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.