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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SuperLib
You're a bit behind on the times. The newest and strongest form of tolerance is tolerating the intolerance of others. Get with the program.
Posted in: Australian law proposal: Muslims must remove veils
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SuperLib
Being against such an obviously logical measure is simply intolerance of common sense.
Posted in: Australian law proposal: Muslims must remove veils
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SuperLib
So let's see what the net result is from the wonderful militant idea of randomly waking up and killing other people....
Posted in: Rockets, airstrikes follow attack on Israel
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SuperLib
You don't really have any kind of position. A vast majority of the civilians killed are done by the Taliban. And those numbers don't include the sheer threat of force that the Taliban uses to keep people in line. Yet your conclusion seems to point to the locals supporting the Taliban more because....killing civilians is bad. Either way you lose unless you mix a lot of loose statements together and include catchphrases like "ivory tower" to write something that sounds good as long as you don't check the logic.
Sure. Over $30 billion in payments vs. "no payments since 1999." We can chalk that up as an insignificant error if you need to save face. And apparently you don't want to grasp the fact that the difference amounts to a disagreement in timing of the new payment structure. That's not surprising since you've admitted that you really have no knowledge of the situation (but don't let that stop you). The UN wanted the new system to be gradual so it could keep getting more money from the US. The US wanted the new agreement to start once the new percentages were accepted. In that sense, the US will permanently be "in arrears" according to the UN if you follow their timetable. That's what it comes down to. Time to move on or shall we continue to watch you invent ways that the US is horrible for keeping the UN in business while at the same time not paying?
And the military cuts are not "tiny." They are a good start and they will likely get bigger. You just can't make 10%-20% cuts to the military overnight. It involves a lot of jobs and a lot of people. No government agency could reasonably handle that kind of drastic cut no matter which part they are. In the end you're just whining to hear yourself whine.
Posted in: Panetta, Clinton: Bigger defense cuts would weaken U.S.
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SuperLib
When has North Korea done anything other than bolster their nuclear program?
Posted in: N Korea vows to bolster nuclear deterrent
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SuperLib
Sorry, I really don't understand who the Taliban are going to win more support from. If this is just a straightforward issue where you're anti-drone - and people like you have come and gone on here - then just come out and say it. But I can't imagine tribes are going to join the Taliban because the respect the Taliban when they came in and blew up a building using a suicide bomber instead of remote detonations. My guess is that they're going to be pretty angry about the building and the people in it, not patting the Taliban on the back for being so brave in killing them.
So you criticized then realized you might be off target so you just made up some new criticism. Looks like your mind is made up and we're just waiting for you to settle on the best way to criticize.
Military spending is being cut. UN spending is not being cut. I don't see where your frustration is coming from. Every now and then a Congressman pops off to get in the papers. Big deal. At least he's not making bullshit statements about other countries not paying when they are.
Posted in: Panetta, Clinton: Bigger defense cuts would weaken U.S.
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SuperLib
Money or religion....seems Dave has taken quite a few hits.
Posted in: Jihadist calls for David Letterman to be murdered
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SuperLib
To some extent I'll agree with this. But it works both ways. I'm assuming you're talking about Afghanistan, where the US chose a path to put fewer troops on the ground. This was a lesson learned from the Russians. Putting massive troops on the ground also puts massive targets on the ground, and when you're dealing with hit-and-run tactics of the enemy it can be counterproductive. The Russians did this and lost massive numbers and still failed in the end. I don't think anyone has a perfect answer for the situation.
Let me put it this way: If the US stopped paying the UN, the UN would cease to exist in less than a year. The entire "US doesn't pay the UN dues" was a media creation and fueled by foreign politicians who wanted a quick-hit talking point. There was an adjustment in the % paid by each country a while back to reflect growing economies. The UN wanted to phase in the new payments over a period of years, the US wanted to start the new system immediately, which is what the US did. So that created the gap in payments where the US was paying less than the UN thought we should. So instead of saying "The US paid $1.1 billion this year instead of $1.3 billion" the media turned that into "the US hasn't paid $200 million in UN dues." Then that got dumbed down to "the US doesn't pay their UN dues." Now apparently the message is so skewed there are people such as yourself saying that the US hasn't paid since 1999. The US has contributed more than anyone to the UN, and we're the ones famous for not paying anything. Sounds about par for the course.
Posted in: Panetta, Clinton: Bigger defense cuts would weaken U.S.
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SuperLib
Too bad he isn't Hamas or Hezbollah. In that case he'd be getting a free pass and tons of cash.
Posted in: Gadhafi's troops use hospital as base, doctors say
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SuperLib
Well I'd be mad as hell. How else can I take shots at my neighbor's wife when he's put a fence around my house? I mean I've tried everything. I've used teenagers, mentally handicapped people, people seeking free medical attention at my neighbors house, disfigured women, donkeys, just about anything that moves as a suicide bomber in an attempt to get around my neighbor's security. It's totally not fair that he would take steps to stop that. I've even raised my children to focus on war instead of education and that hasn't worked. I've killed other people in my house (I hate my cousin who has a room upstairs, even killed members of his family so we don't speak anymore), stolen aid and given it out to preferred family members while letting others starve, and mostly chose a path where I've banged my head into that fence for 50 years only to find that my house had turned into a cesspool. You can't sit there and tell me that there's a better way and that my efforts over the last 50 years of destroying that fence through violence won't eventually pay off. It's just a matter of time.
Now I could accept the fact that my neighbor is there and won't be going anywhere and that everyone else around accepts that and has even made peace with my neighbor, but man, I'm telling you, if I throw another couple of generations of my grandkids into that fence it's bound to pay off at some point. You just wait and see. The other neighbors who made peace are just idiots who gave up too soon.
Posted in: Israeli aircraft hit Gaza; 1 dead, 4 wounded
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SuperLib
The logic is baffling, isn't it? I suppose the Israelis just have to sit around and wait until the rockets finally start killing a lot of people, then they'll be allowed to kill the people firing them. It's like someone shooting a gun at you and missing, then someone else comes along and says, "Hey, it's not like he's hitting you...."
Posted in: Israeli aircraft hit Gaza; 1 dead, 4 wounded
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SuperLib
I really don't even know what this means, sorry. You'll have to give us a little more insight since we don't keep up with the same propaganda sites that you do.
It's impossible that you would know the amount owed while simultaneously saying that the US hasn't sent a check since 1999. You're demonstrating knowledge about a topic while at the same time giving a statement that's so false that only someone who knows absolutely nothing about it would say. That means you aren't being honest. And it's strange that this "little piece of information" would work it's way into this debate unless you go around planting it whenever possible. You need to work on your propaganda a little more. It's not that great.
Posted in: Panetta, Clinton: Bigger defense cuts would weaken U.S.
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SuperLib
I never really thought of it that way. Firing tens of thousands of rockets is kind of like attacking someone with a pencil. Surely I can ignore a pencil attack (especially if done using the eraser side), so I suppose I'm forced to ignore rocket attacks. You got me.
Nah. I think if you choose to attack another country on a daily basis you pretty much give up your right to bitch about how they respond. Seems the better choice would be to not attack them in the first place, but maybe I'm just crazy. I suppose in a perfect word the Palestinians would be able to lob rockets at will and Israel would be forced to just sit there and take it.
Ah, what a perfect world that would be, ne?
Posted in: Israeli aircraft hit Gaza; 1 dead, 4 wounded
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SuperLib
The capabilities are insane as well. You get what you pay for.
Just look at the situation with Libya where the US is not taking the lead role with NATO. It's insane that the combined forces of quite a few European nations as well as Canada can't take out an African dictator with the support of a large chuck of the population, but that's what we're seeing now. They've only been able to reach a stalemate, and that's even with the US's support. Imagine if the US weren't there and then you'd get a pretty good idea of how ineffective an underfunded military can be.
Posted in: Panetta, Clinton: Bigger defense cuts would weaken U.S.
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SuperLib
Well it's not like reducing spending would strengthen defense.....
The money just isn't there so they have to find cuts. Personally, I think the large land invasions are over these days and the military needs to scale down. They were already talking about this before the whole debt crisis started. They can create a force based more on technology and cheaper systems like drones and more special forces as opposed to sheer boot numbers. The threats today require smaller, more specialized forces that can perform specific tasks and get in and out quickly.
Posted in: Panetta, Clinton: Bigger defense cuts would weaken U.S.
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SuperLib
But it gives more of a complete picture of the situation. If people woke up and read about daily rocket attacks on Israel they might think of other reasons why Israel does what it does as opposed to just being horrible human beings who just want to kill Palestinians for no reason.
And for the past 30-40 years every major peace deal in the region has been brokered (and paid for) by the US. And it's still the US trying to pressure Israel to stop the settlements and trying to bring both sides back to the negotiating table. That speaks more to the level of commitment to the region than often biased, one-sided symbolic UN resolutions that simply seek to criticize Israel while completely ignoring Palestinian crimes.
Built in cooperation with the French and in complete secrecy from the US, who opposed Israel going nuclear. The entire reason the US supports Israel to the extent we do is all because of the 1973 war, where Israel considered using their European made nukes against the Arabs. As a way to stop this the US agreed to supply Israel with weapons, and here we are today. If you want to talk about hypocrisy with nuclear weapons and Iran/Israel, you really should be spending your time talking about the Europeans.
I've personally said that the settlements are counterproductive to the peace process and should be stopped. But despite threats from the US and the EU, Israel continues. This is one area where I always have and always will criticize Israel.
I wasn't just talking about JT. They get their articles from international news wires, and my guess is that there just isn't very much reporting overall when the Palestinians fire rockets. But one constant is that the Palestinian rockets are completely ignored until there is an Israel response, then the Israeli response is front page news. Surely you could see how that could skew people's perception of what's going on.
Posted in: Israeli aircraft hit Gaza; 1 dead, 4 wounded
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SuperLib
Didn't you say the US needs to cut defense spending immediately? Did your plan include provisions to slash 30% of the defense budget while keeping jobs at the same time? Seems like your theory about saving government spending only pans out for programs that you personally want to keep. And if you don't like the program, you demand slashes that lose jobs which you just told us is the #1 thing we need to protect. That's probably because your opinions change daily based on what you think sounds good.
Posted in: Obama hits Republicans on anti-tax stance
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SuperLib
Par for the course. The Palestinian attack isn't reported on until Israel responds, then the response is headlined as "Israel attacks."
Most likely taken to the grave by the militants as a way to make for a good source of sympathy from those who don't want to think about the Palestinians attacking Israel.
I suppose we could round out the top 5 with the prison camps - oops, I mean refugee camps - that Palestinians are forced to live in in surrounding Arab nations. But it's hard to keep Israel the focus when you mention what other Arabs are doing so it's best to just ignore them.
Posted in: Israeli aircraft hit Gaza; 1 dead, 4 wounded
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SuperLib
Thanks, Warren.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14533987
(snippet)
Mr Buffett explained that, like many top earners, his income came entirely from investments rather than from employment, which are subject to lower taxes in the US.
He said last year he paid an effective tax rate of 17.4%, less than the 33% to 41% paid by the employees in his office.
He dismissed arguments made by senior Republicans, including John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, that taxing higher earners more would damage investment and job creation in the US.
"I have yet to see anyone... shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gains," he said.
Posted in: Obama hits Republicans on anti-tax stance
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SuperLib
Back to the British riots...
Would you be against arresting any of the people who broke laws during the riots? For example if you had positive identification of a looter through photo of video evidence, do you think that person should be arrested and charged with a crime?
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop