How Long Can You Starve?

The BBC reports that North Korea is once again facing a "food crisis".

Famine-hit North Korea will run out of food in three month's time unless more international donations arrive immediately, the United Nations food agency has warned.

How can anyone not know that there is going to be another famine next year in (have these thoughts every year) North Korea. They have don nothing to update their situation. They still follow the bankrupt policy of Juche (self reliance) which, it appears to me, doesn't work as they have not been able to "self reliantly" feed their own people for going on ten years!

They have had to deal with natural and man made disasters for the last ten years. But, unlike most other countries in the world not afflicted with irrational morons bent only on staying in power, they can't seem to pull their heads out and make anything better. The most basic requirements for a government are feeding, clothing, and sheltering its citizens. North Korea can do none of those things except for the lucky few who have the connections to live in Pyongyang.

By all accounts, we (us suckers in the US and South Korea) get to provide the sustenance for about 30 percent of the citizens of a country which regularly calls for the death of our citizens:

The Bush administration is working hard to trigger a new war on the Korean peninsula.
As long as the warhawks in Washington continue their attempts to swallow up the DPRK, we can not afford to stay on the sidelines.
We workers are now ready to rush to the battlefields when ordered, sharpened bayonets in hand.
The US warmongers wish to destroy our people-centred socialist system, under which the entire nation forms a harmonious whole, but they will never succeed.
If the US imperialists try to realize their ambition by force of arms, we will destroy them and they will not return home alive.
However desperately they manoeuvre, we remain confident, as we are led by the great leader and we have an invincible army.
We workers will strive with the same spirit as the People's Army to achieve greater success in the production of electric locomotives.
If war breaks out, we will drive our Korean-made trains to the battlesites to ensure that the enemy are frustrated to the last.

Why do we bother? I am as filled with remorse for the suffering of others as the next pirate but at some point you have to say "enough". They hate us with an all encompassing fire that would put the sun to shame, we don't know how to find them on a map. If it weren't for the irrational morons developing nuclear weapons we would let them all starve and then go in and turn Kim Il Sung's mausoleum into a McDonalds (after removing the waxy old dude... I think).

There must be a way to liberate the prisoners in Kim Jong Il's den of insanity. I just wish I was smart enough to figure out how...

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:35

Most High Irrational Moron Alert!!!

Urg! Ack! Can't speak because of outrage!

Asshole! If Corsair the Rational Wife ever saw me doing anything remotely similar to this to Corsair the Rational Daughter, I would be sleeping in the garage for the rest of my short pathetic life. What is wrong with these people!?! And don't give me any shit about "humiliation" and "driven to it by Israeli terror". I didn't want to hear it before and I sure as hell don't want to hear it now. This prick is in Berlin! When was the last time the Israelis bulldozed his smelly tenement?

Thsi is child abuse plain and simple. Will "our friends the Germans" deport this monster or do I have to buy a ticket over there and squeeze his neck until his eyes pop out myself?

And the smiling buffoon in the background is beginning to give me stomach aches...

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:36

News Flash: Poor People Can't Afford Huge School Bills

Well, who would of thought it? According to this article in the WaPo by Valerie Strauss and Jay Mathews, people in the lower econmic strata are being priced out of schools that regularly charge $20,000 per year so Junior can learn his ABCs!

Tuition will top $20,000 a year at some of the Washington region's elite private schools next year, a trend that is pushing some education bills into New York City price ranges and creating worries about attracting middle-class and lower-income students.

Last time I checked, "people of no money" were also not able to afford $5,000 Carribbean vactions, $65,000 Mercedes SUVs, $10,000 Rolex watches, or trips to the moon. In fact, most people can not afford to send their progeny to pricy, high falutin private schools which turn out products no better than most public schools.

Martha Higgins said she checked the costs of several private schools before sending her first-grader to the public Ashburton Elementary around the corner from her Bethesda home.

"If I could afford private I would, but we can't," said Higgins, whose husband is a cardiology fellow at Bethesda Naval Medical Command. "I knew [tuition] was going to be high, but I think $15,000 for first grade is outrageous. That's more than I spent on college."

A refreshing voice of reason, this woman.

Some officials worry that the biggest casualties of tuition increases could be low-income students and the diversity they bring to many schools.

[...]

Barbara Patterson, head of the Black Student Fund, which provides scholarships for African American students to attend independent schools, said many schools are struggling to maintain diversity.

"Keeping poor kids out is a big issue," she said. Patterson said the tuition prices are realistic given the costs facing schools, but "it does cause problems with getting low-income children into the schools."

Keeping poor kids out? This is not Mississippi in the 1960s! No one is "keeping" anyone out of anythingI guess the Lexus dealer down the street can be accused of keeping poor people out by charging the excessive fees that they do to drive around in one of their little cars! If people can find a way to afford sending their kids to places like this, they are free to do so.

Other families reject out of hand the notion that private schools offer a lot more than they can get in some public schools.

Carolyn D'Antonio, who has three children in Charles County public schools, said the private schools near her don't have the science and math programs -- or the after-school offerings -- available at her son's middle school.

"I do think it is a waste of money for private school, since my kids are getting a great education in public school," she said.

So there! I admit that there are shitty public schools out there that do nothing in the way of educating the dchildren who attend them. They are usually in the least desireable parts of town so the lack of learning must be shared by both the school and the community. In a stable, hard working (not necessarily middle class) neighborhood, the schools are fine. In a middle or upper middle class area the schools a great. The kids learn what they need to learn. No one needs a Mercedes SUV to get around town. They could do just fine with a Honda Civic. Same thing with $20,000 a year private schools. Same ABCs. Same 123s.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:32

OK. How about Palestinian = Barbarian?

Not only did these backward-ass barbarians proclaim their tenuous ties to human beings by their actions after the September 11th attacks - dancing in the streets - they also show that they have cut all ties with the human race by their current words and actions (taken from another WaPo article):

"If anyone stands before the Palestinian people and tries to take Yasser Arafat's place, we will hang him at Manara Square," said one Ramallah resident, Mohammed Rawhi, referring to the city's main square where Palestinian collaborators have been hanged.

These "people" deserve the "leadership" they have and subsequently the beating they are taking from the Israelis.

It is like the Animal Farm story where the animals are continuously told that things might be bad now, but it was worse before... Even though it really wasn't all that bad before. These idiots can't see past their own hatred and racism of the Jews to try and work with them. And woe be it to anyone who stands up and tries to work out a peaceful solution. That person will be strung up as a collaborator. What a sick society.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:33

Pratfalls and Memorex (Is it Real or...)

We have a story this morning in the WaPo about what little is known about the situation in Bethlehem. We seem to have a dead Palestinian and some injured Israelis. How did all these gentlemen end up that way?

"They entered to the roof of the parish home," said the Rev. Abdel Masih, the comptroller for the Franciscan friars. "It was a provocation, to get the Palestinians inside the church to answer them."

He said no Palestinians inside used any weapons. Asked how the two Israeli soldiers were injured, he replied, "Maybe they fell down. Maybe it's not real at all."

Maybe they fell down... That is what the older child says about the younger child when confronted by the annoyed parent. Is this guy serious or is he just an idiot? Sounds more like he is shilling or the terrorists.

Of course, the Israelis are not being all that much more truthful:

Israeli officials said Palestinians started the fire by throwing grenades. A military spokesman could not explain exactly how people shooting and throwing grenades out of a building could cause a fire inside.

What a mess. I have very little sympathy for the Palestinians at this point, however. Abba Eban once said, "The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." They had their chance two years ago and muffed it. They do not want to end the suicide bombings. Any civilized country would act to find out who is behind the bombings and put an end to it. The Palestinian authorities see more propaganda gain in continuing the bombers than in protecting their citizens. Flush the whole lot of them out of the area and let one of the beneificent Arab countries in the region accept them. Bah!

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:26

CESMs* are Stupid Too!

According to this, the stupid French are buying into the conspiracy theory espoused by Thierry Meyssan that no plane ever flew into the Pentagon and that the Guvmint did it to increase funding. Of course it says:

Meyssan, who apparently has no alternative theory as to what could have happened to American Airlines flight 77 and the 68 people who died on board, claims the explosion which damaged the Pentagon was caused by a truck bomb.

And his stupidity was caused by his mother dropping him on his head as a youth.

*Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:20

No Heat... No Light... No Clue...

I guess the last person who lived in North Korea has turned out the lights and left for better climes. The picture below indicates light and heat sources on the Korean peninsula. (Hint: The big orange thing is Seoul, Capital of the Republic of Korea [South Korea] and the little blue dot just north of that is Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea]). Now imagine that it is tomorrow and North and South Korea sign some paper, shake hands, and combine to form one country. At that point the people in the blue part are going to have to pay twice as many taxes. One set will go towards keeping their own economy and infrastructure going. The other will go towards dragging the not-blue part into the 21st century. How can it happen? It can't but it has to.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:40

bin Sultan Must Stop the Bullshit

Bandar bin Sultan insults people with a brain by penning a column in the WashPost called "Why Israel Must Stop The Terror". I'm sorry, I guess I missed the Israeli terrorist bombers strapping nails to themselves and torching off in the West Bank. Oh! Their defensive actions in the West Bank to take apart a terrorist network is what he is talking about. So what he means it that Israel should stop the terror being inflicted upon them by the murderous, barbaric Palestinians... Let's take a look:

The Palestinian people are burdened by tremendous suffering and calamity as a result of the continuing aggression of the Israeli government and the insane policies of its leader. While Islamic countries should continue to focus on fighting international terrorism, confronting Israeli violence against the Palestinians should be a priority.

Oops! My bad! Looks like he thinks the Israelis are doing something bad?

I understand and respect the priorities of the United States, but I also respect and understand the priorities of 3 million unarmed Palestinians. I acknowledge that the Palestinians' greatest crime is their insistence on resisting the military occupation of their country. This strange principle of resistance to military occupation of one's country seems to be difficult for many American political, intellectual and media elite to comprehend -- even though it has been practiced by others in the past, such as Nelson Mandela in South Africa under apartheid and Gen. George Washington during British colonial rule, and even Menachem Begin during the British Mandate of Palestine.

"3 million unarmed Palestinians"? I guess they are unarmed now because the Israelis took away all their arms! And another thing! Since when did Nelson Madela send children out to blow themselves up in front of Afrikaner cafes? And George Washington?!? I seem to remember him getting an army together fighting the redcoats up and down the east coast. Not blowing himself up outside the King's residence. Begin? I don't know.

No sensible person can accept or support the killing of innocent people anywhere in the world -- and that includes innocent Israelis. This also applies to the innocent Palestinians. No sensible or decent person can accept the degradation of the dignity of an innocent person anywhere in the world -- including the dignity of innocent Israelis. This also applies to the innocent Palestinians.

It makes no sense to ask President Yasser Arafat, who was elected by the Palestinian people and who is currently under siege inside two rooms, to stop the violence in the occupied territories while the Israeli forces destroy his security apparatus and kill and detain his security officers.

Haven't people been asking Arafat to stop the terrorist bombings for months and years? He had full run of the West Bank for years and the terror continued. Why not have the Israelis lock him up in a cage and deal with it themselves since Arafat is so ineffectual?

I believe that the Islamic world, with its 1.2 billion people, will continue to fight terrorism, but priority should be given to a united stance in the face of Israel's terrorism against Palestinians. Israel's actions are changing the equation of, and seriously affecting, the international war on terrorism. This change has been imposed on us as Arabs and Muslims; we did not choose it.

Did you fight the terrorism of Iran and Iraq during their war? Did you fight the terrorism of Iraq when it was using poison gas on its own people? Did you fight the terrorism of everyone when Lebanon was a basket case? Did you fight the terrorism of Indonesia when it was was fighting in East Timor? You people (Islamonazis) haven't fought any terrorism anywhere by anybody! Now allthe sudden you are on the forefront of terror control? But only as it applies to the Israelis!

Is it difficult for the political, intellectual and media elite in the United States to decide between these two choices? Life is choices, so let us choose, as President Bush said, good over evil.

What a prick. Palestinian murderous bombers are obviously good and Israeli disco goers are evil. No wonder this sack of shit and his buddies don't allow elections in their camel-piss smelling little country. They would be kicked out on the next flying carpet and sent to live with Saddam. I just wish I saw this creep on the street.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:56

Vicious Circle... Jerks

Norh Korea sure knows how to keep it's inmates busy. They all "volunteer" to plant trees every spring -under the watchful eyes of the benevolent security forces, one would image- then go about ripping up the trees as soon as they need to use the land to grow food. The same food that the US is supplying them but which does not seem to make it out of the Party's warehouse.

During the worst economic crisis between 1997 and 1998, the lack of seedlings led to giving up the spring operation of planting trees, and participation of residents was not so enthusiastic either. It seems that one of the reasons why soldiers are recently mobilized into tree planting operation is because they are not the owners of the small land pieces on which trees are to be planted, so that they can plant trees without any hesitation.

You think someone in North Korea would catch a clue. Just one. Just once.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:51

Chicks With Guns...

And to think, someone wants to blow them up!?!?

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:43

Ouch! This Guy Does Job on the Palestinian Morons

A certain John Ringo (he writes science fiction books among other things), takes the non-military Palestinian goobers to task for being dumb soldiers:

I'm sure that that Palestinian would have been just great at walking into a shopping center or a Seder feast with Clothing By Semtex. But put him up against trained soldiers with guns in their hands and he's nothing but worm-meat.

Which is just one of the thousand ways you can determine that the Israelis are civilized human beings and their foes are nothing but Sixth century barbarians armed with modern weapons that they barely know how to use.

The Israelis are professionals. They are good at killing idiot barbarian wannabes, and they clearly enjoy their work. You don't get that good at something unless you enjoy it.

The Palestinians are murderous terrorists who can't be bothered to learn to be soldiers.

I will admit to a certain amount of boyish glee at being able to strap a wonderful variety of military gewgaws on various parts of my body back in my Air Force days. We, however were trained in their use and so not only looked cool all saddled up but were able to make the most use out of the fruits of the American taxpayer.

I didn't spend all my time in the AF playing with cool toys... unles you counted headphones and teletype machines as cool toys (we didn't). As a linguist (20834G) the only cool toy I got to play with on a regular basis was the floor wax stripper machine (you know, one of those big circular things that spins around and becomes embroiled in wacky situations on television shows) we were forced to use once every shift. We ususally ended up doing more harm than good to the floors, of course. But it kept us busy.

Soon after I moved to an interrogator position that allowed for the use of all sorts of cool "big boy toys" We used everything from a Leatherman knife to night vision goggles, humvees, and M-203 Rocket Propelled Grenade launchers. What we were doing with them was training. We didn't saunter around town trying to impress the ladies or terrorise our rivals or pose for pictures. Had the need arisen, I believe that I and my compatriots would have been ready to use those tools to our advantage and our enemy's disadvantage when ordered to.

That is the difference. Sure we got to play with cool toys. But we understood these were tools and not a way of life or a fashion statement. Coming from the 20th Century, we also understood how they worked and were trained by people who lived and breathed that stuff. They also did not zoom around town in pickup trucks brandishing their tools at the little people. They were civilised and trained. Not like the wannabe yahoos mentioned in the article.

You can't run a modern civilised country using sixth century thoughts and ideas. When the two civilisations clash, you can see what happens.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:39

Boom!

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:36

Fixed

OK, I think I fixed it. Idiot. Make a backup copy next time.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:15

Oops

I broke everything... I will now have to reset what came before. I am a moron.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:10

Y o u W i l l B e A s s i m i l a t e d ! ! !

North Korea is not only the wackiest place on earth, it is also the scariest. While many millions of its population are eating tree bark and joining in the "Let's Eat One Meal A Day" Campaign, the authorities have decided to continue with their borg-like Arirang festival.

Especially creepy are the following quotes:

Ri Yong-kum, 14, a gymnast in the science and technology display, said all 2,000 students at her school had volunteered for the show and now spent half the day practicing their moves.

``I feel like the happiest person in the world and very honored I am participating in this Arirang festival to be seen by the world and our Great Leader,'' she said.

*shudder*

Kim Jong-il, famous for giving ``on the spot guidance'' to everyone from surgeons to journalists, had this to say about the art form.
``The schoolchildren, conscious that a single slip in their action may spoil their mass gymnastic performance, make every effort to subordinate all their thoughts and actions to the collective,'' he wrote in an essay in his Selected Works.

I was actually completely weirded out just reading this crap. Imagine living it all day every day! As George Orwell wrote in his book 1984 "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:31

Libertarian Views

Libertarian Samizdata (whose links don't appear to be working for me) has several good posts of late but y'all realy should go and look at this one (under the title "God is Coming"):

In a way that if the most frightening element of this mess; the fact that Arab radicals really seem to think they can push the Israelis into the sea and bring the West to its knees. Not wishing to be pejorative, but they are, quite simply, deranged. That�s what makes this so different from the Cold War. The Russians had chained themselves to a warped and bankrupt philosophy but they could always be relied upon to act in their own best interests.

Not so here, sadly. Too many Arabic radicals believe their own rhetoric and are suicidal enough to act upon it. They simply do not seem to appreciate that whatever force the Israelis can unleash it is not but a gnat�s bite compared to that which can be visited upon them by Uncle Sam.

Squish them like bugs, we would. And worry about the consequences later. Americans are a wonderful, kind, compassionate, giving, caring people who you really do not want to piss off. We have been spending tons of money for years and years to build the biggest and baddest military machine the world has ever seen. All those special forces guys who went over there to Afghanistan, I am sure, LOVED what they were doing. That kind of gentleman lives for this kinda shit. And we got lots of them. Fortunately our style of government and society keep our military in control (unlike plenty of shithole, backward potentates in the Middle East, South America, and Africa). But when it becomes time to "let loose the dogs of war" there won't be any stopping us. That is not bragging. We just happen to have the best trained, best motivated, best equiped fighting force in history. Deal with it or get out of the way.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:38

Wack-Job Alert!

We return to uber-wack Michael Woroniecki, whom I last lambasted here. Turns out loser-dude puts out video tapes with himself as the devil. Well, duh! He IS the devil! And Rusty-Dusty Yates is an ignorant buffoon! I hate these two. I really do!

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:53

Even Though...

The phrase "even though" is usually used when someone wants to gloss over something unpleasent and move on. "Even though I smashed your car, you can still take the bus!" "Even though Granny got run over by a reindeer, she still got a present!" "Even though I am a law-breaking, bloviating, scum sucker, at least I still have a job!"

Cardinal Law takes the "Even though" route with his dismissive speech last Sunday as he "celebrated" easter.

"Even though we carry in our hearts those who bear the wounds of betrayal through abuse inflicted by others, especially by clergy, . . . we fix our gaze with unshakable hope of the risen Lord. He is our light," Law said during his homily at Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

Let's just sweep this unsightliness under the rug and move on, can't we? Yeah, you want to move on, you leach. What about all those little kids who were forced to visit you houses of horror all those year and be treated to another session of "Who's you father" with the low life scum that you moved around your diocese because you didn't want to sully the church's good name. Hmm? I hope there is a special place in hell for you when you finally die a horrible death. Jerk.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:03

Peace Loving Palestinians

So, instead of trying to defend themselves against "Zionist aggresion," these clowns decided it was "killin' time!"

Two masked Palestinian gunmen entered an intelligence building in the West Bank town of Tulkarm and killed eight men awaiting trial on charges of collaborating with Israeli security forces, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

Three other Palestinians also accused of helping Israeli security forces were found shot dead elsewhere in the West Bank.

If the Israelis had done this the hue and cry from the Euro-Weenies and Filthy Saudis and the rest of the flea-bitten Islamonazis would have been ear splitting. As it is, it appears that it is always OK if Palestinians kill Palestinians and Arabs kill Arabs and Muslims kill Muslims. In fact, that is usually the story of the day.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:33

Irrational Moron Warning

After reading this, figure out how long it will be before the anti-abortion (which this isn't) crowd gets all lathered up and starts calling on the Lord to take someone's life!

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:11

Get Yer Scorecards Out!

Little Green Footballs has the following link to just a little hyperbole and exaggeration.

�Israel�s aggression on West Bank cities and its siege of the headquarters of the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah are violations of all norms. It�s the greatest crime in the history of humanity,� Prince Sultan said, and called upon the international community to take a firm stand against the Israeli aggression.

And who am I to say otherwise? Who would know more about crimes against humanity then one of the "leaders" of that pack of jackals known as the House of Saud.

Filthy Saudi Bastards! Stupid as well as dumb.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:21

Lasers and the Army

No, it is not what you think. No Captain Kirk phaser sort of thing. The army has now decided to pick up the cost of doing LASIK eye surgery on any troops that want it. Think of the implications! No more BCs! For those "in the know" BC stands for Birth Control glasses. So named because the unfortunate soldier forced to wear these unsightly Vision Correction Devices (VCD) immediately loses all chance of actually being in a bed with a girl therefore reducing the risk of pregnancy to pretty much zero.

As my prescription was so incredibly bad when I entered Basic Training for the Air Force it took the VCD technicians nearly six weeks to grind out my glasses (sort of like making the Hubble Space Telescope main mirror). I wasn't forced to actually don the offensive eyewear until our last unit meeting. Sgt. Jones however wouldn't let me out of the meeting without at least once seeing me in my newly acquired glasses (a site that still haunts him to this day, I am sure).

One good aspect of the "Great Glasses Affair" was that any time I did not feel like marching about the parade ground with fifty sweaty strangers in the hot July Texas sun, I reminded the Sgt that I was to head to the optometrist office to check on the availability of my BCs. I would sit in the air conditioning for 45 minutes, ask if the glasses were in, and then return to the squadron upon receiving a negative response. By that time the bulk of the to'ing and fro'ing was completed and it was off to dinner!

Anyway, it is a good thing that the military is fixing the eyes of its soldiers. I just had the procedure done (as a civilian) and love every minute of it.

One odd quote from the story:

Officials are quick to point out that the laser surgery is strictly voluntary. "It's not a program to build an Uebermensch," Madigan said.

Oh, no! Wouldn't want that...

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:36

Easter, Anyone?

Simon Jenkins over on The Times (UK) page does this whole thing about Easter and Atheists. The most fascinating bit I read was about the timing of Easter. Since the bible leaves so little clues as to when things were actually supposed to happen (birth, death, etc) Christians have been going around all these years appropriating pagan holidays and using them as their own. The pagans have been striking back in recent decades by making christmas and easter more about getting time of from work and spending money than in some quasi-religious ceremony.

Anyway, here is how you calculate easter:

We should therefore inaugurate Atheists for Easter. It remains the most appealing of annual rites. Its origins, like Christmas, were pagan. The name derives from Eostre, the goddess of nature�s rebirth after barren winter. The root appears to be the same as the Greek for dawn (not the same as oestrogen, from the Greek for a gadfly). The early Church argued incessantly over the correct date, finally resorting not to dogma or history but to astronomy. Calculating the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox continues to cause havoc among diarists and package-tour companies, from Chaucer�s pilgrims to time-share entrepreneurs. Dating Easter has defied all reform.

Man. that is worse than figuring out leap years on century starting years!

Here is a little something to challenge you on the problems with Easter as shown in the bible of all places. If this is the bible's greatest story, you think they would be able to get this most important of stories right.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:53

Blogger is killing me!

I am having blogger issues.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:06

Cooooooooooool!

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:51

What are You Searching For?

I added a search engine over there on the left.. Down a bit... There! If you are looking for something not on the main page, go ahead and try that.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:59

Gotta Fill Out That Form in Triplicate First

The Wash Post has an article about Special Forces Dudes doing the humanitarian relief thing in Afghanistan:

U.S. Special Forces, the vaunted soldiers who have taken the lead in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, are also involved in a more benevolent undercover operation in Afghanistan: the largest and fastest humanitarian deployment by the military since it got into the assistance business in the 1990s in such places as Somalia and Haiti.

However, not all is roses and light. Seems that there are others in Afghan who do not like the soldiers treading on their toes.

"It's not purely a hearts and minds operation," said Sally Austin, country director for CARE International. "They are here in civilian clothes, saying they are doing humanitarian work. But they are blurring the lines. They are putting our own efforts as humanitarians at risk."

U.N. officials and nongovernmental groups said they have protested the military's use of civilian cover to the highest levels of the Pentagon. Some aid organizations flatly refuse to work with soldiers, saying that the military's aid efforts undermine the principle of neutrality that allowed aid groups to keep working in Afghanistan even during the toughest years under the Taliban government.

So they were willing to work with the Taliban, but not our boys in (or out of) uniform. And how exactly were the NGOs helping the Afghans as a whole by propping up the evil, murderous regime of the Taliban? They weren't? Right answer. Our military took them down (with help from the Northern Alliance) and now we are trying to do something nice. I think the NGOs are protesting a bit too much. Maye they are worried that they will not get to play with as much money if the Army is there? Competitors, perhaps? There have been plenty of stories of late about competition in the NGO world. This appears to be much of the same.

Then, of course, are the stupid rule parts of the mission. American do-gooders have loaded the rules about spending money with so many conditions it is almost impossible to spend the money outside of the Democratic People's Republic of Berkeley:

Asked about how the military guards against child labor, which is a regular feature of life here and a major problem faced by the international aid groups, he said, "Well, a typical contract provision requires our contractors to comply with federal law as it relates to fair labor practices, and that would certainly include child labor."

But, he said, "it would be hard to police something like that."

Equally troublesome is the question of federal nondiscrimination law, which requires that contractors don't discriminate on the basis of race, sex or ethnicity. That may be a practical impossibility in Afghanistan, with its tribal rivalries among the Pashtun and Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek.

Johnson said the teams in the field are instructed to get "verbal assurance" that everyone will be welcome to benefit from the aid. In the end, he said, discrimination may be "the lesser of two evils" if the alternative is no aid at all.

"I'm sorry, little person! I am not able to give you a job to help support your family now that your father is dead because you are under age. Please move along and go outside and starve to death instead of in my office."

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:26

Meyer Gets it Right This Time

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:30

Uhm, Isn't She Half-White?

If she is going to make such a big deal out of her "Blackness", shouldn't Halle Barry even acknowledge that half of her includes "Whiteness (or Tanness)?" In fact, she is not the first Black Woman since 1939 to win the award, but she is the very first Half-and-Half Woman to win the award. John Podhertz has a good view of this:

Then there was Halle Berry. In an acceptance speech so out-of-control that you worried she might actually have to be carted off the stage in a straitjacket, Berry reduced herself to the status of a "vessel." Berry basically said she was worthy of winning solely because other black actresses hadn't won before her and because "nameless, faceless" women of color everywhere needed a role model.

It must therefore have puzzled the TV audience immensely to watch as Berry gave thanks to her mother, to whom the camera cut immediately only to discover that Judith Hawkins Berry is white. Halle Berry is not a representative black woman and not a vessel. She is very much herself, which is how it should be in America.

Now that two "black" actors have won the award, does this mean that Hollywood can go back to ignoring them for another 70 years?

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:13

My Two Cents

Dale Amon over there on the libertarian samizdata does something that I do occasionally as well. Just to remind myself what is happening in the world and why I watch the best tribute to the vicitims of 9/11 that I have seen on the web.

It encapsulates everything that is good and right in the world and compares it to everything that is bad and wrong. The United States is right. The Middle East is wrong. Are there good people there? Of course. Are there good governments, societies, organizations, and religions? No. I don't think there are. And, NO it is not all the Israelis' fault. As I have said before, every Muslims dominated country over there except for Turkey is a mess that needs to be taken down, rearranged and put back. No incremental change, no new coat of paint over the old, no retiling the bathroom. Those countries need to be gutted and rebuilt from scratch.

What redeeming qualities do most Muslim countries have? Why would I want to live in one? What have they added to art or literature or culture in the last 600 years? If it wasn't for oil would they be taken any more seriously than the South Pacific Islands? NO! We would probably just let them kill each other over some worthless desert real estate and then go in later and pick up the pieces.

Many of them seem to think the same about us. We are arrogant and pushy and have too much money and power. And no, I wouldn't want to live next to people like that (not that I think we are like that). But I think I would try to make myself better before trying to destroy them. That is the difference. The middle east has its own problems that they need to fix before blaming everything on us. The United States is the future of the world. Not China. Not Europe. Certainly not Africa or South America. All those places have bits and pieces of something going on, but it is only in the United States where it all comes together. Think of us as a salad bar. Lettuce. Looks good but wouldn't want just that. Croutons? Celery? Carrots? All fine, but they don't make a salad. Grab a plate and put them all together, slather on some dressing and now you have a salad. It works. It is tasty, nutritious, and has everything you want and need. And it beats the stuffing out of a plate of croutons.

That is the US. The big "All You Can Eat Salad Bar" for the world. I am sorry, but you all can't come and live here. But can make your own salad bar wherever you are if you really want to.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:45

If Only They Could Eat Houses

Evil North Korea forbids you to own property. But that hasn't stopped people in the "Worker's Paradise" from finding novel ways in which to not starve:

Rampant death from starvation, people fleeing the country as a result of the perennial food shortages that hit the North in the mid-1990s have given rise to numerous vacant houses. "Because of hunger, my family swapped a ground-floor apartment with one on the fifth floor of the same building in return for 13kg of corn. Then selling the 5th-floor apartment to a neighbor in exchange for three-day food ration tickets, my family moved to a vacant house in the suburbs and lived there," recalls a North Korean defector living in the South, who had served as a housing officer in Musan, North Hamgyong Province.

Did you read that? He gave up an apartment for 28 pounds of food!

They ought to just outlaw starving to death. That would fix the problem.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:27

Couldn't God have Waited?

God is the great "Heads I win, tails you lose" kinda guy out there. Nothing he does is ever bad (bad stuff is done by satan) and all the bad stuff he actually does do is always good. It is twisted logic like this that makes religion (more importantly: the people running religions) look irrational.

Case in point. A local politician and his three young sons were senselessly killed Saturday morning in a car crash. The father was also some sort of church leader. Since God is in charge of everything, let us all try to make sense of it:

And most of the parishioners at First Missionary Baptist Church in Frederick who gathered for Palm Sunday services yesterday did not even try to make sense of what their pastor told them was God's will:

I guess it was God's will that a young, up-and-coming, church going member in good standing of the commuity and his three young sons should die a horrible death in a car crash on their way to the barber shop. If Pat Robertson had been preaching, he would have implied the the father was wicked or evil or something and that is why he got his just rewards. The young sons were just in the way.

And then this moron attempts to make it all better:

"Some of your friends went to heaven," he began. "They are not hurting. . . . God was looking down at his garden, and he picked out the best flowers so he could keep them close to him."

Uhm, excuse me, didn't you just get through telling us that God is everywhere? If so, doesn't that mean he could keep the boys next to him but leave them here with us? And it really doesn't make sense to pull up your best flowers in your garden as this leaves only the shitty vegetation that no one wants to look at. Which makes the rest of us the shitty vegetation. Or was that not what you were trying to say? Oh, we aren't supposed to acutally think this stuff through.

This is where religion is its most illogical. Bad things happen to good people. Period. But for church goers, it can't be made to look like their deity is responsible in any way for the bad stuff. People pray all the time for good things to happen to them and expect that if they pray hard and long and loud (in some cases) enough good things will come of it. God, however, had a master plan for all of us and he set it up at the beginning of time and space. Whatever is happening to you happened because God ordered that it would. How is prayer going to change that? Unless he set it up so that you would need to pray and now he is testing his plan waiting for you to pray. But then you wouldn't really have any free will and you would only be a puppet on god's string. Unless that is what he wanted you to think and isn't he smart? You could go round and round like this forever until your head explodes.

When innocent young people die senseless deaths, it is not really senseless. It was because God wanted to "call them back." We have less than 100 years on this earth in the best scenario. God gets you for all eternity (or so it goes). Couldn't he have waited a few of our years? So that those kids could have enjoyed life and love and springtime and puppies and all the other great things that make being alive so wonderful?

Life is like this (yes, I am giving you the secret of life): You are born, you do stuff, you die. Make sure the stuff you do makes you and others happy and you will have had a good life when you return to the earth. That's it. I know it seems kind of simple. Because it is simple. Don't go messing it up with a lot of religiously-inspired doublethink.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:17

The Japanese are Different Than Us

Years ago when the Japanese had an economy that others tried to get access to, American and European ski equipment manufacturing firms complained that the Japanese authorities were not letting their product into the country because:

Consider the 1986 decision by the Japanese to issue a set of standards for ski equipment that differed from those of European and American manufacturers, who held 50 per cent of the Japanese market. Japanese officials explained that Japan needed distinctive ski safety standards because Japan's unique geothermal activity made the snow different!

Now it turns out that the Japanes will let things into their country as long as no one knows about it and the company doing it will make some money. Turns out that local Japanesde companies have ben importing food from other countries and relabeling it as domestic (among other crimes).

Then in January, Snow Brand Foods Co., a subsidiary of the dairy giant, was found to be passing off imported beef as being from Japan to get more subsidies from a government program to buy up domestic meat that could have been infected with mad cow disease.

And finally, this month, the clincher: A subsidiary of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zenno), a customer-oriented cooperative, was accused of selling Thai and Chinese chicken under a top Japanese brand name -- and falsely claiming on the label that there were "no agrichemicals used."

So we have the Japanese who assume that home grown is best versus the food producers who assume that large piles of Japanese Yen are the best. Unfortunately for the producers, the way to get the large piles of cash was to break the law. Having done that now, of course, it turns out that the Japanese stuff isn't all that different to begin with:

More alarming for domestic producers, the mislabeling cases revealed that "people could not actually tell the difference in quality" between Japanese and imported products, Hiwasa said -- a death knell for the myth that Japanese food is better.

The beef industry has been the first to feel the consequences. The price of an average-quality cut of beef has dropped nearly 70 percent over the past six months, as people shun what was once one of the most treasured foods. Some cattle farmers are in danger of going bankrupt, and restaurants have scrambled to find a substitute on their menus.

Sort of like those tv commercials where they switch out the snooty, high-priced coffee in expensive restaurants with motor oil strained though a Bolivian unicyclist's jockstrap. No one could tell the difference.

Serves them right for being stupid.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:37

Scientology is Evil

Can't say it any better than that. Anyone who believes in that shit is a mouth breathing moron of the first order. Says so right here on the rallyingpoint. Stay away from me and mine you, freaks.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:04

Well, We Knew the Chinese Had to Respond

Sadly, the Chinese and North Koreans are now teaming up to round up anyone in China who managed to escape from North Korea.

Wire dispatches and witness accounts describe bizarre scenes of massive manhunts jointly launched by the Chinese security authorities and North Korean police. "Many truckloads of arrested North Korean escapees are being taken away every day," according to a South Korean human rights activist who has been clandestinely helping them. "Some of them commit suicide by jumping over the bridge into the Yalu River."

OK, let us look at that. They would rather kill themselves than go back to North Korea. Seems like refugees to me. They know what horrors await them back in the "Worker's Paradise".

What can be done? I think they ought to take all that aid that is being misspent in North Korea and send it to the border area in China. Set up camps, pull the drain in North Korea and let the whoever wants to get out out. When Kim Jong Il and his idiot crony buddies are the only ones left in that dismal failure of a country give him 30 days to move out and then send in the police to reposses the country.

What the hell else can you do? Bottom line: that government needs to change and one which cares about the people more than a washed up ideology needs to be set up. Makes you want to break some crockery...

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:41

Oh, Gee! We're Soooo Sorry... that this is ruining our reputation

The Pope (he and guys like him decide punishments for people who do the nasty? Where do they get the experience to know what the issues are?) has decided that it is a bad thing that all those priests sinned. (Not, mind you that all those kids have been scarred for life):

After months of silence on the child sexual- abuse cases that are shaking the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II said today that the grievous sins of some priests have cast suspicion "over all the other fine priests" who perform their duties with honesty and heroic self- sacrifice.

The pope's comments came in a single paragraph of a nine-page, pre-Easter letter to priests around the world. Avoiding such words as molestation and pedophilia, the letter speaks of the "grave scandal" as a manifestation of supernatural evil, expresses concern for the victims and says the church is striving "to respond in truth and justice to each of these painful situations."

What they are responding to is the hundreds of million dollars they will no longer have to buy pretty hats and purple clothes.

One apologist on the Sean Hannity radio show yesterday said it wasn't the local Cardinal's fault that the evil priests were shuffled around to different churches after new allegations were made everywhere they stopped. Supposedly they were going on the advice of physchiatrists at the time who didn't understand the problem of pedophilia. Well, that is a reasonable excuse the first time you remove a molester, but what about the second or third or more times? Some of these perverts are alledged to have screwed around with 130 kids! What was the excuse then? One strike and you are out.

The church didn't want to be seen as harboring child molesters. So they hid the evidence, paid off the victims and moved the perps somewhere else to spread their slime. And, NO, Mr. Pope, these creeps have not sinned! They have broken the law. And their bosses have broken the law by hiding them. The whole lot of them should go to jail. Bastards.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:20

The Light of Truth Can't Shine Brightly Enough on North Korea

Is there any humanitarian award important enough to give to Norbert Vollertsen, a 44-year-old German physician, who spent 18 months in the North Korean capital as an aid worker and who now agitates against the North Korean regime? Hell, Arafat got the Nobel Peace Prize for gawd's sake! (Can they take those back if they find out they made a mistake?) That little upcoming soccer tournament (The World Cup I think it is called) is being held in South Korea and Japan soon and, according to Norbert:

"We will create a flood of refugees to embassies, and it will lead to the collapse of North Korea. This is the way it happened in 1989, in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. First there were a few dozen defectors, then hundreds and then thousands.''

Anything that smokes that most reprehensible fo regimes out into the light where it can be run over by the steam roller of public disgust has to be a good thing. Of course there are those already complaining that it will do nothing more than aggravate the Chinese and North Koreans further and they will crack down even harder and the fortunate few who have made it to China so far. I see it as trying to crush sand in your fist. There are already plenty of North Koreans living in China (most just norrth of the border). They must lead relatively comfortable lives (well, more comfortable than eating bark and spending your time "volunteering" to build yet another monument to the Dear Leader Kim Il Sung) now or they would have gone elsewhere. If the authorities start cracking down like only despotic authoritarian regimes on their last gasps can do, then these people will find it more in their interest to move away from there (Californy is the place you want to be so they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly... Hills that is) and since they are not wanted in the rest of China, they might as well make an international incident as described by Norbert and head to Beijing to speak out.

With the games set to begin in 71 days, they will have the perfect audience to showcase the crime against humanity that is North Korea. May it all come crashing down on that vampire Kim Jong Il's bulbous mishappen ears.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:00

Group Moron Alert

School boards are easy to lampoon because they are so incredibly stupid. I live near Prince George's County Maryland which has to have one of the most demented groups of idiots running a school system in the country. Until the school board in charge of Piper High School in Kansas jumped up to make a claim for Idiot Champeen!

Seems a bunch of dunderhead students "plagiarized" (which means to copy stuff without changing it) a biology paper. OK, do something that stupid, get caught, get punished. Our system at work, right? Parts one and two worked like a charm. Mouth breathing, knuckle-draggers copied a paper, teacher gave them 0 on it... but then the school board had to stick their pig-like snouts into it and force the teacher (who should be nominated for Teacher of the Year") to change her grades. She quit. School board must have gotten some sort of payoff, neaderthal kids (who couldn't even cheat correctly) go on to graduate and run for the school board. Everyone is happy! Oops! seems someone (probably someone not conversant with local customs and sensibilities) ratted out the whole ugly scene and now the scandal won't go away. An even better denoument, in my opinion.

Ever since the school board overturned former teacher Christine Pelton's failing grade for 28 students, Piper students have been booed at competing schools, some teachers have made plans to quit and the administration is in upheaval.

"Our kids are getting labeled unfairly, and our parents are all being given the same stereotype," said English teacher Leona Sigwing. "It's gone beyond the plagiarism issue to something that's hurting students, and the community."

Well what the hell did you think would happen? There are members of your community who are making your community look stupid. "Come to Piper High School Where You Can Cheat, Get Caught, and Go Free!" Don't balme the national press for picking his up. It isn't every day that you get a great self-immolation story like this one.

Oh, and if any Piper students wish to quote my little diatribe any time in the future, make sure you put my name on it. Idiots.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:40

As Alice in the Dilbert Cartoons says "Must... Control... Fist... of... Death"

Sometimes people are so stupid and ignorant and idiotic that they scream out for a good thrashing. Take this imbecile who was possibly the 10-foot pole that tipped Andrea Yates over the edge into killing her children in the mistaken delusion that they were " lost forever to God, and therefore damned to eternal hellfire, if they are not "saved" by the time they are 13 or 14":

"God knows how wicked you are," he wrote to her. "You must accept the reality that your life is under the curse of sin and death . . . you are a daughter of Eve, you must become a daughter of the most high."

Mr. Woroniecki teaches that women who work or practise birth control are witches. He once wrote in a pamphlet that, "At birth, a woman inherits the contentious nature of Eve and a man is born with the passive nature of Adam."

Argh! *choke* *spit* I don't know what to say or do. If that moron were in my sight right now the police would have to be called to get me off of him. I got his passive nature right here waiting to choke him unmercilessly! SHIT! I HATE PUNKS LIKE THIS!!! Jerk never had an original non-twisted-biblical thought in his life. He lives by preying (or praying) on the stupidity and gullibility of like-minded religious fanatics and he probably smells all funky from living in his VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!

Oh, but there is more:

After Mr. Yates married Andrea, the two families became closely intertwined. She became a devout follower of the preacher, and they took care of one another's children.

"There wasn't any weird stuff going on," Mr. Woroniecki told the Press. "We really liked her and she liked us a lot. [Ms. Yates would] send us little care packages of cookies. Sometimes she'd send us a few bucks, 10 or 20 bucks. She'd put in little things for the kids."

"There wasn't any weird stuff going on"...?!?! WTF? His whole life is weird stuff! He lives in a bus with six kids! I think the child abuse people should be called!

"As bold as I may seem, I'm just like any other guy. Just because I make a choice to yell Jesus and preach to people and tell them they're going to hell if they don't repent, that means I don't count?"

You sure as hell don't count, jesus freak. If you want to live your pathetic life in a bus yelling at people that is marginally ok. As soon as you start messing with other people's minds you have crossed the line. I think this simpleton should be investigated, poked, prodded, folded,spindled mutilated, tarred and feathered, and run out of town on a rail (whatever the hell that means)! Must... Control... Fist.. of... Death!!!

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:25

Must Be a Robot

Dayum! I hate to link to the same guy over and over and over (and over)... But James Lileks is so DAMNED good! Not a little good. Not kinda good. Friggin'-a good. If you are not reading his stuff every single solitary damn day you should just rip them offending eyeballs out of your head because you are not using them to their full potential.

He uses words like"interregnum" and "abjuring" without breaking a sweat. Whew.

Maybe someday I will grow up and be as good as him... Nah, never happen.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:12

Evil Saudis Getting Their Due

The corrupt, evil, cancerous growth that is Saudi society is starting to make itself known. Others had commented on the death of the scarfless girls in publications without as many readers as the Washington Post, but now Mona Eltahawy has taken up the story.

She is, however still an apologist for Islam:

What kind of virtue is it to allow girls to die in a fire because of what they were not wearing? Whose Islam is it that allows these men to dilute the faith I and millions of others cherish for its teachings of compassion and justice to nothing more than a dress code and sexual segregation? I grew up learning God is merciful and that faith was based on choice -- you could not force actions on anyone in the name of religion.

Odd, since the governments of each and every "Islamic" state has been forced on the long sufferng inhabitants of each of those states. Show me the one country in the world where Islamic governments come even the least bit close to a western democracy. Indonesia (if it wasn't such a mess) might approach that standard but they have a real loose version of Islam that doesn't require women to get all tented up 'cause their men can't handle the thought of seeing a bare ankle. Sometimes you just want to take some people out and show them the 21st century. Then kill them. Slowly. In a fire while you watch.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:40

More 10 Commandments Nonsense

E.J Dionne has a column in this morning's Washington Post has a column on posting the 10 Commandments and other biblolotry in this country. An easy one is the following quote:

On Thursday the county commissioners in Tennessee's Rutherford County voted 16-5 to post the Ten Commandments in their courthouse. "It wouldn't hurt nobody," said Commissioner Joe Frank Jernigan. "Nobody's making nobody read it."

Nobody, in this case, is making "nobody" speak english correctly in Tennessee obviously.

Another problem is the version of the 10 commandments. There are three widely divergent texts that no one seems to think about. Wars have been fought over this kind of shit in the past but now some hick Tennessee english-mangler is going to decide what it good and right in the world?

And finally, what would this accomplish? Would crimminals see the 10 commandments upon entering the courtroom, immediatly convert to christianity, confess there sins and skip merily off to jail to serve their debt to society? Maybe in Tennessee but not in the real world. Grow up.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:18

Something Metaphorical Here

Hmmm... US soldiers using the very substance of Afghanistan to build something new... Something like that. Corsair the Rational Pirate is not Corsair the Eloquent Poet.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:03

Hooray for Freedom

The 25 North Koreans who risked their lives to escape to China (isn't that an odd place to escape to?) and invaded the Spanish embassy have arrived safely in South Korea. They made it there via the Philipines. An odd take on all this in the article is:

It was the second time in less than a year that Beijing let a group of North Korean asylum-seekers leave the country, braving a possible backlash from Pyongyang, with which it has a treaty requiring repatriation of "illegal migrants."

Backlash? From North Korea? What are they going to do ? Throw starved dead corpses at the Chinese? What would the Chinese be afraid of? What the Chinese should be afraid of (and appear to be afraid of) is the spectre of everyone in North Korea picking up both their possesions and heading for the Chinese border as there is no longer any reason to stay in Korea. The Chinese are worried that they will be forced to take care of all those people (can't send them back to die, the Olympics are coming we got an image to uphold).

The South Koreans like it when small groups of North Koreans show up on their borders because they like to look like the good samaritan and take them all in. What happens when 300,000 show up looking for food, housing and a job. Can't give them to Japan or Taiwan. They are all brother and sister Koreans who have to live and work together. North Korea is not only an economic basket case, it is also an infrastructure basket case. The moment the North Koreans get a chance to leave their dilapidated trailer to go live in a the McMansions of the South they will jump at the chance. So even if the North government falls (or gets pushed) the people are not going to want to stay there. What a mess for all involved.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:41

Speaking of My Betters

The Captain on USS Clueless rants about the state of the world. Doesn't fix anything but does make loads of good points.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:19

Meeting My Betters

You know how people say that the only way to become a better tennis player is to play against opponents who are much better than you (this holds true for most things in life, of course)? Well, if'n I want to improve my ponitificating, I have to do nothing more than meet up with those who attended last Saturday's DC Blogfest. Unqualified Offerings has a good recap of the events. I was one of those who followed him around the darkened streets of Takoma Park (A nice little town... I think. It was a bit dark) looking for a place to eat.

That being said, one thing that I came away from this first of a hopefully ongoing series of future DC Blogfests is that these people are really really smart. Dayum, Cletus, they done read a buncha books and stuff! And they didn't even have ta! We didn't all agree with each other but didn't actually come to blows over our differences. There was lots of intellectual and not so intellectual (that would be my contribution) conversations on a variety of topics and my brain feels bigger for having attended.

Anyone in the area who would like to attend the next one keep an eye on this space (or others' sites who attended). A good time was had by all.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:17