Flash em' your Coppertone tan!

So Kim Jong-il is finally dead.  That can’t be a bad thing, right?  Perhaps Hennessy will get cheaper now that one of their biggest customers has stopped placing orders?

Maybe not.

As I write this, a spectacle the likes of which probably hasn’t been seen in a generation is unfolding in Pyongyang to put the DPRK‘s “Dear Leader” to rest.  It’s really too bad that when he died a big hand didn’t come down from the sky – plastic bag wrapped around it – to scoop him up and discard him like so much dog refuse.

Or perhaps he could be turned into Soylent Green to feed a few of his long-suffering people.  Alas, that stuff’s made out of people – so this piece of crap wouldn’t qualify.

Thing is, now that he’s gone, what can we expect from the “Great Successor” Kim Jong-un?

The first thing I expect is more of the same.  Sure, the kid’s gotten a taste of Western education and he might have had some ideas at some point – but absolute power corrupts absolutely and he will be no different.  Even I, if I had as many people kissing my ass as he must have, might become convinced that my derriere was the font of all knowledge.

The Six-party talks will likely be resumed before the northern spring, and I think anyone would expect renewed demands for rice, oil (both the cooking and burning kinds), et cetera.  All the usual suspects, and perhaps another thing or two chucked in just to up the ante a bit.  Maybe some Space Kimchi?

I also think we’ll see another nuclear test, and that we’ll see it sooner rather than later…perhaps even before the Six-party talks have a chance to resume.  We should also expect some sort of artillery barrage across the DMZ – perhaps even toward Yeonpyeong Island, naval exercises, massive troop movement and all that sort of stuff.  Maybe even another missile or three over Japan.

And, while they do all that, their state-run media organs will all be spouting vitriol at anyone who will listen.

It’s funny we always say “North Korea’s state-run media” when it’s all state-run there.  A free press is anathema to such a system of government – or whatever the heck you can call what they have.

Kim Jong-un (KJU) will want to do this not only to try to scare the pants off South Korea, but to solidify his own fledgling power – to show anyone that might take a shot at him that he’s not one to be trifled with.

I would think that DPRK has had the groundwork laid for another test laid for some time, and that Kim Jong-il was merely waiting for some point in time when he needed our undivided attention.  I think right about now would be a good time (at least in Kim Jong-un’s eyes) to get our attention, and nothing gets attention more than a nice seismic shock measured on the other side of the globe.

Of course, this will be young Jong-un’s first foray into International Brinkmanship, so we might just get the nuke test and nothing else.  That’s something that can be carried out with a smaller number of people than any of the other available options, and those people are probably so well taken care of that their loyalty is beyond reproach.

But why do anything at all?  Why not just sit tight?

The DPRK sustains itself through its adversarial relationship with, well, everyone else.  Right now, the West is focused on Iran and the Arab World in general.  The Arab Spring has seen revolution in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and almost Yemen, there’s ongoing protest and massacre in Syria and rebellion was violently crushed in Bahrain.  Even more governments – Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Morocco, Jordan and even Saudi Arabia have announced or made changes in an attempt to placate protesters.  Going back to Egypt for a moment, you’d think that giving Mubarak the boot would be enough but it certainly doesn’t seem to be.  I’m not on the ground there, but it almost seems like some Egyptians have made a quasi-occupation of protesting for the sake of it.  Not to mention that the USA has just pulled completely out of Iraq and they’re now almost-certainly headed for a renewed – and protracted – civil war that might see the leadership there move closer to Iran.  There’s a lot to be worried about over there right now.

So what is the DPRK to do to counter all of that – and it’s surely a lot – without expending too much effort or upsetting the status quo too much?  You guessed it – a nuclear test.

I’m going to go even further out onto my limb here and say that I think they’ll test a fusion device if they can manage it at all.  The bigger the bang, so the thinking must go, the more attention will be paid to them and the greater the concessions that can be extracted.  About that, I think they would be correct.  War on the Korean Peninsula is an unthinkable horror, and the South has more than enough money to keep buying them off.

Because, let’s face it, if you gave each of DPRK’s 1.2 Million soldiers a piece of paper and a straw they could still do enough damage to South Korea to completely collapse their economy and draw us all back into another war we can’t win.

Then again, I could be totally wrong.  Kim Jong-un could delay making major changes while he consolidates his power, and then he could spring some elections or a ‘peoples caucus’ or something like that – maybe even complete reunification with South Korea is a possibility.  I doubt that, but I still hope I’m wrong.

So hang onto your hats, folks, we’re headed back to the brink with these jokers.  The only question is how close to the edge they will push this time around.

And I wonder what he likes to drink?

Sure, there’s some frank assessments of World leaders in there, and maybe some embarrassing stuff…like Gadhaffi’s cadre of hot nurses, and Silvio Berlusconi being up Putin’s arse about as far as he can get.  On the whole (pun intended) I think it’s giving us a peek into a place that normally us mere mortals would never get to tread.  It’s exciting armchair-espionage at its very best.

The thing that’s totally changed my attitude are the revelations about North Korea, and how it is viewed by China.  We’ve always thought that China was a staunch ally of the DPRK, perhaps the only thing keeping it afloat.  And now we find out that the Chinese have had quite enough of Pyongyang, thank you very much.

They’re all for Korean reunification, as long as the New Korea was not aggressive toward them.  And, really, why would they be?  The Korean electronics powerhouse, now with more cheap labour that would be just so happy to have something to eat, right on China’s doorstep?  I couldn’t think of a more beneficial arrangement if I tried.

So we found that out through the cables, but that’s all rather unofficial.  But, of course, the Chinese have seen their chance and have now publicly stated that this is correct.

I’m now firmly in the camp that believes WikiLeaks is a force for good in the World.  If it forces a resolution on the Korean Peninsula – bloody or not – I believe we will all be better off.  (Yes, it might be bloody, but I don’t think any of us can reasonably say that it doesn’t have to happen sooner or later.)

Bye, bye, Kim Jong-il and Kim jong-un.  Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

This does not, of course, mean that they have something that they can mount on a missile.  And from what we’ve seen, it’s not like they have a working long-range missile anyway.  By most accounts, it will take them at least a couple more tests to get to that point.

The Obama Administration has reacted the same way that previous ones have.  A warning of dire consequences and an attempt to restart talks.

DPRK has responded by declaring the 1953 truce to be void, and every time anyone says anything – seemingly anything at all – they call it an Act of War.

So where does this leave us?

I’m beginning to think that this is all a big joke, and I’m really starting to think that the best approach to North Korea would be to ignore it.  Completely.  Like so:

NK: “Hey, USA!  We’re going to test a nuke!”
USA: (Yawn) “What’s on CBS?”
NK: “Really, we’re going to test, and we’re restarting Yongbyon!”
USA: “Oh look, Dave’s got Madonna on again – we can’t miss this.”
NK: “Okay, we’re going to do it now!”
USA: “click….click….”

And really, after that, who cares?  Why should we care what they do?

Here are a couple of reasons why we’re supposed to care:

• North Korea has enough arillery in range of Seoul to flatten the city in short order, and doing that would be a bad thing.
• They have close to 1.2 Million-strong standing army, and everyone else that can carry a chopstick is said to be in reserve.  Basically, the country is a barracks.
• They might have a nuke or two they could deliver on the back of a truck.
• We’re scared of them.

Seriously, I’m tired of it.  Tired of it, and I’m nobody.  I have no power, no armies at my command, and I’m 39 years old which means I don’t even remember the Korean War.  And I’m so tired of this crap.  It needs to end so the rest of us can get on with our lives.

I’m worried that Kim Jong Il is losing it.  Losing his grip on reality, and maybe losing his grip on his country.  It makes me want to tell a story.

Over the weekend I visited an old friend of mine for his 40th birthday party.  He held a poker game, $20 buyin, so we played.  I lost a couple hands on bad beats that could have gone the other way, and then I went on tilt.  I went on tilt because I was frustrated and I wasn’t thinking clearly.  I already lost the game and it was going to take something big to get me back in it.  So, in for a penny – in for a pound.

And I think the DPRK is on tilt right now.  The thing that’s kept me believing that they’ve always been about bluster and brinksmanship – but not actual action – is that Kim Jong Il likes being alive.  He drinks Hennesy, like show tunes, writes his own plays and so forth.  He hasn’t been a man that you would think is just plain nuts.

But, with him havnig suffered a stroke and obviously looking very gaunt in recent pictures, I’m wondering if he’s still playing with a full deck.

It’s time to call the bluff.

"HOPE" by Shepard Fairey

I read in the news today that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now decided that CO2 is a pollutant that needs to be regulated, and that they’re going to do just that.  It was only two years ago that Bush quashed a similar push.

This is only the latest in an absolute flurry of tectonic shifts away from the policies of the Bush Administration.  It seems that it’s almost every single day that some old policy is nullified, exposed or outright revoked.  It is as though America – with President Obama at the helm – is entering a new age of enlightenment.  Can you tell I’m excited?

Already this week he gave Cuba (and Cuban-Americans) something to cheer for, released Bush-era documents that justified torture – while rightly saying that those who followed the bad advice would not be prosecuted, and announced plans for a national high-speed rail network.  Today it’s CO2, and somewhere in there the First Family managed to get a new dog!

Add this onto everything he’s done since he took office, and if it wouldn’t kill me I swear my head would actually spin right off.

One thing I’ll remind you of, dear reader, is that I’m Canadian.  During the eight years of Bush – beginning, fittingly enough, with a stolen election – I had thought America was all puffed out.  An old power, past its prime, that would just have to learn to take a new place in the World.

Well, America will certainly take a new place in the World, but for sure it won’t be anything less.  President Barack Obama most definitely has what it takes to get it done, and I say good on him.  He is exactly what America needs to pull itself away from fear and xenophobia, and toward enlightenment and justice.

What is good for the USA is good for me, so I say GOBAMA, and GO the 21st Century Renaissance!

Update:  CNN is saying that President Obama may be the “Superpresident“, and I couldn’t agree more.

“For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” (CNN)

Regardless of your political affiliation, I don’t see how you could take this to mean that Mrs. Obama was ever anything but a proud American.

Did anyone on the right stop to consider what might actually be going through her mind?  And what it means?

I believe that what she meant to convey is that, just perhaps, on the momentous occasion of a black man – and the one she married – being put up as one of the major parties’ nominees for president, that a wall has been knocked down.  An injustice corrected.

That, from today forward, the game has changed.  40 acres and a mule be damned, we’re going for the big prize.

And also perhaps a bit of defiance, in that it doesn’t matter how many white racist bigots might still be out there and what they might think – because they, as of this moment, don’t matter a damn anymore.

The tide has finally turned, and the equation now works in favour of those so long oppressed and dispossessed.  It really is a new day.

Being Canadian, and – incidentally – white, you might expect that I have a different perspective on things.  Canada, as most of you should know, was the destination of the Underground Railroad.

The Federal Minister of Industry, Jim Prentice, says “This bill reflects a win-win approach.”

Just who will be doing all the winning with this is pretty clear. And it’s not me and you.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/12/tech-copyright.html

Bll C-61 has all the hallmarks of being written by lobbyists. American lobbyists. Through the”process” of writing this bill, neither Industry Canada nor Mr. Prentice have held any public consultations or met with any Canadian industry groups that might be affected by this legislation. No public consultations at all. At the same time, meetings with American industry lobbyists have been free-flowing.  Canadian associations and industry as well as legal experts have expressly requested meetings about this, and all have been denied.  Just what the hell is that about?  Who do you work for, Jim Prentice?

Are we the 51st fucking state, already? Does our government have to kowtow to everything that the US government – and US business – wants? The only “Canadian” groups that support this – ACTRA and CRIA – are American puppets anyway.

And how is it that we keep coming back to this?  How is it that conservative governments in this country continually introduce – and ram through with some success – such unpopular pieces of legislation?  Think back to Free Trade, the GST,  Meech Lake…the list goes on…until we get to the current capstone of this rotting pile of faeces wesee labelled as copyright “reform”?

Seriously, the Liberal Sponsorship Scandal was a big deal, but when you stack that up against the towering pile of shit that has been forced upon us by our Conservative governments … the mind just boggles.

To Mr. Prentice: Any government that passes legislation that changes the status quo so starkly and revokes hard-won rights is going to be fought. I can bloody well guarantee you whose campaign I won’t be volunteering for and donating to at the next go-round. Serve your people, serve their interests, and don’t turn millions of us into instant criminals simply because we own iPods and like to take music with us.  You, sir, are – in my opinion – no better than a weasel.

Makes you wonder what ol’ Jim will be doing for a living when he’s through with politics…nice cushy job with CRIA, perhaps?  And let’s not forget his partner in crime, Heritage Minister Josée Verner, who is every bit as guilty in this.

Anyone concerned with this further erosion of rights should visit the nerve-center of opposition to this: Michael Geist.

Okay, now it’s all gone too far.  I call shenanigans on this sorry damn excuse of a Federal Government, and I especially call out Stockwell “Doris” Day for delaying a report so that he might put some of his own spin on it before it gets released.

I don’t think there could be one single, solitary, non-bullshit reason given by any sane person to justify delaying such an anticipated report for any period of time at all…let alone for SIX DAYS.

Obviously, there’s something in there that very much concerns our Mr. Day.

I call upon anyone in possession of a copy of this report to leak it to the media immediately.  Do your own conscience a favour and do your country a service by releasing this report before Doris puts his stamp on it.  Please.

For all the volumes of laws and charters and everything else we have that defines what we are and are not allowed to do, that basic tenet rings true.

I love Canada. We don’t have the economic or industrial power of many countries, and we certainly don’t have the largest population or even the largest land mass. Canada doesn’t come first on very many lists of any consequence…though I’m not sure how many of those lists would be written by Canadians.

We’re currently #4 on the UN’s Human Development Index, which we’ve been #1 on before. There’s not much to separate the top countries in the current list, and coming in behind only Iceland, Norway and Australia – all beautiful (and smaller) countries – puts us in pretty good company. Canada is a wonderful country to live in, and I’m very proud to call it my home. Six or seven years ago I would have said I was Patriotic, but that seems to have taken on a different meaning lately. We Canucks are a bit understated about that anyway.

Having been born Canadian, I am entitled to all that this wonderful country has to offer. Being free, I can choose to live wherever I wish and whom I wish to live with. I can work for any employer that will have me, and I can earn as much money as they are willing to pay me for my services. I can speak my mind about whatever I wish without fear of repercussion because Canada is a free nation and those are our values. I might not agree with what someone else might be saying, but as long as they aren’t inciting violence or telling outright lies then it is their right to say it.

These are the values shared by most of the West. Freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press … the list goes on. We are free, and we take our freedom very seriously.

My point here is that freedom is my birthright. I enjoy and treasure my freedom as those before me enjoyed theirs, and I have the most profound respect for those that have served our nation to secure it. Our freedom has been forged in steel and in blood, and it is incumbent upon all of us to maintain these freedoms for the benefit of everyone. I have never lived in a country that was not Free. I have visited places that were not. I’ll take Freedom.

One freedom that we’re starting to have clashes about is Freedom of Religion. As a Canadian, you are free to practise whatever religion you wish. And I, if I wish, am entirely free to ridicule you for your choice if I don’t like it.⁽¹⁾

Anyone coming to Canada must be made to understand that we are Free, and that being Free means that you will be offended…either by someone meaning to offend you or someone with the very best of intentions. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been offended by something or other, and that’s just life the way we know it.

I would never deny someone the right to speak freely regardless of how I feel about the topic being discussed. All I ask is that my viewpoint also be heard. That’s all, and that’s about all the accommodation I think any of us needs.

1. Not that I generally ridicule anything other than Scientology and Heaven’s Gate. I’m just making a point.

I’d just like to thank you for running such a good campaign for the Democratic Nomination, at least up until a while back when you started talking about white people liking you more and blowing Iran off the map. Not that I necessarily disagree that there will come a time when Iran needs the rubber-hose treatment, but this isn’t the sort of thing a potential President should be saying.

A potential President shouldn’t be saying anything that absolutely anyone would like to hear. Sure, it’s nice to propose a gas tax holiday…but does anyone really believe that gas would actually be any cheaper during this period? If you make the oil companies pay the tax, where oh where do you think they will get the money to do that? It’s a really really stupid idea. And it’s beneath you.

A potential President shouldn’t be going on TV saying that they don’t agree with “elitists” and the elite of society, and that you think you’re not elite. If you’re not elite, why in blue blazes do you think you should be President? We’ve all seen in the last eight years what you get when you put an uneducated, privileged boob in the White House – does anyone really want another President that doesn’t know his or her head from their ass? The President should be elite. The President should know more than the rest of us. And, as a highly-educated, privileged, talented woman, you should know better.

But now you’re doing damage to the party you hold dear. By staying in the race when attention has already shifted from you to Obama vs. McCain, and stubbornly hanging on, you detract from the very message you have espoused for so long. If you did somehow manage to secure the nomination after all that has happened, I would bet that McCain would be the next President. All the things you’ve said from State to State to pander to their local interests would be shown to clash, and you would be painted as indecisive and insincere. At least Obama has stuck to his guns and stayed on-message since the beginning. It’s why he’s beaten you.

In the coming days your campaign will hit harder on the supposed sexism against you and, perhaps, also notch up the black/white rhetoric just a little bit more. And these will be sad days.

I think we all know how much you want to be President. Well, how about Secretary of State? Give it up now and try again the next time around. Maybe a stint as Secretary-General of the UN would do you some good. If you keep going there will be no room for you in an Obama Government.

Maybe America isn’t ready for a woman to be President. Maybe it is. We won’t know for a while, because people have already decided that you are not going to be the President. And it likely has very little to do with your being female. Until recently, I believe people had a great deal of respect for you – even your opponents.

So get out while you still can. Get out while you still have at least a shred of dignity left. Get out and hold your head high in knowing that you’ve gotten farther into the contest than most people could ever dream. And know that you’re the first woman to ever actually win a single primary, let alone as many as you have. For a while it looked like you’d make it, and in doing that I think you broke the glass ceiling just by hitting up against it, as no woman before you had ever done.

Congratulations, and condolences,
Daryl Dean

Let’s boycott the Beijing Olympics.

I know that it would be a huge disappointment for all those athletes that are training so hard in order to compete at the highest level. And I know that, in most cases, people devote their lives to the pursuit of their sport. And I certainly know how enjoyable it is to watch these people perform at the very limit of human capability. But I can wait another 4 years, and I would hope that those athletes that could not do the same would at least understand that we are doing this for a higher purpose.

The Olympics is a feel-good endeavour for the planet, so let’s not contribute to the glory of a nation that sees fit to trample its own people’s rights beneath the boots of their soldiers.

We’ve seen Tiananmen Square, we know about forced abortion, and we know about reeducation through labor. And there’s lots, lots more.

We also know that Tibet is currently going through mass unrest and that scores of people have been killed for what we in the West would merely consider to be their opinion. And I believe that any reasonable persons among us would want it stopped immediately.

The IOC should never have awarded an Olympics to a nation with such a poor track record of treatment of its’ own people. None of us should seek to bring international prestige to China, and by boycotting their Olympics we can serve them a strong rebuke that they could not possibly sweep under the rug.

So I say that Canada, as a defender of Basic Human Rights, should boycott the Beijing Olympics and urge other nations to do the same.