JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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3
To be healthy, live in the big city
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4
From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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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
I think the Tea Party should ask to have their results shown separately from those of the GOP. It might be very revealing. Are they not a real party?
Rand Paul is a Republican, not Tea Party, is that right? Well, then what does the Tea Party have to gloat about? He has already been co-opted. He is not independent. He is part of the machine. Politically branded and sold. His constituents are GOP, his party is GOP, and his win goes in the GOP column.
Molenir has been duped. There is no Tea Party.
Posted in: GOP wins the House, falls short of Senate
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Klein2
"I know you're joking, right? I was a teenager under Jerry Brown it was a nightmare. How can you say him being Gov. again is a resurrection??"
Uh. No. A time of unimaginable growth and a lifestyle that the whole nation strove for. Not really a nightmare. Did you grow up in Compton? And anyway, my point was that if the Brown family really controlled California politics in a nepotistic frenzy, then how can anyone explain Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and all of Orange County?
And my other point was that Jerry Brown jr. has been gone for quite a long time. That he can come back and kick Jillionaire Whitman around while dressed as a mummy is entertaining to say the least, and it cannot be explained away as Daddy's coattails.
Posted in: GOP wins the House, falls short of Senate
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Klein2
"Congratulations to new Democratic senator, Christopher Coons. Thanks to the T-BP for putting up such a joke of a candidate."
She was a Republican. Let's be very clear about that. She won the Republican primary fair and square on the sweat of her supporters. She stated her principles and was supported 100% by the Tea Party.
And this is how the GOP treats the Tea Party.
You know, Molenir and others have been carping about how the GOP is not the Tea Party, but all the coverage I see puts them together and calls Tea Party victories "GOP gains". Can someone explain that to me? Has the Tea Party been co-opted already? How can Palin and the Tea Party support a GOP candidate like O'Donnell and then get no support from the GOP? And yet the GOP is taking credit for all of the TP heavy lifting?
The Tea Party is getting screwed. Suckers. The whole Tea Party dream will not last past the first glass of champagne downed at GOP HQ. The rich have bought and paid for votes and the Tea Party delivered.
And so the GOP (NOT Tea Party, remember?) has taken the house, so I am expecting great things. Go to it, party boys:
"House Republicans have promised to cut $100 billion from the federal budget in the first year, rolling back spending to 2008 levels."
The ball IS in the GOP court now. Once all the gloating ends, here is the promise I want to see.
Posted in: GOP wins the House, falls short of Senate
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Klein2
"@Klein2: Actually, the Kennedy's would be a better example. Dad was a Ambassador, sons were Senators and a President, and the President son appointed his own brother as AG."
Haha. Dad was a lot more than an ambassador. And how could you forget Maria Shriver and Schwarzenegger in your laundry list? See, nepotism is rather expected from Italians and Irish and all that back east old country stuff. That it crops up with WASPS like the Bushes somehow surprises me.
And frankly no, the Kennedy's are NOT a better example. The Bushes have two Presidents, a long time governor, and then others who came too close to indictment to ever hold office, but who act as bagmen for the rest of them.
How does one Kennedy as President for a couple of years provide a better example of nepotism than 16 years of Bushes in the White House?
Posted in: GOP wins the House, falls short of Senate
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Klein2
"Medical experts warn that because young girls are still growing, they are at higher risk during pregnancy. Studies have shown that teenage girls are more likely to give birth to premature babies and their infants have a higher chance of dying by age one."
Uh yeah. This is downright creepy. Humans were just not meant to be having babies this young. Even if the plumbing is all there, the architecture and wallpaper aren't. I suspect this is a problem that is going to be made worse by environmental hormones.
The baby is likely to have problems, but so is the mother. Can you imagine what that prolactin is going to do to a 10 year old? And what about bone growth? Her body will take her calcium and give it to the baby, IF she is "lucky". I would not be surprised if this girl winds up an emotional and physical wreck before high school.
Bad news.
Posted in: 10-year-old gives birth in Spain
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Klein2
"Jerry Brown, who succeeded Reagan who succeeded Brown Sr. as governor way back when, running again. We have to get away from these "dynasties"."
You're kidding right? Jerry Brown running again is not "succession". It is more like "resurrection". Governor moonbeam was last on the political scene when bellbottoms and skateboards were in vogue. Then he disappeared entirely before producing rock hits such as "Running on Empty" and "Doctor My Eyes". Then he disappeared again. And he shows up about six months ago to run for office.
If you want nepotism, Bush should be your poster child. Dad was a CIA director and President. Sons are all manner of larcenous louts. All have got their fingers in one pie or another, and only one is retired as far as I know.
Posted in: GOP wins the House, falls short of Senate
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Klein2
So it is true. The Tea Party and the GOP are the same thing, and nobody seems to be complaining. Sarah Palin has taken control of the GOP.
All the media I see are counting Tea Party victories in the GOP tally. Well. I guess that makes sense. Without GOP support, the Tea Party is just a tempest in a teapot. Good to see them joining the establishment.
"Will be raising a glass to toast every conservative victory today."
Is that you Charlie Sheen?
Posted in: GOP wins the House, falls short of Senate
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Klein2
"People should be smarter about how they store food. A lot of things should not be refrigerated, such as raw eggs, tomatoes, bananas, cabbage, daikon, pumpkins, potatoes, onions, most fruits, bread, etc. Everyone knows this, right?"
Point being that most of us could make do with a refrigerator HALF the size of the one we have now.
Posted in: Fridge gives food longer life
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Klein2
People should be smarter about how they store food. A lot of things should not be refrigerated, such as raw eggs, tomatoes, bananas, cabbage, daikon, pumpkins, potatoes, onions, most fruits, bread, etc. Everyone knows this, right?
Things have gotten kind of bizarre. People want to have volume AND variety, so they buy a fridge big enough for that,and then food gets bought and lost and the whole things gets crazy with accumulated half-jars of whatever-it-is and bags of moldy something or other.
I think if people did meal planning and simplified matters, they would waste a lot less food and eat fresher food to boot.
My frig is messed up now because I live with other people, but my ideal fridge would have a few bottles of fluids, a few sauces, some leftovers, leafy veggies, some meats, a big hunk of bamboo charcoal.. and then some frozen things. The way it is now, there are way too many half-used this and that items that are just cluttering things up.
BTW, look at the picture. Is that SIX big pet bottles on the doors? Two milk cartons, and then beer too? Sheesh. Bowl of salad in the main compartment? A big pot of what.. stew? Sheesh. Look how it is designed to DISPLAY feature items rather than provide ingredients conveniently. This is a refrigerator a husband/non-cooking spouse would love, but a cook would hate. Bizarre. It is a trough, not a pantry. Makes we want to say MOOO.
Posted in: Fridge gives food longer life
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Klein2
"That depends on whether you are actually in touch with reality or not. The simple fact of the matter is, the Tea Party is not the GOP."
You are right. One of us is not in touch with reality. What I can see is that the TP and GOP are one and the same when it suits their purposes. And I think that there is quite a bit of disagreement about this, which you can look forward to.
I know for a fact that GOP machinery has been rapidly switched to support of TP candidates in many races. It has never worked that way with Dems. I wonder why. The Alaska race is the exception that proves the rule. In most cases, the TP candidate has taken the GOP slot and is either supported by GOP or not, and is sometimes hung out to dry, pretty well depending on whether Rove likes you or not. And if there is no TP candidate to vote for on those long ballots, you can bet that TP will be checking the GOP candidate box.
That is fact. Your statement is a fiction.
And we will see how separate they are. The news is counting TP victories as GOP victories, even FOX. Care to rebut that?
Posted in: GOP upbeat, Democrats brace for losses in election
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Klein2
YOu know Nessie, I have been mulling that all day, and I think it should be ursa non grata. Oh well.
I am a little skeptical of JumpingJesus, but it is basically correct. Of course not ALL forest areas are that way, but there must be some that are. Just a slight increase in population and a slight decrease in food will send all that wildlife out searching for Happy Meals wearing OshKosh overalls.
In our area, we had bear and monkey sightings today. Not unusual at all. Schoolchildren were alerted, but nothing came of it obviously.
As far as culling, as some posters know, I am all for identifying the "ursa non grata" and culling them first, as it were, which seems to be what is happening. Cleo is right. It is basically wrong to slaughter. I should say fundamentally wrong. However, there might be no other solution but to kill some of them. It would be great if we could send them to places with too many deer or feral dogs and cats, but that would just not work out in the long run.
These protected species have been protected for many decades. I think that a lot of Japanese biologists are now acknowledging that there will come a time when they will be overabundant. Not twenty years from now, but more like ten. Kamoshika, deer, tanuki, boars, foxes, monkeys, bears. We have them all. Lots of them. But there are still many many people who have never seen them at all, so I cannot definitely say that there are "too many." Nessie is a good example. I know many many people who have been mountaineering all over Japan who have not seen what I see in my back yard. Animals seem to like me, and word gets around, I guess. They also seem to be doing their darnedest not to piss me off, which is weird.
Gotta chime in that Frungy is right. 50 kg is too much to bear. I am positive that I could survive against one, but I don't know many people who could. Certainly not a child. The claw bite combo is devastating, but humans have kicks, chokes, punches and of course weapons. A pretty typical Japanese 10 year old might be 30 kg barely. My first "defense" would be to throw food at it. A good stinky soft cheese would probably give me a good getaway. But who hikes with limburger?
Posted in: Bear killed after attacking man and son in Fukui
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Klein2
The New York Times read my posts of last night and copied them. Read Frank Rich's OpEd for a somewhat more eloquent presentation of how I think the GOP, TP, and Dems will spin the election results.
Anyway, "GOP upbeat, Democrats brace for losses in election" seems about right. Anyone who thinks that the results will change the game a lot either way is delusional. The posturing will change a little.
The biggest changes will come in the GOP. If you think about it, this election's message is all about "The GOP really needed the TP in this election." Now how is the TP going to be accomodated? And remember everyone, "the Tea Party is not a branch of the GOP" as we have heard over and over. Does anyone still believe that lie?
Budget politics will be extremely dull in the months ahead. The reactions of Rush, Sarah, Boehner, Rove, etc. to the results will be the big news. The really gutsy move would be for the Tea Party to break off of the GOP and go it alone, but we see that O'Donnell foundered without funds. Will the GOP welcome Tea Partiers into the fold? Not if big money people like Koch have anything to say about it. The GOP rank and file also reject TPers. Rush and Glenn will thank the lord. Sarah will pat herself on the back. Rove will roll his eyes, and Boehner will claim he has a mandate.
Of course it is better to win elections than lose them, but the GOP might have signed a deal with the devil by letting those people (TP="those people") take over GOP ballot spaces. Let's watch, shall we?
Posted in: GOP upbeat, Democrats brace for losses in election
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Klein2
"According to the telly news yesterday, the man was bitten on his thigh and ankle as he came out of the house."
Well, there you go. "shrug" I don't see how this could have ended differently. I can kind of picture it. The bear is on someone's doorstep or something (but how does this jibe with "strolling in the garden" in the print story above) and some guy steps out. The bear can't get away fast enough and feels cornered and attacks.
Of course, once you get a bite and scratch in on a human, you are ursus non gratis, and your days are numbered.
Some parts of the story don't make sense, but the whole "it's a rogue bear so kill it" part of it is a cliche.
Posted in: Bear killed after attacking man and son in Fukui
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Klein2
OK. It is election time. Here is some spin to watch for as the dust settles:
Tea Party breaks its promises. All of them. It is only a matter of time, and I don't think it will be long. If they use their "energy" and "mandate" and rush into things, it will be rip-saw time. Their inexperience will doom them. If they hold back, they will get chewed up by the GOP and the Dems.
GOP coopts Tea Party or fights break out. This will be a difficult formula. If the Tea Party wins too much or too little, it will be fights. But if the GOP is pleased, it will buy them off. Then watch the Tea Party break its promises. For many reasons, the GOP will want to watch the Tea Party fail, though.
Obama says something like "America has spoken and I am listening." Or some such nonsense as he rushes to claim the middle ground that the Tea Party and the GOP abandoned in their rush to get a few more seats. When people see how ineptly the Tea Party goes about things, the Dems will look a lot better.
Silence. The chess game begins. Nobody wants to be the first to cut government programs or even mention it. Look for LOTS of stalling. It is like the election was a dinner at an expensive restaurant, and nobody wants to pick up the tab. I think that the Tea Party will bring up spending cuts first, because, lol, they kind of HAVE to, and the GOP will use that to skewer them and make themselves appear to be pragmatic. Haha. That will be rich. I will laugh hard. The GOP will give this top priority because they really really do not want to deal with Sarah Palin anymore.
Sniping. Now that the elections are over, scandals involving all those people who did NOT run will become political fodder. Look for the effective number of GOP TP seats to get shaved by a few votes in the months ahead.
That is it. I don't think the numbers matter too much unless the GOP gets 2/3 majorities. GOP and TP promised way too much, despite being vague, and can't possibly deliver. Their energy is spent, and the White House has the veto. The real drama in the next year will be the demise of the Tea Party. If the GOP does not want to work with the Dems, they can just sit back and watch the economic numbers improve. If they have to ally themselves with the Tea Party to "do something", then we can all look forward to Sarah running the GOP show in 2012.
Posted in: Obama makes last campaign stop in pivotal Ohio
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Klein2
"Obama seems incapable at least in my opinion to grasp that he is President of the United States and not just President of the Democratic party."
Well, that is quite an opinion. In my opinion, he should have let Pelosi and crew steamroll everyone else. He could have gotten twice as much done in his first two years if he had listened a little more to people telling him that the GOP was just going to stall and hinder. Jon Stewart, Michael Moore and Paul Krugman are all saying the same thing. Obama is way too much of a nice guy. He is too much of a president in his first term. He should have been lopping off heads and passing his programs from day one. Who was going to stop him? Hillary? Pelosi was ready to go. If he had done that, he would not be having people like you calling him uncompromising. Everyone would just know it. A little more Truman and a little less Carter would have been nice.
FDR was cracking heads and buying off people left and right at this stage. Obama should have stepped it up.
And JRaustralia. Reagan was a fan of Tip from the time Ronald himself was a Democrat. Reagan was also the head of a labor union at one time. Things were different then, and mutual respect was such that shouting LIAR at the president was a career-ender, not a career-starter. Besides, Tip was a nice guy and the Reagan White House was handing out defense contracts like candy on Halloween. Things worked out.
Everybody, go to the 60 minutes site and click around. JRaustralia is talking about the recovery, but there is a good little documentary showing that middle America is not recovering. The David Stockman interviews are like Colin Powell and Warren Buffett on steroids. If the GOP is seriously going to go for budget cuts and tax cuts, they are just dreaming. This from moderate Republicans---some pretty unbiased observers.
Posted in: Obama makes last campaign stop in pivotal Ohio
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Klein2
They should have gone inside.
I wonder what the "attack" was. A one year old is going to look really yummy to a good sized bear, but tracking the animal down up to a kilometer away and killing it based on a few scratches to a kid who fell down seems very weak. Did the bear scratch the kid?
Seems like a weird scenario. Kids that age can't walk well, so, why didn't daddy step lively and get out of there?
Hope people are not taking a "better safe than sorry" or "shoot first ask questions later" attitude about killing these animals.
Posted in: Bear killed after attacking man and son in Fukui
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Klein2
Don't base your judgments too much on the story above. Don't base you judgment of Nutt or the Lancet either.
Read the study. It is eye-opening and "true" as far as I can see.
If you can't be bothered to read the whole report, look at the pretty graphics at least. LSD, shrooms, and ecstacy are way down on the list of harm, and I suspect it is mostly because they are not very addictive and someone who is really really tripping is not going to feel like heading for bright lights or a shotgun. The most dangerous drugs are highly addictive and seem to induce violent behavior in many forms. They also do not telegraph themselves to people around a person, meaning that it is hard to tell just how drunk somebody really is until they have wrapped their car around a telephone pole.
The list looks pretty good to me. It appears that alcohol is about 10 times more harmful than LSD to others and about 100 times more dangerous to users. Read the study and you might agree. Strangely enough, I can see that the figure is probably about right. Factor in all the liver damage, cancer, halitosis, headaches, wife-beatings, etc. and it makes more sense.
Legalization? I don't care much about that, but this issue of what chemicals do to humans needs a lot more objective study.
Posted in: Alcohol more lethal than heroin, cocaine: study
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Klein2
I have mentioned him several times in the last two weeks or so, so someone decided to put him on 60 minutes.
David Stockman, the US Budget Director under Reagan's first term, will take you up close and personal with the US budget process and explain exactly why the GOP and TP will have to be breaking some promises in a few days. Hey, if Reagan can't cut the budget with his huge mandate and coming off of Prop. 13, you think Boehner can do it with a few O'Donnells more or less?
Go to CBS site and click to find it.
THis guy really is the man of the hour. He has seen this all before and wrote a great book about it. The reason it is pertinent, in case you need to ask, is that someone saying that the US budget can be cut realistically by 100 billion dollars is either 1, lying, 2, lying, or 3, misinformed. This is a major part of the TP platform, and they just have no idea what they are promising. None.
Anyway, have a look everyone. Politics trumps ideology. Every. Time.
I am going to say it again. I think the Dems are going to do better than they think they will. When people calm down and stop being fearful, they will see the Dems as the best hope for America. Where are the outrageous faux pas and scandals and jackboots and slurs by Democrats? There aren't any. A bunch of strident thugs are trying to scare and intimidate people into voting for the party of no, and it is not going to work.
Posted in: Obama makes last campaign stop in pivotal Ohio
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Klein2
"Obama, bracing for perhaps one of the biggest midterm setbacks in recent times"
So I am writing this story for AP and I want to use some hyperbole, but the results are not really very special. What should I do? I can't really call it the biggest setback, but it, well, it seems big, maybe. If I use "recent times", well, that makes it seem like a bigger deal than it really is. And recent times is like, ten years, right? OK. I will use "one of the biggest" AND "recent times". There. That is vague enough to sound important, and nobody can really say it is wrong. I love journalism. I love working for AP!
I think AP should use its cub reporters on some other beat. It could use a few editors too.
"You blew it, President Obama. We gave you the two years to fulfill"
First of all, I don't think Sarah Palin ever gave Obama so much as a handshake. Secondly, consider that she was a communications major who was not good enough to work as a stringer for AP (see above).
"Should Obama lose Ohio in 2012, it would make it all the more important for him to win other highly contested states such as Pennsylvania and Florida"
Well, sort of, but Ohio is worth two fewer electoral votes anyway, which they just finished writing in the previous paragraph.
“With the Republican majority in the House or Senate or, hopefully, both, we’re not going to compromise on those things,” Steele said.
Mike Steele has forgotten what a veto is. But that is ok, because the Republican electorate doesn't know what one is either, so they all think they are going to get something passed.
This whole news story screams "NOOB ALERT". News OF noobs BY noobs FOR noobs.
Posted in: Obama makes last campaign stop in pivotal Ohio
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Klein2
"Take it with a grain of salt."
And so I would say yes, but it is not a big deal and they should NOT be held accountable. Nobody is allergic to calories, and if people can't figure out that a baked potato with butter AND sour cream is not going to be on the diet menu, then they probably can't use math anyway.
Posted in: Do you think restaurant menus should list the calorie content for each item?