Mood: Sleepy (as usual)
Currently listening to: But I Feel Good - Groove Armada

Ho hum, and another relatively unproductive day flies by.

Spent the entire day at uni, while the only discernable highlight of my day was the fact that i managed to get some time in to play tennis with my mother. Hrmmm... come to think of it, i do a lot of things with her like watching plays, going to the orchestra, samba and salsa dancing, etc.

Is that at all normal?

Anyhow, too tired to think of anything else to rant about so i'll just get to the filler - the sooner i get to bed the better...

Not feeling overly chirpy at the moment so forgive the lack of excitement, i'm on my last legs of consciousness here.

Ah, what the fuck, here's a smiley:

Japanese Fashion Sense

In a word: Scary.

And by that i'm not talking about their usual 'imaginative' expressions of fashion or - indeed - common sense, much of which is truly debauched and involve the ingestion of fecal matter for 'the fun of it' (don't believe me? Do a google search on 'Scat' and 'Japan'), but for the following series of unbelievably surreal pictures.

I present to you - Japanese Niggaz and Vatos:





Hoo boy, thats a little too hilariously gangsta... You think that's funny? Check out the excerpts from the site i snagged these from:

yes, it's real.

why the fuck are these guys wearing Big Pun sized clothes?

i think they tried to look up 'phat' in their cell-phone dictionaries and wound up with a bad definition.

like, "not only are we fake black people-- now we're fake 500 pound black people."

for their next act these foolios are going to inject themselves with The Gout. "just keepin it real yo."

and why is the guy on the left all acting like he's going to fight me? he's all,

"watch out punk, i'll kick your ass with my huge imaginary fat rolls."

plus, denver.

you know, the hard-ass hood of denver. with all its hard-ass rainbows. all you denver-ass niggas represent, yo!

plus, that shit is so big it's not even a basketball jersey anymore. it's like an APRON. he's all like MC KISS THE COOK.

and is it just me or DO THEY ACTUALLY HAVE SOME KIND OF APPARATUS TO MAKE THEIR HIPS WIDER?

some kind of Scarlett O'Hara hoop-skirt thing going on?

i mean, originally the baggy clothes were so you could conceal guns and shit.

but if your shit is THAT baggy, you'd better have more than just guns.

If you're wearing a tent like that, you'd better be coming with . . what?

like some 4 foot Kill Bill katanas or something.

better yet, like AN ENTIRE HERD OF NINJAS under there.

that would be awesome. just during the live show, all the ninjas just fuckin' pour out of jersey.

sort of a clowns-in-a-little-car effect.

Shit, i couldn't have said it better myself.

And now lets move on to the Japanese Mexican American Wannabes (note the predominant use of the Mexican flags - thats the shit...er...ese). The site's commentary says it all:

but the best, most appealing, wonderfully absurd part of the magazines isn't the fake black people, it's the FAKE MEXICAN AMERICANS. i mean, you somehow knew Japan was full of fake black people, right? but i bet you weren't ready for this Ese or these vatos or for Breakdancing Ultraman. (i guess he's the mascot of one of the lowrider shows, they have more tiny-ass pictures of him busting moves by some cars)







Sweet Jeebus indeed.

And now for something entirely different...

Katana vs Rapier

A.k.a. (for those of you who have no idea as to what i'm talking about):

VS

Yeah, so ever wondered what might have happened if some Venetian fop of a duellist with his duelling rapier took on an actual (unarmored) Samurai? (Classic fencing discussion that it is...)

Well this guy HAS, and he's written a pretty detailed analysis as to the various factors that would have to be taken into account and how the fight might potentially have went - although he, rather sadly, refuses to provide a final conclusive comment on who he thinks would actually win (wuss).

There is typically a view that the katana and rapier represent the ideal cutting blade and the ideal thrusting blade; the "highest" development of East and West. Every once in awhile it's not uncommon to hear people speculate on what result might occur in a duel between a Japanese samurai armed with his katana and an European Renaissance swordsman with a rapier. It's a worthwhile question to consider.

As someone who has some small experience in both Japanese swordsmanship and fencing (kenjutsu & kendo) and who has been a long-time Renaissance swordsman and previously a sport fencer, I can offer an opinion on this question. From my own experience sparring with cutting against thrusting swords, I have a few insights. While there are certainly no historically recorded accounts (other than unsubstantiated folklore and rumor) as to a one on one duel between an European swordsman with a rapier and Japanese samurai using a katana, I think we can make a few very general suppositions about such a hypothetical encounter...

...Personally, from my own experience, I think the outcome of such a fight would fall in one of either two directions: The samurai would move directly to make a devastating cut, becoming punctured through the head, throat, or chest as a result, but still having his cut cleave through the rapier fighter's head and torso (or at least his extended arm). Else, the rapier fighter would over time, make multiple quick, shallow punctures at unpredictable angles of attack to the samurai's hands, arms, and face until able to deliver an incapacitating thrust. But at this same time, the samurai would be carefully closing the distance and waiting until the split second he could dash the rapier aside and step in with a slice clean across his opponent's abdomen or face...

And etc, etc, etc... Its a pretty lengthy article but you can read the whole thing here. Come to think of it, he's even written a companion article pitching a fully-equipped medieval knight against a similarly-equipped samurai warrior.

Desfinitely one for those combat purists out there (aka, those most likely to suffer from violent psychotic tendencies in the near future? *glances at Albert*)... ;p

The Likudization of the World: The True Legacy of September 11

Interesting article, and they really do have a point when you begin comparing it to the current Bush Doctrine:

...In addition to Mr. Sharon’s pronouncements, Israel’s Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom commented that the massacre showed that "There is no difference between terror in Beersheba and terror in Beslan." And the Associated Press quoted an unnamed Israeli official saying that Russians "understand now that what they have is not a local terror problem but part of the global Islamic terror threat. The Russians may listen to our suggestions this time."

The underlying message is unequivocal: Russia and Israel are engaged in the very same war, one not against Palestinians demanding their right to statehood, or against Chechens demanding their independence, but against "the global Islamic terror threat." Israel, as the elder-statesman, is claiming the right to set the rules of war. Unsurprisingly, the rules are the same ones Sharon uses against the Intifada in the occupied territories. His starting point is that Palestinians, though they may make political demands, are actually only interested in the annihilation of Israel. This goes beyond states’ standard refusal to negotiate with terrorists — it is a conviction rooted in an insistent pathologising, not just of extremists, but of the entire "Arab mind".

From this basic belief several others follow. First, all Israeli violence against Palestinians is an act of self-defence, necessary to the country’s very survival. Second, anyone who questions Israel’s absolute right to erase the enemy, is themselves an enemy. This applies to the United Nation, other world leaders, to journalists, to peaceniks. Putin has clearly been taking notes, but it’s not the first time Israel has played this mentoring role. Three years ago, on September 12, 2001, Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked how the previous day’s terror attacks in New York and Washington would affect relations between Israel and the United States. "It's very good," he said. "Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy." The attack, Mr. Netanyahu explained, would "strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive haemorrhaging of terror."

Common wisdom has it that after September 11, a new era of geo-politics was ushered in, defined by what is usually called "the Bush Doctrine": pre-emptive wars, attacks on "terrorist infrastructure" (read: entire countries), an insistence that all the enemy understands is force. In fact it would be more accurate to call this rigid world-view "The Likud Doctrine." What happened on September 11 2001 is that the Likud Doctrine, previously targeted against Palestinians, was picked up by the most powerful nation on Earth and applied on a global scale. Call it the Likudization of the world, the real legacy of September 11. Let me be absolutely clear: by Likudization, I do not mean that key members of the Bush Administration are working for the interests of Israel at the expense of U.S. interests — the increasingly popular "dual loyalty" argument. What I mean is that on September 11, George W Bush went looking for a political philosophy to guide him in his new role as "War President," a job for which he was uniquely unqualified. He found that philosophy in the Likud Doctrine, conveniently handed to him ready-made by the ardent Likudniks already ensconced in the White House. No thinking required.

In the three years since, the Bush White House has applied this imported logic with chilling consistency to its global "war on terror" — complete with the pathologising and medicalising of the "Muslim mind". It was the guiding philosophy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and may well extend to Iran and Syria. It’s not simply that Bush sees America’s role as protecting Israel from a hostile Arab world. It’s that he has cast the United States in the very same role in which Israel casts itself, facing the very same threat. In this narrative, the U.S. is fighting a never ending battle for its very survival against utterly irrational forces that seek nothing less than its total extermination...

Hrmmm... i'll probably let Albert do the commenting on this one. I'll just refrain myself to providing news thanks. ;)

Oh, and in a similar vein you should check out this interview, or rather testimonial, which this guy had with an IDF soldier stationed in Nablus. Its really quite interesting (the name Erez notwithstanding *snicker*)... Then again one should be aware that the url of the website IS 'electronicintifada.net', ok? ;)