JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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DS
We need jets and jails. The Libdippers are just kicking those cans down the road.
This election should be about the economy, which came out of the global crisis better than just about any other country. Short term deficit spending, tragically, was seen as necessary. Personally I disagree with stimulus, but who knows how much the opposition would have spent?
If you want to see the morality of coalition, just look at what happened in Ontario in 1985. An election resulted in a minority Conservative government. Within days, the Libs and NDP agreed to bring down the govt and replace it with their own left wing alliance, splitting power between them. That really worked out well.....
Ignatieff is one of the least charismatic and believable politicians to appear in decades. A man who so cared about Canada that he 'forgot' to live there for 3 decades. I don't agree with Layton's policies, but at least he is an honourable man.
Look for a Conservative majority, with the Liberals falling to 4th place.
Posted in: Opposition brings down Canadian government
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DS
Considering Obama is proposing a 1.7 TRILLION dollar deficit, both parties' proposals are ludicrous. The only answers lie in cutting defence, and also in cutting so-called entitlement programmes. Also, shutting down useless agencies like the Dept of Education.
There isnt a revenue problem, but a spending problem.
Posted in: Time short, tempers flaring in U.S. budget showdown
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DS
Am I the only one who finds it pathetic that "anarchists" would protest CUTS in government? What is their point........ they want anarchy, as long as they can get public funding for it. Utter hypocrisy.
I put it down to incompetent policing. It is shocking and pathetic that the representatives of the law would be so idle and allow such damage to private property. Surely "a few hooligans and anarchists" would be easy to control, and if necessary subdue.
Posted in: 250,000 protest budget cuts in central London
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DS
No one injured?!? Did you even read the article.....
I'm shocked at such an over reaction to a minor budget cutting by the PM. Do the protestors offer any alternative scheme to pay off the government's debt, or are they just noisy and spoiled children?
Posted in: 250,000 protest budget cuts in central London
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DS
Histrionics aside, the only question this election will answer is "majority or another minority" for the CPC. Ignatieff is intelligent, but a weak northern John Kerry clone with (hard to believe) even less charisma. Jack Layton is a principled man but physically may not be ready for the rigours of a campaign, and the Bloc should frankly not be allowed to exist at the federal level.
Harper is a bookish policy wonk, but he has steered the country well through the past few years of turmoil. The scaremongering of him and the Tories over how they will bring about a type of Christian sharia state has been shown to be invalid.
Let's give the conservatives their well earned majority and a fair chance to govern. Then, if they screw the pooch, throw them out next time.
Posted in: Opposition brings down Canadian government
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DS
True.
One of them is attractive, extremely well educated, gifted at speaking. And the other is Michael Moore.
Posted in: Michael Moore rallies pro-union protesters in Wisconsin
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DS
LFR, if a net worth of $50 million and multiple homes doesn't qualify one as part of the "rich elite", what does?!? Oh, perhaps the fact that he flew by Concorde to do interviews in London, and insisted on staying at the Ritz? The fact that he refuses to let his child go to public school and mix with regular children? His ownership of 2000 shares each of Boeing and Halliburton stock?
Sorry, he has nothing worthwhile to contribute to the discussion.
Posted in: Michael Moore rallies pro-union protesters in Wisconsin
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DS
So far, the touted "stimulus package" has been a total failure. The economy is not anywhere close to recovered, and is now saddled with trillions more in debt (happily held by red China). Obama has not done anything to end American involvement in Iraq, actually increased troop levels in Afghanistan, has yet to close Guantamo Bay...
tell me again how he is different from his predecessor?
Posted in: Obama offers deeper spending cuts, appeals for budget deal
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DS
Yabits;
He owns a MILLION dollar home in Michigan, plus a Park Avenue penthouse in New York. His background was very middle class- parents earned enough to send michael and his sibs to parochial school, PLUS university.
The man is a huge hypocrite. He decries the capitalist system that allowed him to accumulate personal wealth in the $50 million range- wealth that he keeps for himself and does NOT use to help others. However, he recently said that other peoples' money "is not theirs. It is ours.It is a national resource".
What a toad.
Posted in: Michael Moore rallies pro-union protesters in Wisconsin
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DS
Sorry, but Moore is PART of the "rich elite". He has multiple million dollar homes, sends his kid to an elite private school, he is the ultimate limousine liberal. He is a master film-maker, but to call what he creates 'documentaries' is really stretching the definition of the term.
Wisconsin's legislators need to do their jobs, not run away because they don't like what the result may be.
Posted in: Michael Moore rallies pro-union protesters in Wisconsin
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DS
Obama is offering to cut 0.5% from the deficit. Big deal. The remaining 99.5% gets added to the national debt, which gets paid when?
Nobody says. I have yet to hear anyone say exactly when they plan to pay back all the money they are borrowing. When there will be no annual deficit. When they can start to reduce the debt load that will be left to America's future generations.
It is incredibly rude and irresponsible when you think about it. Obama is spending money now, and leaving his children to pay it back. If a private citizen tried to do that, they would be laughed at. But government?
Posted in: Obama offers deeper spending cuts, appeals for budget deal
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DS
I have no trouble with Dior firing this tool. They have that right as an employer.
However, what DID surprise me in the article is that France actually has laws against uttering anti-semitic remarks. Six months in jail for saying rude things about Jews? Unbelievable and totally counter to western values of freedom. I wonder if any other group enjoys the same protection....
Posted in: Dior fires designer John Galliano after online video shows him praising Hitler
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DS
Obama better be careful too. Lest people realize that FEDERAL government employees are forbidden from having or joining unions......
Posted in: Wisconsin Assembly passes bill taking away union rights
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DS
If there is a fire in the theatre, IMHO you have an OBLIGATION to shout a bout it. Ditto the shark or bomb.
Free speech is the basis for all other freedoms, and as such needs as much protection and exercise as possible. There are already limits on speech such as; libel and slander, contract law, trade secrets, uttering threats, and so on.
Speech that is merely hateful or offensive needs to be protected. These things can be dealt with socially, without need of laws.
Posted in: Does freedom of speech include the right to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater, yell "Shark" at a beach or joke about having a bomb on a plane, for example?
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DS
Molenir is right. There is a VAST difference between private sector unions and public sector. Private unions are predicated by an adversarial relationship between management and workers.
Public sector unions do not have this. To the contrary, public sector unions often give huge contributions to politicians in hopes that they win and subsequently control the purse strings of the state. The politicians naturally feel obligated to pay back the unions that supported them. In the end, the general public gets screwed.
Not to mention, public sector workers often have benefits packages that their private sector counterparts can only dream about. In New Jersey, for example, police officers are paid "shift differential" for working the DAY SHIFT.
Walker is doing the right thing.
Posted in: Wisconsin Assembly passes bill taking away union rights
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DS
People need to understand a couple of key issues. First of all, private company unions and public sector unions are VERY different. Private unions are part of an adversarial process between boss and worker. Who is the "boss" for public unions? The government. The same government which RECIEVES millions of dollars in political donations from public unions. Once the election is over, it is only natural that the unions would want to see some return on their investment.
There are many states without public sector unions already. They seem to be doing fine. As for the governor of Wisconsin, he made no secret of his plans. Curtail spending to prevent present and future financial catastrophe.
As regards to the Democratic legislators throwing a tantrum like a baby throwing their toys out of their crib, they need to get back to work too. Imagine the uproar if Republican congressmen had done the same thing when President Obama was proposing his health care legislation.
To quote the President, "elections have consequences".
Posted in: 70,000 protesters surround Wisconsin Capitol
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DS
Great illustration of why having a "live in" boy\girlfriend is a really really bad idea for a single parent. If you want to date, that is fine, but a shack up is a recipe for trouble. Your kids shouldn't be involved in your romantic life at all. Especially, you don't leave your child alone with an unrelated person for days at a time! At least take her along to visit her grandparents. Poor girl, to be stuck with such an irresponsible and selfish mother.
Posted in: Bruise-like marks found on body of dead 3-year-old girl
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DS
War is terrible. The only thing worse is losing a war you started.
Tragically, there were no viable alternatives to using nuclear weapons to force Japan to surrender. Dropping a "demonstration bomb" was out of the question- the US had only two working weapons at the time. Wasting one in the faint hope that it would shock Japan's wartime leaders into surrender was not a good bet. If the firebombing of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya didn't work, why would a demonstration?
Negotiations were also not practical. The Allies gave Japan the chance to surrender in July 1945 after the Potsdam Conference, and this was ignored. That left military options- a starvation blockade, a land invasion, or atomic weapons. The former two would have resulted in millions of citilian deaths, an invasion would have also cost the Allies upwards of a million battlefield casualties. The best option remaining was a quick 'one-two' punch with the a-bombs. Sad and tragic, but in retrospect the most humane (in terms of lives lost) of the options left to the allies.
Posted in: Hiroshima not shy about its atomic bomb legacy
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DS
Successful? She's the daughter of a political family, and has been nothing but a political operative her entire adult life. She has never had a real job, had to make a payroll, etc.
Bright? She has a BA in political science from a snobby all girls university in (of course) Washington DC. That's all.
In short, she is the classic Washington insider, born into Democratic Party politics and comfortable spending her entire life there, not caring what happens in the real world.
Posted in: House Democrats keep Pelosi as their leader
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DS
The easy and obvious solution is one that is not allowed in Japan;
joint bank accounts
Go to any bank here and they will tell you it is not possible. However, an account which both husband and wife contribute to, and both can also access, would solve the situation immediately. This simple change would end the pocket money system forever.
Posted in: The shrinking state of Japanese salarymen's pocket money