u_s__reamer comments

An extra-large toddler pen should suffice for these two clowns to duke it out.

Sexual frustration is very, very real and most societies have difficulty addressing this uncomfortable reminder that we are animals. Prostitution and porn are society's solution, but even they cannot prevent sexual violence as a consequence of the frustrated human sex drive. Fujita's camera work, while reprehensible, is thankfully at the non-violent end of the spectrum of sexual predation.

Japan had a very serious drug problem after WW2. Governments at all levels, social services and police worked diligently to control and more or less eliminate the problem. 

Er, the post-war social problem of drugs in Japan was just the natural consequence of the widespread use of amphetamines supplied by the Japanese military government to members of the armed forces and overworked factory hands (no time to sleep when you're fighting a war). "Drugs for Victory" was the secret weapon of the Nazis, too.The yakuza gangs and their protectors with political influence naturally profited from the "Wild West" conditions of Japan's post-war collapse. History teaches time and again that it's perverse to look to government people for moral guidance.

With its absurd drug laws that infringe on people's freedoms, the alcohol guzzling and tobacco-addicted denizens of Kasumigaseki (the aptly named "foggy barrier") are constantly high on hypocrisy.

Ding-ding! RIP. Don Hector - in his wheelchair he was one scary hombre, a seething bundle of pent-up raging malevolence in a tiny bell.

The nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue came down a swanky faux gold escalator and now with his fanciful "NOT guilty" plea he's found himself beginning his slide on a slippery slope down to a VIP cell in the pen.

Wait, I thought now was the time of cancel culture. You're saying it was also around then, and went away? But how is it here?

America has become much more liberal since the 1960s' cultural revolution: adulterous politicians, presidents with pot-smoking pasts and with a history of indulging in other banned substances, rapists and other sexual offenders, all these famous names have been given get-outta-jail free cards and have been allowed to run for high office in the last 20 years or so. But there IS a cancel culture on the deeply-rooted Amerikan right which has thrived since the time of the Salem witch hunts, the dispossession of First Nation Americans, the dehumanization of enslaved blacks, the Know-nothings of the 19th century (the DNA of MAGA), the anti-immigrant legislation born of stoked public paranoia, anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s that canceled Oppenheimer and many other gifted individuals, just to mention a few egregious examples a long American tradition that has spawned today's fanatical GOP anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and book-banning palooza. Paul Reuben's peccadillo has been forgiven, posthumously, at least.

Funny how when most folk get arrested for crimes, their "intent" is immaterial. What they "believed" does not mitigate the result of their actions, unless it's a plea of insanity, which might even be Trump's last desperate recourse. Whatever, the one thing we can be sure of, judging from the 2 agonizing years of the DOJ's extra-soft, kid-glove treatment, Trump will be handled as no ordinary felon and, certainly won't be a poster boy for "nobody is above the law".

Pee Wee was unlucky to have been caught out in a time before America learned that "when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."RIP

The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were two horrific war crimes among many others, but these led to further crimes against humanity with the development of the many-thousand-fold more destructive Hydrogen Bomb that hangs over the world like the Sword of Damocles. The politicians and military personnel calling themselves "the American Government" dropped the bombs, not Oppenheimer, who had hoped, naively, that by sharing the science of building a fission bomb, his team had found a way to unite humanity in the noble quest to end all wars. That some Japanese put all the blame on "Oppie" while "letting bygones be bygones" in their fawning to Uncle Sam is absurdly hypocritical. The movie should be released in Japan immediately and the bio promoted in Japanese translation because the history-allergic need to get over it and, "Barbie" won't make them any wiser.

A sign that the spirit of individuality is still alive and trying to catch up with the past.

Sven Asai rightly points out the pleasures and benefits of becoming multi-lingual, but where are Japanese kids going to find the time to discover this intellectual and emotional satisfaction? When they do get the chance of any free time, phones, video games or sleep are their preferred simplest sources of pleasure. The monolithic education system takes all the oxygen out of natural curiosity and all but extinguishes the expression of individuality.

Trump's frivolousness which always produces the same result before judges must be his definition of a "stable genius". Whatever, Trump with his MO of delay, delay, delay is acing the DOJ's clock that the timid, foot-dragging Garland (and Biden) started waaay too late. The elimination of the festering orange peril of the GOP's "Joker" now lies in the hands of the redoubtable Jack Smith and his team and, the American people who will hand down their verdict at the polls in 2024.

The Japanese are a busy people and the kids have no time to learn "Ingurishu".

Mental illness is acted out in many guises. "The Joker" is just one. We won't have to wait long for the next...

A better idea would be if the government made more effort to go after the scammers with the draconian punishment of long prison sentences to deter those tempted.

Mr Kipling,

Jimizo has the more measured and accurate understanding of what actually went down in the election that delivered that "oven-ready" Johnson.

The UK's ramshackle transportation system is a symbol of the state of the country brought to its knees by corrupt class-ridden policies and capitalist greed. The working class has been thrown under a bus whose wheels have all but come off.

Why is this non-event in the news?

Dagon summed it all up nicely underlining the crucial point of moral complicity in a criminal enterprise. It's a good thing the flag was returned to the family with all the names of family and friends who in their own way had "bought into" the war of aggression waged by their rulers. The troubling fact that most people seem unable for various reasons to join the dots and take the names of the militarists and politicians who conspire to violently seize what does not belong to them by means of sending the youth of the country to shed their blood in vain. This reluctance of the majority to blame and remember is a factor ensuring wars in perpetuity. The attack on Ukraine at the behest of Putin and his criminal cabal is the latest example of warmongers exploiting the sheeplike passivity of people.

What about "legal" drugs, like opioids, manufactured by the pharma giants, that have killed a million Americans in the last 25 years? Or those who peddle highly addictive and lethal products like alcohol and tobacco, knowing that millions will sicken and die from addiction to their legal but poisonous wares? Any suits hanged or even imprisoned? That hapless woman's execution in Singapore for her illegal ounce clearly has not elicited even a gram of compassion or pity from those who would feel quite differently were the victim a family member or friend.

The death penalty is no deterrent, except perhaps for the most corrupt rich businessmen and powerful politicians who have made sure they are exempt from the draconian punishments reserved for the lower orders, which is why, in every society, such members of this ruling class rarely end up dangling from a rope. We can be sure that among the Singapore elite there are not a few deserving of the same punishment for much worse crimes than an ounce of a banned substance.

How many "Hail Marys" will the American triple-tier justice system allow the disgraced scofflaw? Nobody knows, but it's almost certain that at this stage a desperate plea from Trump's lawyers to the DOJ to give the former Potus a break with a few "get-outa-jail" free cards has come too late. That might well have worked with Garland, but after Mr Smith went to Washington Trump was done: toast.

The Eagles have flown. The memories remain. RIP

Sinead's difficult childhood and troubled mental universe didn't equip her for getting along with this cruel world, but her rebellious, creative spirit born through her pain brought joy to many who will remember her with gratitude. RIP.

Hunter's the favorite squirrel for GOP whataboutism. Meanwhile, most of us see a tree full of orange ones that the IRS has somehow failed to notice and, with so many squirreling away their ill-gotten gains with impunity, it's little wonder that the refrain "nobody is above the law" in America rings hollow.

What a piece of work this McCarthy is! Twice he voted not to impeach the most corrupt man ever to sit in the Oval Office and now he wants to go after Biden while still desperate to kiss the ring of the twice indicted scofflaw who this week looks likely to be presented with two additional indictments. Biden's DOJ has been negligent in its duty to protect the American people from McCarthy and his ilk who have been serving up a smorgasbord of crimes against the republic to the befuddled MAGA millions.

...state broadcaster CCTV gave no reason for Qin’s removal. He had dropped out of sight almost a month ago and the Foreign Ministry has provided no information about his status.

That is in keeping with the ruling Communist Party’s standard approach to personnel matters within a highly opaque political system where the media and free speech are severely restricted.

This is the paranoid style of all authoritarian power-hungry cliques: presenting "face" of the most brazen kind to the public and donning "the Emperor's New Clothes" are the sine qua non of all ruling cowards.

Long-term, the feudal Taliban are on a losing wicket against the passage of time and the inexorable changes in society. Maybe only online porn will bring about the downfall of the sex-starved Taliban men patently terrified of the power of their womenfolk.

The Stones were always about the grotesque and nothing has changed.

Grotesque may be in the eye of the beholder, but if you live long enough, you're bound to get an eyeful of it and will have to admit that we primates with a human brain are indisputably a grotesque species. With their super-star antics the Stones have certainly been no role models, but their testosterone-fueled lyrics and aggro-filled guitar riffs are only rock 'n' roll and I like it. I wouldn't want to speak for the ladies, though.