Chris Sommovigo comments

I'd love to get my hands on some English cut beef ribs, but here in Japan I've found myself at a loss. Any clues as to where on might find these in Kanto?

Hunger strike?

Let him go hungry.

On his way back to Pakistan ...

On the one hand it can be said that it is because the gunman had legal access to guns that he was able to perpetrate his crime.

On the other hand, it can be said that criminals intent on carrying out a crime will never let statutory restrictions on guns & ammo deter them from acquisition.

On the third hand, it may be also that, because no one in the club was armed, that the extent of the gunman's havoc was not contained until armed people (police) showed up to offer resistance.

It is this third idea that, for some, proves beyond a shadow of doubt that the only way to protect oneself and one's compatriots against the murderous criminal activity of a bad player is to be able to "shoot back" ...

So let's take the guns away for a moment, from even the shooter, and look at what the American anti-gun sentiment is: It should be illegal to own and operate the means of self defense because such means are also the means of criminal assault. In such cases whereby a criminal physically assaults an innocent person, that person must not offer effective resistance to protect themselves against such an assault.

I worry about that mentality, but if you drill down to the fundamental argument of anti-gun supporters you get an obligation of the public against effective self-defense.

And it is because we already know that criminals have little problem getting their hands on any kind of contraband, we also know that the only people who will be defenseless are law-abiding private citizens. That is a worrisome situation, as well.

The USA is in a terrible situation, given that there are over 300 million legally-obtained firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens as I write this, and who knows how many millions more in the hands of criminals of all varieties (the population of criminal gangs already outnumbers the USA's full standing army) ... what means of effective self-defense would otherwise be available to the private citizen against the aggressions of an armed criminal if not also a gun?

Answer that question, and you may find the solution to the problem of gun violence in America.

Isn't this a bit of unnecessary sabre-rattling, after all? Japan already is the world's safest country. If he's promising a police state and surveillance state -- this has done nothing for the USA aside from abbreviate its citizens' liberties and turn its' society into a paranoid mess of social division.

Smart, tight immigration policy will preserve Japan's culture and safeguard its citizens. Learn from Europe. Learn from the USA. Don't go down a path you can't return from from.

"Climate Change" ... so if it gets colder, it's still global warming. And if it gets warmer ... well, you get it. No matter what happens, its AGW. Meanwhile, if you read German ... this will rock your faith in the new religion of AGW: http://www.achgut.com/dadgdx/index.php/dadgd/article/sind_die_klimadaten_manipuliert

"Islam is a peace loving faith and THAT is what needs to be told to the people"

I don't think people need to be told that Islam is peace-loving. Islam does plenty to advertise it's peace-loving credibility ... just look at all of those people it has helped to get to heaven (a little sooner than they thought they'd get there ...)

I think they would have to play Metallica to drown out embarrassing sounds ...

It is a dangerously adolescent and silly notion to create this false equivalence between the manner in which Nature modifies life and the manner in which mankind interferes with those processes by forcing modifications.

They are not the same thing, and no amount of finger-wagging from half-informed Op-Ed writers will change that.

Chipotle may only be half-genuine in their public effort to raise awareness of the issue through their marketing, but it is a real issue nonetheless and of concern to more and more people every day. Thus the demand for non-GMO is rising to levels that cannot be ignored, and the free market may eventually force players to abandon GMO if they want to survive.

Darwinian market forces ... ironic, no?