Obama Press Conference

Agreed. Though the internet and spending time with friends is a nice break from being polite.

And yeah, I've seen a few girls look at me weird for just being polite. Like, "What are you trying to get from me?!" or "I'm a woman, I can do my own *whatever it is you tried to help her with*!" I don't know if they've just become bitter from the guys who would treat them nice up until the moment they could bang them or what.

Like you said, in my experience, guys are much more welcome to receive help as long as you don't bother offering. Like, saying, "Need a hand?" while you pick up some ***they're moving. You're already invested into the situation so it's not a leap for them to say "yes".

Going further into the Japanese thing, though, chivalry was big in southern culture, but I always got the impression it just didn't exist in Japan. When I lived with my host family there, I remember having a day trip with the rest of the extended family. I lived with like 70 year old peeps and their children and a grandchild came over for the day. At one point, we headed to the store to get groceries and on the way back I noticed that the pregnant mother was carrying EVERYTHING. The father and the child weren't holding ***, and the grandparents weren't either. I asked her if I could help and she rejected(rejection/accepting in Japan is hard to tell at first anyways, so just to be safe..), I took some it regardless. Everyone looked kind of weird at me at first, but then the husband helped out as well. It would have been a mile and a half walk of her toting everyone's groceries...

I learned in sociology that jobs are done a lot differently in Japan. If you apply for a job you become loyal to your obligations in that job and always show up for work. You don't try to take better oppertunities until you've fullfilled your agreements with others. Do you remember that advertisement about the "ram 50 day handshake"? I think it's sad that had to be a promotion and not the value of a man's word anymore. Maybe I'm niave but if you give your word to somebody you need to come through. If you fail at least fail trying.

Yeah, was hard to find online(since the word is so common), but they have a concept called on. You are indebted to your parents, teachers, and employers, and you must constantly struggle to pay these people back through your efforts. Parental and teacher debts are ones that you can essentially never repay.

Never ever borrow something or ask a favor from a Japanese person if you don't understand 'on'. Because if you do borrow or ask a favor, you're locked in. At any moment in time, they will come back to you to ask you for a favor of their own, and you will be expected to repay the debt you owe to that person.

"Remember the time I let you borrow my lawnmower..? Well, I need a ride to the store today since my car just stopped working." Yes, you will be expected to fulfill that debt on the fly like that. This is what enforces that kind of attitude in Japan.

There are a bunch of shitty things about Japan though, and as an employee, it downright sucks in my opinion. But I really do like their southern-like view on social interactions.

you can respect whomever you damn well please, however it's not a given. You can respect people who don't deserve it all you want, doesn't mean I'm going to, it's quite frankly insulting to a person to give respect to somebody who isn't deserving of it.

Chivalry in Western culture is dead, and women killed it.

a look from the worlds eye about the Republican victory.

Germany mainly.

But it covers a broad spectrum of media outlets.

"Obama comes across as arrogant eletist cold..."

I wouldn't try to tell a Japanese person that their actions are due to on, or they'll laugh in your face about trying to apply a 1000-year-old concept to modern life. It's like trying to argue that in America, the simple, polite gesture of holding open a door for someone is due to us following 600-year old concepts of chivalry. Sure, you might be able to trace it back to there, but nobody thinks of it that way.

That being said, there's a lot more practical explanation. Until relatively recently, jobs in the US were exactly the same way. Companies expected absolute loyalty from their employees, but on the other hand, employees expected that as long as they did their job, the company would equally take care of them.

This started changing midway through the 20th century, with a new corporate culture of downsizing, layoffs, and work/personal life separation. US workers, in realizing that faceless corporations wouldn't hesitate a moment before downsizing them for an extra buck, responding by adopting a mercenary attitude of "I'm here until I find something better."

Point being: it's not that Japan is unique in this regard. It's just that the US changed away from it relatively recently in the past. However, with the advent of greater and greater internationalization, Japanese companies are feeling pressured to adopt Western corporate culture in this regard, so I bet the same thing will be happening to Japan over the next few decades.

republicans were at fault.

Pulling numbers completely out of your *** when Google is right there does not make a very convincing argument.

Bush left on January 20th, 2009. As of September 2008, the debt was 10 trillion and unemployment in January was 7.6% and rising.

This isn't a defense of Obama. (Both numbers have gotten worse since he took office.) But if you're going to engage in a political poo-flinging competition, don't exaggerate easily confirmed statistics, or you're liable to make yourself look worse than the guy you're arguing against.

this was what i had in my spoilers for my last post since you apparently don't know how that works:
republicans were at fault.
jk.
it's immature to blame everything on one person/group of people, if you want to blame people blame the house,pres, and senate, not their political affiliations.

You shouldn't read into fox news soundbites. You have to pass the bill first to know what's in it. The house passes the bill they want, then the senate passes a simliar bill that they want, however they are significantly different. After the bills pass both houses they go into conference for discussion and many times a lot of details are changed and compromised upon. The healthcare bill was very controversial so it would have been stupid of her to say exactly what it contained without waiting for the agreed upon version.

I think he was thinking of say this graph.

Can only give url since I'm researching on my droid lol. But the nujmbers don't lie. It started back when princess pelosi and reid took over

Numbers do actually lie in the case of bars and graphs.
Not like it's all that hard to skewer the data in either direction :/
not to mention the blatant pro-republican source.
both sides of the fence do it so don't act like i'm trying to just defend the dems or obama.
i just don't trust graphs and charts from questionable sources.
don't act like that website isn't questionable....because let's face it...it is.

I do certainly foresee political gridlock for the next few years, as Jaerik had mentioned previously. I suspect the Tea Party freshmen house reps will be so adamantly opposed to any sort of concessions to Obama adminstration policies or direction that veteran Republicans likely to want to compromise (to accomplish and effect changes) will be side-tracked trying to accommodate these more hardline views.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40019561/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/

If nothing can be accomplished politically for the next 2 years or so, even failure to repeal Obama admin policies placed into effect already, that still potentially benefits both major parties depending on who can more convincingly point the finger of blame, in the area of public opinion, come 2012.

that is why I hate "politics" selfish desire trumps solutions/compromise.

Not much has changed on a general level.
We're still at war.
We're still obese.
We're still spending money like there's no tomorrow with really messed up priorities.
And we still think we're awesome.
This has been going on for decades.

America, *** yeah!

Finding reliable sources can be a bit tricky. It takes a lot of double checking references and such. On these forums, time is money when it comes to making a point due to the topic changing so quickly lol. So I found a website I think is reliable on giving ideas to finding reliable sites.

credible sources of reference

We all need to follow this guideline when discussing politics. And coherantly, generally speaking, blogs don't really count. I'm guilty of it too.

Maybe we can have honest facts to debate over. :D

Are you really this stupid to miss my point?
OKAY I will cater to your point.
OBAMA is at fault.
The SENATE is at fault
the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES is at fault.
again blaming only one person isn't going to work and you are an idiot for thinking such.
of course you are just going to ignore whatever i say and just think i'm pro-obama...i don't give a ***about obama either way.
can you by chance actually read what i post for a chance?

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

-Thomas Jefferson


How can we be charged interest on money created from nothing? Does that make sense to you at all? FRS is a private corporation profiting on the money that is created. When that money is repaid, the principle is destroyed leaving the banks with the profit(interest).

Shouldn't money be created with no debt by the Feds? Why isnt it?

wtf?
How much do the drug companies pay you to say that?

I also work in the medical field, and I was also taught to back up my statements with arguments, as one should. So if it isn't the government who is going to run a healthcare system giving all American citizens then I would like to ask you who should? What governing body do you think should be able to make that choice for US citizens that isn't the American government? And if you can't answer that you need to sit down and play less FFXI and go back to school.

Let me tell you about big and small government. Neither exist. There is just a government, and the size of what it governs is what is going to determine the size. We have a constitution with 27 amendments to it because we cannot make up our mind. We have one of the largest economies in the world despite the fact that it has seen better days. We have the most powerful military force in the world. Social security. Medicare. Public education. You want a really small government? Then drop your military, drop your social security and public education, and go back to things being cut throat. We haven't been a small government since the Civil War ended and it became clear that the States cannot do everything they want to, and we are never going to be again.

What's funny is that I actually like the conservative argument, talking with conservatives who really know their stuff. I like the idea of the government staying out of things, and letting us live our lives. But boy do I get confused by that argument when I read about the Republicans trying to outlaw abortion. That's bringing the government into people's lives, isn't it? Gay marriage, the same thing. And with the Patriot Act, despite the conservative rhetoric otherwise, it seems that the GOP was trying to tell us that a little bit of big brother is okay. And please tell me how Bush's whole TARP thing falls into the small government argument.

The GOP hasn't been after small government for a long time.

The problem when we print more money companies will respond by inflating the price of their products. Printing more money also reduces the value of our money compared to other currency in the world.

Exactly right my friend. Thats why most of the Big 8 countries are furious over the recent debacle involving the Fed pumping 600 Billion in to Treasury Bonds.

"Some governments worry the tactic, which will lower interest rates and is known as quantitative easing, might send money flooding into their markets seeking higher returns. That could push up exchange rates, hurting exports by making their goods more expensive." Read for further information