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.
What’s happening to the dollar?
I remember going to the States long ago when it was aroung 90 yen, and it felt like everything was free.
Mayor Resigns, Claims Abduction By Satan Worshippers
Edward Chmura,
In last couples of years US dollar dropped more than 40% to Euro, UK Pond, Canadian and Australian dollar. And in just 8 months US dollar dropped about 20% to Japanese Yen.
That comes from the collapse of US bubble housing economy followed by Subprime Loan woes. Everybody is now worrying about US and world economy recession.
The reduction in interest rates of US dollar will continue, and the dallar could further drop to 90 Yen a dollar. But we hope they fix banking crisis in the US and the dollar and US economy bounce sharply in next year.
Japan, Norway and Iceland are fishery countries that whale. These days, many Japanese find that radical animal rights group ” Sea Shepherd ” very embarrassing and annoying and don’t understand why, because they believe Japan isn’t whaling endangered species.
Following is a very interesting claim by some Norwegian pro-whale activists. http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3993
I don’t eat whale. But I had assumed that moderate whaling could contribute preventing from over-fishing, as whales eat approximately 7 times more fish than humans do.
If you are against whaling, why ? Because whale is intelligent lovely mammalian ?
Do you find the slogan “Eat whale and save the planet” weird ?
What do you think of moderate whaling if that doesn’t damage sea ecosystem ?
Concerning whale consumption in Japan, apparently it has increased by 50 percent since 2002.
So far as I understand, Japan is whaling in the range which IWC allows. I believe Sea Shepherd should at least protest against IWC agreement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Whaling_Commission
I don’t get it: “Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos confirmed Saturday he is representing… Kazuyoshi Miura, was convicted of his wife’s murder in Japan in 1994, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.” http://www.fresnobee.com/384/story/450423.html
But now I’m confused. Who ordered the detention of Miura in Sainpan? The US cops or the Japanese ones? And which jurisdiction is claiming him for further investigation?
I would have thought that the least the US cops could do in this case is not charge him with murder, per se, since, apparently, the Japanese system blew it.
They seems to blow some big ones, don’t they; the Lindsey Hawker case where they can’t even find the suspect, Lucie Blackman…
But could the US cops charge him directly with a host of auxiliary charges like, say, hiring a killer (if there’s proof), accessory to the crime, etc.
But it seems I’m out of the Miura loop. Can someone inform me what the heck’s going on with this case?
Betty,
For someone being out of the loop, you seem to have described the whole story in a nutshell.
Miura was grabbed at the behest of the police in Los Angeles. The U.S. cops apparently are going at him with conspiracy charges, which are easier to prove in the U.S. than in Japan.
What I can’t figure out is why Miura would retain celeb lawyer Mark Geragos. Has Geragos ever won a case?
Well… I know he’s representing those two brothers who were survivors of the San Diego zoo tiger attack, he presented Scott Petersen (who’s still on death row) and a couple of other big-name people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Geragos
According to the article, he may plead double jeopardy - but I don’t know how he’ll get that past a judge since Miura was never tried in LA.
In modern-day California, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a double-jeopardy claim was accepted.