JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
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likeitis
Oh, and my wife says they were planning on getting married anyway.
Posted in: Downtown's Matsumoto announces shotgun marriage to ex-weathergirl
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likeitis
"Shotgun marriage" is not a good translation for "dekichatta kekkon" AT ALL.
Quips aside, he is taking his responsibilities, and good on him.
Posted in: Downtown's Matsumoto announces shotgun marriage to ex-weathergirl
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likeitis
True, but among responses to it, there are good and bad ones. In my humble opinion, opponents need to attack abortion from the other end of the stick rather than this head on approach. And Obama suggested as much:
But that takes work. And the anti-abortion crowd seem to want a neat package and a fast-food approach to this, rather than the work and drudgery it will take to do it as best as can be done. There are not nearly enough of these anti-abortion people adopting. They seem to think that just by banning abortion, all will be well with the world. Hardly.
But if they lightened up on their anti-sex stance, and started teaching sex ed as a class where you learn how to have safe sex properly (rather than a class where you are made to fear sex), then the number of unwanted pregnancies could get reduced by a wide margin. Also, easy access to condoms and the morning after pill should be implemented in schools.
Meanwhile, the anti-sex people can still preaching their anti-sex slogans and morality. But if ripping out the seatbelts of the car does not prevent your teen from "borrowing" it in the middle of the night, then you have just put him/her in grave danger as much as they have themselves. This is what so many in the anti-abortion crowd are doing.
And those lessons learned as a teen carry into adulthood, just like lessons NOT learned in one's teens carry into adulthood. It is simply amazing how many adults are confused about proper condom usage, and those ignorant adults also have unwanted pregnancies. And we have these irrational fundie style people to blame for it.
Posted in: Obama storms into abortion debate in Notre Dame speech
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likeitis
Everybody has a right to protest skip, they even have a right to make fools of themselves while doing it.
Posted in: Obama storms into abortion debate in Notre Dame speech
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likeitis
No surprise. He is a fella. And being Japanese, he probably does not have anyone giving him any flak about being a fella.
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likeitis
I was talking about some people on the anti-side of the abortion debate. Most posters know that.
Posted in: Obama storms into abortion debate in Notre Dame speech
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likeitis
Well. Surprise surprise!
Posted in: Israeli PM, Obama have different views on Palestinian state
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likeitis
What crime are you suggesting he be caned for? Again, I think its not for taking the pictures, but for "possibly" having a sexual interest in little girls even if its worst manifestation is taking pictures from a distance. In other words, I think you want to cane him for what is in his head, not what he did. Am I right?
You know what happens when you play with matches, don't you?
Posted in: 57-year-old Saitama tax chief arrested for taking pictures of naked 9-year-old girl
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likeitis
This is quite a good opinion actually. If only the Christian right would keep it at that, and stop meddling with this issue in the legal sense. I prefer the fire and brimstone preaching by far. Let God sort it out.
And if certain groups, such as religious ones, want to forbade abortion among themselves, I say, have at it. Fine with me. My trouble is when they foist their beliefs on everyone NOT in their group. They are welcome to debate though.
A good example of the senseless emotionalism of many on the anti-abortion side. Nobody is killing this fool's fetus's, unless this fool is a he who is impregnating women who don't want to bear his children. Can't see the problem there?
These people are so often opposed to abortion, opposed to condoms, opposed to sex education... they won't be happy until sex just disappears and baby's come out of test tubes I suppose. Or until sex is just no fun at all. We can have sex in a controlled environment and be very certain of near zero bad effects, even pregnancy. But these people just want to rob us of every option for some reason. Why? So they can have more reasons for outrage to fuel their emotionalism? Bizarre people really. Its like they are opposed to traffic signals, and because of all the accidents without them, they are also opposed to cars. Well, cars are not going to disappear and neither is sex. So better do something to guide the situation rather than think the solution is widespread roadblocks.
I have to agree with tkoind2 that so many of them are all upset about fetuses, but the bombs dropped on civilians in war? Unavoidable collateral damage! Upside-down, inside-out and backwards too! Many bizarre people over there, really.
Posted in: Obama storms into abortion debate in Notre Dame speech
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likeitis
I first stage of the drill was the flyover of the sometime Air Force One!
Posted in: New York conducts huge drill for terror strike
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likeitis
TJrandom: I see three knee supporters, one on each row - an indication that the exercise is too strenuous.
It might be a better indicator of Japanese hypochondria.
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likeitis
Has anybody seen the goal post?
Posted in: Obama: Too soon for yet more troops in Afghanistan
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likeitis
I do not envy your agreement. Frankly, I am glad you are on the other side of the fence. There are a scant few here who welcome your agreement. You tend to undermine those whose side you are on. Just wait and see who rushes to your defense on that.
The first two I can accept your opinion on. I am no expert. The last one though! The long bloody history of Islamic imperialism! If I were looking so far back in history, and seeking to punish the worst offenders in imperialism, I would have to nuke Britian and the city of Rome immediately! My God but you have no sense of perspective.
Posted in: Afghan-U.S. patrol ambushed at school in 'Valley of Death'
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likeitis
Well the terrain would have a lot to do with the situation on the ground. The geopolitics wouldn't so much. For example, if someone is arming them, what is important is not so much WHO is arming them, but the fact that they are being ARMED. I only say I don't care as far as the comparison is concerned for the purposes of the comparison. And the purpose is understand what will be the outcome.
No, I do not care about making a political point. I am not running for office. I am not backing anyone. What I care about is the truth, and I am trying to get as much of the truth out there as I can, as I see it.
What I see is a hopeless situation. In fact, I find the Afghans to be even more hopeless than the Vietnamese. And it kills me to see more of our people die because people keep wanting to try out their latest bright idea, or dig the hole deeper trying to fill it.
From trying to fight a like a traditional war, to switching to counterinsurgency stategies. Yet another similarity.
Its more like they can assert their will more effectively. But maybe that is just semantics to you.
I am sure there is a lot I am not seeing. I am trying to keep it simple, rather than get bogged down in details.
It seems to me there are cardinal rules that all the hope and strategy in the world are just not going to change. We tried to violate them in Vietnam in vain. And so we are in Afghanistan.
The whole key to a government and a military working are the people of that government and military. The people have to want it bad enough to succeed. They cannot be puppeteered to success.
We already beat the Taliban back once. If the Aghan people wanted it bad enough, we would not have to do it twice. Which brings us to another thing about morale. It does not matter half as much the state of our morale as the morale of the Afghans on our side. Every day we fight their battles for them is another day they get to thinking they can relax. They had their chance.
Afghanistan one big hotbed of constant feuding. And now we are trapped in it. We are not going to change those people. Its hopeless. All I want is for our boys to come home, and let the Afghans go back to killing eachother instead of ours. I am not going into the back room and high fiving the brotherhood on yet another push of political agenda. I just want what is best out of what is possible. And Afghanistan is not possible, not in any long term sense. I am only afraid you will take that as some sort of challenge. Its not. Its my analysis only.
I hope I will have to eat my hat on this one, but I don't think its going to happen. It seems to me that the cost/benefit ratio already went to hell a long time ago.
Posted in: Afghan-U.S. patrol ambushed at school in 'Valley of Death'
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likeitis
It does not matter. They are not the yardstick we should measure ourselves by.
They might be more than happy to fight with swords if we do the same. I think they expect to die, but not so uselessly as to fight helicopters with arrows.
Posted in: U.S. missiles kill 12 at Islamic school in northwest Pakistan
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likeitis
Spoken like a true war lover. Your insistence that we reinvent the wheel describing every conflict afresh only assures that we never get a general understanding of it until it is long over. What a great way to nip criticism in the bud! No thanks, and no way. Such a case by case analysis is necessary for the fighters of the war as is the comparisons. But for us people not fighting it but analyzing from afar, comparisons are essential to understanding and plenty good enough for our purposes.
The terrain? Do you think any of the critics here gave a second thought the terrain being different??? And if you can't find similarities in the political situation, then you just are not trying, and/or your definition of "politics" is woefully limited. Its not just about being divided into north and south, or communism being totally different from a government based on Shariah! Dig deeper.
Much, much better. But you are overly focused on general details that amount to mere details. We critics are more focused on the general situation, like their morale and our morale, their goals and our goals, their general methods of fighting (guerilla) and ours (bomb the crap out them).
I care about the world political situation about as much as the terrain for this comparision!
How is the Taliban so different from the Vietcong? You think a little black book instead of a little red one is a significant difference? Look, they are/were too dedicated to a cause to chuck in the towel. There is/was no talking them down or appeasing them or expecting a genuine truce. It is/was their country, and they would/will brook no foreign influence imposed by force. They are/were internally focused. They are willing to die for their cause, and kill all who oppose them. They speak the local lingo and mix with the locals easier. They also give the locals ultimatums easier and with great effect, because there is zero chance they will disappear like we might one fine day. And we are/were talking about winning the hearts and minds of the people against them, despite all their advantages against us. Again, we are believing that Coca-cola and stories of freedom will carry us through.
And comparisons to the Russian and British stories are most welcome by me. I would say those comparisons won us our initial successes. But you know what they called the Russian experience in Afghanistan? Russia's Vietnam. And for good reasons.
Posted in: Afghan-U.S. patrol ambushed at school in 'Valley of Death'
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likeitis
I will agree that dropping bombs from a plane when civilians will likely die and you have a near zero chance of being shot down is the anti-thesis of courage.
I am not sure whose actions exactly you are calling honorable, but I can tell you that if I were a poor Afghan the guys in the planes would be last oens I have on ounce of respect for. Suicide bombing of civilians is also worthy of scorn, but at least it can be said it took some balls even if it also took a scumbag.
Posted in: U.S. missiles kill 12 at Islamic school in northwest Pakistan
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likeitis
How does "sacrificing oneself" equate to terrorism??? I saw a movie where a grenade got lobbed into a foxhole and one guy laid on it and sacrificed himself to save his buddies. You saying he was a terrorist???
Look man, sacrificing oneself in battle is a whole other ball of wax to sacrificing oneself to kill a bunch of civilians. One is terrorism and the other most certainly is not.
You guys are disgusting the way you see what you want to see and equate things as willy-nilly as is convenient for you at the time.
Posted in: U.S. missiles kill 12 at Islamic school in northwest Pakistan
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likeitis
Triumvere: Iraq was the new "Vietnam" a while a go... now it's Afghanistan?
Actually, it was Afghanistan first.
And yeah, it is actually possible for conflicts in two different countries to bear a striking resemblence to eachother at the same time.
But if you object to one or the other being compared to Vietnam, perhaps you could name the conflict it more resembles.
Posted in: Afghan-U.S. patrol ambushed at school in 'Valley of Death'
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likeitis
Examples please. Any donkey carts laden with gun powder getting blown up in front of foreign occupier military bases? How about the old suicide barrel backpack, predecessor to the suicide vest, where a guy blows himself up in a market place via a barrel of gunpowder on his back? Trireme hijackings?
Posted in: U.S. missiles kill 12 at Islamic school in northwest Pakistan