It's life Jim, but not as we know it

The thing that makes news, well, newsworthy is it has to be new. Well, not wishing to mess with the space-time continuum, but Our Man has been a bit asleep at the wheel and it is time to turn off SS Abiko's holiday auto pilot and have a look at the worlds outside his captain's porthole for any interesting alien life forms he might have missed. So, without further ado, here's yesterday's news today (or yesterday, depending on when you read this). Phasers on stun!

Here's a surprise for Our Man, a video interview with Debito - Interview with Debito on TkyoSam’s Vlog: Shizzle! - surprising in that Debito comes off as far less pompous in the flesh than he does on paper (the charitable might say the same of Our Man). Japan is certainly the richer for his presence, which might not be true of Gaijin Maids Brutally Treated or American Meat Ads Friendly Not Beefy.

Oh yes, this blog is supposed to be about politics. How about these links -

• "The financial crisis that started in the United States has struck Japan..."
  
• Multinationalism remains far from accepted in Japan
  
• To take or Not to Take: the ¥12,000 question
  
• What the heck is democracy anyway?
  
• The end of the financial world as we know it

By the way, the picture is from Article Clearance! All 2008 Ideas Must Go! Beam me up, Scotty.