Kijimuna comments

Bio here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_dizon

She looks and sounds like every other gravure idol, maybe better and suddenly now everyone has discriminating tastes? Is it that someone pointed out she's American? The Japanese can't seem to get enough of her.

Posters appear to have ignored the "for Japan" part of the question. Without comment on my own preferences, the answer for Japan is clearly John McCain. This is not to say that the Japanese government and people are not totally gaga over the prospect of America's first black president. But from day two, which presidency would be best for Japan?

For folks who can remember the 1990s, democrats are stiffer on trade, less likely to help Japan boost its international prestige and less likely to share defense information and technology with the Japanese. An Obama presidency increases questions and volatility over how the US will handle its macroeconomic policy and trade with China, relations with North Korea and others. McCain is much more likely to be predictable, and to place Japan at the center of US policy to Asia. It's not the sexy prediction to make, but it happens to be unimpeachable.

tkoind2, as opposed to the spoiled nature of guys elsewhere who seem to expect everything?

Cleo, although I'm not unsympathetic to what you're saying about child soldiers in Sudan, the critical difference is that Khadr was caught in a firefight in which US soldiers were killed. Of course child soldiers in the abstract are bad, but when they're shooting at you that trumps the abstract. It's unreasonable to expect unconditional support.

Given his bio on Wiki, I very much doubt he wasn't disturbed before his incarceration. Parental choices have severe consequences for kids, some of which harm them irreversably. My heart goes out to the kid in some ways, but I'm more inclined to condemn his parents anew for their choices than I am to pick up an armband. Being a parent yourself and having seen kids suffer because of their parents, I'm sure you understand what I mean. I feel sorry for him in principle, but not in specific.

I think this needs to be looked at through the prism of Shia-Sunni rivalry. Faster withdrawal tilts government in favor of Shiites. Sooner than later is better, wouldn't you agree, Netanyahubush?

Japan this, Japan that. This happened to one of my classmates at my non-Japan university at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.

I think it will probably be a very useful conviction machine. In Japan, people are not accused unless they are guilty, or so we think...

I don't know. My first reaction was that criticizing the system because one patient was misdiagnosed at the scene seems like making hay out of her tragedy. The problem wasn't systemic. I do believe that the triage system in Japan needs improvement but this story doesn't illustrate the problem, no matter how high the profile of the victim.

One time on a trip home I bought some tools to finish a project for the home I was using in Tokyo. The TSA guys said they needed to inspect my bag. They had a great time pretending to hit each other over the head with my hammer. More a theft of privacy than actual theft, I suppose.

From the title I thought this was a protest piece on the practice of adding a couple hundred dollars in fees on top of the quoted price.

Seimei, thanks for the link.

Drudge posted this today

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/former-cia-agent-in-iran-comes-in-from-the-heat/

Input Japanese or read only?

Let's not get hung up on semantics. I would say that Hezbollah's activity in Lebanon the past few years looks very much like occupation.

"Speaking of Nazis. Invading a soverign nation is exactly what the Nazis did. This makes USA and Israel Nazi like countries and not Iran."

Outsourcing such activity to Hezbollah does not get one's country off the hook.

Congratulations for being selected. My condolences for being the next one after...

MarieDevine, obviously the biggest problem with the syncretic world view in your post is that it only works from a God's-eye view of the world--from thousands of miles up. Down here on earth, we mortals have been bickering about what exactly if anything God has been telling us to do. By word of God in government, I assume you mean Sharia law. Or is it some top ten you've picked from the Quran, New Testament and Tanakh? You should just say so rather than wrapping it in all this fluff.

RofT, for the record, I was being sarcastic when I recommended massive aid. I do believe however that the abduction issue can never be separated from the broader issues including NK stability, so large flows of money are really the price paid for getting a little truth and reconciliation. If not, they should drop it. In fact, the GOJ had successfully kept the issue off the radar for years until a Diet member decided to make a career play out of it. The genie got out of the bottle and it ain't going back in, except gently and slowly.

This is a careful walking on the fence for political reasons. He's trying to avoid his Willie Horton by saying he supports death penalty for child rapists. Then he says that it should be applied "only in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes." This is more of Obama trying to be all things to all people.

I would respect him so much more if he had said "no, it's cruel and unusual punishment to kill someone for rape, even if the victim is a child. And no, my answer wouldn't change if the victim is my daughter. It's not that I don't love my kid, it's that I fear the state's being given too much leeway with the taking of its citizens' lives. Punish offenders, of course, but I believe that the death penalty is not something we should allow to creep."

RomeoRamen, as mentioned before, the line on Obama's website is the posturing he is doing for his base. The overall picture is dramatically different. To wit: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obamas-iraq-minefield/

I think if he doesn't get ahead of this and starts taking a genuinely executive hold of his image and message, his aides will have him shadowboxing every 527 and McCain supporter that talks to the press. All that glow will be forgotten by November. What I'm hoping is that he's got more substance that an empty suit. If he doesn't he shouldn't be president. Photos of the inauguration of the first president of color will be a hugely cathartic moment for the country. The only problem is that from day two on, Obama's true color could show, with that color being green.

I'm no McCain supporter, but the vacuum of leadership in the United States has been and is a danger to global stability. How Israel--3 million people in a country with fewer square miles and world-class universities than New Jersey--can produce more senior statesmen and women, including female heads of state, than the US is more a slap to the US than it is a triumph for the Israelis. The US has some national sh*t to get together.

wilbur, the penny pincher lived in the building with the deceased and knew him. Perhaps that's no issue for you, but it is for me.

Which man is that? Obama won't be pulling the troops that quickly either. As pointed out, Obama's trying to walk both rails--the war is terrible and the troops should come home, but we should also ensure that the US preserve stability in the Middle East. If anything, I think the North Korea settlement is a signal that the next president may spend day one dealing with fallout over military action engaged against Iran. Most assume that presidents' foreign policies are top-down. Most of the time they're reactionary. The primary difference between a President McCain and a President Obama will be posturing to different core constituencies while trying to achieve the same rough ends.

For the record, you know Code Pink's methods are idiotic when Nancy Pelosi yells at them and the Daily Show openly mocks them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_cV15mipeg

I don't think fear of ghosts is the only explanation for a person's avoiding such a place. Whether it's a sacred place or the suicide woods in Yamanashi, a place derives meaning from its history and that meaning changes only with time or fundamental reforms that change its character. A long time ago, I spent a few months in a guest house with foreign and Japanese tenants. One of the other buildings operated by the company had a tenant who hung himself on the doorknob to his room. Shortly after, one of the tenants approached the office asking to move to that room in exchange for a cut in rent. I can't imagine trusting a guy like that because I think it says something about his character. How would he exploit my tragedy?

adaydream, glad to see your clarification that the Japanese, Koreans and Germans are stupid. I'm watching how this thread evolves so I can figure out if your inclinations are toward code pink or ron paul. If you expound on your complaint about spending the nation's wealth by paying for it with printed money, I'll have a better indication...

Gosh adaydream, I hope that vitriol wasn't pointed at me. I've never voted Republican, but I'm also starting to worry that Obama's got a pile of goodwill he seems intent on squandering while he continues the "all things to all people" campaign he's been on the last 2 weeks. McCain's favorite quote is about not mud wrestling with a pig. Obama's recent pandering is going to open him up to allegations of shape shifting and when he hits back, McCain's just going to laugh and point out how he's a politician just like everyone else, only less experienced. It's okay to worry about my party's candidate, I hope.

For the record, I offer McCain's quote, which as I noted was a soundbite disaster. This happened on Jan. 3rd and it's still making the rounds:

"Q: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years — (cut off by McCain)

McCAIN: Make it a hundred.

Q: Is that … (cut off)

McCAIN: We’ve been in South Korea … we’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans …

Q: [tries to say something]

McCAIN: As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That’s fine with me, I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Queada is training and equipping and recruiting and motivating people every single day."

Ba DUN tshhh. Thank you Kwaabish! ;-)

Sezwho, I agree completely that the fact are murky when trying to sift through them for conclusions about the gun ban. The cause was crack cocaine. Some feel more comfortable dealing with that by criminalizing possession of handguns by anyone, others feel more comfortable by having their own or hiring armed guards, I guess. Too bad too many retrofit those preferences with fact. Personally, the longer I'm alive and the more government workers I meet, I abhor governmental paternalism increasingly.

Only now are we noticing, JT?

The hundred years comment by McCain was a soundbite disaster. He was trying to say "we'll stay there as long as they need us" but he had no intention of suggesting that a presence would be any different than it is in Korea, Germany or Japan.

I'm enamored with Obama and have never voted for McCain but I am still waiting for him to show me that he is not America's second Jimmy Carter.

Massive outward flows of Japanese money, both via government accounts and via the pachinko winnings ship. In return, North Korea can apologize profusely and offer Japanese students thousands of humanitarian working holidays.

Sezwho, I don't think he was arguing causation. I think he was arguing that the ban did little to cut homicides, especially those involving guns. The causation argument is usually pushed by those in support of such bans.