Rest In Peace. Our Last WWI Digger.

Lest We Forget.

THE end came peacefully, before dawn’s sleepy arrival. A quiet finale to a harsher era. Our last man standing from the Great War had finally fallen.

At the mighty age of 110.

Rest In Peace, Jack Ross.

My granddad fought at Fromelle. So maybe this is a nice touch.

Thank you to all who have and do serve.

If we can’t afford it, how will you?

Talking about universal healthcare.

THE Australian system of free universal healthcare is set to disappear in as little as five years, prompting a radical plan for a new federal-state partnership to take control of hospitals and patient care.

Just how will Obama afford it? Treasury is going haywire, signs aren’t looking too great for the US dollar, and the US owes a record $63.8 trillion and counting. Still, let’s hope it isn’t as dire as this bloke makes out.

It appears, whether it’s on the international stage or on the domestic one, Obama is indeed living in fantasy land.

Obama Says Iran has a Right to go Nuclear: Good Luck New York

So, our president – who, as is becoming increasingly clear, lives in a fantasy world – says Iran has a right to have nuclear reactors.

“LONDON — President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful…

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.

“Without going into specifics, what I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations. On the other hand, the international community has a very real interest in preventing a nuclear arms race in the region,” Obama said.”

Yo, Obi-One, no nation that has leaders who proclaim that they want to wipe Israel off the map, and that also has ICBM’s that can reach New York City, has any right to anything nuclear. In fact, sanctions forever are all Iran deserves.

Hey New Yorkers, how does this make you feel? If you thought 09/11 was bad, imagine what NYC would look like today if 09/11 had been a nuclear attack instead of just a couple of airliners laden with jet fuel. It’s not hard.

Good night. Sleep tight.

C.R.A.P.

No. Quit jumping to conclusions. It’s not that. It’s a Carbon Rationing Assessment Protocol.

Hold up. This is for you. For you. It will help you and help others. It will help you to help others. It will help others to help you.

Sheep burping aside, this is the best contribution to global citizenry since the passport.

All rise and applaud the global whatchamacallit!

Winston Smith ponders

How?

The real question is how does Bolt do it? 24/7 non-pissfart-aboutness.

Going through the motions? Wheras I can offer the vid, Bolt delivers every day.

As for mwa, about this time of night, and with a day job, going through the motions simply involves the 1.2.3.4.

Danced up on stage with these boys one night. Was accused by a chick in the crowd of being a plant, lulz!

The old lady. 29 years+ and counting…

Mother. Not my future wife.

Says she’s never before seen shit like what we see these days. And she was born in a bunker during a Japanese bombing raid…

The problem is, for some time I’ve been convinced that socialism is upon us, and I mean really upon us. Now, I might be wrong, but that is why these things should be discussed. And I don’t mean discussed the way people who agree with each other rant and rave. I mean a national discussion along the lines of where we want to go.

And still more on Roh Moo-hyun

From the eyes of a Korean. Yes, I’ve been checking the Korean blogs out a bit more. After all, I do live here and I’m not really interested in chk-chk.

Spreading myself too thin? Probably. There’s Paco, Beck, Milquetoast, Kae, Sharpie, Margos, Kaboom, Andrew, Tim, Bankstown, the original bing all up waiting to be read, but it’ll just have to wait.

In the meantime…

Having said that, it would be foolish to be blind to the many failures of the Roh presidency. He was generally a poor diplomat who did not always have a smooth relationship with the U.S., Korea’s most important ally. It is also fair to say that Korea’s economy grew during his term despite his economic policy rather than thanks to it, as Roh’s policies focused more on distribution rather than growth, e.g., the extremely harsh property tax on the homeowners on certain ritzy parts of Seoul.

But the greatest failure of Roh was that he created a toxic partisan environment in which he relied on the small number of ardent supporters push through his agenda while alienating the greater public. In such a situation, successes during Roh’s presidency became discounted, while failures during Roh’s presidency – however attenuated Roh’s involvement is – were magnified. Toward the end of presidency, it was a common half-serious joke that if your toilet backed up, it was Roh Moo-Hyun’s fault.

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In essence, Roh’s governing style combined the worst elements of Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush, two of the worst American presidents since World War II.

That enough to hook yas?

And I thought I had too much time on my hands!

The latest cover of Metallica’s Enter Sandman.

By this guy.

H/T Roboseyo

Preemption

Well, since D won’t get off his worn butt (ummm, that’s just an expression) and post about my nephew…

Let me guess, D. You’re tired. Well boo hoo hoo. I deal with Koreans every day (Korean girls is tops, though).

Anyhoo, in his utter laziness, D has been meaning to mention son #2. Son #2 has emerged a strong specimen. Without argument, more handsome, bigger, and stronger (just as bing is compared to his older brother).

I’ll get back to you about smarter…

Now don’t get me wrong. #1 nephew, lets call him X, is the bee’s knees, and could well surpass D in the best big bro department…

Let’s put it this way. The VRWC has one more conspirator.

Epic LULZ: The World of the Future

What do you get when you combine the soundtrack of a fifty-year-old vision of the future, with video of current reality?

Why this; this is what you get.

H/T Jonah Goldberg.

Do you have a boss like this?

I work with idiots.

No, not my fellow teachers. They’re great. And no, not my students, either. I work for a city council in Korea, providing free English classes to the public, both to adults (usually housewives), and elementary school kids. As a result, the powers that be are bureaucrats. You can kinda see where this is headed, right?

Well, twice a year, the council likes to put on an English contest for the adult students. Sounds fine in theory, but this time ’round, not many of the students were interested despite being encouraged multiple times to participate. I can understand that. They’re busy and it usually takes over a month to prepare for their skit or song. Add that up. Students can end up spending three months of the year preparing for a five to ten minute performance.

Anyway, with a lack of interest abounding, another teacher at the meeting this morning suggested we hold a picnic somewhere, perhaps at some kind of significant landmark. The advantages were thus. Students would be able to use their English in a real world, natural if you will, environment. Think tourists. It wouldn’t be rehearsed or out of a textbook. It would be a more relaxed occasion. It can be quite nerve-racking for some getting up on stage in front of a bunch of strangers whilst also having to speak a second language. It would be free advertising for the program. Everybody likes picnics. Housewives in Korea are quite busy. There’d be less preparation time involved, and it’d be more fun.

I ran this by my morning class. Whereas none had really been interested in yet another contest, all were interested and excited at the prospect of a picnic. The weather is beautiful this time of year, we’d be outdoors, students could meet students and teachers from other offices… overall it would be a nice outing. They could each bring along a plate of food. A great day for the wider community.

No.

Our supervisor, our English speaking liaison with the non-English speaking, non-trained in the field of education bureaucrats who “run” the English program, namely a Mr S, wouldn’t have a bar of it. Well, to be fair, our supervisor was open to the idea at first, but when she ran it by the big cheese, nup. And she was quite, er, abrupt with her explanation. It would be too expensive hiring the buses and organising insurance. One teacher knows someone and can get two buses for free. No. Students would be prepared to pay a nominal fee, about five to ten dollars, to help (if not completely) cover costs.

No.

And attendance, once voluntary, is now compulsory, even though this program is run for free. Apparently now, if students don’t attend, that means we are bad teachers. We didn’t do enough.

Trying to reason with my liaison proved fruitless, as is always the case. Our current liaison, and her predecessor, are/were young women at their first job. As a result, there’s no way they can really “fight” for us in this patriarchal society. Still, even the first liaison was a man, yet younger, and/so he hit nothing but brick walls with the higher ups, too.

The “logic” is such. The contest must be held in order to assess students’ progress (the irony being there’d still be a contest held around Christmas time, anyhow). But how this will be achieved is beyond me. Our new supervisor has been at the job barely two weeks. How can she assess any progress? Mr S doesn’t speak a word of English.

In further efforts to reason, negotiate, and be flexible, I suggested, as a measure of improvement, it could be noted that students previously on textbook X part one, page one, are now nearly finished textbook X part three. No. Then how about visiting the classes and asking the students how they felt? No. A questionnaire? Two questions; Has your English improved and; By how much has your English improved? (Remember, these students are housewives doing this in their limited free time. It’s a free program, a community program. Why do the students need tests?!)

No.

(Most of the Korean education system has students studying for the test, not the real world. And they wonder why they can’t quite learn English. And besides, we’re talking about housewives here! But, I digress.)

No picnic. No to what the teachers wanted. No to what the students wanted.

Unbelievable.

So anyway, now I’m in a position where I am having to force students to do something that has always been voluntary. And for the stupidest of reasons. The only “reason” I can fathom is that Mr S is saving face. The contest is his idea. The picnic was the idea of someone ranked under him in the hierarchy, younger than him, and a foreigner. What an embarrassment to be outdone by such!

But this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. It’s always been his way or the highway. Any new idea, any new initiative, any new improvement, if it doesn’t come from his bureaucratic brain, doesn’t stand a chance. Countless times we are asked for ideas, we brainstorm… but to no avail.

To add insult to injury, even as I tried to reason, offer solutions, and be flexible, I was talked down to by someone with two weeks experience in the education field.

Whatever.

My contract is up soon. Not that I was going to re-sign anyway, but any slight feeling of regret I might have had certainly disappeared today.

Ten weeks. Then I’m free.

Do you have a boss similar to this? A co-worker, perhaps? Share your stories.

Vent volcanic vast right wing conspirators!