Posts made by cteavin

@mhorndisk:

Correction: NASA NEVER went to the moon. That is a total fabrication.

The obvious is obvious.

Don Pettit (Astro-Not) explains that NASA can't go back to the moon. Because they destroyed the technology. OK, we as taxpayers give them $18 Billion a year. They went 29 times to the moon, 6 times landing in person, and 30 years later they say, "We forgot how to go." AFTER going to Saturn. What a joke!

Youtube Video

The reason they are saying this is because of so many people calling them out, and they can't fake it anymore.

Number 2, they lost all the videotapes of the original moon landing, because we have Photoshop now. What a disgrace. They DID NOT go to the moon. The Earth is Flat.

You
Are
Fascinating.

Do you know Poe's Law? Your posts are pitch perfect reflections: I can't tell if you're serious or not: I don't know whether to laugh or cringe.

Bravo! This is as good as performance art.  :cheesy2:
If you're for real, however…  :afr:

Oh, I'm a very white American expat. I've been living here for twenty plus years – and will never go back.

Perhaps what you said was true before the 90's but not being accepted and welcome into the society isn't the norm now. Let's put a caveat on that.

If you live here and do not speak the language, you will not assimilate. Without understanding and speaking the language you will not be able to socialize. The people I've met who believe that Japan is a racist country are the people who expect Japan to bend its culture to suit them and speak English with/to them.

Since I learned the language I have never once been spoken to or treated unkindly or excluded. When I couldn't speak the language I often felt apart.

These days more and more Japanese abled Western people are on TV. There was even a woman who was cast in the lead of a major Japanese TV series a couple of years ago. Japan knows it needs foreign workers and they're laying the groundwork.

One more caveat: Generation snowflake. Oh, I hate these people. These pompous little shits who come here and expect everyone to bend over backword to their will – oh, and they want to educate, too.

"Oh, women are so mistreated here. You should...". 
"Oh, you can't refuse me service, you have to work with me and my dictionary. I don't care if you have other customers...".
" Oh, what do you mean there's no vegetarian option? You have to accommodate me cry, cry, cry."

A few weeks ago I was coming home from the airport by bus. This 30-ish-year-old woman ran to the bus with two young kids in tow, banged on the door as the bus was pulling away and demanded to be seated. The bus driver stopped and put her luggage in the outdoor compartment and let her board. She claimed to get car sick and requested the people in the front move so that she and her kids could sit up front. No one moved and she had to sit herself and her kids in various empty seats loudly complaining the whole time about how rude Japanese are.

The point is, pay attention to what kind of people say X is Y.

I'm stating facts. We all need to understand the realities in order to think about what's going on in the world, in order have an informed opinion. Stating the facts about China isn't praise, though it is true China has done a lot since the 80's that I admire in building its country.

Your facts are wrong.

In the 1800's Great Britain forced China to buy opium in trade for its goods. Opium. The UK caused an epidemic of drug addiction and colonized parts of its territory. You're right, China was fucked hard from the outside but it eventually got control of itself and has utterly transformed itself.

And for historical accuracy, Japan occupied Manchuria, not the whole of China. Part of the reason Japan was able to do this (and part of the reason China and Taiwan were able to recover after WWII) is that Japan built infrastructure and focused on education. It could do this because of proximity. Contrast Japan's colonial results to what the UK did to India.

Going back further in time, Japan got a lot of its culture from China. When China was a unified whole it shaped all of Asia. China didn't modernize at the same rate as the European powers. That, combined with the difficulties in maintaining a huge land mass at a time before electricity and effective communication, fragmented the country. I'm not going into it here but read the history of China before you assume it's some weak, hick backwater.

@Frederick:

@cteavin:

I guess Kim Jung Un vowing to sink Japan into the ocean means nothing..
Rocketman recently launched 2 ICBM's right over Japan, causing Japan to warn their citizens to seek shelter.
KJU has been consistently setting off more ICBM tests and more nuclear explostions.. and now says he is considering
detonating a nuke over the Pacific Ocean.

What does NK have to do before people consider him to be a real threat?   Nuke NYC?   He's already got the missiles that can reach NYC in 40 mins.

Yes and no.

Do you speak another language? In translating between A and B a lot is lost. Translating to any Latin or Germanic language from any of the Asian languages makes those translations 1000 times more difficult because there are subtleties built into each language.

In Japanese they have keigo, honorifics based on age and social position. Translations often make Japanese sound more polite and distant than it actually is and makes for terrible translations when taken literally. The same is true for Korea. How, exactly, do you sink an island? Kim's words are bluster and people here understand that.

As for seeking shelter, be aware of the bias in the news you watch. There's a need to cast the tiny little-impoverished country of North Korea as a supervillain capable of destroying the US. That way of thinking about individuals terrorists gave us The Patriot Act. Those misdirections in the news made it okay to bomb Iraq and Afghanistan.

No one went looking for shelter when NK sent rockets over Japan. Not even close. They did broadcast it on the news and that's all they talked about for the hour or so it happened. What's odd to me is that NK has launched missiles over Japan before with much less fuss. What's different? PM Abe wants to pass his amendments changing the constitution. Nothing says we need an army like a country flying missiles over your northernmost, least densely populated region.

@mhorndisk:

Why the fuck should I have to pay for a communist healthcare system?

Well, it's not just you. You live as a member within the country.

Americans are way overtaxed, so I feel your frustration. With all the taxes we pay we get a crumbling infrastructure, corrupt politicians, and insane government spending. I hear you.

If government can get their spending under control and reign in the insurance companies there are very good reasons to have a health care system in place: In the greatest country the world has ever known, citizens shouldn't have to choose which finger to sew back on during an accident and people shouldn't die from the common cold.

And it's not "communist". At worst you could call it socialist. If you think that the taxes we pay that go into infrastructure spending, paving the roads and building/maintaining the net, aren't socialist then neither is healthcare.

@Frederick:

@mhorndisk:

They should stick to representing the people on the global stage looking OUTWARDS instead of meddling in my affairs.

If you exercise your freedom to destroy your health you'll eventually need medical care and, if you're able to get it, you'll get that (free) Medicare which is unfair for all the people paying into the system who can't get it. A solution is to make a system where everyone can get health care. The idea is sound; the execution sucks.  
 
The real issue is that during a hurricane if a retailer makes up the price of a bottle of water from 1USD to 100USD we call that price gouging and prosecute yet a bag of saline solution retails at 8USD but is sold through hospitals to insurance companies for 800USD and we call that business as usual: 
 
There can be no solution to health care as long as lobbyists are in Washington, as long as insurance is sold for profit (as opposed to being something closer to a utility), and medical bills are arbitrary.

Well, their economy is fake enough that every bank on the planet is indebted to them. What are you trying to prove? I'm simply stating a fact. Depending on the numbers you use China and the US are interlocked between the number one and two slots and every forecast predicts that China will overtake the US as the world's largest economy in the short-term.

As for communism, there are different kinds and it's really about the degree to which certain policies are implemented. So my question to you is what kind of Communist practices are you saying that China practices?

By contrast, the US is a capitalist democracy but the policies we've put into place make ours blend something uniquely American, neither wholly capitalist nor democratic. China is no difference blend of economics and government it practices are not classical communism.

But again, I don't understand what you want to say. You seem to be trying to dismiss anything positive about another country because it would imply the US is somehow lacking if you concede that another country has a positive? Is that your feeling?

I don't know a single person who thinks that NK will bomb Japan but the government is responsible for taking the threat seriously and so there is a lot of talk on the news about what to do. PM Abe is using the threat to help push forward amendments to the constitution (allowing Japan to have a defensive and offensive military) – and it will work, the balls already rolling on that.

Everyone knows Kim's words are bluster and part of the Korean language and temperament. The Korea's are kind of like the Italians of Asia: Lots of big gesticulations and loaded speech but largely impotent and poor.

I do wonder what Trump will do. Haven't a clue. If he's going to attack I wonder how China will respond? China wouldn't attack the US but they might use offensive maneuvers. However, at play for China is their claim (and man-made island) in the South China Seas. They could use an attack on North Korea as a means to show the US what it would be willing to do to defend it's territories there. I can't see any reason for Russia to become involved and Japan can't by the very laws that the US forced into their constitution after WWII.

Yup. I watch a lot of Asian porn and some of the actors moan like women.  :blink:

Sound down, fapping continues.

Very off putting. I won't. It's disgusting.

People will never NOT kiss you for NOT smoking; people WILL not kiss you for smoking.

No. I don't have an issue dating sissy men but when the voice becomes like that of a woman, no. No, no, no. Also, sex with a man who moans or talks like a woman during sex causes me to lose interest instantly.

W
H
Y
?

Why would someone deny themselves? I suppose if you wanna develop self-control but, no, no, no.

There are no studies that show masturbation is harmful. People have different libidos. I have a high libido and need to get off twice a day, with or without my partner.

Personally, I think a lot of what's out there is crap, especially if you're under 30. All you need is soap, glycerine, some kind of UV protection and exfoliating gloves when you're young.

I used to invest in different skin care lines when I was young and my skin was better when I didn't use them.

Now I'm 48 and I have flawless skin. My secret? I avoided the sun all my life and I drink 4 - 8 liters of water a day. That's it. Now I do use Night Repair by Estee Lauder, more like when I remember to use it. It does help hydrate. I also enjoy the Korean face masks, like once week or whenever I think about it. But the key to good skin is avoiding the sun and staying hydrated and good nutrition:

You are what you eat, if you're eating and drinking junk, your skin will show the world you're made of junk.

With all the talk on North Korea I'd like to know what you think.

Do you think it's better they pass this legislation and then work towards a broader repeal later, or should they just not pass this at all?

Curry.

The current box-office bomb Mother or Jack and Jill?

Yeah, all kinds.

Here in Japan, there are "host bars" where you can meet (and take home) the men you see in porn and other really handsome guys. Korea and China have their own version but you need to know someone to get in.

In Thailand they also have a kind of host club where the men walk around with numbers and you choose, they come to you and…

The best bathhouse type of sex clubs I've ever been in were also in Thailand. I'm talking five-story pleasure houses with darkroom mazes, private rooms, open rooms, group sex rooms, baths, and just regular places to meet guys and play games -- all kinds of games -- clothed or naked. Drugs aren't a thing in Thailand so these places are super clean and condoms everywhere.

Europe has dark rooms, too. They can be anywhere from dark and dirty to clean -- really different from the ones I've been to in Asia.

Sex parties are (well were, I don't do them anymore) fun. In LA, where I'm fun, there were all kinds. No hang ups.

I was born in Los Angeles but live in Japan. I'm really happy to be born an American but I would love duel citizenship to the Commonwealth, so being born in the UK would have been amazing.

Earring? Doesn't phase me. Two earrings or something like a diamond (anything flashy) and I'm thinking this person is trying to distinguish themselves, be special, yada yada yada.

A person with their lobes stretched, however… I see those people as not having foresight. It's a gross generalization but my first thought is there goes a person with poor decision-making skills.