What can I say? I feel his pain

Perhaps it was because my mother was busy preparing for her trip to the Catskills when Shinzo Abe resigned that she didn't bother to send me news of the resignation, despite her confessed sense of responsibility to ensure my awareness of what's going on in the world.

Fortunately, I actually read the newspaper... many newspapers, and a couple of news magazines, as it were... so I was able to educate myself on Mr. Abe's political demise. While I had known that there was no love lost between Mr. Abe and scholars of the region, some of the rancor exceeded my expectations. I heard one well-respected regional expert respond to news of his hospitalization for stress-related gastrointestinal troubles with an emotional "good!"

I don't know enough about Japanese politics to pass judgment on Mr. Abe, although to the downfall of, among other things, a war crimes apologist, my inclination would be to react with relief. It is in that light that I was surprised to find myself feeling some sympathy, on account of something I read in the
Economist.

"Mr Abe had all his life been groomed to be prime minister—not least by his domineering mother, who last year insisted he grasp the chance even as grandees of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) urged him to wait."

I sent this to a friend before posting it. His response was, "he's still being bossing around by his mother in his 60's? That's scary."

And that's the lesson: learn to say no now, or you have no idea how far it will go. I wouldn't even apply to Google, and I'm not even a head of state.