Why the North might want war

Many are asking what could North Korea possibly gain from an all-out war, a war that'd certainly lead to its own destruction. If North Korea really wants to provoke a war, it will be because of this:

(The Washington Post)

Their military equipment is at least fifty years old, nearing or way past its "best before" date. Soon it will be of little use and North Korea has absolutely no money (or anything for that matter) to obtain new equipment. And, with the Soviet Union long gone, they've got no real friends either. Combine this with the fact that the North Korean regime probably truly believes that the United States and South Korea are out to get them, just waiting for the right moment to invade, and you end up with a regime that believes it's running out of time. Either they set off what they believe to be inevitable now that they still have the initiative, or they wait and watch their (largely imaginary) military prowess decay and fade away, leaving behind a carcass of a country, to be consumed by the vulturous America and South Korea.

So yes, in the crazy, self-induced world the North Korean regime lives in, a war would make sense.

Israeli offensive: long overdue

Throughout the year, Palestinians have been firing hundreds of rockets into Israel. October and November were particularly active in terms of rockets fired. In response to this escalation, on November 14 the Israelis beautifully assassinated Ahmed al-Jabari, the 2nd in command of the Hamas military wing. He had played a major role in turning Gaza into a full-blown terrorist entity and helped bring about Israel's destructive Operation Summer Rains offensive by kidnapping Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, in 2006. You don't negotiate with terrorists like him; you kill them. Even before this assassination the Palestinians had fired about 200 rockets into Israel in the course of just a few days: on November 11 over a hundred rockets were fired into Israel. If anything, Israel's recent offensive has been long overdue as Hamas has been well able to build up its army and smuggle weapons into Gaza despite Israel's blockade. Over a thousand rockets were fired into Israel last week, an indication that Hamas has been gaining strength. Even more, a rocket recently landed near Jerusalem, indicating an improvement in rocket technology. Considering this, ending the Gaza blockade would be disastrous as it'd only embolden Hamas and other terrorist groups.

In some circles there's this popular theory that Israel doesn't even want to seek peace with Palestine, that they want Gaza to remain in a permanent state of misery while building new settlements in the West Bank, eventually leading to its annexation. Of course, it was only seven years ago that Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling its settlements there, forcibly removing hundreds of Jewish settlers. This remarkably generous act was interpreted by Hamas as a sign of weakness as they proceeded to take over the entire Gaza Strip and continued their war on the Jewish state. (Similarly, Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon didn't make Hezbollah any less popular.) Imagine if the withdrawal had worked as intended: Israel would, in all likelihood, be much more anxious to pursue a peaceful solution to the West Bank problem, having some hope that the resulting Palestinian state would not turn into just another hostile neighbor à la Iran, Southern Lebanon, Syria or Gaza. Moreover, Israel's security concerns have only multiplied in the wake of the Arab Spring that may have, in fact, emboldened Hamas to act, hoping the new government in Egypt might come to their aid. This new aspect only makes Israel's ongoing offensive even more important as they need to show Hamas that they have nothing to gain, in terms of their goal of destroying the Jewish state, from the Arab Spring.

Meanwhile Hamas continues to act like the barbarians they are. They've been doctoring images and putting civilians in the line of fire for the purpose of selling their cause to the world, and dragging mutilated bodies of "spies" on the streets of Gaza. These "people" are in charge of running the Gaza Strip, a position they seized Nazi-style by first winning some elections, then doing away with their rivals and subjecting the entire Strip to serve their cause. While it's regrettable that civilians are dying due to Israeli airstrikes, in no way should Israel be held responsible, not so long as it's the Gazans who elected Hamas to lead them and shoot rockets at Israel. And if the Palestinians do not in fact endorse Hamas' provocations but are at the same time unable to do anything about it, that leaves only Israel to take matters into their own hands.

Quiz

http://www.isidewith.com/ ---- I was listening to Bill O'Reilly talking about the elections and he's 100% right that if Obama wins it'll be because of the huge number of people who "want stuff" from the government and they think Obama will give it to them. In the long run it will not end well.

The price of a non-marketable good

Came across this crazy piece of news. A pair inherits an art piece ("Canyon") worth $65 million and has to pay an inheritance tax worth $29 million. The problem, however, is that the art piece includes a stuffed bald eagle, which cannot be sold since the bird is protected. (Obviously, if a stuffed bald eagle could be sold this would only encourage people to hunt them.) In other words, "Canyon" cannot be sold due to the stuffed bald eagle and yet the pair is stuck with a tax bill of $29 million. So how can it have a price tag of $65 million? How can a non-marketable good have a market value (the price of collectibles is obviously based on their market value, not some out-of-the-hat valuation)?

Even more worrying, the IRS is acting like the vengeful, petty bureaucrats that they are:

Placing a value on an item that cannot be sold is no easy feat. The venerable auction house Christie’s placed the value of "Canyon" at zero. The IRS initially put it at $15 million, then jumped the figure to $65 million when Sundell and Homem refused to pay, according to The New York Times.
The IRS, which declined to comment on the matter, is not only asking for $29 million in taxes, but also an $11.7 million “gross valuation misstatement” penalty, according to Forbes.

Inheritance taxes are nuts anyway. What exactly has the federal government done to deserve $29 million out of "Canyon"? They're simply robbing someone's estate.

Syria - what's taking so long?

The neocons are pushing for a regime change in Syria:

For the people and the fighters of Idleb, the fight goes on. They know that once Assad is finished with Homs and Hama, and once he thinks he can get away with it, he will turn his attention back to the north. Then it will be their turn, and the dictator will exact a bloody and terrible revenge for their effrontery.

What could prevent this is an effective coalition to counter the anti-Western one (Iran, Hezbollah, Russia) that currently underwrites the dictator. This Western coalition can only happen outside the auspices of the U.N., where Russia and China have already vetoed Security Council resolutions demanding Assad step down. (The Weekly Standard)

That was at the end of February. Now it's too late for the rebels in Idlib. Bolstered by Western inactivity, Assad resorted to tactics such as shellings residential neighborhoods.

The neocons, after years of ridicule, are still confident about their ideas, and why not? What has been happening in the Greater Middle East lately is more or less exactly what the neocons said would happen. Removing a constant, Saddam Hussein, from the Middle East helped alter what many considered a fixed status quo of autocratic regimes.

The intervention in Libya was a tremendous success. The cost of the operation has been estimated at about 3-4 billion dollars with the US being responsible for about a third of that amount. There were no casualties. In short, that's a lot of bang for the buck. In comparison, the United States spends nearly one trillion (a thousand billions) dollars on Medicare & Medicaid annually.

If Asssad is allowed to survive, the Western world has effectively helped set an example that whenever there's a internal revolt, you should resort to brutal measures to suppress the revolt. Any "peaceful solution" that preserves Assad as the head of Syria, as supported by second-rate countries such as Russia and the always-irrelevant UN, would be a travesty, an idealist piece of paper that only serves to bolster Assad's grip on Syria. The West needs to do more than just freeze credit cards.

No respect for adult entertainers

I hate it when porn stars, strippers & such are viewed as second-class citizens. I came across a news article from last summer about some Democrat Congressman (who looks a bit like Goebbels) having a "sexting" scandal involving Ginger Lee, a former porn star, now a stripper. The comment section of the Huffington Post article (also NYPost and Powerline) is another treasure trove of human stupidity with high-and-mighty conservatives ganging up on Lee:

We're supposed to take what a former porn star / current stripper has to say seriously?  -sbtrfly27

Maybe if we started calling them [porn stars] dim lights their futures might turn around. Would anyone want to be known as a porn dim light -Ginny Saul

Poor kid -- this must be *so* embarrassing for her. I'm sure she can't wait to get out from under the spotlight, and return to her simple, quiet lifestyle, and continue to make more films like "Share My C--k! 2" and "Manuel Ferrara F---s Them All!" -Yisrael Harris

I guess she didn't realize that you can block someone from texting you. That's why she's a porn star, not a rocket scientist. -Turtleposer

I find it hard to believe that a woman who takes on 3 guys at a time on film can be destroyed by texts containing sexual innuendo. -Shapi
Well, she's a porn star. She was overwhelmed by written language.  -Turtleposer

Did she obtain this moral code before or after she started performing sex acts for money? -imhotep40

And if you check her chin, you'll find ' Place Testicles Here'. -Adi Kotler

Post everything on this DIRTY WHORE! She is far from innocent and I hope she gets everything she deserves!!! -John Haines

And these people claim the moral high ground?

The sad thing is that adult entertainers don't get much respect from the left either. In fact, many academic feminists are devoted to putting them down, painting them as victims who cannot be trusted to make decisions on their own. Of course, such academic feminists are merely projecting their own feelings of inadequacy on those they envy, namely, sexually powerful women like Lee. The conservative reaction is a similar Freudian projection: The supposedly pious men hate themselves for how women like Lee make them feel while conservative women (and why not women in general) merely feel threatened by adult entertainers (i.e., jealousy):

I'm so sick of these women who act as if they are completely innocent and have no responsibi­lity at all. Men wouldn't cheat on their wives if there wasn't other women willing to cheat with them. -anotherwomanfromva

Of course, the vast majority of men (and an increasing number of women) consume pornography, and that majority includes a huge chunk of conservatives too. Too bad few have the guts to voice their support and respect for something they consume.

Oikeutta Qaddafille

Kymmeniätuhansia ihmisä tappanut Muammar Qaddafi sai muutaman minuutin ajan kokea saman, mitä hän pakotti monet libyalaiset (ja ulkomaalaiset) kokemaan 42 vuoden ajan. Tähän oikeudenmukaisuuden pilkkeeseen suomalaiset reagoivat odotetusti:

Yhdysvallat on ryhtynyt liittolaisineen tappamaan itselleen epämieluisia henkisiä johtajia lennokeilla ja nyt valtionpäämiehiä taistelukoneilla. Kansainvälisen yhteisön tulisi tuomita tämä kovin ottein. -millä oikeudella

Liittouma sai YK:lta oikeudet ilmatilan suojeluun, mutta tosiasiallisesti vastoin YK:n lupaa pommitti siviilejä ja perääntyviä maajoukkoja. Raukkamaista ja rikollista. Sarkozy ja Obama tulisi viedä Haagin sotarikostuomioistuimeen tuomittaviksi. -HINNATALAS

Antaa tietysti tyylikkään kuvan uusista vallanpitäjistä: vanha mies pyytää armoa pakomatkalla ja hänet murhataan...
Eipä ihme että Amerikassa ja Ranskassa ja Italiassa ollaan ylpeitä, tämähän on juuri sitä toimintaa mihin heitä koulutetaan. -Juho-Kusti

Laittomasta väkivallasta puheenollen, olikohan tämä Naton toimi lentokiellon ylläpitämistä vai siviilien suojelemista vai YK:n mandaatin vastainen? -Johan On

Taas on länsiliittouman siunauksella oksennettu eurooppalaisen oikeuskäsityksen ja ihmisarvojen kasvoille. Ja tälle irvokkaalle lopputulokselle kansa sekä johtajat hurraavat, niin barbaarisessa Afrikassa kuin "sivistyneessä" lännessä. -roomalainen

Tämä tapahtumasarja on aivan järkyttävää valtion sisäisiin asiohin puuttumista ja sen luonnonvarojen ryöstöä. Mitä tutkimista siinä on, että Gaddafi nyt tapettiin, kun sitä eilen oikein peräänkuulutettiin?
Eikö Naton pitänyt olla vain suojaamistehtävissä, eikä sodassa?
Vanha sana, mutta sitä tämä on: imperialismia. -Erkki

Suurin piirtein yhtä innostuneesti täällä suhtauduttiin Osaman kuolemaan.