TOO MUCH! even for the Donald

From Breitbart News. Walt sez: Oh c'mon Chief! You weren't even born then. She wasn't even born then! Neither was she! And Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae is conservative, pro-American, and an all-round good person to have on our side. Don't be making jokes that are actually insults. Show a little class!

Meanwhile, a conservative woman becomes Prime Minister of Japan

We were so preoccupied with predicting the rise to power of the hard right in Europe that we nearly missed the game-changing election in Japan, where Sanae Takaichi, a hard right conservative, defeated four other colleagues to become leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Thus she is set to become Japan's first female prime minister when the Diet meets to elect a new one.

Ms Takaichi's vision of a staunchly conservative party prevailed over the calls of outgoing PM Shinjiro Koizumi for an inclusive approach. Her election as leader marks a triumph for the LDP's conservative wing. Her liberal critics are wringing their hands about the party's abrupt turn to the right, putting it down to "the Trump effect".

Viewed from our corner of the global forest, it's yet another sign of the trend in Western countries -- that includes Japan -- towards nationalistic, culture-warrior politics.

Ms Takaichi entered  the Japanese parliament in 1993, eventually serving atop the communications ministry and, most recently, as minister for economic security. Her election, however, is hardly a triumph for feminism or the idea of "gender equity".

A staunch social conservative, she opposes giving married couples the legal right to keep separate surnames or allowing female succession in the imperial line. Her political role model is Britain's "Iron Lady", Margaret Thatcher.

But her true mentor was the late prime minister Shinzo Abe, to whose policy agenda Ms Takaichi's bears strong similarities. She declares that "Japan is back!", favours stronger Japanese armed forces, and wants to complete Mr Abe's mission to revise the constitution imposed on Japan by America at the end of WWII.

Ms Takaichi also shares her mentor's revisionist views on Japan’s wartime history. She wants to make the LDP a party "that promotes pride in [Japan’s] traditions and history." She has been a regular visitor to the Yasukuni Shrine, which houses the spirits of Japan’s war dead, including war criminals. If she goes as prime minister, during the shrine's fall festival which begins on October 17th, she will be the first Japanese leader to do so in more than a decade.

President Trump is expected to visit Tokyo on October 27th. Ms Takaishi, considers the alliance with the US of A the cornerstone of Japan's security. She will probably try to strengthen ties with Mr Trump through their shared friendship with Mr Abe. Whether she will attempt to modify the latest trade agreement between the two countries is an open question, given that Ms Takaishi, has an expansionist economic agenda.

The selection of Ms Takaishi comes amidst growing populist sentiment in Japan, a country in which (unlike many Western countries) tradition is still respected and valued. Some upstart populist parties that have made inroads in recent elections. By choosing Ms Takaichi, the LDP is signalling an intention to win back right-wing voters who abandoned in favour of some who have played to increasing resentment over a growing number of foreign workers and tourists. 

Ms Takaichi clearly understands popular sentiment. In her victory speech she vowed to "work, work, work" to rebuild the country and revive her country. She didn't say "Make Japan great again"... but she didn't need to.

"Olympig", mascot forTokyo Olympics?

Hey, sports fans! Our National Sport (Especially Hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, reminds us that the Tokyo Olympics are coming up. We're talking Summer Olympics here, not to be confused with the Winter Olympics, which will be held in the Peaceful and Democratic Republic of China. Or not.

The Olympic Games are a celebration of sports, athleticism and general fitness. So you'd expect that the people selected to appear in visuals promoting the games would be, errr... how to say this... somewhat more svelte than Naomi Watanable, seen here holding a sign encouraging people to book their tickets now, to avoid disappointment.

Ms Watanabe is a Japanese comedienne who might be described as "plus-sized" or "BBW" or "the kind of girl you could put your arms around... and around... and around..."

Those weren't the words used by Sasaki Hiroshi, the creative director for the event, who announced he would resign after suggesting Ms Watanabe (or at least her character) should be called the "Olympig".

According to the English-language Japan Times, Mr Hiroshi made the politically incorrect remark during a meeting with staff last yeare, floating the idea of Ms Watanabe, descending from the sky during the opening ceremonies, dressed in a "cute pink" costume, complete with pig ears.

Ms Watanabe didn't think much of the idea. She is known for her "body positivity" (read: "fat is fine") advocacy work. According to the BBC, "in recent years she has spearheaded a body positive movement called 'pochakawaii', which translates to 'chubby and cute'." In a statement released yesterday by her agent, the chubby and cute comedienne said she hopes "for a fun, more harmonious world in which we can all respect each other and our unique ways of thinking."

Japan has one of the thinnest of all the world's populations, with only about 20% percent of its women considered overweight and only 3.2% classified as obese. (Those, of course, are round figures.) Japan has government ordinances that require nutrition and exercise counselling for people whose waist size exceeds certain limits. All the same, there is a small (???) but passionate fat-acceptance movement. Ah, those inscrutable Orientals.

VIDEO: Trump is still POTUS! Happy MAGA Day!

Walt and Ed. and even Poor Len Canayen wish all our readers
HAPPY MAGA DAY!

To all these anti-Trumpers (but especially the CBC's Keith Boag, MSNBC's Rachel Madcow and the wimmin at The View)... Donald Trump is still POTUS!



A year has passsed, and the gliberals, the chattering classes and the lamestream meeja are still in denial. They're still pissing and moaning, but they can't change that fact. Nor can all their talk of impeachment change the fact that Mr Trump will remain in the White House until January of 2021, and perhaps for another four years after that!

Not that the Trump-haters aren't trying to bring his administration to a premature end. The (((liberal media))) are still churning out the fake news, counting what they say are lies and pointing the finger of scorn at the President's supposed gaffes. The latest example of their anti-Trump hysteria is the Great Koi Feeding Scandal, which turned out to be nothing of the sort.

You've probably seen the video of President Trump dumping a large quantity of fish food into a pool full of loi -- the huge goldfish beloved of east Asians -- while on a state visit to Japan. In a headline since taken down, the British newspaper The Independent raged "Trump tramples Japanese koi carp ritual". We all know you're supposed to feed goldfish slowly, and only a little bit, right? Otherwise you'll find them belly up in the water the next morning. So what POTUS did was supposed to show his disregard for the fish, the environment, and Japanese customs.

The only problem is, he was only following the lead of his host, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had done the same thing only moments before. The whole thing was just a case of two world leaders doing a boring photo op. How did it become such a big, anti-Trump deal on all the lamestream networks? Because the so-called "journalists" and their (((masters))) wanted it so. Mr Trump may be... hell, he is the President of the USA, but the media bias against him is just as strong or stronger than it was a year ago.

The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust is in crisis around the world. People's trust in all four key institutions -- business, government, NGOs, and media -- has declined broadly, and rightly so. People no longer believe that the "system" is working for them. Their societal and economic concerns -- globalization, the pace of innovation, immigration and eroding social values -- have become fears, spurring the rise of populism now playing out in the USA and other Western democracies. It's that lack of trust that doomed Hellery Clinton's campaign and got The Donald elected!

Further reading: "Cry, Losers, Cry", by Jim Goad in Taki's Magazine, 30/10/17.

Vagina art -- is it obscene? Japanese creator speaks out

To paraphrase George Carlin, there's no obscene art, only obscene thoughts. That would seem to be the attitude of Megumi Igarashi, also known as Rokudenashiko (meaning "good-for-nothing girl" in Japanese), who's been in a spot of trouble for creating objects that, in some people's minds, resemble... errr... Well, here's Miss Good-for-nothing paddling her own kayak.

Sure looks like a little girl in a boat to me. Can you imagine my surprise when Ms Igarashi revealed that the design is based on her vagina!

Japan is said to have a thriving and lucrative pornography industry, as well as a high tolerance for displays of scantily dressed women in magazines and advertising. However, its obscenity laws prohibit public displays of genitalia.

So, is Ms Igarashi's kayak:
(a) an example of creative yet functional design?
(b) art?
(c) obscenity?

Apparently the answer is (a) and/or (b) but not (c), because the artist didn't get into any trouble over this piece. Nor did she run afoul of the law by creating the pieces she's holding here.

A Tokyo court ruled yesterday that a set of three plaster figures in the shape of Ms Igarashi's vagina, decorated and painted in bright colours, qualify as art. Her lawyers had argued that they did not look like skin or immediately suggest female genitalia, and the judge agreed.

But obviously something had to prevent a proliferation of this kind of art. Can't have artists doing things like photocopying their nether regions! [What a novel idea! Ed.] So although the court let Ms Igarashi off the hook for her cute little objets d'art, it took a different view of a little gift she made for contributors to the kayak project.

What was it? Nothing more or less than a computer disc containing digital data that could be used with a 3-D printer to recreate the artist's genitalia. Way better than a 2-D photocopy, right?! Not according to the judges of the Tokyo District Court, who said the data, from a scan of Ms Igarashi's own vagina, could be used to create "a realistic shape that could sexually arouse viewers".

Guilty, guilty, guilty!!! The Good-for-nothing girl was ordered to pay a fine of 400,000 yen (about $3700 in real money) for distributing obscene material.

Ms Igarashi takes a dim view of the whole affair. Commenting on the ruling, she told the press "There is very much a male-oriented view of what is considered obscene in terms of the female genitalia, and my work is to overturn those notions. I am extremely frustrated that that message did not come across to the judges."

Click here to see "My body is not an obscenity", a very brief interview with Megumi Igarashi.

Has the West forgotten the lesson of Pearl Harbor?

Walt has not forgotten about the "situation" in Ukraine. There has been an election, and Poroshenko, the Chocolate King, has become the Chocolate President. The people of the Donbas and other eastern regions of the Ukraine didn't get to vote, since Russian-speaking armed gangs disrupted the polling. Russia denies arming and supporting the separatist thugs, and claims to have pulled its troops back from positions near the border. But it retains control of the Crimea.

The question has already been asked, but let's put it out there again. Where will Russia stop? If the rest of the world accepts the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea, will that be enough to satisfy Putin? Or is this a repeat of the German annexation of the Sudetenland in the run-up to World War II?

There are those -- notably in the United States Department of State -- who believe that it's improbable that Russia would try to occupy any more Ukrainian territory, and in so doing risk war with the West. While admitting that war is possible, they think it highly unlikely. Putin wouldn't be that stupid, they say. He must know that Russia would lose any war with the West, they say. And Russia doesn't want war any more than we do...they say.

Similar things were said about Japan in 1941, right up till December 7th and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. War with Japan was not impossible, but improbable...they said. For that reason, it was OK for the United States to let down its guard, and not pay too much attention to the threats, implicit and explicit, coming from the Land of the Rising Sun.

The resultant complacency and lack of preparedness was the chief cause of the disaster of December 7th, "the Day of Infamy". So wrote Professor Gordon W. Prange in several lengthy historical manuscripts published posthumously by his co-workers Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon as Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History (McGraw-Hill, 1986), which Walt just finished reading.

Prof. Prange was a Professor of History at the University of Maryland from 1937 to 1980, with a break of nine years (1942–1951) of military service overseas, including a stint in Japan during the US military occupation, when he was the Chief Historian in General Douglas MacArthur's staff. That period coincided roughly with the several investigations into the Pearl Harbor debacle, including that of the Joint Congressional Committee, 15 Nov. 1945 to 15 July 1946. The testimony at and reports of those inquiries are quoted extensively in his books.

Edward F. Morgan was an assistant counsel to that committee, and drafted its final report. He included a list -- quoted in its entirety -- of no fewer than 25 "supervisory, administrative and organizational deficiencies" apparent in the US Army and Navy. Here, with Dr. Prange's comments on relations between the West and Russia, is No. 18.

18. Failure can be avoided in the long run only by preparation for any eventuality.

[Morgan wrote]: The record tends to indicate that appraisal of likely enemy movements was divided into probabilities and possibilities. Everyone has admitted that an attack by Japan on Pear Harbor was regarded as at least a possibility. It was felt, however, that a Japanese movement toward the south was a probability. The over-all result was to look for the probable move and to take little or no effective precautions to guard against the contingency of the possible action.

"Here was the old problem of enemy intentions versus capabilities. U.S. military leaders in 1941 were far too concerned with what Japan might do, not with what it was able to do. Yet history has shown that if an enemy can launch a certain kind of attach, in all probability he will do exactly that. His intentions cannot hurt his opponent; his capabilities can

"Thus, while the United States would infinitely prefer peace with the Soviet Union, if the Russians...are able to overrun Western Europe in a conventional war, the United States and its NATO allies must assume that they will do so under the right set of circumstances. Furthermore, if the Soviets have the capability of knocking out the United States in one huge preemptive nuclear strike, American leaders must assume that that is what they will do if conditions are propitious. Any other attitude on the part of the United States would be irresponsible.

"The ultimate lesson which Pearl Harbor should teach American political and military leaders, as well as every person in the United States, is this: Always be prepared for the worst contingency."

Innocent questions from Walt to Hussein Obama, John Kerry et al. -- not forgetting David Cameron, Steve Harper, Angela Merkel and whoever's running France these days: Are we prepared? Or are we just assuming the improbability of Putin doing something foolish, like moving his armies westward? Just asking...

Military intelligence: the true story of Project X-Ray

Once the United States got (somewhat belatedly) engaged in World War II, it quickly became apparent that some Weapon of Mass Destruction [Did they really use that phrase, then? Ed.] would be needed to vanquish the treacherous Japanese. In 1942 the atomic bomb was barely a notion, so other options were considered.

The specs called for something that would inflict lots of damage on the Japanese home islands without loss of too many American lives. Dr. Lytle Adams, a Pennsylvania dentist, came up with an idea, perhaps while inhaling a bit of laughing gas. Bat bombs! Of course!!!

The experimental weapon consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with numerous compartments, each containing a Mexican Free-tailed Bat. (No, Walt doesn't know why they're called that.) Each bat would have a one-ounce timed incendiary bomb strapped to its wee chest. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats which would then land in the eaves and attics of Japanese buildings.

When the bats tried to fly away, they would chew through the straps so as to lighten their load for takeoff. The incendiaries would thus be ignited, starting fires in inaccessible places in the flimsy wood and paper construction of the Japanese cities. [Are you sure this wasn't actually Dr. Rube Goldberg? Ed.]

No, Walt is not making this up. But wait, it gets better... Dr. Adams happened to be a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, who submitted to her husband the President, who approved it personally. So the US military-industrial complex [Did they really use that phrase, then? Ed.] went into action.

After two years spent on research -- not to mention rounding up a couple of million of the critters -- the US Army tested the bat bombs in New Mexico. During the testing, several bats escaped, setting fire to a large aircraft hangar and a fuel tank.

The Army cleverly handed the bat bomb project over to the Navy, which named it Project X-ray and passed the buck -- the bats, actually -- to the Marine Corps. Some military genius decided the trick was to freeze the bats into hibernation before dropping them out of the bombers. In another test run, the frozen bats remained asleep and augured into the desert sands without setting off so much as a spark.

More tests were scheduled for the summer of 1944 but the programme was cancelled by Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King when he was told the bat bomb would likely not be combat ready until mid-1945. By that time it was estimated that $2 million had been spent on Project X-ray, afterwards referred to by Dr. Stanley P. Lovell, director of the Office of Strategic Services as "Die Fledermaus Farce".

Redistributing wealth won't save us

The fiscal cliff, the 1% vs the 99%, taxing the middle class out of existance... What it all comes down to is the wisdom of the Almighty State taking from them as has to give to give to them as has not.

There's no doubt the State can do so if it wishes. But is it the smart thing to do? Can the government legislating the "poor" into prosperity? Walt thinks not (lifetime pct .984) and argues from the record of two great empires.

Consider the mighty and long-lived Roman Empire. History tells us an important factor in the slow demise of Rome was excessive welfare. This was mandated by Roman senators to buy voter support. They feathered their own nests while keeping the poor quiet with bread and circuses. Not much has changed in two millenia, has it.

Now think about Japan. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by American atomic bombs in August of 1945. Nothing left. But look at them now! The two cities -- indeed the whole country -- have redeveloped beyond anyone's imagination.

How did the Japanese become so prosperous so quickly? They do not have a welfare system. You work or do without. Which caused more long-term destruction: the A-bomb or government welfare programmes created to buy the votes of those who want someone to take care of them?

What we're talking about, dear readers, is the importance of incentives. Walt will explain in five sentences.

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

That's not intended to be an argument for no taxes. The Romans had taxes. The Japanese have taxes. There will probably be taxes in hell. It is, however, an argument for a flat tax, an idea whose time has come... and gone... again and again. But keep it in mind as you listen to the wrangling about who's going to pay for all the entitlements and social programmes that the vote-hungry politicians and lamestream media tell us we must have.

Chinese demonstrations "all staged" says dissident

Today's Globe and Mail has an update on the China-wide anti-Japan demonstrations which were the subject of Walt's post yesterday. I wondered whether the protests could have been orchestrated by China's Communist government to divert attention from domestic political troubles.

Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist and designer, think so. The Globe quotes him as saying, "It’s all staged. Only the Japanese could help us to have such a demonstration. We haven’t had such street protests for decades. The Japanese are helping us get back our rights."

Here's another coincidence which lends support to Walt's theory. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the so-called Mukden Incident of 1931, at "attack" on a Japanese-owned railroad in Manchuria which the Japanese used as an excuse for the invasion of that northern-most part of China. Even when Sino-Japanese relationships are relatively good, there are always demonstrations on that date, since it was effectively the beginning of the Japanese-Chinese war.

Agent 78 asks how I know that it's not the Japanese who are engineering the attacks on their consulates and businesses, as was done at Mukden, so they can invade China. I reply that the 1000s of protesters look Chinese to me. And yes, I can tell the difference at a glance.

In yet another coincidence, tomorrow will also see the start of the treason trial of Wang Lijun, the former chief of police chief of Chongqing, who blew the whistle on the now disgraced [and disappeared? Ed.] Bo Xilai, whose wife was just convicted of arranging the murder of a British businessman who, it was said, had assisted the Bo family in certain nefarious business dealings. The demonstrations should push this story well below the bottom of the fold on page 16 of the People's Daily.

What's going on in China?

That's what Walt would like to know. I'm waiting for first- or even second-hand reports from Agents 78 and/or 88 to get behind the video clips on the TV news. Via satellite, I've been able to see clips aired on Hong Kong's TVB, showing large, angry demonstrations in the streets of Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai. One report says there was trouble in no fewer than 28 cities.

The ostensible target of the protests is Japan, which this past week purchased a couple of small islands to which China (and Taiwan) lay claim. The islands themselves are just dots of rock, but the sea around them is full of fish, and beneath the ocean floor there may be quantities of... you guessed it... oil.

So... 1000s of young people are protesting Japanese imperialism by throwing rocks at Japanese consulates, businesses... even Japanese cars. Walt [whose Putong'hua is severely limited. Ed.] was able to understand yells of "war" and "now". Is the Beijing government likely to declare war on Japan, or even send a force of marines to take back the rocks? About two platoons should do it, but trust me, it's not gonna happen. (Lifetime pct .090)

Why, then, would the Communist government allow these near-riots? And trust me again, if the government didn't want the demonstrations to take place, they wouldn't. Remember Tiananmen Square!

Walt's guess is that the "spontaneous" demonstrations, which seem to include large numbers of printed banners and pictures of Chairman Mao, are being permitted, perhaps even fomented, to deflect attention from the strange disappearance and reappearance of Xi Jinping, the heir apparent to Hu Jintao, the outgoing paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. Or maybe not.

Mr. Xi was widely expected to be acclaimed as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China late this year. In due course he would also become President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. When you wear all three hats, you indeed Da Man. It's like winning the Triple Crown.

But a funny thing happened on Xi's way to the throne. Around September 2nd, the presumptive emperor dropped out of sight, and remained so for about ten days, missing at least three scheduled public appearances. To the extent that the social media operate in China, tweets and twitters of "Where is She?" [That's how you say "Xi". Ed.] flashed across the land and around the world. But there was no answer until, like Lazarus, Xi emerged on Thursday, with no explanation or apology given.

Was Mr. Xi really suffering from a bad back, as was rumoured, or does he have a more severe health problem? Or is it his political health that's in question? Has there been a power struggle within the Forbidden City? The Chinese government no longer operates out of the ancient abode of the imperial court, but the metaphor is still valid.

And what will happen next? Will Xi succeed in succeeding? Or will he quietly step aside "for health reasons" in favour of... who? Or Hu? What does it all mean? To stop all those questions and rumours, perhaps a little diversion was thought to be in order...

Just one problem with that. When you let a tiger out of his cage, it's hard to predict what he will do, and harder still to get him back in the cage. The demonstrations I saw on the idiot's lantern today seem grossly disproportionate to the degree of bother the average Chinese would feel about two tiny islets being taken over by the Japanese.

The marchers seemed to be pelting the police and soldiers -- and there were 1000s of them too, armed with teargas and water cannon -- with abandon equal to that with which they attacked the Japanese buildings. I had the sense of a lot of pent-up anger and frustration being released. And I wonder when and where it will stop.

Republicans! Make up your minds!

Now that I have your attention, could we please talk for a minute or two about the race for the Republican presidential candidacy. Let me recap the results so far, and please pay attention because there's going to be a big test in August!

"Catcher's Mitt" Romney has won two of the three primaries held so far.
What?! OK, make that one. "Hold `er Newt" Gingrich and "Tricky Rick" Santorum have won one, too. Three primaries, three different "winners".

And what of Walt's choice, "L. Ron" Paul? He has finished third, second and fourth. A respectable enough showing. But the pundits of the lamestream press keep saying Ron hasn't got a chance, and Republicans will have to make up their minds and unite behind middle-of-the-road Mitt or a real conservative. What's Ron Paul, if not conservative? But noooo, he's not electable, so forget about him.

What, I ask you, is wrong with Ron Paul?! He's not Mormon. He's not Catholic. He's only had (and still has) one wife. And he's not filthy rich.

Ron Paul advocates smaller government, lower taxes and a sound dollar. Is there anyone out there, Republican or otherwise, who doesn't want those things?!

So what's the problem then? Oh. The foreign policy thing. Because he has called for the US to stop being the world's policeman, Congressman Paul is accused of being an isolationist, a pacifist/defeatist/comsymp, a latter-day "know-nothing". Like nobody else wants to stop pouring American money and American lives down some third world rathole?!

Let's face it, folks. The US of A has not exactly brought democracy, peace and prosperity to the troubled lands of Africa and Asia. Regardless of who's been in power, America's post-war foreign policy has been pretty much a great big FAIL.

Yes, but Hellery Clinton and her predecessors are winning friends and influencing Arabs, Russians, even the Chinese, to reform themselves and make the world a better place. Right? WRONG! Here's how one Chinese university student sees America's policy and actions vis-à-vis her part of the world.

"America dropped an atomic bomb on Japan," Yvette told [Michael Levy], "sent its army to Korea, invaded Vietnam, sent the CIA to Tibet, bombed Cambodia, built bases in Okinawa, and stationed its navy around Taiwan. At a time when we were weak and you were very strong, you surrounded us with violence. This is what we remember."

Yvette uttered those words in 2006. At the time, the US was also making friends in Iraq and Afghanistan. Libya came later. And now the Obama administration is mulling intervening in Syria, Iran, or just about any little country whose citizens have somehow missed out on the benefits of Western civilization.

Honestly... honestly... does it make sense to continue that kind of foreign policy? It's what used to be called "gunboat diplomacy". Today it's not just gunboats, but gunships, gunmissiles, gundrones, guneverything.

Should we change horses in mid-stream? Hell no! Steady as she goes! In fact, let's send US troops back into Iraq! OK, it was Rick Perry who said that, and it's now generally accepted that he's a moron. But did Gingrich, Santorum or Romney call him out? No. Only Ron Paul has had the courage to offer a clear alternative to "foreign affairs as usual".

Come on Republicans! A candidate of principle is out there. Can you handle principles?!

* Michael Levy is a former Peace Corps volunteer who was sent to China's Guiyang University to teach ESL. His book Kosher Chinese (Henry Holt & Co., 2011) is the source of the quote.

Why the Japanese aren't rioting and looting

In "Tale of two earthquakes", Walt made a brief comparison of the reactions of the Japanese and the Haitians to disaster in their respective countries. Today "Japanese resilience shines in light of tragedy", by journalist Kieron Lang fleshes out the bare bones of the argument and adds into the comparison the chaos following Hurricane Katrina.

The article begins thus: Looters took to the streets after Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans in 2005, and again when Haiti was rocked by a powerful earthquake in 2010. So what is preventing disaster-stricken Japan from descending into a similar state of lawlessness?

Is this another rhetorical question? Lang shies away from discussing the question of race. Instead he quotes Thomas Lifson, a former professor of Asian Studies at Harvard, on "the unique qualities of the Japanese psyche".

"The sense of community is very powerful in Japan and is maintained not just on the basis of the culture, which is still very strong, but also on the basis of various social, political and geographic realities."

There can be no doubt that Japan is virtually homogeneous society. That is, it's not multicultural. Those aggressively promoting multiculturalism and "diversity" in the west might do well to think about that.

There is another factor of which there can be no doubt, but which political correctness forbids us from discussing. Except for Walt. I'll say it directly this time. The victims of last week's earthquake and tsunami were Asian. The victims of the Haitian earthquake were black.

Haiti, Katrina, Watts, Detroit, today's Ivory Coast... In black communities rioting and looting follow political demonstrations or natural disaster -- any provocation at all -- as surely as night follows day. What conclusion can be drawn, other than that looting and lawlessness are the nature of the beast. Answers on the back of a postage stamp, please.

Tale of two earthquakes

As I follow the news from Japan, I can't help but contrast the reactions and behaviour of the Japanese with those of the people of Haiti, who were similarly afflicted just over a year ago.

One can't help but be impressed by the calmness, verging on stoicism, being shown by the Japanese in the face of a calamity which to us is barely imaginable. The Japanese have seen worse, of course -- the devastation of their country in the last days of World War II, and ultimately Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Perhaps this has given them the collective strength to endure.

Looking at the videos of the survivors, I see sorrow and anguish, but I don't see hysteria. I see people queuing patiently to get their share of the limited food and water. I don't see people looting or fighting like dogs snarling over scraps.

I see supplies and machinery being distributed to people who, even though it's not their job, are pitching in to do whatever they can to clean up the debris and start making their city habitable again. In Haiti, meanwhile, grass is starting to grow into the engine compartments of motor vehicles sent there a year ago, because the Haitian "authorities" demand payment of "customs duties" before the machinery can be moved off the dockside.

And I see the Japanese doing all they can -- themselves -- rather than sitting on their collective ass waiting for boatloads of foreign aid to arrive, along with foreigners to do everything for them. The Japanese will recover and rebuild, just as they did after WWII...themselves.

A couple of days ago, CNN's Jack Cafferty posed the question, "Why hasn't there been widespread looting and crime after the [Japanese] earthquake?" No answer was forthcoming. Perhaps it was a rhetorical question.

"We cannot withdraw now!"

What follows are the quoted remarks of the leader of a country which was occupying, by force, another country, a country in Asia. The occupiers were being pressed by foreign and domestic opinion to bring their troops back home without delay.

"The stationing of troops is a matter of life and death..." the minister burst out. "No concession in that direction!"

The country had already agreed in principle to the eventual withdrawal of its armed forces, he continued. Now it was obvious that what was really being demanded was the withdrawal of all its forces at once. This was impossible.

Hundreds of thousands of troops were still locked in battle in the occupied country. The interior was a hotbed of terrorists and bandits, and only the presence of foreign troops in certain areas could guarantee law and order and the successful economic growth of that whole part of Asia.

Total withdrawal before the aims of war had been accomplished "would not be in keeping with the dignity of the Army," and the entire General Staff "as well as the troops abroad" agreed with him.

Did you think that this has something to do with the American occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan? Think again. The speaker was General Hideki Tojo, War Minister and later Prime Minister of Japan. The occupied country was China. The passage quoted is in Volume I of The Rising Sun: the Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945, by John Toland.

It is not history that repeats itself, gentle reader. It is human nature.