Beautiful skin the Ann Coulter way

You always kinda suspected it didn't you....World O'Crap reports on conservative virgins donating blood for Coulter's bath and need we remind you that the woman is about as sharp as a bag of wet mice.

Why we blog

Howard Zinn says it better than I could - it is all about changing minds one at a time.

Jonah Goldberg isn't the only one who doesn't want to go to Iraq. This combat vet took the hard way out.

Smells like Schadenfreude
A career goal for any political journalist, a posting as White House Correspondent is pretty near the top of the of press pyramid. How truly delicious then to watch the flaming demise of a GOP shill who had never written so much as single story for the Weaslepiss Creek News and Advertiser but who was suddenly appointed and accredited as a White House correspondent on the basis of a weekend journalism seminar and the ability to parrot WH press releases. Gentle readers, I give you the story of Jeff Gannon. I'm not sure which blogger gets to keep Gannon's scalp on his watchchain, but I suspect the posse at Daily Kos deserves the bulk of the kudos

Revisionism and denial

The Daily Yomiuri doesn't archive material online so the original will be posted on their site for only 24 hours- thus I will reproduce the entire sad attempt at denying the commission of war crimes. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of WWII knows this is bullshit. I would urge anyone reading this to write a letter to the editor of the DY.


Asian Woman's Fund based on distortions
Yomiuri Shimbun
What was the purpose of establishing the Asian Women's Fund?
The government-authorized corporation has been in operation for about 10 years, mainly with the aim of providing allowances for purported former comfort women in other Asian countries. The corporation, which has nearly completed its mission, will be disbanded in two years.
The corporation was established in 1995. It has since collected about 600 million yen in donations from Japanese, and has given 285 purported former comfort women in South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines 2 million yen each.
It should be noted, however, that a major driving force behind the establishment of the fund was an attempt by some quarters of society to misrepresent historical facts on the purported former comfort women.
For example, some newspapers campaigned to convince the public that the system created to form corps of women volunteers eager to contribute to the war effort during World War II was an attempt by the Imperial Japanese Army to forcibly recruit women as comfort women. This did much to ensure the mistaken perception both at home and abroad that the women who worked at brothels had been forced to do so by the Imperial Army after being forcibly transported to such facilities for sexual servitude. The campaign aroused a sensational reaction, especially among South Koreans.
===
Kono's statement ridiculous
The Japanese government was thoughtless in dealing with the rising tide of antagonism overseas as a result of the campaign. An excellent example of this was seen in a statement issued by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono under the Cabinet of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa in August 1993. Kono's statement said "the government authorities had played a part" in what critics called "forcible transportation" of women for service at brothels.
However, the statement was unsupported by historical facts. Kono's comment has been discredited by testimony from several senior officials in the Miyazawa government, including then Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobuo Ishihara. A high-ranking bureaucrat who was director general of the Cabinet Councillors' Office on External Affairs during the days of the Miyazawa Cabinet also said the same thing before the Diet.
===
No forcible transportations
All this shows there were no grounds for the assertion that the comfort women were victims forcibly transported to wartime brothels.
But Kono's patently false statement took on a life of its own, somehow transmogrifying to become the official view of the Japanese government about the issue of purported comfort women.
In South Korea, the statement was taken
as the Japanese government's acknowledgment of its purported "forcible transportation" of women to brothels. In Japan, too, a campaign to "compensate forcible transportation" gathered momentum. All these developments led to the establishment of the Asian Women's Fund.
The attempt by some quarters of society to distort the historical facts on purported comfort women was also one cause of the ongoing dispute between NHK and The Asahi Shimbun over which lied about an altered television program.
Kono's statement was a boon for a campaign to conduct a "women's international tribunal of war criminals" in December 2000, a mock trial the NHK program in question featured.
What criteria were adopted by the Asian Women's Fund to produce a list of women "eligible" to receive allowances? The fund was established with little effort to inspect historical facts about purported comfort women. Given this, it is no wonder that some always have viewed the fund with skepticism.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 6) Copyright 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun

"It's fun to shoot some people"

I don't know where to start to describe what is wrong with this guy being a military commander . Clearly some people enter the armed services to "fight to protect the homeland" and others are just psychos looking for a licence.

Imagine my surprise 

Scary stuff
U.S. students say press freedoms go too far
Mon Jan 31, 7:20 AM ET

Top Stories - USATODAY.com
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.


The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

formal portrait taken in November, and yes I do own my own kimono 

Shichi-go-san - the kids festival for three, five and seven year-olds 

halloween? No - they dress like this everyday. 

Just a little Friday kid blogging
Hey if political blogs like Eschaton can do catblogging and Bob Harris can do pudublogging , then I can put pitures of my kids up. Enjoy.

"Shades of Bob MacKenzie"
or "Beer - Is there anything it isn't good for"

Man pees way out of avalanche
A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.
Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.

RIP Lucien Carr - journalist and key beat figure
Newsman Lucien Carr Dies at 79
By Martin WeilWashington Post Staff WriterSaturday, January 29, 2005; Page B05
"Lucien Carr, 79, who was a friend of the Beat Generation writers since their college days and who spent decades as a mainstay of one of the major news wire services, died Jan. 28 at George Washington University Hospital.
Mr. Carr, who lived in Washington and was retired after 47 years at United Press International, had cancer, according to his longtime companion, Kathleen Silvassy.
Accounts of the founding of the Beat Generation often credit Mr. Carr with bringing together such celebrated figures of the movement as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. "


Carr is the reason the three main writers of the Beat movement - Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg were aware of each other. Without his relatively minor action of introducing the three, there would have been no Beat Generation. And his news career is nothing to sneeze at either. Now if certain of my friends, relations and assorted former schoolmates would just go out and publish, compose and record some classic art - It doesn't have to be on par with HOWL or On The Road - I could have a cool obit someday soon.

He's got a little list
And I knew we'd be on it.


President's To Do List

Unflinching portrait of the Genius of Soul
Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Ray 4 stars (out of five)
Dir: Taylor Hackford
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Regina King

Biopics often fall into the trap of hagiography, trying to present their subject in the best possible light. Not so with Ray, director Taylor Hackford's warts-and-all (or nearly so) depiction of Ray Charles.

Charles' story is an inspirational one: He overcame poverty, blindness and racial prejudice to become an American institution and one of the most beloved and groundbreaking figures in modern music.

At the same time, he was a selfish, egotistical, unrepentant womanizing junkie who sometimes neglected his family and was often disloyal to his friends. But they didn't call him "The Genius" for nothing.

The opening scene of Ray tells us all we need to know about the man. It is 1948 and a young blind black man stands alone at a rural Florida bus stop. When the white driver finds out the young man's destination is Seattle, he states in no uncertain terms that the man isn't coming aboard because he doesn't have time to babysit some "crippled colored boy." Charles meekly mentions having "left my eyes at Omaha Beach," and the driver relents. The young man's confident, knowing smile as he boards the bus tells us the story is a scam, but the incident demonstrates Charles' creativity, independence and talent for giving people what they wanted to hear, whether they knew what they wanted or not.

Musically, Charles fused the gospel of his childhood with the rhythm and blues he played working his way up through the "chitlin circuit" of the South. The results both scandalized and enticed churchgoers across the country. Melding the sacred with the sensual gave Brother Ray a sound that could make a preacher kick a hole in a stained-glass window and revolutionized popular music.

Naturally, music plays a huge role in the film, setting the mood and driving the narrative. In one scene, when his backup singers storm out of the studio after an argument, we watch as Charles records all the harmony background vocals on "I Believe to My Soul" with the help of an awestruck sound engineer.

The Genius, who died last year, rerecorded some of his most famous songs for the film, and I'd have happily paid to sit in a dark room and listen to the soundtrack. The fact that there is a nearly great movie attached to it--just nominated for the best picture Oscar--is just gravy.

It takes a genius to play a genius, and Jamie Foxx had better start clearing a spot on his mantle for the richly deserved Oscar for which he is now officially in the running. Foxx doesn't just play Brother Ray, he channels the man's every twitch, grin, sway and cackle, brilliantly capturing the man's exuberance and considerable charm while hinting at the darker side simmering beneath the surface.

Foxx is backed by a terrific supporting cast. Kerry Washington shines as Charles' wife Della Bea, as does Regina King in the role of Margie Hendricks, the Raelette who "let Ray" and became one of his many mistresses.

Character actor Curtis Armstrong puts in a scene-stealing turn as Atlantic Records' nerdy Ahmet Ertegun, nervously performing a song he has written, "Mess Around," which became one of Charles' early hits.

Sharon Warren gives a powerful, layered performance in her film debut as a fierce but loving mother in heartwrenching flashbacks to Ray Charles Robinson's dirt-poor childhood in the Georgia backwoods. At age 5, he watches, rooted to the spot, as his younger brother drowns in a washtub. A few months later his eyesight begins to fade. The condition is treatable, but there is no money for doctors. By age 7, he is blind.

Some of the most emotional scenes show Warren's character suffering silently as she tries to instill some independence in her son, forcing him to navigate their cramped cabin unaided. "You're blind, not dumb; you lost your sight, not your mind," she says, before sending him off to a school for the blind 240 kilometers from home before his 10th birthday.

Her death at 31 while Charles was away at school forces him to fend for himself and helps him become a savvy, occasionally ruthless businessman.

Haunted by his brother's death and the loneliness of life on the road, Charles numbs himself with heroin and spends hours alone at the piano while his bandmates are out carousing. His long-running addiction finally catches up with him in 1965, when he is arrested for possession and narrowly avoids jail by entering rehab.

Hackford's direction and James L. White's script are occasionally wooden, and some factual liberties have been taken. A 1979 scene of Ray accepting an apology from the Georgia State Legislature for barring him from performing after he refused to abide by Jim Crow laws shows him with Della Bea at his side, though the two actually divorced in 1977. Charles' brief first marriage to Eileen Williams, who bore him a child, is not mentioned, nor are some of his illegitimate children.

Other things the film doesn't tell us--that after kicking heroin, Charles continued smoking marijuana and drinking copious amounts of gin and very rarely composed new music--reflect the prevailing puritan attitude toward drugs, and Hollywood's own addiction to happy endings.

These minor problems take little away from what's on the screen, and any clunkiness is overcome by the strength of the performances and the music. Foxx's career-making performance alone is worth twice the price of admission.

The movie opens (in Japan) Jan. 29.
Copyright 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun

"this is so frickin' cool"

check out this excellent multimedia plaything
Pianographique

What going on in Iraq
This guy is the real deal, a freelancer who is not embedded and not holed up in the green zone 24/7Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches

"Ouch" just doesn't cover it

Woman rips off ex-lover's testicle

Why you shouldn't read Plato in the breakroom

Another of those 'only in Japan' type stories - Two bus drivers were recently fired for having college degrees.

"Let us win your hearts and minds or we'll burn your fucking huts down"

As General William Westmoreland famously said "When you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow." Clearly this stroke of strategic genius worked so well in Vietnam, the U.S. has decided to revive such methods in Iraq.
Clearly freedom is on the march...straight into the toilet.

"Yet armies can be good at war-fighting or good at peacekeeping but rarely good at both. And when America's well-drilled and well-fed fighters attempt subtler tasks than killing people, problems arise. At peacekeeping, peace-enforcing or policing, call it what you will, they are often inept. Even the best of them seem ignorant of the people whose land they are occupying —unsurprisingly, perhaps, when practically no American fighters speak Arabic. And, typically, the marine battalion in Ramadi has only four translators. Often American troops despair of their Iraqi interlocutors, observing that they “are not like Americans”.

American marines and GIs frequently display contempt for Iraqis, civilian or official. Thus the 18-year-old Texan soldier in Mosul who, confronted by jeering schoolchildren, shot canisters of buckshot at them from his grenade-launcher. “It's not good, dude, it could be fatal, but you gotta do it,” he explained. Or the marines in Ramadi who, on a search for insurgents, kicked in the doors of houses at random, in order to scream, in English, at trembling middle-aged women within: “Where's your black mask?” and “Bitch, where's the guns?” In one of these houses was a small plastic Christmas tree, decorated with silver tinsel. “That tells us the people here are OK,” said Corporal Robert Joyce. "

see the whole story from the Economist (which incidently, supported the war and still does)