shallots comments

Posted in: In 'The Brothers Sun,' Michelle Yeoh again leads an immigrant family with dark humor — but new faces See in context

@ Gene Hennigh I don't think you have to be on the "right" to find "woke" entertainment annoying and I think people who dislike "woke" entertainment have been enjoying Black and female performers for many years, This leaves you with a kind of mystery. Can you solve it?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Posted in: 'Every Hamas member is a dead man,' Netanyahu says as strikes devastate Gaza See in context



That means a significant portion were people being born right after fleeing from Europe…

I’m willing to read a link about which population of Jews came when (the logic you give is wrong though the statement of fact may be correct or not) but I don’t think it changes the fact that five million Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews do not have an obvious place to live if they are packed onto trains and boats tomorrow. Hamas’ idea is to do away with all of Israelis, which is a mindset that has probably existed since the beginning.

The number is higher now because they have been occupying and oppressing the indigenous people allowing them to reproduce while killing younger indigenous population and creating an environment that increases the mortality rate for all non-Jews..

From what I can see from Wikipedia, infant mortality has decreased and population has increased in the “state of Palestine.” But that does not excuse the disgustingly poor living conditions under which the Palestinians live. You might know better than I about the distinctions between Gaza, Gotland Heights, etc. You’re right that I’m no expert on this issue. Maybe you are but you don’t seem so.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: 'Every Hamas member is a dead man,' Netanyahu says as strikes devastate Gaza See in context

The majority of immigrants to Israel come from Russia. They are far and away the largest immigrant group…

You’re being tricky. But I was wrong. Checking Wikipedia, it’s half and half.

Approximately 80% of Israeli Jews are born in Israel, 14% are immigrants from Europe and the Americas, and 6% are immigrants from Asia and Africa.[317] Jews from Europe and the former Soviet Union and their descendants born in Israel, including Ashkenazi Jews, constitute approximately 50% of Jewish Israelis. Jews who left or fled Arab and Muslim countries and their descendants, including both Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews,[318] form most of the rest of the Jewish population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Posted in: 'Every Hamas member is a dead man,' Netanyahu says as strikes devastate Gaza See in context

 It was Jewish Zionist that decided to invade and occupy someone else land like other European settlers in the Americas, Africa, Australia, Asia, and etc.

So you think there's no justification for a Jewish state and all Jews in Israel are living on stolen land? You believe the Palestinian people are indigenous and Jewish people aren't? This is one narrative but it doesn't seem to me as if it's a nuanced picture of history and reality. I'm all for nuance. I agree no one is completely right in this history even while Hamas is completely terrorist and completely for the destruction of all Jews in its stated goals. I agree, though, that Israel should be criticized in lots of ways for its treatment of the Palestinian people.

I think your narrative is childish and silly. Most Jews in Israel are from the region. There is no returning to anywhere for them. There is no guarantee of rights for them except in Israel which has been a fact on the ground for more than 70 years. Every country around them tried to destroy and murder them.

Having said that, the increasing move away from a two-state solution and tenable standards of living for Palestinians is a big part of the problem. Netanyahu has been a disaster IMO. I agree with much of the criticism of Israel vis a vis human rights. However, I stand with Israeli people in condemning the horrible terrorism they experienced this week.

Zionism is not racist. Israel is not any less arbitrary than most other countries in the region and in other regions that are legacies of colonialism.

This is not a black and white situation. It's not a good guy/bad guy situation.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Posted in: BBC 'urgently looking' into issues raised by Brand report See in context

That documentary has ominous music and actors doing some of it. That's unfortunate. It's a disservice to anyone telling their story if what they're saying is true. I don't know why someone goes to a media expose instead of the police; maybe there is a good reason. I don't know if this stuff is true or not but I can't rely on a program that manipulates its audience with music and drama. Shane on "news" programs that aim to break a story about purported victims of crimes this way. It may or may not be possible to reach some kind of confidence in the truth of this matter.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

Posted in: Venice Film Festival boss baffled by hostility toward Woody Allen See in context

@bass4funk

It doesn’t surprise me that people get many details about Woody Allen wrong since the media is so one-sided. I believe their son, Moses, when he says he was abused by Farrow. Believe boys! Believe the kids who are adopted into Western countries/cultures. Or, just withhold belief when we don’t or can’t have access to all the facts. Moses ‘s view does count for something and he said “of course Woody Allen didn’t molest her.” Now Polanski, whom Mia Farrow has supported and spoken up for, is a different matter. He HAS been convicted of something.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Posted in: Venice Film Festival boss baffled by hostility toward Woody Allen See in context

Woody Allen is fine. A bunch of gossip about him is no reason to NOT show his films. Don't forget that Mia Farrow has been accused of horrible abuse against all of her Asian kids. Looks like a bit of a double standard here.

11 ( +17 / -6 )

Posted in: Fewer stars, more scandal at 80th Venice Film Festival See in context

All the stuff about Woody Allen is just gossip. Mia Farrow is a UNESCO goodwill ambassador yet all her Asian kids accuse her of vicious abuse. People can believe that they want but no reason Allen’s films shouldn’t be at Venice.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Teenage boy stabbed after being attacked by gang of four in Tokyo See in context

This crime doesn’t have anything to do with the U.S. It’s true the U.S. is dangerous AND Japan is more dangerous than people think. Recently, my wife had a bad experience walking with our young kids in the neighborhood. She was threatened by some young guys who almost hit her on their motorcycle. They were drunk. The sad part about Japan, sad and unique, is that she screamed and no one nearby stopped to help her. She was right near a festival too. Yes, Japan is safer than many places but Japan is cold. If you DO get into trouble here, it’s very possible no one will help you because Japanese people are less likely to get involved. But, yeah, Japan can be compared positively and negatively with other places…as nauseam.

-7 ( +8 / -15 )

Posted in: Man gets 10 years for fatally scalding 3-year-old boy with hot water See in context

“…locking people up is almost never the solution…”

it isn’t only about deterrence and rehabilitation. We need to feel that life is valued and that we live in a society that is fair and just. This makes society and life livable. A child’s life matters and we have taboos and laws that can’t be broken. We don’t accept it when they are broken. He tortured a child to death. If we live in a society where this is acceptable, what will be the consequences? This is about trusting that society is meaningful and has values we can rely on. This is about living with our neighbors and in our communities. I really don’t buy into the ideals of Japanese society, seeing how devalued human life is.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan must accept population decline as inevitable and devise strategies to adapt to it See in context

This writer has no suggestions really. That would be OK normally. “We should give up trying.” Well, OK, what then? When half the country is retired and hanging around hospitals, what will be done to pay for it all? Um, immigrants AREN’T a solution? Rude awakening: they’re already here. And it’s just the beginning. At least he didn’t try to say robots would fix the problem.

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Posted in: Man gets 10 years for fatally scalding 3-year-old boy with hot water See in context

The indifference to human life in this country shocks me.

-10 ( +9 / -19 )

Posted in: Kyoto merchants want city to install more trash cans to fight litter in historic neighborhood See in context

Yet, the whole country is clean. Perhaps, What Japan needs is foreigners to respect and obey Japanese rules and manners.  Is that to much to ask?

Well, that's not true. There are smokers everywhere in Japan and they rarely fail to litter. The canals around my neighborhood are full of plastic bottles and garbage. But anyway, Japan needs tourists more than tourists need Japan at this point. And Kyoto, which was a bankrupt city last time I checked, even more so. But Kyoto is not very friendly compared to other destinations.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Posted in: Driver running red light hits and kills 7-year-old boy on kick scooter See in context

I complain to the police all the time about the dangerous driving in my neighborhood. Their solution is to standout in the middle of the street and wave and blow their whistles. Seriously.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Police seek public help over unsolved murder of 7-year-old girl in 2007 See in context

I have very little faith in the police to solve crimes that take real police work. If it's not on camera or they aren't caught in the act or running away, I despair of the Japanese police's ability to catch them. I just find that, like a lot of systems in Japan, they're so busy doing unimportant things that they're useless when it comes to doing something that matters.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: 2 Japanese universities in merger talks amid rising global competition See in context

Japanese universities have training systems, not education. Students enter without even much of an ability to ask questions about what they don’t know (yes: critical thinking). They’re pretty lost beyond sitting passively, memorizing, taking tests, looking at phones, etc. Ask them about their country and the world and you’ll hear some pretty shocking half-baked “ideas” betraying how unprepared they are to join a global conversation on anything important. This is why Japan doesn’t have a university ranked in the top 50 in the world despite being one of the most powerful countries on the planet. Oh well. Don’t look for changes anytime soon.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Woody Allen says next movie may be his last in talk with Alec Baldwin See in context

Not being from New York, nor being Jewish, I never found any of his movies either amusing or entertaining.

What a small-minded and silly comment. I wonder why his movies are popular in France, considering that most French people aren’t Jewish or from NY? Do you like Spike Lee’s movies? I guess that depends.

Allen was accused directly of essentially the same sex crime but with a much younger child that Roman Polansky was banned for but somehow slithered out from under the charge. His 'last movie' should have been in 1992…

Yes, “accused” being the key distinction here between him and Polanski. I wonder why Mia Farrow’s Asian kids are either dead or “accuse” HER of child abuse? She still gets to be a UNICEF ambassador, doesn’t she?

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Posted in: World swimming bans transgender athletes from women's events See in context

I watched the transgender female weightlifter from New Zealand at the Olympics, and she did not win or even place, and missed most of her lifts actually. Transphobia is not the way to go.

Hubbard was also the oldest weightlifter at those games. These two facts are neither here nor there. Is there an advantage to having been born biologically male? Does it matter? If there were a proven advantage, would it change your mind? Some activists are arguing that fairness is besides the point and that it's just Hubbard's human right to participate, even without medical intervention.

It will be interesting when we have this same debate come up in the future, after genetic modifications for physical traits start to happen... I wonder if there is already a similar issue occurring with Paralympics and prosthetics....?

Division by gender has generally worked, because there was a fairly clear performance differentiation in most cases. Competitive sports are by their nature fairly unfair though... Height, limb length, age, muscle types, propensity for body fat, intelligence, and many other factors make some people more suited to certain sports than others.

You're only looking at fairness as if that's all sports are about. It's not. People care about meaningfulness first and fairness is only one component of that. What are we seeing? That's the question people ask themselves. There have been games played between professional women and high school boys but these aren't considered meaningful to people because people do not know how to evaluate them. This is the issues that plagues the participation of transgendered people in (at least some) sports. There may be some sports where it might work, but there may be other female sports that just won't be meaningful to audiences if they include people born as male or people that have gone through male puberty. This is because it may be hard to evaluate the outcome. Leah Thomas is an example of this. It's just unclear if Thomas has an advantage or not and it may be truly hard to know.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: Aichi woman arrested for mixing human excrement into school lunch See in context

I always know it's Sora by the slightly goofy, slightly obnoxious, style.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Whaling season begins See in context

@TokyoLivingToday 

Their country..

Their culture..

Their customs..

Their rules..

Their whales..

GO JAPAN !!..

Stick to it then. But make sure you never voice an opinion about any global matter. Keep your opinions relevant only to the small world in which you live.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

Posted in: Ex-Aum cult member released from prison after serving full term See in context

It seems to be a thing here that the perpetrator of a crime gets to write to the victim's family from behind bars.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Town in Yamaguchi sends everyone’s COVID-19 relief money to one person See in context

There's just something about these Sora articles and the way they're written. I always feel like the writer is winking at me. I guess they feel it works because it certainly never gets better.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: 10-year-old boy fatally hit by car in Sapporo; driver arrested See in context

I can't muster any excuse or sympathy for the driver. I live quite near such an intersection as the one described and I have small children. Every day I observe reckless driving and it's mostly older men doing it. They just don't care. Occasionally the police stand patrol but it does little good. They still zip up and down the road. If you aren't required to stop at an intersection, then you must drive slowly enough that you can stop if you need to.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Sabre expands footprint in Japan with Bear Luxe partnership See in context

Jim and Pam aren't going to be happy about that.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: 12-year-old boy in coma after being hit by truck; driver arrested See in context

People often drive recklessly in my neighborhood, including on motorcycles and scooters. They're not only endangering others but risking the ruin of their own lives as well.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan's hardcore train fans accused of going off the rails See in context

What explains these obsessions with utterly banal and shallow aspects of society? This seems like a particularly Japanese thing - this obsession with meaningless minutia.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Step into a manga at Japan’s 2-D cafes in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto See in context

"...escape the hardships of the 3-D world." Ha ha.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: 'Rust' shooting victim's husband angry at Baldwin for denying blame See in context

He was handed the gun, told it was safe. He is an actor not a professional gun expert. It’s not like he loaded it.

I totally agree. As a producer, he may be liable. As an actor, I think not. No way actors are the last line of defense, in terms of liability. Why hire gun experts if you expect silly actors to take the risk.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Man arrested for attempted murder after stabbing woman walking along street See in context

girl_in_tokyoT

When you consider that sexual assault isn't taken very seriously as a crime, this shouldn't be surprising.

Obviously the idea was that it's amazing any society would treat sexual assault lightly. I don't think the comment reflects actual surprise but, rather, indignation. In short, you're too literal.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: 17-year-old boy assaulted after asking man to stop smoking on train See in context

People often say that it's a big risk for foreigners to intervene. I would like to know some concrete, reasonably recent and clear examples of this going wrong. I'm not disagreeing with it but I am curious about the details of such situations.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

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