Mark Bellis's past comments

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    Mark Bellis

    Wasn't that in the movie "Audition"?

    Posted in: Man places ad for 'Girlfriend' on Google – gets 5 girls at once

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    Mark Bellis

    "Some unpleasantness may have occured in the co-prosperity sphere"?

    Posted in: Abe wants to replace landmark 1995 war apology

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    Mark Bellis

    I wonder, has the author really been to France or the UK - Yes, she represented the Province of Ontario in Paris for years - most European countries do define citizenship in terms of ancestry - being born in France does not make you a French citizen, as it would in Canada, and does no longer in the UK. I hear there's a lot of hate towards Patrick Chan from his fellow Canadians. Surely not! Yes, you definitely were misinformed. Very perceptive of you to disbelieve your informant.

    Posted in: Europe’s racism problem

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    Mark Bellis

    The Leopold and Loeb case wasn't a trial, it was just a hearing, and so Darrow did not present an insanity defense, which is where in a trial, the defense argues that their client is not criminally responsible for the act, and so is not guilty. Leopold and Loeb entered guilty pleas and Darrow presented evidence of his clients' mental immaturity (not incompetence) to avoid a possible death sentence. The judge did sentence the pair to life plus 99 years, avoiding the death penalty mostly because they were both teenagers at the time they committed the murder, according to the judge. Loeb was stabbed to death in jail, but Leopold was released on parole after 33 years. The Leopold and Loeb case didn't start the mental incompetence or insanity defense, which has been around for centuries before this.

    Posted in: Japan and the death penalty

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    Mark Bellis

    Xylitol occurs naturally and isn't linked to bowel cancer. It does reduce cavities and ear infections. Dogs shouldn't eat grapes either.

    Posted in: Sugarless candy

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    MarkBellis

    I've seen cop cars with the keys in the ignition parked outside overnight.....

    Posted in: Man arrested for taking police motorcycle for joyride

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    MarkBellis

    Here's what the US State Department really says:

    "You will also need to be aware of different greeting rituals such as kisses, handshakes or bows."

    Protocol for the Modern Diplomat, 2007, www.state.gov/documents/organization/99260.pdf,

    Where is this State Department prohibition on the President bowing that these people claim exist?? As far back as the Revolution, Americans on diplomatic missions in Countries where bowing was the customs certainly did so - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F04E7DA1231E13BBC4A52DFB7678389649FDE

    Posted in: Obama's bow to emperor causes outrage in Washington

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    MarkBellis

    It does have a 4x zoom - the price isn't that high, since it does have features like it waits for you to smile to take the snap and it takes two shots to compare them to find the one when you don't have your eyes shut - I think it's aimed at parents with fidgety kids. One thing that's annoying is that it uses the Sony Memory Stick as a card rather than the much easier to find sd card.

    Posted in: Sony’s new Cyber-shot has it all

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    MarkBellis

    Shukan Jikawa is just a weekly men's magazine tabloid.... it's not exactly a paper of record - obviously if the writer thinks that the mafia has a "headquarters on New York’s 5th Avenue", he's engaged in creative writing rather than journalism.

    Posted in: Yakuza 'misunderstood' by foreign media

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    MarkBellis

    Agreed, the point discussed by the Cardinal was whether a Catholic was engaging in idolatry by praying at the shrine - given that the war criminals were only enshrined in 1969, what the Cardinal said in 1951 is pretty irrelevant to that! It's worth noting the Emperor Hirohito stopped going to Yasukuni because of their enshrinement, so it seemed to have been an issue with him - I'd like to see the ultra-nationalists who dress up in paramilitary gear at the shrine try and square that with their vaunted loyalty to the emperor. I don't think the issue is really going to fade away - the Shrine also has a "events beyond our control happened in Nanking" war museum attached to it - this will always be a painful issue for the people of the occupied nations of Asia, just as it would be for the families of people who died in the Holocaust if the Chancellor of German one day decided to go visit a monument to Hitler.

    Posted in: The Catholic Church and Yasukuni shrine

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    MarkBellis

    Gee, why doesn't somebody take somebody who's acting inappropriate aside and explain things to them - they just might not know any better..

    Posted in: The serious crime rate for U.S. service members off their bases is approximately half that of the Japanese population.

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    MarkBellis

    So, they should go back to putting nightingale droppings on their face and blackening their teeth? That was high fashion before the Meiji era, although the clothes that they wore really were fantastic.

    Posted in: Since the end of the war, Japanese had been blindly following the Western standard of beauty and they tried so hard to imitate and look like Western models or actresses regardless of our physical differences. But in recent years, Japanese have stopped looking only outside and started looking inside again. They are beginning to find their identity of being beautiful in the way they are.

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