Concerned Citizen comments

@Do the hustle

Thankfully, these things have never happened to me in my 30+ years in Japan. At least not that I noticed.

How many times have you sat down on the train and the Japanese person next to you has stood up and walked away mumbling some crap about gaijins?

How many times have you been seated on a busy train and the seats next to you remain vacant?

Going into a shop and having the staff pretend they don’t understand your Japanese.

Having Japanese people stare at you as if you were some kind of criminal.

Transgender females entering women's universities leaves less room for limited seats to biological females. This is not fair.

So a gender fluid biological man can have it both ways. He can identify as a male and enter coed universities and if that doesn't work he can identify as a female and enter a women's uni. That's wrong and unfair.

Why should he attend an event full of those who's clearly hate him? He's got more important things to do, like rally the people who voted him in to improve the economy, decrease unemployment etc.

History teacher must have been biased. That is stolen land and should be returned as part of a fair peace agreement acceptable to all parties.

@Chip Star

Those lives were lost to drug use, not inane laws.

Unfortunately in most societies there will always be certain people who just can't keep themselves from abusing drugs if available. Wise governments like the Japanese recognize this and put strict safeguards in place to cut off the supply, thus saving many lives.

My (Western) country is being ruined by drugs which are absolutely everywhere now. So are the vast majority of other drug permissive countries.

Japan doesn't have this problem and so should continue what their successful policies for their people's sake. This is the merciful thing to do.

Uhhh, ever think those lives were ruined due to inane laws?

Thankfully, unlike my country, Japan is relatively drug free. The Japanese should continue their hard line policies regarding drugs in order to save their precious people from suffering the same fate as Western nations that have gone soft on drugs and consequently have had millions of lives absolutely ruined or lost to them.

What is deemed 'offensive' seems to be very subjective.

Singapore is very authoritarian, which is anathema to the West. Nevertheless it is a very ethnically and religiously diverse, yet harmonious, well organised and prosperous nation.

Peace in exchange for the return of lands captured in 1967 sounds like a fair compromise at this stage. But Israel will never agree because further expansion via land grabs to the point of reclaiming all the lands they possessed under the biblical King David 3000 years ago is thier goal along with setting up thier historically third temple in the very site upon which the very holy Islamic Dome of the Rock Mosque stands.

The Jewish people believe that that geographical area, called Eretz Israel or Greater Israel, and the rebuilding of thier temple is thier God given divine destiny and will never surrender one square inch of it unless militarily forced to. But with the U.S. protecting them no one would risk attempting military force.

This is the heart of the problem and the main reason peace is not possible.

As far as God's real view of the land's ownership goes, I believe He loves all people equally and would desire reasonable compromises to achieve a fair and just peace agreement.

What a sad mess. I pray for a miracle peace agreement, somehow.

Such abuse of crying infants by frustrated fathers is unfortunately not uncommon.

While the article doesn't say so, my guess is that mum was away for some reason and he was alone with the baby. There's not much a dad can do to calm a crying baby especially if the baby is sick or won't take a bottle. At three months often they just want thier mother and will cry 'till she comes home. Such a situation can be very trying for especially inexperienced young dads.

If true in this case, it's still absolutely no excuse whatsoever for what he did.

Avoiding or keeping short the times of leaving dad alone at home to care for newborns as well as educating young parents about these things would help reduce the rate of this type of abuse.

Horrors.

I agree with posters here that it seems that if Mr. Smollet is truly innocent then......

1: He should sue the police department for wrongful arrest and defamation of character.

2: The police should continue to pursue the 'real' attackers.

I won't bet on either.

So, if you are a gay black man from Hollywood you are immune from prosecution. This smacks of 'gay, black, Hollywood privelige' doesn't it?

Meanwhile, millions search for jobs, need health-care, languish in poverty, etc, infrastructure is crumbling, etc, etc.

Give it up Washington and media and get on with actually governing and reporting real news.

What a sordid mess.

This is an educated guess.

What an absolute disgrace this investigation was. Millions wasted and time lost. And the media was complicit. Meanwhile millions are in poverty, need jobs, infrastructure is crumbling, incurable diseases need research, etc.

This is a slap in the face to the average citizen and an example of how political and media elites don't care about them at all.

This investigation was a farce. Republicans are just as guilty as they tried to impede Obama in endless investigations as well. No wonder Trump labelled Washington DC a swamp.

Let's hope that those in Washington can get on with governing for the people, which is thier job.

@Strangerland

Please look up the established scientific and dictionary definitions of male and female and ask yourself if transgender people can fall into these categories. They do not.

I think we should be scientifically and intellectually honest here and give transgender people thier own unique category because that is what they are, unique.

@Strangerland

Exceedingly rare cases like the one you referred to are abnormal and have no bearing whatsoever on the established scientific definition and normal characteristics of male and female.

No, as you can see from the link I provided above, I'm referring to human swith XY chromosome, who cannot produce sperm.

Such people do not fit the definition of 'male' that you provided. Does that mean they are female?

>

@Strangerland

If the so called 'male' has XX chromosomes then obvious this person is female according to scientific definition.

I'm confused though, if a man can't produce sperm, he doesn't fit into your definition of male. Does that mean he's a female?

@Strangerland

I did quote the scientific description of 'male'. Please refer to any relevant scientific material or dictionary for corroboration.

Also the cases you described are exceedingly rare and abnormal and do not in any way alter the scientific definition of male.

you need to define what male is. You haven't even done that.

@Strangerland

I'm not trying to disrespect you, but you're proving the point many people are making regarding the absurdity of the transgender claim.

You are claiming that transgenders are a specific sex and yet you cannot define the characteristics of that specific sex. With all due respect that doesn't make sense.

For the record, science defines human 'male' as a person that has X and Y chromosomes, the capability to produce sperm, and has a penis, among other indisputable male characteristics.

Transgender males do not possess these characteristics and thus cannot possibly be truly defined as 'male' The reverse is also true.

This doesn't mean we should disrespect transgender people in any way. It is simply acknowledging scientific and biological realities.

@Strangerland

Can you please define the terms 'male' and 'female'?

These transgender activists what to have their cake and eat it too.

Not only are we being coerced into recognizing a fully transitioned person who has had complete reassignment surgery as the opposite sex to which they were born, we are now being coerced into recognizing someone as the opposite sex merely because they say so. The idea that a man can call himself a woman and vice versa is biologically impossible.

This is not a matter of hatred or transphobia etc. but of language that reflects biological and scientific facts.

We can respect transgender people and treat them as we do others, but that doesn't mean we can allow ourselves to be bullied into accepting this false science nor allow this to be taught to our children.

Strangerland 

If what you say below is true, then the terms 'male' and 'female' have no meaning. 

Well they have meaning as markers on the male/male spectrum, but none of the properties we define as male or female apply to every person that we label as male/female.

no one, including trans people, can insist on being a certain gender because the terms have no clear definition. This is confusing.

Well, we’ve labeled people male and female even within this situation. So while it’s confusing and difficult, as humans we have the capacity to look at the nuances and work with the to come to nuanced perspectives.

Unfortunately President Trump and his evangelical and Jewish supporters are dead wrong on this matter.

The Golan Heights is stolen land. Such a move will cause further tensions in the ME, prove beyond a doubt that the U.S is not a neutral and honest peace broker and put a further nail in the coffin regarding any hope for a peaceful resolution.

@Strangerland

If what you say below is true, then the terms 'male' and 'female' have no meaning. Therefore no one, including trans people, can insist on being a certain gender because the terms have no clear definition. This is confusing.

As far as I understand it, there are no characteristics that are universal across everyone we would call male or female.

So now what characteristics define 'male' and 'female'?

I think it's time to put the pain of WWII in the past and leave it there. Life is too short to spend time arguing about the past. The Japanese, Koreans and Chinese have so much to offer eachother and ought to focus of strengthening bonds through trade, tourism and cultural exchange.

Maybe the govt feels that the situation is so serious that a ban is needed. This is understandable as there has been some horrendous abuse of children and it needs to be spelled out loud and clear that this will not be tolerated. If so, this should be temporary until a better balance is reached.

Physical discipline should be avoided as much as possible and used as a last resort after reasonable explanation and warnings. However there are times when some children will not respond to these and mild and controlled physical punishment such as a smack or swat on the covered bottom are needed.

Target truly abusive parents but don't take away the right and need to physically discipline from sincere parents.

This is a simplistic overreaction to a serious problem.

Abusive and damaging physical discipline should be targeted, but, as several posters here have said, mild and controlled slaps or swats on the bottom are sometimes necessary.

Rather than ban it altogether the government should help educate people on how to wisely effect physical discipline.