fyoi.com

I was in Costco the other day…that is, Costco here in Japan. The physique of Japanese Costco customers is getting more and more like the typical steroid and fatty tissue physique of Americans. Yet, it’s still Japan. Which means there are still babes.

I saw one girl in particular, shortish hair, flesh hugging lycra pants and a t-shirt. Not something that should be worn by most people. But, in her case, it was perfect. In fact, in her case, it seemed inappropriate for there to be clothes at all. She was that perfect.

I can survive that I guess. I can resist. I had my fun, and now I have a family. But there was one other thing….

Her t-shirt had something written on it. It said Fuck (something), Let’s Just (something). I couldn’t quite catch all the words from where I stood. Instead, I could just see Fuck…Let’s emblazoned across her perfect breasts.

This has nothing to do with anything – except that it’s hard to be good.

An expert (in bananas) says.....

The Guardian ran yet another media hit-piece against the apparently formidable Sarah Palin. I say formidable because this woman, who is after all just a private citizen and, as everybody knows, a ditzy right wing nutcase, seems to inspire absolute fear in all on the left. Witness the AP assigning no fewer than 11 reporters just to dig up mistakes in her book. That kind of attack is unprecedented, and makes me think there must be something about Sarah that makes her worth keeping around.

Now to the point. The media is very skilled at misleading the reader while often avoiding anything that can be called a flat out lie. Of course, the flat out lies are there too, but they try to be a bit more sophisticated. After all, these are mostly graduates of journalism schools, where 4 years are spent in indoctrination and learning how to write with sophistry. They are part of the reason why there are no more Mark Twains in the media.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/15/michele-bachmann-president-sarah-palin

This article purports to be another balanced and objective look at Republican women. In between a few bits of fatuous praise, the article sprays on the fascist paint.  You are meant to walk away believing this stuff. So, let’s look at how to read the Guardian’s non-lies. The boldface is mine.

“a darling of the so-called Tea Party movement, which has campaigned vociferously against healthcare reform”

That’s like saying abortion rights activists campaign against children. Or that a mother who doesn’t want to use her limited funds to buy caviar for her children is against feeding here kids. This takes a very narrow target (the current healthcare bill hastily and secretively being jammed through congress), and calls it something much broader. This is a constant tactic. Though it is tangental to the article, these are sprinkled throughout to paint the broader canvas that supports the Guardian’s ideology. The reader skips right pasts this, but it rests in their subconscious. The next time a tea party story comes along, a little voice in the reader’s head will say “oh, those are the wicked people against reform.”

“frequently appearing on the conservative Fox News channel”

I am still waiting for the day when I hear the words “liberal news channel.” There must be no such thing. This sets the reader up once again, with the subtext that these are not mainstream people.

“notable syndicated commentators such as Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter, whose dislike for liberals has grown ever more shrill in recent months”

Shrill? Ann Coulter. Whatever you think of her, she’s anything but shrill. Again, I never once heard Bush critics called shrill, much less hysterical (which so many of them were).

“All these women express a mood of conservative discontent that is becoming increasingly vocal and, some experts warn, extreme.”

Ooh….danger! Now we get to the meat. These right wing women are promoting extremism. Of course, the author can’t just say that without backing it up. So he uses the word of unnamed and unquoted “experts.” “Experts” are the bogeymen of mass media. Since we are all experts in something, we can all offer similar expert opinions. Of course, experts is what, we don’t know. Not even one was named, much less quoted.

So, when an author claims “some experts say,” they are about to express their own personal opinion without any facts to back it up. Hopefully the reader will swallow that whole as well.

“The (Republican) party is becoming more white and southern”

Oops, they let a lie slip through. Basically, the author wanted to say “racist and ignorant.” He might have used “experts say” before such a slander, but that was already taken up in the preceding paragraph. So instead, he used “white and southern” to say the same thing. It comforts leftists to think of conservatives as all white male rednecks. This is part of the reason they are so hard on female or non-white conservatives. The left’s cartoons portraying Condaleezza Rice were straight out of the Jim Crow era.  Now they were racist.

“But out in the crowd the ugly face of some modern conservatives was not hard to find. There were 12 arrests. One protester wore a mask of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with handfuls of bloody foetuses. Another protester held up a picture of piles of Jewish corpses from Dachau concentration camp.”

Funny that they weren’t bothered by 8 years of Nazi imagery used to describe George Bush. Why the sudden attack of delicacy and sensitivity?

“She has said Obama holds socialist views.”

And he doesn’t??

“what makes liberal Americans laugh or cry has got the conservative wing of the Republican party extremely excited.”

And why not “liberal wing of the Democratic party” and “conservative Americans?” Words are chosen to make one view seem isolated and the other seem.. well, American.

Read it yourself, and ask why the words were chosen. In fact, I even wonder about how leftist reactionaries co-opted the term “liberal,” when they are anything but. But that’s for another day.

Brand-washing

What is it about brands that makes people stupid? That can’t be answered here. It would take several books, many of them already written. It’s a flaw in our DNA is the short answer. In fact, some very smart people get stupid about brands.

To have class is not to have brands. This should be obvious. And common sense should be common, so let me explain. There are many aspects to having class, among them manners, decency, generosity, kindness, humility, appreciation….I could go on, though I hope I don’t have to. These, too, should be common sense. But to keep on track, let’s talk about the kind of class that might otherwise be said “He really knows how to live in style. He’s got Class!“

By this we mean taste and money – the ability to attract envy rather than snickers. Of course, this is not really class. I am of the opinion that even an old bum in a shack on a bubbling volcano. Look at Harry Truman, not the President. The one who lived on Mt. St. Helens. He went with the mountain, refused to leave. Went out with a bang, not to be too painfully coy about it. He had class.

Some guy with a 100 meter swimming pool and a Jacuzzi filled with champagne and naked girls, meanwhile, does not have class. He might be having fun. He might not (he might be gay). Champagne Jacuzzis and naked girls are symptoms of the need to feel envied.  So let’s keep it straight. There’s class, and there’s envy points.

Nothing wrong with seeking envy. We all need a bit of it, at least at first. Then, as we outgrow that, we may still need it…as a business expense. If I’m a get-rich-quick guru, I want to to attract envy. I want people to want what I have. Why? Because I will promise to sell it to them, thereby getting even more of what I have.

So, there are 2 reasons to brag about our taste in Champagne or what brands we buy. One reason is insecurity. The other is strictly business. Either way, the advice that follows will help you.

First: You have to know whose envy you want

Second: You have to know what that target group desires, but doesn’t have

Very simple, and it works like this. The typical rich newbie will say that he loves Dom Perignon champagne. One was even so smug recently that he added “If you know what it is, you know why I like it.” That last part eliminated any good will he might have had up to that point. The fact is, almost everybody knows what Dom Perignon is. It’s not exactly an obscure brandname. And therein lies both its benefits and its problems.  DP, as they call it in Japan, is the Mercedes of champagnes. It’s not a bad champagne, it’s quite good. But, it’s the most commonly known kind of good.

That’s a good thing when the people you want to make envious are mostly not all that sophisticated. It does no good to prattle off the name of an especially rare and prized champagne when the people who hear about it think “Isn’t that the red stuff at the local 7/11?” You’re aim is too high. Save your money and your breath. Buy Dom Perignon, and the same people will coo in admiration at your elevated taste. Bulls-eye.

On the other hand, if your target is someone who has been rolling in money since they were old enough to crap, you may want to aim higher. The thing is, unless the person is a champagne aficionado (whew, I needed the dictionary for that one), you may miss the target there, too.  Ah, but the ones who do get it will quietly bond to you, that rare person who really appreciates the truly fine things in life. So, here’s a brief guide to how to impress, whether aiming low, middle or high.

Champage:

Low- Asti-Spumante

Average- Dom Perignon

High- Tattainger Blanc de Blanc

Very High- Cristal Brut 1990 “Methuselah”

And, for our upcoming post on watches, I will add the following:

Low- Swatch

Average- Rolex

High- Patek Phillipe

Very High- Breguet Double Tourbillion

Photo source: http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gallery/contestcache.asp?contest_id=1645&display=photoshop

“He has class. ”

“She’s a classy dame.”

Words from movies, when movies had class. Before they were called films. And before that bane of the late 20th century…..

‘TUDE

The thing called ‘tude, or attitude when somebody could be both literate and motivated enough to say the whole word out loud. “Tude” was the death knell of Western civilization. And that, for those who don’t know, is a bad thing.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!