JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- 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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ca1ic0cat
I would say that the owners of "the Hump" are in trouble here. It's a federal offense to import any animal, living or dead, that is considered engangered by pretty much any country. Doesn't even have to be considered endangered in the US.
Plus it would seem that the activists didn't do anything illegal themselves so it's likely that the evidence is admissable.
And if anybody lied to the cops and said it wasn't whale or something similar they are royally screwed.
If you want to know why go to youtube and search on "don't talk to the police."
Where SS makes anti-whalers look like nut jobs and Greenpeace Japan has goofed up on legal issues these guys have done the job quietly and correctly.
Posted in: FBI probes Calif sushi restaurant after video sting by 'Cove' producers
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ca1ic0cat
I don't know why the Israelis can't stop provoking the Palistianians. It would seem that the point is to just annex the whole west bank. It's nuts. I'm no lover of Hamas but you can't keep sticking it to people like is being done and not have something happen.
Posted in: Biden condemns new Israeli settlement plan
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ca1ic0cat
Yeah ultra, I'm betting most of the homeless don't have internet access either. But some people are desperate to help.
Posted in: Man dies after being hit by Tokyo Monorail train in tunnel
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ca1ic0cat
The dear little pipsqueak probably wouldn't start with nukes because the retaliation would be devestation of NK. I would guess that he might launch a conventional offensive and then threaten to use nukes when the US moved to intervene. But that's the problem with nukes. If you use them you are going to get the same in return. They aren't good offensive weapons no matter how offensive the pipsqueak's regime is.
I would applaud the Chinese if they were to toss lil Kimmie to the curb sooner rather than later. How about next week?
Posted in: N Korea reportedly has medium-range missile division
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ca1ic0cat
moonbeans is right. I didn't have a TV until I got married. I miss the peace and quiet.
The format war will be brutal. I'll stay well out until the matter is settled. But even then what do I do about my perscription glasses? That could really make the optical path convoluted. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
Posted in: Home of the Bravia
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ca1ic0cat
Was it ten years ago now that a principle was found guilty of murder because he slammed a girls head in the front gate because she was late? Honestly, this kind of crap has to stop. Teachers have no reason to lose their tempers so badly that they physically abuse a student. Both the teacher and the principle should be fired. I also agree that the parents are lame. If you can't stand up for your own kids you're a victim too.
Posted in: Principal fails in cover-up after student's rib fractured by teacher
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ca1ic0cat
Gilbert is grandstanding but the proper approach to an academic is to try to repeat the experiment with input from (in this case) Gilbert and see what happens. Toyota might learn something or Gilbert will look foolish. Trotting out another academic to refute the first will degenerate into a pissing contest. The lawyers and congresscritters and newspapers will love that and the spin will keep Toyota in the bad press for another week. And won't do diddly to solve the problem.
I think Toyota should fire the current lot of p/r wonks and get some new ones.
Posted in: Toyota disputes critic who blames electronics
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ca1ic0cat
Sounds like a dangerous approach to take. When acedemics start to feud over theoretical experiments the truth in practice often gets overlooked.
Posted in: Toyota disputes critic who blames electronics
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ca1ic0cat
Man this guy must be smoking some good stuff. Do you think anybody else believes this crap?
Posted in: Iran's Ahmadinejad calls official version of Sept 11 attacks a 'big lie'
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ca1ic0cat
Yeah, that hair color is so wrong that it is just jarring. Pink or green I can take but this "oriental women with blonde hair" thing is just strange.
Posted in: New Uniqlo store
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ca1ic0cat
AP is now reporting that Toyota was delinquent in providing data on individual crashes from vehicle telemetry. This is looking worse all the time. If Toyota's management doens't change they won't survive.
http://www.manufacturing.net/News-Is-Toyota-Hiding-Crash-Data-030510.aspx
In fact, if this report is substantiated, Toyota might be in more trouble than we all thought.
Posted in: Toyota president urges workers, dealers to work toward new start
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ca1ic0cat
You can always find a hard luck case that you want to help but; first, this bill might not help. I doesn't cover all the currently uninsured. Second, more people will lose their jobs as a trillion dollar bite is taken out of the economy. This bill does not do the job; in fact it just lines the pockets of the vested interests.
I'm not saying the republicans could do a better job but doing a lousy job would be worse. Chuck Shumer, Reid, Pelosi, Lieberman,Gingrich, and their followers under the bus and start over. It might be better to dust off Hillarycare and use that as a starting point. At least that didn't pander to the vested interests. Which (along with how it was presented - bad job that) was why it was shot down.
Posted in: Obama urges Democrats to seize moment on health care
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ca1ic0cat
The dealers and the workers have nothing to do with this. Design, test and management culture are the problems. Telling the workers to get to it is not going to solve the problem(s).
Posted in: Toyota president urges workers, dealers to work toward new start
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ca1ic0cat
It would seem that a lot of democrats are hearing that seizing the moment to do what the public thinks is the wrong thing is political suicide. I'm starting to wonder if this bill can even get 49 votes.
Posted in: Obama urges Democrats to seize moment on health care
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ca1ic0cat
48% in favor - no majority there and Newsweek is no more balanced than Fox. Just a different bias.
63% want the to keep trying to pass this bill - what the heck kind of statement is that? Keep trying to pass a bill? Oh, and ABC / Washington Post. About as biased as Newsweek?
CBS/NYT - 59% favor public option. Bias again but Obama is talking about dropping the public option. So where does that leave you?
This bill does not accomplish it's stated goals. Health care costs continue to go up. All the people are not covered, not by a long shot. There is no public option. Instead the vested interests are handed cash. It's a farce! A pox on the houses of both political parties. Time for the centrists to put together a bipartisan proposal. I wish the elected representatives had the backbone to stand up to their party leadership and get something done right. Chuck Reid, Pelosi, Gingrich, Lieberman, the whole lot, and get something put together that works. The current bill is a sad joke. The public is figuring this out. It seems that the idiots in the beltway have lost the plot.
Posted in: Obama demands vote on health care reform
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ca1ic0cat
I think that trips to a community center might indicate that some people support this bill but it hardly represents a representative sample of the population in general. All the polls are showing that the majority are against this bill. The bill panders to the vested interests. It is not the republicans who are against this bill; although they will benefit from it's demise and are willing to help achieve that end. The public is against a handout to the vested interests that is presented as "health care reform."
Posted in: Obama demands vote on health care reform
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ca1ic0cat
Yeah, right. Like Lieberman is a republican now and the democrats aren't in bed with the trial lawyers. Like I said, there is blame enough to go around for this travisty. No backbone to fix it though. Or original thinking. Blame the republicans! Blame the republicans! Starting to sound like a broken record, don't you think?
Posted in: Obama demands vote on health care reform
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ca1ic0cat
dammit, take a deep breath and step away from the keyboard. The senator is just trying to score points stating the obvious: Japan has no proof that US beef is dangerous. The US certainly has proof that Toyota cars have problems. But the Japanese won't even talk about the beef while the US is having a good time cooking Toyoda over a low fire. BTW, the problem with the cars is related to design, not manufacture. So scoring points trying to bash the assembly folks is just ignorant.
Posted in: Tokyo has one safety standard for U.S. beef and another for Toyota's cars and I am extremely tired of the imbalance.
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ca1ic0cat
The bill commonly known as "Obamacare" is a giveaway to the insurance companies and other vested interests that does nothing to reign in the malpractice abuse. It won't cover everybody - not even close - even after it is phased in. The GAO says it's going to raise costs, not bring them down. It will cost a trillion dollars to do this. So why would anybody want this bill? Why not ditch Lieberman and the rest of his ilk and put together a bipartisan bill with those willing to tell the vested interests to get off? A bill that actually does what it is supposed to? Why not? And don't start saying "it's this bunch" or "them rotten so-and-sos. There is enough blame for this travisty to go around. What seems to be lacking is the backbone to stand up and do the job right.
Posted in: Obama demands vote on health care reform
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ca1ic0cat
Passes by reconciliation? It is doubtful that there will be any reconciliation. To quote Obama's quotes from the WSJ:
Breitbart.tv has a terrific two-minute video featuring clips of Barack Obama commenting on the need to build consensus before attempting to enact major social legislation. Obama's comments:
• "My understanding of the Senate is, is that you need 60 votes to get something significant to happen, which means that Democrats and Republicans have to ask the question: Do we have the will to move an American agenda forward, not a Democratic or Republican agenda forward?"--CBS-TV election night interview, Nov. 2, 2004
• "The bottom line is that our health-care plans are similar. The question, once again, is: Who can get it done? Who can build a movement for change? This is an area where we're going to have to have a 60% majority in the Senate and the House in order to actually get a bill to my desk. We're going to have to have a majority, to get the bill to my desk, that is not just a 50-plus-1 majority."--Change to Win convention, Sept. 25, 2007
• "You've got to break out of what I call the sort of 50-plus-1 pattern of presidential politics. Maybe you eke out a victory of 50 plus 1, but you can't govern. You know, you get Air Force One--I mean, there are a lot of nice perks, but you can't deliver on health care. We're not going to pass universal health care with a 50-plus-1 strategy."--interview with the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, Oct. 9, 2007
• "You know, one of the arguments that sometimes I get with my fellow progressives--and some of these have flashed up in the blog communities on occasion--is this notion that we should function sort of like Karl Rove, where we identify our core base, we throw them red meat, we get a 50-plus-1 victory. But see, Karl Rove doesn't need a broad consensus, because he doesn't believe in government. If we want to transform the country, though, that requires a sizable majority."--Center for American Progress, July 12, 2006
So now Obama is behaving like Rove? It is truly amazing how the worm turns. Reconciliation - the word is just dripping with irony.
Posted in: Obama open to adding GOP ideas to health plan