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hurryharry1 - i second that!

here's an interesting read: h t t p : / / w w w. w s w s .org / articles / 2011 / apr2011 / roya-a29.shtml

this kind of behaviour is constantly promoted in j porn. most porn i've seen here, and i admittedly see tons of it, is rape, coercion, hidden cams, scams, chikans, intimidation. all in one way or the other depict initial resistance from the female, gradually diminishing, ending with supposed pleasure. i find it seriously wrong and have been talking to japanese people about it. girls would be like: "that's because only men watch porn, what do you make of it as male? don't ask me". men are like: "it's all make-believe anyhow, it's not a big deal". this is one cultural aspect i find really disturbing as it brings out unconscious, implied presumptions of male/female relations that seem to run very deep in society. i distinctly remember thinking how once the dust is settled there's definitely going to be a surge in rape/coercion themed porn in evacuation shelters in a year or two, just wait and see

"Dai’s lawyer at his trial, Ming Tian, told the newspaper that he did not expect the appeal to be successful because there was no new evidence."

with lawyer like this who needs prosecutors?! probably state provided and no doubt did his best defending the poor chap, putting his own name and social well-being into jeopardy in the unpopular, highly publicized case. NOT

everyone, even multiple rapists, should have a fair trial and this smacks of anything but

well, one difference in treatment of both disasters is how media and all kinds of spectators were quick to claim Chernobyl spelled the indigment of soviet political and economic model while we don't see that kind of conclusions released in this case.

it could be done on the continent with the help of chinese factories and military in very short notice if our options weren't limited by irrational and thoroughly outdated division of the world into "nation states"

the crisis should override any property "rights" of TEPCO and any sovereignity "rights" of japan. this is a problem of all humanity and all resources must be places at the disposal of an international committee formed especially for this, backed with local teams on the ground. TEPCO and its major shareholders as well as the whole nuclear industry of the world can later be billed for the exercise

if human need and not profit was the basic decision-making standard of society, we wouldn't have one private company dealing with the crises of worldwide consequences. we would have all the nearby (east and SE asia, pacific rim etc) resources like oil and gas tankers, military ships, all of the world experts etc put off whatever they're doing and focus on finding the best solution to this right now, NO MATTER THE COST. of course in a rationally planned society and economy we would never have dozens of nuclear PPs in the most seismic part of the world in the first place. we don't want the "least worst" option or face-(shareholders)-saving plan. we need concrete info, short, mid and long term plans and options and widest possible debate over them.

it's encouraging to see this many people seeing through and calling out the hypocrisy and double standards of the world elite. selective invoking of "humanitarian crisis", "democratic and human rights" etc. is getting really old. hell it was old enough hundred years ago already, when similar crises was unfolding in north africa as well. just don't make the mistake of equating the populations of the belligerent governments with the policies and interests of the ruling classes of their countries and international financial aristocracy. NO TO WAR! NO TO IMPERIALISM! NO TO NEO-COLONIALISM!

GW made an excellent though sometimes neglected point, a far bigger parasite is preying on the society and throwing some leftover crumbs to the union bureacracy. While millions of Americans confront the daily miseries of unemployment, home foreclosure and poverty as a result of the economic crisis, corporate profits are soaring. Walmart, the world’s largest retail chain, announced last week that its profits grew by 27 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, while sales at US stores have declined for the second year in a row. The company made $6 billion in profits in the fourth quarter, up from $4.8 billion a year before and $3.5 billion in the third quarter of 2010. Home Depot posted a 72 percent increase in profits, after sales increased by 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Profits reached $587 million, up from $342 million a year earlier. Hundreds of companies have posted similar figures. The story is the same: sales and revenues have fallen or ticked up slightly, while profits have grown by double digits. The discrepancy between revenues and profits is due to the fact that the“recovery” in corporate balance sheets is built on layoffs and speedups. “A lot of the recent profits are based on the revenue from cost-cutting,” said James L. Butkeiwiz, professor of economics at the University of Delaware, in a telephone interview. Walmart, for instance, cut over 11,000 jobs at its Sam’s Club warehouse stores in January 2010, about 10 percent of the subsidiary’s workforce. Home Depot cut 7,000 jobs in 2009 and shuttered 34 of its Expo home design stores in 2009. Corporate profits reached an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter of 2010, and it is possible that fourth quarter profits, which have not yet been aggregated, were even higher. As a result of these record profits, companies have found themselves with huge stockpiles of cash. US corporations had a record $1.93 trillion in cash and similar assets in December, the last time figures were released. Instead of investing, companies have used this cash to buy back their own stocks, enriching executives and shareholders without creating jobs. In January 2011, stock buybacks reached their highest level since the start of the economic downturn. That month, companies bought back $57 billion in shares, compared to $357 billion for all of last year, according to Trimtabs, the finance data company.

tkoind2, great comments! we must never forget the big picture here, the relation between labor and big business, its historical development and international consequences. even if this or that particular union may be corrupt, it can only reflect on that organization and its leaders, and in no way can mean that workers shouldn't get organized at all. it's probably the time for a new mass rank-n-file organizations that will sweep aside disfunctional and sold-out unions of today and by corageously standing up for the rights of the majority will unite both private and public, blue and white collar, "minority" and "mainstream" workers in defending our basic rights to job and living wages!

it's already spread to Wisconsin though!

satsumasan, great!! loled

the problem is systemic in nature and it is quite natural to blame the system for the state of affairs. in the arab world of about 360 million people over 190 million are under 24! almost 3/4 of them unemployed!!! and we see where that leads. in japan, as long as their grievances do not find a positive outlet through group or class consciousness that directly translates into credible political perspective and action, we will continue to see individual acts of desperation like this, death penalty or not.

praying shows nothing but superstition and lack of knowledge on fundamental laws ruling our world. would you pray for a ball not to fall back down when thrown in the air? it's the same with these people, waste of resources and time. at least in japan they only do it couple of times a year at most...

and for those saying they're only praying for financial success to provide for the needs of their families, have you ever thought about why we need to pray just to have our basic needs met? why is such a fundamental human right as a right to life subject to financial "success"? if we all did more thinking and learning and far less praying and otherwise wishful thinking we could do much better for ourselves as a species.

technological development is already far more advanced than our political and social sciences in general so the only thing i would like the coming decade to bring is closure of that gap. so that we can wonder how could we ever have lived in a society that didn't recognize our right to education, right to decent available housing, right to a living wage job, right to refuse to be mobilized to war etc. as basic and inalienable all human rights!

i love the guy in the middle who's sniffing the hair of the girl in the 1st row

intl: definitely wikileaks exposures! domestic (I presume it is meant in Japan?): maybe not news but we now have a confirmation that political elite cannot within its midst create any progressive or comprehensive movement that would make a difference for average citizen. this being definitely proven by DPJ and others govt's record in 2010. i mean, the "opposition" wins power after what, forever, and then this?! pft

wow, we now have almost 60% of people being worse off than a year before. and the worst thing is, as far as can be seen no improvement is in sight (at least if we remain in the straight-jacket of political elite and financial aristocracy)

i'd like to see the pictures for the rest of the 11 lunar animals. wouldn't be so cute i wager

please stop with this fallacy of equating personal privacy with what wikileaks has been exposing. wikileaks has just brought back to public what always has been public right: these people are paid by our tax money, operate in our name, their decisions affect billions of lives and finally, they are called PUBLIC servants, not private. it has no similarities with any individual's info either in its nature nor in its scope and I can't fathom where does this line of thinking originates from or what can its justification possibly be?!

i think the question should be better formed: In view of what has been happening with WikiLeaks and various file-sharing software, is democracy a lost cause?

that is, shall we allow both domestic policy as well as diplomacy to be taken out of the general public's sphere of influence and interest and give up the right in participating in deciding our destiny or shall we take those rights back?!

i believe mind is like a sort of a hard disk and it needs to cool off during night and sort all the information received during the day, just as you decompose and compress your hard drive. that's why in our dreams we get all sorts of info mixed up, different times and places, seemingly unconnected people etc. basically, the brain sorts recently input info with rarely accessed info etc.

so i believe both consciousness and subconsciousness to be reflextions of reality and not the other way around. they are completely influenced by our "real lives" but have very limited to none influence on reality.

"The man who had been admonished for using his cell phone called the police and accused the other man of assault, alleging that the latter had seized him by the wrist."

OMG, don't say! by the wrist?

"And if the US weren't there and Japan had their own blue water fleet of carriers you'd be crying about Japanese Imperialism."

as if consistently repudiating imperialism wherever it's coming from is somehow wrong?

Speaking to a joint session of Congress on January 18, 1918 as to the principles of peace for the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson stated as the very first point of his Fourteen Points: “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.” He was obliged in part to do this because the rush to war in 1914 had been secured by secret alliances, published by the new communist government of Russia by the time of Wilson’s speech, against Germany by “democratic” France and Britain with the Russian Tsarist dictatorship, agreements which would have been widely opposed by the working class in the period before the spark of war was ignited.

putting information of a private citizen and that of public servants in the same category? these people influence the lives of billions with their backroom secret dealings and alliances they are too afraid of to admit to their own populations! they don't put their own lives on line when starting a war or civil unrest, they count on all of us and our children to fight in their interest! all the while being paid by our taxes and claiming all their doings are for our benefit and with our interests in mind!!! it is this duplicity, this shameless scam that is coming to light. i can see no correlation whatsoever with private info of a regular citizen being breached.

no one supports anarchy and lawlessness. but you will not find me blindly supporting oppressive laws designed to protect the privileged few over majority also. this is the point wikileaks has made and made it very strongly - the interests of the elite are completely opposed to those of the majority! this fact is covered for by most "media" and it is precisely this that is the biggest point these leaks have proven.

the very american revolution that established your republic was taking the system down wasn't it?! you made people's militias to rise in arms against what was then the legal state army. it shook the yoke of british imperialism, aristocracy, eclasiastical authority and in short went against all the entrenched interests and prevalent prejudices. it has issued a thoroughly revolutionary proclamation of human rights and equality as self evident and vowed to protect and uphold them.

The state persecution of Assange—enthusiastically backed by the mass media—is one expression of a far-reaching decay of democracy in the United States and internationally. World governments, led by the United States, are carrying out deeply unpopular policies—the multi-trillion dollar bailout of financial institutions, relentless demands for social austerity and the expanding war and global plunder. The constant proclamations about the need for secrecy, which WikiLeaks has violated by publishing government documents, arises fundamentally from the irreconcilable conflict between the social interests that these governments represent and the needs and aspirations of the vast majority of the population. The persecution of Assange in an effort to silence this exposure is not simply a threat to one individual. The methods employed against WikiLeaks will be used against all opposition to the policies of the corporate and financial aristocracy.

If the actions of WikiLeaks have helped reveal, in real time, the lies of the American government, they have also exposed the role of the chief propagators of these lies: the American media. For decades, the US government has cultivated the media to the point where it engages in self-censorship as a matter of course, where it does not even blush to declare itself “embedded” with this or that military unit or other state body. The major newspapers regularly clear major articles with the White House and the Pentagon, delaying stories that could be politically harmful. Now, what is supposedly a central obligation of the media—to expose government secrets and provide information to the population—is treated by the media itself as if it were a criminal enterprise.

The documents obtained by WikiLeaks—only a small fraction of which have been released so far—help expose what is a permanent conspiracy against the democratic rights of the world’s population: from covering up US bombings of civilians in Yemen, to working behind the scenes to obstruct the prosecution of CIA agents guilty of torture, to spying on UN officials in violation of international treaties. Those who are leading the campaign against WikiLeaks are themselves responsible for horrific atrocities. In the face of allegations from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that WikiLeaks had placed lives in danger, Assange gave an appropriate response in an interview with Time magazine. WikiLeaks, he noted, “has never caused an individual … to come to any sort of physical harm or to be wrongly imprisoned and so on. That is a record compared to the organizations that we are trying to expose who have literally been involved in the deaths of hundreds or thousands or, potentially over the course of many years, millions.”