Screw Pearl Harbor
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 2 days, you know that Japan was rocked on Friday by a massive earthquake, followed by a 30 foot tsunami. Compounding those factors are an exploding oil refinery, two nuclear reactors that are having trouble shutting down properly, and a forced closure of a non-trivial amount of traffic in and out of the country. People are dead, people are missing, and people are stranded. So why do Americans feel the need to make this all about them?
Before I continue, I need to put things in perspective. The quake that hit Japan measured 8.9 on the Richter Scale. That makes it the fifth largest earthquake in the world since 1900, and the largest that's ever hit Japan. For a country that rests very near the intersection of 4 techtonic plates, that says a lot. So far there have been almost 300 aftershocks (286 as I write this) in the last 48 hours measuring higher than 4.5, and 30 of those are higher than 6.0 (which is a pretty significant earthquake on its own). The resulting tsunami reached all the way across the Pacific Ocean to land in San Francisco, and went over 6 miles inland in Japan, wiping out entire towns. Japan's shoreline moved 8 feet, and the Earth tilted on its axis by 4 inches. Simply put, this is one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history.
Somehow, Japan has escaped this with less than 1000 estimated deaths so far. The reason for this is that they are extremely well prepared for earthquakes: their building code includes mandates that all buildings have serious earthquake protection built in, and there are monthly drills so that when a quake happens, people are prepared. When you live on a giant mountain range that was formed by techtonic activity, you don't have a choice; you must be ready for the next big one.
And what is America doing after all of this? Well, Fox News (who are a news agency in the same way that wrestling is a sport) is trying to use it as an opportunity to further their agenda of pointing out that nuclear power plants have risks associated with them. Bing, the Microsoft search engine, tried to use it as a chance to try to increase their brand recognition. And countless people on Facebook and Twitter are showing how ignorant they are by trying to relate it back to Pearl Harbor.
First things first: as of the time of this writing, there are no uncontrollable nuclear meltdowns happening in Japan, and the population is safe from the power plants. Further, nuclear plants emit significantly less radiation and pollution than coal. Trying to use the human tragedy in Japan to make a bad political point is fucking stupid, and it misses the point: rather than trying to slander Obama's legislation, how about you cover the fucking tragedy that's happening in Japan! You pretend to be a news station, so cover the fucking news!
Secondly, as I tweeted earlier to Bing, human tragedy is not a marketing tool you fucking cuntbags. If you're going to donate $100,000 to help out in Japan, just donate the fucking money! This is not an appropriate event for advertising, and fuck you for being too ignorant and stupid to figure that out on your own. Google tossed up a Person Finder for tracking down people in Japan, and did they try to brag about it to increase their brand? NO. Because they fucking know better. Bing did eventually wise up and apologize and donate the money, but they should have been smart enough to just do it in the first place.
Now, to all you fucking assholes who are trying to tie this in to Pearl Harbor somehow: pick up one of your multitude of guns, and shoot yourself in the face. Rid the world of your ignorance. The last thing the world needs right now is asshats like you screaming MERRIKUH! THAT'S FOR PEARL HARBOR! Fuck you. This has nothing to do with Pearl Harbor, and you're all ignorant fucking cunts for saying otherwise.
Fuck Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor happened during the most violent war in the history of the planet, and it was allowed to occur because MERRIKUH took for granted that the Japanese weren't going to attack, and were completely unprepared for it. Frankly, the only reason you were left with any naval force there at all was that the Japanese leadership stopped the attack prematurely: if they realize how totally unable to respond you are, then they keep attacking until every last ship is sunk and every last person is dead. You only survived that attack because they made a mistake and let up too soon.
In the Pearl Harbor attack, about 2,400 people died, all but about 57 of which were marines or army. And how did MERRIKUH get back at the Japanese for that? By dropping the only two nuclear bombs that have ever been used in wartime, killing 105,000 and injuring 94,000 more. And while most of the Pearl Harbor casualties were military, most of the victims at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were civilians -oh I'm sorry, when MERRIKUH kills civilians it's called "collateral damage." My mistake.
Now there are mental rejects who are trying to say the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan are somehow a karmic response for Pearl Harbor? Fuck you. If there is any karma to be had here, it's against MERRIKUH for dropping two nuclear bombs and killing almost 50x as many people as died at Pearl Harbor.
Also worth noting is that there's absolutely no looting or disorder in Japan after this. Think the same would be true if this happened to L.A.? If you do then you're delusional. There's a reason the Mayor of San Francisco ordered the police to kill looters after the earthquake in 1906.
The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force and all Special Police Officers have been authorized by me to kill any and all persons found engaged in Looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime.
- Mayor Schmitz, April 18, 1906
This is not karma, and it is not something that should be used to make a political point. This is a tragic natural disaster that happened to one of our allies, and in this time of need everyone should be giving what they can to help out. President Obama's not a traitor for helping them, he's showing compassion to a trading partner in need. Rather than decrying him for doing the right thing, maybe you should take the fucking hint.