cleo said...

cleo at 11:06 AM JST - 18th March

why give non citizens the right to vote? no other country in the world does

A number of countries give resident non-citizens the right to vote in local elections, with a variety of restrictions attached, mainly length of residence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rightofforeignerstovote

Posted in Hatoyama says suffrage bill for foreigners hard, but not giving up at 11:06 AM JST - 18th March
cleo at 10:41 AM JST - 18th March

"Closely monitored" does not mean that Bethune was shackled to a fisherman 24hrs a day.

I very much doubt it means he was allowed to wander unsupervised around the ship digging knives out of nooks and crannies and possibly planting a GPS transmitter to notify the SS ships of its…

Posted in Detained activist says he boarded whaling ship to arrest captain at 10:41 AM JST - 18th March
cleo at 01:35 AM JST - 18th March

"Perish the thought" ?

T'was a feeble attempt at humour, nothing more....

I have found it very rare for hispanics in my neighbourhood to show up at my BBQ and chatter on in spanish while the vast majority of guests are speaking English.

And if one of them brought…

Posted in Traditional approaches to Japanese language learning are changing at 01:35 AM JST - 18th March
cleo at 01:09 AM JST - 18th March

He wasn't confined and after being searched by fishermen, he could have retrieved the knife.

According to the Japanese Coast Guard, Bethune was 'closely monitored' while he was on the Shonan Maru 2. Are you saying the JCG lies, too? Or just that they're incompetent? Or that they don't believe…

Posted in Detained activist says he boarded whaling ship to arrest captain at 01:09 AM JST - 18th March
cleo at 05:40 PM JST - 17th March

what SM2 was there to do. Which is catch whales.

Actually no, this season the SM2 was being used as a 'security vessel', its sole purpose being to keep the SS vessels away from the main whaling fleet. If the captain of the SM2 was not aware of what the…

Posted in Antiwhaling activist to be detained for 10 days on ship trespassing charge at 05:40 PM JST - 17th March
cleo at 12:07 PM JST - 17th March

The Japanese boat had the entire ocean yet drove straight up onto the AG

The SM2 apologists seem to think it was driven along rails like a train and could neither choose to sail somewhere else, nor reduce speed.

The Japanese fisheries person said there was some research that could…

Posted in Antiwhaling activist to be detained for 10 days on ship trespassing charge at 12:07 PM JST - 17th March
cleo at 11:13 AM JST - 17th March

it's rude to sit in a room full of Americans and chatter on in Japanese excluding others from our conversation.

It's the excluding from the conversation that's rude, not the use of another language. On the grounds that they need all the native input they can get, I have…

Posted in Traditional approaches to Japanese language learning are changing at 11:13 AM JST - 17th March
cleo at 10:46 AM JST - 17th March

Shark poachers kill the animal, cut off its fin, and throw away it's carcass.

They cut off the fin and throw the still-living shark back in the water to die a slow, agonising death.

Posted in Shark conservation proposal defeated at U.N. meeting at 10:46 AM JST - 17th March
cleo at 04:46 PM JST - 16th March

It works out that those with kids will gain. Couples with no kids will lose the spousal tax deduction.

The biggest losers will be those whose kids are out of high school but still in education, and those who are still paying off student loans, with no tax deductions and…

Posted in Bills for tuition-free schooling, child allowances pass lower house at 04:46 PM JST - 16th March
cleo at 04:38 PM JST - 16th March

david and Basher,

Which you support or don't support, which is the bigger issue, is neither here nor there. I was simply trying to point out the irony of posters here complaining about these people not saving other animals more endangered while Japanese TV was complaining about them being anti-tuna-fishing…

Posted in Detained activist says he boarded whaling ship to arrest captain at 04:38 PM JST - 16th March