Tuesday February 14, 2012

TPOJ's past comments

  • 0

    TPOJ

    So if we just turn the blind eye, then the anti-US crowd will begin to sing the song that "Bush doesn't care since there is no oil there" or how Americans are selfish and not caring.

    I know there's a handful of people who always do this, but I'm still extremely doubtful that there's any significant group that would take this tack, especially since Myanmar has explicitly excluded us.

    But, when we try to respect the borders of the country and not go into without their approval, we get the same rhetoric that we are bad people.

    Really? There's a group criticizing The US for not forcing our way into Myanmar? Really? Where are they?

    Sorry, I just don't think there's any substance to this complaint. People have criticized Bush with the "no oil" tack in situations where there is a clear reason to invade (if you believe the "rescuing Iraq from Saddaam" schtick.)

    So far as the "if we respect their borders, people say we don't care" complaint...well, one, it's not like we have a clear track record of respecting borders in the last few years, and two...can you source that? Are you sure that's not mostly in your head?

    Not trying to threadjack, I've just had enough of the "poor, misunderstood US" thing. As an American, I do agree we get a bad rap for many things. Dreaming up more won't help.

    Posted in: Myanmar OKs some cyclone aid flights, but Americans still barred

  • 0

    TPOJ

    The more I think about this quote, the dumber it gets.

    Foreigners can't do anything involving property here without substantial Japanese support and assistance. Why target them?

    When will some people learn that you don't fix problems by wishing other people were different? Get off your cranky butt and do something useful.

    Posted in: Japan is a disposal ground -- a toilet -- and if a foreign design turns out to be poor, the foreign architect can just go back to their own country and forget about it.

  • 0

    TPOJ

    Why must every mistake/conflict between cultures be seen as disrespect to Japan? Unless there's a big chunk of context missing from this quote (which there could well be,) this strikes me as extraordinarily childish.

    My Dad used to do business with a Japanese firm, and while the culture clash of the negotiating process irritated him (as it did many others in his field,) he didn't see it as a collective disrespect to America. It was just part of the job.

    News Flash: sometimes things don't work out, and it has nothing to do with disrespecting your country or culture. Welcome to 2008.

    Posted in: Japan is a disposal ground -- a toilet -- and if a foreign design turns out to be poor, the foreign architect can just go back to their own country and forget about it.

  • 0

    TPOJ

    If all you folk downloading music for free were told that all the money, after overheads for manufacture and promotion, recording etc were taken out - went to the artist: would you pay money for your music then? How do you propose that the musicians get paid and earn a living?

    I can't say how exactly this would work in Japan, but I know a few musicians who went the major label route in the States, and they see squat from CD sales.

    How would I propose they get paid and earn a living? Exactly the way they're doing it now: touring, selling merchandise, and licensing, none of which require a recording company. Very, very, very few musicians make enough off their recordings to see a profit, let alone earn a living.

    The Radiohead example is possibly the best model come across thus far: offer it for what people want to pay. With the advent of recording technology, soon it won't cost much more than time to make an album, so the profit/loss margin will be a LOT easier to handle, especially if the record companies see their role reduced significantly.

    Downloading is one of those moral grey areas that it's impossible to make a definitive statement on. What about things that are WAY out of print that NO ONE will see ANY profit on, whether it's downloaded or not? What about the musicians who see all or nearly all of their profits get sucked up by "creative" bookkeeping by their label? (Trust me, the vast majority of major label acts fit into this category. And make no mistake: the money from this tax would mostly go to the companies, not the artists.) You're not "stealing" from the artist, you're "stealing" from a faceless entity that is geared to give the artist as little as possible.

    I'm not gonna come out for or against downloading...my musical tastes tend to run to the extremely obscure (unless you can point me to a copy of the Desperate Bicycles' catalog that costs less than my house, I'm gonna stick with my MP3s.) Then again, I've seen some friends' bands struggle even after some degree of success because they're not seeing a cent from their labels.

    The problem is not downloading. The problem is the entire corporate structure has been artificially inflated for years, and they're trying to stave off the inevitable.

    Posted in: Japan to propose copyright fees on iPods, digital hard disk recorders

  • 0

    TPOJ

    That is merely your double-standard and naivety speaking. Do you have objections to visiting the resting places of aggressive leaders blah blah blah...

    Er, there's aggressive and aggressive. Plenty of countries, leaders, etc. have taken other countries over. That whole "Rape Of Nanking" thing, and including convicted war criminals in the shrine is what gets people bunched up.

    There's also visiting and honoring. Two different things. That's why there are two different words for those things. I visited Napoleon's grave. I did not honor him. In fact, my Dad and I spent most of our time either reading up on what a dick he was, or just made short jokes.

    If I visit Ghengis Kahn's grave, am I "honoring" him? Seriously, do you need an answer to that?

    To put this in perspective, one might think who has the best track record of not making war in past 60 years? Not China and certainly not the United States. Not only do they not demonstrate beyond doubt that they are truly sorry (as many of you are quick to blame Japan of not doing), they are repeatedly demonstrating that they don't give a f***, as they make war to serve their own selfish interests.

    That's a prefect analogy. Because when America honors their war dead, they MAKE SURE they include people like those soldiers who raped a 14 year old girl and set her on fire.

    Oh, wait. They don't? You mean they punished them and made damn sure their name would always be spoken with the disgrace it deserves? Well, your analogy is a gigantic steaming pile then, isn't it?

    It's also quite interesting that some of you, who are quick to denounce China when China takes the stance against the U.S. (e.g. suing of CNN for "hurting Chinese people's feelings") are quick to take China's side by jumping on the blame-nationalist bandwagon on issues over 60 years old. What hypocrisy, self-righteousness and double standard.

    Congratulations! This is possibly the single least logical thing I have ever read on the internet.

    Chinese government tries to make nice and people don't buy it.

    Japanese war apologists try to make nice and people don't buy it.

    You might want to look up the word "hypocrisy" before you get all sweaty about that.

    Tell ya what. Since you're all about truth and decency and stuff, maybe you should start a campaign to get those 14 war criminals removed from the shrine. Like I said, nobody (nobody serious, anyway) will complain about honoring war dead. It's those 14 that are causing the problem.

    Other countries have bad histories, but generally speaking, they'll distinguish between those who fought for their country and those few individuals who have distinguished themselves as perverted, sadistic criminals. You may well have a point in your rantings somewhere, but stop acting as if Yasukuni is handled and conducted in the same as any other memorial. It isn't. Period.

    Posted in: 'Yasukuni' opens under heavy security; gets mixed reaction

  • 0

    TPOJ

    I have never been able to understand why the Japanese cannot have a memorial to their war dead and other countries can.

    I don't think anyone is saying that Japan can't honor it's war dead.

    This is a shrine to the memory of the soldiers, not the despicable deeds of a few.

    Uh...ahem:

    ...the shrine itself, which has a museum depicting Japan’s wartime conquests as a noble enterprise...

    If it was simply shrine to the dead, I can't imagine anyone complaining. Well, no one worth taking seriously, anyway.

    Japan might be better off if they followed Germany's example and denounced those who were responsible, made reparations to the comfort women, and apologized to the Asian countries where they committed these atrocities, especially, Korea and China and put it behind them once and for all.

    Bingo.

    There's no reasonable criticism to be leveled at people who simply want to honor those who fought for their country. However, if they try to sneak in apologist junk like this, they're going to catch Hell. They should catch Hell.

    If honoring their dead was the actual goal, the "noble enterprise" part of the deal would vanish. This is not about honoring the dead, this is about using them to legitimize slimy, nationalist garbage.

    Posted in: 'Yasukuni' opens under heavy security; gets mixed reaction

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