March 8, 2008 The Funniest Thing I’ve Read All Year Here. There is one glaring omission: I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. — Sir Winston Churchill (HT: The Marmot) Categories Humor/Satire
February 21, 2008 The Morally Retarded Lorin Maazel, Part 2 Lorin Maazel could really use a publicist who understands the concept of “stop digging.” Just when we thought we’d put this flame war behind us, he goes off again, in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page. With time for further reflection and careful editing, here’s how he rephrases his central point: If we are to be effective in bringing succor to the oppressed, many languishing in foreign gulags, the U.S. must claim an authority based on an immaculate ethical record,... Categories Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Deprogramming/Human Rights/WTF?
February 16, 2008 Damn You, Henry Kissinger! That bastard Kissinger … thanks to him, Gong Li will never knock on your door to borrow a cup of sugar, and all of our lives will be poorer in ten million ways: Amid a discussion of trade in 1973, Chinese leader Mao Zedong made what U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called a novel proposition: sending tens of thousands, even 10 million, Chinese women to the United States. “You know, China is a very poor country,” Mao said, according... Categories China/WTF?
February 11, 2008 Goodbye, Old Friend What words? My wife and I both feel as if an old friend we’d meant to visit again had been murdered, stolen from us by a deranged killer, a thief of beauty and history. Anyone who has lived in Seoul recently knows that it can and will be rebuit with faithful perfection. But like the Golden Pavillion of Kyoto, which I would not call Namdaemun’s equal, it will be never be the same, either. As many have already... Categories History/Korean Society/WTF?
February 8, 2008 The Morally Retarded Lorin Maazel I’ve already said that I’m ambivalent about the visit of the New York Philharmonic to North Korea. They will play some good music, which will probably do little harm and little good. If we would just accept the music on its face value without injecting politics into it, this visit wouldn’t be taking on such a pernicious odor. Is that too much to ask? Apparently. Spurred on by the mendacious appeaser Christopher Hill, the Philharmonic now imagines itself as an... Categories Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Human Rights/WTF?
January 14, 2008 I am so ready for a North Korean spy scandal right about now … [Update: He resigns. Kim Man-Bok claims that his motive in leaking the tape was to dispel speculation that he met with Kim Yang-Gon to try to influence the South Korean election. Using Nordpolitik is a well-established way of trying to influence South Korean elections, and I’m not sure exactly how Kim M.B. expected to reassure anyone about what’s not on the tape. To me, one missed significance of this is the casual ease with which Roh’s people accepted North... Categories Korean Politics/The Fifth Column/WTF?
January 10, 2008 One less ransom to pay One of the 264 people listed by a civic group as possibly abducted by North Korea was found safe in Japan last month, the group investigating North Korea’s abductions of Japanese citizens said Tuesday. According to the Investigation Commission on Missing Japanese Probably Related to North Korea, the 48-year-old man from Akita Prefecture went missing in 1981 from a place where he was working part-time in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture. [Kyodo News] I understand that Bill Richardson has already claimed credit... Categories Abductions/WTF?
December 17, 2007 Venceremos Con Vuitton! Let it never be said that revolution has to be an ugly business. Categories Humor/Satire
November 25, 2007 If you’re hungry for dog meat, why not dine with ‘The Pariah Family?’ You’ve seen the unintended comedy of Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans decorating their wares with English, badly. You’ve seen the hilarity of British people tattooing such Chinese marks of distinction as, “Coca-Cola” or “At the end of the day, this is an ugly boy,” on their bodies. Now, see what happens when Hangul-challenged Chinese try to ride the Korean Wave. And fail (one, two, three, four). Categories Humor/Satire
April 8, 2007 Why Moonbats Will Never Run the World The “Crawford Peace House” run by Kim Jong Il’s unwitting ally, Cindy Sheehan, is the latest victim of financial irregularities, unmedicated emotion, and a characteristic absence of any moral perspective: “There are people who have said, `Don’t say anything because you’ll hurt the peace movement,’” Oliver said. “But if the peace movement isn’t pure and transparent and holy as it can be at its heart, then it’s just like George Bush: lying, thieving, conniving, backstabbing bastards.” This is certainly a... Categories Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics/WTF?
April 8, 2007 Hey everyone! Roh Tae-Woo’s brother is going to make me rich! Well, just imagine my feeling of serendipity at seeing this in my in-box today! My rat race is over at last! Just whatever you do, don’t tell the crack cyber-cops at the Ministry of Information and Communications…. Greetings from me and my family. Getting your contact was not an easy task because since I am not computer literate, I ordered my son to seek a partner very far away and he went to the institute of International Business... Categories Unintended Humor
March 27, 2007 Colin McAskill Threatens to Sue Over Release of Funds to DPRK Gov’t McAskill, the man who sells Kim Jong Il’s gold and who recently bought the bank through which most of North Korea’s European investment is channeled, has heretofore been a strident and articulate advocate of releasing the $25 million frozen in BDA. Overnight, he has become the main obstacle: In two letters sent to the Monetary Authority of Macao, [Daedong Credit Bank] has said that it will take legal action if any of its frozen funds are moved in accordance with... Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Money Laundering/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks/WTF?
March 16, 2007 N. Koreans May Have Given U.N. Counterfeit $100 Bills [A] new twist now emerging in the Cash-for-Kim scandal is that while the UNDP has been giving Kim real money, Kim’s regime may have been handing over counterfeit banknotes to the UNDP–which apparently had a stack of counterfeit $100 bills sitting in its office-safe in Pyongyang. [National Review] We owe this revelation to — who else? — Claudia Rosett. Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/NK Economics/WTF?
March 15, 2007 The ‘Dead Parrot’ sketch, Nigerian style The YouTube caption says, This is a video created by a Nigerian email scammer who thinks he is producing a video for a scholarship payment from a victim he tried to scam. Unfortunately for this particular scammer, the “victim” fought back and created a fake video production company with promises of cash! That sounds just too funny to be true, but I still laughed my ass off. Categories Humor/Satire
March 6, 2007 Take the OFK Statesmanship Quiz You are a major political leader of one of the world’s major industrialized democracies. An actor-turned-author publishes a book in which he photoshops the name of the country’s top newspaper into a picture of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Just to make sure there’s no room for ambiguity, he says, “I want to become a terrorist …. The newspaper is the sole monolithic monster remaining in [this] society.” As a statesman, your response is to: a. Jail the man... Categories An Alliance?/Democracy/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. & Korea/WTF?
February 28, 2007 Does Not Compute What a sweet story this would be, except for two lingering questions: How the hell can you lose your kid in a market? If you do, and if you’re willing to admit it, do you really deserve to have a parental relationship with your misplaced Olympic athlete? Categories WTF?
February 20, 2007 A Rumble at Kouvola Fred Frey International brings us the story from this remote Finnish border post, which was recently the scene of two North Koreans going a bit overboard in protecting the diplomatic pouch they were carrying. They weren’t carrying diplomatic passports, but the Finns were ultimately willing to overlook that. None of this would have happened if the North Koreans had just shown their tickets. I wonder what was in the pouch…. Update: See also Antti’s great blog with the unpronounceable... Categories Diplomacy/Europe/WTF?
February 8, 2007 The Envelope, Please And the winner of the 2007 Kim Il Sung Peace Prize is …. Categories Unintended Humor