"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
liberal japonicus by liberal japonicus The image in the BBC story about the probe Philae, which landed on Comet 67P, it gives me the impression that the probe used its Twitter account to let people know it had come back on. So, we are screwed, just to let you know.
by liberal japonicus I'm going to take the liberty of pulling up parts of two comments, one by sapient, the other by Nombrilisme Vide Sapient wrote: So speaking of sex, and Caitlyn, nobody commented on the New Yorker article I linked to. But then there was a New York Times editorial, and then a Slate commentator who objected to it (and … Read more
by liberal japonicus I don't follow sports closely anymore, too much work, too little time, and a ferocious time difference to deal with. I admit to having a soft spot for Lebron, as I have a general sympathy for anyone forced to mature in the spotlight, though it does seem a bit silly to have … Read more
by liberal japonicus When my brother and I were growing up, every New Year's morning, we would be given a book by my mom. As happens, as I got older, it was harder to keep up with my tastes, but there were a couple of times where the book I got was spot on. I … Read more
by liberal japonicus Cause if there are, you definitely want to have one for this: Swiss authorities conducted an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges. As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more … Read more
by liberal japonicus The title is a shout out to Oscar Wilde, who wrote “The whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.” This article “Is Japan becoming extinct?” may prove him right. Two grafs: After years of paying limited attention to academic and media warnings … Read more
by liberal japonicus A lot of interesting reading about how the left lost in the UK. Here are some graphs for Irving Welsh’s take That the Conservatives, as Lord Forsyth admits, are now overtly abandoning Scotland in order to shore up core support in the south, should surprise nobody. One of the biggest myths is … Read more
by liberal japonicus Time for a little cleaning. I’m going to go through the blogroll and delete any blogs that aren’t being regularly updated. Now’s your chance to recommend some blogs or suggest some to be pruned.
by liberal japonicus Commentariat regular sanbikinoraion, despite his Japanese handle (it means 3-CLASSIFIER-lion) requested a UK election thread, which is a brilliant idea. It’s a pretty exciting contest, with not only Labour and the Conservatives (who currently have a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats and whose leader, Nick Clegg, may lose his seat in … Read more
by liberal japonicus The kitty got this url http://www.theniladmirari.com/ from the author, Bill McCabe, who offers it up for the commentariat’s views and thoughts.
by liberal japonicus With the most recent turn of the Hugo thread, the idea of this post popped up. The title is not an attempt to slag off on Islam, but just to note that for many of us, our contacts with Islam and the 1.5 billion adherents may be, well, limited. It certainly is … Read more
by liberal japonicus
Been on a little vacation and was planning on writing a post about how interesting it was that Trevor Noah was going to be the new host of the Daily Show. More below the break
by liberal japonicus Stunning. Discuss.
by liberal japonicus Let me give a welcome to regular commentor wj, who will take up the gauntlet and do whatever one does with gauntlets. He'll probably be taking over the weekend open thread. Anyone else interested? Write the kitty!
by liberal japonicus An open thread for Leonard Nimoy. I suspect we have a number of interesting takes and anecdotes in the hive mind.
by liberal japonicus It would be hard to overestimate my lack of understanding of economics. So when I read an article like this, I'm totally baffled. Some graphs from the article Takatoshi Ito, an economist at Columbia’s School of International & Public Affairs, argued at a panel discussion on Monday that unless the Japanese government … Read more
by liberal japonicus There have been a number of wonderful pieces about David Carr, like this one by Jennifer Senior at NYMag that ends with this: There came a moment after September 11 when I told David how sad and afraid I was to be single. This was a risky confession: David wasn’t much for … Read more
by liberal japonicus Depressing news. I've had Musicophilla on my to read stack for far too long and I see that he had a new memoir, On The Move coming out in May.
by liberal japonicus In my newsfeed, I saw the passing of Steve Montador, a hockey defenseman, at the age of 35. Googling a bit, it says he had a 13 season career, but a series of concussions basically ended his career. LGM has a much more informed post and I don’t follow hockey at all, and … Read more
by liberal japonicus Interesting article about Justine Sacco which gets at why I like to hang out here and not go out too much.
by liberal japonicus Two people have written in and said that they are having problems with the captcha system. I'll see what's up and put a ticket in. It would help if folks who could comment could just add one to this post. Pithy one-liners preferred. UPDATE: a number of emails to the kitty looks … Read more
by liberal japonicus In Japan, the idiots are leading the government. Japan had been secretly negotiating for the return of the prisoners for months after both men were abducted in Syria last year. Then, on January 17, Abe delivered a speech in Cairo. According to insiders at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Abe went off-script from the speech … Read more
by liberal japonicus This, from Mother Jones: In a groundbreaking news conference on Tuesday, the Mormon Church officially announced its support for some LGBT rights, on the condition that the same legal protections are extended to all religious groups. But in doing so, the church also made clear their endorsement did not reverse the church's opposition … Read more
wj writes Why do I get the feeling that, if we start talking music rather than politics, the usual Obsidian Wings moderation will go right out the window? 😉 Oh yeah! Being a day ahead, I can pop some popcorn.
by liberal japonicus
I had started a post that tried to draw a connection between Gamergate, the Rolling Stone UVA rape report debacle and the Sony hack, noting that the common thread that tied all these together was the release of information that should have been kept private. I also wanted to note how small of an impact the Sony hack story has made here in Japan as well as riff a bit on the fact that the way this has played out, if it is indeed North Korea, shows that they are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. This Guardian article talks about how NK is not funny, perhaps because it is evil, which is in part true, but also, the West has typically used NK as a punchline, but, again if it was really NK, they were able to play the channels of journalism and news like a concert violinist. But further thinking is below the fold…
by liberal japonicus Was interested in this NPR article, which had this: Millennial physicians like Ho are taking over hospital wards and doctors’ offices, and they’re bringing new ideas about life-work balance and new technologies. One time, a patient asked Ho if it was OK if he recorded her performing a minor surgical procedure. “He … Read more
by liberal japonicus
Those crazy folks over at Superscholar heard your complaints about the Eurocentric nature of the last chart and have come up with this. The title is a reference that I hope is obscure enough to keep the likes of y’all guessing, though whenever I think that, someone usually gets in within the first 3 comments.
by liberal japonicus One thing that the Japanese are exceedingly good at is appropriating things from other cultures and making them their own. Latest acquisition? Halloween! Those pictures are not the best, this page has better photos, though it is for a party, so you may think that this is more staged than real, so … Read more
by liberal japonicus
A very short post about Gough Whitlam, who recently passed away.
Whitlam was a major figure in the 1975 Australian Constitutional Crisis and googling now shows the site http://whitlamdismissal.com/, with the source documents.
by liberal japonicus Regulars probably know that I am all about the old sh*t. So here are a list of links to some things that have made my heart go pitter-pat. This looks like a great book. I much earlier read Celtic Empire, whose title was ironic, because everyone knew the Celts didn’t have an … Read more
by liberal japonicus My reaction to this Guardian piece entitled “US supreme court decision paves way for sweeping expansion of gay rights” is to wonder if this is one of those Brit usages. Damn Brits, screwing up the language. My next reaction is half between laughing like Nelson on the Simpsons and muttering ‘chickenh**t’ under … Read more
by liberal japonicus
We’ve gotten a few emails that may make their way onto the front page, and this large chart (below the fold) of the history of philosophy is one of them. Avoiding the urge for the obvious (Monty Python citations and puns about Descartes before the horse), I turn this over to y’all
by liberal japonicus Earlier, I wrote about the case of John Updike's trash and the person who went through it. From that Moran told me he checked into the legality of what he was doing in the years he collected Updike’s garbage. He also asked friends for guidance about the ethics of his actions. It … Read more
by liberal japonicus
I'm back from 10 days in Kyrgyzstan, classes are about to start and there are too many interesting things to write about. ISIS? Scottish referendum? Ebola?
But this piece responding to Charles Barkley's comments about the Adrian Peterson case had me thinking about growing up, discipline and a whole range of stuff. More below the fold
by liberal japonicus Been seeing a lot of articles about the stolen nude photos, (here is the google realtime newsfeed) and, as it usually happens, a bit of serendipity in seeing this New Yorker article. This is not to suggest that John Updike's trash are nude photos of celebs, but juxtaposing the two stories is interesting. … Read more