JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Financial Advisor
- Select Asset Management KK, Tokyo
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
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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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frontandcentre
"What's it to you, anyway?"
I think that comment summarises your considerable lack of understanding about this situation.
Posted in: Dow plunges after Congress rejects bailout bill
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frontandcentre
I'm not entirely sure that the US or Russians feel that they require the Somalian "government's" blessing to act if and when necessary. If the Somalian "government" had a proper control over its own country, this maritime crime wave would never have happened in the first place. They should make an example of these pirates, because too much compromise will just encourage the others. When a crew is being held, one set of tactics is necessary, but when the pirates are on the open seas and can be properly identified - sink them
Posted in: Somalia says world can use force against the pirates
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frontandcentre
Sarge - I certainly don't agree with them, or you (we call this approach "thinking for yourself"...). Bush is correct on this - or rather Paulson is - but the trouble is that no-one takes Bush seriously at all and the republicans have shown themselves to care more about trying to save their own skins than the national interest.
If you think that this is simply money to rescue Wall Street from its previous bad decisions then you really haven't read enough to understand what's at stake. Further weakening the economy just to spite a small group of overpaid investment bankers is the daftest thing that Congress could effectively vote to do. The markets are so far reasonably sanguine because they are expecting the bill to pass with some modifications, but largely in the same form. To continue to reject it would be suicidal - but can we expect the reps to EVER get something right?
Posted in: Dow plunges after Congress rejects bailout bill
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frontandcentre
Sarge - funny how the one time you disagree with Bush is when he's actually correct. A plan is urgently needed and there are too many misconceptions amongst the general public about this package. As it was described, it's a bale out for main street, not for Wall Street.
But - as ever - we can rely on the GOP in their ignorance to do the wrong thing
Posted in: Dow plunges after Congress rejects bailout bill
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frontandcentre
Sarge: "He thinks Palin can help him get elected"
Posted in: Palin, Biden a lively pairing for VP debate
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frontandcentre
Loki520 - I think we can safely say that only Fox News permits people like Bill O'Reilly to come on an scream at people who don't agree with his deranged views to "shut up". Perhaps if they tried to be a credible new channel - albeit with a right-wing slant - people might take them more seriously. The trouble is that their editors place opinions well before the facts. Most news is fact, not conjecture.
As for your observation on it cutting both ways - sorry, but CNN has a LOT more credibility as an international news channel than Fox News does, because it employs award-winning journalists as well as for the reasons given above. I have never thought of CNN being left-wing in any sense whatsoever - right wingers have a long record of trotting out political bias as an explanation for why honest reporting sometimes makes them look bad
Posted in: Do you think it is OK for media organizations to support candidates in elections or should they remain neutral?
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frontandcentre
In newspaper editorials, I always find it interesting to read the justification for supporting a particular candidate in an election, so I would have to answer that it should be allowed - up to a point.
However, all news sources should be balanced when reporting the facts and arguments surrounding "news" items. This is something that the likes of Fox News have proven to be very bad at - their greatest 'crime' is giving air time to commentators who simply abuse guests and then tell shameless lies to support their bigoted arguments.
Posted in: Do you think it is OK for media organizations to support candidates in elections or should they remain neutral?
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frontandcentre
Alinsky - not sure what a socialist from the UK in the 1980s has to do with the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2008, but I'm sure in your little world it has some relevance...
The GOP are presumably hoping that Palin "takes the fourth"
Posted in: Palin, Biden a lively pairing for VP debate
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frontandcentre
Sarge, Sarah Palin is the biggest liability that the Republicans could have chosen. The Alaskan independence campaigner is clueless about international matters and has so far not given one press conference, so scared are your pals about what she might actually have to say. None of the evidence suggests that she'll be able to do much more than give a massive boost to the Obama-Biden ticket while shooting herself in the foot.
There's plenty of talk of her dropping out and I'd have some respect for McCain if that's what he persuaded this nutcase to do. "For the good of America, and the Free World" as you'd probably say
Posted in: Palin, Biden a lively pairing for VP debate
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frontandcentre
timorborder - you should understand that this is not a simple bail out for Wall Street fat cats as some populist commentators are trying to spin it. It is about providing stability for the financial system which has run into major problems as a consequence of various factors. Poor corporate decision making and simple greed is one aspect of this, but then so are government and central bank policy (keeping interest rates too low and allowing too much credit in the first place) and - dare I say it (as the media usually doesn't) - a failure of personal responsibility amongst consumers who have been spending more than their incomes for too long, especially in the US and the UK.
One way or another, Governments, companies and individuals cannot keep living on credit forever - pay back time always arrives one day or another.
We are in for several years of economic turbulence, and this is likely to represent the end of US dominance of international finance. Watch Asia and the Middle East move in to take control of the world's financial reins from here onwards, as they'll have the strongest banks standing at the end of this...
Posted in: Dow plunges after Congress rejects bailout bill
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frontandcentre
Seems to be an example of Republicans placing their personal electability above the national interest - this from the supposed "flag-waving patriots".
Though it obviously wasn't his idea, as a man familiar with being bailed out himself, Bush has taken the right position on this - the trouble is that he commands so little respect amongst his own party and has such poor communication skills that he couldn't convince them to do the right thing.
Whatever compromise is reached, this is going to hurt the consumer more than he or she expects. Media coverage and chatroom comments suggesting that this is a "bail out for Wall Street fat cats" is completely deluded. This is about the proper functioning of the World's financial systems and America seems to have stuffed it up
Posted in: Dow plunges after Congress rejects bailout bill
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frontandcentre
Palin is such an electoral liability it's untrue, and such a gift to the Obama campaign. McCain would've done better picking almost anybody else as his running mate
Posted in: Subpoenaed Palin aides don't appear at abuse probe
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frontandcentre
The spate of hijackings recently is way beyond a joke. The solution, however, should be quite simple. They should communicate to the pirates that there will be international naval patrols protecting merchant shipping in the area, and that if they do this again, or even come close to another vessel, a gunship will fly over and turn them into instant fish food. If THAT threat doesn't work, then they should launch a land attack combined with airstrikes and destroy their bases.
Posted in: Somali pirates want $20 mil ship ransom; crewman dies
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frontandcentre
If "BPA" thinks the world would be a better place by encouraging the general public to attack anyone they suspect to be a paedophile, his kind of world is not one that I'd like to live in.
Children should and must be protected, but Metropolis does us all a disservice by allowing hotheads like this to tub-thump and exaggerate the threat that a very small number of perverts actually pose. There is a law to protect the innocent - the innocent victim OR the innocent and wrongly accused - and that is what should be properly applied.
Posted in: Stalking the predators
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frontandcentre
USANeoCon - So supporting a president automatically makes you a patriot, even if that president acts against the country's interests? That's absurd. But if you still think Bush is a good president after 8 years of continuous failure, then there's little point in trying to reason with you.
Why should you worry about the Iranians' viewpoint? Well, since Iran is the world's 3rd largest oil producer, and Bush has done nothing but encouraged America's dependence on Middle Eastern oil, you really should care. Before that, however, you should care about what your allies and World opinion thinks about America - and it won't make pleasant reading for you.
Posted in: Iran's leader gives thumbs down during Bush speech at U.N.
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frontandcentre
USANeoCon - you called Bush prudent. Since when was cutting taxes while at the same time increasing government spending require to crippling levels of debt a financially 'prudent' policy? I am starting to doubt that you understand the meaning of the word. Good for you as an individual it may be, good for America it certainly isn't.
The irony is that people like you call yourself "patriots" when you are supporting the destruction of your own country's future prospects and prosperity. Enjoy your Mandarin lessons - you're going to need them
Posted in: Iran's leader gives thumbs down during Bush speech at U.N.
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frontandcentre
Superlib, let's take your points one by one...
Russia invades Georgia - I never heard anyone blame Bush for that, though he did set a precedent in Iraq, didn't he?
The mortgage crisis - hmmm...not entirely, but you have to wonder why the most powerful man in the world made no efforts to stop people giving home loans to hopeless case people without jobs, especially when (like all politicians) he was happy to claim responsibility when things went well.
Iran building nukes - yep, that is very much a consequence of the US policy of describing Iran as part of an empire of "evil" and threatening to attack it, I think we can conclude.
Hotel bomb in Pakistan - yep, US foreign policy under Bush is indirectly to blame there as well. He propped up an unelected dictator there for too long, boosting support for the Islamists and those who opposed international interests. Bombing Pakistani border villages "by mistake" doesn't exactly discourage terrorist retaliation, either.
There's going to be a great big mess for the next President to try and sort out whether he's Democrat or Republican. Mind you, only the same country that elected Bush twice could even contemplate rewarding his party for such massive failures.
Bush will go down as the President who did the most to hasten the decline of the USA as a major and meaningful country in the world
Posted in: Iran's leader gives thumbs down during Bush speech at U.N.
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frontandcentre
USANeoCon - Bush a "prudent president"? You certainly know how to ignore the obvious...
Bush has blown hundreds of billions of your future taxes on destabilising the Middle East and promoting terrorism, allowed the domestic economy to binge on credit, while the USA's national debt has multiplied to a level where the Chinese are going to own half your country within 10 years.
Not most people's definition of "prudent" - more like a man trying to kill off the USA using a suicide debt bomb
Posted in: Iran's leader gives thumbs down during Bush speech at U.N.
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frontandcentre
In the end, if people want to get hold of illegal drugs, they will continue to do so. Marijuana use in moderation is not especially harmful, except for the smoking of it - but smoking is still perfectly legal. I'm definitely not alone in considering that a major anomaly.
Posted in: Should marijuana use be illegal?
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frontandcentre
Surely there should be a third answer option - "Stoned and Indifferent"
Posted in: Should marijuana use be illegal?