Stoker comments

Catchy song title.

It seems no matter how many children that commit suicide specifically saying that they did so because of bullying people in charge will keep making excuses.

What's going on with all of the recent mine collapses. Is it just that they're all getting news coverage now?

It's just horrible to see their infection seep into their children.

I've been irritated how much of the media here in Australia have been acting as though even non-Catholics should care about this. I did however like one of today's headlines; "Rest of the world: 10,000 - Australia: 1".

@Stoker - perhaps more to do with refusing police orders in one case (though clearly excessive) and armed robbery in another. Unfortunately some people fall over themselves to blame racism at every opportunity - particularly users basing their arguments in idiotic stereotypes and totally ignorant of the things and places they're talking about.

@OssanAmerica - Unexpectedly well put. @Judderman She's not married (though has a partner).

@Takshi89, what a dumb comment. I hope you're attempting some kind of parody, but next time don't.

I read about the story and it's terrible, unfortunately for years it's seemed that if you're below a certain age the worst punishment you can get is a slap on the wrist, and nothing seems likely to change. Everyone becomes outraged for a few days before forgetting about it.

@Gurukun - There may be good reasons to slaughter dolphins, my point is that culture/tradition is not one of them - using human-related examples of bad traditions just gets the point across quickly. Closer parallels might be the strict ethical standards when it comes to the treatment of laboratory animals or those used in movies.

Gurukun - just because something is called 'tradition' or 'culture', even correctly, is not a justification. Explaining something with 'tradition' amounts to the tautology "We do it because we do it. Why do we do it? Because it's what we do". Do you really need any time to think of times when breaking tradition has been an improvement? Tradition/Culture are excuses.

Definitely got a double-take from me.

Tsutsui is great, I absolutely loved Kazoku Hakkei.

The point is that Australians are going to vote in Liberal or Labor, they're not voting for 'man' or 'women'. If Abbott wins (god forbid, but looking very possible), it shouldn't be interpreted as Australians deciding they don't want a female Prime Minister.

I can't say I'm a fan of the headline's emphasizing the fact that Gillard's a woman, I'd hope that isn't a determining factor in peoples votes (though disappointingly it seems it has been for some).

"...lead singer of the Retro Rockets, a favorite in their native Australia." I'm Australian and listen to a lot of music, never heard of 'em.

I'm genuinely shocked at many of the unpleasant posts on this forum. Who still reacts like this to homosexuality?

I know she was wrong to use physical violence. But I can't help smiling, it's just an amusing story.

maninjapan79 - I haven't seen a list of countries, but I know that Australia was among several countries to reject Japan's compromise plan, though they did recommended potential amendments to that proposition.

KSB1978 - Something is not necessarily good or valuable just because it can be categorized as 'cultural' or 'traditional' (do you really need the most obvious examples?).

But leave that aside, the differences that are so clear that they shouldn't need to be pointed out is that traditional whaling occurred wholly inside what is Japanese territory, not in large quantities using great metal ships in international waters half-way across the world. Secondly is that people like you try to claim that it should be permitted for cultural reasons, but the actual justification being used are scientific ones. If Japan immediately limited it's whaling to it's own territory, in quantities on par with historical figures, and stopped calling it scientific - then the criticism would take an entirely different tone. Japan is being treated differently because it is not doing the same thing as other whaling countries, not because of their being Japanese. This shouldn't need to be explained.

I see the picture, and once again the race card, it's always about race.

hokkaidoguy - technically sure, but it's clearly used here because of it's use for the Imperial Japanese Navy and it's symbolic association with the Japanese imperial project.

Good post donkusai, that is just the impression that I was getting and why I didn't like the turn of events. I think that if Rudd had occaisionally shown a fraction of the emotion that he did in his final speech as PM, he wouldn't have lost public support (lately the media have really been attacking him for his public persona), and this could all have been avoided. Just as an aside, I really hate the minority of commentators who talk about how good it is that Gillard is a woman, talk about being played.

Stupid comment bubzabub, this is wholly concerned with domestic politics, most Australians don't have strong feelings about the whaling issue. Man that was an amazingly dumb comment.

Gillard's looking far younger now than in the image above. The new stylist is doing their job.

Rudd is speaking now, he's really choking back tears, it's depressing to watch, and he's making good points about his achievements too.

It certainly was sudden. As much as I didn't like Rudd, I'm not happy about this. I don't trust Gillard, she said she wouldn't challenge, then as soon as her loyalty is questioned she goes after him. I also feel sorry for Rudd, yes backing down on climate change was bad, but in general his leadership wasn't disastrous.

I also notice you're singling out big-bad Australia (which itself submitted several alternative proposals) as if it alone voted against the resumption of commercial whaling. So you have one side blatantly lying about the purposes of it's actions (if you believe Japan really cares about the science element of it's whaling program I have some magic beans to sell you), and goes about getting it's way underhandedly (secret bribes, which you're defending as common practice, but I don't believe for a second that you'd be saying that had the British newspaper recorded anti-whalers doing it) to prop up an industry solely to thumb it's nose and flex it's muscles, and they're who you support. No, I think I'll be giving your posts the same attention I give those of davidattokyo.

Zenny, if you defend Japan buying votes with prostitutes and cash handed out in brown envelopes by saying "no big deal, everyone does it", then nothing will change your mind on the subject.

Japan can never be wrong, can it Zenny.