Tonight's Begin Japanology is about "Satoyama" or beloved Japanese "countrysides" where people live in harmony with nature. The Satoyama lifestyle is sustainable and environmentally friendly and yet the countryside, farmland and forests are amazingly controlled and engineered.

Mitsuhiko Imamori has made the photographic preservation of the Lake Biwa area, his life's work. The landscape is both natural and sculpted by man, almost to the point of resembling works of art worthy of preservation in film. In a sense beautiful but not spectacular...

http://www.imamori-world.jp/

Sigh... Imamori-san has realized one of my dream careers...

Woodlands are being cut down to make way for factories (no one really burns wood anymore) and Satoyama are disappearing. Fortunately some Japanese are not only preserving nature but returning to the lifestyle of "slow living" and immersing themselves in the natural world. Hayao Myazaki is said to have taken long walks in Fuchinomori City, a small Satoyama outside Tokyo, where he gained inspiration for his films.

Pom Poko easily comes to mind...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pom_Poko

12:34:56 7/8/9

The country has lost its mind - Al Franken has (after a bitter battle with rival Republican Norm Coleman) been declared the winner in the Minnesota Senatorial race. This also gives the Democrats potential filibuster-proof voting power in the Senate (potential because not all Democrats vote along party lines)...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090701/ap_on_el_se/us_minnesota_senate;_ylt=Aok7zEKs74W.IXJx2twz3v.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJ1MnEyMmY5BGFzc2V0Ay9hcC8yMDA5MDcwMS9hcF9vbl9lbF9zZS91c19taW5uZXNvdGFfc2VuYXRlBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNmcmFua2Vud2luc20-

First, why in the world would anyone in this country believe that Al Frankin has the temperment or scope of political knowledge to represent the people as a US Senator? Why would you want a sneering, slander-mongering, ideologue like Franken within 100 miles of the US Senate?

Second, now thanks to their super-majority, watch as the liberal control-freaks in the Democratic party try to "fix" the country with unchecked government borrowing, spending and authoritarian rule.

You voted for them folks. I hope you enjoy your vote for vengeance.

The oldest man in the world died today... which means he's now not the oldest man in the world. He was 113 years old and of course was Japanese....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090619/en_afp/lifestylejapanseniorpopulation_20090619065649

Now President Obeyme wants to convert the Federal Reserve BANK into an extension of the federal government. This is just plain wrong. The Fed is an independent BANK and not another government agency, sway to the whims of politicians, yet Barack Obeyme wants to shape the Fed into another federal agency...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obamas-plan-for-Fed-worries-apf-869253138.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=

Republican Senator David Vitter...

"All of a sudden the Fed is acting more like a department of the government than an independent bank..."

This is all in keeping with how Barack Obama sees his role as President, not as executing the responsibilities of his office, but as reengineering the roles of the branches of government to fulfill his WANTS.

The result is the White House doing the job of the bankruptcy courts.

The demonization of individuals and classes of citizens (who have committed no crimes) for purely political gain.

The hiring and firing of CEOs and boards of directors and transfer of private wealth without due compensation.

The nomination of a social activist judge who sees the court system as a policy making body and WILL legislate from the bench.

A massive grab for power using legislative excuses like "stimulus funding" and "health care reform".

And the reengineering of the Federal Reserve Bank to serve the whims of politicians, not monetary policy.

Hitler and Mussolini did the same when they took power, although to a much greater extent. The pattern is disturbingly similar...

Today President Obeyme spoke at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association and once again he is conjuring up horror stories so as to garner support for another of his government programs, insisting that the entire American health care system may go broke if we don't adopt President Messiah's all-powerful health care reform elixir:

"If we do not fix our health care system America may go the way of GM, paying more, getting less, and going broke..."

First it was "we are facing *dire* consequences if Congress doesn't pass my economic stimulus package"...

Now it's "we are facing economic bankruptcy if Congress doesn't adopt my health care system"...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-presses-doctors-to-back-apf-15528850.html?sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=

This is ridiculous. Just how many times does Obama think he can get away with bludgeoning the American public with fantasies about economic ruin with THE ONLY solution to our problems being *his* big spending federal social programs? And with no evidence to support his assertions?

And why is the cost of health care "a ticking time bomb" for the federal government while Obama's spending programs aren't? Wasn't it Obama himself who increased the nation's deficit to almost $2 trillion this year with a projected $20 trillion in 10 years? Why isn't Obama dealing with the incredible inefficiency and lunacy of government entitlement programs that are soaking the American taxpayer dry? No wait I'll answer that: Because liberals LOVE the control inherent in federal government spending programs and will do NOTHING to curb them.

I'm also struck by Obama's claim that GM "racked up huge healthcare costs that made them uncompetitive." No.... the UNIONS built those costs into their benefit packages, saddling GM with the costs. The same unions whose total compensation and legacy costs (.vis. health care and pensions) bankrupted GM.

But what really appalls me is President Obeyme's insistence on fabricating villains and victims to gain support for his "necessary" government programs. This time it's unnamed enemies who "resist progress" and are "too greedy or stupid" to adopt his wisdom...

"There are those who will try and scuttle this opportunity no matter what..." and "When you hear the naysayers claim that I'm trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They are not telling the truth..."

This is how the Democratic party has ALWAYS garnered support... whipping the people up into a hateful frenzy with wordcraft. Portraying opposing voices as "ignorant", "deceitful" and "greedy". Creating convenient villains who must be fought at all costs to build a shiny progressive future!

Democrats and their cheerleaders in the liberal media demonized George Bush in the same manner, calling him "divisive", a "fear-monger" and "deceitful." At least George Bush was fighting a known and tangible enemy. Obama is fabricating economic collapse with one hand and then calling the "all clear" as soon as he gets what he wants. Now THAT'S deceitful and fear-mongering!

One day the American public will wise-up... if they don't, then they deserve everything they voted for.

Now it seems President Obeyme's advisors want the administration to plan our cities. Why not? They're already planning and controlling the economy, banks, auto industry, CEO pay and firings, appointment of boards of directors, "hiring armies of educators"... why not get into the city planning business as well?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5516536/US-cities-may-have-to-be-bulldozed-in-order-to-survive.html

Since when is it the job of the federal government to determine how big cities should be?

Or where people can live?

Where businesses can grow their markets?

How resources should be allocated ... and to whom?

Isn't the governance of cities the job of the State governors, legislatures and mayors? Or are they also going to cede their responsibilities and roll over like puppy dogs for the Obamessiah?

Instead of an outright scourging, why not turn these neighborhoods over to Habitat For Humanity for RENEWAL? Why are the people who will be displaced by this total raising of cities being IGNORED, or could it be that these workers and neighborhoods will fall under a new age federal welfare program and further dependency on the federal government for their housing, employment, prosperity?

Come to think of it, why are the urban centers that are failing, also the beneficiaries of leftist/socialist state governments who have perpetuated big unionized industries and disincentivized entrepreneurship and a diversity of company growth?

This is the stuff that contracts wealth and revenue, yet President Obeyme's advisors are recommending plowing the symptoms under while President Obeyme perpetuates dependency on the federal government with offers of CANDY, prosperity, TARP funding, and nationalized .

"The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful. If they're shrinking, they're failing."

Sadly, the obsession with deliberate control by a social activist government is also an unhealthy liberal obsession... or perhaps I should say "leftist" since liberal ideology has nothing to do with "liberty" from which the word was hijacked.

The growth and contraction of cities is a natural EMERGENT PROPERTY and should not be deliberately controlled or engineered by edicts handed down from the federal government. The American public is simply handing over their freedoms to control and power-obsessed politicians in return for an IMAGINED and HOPED FOR prosperity.

You're all becoming welfare bums and you deserve exactly what you voted for.

Say hello to the coming fascist dictatorship....

Today, the *White House* announced that GM will go into bankruptcy...

White House Announces GM Bankruptcy

What is the *White House* doing making announcements about corporate bankruptcies? This is a matter for the COURT SYSTEM, not the White House and the Obama administration. So why is President Obama meddling in affairs that are none of his business?

Since when does the President of the United States demand restructuring plans for ailing companies and dictate to them arbitrary time tables for delivery of these plans?

Since when is the President of the United States responsible for judging the adequacy of these restructuring plans?

Since when does the Constitution give the President authority to fire CEOs, order companies into bankruptcy, or dictate how much compensation debt holders are to receive in return for bonds? Senior debt holders have every right to expect 100% of their investment, but not under the dictates of the Obama administration.

Since when is the federal government allowed to transfer wealth from legitimate owners of a company (the shareholders) over to parties (the labor unions) which do NOT own the company?

Why does Barack Obama somehow *feel* that existing contract and corporate law doesn't apply to him?

Since when does the Federal Government appoint directors to a company's board? That's a privilege granted ONLY to shareholders, and yet the Obama administration is slated to remove the majority of directors from GM's board and replace them with Obama's own apparatchiks.

But wait, you might add, the Federal Government *does* own 60 percent of GM. Yeah, only through backroom deal making. I don't recall a special shareholder's meeting convened to approve the float of any new shares of stock... and I seriously doubt the Obama administration truly purchased these "shares" in the open market.

This "purchase" was entirely dictated and engineered by the Obama administration and politicians, not the free market. In fact the 60% equity stake was actually paid for as a government "loan" and results in only (temporary) nationalization. That's the good news. The bad news is the heavy handed way in which the Obama administration discarded free markets, contract law and normal business practices to achieve what it WANTED.

Needless to say the new board of directors will build parking lots full of fuel efficient, green cars which conform, not to the demands of consumers, but to the dictates and policies of the Obama administration. Consumers will buy these cars whether they like them or not because GM will build them by the ton and they will be heavily subsidized by the government as part of it's energy and envrionmental programs.

Why does this have the eery ring of Adolph Hitler's commissioning of the Volkswagen in 1932?

http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/car_info_volkswagen_beetle.htm

We are indeed living under a dictatorship. The checks and balances are falling one by one... two branches of government down, one to go and then there will be no constraints on the Democratic Party's social activist meddling in the private affairs of Americans.

The following article from Pravda, while brief, is striking...


"It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people..."

You can be sheep led to the slaughter for the benefit of government and someone else's political power or you can grow out of your academic fantasies of state-run utopia and grow to be men and women, instead of sheep...

http://www.pjtv.com/video/Klavan_on_culture/_Why_Are_Conservatives_So_Mean%3F/1949/

Alexis de Tocqueville saw this coming...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_despotism

So did one of the founding fathers of this country, Thomas Jefferson...

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

So have many conservatives, but no one listens to them because they're all "greedy" and "evil".

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

-- Thomas Jefferson

Last night, while soundly sleeping in the guest room, I was visited by Sophie. With a glint in her eyes, she purred seductively to herself, and silently padded into the room, her desires clear and undeniable. Padding closer and closer .... she hopped up on the bed and proceeded to walk all over me, followed by kneading, pawing at my chest, clawing and rumbly purring .... and then once she had my attention, running out of the room for some other shiny kitty pursuit.

Yeah just like all the females in my life.

Later, at a more civilized hour of the morning, I was greeted by warm sunshine and a PRS mug filled with hot hazelnut coffee. A quick shower and we're off to haul the *old* couch and mattress back to Butch's place, this time to the Wayne's World soundtrack. Stopped off at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and then an hour's drive across beautiful countryside under a warm blue sky.

Hauling the old couch and mattress into his place was comparatively easy despite the uphill flights of steps.

It occurs to me that Butch must have had the past two days planned out for years. Who gave me those ratchet straps for my birthday? Who gave me the tool kit and socket set for being best man at his wedding? Who let me test drive his truck and accompanied me to several years' worth of auto shows and particularly to the new truck floor when I was looking to buy a new vehicle?

Oh yeah.... he had this moving day well planned in advance.

You just never realize how many friends you have until you own a truck, tools, ratchet straps, packing blanket, hand truck, etc...

Butch needs help moving a couch so I'm heading up to his old townhouse this afternoon ... but first, I'm window shopping at Guitar Center. Ahhhhh, the smell of fresh Spring guitars and amps. Chatted with one of the techs as he was finishing a Fender Precision Bass and was surprised to discover that the truss rod on the Precision is adjusted at the foot of the fretboard, not at the headstock like in a Stratocaster. Drooled over the $15,000 1966 Fender Stratocaster and PRS Dragon... and sneered at the "road worn" models, all of which are road worn in exactly the same way. Found a bottleneck slide that fits my ring finger just right (always the ring never the pinky).

I'm in my Happy Place.

But I'm also late to meet Butch and thanks to viscous traffic snarls I arrive an hour late. We're both hungry so its off to Happy Uncle for General Tso's! After wolfing down my yearly carb intake, we're back at Butch's place removing the feet from the couch with my socket set, and then hauling his big ass couch out to my truck followed by a queen mattress. Holy crap that thing weighs a ton! Secured both pieces with ratchet straps and set off for Ellicot City by sunset to the strains of Dwight Yokum and the mighty Bakersfield sound.

The back way takes a little longer, so we arrived in Ellicott City perhaps an hour later, but first we have to move an old mattress and couch from the house, drop them in the driveway and then lug the even larger couch off the truck and to the front door ... and then we realized we have to remove the feet all over again to fit the couch through the front door. Out comes the socket set and off come the feet. Dragged the new couch and cushions into the living room, wrenched the feet back on and hauled it against the wall.

But the fun isn't over because now we have to do something with the couch and mattress sitting out in the middle of the driveway... yup those are heaved up into the bed of the truck, ratcheted down and then the truck moved under the car port for the night.

Phew!

"Good truck... good boy!"

Every office should have a pet like this.

Ponder the name of their new pet... took me a while...

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090506

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090507

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090508

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090509

The backstory is that they are opening an office in India...

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090427

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090501

Star Trek Meets Monty Python...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVjkTEIoJc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Face%2Emu%2Enu%2Farchives%2F286780%2Ephp&feature=player_embedded

Amazingly enough there's more than one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PGcnM10lA&feature=related

The Agatha Christie sketch...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0BuKYiwhVQ&feature=related

And this classic. I couldn't stop laughing the first time I saw it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uprjmoSMJ-o

After a quick breakfast at McDonald's, Butch and I head up to Thurmont Maryland to help with the 4-H Therapeutic Riding Program as volunteers...

http://www.fc4htrp.org/

Cough up some money or volunteer support if you can guys, its a good cause.

Cloudy, rainy skies mean we're in the indoor riding arena. Butch and I assisted three riders (Carlos, Ian and Casandra) and I provided my appraisal of student progress (heels down, toes forward, hands together, etc). Plenty of noses were on hand to pat (both equine and canine) and Abby has a nice smooth gate at the trot but is a total wanton whore for head scritches. Footing material made from shredded tires is forgiving on the hoofs and reduces the dust in the arena, not to mention creating the world's largest litter box.

Afterwards, speaking with Debbie the owner/operator, I discovered that Sally Swift, author of "Centered Riding" died this past month. Oh that is sad...

http://www.centeredriding.org/articleshow.asp?story=158

After two or three hours of volunteer work at the farm, we hydrated at the nearby 7-Eleven, visited my mom, swapped a new battery into her car and dropped off some stuff at storage, all completed in time to get Butch home.

And it continues raining...

Driving home I note how Tysons Corner now resembles the sacking of Isengard... the landscape stripped clean of every tree and bush, and once flat land replaced by mountains of earth. This is nothing like the neighborhood I moved to so many years ago!

Yeah I remember him...
http://www.elwp.com/Joe%20Cocker.html

Nom Nom...
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/04/24/funny-pictures-bwainz/

One ugly cat...
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/04/22/funny-pictures-bursting-with-joy/

So that explains it...
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/02/18/funny-pictures-voices-tell-me-things/