JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
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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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TheQuestion
It'll die in the senate. I've already pulled a lot of my investments back because even if they raise the debt ceiling before the 2nd the markets are still going to take a hit. My only suggestion is to fill up your car and give some instructions to your broker, nothing left to do but see where this ride takes us.
Posted in: House approves debt bill; Senate rejects it
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TheQuestion
My point being that even when we think we've created something too aweful to use someone makes something bigger and deadlier. Now anything nuke like is to big to be viable so we're going to start seeing the defense industry get more and more creative. The navy's rail guns are an interesting devolopment, among others.
And people are, by nature, falible. It need not be Europe. I've got my eyes on Asia. To many people, not enough resources, cultural differences, whatever floats your boat. China and India are fast becoming a major powers in the world and with newfound power always comes the need to exert influence. Having two fast developing powers in the same hemisphere is a geopolitical powder keg if I ever saw one.
Different tools for different circumstances. Non-violence works when the government in control actually gives a rip but in countries like North Korea or any number of African countries they'd just kill you. If an NK group started an armed, pro-democracy revolution within lil-Kim's playground I could think of very few people that would be overly upset on account of their method.
Posted in: Norway PM urges culture of tolerance
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TheQuestion
I believe in the 1700's they considered the advent of mortars to be the most terrifying weapon of war imaginable. The leaver action rifle was similarly feared and the Gatling gun was supposed to end warfare all together then the atom bomb was supposed to do it. We will always have war, its easy to start and neigh impossible to stop until one side or the other stops struggling. Rules and norms can make sure a man fights the correct person with the correct weapons but it can't make him stop.
That’s why we have police. One man does not a revolution make. There's no accounting for the one in a million (or in this case one in nine million) chance of someone going crazy no matter what their reasoning is.
Then they submit to the authority of those who would use violence. There are many things worth dying for and a few worth killing for but the merit of our actions are ultimately judged through the eyes of history and the society in which we exist. Breivik felt multiculturalism was destroying his country and he picked a road that he felt would change things, he was wrong and instead killed dozens that had nothing to do with the perceived problem.
Posted in: Norway PM urges culture of tolerance
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TheQuestion
Good message. That potential prison sentence still doesn't sit well with me though, at least if he ever does get released he'll get a nice fast entry into every other country's do not admit list.
Noticed you left out the first sentence of that quote. Anyway are we talking modern progressivism or classical liberalism? Because under classical liberalism one would be totally justified in using violence to protect their freedoms and even progressivism isn't beyond using force to impose social or economic change. Both also support the use of revolution as a means of achieving those freedoms, and while peaceful is preferred an armed one is to be discounted inherently.
People like to compare tragedies when in reality such events impact different cultures in different ways. In Norway it was a (presumably) single gunman with a clear intent against a very specific aspect of Norwegian culture that was captured and detained soon after the event. 9/11 was perpetrated by several members of a massive support network that opposed the U.S's very existence and whose leaders were protected by the Afghan government. The two events are only comparable in that the intent of the perpetrator was to cause suffering, beyond that I agree that the size and scope are completely different.
Posted in: Norway PM urges culture of tolerance
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TheQuestion
Peaceful country with a small population. While it's unfortunate that the Norway police weren't adequately prepared but it isn't that surprising. I'm wondering why a camp of that size didn't have their own security force, not necessarily a police force mind you, but some kind of armed camp guard to deal with thieves, wild animals, and the like.
Posted in: Norwegian police slammed for slow response to rampage
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TheQuestion
Energy use is on the rise everywhere and shows no signs of slowing. Peak oil isn't to far off on the horizon and nuclear energy is the only source that has any chance of filling its shoes. We're still years away from having cost competitive renewable.
We should be investing in new nuclear plants and focusing R&D on generation IV and V reactors. But to do that we need to overcome our paranoia. Some brilliant scientist could discover the key to stable fusion power tomorrow but half the world would be to craven to use it.
All renewables share one common feature, they take up a large surface area and they only way they can increase output is to further increase that surface area. This is directly at odds with the rapidly expanding human population because while some nations may grow slower than others in nations like China, India, and the U.S that have the largest and fastest growing population bases renewable power sources will be directly at odds with agricultural demands and the expansion of human habitation.
Posted in: Can Japan meet its energy needs without using nuclear power?
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TheQuestion
That falls on more groups than I care to name. The growing trend among all political groups is to paint the others as the great corruption. The rhetoric on both sides in the U.S is atrocious and the vitriol in the UK parliament boarders on the absurd. Polarizing opponents makes it easier to rally the masses to your cause, because it takes time and patience to explain the long reach effects of economic reform or the need to impose new immigration standards while it's so much faster to proclaim that the 'left' is out to steal my money and destroy my future and the 'right' are immigrant hating bigots.
The only conventional group he's belonged to was the Progress Party and he left that organization in 2007. Since that time his thoughts and views were limited to blogs and forum rants which are not uncommon in any sense of the word. Based on articles from this site, major news organizations, and a few periodicals from Norway I've run through the translator he didn't really do anything to inspire suspicion.
Thus my choice of words 'far outside normal political circles'. If he shared his plans of violence with anybody it was likely only those few that agreed with his methods, with any luck they'll be found and also sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
But they remove context. The terms 'right' and 'left' are largely subjective and vary from person to person and country to country. The man was motivated by a twisted form of nationalism that I haven't been able to find in any of Norway's conservative parties. I'd agree with you if they made a habit of citing neo-Nazi works or creating explicitly hateful rhetoric but those sentiments don't seem to jive with any major party in Norway.
There's really nothing within the Progress Party that could reasonably be linked to Breiviks actions. While they have supported some immigration restrictions and limitations on Muslim headwear they have never suggested mass expulsion or violence against immigrants. I don't agree with many of their policies but their methods are measured.
This wasn't a case of ignoring the actions of someone within a party or group. He was far outside normal political circles so there was really nobody to notice his actions. He didn't belong to an organized party (he left the Progress Party in 07) and there was nobody to keep an eye on him save his periodic angry postings. Blaming his actions on the 'right' or the Progress party merely because he once considered himself among them is like blaming the free masons, he was one of those as well. Eventually the need blame the other 'side' turns into a game of political Russian roulette for who takes the fall for this weeks psycho.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
Sympathy does not equate to acceptance. To a certain extent I sympathized with the PIRA having seen and experienced discrimination as a Catholic but their methods were beyond justification. Affiliation and sympathy mean nothing, actions are all that matter.
I could play 'name that murderous regime' all day with you but it won't change the fact that Breivik's ideas of reclaiming a Viking esque past, blowing up buildings with fertilizer, and murdering nearly a hundred people in a youth camp are, indeed, quite outside even the farthest stretch of what would be considered the norm.
Also, not sure if you particularly care, but I felt the need to point out that it's not me voting down your posts. Voting down a post one doesn't like is merely childish even if it's only a small annoyance and I'd just as soon not have myself associated with the practice.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
So instead of basing my opinions on the law abiding politicians, think tanks, and activists I am instead to use the actions of the 1 in 100,000 that does something atrocious? Am I to use the rhetoric of the monstrous few to describe the views and opinions of those that happen to fall on the wrong side of your 'right' and 'left' line? That is unacceptable. I don't, and never have, blamed Muslims for the actions of terrorists, I don't blame Germans for the Nazi's, and I'll not lay blame at the foot of your phantom 'right' for the action of one Norwegian psychopath. I'll judge a man by his own actions, not by those of the demon that happened to like his book.
In isolated incidents with varying motivations. The roma have it particularly bad and have been thus persecuted for centuries by fascist regimes, anarchists, nationalists, Nazi's, the Soviet Union, and every other group with the mind to do so. What we have in Europe is a hodgepodge of dozens of countries with thousands of groups and millions of individuals that makes broad classifications of 'right' and 'left' a pointless exercise.
You know 'most ordinary Europeans' probably includes millions of conservative voters. The same could be said of spreading trend of the anarchists rioting and looting. As unfortunate as it is, as Europe continues it's downward trend actions like this may become less infrequent and I'm sorry to say they won't all be wearing the same hat, rage and political disenchantment are universal to all those on whatever fringe they may cling to.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
Increases the burden of proof an adds actual depth to murder hearings. Sentencing is still based on a jury, I simply feel the option ought be available.
In individualistic societies the actions of government or the legal system rarely alter the actions of the general population. Murder rates in states without the death penalty are no different than those with it. I've already stated that I don't believe the death penalty adequately deters crime, but it is the only equitable punishment for taking a life.
The fact that it's a small and largely homogenous nation has more to do with that than anything else. It's the same reason you don't see high crime rates in smaller communities in the U.S when compared to larger cities. My state doesn't have the death penalty and some of the largest welfare and unemployment assistance programs in the nation yet the murder rates are staggering and unemployment is nearly twice the national average.
I've grown far to detached. I would be hard pressed to dislike someone I don't know let alone despise them. That said I don't need to even dislike them to believe they should be tried and executed. We all make choices and I believe that every decision should have a real, equitable consequence.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
The most distasteful of those he has noted was Geert Wilders and even he does not advocate violence. There is an undercurrent of anti-Muslim attitudes throughout Europe, that’s not a question, but all that has amounted to has been political action and more discourse. The EU has been destabilized through mass immigration and debt yet only Breivik has taken arms on the topic, therefore he is an outlier.
No, this was an attack on what this man perceived as a weakness in his country. He may have hacked bits and pieces out of other people's works and speeches (he is also said to have drawn heavily from the perceived 'purity' of east Asian countries such as Japan and Korea) but his ideas, intent, and actions are unique to him and him alone.
An outlier is "a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample". If we use say...all of Europe as the sample and the act of mass murder of supporters of multiculturalism as the observation I think we can both agree that Breivik is, indeed, an outlier in more ways than one.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
You keep building up this phantom of 'the right' without providing any context to what it means. The conservative political groups in Norway have never engaged in anything save the ordinary discourse which is the foundation of their democracy and they have championed the very non-violence you seem to espouse. The criminal in this case was an outlier far and away from anything that would be considered a norm in even the most conservative circles of Norwegian politics yet you continue to use him as the banner man of anybody that does not fall under what you describe as 'the left'. You’re beginning to sound like a zealot.
You have your opinion of justice. I have mine. Although only mine absolutely guarantees that he will not kill again, I've seen too many people killed or injured by those released from prison, I do not believe in rehabilitation.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
Yet you continue to create blatent fabrications that the 'right-wing' of Norweigian politics drove the man to act in this way rather than his own personal twisted view of the world. No political party in Norway conservative or otherwise has any policies in place that even remotly reflect his crazed Viking ideal aside from his Nazi ties.
My desire to see such criminals tried and executed is more clinical than emotional. The man could be reprogrammed and deemed safe tomorrow and never lift a hand against another living thing for the rest of his life, it doesn't change the fact that nearly 100 are dead by his hand. His death would not bring them back, his death would not deter the next mass murderer, nor would it alieve the pain felt by the families of those who lost loved ones but it is the closest we can get to equitable (though 1 life for so many dead is still bitterly unbalanced). No amount of reflection, or money, or service is worth the life of an innocent. He should die for his actions but he won't. Instead he'll likely be released at some future date and possibly even breed while innocent men women and children lie dead that is not equity, that is not justice.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
Coward. He should have started with himself. He still would have been a coward but at the very least he'd be the only one dead.
The U.S is and always will be incomparable to other nations. It's history and culture is dramatically different than any in current existence for better or worse. It has a massive, extremely diverse population that carries with it the good and bad qualities of every nation they come from. Any comparison to a largely homogenous nation like Norway immediately falls flat.
Using that logic there is no conceivable way that lightly armed insurgents could pose any threat to the U.S in foreign theatres. And I feel the need to point out that with my destructive device permit I have access to, and own, far better weapons than they do in the Middle East.
With the right permits you can pretty much buy anything in the states. My brothers a scrap yard owner and I went half down on a maxim gun for him to restore, it may be a century old but it still fires 450 rounds per minute...though I'm hard pressed to think of the last time an automatic was used in a crime, mostly semi-autos and hand guns.
Posted in: Gunman kills 5, then himself at Texas roller rink during party
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TheQuestion
The term 'right' continues to be used arbitrarily to those you disagree with. The only person posting with any amount of hatred or rage here is you.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
Just helping clarify the libertarian standpoint on immigration. But I digress.
The talk of left-wing and right-wing really needs to be put in context here because the terms have been wildly abused on this thread, more so than usual. In Norway the political parties are not nearly so divisive as they are in other countries. What you term as the 'right-wing' Progress Party differs only slightly from Labour Party. In regards to immigration it generally favors more stringent background checks and higher requirements from immigrants due to the stress that the current laws are placing on their welfare system and while I find their view on the Muslim wardrobe a little disheartening it's certainly not unheard of in many nations in Europe.
To say the man was politically motivated in a conventional sense would be a vast overreach. While he may have been motivated by his own political views his were not shared by even a minority of Norwegians who, despite minor differences in how to cope with their growing welfare ills, generally encourage polite discourse among members of its parliament, Progress and Conservative parties included.
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
Disgusting. Both the act itself and the responces to it. Norway will do with him as they think is best but I'd just as soon see him taken out of the gene pool.
I don't think you know what a libertarian is considering their current platform on immigration is "a free market requires the free movement of both capital and labor across borders."
Posted in: Norway horror: 91 die in camp shooting, 7 in blast
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TheQuestion
Cut funding can always be restored at a later date. I'd much rather see a complete restructuring of all government departments, a list of what each has accomplished in exchange for its cost, and plans to phase out those which have been chronically underachieving or have overstepped their intended purpose. The DoE would be a great first step. I'd also recommend splitting the DoHS back into customs (covered by the treasury) and immigration (covered by the Department of Justice) to reduce administrative costs.
Push the age at which one may collect SS and Medicare back to somewhere in the late seventies or early eighties.
Posted in: GOP pushes huge deficit-cutting bill through House
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TheQuestion
Baseless. In the US you can vote for anybody and the vote counts but it is the perception of most people that only the two most prominent parties are capable of winning. That's no fault of the system but rather a failure of voters to realize that the lesser of two evils is still rotten at its core. Anybody can run for public office in the U.S but it's the voters who decide.
Cuba only allows pre-approved state-backed runners to enter into elections and reserves the right to replace that person should they not behave correctly.
Posted in: Chavez chemotherapy under way in Cuba