Kill the Innocent - Allow Heinous Criminals to Live

From the UN:

November 16 - Death Penalty Resolution Adopted Because of Concerns About Human Rights Says EU President

Ambassador Joao Manuel Guerra Salgueiro, President of the European Union, says member states of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly voted to adopt a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty in part because of their concerns about human rights. The Ambassador rejected claims that the resolution sought to impose values [Although that is the entire purpose of it. - Photi] on all member states and noted the broad support for the resolution. Now that the third committee -- which addresses social, humanitarian and cultural issues -- has approved the resolution, the matter can be discussed in the full General Assembly sometime after mid-December.

From "progressive religious leaders":

A Faith-Filled Commitment to Development Includes a Commitment to Women’s Rights and Reproductive Health

As progressive religious leaders, we call on other religious leaders and policy makers to overcome the fears, taboos and stigmas associated with sexuality and reproduction, to accept that these matters are part of the legitimate scope of human rights and public policy and include these important human rights more explicitly in the struggle to end poverty. We call on the world’s leaders—religious, governmental, nongovernmental and those in multilateral and UN agencies—to incorporate the ICPD agenda and goals to ensure that all the world’s people have available to them the reproductive health services [read "abortion" - Photi] that will enable them to live healthy, dignified and financially secure lives.

About Those Bumper Stickers

Atomic Trousers has your bumper sticker review.

Bask in Bumper Sticker Wisdom

Thug Chavez gets Public Correction

I love this story. It is good to see that there are some who have not yet become deranged Chavez supporters.

Spanish King Tells Chavez to "Shut Up"

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up" Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Chavez, who called President Bush the "devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist."

Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."

Spain's current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.

"Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people," he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.

Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was off.

Spanish King Juan Carlos, seated next to Zapatero, angrily turned to Chavez and said, "Why don't you shut up?"

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Armistice Day

I know that we have now replaced Armistice Day, a remembrance of the men who fought and died during the human disaster that was WWI, and replaced it with Veteran's Day to remember all of America's veterans. I feel a little self-conscious about Veteran's Day and I remember seeing WWI veterans when I was growing up. That terrible conflict does not get enough attention now and, since it was the first major war of a warfare-filled century and really the war from which all of the others grew, I choose to remember it and the men who fought it. These men gave enormously to put the United States in a place where we could later defeat the Nazis and the Communists. That series of wars did not end until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

That is not to say that I don't respect Veteran's Day and all of America's veterans, but being one, I'll let others write about that, and I thank them very much for their kind words.

In 1923, on Saturday November 10th, Woodrow Wilson spoke on the significance of Armistice Day. (There is a link to an audio recording of the speech at the website.) It was a short speech and is reproduced in its entirity below.

The anniversary of Armistice Day should stir us to great exaltation of spirit because of the proud recollection that it was our day, a day above those early days of that never-to-be-forgotten November which lifted the world to the high levels of vision and achievement upon which the great war for democracy and right was fought and won; although the stimulating memories of that happy time of triumph are forever marred and embittered for us by the shameful fact that when the victory was won-won, be it remembered-chiefly by the indomitable spirit and ungrudging sacrifices of our incomparable soldiers-we turned our backs upon our associates and refused to bear any responsible part in the administration of peace, or the firm and permanent establishment of the results of the war-won at so terrible a cost of life and treasure-and withdrew into a sullen and selfish isolation which is deeply ignoble because manifestly cowardly and dishonorable.

This must always be a source of deep mortification to us and we shall inevitably be forced by the moral obligations of freedom and honor to retrieve that fatal error and assume once more the role of courage, self-respect and helpfulness which every true American must wish to regard as our natural part in the affairs of the world.

That we should have thus done a great wrong to civilization at one of the most critical turning points in the history of the world is the more to be deplored because every anxious year that has followed has made the exceeding need for such services as we might have rendered more and more evident and more and more pressing, as demoralizing circumstances which we might have controlled have gone from bad to worse.

And now, as if to furnish a sort of sinister climax, France and Italy between them have made waste paper of the Treaty of Versailles and the whole field of international relationship is in perilous confusion.

The affairs of the world can be set straight only by the firmest and most determined exhibition of the will to lead and make the right prevail.

Happily, the present situation in the world of affairs affords us the opportunity to retrieve the past and to render mankind the inestimable service of proving that there is at least one great and powerful nation which can turn away from programs of self-interest and devote itself to practicing and establishing the highest ideals of disinterested service and the consistent maintenance of exalted standards of conscience and of right.

The only way in which we can worthily give proof of our appreciation of the high significance of Armistice Day is by resolving to put self-interest away and once more formulate and act upon the highest ideals and purposes of international policy. Thus, and only thus, can we return to the true traditions of America.

The British War on Her Own Culture

The liberal elites of the UK continue to work toward the erasure of their own national identity. Britain's Escalating War on Christianity

The report's recommendations are probably the most radical that have been made so far by a body with real political influence for the destruction of Britain's Christian identity and historic culture.

However, the thrust of its recommendations are really nothing new, and are squarely in line with concerted and unremitting political/culture-war attacks on Christianity and Britain's historic identity which have been going on for at least a decade, not at the level of national Parliamentary government, where an electorate might show its displeasure, but in a shadowy, Gramscian way at quasi-govnmental (sic) level and in localized areas with entrenched Labour/left control of councils, Parliamentary seats and other institutions.

Not all of the British are happy about it. The Telegraph asks the question, Should integration work both ways? Fortunately at least a few Brits still wish to retain their culture against their government's wishes.

A Poet of Islam

Samina Malik is a British Muslim poet who writes from the deep well of Islamic faith.



British Muslim woman convicted of penning poems about beheadings

Described as a "committed Islamic extremist", Malik, a shop assistant at Heathrow, hoarded an extensive collection of terrorism manuals, the Old Bailey heard.

She was a member of an extremist group linked to Omar Bakri Mohammed, a hate preacher who fled to Lebanon from Britain two years ago.

Yesterday a jury found her guilty of possessing documents likely to be used for terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000, by a majority of ten to one, after deliberating for 19 hours.

Malik, who wore a black head scarf, wept as the verdict was read out.

She is happy to see other, innocent, people murdered in a horrific way. She loves watching the videos of people being beheaded while alive. These are a few of her favorite things. But, to have to answer for it, well that is another matter.

She also wrote of how she enjoyed video messages from Osama Bin Laden and "videos that showed massacres of the kuffars", or non-Muslims.

In one poem, called The Living Martyrs, she called for Muslims to rise up against the infidels.

In another, How To Behead, she warned that the victim should be bound and blindfolded.

Malik, who worked as a shop assistant airside in a branch of WHSmith at the airport, also owned an Al Qaeda encyclopaedia of Jihad, a Mujahideen poison handbook and a 'terrorist handbook' which explained how to make bombs.

On the hard drive of her computer police found a copy of a sniper rifle manual, a firearms manual, anti-tank weaponry, a document entitled How To Win Hand To Hand Fighting, and pictures of weapons.

Outside the court, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: "Malik held violent extremist views which she shared with other like-minded people over the internet.

"She also tried to donate money to a terrorist group. She had the ideology, ability and determination to access and download material which could have been useful to terrorists.

"Merely possessing this material is a serious criminal offence."

But she weeps for herself. Her hatred and self-obsession speaks for itself.

UPDATE:
A news clip. It seems that she just wanted to be "cool".

Meet the 72 Virgins!

This is an older piece, but still very funny.

From Steve Martin, Seventy-two Virgins

Demography and War

Every so often we will discuss demographics in the context of fertility. European fertility is down, Muslim nations have much higher fertility, and the Palestinians so called "right of return" is a political use of fertility in the continuing effort to destroy Israel.

Clark Whelton has written an excellent article on Gunnar Heinsohn's idea on the relationship between national demographics and war. A Demographic Theory of War - Population, power, and the 'slightly weird' ideas of Gunnar Heinsohn.

"LOOK AT IT THIS WAY," Gunnar Heinsohn said. "Your family is in a shooting war with a family across the street. Your forces consist of a father, mother and one child, perhaps two. The other family has a father, mother and seven children, perhaps eight or nine. For your family, the loss of one person would be devastating. The larger family can take casualties and continue fighting."

How important is this?

"My point," Heinsohn continued, "is that the strength of a nation's military is affected by the size of a nation's families. Falling birth rates in Western countries mean that even light casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan bring cries of pain in Europe and America. But Iraq and Afghanistan are growing rapidly. Their populations are swollen by youth bulges. Their average family has five or six children. They are in what I call 'extreme demographic armament.'"

Some of the points that he makes;

* The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will continue because "Western aid has enabled Palestine--where nearly every newborn is considered a refugee and provided with food and medical care by international agencies--to defeat Israel demographically." The population of Gaza jumped from 240,000 in 1950 to almost 1,500,000 in 2007. In 2006 there were 640,000 Jewish boys under 15 in Israel, against 1,120,000 Arab boys under 15 in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. The last cohort with a Jewish majority is the 30-44 age bracket--540,000 Jews vs. 410,000 Arabs--which is now past prime military age. And yet despite 60 years of fighting and violence, the overall Israeli-Arab death toll is relatively low. It ranks 49th on Heinsohn's list of fatalities in conflicts worldwide since 1948. The Israeli-Palestinian conflicts rank 67th.

* Colombia's return to peace and public safety was not brought about by tough controls imposed by the Uribe government. Peace is a result of the "ageing out" of Colombia's last big youth bulge, combined with falling birth rates, "which have simply dried up the recruitment pool for violent gangs." Similar drops in violence and political extremism have been seen throughout South America as youth bulges disappear into middle age.

* Turkey may become a more reliable partner of the West. Turkey's youth bulges have run their course and total fertility has fallen below the U.S. birth rate. This means Turkey can no longer afford to push its young people abroad to find jobs. It must encourage them to stay, "and feels reluctant to sacrifice them in war."

* Low birth rates in Russia and China place both countries in demographic capitulation.

* Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's top lieutenant, miscalculated when he encouraged Somalia to fight its war with Ethiopia by doing to the Ethiopian army what al Quaeda is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan--inflicting casualties that cause protest and dissension in Coalition countries. In 1993 U.S. forces fled Somalia after suffering 18 killed and 73 wounded. But unlike America and the UK, Heinsohn noted, Ethiopia is in strong demographic armament. It is unlikely we'll see peace marches in the streets of Addis Ababa or that Ethiopia will be deterred by losses on the battlefield.

* To compensate for falling birth rates and "to slow the ageing of its own populations, the Anglo-World--the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand--is trying to attract immigrants from a handful of European countries. But these European providers of manpower, such as Poland, Ukraine, and Austria, are in demographic capitulation and are desperately trying to attract immigrants themselves. By 2050, the total demand for foreign talent in the developed world will reach 150 million. The United States alone will realize growth by pulling in the best and brightest from everywhere else. For this reason, friends and allies may opt out of alliances with the U.S., not out of anti-Americanism but because they don't want to be demographically neutered."

As always, read the whole thing. There are numerous interesting and even surprising cnclusions here.

This is a great read covering very important material.

Explore the Qur'an - Taqiyya-Free!

Courtesy of TheReligionofPeace.com

Explore the Qur'an (Taqiyya-free)

Well supported with quotes from the Qur'an.

Go, read, and learn.

Columbia U - Hitler Yes, Gilchrist No!

Much is being made about the fact that genocidal maniac Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to speak at Columbia University, one of the leading leftist cesspits universities in the United States. Columbia University Dean John Coatsworth says that even Adolph Hitler would be welcome to speak at his indoctrination center university.

Video: Of course we’d invite Hitler to speak, says Columbia dean

(Be sure to read the comments from the terrorist's "useful idiots".)

That's interesting because, while we are willing to freely discuss the merits and demerits of genocide, we are not apparently willing to discuss border security. In fact, anyone who suggests that we should have the same border controls that every other nation on this planet has is accused of racism.

Columbia U. Nixes Minuteman Speech

Columbia University students have abandoned plans for a speech by Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist, one year after their classmates violently interrupted an address by the illegal immigration foe.

The Columbia Political Union voted late Monday night to cancel Gilchrist’s Oct. 4 appearance, the New York Post reports.

The student group said in a statement that "it has become clear this event cannot take the form we had originally hoped it would and could not effectively accomplish the goals we had hoped it might."

Last year critics questioned Columbia’s commitment to free speech after Gilchrist was physically and verbally attacked by student protesters.

So for Columbia University and the American Left™ terrorism and Jew killing is ok, border security and the national defense is not.

Whistling Past the Graveyard

The Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.), of which I am a former member (it was the United Presbyterian Church back then) has suddenly come to the realization that something is wrong with itself. When I was a child it had a membership of more than 4 million and now has a membership of just under 2.3 million. So, I would have to agree with their assessment. In the below quoted article Joan Gray, moderator of the General Assembly during a Sept. 17-21 GAC (General Assembly Council) meeting in Louisville, Ky. says, "I recently spent time in the Midwest, and these areas are drying up. The people are not there any more. In Detroit, 3,000 people a day are leaving to emigrate elsewhere. That is just the tip of the iceberg.”

'Tsunami' Hits Presbyterians; Dramatic Changes Ahead

The PC(USA) has suffered continual losses in membership and now claims a little less than 2.3 million. More dissident Presbyterians and some historic congregations have voted to split from the PC(USA), citing that the denomination is not consistent with written theology in such areas as the singular saving Lordship of Jesus Christ and homosexual ordination.

Many are moving into the smaller and more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

“Much of our discomfort is really about our coming to grips with the overwhelming change that is coming at us from all sides. The bottom line is that we simply cannot continue doing church the way we have been," said Gray, according to PNS.

"One thing I am seeing is that some of those churches and presbyteries who have come to the end of the string are making a choice,” she added. “They are letting go of what they had been doing and opening the way to what God is doing.”

The people are voting with their feet and going to churches that really do believe in the Holy (triune) God and in Jesus the Christ who was both fully God and fully Man - yes, orthodox Christianity. Many like myself have come to the Holy Orthodox Church, to the Catholic Church, or to other believing churches as mentioned in the article. Sadly, many others find that there is no point to membership in a church that doesn't teach that its beliefs are actually true and abandon Christianity. The children of many Presbyterian (and other liberal churches) do not continue church membership.

Look again at the table that is linked above;

% Change : Church
-57.6% : American Baptist Association
-56.4% : Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
-30.7% : Churches of Christ
-32.6% : Episcopal Church
-21.1% : Presbyterian Church (USA)
-35.9% : United Church of Christ
-23.6% : United Methodist Church

Granted, there are a couple of cases where conservative churches have lost members, but I believe that there were other factors at work in those cases. Also granted, the biggest gains have been for some very heterodox churches, most notably the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (3233.3%).

More regularly;
188% : Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
188% : Armenian Orthodox Church of America
109.1% : Church of the Nazarene
25.0% : Greek Orthodox Diocese of North and South America
32.5% : Orthodox Church in America
57.7% : Roman Catholic Church

Yet, all Joan Gray can bring herself to say is that "change" is occurring.

Yep.

UN Human Rights Head Joins Anti-Semites

As if further indication were needed to demonstrate the evil supported by this organization, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour joined a human rights meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), currently chaired by Cuba this week. Here she is in the front row, far right, along with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (left).



From Eye on the UN Anne Bayefsky writes, UN Human Rights Chief takes Front row seat to hear Ahmadinejad in Tehran

While Arbour was hobnobbing with anti-semites, butchers and anti-democratic forces from around the world, Iranians were being prepared for public hangings. Arbour was reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency as having "expressed pleasure with being at the NAM meeting and described Iran's representation office in the UN in Geneva as "very good." In an unusual move, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has so far neglected to put her official statement on their website.

The day after Arbour left Iran the government felt sufficiently buoyed by their UN stamp of approval, that they executed 21 prisoners. People are executed in Iran for charges like "enmity against God" or "being corrupt on earth."

Iran need not worry about the UN reaction after-the-fact either. Arbour is quoted by Iranian news sources as telling participants: "The new method of considering issues related to human rights is comprehensive and not selective and the UN Human Rights Council is ready to present technical and consultation assistance to Iran." "Non-selective" is UN code for refusing to name states that violate human rights, let alone taking action to stop them. "Technical assistance" is UN code for helping the state avoid criticism by pretending the problem is some kind of infrastructure glitch. It has been clear for some time that the new UN Human Rights Council is bent on eliminating all country-specific criticism, (not directed at Israel of course). Now, apparently, Arbour agrees.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, but;

The Iranians were delighted at Arbour's visit - crowing that the UN had "taken part in the conference at the highest level." They clearly understood her presence as support for their view that human rights are all relative, or as Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi put it, participants "indicated international resolve to uphold human rights in line with the cultural diversity in the international community."

As I have said many times before, there is only one reason for the United States to remain a member of one of the most evil, corrupt, anti-semitic organizations on Earth, and that is to veto all resolutions that would cause harm to the only decent, democratic country in the area - Israel.

Louise Arbour and everyone else involved with the UNHCR should be ashamed of themselves. But they are not, of course.

Another Music Great Lost

While at work yesterday, strolling through USS Ronald Reagan's aircraft hanger bays, I was thinking of the passing of Luciano Pavarotti. It occurred to me that during the period when I was away from my computer Beverly Sills passed away.

She was another one of those whose influence was so huge that she seemed to be everywhere, informing and defining interpretations of opera. When one wanted to hear how it should be sung, one listened to Beverly Sills.

She passed away on this past July 2nd. Her last performance was at a farewell gala held on October 27th, 1980. We have had time to listen to other fine performers since then. Still, it is difficult to imagine a musical world without her. Following her final performance she remained heavily involved with the New York City Opera, the Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, and most importantly her charity work for the March of Dimes and other charities seeking to help children with birth defects.

She was truly a great American.

Beverly Sills Farewell - Her Final Performance

Maestra, the world misses you. Rest in peace.

UPDATE:
Here are two performances of "Una Voce Poco Fa" from Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini, the first from 1971, the second from 1976.

What a magnificent performer!

Beverly Sills - Una Voce Poco Fa!! (1971)


Beverly Sills - Una Voce Poco Fa!! (1976)

An Irreplacable Loss

As both of my loyal readers no doubt already know, Luciano Pavarotti died today. He was a great figure in music for nearly my entire musical life. He was like a mountain that you just know it's there without having to look at it. There are a few great tenors in the world, but none like him.

When he began to sing Neapolitan folk songs and sing in very large venues many music critics complained that he was cheapening opera - tarnishing its artistic purity.

That is idiocy. In Italy opera is a very popular musical form. It does not exist in some lofty inaccessible height, but it exists at the level of the people who love it so.

And we loved him.

Rest in peace, Maestro.


ITALIAN;

Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che fremono d'amore
e di speranza.

Ma il mio mistero e chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun sapra!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diro
quando la luce splendera!

Ed il mio bacio sciogliera il silenzio
che ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun sapra!...
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincero!
vincero, vincero!

ENGLISH

None must sleep! None must sleep!
And you, too, Princess,
in your cold room,
gaze at the stars
which tremble with love
and hope!

But my mystery is locked within me,
no-one shall know my name!
No, no, I shall say it as my mouth
meets yours when the dawn is breaking!

And my kiss will break the silence
which makes you mine!

(No-one shall know his name,
and we, alas, shall die!)

Vanish, o night!
Fade, stars!
At dawn I shall win

And this;



HAIL MARY

Hail Mary!
Virgin of heaven,
queen of grace and holy mother,
ever receive a fervent prayer,
do not deny my tortured heart
relief for its distress!
My lost soul lies humbly before you
and at your feet, full of hope,
appeals to you and waits
for you to grant
the peace which you alone can give.
Hail Mary!

Pyongyang's Upper Hand

Here is another splendid piece from John Bolton, a man who has served, and continues to serve, our country well.

Thanks to feckless diplomacy, Kim Jong Il may preserve his nuclear program. (a hat tip to my beautiful wife, Sophia)

The Six-Party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program have now descended into a miasma of "working groups," one of which, on U.S.-North Korea bilateral issues, will meet this weekend in Geneva. It is worth paying attention to the outcome of this gathering.

North Korea wants to be taken off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and, as soon as possible, to enjoy full diplomatic relations with Washington. Pyongyang may well succeed, as many in the U.S. State Department seem more eager to grant full recognition to the Pyongyang dictatorship in North Korea than to the democracy in Taiwan. This would be a profound mistake on our part.

Nearly 200 days have passed since Feb. 13, when the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program produced an "agreement" to eliminate that program. Despite encomiums about the virtues of diplomacy, little real progress has been made in eliminating Pyongyang's program. Negotiations in July ended without agreement on a timetable, despite repeated State Department assurances since February that the North would be held to strict deadlines [because we have given up - Photi].

The Yongbyon reactor is shuttered, but that reactor was not frequently operational in the recent past, and may well be at the end of, or even beyond, its useful life. The return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to Yongbyon provides North Korea with a new patina of respectability, despite the near certainty that significant nuclear activity is happening anywhere but Yongbyon.

In fact, the key change is that economic assistance is once again subsidizing and reinforcing Kim Jong Il's hold on power. Heavy fuel oil, food and other "humanitarian" assistance from South Korea, and substantial unpublicized aid from China are all flowing North. Cheeky Pyongyang is once again demanding that the outside world supply it with light-water nuclear reactors. The second North-South Summit in Pyongyang, postponed until October--closer to South Korea's presidential elections-- will provide renewed legitimacy to the North Korean dictatorship, and may bolster the political chances of South Korean advocates of appeasement, in turn providing Kim Jong Il even more breathing room.

Kim is once again besting the U.S. in accomplishing his two central strategic objectives: staying in power and preserving his nuclear-weapons program. The working groups currently underway do nothing to achieve the proper ends of U.S. foreign policy. A few weeks ago in Shenyang, China, the "denuclearization" working group met without visible progress, even on permanently dismantling Yongbyon.

As always, read it all. Mr. Bolton points up several things that clearly need to be done and that clearly are not being done.

Memorializing the King

No, not that King, the King of Jazz - Louis Armstrong.

The Monster is Winning

With the Bush Administration in normalization talks with North Korea, preparing to roll over for Kim Jong-il (again) and give that monster everything that it wants, it is good to review this piece by John Bolton that I found some time ago.

Pyongyang Pussyfooting

Not only did North Korea thereby achieve at least one key objective before any performance on its part (contrary to the February 13 deal), Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill recently made a pilgrimage to Pyongyang where he said he was "buoyed by the sense that we are going to be able to achieve our full objectives." Undoubtedly, North Korea was buoyed by the visit, which marked yet another administration retreat--this one from the position that such a trip was impossible before performance by the North.

This Pyongyang visit symbolizes the full return of Clinton-era, bilateral negotiations with North Korea, and their predominance over the Six-Party Talks. The Bush administration has effectively ended where North Korea policy is concerned, replaced for the next 18 months by a caretaker government of bureaucrats, technocrats and academics. So complete was the transformation that putative Shadow Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke facilitated a number of Mr. Hill's bilateral contacts with Pyongyang. Kim Jong Il will now, in all likelihood, further his slow roll, waiting for America's 2008 elections, when the Clinton era may return de jure as well as de facto.

This is not a comment on partisan disagreements, but an important signpost that Bush's clear determination in 2001 to follow a different course has disappeared, replaced with the same flawed conceptual framework that failed so badly in the 1990s. New failures lie ahead.

Indeed they do;

U.S., N. Korea Officials Start Talks on Normalization of Ties

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. and North Korean negotiators begin two-day talks today on how to normalize their relations, as part of ongoing discussions on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will meet his counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan at the U.S. mission in Geneva, in a meeting on normalizing ties, one of five working groups that operate under the nuclear talks forum.

Of course this will require an end to the armistice between the United Nations Command (headed by the U.S.)and a peace agreement.

And if you don't believe that terrorism and blackmail can be used successfully against the United States, here is a document prepared by the Congressional Research Service for members of Congress;

North Korea: Terrorism List Removal?
Updated April 6, 2007

North Korea also may have increased the incentive for the Bush Administration to strengthen this linkage. The South Korean newspaper, JongAng Ilbo, quoted "a diplomatic source knowledgeable on the New York talks" between Hill and Kim Kye-gwan on March 5-6, 2007, that Kim asserted that if the United States took steps to normalize relations, North Korea could disable the Yongbyon nuclear installations within a year (i.e., March 2008). Kim specifically mentioned as a key step the removal of North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. (Yi Sang-il and Chin Se-ku. Yongbyon nuclear facility can be disabled within a year.JongAng Ilbo (internet version), Mar. 13, 2007)

And for all of those leftists™ out there who think that North Korea is somehow being falsely accused or put upon by the evil, imperialistic United States, here is another report to Congress;

North Korea: Chronology of Provocations, 1950 - 2003
Updated March 18, 2003

Read it all.

Oscar - Amazing and Wonderful

Oscar the Cat

Read this incredible story from the New England Journal of Medicine.

A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat

Note: Since he was adopted by staff members as a kitten, Oscar the Cat has had an uncanny ability to predict when residents are about to die. Thus far, he has presided over the deaths of more than 25 residents on the third floor of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. His mere presence at the bedside is viewed by physicians and nursing home staff as an almost absolute indicator of impending death, allowing staff members to adequately notify families. Oscar has also provided companionship to those who would otherwise have died alone. For his work, he is highly regarded by the physicians and staff at Steere House and by the families of the residents whom he serves.

Do go and read the story.

Born in Hell

North Korean Prison Camps

First, again I must explain that because of my travels and the circumstances surrounding that, I have had little quality time to spend with my computer. That said, I ran across this;

Born and raised in a North Korean gulag

While Leftist™ Americans express love and support for governments like Cuba ( a Hollywood favorite) and North Korea and hatred for their own country there are people who actually experience the hell that these countries are, and not just a few.

SEOUL: On Nov. 29, 1996, 14-year-old Shin Dong Hyok and his father were made to sit in the front row of a crowd assembled to watch executions. The two had already spent seven months in a North Korean prison camp's torture compound, and Shin assumed they were among those to be put to death.

Instead, the guards brought out his mother and his 22-year-old brother. The mother was hanged, the brother was shot by a firing squad.

"Before she was executed, my mother looked at me," Shin said in a recent interview. "I don't know if she wanted to say something, because she was bound and gagged. But I avoided her eyes.

"My father was weeping, but I didn't cry," he said. "I had no love for her. Even today I hate her for what I had to go through because of her."

Shin's story provides a rare glimpse into one of the least-known prison camps in North Korea.

Shin, now 24, was a political prisoner by birth. From the day he was born in 1982 in Camp No. 14 in Kaechon until he escaped in 2005, Shin had known no other life. Guards beat children, tortured grandparents and, in cases like Shin's, executed family members. But Shin said it did not occur to him to hate the authorities. He assumed everyone lived this way.

And, a comment from Ahn Chol, about whom I have written twice;

Ahn Myeong Cheol, who worked as a driver and guard at four camps before reaching South Korea in 1994, has no doubts that Shin was in a total-control zone. Ahn said that when he met Shin in June, he immediately noticed the telltale signs: the avoidance of eye contact and arms warped by heavy labor from childhood.

"An instruction drilled into every guard's head is: Don't treat them like humans," Ahn said.

Can you find North Korea, the People's Paradise™ in this photograph? Here's a hint.