Seppuku (切腹 ?, "stomach-cutting") is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who have committed serious offenses, and for reasons that shamed them. Seppuku is performed by plunging a sword into the abdomen and moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion. The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master, known as oibara (追腹 or 追い腹, the kun'yomi or Japanese reading) or tsuifuku (追腹, the on'yomi or Chinese reading), follows a similar ritual.
The most famous form of seppuku is also known as harakiri (腹切り, "cutting the belly") and is written with the same kanji as seppuku but in reverse order with an okurigana. In Japanese, the more formal seppuku, a Chinese on'yomi reading, is typically used in writing, while harakiri, a native kun'yomi reading, is used in speech.[1] Harakiri is the more common term in English, where it is often mistakenly rendered "hari kari".
- Courtesy of Wikipedia
Today I, along with the American taxpaying public, became an owner of a larger stake in Citicorp. Woo hoo! Now I don’t have to buy their stock through my 401(k). And I think I’ll hold off on buying any more Bank of America stock, since I might get that for free – relatively speaking. But it’s not stock in banks I want. I want heads to roll. Or bowels to flow.
You know what I’m talking about. Commonly known in America as “hara-kiri,” but formally known as “seppuku” in Japan, it is an act of honor reserved only for the most honorable – the samurai. So maybe it’s wrong to suggest that our American “captains of industry” who have run some of the largest financial and automobile institutions aground are even worthy of the suggestion that they take matters and their bowels into their own hands. But hey, I’m willing to be wrong on this point.
I don’t understand how corporate executives and officers who have failed so spectacularly are still allowed to run their companies on the government’s dime. If they had any honor, any shame whatsoever, they would step down. If they really had any honor or sense of shame, they’d resign, apologize profusely, and hand over the sword to one of their corporate compatriots in failure and let them do the deed. At least their families could still get life insurance proceeds if it kinda looks like murder. Plus, I’m sure they’ve got the hook-up at AIG and other insurance companies.
Yes, I know what I’m suggesting is severe and irreversible. But considering the millions of people who are losing their homes, the thousands of governments – state, county and local – that are reeling from this self-induced recession, and the fact that taxpayers are on the hook for all of this, I don’t know if it’s too much to suggest that such colossal failures be rewarded with the ultimate of penalties. In China, these barons of the boondoggle would have been executed quickly, like those Chinese milk company execs. And they don’t have to use a sword or a dagger to make me happy. A rusty nail would do.
It starts with an inward motion, followed by a left-right motion . . . . .
Come on, Masters of the Universe. Do the right thing. Don’t make the American public go all ronin on y’alls asses . . . .
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