Legal!?

Pre-starting note: I wrote this a week+ ago. I was sick, it was late, but the issues are still relevant.

News Flash! Big Brother listening in on your phone calls is about to be legal (even though it's now been admitted to have been going on since a little while after Sept. 11 2001).

This has always been allowed, and it is doubleplus ungood to think otherwise.

I could go on with Orwellian comparisons for ages, but will refrain for now.

It is not comforting to know that my conversations on the phone with my family and friends are subject to tapping and investigation. International calls are primarily what is being disscussed (so far)...and that would include my whole family and a few friends. I do tend to bring up politics from time to time, and probably use certain key words that would no doubt trigger software to start recording the conversation. Which then would at some point require human assesment...which therefore require a file or files to be kept.

Since when has a "War on Terror" ever been a real war anyway? A war with no definable enemies? A war that allows wartimes powers?! Please! A non-war that allows the U.S. president powers far in excess of "peacetime" powers? Even those, he pushes to the extreme and way past (think torture, phone taps, and the ability hold people in detention for unlimited amounts of time with little or no legal recourse). We no longer follow the Geneva conventions (among many other conventions) and we have just thrown most of the Constitution in the trash. Pretty cool that this particular "war" has no actual, definable enemy and basically can continue indefinitely. REMINDER: the Constitution was written expressly to prevent this kind of governmental control (don't even START me on the so-called Patriot Act...the name alone reeks of propaganda reminiscent of things Americans have always been against [think policies of Stalin, Mao, Hitler]). People, please!!! Every nation on earth since the time a "nation" first existed has been at war with terrorism against it (and/it's peoples). It is a country's responsability to protect itself and its citizens against acts of terror, it is not a declared war that allows the executive branch to bypass constitutional law.

NOTE: Before I go on, let me just say that my views on this are not paranoia or sme kind of a conspiracy theory. Bush has admitted to this personal invasion of privacy publically. The Justice Department is about to declare it legal. The methods, etc. are extrapolated from a lot of sources that I'm not going into here. Remember that while Bush and Co. seem to be talking about specific taps on specific calls, there is nothing they say that actually limit it to that...and quite a few that could be read as any/all international calls.

How many people do you know that are really pissed at having to give their Social Security number to banks, credit institutions, and even universities. Very soon there will be a national ID card with a RFID computer chip that allows remote viewing (how long before criminals beat that?...less time than it took to beat credit cards is my guess). People should also think about how much other info on each and every one of you has floating around out there. I did a search on myself and got a bit of info for free (it even listed my brother and father). $50 more would have gotten me a staggering amount of info. This isn't even identity theft, and that is a problem that costs billions of dollars a year. That's mostly from stolen, sold or lost info, but this other stuff is legal...sound like I'm going off on a tangent? Not really. I'm coming back to this in a minute.

The U.S. government (in what I firmly and strongly believe is in direct violation of the Constitution) now can compile files (audio and written) on any international call without so much as court approval or the vaguest of proof of impropriety other than the claim that "Hey, we're in a war on terror!". It is widely known that the NSA and now, even the CIA and FBI have some of the best scanning software in the world. International calls (supposedly only) are computer scanned for key words. Calls with key words are recorded, filed and saved for someone to check. This creates files. Files on people like me, my family and friends...because any conversation about the U.S. government, terrorism, Iraq, etc. are bound to include key words.

Back to the part that sounded like a tangent. The Pentagon has "lost" over a trillion dollars in the last 10 years. There have been multiple cases of laptops containing sensitive data lost (even in White House strategy sessions). Data lost or corrupted through hacker attacks on computers containing sensitive data, and let's not forget the multiple spy scandles that occur on a somewhat regular basis. Even if you fully trust the U.S. Government to check in on one of your international calls, can you trust them with the files they made of the check? If you can get loads of stuff legally on the internet, what do you figure you could get if you just ignored the law? The info available is staggering.

Am I paranoid? Not really. Even though I strongly suspect there is a file on me somewhere. I feel (and believe) in the long run it'll show me as one of millions of harmless people concerned about what is happening in the world. Am I one of those nutcases that believe in conspiracy theories, etc.? I often jokingly say, "Yes.". The trick is to understand the joke. Do I believe in all, or most conspiracy theories? Of course not. Some of them? Sure. It's silly to think there aren't conspiricies in this world (people are arrested for them all the time). As to whether I fit the "nutcase" part, that's pretty subjective.

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

It's been so long since I've read Orwell's 1984, I may just offer some stranger in the street a couple of bucks to pick up one for me in a small bookstore and leave it at a pre-designated location (wouldn't want my name on the list of the people that buy it)... lol

Resolutions

I am now working my way through the first five chapters of Japanese for Busy People. I'm pretty sure this is the fifth or sixth time I've been through these same five chapters (the book has 30 and I've never seen past six). Fourteen years in this country and my language skills are just embarrassing!

I haven't really started working out yet (unless stumbling through Tokyo half the night counts...and it should because it hurts the next day). Push-ups, sit-ups and some semblance of my Shorinji Kempo training are to follow in short order...he says yet again.

I am actually working on the work situation. I guess one out of three puts me in the 33 percentile, resolution-wise...lame, I know.

If I were to actually follow and meet all my New Year's resolutions, the world as we know it would probably cease to exist anyway.

In a re-play of the last six weeks of last year, they are now working on the building again. They painted the edges of the hall floor today. There was actually a notice in the door a week ago saying I'm not allowed to leave (or enter) the building from 1-3 p.m. tomorrow. The blinding headache and burning eyes I've enjoyed today brings to mind old shoes and someone else's blood on wet paint. Who said vegetarians are pacifists?!

No updates to this site for longer than a week may indicate jail time.

Quote by popular request:

..."Bush is (sic) ...the greatest terrorist in the world"
-Harry Belafonte

New Year...and Beyond

Akemashite Gozaimasu!

In Japan, New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year without doubt. Some things have changed in the 14-odd years I've been here, but the basics remain the same.

At it's heart, New Year's is a three day holiday. There are many traditions, one of which would be viewing the first sunrise of the year, but foremost of these is hatsumode (praying at a shrine or temple). I very much doubt there is anyone in this country that doesn't make it to a temple or shine during the first three days of the year. More than a few will travel hours to get to a special shrine or temple, more than few flock to one right at midnight.



Aside from praying, each temple and shrine also sells a wide variety of blessed charms for any one of many, many of which are very specific. You can actually get one for safety against car accidents while driving. There is a festival atmosphere and all the foods, etc. that are sold at festivals are also available...along with seasonal specialties (amezake comes to mind).

Food is a big part of this holiday, and several days are often spent preparing for it. The last food of the year is often soba. The first is usually ozoni (a soup with mochi). Chief among New Year's foods is osechi ryiori. This is a wide range of foods that are eaten "as is" throughout the three days. They are prepared in such a way that further heating or cooking (and refrigeration, for that matter) is unnecessary. The holiday is for housewives too!. There are special foods in osechi ryiori, but I won't get into all that here (it'd be a whole post on its own). Taka and I don't really bother...not so much because diet prohibits, as because neither of us are all that fond of it.



When I first came to Japan, the entire country shut down for three days. Even convenience stores stayed closed. If you didn't know to shop by the 31st, and you were foolish enough not to hit the bank (even ATM's closed),you were just in for three days of hunger (unless you had money for food at a shrine or temple). These days (in Tokyo, at least), a lot of places are open...albeit with very short hours.

Today is January 7th. Also a special part of the new year (kind of). There is a special dish for today. It's called nanakusakayu. Breaking the wood down is a little weird. It pretty much translates to "okaiyu with seven weeds". It's a rice gruel with baby white radish, baby turnips and five other herbs. It's a very mild dish with very little taste. The idea is to clean the body of all the holiday partying, rich eating, etc. I made it today. MAN, does it take a long time with brown rice! Still it was very good. One cup of uncooked rice and six cups of water comes down to something like a loose oatmeal before the blanched green herbs (strictly speaking though, some of that is turnip and daikon tops) are added.

...AND here they are...This year's resolutions:

1) Get serious about studying Japanese (something like the 12th year running on this one...rarely lasts to February)
2) Get back in shape (also years running, but the success rate is better than the first)
3) Increase my income (this one I will keep or find myself single again) ;-)