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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yabits
If, on the other hand, Obama is setting the American people up for a major change in US policy, anticipating that neither Karzai nor Zardari is going to last very long, he is bluffing very well right now behind all of these fancy phrases.
Posted in: Obama expresses regret for Afghan civilian deaths
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yabits
I generally support President Obama, but this is a statement of wishful thinking (read: foolishness) in the extreme.
Examining the "cooperation" that Obama speaks of, we find in the cooperative Karzai a "leader" with the support of a dwindling number of Afghanis and who would likely not be in power without substantial American protection.
Similarly, Pakistan's Zardari, who can make no claim to being a popular leader, has no control over vast portions of his own country as well as over its military. A military coup -- which Pakistan has regularly -- will certainly bear this out, and would give Zadari no more than a year at the most before events overtake him.
Since a growing majority of Afghans and Pakistanis are not cooperating with Karzai and Zardari (respectively), touting all of this "cooperation" does nothing except to prey upon the gullibility of the average American.
Posted in: Obama expresses regret for Afghan civilian deaths
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yabits
I suspect a warlord will do them better than a YACA. (Yet Another Clueless American, who thinks they know better what the Afghans need.)
Posted in: Afghan President Karzai registers for re-election
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yabits
Fleeing to where? Iceland? Russia? "Old" Europe? Japan?
Posted in: Obama: New Justice will combine 'empathy and understanding'
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yabits
I hear they're in line for a merger with Fiat.
Posted in: Pennsylvania's Specter switches parties, bolstering Senate Democrats
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yabits
Not to mention the wonderful Italian amari.
Amaro Montenegro, Ramazzotti amaro, Averna, Fernet Branca, Cynar, and so many other local varieties, very much resembling the small brewers of sake in Japan.
Posted in: Oda, Amami enjoy perks of filming in Italy
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yabits
Yes, if someone reads a legal opinion from a case in another democratic society and finds that it has merit, I see no problem in citing it in the formation of an opinion here. Ideas transcend boundaries. Our own constitution can point to many foreign sources as influences.
I don't have the arrogance to presume what "true justice" is. Only that the attempt to understand and act with empathy can point us in that direction. The problem with many conservatives is that they think they know what is best for everyone. I make no such claim.
Posted in: Obama: New Justice will combine 'empathy and understanding'
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yabits
Correction on my previous post: Only 2 of the 9 justices in the Plessy case were Democratic appointees. the rest were Republican.
Posted in: Obama: New Justice will combine 'empathy and understanding'
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yabits
Oh, no question about it. There are plenty of Republican fingerprints on that decision, as well the Plessy one. Most of the judges involved in the case were Republican appointees, and the key influencer was the Republican governor of California and 1948 Republican VP nominee, Earl Warren.
As for Plessy, only 7 out of the 9 sitting justices in the case were appointed by a Democrat -- and very conservative one at that. The rest were Republicans.
Posted in: Obama: New Justice will combine 'empathy and understanding'
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yabits
Because wisdom, empathy, and understanding does not originate with the Constitution. The founding fathers did not spend a lot of time quibbling over "Locke said this," or "Voltaire says that." In essense, because they didn't have a constitution with "original intent" to force upon themselves, their minds were free to reach their own conclusions.
The Court's worst decisions -- Plessy, Korematsu, et. al. -- have come about as a result of where "constitutionality" trumped basic understanding.
As to conservatives stiking back once again: Yes, ignorance does spring eternal.
Posted in: Obama: New Justice will combine 'empathy and understanding'
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yabits
The scenario the Molenir is accurately describing takes empathy and understanding back at least 2,000 years to Christ's story of the Good Samaritan. Those who passed by the person in dire need at the side of the road stopped and tried to figure out how much it would cost them to help the person out, as well as rationalizing (without knowing the facts) as to how that person came to be in that condition. The good Samaritan simply took direct action to do the right thing.
Posted in: Obama: New Justice will combine 'empathy and understanding'
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yabits
This is an important fact and one that bears repeating.
Becoming complacent is the not the right response to gathering storm clouds.
Posted in: Do you think health authorities around the world have over-reacted to the new flu strain?
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yabits
sailwind writes: "Context once again you have to view the whole thing in context and not cherry pick the facts to suit your point."
We are here honoring the legacy of Mr. Kemp -- may he rest in peace. The "bleeding heart" part of him I could well relate to.
The problem with your statement is that no human being can understand the complete context of anything. And so we all draw our lines and end up "cherry-picking facts" to support our positions.
Not wanting to put words in your mouth, we both might agree with the statement that "all things being equal, the lower the tax rate the better." The problem is that, as you have pointed out, not all things are equal. A high tax rate has not and will not -- ipso facto -- hinder a nation from achieving prosperity provided certain conditions are met.
The difference between us is that you believe that working on the tax rate will achieve ultimate fairness. I believe that working on issues of fairness and equality first will ultimately bring about the optimum method of taxation.
Posted in: Jack Kemp, former quarterback and VP nominee, dies
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yabits
My memory must be failing me. In regards to this topic, I do recall bringing up and endorsing the worthy idea of looking to and learning from legal proceedings of the other advanced democracies.
I didn't say it was a narrow issue. I said that applying it to empathy tends to narrow what empathy is all about.
Conservatives, it seems, always want to take what appears to be the easy an dirty way out of things. "Just lower taxes and everything else will work itself out." "Just arm everyone and give them the right of carrying out deadly force against others, according to their own judgment of a situation, and things will be much better."
The job of building a decent society is much tougher than that. Judges with the qualities of empathy and understanding know this.
Posted in: Obama: New Justice will combine 'empathy and understanding'
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yabits
Another terrific choice would be Yale Law professor Akhil Amar Reed, author of many perceptive books and articles on the Constitution.
For example, "Original intent for liberals."
http://www.slate.com/id/2126680/
Posted in: Resistance to Obama high court pick may be modest
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yabits
I'm a swimmer and do a mile at my local aquatic center nearly every day. By lap number 60, I can really feel the goggles that I've been using, and therefore I look forward to putting these goggles to the test.
The real test, however, is if they can really keep the water out when the swimmer pushes off during turns. And how long their water-tight qualities will last. Chlorine has a way of causing things to deteriorate rapidly, and the goggles I currently use have lasted for over 2 years.
Posted in: Swimming goggles
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yabits
The reality is that the bishops take the theological position that a human embryo is a person who is entitled to constitutional protection under law. A position further "enhances" by the doctrine that the person making the claim is "infallible."
This flies in the face of the simple biological fact that around 70% of fertilized embryoes are naturally flushed out of a woman's body as a result of either not attaching to the uterine wall or attaching improperly. The "author" of that flushing process -- to the extent that you believe in such things -- is therefore demonstrating by example that life up to a certain point is very expendable.
The church would be less hypocritical if they used the power of prayer to wish that others would choose life. Life can only be a choice when a clear choice does exist -- something that the Catholics would like to deny others IF they had the power. Hey, you run afoul of Catholic doctrine when you choose to use birth control.
Posted in: Notre Dame's Obama invitation riles Catholic bishops
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yabits
sailwind:
Folks will have to explain how the US economy grew so dramatically after WWII with the highest marginal tax rate in the 90% range. Or, in more recent history, how the tax increases enacted by Clinton and the Democratic Congress in 1993, led to one of the largest, most-consistent periods of economic growth in our history -- making 100% the predictions of those like Kemp, who said that the increases would drive us back into the recession that hit us in the early 1990s.
I do not believe there is a single magic bullet with regards to taxes, flat or otherwise. Wanting something to be true does not make it so.
Posted in: Jack Kemp, former quarterback and VP nominee, dies
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yabits
First of all, I don't want the valuable discussion on taxation to obscure the sadness I feel on losing Mr. Kemp. I always liked and respected him and never doubted that his heart was in the right place, even when the sentiments didn't always translate into sound policies.
I think Jack is smiling down at the fact that folks like us want to discuss what was so passionately important to him and to the country.
I've always a gut-level respect for towns on the ropes, like Buffalo. And its football team.
Posted in: Jack Kemp, former quarterback and VP nominee, dies
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yabits
Now, now boys...
One of those overly-simple truisms that, upon a bit of inspection, turns out to have serious flaws. For example, the level of an increased tax on alcohol required to cause an alcoholic to drink less would need to be ludicrously high. Raising the tax only marginally would have no effect. That is because there is still plenty of "reward" aside from the tax.
Likewise the supply-side voodoo that Kemp believed in and which the real world has proven false. The logic goes like this: cut taxes and revenues will increase. Yes, and if you whip a horse it will run faster...for awhile. But only a fool would believe the progression of the logic to its absurd conclusion: That max revenues will come to government when taxes are cut to zero.
Posted in: Jack Kemp, former quarterback and VP nominee, dies