JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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1
Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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2
Confrontation
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3
U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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4
California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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5
Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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Betzee
If the CA Supreme Court does ultimately void the state's right to confer marriage licenses and replaces it with "civil unions" it wouldn't be the first time an emotionally charged ballot initiative resulted in unintended consequences. This is because those promoting these initiatives usually don't understand the legal consequences of what they are proposing. We don't want a mish-mash of convoluted regulations determining who can do what. This is what the founding fathers wanted to avoid.
Posted in: California's gay marriage battle back in court
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Betzee
It's very interesting to see what options are open to the California State Supreme Court. One is to get the state out of the marriage business altogether, replacing it civil unions for all to avoid the "separate but unequal" issue. Marriage would revert to a religious ceremony.
As the newspaper reported:
Same-sex couple rights lawyers and Pepperdine University law school dean Kenneth Starr, who was representing Proposition 8's sponsors, agreed that making marriage the province of religious institutions was one way, however unanticipated, around the problem.
"There is a long tradition of requiring different parts of the California Constitution to be harmonized," said David Cruz, a constitutional law professor at the University of Southern California who is not involved in the case. "It's not necessarily what the voters intended -- their only clear intent was to stop gay people from getting married."
This has the advantage of avoiding the situation where existing unions of same-sex couples who tied the knot before November are grandfathered in while those who decide to get married tomorrow are outta luck.
Posted in: California's gay marriage battle back in court
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Betzee
You contradicted yourself by pointing out many minorities may in fact be social conservatives. Fiscal Republicans, a dying breed, by contrast followed Arnie.
This is, as I outlined above, a matter to be decided by the courts since it involves citizen rights. Just like issues such as segregation and female suffrage where "activist judges" overturned longstanding social practice.
Posted in: California's gay marriage battle back in court
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Betzee
There was much disinformation put out to scare people such as the prospect that the "gay lifestyle" would be promoted in public schools. Among other Republicans, Arnold Schwarzenegger, campaigned against passage of Prop 8.
If one studies the works of the founding fathers, and what patriot hasn't, it's clear how little faith they had in the common man to handle important decisions. This is because they understood full well the power of demagoguery to sway people's emotions. Hence the judiciary was entrusted with interpreting the rights of citizens, not the ballot box.
If Prop 8 is thrown out by the courts, it would not be the first ballot initiative to be found unconstitutional.
Posted in: California's gay marriage battle back in court
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Betzee
Gays should just take the civil union, which everyone will call a marriage despite the little vote.
History has shown "separate but equal" does not prove to be the case.
Posted in: California's gay marriage battle back in court
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Betzee
Divorce and out of wedlock births do far more to fray familial bonds than co-habitating same-sex couples who want their union recognized in legal terms.
Posted in: California's gay marriage battle back in court
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Betzee
I was a little surprised myself last fall to see Prop 8 promoted as a family strengthening measure. Guess some backers didn't know too many gay couples or they would appreciate how many have children. And they want them raised by married parents who can make medical decisions in emergencies, etc. They want that for their partners too. Simply put, they want the legal rights of marriage having already assumed the responsibilities.
Posted in: California's gay marriage battle back in court
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Betzee
Voters chose leaders they don't interpret laws. This is not the first time a ballot initiative has muddied the rights and responsibilities of citizens versus the judiciary.
Suppose the right of women to vote had been put up for a vote (and only men could vote)? Some might have voted against it on the same grounds which gay marriage has been opposed, namely this will open the door to people wanting their pet to have the right to vote.
Posted in: California's gay marriage battle back in court
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Betzee
The post-industrial economic development of northern Ireland, which became an outsourcing hub for American companies, certainly played a role in the peace process. It drew more recent Irish immigrants, whom Ted Kennedy helped secure green cards for since family reunification is the basis for US immigrant visas and the Irish had missed a few generations, home.
Posted in: Britain gives Sen Ted Kennedy honorary knighthood
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Betzee
It was an article of faith among the British that the IRA received the majority of it's funding from across the pond. Nobody ever produced data to substantiate this claim, but according to the WaPo:
Irish American support for Irish terrorism came in many forms. There were Irish Americans who waved the Irish flag once a year on St. Patrick's Day and admired the IRA's cause but felt queasy about the methods. There were Irish Americans who collected money for Catholic charities in Northern Ireland without condoning the IRA at all. There were also Irish Americans who, while claiming to be "aiding the families of political prisoners," were in fact helping to arm IRA terrorists. Throughout the 1970s, until Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher asked President Ronald Reagan to stop them, they were the IRA's primary source of funding. And even after that they were widely tolerated.
As an American of largely British extraction, I'm aware of the tremendous prejudice against the Irish in places like Boston where they formed the underclass. It was just where you came from, religion also entered into it and served as another way to divide the two.
Moderator: Readers, stay on topic please. Posts that do not refer to Senator Kennedy's knighthood will be removed.
Posted in: Britain gives Sen Ted Kennedy honorary knighthood
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Betzee
That's true. Investors are hesitant because they are unsure which banks are solvent and which are not (and what Uncle Sam plans to do about those that are unhealthy).
Politicians aren't stupid but savvy. They can't afford to let unemployment get too high and expect to remain in office so they try to fix things by running deficits, be they in the form of tax cuts or increased government spending. On the one hand, you're criticizing Obama for not allowing the economy to bottom out, however painful that may become, while on the other for not fixing things in the first five weeks.
Posted in: Obama's plan to raise taxes on wealthy meets fierce opposition
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Betzee
The criticism is that the government allocates capital to them which would otherwise go to businesses that compete in the free market. But what happens if the failing businesses themselves make capital available for business expansion in the private sector? Letting banks fail is much more complicated than letting GM fail. This was the logic behind bailing out the banks last fall with public money.
The next four years may be consumed by getting Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and AIG, among others, back on their financial feet.
Posted in: Obama's plan to raise taxes on wealthy meets fierce opposition
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Betzee
Tom Friedman in his column today is correct:
We are coming off a 20-year credit binge. As a country, too many of us stopped making money by making “stuff” and started making money from money — consumers making money out of rising home prices and using the profits to buy flat-screen TVs from China on their credit cards, and bankers making money by creating complex securities and leverage so more and more consumers could get in on the credit game.
There's no easy answers here.
Posted in: Obama's plan to raise taxes on wealthy meets fierce opposition
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Betzee
This would go under the heading of "socializing security." WWII put a lot of people to work, but Uncle Sam certainly borrowed to pay for it.
Posted in: Obama's plan to raise taxes on wealthy meets fierce opposition
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Betzee
The purpose of taxation is to enable the government to pay its bills. Now one can justify deficits for any number of reasons. They will impinge on people's ability to enjoy the good economy (GWB) or the government needs to spend to offset private sector contraction (BHO).
There's little debate the "good economy" of the past eight years was based on a real estate bubble. If all those people who've been thrown under the bus for being underwater on their mortgages hadn't lived beyond their means with the complicity of the financial sector, well the boom would have been over earlier and the crash less severe.
There's little debate the private sector is contracting sharply and has been since last year, the fourth quarter stats were worse than expected. For those who want the private sector to pull us out of this, how can we reverse the contraction?
Posted in: Obama's plan to raise taxes on wealthy meets fierce opposition
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Betzee
What did he recommend? The "do nothing" approach and like we can expect investors to suddenly develop amnesia about the banks' toxic assets?
Posted in: Obama's economic efforts hit wall of bad news
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Betzee
What happens if there's a way to predict homosexuality? The parents might not want to deal with a gay child and justify their decision on the grounds "gays will never be fully accepted, we're sparing our child a marginalized life." It's easier to be beautiful then average looking too; but people of average looks (along with gays) can be highly productive members of society. It takes all kinds.....
Posted in: Fertility clinic to offer custom-designed babies
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Betzee
Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington.
Indeed. The biggest expansion of the welfare state since LBJ occurred under GWB when he enacted his prescription drug plan for seniors. So, is Jindal talking about rolling that back in order to regain the trust of Americans? Specifics please Sailwind....
In her convention speech Sarah Palin quoted RR:
"It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free."
Though it sounds like he was referring to "the evil empire," in fact the quote was taken from an early 1960s recorded speech he made denouncing Medicare as "socialized medicine" in very much the same terms Republicans are denouncing Obama's "socialist agenda" today.
So I was a little surprised to hear Palin reassuring Florida seniors last fall that, under a McCain administration, "your social security and Medicare benefits will not be touched." It just underscores the hypocrisy of claiming to be a champion of "small government." Talk is cheap folks....
Posted in: Republicans, Democrats criticize Jindal's speech
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Betzee
Sushi,
Last night I spoke with my Dad, a retired stock broker, and he said, "I was worried the value of your portfolio had dropped 100 grand." So I guess I should count my blessings; particularly having a secure job in a time of mounting unemployment.
As for the nation, there's a broad consensus emerging that the best way to stem the financial sector's hemorrhaging is by nationalizing the banks. Now the bail-outs haven't worked, this is the last remaining option to inspire investor confidence after deregulation brought us derivatives and sub-prime mortgages.
Posted in: Obama pledges to halve U.S. budget deficit in 4 years
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Betzee
Simply not true:
Large majorities of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll support [Obama's] $787 billion economic stimulus package and the recently unveiled $75 billion plan to stem mortgage foreclosures. Nearly seven in 10 poll respondents said Obama is delivering on his pledge to bring needed change to Washington, and about eight in 10 said he is meeting or exceeding their expectations.
Posted in: Obama pledges to halve U.S. budget deficit in 4 years