Public Education is Terrible! Or Can People be THAT Stupid? Japan Was First to Use Nuclear Weapons... On Korea???!!!! Dave in Austin is Confused - You Need to Drink More!

Blogging is a total exercise in frustration. 

The worst part of blogging is getting mail from idiots who think they know what they are talking about. Dave from Texas tells me that, "you are part of the problem" when it comes to Japan's economic conundrum. You see, Dave thinks that government spending of over 237% of GDP is not the problem. Dave also thinks that the current rate of Japanese under the poverty level of 15.7% is somehow caused by privately run businesses trying to compete for good employees under the free market system.

In "Japan is Collapsing," I wrote:

I am angry at the stupid Japanese government for taking our tax money and bailing out these zombie banks and keeping the status quo intact at the expense of the people and our children's future. I am furious that the situation has gone on for so long. I am angry that it is not only us who is feeling the pain but everyone else I know... I get angry when I read the news and see that 15.7% of all Japanese are under the poverty level. I get pissed off when I see that our debt to GDP is over 237%....

And I really get angry when I read that these idiots in government want to raise our taxes and keep with the failed policies of these last twenty plus years. And it really really astounds me that the people who got us into this mess can get reelected again. What a farce. 

Dave then writes:

Well, things can't be so bad-- I mean you still have a very exclusive international school full of rich people, right? Did you ever think that one of the problems with Japan's economy is that everyone assumes a paternalistic company to pay for all these benefits for their employees? When businesses are burdened with such costs, the money's got to come from _somewhere_. Companies will either: stiff the employee wages, borrow, suck off the gov't teat, or go under. Mike, with all due respect, you might be part of the problem... 

Riiiiiight! Japan's economic problems are due to the efforts of private businesses! Dave is a fricking genius! I responded:

Dave is a prime example of the poor education people get through public schooling. For some bizarre reason he thinks that private businesses (that create jobs and build the economy) are "part of the problem" whilst he ignores the fact that Japanese government debt is now over 238% of GDP and we have 15.7% of all Japanese under the poverty level in Japan today. He also fails to recognize that Japan has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Dave is completely ill-informed and naive.

Jeff B. also blasted Dave in the comments section for thinking the government had their own money and because Dave fails to realize that all the money the government has in the first place is money they took it from privately run businesses. Dave is a total statist fool.

But Dave isn't the worst one - he doesn't deserve the "Total Idiot Award" in the last 24 hours (Sorry Dave). That award goes to someone else even dumber. To prove to you that public education is in the pits and that you must work your ass off to send your kid to a private school or homeschool, read this next letter that I received concerning my article entitled, "Atomic Bombs: Race Hatred and Mass Murder." The reader commented:

"I think you have a very warped sense of history. Japan was, after all, the first country to use a nuclear weapon on Korea. Second, the actual documents show Japan was looking for a CONDITIONAL ceasation to the war. (sic)  Japan's own treatment of the Chinese was the real war crime. So don't be so high and mighty. True, the bombs killed many innocents, but it was total war by all sides. Your generals were to blame, not the U.S."

Jesus! "Total war by all sides" but "Your generals were to blame" incredible! It gets worse, he even spelled "cessation" wrong. Then he writes, "Japan was, after all, the first country to use a nuclear weapon on Korea???" What the heck? Have you ever heard anything like that before? He's kidding, right? Is this what they are teaching in school or did this guy get this from reading comic books? No! I dare say that this guy doesn't read at all.... I mean, how could he with a ridiculous statement like that?

(To read about the atomic bombings, read here: Ralph Raico. If that link doesn't work, use this: http://www.lewrockwell.com/raico/raico22.html).

If you ever needed any evidence that US public education was sh*t, you just found it with the comments by Anonymous. Mr. Anonymous! Please send me the names of the schools you attended. I want to publish that list so that people know where NOT to send their kids!

And if you ever needed evidence that blogging was an exercise in frustration (or becoming a Zen Master) then just read the dumb stuff people like Dave write.

God help us all if this is the education level of the people we are producing today.

I suppose the best recourse on this holiday weekend is to not argue with idiots and drink more.

"May You Live in Interesting Times" - Sounds Like Fun, But it's a Curse!

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." - Confucious

The Chinese have some really great, ancient quotes. "May you live in interesting times" is probably my favorite. It sounds like a wish for good fortune, but it's not. It's a curse. It's a wish for terrible things. When I was young (and much stupider than I am now), when I first heard, "May you live in interesting times", I thought it meant having fun. I thought it was "interesting" as in "going to see an interesting concert" or "watching a very exciting and interesting movie." I heard this statement and thought, "Yeah! Way to go, baby! Those Chinese know how to paaaaartay! That sounds fun!"

Great Chinese philosopher dude: smart man or wise ass? (See? If you look closely, he's actually  smirking!)

Parties? Drinking? Having Fun? Meeting girls? That's sounds interesting to me. It wasn't until years later that I fully understood that when these Chinese wise men say, "interesting" and I say, "interesting" we are talking about two totally different things.

"Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." - Winston Churchill

But, you know what? As you get older, you do realize how this knife cuts both ways. I'll bet that, if you were Polish in 1939, French in 1940, or Russian in 1941; or a German or Japanese citizen living in a big industrial city in 1944 or 1945 and being bombed every night, those were real interesting times. 

I'm sure living in this neighborhood around the time this tank drove by was a real hootenanny! A regular Shindig!

Of course, throughout history there are millions of examples of interesting times... The black plague, the fall of Rome, the potato famine, the Great Depression, just to name a few... Heck, how about today? Today, there's more interesting things going on than you could shake a stick at: how about Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Burma... And let's not leave out the United States! How about being one of almost 46 million people on food stamps or one of the more than 25% of all American children living under the poverty line or the more than 15% of all Japanese who can say the same? 


There's so many people and places that are living through such interesting times that I can't even list them up! I'll bet wondering if you'll have food or electricity or even live until tomorrow is real interesting for those folks... 

"Paaaaaaar-tay!"

Yeah. Those all sound like real fun, eh? Real interesting every day and night. A real barrel of laughs.


"May you live in interesting times."


Even though this quote is customarily attributed to the Chinese, the origins of this quote seem to be in question in some quarters. Some English scholars claim that since there is no written record of the original of this quote in Chinese, then the origins of this as being Chinese are highly questionable. I think that is nonsense. 


To be totally anal-retentive (like these scholars): Chinese culture is over 4,000 years old. The first records of writing in China are 1,200 years old. Some argue that most parts of the bible many use were written in the last 800 years. So to claim that the quote, "May you live in interesting times" - whose origins have been attributed to China for years (other old non-English speaking societies  also attribute this to China) - is not Chinese seems silly and pointless to me.


Who cares if you are living in such interesting times that you are worried about your skin or where you will sleep that night, what you are your children will eat, or if you are even going to wake up tomorrow?


There is, though, unarguable proof of another ancient Chinese quote that I believe is the root of this saying. That quote goes like this: 


"It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period." 


If you can speak more than one language than I imagine that you can see how, "May you live in interesting times" and, "It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period" Could have the same roots, or even be the same statement; or even be kissing cousins. 


Anyway, does it matter? 

Louis Armstong seems to be a guy who had a good time and a positive attitude all the time.

As Louis Armstrong would say, "You say eether, I say eyether... Let's call the whole thing off."


Yeah. What difference does it make? May you live in interesting times is most certainly a curse. It doesn't seem like it at first, and probably wouldn't to a young person, under 30... But when you get past 40 and you have kids and a lot of bills to pay and things to worry about, you certainly don't need more "interesting things" on your plate to worry about.


Damn Chinese! How could they have been so stinking smart so many years ago?


Now, at 54, I don't want things to be too interesting anymore. A little bit is fine, but not too much. I don't want to fear or want too much. I don't want things to be too interesting.


I want to go to work everyday and do some work. I want to have everyone understand what it is that were supposed to be doing and everyone to be productive and happy people. I don't want to go to work and find out that the company is nearing bankruptcy. I don't want to go to work and hear Mr. Fujita and Mr. Morimoto fighting like squalling little children. I don't want to find out that our accountant has stolen company money and taken off to Thailand with the president's secretary (even though, with her, I'd think about doing that too!) 

Writer's rendition of the perfect sexy Japanese secretary

No. I don't want these interesting things happening to me. They can happen to other people. I don't care. But not to me. I want things to be boring and the same.


After work, I want to come home and eat dinner and relax. I don't want to head home and have the trains stop because of an accident due to someone committing suicide or a train crash. I don't want to come home and find out that the roof leaks, the car needs repair, people from the government tax office are coming over tomorrow, the neighbors are getting a divorce or that there was a fire down the street. 


Sometimes, after work, I want to go have drinks with my friends. I want to go to the restaurant and eat nice food and laugh. I don't want to see people fight or fall down in the road dead drunk (especially if it's me). I don't want to come home and wake up with food poisoning in the middle of the night or with a hellacious hangover the next day either. 

Crisis? What crisis?

I want to spend weekends with the kids and family, if I can. It's okay to work on weekends, we all gotta work, but I don't want to work all the time. I want to wake up early on Saturday, write some boring blog posts (like this one), take out the boring trash, cook some boring breakfast and then take the family to someplace boring that they will have fun at (and I will probably think is pretty boring)... Spending time with the family is not risky, scary or dangerous. It's not supposed to be. Nope. It's boring and relaxing. I want to do that every weekend. I want things to be boring and the same.  


I want to go on vacations with the wife and kids. I want the flights to be boring and safe and not to be hassled at the airport. I don't want the airport people asking me too many questions; I don't want too much turbulence on the flight; I don't want the plane to crash and I certainly don't want to be in the hotel when there is a fire. I want the swimming pool at the hotel to be clean and not too cold. I don't want anyone stealing our towels or breaking into our hotel room or my house back in Japan when I'm away. 


In many ways, I want things to be boring and the same. 


Now, with the economy going down the crapper and the European Union along with the Euro looking like it really is, finally, going to collapse, along with the US dollar; Japanese public debt at 229% of GDP... and just one year after the biggest earthquake in Japan's (the entire world's?) history, I don't want - I don't need - any more excitement or these sorts of "interesting" things happening in our lives...


I want to have a good job, a roof over our heads, warmth, security and clean food and water. I want to enjoy life and maybe have some fun along the way. 


I most certainly don't want anyone, smirking Chinese philosophers especially, saying to me, "May you live in interesting times." This year is shaping up to be enough "interesting" for a lifetime.


Today? Have a good day. Be kind to those along the way and smile. Hug your kids (or parents) and stay alert.


Tomorrow portends to be another interesting day. Have a great one!

LOUIS ARMSTRONG - WHEN YOU'RE SMILING

CBS News Reports that 1/4 of All American Children are in Poverty / Homeless

This is just devastating. What has the American empire brought upon the American people? 16 million children in poverty. Almost 25% homeless.


Not only have the cheerleaders for war and economic bailouts and thievery of the USA brought upon themselves a true hell, it's a hell that's not going to end anytime soon.


This is a gut wrenching video. How could this have happened to the richest country in the world? This just makes me cry. Those poor people!

The timing of this show just drops my jaw. I had just posted a few days ago about the rapid decline of the USA and how people were leaving. Please refer to: People Leaving the USA? The Trickle Becoming a Flood? It's Like 1939 Again.

You Might Lie about Mom or Dad Dying Too: Commentary on Old People Missing in Japan...

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


The big news in Japan is about the economy... Like Bill Clinton once said, "It's the economy, stupid!" He was right about that.


Forget about finding old people mummified in their homes in Japan. Undoubtably, when it comes to Japan news, everything revolves around money... Or does it? Or, are they so intertwined that we have to look beneath the surface to find the real story? I think we do. In fact, when it comes to missing elders and their children taking the pension checks, I think we definitely must.

This missing centenarians business is most definitely a scandal related to the economy. 


I think it is a direct result of decades of bad government policies; and so many pundits today seem to be missing the point on what exactly the problem is here in Japan.


The news reports that a huge group of people over 100-years-old are reported to be missing in Japan. This news came out after the fact when, upon searching for one particular elder citizen, Japanese government officials found his mummified remains in his house. It seems he had been dead for decades. His family hadn't reported his death and kept his remains in the house for years so that they could keep on collecting his elderly benefits package from the government.


The family is now in big trouble for cheating the government and fraud. Now, from this one incident, the government sloths have decided to get off their cushy sofas go out and see if there were more cases just like this. Well, SURPRISE! There are!


As Kyodo News reports:


KOBE, Aug. 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The Kobe municipal government said Tuesday that 105 centenarians registered as living in the city are unaccounted for, including a woman registered as Japan's oldest female aged 125.


The municipal government of the western Japan city said it has also been found that 22 other people aged at least 100 have not used nursing care insurance or the medical insurance system for the elderly aged 75 and over.


Local governments across the country are confirming the circumstances of centenarians registered in their jurisdiction following the discovery in late July of a mummified body, apparently of a man who was registered as being 111 years old.


This news has caused much consternation amongst Japanese government officials and residents of Japan too. It has also opened up, even more widely, the gap between those who criticize old people in Japan for relying on young people too much for their livelihood and vice versa; old people who criticize young people for not doing their share by contributing to the public pension system.


It has also brought out many pro-Japan and Japan-bashing proponents as proof of how good/bad Japan really is. 


I found one chat area where people were completely missing the point of this entire affair and using this episode as proof of how Japan is better off than the USA. One person pointed out that, while there were a few hundred (or maybe a few thousand) missing Japanese centenarians, the numbers of missing  in the USA annually is over 815,000 according to FBI figures with over 55,000 of those being children.


The poster wrote:


"...Of those 815,000, 85% are juveniles. Of the 55,000 missing children who weren't found last year, 6,000 will never be found....."


The people who are commenting on this case as a proof of how messed up Japan is or isn't (compared with the west) are way off course.


The problem here folks is not a problem of "Japan good" or "Japan bad" or "Japanese versus western mentality." The problem here is a question of financial survival and what would any person do regardless of nationality? (There is another, smaller, question here of government incompetency, but I think you'd have a very hard time proving, say, that the Japanese government is more, or less, incompetent than, say, the US government.)


The problem is most definitely a problem of financial survival and a problem of human nature. Let me prove it to you.


Think about this: How old are you? How many years older than you are your parents? My father is 28 years older than me. That means that when he is 100 years old, then I will be 72. This is an important point to remember: Today, people are already stretched and taxed to the limit. That check coming in every month could be the difference between dinner and starving. Every penny must be accounted for. There is no waste amongst most senior citizens... (You've seen them in the grocery store line counting out pennies...)


Who among us would have the courage to stop receiving those checks, especially if they were living day-to-day?


From where ever you live in the world, look around you, folks. How many people over 70 do you see living the high-life? Very few, I reckon. How about those over 80? 90? 


I think, if I were in their shoes, I might see that first check after dad died and think, "Well, just this once..." Then, as you can guess (and have probably experienced) "just once" turns into twice... Then three times... Then there's no turning back. Perhaps you could relate if I put it in this perspective:  It's probably just like having that one cigarette or one drink after a long abstinence; you think, "just this once" but it is never that way. 


To view the core of this problem, not only do we need to investigate human nature, we need to look at Japan's history over these last 30 years;.


The bursting of the bubble economy and easy money and credit policies of the Japanese government has greatly helped to cause this problem. Elder citizens whose retirement packages were soundly tied to the Nikkei in the 1980's saw their retirements and portfolios destroyed when the bubble burst. The Nikkei was at ¥38,915 on December 29, 1989. Today, August 12, 2010 it sits at ¥9,292 - a 78% drop!


This 78% drop destroyed the retirement savings of millions of Japanese... And it continues to this very day with Japanese government policies of easy credit and cash expansion. And it is not going to get any better in the near future. Why, just the other day, figures came out that showed 15.7% of the Japanese public lived below the poverty line.


No, this problem of disappearing centenarians and their families keeping their mouths shut and taking the money is not a problem of just the Japanese. It is a humanistic problem. This sort of problem transcends cultural boundaries. People anywhere in the world, of any creed or color would do the same for the sake of their families' survival.


Get that last point? For the sake of their own or their families' survival.


Government policies created an entitlement and welfare state that cannot be economically supported, then government policies working to prop up an unsupportable system, instead worked to destroy a sound economy. The welfare state was responsible for destroying the family system so that, when grandpa does die, grandson is not around to take care of family matters... Who thinks the average 85-year-old can take care of themselves let alone funeral arrangements, calling friends (if those friends are even still alive!), daily chores, etc... (But this is an article for another day...)


The people have no jobs, they are taxed to death; they are at the ends of their ropes.


Is there anyone amongst us who, if in dire financial straits, would have the courage to tell the truth to the government that "dad died and we do not need any more money"?


Why? After the hell of the 1940's & 1950's.... After the promise of Japan's "Economic Miracle"... after our retirement's were guaranteed?... After Japanese government policies destroyed the stock market and our retirement packages and gave us these last 30 years of economic slump? 


If I were over 70 and depending on that pension check for dad for my survival, I might deeply consider not telling anyone that dad died in order to keep receiving that check...


I mean, if they catch me, what are they going to do to me? Put me in jail?


Jail? Great! A place to sleep, no taxes and three square meals a day!   


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Keywords: centenarian, economy, pension, pension check, survival, poverty