The Korean peninsula remains a very confusing place. I'm at the point where I can say that I almost understand the North's behavior: Assume they're actually rational actors that want to attain understandable policy goals and then overlay the mindset of a tantrum prone child. This excludes of course, their domestic policies which are completely insane, but I think it offers a framework for understanding their international behavior.
What confuses me is the South who seem dead set on reinforcing this behavior by ceding to their demands. I know I'm being reductionist, but isn't it high time the North got a "time-out"?
I wonder how long it was before they had to tell donors that they didn't need anymore bags of Doritos?
You think our welfare system is bad? In Israel, an ultra-orthodox Rabbi was forced to get a bodyguard after suggesting that the 60% or ultra-orthodox males that don't work or serve in the military might consider getting jobs rather than being subsidized by the government to read the Torah.
All terror should be resolved with a shovel whack.
Huh...Second time I've felt the need to write this recently. It may become a regular feature. Anyways, this guy is a dick!
Oh my...The state of our education system...The state of Virginia requires that textbooks fulfill certain 'stringent' Standard of Learning themes. Evidently, these vaunted standards are more theme-y than fact-y. A review of history books by professional historians revealed pages and pages of inaccuracies. In one case, a historians list of mistakes ran ten pages long and included the dubious gem that colonial Virginians used to commonly traipse about in full suits of armor. The books were written by non-historian Joy Masoff who previously produced the scholarly work: "Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty"
Shades of Mobutu: Driving out foreign investment and jobs by expropriating foreign industries is precisely what the Congo should NOT be doing right now. Frankly, I don't know that the Congo will ever recover from their time under the twin fists of the Belgians and Mobutu. But sabotaging any sort of nascent economy is not the place to start. Particularly in this case: The Democratic Republic of the Congo has enormous mineral wealth. Discouraging foreign investment in developing it is economic suicide. The only other groups in a position to exploit it are local warlords and well armed neighboring countries.
Oh my! This is something I can totally get behind! First of all BE VERY, VERY DUBIOUS anytime a celebrity endorses anything, be it a foreign policy stance, a scientific theory, an aide program, anything. Unless they secretly have masters degrees in the associated field, more than likely THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT. That said, the good folks at Sense about Science have published an annual list of celebrities making shameful claims. The winner should probably go to...
Cage fighter Alex Reid took things much further with his tips for health this year. Giving his fans advice on how to prepare for a match, he told the Sun: "It's actually very good for a man to have unprotected sex as long as he doesn't ejaculate. Because I believe that all that semen has a lot of nutrition. A tablespoon of semen has your equivalent of steak, eggs, lemons and oranges. I am reabsorbing it into my body and it makes me go raaaaahh."
Raaaaahh, indeed.
The English economy is far too dire right now for the royals to frivolously destroy the butler industry. Whatever will anyone named "Jeeves" do for a living?
Well, this is pretty dubious: Axl Rose has been named the greatest lead singer of all time. Much as I love classic "Guns N' Roses" have you listened to "Chinese Democracy"? I have. As much as ten seconds worth. After that, I simply couldn't stand it anymore.
Seems like a pretty remarkable over-reaction on the part of her employers: A woman was fired by her employers for writing a salacious, online novel. I'm not familiar with the book itself but I have the distinct sense that nobody would have realized that she might have been making references to her former firm, ALLEN AND OVERY (here's their website by the way), if they hadn't made such a stink about it. As is, now when I think of ALLEN AND OVERY, all I can think of is "dwarf and animal sex cabarets".
Finally...
I'm sure that since this is Japan and since it's on an abandoned chemical weapons site, something bad and giant and fire-breathing is bound to emerge sooner or later. Until then though, I WANT TO LIVE HERE FOREVER!
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