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine where the souls of Class A war criminals are specifically enshrined along with the rest of Japan's war dead.

"Class A war criminals are treated as bad people because of fear of China,"
Morioka said. "War criminals were categorized as Class A, Class B and Class C at
the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals. They were categorized by a one sided
tribunal led by the Occupation forces at which crimes against peace and humanity
were created"

"A war is a part of politics, and it is in line with an
international law. The Diet unanimously agreed to pay pensions to the families
of Class A war criminals who have died. They are not seen as criminals in this
country." "
(Saturday, May 28 Daily Yomiuri)

I recommend the excellent Wikipedia entry on the Nanjing Massacre as a starting point in explaining why Morioka is an idiot. The Tokyo Tribunal did not behead prisoners or bayonet infants or particpate in gang rapes. It didn't invent comfort women, Unit 100, Unit 731 or the Bataan Death March. Morioka is a facist apologist who deserves to be pilloried in the press and beaten like a rented mule at the ballot box. Unfortunately neither will happen.

Too Sweet
I love plagarists, I especially love how incredibly dumb they are. So does World O'Crap

Just for Pete
"Centuwion, Why do they titter so?"

Our hero and new spiritual leader of the moment -

Wammo

He's finally done it! Wammo has gotten his online act together. He's blogging and posting films and all manner of good stuff - check him out!

follow this link to Wammolovesme.com

Have a listen courtesy of Amazon.com

With all apologies to his His Regal Wammoness for not paying him to post this, here are the lyrics (from his site) to one of my favorite songs by the "Fat-Headed Stranger"

WINGLESS ANGELS (from My Favorite Record)

I lost my virginity

While the preacher was downstairs

Chattin' with my mom

And I wasted my youth

On a girl named Ruth

And it don't make no difference to me

Now all you wingless angels

Get in line to take a stab at me

'cause I'm rollin' down the last six pack

And two A.M. brings finality

I was born in New York City

And beat up down in San Antone

And I wasted my time

Smokin' agriculture

In the back of my buddy's old Firebird

Now all you wingless angels

Start clocking yourselves

With the junebug of the times

'cause I'm staggerin' in to your pit stop

And I'm lined up

Down at your favorite bar

Crippled at the South Ban

I fulfilled the prophesy

But baptized in the waters of the Broken Spoke

When a yodeller named Walser

Pierced my soul

lNow all you wingless angels

Stop trampin' 'round my back door

'cause I'm drownin' in a Bushmills dream

And I got a hot date

With the Holy Ghost

Now Jesus, he knew his price tag

Thirty pieces of silver hung on his hide

But that devil in your smile

Is so divine

I'll be Judassing your ass out for twenty-nine

Now all you wingless angels

Sanctify my ability to recognize

'cause I'm drunk off my ass

In Omaha

And I'm sleepin' on the bus

With a busted wing

Yeah, I'm passed out on the bus

With a busted wing

(c)B.Y.G.U.M. 2000

Department of Blatant Plugs
My neighbour and new pal Professor Jesse Glass is an author, poet and fan of outsider music and art. He is also one of the proprietors of Ahadada Books a very cool small publisher based in Toronto.

Also, check out Jesse's partner in Ahadada Books, Daniel Sendeki, and his useful advice for the useless Conservative/Alliance/Reform/Republican/Fourth Reich Party leader Stephen Harper.

War is not good for children or other living things, but we shouldn't let it spoil David Brooks' morning coffee

Sid Schanberg takes our second least favorite NYT columnist and many, many more of us not on the firing line to task for being afraid to look at images of a war so many flag-waving jackasses think is a cross between a video game and Sands of Iwo Jima.

And if you don't like to see pictures of four-year-olds who have been caught in an airstrike, think about why that airstrike is supposed to have taken place.

Yeah, freedom is on the march all right, you can tell by the sound of the jackboots.

Flushing credibility

My take on the whole "Newsweak" fiasco is that it is a tempest in a teacup brewed up by Rove and his minions to further discredit an already battered national media. In their attempt to shoot the messanger, a story that has been corroborated by several former Gitmo detainees, is now being branded a fabrication because one anonymous govt source backed down at the last minute. See the Rude Pundit for further details. The Rude One is entirely correct. Every time the press screws up, the right and left both hammer them for it, eroding trust in the media. Which is just what the White House wants.

We are now seeing more and more accusations of torture in Afghanistan and the latest are hardly the first. As the Rude One points out, the short term result of the Newsweak cave-in is going to be that every right-wing bloviator will be painting every report out of Afghanistan with the same brush as they have the "Newsweek lied, people died" claim.

Pimping the media whores redux

Tim Noah at Slate's Chatterbox reports the results of the "columnist for sale" poll. The responses he counted - and I'm guessing mine was not among them due to the math involved since I advocated David Brooks being forced to pay me to read he crapulous nonsense about "heartland values" - apparently averaged out to this:

Paul Krugman: $6.90

Thomas L. Friedman: $4.10

Frank Rich: $3.92

Maureen Dowd: $3.42

Nicholas Kristof: $2.35

Bob Herbert: $1.42

David Brooks: $1.39

John Tierney: $0.31