JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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Klein2
"Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal."
Well of course it is Nessie. My point is that all of the advocates talking about "easy money" and "opportunity" are spouting opinions. Goddog is living through his mistakes and has opinions that are at least as valid. Given a week to prepare, Goddog could present as good a case against buying as CDillon could make FOR buying.
Using a lot more than anecdotes.
Posted in: Real estate in Japan: A good time to buy or not?
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Klein2
See all the posters accepting the worst case scenario and still saying they don't care. Deflection. Denial.
JRaustralia, I see the phrase "real prices" sprinkled throughout the article, so I don't think they are talking nominal prices here. If it were nominal, then COULD in the headline would be WILL.
Posted in: Global warming could double food prices
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Klein2
"Tax cuts are the quickest way to get money off the sidelines and in play."
Income tax. A tax on profits. PROFITS! PROFITS. Get it? Tax cuts will only help people with incomes and companies with PROFITS.
Please tell me again how a tax cut makes a difference if a company is not paying taxes anyway because it has no profits.
I think the GOP and TeaParty have about two accountants between them, and they are too busy cooking the books for DeLay to explain these simple matters to Boehner and company.
And if you were not paying attention, but US government put about 600 billion dollars "in play" with the stroke a pen last month. How is a tax cut going to be faster than that?
Sheesh. But don't worry. This....."The American people did not vote for gridlock. " This is not true. They most definitely DID vote for gridlock, and here it comes. The GOP will wreck the nation all to protect a few fatcats.
Posted in: Obama, GOP leaders pledge tax talks
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Klein2
"Defense Secretary Robert Gates played down the fallout from the leaks, calling them embarrassing and awkward but saying they would not significantly complicate U.S. foreign policy. “The fact is governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us and not because they think we can keep secrets,” Gates said Monday."
And I said exactly the same thing yesterday. Nothing will change. Every one of these nations feeding at the trough will talk of outrage, but ring the dinner bell of "arms sales""most favored nation""US aid", etc. and they will all belly up to the trough again for another feast.
And look what the US is doing. Preventing access to Wikleaks just means that SOME people have the truth now, and others don't. Censorship without any purpose or benefit at all. Kind of a Molenir-ish tantrum by an "outed" State Department.
"Had a run in w/ it in the mid 1990's. Sexual issues are hard to prove innocence, and the social stigma is lasting even when innocence is determined"
Well, APEC, do your best to discredit the discreditors. But you probably would have been better off not to bring it up.
"I put down 100 bucks... they find him dead in 3 months to natural causes."
I will put up TKO's BDJA apologist hat and a JT tshirt to see that bet. It could happen, but it won't. I think he will be just fine. In fact, he has people lined up to leak more stuff, you can bet on THAT if you want to as well.
Molenir, I am not really offended, but what do Obama's balls have to do with anything? It's comical. You can't possibly be THAT outraged, can you?
Another thing people should consider is that this guy is being deluged with fake stuff and it is only a matter of time before he gets USED badly by someone. He probably already has. In fact, this manhunt/interpol thing might just be a trick to raise his credibility (or street cred depending on how you roll) to the point where people will not ignore him.
Posted in: U.S. cuts access to files; Interpol seeks WikiLeaks founder Assange
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Klein2
Uh. What is so complicated? This article is for people sitting in armchairs in Iowa.
China wants to push NK to reunification. SK wants to pressure NK. The former is a revelation. The latter isn't. Because the policies are hinging on interests and not trickery, Wikileaks will not change them.
The only unwelcome development is Russia. Once finding out what Washington and NK want, leave it to Russia to support NK. "Let's do six party talks." Thanks Russia. Thanks for nothing. As far as I know, that is the only recent "complication" and it is not mentioned in the article.
China is on record as saying that the DPRK will cease to have effective governance within three years. If sanctions continue and if SK gets a little more support, it won't even take that long. If Kim's kid has some early failures, which he will with sanctions and a lukewarm China, then real change will be in the offing.
Posted in: WikiLeaks memo complicates picture of North Korea
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Klein2
"considering how badly the Mossad messed up the Dubai fiasco,"
What are you kidding? Mission accomplished. You think that "outing" the murderers accomplished anything?
sabiwabi...Thanks for sharing. Ahmadinejad certainly is a sucker for conspiracy theories. Someone needs to take advantage of that paranoia.
Posted in: Iran blames Israel after nuclear scientist killed
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Klein2
"Smithinjapan would be probably be shocked to learn that the kidnapping capital of N America is now Phoenix."
Phoenix. Guns a plenty. Let's start the argument all over again. 3 2 1 GO!
"If the 23 students and teacher had guns this could have easily been prevented."
I am sure it would prevent a lot of things.
"Charlton Heston should be proud."
Michael Moore should be prouder of course. I get the sarcasm, but MMoore spent at least a year of this life trying to get the word out about two decades ago. Every one of his movies has been right on, but nobody listens. Few people care, it seems.
Weird question: why do wannabe terrorists bother with exotic bombs and schemes? In the US, one guy with a couple of automatic weapons in a McDonald's could get a better body count than Mr. Times Square, Mr. Oregon, and Mr. Nigeria put together. In fact, it has been done (San Ysidro, 1984). I mean, heaven forbid and all that, but it is only a matter of time, right? Why isn't gun control being considered in the same light as air travel control? It seems that it is one area of Merican life that terrorists will be able to exploit over and over again.
"“They just spent a whole bundle of money on classroom doors to make them secure, but they don’t have metal detectors at the school,” said councilman Bradley Behrendt."
Oh. I see.
Posted in: Hostages released from Wisconsin high school; gunman shoots himself
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Klein2
Where have I seen this before? Stimulus along with pay cuts and downsizing? Oh yeah!! The DPJ.
The DPJ invented this "one foot on the gas one foot on the brake" style of governance. Let's see if Washington can perfect it.
Committees are destroying civilization. The "heat death" of obstructionist politics is upon us.
Posted in: Obama calls for 2-year freeze on federal pay
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Klein2
"Yes - you may have mentioned this on JT about 15-20 times at least."
I would love to read a point/counterpoint discussion between Goddog and this Christopher Dillon. No puff pieces, just the fire and ice. Goddog would steal the show, I bet. CDillon would politely make Goddog look stupid until Goddog brings out the numbers showing that the real estate slide has not truly relented for about 20 years now. Goddog bought his property as an optimist, from an optimist. Probably from some guy just like CDillon.
My experience in life is that the smiley guys in suits will separate you from huge piles of money. I dodged a real-estatey time-sharey scam a couple of years ago that is just coming to light now. Seems that about 200 investors were taken for about 3 oku. Not a huge amount per person, but anyway, I heard the spiel from Mr. Crook himself, and he was well dressed, with a nice car, and bragging about his family's education 10 minutes after I met him. Name-dropping. Mutual friends. Etc. At that first meeting, he made his pitch and asked for money. I asked if he could show me a contract. He said no. I asked him what it looks like, and he would not show me until I was ready to do business... or something. So the rest was "pleasantries." That was a Monday morning, and he called on Tuesday breathlessly telling me that I was running out of time and that others were going to take my spot on the list. Turns out he was just taking investors' money and spending it on stupid knickknacks. I kind of figured that. How he kept it up so long is kind of a mystery to me, in retrospect, but 3 oku can be stretched out, I guess.
Point being that in these hard times, some creative person will always show up to tell you that if you borrow this way or diversify or take a big risk or invest in their scheme, you will come out ok even now. Just do the numbers people and read the fine print, and don't bet on the clowns in Nagata-cho saving you.
My number one piece of advice is to WRITE the numbers on a piece of paper and look at them. People never do this. They do the math in their head and blow it, or they listen to the wrong numbers. Or they remember the "ideal" number (projected profit) and forget the "real" numbers (price and obligations).
Posted in: Real estate in Japan: A good time to buy or not?
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Klein2
roomtemperature called it. The fact that nobody is doing any denying is damning in itself. Let's say two people know something is the truth. The first one to say it is a lie might be doing the other a favor, but it would destroy all credibility if the other party admitted it was true.
You can bet the leaks are true. What does Wikileaks have to gain by faking it? Dude doesn't seem to be driving a Bentley or Ferrari, or even paying his legal fees that well.
and this "This is just off the top of my head here. But here goes. Justice department could investigate and indict .... on charges of espionage, and conspiracy to commit espionage. They could go after the source of funds more directly, by investigating the banks and financial institutions that do business with the site, and the domain. The military, or covert branches of the US Government could engage in DOS.... "
Sounds like Molenir is nostalgic for Bush America. Tell you what Molenir, you know what you know, but you don't know what you don't know. You make the assumption, as many on the right do, that federal people are just pinheads who don't know what they are doing. I think that there are things that you don't know about this that explain why the US is pursuing the best course here by doing less.
Here is the number one most obvious reason for restraint that nobody but nobody has brought up. What in these leaks really damages the US? I think what is going to come out of all this is that the US is struggling mightily to keep the world from blowing itself up. The Saudis talk a good game, but won't even confront Iran with a few sternly worded letters. China is pushing everybody around. Europe is cowed by Russia and everybody else. And US State officials get a memo to try and find frequent flyer numbers from foreign officials...how weak is that? Oh, and Qaddafi likes blondes with knockers. Tragedy, and comedy too!
And now we find that Iran has long range missiles and China is using a loud voice about Korea. Hmmm. Wonder what bad news is coming out of Myanmar and Venezuela next week.
The truth hurts, but a little more truth is what this world needs now, not a little less, and if this event goads people into confronting some of the uglier truths, then so much the better. Nobody can help the US on the huge issues, probably, but now is the time for second tier nations to come forward and take some more of the burden any way they can. Simply taking action to protect their own interests would be helpful, but forming stronger regional alliances and blocs might help things too. The leaks are likely to show that the US has too many clients pulling it every which way. And that is the ugliest truth that the US does not mind baring.
There is plenty more that could be said, but anyone who thinks they know this whole story is deluded.
Posted in: WikiLeaks reveals more sensitive U.S. data
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Klein2
You know, he was way up there in years, it just did not show because of his tan and white hair. It occurs to me that I own more of his serious movies than his comedies. He as a good looking guy, but he never would have made his mark as a dramatic actor. Kind of like Lorne Greene, he would have just faded away.
But for those 70s and 80s comedies, he was just perfect. He did the serious broad-shouldered stuff for so long that the straight-man delivery was just natural for him... and devastating.
Posted in: 'Naked Gun,' 'Airplane' star Leslie Nielsen dies at 84
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Klein2
Sooner or later, they will all become some version of "Ow, my balls." Most already are, really. People used to watch sitcoms to see contrived families being nasty to each other. Now they can see real people do it. There used to be cop shows with chases, gun battles and assaults, complete with stereotypes. Well, now we can see real people following the same "scripts" of sketchy behavior.
Every time you turn around, life is imitating art, and it is not an art that is uplifting or humanizing in any way. It is glorification of the mediocre. The lowest common denominator wins in this genre, so the more popular it is, the closer it is to Jerry Springer.
Posted in: What do you think about the quality of reality TV shows?
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Klein2
"governor of the administrative territory of Alaska,"
um. State. Alaska is a state. And please note that Jesse and Arnie actually served their full terms. Thanks. And while we are at it, you might be closer to understanding the administrative credentials of Sarah Palin when you understand that the population of Columbus Ohio is larger than that of Alaska, while California's is much greater than all of Canada. Arnie was a world leader. Palin was Mayor McCheese.
Tim, it is fair to say that comments about an article about Palin are more pithy than Palin herself. Give credit where credit is due. I am not posting because she is interesting. I am posting because you are. Let's face it, Lady Gaga and Paris Hilton can rack up more comments solely on their own merits. It does not mean that they know any more about our Korean allies than Palin does.
Posted in: Sarah Palin: Serious 2012 contender or pretender?
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Klein2
Shinjukuboy. That is really about the size of it, isn't it? The LAST thing Nork wants to do is let its people free to do anything, even if it is killing South Koreans. Your little theory is not without precedent either. Armies that fought against Napoleon went home grumpy, even when they won, because they saw something that looked like democracy and "equality" and could not get that image out of their heads. Free men fighting and dying for an idea and not a cult. Tsarist Russia also showed that if you don't take care of your own people, the day you declare war is the day the revolution begins.
The Norks are in a bind, and flailing to get out. They like nukes, artillery, and missiles because they keep the world out and north koreans in.
Posted in: Defiant North Korea fires more artillery warning shots
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Klein2
"So, essentially what this is saying, is that if people went into SA, took aside 1 out of every 3 men, and executed them. The world would be a better place."
Not sure I agree with your police work there, Lou. (Problems with murder of innocent people aside, your application of statistical inference needs remedial work.)
"How many men in South Africa DO NOT ADMIT TO RAPE" (Some people don't admit to it because they don't do it.)
So, Elbuda, have you stopped beating your wife?
"and if we divide the number of the participants in the survey with that...then it makes something like 0,00001948%"
The "I can use a calculator, but my brain needs batteries" award goes to Antonios. (a couple too many zeros there Tony?)
"The sample space is too small to make such a generalisation..."
Thanks for saving the thread, YongYang. Yes. Election results in the US were "guessed" from numbers that were not too much bigger than this.
The most disgusting thing about this generalization is that this many men admitted to committing a violent felony. This speaks volumes to how sick that society is. They don't care what they did and they don't care that they will get caught, which sort of explains Elbuda's comment... and makes one wonder if the real ratio is higher than 33% or whatever. What really caused my jaw to drop was that they just casually admitted it for some stupid study. No shame at all.
Posted in: More than 1 in 3 South African men admit to rape: study
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Klein2
Because basketball, some time in the last couple of decades, has become a contact sport.
Does anybody even follow basketball rules anymore? Look at any pro game and you see blatant travelling and all kinds of fouls. Just like football, if they called every infraction, they could never play the game.
I know it seems so untopical, because I am supposed to care about Obama's lip, but if we can't agree on rules, we shouldn't be playing with people we don't know.
Posted in: 12 stitches for Obama after errant elbow in hoops
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Klein2
Pamelot makes a great point. "The majority" of American people think of this as "fuss", but then the majority are rarely concerned with issues of rights. "Common wisdom" is neither, as they say.
It looks like the mainstream press are slowly turning from the issue, but the op-ed pages are on fire. And it is not the usual suspects, either. Roger Ebert, who has to wear bandages on his neck, has some things to say about medical privacy and the wisdom of letting 12 dollar an hour employees handle beams of radiation. Dave Barry, Penn and Teller, Popular Mechanics, Wired, even airline workers' blogs have not let up. And every one of them brings up new and original points. And each has reader comments that are more intelligent than anything I have heard come out of Pistole's mouth.
Tyranny of the majority and casting this as "fuss" is the only thing that will protect this policy.
Posted in: What is your view on all the fuss this week about pat-downs as part of security measures at U.S. airports?
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Klein2
cactus. Yes. I know. That is why I think searching everyone is not good. Forget about my points with drugs. They have to do with rights, not procedures. They are a distraction.
Peachy. Profiling does not have to start with appearance at all, or religion, or name. There are many ways that it could be done "fairly" if you can believe it. Sampling and probability applied to data that the TSA and DHS already has could produce a decent system. I have counted more than 25 different things that the DHS, State Dept., and immigration do to process people before they ever get to a scanner at an airport.
I hate to say "this is what the Israelis do" because that is so tired, but let's just say they start processing passengers from the time they buy their tickets. If DHS did that, then as soon as 500 people get to the check in counter, then TSA would be able to take about 10 "interesting people from the line" and leave everybody else alone to be scanned in a reasonable way. The TSA would then not be choosing people by color or name, but according to other data.
MIT people will agree with me. Randomness helps. Not publishing the criteria or letting passengers see them helps. Creating uncertainty for terrorists while creating certainty for "average" people is a good way to do the job.
The TSA has exempted pilots, so the TSA is admitting that SOME people pose less of a risk than others. In a way, it is already profiling.
Posted in: TSA has met the enemy — the people
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Klein2
"Also be advised that that if you refuse the scanners and the groping you will be taken into custody and held for an indeterminate time as a terrorist suspect--and you'll also be barred from flying."
It is true. 48 hours they can hold you without a lawyer, without a charge, without a phone call.
In a post a long long time ago, like Monday, I told about the Penn and Teller incident. He objected to what they they did. They told him they needed to call a supervisor if he had a complaint. He said ok. They immediately told him there would be a delay (hinting he would miss his flight). A supervisor came and he complained about how he had been touched. They then told him he could file a complaint, but "they would have to view the surveillance tape" and that he would "probably miss his flight". He told them to do it because he had a private jet available anyway. Then. Only then...did they become very apologetic and accommodating. They offered to have a supervisor at the gate every time he came to the airport if he just calls in advance.
That is what plutocracy means. And THAT is the tender mercy that one can expect if the TSA gets their way.
Posted in: TSA chief calls for understanding; pat-down leaves Michigan man covered in urine
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Klein2
"Laugh as the liberal mainstream media tries desperately to make this into a big deal."
Well, really, what is her excuse? It is a mistake you have never made in your life, right Tim? So why does she get a pass? Is she hard on the campaign trail? Was she prepped wrong? There are people in the world who just constantly say dopey things, like Dan Quayle, Paris Hilton, and Jessica Simpson.
Then there are others, like you and me, who can have a decent conversation without saying really really dumb things all the time.
Um. I vote PRETENDER. Mike Huckabee talks about the issues, Sarah cuddles up to North Korea.
GJ: Tell you what. Barbara Eden (Jeannie) and Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched) were smart cookies. Either is a mental giant compared to Sarah.
Posted in: Sarah Palin: Serious 2012 contender or pretender?