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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LFRAgain
Looking at or wanting to look at nude photos of a 16-year-old does not make one a pedophile, whether one is 52 or 15.
The poster demonstrates a lack of knowledge of what actual pedophilia is. By definition, it refers to an adult having a sexual attraction to prepubescent children, or more specifically, children that cannot yet reproduce, i.e., pre-puberty.
The man in this case shows no such proclivities; so to label him a pedophile is simply wrong. By extension, to condemn him to a lifetime of scorn and torment for something that was very clearly not the horrendous crime of pedophilia is also wrong.
The proper term here for what this man is would be an ephebophile, or rather an adult who is sexually attracted to someone between the ages of 15 and 19, yes, admittedly a horrendous crime for which flaying, drawing, and quartering are scarcely adequate punishments -- oh, but if only we could excise the filth that is sexual desire from the human condition so that the world could be a brighter place (gnashes teeth and casts a forlorn gaze to the sky for answers that may never come).
The guy might very well be a pervert. And he most definitely is a jerk for employing a classic bait-and-switch tactic to get this girl to send nude photos of herself to someone she foolishly thought to be a peer. And yes, for whatever reasons, the thought of any 52-year-old showing sexual interest in a 15—year-old makes most people’s skin crawl. But he’s most certainly not a pedophile.
Posted in: 52-year-old man tricks high school girl into sending naked photos of herself
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LFRAgain
The American public is -- or should I say "was" -- more than aware of these issues. And yet they still chose to set aside the human frailties of the man in favor of what Kennedy's accomplishments as a president, a distinction that still seems to elude a conservative right bent on dictating to the rest of America what morality should and should not be.
Newsflash: Americans don't care, as long as the guy in the White House is doing his job. The office of the president is sworn to uphold the constitution of the United States, not some vague, undefined moral code that ebbs and flows with the political climate.
So when the Marilyn Monroe affair hasn't left Americans frothing at the mouth in moral self-righteousness, conservatives are left with little else but to wholly fabricate a Kennedy so inept, so incompetent, so morally bankrupt as to practically justify his asssassination as a necessity.
Enter "The Kennedys," by Joel Surnow, as ficticious and politically motivated a smear job as one can ever hope to see.
The History Channel did the right thing in dumping this turkey.
Posted in: History network pulls plug on Kennedy project
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LFRAgain
“Probably?”
And it’s precisely these attitudes that sum up the entire problem with modern conservative politics. A half-assed, intellectually lazy "probably" becomes all the justification politicians and the constituents they cater to need to pursue a host of misjudgments, miscalculations, and mistakes that have plagued Republic thinking since dumbed-down, say-anything and do-anything-for-a-vote Neo-conservatism overtook and gobbled up a far more intelligent and conscientious GOP before the abject stupidity of the Ditto-head-dominated 90s.
It's why the U.S. is mired in Iraq. It's why Wall Street was allowed to rip off the American People – multiple times. It's why a whole host of issues facing the country from education to the economy to public safety are allowed to fester unchecked while the Republican Party resorts to any trick it can, including lying, in order to dominate American politics unchallenged, the plurality be damned.
Sure, what are a glaring few errors, inaccuracies, and outright fabrications in the historical narrative? It’s no big deal when the only purpose of the project is to create a path by which the viewers can more easily reach the writers’ own fact-devoid preconceptions. Facts be damned, eh?
Pathetic.
Posted in: History network pulls plug on Kennedy project
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LFRAgain
mikehuntez,
What a load of absolute hogwash. When you manage to tie the words "terrorism," "gun," and "lefties" together all in one sentence, you're obviously trying too hard. Grow up.
Posted in: Arizona Rep Giffords shot, 6 killed, including judge, 9-year-old girl
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LFRAgain
Ahh... This must be the tired old yarn where Conservatives contradictorily bleat that Democratic presidents are soft on defense and gutting our military, while simultaneously being warmongers, having presided over so many military actions over the years. Yawn.
Posted in: Hypersonic missiles could challenge U.S. naval supremacy
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LFRAgain
These would be valid points if the referred to something that was brought to the attention of the public by a layman or non-military person. But that isn't the case here. The videos were brought to light by someone from within the military, hence the reprimand Honors received about the videos in the first place (Re: the beginning of the XO Movie Night video where Honors and his two "alternate personalities" devote time to calling a coward the person who complained above Honors' head about the videos instead of bringing the issue to him directly)
Molenir, THAT'S what I'm talking about. Honors got nailed for publically daring the Navy to do something about it. He placed the Navy in a tight spot, and got burned for it. What did he expect would happen when -- no, not "if" but when -- these videos went public? This isn't the bygone era of super-secret "good old boy" clubs, where everything that happens on the ship stays on the ship. It's the Internet Age. It's the age of YouTube. Of Skype. Of Facebook. For Honors to have expected these videos to stay onboard and away from public scrutiny belies no small amount of ignorance on his part, and a large dose of arrogance.
It's not at all unlike the Tailhook scandal years back where again officers reveled in a mysoginistic, sexist celebration of "I've got man parts" and just assumed it would never get out. Silly them. How many careers went up in smoke after that? This Enterprise issue isn't a simple case of boys just being boys. It's a case of boys being abysmally stupid.
Posted in: U.S. Navy commander loses carrier job over lewd videos
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LFRAgain
Sailwind,
Uhm... And this is supposed to leave me better enlightened how exactly? "Oh, we made up an ancronym for a fighter pilot that insinuates he's homosexual. Har har har."
You're trying too hard here, Sailwind.
Horse puckey. Anyone who thinks that the only joy to be found in the military is in masturbation jokes, lesbian inuendo, junior high school-level bathroom humor, and poorly constructed jabs at homosexuals might not be too bad off with a little more sterility in their lives, if for no other reason than to reomove the clutter of boorish humor one step above fart jokes, clearing the way to other expressions of humor.
And you're avoiding the real issue, namely Honors' flagrant disregard for a chain of command that told him to knock it off with these idiotic videos.
Posted in: U.S. Navy commander loses carrier job over lewd videos
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LFRAgain
Sailwind,
It wasn't so much that he made the video, but that he went out of his way to inform anyone higher up on the chain of command that he didn't particularly care what they thought about it. He also went out of his way to inform any enlisted men and women aboard the Enterprise who might object to the video that he not only didn't care what they thought either, but that their complaints would likely fall on deaf ears.
Then he topped it all off with a highlight reel of past XO Movie Night videos in which he thumbed his nose again and again at any suggestion that he be held accountable for creating videos he had been clearly told on at least one occasion were inappropriate.
To answer your question, it doesn't matter how capable he was as a navy commander. And it doesn't matter that the Navy promoted him after the Enterprise tour. What matters is that he brazenly dared someone -- ANYONE -- to hold him accountable for the videos, and he got precisely what he asked for. In other words, he was stupid.
Seriously, this is like a poor man's version of "A Few Good Men" with Mr. Honors in the role made famous by Jack Nicholson. Personally, I feel a lot better about military officers who understand and can comply with the restrictions inherent in a civilian-controlled military, rather than adhering to some half-baked, "We're MEN! Grrr!!" rationalization for defying Navy policy regarding sexist, anti-gay locker-room humor coming from the XO's office. But that's just me.
I understand that ribald humor is part and parcel of men spending lots of time in close quarters together. I'm not immune to the phenomenon either. But it shouldn't be coming from the XO and the XO doing it most certainly shouldn't be celebrating his disregard for Navy policy so publicly. It's bad for morale. It's bad for the chain of command. And that's why Honors lost his job, deservedly so.
Posted in: U.S. Navy commander loses carrier job over lewd videos
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LFRAgain
Arrogantly thumbing one's nose at established rules and the chain of command is called "Leadership"? Interesting.
Honors dared the Navy to do something about the vidoes and got just what he asked for. If anything, he should be sacked for sheer stupidity.
Hopefully the next XO won't be as dumb. But hey, it's all in good fraternal fun, right?
Posted in: U.S. Navy commander loses carrier job over lewd videos
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LFRAgain
Does Mr. Lieberman mean the current and continuing condition of Israel stealing and building "settlments" on Palestinian land? Yes, under such circumstances, I could certainly see a peace deal being impossible to broker. Asshat.
Posted in: Israeli foreign minister: Peace with Palestinians is 'impossible'
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LFRAgain
Drunk driving? Hope the little asshat behind the whell wasn't planning anything substantial with the remainder of his now-demolished life. What a tragic waste on all fronts.
Posted in: Car mounts sidewalk, killing 9-year-old boy and injuring 3 others
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LFRAgain
This quote alone speaks more to the monumental obstacles faced by international political organizations attempting to reign in bad behavior on the part of people like this Laurent Gbagbo nut than anything else. Corporate greed does far more to undermine democratic reforms around the world than does any one petty would-be dictator.
Posted in: West African leaders threaten force in Ivory Coast
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LFRAgain
Alphaape,
Do us all a favor and replace the word "gay" in all of your arguments from now on with the word "black." Then let's see how well your logic pans out.
Meanwhile, while there aren't any actual laws defined as "moral" in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it's rather illuminating to note that Sections § 920 and § 925 are violated by military personnel on a regular basis without any appreciable disintegration of military discipline or cohesion.
With that in mind, it seems morally upstanding soldiers serving alongside soldiers who participate in carnal knowledge or sodomy have been able to cope with the indignity just fine.
Posted in: U.S. Senate votes to overturn military gay ban
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LFRAgain
Alphaape,
Where is the logic in deed. To address that bizarrely structured, reeeeeeally-hard-to-follow logic, the issue of how the military defines morality has just been answered by the Senate's striking down of the ban. Our elected representatives have decided one's sexual orientation is not a moral issue.
As for your hypothetical presentation of rank-and-file soldiers trying to argue that homosexuality is immoral, see again the Senate's vote. The U.S. military being a civlian-controlled one, I imagine any rank-and-file with issues about homosexuality will see their efforts go the same way as those soldiers who in the past tried to argue that blacks had no place in the military.
I'll just be straight with you: This makes no sense whatsoever. Could you please rephrase it somehow?
Posted in: U.S. Senate votes to overturn military gay ban
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LFRAgain
v4vendetta,
Welcome to the reality women have had to put up from men for the better part of human history. And yet they've soehow mananged to not implode, despite an endless barrage of unsolicited leers, jeers, and unwanted attention from men who believe by virtue of their sexuality, they have some sort of right to ogle unimpeded.
Please. If the rough and tumble American G.I. can't handle being checked out in a locker room, maybe s/he should find a different line of work that's a bit more gentle on his or her delicate sensibilities.
Posted in: U.S. Senate votes to overturn military gay ban
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LFRAgain
sensei258,
Who exactly is this "we" you're talking about? When a gay soldier is standing on a line, weapon in hand, defending with his or her life our safety and freedom, I personally don't think about what he or she does in the bedroom.
Do you? And if so, why? Maybe you should first start looking more deeply at the bizarreness of that before you attempt to question the "rightness" or "wrongness" of what consenting adults do in the privacy of their home.
Posted in: U.S. Senate votes to overturn military gay ban
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LFRAgain
Assange didn't commit treason. He commited a possible act of espionage. The two aren't the same thing. Treason is a crime commited against one's own country. Espionage is the crime of spying against your own or any other country.
Assange is an Australian, not an American, and took it upon himself to take classified, sensitive diplomatic cables he acquired somehow, and release them to the world via the Internet in a manner and style that comes far closer to tabloid journalism than any of the far nobler forms of investigative journalism that a concept like freedom of the press was supposed to encourage and foster.
The Time Magazine quote found at the top of the Wikileaks homepage speaks volumes about how far Wikileaks still has to go to become a trustworthy and respected source of news:
"Could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act."
"Could become . . . "
That "could" just sticks out like a sore thumb, and that Wikileaks continues to let that quote be the first thing anyone sees when visiting their page seems like a subconcious admission from Wikileaks that they still haven't and might never reach that stage where the site can be considered trustworthy or responsible. Which in a world full of countless "could haves," "would haves," and "should haves," makes Wikileaks little more that just another generic conspiracy theory site peddling gossip and rumors to bolster web traffic, and thus income.
As it stands now though, we'll likely never see the full potential of a squandered news source like Wikileaks fullfilled because of Assange's immaturity and cavelier attitude towards the resposibilities inherent in taking on the mantle of purveyor of truth.
Assange screwed up here. Not the Americans. Not the Swiss. Not the British. And most certainly not the Swedes. This is a poop-sandwich almost exclusively of Assange's own creation that he'll have to swallow on his own. Best of luck to him in his future endeavors.
In the meantime, the sexual misconduct charges he has to face in Sweden certainly won't help matters. Are the charges a contrived attempt to smear the man's reputation? I doubt that sincerely, judging by the way the blogosphere talks about the the man. He's done plenty on his own to ensure his name is reviled in certain circles, without help from others. We'll just have to wait and see what unfolds in the investigation.
Posted in: WikiLeaks founder arrested in UK on Swedish rape charge
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LFRAgain
Wow. Great thread. One of the most successful pop singers in Japanese history, and the best some here can come up with is:
" . . . she's a washed up has been . . . "
" . . . Good riddance!"
" . . . ur music was crap."
" . . . her being a nobody."
" . . . probably go on a diet since she has gotten pretty fat . . . "
Classy, folks. And the sad truth is, if any one of these posters were asked to name 10, 5, or even one of her top songs to save their own life, they couldn't. Because they've never listened to her. Not once.
And yet if you asked any Japanese over the age of 20 who she is, they could most certainly rattle off one or more without missing a beat.
She's a Japanese pop superstar who's sold over 52 million records in the Japanese market (the second largest market in world, for those keeping track) who's been doing a good job of it since she was 15 and just wants to take a break to try new things.
She didn't come over to your house to personally kick your dog, poke your mother in the eye, or steal your lunch money, people. So, what's with all the acrimony?
Posted in: A global goodbye for Hikaru Utada
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LFRAgain
cnc,
How interesting. So, are you trying to say that because 10 times as many innocent lives have been lost in the past, a few more dying because of this documents is a good thing?
Wow.
Forgive me if I still can’t see how the public is better served by the release of this info.
Incidentally, your logic is very similar to the rationalizations some Coalition officials used to defend civilian deaths in both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars: “Yes, some civilians were killed, but when looking at the bigger picture . . . “
Again, how interesting.
Posted in: WikiLeaks release gives hit list to al-Qaida, says U.S.
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LFRAgain
Bigmouth,
Wh-wh-Whaaaat?! Are you seriously trying to say just because the U.S. and Australia share similar political philosophies, that their laws must be one and the same? My heavens, you really do play fast and loose with the facts, don't you? So much for your so-called respect of the sovereignty of states.
By willfully, knowingly, and systematically disseminating stolen classified information, Assange becomes an accessory to the crime of espionage, regardless of his nationality. His actions are willfully against the United States, and if someday caught by agents of the U.S., he can and most probably will be tried in a court of law for espionage, if for no other reason than to make his day at least as miserable as he’s made it for countless others with his recklessness
Also, as a known computer hacker maintaining a website that advertises the availability of secrets obtained “anonymously,” he’s going to have a hard time proving he isn’t the original thief. Or at least that’s how the justice departments of a number of countries are likely to approach the prosecuting him.
No, I don’t think so, and no, he’s not demonstrating anything I believe. He’s demonstrating irresponsible recklessness with what many in the West (since you insist on lumping us all together) consider the sanctity of freedom and liberty. Assange’s actions speak in no way whatsoever to what I believe freedom should entail.
Posted in: WikiLeaks release gives hit list to al-Qaida, says U.S.