The “irrevocable resignation” of lawyer Avelino Cruz as Secretary of Defense has been attributed to intra-cabinet bickering over the failure of the “People’s Initiative” to pass muster at the Supreme Court.

Malacanang apparently did not expect the 8-7 vote last October. Much less did it expect the majority’s description of the “PI” (which some uncharitable souls use with the full knowledge that “PI” is also shorthand for a common Filipino expletive) as “a deception” and “a gigantic fraud on the people.” Continue reading

Japanese textbooks refer to such Japanese atrocities as the destruction of the Chinese city of Nanjing (Nanking) during World War II as instances of “mischief-making.” In the Nanjing “incident”, mischievous Japanese soldiers massacred 100,000 men, women and children, raped some 20,000 women, and burned, looted and practically destroyed the entire city.

But if that was “mischief,” North Korea’s test of a puny nuclear weapon last month was a “provocation” and a “threat”. Then there’s the US “war on terror,” under whose umbrella the Japanese government has managed to deploy Japanese troops abroad for the first time since World War II. Continue reading