tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156478032024-02-08T12:51:25.428+09:00The Eternal GaijinDedicated to that sense of feeling a little out of place at all times - at home and abroad; in high and low culture; along the political spectrum.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever -
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false -
Edward O. Wilson.The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.comBlogger981125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-62797104701912948732010-01-24T05:54:00.001+09:002010-01-24T05:54:13.258+09:00Of course they're always more doucheitudeJust when I think I hit the high notes of religious doucheitude for the start of the new year, Ed Brayton discovers a new twist. And a collection of douchey things said by the great Pat Robertson.I'm thinking of buying a hermit cave and hiding there until the apocalypse, then re-emerging in a mohawk and assless chaps looking for gas in the desert.The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-24372634566834246692010-01-22T07:46:00.001+09:002010-01-22T07:46:43.150+09:00Ah, the sweet smell of dodgy bullshitSigh. Sky News just had a story onthe "choking game," a new internet driven craze where school kids choke each other until unconscious, for shits and giggles. There were any number of BS markers. First, the first victim died of autoerotic asphyxiation - not really the same thing. The second victim died 16 years ago.The tone of the piece was to give the impression that millions of kids were doing The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-52234024070000204522010-01-18T04:10:00.001+09:002010-01-18T04:10:29.910+09:00So much crap out there.I can hardly believe how much crap gets spouted on a daily basis. We're gearing up for an election sometime before mid-May here in the UK, and as we all cynically know that will cause the bullshit-o-meter to hit the redline. Tories, Labour and Lib-Dems, Oh my!So there's only a few moments before my brain explodes talking about politics so let's skip to making fun of god-botherers for a minute. The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-43815136837564858242010-01-11T00:55:00.001+09:002010-01-11T00:55:39.474+09:00Good News from the British War on Photography.Yay. Sorry. Premature. Never mind.The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-78309233009495710992010-01-09T03:34:00.001+09:002010-01-09T03:34:24.414+09:00Add Yoshinoya to the list and you're on to something.50 reasons why Tokyo is the greatest city in the world | CNNGo.comThe Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-3977992794140344182010-01-06T07:00:00.001+09:002010-01-06T07:00:02.547+09:00The reason for the seasonKobe as a city has a significant Christian population, largely due to its extended history of foreign settlement and trading. Over the time we lived in its burbs I found a small, but larger than expected, number of churches in our neighbourhood. We had Japanese neighbours who were various stripes of Christian and had free Japanese language copies of the Watchtower off our next-door neighbours.ButThe Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-24824366652449402502009-11-15T09:03:00.001+09:002009-11-15T09:03:03.143+09:00Thatcher has died :-(Or not...Just another great moment in Canadian relations....The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-12913592447383711542009-10-23T19:45:00.001+09:002009-10-23T19:45:26.491+09:00Urban myth hits the internet. Media coverage ensues.What can you not prove with a little mathishness? A good question.About a month ago there was a little coverage about a pharmacy put up its online calculator that tells you the number of indirect sexual partners you've had. What is an indirect sexual partner it's someone you've not had sex with but one of your sexual partners has. Which basically is that old urban myth twaddle about you're not The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-49963156844192134522009-10-18T18:00:00.001+09:002009-10-18T18:00:32.668+09:00Holy Hopin’ Fuck! Now that’s some old style bullshit.A justice in the US regularly quizzes couples to make sure they aren’t mixed race before issuing marriage license; if they are they don’t get one. Fuckin’ fuck. In 2009 how the fuck does this happen? And in a stunning show of cognitive dissonance these two quotes: Keith Bardwell, of Tangipahoa Parish in Louisiana, denied racism but said mixed-race children were not readily accepted by The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-35769692474096572552009-10-06T00:19:00.001+09:002009-10-06T00:19:27.546+09:00Great Video on the Fine Tuning Argument The universe is not "fine-tuned"Not really sure what else to say about this. Clear and well presented.The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-47180741194441051312009-10-03T20:05:00.001+09:002009-10-03T20:05:13.103+09:00Correlation. Causation. See how they’re spelt differently?That’s cause they’re different fucking words. Now get on with the vaccinations. The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-76174771184666021532009-10-03T02:30:00.001+09:002009-10-03T02:30:19.561+09:00Does torture work yet?Nope. Continue your day. The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-44046546183455271042009-10-02T19:20:00.001+09:002009-10-02T19:20:09.694+09:00Krishna says no moon for you.As long as I've been reading Bad Astronomy I thought I'd seen most of the arguments against the moon landing. They're nuts but they're based on some misperceived reality.Through Steven Novella of the NESS, I learned of a whole new form of crazy:Man On The Moon–A Colossal Hoax that Cost Billions of Dollars | Hare Krishna CommunityAlthough many believe man first reached the moon in July, 1969, we The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-59036659535195488452009-09-30T17:56:00.001+09:002009-09-30T17:56:37.344+09:00He could just reprint this article every couple of months...Rick Mercer's rants on politics and foolishness are one of the things I miss about living overseas for most of my adult life. I'm sure they're not as good as they used to be. Nothing is. My, don't the police look young these days.But in this article he nails why Canadians are ceasing to give a shit about national level politics. Why no one wants an election - The Globe and MailThe Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-53588808889288614792009-09-26T02:08:00.001+09:002009-09-26T02:08:49.613+09:00Okay that's funny ReligiousilYou may inconsistently feel the need both oppose health care reform and to berate others about charity and human decency.The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-32020808593933671592009-09-20T17:21:00.001+09:002009-09-20T17:21:27.929+09:00The Bermuda Triangle...It's not just some place I've been hiding for a couple of weeks while we're trying to sell the flat and move a little further into the 'burbs.No, it's also the subject of a good Radio 4 programme that's still available on iPlayer that goes a nice way to setting the record straight.BBC NEWS | UK | Bermuda Triangle plane mystery 'solved'The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-55425105266206195922009-08-27T01:48:00.001+09:002009-08-27T01:48:43.882+09:00Just fucking shockingThere is just almost nothing I can say that covers my feelings at reading these things. I don't think I can plumb the depths that this pulls the soul down to.The fact that a) someone, anyone, can defend torture b) there exists no political will to do anything about it and, not least, c) that it could happen in a modern first world democracy, such as the US just beggars belief.There are others The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-74359228758040211742009-08-21T19:13:00.001+09:002009-08-21T19:13:50.120+09:00I have an addtional suggestionHow about some fucking handrails here and there. Like right next to the gaping chasms you have all throughout the inside of your Death Star?Star Wars Design FlawsThe new Star Trek movie, good as it was, has the same huge-drop-no-handrail problem.The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-40898790449248175072009-08-19T01:24:00.001+09:002009-08-19T01:24:13.703+09:00And this is why your brain hurtsThis is like a catalog of unalloyed stupidity. I really couldn't want for more. HT to Dispatches.The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-21584724103250062932009-08-18T23:37:00.001+09:002009-08-18T23:37:11.128+09:00Believe me, the stupid burns brightBBC NEWS | UK | Embassies plead 'big issues only'British Embassies are pleading to Brits abroad to take them more seriously. Or at least try a tiny, tiny amount to sort their own asses out before calling the mission. The problem is Brits asking stupid, irrelevant or outrageous things of staff and calling it an emergency. When you look at the list of calls in this article remember one thing: your The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-52448092935488401972009-08-18T23:14:00.001+09:002009-08-18T23:14:12.797+09:00Good newsSomebody finally said it.TheStar.com | Opinion | Harper consistently embarrasses Canada abroadWell in the MSM, anyway. These guys have been on it the whole time.The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-72243585115797612122009-08-11T21:54:00.001+09:002009-08-11T21:54:33.462+09:00That explains the pong on the trains...I currently live in the country that coined the phrase "cleanliness is next to godliness." Coining a phrase and living up to it are two different things. Shower-shy Britons prove a washout - Home News, UK - The IndependentBritons do not scrub up well with two in five men and a third of women failing to have a daily shower, research revealed today.Just over one in ten (11.5%) people in the UK The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-86815313208489389662009-08-11T18:07:00.001+09:002009-08-11T18:07:05.120+09:00I'm proud of Timmy's todayToday's lesson: when in doubt, vet who you sponsor a bit more thoroughly. Tim Hortons backs out of anti-gay marriage eventTim Hortons has reversed its decision to sponsor a Rhode Island rally held by a U.S. group that opposes same-sex marriage, after encountering fierce criticism for the move.The August 16 event, organized by the National Organization for Marriage, is billed as a "Celebrate The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-68295344610918471942009-08-10T22:34:00.001+09:002009-08-10T22:34:48.616+09:00This may actually be worse than the theme song to Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15647803.post-86079920439930869292009-08-10T05:59:00.001+09:002009-08-10T05:59:22.380+09:00If my mother sends me one more of these fucking things I may have to activate her health insurance.First the bullshit. Then the smackdown. The Eternal Gaijinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07719032050853123945noreply@blogger.com0