Thursday Bag o’ Thuggery

So far it’s been a thuggish week. The Boston Marathon bombings. The media frenzy and over-reaction that followed. The Senate demonstrating, once again, that it thinks “democracy” is crazy talk. And now the fertilizer plant in West, Texas.

Empty Bellicosity, Thy Name Is DPRK

You know, if you’ve never read news from the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea before, you might be inclined to take something like this seriously: All Service Members Are Waiting for Order to Fire Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) — All servicepersons of the Korean People’s Army, fully ready to launch a sacred war of retaliation […]

Department of Predictable Events

In December, after the death of hereditary dictator Kim Jong-Il, network and cable TV news programs replayed videos of North Korean citizens publicly weeping and wailing in mourning for the Dear Leader.  Many Americans, starting with but not confined to news reporters, made fun of the North Koreans. I wrote a blog entry at the […]

Fat Tuesday Blogging

My sisters and I grew up in a non-Mardi Gras home: Mom, like all Southern Baptists, observed Lent the whole year round; Dad, an agnostic, pretty much did whatever he wanted to do regardless of the time of year.  I married a Catholic girl, but Mardi Gras wasn’t part of her family’s tradition either.  Oh, […]

Oh, for a Sound Social Atmosphere!

Regular readers are aware of my fascination with all things North Korean.  I check the Korean Central News Agency site almost every day, and just this morning found this gem: China Strives to Create Sound Social Atmosphere Beijing, February 20 (KCNA) — China intensified the campaign against yellow culture and illegal publications in order to […]