A Few Things....

 Lots of stuff to talk about.....


Along with the sad passing of Levon Helm, Canadian actor Jonathan Frid of the Dark Shadows fame has also passed away.



North Korea threatens the juche equivalent of jihad on South Korea.... again:

North Korea demanded Thursday that South Korea apologise for what it called insults during major anniversary festivities, or face a "sacred war", as Seoul unveiled a new missile to deter its neighbour.

Regional tensions have risen since Pyongyang went ahead with a long-range rocket launch last Friday, defying international calls to desist.

The event was to have been a centrepiece of celebrations marking the 100th anniversary Sunday of the "Day of the Sun", the birthday of Kim Il-Sung who founded the communist nation and the dynasty which still rules it.

But the rocket, which the North said was designed to launch a satellite, disintegrated after some two minutes of flight.

"The puppet regime of traitors must apologise immediately for their grave crime of smearing our Day of Sun festivities," said a government statement on Pyongyang's official news agency.

Otherwise, it said, the North Korean people and military "will release their volcanic anger and stage a sacred war of retaliation to wipe out traitors on this land".

The North has several times demanded that the South apologise for perceived slights or face war since its longtime leader Kim Jong-Il died in December. Under his son and new leader Kim Jong-Un, it has struck a hostile tone with the South.

South Korea announced Thursday it has deployed new cruise missiles capable of destroying targets such as missile and nuclear bases anywhere in the North.

"With such capabilities, our military will sternly and thoroughly punish reckless provocations by North Korea while maintaining our firm readiness," Major General Shin Won-Sik told reporters.

Yonhap news agency said the new cruise missile could travel more than 1,000 kilometres (625 miles).

I think South Korea and Japan should put their differences aside, weaponise and join forces in the event either of them get attacked by China's lapdog. South Korea, then, should become super best friends with India which recently tested a long-range rocket that can reach China and I'm sure hasn't forgotten the nasty little business concerning the McMahon Line and the area China took from India. Increase the efforts to educate North Koreans about the outside world with pamphlets and free cell phones. Then South Korea should- dare- North Korea to attack.



Related: China halts the repatriation of North Korean defectors:

China has stopped sending fleeing North Koreans back across the border, in retaliation for Pyongyang failing to consult its ally over last week's rocket launch, a Japanese report said Wednesday.

The Yomiuri Shimbun quoted two Chinese officials as saying the long-standing policy of swiftly returning any North Korean who made it across the border and into China -- despite the punishment they face -- had been put on hold.

"If refugees are sent back, that's the end of their lives. We can't ignore it," one official in Liaoning province, which borders North Korea, told the paper, adding that deportations had been halted.

(Sidebar: I had to read that twice, too.)

Another official said the move was because Pyongyang had not consulted its patron about the botched launch of a rocket which the hermit state said was carrying a satellite, but which the West condemned as a banned missile test.

"North Korea failed to disclose specific plans of the missile launch to the Chinese side," the second official, whose position and location were not given, told the Yomiuri, Japan's biggest-selling daily newspaper.

(with thanks)



Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir threatens to overthrow South Sudan government:

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir threatened Wednesday to overthrow South Sudan's "insect" government, as world powers tried to pull the rivals from the brink of an all-out war after the South seized a key oil field.

"Our main target from today is to liberate South Sudan's citizens from the SPLM (Sudan People's Liberation Movement)," Bashir said, adding that the southern regime cannot be called a "movement".

"We call it an insect... trying to destroy Sudan, and our main target from today is to eliminate this insect completely."

This is a "blood for oil" war. Where are the activists?



(with thanks)



Does anyone remember Rachel Corrie? Read this and ask yourselves if you still feel sorry for her:

I was also told about how ISM activists serve to draw sniper fire down on IDF soldiers when desired. Lisa Nessan, one of those ISM trainers, told me at an ISM Georgetown conference that standing as a human shield in front of an armed terrorist as he threw rocks or shot at an Israeli soldier was indeed considered “nonviolent.” Joseph Carr, a.k.a. Joseph Smith, another ISM trainer, told me in a recorded phone interview how he and Rachel Corrie retrieved the dead body of a Hamas terrorist in Gaza from a combat zone only weeks before she was killed by an IDF bulldozer. When asked whether he feared arrest by the IDF back then he blithely replied ‘no’ because he knew that Arab snipers would be there to fire at them. Rachel Corrie, who was trained by the ISM and had read their manual, also knew that Arab snipers would shoot at the IDF soldiers driving that bulldozer had they exited it to remove her.

This is not at all safe for work or younger ears but it's such an eye-opener:








(with thanks)



For a good laugh, read how hard life has been for Obama who has clearly not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth:

President Obama assured working-class Ohioans that he wasn’t born into a wealthy family, in an apparent shot at Republican rival Mitt Romney.
“Somebody gave me an education,” Obama said today. “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Michelle wasn’t. But somebody gave us a chance.”

 Oh, the life he's had!




From the hostess with the mostest:

While the Tribunal ruled that the requirement was “discriminatory,” Ms. Price rejected calls from XY for a monetary award — or even an apology — on the basis that Ontario’s laws were not vindictive, just outdated. There is no evidence that the Ontario government “acted in a manner that was clearly wrong, in bad faith, an abuse of its powers,” she wrote.

Next, he will accuse chestnuts of being lazy.



Or we could just agree that there are only two genders and that the Ontario human rights commissions couldn't get more ridiculous if they tried.



(thumbs up)



And now, awesome animals and the important work that they do.