Forty-seven lordless samurai

47 RONIN car license plate

“In the midst of a nest of venerable trees in Takanawa, a suburb of Yedo, is hidden Sengakuji, or the Spring-hill Temple, renowned throughout the length and breadth of the land for its cemetery, which contains the graves of the Forty-seven Rônin, famous in Japanese history, heroes of Japanese drama, the tale of whose deed I am about to transcribe.” — A. B. Mitford, Tales of Old Japan (1871)

The events occurred in the earliest days of the 18th century. A provincial lord and a shogunate official quarreled, the provincial lord had to commit seppuku. Forty-seven of his samurai wanted revenge, and they waited two years to behead the official. Forty-six of the ronin committed seppuku. Immediately this became legend, and a great number of theatre plays were written, and wood block prints. When cinema and television came, the story was produced many times too.

Now recently, forty-seven has come in the American news. The failed Republican candidate and nominee, Romney, used it to call that percentage number of Americans as worthless. Now that number of Republican senators, led by Cotton Tom, have proved themselves as seditious idiots. They are attempting to run foreign policy, and engage with a foreign government. These lordless retainers are virtual traitors. The foreign minister of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif, has to school them on international law, and civics.

“I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.”

Of course, Republican treachery is in both Houses of Congress.  Boner John, Speaker of the House, invited the premier (and current candidate) of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, to lecture America on foreign and war policy. Both acts of treachery were at least partially motivated by a deranged hatred and disrespect to a legally elected president. The obstruction and sabotage against Barack Obama began the morning after the presidential election in 2008.