The T Factor: Japan Edition (plus Welcome to the Blogroll: Japanprobe)

From James' Japanprobe site, which is a cabinet of curiosities not to be missed by those who encounter the Japanese on a daily basis, and which I shall blogroll immediately.

In any case, it appears that what Americans are to Canadian tourist sites, so Koreans are to the Japanese. Bringing your own food to restaurants does indeed beat out the Yanks's hearty bellows of, "Y'all got chicken-frah'd stay-uk?" in the tackiness stakes. Read on for more tales of unspeakable gaucheness.

go to red alert!

Vulgarity: the one true international language.

Behold, the island of Tsushima: a small Japanese island near Korea. Ten years ago only a few hundred Korean tourists visited the island each year. For some reason that number has increased to 40,000 Korean tourists each year! Let’s focus on the rude ones!

actual work occurs in Capitol Building; go to red alert

Cheetos for ChickenhawksUnfamiliar with the sounds of people doing productive work, the US Senate made desperate 911 calls reporting gunfire, and at least one staffer left the building by gurney, having suffered a panic attack. Sploid reports:

The entire Capitol complex had been in lock down since about 10:30 a.m. when police received reports of shots fired. The Senate had been in session at the time of the incident. the House had already snuck of for the first official "summer Friday" of the year, except for the House Intelligence Committee.

At around 11:00 a.m. an email was sent out by the U.S. Capitol police:

The US Capitol Police are continuing to investigate the report of gunshots in the Rayburn House Office Building. The Rayburn Building and garages are shut down at this time. The Longworth and Cannon Office Buildings and other garages are not affected. The Capitol Building is open for above ground access but the tunnels remain closed. As soon as the police have completed clearing the garage levels, they will begin search the remainder of the Rayburn Building beginning on the top floor and working down.

"It's a little unsettling to get a Blackberry message put in front of you that says there's gunfire in the building," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra.

And naturally, given the relative likelihoods of murderous rampages versus honest labour in the halls of the US government, the lawmakers jumped to the obvious conclusion. That they were wrong is truly a tragedy for our age.

It now appears that the source of the shots that rang throughout the garage at the Rayburn building was actually a pneumatic hammer being used to repair an elevator.

one half of my audience speaks to the other

Hands across the Atlantic…flipping the bird

Jon Stewart is such a hottie!

Today in Great Old Ones News: Hastur is Going Down!

HasturThis just in from Sploid. And it explains a lot, when you think about it.

Hastur's next

Now we know why the Lord of the Yellow Sign and Speaker of the House was so outraged over the FBI raid on Rep. William Jefferson's office. High level sources in the Justice Department have told ABC News that the Azathoth scandal is about to take down the former Great Old One and well-known Illinois republican.

It seems Hastur wrote a letter asking the Secretary of the Interior Gail Nodens to block the construction of an Indian casino that would've competed with those owned by Azathoth's clients near the Massachusetts port of Innsmouth.

The letter was sent shortly after a restaurant owned by Azathoth hosted a fundraiser for Hastur, netting the King in Yellow $26,000.

Hastur's Press Secretary Josiah Whateley of the undecayed Whateleys offered no comment on the news.

"We are not aware of this," he said, adding that Hastur had "great and mighty powers to destroy you all!!! as well as a well-documented record of opposing Indian reservation shopping for casino gaming purposes."

With Sunday's FBI raid on Jefferson's Hasturabandoned Capitol Hill mansion, townsfolk on both sides of the isle have begun howling about "separation of great, unknowable powers from Outside." Now that Tsathoggua, Yog-Sothoth, et al. have turned on one of their own, Cthulhu finally realizes just how out of control this administration is.

For the first time ever, Hastur expressed outrage at the administration's police work.

"Cthulhu ftagn! Ia! Ia! Mglui naflftagn Justice Department eY'ha-nthlei! Ia! Ia! Y'ha-nthlei!!," he demanded.

No wonder Hastur's so nervous.

CIA Areas of Interest

From Cryptome.

Spooks, Squid, and the Shat: we certainly have taken a detour through the Twilight Zone recently, haven't we?

Hayden...doesn't he look like Tweetybird? I think it's a chickenhawk commentEvery time I publish something like this and read something like Sec. 158.13 (i) I wonder how long it'll be before some nicely-suited yet jackbooted team in Mormon haircuts beats down my door…but then I realize I live on the Downtown EastSide and if the security here can keep the home-grown junkies out, it can certainly keep the CIA at bay for a few days at least, long enough for the email to get through. Unless they, like the burglar of two years ago, climb into the parking garage and up the chimney of the incinerator to the roof, from whence they lower themselves on ropes. Yeah, they could get in that way. If they were fireproof. Patrick hooked the incinerator back up, just for protective purposes. We shall see how well it works.

20 May 2006

Source: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html

———————————————————————–
[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 32, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 32CFR158.13]

[Page 629-631]
 
                       TITLE 32–NATIONAL DEFENSE
 
              CHAPTER I–OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
 
PART 158–GUIDELINES FOR SYSTEMATIC DECLASSIFICATION REVIEW OF CLASSIFIED
INFORMATION IN PERMANENTLY VALUABLE DoD RECORDS–Table of Contents
 
Sec. 158.13  Central Intelligence Agency areas of interest.

    (a) Cryptologic, cryptographic, or SIGINT. (Information in this
category shall continue to be forwarded to the NSA/CSS in accordance
with Sec. 158.11(d). The NSA/CSS shall arrange for necessary
coordination.)
    (b) Counterintelligence.
    (c) Special access programs
    (d) Information that identifies clandestine organizations, agents, sources, or methods.
    (e) Information on personnel under official or nonofficial cover or revelation of a cover arrangement.
    (f) Covertly obtained intelligence reports and the derivative information that would divulge intelligence sources or methods.
    (g) Methods or procedures used to acquire, produce, or support intelligence activities.
    (h) CIA structure, size, installations, security, objectives, and budget.
    (i) Information that would divulge intelligence interests, value, or extent of knowledge on a subject. (you mean like this?)
    (j) Training provided to or by the CIA that would indicate its capability or identify personnel.
    (k) Personnel recruiting, hiring, training, assignment, and evaluation policies.(then you need to take your help wanted ads offline)
    (l) Information that could lead to foreign political, economic, or military action against the United States or its allies.
    (m) Events leading to international tension that would affect U.S. foreign policy.(this could be all of the news, every damn day)
    (n) Diplomatic or economic activities affecting national security or international security negotiations.
    (o) Information affecting U.S. plans to meet diplomatic contingencies affecting national security.
    (p) Nonattributable activities conducted abroad in support of U.S. foreign policy.
    (q) U.S. surreptitious collection in a foreign nation that would affect relations with the country.
    (r) Covert relationships with international organizations or foreign governments.
    (s) Information related to political or economic instabilities in a foreign country threatening American lives and installations therein.
    (t) Information divulging U.S. intelligence collection and assessment capabilities.
    (u) U.S. and allies' defense plans and capabilities that enable a foreign entity to develop countermeasures.
    (v) Information disclosing U.S. systems and weapons capabilities or deployment.
    (w) Information on research, development, and engineering that enables the United States to maintain an advantage of value to national security.
    (x) Information on technical systems for collection and production of intelligence, and their use.
    (y) U.S. nuclear programs and facilities.
    (z) Foreign nuclear programs, facilities, and intentions.
    (aa) Contractual relationships that reveal the specific interest and expertise of the CIA.
    (bb) Information that could result in action placing an individual in jeopardy.
    (cc) Information on secret writing when it relates to specific chemicals, reagents, developers, and microdots.
    (dd) Reports of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) (– Branch, –Division) between July 31, 1946, and December 31, 1950, marked CONFIDENTIAL or above.
    (ee) Reports of the Foreign Documents Division between 1946 and 1950 marked RESTRICTED or above.
    (ff) Q information reports.
    (gg) FDD translations.
    (hh) U reports.

Keep on Bloggin'!