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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dearjohn
A human sheild is someone you hold in front of you, physically, like a shield. Hence the name. This expansion of the term is not helpful except as a propaganda ploy.
Not all of these civilians are unwilling participants. I can't even give a percentage, but I would wager that most are willing even if they are total fools for it. I would prefer to call them a "civilian fence". But then, I have no interest in propaganda bullocks.
Posted in: Embattled Afghan Taliban rely on human shields
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dearjohn
It would be nearly as dumb for Mossad to have no Israeli dual citizenship folks in the group as all of them. It is smart to have many countries represented. I am just surprised there were so many dual citizen Israelis. But that too could be to throw off the scent. What is of little doubt is that the people and the passports are not matches. That makes them pretty useless as evidence for pointing any fingers.
But Mossad remains the prime suspect for many good reasons. Not saying they did it, just that they are the prime suspect.
And yes, Mossad is as fallible as any other spy group. The CIA has its own list of blunders and so does even Mossad. And the young blood entering those groups in both countries are probably not like their predecessors considering this Mickey Mouse age of the west. Nevermind all this tech, James Bond they are not.
Posted in: Mossad under fire over Dubai hit squad
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dearjohn
goddog wrote- "No one here thinks that Israels neighbors are not targeting Israelis?"
Does anyone here think two wrongs make a right? Choosing Mossad and the IDF over the military wing of Hamas is just choosing one terrorist group over another. Yes, on terrorist was murdered, but eleven others escaped.
Posted in: Mossad under fire over Dubai hit squad
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dearjohn
Molenir wrote- "Hes been arrested for being a nuisance, not for molesting a girl, assaulting her repeatedly."
The police are not judge, jury or executioner. They are just police! What he gets arrested for and what he gets charged for in court are two separate things! Besides, the police do this as a tactic so they can rearrest people on separate charges a few weeks later and keep them locked up indefinitely. If they charged him with everything at once he would be out on bail in three weeks!
Posted in: NEC research chief arrested for molesting girl on train
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dearjohn
CaptainPanchira wrote- "Japanese people don't cause a turmoil because that's not their style! they are not Rambomono, like for instance ... Chinese."
Japanese are not the only people who don't start cracking heads when they don't know what is going on. The girl was not complaining, she was not being held down, her mouth was not being covered, she was not fighting him...it might have been difficult for anyone to have any idea what is going on. Even the groper himself noted how docile she was!
Posted in: NEC research chief arrested for molesting girl on train
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dearjohn
nandakandamanda wrote- "Great to hear they can refuse orders to fire high explosive rounds and change to smoke bombs if they fear civilians are in the area. "
A request is not an order.
Posted in: Marines link up in Afghan Taliban stronghold
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dearjohn
Women's weight rules go on a weird equation if they are under a certain weight. She is. Given that, they should weigh them before and after or simplify the rules.
Posted in: Japanese luger disqualified over excess weights
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dearjohn
SuperLib wrote-"You mean we could have killed civilians with our gutless missiles and drones while taking out Al Queda? Don't you have any heart at all?"
I have no qualms about bombing cowardly terrorists' training camps over the heads of the Taliban that abet them. I have no qualms about precision assassinations of terrorists using spies, assassins or even small strike teams not invited by the Taliban. The goal of turning Afghanistan into a viable country beginning with smashing the Taliban that rule most of the country though? Just bullocks!
But if you are going to give it a shot, its not my ideas of cowardice you need to worry about. Its not me you need to impress. Its the Afghanis mate.
Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive
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dearjohn
Odogma wrote: "Clinton turned down Sudan's offer to have OBL taken out. Not Bush."
Two separate things. "Turn over" is not even remotely close to "take out". On October 14 the Taliban said they would turn him over to a third country if they were shown evidence against bin Laden. Bush said forget it. No deal no discussion. That is just disrespectful. The Taliban would not be able to hold their heads up in Afghanistan without that tiny caveat. It would be political suicide if they just turned over. I think the Bush administration knew that. I think they counted on it.
Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive
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dearjohn
Noliving- "You honestly think that deal was realistic?"
Since it came on the point of a sword I don't see the harm in giving it a few days. In fact, if the Taliban backpedaled, it would have given us the moral highground. I know the Taliban pussyfooted around before. But this was different. They had bombs coming down on their heads!
Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive
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dearjohn
Article says- "ever-more-polarized colleagues locked in gridlock — exactly what voters say they don’t like about politics in the nation’s capital."
As soon as we get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, gridlock sounds nice! We don't need so many new laws and rules. The system is in place. The only thing I want more than gridlock is for the legislature to start erasing crazy old laws and give us the freedom we are supposed to have in America. Everybody talks about freedom. Few seem to actually realize how restricted they are.
But I would rather see the ends chopped than the middle go. People in the middle don't need to be gridlocked. They know restraint.
Posted in: Bayh the latest exit as moderates leave Congress
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dearjohn
kinniku wrote- "Iran would never suggest Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth."
No need for him to clear that up. Everybody already knows he never said that. He was only quoting Khomeini. And even Khomeini never said that. Khomeini said: "The regime (exact word, "rezhim" in Farsi) occupying Jerusalem should vanish from the pages of time." He didn't say Israel and he didn't say Earth. He never implied slaughter.
Moving on to, errrrm, important things, of course Israel is not planning to war with Iran! Getting to Iran by ship would be interesting. Throught the Suez and around Arabia? That would be fun! And by plane would irritate Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and through Iraq, maybe even the U.S.! And all of Israel's neighbors would attack Israel again just like they did in the last major war. Israel would probably win out but the cost would be high. Israel wants no war with Iran and I did not need Netanyahu to tell me that!
Posted in: Netanyahu: Israel not planning war with Iran
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dearjohn
Amazing that anyone is coming down on the cops. They outsourced because their presence at the platform or on the train would have alerted the bloke in question in the way seemingly random train security would not. Since they let him approach the girl again (and I don't think an 11th time was going to break her) there is now an eyewitness who is not a cop. What this equals is an almost air tight case against the man. I would think that is the most desirable outcome for most of you.
But bear in mind, the only hole in the case is that the girl waited so long to complain. There is nothing on Earth the cops can do about that. They got the best result for what they had to work with. If they had just walked on the train and asked "Is this the bloke?", then it would be simply her word against his. You just can't please some people.
Posted in: NEC research chief arrested for molesting girl on train
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dearjohn
This crime was so horrible the girl must have had memory lapses each time, which explains why she never jumped on an earlier train, turned to face the other passengers, or used the women's only train, or any manner of other defensive actions. You actually buying this? Actually it is amazing how ignorant people are of female sexuality. If she was not just curious about all this, then she was enjoying it. And why talk now? Because she has had her kicks and now wants to get paid. Seriously, is there any other explanation for this happening 10 times while knowing its the same guy before going to the cop shop or doing anything at all?
Posted in: NEC research chief arrested for molesting girl on train
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dearjohn
Sarge wrote- "Surrender Afghanistan to the Taliban and play strictly defense."
Its really annoying hearing from people who can only imagine the worst case scenario. Mate, the Taliban will still have homegrown opposition that can be armed. And we can still bomb terrorist training camps.
"Guaranteed if we'd played strictly defense since 9/11, we'd have been attacked again big time."
We were not attacked by Afghanistan. We were attacked by al-Quaida, led by bin Laden. And Bush refused a deal from the Taliban to turn over bin Laden. The Taliban were never a threat to us until we went over there and challenged them directly. We could have hit al-Quaida and got out and everything would have gone back to normal. But no, no! Bush had to play cowboy like it was the Magnificent Seven.
And are you suggesting it is better to push what would have been attacks on us onto Afghani civilians? Are you at home with that sort of cowardice?
Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive
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dearjohn
Bazza at 09:47 AM JST - 16th February = equals awesome information. In this country where every damned thing seems to be based on pieces of paper that we foreigners are simply not given, the only way to beat the system is to make sure you never give up what you will never get back. Once you are off that koseki, you are finished. So stay on because its the only koseki you will have.
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dearjohn
Glad to see the Japanese finally put a hero on the TV. Japan badly needs to celebrate heros.
Posted in: Man saves woman from train after she falls onto tracks
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dearjohn
SuperLib wrote- "If you take out a commander another one fills his shoes, but keep doing that over and over and you end up with lesser qualified people in power positions."
A good theory that reality proves does not work. Sometimes the guy with the power is not as bright as his successor when it comes to actual warfare. There is no certainty in anything with new blood. And the ghosts of martyrs are notoriously hard to fight. Worse, you assume we can keep getting the leaders over and over. Sooner or later one is going to figure out how not to get killed if this keeps going on. This is not natural selection, but it is Darwinian.
Posted in: Taliban's top military commander in Pakistan reported captured
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dearjohn
SuperLib wrote- "I'd estimate that 95% of the media coverage is on NATO killing that other 20%."
Well that clearly shows your bias. It seems I may have misquoted a statistic or it was misrepresented to me. In fact, in 2008, the Taliban was responsible for 55 percent of the civilian deaths. Nato forces for 40 percent, and rest assured the bulk of that is by the U.S. military.
http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/09/apafghanistancivilians_091608/
And how ever much that estimate that you dredged up from your guts is skewed to favor the U.S., the Afghanis will skew it the other way. Remember that when the U.S. kills civilians, U.S. flags are on all those sleeves or on the side of planes, helicopters and drones. When the Taliban kills civilians it is so often hard to actually know who did it. IEDs are not full of Taliban leaflets. Its easy to even assume an execution was done because that person did not cooperate. You cannot cooperate with a bomb dropped the air. And so, America cannot even be seen to be giving civilians a chance.
And a 15 percent difference between the U.S. and the Taliban is not something to celebrate.
I know you will hem and haw from there though, rather than just accept what it all means. Maybe something about unfair Taliban tactics? As if Afghani civilians accept excuses!
Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive
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dearjohn
Odogma wrote- "The US does not want to occupy or take over Afghanistan the way the Soviet Union did. "
That all started in 1979, not 1945. Stalin was dead. Afghanistan had just fallen apart and was a state bording the Soviet Union. There is no doubt that they, as the U.S. does too, had ulterior motives. Since the Soviet Union was not believed by many to have any goodwill intentions, despite 1978 treaty of friendship with Afghanistan, why do you think the goodwill intentions of the U.S. will be believed without question? To non-Americans, America is just another superpower as was the Soviet Union. There is no special love, and no reason to think America is pure and honest for those people. And every time Americans kill civilians, it creates a lasting impression of America.
The Soviets were notorious for massive amounts of civilian deaths. We have far fewer. But it still does not matter. Every one is a huge black mark on us, because we are the foreigners. This is the way people are and it won't change.
Posted in: U.S. rockets strike Afghan home, killing 12 civilians