Good_Jorb comments

Religion is fallable, unlike god. That's why it's the most destructive force on earth apart from totalitarian dictatorships.

How's something inanimate fallable?

Religion is incapable of being an a destructive force, it's human nature that is the destructive force. Religion is an inanimate object used by humans as an excuse to do bad. If there wasn't Religion, humans would create other excuses to kill each other (Like politics, race, class, et al.). Human nature is inherently violent and confrontational, mostly due to their inability to admit their wrong(pride).

Heck, what's worse, having urine on your clothes or your plane hijacked/blown up by a terrorist who got through security?

Really? How much privacy/freedom would you be willing to give up?

what's worse, having gloved hand probe you or your plane hijacked/blown up by a terrorist who got through security?

what's worse, having your cell phone and e-mail records checked or your plane hijacked/blown up by a terrorist who got through security?

It seems soon enough the American government will almost literally have people bent over a barrel and liking it, all in the name security. Oh well, big government continues rolling forward.

Yikes, if it was hard to force the urine out of the colostomy bag, it could have been hard enough to dislodge the tubing, which could have caused any number of serious problems.

Why call it "Liberal" Dutch marijuana policy? The last thing the world needs is the spread of American styled partisan politics. It dumbs down political discourse and is a disservice to the center/balanced majority. It should just be Dutch marijuana policy takes another hit but I guess throwing Liberal in there adds flames to fire(or clicks to a story), it could have equally been called a libertarian policy (no government intervention in the free market).

So other 99 percent really don't know the true meaning or they know in a vague way?

Depends on the "True Meaning" of Christmas, considering the word Christmas or the Celebration of Christmas is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible and probable is more then a few months off of when Jesus was actually born, and is rife with pagan symbolism. They know as much about the true meaning of Christmas, as most do, that it has Religious meaning.

Does any Japanese know the real meaning of Christmas or do they know Mary, the mother of Jesus who was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, and what it represents?

Some Japanese are Christian, and assuming thier like their Western counter parts, a percentage of them know what Christmas was and what it represents. As well my nephew was going to a buddhist youchien and they asked me if I know any Christmas songs that weren't religious for them to sing. So at the very least the know part of Christmas is suppose to Relgious.

Or those who know the true meaning, but choose to ignore it and celebrate Christmas in secular ways?

Considering the origins of the Christmas Tree, Santa Clause, Misletoe, Holly wreaths, the date, et al. The way Secular people celebrate Christmas is more appropriate as it's not an affront to a god they don't believe in.

Unfortunately we are being ruled by liberals who think we should be relying more and more on the government. The Republican takeover in the House will hopefully slow or stop that.

When have Republicans ever reduce government spending or the size of government? Democrats and Republicans have one big thing in common Government waste (they just waste it in different ways), that and easily bamboozled followers.

Most woman wouldn't want to be forced to shower with a man anymore than most heterosexuals would want to be forced to shower with a homosexual.

Since there are already gays in the military(that just don't say their gay) do they not already shower together? In armies that allow gays to serve, I haven't read of them having a problems? If gay wants to go to war and die for his country, why should they have to hide who they are?

It's best for military cohesion and just plain common decency.

Again, there are already gays in the military, has it effected military cohesion so far?

Mexicano, please study economics 101 before commenting about world trade.

Mexicano is pretty much bang on from an economics point of view. China has a huge wealth gap, which has resulted in a small % of people become very rich and the rest significantly poorer. China lacks a big enough middle class to be self-sustaining at the moment, so China depends on other countries to purchase their manufactured goods, to generate wealth. If the US and/or the rest of the world stopped trading with China, it wouldn't have the economic fundamentals in place to continue to grow. The rest of the world would take a pretty big hit but then there are other countries out there that willing to be the world's factory.

With the exception of the national military all the others can and have been provided by private firms in the past.

If you are a capitalist, then you should support everything being privatized. Including the military, I'm sure Xe Services LLC would be kind enough to supply their services to the highest bidder. Using socialized services and then only complaining about ceritan other services being socialized seems a bit logically inconsistent.

plus I can go to a doctor that doesn't just throw pills at me.

I've had the same doctor(sports medicine) for the last 10 years, yes I can choose which doctor and what type of speciality s/he has. I've never been prescribed pills, plenty of active release therapy though. Don't live in an Ontario, so I couldn't tell you what healthcare is like there but I live in Calgary, a very affluent city and rarely have I heard of people going to other countries for healthcare, other then for the new MS treatment, which is offered in Mexico but not in the US or Canada.

Well, I'm a practical monster, a capitalist (wasn't this the system behind our freedoms?)

Forgive me if I'm wrong but aren't your freedoms given or atleast protected by to a publicly funded army/police force? My guess would be that you and your children use publicly funded streets to get to work, no? If I drive to my work using a different road, why should I pay for the road you drive to work on? Roads/Army/Police/Firefighters/et al. should all be privately financed, you should have to pay for it all by yourself, right?

'the Lord helps those who help themselves'

“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me"

This bible verse even mentions "I was sick and you looked after me", go figure, it seems to imply the opposite of what you are saying. (I'm guessing then that the bible is self-rightous in your eyes?)

Being from Canada, I pay for my healthcare though mostly provincal taxes and federal taxes, so my taxes are of course higher but I also know that if I lived in the states paid state, federal taxes and healthcare insurance premiums for my family, I would be paying slightly more per month. Based on living in Houston and New York, as I've turned down contracts to work in both places in the past year because of it.

It took Mr. Bush seven years to achieve the tie in approval ratings that Obama has achieved in less than two years

Bush went from an almost 92% approval rating to around a 22%~ approval rating. Obama started at 60% and is currently at about 43%(Apparently it may be 47% now). Bush managed to change the minds of 76% of the people who approved of him to disapprove of him. Whereas, Obama has currently only changed 29%(21% @ 47%) of people's opinion. Obama has to change the minds of 47%(55% @ 47%) more of the poeple who approve, in order to match Bush.

Oh Please..give me break.

I know, airplanes are always used in movies to get away from heated, possibly electrically charged cloulds of engine clogging volcanic ash. Being the president of the US and having a 200 million dollar a day entourage, they should have been able to remove all the ash from the surrounding atmosphere and put it in a big hole in the ground. Indonesia could have used it to draw in tourism; "Come to Indonesia and see the world's biggest ash hole!"

How do you sell a nuclear powerplant to another country?

Kind of like how you would sell a prefabicated house internationally. For instance, Canada sells candu reactors all over the world.

No Maid cafes, no Anime, Japan should in no way try to be unique. They should grow-up, tow the line, conform to how some think "adults" should act. Japan needs to more robotic, more homogenous, errr... starting to get a bit confused, I have always thought that the biggest complaint about Japan was that they were a homogenous robotic society. Japan is never going to fit everyone's ideal society and nor should it.

Maybe instead of Maid Cafe on the train, they could replace them with a local pub type of thing, where "adults" get three sheets to the wind and end up fighting each other to prove how much of an adult they really are (a la England).

I not a fan of Anime but I learnt a little bit of sage advice a long time ago, the t.v. channel can be changed, a Anime book/magazine doesn't have to be open, a maid cafe doesn't have to patronized. I think some people need to do a little growing up themselves and realize that pushing your hang-ups on others is waste of time. Have fun, be happy or take a look mirror and ask yourself, am I perfect?

The Japanese/China disputes smack of 1984 misdirection. On the high-level big business will continue doing business with each other. On the low level Japanese will blame China and Chinese will blame Japan, both governments escaping the scornful eye of inward looking citizens. It would seem the sheeple are easily lead.

Socialism, like every other big idea that could come to America

When Bush, Republicans and Democrats voted yes for TARP funding, Socialism came to America via the biggest welfare cheque ever written. Not to mention TARP socialized part of the Banking system(the hub of capitalism). Obama just took the ball and rolled with it, saying that Socialism could come to America, is a little bit of misnomer, it's already there with a big boost from TARP. It will be interesting to see how the new congress approaches international trade, I'm guessing protectionism/nationalism and not capitalism.

Sit back and watch the show.

I'm somewhat inclined to agree. I'm thinking that if the GOP continues to gain power, they will shift away from green/energy efficent policies, causing the price and demand for oil to continue to climb. Which in turn means all the Canadian O&G shares and options I have will increase in value (with America Dollars leaving the US) and all I have to do is sit back and watch. Being in an oil rich province, republicans in power should prove to be quite profitable for where I live, on the other hand, eastern provinces will probably take a fairly big hit as Republicans will probably try to move manufactoring jobs back to the states(but that's the east so who cares).

Meh, much ado about nothing, the two parties will continue not to get along, instead of behaving in a grown-up manner. The far left will blame the Republican Congress, the far Right will blame Obama, never addressing the real problems facing America (the government didn't make America what it is today, the people of America did) and the downwards spiral will continue.

Obama misjudged the American voters. America is right of center, not a far leftist liberal/socialist mindset.

An odd statement, given that Obama was elected by a majority of American Voters. I would hope and suspect that most America's are close to the center of the political spectrum but are too busy working to vocalize their politcal wants. If America keeps swinging from one fringe to the other, I doubt things will be fixed and instead of dealing with the problems that were created in a pragmatic and logical way, the fringe left and right will either blame Bush or Obama for the short fallings of their nation.

"I am so sick of hearing idiocy from the right" I am so sick of hearing and seeing idiocy from the left.

And most are sick of the left, the right and their increasing childish arguing. Both sides have both good and bad ideas, true fiscal conservatism is a great idea (but perhaps impossible given the amount of debt the average American has willingly/knowingly acquired). A proper social net to catch those that fall through the cracks is good as well, but it needs to free of costly excessive administration and changes done just to spite the other side.

Frist thought that comes to mind if don't like the inconvience having to fly cattle class, pay more and fly business class. A lot of the aforementioned problems would disappear or at least lessen. If you can't or don't want to, then you'll have to follow the old sage adage "suck it up princess!".

Perhaps out of all this something good will come of it. Hopefully the concept of something like the "Rally to Restore Sanity" will catch on and the moderate majority of Americans will rein in the extreme left and right because partisan politics has turned American politics into a mockery of it's once former greatness. The current democrats and republicans will do nothing but harm and looking for guidance from the extreme left and right isn't going to help no one. One need only look at both platforms offered by the Republicans and Democrats to see this.

I readily admit to still being a student of life but I would like to think that I'm smart enough not to agree with generalizing of what Japanese or Women into a top ten list or with what some of the poster have stated in their comments. It would be like reading a poll or a "how do date" in Cosmo or FHM and believing it to be 100% factual, when in fact the articles are geared towards the lowest common denominator.

They feel free and they seek adventure in a very naive way. Most young Japanese women that study in the states are very easy and accomadating. If you treat them kind and with trust, they spread like eagle.

Perhaps I have dirty mind or there is a few freudian slips in your writing.

The comments here remind of gyaru magazine article my wife brought me home awhile ago, that profiled different types of foreigners and their "dateability". It was pure silliness and filled with just as many broad bush stereotypes.

It would seem that those surveyed need to set their standards slightly higher then just above the gutter. But then again they probable lack the social attributes to pick a girl with any sort of reasonable amount of intelligences.

Owners of restaurants need to make a little thing called "profit", you know cover their expenses, pay rent, employees salaries and all that Jazz. Yes they could cater to a few whiny foreigners, but how long would they remain in Business? It's Toyko, the food is gear towards generating profitable sales, based on what the majority of people want to eat. It may be bland to you, just as your writing is bland to me but I'm not going to write a letter requesting you to change your writing style because you are who you are.

you are saying that the outcome would be worse than the Tea Party plan to slash social security, health care for everybody, job benefits and oh... half of the federal government?

I said equally as horrible, unless the democrats bring government spending under control, programs would have to eventually be cut becuase taxes can only go so high (Tax and Spend). The Republicans cutting taxes and then filling in the gaps with massive increases in debt, will cause the same end result, programs having to be cut, to cover the interest payments (Buy now, pay later). If partisan politics(particularly their followers) didn't force there parties further left and right, then the parties could combined the best of both worlds.

Sure, when you can't prove that Republican policies are worse than Democrat policies, just call 'em stupid, heh heh.

Of course you can't prove Republicans policies are worse then Democrat policies, both parties policies are absolutely horrible. Both parties policies seem to be getting worse as both parties increasingly pander further to left or right. Partisan politics has caused political discourse to go drift to the left side of the IQ bell curve(closer to their more extreme supporters IQ reside).

An ad telling a large voting block not to vote is prime example of this. If they truely want to protest the lack of representation from either party, they should vote for a third person that represents the type of policies they want to see.