This post definitely needs a demented soundtrack. Click on the video then start reading.
Today is September 11 in Japan. It is the 10th in the USA. Tomorrow is 9/11 for the States. This just in from my friend Steve in the USA about the glorification of the state ritual that this day has come to represent:
Mike,
I made what turned out to be a very quick trip to the food store this morning. It’s a chore that I usually do on Sunday’s, but I really don’t even want to be out on 9/11 so went this morning (Saturday).
It’s too late. An orgy of nationalist displays is already everywhere.
I passed house after house with their American flags and ‘Remember 911’ signs proudly displayed. I drove past the public high school and it had a huge American flag surrounded by what must be thousands of small American flags displayed on the taxpayer paid for school grounds out front. REMEMBER 911 !!!
When I got to the food store they played nationalist songs one after the other over their public address system. God Bless America - America the Beautiful – The Star Spangled Banner – etc, etc, ad nauseam…
Thus my regular weekly visit to the food store was a very short one this week. Milk – bread – eggs and out.
I expect it’s going to be even worse tomorrow. It makes me thankful that I don’t have (or want) a TV. Just the short trip to the food store today made me ill. It was enough to turn the stomach of a goat – and they can eat anything…
Actually the whole trip was kind of bizarre. It was like traveling back in Mr. Peabody’s ‘Way-Back Machine’ to Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s. It reminded me of those old news reels that you see of the endless fields of Nazi flags that were just as proudly displayed by the same cheering and state worshiping mindless masses of Germany. Their rabid patriotism (nationalism) was pretty much the same as America’s patriotism and the even worse ‘super patriotism’ today.
Completing the other half of the Nazi program – socialism – most Americans probably think that they are not socialists, but if you even suggest abolishing social security (one of the cornerstones of socialism) they will reveal their actual beliefs – even if they refuse to admit them to themselves. Ask again about Medicare and Medicaid and they will confirm their commitment to socialism.
And so history repeats itself. The new national socialists (Nazi’s) seem to be everywhere.
Instead of the anti flag burning amendment that those ‘Super Patriots’ are always whining and crying about perhaps we should pass an amendment to change the existing American flag to something that more accurately displays who we are as a people today. To this end I suggest that we simply replace the 50 white stars with 50 white swastikas. Although I agree that the very thought is disgusting, at least it would be an honest representation.
This whole nationalist – patriot – super patriot – fanatical worship of the state is beyond immature. It goes deep into an area that can only be described as ‘infantile.’
We so need Ron Paul and more like him or these new USA Nazi’s will destroy all that was once good about America.
We want our country, our freedoms, and our liberty back!
doG help us if Boobus-Americanus doesn’t awaken – and soon…
- Steve Candidus
The author, Steve Candidus, can be reached at: poots2@sbcglobal.net. Comments very welcomed.
NOTE: Let me take this opportunity to endorse and come out completely in favor of candidate Ron Paul for president of the United States (which shouldn't surprise anyone who has followed my writings since 2004, beginning at Lew Rockwell). I believe that Mr. Candidus is correct: the USA is doomed to failure if the current political paradigm is not changed soon. There is no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in the USA today.
The last chance for the United States is Ron Paul. End the wars. End the US empire.
The two who want to protect the Constitution are, obviously, 100% correct. It is ridiculous that people are even discussing this subject. The problem with the entire thing is that Americans are so stubborn, ill informed and obstinate, that they can't shut up for more than a few seconds and listen to someone else's opinions.
Watch this and see why I hate TV (especially American TV so much). After watching this, realize that most Americans abuse themselves with this nonsense and so they begin to think that this behavior is normal.
Judging from my Facebook and Twitter accounts I can say that I must be one of the most popular people in the entire world. I have a massive amount of "friends" and "followers" (note religious connotations) and believe that I must be more popular than 97.4% of all people reading this blog right now. Bwa! Ha! Ha! Ha! Someday I will rule the world!
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
Yeah! I've made the big time! I have almost 1,000 friends on Facebook (OK, only 850 or so, but who's counting?) and over 1,000 friends on Twitter. Woo-hoo!
But, gee, I sometimes really wonder who these people are. I also wonder how many of those people I have actually met in person in my life? Also, I wonder how they got my Facebook address... Surely we must be friends. Facebook says so. Of that 800 or so, I reckon I must have met at least 500 of them, right? No? 400? 250? 50?
Would you believe, two of them and their vicious canine walking in the neighborhood?
I have a very hard time with people's names. I've always had a hard time remembering names all my life. I think most people do. But it is especially difficult for westerners in Japan (and China, Korea, etc.) It's really difficult especially for people like me because of my work; because I meet lots and lots of people. I might go to a meeting at some company and there will usually be me and I'll be introduced to 13 Japanese staff at these meetings. After the meetings, I won't remember anyone's name excepting the pretty girls - and I even have a hard time with that.
The introductions will go something like this: I'll meet my contact. He'll take me into a meeting room and there will be 13 Japanese people there waiting for me. They will all stand up and get in a line to give me their business cards. My contact will say,
"Mike-san, this is Mr. Yamada....Mr. Yamamoto... Ms. Sugimoto... Mr. Sugimura.... Ms. Murakami... Mr. Kamimura....Ms. Kawamura....Ms. Yamamura...Mr. Muraoka.... Ms. Sugiura... Mr. Tanaka....Ms. Takasugi...." and, of course, there will also be a token Suzuki or Kobayashi thrown in there....
(I think it is a Japanese law or something that every company must hire at least 10% of their staff being people with names like Suzuki or Kobayashi...)
After getting all these people's names cards and bowing my head, I will sit down and, being none for the better, will have remembered not one single person's name excepting: "Mike."
It's like those paintings of Jesus at the last supper. You know the name of the guy in the middle but no one knows the names of the other 12 dudes.
Author's rendition of the Last Business Meeting at
Japanese Company. That's me in the middle.
It's kind of like my Facebook or Twitter accounts. Who are these people?
Fact of the matter is that I'm having a hard time dealing with Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter and a group discount coupon service that is local here in Japan called Pompare.
You might wonder why I join things like Facebook and Twitter. Well, my lame excuse is that because I work in marketing and the Internet business, I have to know what I'm talking about, so I joined these services. It's a sort of study. I need to know what they are all about and how to use them. I always bend the rules and see how far I can go before the suspend my account. Facebook has suspended me twice. Twitter hasn't suspended me ever (but that's OK as Twitter service is down and often unreliable anyway!) But I often find myself wondering why I even bother.
From using these services, I often wonder what the reason is that many others joined too. Excepting that they are more interesting than TV... But that's nothing to brag about. I can get more entertainment out of a piece of bread and my toaster oven in one evening than I can get out of watching TV.
But, as usual, I digress...
First let me tell you about Pompare. Pompare is a crappy SPAM mailing system kind of like Groupon. Their business model revolves around sendng people SPAM in the hopes that they buy something. I think SPAM is a crappy way to do business and it shows with Groupon but at least Pompare has a portal where people can gather. That's why they will blow away Groupon in this country and why they aren't quite as bad as Groupon, but they still are a bit sucky.
They seem to be trying very hard to irritate me.
Pompare, the group discount coupon service isn't really all that much trouble, I suppose. The problem is that no matter how many times I try to quit, they keep sending me emails. I've cancelled my membership now three times, but got another mail from them this morning.
Then there's Twitter. Why do people do Twitter? I think lots of people use Twitter like I do. I use Twitter to send out notices of original content and notices about stuff I've written at Lew Rockwell or this blog, or, perhaps for events. I see other people using Twitter to sell stuff and other junk.
I think a lot of people use Twitter and send out Tweets but does anyone really read Twitter? I doubt it. I also wonder what the value is of having, say, 35,000 people you follow and 35,003 people following you. It certainly cannot be a proof of popularity (especially since there's ads all over the place selling, "1000 Twitter followers for $14!" and things like that). Also, I mean, jeez, how could anyone be reading the Tweets of the 35,000 people that they are following? I can't even keep up on answering the emails from the 4 or 5 people who write to me everyday...
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW
Here is my Top Ten referring sites to this blog.
Do you see Twitter? Nope. Neither do I.
Maybe I don't understand how this works? Help!
To make it clear, I believe many people use Twitter to send out messages and sell and promote, but I don't think very many actually take time to read Twitter. If people want to waste their time and read junk, then they'll use Facebook (actually, in Japan, Facebook is an "also ran". The most popular of those sites in Japan are, Mixi, Gree, Mobage Town, etc.)
Facebook also makes me scratch my head for many reasons. One, far too many people use Facebook far to often to link to some news article or editorial that they read on some other site. They don't link to some original content that they created or even pictures of them and their kid at a picnic or something. Why do they do that? I don't know. Can people's lives be so boring that they have nothing to write about? Since when was Facebook designed to use as a news aggregate site?
I use Facebook exactly like I use Twitter: To promote and draw readers to my useless blog. That's it. I don't want people knowing about my private life. I don't want to send people pictures of my son and me eating food at some festival in Japan. I only have only a handful of real friends in my life and that's it. I don't know where in the world all these people came from who are my "friends" on Facebook.
Maybe it was because of my job. When you work in the mass media and you intentionally work to build a cult of personality for yourself and your show and the members of your team and you want to "sell" and "promote" then, when you get requests from people to become "friends" then I have a hard time saying "No!" So, I always accept; it's just easier that way and I don't want to offend anyone....
But darned if almost every time I want to "add friend" (those few times) I get a message that says, "Do you know this user personally?" I even get these messages when I am recommended by someone who is my friend to become friends with that person.
This happens all the time. What's the point? If the receiver
doesn't want to "friend" me, then they deny or cancel, right?
Though, I must say, that the friend requests from girls who pose in their avatars showing lots of cleavage that look like they are selling prostitution services, well I always ignore them (of course, though, after checking their page!) I mean, what's the use in being a friend of a prostitute on Facebook fer chrissakes? I can understand being the friend of a prostitute in real life but in virtual world? I don't get it! Talk about blue balls!
So, now, if you look at my Facebook and Twitter, it looks like I am an extremely popular guy. Heck, I even have friends in Columbia and Brazil and the closest I've ever been to those places was Tijuana Mexico or the San Diego Zoo. I think I met a guy from Brazil once but he was a world famous soccer star named Zico or Rico or something like that so I doubt that he'd send me a Facebook friend request. (Heck, most soccer stars are too illiterate to even know how to use a keyboard or do the alphabet for that matter.)
I laugh when I see where on Facebook it says something like "you and so-and-so have ... mutual friends" and it shows a number. I think it should be more specific. It should be "mutual friends" and "real friends." It should say that "you and so-and-so have ... actual friends." And there would be a drop-down tab that would scroll up to five people in total and that would be it.
True friends will drop anything and travel to your side if you were in trouble and in need of help. Ninety-nine percent of all "friends" on Facebook, well on my Facebook at least, I don't ever recall meeting. You can bet that if you see someone's Facebook and it is like mine with several hundred friends, that we haven't met even a fraction of them and, if we walked past them on the street, or they us, we wouldn't recognize each other in a million years.
Facebook should have different categories: "Real Friends" (up to 5 ~10), "Friends" (maybe 20 or so), "Acquaintances" (maybe a few hundred), "People living on the same planet as you" (That would engulf 97.8% of all Facebook's current "Friends" category).
I'm looking forward to the day when I can have my very own Facebook where no one can find me and I am the only one who can invite people into my own little world. I'd have about 4 or 5 dear friends and we can communicate heart to heart... Oh, wait a minute, we do have that. It's called email, the postal service or, even, that high tech wizardry know as a telephone.
I'm wondering what is the purpose of this narcissistic Facebook type of nonsense that brags to the world look at me! I'm somebody! I have hundreds of friends!...
...Of which, 90% of those I don't ever remember meeting...
I am somebody. You are too. 100 ~ 5000 Friends on Facebook (the limit) means nothing. I'd rather have a core of 5 good friends who I can depend on in my life than 500,000 people whose faces I don't even recognize or they, me.
Instead of getting 100 virtual friends, get out of the house and try to make one real friend. Life is more important than sitting in front of a screen be it a TV screen or computer screen.
One might think that the title of this post to be the script for some outrageous movie plot ala Rocky Horror Picture Show or even some modern day Japanese Horror Splatter film. But it is not. This is a story about a very sick ethnocentric and very narcissist society.
Oh, how things have changed in the USA, and most assuredly not for the better. (Be prepared, for this is, once again, a strong critique of my native country. If you don't want to read more of my reasoning why the USA has gone stark raving mad, then stop reading right now.)
I went to Jr. high school and high school in a town on the west coast. I suppose we were the typical schools with typical school problems. As a junior high school student, I spent most of my time trying to avoid getting beat up by the jock meathead white kids and the Mexican kids.
The white kids generally left me alone because they thought I was white. The Hispanics usually left me alone because they thought I was half-Mexican. I allowed them all to think whatever they wanted as long as it allowed me not to have a bloody nose, bashed up head or ripped shirt.
I can say that my strategy worked, for the most part, pretty well, throughout my school years. I don't recall ever having my a*s used as a soccer ball.
The first day, while sitting in front of the TV and watching the local news with my dad, I struggled to keep my eyes open (it wasn't just jet-lag either)... Suddenly, the news caster came on and scowled. He proclaimed, "The trial of the murder of a transsexual Jr. high school student in Oxnard that has captured the attention of the entire world... Up next!"
On to a commercial about some processed foods that make American kids fat and unhealthy.
I sat up. Did I just hear what I thought I heard? I asked my dad. He concurred. "Transvestite jr. high school student? Murder? Captured the world? What!?"
I complained. I said to my dad, "This country has gone nuts. Besides that, people in this country are so ethno-centric that they think the entire world revolves around what is going on in West Los Angeles. Well, I work in the news in Japan and I have never heard of this story before. So trust that no one else has either. And I certainly doubt that most people around the world have (as if, for example, brown-skinned men, women and children in the middle east who have the USA and her NATO allies bombing their houses and killing their brothers and sisters 24/7 don't already have enough to worry about and would actually care (or even comprehend) a story about some kid shooting another kid who dresses like a woman in a city called Oxnard of all places! Absurd!)
CHATSWORTH, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell has declared a mistrial in the Brandon McInerney murder case.
The jury was unable to reach consensus despite Campbell ordering the panel to reconvene.
McInerney was being tried for murder with a hate-crime enhancement in the shooting death of classmate Lawrence King in 2008.
McInerney, then 14, shot King twice in the back of the head in a classroom at E.O. Green Junior High School.
The prosecution alleged McInerney had planned to shoot King over unwanted sexual advances, and said that McInerney had white-supremacist leanings.
The defense contended McInerney had a violent upbringing in a rough household and that he snapped when King, who was gay, made repeated comments to McInerney.
McInerney, now 17, was tried as an adult.
The nine-woman, three-man jury panel said the last vote resulted in seven in favor of voluntary manslaughter and five for first- or second-degree murder.
The trial was moved to Los Angeles County due to media coverage.
At 15, Lawrence King was small—5 feet 1 inch—but very hard to miss. In January, he started to show up for class at Oxnard, Calif.'s E. O. Green Junior High School decked out in women's accessories. On some days, he would slick up his curly hair in a Prince-like bouffant. Sometimes he'd paint his fingernails hot pink and dab glitter or white foundation on his cheeks. "He wore makeup better than I did," says Marissa Moreno, 13, one of his classmates. He bought a pair of stilettos at Target, and he couldn't have been prouder if he had on a varsity football jersey. He thought nothing of chasing the boys around the school in them, teetering as he ran.
Intelligent commentators about this story should have a problem knowing where to even begin; Hate crime? White-supremacist leanings? 15-year-old showing up for school in women's accessories? 15-year-old gay? Murder? Junior High School!?
Read that last one again: Junior High School!?
SEX PISTOLS - NO FEELINGS
I seen you in the mirror when the story began and I fell in love with you, I love yer mortal sin Your brains are locked away, but I love your company I only ever leave you when you got no money I got no emotions for anybody else, you better understand I'm in love with myself, myself my beautiful self I've got no feelings, no feelings, I've got no feelings for anybody else except for myself
The day after seeing this story for the first time, some of the kind nurses came over to attend to my father. Once again, the TV was on. Once again, this news story aired.
My father said something stupid like, "They ought to let that kid go! He was teased by the transvestite."
The lady he lives with made some sort of remark about how he is a murderer and must pay.
I tried to hide my face as I rolled my eyes. It reminded me of the great writer Thomas Pynchon's quote from Gravity's Rainbow: "Get people asking the wrong questions and you don't have to worry about the answers."
The chief nurse, who is married to a Japanese American looked at me and asked me what I thought of all this.
I hesitated to answer. It's been my experience that, nowadays, it is very difficult to deal with most Americans and it is often best to keep one's opinions to one's self. Not all, but many of today's Americans are quite the opinionated group, especially on subjects they know little about.
Confucius say: "Never argue with a fool, he may be doing the same thing." And, "The only person to argue with a fool is a bigger fool." I try to, as much as I can, keep my mouth shut. It usually makes me the most intelligent person in the room. Please refer to the Value of Silence at Meetings.
But, once again, I digress.
The nurse asked me again. I did something stupid. I opened my mouth. I said my opinion. Here's what it was concerning this mess:
1) Whether or not this boy should be guilty or innocent is, I think, looking at the symptoms of the problem and not the cause of the problem itself. I cannot comment on this one particular case. I do believe that this is a microcosm of a bigger problem. And that problem is that the USA today has become a sick society full of sick people because of big government policies that have eroded societies' morals and the family structure. It's amazing how bad things have gotten in the 27 years I've been gone.
Years of government programs that put people on the dole have created an entitlement society whereby people all think they deserve something for nothing. Nobody deserves anything and life owes no one anything. Yet, these social welfare plans have destroyed the family system. We have little crime in Japan for many reasons, but one big one is that, in many houses, the grandparents still live with their children and those children's children. How many households in the USA still have three generations living together in them and learning about responsibility and caring for each other?
2) This has lead to a situation in the USA where people are not wont to examine their own shortcomings and failures and are always interested in other people's problems and worries. Anyone can watch TV here for one minute and see that. People in the USA should take a cue from Japan and mind their own business.
3) On that note, what difference does it make to you or me whether or not Johnny and Ronnie want to get married? Who cares? It's not your business or mine if two men or women want to marry. It most certainly is not the business of the government to make laws concerning such either. Are people happy paying such high taxes so that these clowns in government can spend their time legislating what kind of behavior goes on in someones house?
And that goes for many other things too. Take abortion, for example; if some woman wants to get an abortion (I like to think no one wants to get an abortion, but some feel a need too) then what business is that of yours and mine? It's none of our business and none of he business of the central government either. An abortion is the business of that woman and her god and, hopefully, her husband or boyfriend.
Items 1, 2 and 3, above (among other things) have all contributed to make this country a politically correct nightmare that has no common sense and no basis in reality. That brings me to number...
My local friends in the area tell me that there are dress codes, but when it comes to sexuality or morality, school officials are afraid to enforce. Never mind the problems when kids insult the our political leader. In that case, school officials know they won't get sued as America in 2011 is a fascist dream come true.
But a guy dressing like that character named Klinger (the transvestite played by Jamie Farr) in the TV show MASH? No way. He is untouchable. We wouldn't want to hurt any one's sensibilities, you know.
I could go on and on about what I see are the problems. But I won't. I won't because it doesn't matter. For America in 2011, the debate is not heard, nor is it even desired.
The people are running around confused and wondering, "What's happened to our beautiful country?" The power's that be are satisfied with the situation as it is. When the people spend their time debating the wrong issues and asking the wrong questions, then, you can be sure, that the people will always be getting the wrong answers. And that's, in a nutshell, what's wrong with America today.
Finally allow me to show off my skills as a poet with this rendition of an old English favorite about the Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers, who is rumored to have highly suspect morals. I have updated it for today's modern American society. Enjoy!:
George Porgie USA (Version 2011)
George Porgie pudding and pie,
Kissed the boys and made them cry,
When the boy came back next day,
George Porgie had two bullet holes in the back of his head
---------------------------------
UPDATE: Like I said, this entire episode reminds me of some insane horror movie. I have told several Japanese people about this incident and they were all incredulous. I mean, really, in any sane society, people wouldn't believe it. Some of my Japanese friends didn't want to believe it, but they know I wouldn't lie to them.
The problem is that it is real and people in the USA are living it.
---------------------------------
NOTES: In Japan, a story like this, might only be a movie like this one. This is a gory splatter film entitled Vampire Girl versus Frankenstein Girl. Heck, it's a Saturday morning and don't really want to leave you all feeling like a bummer so here's something that might digust you or make you chuckle. Anyway, I think it will make an impression.
At first, it might be disgusting and disturbing to watch but if you can stand it, watch for a moment and you'll realize how ridiculous this is (kind of like Monty Python). The first time, this made me feel ill. Now, when I watch this, I laugh:
This film is definitely worth a few laughs and the main actress, Yukie Kawamura is a goddess. Here's a cheesecake photo for you guys!
Wow! Yukie Kawamura! I'm in love (for the first time this week!)
Here's another trailer. Pretty funny stuff (cool music too!):
There's not a foreigner in this country who won't tell you that Japan is a very weird place. When I say that, I mean it in a good way. The other foreigners you talk to may not. Japan is just, well... Japan. That's the best explanation I can come up with. Things happen in Japan that just would never happen in a million years in another country. That's just the way it is. Here's an example of something weird that happened to me. Just one of a very many.... But, first, some background; in the late 70's and early 80's, I was in a one-hit wonder punk bank and then ran one of the first punk underground "zines" back in those days. Underground free papers were quite the rarity at that time. But we made one. It was called, "Sixty Miles North." I won't embarrass myself by telling you the name of my band.
June 27, 1984 Sixty Miles North. Yours truly on the cover.
Sixty Miles North was pretty popular at that time and there's even a webpage for it with someone selling back issues fer chrissakes! Anyway, we used to distribute these magazines at record stores, etc. back in those days. One particularly well-known record store chain was owned by a now multi-millionaire guy by the name of Jim Salzer. One day, when I went to his then tiny record store, I took magazines and asked him if he'd put them on the racks and give them away for me. He eagerly agreed and thought the magazine was extremely cool. I was happy. I think that one time was one of the few times I had ever met him in the USA and I had only ever met him when he was at his shop. Keep in mind that this was a suburban area and not a big city. Fast forward several months. I moved out of the USA and left the magazine for my useless friends to run into bankruptcy, which they did. Soon. I was then living and working in Japan. My very first job in Japan found me working in Shinjuku in Tokyo. One of the biggest cities and most crowded places in the world. On my very first day of work, my new friend Stephen asked me to go have dinner with him at a KFC near the station. Even though I generally hate KFC, I said "OK" as I didn't know any good places to eat; I had no friends (Stephen was my first) and I had only been in Japan for one week. I also didn't have a clue as to where I was (really) or where to go. So we go to this KFC at the west exit of Shinjuku station and are standing on the street eating chicken. There's a million and a half people milling around us. A guy walks up to me and says, "Mike! Mike! There you are!" At first, I didn't recognize him... It was Jim Salzer. Jim Salzer in Japan, no less, and he doesn't seem the least bit surprised to see me. My jaw drops. WTF!? I've never met him randomly on the street in my own hometown and I had lived there for over 15 years. Here I am in Japan for a week and he walks right up to me like it's no big deal. Jim realized the shock on my face and said, "Mike! Mike! Don't you recognize me? It's me, Jim!" I snapped out of it. "Oh? Er, sure! Jim? Jim Salzer! Hi. How are you?" Jim said, "I'd been wondering where you went to..." He then slapped my back and said, "Say, Mike, I'd love to talk, but I'm late. Where the heck is the train station?" I didn't know either but my friend pointed him in the right direction and off he went as if there wasn't anything the least bit unusual like this sort of chance encounter. Here I am in one of the most crowded places in the world and, by pure coincidence, I meet an aquaintance from back home that I had never met by chance on the street there (and even at that I had only met him three or four times!)... There's 60 million people in this town and he walks right up to me! And he acts like it's no big deal... Just like meeting a co-worker at the water cooler at the office! I am still amazed about it. I wish I had a picture to prove it. Like I said, the weirdest sh*t happens in Japan. My friend George Williams agrees with me, "You can meet people in Japan that you'd never ever meet in a hundred lifetimes in the west. Hell, in the west, you couldn't get within 5000 meters (yards) of these people. But in Japan, you can meet them walking along on the street!" It's true. I've met Eric Clapton twice walking along a street in Harajuku. At first I thought he was some scraggly-looking dumpy foreigner just hanging around looking for a job.... That's probably what everyone else thought too! My friend George even has a cool photo of the time he met Jimmy Page when Jimmy came to Japan in the 1980's! George is standing there next to Jimmy looking like he's standing next to his mom or something. It's pretty cool... I mean, if you like Led Zeppelin... Now, let me drop some names. Since I've been in Japan, I've met many extremely famous people, multi-millionaires and world famous politicians... Just to name a few... I've met Richard Branson, George H. W. Bush (Daddy Bush), Yoko Ono, Elvis Costello, Siouxsie Sioux (not well known by most, but I am a big fan), at least 7 Japanese Prime Ministers and a bunch of other countries prime ministers - so many - that I can't remember. Along with the some many others that I've met who I can't remember either. Of course my job makes a big difference, but meeting guys like Richard Branson or these prime ministers and George Bush had nothing to do with my radio & TV work. In fact, meeting George H. W. Bush had nothing to do with radio but everything to do with... Amway. You can read that true story here.
With Yoko Ono
I'm not in this photo with Siouxsie Sioux (her former hubby, Budgie next to her) but I took the photo. You get to see
how hot my wife was just when we married (though why she married me is anyone's guess). At right, front, is George Williams.
Former prime minister Yoshiro Mori (I think I'm going to
start a collection of prime ministers I've taken photos with).
George H. W. Bush at an Amway convention. Don't believe me?
Menudo in 1984. I'm wearing the white shirt. See the kid in blue in front second from left? That's
Ricky Martin at about age 10. No kidding!
Some wankers in a crap band named Linkin Park.
Elvis Costello is a very nice guy.
Anyhow, I hope it doesn't seem like I am bragging (well, I am kind of... Now that I look at all these pictures)... The real point is that, in Japan, the weirdest things happen. I have hundreds more photos to prove it too! I have photos with lots of movie-types like Arnie Schwarneggar, but can't be bothered to find them... Last night I met one of the most famous Korean singers in all of Asia and one of my other blogger friends wrote about his hospital stay and the doctor smoking cigarettes (Hey! Do we have the same doctor? Wow! Small world, eh?) So that inspired me. Have a good day... Oh, and don't forget to always have a camera! You never know who is going to walk up to you and ask directions.
Disasters happen all the time. No one likes disasters, even the little ones we joke about in our daily lives, like spilled coffee. Natural disasters cannot be prevented. Personal and business ones often can.
JOHNNY NASH - I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
Of course many disasters may hit us unexpectedly, these we must use our wits to react to positively. A negative or defeatist attitude to any sort of disaster will only make things worse. For example, you are diagnosed with a disease like cancer. What do you do? Do you take the defeatist attitude and worry and fear for your life? Or do you take this as just one more challenge, like all the rest, to be overcome?
Everyone knows what will happen to you if you fear and worry. Everyone knows of the "Self-fulfilling prophecy."
The self-fulling prophecy works both ways too. It can be a terrible result or a positive result. You are the one who controls what the prophesy is about.
If you are stuck by disaster, then the best thing to do is to start training your mind for positivity. A sick or depressed mind will yield sick or depressed results. A positive mind will yield positive results. Is there anyone who can deny this?
Two people have so-called terminal cancer. The first person is devastated and becomes clinically depressed. The second person accepts the condition and takes a positive attitude and decides that they will recover.
Which person do you think will have the best chances of a full recovery? Why is it that some people recover and others don't?
Great things and great ideas and conditions are borne out of positive thinking and cleanliness. Good and great things are not borne out of fear, depression or darkness. Depression and fear can only result in negative outcomes.
Besides positive reactions to disasters, often times many disasters can be prevented! Really! Preparation and thought can often prevent disasters or, at least, mitigate their damage, especially when it comes to business and personal affairs.
Once again, a positive attitude comes into play.
If you have that important meeting and, before that meeting, you worry and consistently run over and over in your mind the possible negative results, or the worst-case scenario, then you will probably create a self-fulfilling prophesy; You most likely will create that worst case outcome. But, if you use your mind to run over positive results, through positive mental imaging, then your chances of getting those positive results increases exponentially.
We cannot prevent natural disasters. We can only dampen or moderate their damage through preparation and forethought and a positive attitude.
Personal and business disasters are much easier to control as we can often prevent them from happening through mental imaging of positive outcomes and considerate forethought. We must work proactively instead of reactively to problems before they happen.
If you practice positive imaging before an important meeting, imagining a positive outcome, instead of fearing the worst, you can create your own reality. You can create that positive outcome that you so desire.
A positive attitude is everything. Preparation and forethought are priceless forms of insurance. Don't wait for others to bring you good news or positivity, bring it to them first.
Always spread the light to others first and, by doing so, you bring the light to you.
Remember: You spread the light; you win.
You can do it today and everyday. It is just the flick of a switch from "on" to "off" and from "positive" to "negative." They are all, after all, two different sides of the same coin.
It's up to you to decide which face of that coin is "up."
