"Ishihara's sexist slurs no cause of distress: court"
Today's ill, if astonishing, wind blows to us off the pages of the The Japan Times, published Feb. 25, 2005.
IF YOU have been reading Rei no Sekai (Spirit World), you've come across Tokyo's governor Shintaro Ishihara in "The Wall Calls." Now this dude has a history for controversial remarks. He makes Larry Summers at Harvard look like the Easter Bunny. And unlike Summers, Ishihara makes no apologies for his remarks. He doesn't grovel.
In this case, 131 women living or working in the Tokyo area sued Ishihara at the Tokyo District Court. Fat chance that's going to do them. Instead of leftist judges run amuck as in the United States, the courts here are mere rubber stamps for government policy.
The women had demanded about $10,000 dollars each and a apology from the governor. But, predictably, the judge in the case, Yoshiteru Kawamura, awarded them zilch, squat, nada. His reasoning was that while Ishihara's comments might have been "unpleasant," he couldn't say for sure that they caused "serious emotional distress to each of the women on a personal level."
OK, OK, I've been holding back our gov's remarks as a punchline. This is a portion of what he said: "women living after losing their ability to give birth is a waste and a crime."
Why don't you try that one at your next Harvard conference, Larry?
