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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Feminine Love Heart Tattoos For Female


Love Heart Tattoos Designs
It is well known that women have a sensitive feeling, many of them make a love heart tattoo. Maybe love heart tattoo can show their feelings. Love heart tattoo can make their more beautifull and feminine, i think so. Very amazing and feminine tattoos desigs for girls. Are you looking for love heart tattoo ideas ? SOme love heart tattoos pictures above i think can give you some inspiration, So please enjoy it now.Thanks. . .

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Japanese Punks and Japanese Tradition



I am in the midst of writing a longer post about cockroaches and collective punishment. But in the meantime I thought you'd crack up at this hilarious picture sent to me by a friend of mine.


His name is Toshitaka Taniguchi  and he is the guy standing on the right. He's pretty flipped out and works as a tattoo artist. He also plays guitar in one of the worst punk bands you'll ever see... So, I guess, that could be construed as meaning, one of the better ones.... Well, they would be good if they'd practice and not drink so much that they can barely stand up when they are on stage.




The guy on the left is dressed for a matsuri (festival), probably in Meguro as his happi (shirt) says, "Yagumo." Yagumo is an area of Meguro.


The really funny part is that the guy on the left has his hair cut so that it says, "Matsuri" on the back. I've never seen that before!


Funny stuff by Japanese punks... There's something that seems complimentary about Japanese tradition and the colors (and some of the craziness) and punk rock... Can't put my finger on what it is exactly, but it seems to match.


Japanese punks and Kabuki... I don't know, but this guy looks like he could be the lead singer of a very loud rock group.


And yet another example of yet another good thing about Japan. Even though these guys are punks, they still follow Japanese tradition and respect their elders and participate. I think it's cool.


Why not? Matsuri is fun!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Stupid Foreigners in Japan! The 97% of bad apples spoil it for the rest of the 3% - When in Japan, do as the Japanese do in spite of yourself



Being a foreigner in Japan is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you are allowed to slide by the locals if you make some faux pas when it comes to courtesy or business manners. Because you are a foreigner, there's all sorts of rules that you might not be expected to know and follow. As long as you are sincere and show that you are making the effort to assimilate and do like the Romans do, then the Japanese are quite forgiving for minor transgressions. In fact, the smart foreign businessman can use this to great advantage.


I have many times. I find that being a foreigner is a huge advantage.


On the other hand, because you are a foreigner, there's all sorts of things you probably cannot or won't be allowed to do. It's not as bad as it used to be but some of those things are things you'd take for granted back home like renting an apartment, getting a bank loan or getting a good job even!


It's hard to try to make a living when you are a foreigner in Japan. Not only do you have to deal with language problems and a Japanese language that changes everyday, no matter what you do, you can't change your face. So no matter how much you try to assimilate, study the language, learn the customs and drink like a fish you'll always be a foreigner.


In spite of what of what foreigners think, this guy at least doesn't sully the image of foreigners like today's examples do. Who cares if this image is of a straight laced foreigner bumpkin? The Japanese see him as a cartoon character. 


Not only is the mere fact of being a foreigner a double edge sword, we have these dumbsh*t foreigners all around us here who are messing things up for the rest of us.


I've often said on my radio program that, "日本にいる外国人は97%いいかげん" (Nihon ni iru gaijin 97% ha ikagen) which translates to "97% of all foreigners in Japan are undependable (or useless)." 


You folks think I jest, but I don't. I do think most foreigners in Japan are pretty useless and I think you cannot depend on most of them at all. Heck, look who's talking! I think I can't depend on me too many times! Especially when it comes to raising kids! (Oh parenthood and the irresponsibilities that come with it!) But what some of these other foreigners do is just unbelievable!


Looking like a stoner in the west might be cool. In Japan? 


One might say that "A few bad apples spoil it for the rest." Not in the case of foreigners in Japan. The vast majority are screwing it up for the minority of us who are trying to fit in and not raise too much hell and be good neighbors. 


In Japan the group is very important. Westerners have a hard time understanding this. But your actions will affect the group whether you like it or not. Like I said, it's hard enough trying to fit in and make a living without the peanut gallery screwing things up for the rest of us.


And speaking about screwing up. In today's news, TODAY, there's two stories about two dipsh*t foreigners who have screwed up big time. 


First from the Japan Times:


Ex-TV personality held over rape, robbery
A 25-year-old former TV personality who had been accused of robbery and injury in another case was rearrested Wednesday on suspicion of raping and robbing a woman after breaking into her apartment in Tokyo, police said.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, Alexander Lee Dela Fuente broke into the Ota Ward apartment of the woman in her 20s at about midnight on June 28. He chloroformed her until she became unconscious, and then raped her and stole 5,000 yen and a cash card, police said.
Moron! He did this for ¥5,000!? I'm speechless.

This is bad for my business as it just makes the Japanese suspicious of foreign TV & radio talent and foreigners in general. What Alexander doesn't realize is that, besides never getting a TV job again, his former management agency just got a massive black mark and things like this cause agencies to go bankrupt and people to lose their jobs. You know, like people who have kids to feed?

Like I said, foreigners need to understand how actions here affect the group. Had this clown still been a TV reporter, committing a crime like this would cause the entire show to be cancelled. That means a bunch of staff people, cameramen, writers, lighting people, assistants (people with children and rents to pay) all lose their jobs.  Several years ago I caught a guy on one show I produced doing drugs. I fired him from the show on the spot. I had to. If he got caught by the police, our show would have ended immediately and everyone would be out of a job. Once again, everyone had families to feed and responsibilities. I couldn't take the risk. I had no choice but to fire him right then and there.

The next story about "Gaijin F's Up Big Time!" comes from the Japan Times Online. This story is especially damaging and I also have a unique interest in this case. It is about a star player on the Japanese Basketball league who has gotten arrested for importing more than a kilogram of marijuana to Japan. He did it in the mail for chrissakes! What an idiot!

(Er, by the way, did I mention that 97% of all foreigners in Japan are useless and undependable? I did? Okay. Thanks.)

Why I am interested in this story is because the Japanese basketball league has been struggling for years to make a dent in this country. Just this year it looked as if they had turned the corner. I went to their all-star game at Saitama arena and the place was packed with 14,000 paying guests! It was a great time!

Next year the league is going to expand and a new team is being started in Tokyo. The fans and the media have great expectations. I had great expectations as they are slated to use my company to sell tickets to their games, so not only do I have a fan's interest, I have a small financial interest.

Now, on today's news, I see a familiar face! Why, isn't that the guy who won the MVP award at the all-star game I was just at with my son a few weeks ago? By golly, it is!

The  Japan Times Online reports in Evessa's Washington Arrested in Drug Case:

Osaka Evessa power forward Lynn Washington, the most famous player in bj-league history, was arrested at 10:20 a.m on Tuesday for alleged involvement in the importation of between 1 kg and 1.5 kg of marijuana, media reports stated the same day.
Washington was booked by Osaka Prefectural Police on Tuesday, according to published reports. His 32-year-old wife, Dana, was arrested last month, it was reported.

 In November, Washington's wife's name was on a package that allegedly contained marijuana and was shipped to Osaka from the United States. The marijuana had an estimated street value of up to ¥9 million, according to news reports.
For Washington, a two-time bj-league MVP, a Cannabis Control Law violation could signal the end of his career in Japan, and a decline for one of the league's great teams.
League spokesman Akihiro Ejima said a meeting is planned for Thursday, and representatives of all 19 teams will be included to discuss this issue. It essentially boils down to this: How will the league handle what has become incredibly bad publicity for a circuit that is struggling to capture the public's attention?

See? The actions of this incredibly dumb foreigner have now damaged the livelihood of basically everyone in the league and their families. What an a*shole! I've written before how screwing around with pot in Japan is a good way to get free room and board at the local penitentiary, no ifs ands or buts!... But a professional basketball player shipping this stuff from the USA through the postal service? 

That's like walking around with a sticker on your head that says, "Arrest me!"

Hopeless! 

I don't really have any snappy ending to this post. I guess I could just say a few things...

It's hard enough to make a living anywhere in the world, even if you are a local. In Japan, us foreigners have all sorts of disadvantages - as well as advantages. I'm the type of guy who, in spite of myself, likes to put the best foot forward. All I can say is that, "This is Japan." If you want to smoke marijuana, you shouldn't be here. It doesn't matter if you think the laws are wrong or that marijuana isn't bad for you. That's besides the point. Marijuana is against the law and they will throw you in jail for possession.

If you want to rob or rape, or commit any type of crimes, and you are a foreigner, then Japan isn't ideal for that either. Know why? Pssst! Don't look now, but as a foreigner, you stick out like a sore a*shole. It's not like you are going to steal a purse and then run into a crowd of Japanese and disappear while you blend in.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Japan, do as the Japanese do. If you are not going to assimilate, then please do the rest of us a favor and leave. You won't be missed.


NOTE: The purpose of this post isn't to bash foreigners in Japan, per se. It is, hopefully, to serve as a warning to people. Everyone makes mistakes. I've made way more than I care to remember. But through these mistakes, we learn. I see these people who were arrested and shake my head. Of course I've never committed a crime that involved a victim, but I have done many things that were illegal and that I am ashamed of. I hope, in my probably most confused thinking, that someone might read this and think carefully about what they are doing while living here in Japan... Like I pointed out, your actions will not only affect you and your life, it will affect others that you work with and care about. Remember that.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Japanese Ministry of Finance official admits, “We are worse than Greece” - Japan’s debt-to-GDP has soared to over 230% - Fiscal deficit is up to 10% of GDP



More proof that the Japanese government is run by a bunch of complete idiots!


From Zerohedge: Japan's Shocking Keynesian Slip: "We Are Worse Than Greece"



In a stunning turn of events, a Japanese Ministry of Finance official admits to Richard Koo's worst nightmare "Japan is fiscally worse than Greece". Bloomberg is reporting that, at a conference in Tokyo, Yasushi Kinoshita says Japan's 2011 fiscal deficit was up to 10% of GDP and its debt-to-GDP has soared to over 230%. What is more concerning is the Kyle-Bass- / Hugh-Hendry-recognized concentration risk that Kinoshita admits to also - with a large amount of JGBs held domestically, the Japanese financial system is much more vulnerable to fiscal shocks (cough energy price cough) than Europe. Of course, the market is catatonic in its reaction to this - mesmerized by the possibility of buybacks and hypnotized at big-banks-passing-stress-tests - though we do note the small reverse stronger in USDJPY has reversed as this news broke and the USD pushes modestly higher.

Now why in the world would this government wonk admit this in public? This will only cause the bond market to worry and perhaps the flight of foreign capital!


Two words: Got gold?

If You Don't Speak Abbreviated Japanese Then You Are a Loser! Fluent in Japanese and Still Don't Understand What People Are Talking About? Join the Club!



The Japanese like to abbreviate their language all the time. It's called "省略語” (sho-ryaku-go) and means exactly "abbreviated language." The Japanese abbreviate everything. It drives me crazy.


Needless to say the curriculum at my Japanese language school was a tad bit outdated.


Especially the younger Japanese. They use abbreviations of common words in daily language all the time. It's gotten so bad that I often have a hard time understanding what they are talking about. Funny thing is that it seems many Japanese people have the same problem. 


While being far from a Japanese conversation master, I do know how to hold your basic run of the mill conversation in standard everyday Japanese... 


Let me prove it to you. For example:


"Good morning, Suzuki san, how are you?"


"I'm fine. Thank you."


"No. I haven't been having problems with hemorrhoids recently. And you?"


"Good day!"


See? Pretty good, eh? Of course I translated that conversation into English for you as most readers of this blog don't speak Japanese. But it takes a pretty diligent student student of Japanese language to know words like "hemorrhoids" (or an urgent need to know the word - or repetition of said need - so that one can explain quickly to a doctor!)


I think I'd have a tad bit of a problem teaching this English to my female students.


So, I'm pretty slick when it comes to jowling with the locals. But, when it comes to modern dialect that includes common abbreviated lingo and vernacular, I haven't a clue as to what people are talking about! It's maddening especially with new words that come into the Japanese dialect and then are twisted beyond recognition.

About a year ago, I was on the train using my iTouch and some guy scowled at me starting angrily pointing at me. He was asking me something but I couldn't understand what he was talking about. He kept pointing at me and asking, "Is that a sumaho?" "Is that a sumaho?" 「スマホ ですか?」I didn't know what the hell he was talking about! Then he touched my iTouch and repeated, "Is that a sumaho?" He told me to turn it off! 


Later on I figured out that "sumaho" was the abbreviated word for "smart phone." He was asking me, "Is that a smart-phone?" 


It wasn't a smart phone but an iTouch looks exactly like an iPhone which is a smart phone so I turned it off. He was really mad!


The Japanese like to abbreviate everything! I can't keep up. So many times people will be talking about something and then a new word comes up and I haven't a clue as to what they are saying. I remember a few years back this dumb 25-something year old girl that I had to work with spoke like a 13-year-old dippy student. She would say, "Me and my friends are going to meet at maru-kyu."


"My friends and me!" Dumb broad! Jeez! Brought up under a rock!... Anyway, "Maru-kyu," I'd find out later was the famous Japanese department store 109, usually called "ichi-maru-kyu." That dumb girl and her friends were too busy to say "ichi" (one) so they dropped the "one" and just kept the "oh - nine" as in "maru-kyu." No one else besides her small circle of friends would have any idea what she was talking about.


...That's okay, though. That girl was so daft that half the time she didn't know what she was talking about either! 


Probably very dumb but wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating rice crackers

Several years ago, I used to have this same problem at Japanese radio stations. One girl kept talking about "Sumapa." I didn't know what she was talking about. She said she loved "Sumapa". She meant Smashing Pumpkins! And every Japanese under 40 knows that "Misu-chiru" is the Japanese Pop band, Mister Children.


There's a million and one of these abbreviations and they've been coming faster and faster as technology and the Internet progress. Many years ago, "pasonaru konpuuta" (personal computer) was abbreviated into "paso-kon." That one was easy to figure out. A wireless controller for radio controlled devices "rajio kontororu" (radio control) became "raji-kon." And, my favorite, and everyone else's, Loilta Complex became "rori-kon." (I've always wondered why Lolita Complex was such a heavily used word that we needed an abbreviated version for, but, well, this is Japan.)


But yesterday, while sitting on the train, I overheard a conversation between two high school girls who were sitting next to me talking very loudly and I wondered if their mothers wouldn't wash those mouths out with soap if they heard what they were saying. I was shocked!


They were talking about a friend and they said, "ona-chu." Yes! They did! I heard it. I was shocked! Here were two extremely cute sexy Japanese high school girls in their sailor uniforms talking about what goes on in their bedrooms without a care in the world! 


Of course, I had never heard that word, "ona-chu," before but knowing how the Japanese like to abbreviate their words, I could figure out what they were saying! "Ona" means "Onani." "Onani" means, "to masturbate." "Chu" means "in the middle of" or "center." I figured that these two high school girls were talking about being in the middle of masturbation!!! Oh stay my beating heart!


I cleared my throat and tried to act like nonchalant. I looked around at the other folks sitting down next to the girls and across the aisle. One lady was reading a book. A guy was sleeping on the other side of the girls. A few other people were standing. Two old ladies sat right across from me, staring at me and not saying a word. I wondered what those old ladies were thinking? It wasn't my fault these two high school girls were talking about being in the middle of masturbation! No one else seemed surprised by these girl's conversation except me. 



The conversation was making me nervous. I loosened my neck tie and wiped a bit of sweat from my brow. When, suddenly, they said it again! Only this time very loudly! They were even laughing about it! Those sex-starved little kittens!


Well, my train station came up and I quickly jumped off the train before it got even hotter in there. And, on reflection, I began to really come to realize that all these comic books fetishes and fantasies of these dorky guys in Japan were probably true about sexy Japanese high school girls! They wanted it and they wanted it all the time! They even spoke about it and did it freely on the train and no one else seemed to care! Extraordinary!


Later on I cooled down a bit and tried to control my fluster with a cold shower as soon as I got home. I began to tell my wife about how far Japanese kids have fallen into degradation and sin. I began to tell her about, "ona-chu."


But before I could start, she interrupted me and said, "Oh? Ona-chu, means 'onaji - chugakko.'" 


"Onaji" means "the same." "Chugakko" means "junior high school." The girls weren't talking about someone in the midst of masturbation, but from the same junior high school!


Weird, eh? How is it that, just after I mention, "Lolita complex" and then  "sexy Japanese high school girls in sailor uniforms" you could confuse their purely innocent conversation about school friends into one of ribalry and wild scenes in your head of sex and self-gratification with sexy Japanese high school girls?


You pervert!


For some reason, this is dedicated to my friend Roger Marshall

Monday, March 12, 2012

Spring in Japan: Three Days Cold, Four Days Warm - The Start of Allergy Hell and Hanami! Woo Hoo!


Today is Tuesday, March 13, 2012. It is very warm and sunny today, but there is a chilly wind blowing. This is raising hell on people who have allergies. But it is also the notice that Hanami is almost here! Woo! Hoo! Mad drinking outdoors with your friends and all sorts of hijinks!
(花見やりましょう!詳しくは下!)


This isn't exactly the type of hijinks I was thinking about! Guys! Guys! 
No! You're doing it wrong! There's supposed to be girls in there too!


The Japanese have a traditional old saying that starts somewhere about this time of year. They say, "三寒四温" (sankan shion) which translates into "three days cold, four days warm." It is the beginning of spring in Japan.

My wife would start sniffling just by looking at this photo!

Before "three days cold, four days warm," though, it is usually something like four days colder than heck in Tokyo then, all of a sudden, one day warm like spring. It's weird! Yesterday was like that for half a day. In the morning it was very warm and seemed like April weather. Then, suddenly about noon, it become cloudy and very cold again. Back to winter.


This weather marks the beginning of an annual ritual at the Rogers house: My wife bitching constantly about her allergies! Oh my god! Do something about this!


I gotta tell you I love my wife but this goes on every year and it drives me crazy! Oh you so stoooopid woooo-maaan! You are a Japanese! This is Japan! You are supposed to enjoy the blossoming of the plum and cherry trees! You are supposed to be running around half naked in a kimono all the time wanting to drink sake under the cherry trees and have constant sex! (Of course after cooking, cleaning, taking the kids to school, giving me a bath and then a full body massage with your feet!) I want you in that kimono serving me sake under a cherry tree RIGHT NOW!!!!

My image of what married life was going to be like before marriage...

But no. It is not to be. My wife refuses to go outside this time of year. In fact, I am going to have to put up with her complaining and sniffling like this for the next two months! Two months! Can you believe it!


Oh, but I do feel sorry for her as I have no allergies at all. How about you, dear reader? Do you have any allergies?


My wife gets so bad for about 10 days to 2 weeks somewhere around April that she basically stays in bed for the entire time... That was great when she was my girlfriend! I mean, what guy doesn't want his girlfriend in bed all the time?

The perfect girlfriend would be in bed (or in the kitchen) all the time anyway...
Women today won't admit it but they were happiest when all they did was 
pump out babies and cook shit for us guys to eat.


But after 15 years of marriage? Oh, well... I guess before marriage I should have checked under the hood better before I bought the car.


That's the annual ritual we go through at the Rogers house every year, this time of year. But that's the down side. The up side is that, since she refuses to go under the cherry blossoms, that means I can go by myself and get roaringly drunk and make a total ass of myself at Hanami with having her nagging me all time about my drinking too much! Woo hoo! Hanami here I come!


I love Japanese ritual traditions and celebrations and parties and festivals!


In one of Japan's most upstanding and respectable festivals, the 
penis festival begins pretty soon too! You just gotta love Japan! 
(Wait a minute! Is that lady second from front - the blond one - 
actually a guy with a wig on? I do not want her carrying my penis!)


And speaking of annual rituals, in a few weeks, on April 1, 2012, I will host a massive Hanami party in Tamagawa. It is free for everyone. If you are around, please come along. The party starts at 5:30 am and runs all day into the night. DO NOT DRIVE THERE IF YOU ARE GOING TO DRINK! (If you aren't going to drink, why go?)


The place is just from Tamagawa station on the Toyoko Line or Futakotamagawa station on the Denentoshi line. Please take a bus about an 8 minute bus ride! There will be a few hundred of my friends there. It's completely free. Please bring your own booze and some snacks... I will bring some free food too but it is usually all gone with the early birds who get there before 7 am and start the festivities REALLY early!


URL: http://www007.upp.so-net.ne.jp/oozappa/GMG/hanami-map1.jpg  


Here is a map:



Hey! I want to have a 【花見たかったけど寒いので4月にしようよ!」Party. 多摩川尾山台近辺4月1日(日)もちろん、ただ!Free! Family fun party! (これはInterFMの番組や局とはかんけいありません)!皆どうですか?このメッセージを読んだら、知り合いに連絡してください!僕はみんなの連絡先が分からないので。。みんなPartyしよう! 
日時;4月1日 日曜 朝7時から午後の4時ごろまで 
場所:東京都世田谷区玉堤1丁目-23付近(多摩川土手) 
○多摩川土手の桜の木の下です! 
■目標は Volkswagen世田谷認定中古車センターの看板です。 
■看板の玉堤通りをはさんだ土手側です。 
地図 
最寄駅 
東京急行電鉄・東横線・目黒線・東急多摩川線 [多摩川駅] 
東京急行電鉄・田園都市線・大井町線 [二子玉川駅] 
最寄バス停留所 
東急東横線・目黒線・多摩川線 多摩川駅 または 
田園都市線 二子玉川駅より東急バスでそれぞれ8分 
[ 玉11 ] 二子玉川駅←→多摩川駅 
東急ゴルフパークたまがわ前停留所 

東急大井町線等々力駅からでているバスも利用できます 
「武蔵工業大前」で下車になります 

会費:飲み物食べ物を自分が食べて飲む分持参です 
各自、ゴミを持ち帰れる程度でお願いします。←重要です 

皆さんによかったら御用意していただきたいもの 
○レジャーシート。(シートを止めるザイル等あると助かります) 
○紙コップや紙のお皿やお箸・フォーク・スプーン 
○テッシュやタオル(汚れちゃっても最悪捨てちゃってもいいもの) 
○ゴミ袋(大きいのとスーパーのレジ袋みたいなもの) 
○レジャー用の折りたたみテーブル等 
周辺施設情報 
近所にセブンイレブンともう一件コンビニがあります。 
当日、足りなくなったものはここで調達できそうです 
コインパーキングが30台分ぐらい(台数は定かではないです。)があります。 
◎注意!!!飲酒される方は絶対に自動車の運転をしないでください!!!◎ 
◎できるだけ電車・バスをご利用ください◎ 
最寄駅 
東京急行電鉄・東横線・目黒線・東急多摩川線 [多摩川駅] 
東京急行電鉄・田園都市線・大井町線 [二子玉川駅] 
最寄バス停留所 
東急東横線・目黒線・多摩川線 多摩川駅 または 
田園都市線 二子玉川駅より東急バスでそれぞれ8分 
[ 玉11 ] 二子玉川駅←→多摩川駅 
東急ゴルフパークたまがわ前停留所 

東急大井町線等々力駅からでているバスも利用できます 
「武蔵工業大前」で下車になります 

会費:飲み物食べ物を自分が食べて飲む分持参です 
各自、ゴミを持ち帰れる程度でお願いします。←重要です 

皆さんによかったら御用意していただきたいもの 
○レジャーシート。(シートを止めるザイル等あると助かります) 
○紙コップや紙のお皿やお箸・フォーク・スプーン 
○テッシュやタオル(汚れちゃっても最悪捨てちゃってもいいもの) 
○ゴミ袋(大きいのとスーパーのレジ袋みたいなもの) 
○レジャー用の折りたたみテーブル等 
周辺施設情報 
近所にセブンイレブンともう一件コンビニがあります。 
当日、足りなくなったものはここで調達できそうです 
コインパーキングが30台分ぐらい(台数は定かではないです。)があります。 
◎注意!!!飲酒される方は絶対に自動車の運転をしないでください!!!◎ 
◎できるだけ電車・バスをご利用ください◎


Sunday, March 11, 2012

Why So Many People Have No Common Sense - People who watch too much TV lose touch with reality



I've had an experience the other day that has shown me, once again, that too many people have lost touch with reality, have little common sense and watch way too much TV...




Regular readers of my blog will know that I have worked in TV and broadcasting for 30+ years. Because of this experience, I have no TV in my house. I threw it away ten years ago. Most professional TV people I know have no TV in their house. All professional TV people I know never watch any TV.


I know TV is bad for you. I think watching any TV at all is watching too much TV. Sometimes readers will argue this point with me. But I've never once had a professional educator nor professional in the mass media or TV business argue this point with me. I only get mails (and I get lots of them) from professionals who strongly agree. I get mails that strongly disagree from TV and game fans trying to defend their altar.


The ones who think TV is good or can be useful are, of course, fans of TV. I got one of these mails the other day. I had written, "I hate computer games of all kinds... (They are a) waste of time like TV." To which a reader replied:


Actually, computer games are proven to increase not only cognitive abilities, but even eye-hand coordination.
Then again, television is also a very useful tool, that can be used to widen experience far beyond what normal people have available. It's very politically correct to decry such things, but fallacy.


This is patent nonsense. Calling it "politically correct" is supposed to belittle criticism of TV. In recent years, calling something "politically correct" has become the easy way for people who cannot support their arguments with facts or common sense to escape rational, logical discourse. Then the writer then goes on to offer no evidence to support his claims besides saying it is "fallacy."


He also mentions that "computer games are proven to increase not only cognitive abilities, but even eye-hand coordination"!? Madness! What? What kind of a fool actually believes this (excepting if he is a fat and over-weight American couch-potato or game salesman?) 


First off, what are "cognitive abilities?"


From Sharpbrains.com:


What is cognition? Cognition has to do with how a per­son under­stands and acts in the world. It is a set of abilities, skills or processes that are part of nearly every human action.


Catch that? "How a person understands and acts in the world." It isn't rocket science to figure out that what goes on in a hand-held game like a DS or Playstation has little to do with the real world. And the part about eye-hand coordination is also nonsense. Perhaps it would be good for eye hand coordination if you wanted to shoot people in Pakistan with hell-fire missiles while you sit from your office in Quantico, Virginia.


I wonder how well, say, a guy who can score and continually win at a game console baseball software would do with his "eye-hand" coordination catching a ball or hitting one with a bat in the real world? Not too well, I suppose.


It isn't rocket science, like I said. It doesn't require genius to figure out that that sort of thinking is nonsense.


Playing computer games is only good for "cognitive abilities" and "eye-hand" coordination confined to the computer world.


TV and computer games are a vicarious experience; their relation to real world experiences are negligible.


The other part of what the reader wrote that is completely absurd is the that games "are proven" to "increase ... abilities." Proven by whom? By research funded by game manufacturers? That's like using research funded by tobacco companies to prove that cigarette smoking isn't bad for you too! And, yes, Virginia, there are still many of those! In a 2006 article on the Independent UK, research showed the benefits of cigarette smoking!


Sure! There are benefits to smoking and some good things about cigarettes! Just like there are some good things to playing computer games... But the negatives by far massively outweigh the positives and to think otherwise is just plain foolish.


You don't, though, need hundred million dollar research to stop for a moment and use some common sense to see that inhaling the smoke from burning matter can't be natural or good for you, just as anyone with a lick of common sense could see that our children becoming zombies playing computer games can't be good either.


The lowering of academic scores in American school since the 1950s speaks for itself. The startling and escalating decline in the last ten years is startling.


Sure, but don't worry. Research shows that TV and computer games are good for you.... 


Sure, research funded by big corporations show you that, regardless of what your common sense tells you.


(PS: I know some defender of games will say this, so let me cut them off at the pass: When I say, "game" I mean the typical hand-held game kids play or the average home Playstation or like system. I am NOT talking about some multi-million dollar simulator that are used for pilot training or such. As Deleuze and Guattari write, "Simulation does not replace reality, it appropriates reality. It can't replace it." I also doubt that the average home has a million dollar simulator in the living room.)
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The Plug-In Drug (Part 2)
(This article first appeared on Lew Rockwell in Feb. 2008. Part 1 is here)

".. although you won't appear on any public wanted lists, the American Government will consider you a dangerous enemy if you try to start a movement for people to throw their television sets away... television is the Government's way to keep people subdued, illiterate and brainwashed and there won't be any thanks from them if you try to change it."
~ Andrew Taylor, UK, IT Journalist
".. Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses"
Removing the TV from the home is the only hope for people who still believe that living in a free society is possible. This is the critical issue when any discussing of the negative effects of television are to be considered. My previous article The Plug-In Drug appeared on this particular website as it is a place where I consider "free-thinking people" to gather. Nevertheless some readers criticized it using very curious and illogical arguments.
If you believe that our entire current political and social debacle cannot be attributed to the wide infiltration of television in all aspects of our lives, then you are truly blind. Television is the modern-day opiate of the masses, used by our rulers to provide us with the bread and circuses that keep our minds off the critical issues at hand.
Serious thought must be given towards television; how it came about, by whom, and for what purpose? Before anyone can make a fair and honest assessment as to the question "Do the benefits of television outweigh the negative effects for the average person or family as a whole," once again, I strongly say, absolutely and definitely they do not. Television is the modern day disease that is ruining our minds, bodies, family, and society as a whole. It is a monstrously gross understatement to say that there is no good argument that shows that the benefits of television outweigh the negative effects on a person, family, or society.
Our societies' political and social order has become corrupted by many things. But undoubtedly the main cause and culprit is television. Television is a root cause of crime, divorce, decaying morality, and poor health; and, even worse than public schooling, it is the harbinger of a poor education. I make the last claim because most people start their children's indoctrination through the use of television four to five years before public schooling ever does.
Before I continue to attempt to get people to recognize that they've been brainwashed and to make the effort destroy the television before it destroys them, I think a brief on the facts on how television came about is in order: Television was invented in the 1920's. Yet it sat unused for nearly thirty years. It wasn't until the end of World War II that TV became prevalent in our homes. When the war ended we had hundreds of thousands of soldiers coming back home to a country where there weren't enough jobs for them. Our women were no longer needed, nor wanted, in the factories making weapons. Readers of this site know that war cannot actually bring a country out of an economic depression. The government of the USA, along with major corporations, needed to keep their profits expanding; they needed a marketplace for goods. So how did they create one? They did it by dusting off the television and cheaply putting this technology into American homes. By doing this, they could control the message much better than radio or print ever did and create a need where one didn't exist before. Television is the child of advertising. A dumbed down populace is the child of television.
In darkened rooms, with all eyes fixated on a screen, conversation frowned upon, and outside noise muffled, people were made to relax, and then mesmerized. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American homes were shown the new lawnmower, the new kitchen gadgets, the new car, and the new tract housing all at the same time. Through the use of television, our government and major corporations could control what was shown to the public. Diversity was discouraged; not only was diversity in thought discouraged, but also diversity in the marketplace has been suppressed by television. How many small mom & pop stores can afford to spend several hundred thousands of dollars on a TV ad? This situation continued and has led us to where we are today: In a society of Clear Channels and Fox TV's that are run by major corporations in bed with the central government through advertising for the sole purpose of controlling the message. And that message is meant to destroy the free market spirit, dampen free thought among the people, and crush rebellion.
To get off the point for just a moment, I believe that, in many ways, the so-called hollowing out of the American economy can also be attributed to television. The government and major corporations used television from the 1950's to the present to sell Americans products that we don't really need. They sold us an image and the idea that we had to "Keep up with the Joneses." Products that are truly needed for survival, such as basic foods, milk, eggs, bread, rice, meat, vegetables, etc., do not usually need advertising as, since they are needed for survival, they will be searched out by people.
In turn, this process means that corporations and advertisers need to always find new markets; there are only so many new cars that can be sold here in America. Few people will buy a new car every year. This, in turn, makes a situation where the corporations need to leave this country and find new markets. It is in these new emerging markets where they can sell Coca-Cola and gadgets. The advertisers prime those markets by using television to show those people what the "American Dream" — or whatever they will call it there — looks like and that dream is a new car, a new house, and new gadgets....
The corporations then must move their factories out of the USA in order to retain profit margins by selling products at lower prices in those emerging markets. This, in turn, allows for a higher profit margin on those same products that are sold back to the American consumer at a higher cost.
There are many arguments against television, so many that they cannot all be named here. So I will just point out a few.
Go back a few paragraphs to where I wrote: "In darkened rooms, with all eyes fixated on a screen, conversation frowned upon, and outside noise muffled, people were made to relax, and then mesmerized." Is there any reader who will disagree with this assessment on how television is generally viewed by the public? Doesn't everyone want silence when they watch their favorite TV show? Do they not relax and prepare for the so-called experience by readying their food, drinks and snacks? Many readers mentioned that they do not like to be interrupted while watching television. Is there anyone who can disagree with the situation concerning the watching of television that I have described above?
Consider this passage from Four Arguments For The Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander:
I asked ... prominent psychologists, partly famous for their work with hypnotism, if they could define the TV experience as hypnotic and, if so, what that meant. I described to each the concrete details of what goes on between viewer and television set: dark room, eyes still, body quiet, looking at light that is flickering different ways, sounds contained to narrow ranges and so on. Dr. Freda Morris (former professor of medical psychology at UCLA and author of several books on hypnosis) said, "It sounds like you are giving a course outline in hypnotic trance induction."
Dr. Ernest Hilgard, who directs Stanford University's research program in hypnosis and the author of the most widely used texts in the field (said), "Sitting quietly, with no sensory inputs aside from the screen, no orientating outside the television set is itself capable of getting people to set aside ordinary reality, allowing the substitution of some other reality the set may offer. You can get so imaginatively involved that alternates temporarily fade away. A hypnotist doesn't have to be interesting. He can use an ordinary voice, and if the effect is to quiet the person, he can invite them into a situation where they can follow his words or actions and then release their imagination along the lines he suggests. Then they drift into hypnosis."
Now, if anyone were really honest about this, how could they say that the typical watching of television doesn't fit the same conditions necessary for hypnosis? Of course, some people will scoff at the idea that hypnosis is anything but Quack Science; for those I suggest researching the Department of the Ministry of Truth as described in George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four or Soma as referred to in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I suggest researching these two only if I can get those of you who still believe television is good or neutral to turn it off for a moment to bother to pick up and read a book.

The point of this is to show that television is a form of hypnosis. Hypnosis is described as "suspension of the critical factor" which expands on the idea of "increased suggestibility." A person who is hypnotized may accept statements as true that he or she would normally reject.
This may go to explain why Americans are often so ill-educated, uniformed, and uncaring about world events as well as events happening in their very own country since their main pipe of "knowledge" is an electrical device whose output is completely and totally controlled by the American government and its bed partners in the military/industrial complex. Since the fact that television is controlled by major corporations along with its prostitute Big Brother — and always will be, due to exorbitant costs — it should be self-evident that television is not neutral, is not a tool for the users, and, therefore, it cannot ever be reformed.
Do not confuse my message here. I am not an anti-capitalist. Capitalism and the free market, with all its warts, is still the best system man has ever devised, but I don't need to be homogenized to enjoy living in a free society. In fact, homogenization of thought is the very antithesis to a free society.

As I stated in my article (and confirmed by Marie Winn's book The Plug-In Drug) it is not what is on television that is bad, it is not the content that is damaging; it is the mere act of watching television that is harmful. Television is a displacement of time. It is a huge waste of time — in a hypnotic state — that implants other people's messages into the viewer's head. This makes for a bizarre state of "reality" where frequent television viewers no longer have the common sense to understand our world and true reality. One such reader made an absurd claim that "There is no scientific proof that watching television is harmful." The reader then went on to explain that scientists had not proven that digital images moving at 44.1kHz were harmful to the human eye. I won't go into it too much, but this kind of thinking is just plain ridiculous. Here's why:
Television puts people in a trance and offers up an alternate reality. People waste time watching TV and when they do, the time spent is time lost that could have been used for gaining real-life experiences. As Gary North once wrote, "Time is the only non-renewable resource." The utter notion that radioactive waves (lights) — in an unnatural color spectrum — flashing on a screen in front of someone for four to six hours a day, or more, every day, and that not having any negative effects on the human body or mind is ridiculous on the face of it. It would only take a person who has lost touch with reality and common sense, or one who watches too much TV to even consider that this practice could not be doing something, quite possibly very harmful, to the human body.
It has been obvious to most of the religions of the world for tens of thousands of years that the rays of the sun and the moon have effects on the human body and our earth. In recent years, even Western Medicine has figured it out and started using different spectrum of lights to treat many human ailments such as depression and jaundiced infants. Anyone who has ever had athlete's foot knows that white socks (yes, even white socks have a beneficial effect on certain wavelengths of light) as well as sunlight are quick cures for the ailment. Plants do not grow well under artificial lights. Light affects everything we do. The light of the moon can alter the oceans and the weather, as does the sun. It is certain and common sense that they can alter human moods. It is, quite frankly, imbecilic to think that prolonged exposure to the colored lights radiated from a television set is not harmful.
Or do some people need a million-dollar government grant to prove to them that this is so?
It is common sense that this cannot be good. The ones who fail to see that are like the type of people who need research to decide if mother's milk is better and safer than formula (as if a Nestle chemical concoction could possibly be better than a mother's milk for that mother's very own flesh and blood). That is a lunatic proposition on the face of it.
Get my point? People who watch too much TV lose touch with common sense and reality and this, in turn, leads these people to believing the most absurd notions. Of course, since only someone like Nestle would finance silly research like this, as well as buying million dollar advertising on TV to even bring it up, the people who are in hypnosis will easily accept the new "reality" provided for them by way of suggestion from television.
I've been accused of being a hippie and riding the bandwagon of the seventies by saying that television is bad for children (and that playing classical music is better than rock). To that I would say that I hope you'd read my articles more carefully and understand that I am an industry insider working in the mass media for over thirty years. Generally speaking, I make, and always have made, music-related TV and radio programs. I use this as my "authority." I do not need a ten-million-dollar government university research grant to show me what I have come to know through real-life experiences; that TV is bad and that classical music is better for small children than, say, rock, or hip-hop. Some others also have said that, by riding the bandwagon, I use this as justification to be able to brag that my child is gifted. Once again, the evidence of the damage caused by too much television viewing rears its ugly head; a cursory reading of the article I wrote would show that I never wrote what I am accused of. The Plug-In Drug speaks at length about how TV watching can cause people's ability to read and comprehend to atrophy. As I wrote, "The fact of the matter is that I reckon that, because my son watches no TV, he is actually normal. He seems gifted if only because the other kids have been made dumb because of television..." As far as my child being "gifted" due to not watching TV, I'd like to add that Richard Buckminster Fuller once said "there is no such thing as genius, some children are less damaged than others."
Another intelligent reader interestingly pointed out that, "Kids should be protected from TV with the same determination (that) protects them from child molesters. Come to think of it, viewing TV may be a form of molestation: A stranger attempts to distort a child's concept of reality, obviously without physical touching, but with carefully practiced psychological 'strokes' instead."
The television is one of the main root causes of all our problems. Bring up any subject and it can be pointed out how the television directly relates to the situation. Whether we are talking about the presidential run of Ron Paul and his campaign being ignored, and therefore, out of sight and out of mind of average Boobus Americanus or the sick state of American foreign policy, the television is, at the very least, the accomplice to the crime. It is the television that is being used as the conduit for propaganda and falsehoods that are making our society a society of ill-educated dimwits who know nothing, nor do they care to know, about the problems at hand. The television is giving the public the explanations of the problems in 15-second sound bites that are paid for by major corporations and their prostitute Big Brother; explanations that are controlled and designed to give a certain message. It is a message that is not to be discussed, interrupted, or confused.
If you wish to live as a free human being and wish that happiness upon your children, then throw away your television today. The television cannot be reformed. Don't believe me, read the books I've recommended here, and, after you do, if you still think TV is fine, then I hope you enjoy your "show."
Still, if you think what I have written is wrong, then as is your right, please ignore my warnings. I seriously doubt that any intelligent person could read the books I've mentioned and come to the conclusion that I am wrong. In fact, after reading and judging for themselves, I think most people would say that I am not enough of a hard-core anti-TV advocate. I do not write these warnings for the average person; I write them in the hopes that there are still a great many wise people around. Unfortunately, I fear that the average person is a lost cause; the grip television has on their lives is too great to ever be broken.
The central government, the controllers of the opiate of the masses, will give the average person all the freedoms they could possibly want. Just sit in darkened rooms, relax, shut out any interference, and bring snacks along. The Bread and Circuses are on air all day, every day, for their enjoyment with just the push of a button. What more freedoms could the average person want… or deserve?