Japan Times Online reports "[n]ational policy minister Satoshi Arai said Friday he regrets that his now-defunct political organization booked costs for comic book purchases as official expenses."
What he regrets is being called out on it, I'm sure. Because Arai-san enjoyed his time spent under his government desk, a pile of One Piece and Nana books by his side as he read them by flashlight, his eyes wide with wonder and excitement. It was only after his mom caught him and demanded he finish his nap so he could go back to formulating national policies to benefit Japan that he felt the first pang of regret.
I don't know about you, but I kind of like the idea of my tax money going for comic books rather than bombers and corporate welfare. But only if the comics go to me, not to some wiener-looking policy wonk inside the Beltway. I mean, thanks to our system of government largesse, I already pay Time Warner, parent company of DC Comics, to stay in business. This means I'm already paying a teeny-tiny fraction of DC's overhead. Why can't we have a government program where that money is returned to me in the form of actual comic books? Would this lead to some sort of sequential socialism and cause the overthrow of our (semi-)capitalist comic book economy?
Of course, if the feds did start some kind of comic book stimulus package, I'm not sure I'd support the public option. What if the government mandated I take back issues of Identity Crisis or Batgirl: Redemption Road? Why, that would be totalitarianism! Intolerable! No, as a free comic book market American patriot, one born and bred right here in the good ol' United States of America, I prefer to choose my own comics.
Manga.
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