And the hits just keep on coming.

The Japanese were, to say the least, unimpressed with President Obama’s supplicating bow. Want to know why protocol requires the President to offer a handshake in lieu of a bow? Subtleties, dammit. Instead of appearing respectful and gracious, the depth of the bow was interpreted by the Japanese as the type done by an supplicating toady. It came off as weak and annoying.

You can believe your Czar. Or not. Try the Shukan Bunshun Weekly’s assessment of it: “To tell you the truth, it had to have been the worst US-Japan Summit Meeting in history,” said a member of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, who no doubt includes MacArthur’s visit in 1945. (Translations courtesy of…)

The Japanese were insulted by Obama’s late arrival (his second to the Japanese, counting the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh), and as a result the President was made to wait sitting in a motorcade outside the entrance of the PM’s residence.

Further, the Japanese felt the small group of Americans, whom they called “Team Obama,” was unprofessionally small and therefore concluded that the visit was a stunt that would waste everyone’s time. Know what else didn’t help? The Americans nodding off and yawning throughout the meeting.

Like a host going to bed early to indicate the guests needed to leave now, PM Hatoyama abandoned the President and left the country well ahead of him.

Conservatives argue that the President never bows to another power under God. Liberals will say that we’re dumbasses, and that when in Japan, you bow. Whatever. But it seems that Japan is taking our side of the interpretation. The President screwed it up, in their own words.

Japan would like to know if Russia is finished with the “overload” button; other countries would very much like to use it.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.