Don't You Wish Glenn Beck Had Been Your Teacher?

I don't watch Glenn Beck as much, well actually hardly at all anymore, but yesterday because the television was on the Fox News channel and I was engaged in some other activity I caught part of his show and I am glad that somebody captured the video to go with his explanation of nuclear power plants in a way that only Glenn Beck can do. With M&M's and pots and pans.

Skip the first 4:30 minutes to get to his explaining in plain language what all those terms you are hearing on the news are actually referring to.

Japan Nukes West Coast of America

I guess this is their response to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For our friends on the left coast you have time to flee to one of those red states you hate so much and here is a little more information for you.

Exposure from x-rays or gamma rays is measured in units of roentgens. For example:

* Total body exposure of 100 roentgens (or 1 Gy) causes radiation sickness.
* Total body exposure of 400 roentgens (or 4 Gy) causes radiation sickness and death in half the individuals. Without medical treatment, nearly everyone who receives more than this amount of radiation will die within 30 days.
* 100,000 rads causes almost immediate unconsciousness and death within an hour

Enjoy the weather!

Chris Matthews Laments Obama's Missed Tsunami Opportunity

According to MSNBC dolt Chris Matthews, his hero has let a good crisis go to waste.

Hundreds if not thousands of people are dead due to a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But at least it gave Barack Obama an avenue to remind everyone he was born in Hawaii. That's the silver lining for MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

"Was this sort of a good opportunity for the president to remind everybody that he grew up in the United States and Hawaii?"

That's a question that Chris Matthews posed to MSNBC host and White House corresondent Chuck Todd about President Obama taking a question from a Japanese reporter during a news conference earlier today at the White House.

Matthews pegged this question on the fact that there are many persons of Japanese heritage who live in the Hawaiian islands, which were themselves impacted by smaller tsunami resulting from the earthquake.

"That's the first thing I thought of," Matthews insisted. "Such a large number of people believe he grew up in [Kenya], they're buying this thing that's coming from Huckabee," Matthews insisted.

Horrific carnage like most have never before witnessed today and the first thing Chris Matthews, serious newsman, thought of was how Obama can capitalize.

Pathetic.

Is He Now Obama-san?

During his next visit to Russia the Soviet Union, maybe Putin will allow Obama to sit on his lap.

'I Went To Venus On A UFO'

Not me, but rather the wife of the new Prime Minister of Japan.

The liberal party in Japan recently won the elections there in a sweeping landslide that overturned over 50 years of conservative rule and if you thought our liberals were nuttier then a fruitcake you really need to check out the Japanese variety.

The distinctions of 66-year-old Miyuki Hatoyama do not end there. As well a being a musical actress, cookery writer, clothesmaker and television personality, she is also a friend of the actor Tom Cruise, whom she knew in a past life when he was temporarily incarnated as a Japanese. She would be regarded as bit of a fruitcake anywhere in the world — in Japan’s staid political culture, she is unique.

I guess this will not come as any sort of surprise to somebody who has seen any of those Japanese game shows, but I for one can't wait for Michelle Obama to sit down with this lady for some tea.

It's 3 am, Does Anyone Know Where Obama Is?

Seems to me a direct threat to our nation should be met forcefully and immediately. Heck, we're getting advance notice from a rogue regime they'll be attacking us and Obama is nowhere to be found.

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.

The missile, believed to be a long-range Taepodong-2, would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan's top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.

While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service—the country's main spy agency—said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test.

U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

A landmark summit? UN sanctions?

Who are they kidding?

Obama is more concerned with whining about Fox News and Rush Limbaugh than he is about these maniacs threatening to fire missiles at us. His cowardice and fecklessness endangers us all.

World's Oldest Porn Star?

Let's give the old guy credit. Not only can he still perform at 75, the dude's doing porn.

Let hear it for Shigeo Tokuda.

As photographers, we’re always looking for quirky and exceptional feature items, so when we got a chance to shoot Japan’s oldest porno star on the job, we knew we couldn’t miss it.

It took six months to open the door to this underground industry before we got to meet 75-year-old Shigeo Tokuda at work this week.

On our way to the movie set, we were excited about finally getting to cover the story, but what we saw during the filming was far from what we had imagined. This was no sleek movie production with sex gods and goddesses. The movie was filmed in a small, old house just outside Tokyo that was too shabby to be called a movie set. The floor was covered with dust and dead cockroaches.

The director - a former porno actor who contracted a permanent slipped disk after exerting himself in more than 1,000 films - said he had paid 20,000 yen ($200) to rent the place for a day. For him, this is a high risk business, as he bears all the expenses. If his movie doesn’t sell, he’s out of pocket.

Another weight on his mind was 75-year-old Tokuda-san’s sexual performance. Any stage-fright from the leading man would mean the director’s expenses were all for nothing. For that reason, the director said he always carried a small bag of stimulants to help induce sexual drive.

The toughest role of all, though, seemed to be that of the leading lady. In this particular sado-masochisitic flick, the 36-year-old “housewife” was chained up and whipped, had candle wax dripped on her legs, and was ‘tortured’ with a vibrator before Tokuda-san had sex with her. We heard that she got less than 60,000 yen for all this, while Tokuda-san himself got much less. He also had hardly any breaks between scenes during the half-day of filming.

Via Ace headlines.

Trutherism, Japanese Style

So Japan wasn't an aggressor during World War II?

I guess all those scenes from Pearl Harbor were cleverly staged, just like the moon landing and the attacks of 9/11.

Sad thing is, there are idiots out there who will probably agree with this.

JAPAN was not the aggressor in World War II, according to the country's air force chief.

The essay was authored by General Toshio Tamogami, chief of staff of Japan's Air Self-Defence Force, and won the top award in an inaugural contest aimed at describing "true views of modern history".

"Even now, there are many people who think that our country's 'aggression' caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War," said the English-language version of the essay.

"But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War.

"In Thailand, Burma, India, Singapore, and Indonesia, the Japan that fought the Greater East Asia War is held in high esteem.

Děkuji vám, al-Gore!

Czech Rep makes billions by selling its clean air
On Tuesday, Environment Minister Martin Bursík signed a memorandum of understanding with Hideaki Kumazawou, Japanese Ambassador to the Czech Republic. That enables the Czech Republic to start trading with its "clean air" and earn dozens of billions of crowns [CZK16.6719 = US$1.00 Ed.].

How is that possible? The Czech Republic does not have any difficulties to fulfill the Kyoto Protocol in which developed countries committed to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions.

The Czech Republic even exceeds its commitment. Countries that have a similar reserve can sell their saved exhaustion to countries that have been unable to fulfill their commitment.

One of those countries is Japan that now wants to buy the saved carbon dioxide in the Czech Republic.

"This memorandum was a basic requirement of the Japanese side for their future purchase of emission units," Jakub Kašpar, spokesperson for the Environment Ministry said.

5 billion worth of clean environment

How many emission units the Japanese state actually buys is up to further discussions. The Czech Republic has 150 million units available while Japan needs more than one billion units.

Besides Japan, the Czech government has held talks with Spain, Austria and New Zealand. Another option would be that the Czech Republic sells its units in an auction.

Uh-oh. Apply free market principles? How eeeevil. Chimpy McHilterBurton must be involved.

Environment Ministry plans to sell two thirds of its free units and keep the rest as a reserve.

"In general, we would like to sell most of our emission units in an auction because their price might be higher due to competition," said Environment Minister Martin Bursík. His Ministry hopes to sign the first agreements this year.

The profit might reach CZK 25 billion [US$1.51 bil Ed.] depending on the market price. Environment Ministry plans to invest the money in building insulation and clean heating.

"We are currently drafting a grant program that would support energy savings, usage of renewable natural resources for heating and hot water in apartments and family houses," Jakub Kašpar said.

Czech Republic among the worst

Based on the recent report by European Commission, the Czech Republic is the fourth worst of 27 European countries. Only Finland, Ireland and Luxembourg are doing worse, while Luxembourg is the European greenhouse record breaker if compared with the number of inhabitants.

In Kyoto, the Czech Republic committed together with the entire European Union to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent between 2012 and 1990. But due to the decrease of industry production, that was a piece of cake. Today, the emissions are 24 percent lower than in 1990.

"The Czech Republic has been fulfilling its commitments set by the Kyoto protocol with a cushion," the Report on the environment conditions informed about 1997. The Czech government will soon have the report available.

Cars and airplanes cause troubles

The same report points out that the emission has been growing slowly in the last couple of years. The main problem is transportation - both automobile and air transportation.

"The emissions stopped decreasing in 2005 when a slow increase started. This negative trend is caused mainly by growing emissions caused by the transportation," the report states.

Paradoxically, the Czech Republic is one of the worst polluters in Europe when counted per capita.

While the share of emissions caused by transportation reached four percent of the entire amount of emission in 1990, today it accounts for almost 13 percent.

Just the air transportation by itself has a four times larger performance that in 1989.

Hmm. Economic prosperity since transformation from a Soviet slave-state to captialist democracy. Rise in transportation-related emissions since making that transformation.

Eureka! Proof-positive that capitalism is eeeeevil.


Via Aktuálně.cz


Photo credit: Ludvík Hradilek

'She Can Act Like a Real Girlfriend'

I know some Japanese are rather diminutive, but if you're going to make a robot girlfriend for some lonely guys, you could make them larger than 15 inches.

She is big-busted, petite, very friendly, and she runs on batteries.

A Japanese firm has produced a 38 cm (15 inch) tall robotic girlfriend that kisses on command, to go on sale in September for around $175, with a target market of lonely adult men.

Using her infrared sensors and battery power, the diminutive damsel named "EMA" puckers up for nearby human heads, entering what designers call its "love mode."

"Strong, tough and battle-ready are some of the words often associated with robots, but we wanted to break that stereotype and provide a robot that's sweet and interactive," said Minako Sakanoue, a spokeswoman for the maker, Sega Toys.

"She's very lovable and though she's not a human, she can act like a real girlfriend."

EMA stands for Eternal Maiden Actualization.

Japanese Bureaucrat Suspended for Surfing Porn Sites All Day

Look at the bright side. While he's suspended from work, he can surf for porn all day long.

A city bureaucrat in western Japan was suspended from his job after officials discovered he visited porn websites at work almost every day, often spending hours gazing at nude photos, a city official said.

The 57-year-old man, who was working in the construction division of Kinokawa City in Wakayama, surfed porn sites from an office computer almost every day for eight months from June 2007, spending up to three hours a day on the websites, said Kazuhiko Ueyama, a Kinokawa City official.

Angered citizens called city hall all day on Friday, saying the suspension was not enough, he added.

The city only found out about his activities in February when it noticed that his computer had picked up the same virus repeatedly from the sites, Ueyama said.

"These were foreign 'adult sites' and they got through the security net" that the city had installed for its computers, he said.

"The man apologized each time we spoke to him, but we couldn't quite get him to explain to us why he did this," Ueyama added.

Here's a clue: Maybe he likes porn.

When It Comes to Economics, The BBC Is Even Dumber Than The New York Times

You would think the BBC editors would eventually get tired of advertising their outright stupidity about economics. Their flavor of the moment is to blame everything including bad weather on the U.S. mortgage industry shakeout.

Get a load of this piece on Japan's economy.

Japan downgrades economic growth

Japan's economy grew by less than previously thought in the third quarter, due to slower investment by firms in new factories and equipment.

So, the Japanese economy grew by less than some people had previously thought it would.

Big deal, I know some people who think Elvis is still alive and kicking. But the BBC can't wait to blame the U.S. for this. They get right to the U.S. bashing in the second paragraph.

The official downgrade added to worries that the world's second largest economy could be hurt by a slowdown in the US.

Then just to make sure you did not miss the finger pointed at the U.S., they do it again a few paragraphs later.

With the crisis in the US housing market casting a shadow over the global economy, Japan's exports are at risk of being hit by a slowdown in growth at its major trading partners.

You see, the idiots running the BBC would have you believe that Japan's entire economy is dependent upon the U.S. The fallacy of this of course is they are totally ignoring the domestic economy in Japan itself.

The BBC editors then come dangerously close to sniffing the truth a little later in the story.

Lacklustre growth and lingering deflationary pressures mean that the Bank of Japan is likely to hold off on raising its key interest rate from the current 0.5% until the latter half of 2008.

Your eyes are not tricking you--the Japan "discount rate" is 0.50% and has been for some time. You see, Japan allows its central banking system, their equivalent of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank system, to be run by politicians rather than non-political experts.

So, the Japanese politicians set the interest rates at outrageously low levels to look like heroes to the public. The problem with this is it sets interest rates so artificially low that money loses it's time value and you screw up your economy.

In economic circles it's called the "liquidity trap" because people don't even bother to put their cash in banks since the interest rate incentive to do so is not there.

Therefore, their monetary policy is pretty much useless and that causes much more damage to the Japanese economy than anything the U.S. mortgage industry is doing.

So the BBC editors either do not understand basic economics or they do and they are not being honest with you.

Sumo Horror in Japan as Woman Enters Ring

Who knows, maybe she's from the Code Pink Tokyo Chapter.


Heavyweights panic as woman dives for sumo ring

TOKYO (Reuters) - A woman invaded a sumo ring -- a sacred arena from which females are banned -- in Tokyo during a major tournament, domestic media said on Thursday, then was pulled down by a referee and one of the sport's huge wrestlers.

The middle-aged woman dashed from the side of the Kokugikan sumo stadium on Wednesday and shoved away a female security guard before rolling onto the ring just as a bout was set to begin, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

The Japan Sumo Association insisted that though the woman did enter the raised platform around the batting ring, she did not set foot on the ring, or dohyo, itself.

"It's bad for the heart," said Takamisakari, a popular wrestler who helped catch the woman, told the Sports Nippon daily. "What was the person trying to do while we were wrestling seriously?"

It was not clear why she had attempted to reach the ring during one of the sport's heavily televised six big tournaments, but she was carrying a bundle of flyers saying "help, bad spirits," Nikkan Sports daily reported.

Japanese Minister Commits Suicide

He apparently was overwhelmed by a series of scandals.

A scandal-tainted minister in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet committed suicide on Monday, compounding problems for the Japanese leader whose support has slumped ahead of a July election.

It was the first suicide by a Japanese cabinet minister since the days after Japan's defeat in World War Two, according to officials at the national library.

"This will have serious political fallout, but at this point it's hard to tell how much," a government official told Reuters.

Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka's suicide came as Abe's public support rate fell to its lowest level since he took office last September, due largely to voter anger over mismanagement of pension premiums that could shortchange retirees.

The dent in Abe's popularity had already increased chances that his ruling camp would lose its majority in the election for parliament's upper house, his first big test at the polls.

Matsuoka, 62, under fire for a series of political funding scandals, died in hospital after he was found unconscious in his room at a Tokyo residential complex for lawmakers.

Blast Near U.S. Base in Japan

This has just come over the wires, so it's developing.

A U.S. Army official confirmed a small explosion outside an American base south of Tokyo, but there were no reports of injuries or damage. An explosion was heard near the base late Monday, and police suspected an attempted attack on the base, Kyodo News agency reported.

The blast was in the area of the U.S. Army's Camp Zama, Kyodo said. The report did not say whether there were injuries or damage.

Police found parts of "launch pad" near the base, Kyodo said, and investigators suspected a "guerrilla attack."

Al Gore blames global warming, The Dixie Chicks blame George Bush, and The Pantsuit blames U.S. involvement in Iraq.

UPDATE: Al Qaeda in Japan?

Intelligence reports in Japan and Pakistan suggest al Qaeda has established a small but powerful presence in Japan, which leads some wondering whether or not today's events are the first attempt at an attack by al Qaeda in Japan.

Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News they have had several reports that Pakistani militant organizations working with al Qaeda had established networks in Japan as far back as 1999.