JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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SezWho2
True, but misleading. Having waded into deep water, it's the image of American power we are working to protect. The Afghan people are incidental.
Posted in: Obama: Afghan war will worsen before it improves
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SezWho2
Witch hunt?
Classic overstatement from the GOP noise machine. Witch hunting takes time. And it is a persistent activity. McCarthy's search for Communists--that was a witch hunt, a hunt that continues today in the attempt to find big S socialists in the fabric of health care reform proposals.
The rebuke of Wilson was quick and singular. He deserved it. But for all the good it will do, the House might as well have awarded him the Medal of Honor. He'll wear the rebuke in perverse honor.
Posted in: Carter: Wilson comments toward Obama 'based on racism'
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SezWho2
By most accounts, Kanye was a jackass. Also jackasses were the ABC employees who failed to follow proper lines of accountability when given access to privileged information. ABC should not simply apologize for their actions, it should fire them.
The question remains whether the President was a jackass for calling Kanye a jackass. I think not, but I agree that those who hold public office must know that what they say will--when possible--be used against them. People who have observed that things they did not say are blithely attributed to them and used against them should know this very well.
On the scale of "presidentiality", however, it is refreshing to find a president who feels comfortable enough in direct conversation to add a jocular (and popular) assessment of jackassedness after a seemingly interminable reign of a president who unawares seethes profanity into an open microphone.
Posted in: ABC tweets Obama's 'jackass' comment about Kanye West
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SezWho2
I don't think Afghanistan is so very important to most countries. I think it is important primarily to the US even though the reasons for its importance are far from coherent.
Whether Canada will really withdraw its support or whether it is using the threat of withdrawal to win a less jingoistic trade policy is another matter.
Posted in: Canada won't extend Afghan mission
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SezWho2
There's a substantial difference between the article as written here and, say, the account of it on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106838498&ft=1&f=1001
In the article as written here, my sympathies are entirely with the police. In the NPR article, which to me sounds more plausible and is certainly more detailed, my sympathies are entirely with Gates.
In the NPR article, Gates was already in his house when the police arrived. I'm no legal scholar but it seems as though they may have had grounds for warrantless entry. However, at the point that Gates showed ID, the police needed to take a more deferential approach. Gates needed to encourage that approach by avoiding belligerence.
So far it's they-said-he-said. It looks to me as though a discrimination suit may be coming. Perhaps the city thinks its best defense is a judgment of disorderly conduct as evidence that the arrest was legitimate.
Posted in: Renowned African-American scholar Gates arrested; claims racism
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SezWho2
Well, what were the police supposed to do? After Gates said that it was his house were the police supposed to just walk away? Isn't it natural for them to ask for proof? What should they have done if they asked for proof and the request was spurned?
Yes, Gates may have been "mad as hell and...not going to take it any more", but he has to bear the consequences of his choice not to be cooperative.
Posted in: Renowned African-American scholar Gates arrested; claims racism
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SezWho2
My guess is that they would have been forced to give back all of it.
However, this is not about the Syrians. All the Israeli settlements outside their UN-mandated borders have been illegal. Expansion into East Jerusalem has been illegal. Israel has gotten a free pass.
Posted in: Israel rejects U.S. call to halt Jerusalem project
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SezWho2
Brunobear,
I don't quite get your point. It seems like you're trying to speak kind of tongue-in-cheek at times and then at times not. Whatever, it's not quite working for me.
I don't think that Israel should be moving unilaterally against Iran. I don't think the US should profess indifference to a unilateral strike. And I don't think that the US always works for the common world good, and certainly not so in its support of Israel.
Those were my points. Could you say yours more directly?
Posted in: Biden: Israel free to set own course on Iran
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SezWho2
The US sometimes acts for the common world good. In this case, I don't think that US indifference--or at least non-interference--to an Israeli attack is for the common world good. I think we should declare that we see no need for an attack and that an Israeli attack would be "unhelpful".
The US did not act for the common world good when it refused to take a hard line against the establishment of settlements in territory that the Israelis seized in 1967. In fact, "the world"--at least as measured by a General Assembly vote--pretty much agreed that this was not good. The settlements, their growth and expansion hve been one cause of continuing mischief.
The US, as does every other country, acts in its own interests. To its credit it is guided by a belief that it has nothing to fear from a "free and democratic" world and that such a society would be as good for the world as it would be for the US. Unfortunately this belief is at war with the desire to be invincible.
Posted in: Biden: Israel free to set own course on Iran
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SezWho2
Is this article about Obama? Which 90% are starving?
I think Palin can probably make a lot more money as a candidate, both as a guest speaker and as a fund raiser, than she can as a governor. I think she's probably smart to do so at this time. I think her window of opportunity will be very small.
If she is going to unite the country around conservative ideals, that's fine. To date, however, she hasn't shown any particular ability to unite the conservative party around her version of conservative ideals. I think that part of the reason that is so is because of her statement that "this is about country". It isn't about country. It's about people.
Despite her dig at Obama at leaving before his term of office was up, she has not yet had the good grace to tell us how she is going to serve the public. Obama did leave his office, but he did not leave public service and he did not leave a dissatisfied constituency. Will Palin serve the public or will she serve herself?
Posted in: Palin links resignation to 'higher calling'
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SezWho2
There is no such policy.
Posted in: American soldier feared captured in Afghanistan
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SezWho2
How does this incident relate to Obama's policies?
Posted in: American soldier feared captured in Afghanistan
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SezWho2
Granted the judge has "read" both books and I have read only one. However, I'd be interested to know how this differs from the case of "The Wind Done Gone". Maybe only to the extent that Colting has not yet ponied up donations to a charity in Salinger's behalf?
I would think that the reflections of a teenager and the reflections of a septuagenarian would be substantially different, no matter that the events being reflected upon were the same. Salinger was vastly overrated and it strikes me that Colting's device is an almost ideal form in which to do that.
Posted in: Judge blocks publication of Salinger spinoff book
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SezWho2
Alphaape,
I'm not sure that Obama can, by Executive Order, set aside a law passed by Congress and upheld 5 times in the federal courts. If he could, there are a lot of other laws that I'd like to see him overturn by Executive Order. What a nuisance this Legislature is!
Posted in: Gates says he wants to soften gay expulsion rules
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SezWho2
Taka313,
I'm sure you can weather those potshots. Thanks for the explanation.
I really don't get the criticism of Minnesota or Minnesotans in this matter. Despite its rejection of Reagan, Minnesota has always impressed me as a conservative state, conservative in the way that practices family values rather than just talking about them.
This was an incredibly close election and with the 60-vote figure staring the Republicans in the face, there is little doubt in my mind that there was tremendous pressure on Coleman to continue to contest the results. But if the 2009 Senate 60-vote issue was a matter of grave importance to the nation, so was the 2001 Presidency. It was time to put this to rest.
Posted in: Minnesota court rules for Franken in Senate fight
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SezWho2
LFRAgain,
Actually, I don't think Minnesotans supported Reagan in either '80 or '84. I was saying that while they may have voted for a pro wrestler at least they didn't vote for an actor, especially a self-serving one.
However, I was saying as you suggest that to attack Minnesotans as being silly on account of voting for a pro wrestler is a bit irrelevant to the Franken/Coleman matter.
Posted in: Minnesota court rules for Franken in Senate fight
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SezWho2
I think the "clown of clowns" award would more likely go to someone who though Franken was the face of the Democratic Party. Partisan bitterness just keeps rolling along.
Posted in: Minnesota court rules for Franken in Senate fight
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SezWho2
Exactly. He has as much to do with Minnesota as the former pro-wrestler governor has to do with the Coleman/Franken dispute. And if you're going to mock Minnesotan's for the lack of judgment in one area, we might as well applaud them for their good sense in another.
Posted in: Minnesota court rules for Franken in Senate fight
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SezWho2
skipthesong,
It's hard for me to tell if you are trying to be funny or if you are serious. Have you ever been to Minnesota? Do you mean "irreverent" or "irrelevant"?
Minnesota is no more "irrelevant" than Arizona, Maryland or Wisconsin with whom it is tied for 18th place in terms of electoral votes. Votes from states such as this were extremely important in the last election. And with its strong Lutheran roots and with a large Catholic population it isn't exactly "irreverent", either.
In addition to its lakes and natural beauty, Minnesota has the 12th largest GDP per capita in the US, ahead of the national average and of states like Illiois, Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas. It's home to the largest privately-owned company in the US (Cargill) and is world famous for medicine and education. It's a great place to raise a family, but you have to be able to withstand the cold.
Minnesotans are, generally speaking, a patient lot. But 7 months is long enough to wait. I don't have a dog in this fight but it seemed early on that Franken had most likely won. It's time the situation was finalized, one way or the other.
Posted in: Minnesota court rules for Franken in Senate fight
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SezWho2
But they didn't cast electoral votes for the former host of Death Valley Days (the former President of the Screen Guild Actors Union who counseled Hollywood Actors never to appear on television), the Democrat-turned-Republican and the notorious shill for the cigarette industry.
What's your point? Minnesota's a great state and its citizens deserve some kind of official pronouncement. I know it's been a mere 7 months, but if Americans in 2000 had an exigent need--a need which trumped caution and care--to know who their next President was going to be, surely Minnesotans in 2008, now 2009, can stop bending over backwards to satisfy Coleman's sore-losership.
Posted in: Minnesota court rules for Franken in Senate fight