No No No No!
I try not to get sucked into these discussions anymore, but part of my daily routine is to open sites like Atimes.com and Antiwar.com and others and when I read certain passages I just can’t help my emotional response.
Last week, during the peak of the Sino-Japanese pissing contest over rocks and gas, I received an email in my company inbox that “encouraged” us to stop writing about, promoting or otherwise dealing with anything Japanese in nature. That same week, a Chili Cook-Off was moved to a more discreet location because it was due to take place on the anniversary of Japan’s invasion of China and it would be “wise” to move the party somewhere where the locals would not have to see it. Throughout the spat, the Western media would report that although rumors persisted that China was halting all economic contacts with Japan, the Chinese authorities maintained that there was no official decree to do so.
Ya just cain’t truss it. Even if there were no official decree, the Chinese are so accustomed to top-down conformity and lateral loyalty to the Nation that every company in China self-censored itself, just in case. Be aware that this is just the beginning and that tariffs on chicken feet are not where this will stop.
And so i turn the page and go somewhere else because China acting like a bully is not what I need to be reading this early in the morning, even though 105% tariffs on chicken feet is really gonna piss off my wife.
The I run into yet another Police State tale and the spectre of Infinite War that makes me shake my head and wonder where in the hell can a man find a home these days. I know that most of America is probably all good and beautiful and free, but can it really keep going on? As long as we have the politics that we have and the people to support it, I suppose the worst we can expect in the US is witnessing the periodic official kidnapping of uppity activists that turn us all into Biedermann.
If I didn’t have such an emotional gut response to this ish, then I might just be a Biedermann too. But here I am, all pissed off at 11am about stuff that … doesn’t really concern me right?
