September ended, you woke me up and I need to sleep

"The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, & what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts? And can history produce an instance of rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of its motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion." -Thomas Jefferson, letter to William S. Smith, sent from Paris, Nov. 13, 1787.

Shays's Rebellion-- a rebellion against messy taxes and the debt that these guys had to pay off as a consequence. And where did it happen? M-A-S-S-A-C-H-U-S-E-T-T-S know what that means man

I read the article for that rebellion on Wikipedia, which seemed to focus too much on the idea that the federal government was too weak. The main focus should've been how messy the taxing was, and how people who fought for the nation couldn't live because they were being taxed way too much to pay for the debt incurred by the war. Sam Adams, forgetting what he'd fought for in the first place, drew up the Riot Act, which eventually got passed, suspending habeas corpus. How's that for too many beers?

Apply this story to the bailout bill that just got passed by the Senate, whose name, by the way, is H.R. 1424: The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. I, in Japan, feel somewhat like Jefferson did over in France, and I'm waiting for the (hopefully and most likely nonviolent) rebellion that'll slap the government in the face.

I would like to apologize to Ann for shoving this stuff in her face yesterday. I was kind of emphatic about it, and I shouldn't have ranted. Also, I made two blog post rants about the government and got too tired, of ranting and of not sleeping, to post them, and I'll add "thankfully" to that. Thankfully, because they really don't have anything to do with this blog, except now I have something productive to say.

I was asked whether I was homesick today by a Japanese girl who was doing a survey assignment for her class, and I said, somewhat but not completely emphatically, "No." She didn't ask me whether I was sick, which I most clearly was. This is my first cold in Japan, and it showed up about a week ago but went away temporarily. But now it's back. It smells like the U.S. bailout. In fact, this bailout is one of the things weighing heavily on my mind recently. There are other things on my mind, but only subconsciously; I don't know what they are. But the bailout I have on my mind consciously. Furthermore, I have not yet requested my absentee ballot. I will do so as fast as possible, since it might perhaps relieve the underground stress I have over the future of our nation as a result.

Enough of that. I'm sick now, and why? I'm not sure. I felt pretty healthy after playing some pretty good frisbee yesterday, but when I came back, I definitely knew I was sick. However, I can name two other people who are also sick. Still, I feel kinda weak seeing as how very few other people are sick, and it's not great being sick seeing as blowing your nose in public はだめなそうだ。(I heard it's rude to blow your nose in public.) I'm managing, and I'm about to go to bed, since 9:30 has been a really great time to go to bed.

But let me let you in on something. I'm listening to a song called "Want You Bad" by the Offspring. I don't think I've even thought of this song in so long, but there's a reason it came to my head recently. Could I be more obvious?

My nose is stuffed. I can't think anymore. I hope I'll be able to go to karaoke tomorrow night, to Kyoto Saturday night, and to Takarazuka Sunday night. But all may fail.

Sometimes, life needs more breaks, though. Wake me up when October ends.

And I'm spent.
Alex