"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
liberal japonicus by liberal japonicus Thought I would open another thread, this time centered around Pope Francis’ recent homily, in which he gave the blessing in the title, explained by this wikipedia page. The Urbi et Orbi address and blessing is the most solemn form of blessing in the Catholic Church, and is reserved for the most … Read more
by liberal japonicus Posted on a friend’s facebook, who said he got it from Popbitch A man in hospital is one of the first to use the new Dyson ventilator. Doctors say he’s picking up nicely. So a thread for jokes. No politics….. unless it’s funny.
by liberal japonicus This is prompted by my reply to Girl from the North Country concerning the fact that Korea basically has one big urban center and the problems it causes as well as me remember Russell’s observation (I think) about how a particular size of village/town was self selected. I’m too lazy to look … Read more
by liberal japonicus
TLDR: The 2.37 means that the tech part will be a little sparse, but it is there if you somehow manage to get to the end
by liberal japonicus A thread for your political thoughts, as a futile attempt to protect the non-political ones. Have at it.
by liberal japonicus This deserves a separate post. In answer to the post’s question, the Berlin Phil streaming site/app is giving free access to their catalog for 30 days because of coronavirus https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/ Hope other can share what they are doing in this time of social distancing. And maybe no politics, if you please.
TLDR: This meandering installment has me crawl further out on a limb by talking about two subjects that I don’t know much about, economics and Windows. Enjoy.
by liberal japonicus This Guardian piece is quite interesting. With an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 coronavirus cases now present in the UK, the government has eschewed social distancing measures such as closing schools and banning large sporting events. Instead, it has opted for behavioural “nudges”: wash your hands, don’t touch your face, don’t shake hands … Read more
by liberal japonicus Thought I’d post something, the wuhan thread is creaking at the seams. A couple of grafs from here Sanders promised to show up at the debate on Sunday in Arizona to face Biden one-on-one, and basically offered him a cheat sheet: “Let me be very frank as to the questions that I … Read more
by liberal japonicus I wrote to Josh Marshall, editor of Talking Points Memo (and he immediately wrote back with a gracious response. I should also add that they are keeping all their COVID reporting outside their paywall, but they are hoping to get more subscribers, so you may want to consider it) about this statement … Read more
by liberal japonicus
TLDR:I started writing a post about tech in Korea, but realised it’s going to take multiple posts, which will probably be warped by my relative isolation in Japan. Right now, I’m thinking three parts, transport & cashless society, internet and national id. And for those of you hoping to read this to forget about COVID-19, well, sorry about that.
by liberal japonicus
TLDR: While Christianity in Korea may look familiar, it got there in a pretty unique way and who knows where it is going. Supported by tons of random observations that may or may not be related, leading to a conclusion that is pretty weak. More below.
by liberal japonicus The references is to this. Have at it.
by liberal japonicus
I’m back with an Abbott and Costello pun to start things off.
Obligatory exposition. I was an exchange professor in the city of Daejeon, an hour south of Seoul for one year. While there are lots of things that I hope I will write about, I thought that I would start with some discussion of the coronavirus and what I’ve seen in Korea and Japan. As I’m sure all of you are aware, the Chinese efforts to contain the virus have been pretty intensive/harsh/draconian (adjectives to adjust depending on your opinion of China and the danger of the virus). I’m not sure how much coverage you’ve gotten where you are, but here is an interesting story, and the twitter video can give all your Chinese learners some stuff to practice listening to. (不客气!) However, because I wasn’t in China and I wanted to talk about my personal experiences, I won’t talk anymore about that. I’ll also leave Ugh’s post up so folks can talk about what is happening elsewhere especially in the US. I realize that may be a bit chaotic, but I feel like the situation in Asia is quite different than the US, though reading the Guardian suggests that there are some similarities with the UK and Europe. Anyway, more below.
by liberal japonicus First of all, a couple of people have said hi to me in the comments, so hey back and apologies for not being in the flow to answer. The title refers to the following Johnson throwing the DUP under the bus Bolton throwing Rudy under the bus followed by Sondland doing the … Read more
By liberal japonicus Posting from my iphone, let’s see if that makes a difference. Knock yerselves out.
by liberal japonicus I’m alive. Not really following things closely, but this NPR article on how the US hacked ISIS caught my attention. There are some interesting points related to my encounters with the internet here in Korea that I’ll try and discuss, but just wanted to put this up there for now.
by liberal japonicus
The title is not a meditation on political systems and my opinions, it is a bit more literal. Where I’m at is South Korea, where I’ll be a for a year. So, below the fold, an open thread-y set of observations and unbridled speculation. For those who find some of this unbelievable, please ask probing questions and for those who have some experience in Korea, please chime in.
by liberal japonicus After the 17 0ct 2017 Las Vegas shooting, prompted by JanieM, I dropped in the comments to post the names of the victims and a link saying something about them. That finished up about a month later with this post collecting those names and links. I had briefly entertained the idea of … Read more
by liberal japonicus
Of course, right after Russell posts, I get an article that pushes me to post. Never fails.
We’ve never had a discussion about the whole kneeling during the anthem thing, partly because sports isn’t really a big thing here, in part because (I hope) the commentariat recognizes that it is a symbolic discussion that resists attempts at rational discussion. But the article above has me think of some of the functional reasons why this would start within football, and why it would happen at a basketball game at Ole Miss, as well as analyze some of my misconceptions. More after the break.
by liberal japonicus Via this Vox article, an interesting New Yorker article about Dan Mallory. Wondering about the takeaway of the Vox article: does the personal deception done by Mallory stand as evidence of the rot in the publishing industry? Be interested to hear what everything thinks.
by liberal japonicus [Title should be sung to the tune of Rawhide] This weekend is the weekend of the Daigaku Nyūshi Sentā Shiken (大学入試センター試験). A page giving a brief explanation is here. As tenured faculty at a university that is a test site for the senta shiken, I have to proctor the test roughly 3 … Read more
by liberal japonicus I’ve got a bunch of stuff to put in the previous thread, but I wanted to open up another thread about this interview with Rick Perlstein about AOC. A pull quote Well, I don’t think they’re afraid so much for the Democratic Party as they’re afraid for themselves. This is obviously a … Read more
by liberal japonicus A discussion about learning languages briefly broke out after the subject of immigrants learning English came up. While I’m not going to be the thread police here, I’m starting this thread to talk about how you and others learned/are learning/used to learn languages rather than societal issues that are involved. Pointless rambles … Read more
by liberal japonicus Not sure if this is something that is being followed or is even interesting to people here, but the foreign community here in Japan has been watching the Carlos Ghosn saga closely. A quick summary. Carlos Ghosn, who was able to revive the fortunes of Renault, came in when Renault bought a … Read more
by liberal japonicus Well, getting back to it, this article seemed interesting and a bit strange. Why Trump has spared Pelosi from his personal vitriol–so far His decision so far not to go after Pelosi personally, even as his top aides have blamed her for the shutdown, hasn’t gone unnoticed in the Capitol. Pelosi’s allies … Read more
by liberal japonicus
I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve been pounded into silence by the torrent of news, goverment shutdown, Brexit, tsunami. It is enough to turn me into a cat picture person.
However, I felt like I needed to post an end of the year post, so there was this story, about an unlikely friendship that some of you may have seen
https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2018/12/14/lin-wang-charles-barkley
which is also an NPR podcast that I caught later, which has recordings of the quoted telephone conversations that make the story even better
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/12/17/charles-barkley-lin-wang
(I love Charles Barkley’s North Alabama pronunciation of ‘bothering’ and the twists of the English of Lin Wang’s father (My dad held on to his Hawaiian pidgin till the end, so strong that every girlfriend I ever had was baffled by it on first encounter.))
An overly microscopic view below the fold.
by liberal japonicus Don’t really have a lot, so two things that crossed my desktop. Kevin Drum offers a commonsensical view on dealing with the deaths of public figures. (Doing the above was) considered common courtesy, and does not mean that (a) nobody is ever allowed to say anything bad about the establishment, or (b) … Read more
by liberal japonicus Laura mentioned that she had a new book, proceeds of which would go to fund animal rescue, so I asked her to give us some more details. I’m sure that other folks have interesting things that are hopefully coming to fruition for this holiday season, either for themselves or for others, so … Read more
by liberal japonicus https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/nov/12/stan-lees-best-marvel-cameos-video Excelsior!
by liberal japonicus Well, that was quick.. An open thread for that.
by liberal japonicus Well, Tuesday’s here and the world hasn’t ended, but unfortunately, my Tuesday is a US Monday… Anyway, an open thread to put your observations in.
Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill David Rosenthal, 54, of Squirrel Hill (Cecil and David Rosenthal are brothers) Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg Sylvan Simon, 87, of Wilkinsburg (Bernice and Sylvan are husband … Read more
by liberal japonicus Has it only been four days since I posted about the ‘migrant caravan‘? Lot of pressure and Ugh is there with a stent of an open thread, but here’s a little more focussed post for those of you who want to chat. This post is sort of about Megyn Kelly, formerly of … Read more