JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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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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donkusai
After having to cancel his trip to Oz twice already, let's hope the insane asylum that is U.S. politics doesn't cause him to cancel once again.
Posted in: Obama to visit Australia's far north
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donkusai
I beg to disagree. Movements like Soviet communism and Maoism certainly have political and philosophical aspects to their manifestos, but they also have defined religious views (that being of the atheist persuasion). Most of this can trace its roots to the enlightenment and to the century of revolutions that followed. It's interesting that by the late 1800's, the enlightenment was considered a failed movement that was considered to have resulted in violence and bloodshed across Europe. Today, we gloss over the negative and seem to think of the enlightenment as some sort of dawn of sanity without realizing that there were many aspects of it that rivaled the Spanish Inquisition in terms of brutality.
What does this tell us of history? That fundamentalism, whether political, religious (or anti-religious), or racial, can only ever end badly. If you want to group it all together under a label, then it would be "intolerance". I can't stand religious intolerance any more than I can stand irreligious intolerance. I look forward to the day where people can say to each other "I don't agree with what you believe, but I respect the fact that you believe it." If both theist and atheist can wrap their heads around this idea, the world would be a much, much better place to live.
Posted in: Atheists to attend pope's talks with religious leaders
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donkusai
Why not mention totalitarian communism? It's a great example. Unfortunately, far more more people had been killed in the 20th century by movements of which atheism is a fundamental basis such as the Nazis, Communists and Khmer Rouge than by any religious movements. Unfortunately, thanks to radical Islam, the 21st century is leaning back the other way. What is the moral to this story? It is fundamentalism in general that is the problem, whether it is theist or atheist.
Posted in: Atheists to attend pope's talks with religious leaders
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donkusai
This seems like a good idea as atheism (the movement rather than than the state of mind) is in essence just another religion. Very little in science in "provable" in the sense that is observable, recordable and repeatable. There's a heck of a lot of what we believe in the world today that would not be considered scientifically provable, rather it is our best understanding based on the knowledge we currently have. Science is littered with failed theories, and this is a good thing as it allows us modify and improve our understanding.
The problem with fundamental atheism is that it takes the same fundamental belief system that religion does. A true atheist rejects religion based on their own personal beliefs in the same way a religious person embraces theism. As science deals with the physical, anything beyond that (ie. the supernatural/spiritual) is by definition beyond science. As the famous philosopher David Hume said on meeting the leading French philosophers of the time, he had never seen such acts of faith as from these atheists. To make the world a saner place, we need all people of faith (theists and atheists) to accept that their view is not the only potentially valid view on this planet.
Posted in: Atheists to attend pope's talks with religious leaders
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donkusai
Wow, winning the world title and your 5th straight home GP on your birthday. Could it possible get any better? Just a shame about Jorge crashing in practice and losing a finger. I'm sure Casey wouldn't want to win it that way.
Posted in: Stoner wins 5th Australian GP, MotoGP season title
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donkusai
It's hard to believe that the one team recoginised as the best in the world, the All Blacks, haven't won the World Cup for 24 years. Cup after cup they've choked at the worst possible moment. They've never beaten Australia in a World Cup game, but tonight they've rewritten the record books. Let's hope they continue this trend and take the title next week. They deserve it.
Posted in: All Blacks batter Australia 20-6 to advance to Rugby World Cup final
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donkusai
Umm... all this talk about "tax is stealing" and other such nonsense seems to miss the point entirely. Our taxes pay for common infrastructure and institutions that are vital for the smooth running of the country. Rather than argue for smaller government and a reduction of these essential services, we should be arguing for the cost to be spread fairly across all income brackets and for the streamlining of these services to make them as efficient as possible.
Some services we can privatize and get them out of the public sphere, but others are simply not profitable in the financial sense, but essential in the benefit they give to society (for example, police and fire services). Efficiency should be the buzz word on everyone's lips, but you hardly ever hear it mentioned. Instead, people seem to talk about cutting this or that. If we remove our essential institutions and infrastructure, we're sowing the seeds of our own downfall.
Posted in: Obama: Rich must pay fair share of deficit cuts
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donkusai
Should be a great game. You've got the Tongan power versus the Japanese speed. Expect Japan to cop a battering early on, and then come home strong at the end. Both teams have great heart and I'm looking forward to the game very much!
Posted in: Japan seeks spiritual help before Tongan encounter
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donkusai
I also agree with this. Those who don't believe wont believe the photos are real either. All that would happen from releasing the photos is that Islamic militants will use them to whip up anger and for recruitment. Why give the bad guys free propaganda?
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donkusai
I work with a number of students from Libya and from personal experience, I find them to be hard workers with a good sense of responsibility and to be more level-headed than most students from other Arabic nations. Students from Libya, along with students from countries like Jordan, seem to me to have the best grasp of rights and responsibilities. I'm not at all surprised there has been an uprising. I would also think that if the uprising came from the "West", then they'd be the first to stand against this foreign influence. I have no doubt that oil or money is not at the core of this uprising.
Posted in: Air raids force Gadhafi retreat, rebels seize east
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donkusai
Yes, it is different and it is news. It is news for American readers that brings the tragedy closer to home for them, just the same as the death of any other foreign national will be news in there own countries.
This, though, does not imply that the other 20,000+ deaths are not also news. They are not mutually exclusive.
Condolences to the Anderson family and to all of the families affected, whether in Japan or across the world.
Posted in: Missing U.S. teacher's body located in Ishinomaki
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donkusai
Avril Lavigne? Is she still around? I thought she'd faded from the spotlight years ago.
Posted in: Avril's here
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donkusai
This is really good to hear, and is a fairly common attitude among the Aussies from what I've heard. If only this attitude was more prevalent in life, we'd all get along a lot better. Thumbs up to Mr. McLean and his group of proud diggers.
Posted in: Japan hosts visit by 5 Australian World War II POWs
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donkusai
We have a right to free speech, but we don't have a right to groundlessly slander, to cause a public danger or to do other similar things that impinge on the freedoms of others. A right is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, but a responsibility, and if the responsibility is undermined, then we need to consider the removal of that right. In the case where "shark" is called on a beach where few people are swimming, they are being an idiot, but little more. If the beach was so full of swimmers that any panic may see some pushed under the water in the sudden surge of people to the shore, then they are deliberately using their words as a weapon to harm people and their words should be treated as such. We do not have the right to deliberately harm innocent people, and "freedom of speech" does not supersede this restriction.
Posted in: Does freedom of speech include the right to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater, yell "Shark" at a beach or joke about having a bomb on a plane, for example?
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donkusai
Not a bad idea. Why don't we get rid of the public service entirely and privatize the lot, then workers will be allowed to bargain for more with their own employers and the government can concentrate on more important things. This would also reduce the cost burden on government as they won't have to pay for schools and prisons and such, so it should result in lower taxes for all.
Of course, the tax savings will quickly be swallowed up by much greater school fees, as everyone will have to pay private school rates, and those who can't afford it would have to have their kids simply miss out on education altogether (unless a charity or religious group pick up the slack).
We could even get UNICEF or World Vision in to look after the new permanent underclass so people in other countries would be able to sponsor an poor child in America. It really could work, as long you yourself never go through a rough patch in life and end up with the "poor people".
Posted in: Protesters across U.S. decry anti-union efforts in Wisconsin
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donkusai
Are you saying they weren't catching dolphins and selling them to overseas aquariums in the 1500's and 1600's? But they must have been! It's their tradition, after all!
On a more serious note, if they make so much money from the live dolphins and so little from the meat, then why don't they just herd them into the shore like they do now, sell the ones the aquariums want, and let the rest go. That way, they get the money, they keep their "tradition" of the hunt, the aquariums get the dolphins, and there's no slaughter. Surely that would be a solution that would satisfy most people.
Posted in: One year after 'Cove' Oscar, activists shift tactics
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donkusai
It's kind of sad indictment of the times that funding for schools can be so easily cut while they won't even look at prison funding. I can't help feeling that, in the longer term, with lower quality education, that this will increase the need for more prison cells in the future and cause more financial stress later.
Posted in: Facts overshadowed in debate over union bill in Wisconsin
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donkusai
...and his defense team already have an appeal planned. This will most likely take a few years before it is all played out. Until it does, Assange won't be leaving the U.K., and he certainly won't be attending a forum in Denver. Seems a little disingenuous of Bush to use this as an excuse to not attend.
Posted in: Bush nixes Denver visit, citing invite to Assange
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donkusai
So are you're saying that "rightists" don't actually want to see him extradited, only feminists do? That seems to go completely against the comments I've read here, including your own. You do, after all, describe Assange as "a rapist and a total cad". Seems strange that you wouldn't want to then see him extradited. I think you're getting your message mixed up.
Posted in: Bush nixes Denver visit, citing invite to Assange
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donkusai
Which is also when the Bahrain protesters were shot at and some killed. The news here covered this exact question and the experts they interviewed clearly said the spike in oil prices is a result of the general unrest in the entire region, but mostly from the fear that it may move into Saudi Arabia. OPEC has already said they have more than enough capacity to cover Libya's world oil contribution, but is Saudi Arabian oil is disrupted, then we'll have real issues.
Posted in: Gadhafi's vows to fight to 'last drop of blood'