Tosaken comments

ChrisBiggins at 02:58 PM JST - 15th June

“Toasken, A Passport To Pimlico was an Ealing comedy mmde in 1949, ok!!!”

No it is not “ok”. It was a J.Arthur Rank film made at Ealing studios, but it was not an Ealing studios film. JAR used Ealing’s studios but they were different companies.

What you are calling Ealing comedy was made by the Rank Organisation and Peter Rogers Productions. OK!!!

A Passport To pimlico was not one of the Ealing comedies. It belongs to a better period of film. Even Hollywood was making a few good films at that time. get some focus rather than rambling away about old films. Ther are good new films, they just are not made by either Britain or America.

Ealing comedies were the same film in different costumes what was there to like about something that silly? Hollywood might have dipped its toe in film as art but it will always go back to what it does best, rubbish that makes money. If Hollywood can’t find new film material it means nobody in the world can be doing much either, because anything good Hollywood does come up with is normally a copycat idea they have taken from a foreign film.

There is nothing on offer that could be seen as a good book to read, so I suppose this means that Hollywood know what they are doing, showing pictures to the semi literate and making money. CAD was a god send to Hollywood, more bangs to the buck equals a high rate of return.

I have two university degrees, one in industrial design and one in electronics and I have been teaching the English language since 1974, without a teaching certificate. Have I not proved that I have a quite good brain working quite well in my head? I love teaching, I started by accident and simply never want to do anything else, I am neither proud nor embarrassed by the work I do, because it is nobodies business but mine, except of course the students to whom I have a life times responsibility, not just while they are in my classes but as friends that go on through the rest of our lives. Because this should never be a job that ends with the sound of the bell. That is what a teacher is, a person that teaches and there is no need to have a certificate to show that is what you are. That is what you are. As for teachers being rude, nasty or whatever, well sadly there is a strong element of that in the profession, and for that reason I avoid other teachers like the plague. If you doubt this you need only read much that has been written above, those that believe having a certificate makes then some how superior simply cannot stop themselves ridiculing the Willy Wokers who might well be extremely good teachers. The arrogance that that certificate gives to some people never fails to amaze me, especially when many of them are not that good at the job.

Anybody that says this is not a hard job or that there are no real rewards at the end of almost everyday has no idea what they are doing and shouldn’t be doing it. Money matters because we need to live in the real world, but it should never be the motivation for going into teaching.

Isn´t the whole point of a Tarantino film about not thinking?

JHansen at 12:34 AM JST - 6th November

{ I only wonder how the boys in the pin are going to react once they find out why he is there? Something tells me that in the end, the man may "feel" the horses's pain. }

I thought about the boys in the pen too, but I thought that no self respecting con is going to want to even stand near this guy. After all, there is sick and there is super sick and this one is super sick.

I wonder if he might turn up in a well known prison in Cuba a few weeks from now? Oh, sorry, now the saviour has replaced the burning bush these things no longer happen, (do they?).

When you are all finished having a go at the Japanese police go back and re-read the story. This particular policeman did what he believed was best for the cat and probably came close to getting it right. Cats wander and normally do just go home. If this policeman had sent it to be destroyed we would all be saying what a heartless rat he was. It had a collar with no identifying details on it, so the real responsibility falls to the owner. As for destroying the paperwork, well, I can see myself doing exactly the same thing. As I am sure most of you would have done if you were being honest rather than having fun attacking the police.

Pumpychan at 10:16 PM JST - 24th September “Tokyo is a city that honours mainly the right to smoke a cigarette any damn time one pleases, rapid construction of architecturally horrid (interesting) buildings, cars (buses, trains) and trucks in earshot of any location, and enormous (beautiful) palace grounds which no one can use nor enter, protected by police with no visible function. There is not a quiet and truly clean park one can go (until Inokashira). Oh, and now helicopters rumble 14 hours per day overhead.”

Forgive my interjections, I couldn’t help myself. As for what you have to say I agree & have to say isn’t it just great! (Not a question). Actually from all that you wrote it would seem that Tokyo would be the perfect place for the Olympics, a crass over hyped sporting event designed to make as much money as possible for few people at the centre while numbing the brains of the sofa jocks that will sit & watch anything so long as some smart PR company calls it a sport.

Since this fool travels under diplomatic immunity and so cannot be prosecuted what needs to be done is that when he first tries to deny the holocaust at the UN everybody should simply get up & walk out leaving only fools & bigots to listen to his ramblings. That might send a far more powerful message to the people of Iran.

I also don’t think Kitty chan needs any help from this silly girl.

I think that this might, just might, be better done with a horse. An imaginary horse is just not going to make it happen.

ca1ic0cat at 12:06 AM JST - 23rd September

“Freaking squrrels got all our pears too.”

I wonder if it was the same gang of Korean or Chinese squirrels that got these pears?

No, not yaks, this would have been too much like hard work for them.

Chicago gets my vote because I really want to see how “Homeland security” handles all those dangerous foreigners. Far more fun than the Olympics.

There are over 9 million people in that backward country that are not Muslims, maybe some of them would like to attend this concert. And see Beyonce dress in what ever style she cares to wear. She, not being a Muslim, isn’t (or shouldn’t be) covered by their backward Islamic laws.

Hephatsheput at 04:19 AM JST - 20th September

“If Japan backs down, it effectively joins Al-Queada.”

If it is at all possible for you would you like to at least try and make a stab at explaining that? Given how little you have written I really wouldn’t like to say what I think at this point. I would rather give you some rope first.

Seiharinokaze at 06:44 PM JST - 18th September

This child like reasoning would involve the abandonment of millions of Israelis to their fate at the hands of those so peace loving Muslims. Perhaps you might like to also explain to we simpletons what is to be done with the millions of Muslims that have chosen to live in Western countries while demanding that they are allowed to practice their religion in their own way. Would Western countries then be right to class these people as intruders? If they simply lived in their adopted counties by the laws of those countries it might be different, but they don’t, they demand & expect to be given rights over those of the indigenous populations & when they imagine those rights infringed they turn to extremism. Backing out of Muslim countries to keep the peace is a nonsensical non-starter, it shows weakness & such a show only feeds the monster you seem to fear so much that you want to run away from rather than confront.

The above article is pulled piecemeal from the Guardian newspaper & quotes John Denham, none Brits may not realise what that amounts to, those who do will take the entire thing with a pinch of salt. Even among British politicians Denham is seen as a fool & the Guardian really couldn’t be any more left wing if it tried. Add somebody’s comment about the BBC & what you have is meaningless picture that lacks any balance.

Over the last 12 years the British Labour party have worked very hard to create protections for the Muslim community in Britain, & what was originally a well meant scheme just went on & on until it became so unbalanced that it is now generating a back lash from the indigenous population. This coupled with out of control immigration & a benefits system that seems to favour none whites while legally silencing whites from protesting is creating a growth in the extreme right wing parties which seem to be the only parties that are offering a voice to the indigenous population. The Labour Party by their actions are polarising political opinion into extremes & neither of the other two leading political parties (Conservative & Liberal) are offering anything that the electorate believe will make a difference. The extreme right (BNP & others) are feeding on this chaos & discontent, & they have until May of next year (General election) to gain as much political ground as they can.

Labour policy & ineffectual opposition have fragmented the political character of the country allowing the extreme right to gain credibility. What we are seeing is small & in general unimportant little political groups taking the limelight, groups that under normal circumstances no one would ever pay any attention to. Extremes create extremes & that is what Labour policy has done. We will all have to wait until after the dust has settled after next May’s election before we can see just how much damage has been done.

By the way, Hitler called his political party the National Socialists, but only a fool would imagine the Nazi party was anything but a fascist party. The word “socialist” within any political party’s name means absolutely nothing, neither right nor left. Semantic games, nothing else.

An 18 year old violinist has probably been studying music for some years & she will probably practice every day, which is the reason she had the instrument with her. Even on holiday she will still play anything from two to five hours day. I once lived with a cellist & you just have to get used to it.

Also as a general rule really good & promising violinists & cellist don’t have to buy these expensive instruments, they are kind of on loan to ultimately be passed on to the next promising student.

In some ways being almost permanently with your instrument goes part way in explaining why it is possible to forget it & leave it on a train. The dollar, yen & euro signs you (& I) all see, she & others like her don’t see. And by the way, that value on the instrument doesn’t mean she comes from a rich family.

Does this all mean that I don’t think she is an idiot? No way, I also think she is a total cretin. Though I perhaps understand why she is one a little better than some.

sfjp330 at 06:14 AM JST

I really don’t think you quite get the idea of this site. It might be called “Japan Today” but that does not mean that Japanese people actually post comments here. Yes, it has been known to infrequently happen, but you will find that none of the above posters are Japanese. They are all from English speaking countries & one double post in particular is a figment of his own multi personality imagination. So you idea that some Japanese are bad mouthing the poor mis-understood Americans is wrong. As for somebody else suggesting that rockets are in some way cowardly, they are just mechanical delivery systems as apposed to the (deluded) human delivery systems the Taliban use. War means killing people, how this is done doesn´t all that important.

Palin is seen as “the telegenic and plainspoken”?

I suppose the same could be said about Donald Duck & Mickey Mouse, but who would vote them into the White house?

What the hell, the Americans have voted worse comic characters than either in before now. How about Mr.McGoo? Now there’s a man who could really see his way to solving Americas problems.

“where thousands of American troops have deployed in a massive operation to oust Taliban fighters from the country’s opium poppy region,”

First they went for the Iraqi oil & now the US government is trying to cut out the Afghan middle men in the opium trade.

When you produce a product that appeals to the lowest common denominator then you are producing rubbish.

She hasn’t been chosen for how good she is but for how much political leverage she represents & after Bush getting a second term with his performance record it would suggest that the American people are not the brightest in the world, so maybe it will al work out just fine for Obama the saviour & his chosen one.

The Cheney bush team might well be a couple law breaking rats & maybe the invasion of Iraq was a pure money making scheme, but at least half of what they were about was trying to stop any more buildings in the US getting demolished by crazed muslims. Yeah, so they went a little over the top, well do you expect, they’re Americans & Americans are always over the top about everything. No, I don’t know much about it, but then there isn’t anything except US news to comment on so I thought I’d jump in with an opinion. Like for example you lot may be voters but what do you really know about what is going on behind closed doors in the US, most of you don’t even live in the country, fine Americans you are. You are all experts but have no idea what information Langley might have that you cannot even begin to guess at. So Cheney might have broken the law, so what? If it rid the world of a few extra muslim crazies that can’t be bad. Fine so a few innocents might have got squashed in the rush, that’s live, there’s always a price & it is better that a few of their innocents got hurt rather than a lot of yours. Cheney is a bit like the bad guy in the Batman films, everybody hates him but get things done, even if you don’t agree with those things. Only given that there is no Batman to deal with the bad guy he is going to get away with whatever he has done. So live with it, for Cheney it is all over, he isn’t coming back so he doesn’t need to make any effort to keep anybody happy.

What an incredible level of bitterness & analysis for something so trivial as a bubblehead pretend wedding.

Drinking water? What a disgusting thing to do, wash in it yes, but drink the stuff? Never.

By the way, 356 ( minus 2 ) out of 2500, now that’s not what I would call democracy.

There are more than enough serious matters to argue about without this. I make no judgement on Michael Jackson, but Jackson Lee’s resolution is simply trouble making for the sake of trouble making.

Flogging is too good for spammers, 20 years, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week de-infecting other peoples computers would do just fine by me. In the last 10 years I have, thankfully, only had to do it twice, but that is more than enough to know how horrible a job it is.

mnemosyne23 (at 02:17 AM JST )

There is no contradiction in this, I do agree with almost all you say. What I was reacting to was the extreme, almost bitter comments posted earlier. I spent ten years living with someone who was incredibly ill, I did everything humanly possible to stop her killing herself. Yes, I failed, eventually she did manage it. Given time and distance from that I now cannot be sure that all I did was the right thing to have done. I cannot even be sure that keeping her alive wasn’t cruel & selfish of me. That is rubbish of course, but we see with both intellect and emotion, and after ten years in a little world that had it’s own strange rules it’s hard to say now what was and wasn’t right. I know all the battles I went through, night after night after night. I know all the professionals that were so NOT helpful. You would believe that in Europe and the US we have all the support services, at least until you come to use them, then you find that politics and dogma dictate and getting help that actually amounts to help is almost impossible. And even in Europe families hide their sick children, or if they can, hide from their sick children, if there is somebody else to take on the responsibility. Sorry my lost war on mental illness makes me angry with fools like many above that have no idea of what they are talking about and condemn a lady that is just as dead as her child. The same illness killed them both and they need our respect and understanding. Not what is written by the ignorant above.