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Girls in Uniform II (I think)

ROKettes!!

Nothing cuter than ROKettes.

Update: OK, OK. I changed it to ROKettes. It is pronounced "Rock"ettes. Now back to the regularly scheduled ranting.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:53

Posting to Get Sporadic

Today is my last day at my current contract place. This means that I get to go back to the office tomorrow and get laid off! What fun. I do seem to have a new position lined up (and no, it doesn't invlove saying "You want fires with that?"). During the transition I may not get to the computer a lot so don't expect a lot.

Thanks for dropping by!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:25

Bwahaha!

That is what we should have done! Pay the Chinese to get KJI in a meeting with a bunch of SARS folks... 10 days later, problem solved!


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:12

Pretty Good Article

The New York Times has a good, lengthy article about North Korean teenagers who have defected to South Korea and the trials and tribulations they face. One in particular that I have heard about is:

I had been told by two founders of the Evergreen School, anthropologists who happened to be brothers-in-law, Byung-ho Chung and Gene-woong Chung, that the biggest hurdle for many young North Korean refugees trying to assimilate was not just that they faced a language barrier but that, quite simply, they also looked different. First, they were shorter. According to Unicef, because of malnutrition, by the age of 7 there's already a 4.7-inch gap in height between North Korean and South Korean children -- and that difference may reach 7.8 inches. Watching the fluttering swallows skate among the others, you could see the difference. Though they were all older, each seemed to stand at about the same height as a 14-year-old South Korean.

And then another sign of malnutrition was evident in almost all of the boys at Evergreen. Most of the young refugees had heads that appeared to be slightly oversize on their frames. It was hard to notice, until they were standing next to a South Korean their age -- or unless you were South Korean.

''We live under the myth of homogeneity, of oneness here in Korea,'' Byung-ho Chung told me, ''but these kinds of distinctive physical markings are a scar. The fear is that the scar will become a social stigma affecting many generations to come, then may take many more to overcome.''

His brother-in-law Gene-woong was more blunt. ''To me, it's like this,'' he said. ''Korea has been a discriminatory culture dating back hundreds of years to the late Lee Dynasty. Your place in this society is determined by money, status and appearance. By comparison, these kids have nothing.''

I remember hearing a story about a NoKo soldier who got washed down some river somewhere in the North and ended up in the South. The SoKos checked him out asked him if he wanted to stay and, when he indicated that he wanted to go back, they sent him on his way. What they thought strange was his size. He was a tiny little guy compared to the SoKo soldiers but they thought he was just small. Once the NoKo guy got back he was lauded as a hero and a picture of him and his platoon was put in the paper. The SoKo were shocked to discover that the whole platoon was the same size as he was! Because of lack of food, the whole country is turning into a bunch of midgets with big heads!

Personally, when I first landed in Korea in 1985 I could go to the subway station, stand on the platform, and look over the heads of most of the people around me. And I am not in any way a tall Pirate. The last time I was there it was the complete oppposite! I was one of the cmaller people on the platform! Even all the girls are becoming taller than me (not that there is anything wrong with that... Tall Korean females have got it going on)! Give those Koreans a couple of Big Macs and they shoot up like beanstalks!

Reunification is going to be hard, expensive, and messy. What do you do when 15 million of your impoverished, midget-like relatives all want to move south to get in on the bright lights and big city? (Hat tip Bernie)
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:56

Comments? Criticism? Talkback? Need to Vent?

OK, I added the comment thing. Either of my readers want to say something, go ahead. If it turns out to suck I will get rid of it (suck is define as slowing things down so as to make it unusable).

Blast away!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:05

I Do Believe They Are Getting It

Arabs are like your slacker brother who stays in the basement all day smoking weed, watching tv and bemoaning his lot in life. It appears that more and more Arabs are starting to get the fact that their civilization sucks and they will never amount to anything. They need to get off their lazy asses (dump the religion thing), find a job (have their schools teach something besides the ravings of a 14th century lunatic), and maybe find a girl (let women actually work and contribute to society) so they can make something of themselves.

"In Baghdad, the Iraqis had weapons. They had an army. If you fought only with your hands, you could last two weeks. They didn't fight," said Ahmed, 37, a Jordanian architect, shaking his head. "It's humiliating."

Humiliation is the word being used across the Arab world these days to describe the war in Iraq, in particular the dramatic collapse of Baghdad's defenses. The dismay is shared not only by anti-American radicals, but also by those who have felt kinship with the West.

This is what Den Beste has been saying all these months. These people need a wakeup call and they need it now if they are going to ever amount to anything.

By contrast, Arab television stations focused more heavily on civilian casualties. More attention was also paid to isolated examples of Iraqi resistance. On the eve of Baghdad's fall, as U.S. troops demonstrated their ability to move through the capital, some Arab stations excitedly covered the Iraqi capture of a single abandoned U.S. tank. "People fed themselves spontaneously on that resistance. It was a kind of catharsis for the humiliation of setbacks over the last 50 years," said Abu Odeh. "It was a catharsis cut short by the fall of Baghdad."

He added sadly, "We wonder now whether we'll ever be able to recover and be respected worldwide."

Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf became the face of Iraqi defiance with his cool denials of reports that U.S. forces were at the city gates.

"He is the one that gave us a bit of hope, a bit of humor, with his total conviction that what he was saying was the truth," said Nabil Sawalha, a prominent Jordanian playwright and satirist, wearing a red-and-white checked kaffiyeh over his bald pate.

Sahhaf has become the latest object of Sawalha's barbs, figuring in a new skit. "All of our humor is based on our humiliation, because we have nothing else," the playwright said.

And do you know why you have nothing else? Because you allow yourselves to be led around by the nose by anyone professing either belief in "Arab Nationalism" - where there has never been any such thing - or else some illiterate, berobbed cleric with bad teeth and a tenuous grasp on reality who claims to speak with god. How's about thinking for yourselves for a minute? How's about living in this world and not worrying so much about the next (you don't get 72 virgins anyway, putzt)? How's about fixing your problems instead of blaming them on the Jooooos and the Great Satan?

If you people didn't have oil do you know how much interaction there would be between us in civilization and yourselves? None! Bones-through-their-noses tribesmen on the island of Borneo would get more recognition than y'all. You have produced nothing, you have written nothing, you have created nothing, you have invented nothing, you have nothing that anyone wants. The only wars you can win are the ones you start amongst yourselves (and that usually involves killing everyone on the other side to claim the win). The only technology you have you buy from us. You wear our discarded clothing sporting slogans you do not understand, you drive our cars and you drink our coke and you lust after our women. You have nothing you can call your own except the camel you pleasure yourself on and the date trees your grandfather planted.

So shut up and take a good look around you at the squalor, filth, and repression that you and your kind have chosen to live in. Do you know the human genome was published last week (more of our science)? Did you know that Arabs and anyone else on the planet are all the same genetically? Look around you and see what people who use their minds to think can accomplish and try to figure out what the difference between successfull people and you rejects is. Try tribalism and Islam. Get rid of those and you might stand a fighting chance. Otherwise prepare to be ignored once your oil runs out or we come up with a better way to heat our houses and run our cars. And you know what? I believe we will find something better. We have engaged our brains and use them to better our lot in life. You pathetic losers are stuck in past and going nowhere really really slowly.

Labib Kamhawi, a Jordanian political analyst, watched much of the war on the television set in his spacious Amman office. During an interview this week, the BBC was playing in the background until, in apparent disgust with the news, he turned it off.

"Enough. Whatever we do, we lose," he said. "Failure after failure after failure. There must be something wrong with us after all these defeats. We always defeat ourselves. We should look inside to see why and have the guts and courage to say why."

Kamhawi said that intellectuals and activists across the region increasingly question why Arab societies have produced so many weak, despotic governments.

I just told you what is wrong with you. It is now up to you to fix it or get out of the way.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:45

The World Is Upside Down!

Used to be that the good guys would tell the bad guys that they were being bad guys and to shape up or ship out. That was before the UN. We have heard the recent news from the UN that Lybia was going to run the Human Rights commision and Iraq was on the Democracy commision (or something like that) and that the "Great Powers" France, Germany, and Russia were trying to stiff the poor people of Iraq in the food for oil program because they all the sudden got religion and wanted to know if all the WMDs had been found and eliminated (whew, what a sentence... But when you try to list UN perfidy the examples just keep coming). Well now it looks like that paragon of virtue the United Nations Commission on Human Rights is going to get the unparalled human rights watching (just watching, not participating in) country North Korea!

We all know that NoKo is a Worker's Paradise, now they can tack on Human Rights Paradise to their shingle:

SYDNEY - Non-government organizations are losing ground in their struggle to block North Korea's nomination to an influential human-rights panel that helps set the global agenda for freedom and democracy.

Other Asian nations have closed ranks around a powerful Third World alliance headed by China that has usurped leadership of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) from the US and its Western allies.

While the outcome of the vote that will take place this month is far from decided, it appears likely that Beijing and Pyongyang, two of the world's most openly repressive regimes, will set the tone for Asia's treatment of individual liberties for at least the next two years.

Tell me again why we need a UN? With loonies like this running the asylum, wouldn't it just make more sense to get out while the gettings good? Can someone inform me as to why the original League of Nations (a much better name, in my opinion) crashed and burned? It wouldn't have been because the Nazis and the Japanese Imperialist started taking over influential committee posts, was it?

Then we can start charging rent to that ugly building in New and maybe making a couple of bucks on the deal.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:50

If Only...

Just imagine seeing this image live from PyongYang when you woke up one morning.


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:27

OK, One More Time

I know it is like whistling into the wind (is that the right phrase) but I have to bring up this demented woman's views and make fun of them again:

My kids pray every night and recently, they've gotten a lot of payback for their efforts.

They pray for our troops overseas and for the Iraqis who suffered under Saddam Hussein.

They prayed for our POWs. How did those POWs survive? I'm sure they prayed. Did they know people were praying for them? Not just their families � some of whom agreed to pray at the same time every day � but lots of people who didn't even know them. For a while, It looked bad. Bloody uniforms were found. Shallow graves were discovered. Still, people prayed.

Yep! If it weren't for your non-thinking, robotic children getting down on their knees at night beseeching an invisible super deity all those poor POWs would have been ground up into pig food! You are sure that the POWs prayed. How do you know? What if they didn't pray because they were wondering what sort of cruel god would screw with their map and send them in the wrong direction to get shot and and captured by Iraqis? Maybe god was answering the Iraqi's prayers for someone to capture? Ever think of that? Of course not! Thinking isn't really an option with you, is it?

The other night, we told the kids their prayers worked. The POWs were free and they were okay.

Can you have your little tykes pray me up a new car?

Someone, one of their captors, had a change of heart. It only takes one person to say, "No, let's not kill them." Or to think, "Let's leave these prisoners and flee." Where does that change of heart come from?

Maybe from noticing all the bombs and Marines around them?

Our kids know that prayer is not a last-ditch thing you do because you are helpless. It's a powerful action. You know what you are asking for. The people you are praying for are praying, too. Do they know others are praying for them? Maybe they are too scared to pray or they don't believe in God. Then others just have to pray harder.

Even the bad guys might be praying to figure out what to do or how to save their skins. Okay, maybe they're not, but God is talking to them saying, "You are in huge trouble and you'd better give up the ghost."

When amazing things happen, God is talking to us.

When Iraqis welcome Americans.

When loyal Saddam soldiers surrender.

When people are found in dungeons by Coalition troops who never stopped looking for them.

These things happen when children pray and God listens.

God, where to start? What sort of simple minded fool is this? You assume that the good guys are all praying and doing wonderful things. Except for the 150 or so Coalition troops who were killed over there. I guess they didn't pray hard enough. Or maybe their family was slacking. "Junior's in the Gulf but I am too busy to pray today. I know nothing bad will come to him since I prayed yesterday and I must have some prayers banked up." They Junior comes home in a box. How do you explain that?

Of all the simple minded nonsense that religion espouses, prayer has got to be the silliest (that and the notion that god doesn't notice you unless you wear really silly clothing and hats). Today I will pray that the sun comes up in the east tomorrow. Oh, look! It does! Prayer works! Tomorrow I will pray that the sun comes up in the west! Oh, look! It didn't! God must be trying to send me a message!

How do you "pray harder" by the way? You smash your hands together more? You squeeze your eyes shut tighter? You repeat what you want more times? What the hell does that mean?

Once again. Sometimes things happen. You can try your best through training, education, luck, and skill to change these things. Maybe you will maybe you won't. Call it fate or karma or shit happens but that is exactly what it is. There is no big plan and even if there were, what makes you think you are so important as to change god's mind when he's got Junior down in the book to get shot up by the bad guys?

It just happens. Grow up and learn to deal with it. Stupid ass.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 15:04

Damn This Having To Work Stuff!

I hate having to work! Will someone please ship me some money?!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:27

Hmmm, Things Not So Comfortable on the Home Front?

Kim Jong Il lives in a land of robotic followers who wake up each day wondering how they can best serve his interests. Maybe not exactly. According to this iffy report on the Weekly Post, the Jong-ster may be setting himself up for a fall (hat tip Jim)!!

The Weekly Post learned from a confidential information source sent by way of Beijing and Pyongyang that some serious developments are hitting Mr. Kim hard. Kim Jong Il is reportedly losing power because he has gotten the country into a crisis. His admittance and apology for abduction of Japanese civilians also weakened his power.
Mr. Kim brought the current crisis on himself. He is involved in a bloody internal power struggle within his party as well as with the military and he is working desperately to purge moderates from his regime.

Why would this be happening in the Workers' Paradise you may ask? What we have seen in recent times is that strangman dictator types respond to one thing and one thing only: force. They beleive the world revolves around it and so use it themselves to keep the "people" in line. "I know what you need so shut up and let me give it to you."

Kim-baby grew up in the same sort of atmosphere that Uday and Qusay (do you think they became murderous thugs with such incredibly bad taste in art because of their faggy names?) were inculcated in. Power is everything and that is what you use to get what you want and if you don't someone else will on your rotting corpse. If he is having domestic problems now the way to fix things is to crack down (see Castro in Cuba) harder than those who are out to do you harm.

According to a source in Beijing, for 50 days, Mr. Kim was suspected to have been under house arrest by the hardliners of his military forces.
The source said, "Since the US attack on Iraq, the North Korean Labor Party and People's Army have been divided between the hard-line and moderate groups. They are engaged in a vicious internal struggle. The group who promoted communication with South Korea and normalization of ties with Japan are losing power. Hardliners are surrounding Kim Jong Il and forcing him to remove the moderates."
The same source in Bejing said, "Military hardliners have already captured control over the military. They are threatening to force Mr. Kim to resign the chairmanship and cede it to his son Kim Jong Nam."

Since when has the military not been ruled over by "hard liners"? What this should really say is that anti-Kim forces have taken control. As we all know the little creep never really served in the military and was just appointed over it by daddy. I am sure he got along swimmingly with all those officers who actually fought the Japanese and Americans in the trenches. He then dumped all his cronies in positions of power to rule over the military. I am reminded of the scene in Braveheart where the King Whatsisname ask his effeminate son who the young dandy is giving him military advice. Upon learning he is his son's new miltitary "advisor" he promptly throws him out the window. That may be what is happening (if anything is happening... Who can tell, it's North Korea!).

Then they make this claim:

"Currently, North Korea has two nuclear bombs of which size is similar to that used for Hiroshima. As long as they are mounted on planes, it will be impossible for the North Koreans to bomb anywhere,
"From mid April when North Korea officially withdraws from the NPT, it will be substantially engaged in the development of nuclear warheads to be mounted on missiles. It will take the country six months to complete this. Once this happens, the US will be forced to conduct pinpoint bombings of Yongbyong where the North Korean nuclear plant is by October. Also, the anti-establishment groups, if they want, will have to carry out a coup d'etat by then."
Only six months are left for the US to attack North Korea.

How they know this is unknown, of course. It does make as much sense as any other scenario, I guess. I don't believe we can or will attack North Korea in 6 months or 6 years. Let them stew in their own mess until they collapse.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:17

If This Doesn't Give You Goosebumps You Must Be Dead... Or a Lefty

The sheer brilliance, professionalism, and audacity of our boys and girls in Iraq can be summed up in the following quote:

"The U.S. advance on Baghdad is something that military historians and academics will pore over in great detail for many years to come," said Air Marshal Brian Burridge, the British commander.
"They will examine the dexterity, the audacity and the sheer brilliance of how the U.S. put their plan into effect."

I am daily amazed at the exploits of our forces. You have to remember that many, if not most, of those riding in the tanks and APCs toppling statues, dictators, and regimes can't even legally drink a beer in this country. Or if they can they were just allowed to recently. The big officers and higher NCOs are there but they are further back. The feet on the ground belong to some of the most dedicated young adults this country has ever seen. I have read that the average age of soldiers in World War II (when we had a draft and so could get and keep as many as was needed) was 26.

After a brief pause to refuel and rearm, Maj.-Gen. Blount proceeded to take on Saddam's best troops -- the Medina Division of the Republican Guard, astride the southern approaches to Baghdad.
In a 24-hour battle, the Third Division steamrollered through the elite Iraqi troops, blasting them with air strikes, artillery and tank fire and shooting through the Karbala Gap to within sight of Baghdad. The Republican Guard's Medina Division effectively ceased to exist.
Maj.-Gen. Blount's troops followed that up with an audacious capture of Saddam International Airport -- since renamed Baghdad International Airport -- well ahead of the coalition's schedule for taking the Iraqi capital and undermining Saddam's myth of the invincibility of his Special Republican Guard.
"Lesson number one is speed kills," said one senior coalition official. "No one expected them to smash the Republican Guard to bits so quickly."

Damn, almost wish I was still in so I could get in on some of this. But it appears that war has been relegated to those with a few less miles on their tires.

Congratulations, kids. You have done a wonderful job.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 15:06

Apple... Records? Hasn't That Been Done?

Yeah, I am a Mac afficionado. Been that way for years. Have to use a Windoze box at work and hate it. I also happen to have an UltraSparc at home but that is just for play (yeah, I know, anyone who "plays" with a Sun unix box is a certifiable geek).

Anyway. It appears Apple wants to get into the music business. Not "rip, mix, burn" but "buy, rip, mix, burn". They are in the market to buy Universal Music Group, supposedly (use latimessucks for the login/password if you want to read the whole thing).

In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said.
Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry.
Universal, which reaps about $6 billion in sales annually from artists such as 50 Cent, Shania Twain, U2 and Luciano Pavarotti, would be controlled by a maverick who revolutionized the computer market and coined the mantra "rip, mix, burn," which many in the music business read as an invitation to electronic piracy.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:24

Ta Da!

Ladies and Gentlemen meet the Great Moonmu! Pretend you can't see anything because he thinks he is invisible!

South Korea yesterday launched the 4,500-ton destroyer ``Moonmu the Great�� a domestically produced vessel utilizing state-of-the-art stealth technology.

In particular, its improved stealth and anti-submarine functions are designed to ensure modern warfare capabilities, officials said. Its maximum speed is 29 knots and its cruising speed is 18 knots.
The destroyer, which will be deployed next year after a year of test operations, was named after a king in the 7th century of the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C.-936). The tomb of the Moonmu the Great is the only underwater royal grave in the world.

OK, so you have to serve on a ship that is named for a guy who inhabits a tomb... UNDERWATER?!? That is not really all that comforting! How about naming it after a guy who lived a long life and died in his bed... on dry land?!? Would you serve aboard the USS Davey Jones Locker? Or The SS Pequod (from Moby Dick fame, you ignorant losers)?

I hope they have a nice time floating around in their invisible tomb, just don't expect me to get on it.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:05

Is This What Microsoft Was Worried About?

Look at this guy. See what he is doing? Stealing Windows™ ! Damned lawbreaking barbarian...



What? Ohhhhh! That kind of Windows™ ... Nevermind.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:16

Girls With Guns IV

Say "Hi" to these loverly Kurdish Ladies sporting the latest in Middle Eastern Fashion:


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:10

Do They, In Fact Know How To Fight?

Why is it that Arab armies fall like houses of cards every time they come up against anyone not Arab? The Israelis kick their butts pretty regularly and we have been doing the same whenever we show up in the neighborhood. That the Russians couldn't do shit in Afghanistan for all those years is more an indication of their faults and not the Arab famous fearsome fighting prowess.

The Iraqis and the Iranians fought out in the desert for years to pretty much a standstill. That was Arabs versus Persians but they are similar enough. The Syrians got drawn into a quagmire in Lebanon all those years ago and never really accomplished anything. The only time anyone in and Arab uniform seems to be able to win anything is when they don't have any opposition (see: Invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces) or when they are oppressing their own people or when their opponents are complete incompetents (see: Invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet forces).

So why is everyone so damned scared of the infamous "Arab Street"? Maybe they really are as stupid and powerless as they let on to be. If so, fuck them.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:41

This is What it is All About

Happy Birthday Iraq.



What a beautiful face that will now not have to oppresed, tortured, or killed. You got a great future coming, kid.




posted by corsair the rational pirate at 15:27

Who, Us? Sorry, Don't Know Them...

The Chinese have a really big country smack dab in the middle of Asia (look at a map if you don't believe me). Around this big country of theirs are many smaller countries like Vietnam and Taiwan and Malaysia. Another country off to the right is North Korea. North Korea has been a bit of a problem of late and yet now that the international community has come to China wondering about the doings in North Korea they begin to treat the NKors like the crazy aunt under the stairs.

According to well-placed sources in Beijing, Chinese leaders do not know whether to laugh or cry at the outside world's belief that they have leverage over Pyongyang.
Says a political insider: 'The fact is that we are as frustrated with them as anyone else. But there is not much we can do.
'The North Koreans are very proud and prickly people and won't take kindly to any arm-twisting by us, even though we give about 70 per cent of the aid they get.'

"Don't look at us! We don't know who they are! Ask the Russians, maybe they can help you."

Another source, who is privy to foreign policy discussions at the top, says he is puzzled why there is not as much pressure on Russia to do more as Pyongyang looks more to Moscow than it does Beijing.
'The two leaders, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Il, appear to get on well with each other. They are of the same generation and the Dear Leader speaks fluent Russian,' he notes.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:43

Northern Ireland?

Why is it called "Northern" Ireland? What is wrong with "North" Ireland? Is it Northern Dakota or Northern Korea or Northern Yemen (which merged with Southern Yemen to become Middlern Yemen, I think). What makes the damn Irish so special that they have to take over an entire general direction?

"So where is this wee Ireland ye be from?"
"Och and begorra, but it do be up in a generally Northern direction."
"Ya don't say now? So ye be from North Ireland?"
"Saints preserve us, no! I hail from Northern Ireland, ye Scottish git!"

Get off your high horse, Irish relations of mine! Call it North Ireland and have done with it!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:56

They Love Us... They Love Us Not...

South Koreans are bi-polar. Look at their country. Got one in the North and another in the South and two more divergent societies would be hard to find. East and West Germany were more similar. North and South Vietnam were mirror images comparitively. West Virginia and just about anywhere could be considered in the same league. North and South Korea, however have been diverging for more than 50 years and could possibly be considered beings from two different planets by this time.

The Koreans do not seem to see it this way. There is always lots of talk about "family" and "solidarity" and the "Korean race" and "us against them". As if some young, blond haired South Korean rap singer swinging his hips and wearing expensive ski clothing on South Korean TV has even the slightest connection to some bark-eating enemy of the state languishing in some North Korean forced labor camp. Even the body types are diverging do to too much McDonalds consumption in the South and not enough of anything in the North.

Despite this Koreans manage to integrate the two sides into one. That is because many of them are crazy. They are also crazy when it comes to the US. Not six months ago millions of people were out in the streets demanding that "Yankee Go Home" and buring flags and hanging Bush in effigy. The new president was voted into office partly on the assumption that he would be tough on the imperialistic Americans and their dominating of Korean life and politics. "We are big boys and girls and don't need you anymore" seemed to be the message.

OK, so the first time that the US tries to take them at their word we get the following:

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea (news - web sites) was expected to forcefully resist any US proposal to pull back its forces from the tense border with North Korea (news - web sites) in talks here on proposals to revise the 50-year-old military alliance.

So which is it? You want us or not? The issue, it appears is money. If we were to pull our boys and girls out South Korea the Koreans not only lose all the loose change that the soldiers spend off base (and it is not all juicy girls and haircuts) they would also lose the security blanket that pulls the US into a war if the ball goes up. The South would then have to radically up their military spending to replace not only the troops that have moved back but also the hidden resources of the US that would come into play should our forces get pulled into some sort of confilict.

Look what happened the last time we pulled of South Korea. You can find it in the library under "War, Korean".

Lawyers always say "don't ask a question in front of the jury unless you already know the answer". In this case, don't wish for something to happen unless you are willing to accept the result.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:32

Was in DC over The Weekend

And there was a "Peace Demonstration" going on at the corner of Constituiton and 17th (I think). Corner of the mall opposite the old canal keeper's house.

First there was some bad rap then some bad punk and then a rabble rouser speechifying about what a great turnout the youth of America was able to generate in such a little time.

When I was there at approximately 6:45 pm there couldn't have been more than 35 pathcouli-smelling hippie people standing around in front of the stage.

Pathetic losers. We are not going to "Stop the War" or "Bring our Troops Home" or any of the other silliness they espoused. They lost. Move on and pick another battle. Legalization of marijuana or something. They might have a chance there.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 15:09

Girls with Bombs II


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 15:18

Imagine You are One of the Best...

You have trained for years to become one of the best military members the world has ever seen. Say what you will about the Israelis, the Spetznas, the SAS, and all the rest of the special forces and anti-terrorism squads in the world, the US has got to have the best of the best just due to the amount of money and equipment and training opportunities available to them: SEALS, Delta Forces, Marine Recon, Air Force Pararescue, etc.

Now imagine you have been called into a meeting in to discuss your latest mission. You see members of all the other elite services present in the room so you know it must be important. In walks a colonel (possibly a general since this is going to be a big deal), some Intel types and a couple of guys not in uniform. They throw some slides up on the screen or draw some circles and arrows on a map on the desk and announce that, due to fortuitous intelligence gathering you gentlemen have opportunity to go in and get one of our own back from the Iraqis. They have reliable intel to indicate where a captured female American supply soldier is being held by the Iraqis and they want you to go in and rescue her.

Can you imagine the rush? Here you thought your job was to kill people and break things and now you get a chance to be the cavalry riding to the rescue, the white knight on the horse saving the maiden in distress, or Captain America dealing forcefully with those who would do us harm. Damn but they must have been psyched for this assignment.

Knowing that you have the full might of the best fighters in the world to assist you must make your life so comfortable in these situations. No riding into battle on horses and camels as was done in Afghanistan (though that has a certain appeal to that as well). This time you will be taking the world's best helicopters backed up by the most technologically advanced planes, satellites, communications gear and weapons that have ever been developed. There had to have been easily 500 or more people involved in this operation to include the forces on the ground, their rides there and back, air cover, logistics, intel, and medical personnel. All for one lonely, scared 19-year old supply clerk from West Virginia who made a wrong turn. Outside of the Brits and the Aussies and the Israelis who on this earth would have attempted such a mission on such a scale. No one. That is why we will win.

Life means something to us. We will fight just as hard for a 19-year old private as we would have for a captured general, maybe more so. Our adversaries in this battle send their children to blow up others in pizza parlors or hide behind women and in hospitals knowing that we love our lives and theirs more than they do. Islamonazis and those who support them are so quick to want to get to heaven and their rewards that they don't give a damn what happens here on earth and to those who inhabit it.

Despite the protestations of certain members of the "Hate America" club we are not an imperialistic power bent on world domination to fill the coffers of our fat and happy CEOs. We are the shining city on the hill that everyone should aspire to be. No they do not have to do everything exactly as we do, but would it kill other countries to try the rule of law, the ability to freely speak, worship (or not) and write what they will and vote for their own leaders in an open and democratic way? Lots of people now say that Bush is a dictator doing all kinds of mean and evil things. Fine, if you don't like him you get a chance in 2004 to get rid of him. Try that in most of the rest of the world.

As soon as the rest of the world (or those bits who haven't already been civilized) treats their privates the same way they do their generals then life on this planet will get better. Until that time you have Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il. Here in America everyone is important... Especially Pfc. Jessica Lynch and all who fought to rescue her.

Here is the money quote for this operation:

"Some brave souls put their lives on the line to carry this out,"

Hooa!

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:08

There They Go Again

OK, it is great and all that this cutie from West Virginia was rescued by our boys and released from the clutches of the despotic regime. You were thinking the same thing that I was when you heard that she was captured by these camel drivers and saw what a looker she was (although, judging by pictures of some of the "honies" I have seen in Iraq, looks alone do not seem to account for much there). You were hoping it wasn't happening, but you know the sorts that we are fighting. But now that she is home do you have to trot out the lame old same old:

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., called the rescue a miracle.
� � � �"God watched over Jessica and her family," Rockefeller said through a spokesman in Washington. "All of West Virginia is rejoicing. This is an amazing tribute to the skill and courage of our military."

Was god watching over them when they were captured? Was he there for the ones who were killed? Is he even now looking around to help find the others that are still missing? Were the ones who were killed not worthy of his watching-over powers? How about a little step into reality here, people? Iraq claims the big guy is on their side! Was he watching over the Iraqi troops that captured this girl? And how about the families of the still missing? Are their loved ones not deserving of watching-over-hood?

How about this? Don't be stupid! It was sheer dumb luck:

Military officials in Qatar told NBC?s David Shuster that U.S. Marines got a lead on Lynch's whereabouts Monday during a raid into Shatra, just north of An Nasiriyah, in search of Ali Hassan al-Majeed, a cousin whom President Saddam Hussein was believed to have put in charge of the southern front. Al-Majeed is known by the nickname "Chemical Ali" for overseeing the use of poison gas that killed 5,000 Kurdish villagers in 1988.
� � � �While searching a headquarters building in Shatra, the Marines developed intelligence that at least one U.S. prisoner was being held in Saddam Hospital near An Nasiriyah. Military officials said they believed Lynch was held in the hospital for the entire time since she was captured March 23.

Did god set up all these dominoes that had to be knocked down until we got to the rescue? Couldn't he have just let someone know? Supposedly he talks to Oral Roberts and Tammy Faye and all those creepy blow dried fellows on Sunday morning TV all the time. Couldn't he have slipped her coordinates into the conversation at some point? For an omnipotent being who can create universes he sure does have a hard time sweating the details.

Why don't we just thank the courage and professionalism of our boys and girls in uniform and leave the imaginary, helpless being out of it. Hmm?
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 22:27

Yay!

I got a mention on NPR. Tacitus even said he heard of me. Wheee!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:58

Pastor Deacon Fred Always Vigilant
Who knew Spongebob was such a corrupting influence on the youth of this country? Apparently the good folks over at Landover Baptist did:

�Is it okay for a person to take off their pants and walk around upside down so that his penis and testicles look like his nose and eyes?� NO!� So why should we allow a cartoon character to do the same thing while standing right side up?� It�s ludicrous!� said Pastor Deacon Fred.� �There is no doubt that we need to put a stop to this so-called, Sponge Bob, and his Square Penis.� If we don�t, we'll soon be coming home to houses full of children, stripped of their clothes, hand walking around the living room spitting gibberish! We�ve already got our lawyers preparing a lawsuit.�

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:23

Seems to Have Missed the Cluetrain Alert

The Russians, everyone's favorite cuddly teddy bear country thinks that they North Koreans are just now seeing what is going on in the world:

MOSCOW (AFP) - The US-led war against Iraq (news - web sites) is likely to push North Korea (news - web sites) to develop nuclear weapons, a Russian deputy foreign minister said amid mounting fears of a nuclear arms race by rogue states.

OhhhhKayyy. What was in 1994 that pushed them to develop nuclear weapons? We weren't at war with anyone then!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:16