News to me: Rocky was based on a true story

I was recently reminded of the Rocky movies when I was assigned some translation work related to the new sequel that’s coming out. Don’t ask me what it was, but I’ll tell you one thing: if I never hear the exchange at the end of the trailer again (Boxer: “What it that, from the 80s?” Rocky: “More like the 70s”), it’ll be too soon.

The Rocky movies have been great for their cheesy charm (sweet music), Rocky’s dogged determination and slurred speech (caused by Stallone’s own real-life speech impediment), and finding just the right mix of sports movie cliches to make them work. They inspire me (to the extent that I ever get inspired) in basically the same way as the awesome training scenes in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. That’s why it was especially heartwarming to hear from Ask Yahoo! that there really was a Rocky:

Sylvester Stallone’s signature character was inspired by a real-life boxer named Chuck Wepner.

Wepner, who calls himself “The Real Rocky,” had been a professional pugilist for many years when he challenged Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight title in 1975. An ex-Marine, Wepner was asked before the fight if he thought he had a chance against the Greatest of All Time. Wepner allegedly answered, “I’ve been a survivor my whole life…if I survived the Marines, I can survive Ali.”

In fact, Wepner did more than just survive. In the ninth round, he actually introduced Ali to the canvas. Wepner eventually lost, but he was the only fighter to ever knock down Ali while Ali was the champ.

Stallone watched the fight and soon went on to write “Rocky,” the story of a down-and-out boxer who gets his shot at the heavyweight title and goes the distance against a boisterous and beloved champion.

I’m sure, had I been old enough and cared about boxing, I’d probably be aware of that major event in Ali’s career. Still, it’s news to me. I don’t suppose the real Rocky went on to fight drug-addled supercommunists, though, did he?

So, that’s my message to the Democrats today: go the distance and see try not to lose by decision!

The first baby (almost) adopted from China

The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department’s Office of the Historian and printed volumes are available from the Government Printing Office.

While perusing the table of contents of a random volume of this wonderful collection I found the following very fascinating exchange. They are of course all fascinating, but perhaps since my own little sister is adopted (although not from China) I found this one particularly special. Apologies for the lousy formatted text, but it is the product of un-edited OCR software. I have corrected a few obvious errors, but making it all pretty is a bit much.

CITIZENSHIP AND RIGHT OF ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES
OP A CHINESE ADOPTED BY AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.

Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State.
No. 389.] AMERICAN LEGATION,
Peking, September 6, 1906.

SIR: I have the honor to enclose herewith copies of my correspondence with the American consul-general at Hankow regarding the adoption by an American of a Chinese baby girl. My opinion is asked as to whether the child may, through adoption, become an American citizen, and be taken to the United States and brought up as any ordinary adopted child of American extraction.

I have expressed my belief that under the present laws a Chinese infant
can not thus become an American citizen, but that possibly the child could
be taken to the United States and there educated under the privileges pertaining to the exempt classes of Chinese persons.
I have the honor to beg that the department will express its opinion as
to my course of action.
I have, etc., W. W. ROCKHILL.

[Inclosure 1.J

Mr. Martin to Mr. Rockhill

HANKOW, August 21, 1906.
SIR: I have the honor to inclose herein the copy of a letter just received
from Miss Carrie M. Ericksen, together with a copy of my answer thereto.

Will you be so kind as to express your opinion on the subject, through me,
to her, that she may be the better satisfied.
WM. MARTIN.

[Subinclosure 1.]

Miss Ericksen to Mr. Martin.

AUGUST 15, 1906.
DEAR MR. MARTIN: I am writing these few lines to ask a favor of you. We
have under our care a Chinese baby girl who was thrown out to die by her
parents and we want to know if it is possible to take her with us to the
United States next spring. If so, under what conditions. I wish to adopt
her and have her brought up in my home as an American citizen. Will you let
me hear from you at your earliest convenience, and oblige, CHINA. 289

[Subinclosure 2.]

Mr. Martin to Miss Ericlcsen.

Miss CARRIE M. ERICKSEN,
Sin Tsai Hsien, Honan:
I am in receipt of your letter dated August 15, 1906, and in reply would
say, that as to your asking whether you can take a baby Chinese girl into
the United States, you having adopted her, as far as 1 know it would not
be permitted. I will, however, communicate with the American minister at
Peking on the subject, and on receiving his answer will forward it to you.

WILLIAM MARTIN.

[Inclosure 2.]

Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Martin.

PEKING, September 6, 1906.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 218 of August 21, inclosing copies of your correspondence with Miss Carrie M. Ericksen regarding her proposed adoption of a Chinese baby girl as an American citizen and asking my opinion on the subject.
In reply I beg to say that I can find no record in this legation of a similar
case, but I am of the opinion that under the present laws the child could
not be declared a citizen of the United States through adoption. It might
be possible, however, for her to be brought to America for the purpose of
education under the laws governing persons of exempt classes, but that is
not the point upon which Miss Ericksen desires information.
I have submitted the case to the Department of State, and on receiving a
reply therefrom will immediately inform you of its contents.
W. W. ROCKHILL.

The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Rockhill.
No. 209.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, November ~, 1906.

SIR: In answer to your dispatch, No. 389, of September 6 last, asking whether
a Chinese child adopted by an American citizen in China may be admitted to
the United States for the purpose of being educated, I inclose herewith,
for your information, a copy of a letter from the Acting Secretary of Commerce
and Labor, stating that a~ child born of Chinese parents in China can not
be permitted to enter the United States as an American citizen because of
its adoption by a temporary resident of China who is a citizen of the United
States, and that you are correct in holding that the persons interested in
the child should adopt the usual procedure to insure its admission to this
country, namely, the procurement of a certificate under the provisions of
section 6 of the act of July 5, 1884.
I am, etc., ROBERT BACON.

Your seatmate is NOT your psychologist

This NYT article struck a chord with me:

WHAT is it about flying in an airplane that seems to remind some passengers of a church confessional?

I remember flying overnight from New York to London next to a dour-looking middle-aged man who kept his peace until his second Scotch. Which is when he revealed that he was a civil engineer. A very, very unhappy civil engineer.

“My profession gets no respect,” he griped. “We design all your bridges and roads, but when do you hear anything about a civil engineer?”

He didn’t wait for an answer.

“That’s right,” he continued, “only when a bridge collapses! And why should I be blamed when the contractor probably chose the lowest bidder?”

…

Another seatmate, a young Navy enlisted man, spent the first several hours of a transcontinental flight studying a book whose pages contained all kinds of triangles, arrows and symbols. He closed the book as our plane began descending to land and spoke to me for the first time.

“Don’t tell anyone,” he confided in a low voice, “but I am actually flying the plane.”

It all had something to do with an arcane kind of witchcraft, the key to which was in the book he held closely, he said. I hoped his job in the Navy involved a desk, not weapons.

I don’t fly nearly as much as the author, but I must be a magnet for this kind of behavior. I’ve had a 13 year old girl brag to me about making out with restaurant valets, a Japanese emigrant to America tell me about her 50 year long marriage to an Army officer, a half-Japanese chemist talk of suing to protect his farmland near Narita Airport, and several others who for some reason thought I was just the right person to tell about their problems. It would be one thing if I actually made friends with someone on a flight, but in these cases I always end up feeling used like the proverbial hole in the ground. Sometimes it is marginally interesting to hear some random person’s whole life story, but it almost never cancels out what I lose in reading or sleep time. People should really just keep their mouths shut unless they actually know how to have a conversation.

What’s behind the issue of readmitting “postal rebels” to the LDP?

When Koizumi kicked 37 Lower House members out of his own party for opposing his postal privatization bills, it made for brilliant political theater. But as the upper house has pointed out, banishing experienced politicians with extensive support networks can prove counterproductive in tougher election years. So, recently there has been a debate within the LDP over whether to allow some of the “rebels” back into the party. But apart from the general concerns over the upper house election, just what is behind this debate?

Thankfully, my efforts to scour every single Diet member’s web site have started to pay off. Opposition DPJ upper house member Tetsuro Fukuyama (Kyoto), has some guesses:

Tetsuro’s Diary, Nov. 6
…

(1) Of course this is a measure for next year’s upper house election. In single-member districts in every prefecture, success in the election will turn on whether powerful postal rebels take action. On top of that, Taiju, an association of [former] special post office [postmasters], and other groups are more than likely of a mind to fight in the proportional representation race using the organizational strength of the postal rebels. It’s first and foremost geared toward the election.

(2) As you may know, the deadline for Diet members to register for government subsidies for political parties is the last day of December. As you can see from the fact that the timing for people to join and leave parties has almost always been at the end of the year, it would not be surprising if this recent scandal, too, centers around the money. That’s because if the postal rebels and unaffiliated members were already members of the LDP, then the party’s subsidy, in other words the funding for its activities, would probably substantially decrease. Meanwhile, if the rebels manage to rejoin the party by the end of the year, their party subsidies coming to the LDP will increase. (tr: here he seems to be implying that the postal putsch was a scam to earn more party subsidies)

(3) Leading up to next year’s nationwide local elections, local assembly members have to deal with two Diet members in their districts, the postal rebels and the “assassins” sent in to replace them, likely resulting in quite a bit of confusion in the regions. This is a life-or-death issue for local Diet members of various affiliations, so they probably want to resolve this issue quickly.

(4) If the rebel issue continues to drag on, then the LDP will have to campaign for the upper house next year with an unpleasant aftertaste, and after the upper house election, a great amount of time and effort will be wasted sorting things out in preparation for the next lower house election. If the issue of bringing the rebels back into the party is left unresolved, then they cannot get to work preparing for the next lower house election.

(5) Still, public opinion would object if the LDP easily let them back, posing the risk that it might have a negative effect on the upper house election. This makes judgment difficult, and a decision cannot be reached. The Japanese people are watching the slowdown after ex-PM Koizumi closely, as they should. Although Abe and the LDP leadership are placing some sort of conditions on reinstatement, such as agreement with Abe’s policy speech and principles, it would be an understatement to say that such statements lack persuasiveness.

This reinstatement issue is only for the LDP and Diet members and election, and the Japanese people have nothing to do with it. In any case, they are taking the Japanese people for fools. The Japanese people should be more angry at the fact that this type of debate is taking place.

MOF vs. MIC, local entities in deepening conflict over budget

I’m just trying to get my head around this story from FujiSankei Business-i:

MOF vs. MIC, local entities in deepening conflict over budget

FujiSankei Business i. 2006/11/6 　

Hot issues: JFM, early return of FILP funds

Leading up to the 2007 budget revision, conflict is deepening between the Ministry of Finance, which touts fiscal reconstruction, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), which is backed up by the sentiments of local self-governing groups (i.e. municipalities). The two major issues are the scheme of how to deal with the Japan Finance Corporation for Municipal Enterprises (JFM), a government-owned financial institution slated for abolishment, and compensation for the early payback of funds from the Fiscal Investment and Loan Program (FILP). Debate is likely to heat up going into Nov 21, when the Deliberative Council on the Fiscal System (an advisory body to MOF) is set to finalize its budget proposal.

The MIC/municipalities side has taken the stance that the national government should subsidize the regional areas through various program revisions. MOF, meanwhile, has emphasized that the nation’s fiscal condition is even worse than that of regional areas. The two sides have collided head to head, with MOF offering up such criticisms as “The regional areas are not making serious efforts to reform the civil service.”

A typical example of this conflict is found in the JFM issue. The JFM historically procured funds from the market by issuing government-backed bonds, and lent those funds at long-term, low interest to municipalities’ water/sewage systems, hospitals, etc. However, after it is eliminated in 2008, it will transition into a new organization owned by the municipalities. The issue here is how to deal with the 2.6 trillion yen in reserves that the corporation had built up in preparation for a rise in interest rates.

MOF is of the position that, since the JFM is a 100% govt-owned financial insitution, “the leftover assets should be widely used for the people for fiscal reconstruction etc,” and is demanding that the reserves be placed in the national treasury. The MIC, in response, claims that the entire sum should be handed down to a successor organization to be jointly owned by the municipalities. At present there is no compromise in sight.

Meanwhile, the issue of compensation for early return of FILP funds began with a proposal from the municipalities. most loans received by municipalities from the government-owned financial institutions are long-term, with payback periods ranging from 20-30 years, and many of those loans were taken out during the era of high interest rates. As a result, the municipalities want to refinance while low interest rates continue, but in that case they will be required to pay compensation. Since the compensation depends on the number of years left on the loans, in reality, it will cost the majority of the future interest burden.

To that, the MIC is demanding the introduction of a system to eliminate the compensation requirement, but MOF has expressed virulent opposition. Since the compensation system was made clear in the contract signed at the time of the loan, the MOF’s stance is that the arrangement is valid whether the interest rates go up or down. Masaaki Honma, chairman of the MOF’s FILP Committee and member of the Deliberative Council, harshly questions the MIC’s attitude, remarking, “Eliminating the payment of compensation that was stipulated in the contract would be defaulting.”

The rift between the two sides is deep, placing focus on how the Prime Minister’s office will judge the matter. It will likely also be used as fodder to divine the depth of the PM’s leadership on near-term fiscal management.

RSS Feeds of Diet Members’ web sites, aggregated

Don’t say I never gave you anything.

I sifted through each individual web site of Japan’s lawmakers (members of the Diet) and placed any RSS feeds I found into Google Reader. Compared to the 722 seats in the Diet, only I only picked up 150 individual members with feeds.

That doesn’t mean Japan’s politicians are not active on the web. All but about 10 or so (mostly the elderly and entrenched – like “Don of the Upper House “Mikio Aoki” – or just too cool for the web – like our man Koizumi) had websites (another 10 members’ sites were down for various reasons), about 90% of them kept up-to-date content on the site, and a good majority provide a wealth of content either in the form of opinions or activities reports. There is, perhaps, a downside to that – they aren’t spending their time drafting legislation (in many cases the job of the PM’s office or autonomous bureaucrats). What I am saying, however, is that most of them are behind the times – lots of websites with early-2000s site designs, and one member even had a Geocities page!

But that aside, here are the links to the RSS feeds that were available, broken down by cameral and party affiliation (Click the party link to see the aggregator site):


Lower House (House of Representatives) (480 seats total; 114 feeds)

  • Liberal Democratic Party (295 seats as of 10/22/2006; 62 feeds)
  • New Komeito (31 seats, in a coalition with LDP to form ruling coalition; 3 feeds)
  • Democratic Party of Japan (113 seats; 43 feeds)
  • Japan Communist Party (9 seats; no feeds, but here’s their sweet English-language site)
  • Social Democratic Party (7 seats; 3 feeds)
  • Minor parties/unaffiliated (total 25 seats, includes Kokumin Shinto (New People’s Party, 4 seats) and Shinto Nippon (New Nippon Party, 1 seat); 3 feeds total)

    • Upper House (242 seats; 37 feeds)

  • Liberal Democratic Party (112 seats; 12 feeds)
  • New Komeito (24 seats; 6 feeds)
  • Democratic Party of Japan (80 seats; 19 feeds)
  • Japan Communist Party (9 seats; no feeds)
  • Social Democratic Party (6 seats; no feeds)

    • That’s 151 feeds, or about 21% of the members (this isn’t an exact total – one member had multiple feeds, of which I subscribed to 2). How is this useful? Well, not at all if you don’t read Japanese. But at least I will be checking back on it whenever I want to see what people are saying on a given issue, possibly keeping it updated after elections, but who knows? I was bored.

    Now, it is possible that I missed a member’s feed for reasons including not seeing the link or it not actually being linked on the member’s official site. Also, a good percentages of the feeds I did find came after digging through the settings page of members’ “e-mail magazine” services, chiefly mag2. Also, many members had “blogs,” but either used primitive Japanese “diary” software, manually updated the sites the old school way, or simply didn’t offer a feed.
    Continue reading RSS Feeds of Diet Members’ web sites, aggregated

    USJ’s Xmas tree almost certainly pissing off KWBB workers

    Nikkei gives shameless free promotion to Universal Studios Japan’s Christmas festivities. This year, like most others, the park has an enormous Christmas tree as the centerpiece of its nightly Christmas-themed fireworks jamboree:

    USJ xmas tree im20061102NN002Y4980211200613.jpg

    Ah, memories… I used to work as a hamburger cook at the KWBB hamburger restaurant at USJ, which was located right next to the big tree at Christmastime. Though I was explicitly banned from criticizing the theme park when I was an employee, I feel that 3 years is sufficient leeway for me to complain about how annoying it was for us to listen to the ultra-perky Disneyland ripoff that passed for a Christmas show every night as I toasted buns and burned myself on the industrial-strength hamburger grill. Occasionally, the closing shift would end just as the Xmas show (and non-xmas park-closing shows) reached its finale, allowing me to catch the tail end- lots of explosions, lots of jetskiing, lots of loud lipsynching to 50s doo-wop standards as hundreds of Japanese middle class families looked on in ultra-earnest wonder.

    Now don’t get me wrong – your average visitor will no doubt find USJ an enthralling thrill of Hollywood cinema come to life, and the Christmas fireworks show at closing time can be an excellent end-cap to a day filled with ET rides and Terminator 2 action shows.

    It’s just that for me, hearing the same bit every day got to be excruciating, just like hearing the same 20 American pop songs (“Happy Ending” by Avril Lavigne and “In da club” by 50 Cent in addition to standard 80s songs like Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf”) over and over can get tiring, as in any job. One song that I never got tired of for some reason was “Magnet and Steel” by Walter Egan, a song used as “atmosphere” music just outside the restaurant.

    My all-time favorite USJ attraction was the Universal Monsters Live Rock And Roll Show™, the ultimate in high-concept irony in which the famous “Universal Monsters” led by none other than a wisecracking Beetlejuice, croon topical pop songs (as of 2003 featuring “Smooth” by Carlos Santana feat. Matchbox 20’s Rob Thomas). Quoth the corporate literature:

    Beetlejuice cranks up Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein for a mega-monster rock show filled with screamin’ demons and wailin’ guitars.

    \m/ !!! Watch these video clips of the rockin’ monsters covering Bon Jovi and Kiss to see how awesome it really is. This clip of the Orlando version of the show is a bit more topical (Outkast’s “Hey Ya” makes an appearance – rock!).

    DPJ’s Yukio Hatoyama and his magical Pegasus

    I’m still obsessively sifting through every single Diet member’s web site. There are a slew of gems that I’ll get to later, but I wanted to point our loyal readers as well as newcomers to the website of Yukio Hatoyama, a senior leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition in the country. His opening flash movie depicts Hatoyama in what looks to be an odd interpretation of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty: Hatoyama rides in on his magic pegasus, wields a broad sword and cuts through thick, brambly, bloodthirsty roses (labeled “bureaucratic-led big-rigging,” “mad cow disease,” “Livedoor,” “abandoning the weak,” and “the falsified earthquake safety issue”) to save the Japanese citizenry, who I guess is Hatoyama’s sleeping beauty. Watch and be swayed!

    The animation is by freelance illustrator Satoru Morooka and is just one of a series of Hatoyama site intros. In the archives, you can see gems such as Hatoyama depicted as a quarterback whose football turns into a dove (a pun on his name, which means “dove mountain”) when he runs it to a 4th-and-inches touchdown in the “change of government” endzone. Fitting for Hatoyama, since his website says he’s a fan of two-hand touch.

    Go to Morooka’s website to see some similarly wacked-out flash shorts (I enjoyed Dracula vs. Santa quite a bit)

    Mr. Arai and his dream

    Candidate for my new favorite Diet member now that Koizumi has decided to stop being awesome:

    Etsuji Nii.jpg

    Meet Etsuji Arai, LDP lower house member from Saitama’s 11th district. Doesn’t he look like a Japanese Napoleon Dynamite?

    His web site address is “My Dream” – one of those English phrases that every Japanese person knows, but in Japanese rather than sounding lame, it absolutely reeks of conviction and sincerity.

    As an LDP member, his basic stances should be pretty predictable, but he stands out in the following ways:

  • He remains one of the few LDP Diet members to have an official web site featuring an RSS feed (more on that later).
  • He’s a dentist.
  • He’s not the son of a former Diet member (but his older brother is “reformist” mayor of Fukaya City, Saitama, Iemitsu Arai.
  • He was elected to the Diet last year as one of the “Koizumi Children” to replace Dietman Ryuji Koizumi, who opposed the postal privatization bills.

    • Anyway, I just liked his picture really. He is apparently very active as a new Dietman, so let’s look forward to his continued success!