In winter, I'm a Buddhist,
And in summer, I'm a nudist.
- Joe Gould
"My Religion"
In fact the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.
- Oscar Wilde, aware in 1889 that popular conceptions about the country and its people are mostly fiction.
Not even 10% of what Japanese people are thinking is communicated overseas.
- Watanabe Tsuneo of CSIS
All foreign correspondents, whenever they desert statistics for judgments of opinion...become models of self-deception. They may call themselves, with proper gravity, ‘reporters’. But...they are nothing but quack psychiatrists who do not even know that this is the field they practise.
- Alistair Cooke
Where all news comes at second-hand, where all the testimony is uncertain, men cease to respond to truths, and respond simply to opinions. The environment in which they act is not the realities themselves, but the pseudo-environment of reports, rumors, and guesses.
- Walter Lippmann
We want...a revolution - a turning of the wheel, so that the state becomes once again the servant of the people, and not the other way around. We are the progressives now, comrades, (and) you the reactionaries.
- Daniel Hannan
If the textbook says, "It is well known that...", you can be sure that is a very good place to begin a research inquiry.
- Isaiah Bowman, geographer and former president of Johns Hopkins University
The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
- Cicero (55 BC)
We do not need a censorship of the press. We have a censorship by the press. It is not we who silence the press. It is the press that silences us. It is not a case of the Commonwealth settling how much the editors shall say; it is a case of the editors settling how much the Commonwealth shall know. If we attack the press, we shall be rebelling, not repressing.
- G.K. Chesterton
You can see a lot by looking.
- Yogi Berra
All text copyright 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by William Sakovich
E-mail:
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Marellus said
… how can people be this stupid … they’re Japanese for godssake …
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Part of the stupidity is explained that the demonstration was a field day for Red/Anarchist groups dating from the radical student movement of the 60s, the Communist Party, Fukushima Mizho’s Social Democrats, and labor unions. It is interesting that the Kakumaruha and others are openly carrying their banners.
-A.
rab said
Hi. Have you read this article on the nuclear ambition of Japan?
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/s/article/2012062190070419.html?ref=rank
Japan has changed its law to allow use of nuclear power for its national security.
The clause 平和の目的に限り “only for the purpose of peace” is still in the law, but the meaning has totally changed. Previously it meant that nuclear power is allowed to be used “only for civil purpose”. Now it means “to defend peace”.
I think this change will meet international criticism in light of nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
I also wonder how many of ordinary Japanese know this major policy change of their government.
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R: Thanks for the note. Yes, I did read it yesterday and copied it for translation and comment. I have to finish the big motherbruiser of a post I’m working on now first.
- A.
Kresh said
“People who only insist on their rights without taking responsibility have no right to question the responsibility of others.”
One could argue that they have no rights at all. Spiderman had something to say about this, I believe. Something about power and responsibility if I remember correctly. If you wish to have personal power you must take personal responsibility.
rab said
Korean repercussion to the national security clause.
http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2954912&cloc=joongangdaily
By the way, did you know that KEPCO has decided that they keep some of their fossil fuel power plants idle through this summer?
http://mainichi.jp/area/news/20120418ddn001040003000c.html
The capacity of idle fossil fuel power plants is 1,950,000 KW.
The capacity of OI #3 and #4 is 2,360,000 KW.
I would do the opposite.
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R: Thanks for the links. Fossil fuel power plants are more expensive to operate, which is probably the motivation.
-A.