INTERESTING TIMES

I didn't realize until I read this on the BBC that so many Japanese would like the American naval base removed from Okinawa. Hatoyama, the current prime minister, was elected with great enthusiasm after he said he'd remove the base but now he's squirming and saying he can't do it. Instead he offers to move the US naval base to a less populated part of the island. He will probably lose his job over it.

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Yesterday (while studying biochem) I halfway listened to the democratic presidential candidate debate on NPR and the first (of 3 toughies) question that they tackled was Iran. The whole time the candidates were dancing around the questions of "how dangerous are they" and "are we justified to attack" I was thinking about what a reasonable leader (in Iran or elsewhere) would do in response to the demonstrated threat posed by the United States of America.
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There's something very reassuring about reading Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival. My sense of dread over US behavior in the world has escalated over the last few years, and my frustration with people's ignorance has been paired with a feeling that perhaps I am nuts... Perhaps my perception of what is happening is all wrong. But Chomsky tells me that I am not crazy. Chomsky tells me that indeed, fascism IS good for business, and the events of today are founded firmly in long traditions and developing philosophies. His writing is dense and it flows from subject to subject. It requires some intelligence to follow him, and he is sometimes ironic or even sarcastic. But I feel better just knowing that this one foreign affairs buff and brilliant linguist sees the same things happening in the world that I do. I am not alone.