Liberal Japan

Kininaru news is a very irregular feature of this blog.

I’m very busy these days, so just blowing off some steam here …

Akagi stands ground over expenses flap

Comment: Akagi is now providing some kind of convoluted explanation for his actions. It’s very suspicious, but it might be sufficient to get the topic out of the headlines.

Comment: We all know there are about 50 million missing transactions, right? So what happen to the money? This article suggests that bureaucrats might have taken the money. What a scam? Let’s use our imagination. What if you know security is incredibly lax, and you know that once the data gets into the computer or DOESN”T get into the computer, the original records will not be accessible. How incredibly easy it would have been to have just taken the money and then eliminated the receipt … not sure if that was the case or not though. But it makes one wonder.

Comment: When I was a boy my mother used to make me say a prayer any time I heard a story like this. Now I’m older and not particularly religious. I wish it were as easy just to say a prayer and then let a story like this go. Instead, it’ll sit with me for a while, kind of hard to shake. While the following could be an incredibly bad idea, I wonder if making drugs like Prozac and so on available at a drug store might actually help people like this. I mean this sincerely and not with any sarcasm. The primary problem would be dosage and side effects. So long as you have to get a prescription, the doctor can monitor your usage some what. I completely disagree we should medicalize moral problems. However, some drugs do seem to make people feel better. Maybe making these more available might give people more choices.

Comment: Some one was putting ¥10,000 notes in envelopes and leaving them in restrooms at government offices. Weird Story.

Comment: I haven’t carefully reviewed the platform of either party. My main problem with the LDP is there seems to be too much corruption, and I really despised the educational reforms. In general, I felt they LDP we’re pulling things too far to the right. In principle, Abe has said some good things about reforming the system, but its not clear to me he has done anything significant.

I support the DPJ in this election. I hope they win. But they’re platform sounds pretty much like a bunch of useless crap to me. I support them in the hope that they’ll move in a less nationalist direction. And though it’s unlikely, maybe a real two party system can take hold.

Comment: In the case where some of them might have actually embezzled the government and stolen the payments, then they can afford it. Even in the case where they didn’t, who cares? Has a single person been fired for what happened? Here’s a totally off-beat, strange, funny thought, maybe people should be responsible for their retirement funds and not the government. Oh, man, did I just like — you know — say that. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.