JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Confrontation
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U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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4
California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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5
Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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SezWho2
What benefits does heterosexual marriage bring to society? Are those real benefits or presumed benefits?
Posted in: Judge puts same-sex marriages in California on hold until Aug 18
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SezWho2
Marriage may be an aid to the procreation of the human species, but it is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for procreation. I doubt that those who oppose same-sex marriage because same sex couples cannot presently conceive children would be willing to forbid marriage to heterosexual couples who cannot or do not wish to have children.
If marriage is God's Law--which I much doubt--separation of Church and State should get our government out of the marriage business altogether. I think those people who want to have their marriages consecrated in their churches have every right to do so. But that does not include the right to dictate what churches may or may not hold sacred.
Posted in: Judge puts same-sex marriages in California on hold until Aug 18
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SezWho2
Sarge, I don't think Afghanistan has been liberated. I think that you are using a grand word when all that has happened is that the Taliban have been removed from power.
Be that as it may, however, I don't think I'm confusing the Russians with coalition troops--although the similarities keep growing. And even if I am, how is fighting your enemy with weapons less powerful than your enemy's a war crime?
Drone attacks on wedding parties? Never happened but if it did, oops. Grenade at troops in full battle regalia? War crime. You seem to think that the U.S. is doing a good thing in Afghanistan and that this act of hypothetical good should trump everything else.
Posted in: War-crimes trial opens for youngest Gitmo inmate
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SezWho2
How is throwing a grenade at armed forces who have invaded your country a war crime? Is it the throwing of the grenade itself? Or is it the daring to throw one at U.S. troops?
Posted in: War-crimes trial opens for youngest Gitmo inmate
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SezWho2
I don't think that striking down laws against same-sex marriages would force people to accept this as mainstream any more than striking down laws against miscegenation forced people to accept that interracial marriages were mainstream. I think it would simply force them to accept that it was legal.
I have no problem with reserving the term "civil union" for same-sex marriages as long as those who are essentially branded by this term have all the legal and rights and benefits that are accorded to those who are allowed to have a "marriage". If it comes to that, however, it seems rather pointless to make a legal distinction.
If those opposed to same-sex marriage are willing to accept the existence of a "civil union", what then are the legal rights and benefits that they are so anxious to deprive same-sex partners of by seeking to continue to forbid them a "marriage"?
Posted in: Judge puts same-sex marriages in California on hold until Aug 18
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SezWho2
I don't think Russia and China are getting tired of Iran. I think they're getting tired of the pressure from the United States with respect to Iran.
I also doubt that the US can "kill off" Iran. The US can certainly bomb suspected nuclear facilities and set Iran back a number of years. Alternatively the US can remove the current Iranian government and install a new one (again), but if it tries to do that through occupation it will have opened a front from Afghanistan to Iraq. While there is a possibility that this might be more efficient than fighting separate conflicts, experience up to now has not been happy.
Posted in: Ex-CIA chief: Strike on Iran seems more likely now
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SezWho2
I don't think it's a child's view to say that Americans are shouldering an unfair burden in Afghanistan. However, I think it is a rather quixotic view.
If my memory serves me correctly, America opened a war in Afghanistan against the advice of most of the rest of the non-English-speaking world. It's a little puzzling to determine what burden should be borne by those who counseled otherwise.
Posted in: Insurgents behead 6 Afghan police in north
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SezWho2
Tea-partiers tolerating racism in order to maintain
Nah! That's like saying the Republican party tolerates fundamentalist Christian bigots in order to compete with the Democrats for votes. Couldn't possibly happen.
Posted in: NAACP accuses tea party of tolerating bigotry
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SezWho2
No, SuperLib, I don't require the right of return as a part of any peace deal. But I think it is more to the point what the parties in conflict require. In my opinion it's just foolish to think that Israel can escape the consequences associated with reneging on obligations attendant to its expulsion of residents and its subsequent arrogation of even more land. I just don't think that's the way the world works.
Posted in: Israeli foreign minister: No Palestinian state by 2012
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SezWho2
Again, Kagan's supposed tolerance for Sharia law seems to be an interpretation by Sessions.
Session's attempt to argue a double standard is tortured in the extreme. Yes, some Muslims take use Sharia law to persecute homosexuals. Presumably, Harvard's Center for Islamic Studies would include study of Sharia law under which homosexuals are subject to death. Presumably, also, Harvard's history department does not neglect the study of other cultures similar punishment for the same.
By contrast, the military has a policy that openly discriminates against all homosexuals. It is not the case that some branches of the service take the policy literally while others do not. Even if it were, I'm relatively certain that Kagan would not forbid the study of such a policy.
Posted in: Kagan insists she didn't block military at Harvard
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SezWho2
You're right, there, SuperLib. There were no US conservatives mentioned in the article--unless you want to count Obama and Mitchell as conservatives with respect to their predisposition to favor Israel.
Nonetheless, Sushi's comment reflects a widely-held attitude against what can be seen as Israeli intransigence. The US continues to support Israel even though Israel neither takes the responsibility for the political and military power it exercises nor seems willing to relinquish that power on any terms other than its own, which include arrogation of land which did not belong to it prior to Israeli attacks in '67. Practically speaking Israel is between a rock and a hard place, but that doesn't mean the US must or should lend it indefinite support.
Posted in: Israeli foreign minister: No Palestinian state by 2012
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SezWho2
And Jeff joins the throng of people who confuse their interpretation of events with the events themselves.
Posted in: Kagan insists she didn't block military at Harvard
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SezWho2
The response to Katrina would have been to mobilize relief. What would be the response to the oil spill? Who better than oil companies engaged in off-shore drilling to engineer solutions to the problem?
Yes, we would like Obama to do something, much as if an asteroid were hurtling toward the earth and Bruce Willis was unavailable. Some things, however, are out of our immediate control. This appears to be one of them.
I'm fairly sure that if anyone has cogent suggestions as to what to do, the administration will have someone who is ready to listen. What I have seen so far here, though, is that Obama should do something. Clean-up crews have been deployed, the oil is being siphoned up, various solutions have been attempted to plug or stop the leak. Exactly what should Obama do?
Posted in: Obama accuses BP of recklessness in national TV address
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SezWho2
Take what action?
In other news today, Obama failed to find a cure for cancer, to solve the problems in the Middle East and to find a magic economic solution which will put Americans back to work in the face of competition from lower wages elsewhere.
Posted in: Obama accuses BP of recklessness in national TV address
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SezWho2
No. I don't think I mean that. I don't think that any fair reading of my comment would construe it in that way.
I think, to give myself a handicap and use your words, that I meant something more like: it would have been hard to create a news story which even Israeli apologists find unsettling unless you include a mob beating soldiers with sticks.
Was Obama unavailable to take Netanyahu's call? Or did Obama just register his disapproval by delegating the problem to world leader Biden?
Posted in: Defiant Israel says activists prepared to fight
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SezWho2
I don't think it's so much the case that a large group of people are willing to ignore this. I think it's more the case that a large group of people interpret the act of boarding a ship as a hostile act and that those who are boarded have a right to self-defense.
What is more disturbing to me is that a powerful group of people think that the Israelis have the right to blockade Gaza.
Posted in: Defiant Israel says activists prepared to fight
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SezWho2
Well, I was a little surprised to learn that Joe Biden was a world leader. However, someone in the current administration has to do the job. There's a difference between being the top guy in a powerful country and being a leader (witness Japan).
That being said, I'm amused to the point of boredom by Netanyahu’s charges. If I were going to try to run an Israeli blockade, I'd like to think that I would find it prudent to be "prepared to fight". Would it have been better to go the Gandhi route? Maybe. But it certainly wouldn't have highlighted Israel's continued "boot-on-the-neck" policy.
Posted in: Defiant Israel says activists prepared to fight
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SezWho2
Perhaps, but that's hardly an answer. North Korea has not always disavowed incidents in which we've asked that question. Why this time?
This "act of aggression" has the relatively pacifistic Asahi Shimbum calling for greater cooperation between Japan and the US military in order to stem "the North Korean threat". Who benefits?
Posted in: S Korea stages anti-submarine drill amid tension
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SezWho2
What would have been North Korea's motive for taking an action which was sure to bring it more condemnation and sanctions and to further jeopardize its relation with China? Who benefits?
Posted in: S Korea stages anti-submarine drill amid tension
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SezWho2
I think the President is doing what the country as a whole wants.
I'm fairly sure that if we put it to a popular straight up and down vote-- Afghanistan, in or out--the popular vote would say "out". But we will never get a straight up and down vote on this issue. There are too many other issues--the potential waste of "blood and treasure" associated with a withdrawal without victory and the potential loss of face associated with such a withdrawal. No American president is going to undertake a withdrawal without overwhelming domestic sentiment for this action and Congress will not likely support it--not if the Congresspeople wish re-election.
We should be clear, though, that we did not go into either of our current conflicts to help the people of the countries where our troops are engaged. We initiated the conflict in Afghanistan to get payback and to prevent further incidents similar to 9/11. "Helping the people" was and is a rationalization for continued anti-terrorist operations. As witnessed by the Times Square incident and the proposed roll-back of Miranda rights, we are still currently operating in one of the many states of hysteria we are given to. Our goal may legitimately change, but Afghanistan has not yet transformed into a cohesive entity which is a demand for our help. It's easier for a great power to get into an assymetrical war than it is to get out of one.
Posted in: Obama: Afghan war will worsen before it improves