UPDATED 26 january

note to self: if feeling like kvetching online in the next few days, grumble about the piss-poor quality of reporting in today’s wp article about moving marines from okinawa to guam, increasing the island’s population by approx. “40,000 service people, contract workers and dependents.”

don’t journalists do basic background research anymore?

this PDN article on the same topic does a much better job of breaking down the actual impact (and number of expected military & dependents) of the “troop surge” on guam. according to the PDN, the number of active duty military on guam will reach 18,930 - not quite a three-fold increase from the current number of military personnel, and only a 63% increase over the island’s 1990 military personnel population.¹ oh, and of those 40k “service people, contract workers and dependents” mentioned by the wapo, only 8k will be marines. and yet the wapo article maintains a drumbeat of, “the marines are coming! the child-raping marines are coming! the misbehaving marines are coming!”

additionally, it’s positively fascinating that while the wapo makes brief mention that “outside investors are descending on the island,” the PDN notes that at the head of the line is none other than KBR.^1.5 talk about the things that make you go hmmmmmm.

(snarky aside: now, really. what’s going to happen with the arrival of 8000 marines over the course of the next six years? strip clubs² that closed due to the military population decline in the 90s and 00s will reopen. once again, west coast strippers will flock to the island by the hundreds, dance for dollars and try to date servicemembers. bars and dance clubs that went dark will reopen for the same reasons.

the wapo article states, “The newcomers will be mostly young, mostly single men trained as warriors — and periodically looking for a big night out on a small island where most hotels and restaurants cater to the sushi-and-kimchi predilections of upper-middle-class Japanese and South Korean tourists.” the author forgot to add “and stripper” to the list of japanese and south korean tourist predilections; some strip clubs catered specifically to that demographic.)
______________
¹ population reference bureau, Guam Grew Younger, Poorer During the 1990s^a

^1.5 “With up to $15 billion planned for the U.S. military’s Guam buildup, the military-hosted Guam Industry Forum in August [2007] became a magnet for hundreds of off-island businesses. The likes of defense contractors General Dynamics, Kelogg Brown and Root, Northrop Grumman and Parsons Brinckerhoff attended. Investment banks Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns & Co. were also at the forum.”

² check out the strip clubs section of guam bars and nightlife - it’s a sad commentary on the decline in strippery from the 90s, when clubs like camelot, las vegas, runway 69 and dallas were still open. i think it was at dallas where a stripper - clad in nothing but a wrist cast - jumped off the stage and proceeded to beat the crap out of a guy who was hitting on her girlfriend. oh, wait. i probably didn’t mention that i lived on guam, did i? and no, i wasn’t a stripper. or a stripper’s girlfriend.

____________________
^a i should also mention that one of my first post-highschool summer jobs was with PRB, so i was tickled to find this article on their site.

dog decided he wanted attention at 7:30 despite my best attempts to sleep in (the husband had spent time with him last night so i could go to sleep early), and after rushing outside to pee, he’s curled up under the blanket with me on the couch. so i’m reading the WaPo. and i’ll share the headlines i found interesting enough to click. because it’s that or fall asleep on the couch and get a crick in my neck.

1. RI wonders if it can divorce a lesbian couple married in MA. maybe it’s because the preliminary schedule is set for my birthday, or maybe it’s just ‘cuz i think that full faith and credit should let RI divorce the couple just like they would a hetero couple married out of state. or perhaps it’s because it’s proof that queers are just like heteros: they marry, and they divorce. but with case law in RI silent on same-sex marriage, i don’t see what the problem is. assert jurisdiction, make a decision, and let the appellate court figure it out.

2. porn for pandas. now this is fascinating, because i didn’t know that pandas could process 2-d images. or maybe not:

On the use of movies, Zhang said: “It’s the sounds of breeding that stimulate them. Pandas are just like human beings. They understand everything.”

and it’s a whole different take on furries.

3. unfortunately, this one turned out to be a boring, pointless article. so the kid sheds his goth persona on turkey day for the sake of his family. yay. and he’s different than any of the rest of us who behave at the family dinner for the sake of harmony how? maybe he could dress up like a pilgrim.

4. and finally, effective december 1 of this year, the national zoo bans smoking on its grounds. (if topeka can do it, it can’t be that big a deal.) this, coupled with dc’s antismoking legislation taking full effect on january 1, makes me a happy jack-booted public health nanny-state thug.

On January 1, 2007, bars, nightclubs, private clubs, brew pubs and bar areas of restaurants are required to be smokefree. This applies to establishments that hold a tavern license (Class C/T or D/T), a club license (Class C or D), a brew pub permit (Classes C/R, D/R, C/T, or D/T) or a nightclub license (Class C/N or D/N). Establishments that hold a restaurant license (Class C/R or D/R) may allow smoking until January 1, 2007, in the bar area only.