Jon Benet Murderer Arrested

The Thai press (at least the English-language kind) is abuzz over the arrest of Jon Benet Ramsey’s alleged killer. He lived pretty close to one of my friends, apparently. But as for my take (not that anyone asked), The Onion sums things up rather nicely:

“An accused murdering sex-offender goes into hiding, and no one thinks to check out Thailand?”

In other news, the man apparently tried to get a sex change while in Thailand. They’re cheap here at around US$1600, so maybe he just had some extra cash lying around and wanted to see what would happen.

Some people just “get” Japan without even coming here


Conversation with a friend back in Philly:

Wade: it's been raining here like crazy
Wade: the delaware flooded a few weeks back
Wade: a whole bunch of jersey girls were forced to use their big hair as floatation devices
Joe: yeah, here too... there was a big front that passed through all of japan at once so the whole country was in a couple of inches of rain
Joe: there were landslides etc.
Wade: oh shit
Wade: but then Koizumi stopped the flooding with his BARE HANDS

I don’t doubt that he could. (For that matter, I don’t doubt that his hair could be used as a floatation device.)

Awwwww, yeah

King Becomes Prime Minister’s Chauffeur

Aqaba, Jordan (AHN) — After King Abdullah of Jordan hosted a dinner in the city of Aqaba Thursday for visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, he decided to chauffeur him Koizumi back to his hotel.

Koizumi stated, “I did not think the king himself would take me back to my hotel.”

After the king and prime minister talked for two hours over dinner, the king suddenly suggested that he drive Koizumi to his hotel in a Range Rover.

With the king behind the wheel, they arrived at Koizumi’s hotel in high spirits, joking in the Range Rover until Koizumi got out.

Thanks to fark.com 

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First potential client: the “Independent Insurance Agents of Japan, Inc.

Sirs: We must sadly inform you that nothing makes you look less professional and more like pedophile hitmen than proclaiming “We Are the Professional” on your website.

“You’re such a Japanophile, your picture is in Wikipedia”

Seriously. Quote from one of the people supporting the picture’s inclusion in Wikipedia:

I reapplied the picture from the original inserter because it fits the catagory properly. It is only helpful to the this word listing, and follows closely what the wiki definition is. Saying he is an expertert in Japanese culture is pretty bogus, but then again, a Japanophile never really is classified as an expert. It says within the definition itself as a misguided interest sometimes. “Japanophile” is not something that one person can represent, but this picture and what this person has done makes this picture adequate.

Then someone decided to replace the picture with Lafcadio Hearn. Then someone added the picture back, saying:

Though the addition of Lafcadio is notable, it was far from purposes of benefit of the article, but more to suite your harassment of the “Japanophile” picture. You seem to be trying to crash this picture as well as the one simular on another article for your own personal goals, not the benefit of Wiki. Lafcadio does suit this article, but I have reinstated the previous picture also as it touches on the fanatic/popular culture side of Japanophile which is so common today and what most people recognize the word as.

This is one of those rare situations where you can really learn more from the commenters at Japundit than from Wikipedia.