February 6, 2024

‘She is more Japanese than we are,’ says Miss Nippon Grand Prix organizer of the new Ukrainian winner

To be a contestant for the annual Miss Nippon (Japan) Grand Prix, there are exactly two requirements: participants have Japanese nationality and are unmarried. A few weeks ago, Karolina Shiino, an unmarried 26-year-old naturalized Ukrainian, took ...

September 4, 2023

Disaster and corruption in the Valley Isle of Maui

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” -Rahm Emanuel Rather than whining to Mother Nature, we need to hold people accountable for the destructiveness of the August 2023 Lahaina disaster.　 Pointing at abstractions like ...

July 13, 2023

Why is Japan pouring money into Ukraine?

“If your gonna play with rattlesnakes, you better know what rattlesnakes do.” --Smokey Yunick.   What did Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, leader of a transparent, liberal democracy, hope to gain by shaking hands with ...

April 22, 2023

Japan wants a good ol' dose of US-grade wokeness

Wokeness is the secular religion that mandates fully embracing "diversity, inclusion and equity."  Sins in this religion, like "racism," "homophobia," "sexism," and so on, are beyond brief lapses in f...