South Korea has seized a North Korean fishing vessel. Frankly, I can't help but think that Kim Jong Il is behind this. It's been weeks since anybody's been talking about him, what with the Egypt thing and all that jazz. He's probably feeling a little lonely and wants some attention.
This is very interesting: A UN backed tribunal looking into the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, is hashing out a working definition of terrorism. Websters defines terrorism as "The systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion." That strikes me as potentially being overly broad. One could argue that the force of laws is that citizens are systematically made to be terrified of punishment if they break them. Fun definition to ponder. Also, for something to be an act of terrorism, must it have a political motivation?
I try to remain cautiously optimistic about Rwanda's future. Let's face it, they've come a long, LONG way since the genocide of the 90's. That's to be commended, certainly. I think President Paul Kagame has mostly, done wonderful things for the country. That said, things like this are extremely troubling. The last thing Rwanda needs right now is an autocrat. Clearly, autocracy isn't proving that popular in Africa right now...
A detailed profile of Kagame is available here. For an excellent and frankly chilling account of the genocide, I recommend "Shake Hands with the Devil" by Romeo Dallaire, one of my personal heroes.
Drugstore Cowboys.
Disney is expanding its efforts to get kids hooked while they're young. I have mixed feelings about this...On the one hand, it seems like a pretty clever marketing scheme. On the other, I'm fairly certain that quite a few women will not want to be visited by a salesperson just after giving birth. But hey...Hard to beat free baby stuff! I understand those little monsters can be pricey!
Wow...These people sure know how to throw a funeral!
Happy New Year!
In addition to there being a somewhat important game last night, there were some commercials as well.
And yeah...we know: Aguilera screwed up the anthem. And yeah...She's a local girl. Sorry.
If you're interested, here's the British take. Some of the comments are pretty funny...Guys, it really isn't that inscrutable a game! It's all about field position and downs. You'll figure it out. Trust me.
Speaking of the British: Yeah, Americans are still pretty angry about the release of mass murderer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on nonsensical 'compassionate' reasons. This doesn't help.
In a statement to MPs, Mr Cameron said: ''Insufficient consideration was given to the most basic question of all - was it really right for the British government to facilitate an appeal by the Libyans to the Scottish government in the case of an individual who was convicted of murdering 270 people, including 43 British citizens and 190 Americans and 19 other nationalities?
''That for me is the biggest lesson of this entire affair. For my part I repeat, I believe it was profoundly wrong.''
Insufficient consideration? Really?
I didn't really want to write about this because I think it's a bit of a rag (though they do sometimes feature cute animal pictures). Anyways, The Huffington Post has been sold to AOL. I would still encourage people to get their news from just about anywhere else.
Theresa Bait: Not only will these spiders kill you but they'll do it for no good reason.
Huh... The Top 100 Jazz Songs. Glad to see Coltrane has two spots on the Top 10. I think they chose his most iconic rather than his best though...Though I guess when you're talking about "Favorite Things" you're talking about literally dozens of different versions.
Let's end with some explosions.
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