Mimi Loveless’ Neighborhood

"The most elusive chimera that the CIA persued, with the encouragement of the ISI, was that "moderate" Taliban Pashtuns would rise to denounce Mullah Omar, hand over bin Laden to the Americans, and join a new coalition government in Kabul.
... the reality was that the ISI had no intention of splitting the Taliban, even if it had the power to do so. There were moderates among the Taliban earlier on, but the ISI had betrayed them to Mullah Omar long ago."

"Descent into Chaos" by Ahmed Rashid

Seriously. Maybe I should take a "no high-tech stuff weekend" every month. I should be spending more time on reading books, sitting quietly and contemplating on things, listening to music, enjoying a slow meal with people, and generally taking a break from my life ruled by, you know, computers, Internet, Keitai, Xbox 360, iPod Touch, and any other device that might make my superficial part of my life fun and convenient but deprive me of the time to, ah, get connected with more philosophical/ contemplative part of my life.

No, it's not the title of the next Chuck Palahniuk novel. This is for real. Someone is putting together a labor union, serious, legit, workers-be-united type thing. For the hostesses working in Tokyo, to solve problems such as unpaid salaries and sexual harassment. I am not making this up.

First thing comes to my mind is, they would have to start with defining exactly what type of employment it is (this changes what type of legal regulation will be applied). Are they directly employed by the club? If so, the club is legally required to provide health benefits and paid holidays. If they are freelancers, the club cannot bind them exclusive to one club. (Wait, is a club incorporated in the first place? It's probably owned by some dummy company)
Also, the management in this case is not your average square type characters; raise a hand if you think hostess clubs are run by square, honest, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens with no affiliation whatsoever with Yakuza (or a front company / individual working for Yakuza). I wouldn't try to sue these people for sexual harassment because some customers just kept saying obnoxious things. They wouldn't want the money flow too clear to outsiders (the whole thing would go down in public if there ever is a lawsuit; tax authorities would love to be on the hearing seat)
Which leads to another question- unlike day-time office environment, there has to be a different set of criterea for what constitues as verbal sexual harassment, because, you know, you could argue that the whole business is about those men letting out what they can't say in today's office (or at their home). Read WH's blog for a while. A guy talks about his impotence in his office to female co-workers? He could get sued. Should the same criterea apply in hostess club environment??

Interesting story, but I don't think it would catch on.