JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Noliving's past comments

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  NolivingNov. 25, 2010 - 04:59AM JST

  I saw an interview with her on CNN (her English is practically native).

  That isn't really a surprise when you consider the fact that she was born in New York and lived in the US for the first 12 years of her life.

  Posted in: Utada: 'I don't want to be a helpless adult'

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  NolivingNov. 20, 2010 - 05:58AM JST

  Thank god, summer is just around the corner......WHAT?!

  You mean thank god winter is just around the corner! This is the time of year in which men get to see a whole bunch of erect nipples!!!!

  Posted in: Yukina Kinoshita dispenses marriage advice

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  NolivingNov. 13, 2010 - 01:40PM JST

  Takshi89 you do realize that the US is the worlds largest manufacturer, 19% of the worlds goods are made in the US.

  For example US high technology generally has legal restrictions from being exported because they don't want certain countries, China, to get their hands on them in mass quantities, yes they are generally assembled in China and a lot of the hardware is made in Taiwan and Korea but the US also has its own fabs as well.

  Posted in: G-20 refuses to back U.S. push on China's currency

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  NolivingNov. 06, 2010 - 11:14PM JST

  People expect President Obama to clean up EIGHT YEARS of Bush-it in two years

  No people are expecting to see progress, not to clean up 8 years in two years. They don't see any progress being made. If people saw progress this mid term wouldn't have been such a big defeat for obama.

  Posted in: Obama's star fades in Muslim world

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  NolivingNov. 01, 2010 - 11:07AM JST

  From what I understand, as Damien15 stated 3 comments up, the current view is that is that it might cause, in people that are prone to mental disease or have some latent mental problems, mental problems that were already there to manifest earlier than they would have without any cannabis use, but doesn't cause the mental problem itself.

  I know that, that is why I said there is evidence, meaning a suggestion not necessarily a fact.

  Posted in: Latin American leaders question Calif move to legalize marijuana

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  NolivingOct. 30, 2010 - 11:19AM JST

  That is such a bull crap!! It does not cause any mental issues that didn't already existed. No risk of cancer either if it's not mixed with tobacco. I can't say something you burn and inhale can be good for you, but compared to it's nearest cousin tobacco, it's harmless

  Actually there is evidence that it does cause mental issues, not saying it is confirmed but there is evidence to support that view. Are you kidding me there are several carcinogens in pot, in fact pot smoke contains more cancer causing chemicals than tobacco smoke, however though you can all but pretty much eliminate that risk if you vaporize it rather than smoke it.

  Posted in: Latin American leaders question Calif move to legalize marijuana

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  NolivingOct. 27, 2010 - 04:57AM JST

  even resorted to personal attacks. But you have utterly failed to offer one set of reasons why we should support the candidates you advocate.

  I haven't personally attacked you at all Tkoind2, nor have I advocated any candidates at all.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 27, 2010 - 04:54AM JST

  Quote one line where I say vote for anyone specific! Go ahead, quote away friend!! I have clearly said I an not a Democrat, do you want to see my "I am not a Democrat card?" Move on already.

  I never said you were a Democrat Tkoind2, I said you wanted people to vote democrat and not republican. The reason why I haven't proposed anything is because I'm not here to propose anything. All I'm doing is pointing out that you are in effect no better than the republicans and tea party you claim have no plans. All you have are ideas that carry no substance.

  As I said before, the vast majority of Americans would like your ideas but you offer no real plan on how to pay for those ideas nor how to implement them nor how to overcome some of the challenges in just implementing those ideas.

  For example you keep talking about stimulus and how it will be so effective etc. yet I have pointed out that Obama's stimulus package is pretty much exactly what you have proposed and has not worked in terms of actually turning the economy around, it has kept things stable, the problem is we can't keep doing an economic stimulus.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 26, 2010 - 06:26AM JST

  Nonetheless, that doesn't and shouldn't prevent anyone from asking what the Republicans' plans are -- and being critical of them for not having any.

  It doesn't and shouldn't but then at the same time he shouldn't really be claiming that the democrats do either. That is what I'm attacking, tkoind2 is saying the republicans don't have a plan but the democrats do which is people should vote for the democrats, is what he is saying. I'm pointing out that they are just ambiguous and that he himself is just as ambiguous as the republicans when it comes to his grand ideas.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 26, 2010 - 01:16AM JST

  the problem I see here is that the T-party isn't saying what they plan to do. And their supporters don't seem able to articulate any policy details either. Which means either there are no policy details or they have not communicated them to you.

  Neither are you Tkoind2, you are very ambiguous about the details of your plans. You have grand ideas but no way of how to implement those plans or what they would be. I asked you how you are going to get Americans to go into the IT or engineering fields, you haven't given me an answer, you haven't given any answers as to how your going to control the run away inflation of health care or college, you haven't explained how your going to change the current culture of America when it comes to their approach and values to public education, I mean for god sakes they spend at most one hour per day studying if that.

  You keep talking about how if the national government spends money to create jobs this will stimulate the economy and generate tax revenue, but the problem though is that is exactly what Obama's stimulus was designed to do and at best it has only maintained current unemployment levels not lowered them, we keep having to do emergency bail outs for teacher salaries and police officers because officers because the first year of stimulus didn't generate enough tax revenue to pay for their next year and then the year after that. You keep talking about how your stimulus idea will work and how from an economic sense it makes sense yet again Obama's stimulus which is exactly like yours has shown it doesn't work to make a real difference to the economy at whole.

  You talk about green energy and manufacturing, you are over estimating green energy industry potential to create jobs or stimulate the economy, when it comes to manufacturing the only real way the US can compete is with assembly line in which robots do the vast majority of the work and at the same time increase the number it produces per hour, that is exactly how Germany's green energy sector works and they are not willing to share their robotic assembly line technology with the US.

  Tkoind2,all you offer is grand ideas but no details at all on how you are going to pay for them nor how you are even going to implement nor how you are going to overcome the challenges that are in the way of implementing them. Majority of Americans would love to do the things you want to do but you don't offer any real viable plan on how to implement them.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 25, 2010 - 02:16PM JST

  Based upon what?

  It's probably based upon the fact that over half of Americans employed in the US are employed by small businesses.

  Now, in my argument the government would provide stimulus to encourage small businesses to retool to leading edge industries such as energy and green related industries. This, combined with a new deal will creat demand that will then allow small business to hire people and thus stimulate the economy.

  Isn't that exactly what Obama's stimulus package was designed to do? So please tell us how that is any different then Obama's stimulus package.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 25, 2010 - 02:09PM JST

  The deficit is indeed an issue of concern. But the problems I have listed cannot be ignored based on this worry alone. There are larger issues at work here that are in the same chain of cause and effect.

  It is an issue that needs to be dealt with now before we deal with issues like jobs and health care and education, your right the issues you listed can't be ignored but the issue is priorities and right now the deficit requires are immediate attention, we can't keep doing $1 trillion dollar deficits.

  Some of these efforts will be private and self funding. But it will be critical for the government to offer benefits to help spur change. If that is equally tied to job creation, the opportunities for new forms of employment in everything from new energy creation to infrastructure retooling will exist.

  Unfortunately they don't create a lot of jobs and sadly it is Chinese companies that are doing a lot of the renewable energy projects in the US.

  America's infrastructure is in dire need of massive invesmentment. Again this cannot be ignored despite the deficit. Job creation here is a necessity. But it isn't all bad news for the deficit. We have seen in the rebuilding of Germany and Japan that investment of this kind generates jobs, creates demand for materials etc... This in turn results in economic stimulus that can generate tax revenues back to the government from companies who benefit from the spur in demand as well as from people working instead of burdening the economy by being unemployed. Likewise there are sympathetic benefits from service and other industries that sprout to support the expanded working market. From and economics point of view this works. It does indeed mean more debut up front, but over time it has substantial potential to repay a lot of that debt while unburdening the social welfare systems.

  Unfortunately you will have to get the deficit under control before you can even begin to do most of those projects. sigh, the rebuilding of japan and germany didn't really create enough jobs to offset what the US spent, I mean the US is rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan and it really isn't have any impact on the US economy now is it.

  The problem is that it doesn't work in that it isn't balanced, your still paying more than what you get out of it. I mean if it did then Obama's stimulus package, not the bank bail out, would work as you claim but it isn't and isn't going to in the long run either. US unemployment benefits are taxed, so what difference does it make if I give tax dollars to a contractor who are also going to be taxed. Whats the difference? The only way your going to generate tax revenue is if its private industry that isn't being paid by the government.

  Education plays heavily into this and solutions must be found. Whether that means greater grant programs for private education or more investment in public education, the American people need opportunties to re-education and retraining for existing workers and education for the future generations of workers.

  There is no doubt that education plays heavily in it but does the US public education need more investment? I mean japan spends less per student than the US does. Which fields need retraining for existing workers? I would suggest that what really needs changing is the culture of the US in terms of how it approaches education and its studying habits.

  Without investment in education the US will not be able to compete with countries like India who have made these investments in raising the technology and scientific training of their population a priority. As China plays more heavily in this game, the US must keep and outpace her competition by opening education to more people.

  But spending isn't the problem when it comes to college, the problem is that Americans just don't go for those degrees nor do they go for Phd's. Nearly half of degrees given out in China are engineering or technology related degrees, only 2% of Americans go for those degrees in the US. How do you get American's to show interest in those fields.

  Health care. Again this is currently a social burden. American health care needs to be radically reenvisioned. We cannot continue to ignore this problem, deficit or not. The risk to our society is too great. The past HMO and other private approaches have failed. Affordable healthcare can and must be created. One supported by payments from working people very much like Canada, the UK, Japan and most of Northern Europe. It may mean greater taxes. But American's must learn to adjust as nearly every other first world nation have, to supporting critical social programs through taxes.

  No one is saying ignore it, what people are asking is how are you going to pay for it and keep the inflation down. Pretty much all the countries you listed are having to make cuts to their health care because of budget problems, also the US spends 14% of its GDP on health care, more than any other nation, Canada publicly spends 6.7% of its GDP on taxes while in the US I believe it is 6.6% of its taxes on health care and the rest are private. If the difference between Canada and the US is 0.1% why would you need to raise taxes? The other problem that is facing a lot of nations like Canada, Japan and the US is demographics that are showing more people are going to be drawing from the system then are paying into the system, you can't just raise taxes to solve that type of problem as social security has shown.

  Again what is your plan to actually rein in the inflation of US health care and its college system? If you just make those systems public without reining in inflation you are literally going to eat tax payers alive.

  As for historians agreeing upon the New Deal of the 1930's, we just have to disagree on that point. I am sure we could card stack for hours to debate that point. It is, however, very clear that it was a critical part in reversing the downward spiral of the great depression.

  No we don't have to disagree at all, the New Deal according to historians didn't really have the impact on the overall unemployment rate that you are hinting at. What the New Deal is really known for is job equality and it civil rights like attitude, like outlawing job discrimination and minimum wage and setting a maximum hours workers could work and social security etc. Those things don't create jobs they only improve the situation of those already employed. That is why FDR referred to it as the economic bill of rights or the 2nd bill of rights. What it is also known for though is lifting the spirits of millions of Americans giving them hope and giving them self dignity.

  The New Deal wasn't in response to the Great Depression, all that did was propel them into power, the New Deal were policies that the Democrats wanted to enact no matter what the economic conditions were. What is considered one of the primary reasons why unemployment was so stiff was the FDR rhetoric of "soak the rich", this kept many Americans from investing in the economy because they were afraid of the federally government nationalizing industries, therefore there investments.

  It is not until after the 1938 elections in which the democrats lose many seats, still majorities mind you but not enough pass what they want, did Americans really start to invest again in the economy. So did the New Deal effect unemployment yes it did but only temporary, the biggest effect on reducing unemployment was when American's began to invest in the economy again after the 1938 elections.

  I strongly disagree. Japan has not funded projects that offer to support a long term change in her economy. She has not funded education in a manner that has made her more competitive. She has failed to leverage opportunities in green or new energy areas. Largely leaving all of this to private interests.

  Really how so? Japan has some of the highest scientific and math scores in the world, they are a leader in several high technological fields. Green and New energy areas were not critical parts to any major economy until one or two years ago, thus if Japan would have spend their stimulus plans on them for the past two decades it would have had no effect, just like how the green and new energy areas had no effect on the US economy during the 90's and mid 2000's, same with China. It is only now that spending money on such industries would show any real type of impact. Besides Japan's new deal package is exactly like the US spend a whole bunch of money on jobs that aren't necessary, look at all the construction jobs the Japanese spend money on, that is exactly what the New Deal was all about.

  Energy and green alone promise to be two of the most potent areas where America can lead the globe if we make the investment now to prepare our people, shift our own structures and invest in the development of this industry.

  Unfortunately it won't create that many jobs considering Chinese are already outbidding US companies to build Green energy projects in the US. Besides that industry won't be able to create the same number of jobs that the health care industry does in the US. The Health care industry in the US has added nearly 500k new jobs in just the past year, a lot of those jobs nurses and assistant type jobs. You honestly believe that the green energy sector can add 500k jobs in one year? I mean heck even the coal industry or the oil industry doesn't add that many in one year.

  Yeh, NoLiving, the New Deal was such a failure that the people kept Roosevelt in for FOUR TERMS.

  In terms of overall reducing unemployment ya it was such a failure therat, That isn't to say that Americans didn't like FDR's ideas just that it wasn't having the desired effect when he implemented them. The New Deal though wasn't a failure when it came to workers rights. The New Deal wasn't about reducing unemployment it was about workers rights that is why FDR refereed to it as the economic bill of rights and also as the 2nd bill of rights.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 25, 2010 - 11:19AM JST

  What you need to realize is that government support of the projects, like the great depression's New Deal, will put people to work, stimulate the economy, generate return tax revenue as the GNP grows and will help make America more competive and viable for the future. So in this case, government serves the people.

  It will have some impact on putting people to work but it will not put enough people to work to really have any important impact on the economy, just like the new deal of the great depression era, it put some people to work but not enough to really change the economy.

  Lets be honest here dude, Japan has been doing a new deal package for the past two decades and its barely having an impact on getting the economy going and they already have cheap colleges and free health care.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 25, 2010 - 11:13AM JST

  Tkoind2, just a question, where are you going to get the money to fund all these programs? the military budget alone is not enough to take care of the health care idea you have just by itself, how are you going to make college affordable, especially private colleges? The US is looking at $1 trillion dollar deficits for the next 10 years I believe.

  You talk about how the right wing doesn't have any details on how it plans to accomplish any of these things but neither do you. I mean lets be honest here you really don't have a detailed plan on how to create jobs and I mean actually create jobs. You really don't have a detailed plan on how to control the inflation of the college system nor do you have a plan to control the inflation of the health care industry.

  As for the new deal, dude you over estimate the new deal effect on getting people jobs and getting them employed, I suggest you actually research the New Deal, most of the things that were break through like job discrimination and minimum wage can't really be done again. It did help build the national infrastructure but historians agree that it had little overall effect if you will on getting people employed.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 25, 2010 - 10:35AM JST

  Hey smith, I GAVE UP MY MEXICAN NATIONALITY just to have a say in the USA's elections, to try to make a change in how our TAXES are spent, and I have no regrets. I am proud to be MEXICAN and very happy to have US nationality too. If these other immigrant fools are not ready to give up their prior nationality, TOO BAD!

  Doesn't the US allow dual citizenship with Mexico? If it does why would you give up your Mexican nationality?

  Posted in: U.S. states weigh letting non-citizens vote

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  NolivingOct. 25, 2010 - 02:35AM JST

  Job creation and boosted exports are the next steps to help the economy slowly recover and there are no quick fixes.

  Agreed there are no quick fixes but why would you want a slow and steady recovery, shouldn't the government be doing every thing it can to speed up the recovery to get the economic GDP growth rate up to around 3-5%?

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 25, 2010 - 02:28AM JST

  Really?!? Did you expect eight years of mess to be cleared up with the snap of a finger? Real change takes real time people.

  The problem tkoind2 is that Americans want to see some progress, some results, they don't expect eight years to be cleared up in two but they want to see something and that something has not materialized yet.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 25, 2010 - 02:03AM JST

  Most of us said before Obama was elected that the bush cabal had screwed things up so badly there was no way the Dems could fix it right out and the Repubs would make grounds again,

  No you didn't smith, almost all of you guys claimed the republican party was finished and that the party would never return to power again because of the disaster that Bush was.

  Posted in: All signs point to Republican victories: polls

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  NolivingOct. 23, 2010 - 12:31AM JST

  (mostly because of Republican filibustering, I might add, and the massive deficit brought on by GWB who had a major surplus).

  200 billion surplus isn't really massive compared to a $2.2 trillion budget at that time. Besides up until his final year of 2008, the US only had around $150 billion dollar deficit, which is quite small and when you factor in that if the US didn't have the Iraq war the US would have had a balanced budget those years.

  Posted in: Nevada Senate race turns ugly with Hispanic ad

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  NolivingOct. 20, 2010 - 04:22AM JST

  Most times when I eat out I need to ask for some item to be altered because I don't eat meat. That's my choice. If I get them to leave the chicken out of my chicken salad, I don't expect to get more salad.

  That is because your salad bowl is already full of salad, what would be the point then?

  Posted in: In Japan, the customer is not king

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