Everyone is Sick: People Do the Weirdest Things When They Are In Love: Why I am Against the Death Penalty

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread." ~ Mother Teresa

"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence." ~ Eric Fromm

"At the extremes, people are considered, or actually are, nuts. But as time progresses, what used to be considered eccentric, is viewed as abnormal and in need of medicating, or at least worthy of employing members of the American Psychological Association to treat." ~ William M. Briggs

"When love is not madness, it is not love." ~ Pedro Calderon de la Barca

There's not a person in this world who isn't suffering from some sort of mental disorder. I have one. So do you. The most ill of all of us are the ones who are so vain and narcissist - or extremely ill - that they won't, or can't, admit it.

I think there isn't anything wrong with having failings. We are, after all, only human. Humans are imperfect.

In 1995, the religious cult called Aum Shinrikyo committed the Nerve Gas Attacks on the Tokyo Subway. After years of searching, one of the top suspects in that crime voluntarily gave himself up to police (that's an interesting story, in and of itself - the police didn't believe that it was him when he gave himself up, so they turned him away). The police had always been baffled how he was able to remain a fugitive for so long. Now, maybe we know.

Yahoo reports: 

A woman claiming to have lived with a senior member of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways turned herself in and was arrested Tuesday for helping him evade police for nearly 17 years. Akemi Saito, also a member of Aum Shinrikyo, gave herself up after Makoto Hirata surrendered to police on New Year's Eve, according to police and Saito's lawyer. Hirata has refused to explain how he managed to keep underground for so long despite being one of Japan's most-wanted fugitives. He is suspected of involvement in a cult-related kidnapping-murder in 1995. Later that year, Aum Shinrikyo released sarin nerve gas in Tokyo's subways, killing 13 and injuring more than 6,000. 

This is a weird story. These crimes allegedly committed by Hirata are heinous crimes and cannot be forgiven nor forgotten. That he would be protected by this woman, Akemi Saito, is the part that is probably most curious to the average person. But, I don't think so. Sounds like she probably loves him. She is sick. We're all sick. Modern society is making us all sicker by the day.

Hirata caught on surveillance camera at Osaka station on 12/31/11

If she weren't sick in the first place, she would have never joined a religious cult. Agreed?

Now, let's extrapolate that thought. Let's consider Hirata. Is he a criminal? Oh, most definitely. Is he sick? Oh most certainly, without a doubt he is a very sick man. Most people can't even conceive of doing the things he is accused of doing.

Now that he's been caught, if convicted, Hirata will probably get the death penalty. 

It might seem that I'm getting off the subject here for a second, but let me state here that I am completely and unequivocally against the death penalty for any crimes. Why? Because of the finality of it all. Men make mistakes. In the history of the law, we have executed the wrong guy many times. Most definitely, many times, Japan has sentenced people to death only to find out later that they made a mistake (sorry link in Japanese only). In my, possibly errant opinion, I don't think the Japanese legal system would ever admit that they executed the wrong person. The United States has certainly executed the wrong person. A CBS report showed that, from 1973 to 1995, in 5,800 cases that resulted in capital convictions, there was an error rate of 68%! Is there any doubt to anyone that this sort of error has happened many, many times in our history? 

Claude Jones was executed in Texas in 2000. Whoops! Wrong guy!

I am against the death penalty. Even if we know absolutely sure that someone committed a crime, we cannot make exceptions to the rule of law and change the law, or make new laws, for that individual. So, I am against the death penalty if only because having a death penalty means that, ultimately, we will someday execute the wrong person. I may agree that Hirata needs to die for his crimes... But, like I said, if we have a law that allows the execution of Hirata, then the law is on the books and that allows us the margin for error to, in the future, as in the past, to execute an innocent person. We must be a society of law and the rule of law. Not a society of mobs and mass disorder.

But I digress... This post is about Akemi Saito.

The girl next door? Saito Akemi

I think there are a lot of people like Akemi Saito running around Japan's big cities -  or any big cities around the world for that matter. Even though, in Japan, the cities are  bustling with people, they can be very lonely places. I've even read before that, when talking vending machines first came out, that they were popular with young people because they could at least hear someone's voice. I don't know if that's true or not. It is probably partly true, partly false.


But I do know that there are a very many lonely people here in these big cities...

Think about it; healthy people, in the first place, do not join cults. I would submit to you that healthy people may not even go to church at all. 

In Japan, often, church people go around to houses and pass out literature or ask for donations for this or that. But that word is not for me. 

I am always polite and kind to these people, and on blistering hot summer days, I sometimes offer them tea. They take that as a hint that I am interested in their church. I am not. Even so, I usually praise them for their selfless work towards their beliefs (I think that it is what they are supposed to do; "Spread the word"). Many times, these people will ask me to come to their church and attend services. I always decline.

At the front door of my house, I have a crucifix hanging over the door. Am I a Catholic? No. But when Mormons or Jehovah's Witness folks come by, they always ask me about it. People are surprised by my answer.

My crucifix

"Well, that was a present from a very high ranking Catholic priest from the Vatican who was once my friend long ago. I haven't seen him in years. He went back to Italy. I didn't know what to do with it, and I don't want to throw it in the trash can, so I hung it over the door. I figure any 'extra insurance' couldn't hurt." 


Hard core religious people are usually very surprised by that; worship of idols and all that...

Fact of the matter is even though I think these religions are all the same, I respect them all. If I had a Koran or a Torah or any other religious artifact or book, I feel guilty about throwing them away (my psychological quirk) so I don't want to accept anything from these kind people. (If someone cherishes something, I don't want to crumple up that and throw it in the trash... Perhaps I am too sentimental...)


They again ask me to attend their church, I always reply, "Sick people go to hospitals. I am not sick enough to need to go to a hospital now. If I do get that way, I will go. For now, the church in my heart is enough for me."

But I drone on. The point? I think that people are all sick. I think that people who go to church do so for a longing. It's not a bad thing; it's a good thing. To each, their own. It is human nature. I think that people who really get hard core into it, may be very sick and lonely. I think it might be a contradiction that today's society makes people sick... So, if you think about it, in today's world, being sick is the new normal.

Like I said, I'm sick. You're sick. Hirata is very sick. The sickest ones are the the people who won't admit or refuse to see that they are sick. Akemi Saito, the woman who "loved" Hirata (or what he represented) and hid him for all these years, how about her? Would you say that she is sick? I would.


These two are very sick and lost people.

These people need help. I hope that they don't sentence Hirata to death. I hope that Saito isn't sent to prison for decades. These people need help. 

Akemi Saito should not be sent to jail where she becomes a guest of the state (and a tax burden on you or me) she is sick. She should be in a mental hospital where she is a burden to her family and her insurance company. Hirata will, unfortunately be sent to death, which will cost the taxpayer millions. But he should be sent to an insane asylum for the criminally insane and be the likewise burden to his family and insurance company (if he had one).


I know the Nazi's did it, but I'd like to think that our civilized society doesn't imprison or execute mentally ill people.

NOTE: Even though I think these people are sick, I do not think that we can blame society. Everyone is master of their own destiny. That being said, is it anyone's doubt that finally, our political and legal system is broken? The government claims that we have the death penalty as a deterrent. But, history shows that this deterrent doesn't work. Why? Even with the death penalty, people commit premediated murder or mass and serial murders. This proves that the death penalty doesn't work as deterrent.

I suggest an economic solution to the problem. Say an insurance based one. Insurance companies insure everyone. If they insure someone, and that person commits murder, the insurance companies pay millions and that person loses everything in retribution (their home, bank accounts). You think that their family and loved ones losing their homes wouldn't be motivation to not commit crimes? I do. 

If someone is deemed a bad risk, they can't get insurance. No insurance? No car, no home, no job, no family. Sure this economic solution may sound draconian or like a utopian dream, but the political solution that we've been using for so many centuries is not working well.

Anyone with any other ideas? 

People Leaving the USA? The Trickle Becoming a Flood? It's Like 1939 Again.

"The chickens have come home to roost" - Malcolm X

I had many reasons for leaving the USA and moving overseas. One of the big reasons was, because of traveling outside of the USA a lot, especially in university days, I began to realize that the story (brainwashing) about the USA being the "Greatest country on earth" (that we were all exposed to throughout our youth in school) wasn't exactly true. 


The propaganda involving American exceptionalism and how "we are different (better)" certainly wasn't true either.

Many people's of the world are proud of their countries (rightly so) and think they are living in the best country in the world... I've met lots of those outside the USA. Before I had met these people, I was under the impression that everyone was desperately trying to find a way to escape their country and get to the USA... 

Maybe trying to escape to the USA was the dream of most people during World War II. It's not that way today. In fact, it's definitely become the opposite of that today; American people are trying to leave the USA. 

I notice that, over this last year or two, this trickle of folks escaping from the USA has gotten bigger and bigger. Of course, the MSM doesn't report it. MSM only reports about important things like what kind of spray tans the stars use, but the fact that entire web sites and blogs, (like my favorites, International Man, or Dollar Vigilante) as well as many other online and offline publications that have popped up supporting expatriation or diversifying out of the dollar, shows you what I told people in the early 2000's: People who can read the writing on the wall are getting out of the USA. 

"Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home 

is to be charged against provisions against danger, 

real or pretended from abroad." 

- James Madison in a letter to Thomas Jefferson

I warned people about that just after the Invasion of Iraq. My friends scoffed. I doubt that they scoff anymore (or maybe they are still clueless or in denial).


Anyone who studied any sufficient amount of history should have seen the parallels of what happens to a country that wages wars of aggression to what that means for the domestic populace. I certainly wasn't the only one who saw it coming. My example was the historical record of the smart Jewish people and some wealthy and educated people leaving Germany and Europe before 1939. By Sept. 1, 1939, even those who wanted to leave, couldn't.


I knew what was going to happen. Many others did too. That the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq were a precursor to today problems in the USA should have come to no surprise to anyone. Of course these types of foreign adventures and wars of aggression lead to a collapse of society; they always have throughout the course of human history. To think that these incidents and wars would not lead to the current US debt, economic problems and a loss of freedom is foolish. To think that foreign wars would not lead to a suppression of the people and a rise of the police state is to ignore history... These economic problems and despair, and other recent examples such as the police beating of OWS protesters were completely predictable (they'll get much worse too!) Or, even this wonderful tidbit about how well life in America is today from Reuters this surprises no one:

A shopper pepper-sprayed other bargain hunters and robbers shot at customers to steal their Black Friday purchases, marring the start of the U.S. holiday shopping season, according to authorities.

Up to 20 people were injured after a woman used pepper spray at a Walmart in Los Angeles to get an edge on her competitors. In a second incident, off-duty officers in North Carolina used pepper spray to subdue rowdy shoppers waiting for electronics.

A man was in critical but stable condition after being shot by robbers in a parking lot outside a Walmart In San Leandro, California, at 1:50 a.m. (0950 GMT), Sergeant Mike Sobek said.

The man was in a group of men headed for their car after shopping when robbers confronted them and a fight ensued, Sobek said. The man's shopping companions held down one of the robbers until police arrived and took him into custody.

What's the problem here, officer? Boys will be boys. If you guys can pepper-spray peaceful protesters then why can't this lady pepper-spray a pack of insane and possibly dangerous shoppers out buying crap? I mean, think about it, anyone who would get up early and line up at a Walmart to buy cheap made in China junk must be insane and dangerous... At least dangerous to themselves!


I can write this sort of critique of the USA today, but even 7 years ago, when I wrote about how bad the USA was becoming, in America is Bankrupt, I received lots of hate mail and even a few death threats. Today, from seeing so many different writings and publications on the Internet along the same lines as what I wrote about, talking about USA expatriation is no longer laughed at, but seriously considered by those who matter.


In fact, the window has almost closed, folks. If you can get out now, you should. You won't be able to so easily in the near future. 


Jeff Berwick recently wrote an article entitled, "Escape From America":

Recently I was surfing the internet and reading some of my favorite writers and thinkers when something dawned on me. I read articles or interviews with the following people – all of whom I respect and enjoy their viewpoints – in approximately the following order:

• Marc Faber, The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report
• Doug Casey – Founder, Casey Research
• Jim Rogers – American investor and author
• Jim Willie – Hat Trick Letter
• Dudley Baker – PreciousMetalsWarrants.com
• Fred Reed – Author

Can you name something which they all have in common?
If you said that they are all top writers or speakers about free markets and/or precious metals you'd be correct. But that isn't their only similarities.
They also all have expatriated from their country of origin. After having read seven articles in a row I realized that every person I was reading has already defected from the USSA or other similar western countries.

Like I said, the smart people have gotten out. 


It is not unusual to write about these things today. It was risky to do so seven years ago... But when I first decided to move here to Japan in the early 1980's, there was no one that I could tell my fears to... In those days, if you had told anyone that you believe that the USA was way overstepping its authority and turning into the new Nazi state, American people would have thought you were nuts. 


Probably most foreigners, the world over, would have just nodded their head and said, "What took you so long to figure that out?"


To recall an experience when I was working at a company office before I came to the USA allows me to exemplify one case of just how twisted the modern American mindset has become. This is the case of the US invasion of Grenada. For me, this was a quick preview of what was coming for the USA. I didn't like it at all.

Ronald Reagan was the president of the USA. He had won by a landslide against Jimmy Carter in 1980. The US invaded Grenada in 1983. 

In 1981, I had started working at a Prudential district office as a salesman / broker. The other salesmen were nice guys and most of them were typically at least 20 ~ 30 years older than me and many of them were ex-military men. 

One day when I came to the office they were drinking and having a celebration. I walked in and it was a happy scene.  A few dozens guys drinking and eating and having several "toasts" to whatever it was they were toasting. When they saw me they shouted, "Mike! Come on in! Have a drink! We're celebrating!"

I grabbed a drink and was very happy to join the party! "Wow! Drinking at work? Cool!" I then asked, "What are we celebrating?"

To which several guys smiled and said to me, "We won a war!"

"What war?" I replied. 

A very nice older guy named Jim Cline said, "We invaded Grenada and won a war! The Vietnam war is over! We've won!"


At first, I was happy. But then it dawned on me... "What the hell are we doing invading some Caribbean nation and half these people don't even know where that is?"


The MSM was reporting that we invaded that island nation to save US university students... Then the story was something about 5,000 Cuban regular army on the island building an airport... There were so many excuses. (sounds like Iraq?)


Later, I went to the public library and found out some truths. First off, if you are Cuban, everyone is in the army so 5,000 "Cuban regulars" means about 600 Cuban soldiers, their wives and their 8 kids. The University students were never in any danger and that the UK and several other nations severely protested the US action as US imperialism (Nah! Couldn't be! We're the good guys, remember?) and that a US puppet government was put into power. So much for being the good guys. 


Wikipedia says:


While the invasion enjoyed broad public support in the United States, and received support from some sectors in Grenada from local groups who viewed the post-coup regime as illegitimate, it was criticized by the United Kingdom, Canada and the United Nations General Assembly, which condemned it as "a flagrant violation of international law".


I remember thinking that everything the US media was telling us about this naked aggression was a complete lie. I remember thinking, 


"Hey! We're supposed to be the Land of the Free! We're supposed to be helping people and spreading democracy (and I don't mean from the barrel of a gun). We're not supposed to be invading other countries!!!"

The writing was on the wall for me. I hated my job and, because I studied television and media in university I understood how this brainwashing business worked (thanks Mr. Al Miller). I could see what kind of right wing America we were heading for. I was surprised that no one else saw it coming, it seemed to me.

I was still young, cocky and believed I could do anything I wanted. 

And I wanted to be free. I left the US police state. Now there are many following. 

I do feel vindicated. I feel sorry for those in the USA who fail to see what's coming. I am still, to this day, astounded that even university educated people (like my family) in the USA support the vast US empire and military industrial complex. Their day of reckoning is almost here.

Just today, another article appeared on Lew Rockwell about how bad things have gotten in the USA. Please refer to: Be Thankful if You Were Not Born in the US:

.....Inside their borders, as Americans get tazed, pepper sprayed, beaten and caged on a regular basis, they are beginning to realize that the land of the free and home of the brave was a catchy jingle from centuries ago. It is now the land of the fee, home of the slave. TRAPPED Today, as the American government works to erect a wall and conducts unmanned drone flights on the border with Canada, many in the US are awakening to the fact that they are becoming trapped. The US Government has even made it so all student debt is now completely inextinguishable in bankruptcy... meaning that for students who wasted 4-8 years of their life getting what is often a worthless piece of paper and six figures of debt, they will be enslaved for life and, as we are predicting at TDV, will be forced into the military to pay off their obligations. GIVE THANKS IF YOU WERE NOT BORN IN THE US In an erstwhile change of fortune, what was once the best place to be born, between 1623-1970 has now become one of the worst. Only those born in North Korea and Cuba, and a handful of other despotic regimes, can be said to be much worse off.....

It's 1939 again... Excepting the fascists have taken control of the USA. 


Get out while you still can.

US Government Hypocrisy. Watch this: 

NOTE: Thanks to T. Foley for part of this article's inspiration. T graduated from a top class California University at Santa Barbara. I used to think he was an intelligent guy... That is until he was totally "Gung-ho!" for the Iraq invasion and actually told me before that fiasco started, "We'll be in and out in 4 weeks!" ... I totally lost respect for him and the rest of the "Gung-ho!" people he associated with then. Here were people who were university educated and vehemently anti-Vietnam war just  a few years before, but then, at that time, they suddenly became cheerleaders for the US military machine? Extraordinary!


Proof that the US education system has totally gone down the shit can when university educated people cannot see through the lies and propaganda techniques developed in the late 1930's by the Nazi's (use of "Bandwagon") and identified by the Institute of Propaganda Analysis in the USA... I'll even bet these guys don't know that the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 because the Poles attacked Germany in the Gleiwitz incident first! Nazi Germany was merely defending itself from "terrorism"... Ahem...


Not only are these people tools of the state, they are now reaping what they sowed.


Hope you guys enjoy the garden you've planted.