COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Japanese Get Tough With North Korea


Some unfamiliar unambiguous action from Japan. This is interesting and refreshing . Japan would not do anything without close consultation with the US. This signals the Western and most likely Chinese response. There will be no US attack, it appears to be a strategy to squeeze the last remaining economic juice out of North Korea. It seems logical that this was coordinated with China and would come under what the Chinese have promised as "harsh measures."
  • Will this work? Will it convince Kim to change his nuclear ambitions?
  • Is there a better solution given the politics and realities of China being a border country?
  • Has the Bush strategy been a wise one?
  • Mətušélaḥ said...

    North Korea presents a good opportunity to move forward. People understand what UN diplomacy means. And the implications are not in Iran's favor.

    1:30:40 AM. Is he right?


BBC is reporting:

Japan announces N Korea sanctions

"Monday's news of the claimed test has sparked global concern
Japan is to impose tough new sanctions against North Korea in response to its claimed nuclear test.
The new measures will include banning all North Korean imports and stopping its ships entering Japanese waters, a government spokesman said.

Japan is also backing US-led efforts to get the UN to impose separate sanctions against the North.

The moves came as the North's second most powerful leader threatened more tests if the US remained "hostile".

The Japanese measures, announced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, will come into effect following a formal cabinet meeting on Friday.


N KOREA NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

Believed to have 'handful' of nuclear weapons
But not thought to have any small enough to put in a missile
Could try dropping from plane, though world watching closely

They include new restrictions which will prevent almost all North Koreans from entering Japan.

"We cannot tolerate North Korea's actions if we are to protect Japanese lives and property," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

"These measures were taken to protect the peace."

47 comments:

  1. While you clamor for War, rts, those closest to Mr Kim do not.

    Both the SouKs and the Chicom prefer the status que. The collapse of NorK is not in the best interest of either.

    Nor, really is it in US intersts to have loose chemical weapons in the hands of Korean regional warlords.

    But how many SouK civilian lifes are to be sacrificed to disarm Mr Kim? 100,000, 200,000, more?
    It will not be less, in a full scale war. Even if it's short.

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  2. Not only Japan, but Australia, has also announced sanctions.

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  3. For what he and his bunch have done to all those poor helpless peasants, Kim needs a colonoscopy on a barbeque spit, preparatory to feeding him to the hogs.

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  4. Jeezis, bobal, how can you SAY that--didn't you see the China Syndrome?

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  5. Sorry--i had an attack of Attention Doofus-it Disorder.

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  6. Oh, the MILLS and the MINES, and the LOGGERS, too--the horror, the horror....

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  7. No, it's not. But, I chose to roughneck in the pre-OSHA era--nobody made me do it, even tho few of the old pros had all their fingers, or weren't alcoholic 5-time divorcees. That was the appeal, to a young guy--the money was good, and you could laff it up with people who didn't give a shit about the danger.

    And anyway, we've only got weeks to live.

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  8. Multiculturalism and the decline of neighborliness at the BC.

    In reviewing the comments, more or less cursorially, the one underlining characteristic determining cultural “trust” was missing: a universal cultural acceptance of “right” and “wrong.” Additionally, cultures provide the institutions wherein disputes are ajudicated. In short, cultures of trust are those where members can anticipate acceptably consistent behavior from others and have the means to suppress deviation. Consistent behavior leads to consistent behavior, which leads to trust. Within a culture having “trust” the meaning of “is” will never be in dispute.

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  9. I don't know the case, bobal--I'm sure the miners were in the right. Somebody has to be responsible, and it has to be the owners.

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  10. A samll aircraft has crashed into a building in NYC. Stock mkt went off 70 pts on the Dow, instantly, almost. Reports are it was near a heliport, prob an accident, prob a helicopter.

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  11. Make "trust" your basis of decision, bobal--that's my advice.

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  12. bobalharb,

    re: Constitution

    The US Constitution set out the immutable standards by which the American culture would be defined and lived. With occasional stumbles, historically the interpretation of the Constitution provided a predictable foundation applicable to all citizens. Moreover, since the authority of the Constitution was derived from the Creator, such articles of faith, as the 2nd Amendment, were incontestable.

    Modern liberalism (a monumental misnomer) has attacked both the devine origin of American rights and, through the concept of evolutionary adaptation, the consistency of the application of enumerated rights. Today, one can never predict the outcome of even the simplest Constitutional dispute. Consequently, trust in the constitutional system and its Author have been destroyed.

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  13. ...far more likely to've been a chopper accident, bobal. Bad visibility, inherent lack of updraft stability in them damn whirlybirds.

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  14. Allen, amen, amen. It's almost an attack by the dark side of human nature.

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  15. "There's huge pieces of debris falling," said one witness who refused to give her full name. "There's so much falling now, I've got to get away."

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  16. Ah, the first OBLIGATORY:
    NYC SCARE: 'SMALL AIRCRAFT' CRASHES INTO HIGH-RISE ON UPPER EAST SIDE... 524 E. 72ND STREET AT YORK, NEAR EAST RIVER... 'NO REASON TO BELIEVE EVENT IS TERRORISM'... DEVELOPING...

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  17. Still, what struck me most about
    Wretchard's lede and the subsequent comments was the utter failure to appreciate the cultural necessity of the discrimination between right and wrong. Apparently, even thinking about such a dichotomy is to be avoided. Fortunately, authors like Fukuyama have. It's just strange that conservatives have lost their voice.

    Intuitively, however, it is the juxtapositions of right and wrong which are causing conservatives so much grief in the Foley scandal. Democrats can be trusted to act like Democrats; therefore, when a Democrat is indecorous, neither Democrats nor conservatives are surprised. When conservative leadership, on the other hand, is perceived as having willfully failed to act for “right”, the trust of the base is grievously eroded. It was not Foley’s behavior that was at issue, it was the moral vacuum of the leadership that was injurious. To the base, if conservative leadership is as morally bankrupt as the Democrats, why bother? Essentially, the conservative base has been led to believe that its leadership can be trusted to act within conservative cultural norms; the base is disappointed.

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  18. Just another run of the Mill
    Plane Crashes into Highrise Story.

    Huge pieces of flaming Debris,
    ho hum.

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  19. 25 Minutes later, WaPo has a smaller header 1/4 of the way down the page!

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  20. I find it hard to believe a plane would be flying so close to that builing at that NYC without intending to hit that building.

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  21. The minimum a plane should be over that part on Manhattan would be 1500 feet. It hit right in the center of the building.

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  22. LATimes also way down the page with this:
    ---
    Plane Crashes Into NYC High-Rise
    New York's WNBC-TV reports a helicopter or small plane crashed into an East Side building.

    VIDEO

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  23. A helicopter would make more sense.

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  24. Either a Domestic Dispute
    Business Deal Gone Wrong
    Drug related
    and
    Finally, last and least
    A Crazed Muslim that loves Jews committing suicide.

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  25. Twin engine single wing plane, doing aerobatics? over the East River. Multiple reports of that from witnesses.

    Flew into the twentieth floor of an apartment building.

    FOX News synopsis

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  26. East River corridor aprox 1500 ft wide.

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  27. I forgot:
    "Terrible Accident"
    with sequelae.

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  28. aerobatics?
    Prob just lost control.

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  29. Doug,You need to use letters when giving multiple choices:

    1. Either a Domestic Dispute
    2. Business Deal Gone Wrong
    3. Drug related
    and
    4. Finally, last and least
    A Crazed Muslim that loves Jews committing suicide.

    They say it is not terroristic. How do they know that before they even know what type of aircraft?

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  30. I used numbers to be obstreperous, and use the word obstreperous.

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  31. hahahaha...you never lose your touch do you?

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  32. Same reaction when the oil storage units in England went up in flames. Nothing else was known, but rest assured, it was not the terrorism we are at War with.

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  33. Small
    Aircraft Hits Building in Manhattan

    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 10 minutes ago
    The aircraft struck the 20th floor of a high-rise condominium on the Upper East Side, a Fire Department spokeswoman said. Whether anyone was injured was not known, and it was unclear if the crash was an act of terrorism.
    COULDN'T have "injured" anyone,
    might be RPV

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  34. 747 hits Empire State Building.
    400 Jews decided to commit suicide.
    ---
    Planes crashes into N.Y. building

    Small plane smashes into high-rise building
    Witness: Huge flames, people were screaming
    President informed; crash believed to be accident

    ...NORAD orders aircraft patrol cities as precautionary measure.
    ho hum

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  35. STOCKS DIVE ON NEWS...
    VIDEO... DEVELOPING...
    ---
    Dumbass Wallstreet hasn't heard it's and ACCIDENT.
    They'll be the LAST to know.

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  36. Doug,

    A 50 story residential building with a helipad hit in the middle of the day when most ppl are still at work. Draw your own conclusions.

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  37. bobalharb,

    With respect, without the endowment of unalienable rights given by the Creator, there can be no American Constitution and consequent culture. The Framers deliberately chose this formulation, understanding the need for a founding authority beyond the reach of mere mortals. If the rights of Americans derive from their fellows, then, those rights are subject to caprice, which, indeed, is the case today, and the attendant "distrust" inherent to multiculturalism.

    Evidence of religion predates modern humans. Certainly, prior to the acquisition of language, there was religion. It may be that in an evolutionary sense religion is as integral to human nature as violence and sexuality. Some anthropologists posit that religion is the "nurture" by which human cultures have domesticated violence and sexuality, making it possible for large human congregations to successfully interact. Religion provides the requisite "trust."

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  38. Allen,

    Religions are too venerable to "abuse" and "misuse". And although Larsen can claim a direct line to Doug, I would view that with extreme suspicion. :)

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  39. oh, jeez, mat, nordics are WAY more evolved than scots/irish. We drink in the barn, not right in the middle of the house.

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  40. pretty interesting, that religion's function as 'nurture' and 'trust' line of reason.

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  41. Buddy,

    That's one scary thought, considering:

    "God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them."

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  42. Mat, did God forget to explain the concept of metaphorical language to you?

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