Here is the Open Thread for the week in which readers are invited to discuss things that have been on their minds, regardless of whether they are on topic.
Rules are very loose for open thread posts, and usual restrictions concerning topic matter do not apply. Feel free to sound off about anything you want.
The alleged rape by an American military guy in Okinawa. Already convicted by the Japanese media and some in the general public. Horrible act if it occurred. But the media, again, ignores crimes by Japanese. How many other similar attacks occurred that day by Japanese across Japan? And are the media so certain the accused did the crime when Japanese are involved?
It’s a simple fact of life that outsiders anywhere are often held to a higher standard of conduct, such that transgressions of this nature (alleged or otherwise) are noted by the domestic media. Let’s put it this way: it’d be really strange (and perhaps unprecedented in any country) for a crime of this nature by a foreign soldier to go unreported by the media or treated with less than sensationalist fervor. On the other hand, I doubt that many American news media outlets have picked up on this story (unlike say Abu Ghraib).
And I wouldn’t quite say that the media ignores crimes by Japanese. This is, after all, a country where purse snatchings are reported in newspapers with nationwide readership.
Smokers. . . Check this one out.
Someone in my neighborhood bought a box set of an entire season of 24, which they gave me to watch.
During some episodes, they show members of the supposedly super secret CTU bringing family members, friends, and all kinds of other people into their work areas. What a load of bull.
Back when I worked in areas that required a top secret clearance, there was no way that anyone other than those who had been sufficiently cleared was allowed in. If contractors, emergency medical personnel, or others had to come in, everything in the area was covered by large tarps to keep it from being seen. This was a major undertaking that interfered with normal work, and so letting unauthorized people in was never something done so lightly.
Even those with top secret clearance who were allowed to enter the complex at large were kept out of rooms and areas that were not directly associated with the jobs they were performing (need to know).
Looking for JAPANESE radio stations - accessible via the internet, naturally.
I’m not looking for Top 40 JPop stuff or djs going on and on and on and on. Just a few radio stations that play an eclectic mix of music or some good shows (like, ah, Radio Nova in Paris?).
I tend to concentrate around smaller independent bands like Stars, Boards of Canada, Feist, Yo La Tengo… bands I tend to associate with paunchy aging hipster trendies. God bless ‘em!
But I don’t know of any Japanese bands and singers I’d like (aside from the one and only Seiji Toda track I’ve watched on youtube - Clockworks).
I figure a few radio stations will mend this hole in my cutural baggage.