Why the desire to pull the troops out of Iraq in the first place?

*posted first on Friday Feb. 10, here*

In the Australian today:

NO sooner did President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence across Baghdad and elsewhere revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis.

Unfortunate, yet hardly surprising, even to the most casual of observers.

And whilst I can understand (yet not agree with) the Left’s position not to send troops into Iraq in the first place – an argument, largely moot, for another day – what I don’t understand is their fervish desire to pull the troops out.

It always smacked of idealism, ideology, rather than hard-nosed practicality.

After all, what was so bad with having a US troop presence there to help maintain Iraq’s fragile democratic stability?

One could argue that I am biased because a) I am centre-right politically and b) because I live in South Korea, a nation that has had a US troop presence – some 37,000  28,000 or so currently – since the armistice between North and South Korea and have seen what a permanent US troop presence looks like.

I am happy to accept those labels and can gladly tell you that such a presence ain’t that bad.

By and large,  US bases in Korea – and Japan for that matter – haven’t been a problem.

Sure, issues pop up from time to time, but if one looks at the big picture, then a strong US presence here can only be seen as a good thing, a safe option, a pretty darn good insurance policy against North Korea trying anything major on.

Almost 60 years we’ve had US troops over here without any major problems. In fact, many major problems (a full-scale Nork attack comes to mind) have arguably been averted thanks to this presence.

So, why the rush to leave Iraq essentially free of any US military  before even a decade is up and before, as is clear now, the job is done?

OK, so perhaps it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. US troops in Korea, aside from those stationed at the DMZ, aren’t on active duty as they were in Iraq.

However, it’s not a completely dissimilar situation. Perhaps a good analogy would be to compare mandarins and oranges.

US troops not only provided safety and stability in the fledgling democracy that is Iraq – a country still steeped with sectarian and tribal rivalries – but surely they also provided a deterrence to anybody or any groups who want to destabilise the nation.

What takes years to build can take mere seconds to destroy, and I fear a lot of hard work is being undone on the whim of a flawed, feel-good, ideology.

So why?

The only practical reason that I can see for Obama pulling his troops out of Iraq is that with an Iranian confrontation looming which includes action needed in Syria, Iraq frankly isn’t important enough any more or at best, an impractical option for a potentially over-stretched military.

Of course, Obama – a man of the progressive Left – can’t actually come out and say that but it is reasonably well-known to those who don’t just get their news from the MSM that Obama is actually more of a war-time president than Bush was, having committed more troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and for a longer period of time.

So whilst the MSM might play along with the “bringing the troops home” narrative, the evidence indicates this simply isn’t the case.

Some 20,000 marines, seamen and air crews from half a dozen countries, a US nuclear aircraft carrier strike group and three US Marine gunship carriers are practicing an attack on a fictitious mechanized enemy division which has invaded its neighbor. It is the largest amphibian exercise seen in the West for a decade, staged to simulate a potential Iranian invasion of an allied Persian Gulf country and a marine landing on the Iranian coast. Based largely on US personnel and hardware, French, British, Italian, Dutch, Australian* and New Zealand military elements are integrated in the drill.
Bold Alligator went into its operational phase Monday, Feb. 6, the same day as a large-scale exercise began in southern Iran opposite the Strait of Hormuz. This simultaneity attests to the preparations for a US-Iranian showdown involving Israel behind the words on Feb. 5 of US President Barack Obama (“I don’t think Israel has decided whether to attack Iran”) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 3 (“The war itself will be ten times as detrimental to the US.”).

(*BTW, I don’t recall Aussie PM Gillard highlighting that one.)

And this:

As the US and Israel carried on bickering over the right time to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, their war preparations continued apace. debkafile’s military sources report that flight after flight of US warplanes and transports were to be seen this week cutting eastward through the skies of Sinai on their way to Gulf destinations, presumably Saudi Arabia, at a frequency not seen in the Middle East for many years.

Add into this mix reports that China will reportedly help Saudi Arabia build a nuclear bomb, and that both China and India have started paying Iran for its oil in gold thus helping thwart current US/UN sanctions (more of which were recently thwarted by Russia and China), then we see a stage set for a showdown and we see the reality that rhetoric aside, Obama won’t be bringing many troops home at all.

To someone who doesn’t know any better, it’s as if Russia, India, and China – all wannabe first chickens to the trough – are ganging up on America.**

PS Who wouldn’t love to be a fly on the wall listening in to what the US is really saying about China? Their ever-expanding use of soft power is in many ways, stuffing it all up for America. China must surely be becoming an ever-increasing pain in the neck.

This leaves Australia in an interesting position. Our main export partner is China. Our main ally is the US. We send China our goodies to help them get rich and rival America. We practice shooting our guns with America to help keep America on top.

And yet China and America are also so deep in each other’s pockets. America buys China’s goods. China buys America’s debt.

Fun times.

** I highly recommend reading The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. Part of the book talks about the pecking order of nations.

Where’s Big Counterjihad When You Need It?

Over at Gov and Vlad Tepes a call has gone out for assistance. The remarkable Fjordman is in somewhat straightened circumstances, so a few of us are helping put the word out for him. He hasn’t had a blog of his own for years, although that has not stopped his productivity. What did slow him down, however, was the Norwegian gunman Breivik naming him (among others) as being a bit of an inspiration*. I personally think that Breivik’s ‘manifesto’ is a load of tripe. Breivik talks of christianity, say’s he’s not one, and yet gets wheeled out as being a fundamentalist christian. As someone who is into Extreme Popery, I call bullshite. In the meantime, and along with everything else, Fjordman has now pretty much lost everything – job, home, country. I’ve got a cat he could have, but that’s no use when there’s nowhere to keep it. He does have a few (for him) words over at Vlad’swhich I’ll paste here:

Hello from Peder Jensen alias Fjordman. I will continue writing under one name or the other and hope to publish several books in the next year and a half, but after the Breivik case in Norway, which I got mixed up in against my will, I no longer have a job and I am also moving out of my old flat in Oslo, which I already left weeks ago. There are always some costs involved in moving to a different location and creating a new life somewhere else. If you have enjoyed some of my essays in the past I would be grateful if you donated a few bucks this time. Think of it as a Fjordman Relocation Fund. Just mark the donations as being for me and I will get it via Vlad’s fine website. Thank you, and thank you for all the support and kind words I get from long-time readers. Peder

This is not quite a twilight bark – more a twilight blog. *very interesting review of Breivik’s ‘manifesto’ by someone of the left-persuasion. I’m not sure she’s read the Reliance, or the hadiths or the Hedaya, but that’s only to be expected. A few weeks with HuT might help her with a few things. Like the fact that muslims believe that sharia law is Allah’s Law for all men for all time, so whether she agrees with it or not is irrelevant. That’s not conspiracy theory, neither is it conspiracy that a man has been hounded out of his home for writing some hard-hitting essays that focus on the Decline and Fall of Western Civilisation. We’re just not supposed to mention the islamists because we’re not allowed to hurt feelings. Please check out the post over at VladTepes, and if you can donate money to assist Fjordman, please do. If you can’t, then linklove and prayers are most welcome also.

crossposted at rightwingdeathbogan.

At least it isn’t self-service

While the rest of the meal of seared Asian duck and pork and paua spring rolls sounds delicious – it is the Hoihoi tatea, or horse semen drink which is on everyone’s minds.

Green Man Pub chef, Jason Varley, said the drink was proving most popular with women

And to think that all this time people have been making sheep jokes about kiwis.

EXCLUSIVE: Latest OBL clarification from the White House

In the face of the confusion over dueling narratives from various White House sources, The Telegraph’s Damian Thompson releases the definitive White House clarification in full:

In an earlier briefing, we may have given the impression that Osama bin Laden was armed when we stormed his compound. We meant, of course, that he was unarmed. Moreover, we would like to clarify that when we said he resisted arrest, that was merely a figure of speech. In addition, we would like to make a small correction to our report that bin Laden used his wife as a human shield; he did not, in fact, use his wife as a shield. Earlier statements that she was killed were, of course, a misunderstanding. She was not killed; that was another lady. Furthermore, we would like to remove any doubt over our claim that we have decided to release a photograph of Osama bin Laden’s body by confirming that we shall not be releasing any pictures of the body. We trust that this clears up any confusion.

I hope that clarifies things for y’all.  We now return you to your Most Open & Transparent Government Evah™ !

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UPDATE:  Must-read Treacher – Obama Administration Takes Victory Lap in Clown Car

It’s been less than 72 hours since President Barack Obama announced that U.S. Special Forces had killed Osama Bin Laden. Since then, his administration has been hard at work screwing the whole thing up.   [CLICK]

“We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail”

“We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.”
— George W. Bush, 2001

“Tonight America has sent an unmistakable message. No matter how long it takes, judgment will be done.”
— George W. Bush, 2011

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UPDATE:  The story of how Osama was killed is coming out, and it’s pretty awesome. “Osama Bin Laden Killed By Navy Seals in Firefight”

UPDATE II: My friend Garth Godsman with the lamest Tweet of the day, so far.

UPDATE III:  Andrew Bolt, Tim Blair

Confirmed: The Bolt Report

Bolt Derangement Syndrome sufferers, start your engines… whiiiiine!

Ten has confirmed it will launch a new Sunday morning program, The Bolt Report, hosted by Herald Sun journalist Andrew Bolt on 8 May.

The Bolt Report will air at 10am, before Meet the Press, Ten’s existing political program which will move to 10.30am.

I hope Andrew Bolt remembers to thank his biggest fans, including Jeremy Sear.  Heh.

UPDATE:  Twitterati react

UPDATE 2:  A boycott?  Really? So much for the Left’s much-vaunted “tolerance”.  Anyway – you want to bet these people will be some of the show’s most avid (read: obsessed) viewers?

UPDATE 3:  I blame Sarah Palin’s Climate of Hate™ – “I have $30,000 in the bank if anyone out there is a professional assassin and can kill Andrew Bolt“

UPDATE 4:  Panic stations! “[W]e are heading into worrying times for the network and the state of news in this country … are diverse opinions welcome at Ten anymore? … are Sunday mornings now the home of Coalition talking points and fringe climate change deniers?”  Oh, this is going to be fun.   Remember your popcorn!

As Obama’s War Begins in Libya, Peace Activists Hold Rally at White House…

…Against the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

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“You know it makes sense!”

h/t @WeaselZippers

UPDATE:

BUT BUT BUT!!!!! HE’S NOT BUSH!!!!!! heh. #ChimpyMcObamaHitlerHalliburton

Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste: Earthquake? Tsunami? Global Warming!!!

We all knew this was going to happen – it was just a matter of “when”.  As it turns out, it didn’t take very long at all.

Hours after a massive earthquake rattled Japan, environmental advocates connected the natural disaster to global warming.  The president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Staffan Nilsson, issued a statement calling for solidarity in tackling the global warming problem.

“Some islands affected by climate change have been hit,” said Nilsson. “Has not the time come to demonstrate on solidarity – not least solidarity in combating and adapting to climate change and global warming?”

“Mother Nature has again given us a sign that that is what we need to do,” he added.

Lee Doren of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has been collecting some of the highlights – er, lowlights – via Twitter.  See them here at The Daily Caller.

UPDATE:  “Global warming alarmists are to natural disasters what the Westboro Baptist Church is to military funerals.” Just so.

UPDATE 2:  Tim Blair on Anthropogenic Tectonic Warming®.  You know it makes sense!

h/t @LDoren, @JTlol, @DailyCaller

Tim Blair PWND!!

On Friday, March 4th, so-called “journalist” Tim Blair made fun of a man for having the wisdom and foresight to grow his tomatoes in his basement, behind barred windows.

The very next day, we read of this.

I know. It’s Adelaide.  And if something freaky is gonna happen it’s gonna happen in freaking Adelaide.

But still.

I call PWND.

Australia’s Carbon Tax: Brought To You By Julia’s Ratchet-Jawed Purveyors Of Monkey-Doodle And Baked Wind

In honour of The Labor-Green Carbon Tax They Promised We Wouldn’t Have, let’s revisit my favourite part of the lecture PJ O’Rourke delivered to the Centre for Independent Studies (@CISOZ) in Sydney a couple of years ago:

America has wound up with a charming leftist as a president. And this scares me. This scares me not because I hate leftists. I don’t. I have many charming leftist friends. They’re lovely people – as long as they keep their nose out of things they don’t understand. Such as making a living.

When charming leftists stick their nose into things they don’t understand they become ratchet-jawed purveyors of monkey-doodle and baked wind. They are piddlers upon merit, beggars at the door of accomplishment, thieves of livelihood, envy coddling tax lice applauding themselves for giving away other people’s money. They are the lap dogs of the poly sci-class, returning to the vomit of collectivism. They are pig herders tending that sow-who-eats-her-young, the welfare state. They are muck-dwelling bottom-feeders growing fat on the worries and disappointments of the electorate. They are the ditch carp of democracy.

And that’s what one of their friends says.

Although no one would ever accuse anyone in Australia’s current Labor–Green government (‘Seriously. Just look at them’) of being “charming”, the rest fits like a glove.

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Update: We ask our Australian readers to ‘Just Say No to Monkey-Doodle and Baked Wind’ by signing this petition (5000+ signatures so far and counting) sponsored by Menzies House.  And if you’re on Twitter, please follow & support @MenziesHouse, @NoCarbonTax and Community Organiser par excellence @Tim_Andrews. Cheers.

Channel 7’s Mark Riley Reacts Badly To Accusation That He Still Beats His Wife

Or, as Colonel Robert Neville says, “What’s good for the goose is good for the slander.”

No, really.

Pike river follow up.

Bad news for the families of the miners lost in the Pike River mining accident.

The poor sods wont get the bodies back, conditions are unlikely to allow the safe retrieval of any remains for the forseeable future.

This was a fairly widespread opinion held by most mining crew Ive worked with, the scale of the fires/explosions and subsequent weakening of any ground support made this a likely outcome. But its a bitter pill for the families and friends to swallow. And for those who want to know why the bodies arent available Ill just ask, how many living mines rescue blokes are worth killing to retrieve the deceased? Its hard, but one live miner is worth 100 dead ones.

RIP blokes.

US Citizen? Sign the petition against cap n’ trade

If you’re a man-made global warming sceptic, or if you think the science perhaps isn’t settled, or if you are worried about a potential communist world government, or if you are worried about giant non-sovereign world taxes being imposed on all of us, or if you think the governments of this world already have too much power, or even if you’re not convinced yet either way, and don’t want a road paved that there’s no turning back on in just two short weeks, then sign this petition.

SIGN HERE

People literally right now are speaking at Copenhagen presenting the other side to this man-made CO2-driven man-made climate change/global warming argument. They will also be speaking tomorrow. Time is of the essence.

UPDATE

This post differs from the original. It came from watching the latest Monckton videos (the end of Part 4 of which part 1 was posted by 1.6 below), about a GLOBAL problem – but unfortunately only US citizens can sign that petition. Hence, first update removed, replaced with this.

Rupert vs Google II

An interesting take…

The art of verbal self-defense can be tricky. Ramble on while defending yourself against critics, and you can expose yourself to new criticisms. For a recent and clear case study in this misstep, look no further than Google’s own Eric Schmidt. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece titled “How Google Can Help Newspapers,” Schmidt set out to argue what has been said a million times before, and what everyone but news executives in denial will admit: The Internet isn’t killing news, it’s forcing it through a painful evolution into a new business model.

The op-ed came a few days after Rupert Murdoch made a gutsy bluff to block Google from indexing stories on News Corp.’s sites. Murdoch is no dummy, and all his huffing and posturing is aimed less at preserving a dead business model than at testing his leverage in a new one –- the way a mischievous kid tests a new babysitter to see what he can get away with. And it was cunning of Schmidt to push Murdoch back on his own playground. But in the course of stating the obvious –- Google isn’t killing newspapers –- Schmidt made a few spurious arguments of his own.

Read on.

Genetic Science Poised to Destroy Political Correctness

If you are – as I am – a readerof John Derbyshire, then this story will come as no shock.

“Human geneticists have reached a private crisis of conscience, and it will become public knowledge in 2010. The crisis has depressing health implications and alarming political ones. In a nutshell: the new genetics will reveal much less than hoped about how to cure disease, and much more than feared about human evolution and inequality, including genetic differences between classes, ethnicities and races.”

Just a guess, but I don’t think these scientists would be squirming if, say, there was proof that the Jews weren’t the Chosen People descended from Abraham. Like I say, just a guess.

“When sequencing costs drop within a few years below $1,000 per genome, researchers in Europe, China and India will start huge projects with vast sample sizes, sophisticated bioinformatics, diverse trait measures and detailed family structures. (American bioscience will prove too politically squeamish to fund such studies.)”

Gee, I wonder why the leftist-dominated scientific and political community in the US would be too, “squeamish” to fund such objective and purely scientific research?

“The trouble is, the resequencing data will reveal much more about human evolutionary history and ethnic differences than they will about disease genes. Once enough DNA is analysed around the world, science will have a panoramic view of human genetic variation across races, ethnicities and regions. We will start reconstructing a detailed family tree that links all living humans, discovering many surprises about mis-attributed paternity and covert mating between classes, castes, regions and ethnicities.”

Ah, that sheds a tad of light on the “issues” involved. There is a danger of slaying sacred cows.

“If the shift from GWAS to sequencing studies finds evidence of such politically awkward and morally perplexing facts, we can expect the usual range of ideological reactions, including nationalistic retro-racism from conservatives and outraged denial from blank-slate liberals. The few who really understand the genetics will gain a more enlightened, live-and-let-live recognition of the biodiversity within our extraordinary species—including a clearer view of likely comparative advantages between the world’s different economies.”

Yes, the inherent racism of conservatives – barely covered by a thin veneer of feigned civility *cough*bullshit*cough* – will be unleashed by scientific facts, and the poor leftards will again deny that their worldview has been shattered.

Only one of those two things are true.

Only superstitious idiots fear knowledge and understanding, wherever they come down on the political spectrum.

ClimateGate… Booyah!

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock the last day or so…

Hacked alleged emails between some of our “top” climate scientists have revealed collusion, manipulation of data, suppression of data, deletion of data, team efforts to sideline skeptics ie. anyone who’s research didn’t fit the man-made global warming narrative…

Bolt’s booyah here, here, here, and here.

Blair’s booyah here.

Jules’ booyah here (lotsa good links on that one).

An excellent round up here.

Where it all began here.

HotAir’s take here.

A few tidbits have even made it to the MSM. Interesting since this is potentially the biggest news story since 9/11. At least James Delingpole’s excited.

Check it out for yourself here, or search the emails for keywords here – with thanks to anelegantchaos.

Gavin at RealClimate is having a hell of a time defending it all.

Naturally, Anthony Watts was on to it early.

I won’t link to ClimateAudit. Steve’s site is taking a beating.

In fact, it’s all over the blogosphere. With something potentially, if proved right, so serious, that will affect billions of people and dictate where trillions of dollars go, and yet where there are whiffs of conspiracy, collusion, manipulation, suppression and deletion of key data, why on Earth isn’t this all over the news channels?!

UPDATE

It’s even on Yahoo Answers. The longer the MSM stays essentially silent on this, the more they mute their relevance.

UPDATE II

Slowly, slowly, they might just be coming round. This is just too big to suppress.

Link (puff).

Link.

Link.

H/T Bolt who notes, “I suspect this is a story that newspapers should not entrust to their environment reports.”

UPDATE III [Beef]

Keep and eye on Power Line also, as John has latched his analytical legal mind onto this subject, and when he decides to get to the bottom of something, the bottom better be afraid… very afraid.

“The biggest news story of the day is one that has barely begun to break and will continue to reverberate for months or years to come. Someone hacked into a computer at the University of East Anglia’s Hadley Climatic Research Centre, one of the main centers of anthropogenic global warming research. The hacker downloaded 62 megabytes of data from the server, consisting of around 1,000 emails and a variety of other documents. He uploaded them to an FTP server, where they were available to the public, apparently, for only a few hours. The event is described here.

Before the documents disappeared from that location, several people had downloaded them and posted them in other locations. I downloaded all of the material earlier today and have begun to review it. The emails are stunning. They are authored by many of the leading figures in the global warming movement: Michael Mann, James Hansen, Phil Jones, Keith Briffa, Stephen Schneider, and others. They are remarkably candid; these individuals talk to each other with the knowledge that they are among friends.

The emails I’ve reviewed so far do not suggest that these scientists are perpetrating a knowing and deliberate hoax. On the contrary, they are true believers. I don’t doubt that they are sincerely convinced–in fact, fanatically so–that human activity is warming the earth. But the emails are disturbing nonetheless. What they reveal, more than anything, is a bunker mentality. These pro-global warming scientists see themselves as under siege, and they view AGW skeptics as bitter enemies.”

Read the whole enchilada. Warministas are fundamentalist dead-enders, just like Jihadists.

 

UPDATE IV

BOOYAH! Bolt goes in for the kill. Talk about a boys’ club!

Fox is Obama’s enemy

Not just conjecture, it’s official.

“We’re going to treat [fox] the way we would treat an opponent.”

That was Anita Dunn, White House communications director.

“They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news network the way CNN is.”

AHAHAHAHA! Let’s not forget, thousands of jokes were made about Bush and whoever else but one, just one, is made about Obama and CNN goes and fact-checks it.

Meanwhile, Fox News’ ratings continue to soar.

why petrol sniffing and tasers dont mix…

No doubt this story will be blown up into a huge drama by the usual suspects, but its an interesting one just the same. Happened in a remote community near my home town.

a stock picture, not the man involved.

The following is the local newspapers reporting of the incident.

Tasered man burst into flames
http://www.kalminer.com.au/regionals.aspx?MenuID=243&ContentID=156700

Warburton man caught alight after police were forced to use a Taser stun gun when he allegedly ran towards them carrying a cigarette lighter on Monday.  (He was threatening the officers with the can of petrol and the lighter if my insider source is correct.)

A police spokesman said the incident occurred when police responded to a complaint at a house in Warburton about midday. (Petrol sniffing is a problem in a number of remote communities, most people want nothing to do with those actively sniffing, they are erratic and sometimes dangerous, the coppers were called by the householder to get rid of the bloke)

The 36-year-old man ran of from the house carrying the lighter and a container, believed to have contained fuel.

Police asked the man to stop, but when he failed to do so, an officer used his taser.

The man caught alight and the officer went to his aid, smothering the fire with his bare hands. (A balls effort by the officer involved, clearly shows he wasn’t wanting to hurt the man beyond stopping him)

While the officer helped the man, it is alleged an 18-year-old female threw rocks at his head. (Sadly not unusual, this happens quite often in remote areas, an officer attends, uses force, then the bystanders turn on him, they may have even been the people who called for assistance in the first place)

The man suffered burns to his body while the officer received burns to his hands and a cut to his head requiring five stitches.

The effects on the body are severe, long term, and systemic. The effect is much like “chroming” in major cities, where kids inhale paint and other fumes.

Ive seen a few kids in Perth like this, silver instead of gold though.

it affects nearly the whole body.

More below the fold

Nifty name at least

You think I wouldn’t post about this?!

Ha! It’s Bing!

H/T Theo.

It’s probably too late to knock Google off their perch. Remember Viewzi? Still, Lycos and Netscape used to be all the rage and now it’s Google and Firefox… even Safari.

Time shall tell.

Ex Prez dead – suicide

Sorry Lefties, not Bush. Korea’s ex President, Roh (pronounced “no”) Moo-hyun, apparently committed suicide today. Korea is in shock. The apparent suicide comes in the wake of a multi-million dollar corruption scandal that’s been on-going for a few months. The scandal, involving his wife among others, occurred whilst the President, who declared to fight corruption, was in Office.

Korea’s Leftist media is reporting this could really raise political tensions in Korea, a country known for its rather animated politcs. Claims that current President, Lee (pronounced “ee”) Myung-bak is being too harsh are circulating. In some respects, perhaps so (they [and others] are being wankers when it comes to foreign ESL teachers and the learning of English in general) but it’s not as if he pushed Roh Moo-hyun over that cliff.

It’s all about saving face over here and clearly, President Roh couldn’t.

UPDATE

Checked with the girlfriend (a Korean). This is fucking huge over here. More than news, it’s history. Expect shit to go down… not that it’ll have much impact in the West. Quietly, South Korea has gone from accepting aid from Ethiopia back in the fifties to being one of the world biggest economies. And people back home still ask, “Why would you go there?”

Ho hum…

UPDATE II

Full on. And his brother’s in jail. Graft.

UPDATE III

JFTR, suicide is the fourth highest cause of death in South Korea with a rate of 29.6 per 100,000, and it has the highest rate of any OECD country at around 33 per day.

It was a mistake

So sez da Prez.

Yep, a $328,835 mistake. But Barack claims he didn’t know. If that’s actually true, then WHY didn’t he know? When you can photoshop such an op so easily anyway… oh dear Obama, lucky you’re not Bush… yet.

CNN’s TEA Party bias busted!

What a stupid, annoying bint CNN’s Susan Roesgen is. She might as well wear a donkey on her jacket. Check out the first clip and her very different reactions to two different presidential Hitlers. Bias Busted!

More on her TEA party action. Is that what passes for reporting on CNN nowadays? OK, OK, CNN can be OK sometimes but crikey, Roesgen is completely unprofessional in this following clip. Who’s she working for, an international news organisation or a certain left-leaning US political party? Is she a journalist or an activist? If you want to be that biased, Susan, don’t pretend to be a bloody reporter. Get a blog or your own show.

Susan, FYYSFLT.

Oh great: North Korean nuclear news

Old news but being reiterated today; North Korea has between five and eight nuclear warheads. This is according to Daniel Pinkston, of the International Crisis Group, who quotes un-named agencies (but probably the US). The missiles can be loaded onto Rodong missiles capable of reaching Japan. If true, Japan may go nuclear, too.

(H/T). US Congressional report here (16-page PDF).

Is this one of the international crises Biden was referring to?

One query: the first link in this post is from 2006, and quotes US sources. The second link quotes un-named sources. Anything to declare, President Obama?

Spider of the Day

Brazilian Wandering Spider

One of the most deadly spiders in the world was found in the produce section of an upscale Oklahoma grocery store.

[…]  Patients not only experience overall pain and an increase in blood pressure, they also get an uncomfortable erection.

In Brazil, emergency room staff can immediately spot the victims of a bite.

Heh.

UPDATE: Hey, Look!  Wozza has more spiders – Australian spider funnies 😉

A Note from Rafe Champion [UPDATE]

I recently received this email from Rafe with permission to post it here, with the added note, “I will be pleased to see it circulate.”

~ ~ ~

Kilmeny Niland, spouse of Rafe Champion and webmistress of the Rathouse passed away last week after a lingering illness.

The funeral service will be held at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium
199 Delhi Road
North Ryde (Sydney)

in the South Chapel

at 10.00 am

Wednesday 4th March

A eulogy will be delivered by Mr Paul Delprat, the principal of the Julian Ashton Art School.

In a few weeks an exhibition of Kilmeny’s work and a celebration of her life will be held at the Julian Ashton Art School at Middle Head, with a picnic/barbeque in the adjacent park overlooking the harbour. This was one of Kilmeny’s favorite places. The date and time will be announced on her website.
http://www.kilmenyniland.com

All friends and admirers are welcome!

Rafe Champion

~ ~ ~

UPDATE:  More from Rafe, again with permission to publish here:

Kilmeny with Hugh, Leo, Thomas and Paddy. (Courtesy of Rafe Champion)

Kilmeny and Rafe (courtesy Rafe Champion)

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**Previous post, with links to some touching tributes:  Very Sad News

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