Woo-hoooo!! Comments are on! A thousand praises to Haloscan, and may Allah’s blessings shower them like the petals of the April jasmine.

Woo-hoooo!! Comments are on! A thousand praises to Haloscan, and may Allah’s blessings shower them like the petals of the April jasmine.

Thanks, Owen, for your link over at The Rathbone Press. I�m still stunned by the utter apathy on the streets of Seoul that foreign soldiers are shooting what appear to be unarmed Koreans dead (if you believe that this fleeing refugee really reached for a weapon, there�s a job waiting for you at Internal Affairs at the Chicago P.D.) The fact that the victim was a North Korean shot by a Chinese soldier apparently puts a steep discount on the...

I have long argued that for South Korea and the United States to agree on a sensible North Korea policy, these two nations must first resolve their own differences, which are fundamental differences of values the two nations no longer share. A reckoning is inevitable, and it will end in a reaffirmation of the alliance or a bitter divorce, followed by the sucking sound of 37,000 U.S. troops moving to Guam (followed by an investment capital whirlpool of historic proportions)....

Thanks, Owen, for your link over at The Rathbone Press. I�m still stunned by the utter apathy on the streets of Seoul that foreign soldiers are shooting what appear to be unarmed Koreans dead (if you believe that this fleeing refugee really reached for a weapon, there�s a job waiting for you at Internal Affairs at the Chicago P.D.) The fact that the victim was a North Korean shot by a Chinese soldier apparently puts a steep discount on the...

I have long argued that for South Korea and the United States to agree on a sensible North Korea policy, these two nations must first resolve their own differences, which are fundamental differences of values the two nations no longer share. A reckoning is inevitable, and it will end in a reaffirmation of the alliance or a bitter divorce, followed by the sucking sound of 37,000 U.S. troops moving to Guam (followed by an investment capital whirlpool of historic proportions)....

Hundreds of thousands of enraged South Koreans did not turn out for a politically charged cande light vigil in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul today. The non-rally did not follow a report that Chinese border guards shot a North Korean refugee dead while trying to cross into Mongolia and seek asylum. Twelve other refugees were arrested and are expected to be deported to North Korea, where they face almost certain death in concentration camps. The non-protesters also did...

Hundreds of thousands of enraged South Koreans did not turn out for a politically charged cande light vigil in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul today. The non-rally did not follow a report that Chinese border guards shot a North Korean refugee dead while trying to cross into Mongolia and seek asylum. Twelve other refugees were arrested and are expected to be deported to North Korea, where they face almost certain death in concentration camps. The non-protesters also did...

James Lileks’s excellent blog quotes an MTV interview with John Kerry. We’ve heard a lot of tired cliches about toothless, inbred Nascar Republicans; surely we should be just as worried when people encourage perky MTV airheads to pull a voting lever. In fact, we should give some serious thought to buying ads on MTV to explain that registering to vote requires you to go through a complex, drawn-out licensing process, complete with a civics examination, urinalysis, and the donation of...

Owen Rathbone has been on a roll this week, which may explain why he’s been getting hate mail from at least one reader. You couldn’t inspire this kind of blind vitriol without having struck the nerve that only unpleasant truths can reach. The correspondent didn’t identify himself, but you don’t need to go far out on a limb to figure that he’s an angry young Korean, dancing to the nong-ak drums of Roh Moo-Hyun’s Red Guards. The muddled thought behind...

James Lileks’s excellent blog quotes an MTV interview with John Kerry. We’ve heard a lot of tired cliches about toothless, inbred Nascar Republicans; surely we should be just as worried when people encourage perky MTV airheads to pull a voting lever. In fact, we should give some serious thought to buying ads on MTV to explain that registering to vote requires you to go through a complex, drawn-out licensing process, complete with a civics examination, urinalysis, and the donation of...

James Lileks’s excellent blog quotes an MTV interview with John Kerry. We’ve heard a lot of tired cliches about toothless, inbred Nascar Republicans; surely we should be just as worried when people encourage perky MTV airheads to pull a voting lever. In fact, we should give some serious thought to buying ads on MTV to explain that registering to vote requires you to go through a complex, drawn-out licensing process, complete with a civics examination, urinalysis, and the donation of...

Today comes the sad news that Kang Byong-sop, one of the courageous defectors who told the world about North Korea’s gas chambers, was seen on Pyongyang TV, reading a forced recantation of his charges. Undoubtedly, his days are numbered; one can only hope that his family will somehow manage to survive. China sent him back, of course, in clear violation of international law and the most fundamental principles of morality . . . both of which are clearly meaningless to...

Today comes the sad news that Kang Byong-sop, one of the courageous defectors who told the world about North Korea’s gas chambers, was seen on Pyongyang TV, reading a forced recantation of his charges. Undoubtedly, his days are numbered; one can only hope that his family will somehow manage to survive. China sent him back, of course, in clear violation of international law and the most fundamental principles of morality . . . both of which are clearly meaningless to...

Suzanne Scholte, the President of the North Korean Freedom Coalition, sent me a draft of a bill introduced into the House yesterday as a counterpart to the Senate’s North Korean Freedom Act. You can see the bill and a summary of it here. I’m still studying the text, but it looks like an important step forward. Even better, it’s a slap to the appeasers (that means you, Neville Nohsamos, human candelabras, and yeah-buts* over in Seoul) as they try to...

Question–how could anyone have expected the U.N. to establish and enforce principles when its members don’t share any? Rabbi Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center has an outstanding op-ed about North Korea in the (Singapore) Straits Times, clearly the best English language newspaper in Asia. The Rabbi gives the U.N. both barrels, richly deserved and fully loaded with 00 heavy steel shot. How is it, he asks, that Kofi Annan speaks of preventing genocide–even of its need to admit its own...

Suzanne Scholte, the President of the North Korean Freedom Coalition, sent me a draft of a bill introduced into the House yesterday as a counterpart to the Senate’s North Korean Freedom Act. You can see the bill and a summary of it here. I’m still studying the text, but it looks like an important step forward. Even better, it’s a slap to the appeasers (that means you, Neville Nohsamos, human candelabras, and yeah-buts* over in Seoul) as they try to...

Question–how could anyone have expected the U.N. to establish and enforce principles when its members don’t share any? Rabbi Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center has an outstanding op-ed about North Korea in the (Singapore) Straits Times, clearly the best English language newspaper in Asia. The Rabbi gives the U.N. both barrels, richly deserved and fully loaded with 00 heavy steel shot. How is it, he asks, that Kofi Annan speaks of preventing genocide–even of its need to admit its own...