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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

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.

Water should be free - it is dipshit

This is related to the whole topic about money that I'll be getting at in the coming posts. I knew some communist cocksucker dude back in college who said, "why do we have to pay for water? Water should be free," while holding up a bottle of water.

Bullshit?: Water should be free.

The Truth: It is dumbass. It's the bottle, the treatment and the transportation that costs money.


Free

When that dicksucker held up the bottle of water, he failed to realize several factors:
1) He's not only holding up water, but plastic as well. And that plastic didn't fall out of the sky. Water does, that's why it's free.
2) That water didn't fall into his hand either. It was hauled over from a far away place. That one small bottle may not seem like a big deal, but considering that the company that bottled the water brought along about a million of his buddies, that's a lot.
3) That water didn't show up cleared of germs and muddy crap. Someone cleaned it up.


Not Free

Want water for free? You can collect rain water, treat/boil it, filter it yourself and then have a drink. No one will ask for a dime. Except of course you'll have to pay for your bucket, the chlorine (if you choose to use it), the gas if you're going to boil it (unless you go to the woods, get some dead wood since cutting can be illegal and light it like a cave man since matches cost money) and perhaps also the coffee filter/sieve to filter the water one last time.


Not Free.


Not Free.


Not Free.


Not Free.

Imagine you're the truck driver who had to drive a few hundred miles with that stuff and at the end of the month you're surprised to see that no one's paid you for your work.
Truck Driver: "What the hell man!?!?!"
Employer: "Tough shit. It's water. It's free!"
No, that shit's not going to fly is it?
So the driver won't transport water, the plastic bottle company will refuse to send their stuff to the water bottling facilities and basically what you'll end up with is long lines forming in front of public water fountains. Actually, not even that since tap water supply will also stop.
Stupid fuck commies.
Water is free but only if you get it yourself.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

S. Korean Court Convicts two Pro-North Korea douche bags

Check this article out. It's an Associated Press article from April 22nd.

SKoreans convicted for pro-NKorea activities

SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean court sentenced two activists on Tuesday to at least two years in prison for engaging in pro-North Korea activities, an official said.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted the men for violating the National Security Law by establishing a civic group sympathetic to North Korea and holding forums praising North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, court spokesman Kwon Tae-hyung said.

One man received a sentence of 24 months, the other 30 months, Kwon said.

He said two other activists received suspended prison terms because their pro-North Korea activities were not deemed as serious. Kwon said the convicted have one week to appeal.

The activists’ group — Solidarity for Practice of the South-North Joint Declaration — said in a statement that it only aims to promote peace between the divided Koreas. It also accused the court of using the “old-fashioned” security law to return South Korean society to the Cold War era.

The broadly worded security law was not vigorously enforced when inter-Korean relations flourished under back-to-back liberal governments that launched a set of reconciliation projects with North Korea during their administrations that ran from 1998-2003 .

Ties between the Koreas, however, have soured since pro-U.S. President Lee Myung-bak took office last year in Seoul with a tougher policy on the North.

The Seoul court, the Justice Ministry and the prosecution said Tuesday that they could not immediately confirm whether the number of those convicted under the security law has increased since Lee’s inauguration.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their three-year conflict that ended in 1953 concluded with an armistice, not a peace treaty.





OUTSTANDING!!!!!!
But they left out a crucial piece of information in the article which was that both people had contacted North Korean officials without authorization. That is definitely a crime in South Korea. The article has a bit of a "spin" to it to make it look like some blatant act against the freedom of speech.
I have long suspected that these guys took their orders from North Korea and guess what? It turns out to be true.
That pro-North Korea stuff, is BULLSHIT and I'm glad the government isn't putting up with it anymore.
If anyone asks if arrests concerning North Korea have gone up, yes they only can have since the previous administrations made close to ZERO arrests regarding the matter.
The bullshit ends here mother fuckers.
Your asses are going to jail.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Gurkhas Betrayed by Britain

Gurkha who have served for the British Army are famous the world over for being one of the toughest fighting men to have walked the earth and for years they have been fighting an uphill battle for their right to live in the UK and become UK citizens.

Check out the article from The Scotsman. But really, it's ALL over the British press.

Basically in short a new law was passed that would allow another 4,000 odd Gurkhas to settle but the criteria are so picky and complicated that hardly anyone would really qualify for them. In other words, it's a clever little catch 22 that politicians love to throw around. Basically Gurkhas will be required to have 20 years of service but a rifleman (which is the role the Gurkhas fill) can only serve for 15 years. Sounds like the type of bullshit politicians love to push around (HAH! Gotcha! sort of shit).
Never mind the sort of support and aid that goes into asylum seekers that haven't done a thing for the UK except be a burdern and a problem (and in some cases may have fought against British soldiers in Afghanistan).

Gurkhas have served the crown in the past

such as Victoria Cross recipient Tulbahadur Pun

And continue to serve today

like this Gurkha in Afghanistan.


You'd trust politicians to screw over some of the best people on earth so royally.

But you know what?
If they were White this would have never happened. They would have full rights after about four years service and have a very short road to citizenship.
The fact that there are disloyal asylum seeking assholes who are getting board, food and allowances off tax money while these people who have served the crown since 1817 get the shaft disgusts me to no end.
It makes you question everything you learned about decency, that by doing good, by being courageous... you will be rewarded. Obviously not the case.

Look at this article from 2007 about how Asylum seekers, mostly Muslims (who generally don't think very highly of the West and its principles) were invited to a Christmas party in Calais where they were fed but not sung Christmas carols incase they were offended (yeah, the logic behind this escapes me, Christmas party is okay, Christmas carol, not ok. Ok....).

Wow... Just wow...

Loyalty and honor have just been reduced to bullshit.

People can't make the world better

Actually this theme came across in a thread on www.milforum.com.
It's regarding a lot of topics but one of it became about the decency of the human being.

Rob Henderson wanted things to go back to how they were before "9/11." I'm assuming how America was like before 9/11 because the world I knew before 9/11 was still a piece of shit.

Posted by Me
The kinder gentler "world" before 9/11 never existed. It was simply an illusion.
The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as Canada usually shield America from the realities of the real world. But on 9/11 it kind of hit home and many couldn't deal with it.
Deal with it. This is life, this is the world.

Posted by Rob Henderson
I'm not going to be a pessimist just because some nut jobs decided to attack America because they're jealous of us... Is it somehow wrong to want a more peaceful world?

Posted by Me
It's like wishing that all the hot women in the world would take turns getting into bed with you.
It's not going to happen and quite frankly even thinking about it is a total waste of time.

Posted by Rob Henderson
Hardly... Men CAN make this place better for everyone. Just because you don't think it will, doesn't mean it won't.

This is my response:

Wake up seriously.
You have Gurkhas who served so well for the British for hundreds of years... if you count the British East India Company, since 1817. Yet they're not given the rights to enter and stay in the UK compared with some guy from Pakistan who clearly hates the UK and is under suspicion that he may have fought against British troops in Afghanistan.
All these financial institutions... all that greed. The government finally gives them money to un-f*ck the mess they created and they're using GOVERNMENT money (tax payer money) to pay off their layoffs and even finance their own vacations.
You have legal immigration restricted because illegal immigration is a problem and not enough is being done to restrict illegal immigration. Just happens to be that targeting people who might actually be of benefit to America is a lot easier.
An actress in South Korea committed suicide [Insert: Jang Ja-yun, for those who want to read up on the case] because she was used as a prostitute by her manager (and of course the chain of responsibility goes higher but largely it's been well covered up). The police are then sent on a raid against prostitution. Yes, the entertainment industry can force the police to pretend to take action without actually taking action against those really responsible. It's not the first case that something like this happened. It's happened MANY times now.
People smuggle drugs across borders by stuffing drugs into freshly dead babies.
Genocide.
....
the list is endless.
People don't change. At least, not very much. We always try to kid ourselves into thinking that we're different from our ancestors. We are in a way, but if you look at it overall, we're very much the same.
Ask a guy who's got his limbs blown off in a war and got abandoned by the military, the government and his own family if he believes in the decency of mankind.
Or the girl who got tricked into going into a prostitution ring by a woman at her church who told her that she was going to help her find work overseas.
Or the guy or woman with a family to feed who's been waiting in line for days at an aid distribution center who can't get aid because gangs/militia are hogging the front of the line and taking everything.

Wake the f*ck up Henderson.
People can't make the world a better place.
Not even Jesus managed to do that.
It's not because we're stupid. It's because we're greedy, selfish, jealous, prideful... it's because we are evil, because we are weak.



So wake the f*ck up Henderson and people who think we can make the world a better place.


Possibly the kindest person to walk the earth in recent times. Feel good factor whenever her name is mentioned: 10/10. Her actual effect on making the world a better place: close to 0.



Jesus Christ who died for our sins still couldn't make people good. Or make the world a good place for that matter. (On that note, do you know how HARD it is to find a picture of Jesus that doesn't look like Jesus of Narvik, Norway?)


People can make the world a better place = BULLSHIT of the highest caliber.

Friday, April 24, 2009

North Korea - a serious threat to America?

This is something that's been going back and forth, back and forth over the past few years but in recent months has been going forth more than before.
I've been hearing some opinions about this sort of thing and there's a lot of bullshit surrounding it.

Common scare talk: North Korea's going to have the ability to launch a nuclear missile at the United States soon. We need to go to war NOW! ("We" often said by a person who is not a member of any Armed Forces).
The Truth: The actual capability is still a long way off.

The common talk among groups that want to scare the shit out of the public is that North Korea will soon have the ability to strike the United States with a nuclear weapon.
This is actually far from the truth. Currently, North Korea's missile capability can potentially hit the Aleutian Islands and Guam but as far as that goes, it can probably be achieved with an empty or near empty-payload. Seriously nothing like a 1,000 lb conventional warhead. For comparison, during the Gulf War, Iraq's Scuds were armed iwth 2,000 lb conventional warheads and proved to have pretty woeful accuracy for the most part. Iraq launched about 40 Scud missiles against Israel and 46 against Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War which led to only one Israeli and one Saudi death. One that managed to hit a US Air Force Barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killed twenty eight airmen but judging from the evidence, it was most likely to be a fluke.

Differences between Scuds and North Korea's ballistic missile:
1) Scuds can be fired from mobile launchers. North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) are far too big for that.
2) The flight path and range of a Scud, especially those fired from Iraq to Israel, is far simpler and shorter than the flight path and range a ballistic missile from North Korea would have to negotiate in order to hit a target inside US territory. Range from somewhere in the middle of Al Anbar Province to Tel Aviv is about 600 kilometers compared to about 5,000 kilometers a missle would have to travel to hit the Aleutians.


A mobile Scud launcher (courtesy: Jewish Post)

And there are some similarities:
1) The guidance system of both the Scud and the North Korean ballistic missile are non existent. Unlike the high tech weapons we have (GPS guided weapons for example) these missiles are aimed and fired like artillery pieces with a gyroscope for stabilization in flight. Their accuracy is rather woeful, especially as the range increases.
2) The heavier the payload, the shorter the range.

Let's try to break this down into why this missle's threat level has been overblown:
Issues with accuracy:
So like I said, Iraq's Scuds which have a similar guidance system to that of North Korea's ICBM and its lethality against targets merely 600 kilometers away with a heavy warhead was quite woeful. Now think about what North Korea's missile could do after travelling a whopping 5,000 kilometers with a smaller warhead? I think we're worrying about something very small. Consider that Seattle is 8,000 kilometers away from North Korea.

Issues with detection:
Like stated before, Scuds were hard to hunt because they were on mobile launchers, could quickly aim and fire within a matter of minutes. The ICBM North Korea has is a completely different animal. The fueling takes about a week, the multi stage rockets are conspicuous as hell during transport... remember for their launch tests? It means the missile has to be sitting on its launch pad for about a week before it can actually be fired to its maximum range. The world knew the North Koreans were going to have a missile ready and the whole world was able to watch. It's not something they can use for a secret sucker punch. If the North Koreans choose to use this, there is simply no element of surprise involved.

What I am concerned about:
North Korea has chemical weapons. If they are able to get this thing to land anywhere in a city, it can cause casualties but it all depends on what they use, how much of it they can put on, how they disperse it, wind speed and direction etc etc.

What this is really about is North Korea is fuming about its inability to get its way after eight years of getting just about whatever it was they wanted from the two previous South Korean presidential administrations. The current government under Lee Myung-bak is not so kind to the North Koreans and it's just a tactic to unsettle his government.
Ultimately it's about this:

Publicity

North Korea's ICBM threat is being overblown by the Press to sell stories and it's scaring the crap out of idiots who scream "FIRST STRIKE! FIRST STRIKE!"
The danger that North Korea poses to South Korea's capital, Seoul is a real one. About 23 million people live in the Seoul metropolitan area, most within the range of North Korea's chemical capable artillery pieces and Scuds (which will have a far closer and larger target than Iraq did in '91).
So what kind of threat are we talking about? According to a 2003 Stars and Stripes article, Stephen Ortwig, a USFK spokesman at the time said, "within the first hours of an attack, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 artillery rounds could rain down on Seoul."
Considering how densely populated Seoul is, we're looking at over 100,000 civilian deaths in the opening 24 hours alone. To justify something like that, it's going to take a far solid reason than "I'm not comfortable, and I'm scared of a North Korea that can fire a missile armed with a warhead perhaps less potent than a crazy guy with a pistol at a college campus."

I am tired of this overblown bullshit regarding North Korea's missile and I'm pissed off at the press for being complete asses about the whole thing and giving North Korea what it really wants out of this entire affair: PUBLICITY.
The last thing I want is a bunch of fucking leftist journo assholes feeding neo-cons with bullshit that's going to get their pussy asses into another wrong course of action. You can count on the neo-cons to fuck up because they are:
a) too lazy to understand the real situation
b) too fucking scared to be of sound judgement
c) think sending people into harms way is patriotic when they themselves RARELY ever sign up for anything.
Hopefully the words of the neo-cons are falling on deaf ears with the current US administration.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Freddie CFO Kellermann Found Dead

Apparently the acting Chief Financial Officer of Freddie Mac committed suicide.
I'm sure a lot of people are discussing this one to death.

Possible response of retards: Rest in peace. That poor man must have been under a lot of pressure.
The Truth: Fuck him! And guys like him whose greed and ignorance helped fuck up the world economy.

I don't think there's much to say on the matter of these fucktards committing suicide, but there is one music video that fits perfectly.

Minerva Aquitted - not a victory for freedom of speech

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

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

"So young" - bullshit regarding age

The latest news on the pirate who was captured after his buddies got wasted by Navy SEALS: He's undergoing trial in New York and the question is how "young" this guy is.

As stated in an Associated Press Article: "The decision by the federal government to bring Muse to justice here has thrust the skinny teenager into the international spotlight, and raised legal questions about whether the U.S. is going too far in trying to make an example of someone so young." (Pirate comes to NY, world away from home in Africa, - AP Tues April 21st 2009)

Common quote: "He's just a 17 year old boy."
The Truth: "17 year olds can fucking kick your ass."

Apparently the guy is around 18 but they can't be sure if he's exactly 18 or slightly under 18, whereas others will try to push for some bullshit about how he's 15. It's impossible to go for the records because such things don't exist in Somalia and from what I know of my experiences in 3rd world hell holes, you could have them easily fabricated. But the real question is, is 16 or 17 even that young?


Poor kid surrounded by real pirates?

Seriously though. This guy is only small because he is so malnourished. For all practical purposes, 16 and 17 year olds look just like adults. I don't know where this "he's just a boy" thing came from. Ever had to deal with a pissed off 17 year old twice your size? Not such a small "boy" anymore is he? Add an AK-47. Get the fucking picture?
16 and 17 year olds are NOT "kids." Look at the picture of the pirate. The guy looks older than I am though I've been around about a decade longer than he has. It's not uncommon either. Happens every day. But when the Press or the bleeding hearts get a hold of some 17 year old "boy" who's caused a lot of grief, they try to paint the picture like it's some 5 year old who spilled milk on the carpet. No. Hell no. It's bullshit and just because they're not old enough to fuck legally doesn't mean they shouldn't be sent behind bars for seriously long periods of time for screwing up badly. And when I mean screwing up badly, I mean hijacking a vessel for ransom money kind of screwing up.
If the whole thing about being a "boy" comes from immaturity and lack of judgement, well hell, I don't see why that should be limited by how many years you've had in this world. So I guess if you're a fucking retard and you just smashed every car in a ten block radius, you should get a more "lenient" sentence.
Bullshit. Ass whipping smartens people up.

Monday, April 20, 2009

ROEs about Piracy

The Rules of Engagement - basically a set of rules that prevent people like myself from levelling everything, feeling good about themselves and celebrating a hard day's work with cold beer and warm pussy.
Anyways. The hot topic these days is about piracy off the coast of Somalia (and beyond!) and how the world's major powers are powerless to really do anything about it.

A line I've been hearing lately: To solve the piracy problem coming from Somalia, poverty in Somalia must be eradicated.

The truth: Piracy will stop when it stops being profitable. i.e. once a dude goes out to sea with an AK-47, sharks start getting a hard on.

Seriously. When you have the most advanced warships in the world unable to tackle a bunch of dudes with AK-47s travelling on crappy "speed" boats, you have to ask yourself some serious questions. This is the same sort of problem that was tackled pretty successfully in the past and that was when the technological gap between pirates and the authorities were not as big as they are now.


AEGIS Cruisers have nothing on these guys

You see, what's changed fundamentally between the world back then and now is that back in the old days, if there was no law regarding fighting pirates, it meant everything was OK. Now when there aren't any laws about them, it means you can't lift a finger. Yeah, your local law now is in effect in those cases but laws that apply back home don't neccessarily apply half way around the world. Shit, the rules even change from one side of the city to the other.
Like an event that happened a few days ago:
The Dutch had to let seven pirates go because... "They can only arrest them if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from the Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands waters."
(Source: Sky News)

Yeah a few hostages were saved, but the trade is still lucrative enough for pirates to still take to the seas.
So how do you solve it? Stop making it profitable.
Create an exclusion zone where any small vessel discovered will be blown out of the water.
Imagine you are a pirate or a guy thinking about going into piracy and your buddies are coming back rich and even those who fail come back in one piece. Why on earth WOULDN'T you want to take part in piracy? But if not a soul who went out to sea to hijack a large vessel made it home alive, that's something to think about isn't it?

But wouldn't eradicating poverty also work?
Some places are hell holes and are meant to be hell holes. If they want to get out of poverty, they'll have to do it themselves. Certain things about people don't change and one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make is to think that other people think like you do. Sending aid to these countries is a complete waste of time and the fact that aid does arrive there means that those in power will have no motivation to end the poverty. In fact, it will be in their best interest to keep the people poor and starving, so that some NGO can show up, snap another photograph of a starving child which will inevitably fuck our consciousness into donating aid money which will be ripped off just enough to pay for some corrupt dude's new Mercedes and his son's gold AK-47 and have just enough aid go through to keep the regular folks starving, but not starving to death.
PHEW. That's a run on sentence isn't it?

Hell I think I tackled more than one subject:
- Violence doesn't solve anything: BULLSHIT!
- Eradicating poverty will work: BULLSHIT!
- Motivating people through fear doesn't work: BULLSHIT!

All the high tech weaponry we have is only as good as the will to use them.
Make the ROEs work and let fly some steel rain.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Tae Kwon Do

Tae Kwon Do is very popular in the United States and throughout the world. The demonstration teams put on some of the most spectacular displays of Martial Arts anywhere. So I think it's time a few things about Tae Kwon Do required some explaining. Please note that we're referring to the World Tae Kwon Do Federation (WTF) Tae Kwon Do, not International Tae Kwon Do Federation (ITF) Tae Kwon Do (aka Street Tae Kwon Do or North Korean Tae Kwon Do).

The official line: Tae Kwon Do is an excellent martial art for use in self defense.

The reality: It's possibly one of the most inefficient ways to take down a human being.

Anyone who knows the first thing about fighting know that almost all the moves pulled off in a Tae Kwon Do demonstration is practically useless in a real fight. The large, graceful moves may be awe inspiring but if you tried them in a real brawl, you'll be eating dirt real fast.


Not going to work, not in a million years.

The fundamentals of fighting usually include a lot of punching, kicking below the belt, using knees and elbows close in and attacking your opponent on the ground. Grappling is also very important. Oh yeah, and keep it simple.
Tae Kwon Do goes against ALL of these rules. Its punches are basic at best and for some reason aim mostly to hit the opponent's chest. Kicking below the belt is illegal, elbows and knees are illegal and there is ZERO grappling. So just how is this supposed to be a truly effective fighting system? It's not.
Krav Maga, Muay Thai, Ju Jitsu and even Judo are for the most part superior and so is boxing. Actually throw in wrestling as well. All of these cater to at least a few of the fundamentals of fighting (Krav Maga fulfills all including grappling though not as much as Ju Jitsu and Judo from what I've learned so far).
Five months in, a Krav Maga student will be reasonably proficient in several methods of self defense, whereas from my experience, Tae Kwon Do students at five months can't defend themselves from a deflated paper bag. After years of martial arts training, I still wouldn't be caught dead in a close fight with a good grappler.
So how did Tae Kwon Do go down this path? Simple, it became a sport, and not a blood sport, but a bloodless Olympic sport where all but the most inefficient ways of taking down a human being were deemed illegal. Serious martial artists no longer consider Tae Kwon Do a real martial art anymore.

That's not to say people who have learned Tae Kwon Do cannot fight. Because it is SO inefficient, Tae Kwon Do masters who have spent many years learning the martial art reach a level of conditioning that is quite outstanding. Their speed and strength alone are enough to carry the fight for them. However, the process and the time it takes to get there is simply outrageous and in a fight against someone who has mastered a more serious martial art, they are in deep trouble.

In a nutshell:
Tae Kwon Do...
- forces you to learn "Poomsae" which is basically running a pattern with your techniques. Completely useless in a fight but yet you'll spend a LOT of time memorizing them. Yeah it doesn't matter if you can take out the entire Dojang (training center), if you can't remember that the next move is lower block in a long stance, you're not advancing to the next level.
- kicks are too high. One mistake and you're fight's over in an instant.
- doesn't have enough punches/hand techniques.
- mostly punches the opponents chest. WTF is up with that?
- has no real world tactics whatsoever.
- has no idea what grappling is.

What do serious martial arts have in common? Their demonstration teams aren't as awe inspiring as Tae Kwon Do. They don't look as sexy. But they work.


Or you can just kick him in the shin, which would hurt more.

So if you are thinking about taking up Tae Kwon Do, ask yourself what it is you want. If you want to be a part of demonstrations etc., Tae Kwon Do just might fit you, but if you're joining because the poster tells you it's great for self defense (as that is the most common reason for joining), learn something else.

Oriental Medicine (Han-yak)

Korea's pretty big about oriental medicine. There are large hospitals which are largely dedicated to the practice and getting a license to be an oriental pharmacist takes a lot of effort and time.

Here's the official line: Oriental medicine is an effective way of countering illnesses. It doesn't work instantly like Western medicine, but it works for the long term and fixes the problem rather than just attack the symptom itself.

The truth: It doesn't work.

Let me tell you about my experiences with oriental medicine. I used to have a lot of issues with my stomach. For some reason it would act up quite often and it was being a serious problem. I was advised to go get some treatment through oriental medicine. So I went to the store, got that stuff... tried it for a long time and it didn't do a damned thing. All it did was taste bad. I went to regular hospitals and they didn't know either until one doctor recommended that I get an IV stuck in my arm for two days while fasting. Guess what? That fixed the problem.
Something as trivial as not eating or drinking for two days was the answer. The oriental medicine, didn't do a damned thing. Truth is, it never does anything beyond the effects of a placebo.


Scandalous, rip off, and an overall shitload of fuck.

So when a Korean guide or friend or perhaps a converted haiku writing penis pumper from California tries to tell you about the wonders of Oriental herbal medicine, ignore them. Punch them in the mouth if you can get away from it, but I can't recommend it here or else someone's actually going to do it, go to jail and then quote me, which will get me in trouble with the authorities. The authorities hate me enough already.

Let's look at some of the most common bullshit regarding Oriental medicine:
- It prevents cancer: The next asshole to try to sell me one saying this will get sued. No. I'll just buy a bunch of his stash, smoke a hundred packs of cigarettes, get cancer and get a lawyer. I'll sue the bastard down to his underwear.
- It is not instant, it works for the long term: Well what the hell do you mean? I'm supposed to KEEP taking this stuff forever? Oh, I get it. I take it until my natural body processes deal with it. What a way to bullshit people into buying a bunch of boiled wood.
- It's close to nature and in harmony with peace: Hey, remember those acupuncture charts?


Guess how the Chinese figured these out? In ancient times, when life was good and people were innocent, the Chinese got guys from death row and had them cut open alive. You see, those energy connections would die if the subject died and therefore had to be kept alive during the whole cutting up process. It's like how if you pinch a frog somewhere a limb moves and stuff. Except with people. And that's how acupuncture charts came about. Actually this might be the only part of Oriental medicine that may have some merit. Then again, you never know which ones are true and which ones they made up. Did you know that if you pinch the front edge of your ribcage about 1/3 from the bottom real hard the elbow on the same side of your body feels a reaction? But the harmonious part is seriously and dangerously bullshit.
Helps circulate blood: An old time Korean favorite. I guess it's not technically a lie because by drinking this you will instantly get red in the face trying to barf it out. Yeah, I'd say it circulates blood. But very, very misleading...

If you come to this side of the world, a lot of tours cover a part of traditional medicine, especially if the area you're visiting either has a market that is known for it, or if there's a place that grows the ingredients (like tours you take on Jeju island). It's all bullshit. It deserves no respect. It's not closer to earth and nature... if you rely on it you will join the earth and nature earlier than expected.
Chinese emperors often searched for eternal life. The Chinese doctors looked for ways to achieve this but emperors who went for it ended up dying early. The reason was because every time they made a new brew, mercury was always included. If you think about that, it makes you wonder if you want to take this stuff at all. Actually, I think the only way it "works" is that it tastes so disgusting that you will will yourself into getting healed a day faster so you don't have to take that crap anymore.

Declaring War on Bullshit

Bullshit is all around us.
At first I thought, I'll just make a site about bullshit in Korea since that's where I live and Korea happens to be full of bullshit (more so than most other countries I've lived in). But I thought, why stop there?
Because I live here most of my entries will be about Korea but generally, I think we all should declare war on bullshit because bullshit is dangerous and prevents us from doing the right thing.