Great, Just What We Needed: Japan’s Own Roh Moo Hyun.

Judging by this, Kim Jong Il may have found the weak link he’s been looking for. I wouldn’t advise reading this less than two hours after a full meal.

How should Japan maintain its political and economic independence and protect its national interest when caught between the United States, which is fighting to retain its position as the world’s dominant power, and China, which is seeking ways to become dominant?

This is a question of concern not only to Japan but also to the small and medium-sized nations in Asia. They want the military power of the U.S. to function effectively for the stability of the region but want to restrain U.S. political and economic excesses. They also want to reduce the military threat posed by our neighbor China while ensuring that China’s expanding economy develops in an orderly fashion. These are major factors accelerating regional integration. [Yukio Hatoyama, N.Y. Times]

As we continue suck on America’s tit, let us resolve to bite it, too. Also, His Majesty-in-Waiting would like everyone to know that he was accepted into grad school. He’s a geeeeeenius. Just ask him:

Let me conclude by quoting the words of Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, founder of the first popular movement for a united Europe, written 85 years ago in “Pan-Europa” (my grandfather, Ichiro Hatoyama, translated his book, “The Totalitarian State Against Man,” into Japanese): “All great historical ideas started as a utopian dream and ended with reality. Whether a particular idea remains as a utopian dream or becomes a reality depends on the number of people who believe in the ideal and their ability to act upon it.

Choose your torture: a good waterboarding, the tear gas bunker at Ft. Lewis, a Cher concert — I’d choose any of them over being trapped in a cocktail party, much less on an island, while having to listen to this pompous bore drone on about why he’s the reincarnation of Themistocles. Talk about “enduring the unendurable.”