News PM Punch

November 29, 2013

newsmanBright sunshine, coupled with what I’d call a chilly wind, and we’re having another fine, clear afternoon up here on California’s north coast — this particular one code-named Black Friday.

An example of loony-gullible and horrific life in the nowadays. Although top of the news cycle this PM tends to be of the ridiculous — Americans shopping in great, angry numbers for useless, ridiculous shit — the ongoing playing-chicken routine in the South China Sea is getting near-dangerous.

The dust-up is over a set of islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and which have been a focal point of a long-running snarling match between China and Japan over their control.
Today from the Guardian:

China scrambled fighter jets to investigate US and Japanese aircraft flying through its new air defence zone over the East China Sea on Friday as the regional clamour over the disputed airspace escalated.
The ministry of defence announced the move, which is the first time China is known to have sent military aircraft into the zone alongside foreign flights, stepping up its response to the challenge after its unilateral establishment of the zone.
It previously said it had monitored US, Japanese and South Korean aircraft and had flown routine patrols in the area on Thursday.
The ministry’s statement said that two US reconnaissance aircraft and 10 Japanese early warning, reconnaissance and fighter planes had entered the zone.

The US is backing the Japanese to the hilt, which may not be a good thing — politics in Asia, again:

“I think the only problem is Japan because it has taken a confrontational policy. They want clashes and to drag America into military containment against China,” said Yan Xuetong, a foreign relations scholar at Tsinghua University.
“The international community has ignored the roots of this … Abe has clearly stated that his fundamental goal is to revise the constitution [under which Japan renounces war] and he needs security tensions to legitimise his efforts.”

The situation seems to have legs.

Not naked, but tit-for-tat:

A woman who allegedly offered topless hairstyling services in northern Colorado faces criminal charges.
But police say the problem isn’t cutting hair without a top.
It’s cutting hair without a license.

Hall’s ex-husband told police she set up shop in Loveland and offered services as “Rebel Barber.”
He told police she applied for “a nude license for hairstylists,” but no such license exists.

Enough for this particular day, and on, and on, and on — I’ve not much leg left, even without a haircut.
We’re now on the weekend, though.

(Illustration found here).

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