JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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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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Laguna
Skipbeat, this has been said before, but perhaps you missed it.
Total debt added by a president is less important than the debt added by that president's policies. Bush over eight years instituted unfunded policies totaling over $5 trillion; Obama halfway through his presumed eight years is less than a third of that at under $1.5 trillion.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/07/the-chart-that-should-accompany-all-discussions-of-the-debt-ceiling/242484/
A major reason the deficit exploded under Obama (aside from obvious effects of a recession, lower tax revenues and higher social spending, both automatic) is the continuation of the disastrous Bush policies. These are no fault of Obama.
Posted in: Obama budget: New spending with recycled tax ideas
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Laguna
sailwind, wouldn't you consider the American healthcare market over the past 50 years governed by market forces? Has that brought down prices at all? Many economists have analyzed this: the health care market does not act like regular markets. It is extremely inelastic. It is dominated by natural monopolies. Its effects spill over from the personal to the public good in huge ways. And its providers (insurance companies) and purveyors (healthcare providers) are at natural odds - the former profiting from denial, the latter from provision.
DS says, "Tying health insurance to employers has always been a mistake." Most Democrats would agree, but would take it a step further: the people banding together through a government-organized initiative - the "public option" - is the most efficient, economically rational way to provide a decent level of health care to all people.
And, sailwind, remember that it is an unusually lucky insurance recipient to be "over-covered." The very purpose of government regulations in this area is to insure that companies do not shortchange their employees by providing "insurance" that is useful only in very rare cases. Private insurance companies, after all, employee large amounts of people to make sure that this is so. So much for "private industry" efficiency.
Posted in: Obama compromises on birth control policy
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Laguna
Sailwind, you are wrong there. What would be prohibited is for companies to unilaterally determine what coverage is and is not acceptable; individuals are free under Obama's health plan to shop for coverage that they feel suits them best. That - along with the ability to compare cost - is the whole point of the insurance exchanges to be set up.
Posted in: Obama compromises on birth control policy
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Laguna
Thank you, Sailwind - that is exactly my point. A citizen may opt out of participating in certain social activities but not from paying for what society through its elective representatives has determined is best for the country. True, representative democracy has enabled multitudes of horrors throughout American history including slavery and unjust war, and there are times when civil disobedience is required - but what is being sought in this case is not civil disobedience, it is legal exemption. Taking such logic further, I would be within my rights to withhold the portion of my tax dollars which would go to the Pentagon et. al.
This is really not a street that any party, Democratic or Republican, would be wise to start down.
Posted in: Obama compromises on birth control policy
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Laguna
I myself am religiously opposed to violence in any form and am quite against my taxes being used to fund the military-industrial complex. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting an opt-out of THAT "mandate." Society, though, does not allow us to pick and choose; I vote for leaders who will cut the military as much as possible and accept the results.
To enjoy the benefits afforded by living in a democracy while at the same time shirking responsibility is shameful cowardice. The Council of Catholic Bishops has recognized this by accepting Obama's face-saving proposal. The question is whether certain Republicans will follow suit - or whether they will milk an exceptional hot-button item for their own benefit. Listening to the response from Gingrich:
does not give one much hope. Funny enough, this eruption of right-wing vitriol will most likely end up helping Romney within a few weeks as its insanity becomes clear.
Posted in: Obama compromises on birth control policy
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Laguna
paulinusa, as Ayler said, eye contact from a macaque is in itself generally the final step before a teeth-and-clawed bare lunge of inner-city, not suburb, type. It seems that the macaque is standing, deprived of an advantageous leaping position - and that is probably the only thing that saved this tourist.
Posted in: Getting warm
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Laguna
So the adverbs have finally begun creeping out of the woodwork. While knowledge of how conservative a candidate might be, I fear escalation. "Viciously conservative," "barbarously conservative," "untamedly conservative" - heck, might as well go with "radically conservative" as there's really no reason anymore to pretend to even want to make sense.
Posted in: Republicans pitch selves to conservative gathering
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Laguna
Wait - how does this work? Initially, employers were to be mandated to provide birth control to employees, but now they will only have to do so if the employee asks? This sounds like a very nuanced compromise indeed.
Posted in: Obama compromises on birth control policy
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Laguna
Right, naruhodo and graham - never put your face close to an animal you don't know unless it already looks like, say, mine. Macaques are vicious little creatures even when given the cutesy name "snow monkey," and if this guy weren't halfway into his cream rinse session, he'd remove her nose with his teeth.
Posted in: Getting warm
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Laguna
The real secret in the dossier is that he used Windows XP at home.
Posted in: FBI releases background check file on Steve Jobs
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Laguna
This is the reason why:
"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"
Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to drive." I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough."
Posted in: Marijuana users twice as likely to cause car crash, studies show
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Laguna
Sorry - meant to include the link with that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZfdFoQg13U&feature=related
Posted in: Judge throws out whale 'slavery' suit against Seaworld in California
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Laguna
Wait for the sign, then all prisoners will be released! You will perish in flames! Gozer will destroy you and your kind!
Posted in: Judge throws out whale 'slavery' suit against Seaworld in California
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Laguna
...and then: Four legs good! Two legs bad!
(Can't help myself - apologies in advance for the following:)
"Comrades!" Romney cried. "You do not imagine, I hope, that we job creators are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a job creator. We job creators are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we job creators failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades," cried Romney almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, "surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?"
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Laguna
It"S ME, dolphins and whales are really the same thing, the major difference being whether they have teeth or baleen. Let's just say they're *all-porpoise * .
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Laguna
If PETA wins, could whales bring a class-action suit against the Japanese government for genocide?
Sailwind, what kind of dog do you have? I have a whippet.
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Laguna
sailwind, he won in Iowa, too - those mid-western types take their conservative religion seriously. The WaPo had an entertaining analysis< http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/minnesota-deals-mitt-romney-his-biggest-blow/2012/02/07/gIQAjqPuxQ_blog.html?hpid=z1> which suggested that Minnesota - just kitty-corner from his dad's governership of Michigan -was the biggest blow to Romney, but that then again this is the wacky state that elected Jessie Ventura as governor. I think that small states also are aware of their relative unimportance and their consequent ability to flip the system the bird without any major consequences. They'll all certainly support Romney in the general election, if not enthusiastically.
Posted in: Santorum reignites campaign with wins in Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado
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Laguna
Right there with ya, Torasan, but it could be worse: "failing to lead," "dictator," "socialist," "corporate proxy," "Muslim," "secularist," "Chicago-style politician," "foreigner" - these are mutually exclusionary yet are hurled at Obama often in the same sentence. So we're left wondering not only which opponent Obama will face - quite likely, which Romney will face him - but which imaginary Obama they will construct to run against.
Is it just me, or does Rick Santorum when he smiles not look eerily like Nicholas Cage on one of his bad days? Anyway, congratulations to him; he can enjoy it until Super Tuesday, when Gingrich hopes to cash in on his Southern fan base and get his chance in the sun - and then the long, hard slog to Tampa. Seems to me that Romney should adopt as his moto Oliver Smith's Korean War comment, "Retreat, hell! We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a different direction."
Posted in: Santorum reignites campaign with wins in Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado
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Laguna
PETA overstepped itself here - as even most animal rights activists would admit. Any attempt to elevate animals to the status of humans only serves to obfuscate what is more important: that animals be treated humanely and be kept, if at all, only in environments conducive to their biological and emotional imperatives.
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Laguna
Cetacean settee, sea-tortoise side table - 最高！
Posted in: Off the wall