[Tailgunner Joe]

For information about the Yasukuni Shrine, click here.

[bybybill]

Is this nonsense supposed to be funny?

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Is this a joke? It is a shame that one should have to ask such a question. However, such is America 2002 A.D.

[Demidog]

Our countries are and always have been good friends.

LOL...except for that little war thing a while back....

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[exit82]

This had me going wondering if this was real until I read "there's a nip in the air" line--then I busted out laughing.

[demosthenes the elder]

ok, normally I don't pay any mind to realpolitikery, but this speech is absurd.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

". . . the Japanese ambassador expressed his deep respect for America by presenting President Bush with the shorter of the two traditional Japanese swords . . ."

The shorter of the two traditional Japanese swords? Is this the sword used for such things as Hari Kari?

This whole piece is wonton of the "Double Barf Alert" and is in keeping with the sort of thing that one might expect from the "Party of Peace" lead by such stalwarts as Tiny Tom, Wooden Injun Al, Hitlery the reincarnation who would give us the 4th Reich, and the other wanna be's from CA, LA, SD, NJ, CAN (where they are morally superior) and EUC countries (where the haven't figured it out yet), just to mention a few of the 48 percenters.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"We both place great value on individual freedom and opportunity."

Bush was peaking to Japs ,right?

[The_Reader_David]

It should be observed that since the defeat of the Japanese Empire in WW II, Shinto has indeed become a religion of peace, and indeed tolerance. This remarkable change, from a doctrine of superiority over all others, justification of horrific attrocities, and a drive for world domination into a pacifistic creed after a severe, indeed horrific defeat is not unprecedented:

Menno, the founder of the Mennonites, during his life sought to establish the Kingdom of God, as he understood it, by force. The original Mennonites were militaritic, and it was only after a defeat in a terrible seige by an alliance of Latin Christians loyal to Rome and several other protestant groups that the survivors of his movement adopted the now-familiar strict pacifism we associate with Mennonites.

I have the dreadful feeling that Islam will live up to the "religion of peace" propaganda only after it has been dealt a correspondingly severe defeat.

[Cindy]

December 7, 1941: "JAPAN ATTACKS PEARL HARBOR!"

[patriciaruth]

I think the satire piece is cruel and I knew it wasn't the President from the very beginning.

The following hymn expresses my thinking, and there are days when I think the President feels the same way.

A Mighty Fortress is Our God,
A sword and shield victorious;
He breaks the cruel oppressor's rod
And wins salvation glorious.
The old satanic foe
Has sworn to work us woe!
With craft and dreadful might
He arms himself to fight.
On earth he has no equal.

No strength of ours can match his might!
We would be lost, rejected.
But now a champion comes to fight,
Whom God Himself elected.
You ask who this may be?
The Lord of hosts is He!
Christ Jesus, mighty Lord,
God's only Son, adored.
He holds the field victorious.

Though hordes of devils fill the land
All threat'ning to devour us,
We tremble not, unmoved we stand;
They cannot overpow'r us,
Let this world's tyrant rage;
In battle we'll engage!
His might is doomed to fail;
God's judgment must prevail!
One little word subdues him.

God's Word forever shall abide,
No thanks to foes, who fear it;
For God himself fights by our side
With weapons of the Spirit.
Were they to take our house,
Goods, honor, child or spouse,
Though life be wrenched away,
They cannot win the day.
The Kingdom's ours forever!

[Cindy]

WHITE HOUSE.gov - Press Release: "National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2002
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021206-5.html