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[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I have dried things using a microwave. The key is, you get it warm, and then you take it out to let the steam evaporate off the warm item. Repeat until dry, and never, ever leave it unattended. 

[Junkenstein]

Not sure what to make of this, it kind of sounds like an apology. Not a very good one though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22519384

A prominent Japanese politician has described as "necessary" the system by which women were forced to become prostitutes for World War II troops.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said the "comfort women" gave soldiers putting their lives at risk a chance "to rest".

He acknowledged that the women had been acting "against their will".

Some 200,000 women in territories occupied by Japan during WWII are estimated to have been forced into becoming sex slaves for troops.

Many of the women came from China and South Korea, but also from the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Japan's treatment of its wartime role has been a frequent source of tension with its neighbours.

Mr Hashimoto, the co-founder of the nationalist Japanese Restoration Party, was the youngest governor in Japanese history before becoming mayor of Osaka.

He said last year that Japan needed "a dictatorship".

In his latest controversial comments, quoted by Japanese media, he said: "In the circumstances in which bullets are flying like rain and wind, the soldiers are running around at the risk of losing their lives,"

"If you want them to have a rest in such a situation, a comfort women system is necessary. Anyone can understand that."

He also claimed that Japan was not the only country to use the system, though it was responsible for its actions.

He said he backed a 1995 statement by Japan's then-PM Tomiichi Murayama, in which he apologised for its wartime actions in Asia.

"It is a result of the tragedy of the war that they became comfort women against their will. The responsibility for the war also lies with Japan. We have to politely offer kind words to [former] comfort women."

His "Understanding" sounds a lot like "justifying".

[Cain]

You may find this by Peter Lee of the Asia Times Online to be of interest:

World diplomacy is realigning in President Barack Obama's second term. The confrontational "pivot to Asia" is morphing into a "rebalancing" the makes a place for China inside the structure where together with India as observers they can ponder a more alarming case of deja vu than Indian nationalists' desire for a do-over on the 1962 war: the parallels between Germany in the 1930s and Shinzo Abe's Japan today.

This is not to say that Prime Minister Abe is a genocidal maniac determined to ignite a catastrophic world war. It is to say that some of the imperatives and opportunities that informed Germany back then and are also present in Japan today - ones that can be addressed without recourse to personalities, thereby avoiding indictment under Godwin's Law (the tongue-in-cheek rule that any Internet discussion of contemporary events invoking the name of a certain German dictator is prima facie discredited).

Consider that in its place in the international order Japan today is pretty much at the same spot Germany was in 1933: ready to shed the disarmament restrictions imposed by its conquerors (Versailles Treaty for Germany and the pacifist constitution for Japan) and reassume its role as a full-fledged (and unrestrained) member of the global community.

Impatience with foreign impositions is exacerbated by economic malaise created by the same group of foreigners who are gumming up the military works (Great Depression for Germany; Great Recession for Japan) and the concurrent transformation of a large but impoverished and dysfunctional neighbor into a rapidly growing and threatening force (the USSR for Germany; the PRC for Japan).

With the old order discredited, national rebirth becomes a matter of urgency and is heralded by a leader determined to throw off the restraints that have been shackling the military and economy, and swagger across the world stage in a manner that gratifies and electrifies the nation (he-who-must-not-be-named for Germany, Shinzo Abe for Japan).

Vulnerable territories are protected (Rhineland for Germany, Senkakus for Japan) and lost ones recovered (Saar for Germany, the Soviet-occupied Kuriles, maybe, for Japan). A risky and balance-sheet busting economic stimulus program (with a healthy military component) is enacted to translate the perfection of sovereignty and national spirit into national vitality (Germany's massive exercise in Keynesian stimulus and Japan's "Abenomics").

A newly assertive foreign policy requires strengthened alliances to deal with the big unfriendly neighbor (the Anti-Comintern pact for Germany and the US pivot architecture for Japan).

Of course, the parallels are far from complete. Unlike Nazi Germany, the redefined Japan is not preparing to embark on a ruinous quest for Lebensraum and racial reintegration through conquest. Nor does Japan consider itself existentially threatened by alien forces within its own social polity.

But then again, anxious and newly empowered nationalism frequently finds a domestic target.

Given his high personal popularity levels and the disarray of the opposition, Abe doesn't have to burn down the Reichstag to attain a dominant position in Japanese politics. However, the nationalist pot must be kept boiling, so don't expect things to quiet down on the Senkaku and Dokdo and Yasukuni fronts in the run-up to the elections.

The point is not that 21st century Japan is 1930s Germany. The point is that a combination of time, malaise, threats, opportunities, politics, and ambition have unleashed forces that, for good or ill (well, frankly, mainly for good), were kept bottled up for over half a century.

Thanks to a well-founded anxiety over China's rise, ineluctable US marginalization, and Japan's relative decline, Japan's conservatives are leading an effort to redefine Japan's national polity and international role in a way that is potentially more destabilizing than that traditional bugbear, "Rising China".

It is a time of national urgency and political flux, a chance for leaders with strong and not necessarily popular views to act boldly if not rashly to seize the political initiative, define the national agenda, and set the direction for the country at a crucial point in its history before time, circumstance, and elections combine to shut the window of opportunity.

And a combination of risky policies, untested leaders, unformed public opinion, powerful interests, and a dangerous strategic and economic environment could lead to unpleasant outcomes beyond the directionless dithering we've come to expect of Japan in the last decade.

China's dustup over Ladakh may be viewed as potentially stabilizing as the PRC and its neighbors develop the economic, military, and diplomatic tools to formalize control of what they already have and manage disputes that have been bubbling along for decades.

However, if Prime Minister Abe succeeds in repositioning Japan as an independent power broker in Asia - in particular, by escalating Japanese support of Philippine, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese resistance to Chinese pretensions to include military backing - the regional status quo could be upset and these disputes have the potential to be much more disruptive than the old, familiar, and often meaningless bilateral frictions between China and its neighbors.

[Junkenstein]

UKIP, the totally not racist Party,  has incidents like this far too frequently. This is not how you run a PR Machine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-22516724

UKIP officials are investigating claims a new Worcestershire councillor posted offensive material about Muslims on Facebook.

Eric Kitson, who won the Stourport-on-Severn seat on 2 May, said he shared racist cartoons and jokes only to show people how "disgusting" they were.

He said it had been "stupid" for him to share the messages, which were posted last year, and apologised.

He has shut his Facebook account and said he was considering resigning.

Mr Kitson said he did not "have a racist bone in my body - it's just a bit of bloody stupidity".

A variation on the last line appears to be becoming compulsory for new members.

[The Johnny]

UKIP, the totally not racist Party,  has incidents like this far too frequently. This is not how you run a PR Machine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-22516724

UKIP officials are investigating claims a new Worcestershire councillor posted offensive material about Muslims on Facebook.

Eric Kitson, who won the Stourport-on-Severn seat on 2 May, said he shared racist cartoons and jokes only to show people how "disgusting" they were.

He said it had been "stupid" for him to share the messages, which were posted last year, and apologised.

He has shut his Facebook account and said he was considering resigning.

Mr Kitson said he did not "have a racist bone in my body - it's just a bit of bloody stupidity".

A variation on the last line appears to be becoming compulsory for new members.

Racism without racists, that's what its come to. In other words, abhorrent behaviour is justified by a complete lack of introspection and deus ex machina rationalizations of intent.

I dont know what disgusts me more, racists that are overt and cynical, or these no-spine crypto-racists.

[Junkenstein]

I'm leaning towards the spineless variety being worse.

Whenever anyone uses "I'm not X, But..." they are almost invariably X. Refusing to admit that you hold a set of beliefs, regardless of how right/wrong they are pretty much ensures you'll never have a productive conversation. Or worse, half the conversation is spent around how much they're not X they just think that they're Right/Wrong/Good/Bad and are just saying "What a lot of us feel"

Shits of this nature rely on nameless masses of the population who have been inexplicably wronged by X. Largely, they won't have even encountered X, but it's in the paper and distant acquaintances have had unpleasant dealings with X. It's the new acceptable form of prejudice. By stating what you are not, you expose exactly what you are.

[Cain]

I'm not not a racist but...I don't judge people based on their race.

[Junkenstein]

I'm not not a racist but...I don't judge people based on their race.

Sentences you will never see in politics.

[Junkenstein]

Hey Cain, This looks right up your proverbial:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22522494

An alleged CIA agent has been briefly detained in Moscow for allegedly trying to recruit a Russian intelligence officer, Russian media report.

The alleged agent was held overnight before released to US officials, Russia's Federal Security Service said.

He is said to have been working as a secretary at the US embassy in Moscow.

The man was reportedly arrested with a large sum of money, technical devices and written instructions for the agent he had tried to recruit.

He was named as Ryan Fogle, said to be a third secretary at the US embassy in Moscow. There is no comment from the embassy.

Russia and the US recently agreed said they wished to step up security co-operation after the Boston Marathon bombing.

"FSB counter-intelligence agents detained a CIA staff member who had been working under the cover of third political secretary of the US embassy in Moscow," the FSB said.

"At the moment of detention, special technical equipment was discovered, written instructions for the Russian citizen being recruited, as well as a large sum of money and means for altering appearance."

Seems stupid to pull this kind of shit now, or would this just be routine thing?

[Cain]

Eh, that's pretty standard fare.  Counterespionage is a mug's game, anyway.  Hasn't been fun since Angleton shuffled off his mortal coil

[Junkenstein]

Yeah, I figured if it was BBC headline it's not that damaging to either side. Must look up Angleton though, sounds like an interesting fellow.

Utter Non-news of the day (Entire article)
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/world/archives/2013/05/20130513-202620.html

A Utah couple recently discovered they were sharing their home with tens of thousands of bees.
"We were just sitting on our couch, turned off the TV and could hear some buzzing in the walls," Tyler Judd of Provo, Utah, told NBC News.

So they called bee-removal specialist Albert Chubak.

"(It was) not in the ceiling, not in the sofa," Chubak said in a YouTube video. "So we started listening to the wall, and we identified them in the wall."

Chubak found a bee colony with between 40,000 and 60,000 bees.

If there's ever a bee-finding emergency, this is the man you want.

[LMNO]

I'm not not a racist but...I don't judge people based on their race.

[Junkenstein]

Hey Remember this guy?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22518979

A Philadelphia doctor has been convicted of the first-degree murders of three babies delivered and killed with scissors in late-term abortions.

Dr Kermit Gosnell, 72, was acquitted on another charge of killing a fourth baby, who let out a whimper before he cut its neck, prosecutors said.

He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of an adult patient who died of an overdose.

The case was seized on by both sides in the US debate over abortion.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Gosnell.

He performed thousands of abortions over a career spanning three decades. Officials said his medical practice earned him about $1.8m (£1.1m) a year.

Not very surprising. I am surprised that the anti-abortion mob hasn't made more out of this guy. He's pretty much appeal to emotion personified.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hey Remember this guy?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22518979

A Philadelphia doctor has been convicted of the first-degree murders of three babies delivered and killed with scissors in late-term abortions.

Dr Kermit Gosnell, 72, was acquitted on another charge of killing a fourth baby, who let out a whimper before he cut its neck, prosecutors said.

He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of an adult patient who died of an overdose.

The case was seized on by both sides in the US debate over abortion.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Gosnell.

He performed thousands of abortions over a career spanning three decades. Officials said his medical practice earned him about $1.8m (£1.1m) a year.

Not very surprising. I am surprised that the anti-abortion mob hasn't made more out of this guy. He's pretty much appeal to emotion personified.

The anti-abortion side tried to claim that the "librul media" had a "blackout" on the story, but that didn't go over very well because a simple Google search reveals hundreds of articles from CNN, CBS, etc.

It's just that bloggers and forums aren't all over this, and that's probably partly because there's no disagreement on the level of horror that the situation generates. The only area for disagreement is finding where the solution lies; is it in increasing access to clean, safe abortions, or is it in banning abortion entirely? The "banning abortion entirely" side is not looking so good, because it's lack of access to early-term abortions under clean, safe conditions that allowed this monster to stay in business in the first place, and to do the things he did.

[Cain]

More Japanese nationalism:

http://english.sina.com/world/2013/0513/589996.html

Abe poses inside jet plane numbered 731 at ASDF base

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe poses inside a T-4 training jet plane of the Air Self-Defense Force's Blue Impulse flight team at the ASDF base in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi prefecture on May 12, 2013 as part of his inspection tour of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami disaster areas.

The number 731 reminds people of Unit 731, which was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.