Posted in: Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin presumed dead after plane crash outside Moscow See in context
What a waste of an airplane. Couldn’t they just have pushed him out of a hotel room or spiked his vodka with plutonium ?
16 ( +21 / -5 )
Posted in: Digital minister Kono to return 3 months' pay over My Number issues See in context
Keeping the salary and fixing the system immediately would be preferable
7 ( +7 / -0 )
Posted in: Italy stands ready to host as Musk talks up Zuckerberg rumble See in context
Man-child vs. Conspiracy Theorist. Just what the world needs. What an embarrassment
0 ( +0 / -0 )
Posted in: Lisa Marie Presley died from small bowel obstruction caused by bariatric surgery, coroner says See in context
JeffLeeToday 09:20 am JST
Doesn't seem life a life threatening condition, especially when you can afford the best healthcare in the the land.
Believe me it is life-threatening, I had it 5 years ago caused by adhesions from previous abdominal surgery. It can cause intestinal strangulation and cut-off of blood flow. I was in great pain, in the ER Tuesday night, emergency surgery Wednesday morning
3 ( +3 / -0 )
Posted in: Watered-down LGBTQ bill shows how far Japan's Diet is out of step with its society – and history See in context
Thought I'd comment before the thread is blocked. LGBT rights and same-sex marriage are relatively new issues but but societies and people are changing all the time. Slavery was common throughout most of human history and considered by some societies as necessary to increase wealth or keep society functioning. Today you cannot name a country that allows de jure slavery in law.
Until 1967 interracial marriage in some parts of the USA was illegal. A black man who wanted to marry a white woman would just have to cry and and claim unfair discrimination before the Supreme Court abolished the laws.
Homosexuals have existed throughout history but LGBT as an identity is more recent, only being recognized from the 20th century. When the gay rights movement started in earnest in the 1970s there was backlash from some people who claimed gays wanted to "groom" kids with parades and in schools to increase their number since they couldn't do so naturally (the same arguments are being used today). I remember singer Anita Bryant's campaign to ban gay teachers in California through a referendum. It failed. We don't need parades or schools to make gay people, we have plenty of straights who give birth to them. Ancient Sparta and Mesopotamia managed to produce plenty of homosexuals without parades, as far as I know from my history books.
Some claim the Bible says marriage is a union between one man and one woman. It also acknowledges incest and polygamy. I, like millions of others, am not Christian and do not believe in the Bible and do want laws based soley on its precepts.
In Japan homosexuality has also been around for centuries (just read "Comrade Loves of the Samurai" written by Saikaku Ihara in the mid 17th century)
The subject of same-same marriage comes up every year in my university classes and ALWAYS gets about 95% support, sometimes 100. Unfortunately for now, most of them don't vote and we are stuck with a group of very old men with very insular views running the country. That will eventually change.
I don't want special rights. I just want my partner to be at my side if I'm in hospital near death, to have access to my finances when I'm gone, etc.
8 ( +16 / -8 )
Posted in: Japan enacts watered-down LGBT understanding law See in context
I've been with my Japanese partner for 24 years, living together since 2005. We have no guaranteed rights (banking, health care decisions, taxes, inheritance, etc.) I've left everything to him in my will and taken other steps to try and transfer my assets to him, hoping the authorities won't make a fuss about it.
We got the new Tokyo Domestic Partnership which came out last November, but it really doesn't guarantee anything at all, just a statement of our relationship and lots of "urging" for hospitals and other institutions to follow our wishes.
This new bill is also toothless, but it's at least a step in the right direction, in my opinion. People and societies evolve and some are slower than others to do so. I think Japan will eventually get around to legalizing same-sex marriage, but probably not till I'm long gone (I have a terminal illness, so that might be soon!)
11 ( +23 / -12 )
Posted in: House OKs debt ceiling bill to avoid default; sends Biden-McCarthy deal to Senate See in context
Out of 213 Democrats 161 voted against it and 52 in favor. 222 Re
where are you getting this information? Every news outlet reports the following:
republicans: yes 149, no 71
democrats: yes 165, no 46
the vote was also cast live on TV and is in the congressional record showing those numbers
0 ( +1 / -1 )
Posted in: House OKs debt ceiling bill to avoid default; sends Biden-McCarthy deal to Senate See in context
Exactly what it is. So why most all the Dems voted against Biden’s deal?
Perhaps you didn't read the vote count:
Republicans Yat 149, Nay 71
Democrats: Yay 165, Nay 46
6 ( +7 / -1 )
Posted in: IOC says negative public opinion no threat to Tokyo Olympics See in context
Breathtaking arrogance
72 ( +73 / -1 )
Posted in: Tokyo Olympic head says Bach visit to Japan now unlikely See in context
"It would quite tough for him to come now"
They can't even let in one person now but expect to receive thousands of athletes, officials, and staff in 11 weeks?
25 ( +25 / -0 )
Posted in: Tokyo reports 414 coronavirus cases; nationwide tally 2,832 See in context
No testing, no vaccine, what do they expect is going to happen?
26 ( +30 / -4 )
Posted in: Trump pardons former top strategist Bannon See in context
One criminal pardoning another criminal
15 ( +19 / -4 )
Posted in: Trump plans to depart Washington the morning of Inauguration Day See in context
Trump's rallies at stadiums are cheerful, peaceful and cordial. Everybody basically cheers and has a good time.
The only security needed are the guys that keep adoring fans at a safe distance from the podium.
Meanwhile, Biden's inauguration will have to be a fortress.
Which leader is truly more popular?
Biden's inauguration will look like a fortress because of threats from all those cheerful, peaceful and cordial folks who tried to stage a coup on January 6
Which leader is more popular? The one who got 7 million more votes than the other guy.
20 ( +24 / -4 )
Posted in: Trump's personal lawyer reveals name of mystery client: Sean Hannity See in context
What a great lawyer this Cohen guy is. Only 3 clients, works for free, and even pays his clients' blackmail money out of his own pocket
2 ( +2 / -0 )
Posted in: Tokyo can learn from Pyeongchang's weather, transport tests See in context
The games are held in July-August because US television network NBC pays a huge amount of money to broadcast them and can dictate when they are held. September-October would interfere with ratings for popular US sports such as baseball, pro football, and college football.
18 ( +18 / -0 )
Posted in: Pence slams report on possible 2020 presidential groundwork See in context
I don't think I've ever seen an incumbent President not run.
Lyndon Johnson, 1968.
4 ( +4 / -0 )
Posted in: Malaysia offers up to $1,000 for best 'gay prevention' video See in context
Astonishing ignorance and amazing that a sovereign government would waste time and money on such nonsense. The Middle Ages are still alive and well in some parts of the world! But reminds me of a quote I once read: There will always be those who try to deny human nature
9 ( +10 / -1 )
Posted in: As GOP schism grows, Trump attacks fellow Republicans See in context
Hard to drain the swamp when you're in the swamp!
7 ( +7 / -0 )
Posted in: California hamburger restaurant chain Umami Burger to open 1st Tokyo store on Friday See in context
I remember paying 12 cents (about ¥15) for White Castle hamburgers (if you could call them that) last century ...... Now we have Truffle Burgers and "Manly" Burgers for well over ¥1000. My, how times have changed!
4 ( +5 / -1 )
Posted in: Trump claims Obama had phones wiretapped; Obama denies it See in context
Buffalo Springfield said it best: "Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid ...."
3 ( +3 / -0 )
Posted in: When you drink coffee or tea in Japan, do you prefer the chains like Starbucks, Tully’s, Doutor, etc, or do you prefer the traditional “kissaten?” See in context
I like Segafreddo Zanetti, an Italian chain. Branches in Shinjuku, Roppongi, Shibuya and a few other places. Better coffee (in my opinion) than Starbucks et al. at slightly higher prices. No smoking sections on different floors and not too crowded on weekday mornings.
1 ( +1 / -0 )
Posted in: Trump unleashes Twitter attack against civil rights leader; protests begin across U.S. See in context
"Democrat Clinton received 2.9 million more votes than Trump but lost the Electoral College vote".
"California, NY and Mass. don't decide the call or the election for the rest of the country".
But 80,000 voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan do, apparently.
1 ( +4 / -3 )
Posted in: Opera 'Aida' at Tokyo Dome canceled See in context
I saw Aida years ago in Tokyo Dome. Awful sound, poor viewing angles. Wish I could've gotten a refund like these ticket holders!
0 ( +0 / -0 )
Posted in: Atsuko Maeda's film canceled after studio goes bust due to Senkaku dispute See in context
Hope Maeda doesn't feel she has to cut all her hair off!
3 ( +7 / -4 )
Posted in: Sapporo restaurant fines customers who don’t finish every last bite See in context
Weird and not my idea of pleasant dining experience, but the article clearly states the rules are explained to the customers before they order the dish, so I don't quite get all the comments about bullying and suing for extortion. Presumably if you felt that way, you wouldn't order it?
10 ( +12 / -2 )
Posted in: Tokyo opens 2020 Olympic bid campaign in London See in context
Don't know about the lack of English menus but the heat didn't bother people in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics because they opened on October 10th - quite different from August. My bet is on Istanbul as the Olympic committee will be able to bring the games to a booming, secular, Muslim-majority country that straddles both Europe and Asia and part of the world that hasn't hosted before.
0 ( +1 / -1 )
Posted in: 2 dead, 13 hospitalized after choking on mochi in Tokyo See in context
15 people hospitalized out of the no doubt hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who ate the stuff? Unfortunate, but I wonder how many people choked on other types of foods on Tuesday and Wednesday.
3 ( +4 / -1 )
Posted in: A Japanese woman’s guide for getting a date See in context
Suggestion 1: Owning a cell phone "for ages" and barely able to use it? I guess that would make her look dumb ......
2 ( +2 / -0 )
Posted in: Journalist urges need to tone down recent wave of xenophobic hate rhetoric
Posted in: Stay or go? Pacific Islanders face climate's grim choice
Eating invasive animals is a win-win,if they are hunted ethically.
Posted in: Cutting back on meat doesn't have to mean going without protein