Jennifer Matsui is a freelance writer living in Tokyo, Japan. A gifted essayist and polemicist, she ranges over many topics of enduring interest. Stay tuned, in particular, for Jennifer's dispatches from Japan, which we are confident will go a long way to clarify the inner logic of that enigmatic and often contradictory society. She can be reached at:
Terri Schiavo: America's Most Desperate Housewife?
The Keys to the Looted Kingdom Jennifer's jaundiced take on the meaningless choices presented to the American population every four years, with the attendant obsecenity of also wasting billions od dollars in media time, all conducive to further confusion...
The Silence of the Vultures With the Abu Ghraib scandal, the Bush Administration may have accidentally shot itself in its arrogant foot, argues our correspondent in characteristic outspoken fashion.
Dances With Crucifixes America's Christian majority have cause to rejoice over Hollywood's temporary transformation into "Holywood". Families can now safely venture into cineplexes without worrying about what Pee-Wee Herman may have left on the seat. So much for "secular excitement."
The Lethal Stench of Japanese Power In broader terms, "oyaji kusai" can also describe the English language equivalent of "fuddy-duddy"; something staid, dated and hopelessly stale. A friend recently described her new paramour's style as "oyaji kusai" which tells me in two words that he reads the sports tabloids and frequents the kind of places where simperingly cynical hostesses ply him with "mizu wari" (diluted whisky) while inwardly reminding themselves to change the air freshener.
Faith-Based Fascism Like Halliburton, Christ Inc. has become the latest recipient of taxpayer largesse, having won the contract to keep the media out of the news business, and to ensure that power speaks to truth, as opposed to the other way around. Purging the “news” of news is just the latest attempt by religious Brownshirts to stamp their poisonous insignia on every major institution that they don't control lock, stock and barrel...
