Bloodthirsty Liberal

Then what, pray tell, was the whole imperial thing all about?

Japan has a problem, a lack of children, and it seems likely there will be even fewer in the future.

Japanese researchers have now warned of a doomsday scenario if it carries on this way with the last child to be born there in 3011 and the Japanese people potentially disappearing a few generations later.

Academics from the city of Sendai, which was hit hard by last year’s tsunami, calculate there are now 16.6 million children under the age of 14 now in Japan.
And they say that number is shrinking at a disturbing rate of one every 100 seconds.

So if you do the mathematics, as they did, then the country will have no children within a millennium.

Another study recently showed Japan’s population is expected to fall a third from its current 127.7 million over the next century.

…

The question everybody asks is why is there a lack of children?

The answer seems to lie in several reasons.

One reason is the cost. Japan is an extremely expensive country and getting a child through college can wipe out a family’s finances.

But research shows it goes much deeper than that as the Japanese state does throw a lot of money at people with children.

Another argument is that there are more effeminate men now called “Herbivores” there who are either not interested in sex or women don’t find masculine enough.

Then some suggest many young Japanese people prefer “virtual” friends with a robot or on the internet, while others suggest their fascination with comics rather than relationships is the cause for a lack of babies.

A study was released earlier this year in which it showed Japan’s young people are shunning the idea of marriage and having children.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research study also showed one in four unmarried men and women in their 30s had never had sex, and most young women preferred being single.

It also showed over 60 percent of unmarried young men didn’t have a girlfriend, and nearly 50 percent of women of the same age weren’t dating.

If that wasn’t bad enough, young Japanese people are also, it seems, increasingly not interested in sex.

A survey by the Japan Family Planning Association found that 36 percent of males between 16 and 19 had “no interest” in sex.

If I recall my teenage years correctly, that just can’t be true. Unless the nuclear disaster fried more than a few fish and birds.

But there’s something to the “Herbivore” idea. Except for the odd yakuza, Japanese men don’t present as all that masculine, do they? The women (some of them) more than make up for it in presenting as feminine, but all their wiles aren’t going to work on a nation of Ryan Seacrests.

Anyway, don’t look for Japan to be a bulwark against China expansionism:

“Japan will be more likely to prioritize healthcare than international security,” Brad Glosserman and Tomoko Tsunada wrote in Foreign Policy Magazine. “Older societies are typically more risk-averse, and Japanese — ‘reluctant realists’ at the best of times — will be increasingly unwilling to put their most precious resource, their young, in harm’s way,” they said.

What an irony that the 21st century may play out between these countries as the 20th did, with roles reversed.

After mercilessly killing the poor terrorist who just needed some extra guidance, France is now rounding up Muslims. Sounds like an Apartheid State to me.

Nineteen people have been arrested in a series of police raids on suspected Islamists, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told French radio Friday morning.

The raids come a week after gunman Mohammed Merah, who killed seven people, was shot dead after a long siege in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

The arrests took place in Toulouse, Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and the Ile de France region, around Paris, the Interior Ministry said.

Authorities have not said that any of those arrested were directly linked to Merah.

Sarkozy told Europe 1 that the decision to act had been taken by the interior minister and foreign minister “to deny the entry of certain people to France” who did not share the country’s values.

“It’s not just linked to Toulouse. It’s all over the country. It’s in connection with a form of radical Islam, and it’s in agreement with the law,” he said.
French gunman buried in Toulouse
French politics and Toulouse suspect

“What you have to understand is that the traumatic events in Montauban and Toulouse were profound in our country. I don’t want to compare horrors but it’s a bit like the form of trauma visible in the United States and New York after 9/11. We have to be able to draw some conclusions.”

Interior Minister Claude Gueant said that several firearms, including five rifles, four automatic weapons and three Kalashnikovs, had been found in the searches, as well as a bulletproof vest.

Speaking to French media, he said the raids targeted people who have made the claim online that they are “mujahedeen,” or Islamist fighters, and support “an extremely radical ideology.”

The authorities’ decision to swoop was in part based on the suspects’ claims that they had received paramilitary training, Gueant said.

Sarkozy suggested that more raids will follow, saying, “There will be other operations that will continue and that will allow us to expel from our national territory a certain number of people who have no reason to be here.”

Can you say: ETHNIC CLEANSING?

Sarkozy said he was obliged to act to ensure the nation’s safety. “It’s our duty to guarantee the security of the French people. We have no choice. It’s absolutely indispensable.”

Why don’t they just sit down with some nice strong coffee and some croissants and have a heart-to-heart? Each side compromise a little bit and all will be well. Maybe they could give some of their country to the Islamists, just unilaterally withdraw? What is there to be afraid of? I’m sure that the French Muslims won’t use their new-found nation as a launching pad for rockets.

- Aggie

Not good.

From the NY Times, if you’re counting:

As baby showers go, the party Mary Russell attended to celebrate her niece’s first child was sweet, with about a dozen women offering congratulations over ice cream and cake.

But somewhere between the baby name game and the gifts, what had been light conversation took a sharp turn toward the personal and political — specifically, the battle over access to birth control and other women’s health issues that have sprung to life on the Republican campaign trail in recent weeks.

“We all agreed that this seemed like a throwback to 40 years ago,” said Ms. Russell, 57, a retired teacher from Iowa City who describes herself as an evangelical Christian and “old school” Republican of the moderate mold.

Until the baby shower, just two weeks ago, she had favored Mitt Romney for president.

Not anymore. She said she might vote for President Obama now. “I didn’t realize I had a strong viewpoint on this until these conversations,” Ms. Russell said. As for the Republican presidential candidates, she added: “If they’re going to decide on women’s reproductive issues, I’m not going to vote for any of them. Women’s reproduction is our own business.”

Are you reading that? Do you think that the Republicans need Iowa if they want the White House? What a hole these Republicans (with the sweet assistance of the media) have dug.

Ok, article #2:

Again, from the NY Times. And the NY Times, is the media, and they are cheerleaders for Obama, we get it. But it worked last time, and there is absolutely no reason to believe it can’t work again.

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s re-election campaign is beginning an intensified effort this week to build support among women, using the debate over the new health care law to amplify an appeal that already appears to be benefiting from partisan clashes over birth control and abortion.

On Monday, mailings will go out to one million women in more than a dozen battleground states in three separate versions for mothers, young women and older women, campaign and party officials said.

An effort called “Nurses for Obama” will begin on Wednesday, with nurses nationwide enlisted to be advocates for the health care law in their communities. And a new Web site will include links to video testimonials about the health care overhaul signed by Mr. Obama in 2010, including from a former critic who subsequently was found to have breast cancer.

Through the month, ending with what the campaign’s headquarters has designated a “Women’s Week of Action,” campaign field offices will organize phone banks, campus activities, house parties and media events featuring local residents helped by the law, officials say.

The campaign is trying to use the political climate to regain the traditional Democratic advantage among women, even as moderate Republican and independent women voice disenchantment with the Republican focus on social issues.

Women were 53 percent of the national vote in 2008, and given Mr. Obama’s and his party’s continuing weakness among white men, they are crucial to his re-election. Though Mr. Obama won 56 percent of their votes four years ago, women narrowly went for Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections that cost Democrats control of the House.

It is just so sad to consider that Obama will win again, with a plurality a female voters, when his economy has done more to hurt women and children than any other group. The reality is that most male-dominated fields pay a bit more than more female-dominated fields. And the job losses have been concentrated in construction, etc. Most of those men have children and most of the families were in better shape when he had a job. But none of that matters because Rick Santorum allowed the conversation to go to contraception. Contraception! Which was widespread by the early 60s, and maybe even earlier. I am not happy with the democrats about this, but truly disgusted with the Republicans for being so inept.

Do you have a daughter? Do you seriously want your daughter to be limited in her choices in life because she cannot access contraception? Or would you prefer that she “have it all”, according to her own wishes? Please don’t write and tell me that no one is going to take contraception away; the debate was about payment. Even entering into the discussion of access to contraception was beyond dumb. Because no self-respecting woman can comfortably defend the discussion among friends, relatives and co-workers. Unless she belongs to the teeny, tiny minority that doesn’t believe in the use of contraception. They are out there, but they aren’t even a rounding error.

Furthermore, I seem to remember that before any of this came up, there was a bizarre question at one of the debates, regarding contraception…. is that right? I remember writing that it was just such an off-the-wall question, where did it come from? 24 carat crazy. If that’s an accurate memory, it means that the media was moving in this direction all along, probably with the help of some of the sharper democrat consultants. Anyone else recall that wacky question?

- Aggie

Obama’s campaign chair, our very own Governor, is proud of his contribution to the housing bubble

Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, President Barack Obama’s friend and campaign co-chair, told The Daily Caller that he’s proud of the work he did for Ameriquest as it pumped up the nation’s mortgage bubble.

“I served on the board of the holding company for that company, and it was work that I was asked to do with some of their fair-lending issues, and I’m proud of that work,” said Patrick, who was appointed Feb. 22 by Obama as one of his 2012 campaign’s co-chairs.

Patrick served on the five-member board of Ameriquest’s holding company, ACC Capital Holdings, from 2004 to 2006. This was when the mortgage bubble rapidly inflated under pressure from President George W. Bush, 1990s regulations, numerous Democratic-affiliated housing groups, as well as executives in Fannie Mae and Wall Street companies.

Ameriquest was a leading cause of the bubble, in part, because it began the practice of selling mortgages to people that were deemed by other mortgage companies to be a bad credit risk. For example, the company pioneered the practice of selling mortgages to people without asking for documentation of their income, greatly raising the chance that each loan would go into foreclosure.

In turn, Ameriquest sold the flawed mortgages, dubbed no-doc subprime mortgages, to Fannie Mae and Wall Street, and profited from the processing fees.

The subsequent foreclosure of many risky mortgages dragged down Wall Street and the national economy. Since then, the street unemployment rate has remained well above 10 percent, and the nation’s formal debt has risen by $5 trillion. The median wealth of African-American households fell by 53 percent, according to a 2011 Pew study.

They’re going to vote for him again, guys.

While Media Matters “targets” its opposition at Fox News with a private investigator stimulus program, Maxine Waters see demons of her own:

Rep. Maxine Waters, no stranger to controversy, is turning heads once again, this time for describing House Republican leaders as “demons.”

The California Democrat’s comments, which surfaced Wednesday, were made last weekend at a state party convention in San Diego. Video of her speech shows her rallying Democrats to win back control of the House in November.

“I saw pictures of Boehner and Cantor on our screens (at the convention). Don’t ever let me see again, in life, those Republicans in our hall, on our screens, talking about anything. These are demons,” she told the crowd. “They are bringing down this country, destroying this country, because they’d rather do whatever they can do destroy this president rather than for the good of this country.”

Why didn’t she just say “white devils” and be done with it? I don’t know about Boehner, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Cantor has been called a demon before.

I don’t think this is tame or harmless, rather it is incredibly destructive. Her right to free speech isn’t in question, but her temperament, judgement, sanity, civility, and humanity are definitely questionable. I wouldn’t say that makes her a demon. Just a Democrat.

This could be a problem for the tourism industry:

Japan’s population is expected to shrink to a third of its current size over the next century, with the average woman living to over 90 within 50 years, a government report said on Monday.

The population is forecast to decline from the current 127.7 million to 86.7 million by 2060 and to tumble again to 42.9 million by 2110 ‘if conditions remain unchanged’, the health and welfare ministry said in the report.

The projections by the ministry’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research forecast that Japanese women would on average have just 1.35 babies, well below the replacement rate, within 50 years.

Get busy, Japanese! I can’t say many of your men are hot, but more than a few of your women are. What’s the problem?

Just when we could use a strong Asian ally to counter China’s growing ambitions, you guys disappear. Literally!

African Americans have been hurt by this abysmal administration arguably more than any other group, yet they cannot protest because Obama is black. And that says all we need to know about the US today.

- Aggie

To Democrats, Jeremiah Wright was just misunderstood:

The claim that Wright’s sermons were selectively edited by Obama’s political opponents contradicts what is known about Wright’s preaching and the radical, racialist creed of the Trinity United Church of Christ, to which Obama belonged for two decades and to which he contributed a large amount of money.

Axelrod’s claim is also contradicted by Obama himself, who has cited Wright’s enthusiasm for radical politics as the main reason he was attracted to the church.

So, when Jerry said “not God bless America, God damn America” and “the US of KKK A”, we’re taking him out of context?

But that might not even be the most outrageous and offensive thing said by a Democratic leader today:

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., speaking in New Hampshire this morning, reminded her audience of the tragic Tucson shooting last year — and also insinuated that the Tea Party, which she said regards political opponents as “the enemy,” has enhanced divisiveness in Congress and had something to do with the shooting, at least indirectly.

“We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago, where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords — who is doing really well, by the way, — [was shot],” Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chair said during a “Politics and Eggs” forum this morning. “The discourse in America, the discourse in Congress in particular . . . has really changed, I’ll tell you. I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement.”

I’m glad to know Gabrielle Giffords is doing well, but I hope not too well. If she were aware that someone as loathsome as Debbie is using her tragic case as a political cudgel, she might have a relapse.

Are the Whigs through for good? The Democrats are empty, and I like a two-party system. Maybe the Bull Moose has some life left in it.

From New Mexico, brought to us by The Daily Caller

A Democratic state legislator in New Mexico lashed out at a Republican colleague, attacking her as acting as a minion of the state’s Republican governor, Susana Martinez, and referring to the governor in questionable terms.

Calling Martinez “the Mexican,” Democratic state Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton reportedly shouted at Republican state Rep. Nora Espinoza.

The source of the dispute was an investigative news report that suggested Stapleton had behaved unethically. The piece aired on KRQE-TV in October, reporting that “for years, Stapleton did not take leave from her job as an administrator at the Albuquerque Public Schools system and received pay while attending legislative sessions.” Espinoza commented in the report.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and state Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton

What a country!

- Aggie

An interesting way to divide us up.

…In 2008, candidate Barack Obama carried 81 percent of counties with a Whole Foods and just 36 percent of counties with a Cracker Barrel —a record 45-point gap. In 2000, Vice President Al Gore won 58 percent of counties now containing a Whole Foods and 26 percent of those now boasting a Cracker Barrel, a 32-point difference. And in 1992, Gov. Bill Clinton won 60 percent of Whole Foods counties and 40 percent of Cracker Barrel counties — a mere 20-point margin.

And, like every other measure, the Whole Foods – Cracker Barrel data indicate that America is becoming more extreme and more divided. I wonder what a civil war would look like between the effete Whole Foods crowd and the bitter clingers? Don’t assume the bitter clingers win; the elites have technology and money.

This growing divide signals shifts in the electorate. In the 2008 primary, Obama was able to overcome Hillary Rodham Clinton partly because the Democratic Party had become more Whole Foods than Cracker Barrel. While Clinton swept rural, older, lower-income Cracker Barrel counties such as Belmont, Ohio, and Knox, Ky., Obama dominated younger, higher-income, higher-educated Whole Foods enclaves including Multnomah, Ore., Portland’s county, and Charlottesville. Ten years earlier, Clinton’s coalition might have been enough to bury Obama, but the party’s metamorphosis sunk the former first lady.

In the 2010 midterm elections, the culinary divide was even more apparent: Eighty-two percent of congressional districts that flipped from Democratic to Republican were home to a Cracker Barrel, and just 20 percent of these districts had a Whole Foods. Though Whole Foods refused to comment for this story, Cracker Barrel says there’s no connection. “Politics don’t play any role in our site selection process,” said Julie Davis, a spokeswoman for the company.

The sad truth is that everything comes down to politics in America today. The Cracker Barrel group may not look at voting patterns directly, but they are certainly looking at demographics and income levels when they plan where to put a restaurant. And in today’s America, those demographics = voting patterns. In the 1970s or 1980s, even the 1990s, a neighborhood could have similar demographics but mixed voting behaviors. Two individuals working in adjacent classrooms in the local middle school could have different political registrations. Best friends could disagree politically. While this still happens, it is becoming rarer and more uncomfortable.

This is a more elegant way to say it:

“Politics is aligned with lifestyle right now, not policy,” says Texas journalist Bill Bishop, author of “The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart.” “Food used to be political because it represented a class of farmers or workers. Now it represents certain tastes.”

More details at the link. I bet that, given the pervasive divide in American Life Today (think Grand Canyon), there are probably dozens of ways to describe it. But the Cracker Barrel – Whole Foods barometer is quite clever. Sadly for me, there are no Cracker Barrels nearby. Are there any in the entire state of Massachusetts?

- Aggie