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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jeancolmar
The reason people are "forced" to accept the Holocaust, particularly in Germany, Austria and France, because it happened and because it was so huge and ugly and because it has affected everyone in this world in some way (if you are not a survivor, you know a survivor and someone who perished, if you don't know either, you know someone who knows one or the other or both).
The question has to be asked is not whether the Holocaust happened but why intelligent people like Bishop Williamson deny it, even to the point of self-destruction.
Posted in: Holocaust-denying bishop scuffles with reporter
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jeancolmar
Exactly right. What is the motive? There were obvious motives behind the rightist terrorist attacks on the Asahi. The Asashi was (and is) a prime target of rightist abuse. But what has NHK done to offend the right-wing? You will need to pop a few brain cells to try to come up with an answer. It fact, as a virtual mouth piece for the LDP and the emperor system NHK has done nothing that would offend even the worst right-winger.
I could be wrong, of course. But my guess is that this person is a typical loner who doesn't have a either a steady job or girlfriend and has some deep-seated obsession with a lost dog or something.
Posted in: NHK faces terror scare for second day
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jeancolmar
What could have possibly inspired a poll like this? Is this a major issue? I do wish Japan Today had provided a third possible answer: "I don't know." The truth be known, I don't know. I have friends who are vegetarians, fisheatarians and meateatarians and we all get on fine.
A famous vegetarian was George Bernard Shaw who lived into his late 90s. When preparing dinners at his home for his meat-eating friends Shaw would write on this invitations, "The corpse is being served at...."
It is a fact that meat-eaters leave a bigger environmental footprint than vegetarians. It is also a fact that humans have been eating meat since the days of the mammoths.
Vegetarianism is dependent on agriculture. So when civilization collapses and we all go back to living in caves, we are going to be hunter / gathers again. This means we'll be meat-eaters first and vegetarians second because of sheer necessity.
But I don't know whether vegetarians are more disdainful of non-vegetarians or the other way around.
Posted in: Which side is more disdainful of the other: Vegetarians or non-vegetarians?
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jeancolmar
The good thing is that Thailand is not a very strong country. Even Australia could sit on the Thai government's head. Bad publicity. Lost tourist dollars. Maybe lost investment. Wouldn't look nice particularly when this guy was jailed for a passage in an obscure book that did not even insult the King directly. Yeah, the King not pity on him. Maybe not quite.
Posted in: Australian author pardoned for insulting Thai monarchy
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jeancolmar
The party is over. Welcome back to American empire at work. China is a major trading partner and it is holding the rotten US economy by the short hairs. What did you expect from Clinton? When it comes to North Korea, which has no real power, Clinton kicked like a sick and toothless dog. (Like a lot of toothless dogs North Korea growled.) In China she was not about to tell her powerful hosts the truth about themselves. It was smiles and gourmet Chinese food. There is nothing new in this. The US has a long history of sucking up to dictatorial regimes, and often installing them in place of pesky democratic governments.
Posted in: Activists shocked at Clinton's stance on human rights in China
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jeancolmar
Another celebrity dim-wit. If you were a mask on a train you are creating a public spectacle have got to expect to be photographed. You are news. So-called portrait rights do not apply. If this moron wanted to go unnoticed he should not have worn his mask. As far as physically attacking the photographer, there is obviously no excuse for that.
I wonder if gaijin can claim "portrait rights" every time some school kid or some hick snaps our picture.
Posted in: The Great Sasuke arrested on suspicion of assaulting man on train
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jeancolmar
Oh gawd, this gets weirder and weirder. Do this sabiwabi if you don't believe me do this: Go to the search engine of your choice and write in or paste "KELTIC KLAN KIRK." You'll get plenty information, including this charming group's website.
Posted in: Argentina orders Holocaust-denying bishop out
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jeancolmar
Okay, I followed up one of Sabiwabi's leads. And, oh boy, there is a lot of crud out there as well. Lots of pretty awful anti-Semitic and Holocaust denying websites. My favorite for sheer idiocy is the KELTIC KLAN KIRK website. It calls George W. Bush "Jew Boy King George II." It also let's you download the Leuchter report. Our friends, the deniers, travel in really fine company.
Posted in: Argentina orders Holocaust-denying bishop out
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jeancolmar
I reiterate that the web has a wealth of information on the Holocaust, including material that refute the Holocaust deniers. There is no reason for anyone to live in ignorance, least of all a public person like the Bishop.
Posted in: Argentina orders Holocaust-denying bishop out
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jeancolmar
I'm getting tired of repeating the same things. If anyone has doubts about the Holocaust they can do an Internet search. You'll get plenty of information. Start with Wikipedia, where it's all laid out in an easy to grasp style.
As for the Bishop, I do not know what his problem is. He is not stupid. He does not seem to be insane, as I first assumed. Yet he believes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as real, and that long-discredited Holocaust denying pseudo-scientific evidence is authentic. He thinks that Jews, Free Masons and liberals are perverting the Catholic Church. He also apparently believes that JFK's assassination and 9/11 were government conspiracies. He also hates The Sound of Music. Williamson's extreme conservatism is no doubt at the root of his problems with the Holocaust, as well as The Sound of Music. He said in his Der Spiegel interview when asked about anti-Semitism: "St. Paul put it this way: The Jews are beloved for the sake of Our Father, but our enemies for the sake of the gospel." He goes on to say that everyone needs the salvation of Christ, including Jews (this an almost word for word paraphrase). The ugly little fact about fundamentalist Christians is that they believe that non-Christians will go to Hell. If you accept this, then anyone who keep the Christians from converting the non-Christians is in league with the devil. That may be the base of our bishop's problem. But how an intelligent and educated man can seriously believe the Leuchter report is beyond me.
Okay, people who know the Catholic Church please tell me this. Even those Williamson was excommunicated in 1988 he continued to work for the church as an educator and administrator. How come the Church did not tell him to pack his bags and get out?
Well, that Williamson is not wanted in Argentina is a healthy sign about Argentina, if you know its history. It long-hid Nazi war criminals and during the 1970s "dirty wars" the country's rulers persecuted Jews, including Jacobo Timerman. Also many hard core Peronists were anti-Semitic, though that was apparently not the case of Juan Peron himself. Argentina has a lot to live down.
Posted in: Argentina orders Holocaust-denying bishop out
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jeancolmar
Jack, the evidence of the Holocaust is out there and overwhelming, as others and I have been pointing out in Japan Today for years. The Bishop spoke of Jews and Masons involved in some sort of conspiracy and used proven bogus evidence to question the Holocaust. That is not reasonable.
The Bishop is the Catholic Church's problem. The Pope has told him to recant and the dude has so far refused. I suppose if you are going to be a full-time career bishop in the Catholic Church you have do what the boss says. Since he hasn't the boss has got to can him or do something else with him.
Holocaust denial is against the rules if you're working for the Catholic Church, and that's fine. As I said I am opposed to outlawing Holocaust denial. It won't make it go away. What is needed is more Holocaust education. And more anti-racist education, because that is the true source of Holocaust denial, not honest scepticism.
Posted in: Should Holocaust denial be a crime?
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jeancolmar
Well I actually don't think Holocaust denial should be a legal crime (however it is a moral crime) but I voted "Yes" to show my distaste for Holocaust denial.
In this tread we have seen again what a frustrating business it is to argue with the Holocaust deniers. Truth and logic don't work with them; they always come back with some fiction like the Nazis were Jewish, etc. or just another pointless denial. It is beneath contempt.
Saying this, criminalizing Holocaust deniers makes them martyrs. It puts civil libertarians in the unfortunate position of defending the rights of these people in the name of freedom of speech. Being criminalized gives the Holocaust deniers power as underdogs in the moral debate over free speech and can make them look legitimate in the eyes of the naive. Best to give them free reign and refute them until they lose any possible credibility.
But having qualified by "yes" with a "no" I have to say I understand why nations that had to live with Nazism--Germany, Austria, France--would outlaw Holocaust denial. The past is still too real and there is a genuine terror that a force like the Nazis might come back.
Of course, it is pleasant to imagine denial of war crimes being outlawed. Jail for the LDP for its lying textbooks. Jail for the American neocon Bush lovers. Jail for the entire Israeli government for its denial of Israel's racist murder of Palestinians. Jail for the Turks for denying the Armenian Holocaust. It won't happen. And it shouldn't. Curtailing freedom of speech creates a climate whereby any act of dissent can be silenced. If I bring up the Armenian Holocaust in Turkey I am a criminal for insulting Turkishness.
Refuting the Holocaust deniers does require you to become educated about the Holocaust. So there is a small good thing to come out of the rantings of the the deniers. A lot of people who would not otherwise become sensitized to the Holocaust do so. Seeing that people do not forget the Holocaust is a very worthy cause.
Posted in: Should Holocaust denial be a crime?
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jeancolmar
Bebert, that is a fantasy. The overpaid CEO is the reality. The fact that those CEOs cannot manage the companies they are being overpaid to manage is also reality.
The US auto companies have had it too good. They wrecked the American public transportation system so that people were forced to buy cars. Then they spent decades building junk. Don't blame the workers, the people who only put the cars together.
Posted in: GM, Chrysler seek billions more, to cut more jobs
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jeancolmar
Welcome to free market capitalism, 2009. GM and Chrysler: Give us more money which we'll pass on to our worthless CEOs while we fire more workers. The Public is feeding a diseased industry that cannot survive on its own. The only humane thing to do is to nationalize GM and Chrysler. Make the bosses work at government wages, don't fire workers, keep the plants open and sell at a loss if necessary to prime the pumps. Eventually with rational planning these loser companies can start making cars that people want.
Simply throwing welfare money at these clowns is a waste of time--and money.
Posted in: GM, Chrysler seek billions more, to cut more jobs
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jeancolmar
There is no mention of a hole. If the money was dug up there has to be a hole. Either that or evidence of fresh earth being turned. Either there was no money or it is still buried. Or all this is fantasy.
Posted in: Police baffled by Y360 million that disappeared from backyard
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jeancolmar
I'd like to see the sequel: "Tokyo Wife."
"Oi!"
Posted in: Tokyo Fiancee
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jeancolmar
Now I have a good reason to visit Kentucky. It want to see the Creation Museum where there are people shown to be living alongside dinosaurs. I might suggest some additions. Like Noah trying to get a Tyrannosaurus Rex on board the Arc. Or how about Jesus ascending to heaven on a Pterodactyl?
Welcome to the 21st century and the intellectually backward the United States.
Hey, evolution is real. Darwin was right, as was Sportin' Life in "Porgy and Bess" who said, "It ain't necessarily so, what they say in the Bible, it ain't necessarily so."
Creationists are a lot like Holocaust deniers. They trump up a lot of fake objections and psuedo-science to try to discredit evolution; and they have big bucks supporting them. All of this contributes to a general ignorance and ultimately intellectual oppression.
Until you have been in the United States for a spell you just cannot know just how suffocating religion is there. It is a quasi-theocracy, with the Treasury Department being the supreme determiner that God exists and that the nation has implicit trust in him or her. In the US you can be anything except an atheist if you want to be President.
The trouble with science is that it has been too kind to religion. It ought to be obvious that the sky God is only a projection of one of our bodily functions: the ability to turn our imaginative thoughts into actual production. But you cannot delve too deeply into the psychology of belief without getting into trouble.
Anyway, I like the idea about the Great Panda being the supreme creator.
Posted in: U.S. churches to discuss evolution vs creation
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jeancolmar
The Headline is a bit unfortunate. Denouncing Holocaust denial should not be a matter of placating the Jews or anyone but reasserting the truth. The only thing that is irritating to me is that the Pope only mentions the 6 million Jews the Nazis murdered and forgets the some 5 million other victims. This is something that the United States Holocaust Museum does not do. In their online Holocaust Encyclopedia that tell you everyone that the Nazis tried to exterminate, starting with political opponents, Socialists, Social Democrats, Communists, trade unionists, etc., and including Roma, the Poles, Russians and other slavs, the mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals and others. For their "Mozaic of Victims" go to http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005149.
The fact is that the Holocaust is even worse than what most people imagine it to be.
This is not to other atrocities, including the recent Israel slaughter of in innocents Gaza.
Back to the Pope, even after having denounced Holocaust denial, he still has Bishop Williamson as an albatross around his neck. The mad Bishop still has recanted and does look like he has a mind to. There is a lesson there about giving jerks a break whist they remain jerks.
Posted in: Pope placates American Jewish leaders with plan to visit Israel
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jeancolmar
Very well put LFRAgain and goodDonkey. The truth has to said, even repeated endlessly. The Pope, for his part, did a good deed the other day by denouncing Holocaust denial in no uncertain terms. He's a guy who is hardly a puppet of the Jews, the Masonic Order or whoever is supposedly trying to take over the world this week.
Posted in: Argentine seminary ousts Holocaust-denying bishop
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jeancolmar
Typos, typos, typos! Tip-toe through the typos and I think my intent is more or less clear!!
Posted in: Argentine seminary ousts Holocaust-denying bishop