JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Confrontation
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U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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4
California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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5
Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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yabits
Bush is mentioned in the article. Obama's speech admitted the harmful parts of "previous" US policy that he is in the process of changing.
Yes, there was something Christ-like about his message that essentially asked his audience the following: "Forgive my predecessor, for he knew not what he was doing."
Posted in: Obama calls for new beginning between U.S., Muslims
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yabits
What I thought was nice was that everyone entered the Cairo auditorium wearing shoes, and they all left with their shoes too!
Effective diplomacy can be likened to a trained technician analyzing and handling a problem. President Obama can present extremely well-reasoned arguments very articulately. I believe there is great power in that. On the other hand, if diplomatic ability is not in your skillset, you become just another untrained monkey with a hammer.
Posted in: Obama calls for new beginning between U.S., Muslims
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yabits
Actually, septemberwhowhe, it is your words that are empty -- empty of any real knowledge, truth, or understanding.
Your ramblings make very little sense, but that is typical of those who are anti-Obama.
Posted in: Obama calls for new beginning between U.S., Muslims
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yabits
Yes, the previous president was so strong, he had people of all nations holding their noses.
Posted in: Obama consults Saudi king on eve of speech in Egypt
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yabits
Just finished watching President Obama's speech in Cairo.
A standing ovation by Egyptians before and after the speech. We can anticipate that the haters in the US will pan the speech just as the Islamic extremists will. Because both factions simply hate the thought of genuine peace and respect amongst peoples.
Posted in: Obama consults Saudi king on eve of speech in Egypt
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yabits
I have no problem with the Majority Leader deferring to the Judiciary Committee -- which as yet to meet on Sotomayor.
Seeing so much Republican ignorance so close at hand causes me to pay it no mind. For example: In Sotomayor's ruling on the 2nd not applying to the states, what legal precedents did she quote in her decision? If a judge can cite appropriate legal precedents, she is not "creating law from the bench," now is she?
Posted in: Sotomayor counters GOP critics over bias claims
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yabits
Is winning hearts and minds of ordinary people in the Muslim world important for American security?
Answering my own question, I think it is of critical importance.
Is there any doubt that President Obama can accomplish this much better than his predecessor?
We see the utter ludicrousness of some people, for whom a "bow" exacts more of price on America than billions upon billions of dollars spent to station troops and everything else needed to support them. (An act which ends up alienating most of the people in the region anyway.)
I bow to you, President Obama.
Posted in: Obama consults Saudi king on eve of speech in Egypt
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yabits
And as we observe the wreckage of financial firms, auto companies and such, we see the results of the vast majority of decisions made by....wait for it... white males! Yes, minorities are involved, but they advance by their demonstrated ability to think like the people they are aping. This is why ideological rigidity is so endemic to conservatism, and anathema to liberals.
People in powerful positions simply find it very difficult to trust people who think differently from them. And subordinates, in order to be successful, mold and shape their thinking to be what "the boss-man wants to hear."
I think it's high time we let people whose life experiences are less likely to lead them to such disastrous decision-making and groupthink into the mix.
Posted in: Sotomayor counters GOP critics over bias claims
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yabits
Here is what Jeffery Rosen has updated, regarding Sotomayor: "In my view the strongest case to be made for Sotomayor is not her inspiring life story: Clarence Thomas overcame similar personal obstacles, but far from giving him a sense of empathy, his background has created a sense of anger and ideological rigidity. Instead, the strongest case to be made for Sotomayor is the idea that the range of her experience--as a trial judge, appellate judge, and commercial litigator--might give her the humility to recognize that courts participate in a dialogue with the political branches when it comes to defining constitutional rights, rather than having the last word. This hope, however, flies in the face of the idea that she will be a liberal counterpart to Antonin Scalia--a fierce and eloquent advocate for liberal views. And she does not have the range of political experience of the politicians Obama considered--Janet Napolitano and Jennifer Granholm. For these reasons, the role she will, in fact, play on the Court is difficult to discern from her record.
"Conservatives are already citing my initial piece on Sotomayor as a basis for opposing her. This willfully misreads both my piece and the follow-up response. My concern was that she might not make the most effective liberal voice on the Court--not that she didn't have the potential to be a fine justice. Questions of temperament are often overlooked, but history suggests that they are the most relevant in predicting judicial success. (Justice Scalia may be a brilliant bomb-thrower, but has failed in his attempts to build coalitions and bipartisan majorities.) Now is the time to think more broadly about the role Justice Sotomayor is likely to play on the Supreme Court, and I look forward to doing that in the weeks ahead.
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/05/26/the-sotomayor-nomination.aspx
Posted in: No filibuster, but Sotomayor battle still looms
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yabits
Yes, all we are viewing is the lack of intellectual integrity of the kneejerk oppoonents of Sotomayor on full display.
Posted in: Sotomayor counters GOP critics over bias claims
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yabits
As long as there exists a tiny percentage of people in Europe who are so politically unsophisticated and unintelligent that they possess a kneejerk hatred of the United States, Obama's words were and are true. But the vast majority of ordinary people in Europe are not viscerally anti-American, and therefore do not apply. Most simply were extremely embarrassed for us at how we over-reacted after 9/11 -- and how we erupted at Europeans (old Europe?) who failed to get behind a president whom they had very little respect for in the first place.
Romney appears to want to carry on that tradition.
Posted in: Romney raps Obama's 'tour of apology'
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yabits
There actually was a script: Al-Qaida's plan to entice the United States to both pull troops out of Saudi Arabia as well as to embroil it in a long, costly war of attrition in the area. Bush followed that plan to a "T."
Posted in: Al-Qaida criticizes Obama's upcoming Cairo speech
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yabits
You can find him under the category: "Mistakes of the past for which the United States must apologize to the world."
Posted in: Al-Qaida criticizes Obama's upcoming Cairo speech
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yabits
An amazingly high portion of the folks who sit on corporate boards and other positions of power. "Set for life" I believe the term is.
Posted in: Sotomayor says she chose word poorly in 2001 speech
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yabits
Yes, the story changed a number of times, just as with any liar's.
When former President Bush presented his "evidence" to the United Nations, and told the American people and the world that he would insist on a UN vote before he would launch an attack, and then promptly reneged on that, it was again the mark of a liar.
It was those kinds of lies -- told on a regular basis -- that served to tear down the image of the United States.
Posted in: Romney raps Obama's 'tour of apology'
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yabits
I'm not an anthropologist but I do know of societies where this is not so.
Sorry, but such judgments about merit are rendered as a result of values formed by people who are accountable to institutions. White supremacy was institutionalized over many, many decades in the US. There was not one day where this all suddenly changed. The change has been gradual, but the fact that it is the 21st century when the first person of Latin heritage is deemed "qualified" for consideration to the Supreme Court says something -- and not against Latinos.
This really serves to make my point. The "some people" who claim outright that Sotomayor is "racist" are a relative handful of whites. And not on the basis of any of Sotomayor's legal decisions, but because of ONE innocuous statement made in ONE speech to a group of young Latinos nearly a decade ago. The power of this tiny fragment of white society and how they get folks like you to give creedence to their looney claims is really quite amazing.
Posted in: Sotomayor says she chose word poorly in 2001 speech
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yabits
Absolutely -- Americans more than Europeans -- mainly as a device to mollify these so-called "moderate" critics at home. You picked up on it and are using it, aren't you? In my view, President Obama is smart enough to know that he could leave himself very vulnerable at home with critics who obsess over tit for tat.
I am more bemused at the notion that there are nations in Europe that have done something against the US to apologize for.
Let's take France, as an example. They told Bush that their intelligence led them to the conclusion that Iraq had no WMD, and that Bush's intent to start a war on those grounds was bogus. For their forthrightness, the French were subjected to these immature American pouting fits of "surrender monkeys" and "freedom fries."
The French turned out to be dead right.
And they should come forward and admit what faults exactly? Not kissing Bush's behind?
Posted in: Romney raps Obama's 'tour of apology'
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yabits
A question for TheQuestion:
In all likelihood, Sotomayor will be approved. Who do you suppose it will be that does NOT respect that decision?
Posted in: Sotomayor counters GOP critics over bias claims
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yabits
You mean better educated citizens than those who don't understand the role played by the Senate Judiciary Committee in the nomination process? As well as the fact that Majority Leader Reid isn't on it?
Once the full Senate receives the recommendation of the Committee, how many decisions do you think the senators should read?
How many are you reading?
Posted in: Sotomayor counters GOP critics over bias claims
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yabits
Was there some reason you specified a "white CEO?" Oh yes, because that is reality. Whatever the rate of homeless and unemployed, minorities suffer it in greater proportion than whites in America. And that's part of the legacy too.
Into this environment steps a Sonia Sotomayor. And the defenders of white privilege are terribly worried that she won't make decisions like a white male.
Posted in: Sotomayor says she chose word poorly in 2001 speech