Women in Japan get groped on trains. This fact of life was the subject of a recent study by JR East and the Tokyo metropolitan government. Japan Today and Yahoo! News: Oddly Enough have stories.

Today I updated my Blogger profile, because it was getting stale, and because “Business Manager” doesn’t quite describe what it is I do. (Nothing really describes what it is I do, so “Renaissance Woman” will have to suffice.) I also changed the random question, because while I liked my “indelible” answer, I ultimately thought the whole thing was doofy.

While I was in there I added some favorite movies and books and music. Then I started browsing through other Blogger profiles, because it’s so easy to just click on the words and have a big chunk of people thrown at you.

I found some really interesting (read: scary) stuff.

First up is a guy who lists his interests as:

angelina jolie, babies, dandelions, zombies, hobbits, Jessi Klein, pumpkin pie, death, world domination, spontaneous combustion, swedish porn, procreation, politics, George Bush, Ashlee Simpson, pop culture.

Yeeeeeeeeeeah.

Then there was a girl who seemed normal enough in her profile, but her posts read like this:

ideally,

all roads lead to home.

how many times then,

would our own roads traverse

our own roads, snarling

to bits

our plans for fits

for jack be quick be nimble?

tripping thick of

greedy finesse. welting

knees upon questing

efficiency, failing blind that

winding faulty path

might, certainly be

the fastest.

the LasTTesT

Double yeeeeeeeeeeah. I guess it’s supposed to be poetry? This is why I don’t like poems ;P

There are a bunch of people with Blogger profiles and 0 posts. I don’t care about those people! Why do they even have profiles? I wish there was a way to automatically exclude them from searches ;P

I did, however, find what appears to be a great blog…and it’s a conservative viewpoint, for a change. I’ll be adding it to my blogroll shortly…so check out Dalton Hammond.

It would be nice if I could find more interesting girl bloggers…

Blogging was part of the plot of a recent episode of The West Wing, apparently.

The perception of [blogs], as illustrated by the show, is that they are quick to respond but lack the ethics and rules that journalists play by.

Every blogger is his/her own editor. That makes it difficult to toe the line of ethics, as I’ve touched on before. It’s just too easy to write whatever you’re thinking, and hit the “publish” button and share those unedited thoughts with the world. I’m so accustomed to this ease that I tend to have trouble writing a journal entry when Blogger is down and I can’t use its post form. It’s nice, but it’s also dangerous, and I think many of us, especially those of us who are 1) newer to the scene and 2) unpublished, are still adjusting.

I just read a very good article from the New York Times called The Terrorist as Auteur. It examines why the terrorists have chosen to kidnap and behead people. While I wish it had gone into more detail in some places–such as the “Muslim humiliation” argument–I was ultimately impressed by the discussion.

The last three paragraphs especially stuck out to me (emphasis mine):

An accomplished terrorist — al-Zarqawi is undoubtedly one — understands us better than we seem to understand him. He knows that the only chance of forcing an American withdrawal lies in swaying the political will of an electorate that, already divided and unwilling, has sent its sons and daughters there. This is where his images become a weapon of war, a way to test and possibly shatter American will. He is counting on our moral disgust and on the sense of futility that follows disgust. Moral disgust is the first crucial step toward cracking the will to continue the fight.

Now let’s not be sentimental about American virtue or scruple. Democracies can be just as ruthless as authoritarian societies, and Americans haven’t been angels in the war on terror, as the images from Abu Ghraib so plainly show. But the willingness of American democracy to commit atrocity in its defense is limited by moral repugnance, rooted in two centuries of free institutions. This capacity for repugnance sustained the popular protest that eventually took us out of Vietnam. Al-Zarqawi is a cynic about these matters: the truths we hold to be self-evident are the ones he hopes to turn against us. He thinks that we would rather come home than fight evil. Are we truly willing to descend into the vortex to beat him? He has bet that we are not.

But his calculation is that either way, he cannot lose. If we remain, he has also bet — and Abu Ghraib confirms how perceptive he was — that we will help him drive us into ignominious defeat by becoming as barbarous as he is. He is trailing the videos as an ultimate kind of moral temptation, an ethical trap into which he is hoping we will fall. Everything is permitted, he is saying. If you wish to beat me, you will have to join me. Every terrorist hopes, ultimately, that his opponent will become his brother in infamy. If we succumb to this temptation, he will have won. He has, however, forgotten that the choice always remains ours, not his.

Great article. Read it.

Running is what sets us apart from the apes, according to scientists. It’s very interesting, but I have to say that the line I’ve quoted as the title of this post is the reason I’m linking to the piece.

They have no buns!!!!

No more squatting over a hole in the ground in Beijing? (I’m sure the citizens of that fair city are thanking the Olympics committee profusely!)

Also, here’s why men stink.

Part of my jack-of-all-trades job at 2go-Box is to update the online menus for our member restaurants. I’m doing Stool Pigeons right now.

Apparently, their baby back ribs are “cooked so slow the chef falls asleep”.

Just thought I’d share that.

(God, doing menus makes me hungry…)

So you can scratch it off your huge list of “Movies Heather Needs To See”. :>

I really, really enjoyed the movie. It was tragic, yet life-affirming. It made me really want to, as the tagline goes, “look closer”.

Everyone, I highly recommend American Beauty.

About the only thing I don’t like about it is the title.

I may do some sort of review later, when I’ve had more time to digest it. Maybe after I’ve watched it again. For now, though, I know Sam hasn’t seen it, and I don’t want to spoil it for him or for anyone else.

So, your homework, children, is to rent American Beauty. Sound off when you’ve watched it ;D

Kelly linked today to this site, a vitriolic lambasting of the American “South”. As the rant included some links, I followed them to see what they had to say.

Most interesting to me were:

• this article that states that Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the nation, while the highest divorce rates are to be found in the South. The article lists some possible reasons; the one I found most compelling was “Southern states have a lower percentage of Roman Catholics, ‘a denomination that does not recognize divorce'”, though the age and education reasons also make sense;
• this comparison of federal taxes paid versus federal tax money spent, which is drawn from this report. If you look at all the states, you can’t say that Northern states lose and Southern states win across the board, but the numbers are still interesting;
• this piece about the Second Amendment and how its meaning has been defined in court; and
• this article stating that the South has the highest murder rates in the nation.

There are lots of things I love about Georgia, and the South in general. My opinion is based more on people, and impressions, than it is on facts and figures. I have to say that there are some people and some impressions I’ve had here that I don’t care for, but you can say the same about any place. In regards to the people, sometimes it’s just because I don’t understand the culture. (Yes, I’m from Kentucky. Whether Kentucky is vastly different from the rest of the South, or it’s because my mom’s from Michigan and Illinois, or it’s just that I have trouble grasping social situations in general, who knows.)

Anyway, at this point I’m just feeling a little confused…I’m not at a point where I want to renounce the South, nor do I want to say that these articles are complete hogwash. Grain of salt time, as usual…but I’m kind of worried that I’ll never make a decision on this. Of course, I have no idea what kind of decision I need to make, and what point there would be in making a decision anyway…

All I really know is that right now, I don’t hate anyone, north or south (or west, or out in the Pacific, or waaaaaay up there next to Canada, or whatever). I think every place will have its positives and negatives, and every place is worth visiting and learning about. That obviously goes for places outside of the U.S., too.

I don’t know if I will ever know enough to decide what’s best for everyone. In some ways it’s safer this way, because then I won’t feel so helpless when I can’t do what I feel needs to be done…but at the same time, I think there is something to be said for being confident in your convictions. And really, where world events are concerned, I’m confident’s opposite.

This is some freaky shit right here. Definitely check out those sample panels.

So yes. Ewwwwwwwww.

I don’t understand thinking that killing innocent people is a justified means to an end. And I don’t understand why you think that kidnapping and killing people who are there to help, who are noncombatants, will make things go your way.

The whole idea of “terrorism” will not work on Americans. To be terrorized, you have to be cowed. Unwilling to fight back. What you are doing will not make us shy away. What you are doing simply cements even more strongly in our minds that you are evil and that you must be stopped whatever the cost.

You apparently killed someone recently who was essentially on your side.

In its statement, her family said: “Nobody can justify this. Margaret was against sanctions and the war. To commit such a crime against anyone is unforgivable. But we cannot believe how anybody could do this to our kind, compassionate sister.”

This act, and all the others like it, will endear you to no one. Rather, we will hunt you down, and we will destroy you for what you have done.

It will take a decade or more. But we will do it. Especially if you keep reminding us why we hate you.

David Lee Roth is training to be a paramedic.

and

A janitor at the University of Great Falls, Montana who recently passed away left the university $2.3 million that he had saved over his long life of hard work.

He was also told to “cut that hair” and “get a real job”.

Seriously, Vince Carter liked listening to music on his iPod during warmups, but apparently his headphones violated the dress code…so off they go.

What a bunch of Nazis :>