"Security" Questions

Every time I visit the US I get stopped by security (either Customs and Border Protection or the Transport Security Authority) and get asked a series of questions.  They are stupid questions but few people have any idea of just how silly they are.  Questions like "did you pack the bags yourself" seem very sensible compared to the questions I'm asked.  But if I just told you the questions they ask me, you may not be able to realize how stupid they are, so I'll just flip it around so it all makes sense.

Bullshit:  The "additional" questions that CBP and TSA ask at airports to foreigners are vital to national security.

The Truth:  The "additional" questions that CBP and TSA ask at airports to foreigners only makes an ass out of America.

The scenario: Mr. Alan Johnson is from New York state.  He is 27 years old, White, upper middle class and protestant.  He was born and raised in New York city but attended high school in Mexico because his parents started a successful business there.  He returned to the US to attend college and lives there.  He is a US citizen and so are his parents.  All his documentation reflects this.  One day he decides to visit a foreign country.  He thinks everything will be routine but upon arrival he's pulled assigned for additional questioning.

Immigration Officer: Mr. Alan Johnson?

AJ: Yes?

IO: Are you in any way affiliated with the KKK?

AJ: Excuse me?

IO: Are you a member of the KKK?

AJ: No.

IO: Are you a member of the Black Panthers?

AJ: NO.

IO: Are any of your family members or relatives members of the KKK or Black Panthers?

AJ: No.

IO: Are you associated with any Militia?

AJ: No.

IO: Are any of your relatives a member of any Militia?

AJ: (Slight hesitation) No.

IO: You hesitated.  Why?

AJ: Alright... I have this one distant relative.  We don't really talk...

IO: Hmmm... (takes notes).  Are you a citizen of Mexico?

AJ: No.

IO: Are your parents Mexican citizens?

AJ: No.

IO: So you are not Mexican?

AJ: No.

IO: Are you sure?

AJ: YES.

IO: What do your parents do in Mexico?

AJ: They own a business.

IO: What kind of business?

AJ: Logistics.

IO: Are they involved in illegal narcotics production or transport?

AJ: No.

IO: They are not Mexican?

AJ: No.

IO: Were you born in Mexico?

AJ: No, I was born in New York.

IO: Okay... wait a minute please.

(Comes back ten minutes later)

IO: Okay, I have signed a series of waivers.  Here, here, here, here and here.  Make sure you sign out with us when you leave the country.  The Pope is coming in two days.  You must be excited.

AJ: Uhhh yeah...

YES.  That's what it's like.  It's fucking ridiculous!

Hitler Isn't the Only Mega Asshole

This topic actually arose out of some debate about Communists and whatnot but this particular subtopic came to light when for some reason, Communists were being given some sort of "free pass" by folks engaged in the debate while Hitler was being crucified like it was going out of fashion. Now I'm not being a Nazi apologist or anything because it is true that Hitler was evil, the Nazis were also evil and they did some absolutely deplorable things. However...

Bullshit: The Nazis were historically unique in terms of evil because of the fact that they organized the mass murder of specific kinds of people in large numbers to execute mass murder in the most efficient way.
The Truth: Quite a few groups of people have murdered people in mass in the most efficient way they could find.

When the Nazis were faced with the task of having to murder Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and other folks (after they stopped killing the crippled and retarded), they faced the dillemma of having to kill off millions of people. The use of ammunition would be too expensive and ammunition was needed badly by their soldiers fighting the war. So what resulted was the construction of death camps where gassing to death was the order of the day.


Dachau Concentration Camp.

But was this so unique? I say no.
So the Germans felt that their most efficient way to kill millions of people was to use the gas chamber. Others had a different approaches...

The Mongols
The Mongols had a unique problem when they first started empire building in that their entire population did not number a million while their conquered lands had populations exceeding tens of millions in total. Their dire problem was the possibility of simply drowning in the massive population that they conquered. What if they rose up? The Mongols would never have enough men to police them all. So the solution was to kill as many people as they could.
Their first major massacre worthy of note was the massacre of the Tartars where every male that was taller than the axle of a wagon was put to death.
Cities in northern China which did not surrender quickly enough for Genghis Khan's liking were also flattened and every last soul put the the sword.
It is believed that the Mongols under Genghis Khan may have killed up to forty million (40,000,000!!!!!!) people and perhaps as much as a hundred million by the time his grandson, Kublai Khan, had died.
It was even claimed (though it is impossible) that Genghis Khan killed about 1.7 million people in one hour! An impossible feat, but the story refers to the massacre of Nishapur, a Persian city that the Mongols had conquered. In the process, one of his favorite son in laws was killed. His wife (therefore Genghis Khan's daughter) asked that every last woman and child in Nishapur be killed.
Genghis Khan did so and more, by even having every animal in the city killed. 1.7 million was the estimated population of Nishapur before the massacre.
The way the folks were killed were probably a lot worse than getting gassed.


If you shat your pants before you waved the white flag, you're already too late.

Rwanda
Hutu Power members killed about a million people in a period of five months in 1994. Timed perfectly with the assasination of Habyarimana, the President of Rwanda since 1973, the killing spree was well organized and vicious. It was rumored that machetes were actually imported in large quantities to ensure there was enough to go around. These may have been a part of the four major weapon caches known to the UN to be a part of a larger plan for a genocide. A key part of their strategy were the radio stations which constantly played Hutu Power propaganda, encouraging people to go out and kill the Tutsis. Radio Rwanda was one of the main broadcasters of such messages and the tactic was a resounding success for the Hutu Power movement.
Led by Gregoire Kayibanda, the Hutu Power movement was surely violent enough to be considered equivilent to Hitler's genocide as well. Consider that one million would have been 20% of the population during this time.
Between getting gassed to death and getting hacked to pieces by a machete, I elect getting gassed. Many of the Hutus who perished would have agreed. When it was clear that the Belgian Peacekeepers would have to abandon a large group of Hutu refugees who were being protected at Murambi Technical School, they asked the Belgians to shoot them so they would not have to face the machetes. The Belgians obviously declined. Outside the Hutus waited, drinking beer and singing hate songs. As the Belgians left, the Hutus entered.


I guess Kayibanda is less evil than Hitler since he only killed black people.

Cambodia
The Killing Fields really needs no introduction. Led by Pol Pot in his quest to create a true Communist Utopia, it quickly became the process of the creation of death camps where death could come for any reason. Past occupation, softness of your hands, eye glasses. The result was the death of perhaps two million people. Two hundred thousand were executed formally by the Khmer Rouge and the rest died from starvation, disease, undocumented execution and other ways one usually dies when working in a death labor camp. And this is a country that had seven million people at the time.
Facing the same problem as the Nazis of needing to use too many bullets to execute that many people, they resorted to using sharpened bamboo sticks (a very bad way to go), hammers, axe handles etc., often after being forced to dig their own graves.
Torture victims were recorded and documented in German precision.
Yet even this is not unique. The creation of death labor camps and mass executions is pretty consistent among many Communist countries. Why mass murder by Communist regimes aren't taken very seriously is beyond me.
Cambodia under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge... just as bad, if not worse than Nazi Germany in terms of mass murder.


Just as evil as Hitler but somehow manages to get off the hook. I guess you're not completely evil if you don't slaughter White people.

And of course by no means are these it. Actually you'll find a lot of Communist countries fit the bill as well and why Communism is allowed to go while Nazism is scrutinized to beyond death and beyond afterlife is a mystery.
One thing is for certain. Human history has had its share of world class assholes and Hitler was not alone at the top.

Buddhist at the Supermarket

I realize it's been forever since I wrote anything but trust me, I have been insanely busy.

Today I was at the supermarket minding my own business until I saw a devout Buddhist follower, a female, gray tunic and shaven head and all, getting her food at the local supermarket.

Bullshit: Buddhist shopping at the supermarket.
The way it's supposed to be done: Buddhist foraging for food in the mountains, in harmony with nature, asking permission if it is okay to take a piece of life for one's own sustenance.

It doesn't just stop there. The whole purpose of having your clothes gray, hair shaven and all is to renounce your attachment to any luxuries and to live a very frugal and humble life. Luxuries must be abandoned in search of the truth... and the last time I checked, supermarkets were a luxury.
Truth is, it doesn't just end with supermarkets. You see them with their gray tunics and shaven heads in the subway, taking the aeroplane and in buses as well.
I don't have a problem with folks who just mildly believe in Buddhism purchase luxury goods and all, after all, very few people of any faith follow their religion down to the word. But fanatics are the ones that get me. If you're going so far as to make your female ass ugly by shaving off all your hair and wearing some drab tunic, your ass better be going all the way.


No luxury my ass. Half these assholes took the subway to get here. A quarter took a bus and some schmuck had the insolence to ride a fucking cab.

Dear bald Buddhist lady, just grow out your hair, go to the supermarket and go about your daily life. Or shave your head and be all Buddhist and please do not come down to the town where the evil demon spirited people live.

Dokdo - a very politicized piece of worth of real estate

According to this blog by Brian Deutsch, the Korea Herald is reporting that Japan will lay fresh claims on Dokdo, known as Takeshima by the Japanese and called the Liancourt Rocks when parties wish to refer to it without pissing anyone off.
So what is this Dokdo?
Here is a Wikipedia entry for those who wish to find out a little more about the islet itself.
Since this is a Korea based blog, I will be focusing mostly on Korea's sentiment towards these rocks.

Bullshit: The Japanese encroachment or claims on Dokdo are a national security threat to not just South Korea, but to all of Korea.
The Truth: Japan's politicians use it as a way to get people's focus away from real problems such as their troubled economy by means of nationalism and South Korea's reaction to it is largely led by extremists who use nationalism to get the masses to follow them blindly down some very destructive paths.


Chemical Composition: C9H9N (100% Pure Bullshit)

How Dokdo Works For Both Sides
Japan:
Dokdo works for both sides in that, as stated above, the Japanese politicians use it as a way to divert attention away from their real problems and try to get their population behind them through nationalism. Where the politicians and the industries fail, they appeal to nationalism to try to hide their problems. It is a tactic used time and time again, very much like how General Leopoldo Galtieri, who became head of the Argentinian Government in December 1981, invaded the Falklands mostly because Argentina was going through a severe economic crisis.
The difference would be that Argentina actually invaded, whereas Japan, with the eyes of world opinion upon them are highly unlikely to do so militarily, but rather, diplomatically through the use of world opinion.
Korea:
South Korea on the other hand should know this but extremists (usually ultra nationalists who are oddly enough, the left wing in Korea) have a different agenda in which gaining followers is their primary goal. They use the Japanese actions regarding Dokdo to pent up nationalistic fervor and get people behind them in their cause. Of course it never really is about Dokdo itself. It always becomes another anti-foreign (especially anti-American), isolationalist movement in no time and because people are so overcome with emotion, they don't stop to think what it's really about.


The power of high school grade theater

The Effects
I can't say for sure how things turn out in Japan, simply becuase I'm not there to check it out myself though I do know that any Asian person who actually manages to hear about it somehow would disapprove of Japan's actions due to Japan's history in the region during the first half of the 20th century.
As regards to Korea, it does nothing but get Korea further and further away from legitimacy over Dokdo and weakens Korea's standing in the intenational stage.
The constant protests, the spreading of xenophobic, anti-foreign, isolationist propaganda simply turns the rest of the world away from Korea both in terms of the every day person's view of Korea and the diplomatic and economic view of Korea.

The Average Joe:
The average Joe usually doesn't care about South Korea but sometimes he might get a look at yet another protest in South Korea and that is all he will see. A bunch of people who are always angry at just about everything. He doesn't care about the history of the rocks etc etc.
"DO YOU KNOW? DOKDO BELONGS TO KOREA."
"I don't care."
And why should they? It's a pathetically small islet which serves no function and has no real population.
For people not really emotionally attached to Korea who know about it, it's just another disputed territory piss fight, one of hundreds that can be found just about anywhere in the world.
All it does is make Koreans hate foreigners and foreigners hate Korea in response. No one likes being around unpleasant people who are hateful of them. Koreans included. All the rules that apply to everyone else also applies to Korea. But try telling that to a Korean.


Screw the T-shirt. Actually...


Diplomatic
As xenophobic, isolationist leaders gain power and influence in South Korea (like Noh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung) they make decisions that further alienate Korea from the rest of the world. Lots of countries joined in on the War on Terror. Whereas many did not participate in hostilities in Iraq (or soon pulled out when it was established that no WMDs were present), many did join the hostilities in Afghanistan where the threat IS real. The Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and Canada (among many others) provided definitive combat operations in the theater, but due to Korean anti-Americanism, South Korea did not.
Japan provided what it could under its strict laws restricting the use of their Self Defense Force.
South Korea could have easily sent troops into combat legally but refused to do so.
Although South Korea is a signatory of the Mutual Defense Pact with the United States it did not participate fully in Afghanistan. One can argue that it is not a violation since it is not a declared war against a sovreign state, but one can see how it is a violation in the spirit of the agreement.
What this does is raise Japan's image in the view of the world and it lowers South Korea's. The next time the two have a diplomatic conflict over Dokdo and the eyes of the world opinion matter, the world very well could back Japan overwhelmingly.


Chung Sye Kyun, the leader of the Uri Party (the one that really hates America)

Economic
Who the hell wants to invest in a country that is always having strikes, protests etc., the labor prices are high and the environment is hostile towards foreigners?
I'm surprised anyone even bothers doing business with South Korea.

Dokdo is simply a political tool used by leaders who are in trouble or by aspiring leaders who have nothing to offer and need to rely on hate, emotion and extreme nationalism to get anything done.

Simplified Through Cola
Another fine comparison would be to this kind of Korean Cola that was around. It was called 815 COLA and was supposed to be the National Cola of Korea (though it is in no way endorsed by the government). August 15th is Korea's day of independence after 35 odd years of official colonization under the Empire of Japan. 815 COLA appealed to nationalism to sell its product because the product itself was horrible.
Eventually people were fed up with buying lousy Cola and just went straight for the foreign brands.


There's no national smear crime like putting your flag on a very bad product

Same deal with policies. Bad policies set by nationaistic fervor and pent up emotion will lead to disaster very much the same way, except instead of a Company arrogant enough to try to use nationalism to sell their product going bankrupt, the country's national power would suffer badly.

Can Music Save the World? - No.

This is a response to a welcoming speech made by Karl Paulnack, Director of Music at the Connecticut Conservatory which is one of the top music colleges in the world, rated higher than even Juliard.

You can find a copy of the speech here.

It is simply too long for me to post here so let me just cut it down sweet and simple and include the one key part that needs to be challenged. Although I did find myself agreeing with most of what he had said, it was the end which got me saying "that is such bullshit."

Bullshit: (this is the final part of his speech)
"Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music;
I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness
on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual
understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don't expect it will come
from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even
expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem
to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future
of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these
invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come
from the artists, because that's what we do. As in the concentration
camp and the evening of 9/11, the artists are the ones who might be
able to help us with our internal, invisible lives." - Karl Paulnack.
The Truth: Although music is great and plays a big role in our lives, in our cultures and civilization as a whole, it's not going to save the world and is subject to limitations and problems that other things have.

Music Divides
Music can divide as much as it can unite.
If only the person saying this ever listened to the hateful songs that permeate throughout the world. The hateful Jihadist music, hateful anti-establishment music the world over, the "ibne hakem" chants (sort of like music) that can be heard in Turkish football stadiums... music can unite, but it can also divide and it can be a very powerful tool in division.
So in a way, it's not very good at uniting and building peace any more than many other things in the world such as economics, violence and information.


There was a lot of singing in this rally too. Hint: it wasn't "Give Peace a Chance"

Music Makes All The Difference?
Let's compare two TV shows. One is based on a true story and it's called Generation Kill. It was a mini-series based on a book written by an embedded journalist who was with some Force Recon Marines during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It had no musical score until the very end of the series and that scene, in my opinion was one of the weaker scenes in the entire series. The show had no introduction theme and had no credits theme. Only the trailer/"previously on" had a slight musical sequence but no one paid any attention to it.
Another TV show that was somewhat similar, though fiction, was Over There, which followed a fireteam from the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division. It didn't even survive the first season despite the fact that it had a very good musical score.
Both were similar in terms of setting and both were obviously expensively made.
Yet the show without the musical score actually gained great reception, while Over There, with its great opening and closing music never got far.
Music didn't make enough of a difference.
But if we are to believe the speech, the TV show without music should have never have stood a chance.


Generation Kill - may have killed the composer.


Over There - in the discount section.

Overstating The Importance of One's Own World
People often overstate the importance of their own world.
A psychologist will tell you that the human mind and what's in it is just about everything.
An economist will tell you that money is everything.
The infantryman will tell you that the infantry is the most important.
The artilleryman will tell you that artillery is the king of the battlefield.
The sailor will tell you that control of the seas IS national power.
A teacher will tell you that without good teachers and good education, there is no future.
Consider that this speech was given at a welcoming speech. The guy is not going to say "dear parents, you're going to be spending about $60,000 a year on your kid learning something irrelevent." You're going to tell them "your kids are going to learn the most important thing in the whole world." Only THAT would justify such a hefty price tag that comes with college education.
He is simply one of many people who overstates the importance of his own line of work.


Screw world peace, he needs to make your parents feel good about parting with their money

All in all, it was a nice little speech, but like many nice speeches, it uses elements of truth to sell a great big lie. Music is not going to save the world. Music causes division as well as unity. It's just hard to ask parents to fork out tens of thousands of dollars each year so their kid can either sing or play a violin at a higher level.

Corruption In Miss Korea Contest?

They tell us that Miss Korea (or Miss Whatever) contests are not a beauty contest in its entirity, but that beauty is a factor. Just then WHY, I ask you is that we end up with these sort of fails?


Left: Miss Korea 2008, Right: Miss Korea 2009

Bullshit: It's because it's not a complete beauty contest.
The Truth: Because the competition is rigged.

Call me Mr. Conspiracy Theorist, but seriously, I think we need a closer view of the contestants to really get the full picture.


Miss Korea 2008

Seriously.... and it gets worse.


Miss Korea 2009

Or if that's not good enough for you,


Can you believe it? I can't.

No, I'm not one of those losers on the internet who see an obviously HOT chick and say "bleh, she's average," or "WTF OMFG She's UGLY" when in reality the only action they ever get is limited to left hand, right hand and canteloupe.
But this is serious.
South Korea, is one of those countries that seem to have an unlimited supply of hot women, and highly educated women, so how on earth did these two win the competition? Notice the swimsuit picture and you'll see that the one behind her is even worse.
There are more attractive women (some of which I assume have some level of college or graduate school education) who walk the streets of Seoul every day. I see them every time I go outside, pretty much without fail, not because I go looking for them, but simply because there are so many of them.

There really is only one explanation: Corruption. The competition is obviously rigged and what beauty or qualification the women have, has little to do with the final outcome. It's actually fairly common in Korea to have rigged contests. Art contests are probably best known for being rigged because an 'expert' has to show up and endorse a certain art piece. In Korea, name and reputation is simply everything. You buy the 'expert' and you have your award.
I guess the same goes for the Miss Korea competition as well.

The Propaganda of Kimchi

Recently I went to the Kimchi museum at the Seoul World Trade Center. Being in Korea, I just had to see what they had to say about the one side dish that has become the center of a nation's pride. That's quite a title to be held for what is often described as "pickled cabbage."
However, even in this museum I have found evidence of a propaganda that permeates throughout the country. Actually, it's not so much evidence, but the lack of evidence.
There is simply no mention about the origins of Kimchi's two most important ingredients: chili pepper and garlic.

Bullshit: Kimchi is a purely and uniquely Korean product.
The Truth: Without the Columbian exchange, Kimchi would not be anything like it is today.

Why this is significant:
There is this belief that anything purely Korean is good and anything foreign is suspect or at the very least, unpatriotic. Imagine back in the 1600s when garlic and chili pepper first entered Korea. There probably wasn't anything more alien than those two strange plant products. One grew in the ground and had a strong taste and smell (more so than jinseng), the other was a long "fruit" of sorts which was not sweet but burned your mouth.
It was as ALIEN as you could ever get.
Yet now it is a part of a uniquely Korean side dish.
But credit for as to where garlic and chili comes from seems to be some sort of secret, as if they're embarrassed that their national dish's most important ingredients are not indigenous to the land they dish belongs to.
The truth, that it was introduced to Korea as a result of the Columbian Exchange, dares Korea to open up and accept foreign influences. There are many groups in Korea who can never accept such a thing.


All this decoration and display and not even a one liner about where garlic and chili came from

In A Folk Tale:
The lie has even affected Korean folk tales. There is a story about the founder of Korea Tan Keun, who offered a bear and a tiger a deal. They would have to stay in a cave for 100 days eating nothing but herbs and garlic. The tiger didn't make it past 30 days, but the bear stayed the full 100 days and became a human woman and married the son of God and became the mother of all Koreans.
What's wrong with the picture here?
It's almost like the first guys who told the story or added garlic into the story, never realized that garlic was never native to Korea and the lie continued. Not only that, the so called fairy tale that is supposedly extremely ancient either isn't, or underwent some serious revision somewhere along the way.


Different kinds of Kimchi

It makes me question even more things: is the cabbage native to Korea?
And more importantly, why is it so important that something be "purely" Korean?
They claim that Kimchi contains more Lactic Acid Bacteria (which attacks the Helicobacter pylori) than Yoghurt, but no one has ever answered: how much Lactic Acid Bacteria is too much?

Koreans will tell you that their food and cuisine go back thousands of years, but considering how important gartlic and chili pepper is in their food and how recent their introduction was, you can pretty much discount most of that talk.

All this propaganda makes everything about the food unbelievable and in fact, suspect.

Honduras - It's not a coup d'etat

There's been a lot of stuff flying around in the news about a coup d'etat in Honduras. It's not a coup d'etat, at least not in the capacity that we know of it. The Western press have largely called it a huge blow to democracy, but was it really? Let's find out.

Bullshit: The military in Honduras staged a coup d'etat.
The truth: The military in Honduras was ordered by the National Congress and the Court to remove President Zelaya from office for attempting to break the law and end democracy.

Modern day Mussolini, except more incompetent and less charismatic

What Happened:
Zelaya attempted to change the constitution making the maximum number of terms for a President unlimited. Sound familiar? The National Congress voted against it.
Then failing that he attempted to conduct a poll among the people to see if he could use that to pass his new "ammendment." Doesn't seem very illegal, but somehow also seems not so legal since you're circumventing the proper channels (i.e. the National Congress). However, what most Western publications fail to emphasize is that Zelaya wanted the military to conduct "logistical support" for this poll. This of course sent alarm bells ringing throughout the National Congress and the military itself (who wanted no part in this).
When President Zelaya ordered General Vasquez to conduct this poll, the General consulted with legal authorities about the matter and then refused to carry it out. President Zelaya fired the General for not carrying out the order.
Zelaya then attempted to go ahead with the poll anyway despite warnings and so the National Congress decided to act. The military was ordered to remove Zelaya from office and Roberto Micheletti was instated as temporary President until the end of the term which is in November of 2009 (this year).
(Compiled by both me and a Spanish speaking friend)

Important things to consider:
Zelaya was obviously trying to be the next Chavez and was pretty much determined to end the democracy in Honduras, turning it into another Venezuela style dictatorship.

Why was General Vasquez's firing highly controversial to the point where the National Congress did not recognize the General's firing and the Chiefs of Staff of every branch of the military turned in their resignations? It is because you cannot be fired or legallly punished for refusing to follow in illegal order. That is what Zelaya's orders for the military to conduct the poll was: illegal.


General Vasquez refused to follow an illegal order

No General currently is heading the government, officially or unofficially.

Zelaya is lucky that Honduras has come a long way. Years ago he would have either succeeded or he and his family would have been shepherded to the basement of his palace where they would have been riddled with bullets.

Roberto Micheletti belongs to the same political party as Zelaya, the Liberal Party.

The Conclusion:
Depending on how the elections go in November 2009, that is, that they prove to be fair, this would be in fact not a defeat for democracy but a major victory for it. There is nothing wrong with having a system (and people with the courage) in place to challenge actions taken by a President who wishes to end democracy and bring in dictatorship in its place (especially when the democracy is working just fine).

The Western media condemns the actions by the military, but what if, back in the 1930's the German Army decided that Hitler (who was democratically elected) was a threat to German society and democracy, overthrew him and reinstated democracy? Would we be accusing the German Army of committing a serious crime?

Although I am generally in support of President Barack Obama, the condemnation by him and others on the Honduras issue is one I am very much against. Depending on what happens on November 2009, I think a lot of heads of government will owe Honduras' military and National Congress an apology.
Maybe leftist pussies the world over can't seem to recognize courageous and righteous action when they see one.

Honoring a Friend

It is with my deepest regret that a friend of mine has passed away.
Steven Zeluff has passed away at the young age of 47.

The article regarding his passing can be found at this link.

I knew him only online, but we had some great discussions on milforum (under the nickname Rock45) about aircraft. He knew a lot about airplanes and was an authoritative reference for many of us. Many of us there are or were military, he did not have a chance to serve but he was still a good friend to us. I found out that he passed away hours earlier and just now I found out that he was the only person who had listed himself as a follower of my blog. It had not been long since he had done that since even as recent as two or three weeks ago I think I didn't have any. I was really shocked and surprised at not only his passing but at finding out that he had subscribed just days earlier.
I remember when I first talked to him on milforum's chat channel and was surprised that he was in his forties.

Rest well my friend, it's really sad to see you go.



I was going to post something about Michael Jackson's passing (actually something in defense of his reputation) but it doesn't seem to be the appropriate time...

Iran IS a democracy

There's been a lot of talk about how Iran's not really a democracy but really it is a democracy. A troubled democracy since the latest results were almost certainly fabricated, but until that happened, their democracy was quite legitimate.

Bullshit: Iran is a dictatorship since the ultimate authority belongs to the Ayatollah.
The Truth: Iran is a democracy, the Ayatollah acts as a part of their version of the checks and balances.

Some comparisons have been drawn between the Iranian political system of electing officials and that of Kuwait. The difference is that in Iran, the President actually does the governing while the Ayatollah rarely intervenes and does so only if he believes the actions are unIslamic and is at odds with the spirit of their revolution. In Kuwait, although authorities may be elected and do have some function, the Emir does the majority of the governing, a vast difference to that of Iran.
Kuwait's system could be roughly compared to that of Singapore under Lee Kwan Yew where there would be a President and a Prime Minister but Lee Kwan Yew did the actual governing as Senior Minister.


I'm not a fan either but he was legitimate the first time around.

The current results in Iran's polls have actually reflected that Iran was a democracy and now that it is under threat, the people are extremely upset. It's not quite the picture that our leaders try to paint to us and sort of reminds me of what I asked a few years ago: we could democratize a country, but what if they vote in the terrorists? I was called a lot of bad things at the time, but knowing what happened in the Gaza strip, I wasn't wrong at all and although Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not a terrorist per se, Iran does support various terrorist groups operating in Iraq and against Israel.
But that's besides the point, they are/were a democracy.

Picking Candidates
Yes, Iran's Ayatollah has to approve who can run for election but that isn't too alien if you remember that in the United States, the very rich elite decides who can run for election as well. Without their money, you can't even pretend to be running for President. Maybe it's why regardless of who is elected, the outcome seems just about the same.

What lies in the future for Iranian democracy is to be seen. Will this be a once off, will the Ayatollah be forced to call for another election or is it a dangerous precedence for the future?

Video of Protests May 29th 2009

I've talked about it, and here's the video of it. All original. I went to take photos and videos of the demonstrations. It's a pretty long video so I had to cut the quality to make it an acceptable size.



A lot of the chanting has to do with stuff like:
"Down with Lee Myung-bak."
"Down with dictatorship."
etc etc. All of it bullshit.

Metrosexual

I've heard this word before but never knew what it meant. I dropped by this excellent page which everyone should read. It's an old site but I kinda had a thought for it and went back for the first time in a very long time. There, I found it again:


Metrosexual: A gay guy still in the closet. This word is so contemptible that even the man who coined it has since apologized for being such a douche. I cringe every time I hear this word.
(from that awesome website)


Bullshit: It's a new term that accurately describes people who have not made a decision as to what their sexuality is.
The Truth: It's a fucking conspiracy to make everyone think that people living in the city (therefore civilized) are naturally kinda gay and have to decide which way to go.

Also on that site was the word "Retrosexual" which is supposed to mean "straight." Hell I didn't even know this one existed but here in lies another conspiracy: makes straight people sound like something obsolete. Something to refer back to, for the fond memories (of plowing women) in contrast with the current generation which has a choice between which type of ass to tap.


If you're straight, you're a Nazi!!!
That guy is probably gay though.

The key behind "metrosexual" is the word metro. I know it's not what it really means but the way it sounds does the trick. "Metro." "Metropolis." "Either you're a small town red neck or you're a flaming faggot unsure of whether or not to come out of the closet or not."
We used to have a word for this. "Pervert."

MIcroshaft Fucks the Wii Wii

Microsoft has done it again: ripped off a product invented by someone else.
You'd think with the sort of numbers that Microsoft employs, they'd have a little more creativity, but no, after they figured that ripping off Mac OS in every possible way wasn't good enough, they've gone after the Wii.

Bullshit: Microsoft is serious about intellectual property. When you pirate our stuff, you're stealing from our children! (Actually that's what Bungie wrote somewhere in the packaging for the game Marathon)
The Truth: Microsoft steals from the children of many creative folks anyway.


Nintendo Wii? More like Microshaft ass fuck

Seriously, can you look at that picture above and tell me that is NOT a Wii rip off?

Check this video out.

It's basically sound from a Windows Vista presentation but the video is from Mac OS X.
Wow, how are these Microsoft guys not in jail?
So what's more illegal? Getting something for free and not making a penny off of it or getting something for free and then packaging it as your own and then making billions off the stuff?

But that's not all. If the NXE (New XBox Experience) wasn't enough, they've come up with something else: Project Natal.



Even the opening sequence of that video is like some kind of Sims 2 rip off.
Some things on that look original (especially the no controller thing that I'm sure is bound to have many glitches and provide hours of frustration) but I've got to hold my judgement on that. It's possible that they were leaked by Microshaft employees working as spies in other companies.

Intellectual property laws: so only the rich with lots of lawyers can rip people's ideas off.

The threat to democracy in Korea

The past Friday was quite unreal and I was out to see the crowd for myself. Took photos and videos. The video should be available very shortly.
Of the many themes behind the protests was that Lee Myung-bak (the current President) is a dictator and that he is a threat to democracy.

Bullshit: Lee Myung-bak is a threat to Korean democracy.
The truth: Mob rule is a threat to Korean democracy.

If I actually spoke my mind in front of City Hall, the crowd would actually either kill me, come pretty close to it or just make my life living hell by having a candle light vigil in front of my house wtih the occasional rock thrown to smash in my windows.
The logic is really screwed up.
President Lee Myung-bak, like him or not, was elected into office and won by a landslide because the people hated Noh Moo-hyun and his incompetence. He was elected and he became president. One of the things they said on loudspeaker was that he cheated his way into presidency. If anyone can provide a shred of evidence to support that, I will suck his dick. But it can't be proven, why? Because it's a complete lie, that's why.
It's the mob who terrorize the city that are a threat to democracy. They instill fear upon those who are willing to not vote for them. Just today, protestors went violent and attacked riot police with rocks and sharpened bamboo sticks. Against folks like those, unless you are willing to put your life on the line and kill those who attack you, you can't really stand up to them and expect to have a normal life.
Democracy in South Korea is under attack, but by those who claim to be those who promote it.


Fucktards that are fucking up my democracy

200 Views

That's right. It's been less than two months since this rant-blog has launched and surprisingly, 200 people have stumbled across it.
Hooray.
It actually shows up on google search. If you look up "war on bullshit," it's on the first page. It used to be the third one down but I guess my slow post rate has something to do with the slide.

Thank you for supporting the war on bullshit!

Noh Moo-hyeon's Suicide

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Children and Freedom

Before we begin, let's make a few things clear.
Children, by definition, do not really have responsibilities. This is why they have legal protection under a guardian and even in the event of committing crimes, they are tried with a different set of laws than adults.
Freedom is meaningless and dangerous without responsibility. If an organization feeds, clothes and houses you and decide what you will eat, wear and sleep in, you do not have any freedom but these three things will be guaranteed to you. To have freedom over these three matters means you are responsible for supplying yourself with the means to procure these.

Bleeding Heart Bullshit: Children should be given maximum freedom.
The Truth: Only if you want them to amount to nothing.

Let's face it, as kids the objective is to be as useful of a person as possible through the education system by the time you've reached 18 so that either you can land a decent job or go to college (and a good one if your scores are good enough).
But as kids, all we want to do is play. We have no sense of decency, courtesy, sacrifice... we are in essence very much like animals. But this is a subject for a bigger debate. In short, as children, we don't know what we need to know by 18 and it's certainly too far away for us to work for with the level of discipline and focus we have at such a young age.
As children we do not really have the means to achieve both this and make our own living at the same time. Therefore we cannot be responsible for our own well being and like stated above, without responsibility, you cannot have freedom.
Even as adults, most of us can't really pin down what freedom really is, but those of us who actually stop to think about the world we live in tend to have a general idea. So how are we supposed to give this sort of thing to children?

Our ways of giving freedom to children far too early is already showing signs of failure. In most countries not bullshitted to death by bleeding heart leftist propaganda, the kids are actually learning something.

This girl can kick your ass at math. Curfew? She may not even be allowed to decide who to get married to.

That's the ones that can actually afford to go to school and learn. But look at the problems facing our society.

If all else fails, there's always porn stardom.

Kids are getting "higher scores" because the standards are being dropped left and right. Children are under so much protection and have so much rights and freedoms that in some cases, they're telling the teachers what they want and what they'll do. Believe me, I did some teaching before and it's a disaster. I was able to square away my students and had them performing at levels unimaginable when I first got them but eventually a few quitters told their mothers, their mothers told the school and I got fired. The losers? The kids who wanted to learn.

You simply cannot give children freedom. They do not have the maturity (and experience) to handle the responsibilities required to have it. Having said that, neither do a lot of adults, but we do have to draw the line somewhere.
Parents have a responsibility for their childrens' future. That responsibility cannot fall on the child him or herself.

Gun Control = More Gun Crime

Alright, the following is written under the assumption that you live in a country where there are too many guns to stop anyway and doesn't apply to societies you find in the likes of South Korea and Japan where guns in the hands of the publc are so rare that being armed yourself is extremely hard to justify.
We're talking about cases like the United States, UK and if we add a little extreme, South Africa.

Bullshit: Illegalizing guns will reduce gun crime.
Seriously: If you were an armed criminal, would you rather rob the 7/11 with the owner packing a 12 gauge shot gun or the 7/11 with the "gun free zone" sticker on the glass door?

I mean, I've seen the statistics and you too probably have seen many statistics surrounding this matter. The "horrors" of gun crime and the number of youths that get shot each year (never mind they are members of a gang who were shooting it out in a gang war). But logically speaking... how on earth will making guns illegal in a country already with guns going to work?
You know the criminals won't obey the law and will get the guns no matter how they get it. It's us law abiding citizens like you (hopefully) and me who won't get guns if posession of it is illegal. So what's going to happen? Easy picking for the criminal really.

Multiple Choice: As an armed criminal, who would you rather attempt to mug?
A)

Does this guy even need a bodyguard?

B)

Yes, that's a real AR-15. It's suppressed so she can kill you quietly without scaring her cat and has a reflex sight so she can shoot you faster.

C)

She's got one hand in her pocket and the other one's waiting to get chopped off for the trinklet.

Let's forget about just how "decent" and "nice" we are for a moment and let's say we're criminals and we want to rob houses, convenience stores and if we're a little more enterprising, ATM machines by throwing a chain around it and attaching it to the cargo haul hook on the back of our SUV and flooring the gas. Would we suddenly feel that we should go about doing these things without being armed? I highly doubt it. I could go in with a knife, but what if there's a guy in there who's an ex-Israeli Special Forces guy who's since retired and has been making a living as a Krav Maga instructor for the past ten years? My ass is toast. With a gun (and knowledge on how to use the damned thing, which I do have [Note to PMCs: please hire me]) even he would know better than to attempt to jump me.

South Africa's crime rate has gone up like it's no body's business since guns got "outlawed" and in Britain, current rulings in court make it look like you're not allowed to defend yourself, even with your bare hands. It's like the instant a criminal breaks in, you have to dial 999 and hope that the nearest armed police officer will teleport into your home. Not going to happen. Maybe in a million years but not anytime soon.
Switzerland, however, has the entire country armed and their gun crime rate is low as anybody else's. Who'd want to rob a Swiss Victorinox store in Switzerland? The owner has a gun and knows how to use it and so do the customers.

In a way, having a gun is like having a personal nuke. Remember what happened in World War II? America had nukes. Japan didn't. As a result, Japan got pwned big time. Cold War, America had nukes, so did the USSR, so basically it turned into a 45 year staring competition where the Soviets blinked first.

The point is, it's not rocket science. It's plainly obvious. If you live in a country where there is access to firearms for criminals, then guns need to be legal and quite frankly, I'd feel safer protecting my house with a UMP-45 than a Berretta 92.


UMP-45: .45 caliber, select fire whoop ass.


Berretta 92: Never trust a pistol. Especially a 9mm Pistol.

So next time some anti-gun hippie tries to argue their case to you, mug them.

Marrying a Korean woman

Although there are exceptions, marrying a Korean woman can be one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make.
This usually refers to Korean women with very little actual exposure to western culture... i.e. the Korean women who are very Korean in terms of culture and upbringing. So in a way, it's not about race as it is about Korean culture.
This doesn't mean Korean-American women (aka Gyopos) are safe. Actually those are a completely different bag of worms which I won't cover in this posting.

The sales pitch: Korean women are kind, warm, submissive and loving.
The truth: Korean women will be kind, warm, submissive and loving until they tie the knot. Then they become cold, dominant (especially with money) and will take orders directly from their mothers when it comes to family policy.

Women are hard to understand, but Korean women are even harder. However, it's not impossible and this one post will bring to light many things that a foreigner usually has little or no way of figuring out.
Check this out for starters. A Korean woman in her 20's is usually overly kind to white men but will be openly hostile and inconsiderate against Korean males (even if the Korean dudes are kind) and will go head over heels for white men but will still go on that anti-American demonstration rally the coming weekend and go all nationalistic for a night or two before grovelling and courting white dudes at their feet the very next day.
Make sense?


Weekend America hater

So why do things work this way?
It's because they see white men as the masters of the world and feel the need to associate with those people to "raise" themselves on the social ladder. There is probably some element of truth to this but here in lies the danger. They don't marry a white man because he is a great guy or anything, but simply because he is white (and not a total train wreck. Face it, Korean women aren't going to marry a white guy if he's got no money).

The whole act of being submissive, kind, shy etc. is pretty much a ploy as it always has been to grab the man they wish to marry. Don't fall for this bullshit. Think of this as the free download demo version. When you marry (make the purchase), the real product installs and the whole picture changes.


Before

How does it look after marriage?
- She takes control of the money.
- You realize that you can't hold a single interesting conversation with her.
- She actually doesn't like sex.
- She doesn't love you for who you are, but will make sure that you become what she expects you to be. Pressure, pressure, pressure. You are now her cow and she wants to see that milk flow.
- She takes orders from her mother. There is no escape.
- It will be like she just aged another 15 years after the honeymoon.


After

Surefire signs that you've got the wrong person.
- She plays musical instruments quite avidly.
- She puts on a lot of makeup.
- She is anorexic.
- She's an artist (RED ALERT).
All of these she will use to lure the unsuspecting foreign dude. It's a trap!


If she makes one of these for you, kick her out. IMMEDIATELY.

Signs of hope.
- She plays sports.
- Has travelled a lot (without Ramen supplies) and is worldly.
- Can hold a good conversation.
- Isn't too close to her mother.
- Doesn't give to squirts a piss about nationalism.
- She makes just as much, if not more money than you.


This is the actual number of Korean women on earth that can hold an interesting conversation.

The rumors and misconceptions regarding how great Korean women are is complete and dangerous bullshit. Don't fall for the cute shit. Swear to God... it's going to fuck up your life.

The Demo: Sweet, submissive, caring.
Release version: Dominant, cold and basically a Trojan Horse with her mother calling the shots (and stealing your money).

Optimism

The debate with Rob Henderson on milforum continues and basically it's moved on to optimism vs pessimism. Refer back to this post to see where the discussion had actually come from.

Basically after trying to advocate that the richest people must be taxed even more than they are being taxed now and being convinced by a few others that complete and absolute global equity is impossible he had to throw one of these:

Posted by Rob Henderson

I know it won't happen... But call me crazy, I keep hoping for the best. This takes me back to the VERY FIRST PAGE of this thread... Fundamentally different outlooks on life. Optimism vs. Pessimism. I'm an optimist, I will hope for the best. Pessimists will try and use harsh reality checks to bring optimists down, but it ain't happenin' here.

So I had to reply with this:

---

You have no idea how dangerous blind optimism is. Basically that's what your optimism is. No, you're not crazy, you're just blind and a few other things. "Crazy" is often used as an excuse by people who know they're wrong but need a reason to be wrong and yet feel alright about themselves. After all, you can't really accuse a guy who is really "crazy" or "messed up" of anything.
Blind optimism got soldiers tied down in a confusing and unending conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Blind optimism is responsible for the financial melt down.
Blind optimism sent millions of troops "over the top" to get slaughtered by artillery and machine guns in World War I.
Blind optimism is the cause of countless structural failures of bridges, buildings etc.
Do you even know what real optimism is? It's the acknowledgement that things can get far worse. It's the realization that currently things aren't at a state where the only place to go is up. The understanding that our current situation is not as bad on the "good-bad" meter scale as we'd like to think.
Sure, overboard pessimsim leads to nowhere either, but in the real world usually pessimism ensures that security systems are redundant, elevators are designed to withstand three or four times the weight capacity as actually stated, etc.
Optimism is intellectual laziness at work.

Remember when the Germans voted in Hitler? For a while, they became optimists. They felt that their situation probably couldn't get any worse so they threw their chips in with Hitler and believed that he could bring them to glory unseen before.
Same goes with people in Communist countries. They often supported the Communists because for a while, the people became optimists and believed that there was very little room to go down and that these Communists could bring about miracles.

The pessimist will prepare for situations, first the ones likely to happen, then the ones not so likely but still possible. He'll also know that regardless of the countermeasures, bad things can still happen, so he'll be ready to tackle actual emergency situations as well. The optimist will close the book and go home, just to see his responsibility on the 9 O'clock news.

Pessimists who use pessimism to keep their drive to move forward in check (but not so much as to stifle any movement at all) are known as realists. Optimists hate realists because it means they have to do more work.

---

Optimism in action.


Send them over the top. I'm sure that German machine gun's bound to jam sometime...


What do you mean "how much is it really worth?" No one will know!


No way, this is going to be a short and easy war. We don't need to send more troops.


In fact, I'll just go ahead and disband the Iraqi Army as well.


Oh it'll be fine!

Getting the idea yet?
Optimism the state of mind that fosters bullshit.

Swine Flu

Reuters has called it a Pandemic*.
Many news sources had also initially rushed into panic.

What they say: Swine flu is an extremely dangerous virus which is resistant to anti-viral medication.

The truth: It's easily treated if you go see a doctor the instant you feel you have a flu.

It's just another case of the press jumping on a story and then using fear to get people to read their stuff. I guess I'm a sucker too because initially I was fooled. I happen to have a friend in Mexico so I decided to shoot him an email trying to see if his family was alright. Turns out it's not a big deal and the press are just having a field day. According to him, it's 100% curable if you see a doctor and so far all evidence indicates that that is true.
Just today (Wednesday, April 29th, 2009) CNN.com released articles about why the only fatalities were in Mexico and that regular flu kills far more (with a capital F) annually than this particular disease. Perhaps they're baffled and disappointed that the Swine Flu did not prove to be major news after all.
Swine Flu is resistant to many anti-viral medication but all indications are that it is still weak to Tamiflu and Relenza. Yes, even in the world of major air travel, it can be contained and cured.

Swine flu is still more dangerous than this other bullshit that swept South Korea some time ago: Mad Cow Disease. Yeah, it happens, it's not easy to cure but the risks are so miniscule that if you're scared of Mad Cow Disease, you might as well live inside a styrofoam box (with NBC filtered ventilation).


Big Bullshit





Small Bullshit

How to avoid the vast majority of flu related viruses:
1) Wash often and wash well.
2) Use a hand sanitizer.
3) Don't be a filthy, lazy fuck. Take care of yourself, you're a fucking adult for fucks sakes!!

So there you have it. Swine Flu. All it did for my friend in Mexico was make the traffic lighter. More road for him!


* According to the free online dictionary (and many others), Pandemic means:

1. Widespread; general.

2. Medicine Epidemic over a wide geographic area and affecting a large proportion of the population.
So you might think "well what's the big deal?" The reason why the Press loves to use this word is because the front three letters "PAN" go well with "panic" and that's why the word has an additional effect that the journalists so desire. They will tell you that's not the case, but believe me, that is the art of manipulation.