doombird comments

Polishing his loaded gun while it was pointed directly at his head? If that was the accident, it might as well be billed as suicide.

Statistics show that most domestic accidental shootings occur in the bathroom. He was probably polishing his gun, and it accidentally discharged.

But then I wouldn't be able to "take a stroll" down the Kyoto streets where I used to live, and "visit" nostalgic places like Smile Burger! :(

Japan does go a bit overboard with its privacy. I've seen scenes on Japanese news/variety shows where they are filming at a location, and EVERYTHING is blurred out except the host. And the person he's talking to, although that person's face is also usually blurred. The ground is clear, but the buildings, the street signs, the faces of people walking by - all meticulously censored. It makes me wonder why they bother to film at all, when you can't even tell where they're supposed to be.

I don't even understand what it means! I don't think she does, either, the adorable empty-eyed thing! Awareness of safety overseas... will they have her on ads reminding people to exercise the exact same common sense abroad that keeps them walking the mortal plane at home? And will they pay her for this? Wow.

Exactly. IF she was just out for a much-needed movie and a pint of Ben & Jerry's with a girl friend and the husband couldn't handle taking care of the kid for an evening, then what I said before goes out the window. I wonder why they even bother writing these articles sometimes, for all the information they put in them...

According to police, the mother called police, telling them she also had been beaten by her husband.

I took this as meaning either of two things: 1) when she came home the husband beat her and she called the police, or 2) when she called the police, she informed them that he had beaten her before.

Now, this article gives us next to nothing to go on, but IF the second one is true, then I have to agree with Romulus: victims can sometimes bear responsibility for what happens. For example, a woman who thinks "I can put up with him beating me as long as he's not beating the kid" might well also rationalize "I can go out and do X because I know he won't hurt the kid." But for anyone who would beat their children's mother, it's really only a matter of time before they make that transition.

Is she a victim? Does she deserve pity? Absolutely. And in Japan it must be especially hard to get away from a deranged spouse. But IF she knew already that he was violent, I say shame on her for waiting until he nearly killed the baby to do anything about it. "Gaman" is not good when you are endangering someone else by staying put.

I think that the kind of people who sit in the front row at EITHER camp's political rallies are a little bit scary, but while the Democrat crowd all cheer whenever Obama says something catchy, all them Republicans know how to do is go "Boooooo, boooo!" and give a blank-eyed thumbs-down whenever McCain or Palin makes some snide reference toward Obama. There's lots of vitriol on both sides, but why is it only the Democrats even pretend to be polite? I haven't heard any shouting of "kill him!" or "shoot her from a helicopter!" from the Dems.

Sure, in a lot of respects our voting prospects are two sides of the same coin, but honestly... When Biden criticized McCain/Palin for having "drill drill drill!" as a campaign slogan, Palin corrected him: "No, actually, that's 'Drill BABY drill.'" Are we in third grade?? They're supposed to be showing us they're competent to run the country, and here they are basically giving the American people a green light to be dumb, thoughtless thugs. And we definitely don't need that.

Haha... Oh, Japan. Why do I get the feeling that given a few months, reports will come pouring in about these things going berserk and absconding with people?

"Oh no! These are the wrong trousers!"

I think he should go right ahead. Tour the country. And maybe go from city to city helping Japan out with its declining population problem.

Just sayin'.

Wow, he's just like all the rest of us ordinary folks! Except for never having anything to do with us when he can help it! And it's so nice to know that his school treated him just like other students -- except for that whole thing about entrance exams, or probably anything the other students had to do, actually. What a swell, down-to-earth guy! This article is great.

Would it matter if he had been a russian or a korean??

Probably if it was a Russian, they would say "It was unclear whether he had been smoking marijuana before the incident."

Heheh... ooh. "Companion!" I like that. That sounds so scandalous! And I love how the man is the important one, and the girl or woman he was sleeping with was just something of his... or maybe they were both dudes. The whole story is in the details they left out!

Sometimes I believe that these catchy names are purely lucky Japanese combinations, and other times I'm sure that there's a foreigner behind the scenes somewhere, coming up with names for things and chuckling to himself. There is a small bar/restaurant in a tiny back street of downtown Kyoto called "Cabbages & Condoms." And how about the bento box manufacturer "Lube Sheep?"