Maxi hazards - マキシの難

Ankle-length skirts are nice - smart and elegant; but I am disinclined to wear them unless absolutely wanted.  The reasons are three.  First, the hem tends to sweep the ground and gets drenched when there is a puddle.  Second, if I am not careful, I trip on the hem going up and down the stairs and getting on and off a bus, though it makes a graceful figure to pull it up with fingertips to lift the hem.  Then, third, I cannot stand to get the skirt fold down on the stall floor when I sit down in a public toilet. Another reason why I wear miniskirts habitually, aside from those I had already written elsewhere — My Mini Habit.

足首まである長いスカートは綺麗、スマートだし優雅、でもあたしは、どうしてもという時以外、あまり履く気がしないの。理由は三つ。先ず第一に、裾が地面を掃き払うし、水溜りがあればびしょびしょになる事。第二に、褄を取ればいい姿ですけど、バスの乗り降り、階段のの上り下りの際にうっかりすると裾につまずく事。そして第三、公衆のトイレに入って座る時、汚い床にスカートを重ね落とすのがとても嫌な事。あたしのミニスカ常用の、既に　My Mini Habit で述べた理由に加えて、もう一つの理由。

Not Knowing - 無知

Not to be in the know is a loss, whether just not to be informed or not to be knowledgeable, a loss and never a gain, so  I am convinced.  It is true that there are some things in this world that are hardly worth knowing and it would be squandering our precious time, when life’s time, if not necessarily short, is nonetheless fixed.  Still, we can ration our time accordingly, and discovering something was trivial or even worthless to know is itself worth knowing than not knowing so as not to spend more time on it.  So, anything is always good to know, I claim, than not to know, as conversely knowing is always a gain and knowing more only makes life more fulfilling and happier. 

知らないうことは損、それが情報を得ていない、又は博識がない、とのいずれの解釈にしろ、損失ばかりで利益はない、というのがあたしの確信するところです。勿論この世には知る価値の殆どないものはありますし、人生に与えられた時間が、短くはなくても決められたものである以上、貴重な時間を浪費するには及びません。でも、時間は適当に割り当てて、あるものが知るに足りないなり当たらないことを知る事自身、知っていれば、更に時間を費やす事なく、やはり知らずにいるより知っている方がそれだけ価値があります。ですから、なんでも知らざるより知るが良しと主張するわけです。そして、逆に、知るは常に益、すべて知れば知るほど満足感が得られ、人生もより幸福になるでしょう。

Defeating Trump

Open opposition is futile in dealing with Trump’s administration, and so, too, any rational criticism.  Day in and day out since his inauguration, we have been hearing pundits argue on every detail of his continuous executive orders.  But their talks are pointless — academic and ineffectual — because his mind is insistently contradictory and his actions lack consistency.  Any direct criticism does little to convince his hardcore voters of the man’s demagoguery; it only antagonizes them — blue collar workers, youthful voters, wealthy capitalists, and all,\ against the critics and the saner defenders of democracy.  By the same token, open demonstrations achieve little; he does not take them seriously.  The only workable path to bring him down is to mobilize the wishy washy Republicans to hold back their endorsements of the current administration.  Toward this end, the press needs to pay more attention to the plight of Trump’s supporters and report it with understanding, instead of shining light on him as it did so excessively through his campaign and administration so far. Optimistically, weakening of Trump’s base is slowly happening.