JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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1
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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3
Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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4
From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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5
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
1
Laguna
In an interview with Nevada’s “Face to Face with Jon Ralston,” Romney said:
Wow. The guy is like an amateur magician who doesn't understand how the trick works so is clueless when it goes wrong. How about this, Mitt: it's not how the sentiment is expressed; it's the sentiment itself.
Betcha $10,000 that he'll continue slipping up in the same vein. As Fitzgerald said, "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft, where we are hard, cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand."
Posted in: Romney admits he 'misspoke' over poor Americans
1
Laguna
Romney continued, "I ADORE poor Americans! So much so that be sure of this, Romney policies will focus like a laser on the middle class to make sure the ranks of poor Americans increases like never before!"
"I also misspoke about the safety net. It's terrible, and that is not a bad thing."
Posted in: Romney admits he 'misspoke' over poor Americans
2
Laguna
Trump, just like a cock: crow an instant before sunrise, then claim credit as its cause. That a supposed "tea partier" could back the shape-shifter Romney is entirely due to his narcissistic drive to never appear wrong.
Mah, birds of a feather....
Posted in: Trump endorsement of Romney a huge diversion in Republican race
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Laguna
As usual, whatever Mitt says is of no consequence. A Romney presidency would be trickle down redux. All expressions of compassion and support for the struggling middle class would be boiled down and encapsulated in their bromide of "job creation." The Bush tax cuts would be made permanent, making savage cuts to social programs that do benefit the middle class the only way to avoid bankrupting the US.
Poor guy, he can't even commit a revealing gaffe without exposing his vacuousness.
Posted in: After Florida win, Romney makes gaffe on poor
1
Laguna
They are interchangeable with gas station attendants.
It's been said that Japan excels at service and struggles at hospitality; the serving industry is a very good example of this.
Posted in: What do you think of the quality of waiters in Japanese restaurants?
2
Laguna
Ben, regarding Romney and healthcare:
During his 1994 run for the United States Senate, Romney indicated he would support a bill which included a federal health insurance mandate; he now attacks the same mandate as "an unconscionable abuse of power." Which Mitt is it?
Logical in right-turn-on-red laws, say, or drinking ages - logical even for fuel economy standards for cars. In the former two cases, the laws are applicable only in local jurisdictions; in the latter case, car companies will end up following California law, as it is the largest market (and also has standards even stricter than those Federal). In the case of insurance and health care, though, we'll see a race to the bottom which will benefit no one but the insurers and a maze of 50 regulatory loop courses for all to jump through. Logical? Not in the least.
sailwind, your comments are indicative of why "business" experience does not necessarily translate into good governance. Your article continues:
Business is balance sheet plus/minus: shove medical expenses off the sheet, for example, and you've saved; that the costs have simply been shifted to other bearers matters nothing. Government does not work that way. Spend some tens of billions to save America's auto industry is certainly expensive, but in the long term, on a wide-view social scale, it was a bargain. I doubt we'll hear even Romney criticize Obama for this - though he's probably secretly saddened at the opportunity he missed to buy up distressed assets and sell them at a profit.
Posted in: Romney wins big in Florida; tells Obama to get out of the way
1
Laguna
At least this might bring quite well-deserved attention back to Steve Dahl & Teenage Radiation's masterpiece, "Falklands," which has languished in obscurity since 1982. Oh, 1982!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlPorISb6yI
Posted in: Britain sends new warship to Falklands
0
Laguna
Duh! - Bain Capital left a step behind!
Posted in: Australian bus company boss gives $15 million bonus to staff
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Laguna
I see, Ben. Care to clarify his stance on healthcare? - that what is right for MA is not necessarily right for the nation as a whole, and that, as a result, the US must face a patchwork of 50 health regulatory systems for insurers, health care providers, the citizenry and corporations to navigate?
That may attract some, but it most likely is not what he believed when he was governor, and it certainly is a terrible way to run the country.
Posted in: Romney wins big in Florida; tells Obama to get out of the way
7
Laguna
What to most Japanese youngsters seems heaven to my son is clearly hell. He thrives on uncertainty and would wither away at most any Japanese company. He'll go to the States for university next year; whether he'll return is unknowable. But one thing is clear: if he doesn't, it would be due to Japan's ossified employment system, and that would be another in a very long string of serious losses for Japan.
Posted in: Japan job treadmill grinds down workers and firms
1
Laguna
Romney says:
Translation: more competition like this, and I'm dead. Drop out already, Gingrich!
Romney says:
Translation: Republicans in Congress cannot continue to obstruct the myriad proposals that make up Obama's policy throughout his second term; such continued obstructionism would look too foolish and begin to create real damage. Do not allow Obama to lead!
Romney says:
Translation: Please tell me where you want to go; I'm totally amenable to anything if it gets me elected.
His utterances are not exactly lies; they are bits of fluff, totally devoid of substance. He must go to bed every night terrified that the next day he might say something with lasting meaning, something he could be pinned down on and held accountable for. So far, he's been lucky - or, more likely, it's the eight years of practice that is now benefiting him.
Posted in: Romney wins big in Florida; tells Obama to get out of the way
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Laguna
Nuclear reactors seem to be doing quite well capping life on their own, thank you.
Posted in: Cabinet OKs bill to cap nuclear reactor life
-1
Laguna
The Republican Party has chosen the devil they don't know over the devil they do: Romney over Gingrich. Which Romney will govern in the highly unlikely event that he is elected? No one pretends to know. The default choice would be to assume that Republicans in Congress will govern: that a Mitt presidency would be a proxy of Republican House leadership (assuming, again, that Republicans retain control). Vision, principles, leadership: Romney has shed each of these over the last eight years in his magical ideological contortionist trick.
Uh, sailwind, read the "loan" part in "low-cost, government-backed loans." The government will surely have to wait in line to get its money back from Solyndra - and may well not; but scattershot criticism like yours is just background noise. I assume you're also opposed to the measures that kept GM and Chrysler alive. I also assume you're opposed to the F-35 and other Pentagon programs that pump billions into arguably unnecessary, bloated military initiatives. At least renewable energy would leave the US with a legacy of independence-creating wealth.
Posted in: Romney wins big in Florida; tells Obama to get out of the way
0
Laguna
Romney will be dogged by Gingrich until the convention; he will then be torn apart by Obama and the logic derived from the fact that the Republicans have nothing to offer. Their "proposals," such as they are, are mutually incompatible and are certain to make a precarious economic situation worse.
Fundamentally, it is this: what dogs the American (and world) economy the most is imbalance between production ability and aggregate demand. Wages have lagged far behind productivity increases, and much production has shifted to low-wage economies.
Amongst this, Republicans advocate policies that will continue to shift resources from the "consuming class" to the "investing class." The result will be a further drop in demand, and one thing is clear: it doesn't matter how facile the investment atmosphere is, no sane capitalist will invest in production in the face of a dearth in demand.
Romney is the last guy the Republicans should want in this situation, but then, it is him or the loonies. He will be mauled through the primaries and through the general election and lose, deservedly, in November.
Posted in: Romney wins big in Florida; tells Obama to get out of the way
2
Laguna
Good one, Nicky - and more parents should do the same. When I was in HS in the '80s, my single mother put me on her credit card so that I could take care of myself - with the understanding that I would be responsible for all charges. Of course, I soon ended up about $1,200 in the hole, a large sum for a HS student. When I approached my mom for help, she answered with a slightly more sympathetic version of the above.
That was the last time I was ever in debt (aside from my student loans). Needless to say, my children both "enjoy" the same independence.
Posted in: Fraudster confesses to stealing over Y32 million by posing as victim's son
1
Laguna
Neither Romney nor Gingrich could survive without the other. Romney thrives as those establishment Republicans who remember Newt panic with horror at the thought of him in the White House: anyone - ANYONE - would be preferable. Gingrich thrives as those Tea Party Republicans see the establishment turn to naught the very fundamentals of what they were convince had been an unstoppable revolution. White-hot anger is apparent there, and some on the right are no doubt thanking God that the guillotine is no longer in fashion. The revolution is beginning to eat its children.
Romney, the most vetted candidate in years, remains the most unknown. Gingrich, the insurgent, has had his infidelities laid out extensively, but most care not to know. They make a good pair, the cipher and the Machiavellian. This is turning out to be a most entertaining spring and summer.
Posted in: Romney surges to double-digit lead in Florida
2
Laguna
Pug mug: smug. Needs hug.
Posted in: Drink up
1
Laguna
still, I have to hand it to Serrano and reconstructed: there used to be many who supported the Republican cause before it disintegrated into the farce that it has become, but these two have kept at it! Though the Republican primaries have become nothing more than arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, they're both sure to have front-row views.
Posted in: Surging Romney aims to knock Gingrich out of race in Florida
2
Laguna
Hmm. "Rabble rouser" is not a term anyone who's remotely familiar with Obama, past or present, would use. Perhaps Republicans need to "play demonization politics."
Romney's father was an Eisenhower Republican, and his son is a shadow of the father. I am not blaming these individuals: they are intelligent, talented men with a love of their country; the current Republican party, though, is a result of a purposed redesign such that it shares no resemblance to what it was during Romney's father's time just as it shares no resemblance to the Party of Lincoln. It is now the Party of Reactionary Chauvinism.
Also, it's not the Democrats that object to Romney's religion - they are not, after all, going to vote for him anyway.
Posted in: Surging Romney aims to knock Gingrich out of race in Florida
2
Laguna
Yup, I would, in logic and its expression.
Kinda like the guy who saves the puppy drowning in the pond. Don't have to, but it's rather pathetic to watch.
Not aware that Obama has "snitches," and I'm surprised that you even remember that word. Hadn't heard it since junior high school.
That, you see, is the problem you conservatives face: the "smears" come from within your own party. Fratricide, let's call it. It doesn't look likely to end soon. I'd say that the liberals are the least of your concern at the moment; what to do about the Republican establishment fighting a leaderless insurgency?
Attack watch, indeed! Some of us are enjoying this.
Posted in: Surging Romney aims to knock Gingrich out of race in Florida