Amended 
Even if not, that’s not an argument not to do it. The UK brings in about 12 billion a year in tax revenue from tobacco. If we criminalised smoking we’d lose all of that and it’d all go to the black market.
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You might be interested to read this. The Abe assassination has thrown a spotlight on the influence that the Unification Church has on Japanese politics. It’s quite surprising given that the Unification Church is Korean and there is a lot antipathy toward japan in Korea.
Thanks a lot, always interested in a bit of political analysis.
Two things stand out for me:
- Any organization with so much political clout will be involved in a lot of shady things (that’s why politicians are for, right
) - In my experience, talked into buying religious items often means manipulation and/or intimidation.
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‘free’ prostitution?
That’s an interesting concept… Don’t think you have thought that through!
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Which may explain why Abe’s assassin was so pissed off, as his motive was that his mother had caused his family financial ruin by giving so much money to the Unification Church.
I don’t think it would necessarily involve intimidation. If people are sold on a particular religion then, certainly in Japan at least, they would give money out of a sense of obligation. Apparently, the reason why so many politicians in Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, which is the party that has been in power almost continually since the war, are cosy with the Unification Church is because of said church’s anti-communist stance which fits in well with the LDP’s worldview.
Too bad, they want subscription; JT seems like a decent publication. I will stick to my NHK notifications.
The opposite is absolutely true with legalized marijuana. The potency of the commercially grown varieties available now in Canada is stunning.
Nah! that’s old age.
Free prostitution is something we can all support, surely.
The old age part is being surprised you can just read the package…
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That article is a mess, it keeps talking about how the new constitution is supposedly badly written, but doesn’t shed any details as to how, nor why a party that had so much support for writing a new constitution could fail to garner the support for said constitution.
I’m betting that the constitution itself is better written.
I don’t think that is truly a flaw in the article, so much as an accurate characterization of the dialogue around the process. ‘Badly written’ appears to have become a way for opponents to attack it without putting themselves offside on any particular issue (women’s rights, indigenous, etc).
To the extent that there is a basis for the ‘badly written’ idea, it would appear that not a great deal of thought or dialogue happened in the constitutional assembly over possible conflicts between the proposed rights. a lot of left-wing sunshine and rainbows thinking involved. For example, the indigenous representatives were dominated by very left-wing groups, and the reality is that most of Chile’s indigenous population is much more conservative. The proposed constitution simply did not contemplate how to manage the conflict between indigenous self-determination and stronger women’s rights, which in some of the patriarchal cultures have a very clear tension.
I mean, I learned much more about what happened in the process from your post rather than the article, even the bit about the characterisation of the dialogue, so I think the article itself is rather unclear about what is going on.
While its a fact that majority voted against the proposal as a whole, I am not sure whether that is because they are trying to change too much at one go. Because even if someone agrees with some items in the changes but disagrees with plenty of the others, they might vote no because its either all or nothing. Would there be a more positive result if say they can divide the changes into sections like for example gender parity section where they talk about punishment on violence against females etc…I would think most people would vote Yes for that but because it is lumped together with some parts that they do not agree on, then some would just vote No.
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This is so fucked up! She was abducted while on an early morning jog.
It’s strange the way some stories grab you, but my partner has been obsessed with this story. I think because while it at first seemed like a ransom thing, the fact that it actually appears to have been an opportunistic sicko made it feel more real and threatening to women.
Yeah, Claudia Lawrence was one that stuck with me, went missing in 2009 and still no body found.