BIRTH RATES, THOUGHT RATES

What a world what a world, where 49 or so percent of Americans deem an AWOL, macho-posturing warmonger "presidential," preferring him over a genuinely thoughtful (though sleazily tarnished) war hero, perhaps in November choosing the half-thought Texan to represent America (and all the greatness it still represents) to the world, seemingly oblivious to the embarrassment of it, as though, say, France or England were led by-- who's a valid Dubya-equivalent in another large country? A world in which, viewed from here in the Land of Wa, Japanese women (and soon women abroad, the marketing folks say) are lining up around the cho to buy the Boyfriend Arm Pillow, which replaces the least procreative aspects of a boyfriend (sort of like a Dubya president), Japan concurrently giving birth instead to another social phenomenon (somewhere deep in the social psyche, pillow and phenomenon go hand-in-hand), that of the hikikomori, defined as a person who hasn't interacted with anyone outside their family for more than 6 months, three-quarters of such individuals being male (many having been replaced by pillows), numbering over a million so far and no doubt increasing by the day, if the lengthening boyfriend pillow lines are any indication, and if Bush is elected in November (are you listening, God?) probably a lot more people around the world will stay home, particularly in America, where the US hikikomori will grow in large numbers out of embarrassment at what the world must think, except among Bush voters, who are either smart and will then be richer than ever (and by then will have fled to their offshore bank accounts and pied-a-terres in Costa Rica-Provence-Cancun-Panama-Nicaragua to escape the results) or haven't had much in the way of thought in a long time. But fewer births is way better than fewer thoughts, don't you think?

~~~~~~~~~