Giving the finger

Some news from Japan. I may be a masochist, but I draw the line at cutting off digits as a means of political protest. For if I did, I wouldn't have any toes or fingers left. How would I go online?

Hat tip- Japundit
Linked to- Big Dog, Conservative Thoughts, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove,

A member of a Japanese right-wing group was arrested after he sent his severed little finger to the ruling party's headquarters in protest at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's failure to visit a war shrine this month.

Abe stayed away from Yasukuni Shrine on the August 15 anniversary of the nation's World War II surrender, avoiding a slight to those in China and South Korea who see the shrine as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

An envelope delivered to the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo also contained a letter of protest and a disk of photographs of the 54-year-old man cutting off his finger, a police official in Okayama Prefecture, western Japan, said.

"I thought they would ignore me if I just sent the letter, so I put my little finger in as well," Kyodo news agency quoted the man as telling police.

Removing part of a finger is a traditional form of punishment or atonement among gangsters in Japan.