Transition post

I must admit to the Liverputty reader that I am somewhat rudderless since Samurai Month ended. The Liverputty staff thought long and hard about following it up with Yakuza Month, but being a lesser genre than samurai films, we felt we would risk boring the uninterested reader. We sought advice from our resident advice columnist, but he was nowhere to be found. If it will not interfere with Liverputty's bottom line and we won't be risking the loss of any sponsors if we proceed, Liverputty will very likely drift in that direction.

But it hasn't yet. And until then, we are grateful that long lost contributor, Dude, resparked an interest in personal manifestos, which led to EscutcheonBlot to provide his and is currently provoking Odienator to provide his, as well. Although I have no plans to introduce a manifesto of my own, I will offer a couple of comments on some fairly recent events:

Mayan priests: are now apparently morons. As near as I can figure, they've got one chief function and that is to spot evil and cleanse it. Well, they botched that. I don't think they'd know evil if it marched right up, bitch slapped them in the face and then nationalized all their assets. I hereby dissolve my membership at the Midwest City Mayan Community Temple.

300: is not a film I will likely be seeing. My resistance to it does not stem from the political arguments or through historical accuracy issues, but because of the cinematography. When I choose to see a film about Greeks, it's going to have bright blue Mediterranean skies and majestic blue Mediterranean waters. Nothing against the graphic novel, by I wish filmmakers would save the dreary gray skies for the Persian invasion of Buffalo.

Epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health: are about as incompetent as the Mayan priests above mentioned. Their report in October that estimated 650,000 have died in Iraq since the invasion was so ludicrous that only a highly educated "scientist" would believe it. If the students of these epidemiologists are not heckling these goofs every minute of every class period then they are not doing their duty as civilized beings. No doubt, the figure of 650K will persist for ages to come.

Bollywood: I am so glad to hear that Akshaye Khanna is finally coming out of his shell! And that Ram Gopal Varma is growing up. But sad that Aishwarya Rai is getting hitched.

China's Firewall: will attack the security issues of the Internet at its source - the spread of information.

Japan and Australia: continue to warm my heart. Abe hasn't got his footing yet and is certainly not as popular as Koizumi, but he's continuing these types of efforts. John Howard is simply the coolest world leader out there. The line in the article that got me was from the Chinese Foreign Minister: "...The modernization of our [China's] armed forces is defensive in nature." So, you see, there's no need for Australia and Japan to make any pacts.