Category: Uncategorized

Curb Your Enthusiasm: My pals on the neo-Right, of course, are beaming all over their faces. None of them is so dim as to think it’s game, set, and match in the Middle East, and they all have the phrase “there are many things that could still go wrong” set up as a macro on their word processors, but let me tell you, in private they are pretty darn cheerful. The phrase “irrational exuberance” comes to mind. —John Derbyshire, self-described...

Tung Resigns: China’s bumbling puppet and surrogate despot, Tung Chee-Hwa, has resigned two years before the end of his term. It’s a partial victory for pro-democracy protestors who turned out in the hundreds of thousands to protect their freedoms. China will try again. A contest of wills with the people of Hong Kong is a contest China knows it can’t afford to lose.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: My pals on the neo-Right, of course, are beaming all over their faces. None of them is so dim as to think it’s game, set, and match in the Middle East, and they all have the phrase “there are many things that could still go wrong” set up as a macro on their word processors, but let me tell you, in private they are pretty darn cheerful. The phrase “irrational exuberance” comes to mind. —John Derbyshire, self-described...

Tung Resigns: China’s bumbling puppet and surrogate despot, Tung Chee-Hwa, has resigned two years before the end of his term. It’s a partial victory for pro-democracy protestors who turned out in the hundreds of thousands to protect their freedoms. China will try again. A contest of wills with the people of Hong Kong is a contest China knows it can’t afford to lose.

A Message to North Korea: U.S. Ambassador to Korea Christopher Hill said Wednesday there was no middle way for North Korea between international isolation and dismantling its nuclear program as a road to economic revival. Contrast this with South Korea’s new ambassador to the United States, who looks more pathetic every day. It seems the meeting with Dennis Hastert might have been enough to throw someone off his game.

South Korean Priorities: Eight North Koreans have entered the Japanese School in Beijing. Perhaps they’ll use more of that “quiet diplomacy” that’s evidently insufficient when it comes to two uninhabited, guano-encrusted islands that are halfway to Japan, or the novel question of just where the United States can send its own soldiers. Meanwhile, the South Korean Human Rights Commission is as vigilant as ever about everything else that can keep its staff of busybodies occupied without saving any actual humans....

Let France Choose Its Ally. France says it wouldn’t dream of being so irresponsible as to sell weapons to the Chinese. . . which explains why they’re trying to lift the arms embargo. A tale we’ve heard before, in Iraq, and France sold them weapons right up to the eve of the war. I say let France sell China arms–which are mostly crappe in any event–and put France and the rest of the EU on the technology control list. Then...

North Korea Travelogue: I have strong reservations about encouraging anyone to travel to North Korea, but I also like reading what visitors have to tell about what they saw there. Ari has published an interesting travelogue, and has since blegged for a link, which he earned in my book by approaching his subject with appropriate skepticism, even if his conclusion don’t all match my own. Don’t miss his “Hotel California” vignette, or his observation that North Korea is whoring off...

Yes, I think the triumphalism is premature, but optimism is another thing entirely. There are growing signs of uppitiness among the once-silent majority of the world’s ordinary people–those not represented in the coffeehouses of Brussels or in the General Assembly. There is nothing inevitable about the success of a revolution; the tyrants can delay the realization of those trends as long as they control the guns. But oppression inevitably breeds discontent and systemic inefficiencies. End caveat; pan to reality. Bloggers...

A Message to North Korea: U.S. Ambassador to Korea Christopher Hill said Wednesday there was no middle way for North Korea between international isolation and dismantling its nuclear program as a road to economic revival. Contrast this with South Korea’s new ambassador to the United States, who looks more pathetic every day. It seems the meeting with Dennis Hastert might have been enough to throw someone off his game.

South Korean Priorities: Eight North Koreans have entered the Japanese School in Beijing. Perhaps they’ll use more of that “quiet diplomacy” that’s evidently insufficient when it comes to two uninhabited, guano-encrusted islands that are halfway to Japan, or the novel question of just where the United States can send its own soldiers. Meanwhile, the South Korean Human Rights Commission is as vigilant as ever about everything else that can keep its staff of busybodies occupied without saving any actual humans....

Let France Choose Its Ally. France says it wouldn’t dream of being so irresponsible as to sell weapons to the Chinese. . . which explains why they’re trying to lift the arms embargo. A tale we’ve heard before, in Iraq, and France sold them weapons right up to the eve of the war. I say let France sell China arms–which are mostly crappe in any event–and put France and the rest of the EU on the technology control list. Then...

North Korea Travelogue: I have strong reservations about encouraging anyone to travel to North Korea, but I also like reading what visitors have to tell about what they saw there. Ari has published an interesting travelogue, and has since blegged for a link, which he earned in my book by approaching his subject with appropriate skepticism, even if his conclusion don’t all match my own. Don’t miss his “Hotel California” vignette, or his observation that North Korea is whoring off...

Yes, I think the triumphalism is premature, but optimism is another thing entirely. There are growing signs of uppitiness among the once-silent majority of the world’s ordinary people–those not represented in the coffeehouses of Brussels or in the General Assembly. There is nothing inevitable about the success of a revolution; the tyrants can delay the realization of those trends as long as they control the guns. But oppression inevitably breeds discontent and systemic inefficiencies. End caveat; pan to reality. Bloggers...

GNP Infighting: There is a nascent movement to challenge South Korea’s chief paleocon, Park Gye-Heun Park Geun-Hye, for the party’s leadership. Better late than never. The GNP will never have a chance at the polls unless it breaks from its dictatorial past and its unprincipled stand on the issues. They can’t beat Uri unless they first win the fight for their own soul. More here, from Kim Dae-Joong (the columnist, not Kim Dae-Jung, the ex-Prez). I’m not a fan of...

GNP Infighting: There is a nascent movement to challenge South Korea’s chief paleocon, Park Gye-Heun Park Geun-Hye, for the party’s leadership. Better late than never. The GNP will never have a chance at the polls unless it breaks from its dictatorial past and its unprincipled stand on the issues. They can’t beat Uri unless they first win the fight for their own soul. More here, from Kim Dae-Joong (the columnist, not Kim Dae-Jung, the ex-Prez). I’m not a fan of...

My thoughts here . . . since Angus is already asking. UPDATE: The NY Times–another day, another hit piece. I suppose at least half the leadership of the EU called for its smelling salts.

My thoughts here . . . since Angus is already asking. UPDATE: The NY Times–another day, another hit piece. I suppose at least half the leadership of the EU called for its smelling salts.