Posted by: DanNY ||
08/24/2011 14:07 ||
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#1
Now the watermelons will have to figure out a way that man is causing the cosmic rays to hit more, thus causing global warming because of his activities.
#2
Woo hoo! In which science works as it is supposed to do, leaving the shysters, the shamsters, and the fools to mutter into their beards. Thank you, DanNY!
#4
As is typical among frauds, they will continue their fraud in the face of all evidence, until the handcuffs are pulled out. And even under arrest and before the court many will swear up and down that the evidence is a lie.
Paul R. Ehrlich, butterfly scientists and overpopulation hysteric of the former generation, despite every single prediction proving false, still insists that his "solutions" to the "problem" of overpopulation must be followed.
And it should be no great surprise that Ehrich's "solutions" are almost identical to those proposed by the MMGW crowd.
#5
D *** NG IT, well I'm confused, does this mean the Teton Sioux Shaman in MYSTIC WARRIOR didn't see any DIVINE GIANT CRITTERS IN THE SKY during His = Madonna's "VISION QUEST"???
#7
You know, if I was an afghani who had the US's ear and was courting to bring over to their side I'd suggest all sorts of wild things might offend my people and see if the US Military is made to stop (a) Farting (b) Burping (c) Swearing (d) bathing (e) writing letters home, whatever i coudl think of and see what I could get away with.
[Chosun Ilbo] North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Monday that Pyongyang will dispose of South Korean-owned properties at the Mt. Kumgang resort and banned the removal of those assets as of Monday. The North also ordered remaining South Korean staff at Mt. Kumgang to leave within 72 hours. There are 14 South Koreans remaining at Mt. Kumgang, including staff of Hyundai Asan, which operated the package tours to the resort, as well as staff at a golf course there.
In April this year, the North cancelled an exclusive contract with Hyundai Asan to operate the tours that was to run until 2052, and in May it enacted a special law that gave it the right to dispose of the business. And in July, North Korea signed a memorandum of understanding ceding the tourism rights to a Korean-American businessman.
The reason why North Korea took such incremental steps to steal South Korean assets at Mt. Kumgang was probably that it wanted to gradually raise pressure to persuade Seoul to resume the tours, which were suspended after the fatal shooting of a tourist in 2008. But the South Korean government has been demanding a message of regret from the North and a pledge to prevent such incidents from happening again. That requires involvement of the authorities, but the North claims it already gave such assurances when North Korea's hereditary Supremo-for-Life Kim Jong-il ... widely considered to be more Stalinist than Stalin... met Hyundai chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun.
North Korea now appears to have played its last card of threatening to seize the assets at Mt. Kumgang resort and pursue the tourism business on its own. But does it really think that will work? If the North were to try, for example, to use the generators Asan installed to supply power to the resort, it needs at least several hundred tourists visiting Mt. Kumgang every day to pay fuel costs.
But of the total 1.93 million visitors to the resort between 1998 and 2008, non-Koreans accounted for only 12,817, or less than 1 percent, which comes to just four a day. It was South Koreans who were willing to pay a large amount of money, including fees to cross the border, to briefly set foot on Korean soil on the other side of the demilitarized zone, But for foreigners, the resort is just a place in the middle of nowhere.
Foreign investors who were cautiously calculating the viability of investments in North Korea were probably shocked to see the seizure of South Korean assets.
'Shocked' would imply that the investors could not foresee something like this happening; if that's the case, they aren't very smart investors and deserve to be separated from their money.
Now, now, let's not be overly harsh. Say rather that they aren't very smart investors and sooner rather than later will separate themselves from their money no matter how carefully they are protected from the possibility. Darwin always wins.
The North scrapped a 50-year contract with Asan as if it was not worth the paper it was written on and even invented a new law enabling it to sign a deal with somebody else. Which investor in his right mind would want to put his money in a country like that? As long as North Korea refuses to abandon its gangster tactics, Kim Jong-il can travel to Russia and discuss as many gas pipeline deals as he likes. It will all lead to nothing.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
The trouble with dealing with Dictators is they tend to be dicks.
#2
Have I got this straight? Somebody built a tourist resort in NorK? And tourists actually went there?
In God's name, why?
"Foreign investors who were cautiously calculating the viability of investments in North Korea were probably shocked to see the seizure of South Korean assets."
Shocked? Then they're IDIOTS.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/24/2011 20:03 Comments ||
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#3
And neither the US-West nor China, etc. will be able to help Kimmie + DPRK out, or begin the exploration of deep space, iff our future OWG-NWO Perts are wrong as per "Biotic Oil" + available future World Reserves ["Peak Resources = Everything"].
2040-2070 > "PEAK EENRGY/RESOURCES" = IMO WILL MAKE-OR-BREAK BOTH DESIRED OWG + "SPACE ORDER".
#4
ION WORLD NEWS > A SECOND KOREAN WAR WILL [ultimately] BE A SINO-AMERICAN WAR.
IMO its prolly to safe won't be limited to the Korean Penisula only or even NE Asia/NORPAC, i.e. will likely also include or extend to Japan, Taiwan, Russia, + both Pakistan + India???
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US SCIENTISTS PREDICTS CHINA'S ACTUAL NUCLEAR STOCKPILE IS 3600 WARHEADS, i.e. more than the COMBINED NUC ARSENALS of the US, Russia as per START Limits.
As covertly stored or mostly stored China's alleged "UNDERGROUND GREAT WALL" in Heibei province.
ARTIC = END OF "MINIMAL DETERRENCE" POLICY FOR CHINA???
* TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > NORTH KOREA [just]BOUGHT A HUGE NUMBER OF CHINESE MILITARY VEHICLES, + 000's of Chinese-made Civilian-Industrial Vehicles.
HMMMMM, HMMMMM, SADDAMIST IRAQ'S INFAMOUS POST-DESERT SHIELD'S "HIGHWAY OF DEATH" = now 2011's "HIGHWAY OF LIFE", VERSUS "PLA ECONOMIC CONQUEST", FOR NORTH KOREA???
versus
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > US "STEALTH" WARSHIPS DEPLOYED TO SOUTH CHINA SEA TO TEST CHINA'S NERVE - WW3 START???
* TOPIX > RUSSIA'S WARNING TO AZERBAIJAN AGZ NEW WAR [wid Armenia] CANNOT ENSURE NAGORNO-KARABAKH SECURITY: POLITICAL EXPERT [Karen Bekaryn].
Moscow has previously informed Muslim Azerbaijan that it will side wid Christian Armenia iff war breaks out oer Nagorno-Karabakh region.
IOW, Russia's warnings may NOT deter or prevent any new Azeri-Armenian War oer N-K, espec given Russia's own on-going econ + other troubles.
#5
OOOPSIES, forgot TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > CHINA DEFENDS BOAT PATROL IN [Japan] DISPUTED WATERS.
China's Senkaku Isles/Islands = Japan's Daoyus.
* CHINESE MIL FORUM POSTER > gave short summary on how Cold War Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev offered to return the islands back to Japan back in 1960, but was rejected by the US vee Alan Dulles.
[Dawn] ISSUES of governance stare you in the face in any span of 24 hours, as Bloody Karachi bleeds, institutions clash, bully boyz strike, extortion destroys commerce and the state is accused of abducting its own citizens.
Glance at a national daily on any day, say an issue of Dawn last week, and we can see that a day in the life of the nation is symptomatic of a year or a whole tenure of the government or indeed several decades of civil and military rule. You will find the PPP government subjected to allegations of poor performance, misinformation and insincerity of purpose in the context of the ongoing conflict between the judiciary and the executive. This is an indicator of the fragility of institutional life inside the state.
The cycle of suspension and reinstatement of FIA officials in the NICL scam inquiry at the hands of the government and the Supreme Court respectively has become a clash of institutions. The judiciary and the elite sections of society point to the government's lack of commitment to implementing the court's orders. On its part, the government thinks that the judiciary has overstepped its assignment, whereby it is seeking to micromanage the administration and moving from the role of referee to that of a player in the field.
Indeed, the government has been so grossly engaged in the game of survival in office that it has hardly taken any positive, concrete or result-oriented executive measures to streamline the state machinery. No government can depend on the storm gathering on the political horizon for years as an alibi for non-delivery of services here and now. For example, a terror attack in Landi Kotal is combined with several other news items that throw light on a non-functioning state: the menace of extortion eating into the vitals of commerce in Bloody Karachi, the team of a price-checking magistrate fleeing under pressure exerted by a local MPA and the gross inefficiency in the matter of the registration of 500 drugs with the requisite agency.
The PPP-led government continues to be ill-equipped with the wherewithal to face natural disasters. The management of an underwater Badin is a case in point that involves an estimated Rs130bn loss of crops, apart from the gross disruption in social life. The damage to villages in Kasur because of the rising water level in the Sutlej is another natural calamity at a small scale.
The state capacity must improve. The incumbent government has the responsibility to improve it.
Several news items, on one day, concerning missing persons present a challenge to the credibility of the state's premier intelligence agencies. Their officials deposed in court in Lahore as part of the inquiry into the gruesome murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, in the context of a forceful denial from their side. They also denied holding a missing Hizbut Tahrir ...an al-Qaeda recruiting organization banned in most countries. It calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate... activist allegedly in their custody, in a case in the Islamabad High Court. There was a plea and a counter-plea to shift the case to the Lahore High Court, with reference to a previous case about another missing person.
In Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, the high court warned of action against officials from whom a missing person is recovered after they declare innocence in the matter. A petitioner in a habeas corpus case pointed to two of her neighbours who apparently offered to recover her husband and brother from the custody of an intelligence agency on payment. A similar case of the missing was alleged to be the handiwork of the Criminal Investigation Department. The latter allegedly took Rs250,000 for the release of the missing man, but did not free him. The persistent news about the missing persons points to a shameful dimension of our national politics.
These perceptions of, allegations against and aspersions cast on the state of Pakistain point to a huge gap of trust between the rulers and the ruled. Does the elected government feel that the unelected institutions are beyond its sphere of influence and authority? Apologists for the government might claim that this is a case of responsibility without power. Others would question the moral right of the ruling setup to be at the helm in the current situation in the first place.
As always, women remain at the bottom of the ladder of social security, personal stability and physical wellbeing. There is the news that an Afghan husband came to Pakistain from England to reclaim his wife, whom he had abandoned eight years ago.
When refused, he killed her and several others from her family. Are people too unruly for the government to handle, too brutal in cultural terms to be tolerant and too misogynistic to respect women and their will? Has the government washed its hands off the social and cultural ills prevailing in society, especially when women are the victims?
Has the state dispensed with the need to protect citizens' entitlement to security? How did it become the target of allegations of abducting and killing its own citizens? Is the state doomed to live with inefficiency, red-tapism and patent weaknesses to establish its writ against terrorism as well as social terrorism such as extortion? Will the clash of institutions continue till it rocks the boat or will the executive and the judiciary find a modus operandi to keep the system in place?
One day in the nation's life as reflected through the print media in Pakistain may not be a microcosm of the whole reality about politics and the state. However, Houston lies southeast of Dallas... it reflects on the menace of ungovernability that has made inroads into our social and political life. Reading the news about the declining writ of the state and the security apparatus creating insecurity makes one ask: is Pakistain ungovernable? This question poses a great challenge to all those who want to see Pakistain as a modern and stable country. Only a strong, authoritative, confident, legitimate and responsible government can deal with the turbulence all around.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
love the graphic
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/24/2011 8:41 Comments ||
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#2
Just read about the First Sikh war which took place primarily in what is now Pakistan and I got the impression that the folks in that area simply want conflict, if not an external enemy (meddling in Afghanistan and Kashmir) they will turn to an internal enemy and tear the country apart.
#4
Mongols managed Ok. Men whose heads have been removed tend to be a very peaceable lot, easy to manage, don't cause trouble, but smell very bad after a few hours in the sun.
[Dawn] For a self proclaimed religious society we are incredibly reserved when it comes to talking openly and frankly about our own religious experience and journey. It is almost an unwritten law in many Mohammedan majority societies and communities to voice any sort of doubt in one's religious convictions. It becomes blasphemous to even speak about the injustices committed in the name of faith out in the open. But this creates a religiosity that is based on hypocrisy and whose principle mechanism is not love or compassion but moral policing and coercion.
Without freedom there is no Islam -- it is as simple as that. But talking about our own experiences, journeys, tribulations and trials should be part and parcel of a healthy society that takes religion seriously. Take for instance Al Ghazali's work, 'Deliverance From Error', or in the Christian tradition, St. Augustine's work, 'Confessions'. Both these works are considered great pieces of literature that document the intense and very personal nature of religious experience. And that is exactly what is missing from Pakistain today -- the idea of religious experience. The idea that one has to go through a journey and a voyage of discovery to truly make sense of one's religious convictions -- because the impression given by televangelists like Amir Liaquat is that faith can be magically received by a simple telephone call or by paying others to pray for you. In Pakistain, faith has been turned in a cold commodity, devoid of spirit, removed from humanity and can be bought and sold for the right price.
We must revive the tradition of talking openly and compassionately about our own religious experiences to humanise religion and to realise that we as human beings will always stutter, err and falter. Instead of seeing religious doubt as a crisis we should see it as an opportunity. It is an opportunity to deepen our relationship with God and is a chance for deep religious meditation -- which is of course the lesson of Ramazan.
In our own time, it is American convert Jeffery Lang who bravely carries on this tradition of candidly asking questions aloud. His two works, 'Struggling to Surrender' and 'Even Angels Ask' are the hidden gems of modern religious literature -- they are beautifully written with a rare sense of honesty and many of the questions he raises are the ones I have always had. But he not only questions some of the existential aspects of faith, he also takes aim at the performance and conduct of Mohammedan communities and highlights some uncomfortable parts of the historical tradition of Mohammedan jurists and scholars.
What is the point of brushing under the carpet the questions that we have?
Keeping silent prevents one being labelled apostate, with its command of execution mandated upon any Muslim able to execute it. There have been a number of such executions recently, with the killers garlanded and applauded by the lawyers prosecuting the case thereafter. This kind of thing does rather nail the concept home...
Without doubt faith becomes stagnant, lazy and dogmatic -- it becomes a thorn rather than a rose. But to keep the rose alive one has to be vigilant and compassionate to maintain its beauty and fragrance. And so it is that with doubt faith grows and becomes a little wiser and more thoughtful.
Other instances can be seen in religious gatherings which are meant to act as study circles for the faithful to deepen their knowledge. Unfortunately knowledge is the furthest thing from the mind of the preachers who organise these gatherings. The sole purpose of the person in charge is to make others feel worthless, useless and belittle them not only in the eyes of human beings but also of God. Questions are unwelcome in these gatherings -- they are seen as outbursts of the devil himself.
Furthermore, Pakistain's culture of televangelism gives us a picture of dogmatism in the nation. When Ramazan should be a time of asking deep questions about spirituality, faith and humanity these televangelists shut all doors to rational thought and instruct their avid followers in a course of religious zombificiation. Audiences grip on to every word of these television personalities reducing the scope and meaning of Ramazan into a self-righteous lecture rather than a time of exploration.
And that's just the point. Reading the cultural trends surrounding Ramazan one can say that for a religious nation Pakistain has a deeply impoverished sense of spirituality. Many Paks proudly point to the Sufi heritage that is said to define Mohammedan religiosity in Pakistain but there is very little example of that in the media trends. There is a very cut-throat approach to religion in the media. There is almost a capitalistic approach where in order to drive up viewer ship the sermons become fierier.
It's a familiar scene on Pak television. Turn your TV on and there standing proud and tall, with a halo on his head and white doves dancing in his beard, trumpeting his call of salvation and hope to all that would lend an ear the preacher radiates strength from the pulpit. The preacher talked and his audience merely nodded in complete silence. Amidst the thunderous words of the preacher, faith was made subservient to political power, reason lost its place, and dissent is frowned upon as blasphemous.
But perhaps the greatest obstacle to asking candid and difficult questions is our continued obsession with the 'West'. We have become paralysed by the constant bombardment of conspiracy theories to the extent we have lost the ability to ask questions. If you raise a point about women in Mohammedan societies the classic retort it 'x number of women get raped in American every second/minute/day/year' and therefore we are superior. The most pressing need in Pakistain is to disengage from this obsession with the 'West' and then ask the real questions.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[HT 
North Korea
North Korea's hereditary Supremo-for-Life Kim Jong-il
ISSUES of governance stare you in the face in any span of 24 hours, as 
