Because a brain is a terrible thing to waste.
Marmot’s Open Thread #8
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by Robert Koehler on May 19, 2007
Because a brain is a terrible thing to waste.
Previous post: Pyongyang Roller Coaster
Next post: A Hole in One You Krazy Guys!
{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
ajumma sex-
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/216796/kim_hye_su/
Yay!
I thought they were bigger than that.
This has great value. And I mean that!
My mother has huge gibun!
You gotta love Rhesus to pieces for that. Sexy ajummas rock!
Kim’s earlier films include “Dr. Bong” and “Mr. Condom”. I hope that, unlike the inoperative pathetic endowment of her partner in the clip, the male lead in the latter had the infrastructure to fill his part.
Was that a Korean man in that clip? DANG!!!
Was there a man in the clip? Didn’t notice…
Readers of Korean might be interested in this Chosun Ilbo story on the bipartisan immigration revision bill in the US Senate:
http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2007/05/19/2007051900050.html
Korean-Americans: “Immigration Reform Bill Unfavorable to Korean-American Community”
Summary of key points:
- Proposed point system weighting labor skills and English over family ties puts ethnic Koreans at a disadvantage
- Guest worker visas favor Hispanics
- Temporary work permits are good only for two years. After that, the formerly undocumented worker who wants permanent residency must return to home country to apply and cannot bring family to the US until their immigration is approved.
The last point is factually correct, but the article fails to explain clearly how family immigration will change under the proposed law. Immigrants can still sponsor spouses and minor children. A limited number of visas would be available to parents. Adult children and siblings would need to earn points in other criteria, such as English skills, education, and work experience.
The article makes the immigration bill sound like all gloom and doom for Koreans in the US, and it’s not. The top ten countries of birth for legal immigrants to the US are:
1. Mexico
2. India
3. China
4. Philippines
5. Cuba
6. Vietnam
7. Dominican Republic
8. Korea
9. Colombia
10. Ukraine
Koreans have higher educational attainment and better English skills than most of the countries in the top ten. Many Koreans who otherwise would have come in through family sponsorship will still be able to immigrate if they accrue enough points through other eligibility criteria.
Canada and Australia use a point system similar to the one being proposed, and I am glad to see the US follow suit.
Correction to the above summary:
Only heads of household of permanent residency applicants must return to the home country for a period of one year. Presumably, dependents can remain in the US.
The article complains that guest workers cannot bring family. This is not quite true. Guest workers can bring family if they are able to provide health insurance and if their wages are at least 150% above the poverty level.
This article explains clearly the key provisions of the proposed bill:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070518/ap_on_go_co/immigration_congress_glance_2
The biggest this week was the test operation of inter-Korea railway. After dousing NK with money, finally KJI allowed this test operation of railway.
Some Koreans see this as the auspicious beginning. Most of them, including KA like myself, see this as hugh waste of money.
Even TV coverage was somewhat subdued. If this was done in two years ago, all Koreans have gone ga-ga over Unification dream.
Not now. Korean people see KJI as what he is. A dictator who stops the unification process. The one to kill before NK can be liberated.
Only thing that stops Korean unification is KJI. He must be taken out. The one to kill.
baduk, Treadstone doesn’t exist. It never existed. You’re really wandering out of your pay grade with this one.
It’s ridiculous that Koreans think this amnesty disadvantages them. Unlike the wretches coming from South America, a $5000 (W4,300,000?) immigration fine is something that Koreans can come up with easily here in Seoul. Just skip two steak dinners, or fill up with five fewer gallons of gasoline. Or, if they have to raise the money in LA, just up the price of orange juice. Except we know the price of orange juice is your life.
Underwear fashion show in front of Lotte:
http://pictorial.hani.co.kr/pitView.hani?sn=27622&
After you’ve salivated a bit, take another look and notice that the models all look foreign. The woman in the center looks Asian but not Korean. While I was living in Korea, I noticed that underwear ads almost always featured foreign women. We speculated as to the reasons: 1) foreign women were thought to have better bodies – doubtful since most foreign models were small-busted; and 2) Koreans less embarassed about seeing half-naked furiners modeling “panti” – more likely explanation.
Tonight my wife and I took our daughter to the lotus lantern festival at jogye sa. Although we were of course pushed and shoved a few times by random ajummas, it was generally a very pleasant experience despite the crowds.
As we we will be leaving Korea soon, we are trying to take in as much as possible before we go. One observation by my wife (Korean) is that while we both seem to like Korea and Koreans generally, the elite of Korean society are so incredibly arrogant and obnoxious that we can’t stand them.
Unfortunately, in my line of work I work with the elite of Korean society, and I do find that they are incredibly arrogant. My theory (amateur, help me out here) is that Korea has always been an elitist society, from the yangban to the collaborators with the Japanese, to the modern day members of the Korean bar and the chaebol. They have never been one and the same with “the people” writ large, having identified more with the Chinese, then the Japanese, and then the Americans, at least in their aspirations and appearances. In fact the elite have always seemed a bit embarrassed by their farmer country bumpkin countrymen, yet have always been ready and willing to stir up the commoners’ nationalist sentimements when it serves their interests. (This in itself is of course an elitist statement, but it hardly seems out of place in this context.)
Anyway, just a thought. Tonight we felt much more like we were mingling with real people, though of course this could also be romantic bullshit.
Just like Elizabethan England.
Class warfare goes on.
These so-called upper crust rich folks get so embarrassed that their ancestry includes some ne’er-do-wells. Actually, they get so embarrassed that their children are mediocre at school. That shows they are not from Yangban (scholar) seed, but from Ssangnom(shit of the earth) sperm.
This type of judging people by the class of parents eventually brings uprising. Korean society never had such a uprising. No French revolution.
After being freed from the Japanese rule, many Koreans embraced Communism. That was their French revolution. Without the US intervention, Korea would have become what NK is right now. Communist dictatorship.
With God’s grace, SK is spared from the fate of China, Russia and North Korea. However, Jolla Commies think SK should not have done that. They believe SK should have suffered through Communism and hunger and dehumanization and lack of personal freedom.
If they love Communism so much, why don’t they just go over. All these pro-North student radicals should just go to the North. Their dream exist right there!
However, they don’t. They like Choco-pies and Big Macs too much.
While I was living in Korea, I noticed that underwear ads almost always featured foreign women.
I think there are more Korean women in lingerie ads now than there used to be. A result of the spread of breast implants? Could be.
What the women in the photo should be embarrassed about is, except the one who apparently stumbled into a rose bush, they’re all wearing granny panties.
iceburg, regarding granny panties, from my recollections of a schoolboy staring at women’s mags with my schoolboy peers who brought them to school, you’re right…
women in their 20′s, sporting granny panties.
But that was 1989. No change? A pity.
regarding the political money that most ROK ex Presidents have hoarded and retired richly with, that money is not a case of “no harm, no foul.”
In fact, it is my speculation that it hurt a ton of people.
1997 IMF situation happenned as banks fell and then corps fell with them, but corps could have made much better use of that money rather than say, guaranteeing the progeny of ex ROK Presidents a perpetual guaranteed life of luxury.
Same could be said of money spent up North, but with such a heavy price, that money allowed people separated for half a century to say their proper good byes, and North Korea cracked opened a tiny bit. Maybe Kaesong will be the most productive city North of the 38th, when Unification happens decades later.
Is it worth it? History will judge that one.
i’m even thinking corps used borrowed money to pay Presidents.
Anybody make the top 1200?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18757087/site/newsweek/
#22 – Yup, #691. Go Bulldogs!
Sonagi (#15) you can probably blame all the foreign women in Korean underwear ads on the collapse of the Soviet Union
Seriously, all these Russian women would not be here running around in grandma panties if the Russian economy was better.
It’s the same with some of the musicians in hotel lounges I’ve talked to–they studied classical music in Russia and they’re reduced to playing “Feelings” at the Hilton or wherever for peanuts because they can’t get work back home.
Non-Korean women in Korean underwear advertising is a very new phenomenon.
I’m guessing it started say 10 to 12is years ago when the law prohibiting their use in (at least that kind of) advertising was repealed.
.
There was a law against foreign models? Ah, Korea. Here’s a lady who wants a limit on them:
http://www.munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2007050701033035123006
Apropo of nothing, Korean Raelian boobie pic (NSFW):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Raelian_Women_at_Love_Hug_Festival_in_Seoul%2C_South_Korea.jpg
I miss the days when underwear models weren’t foreigners.
It was back in the days when a young Russian (& Sweedish, & Norwegian, & etc) woman could take the subway without being asked, “How much?”
I think always having a lot of foreign women scantly clothed contributes to racism towards them. Watching the home shopping channels, it is easy to see how some people might assume that they come to Korea to use their bodies to make money, especially if most of the blonde hair blue eye women you see in your life are on TV wearing close to nothing. This is one of those instances in racial politics where the intention is not racist but it contributes to it nonetheless. (One thing for sure, if North American underwear advertising was full of Asian women, there’d be hell to pay.)
I also just can’t be healthy as far as Korean women are concerned to have western women be a standard for beauty.
I absolutely agree about a Western standard of beauty being problematic, especially when it leads to eye surgery that destroys one of the most attractive parts of Asian women.
On a selfish level I welcome underwear models of all races
although my wife is not too keen on them for some reason….
hollywood first pushed the nudity envelope by first showing blacks in the nude. did you know that? i think what you think is korean is really just human nature.
‘absolutely agree about a Western standard of beauty being problematic, especially when it leads to eye surgery that destroys one of the most attractive parts of Asian women.’ poster
round eye are not western. many races have round eyes. about 20% of koreans are born with round eyes. it’s more likely korean women want to look like that 20% rather than wanting to look white as you imply. still further, attraction to large round eyes is probably biological. the same goes for light skin which is also not exclusive to whites.
買 忽 訪 羅 瑕
랙ㄷㅍㄷㄱ ㅡㅛ ㄱㄷ넫ㅊㅅ, 애휻ㄳ.
True, many races have round eyes–I was thinking specifically of surgery to change the epicanthal fold that’s common to Asians. As for the women’s motivation to get the surgery, you’re probably somewhat right although there’s a whole lot of studies and news stories suggesting it’s mainly because Asian women have internalized Western notions of beauty, including “deer in the headlights” eyes.
Pawi,
Re: Last paragraph. You’re wrong. Many, many, MANY Koreans themselves (here in Korea, of course…not the ones where you live) express concern over “other Koreans’ obsession with looking more ‘Western’”. Of course, that doesn’t stop them from going out and getting “double-eyelid” surgery themselves.
Not a criticism. Just a fact.
#22 – My alma mater, Bellevue High, ranked thirty-second on the 2007 list. Go Wolverines!
Incidentally, it’s a part of the Bellevue School District, which also includes the eleventh-ranked International School and fifty-ninth-ranked Interlake High School. Rounding out the district are Sammamish and Newport, which are also in the top 200.
LOL! Anyone wanna guess the identity of the guy posing as 4islands at this thread? LOL. I should have never given him a link to Igoo over at the Metropolitan’s blog about a year ago.
http://www.igoo.com/Lounge/showthread.php?t=50242&page=3&pp=15
ponta, friend of matt=shaku=occ=lee wan yong portrait.
Oh yeah, and I got an email talking about a certain “someone” known as “chil-in-pa” at asiafinest.com
LOSER!
The biggest this week was the test operation of inter-Korea railway. After dousing NK with money, finally KJI allowed this test operation of railway.
Some Koreans see this as the auspicious beginning. Most of them, including KA like myself, see this as hugh waste of money.
I am KA and I do not see this as a huge waste of money but as an investment in the peace, prosperity, and future of the Korean people. Would that money be better spent in more firepower aimed toward our fraternal northern brothers? It was foreign intervention, imperialism, meddling, and ideology which has divided the Korean people and left it in the tragic state which persists to this day. It is high time for the Korean people to seize control over their own destiny and heal the wounds of the past.
I also believe that the North Korean question (should we view them as friend or enemy) is the greatest test of the Korean people as a Christian nation. The Scriptures contain tons of clues and hints about how we are view North Korea and how to handle the matter.
1. Love your neighbor. Is North Korea not the neighbor of South Korea? This also means South Korea must love and forgive Japan for historical wrongdoings.
2. Love your enemy. Unfortunately North Korea is still an enemy of South Korea. But how does a nation “love its enemy”? By encouraging the other to open up their borders, lay down their arms, extending offers of peace and reconciliation, and by giving material aid.
3. Many critics point out that reconciliation policy is a failure because North Korea only takes what South Korea gives (money, goods, rice) without giving anything in return. Well the Scriptures clearly state that when “your enemy takes your shirt, offer him your coat as well”. A key test of policy towards North Korea is simply to ask “would this be more conduscive to war or peace?” To never achieve reconciliation, to forever remain enemies, and to possibly end up fighting another destructive war is the ultimate failure.
4. The South Korean people must never lose hope of establishing real, lasting peace in the Korean peninsula because it sayss “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the earth”.
“Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.”
carl’s jr is something work talking about. It was around 2002 when I picked up a financial journal at my school, and discovered that Hardee’s had a branch in Korea and was dealing with the Cardinals for the now demolished Busch stadium.
What I found really weird being in socal was seeiing Carl’s Jr logo, but the words Hardees. Same for the ROK. Hardees. When I was on the road, socal still said Carl’s Jr.
So, I asked a Nebraska guy via fantasy league, and he claimed Hardees had a menu such as the Ham Sammich and some other stuff. Didn’t sound like Chicken Teriyaki sandwich to me.
When I actually tried a Hardees around 2005, it seemed like the Carl’s Jr, menu.
I think Hardees bought Carl’s, not Carl’s buying Hardees. Why did Hardees adopt Carl’s menu, instead of Carl’s scraping its menu and going with Hardee’s? Mystery to me.
I may be way off.
i am off. Carl’s bought Hardees and Hardees changed its menu to Carl’s. What a shame.
Netizen Kim,
The money given can be used in the South for much better purposes.
And, the money given to Kim Jongil is used to buy weapons. The weapons to be used on South Koreans.
If you like to give money to KJI, give some money to Islam terrorists. They will use the money to come and kill you, your family and your parents.
Jesus did not say give money to Islam terrorists. I am quite sure Jesus does not want us to give money to KJI so that he can buy weapon, invade SK and kill Koreans.
Anyone who advocate giving money to this horrible dictator should get his head examined. No country survived by giving money to the enemy and being on their good terms.
Enemy always wants more. If you don’t give, they attack.
On the faintest case of KJI using the money for the good purpose, feeding his people for example, you still helping the horrible dictator to prolong his days of oppressing people.
Isn’t this just thing these student activists are accusing the US having done to SouthKorea? They wrongly accuse the US helped Chun to gain power and prolong military dictatorship.
Hell, SouthKoreans and some misinformed KAs are doing this to NK people. You are helping KJI to prolong his dictatorship over innocent NK people by giving him money.
Don’t give money to this dictator who is playing a god to NK people. His father was a god and now he is a god. And, he is busy grooming his son to be a god in North Korea.
Kim family has been the worsest curse to Korean people. Kim IlSung started the Korean War that killed millions. If someone else has been in his place, that person may not have started a war. Not Kim. He didn’t think twice about killing his fellowmen in the name of Communism.
Kim Jongil now has the power. He spends money on special food, cars and women. The world-class playboy who is a parasite.
You want to send the money to this scum so that he can buy more sushi, RollsRoyce and prostitutes, let alone developing next generation nuke weapon and guidance missle system?
You are crazy.
Thanks to Kim DaeJung who sent hugh amount of money through Huyndai corporation, KJI developed nuke weapons. These will be used in killing South Koreans as soon as the Chinese gives OK.
The permission will come after the Olympic next year.
With the money SKs keep pumping to NK, KJI is buying oil, food and weapons. He knows once the war starts, he will need these.
Just imagine. The money SKs sent to KJI comes back as bullets that will kill SKs.
Yes, NKs are preparing for a war. They have been at it for last fifty years.
And, talking about bullets. SK army has bullets for only 14 days of fighting. After 14 days, SK military has no bullets left to use. Unless the US provide bullets, SKs have no option left but to surrender.
The lightness of trusting in SK military and politicians!
Baduk, where’d you get the data on bullets lasting 14 days worth only? Are you saying that was deliberately planned by either Kim Dae Jung or Roh Moo Hyun?
Ok, then explain why Kim Dae Jung brought about an aircraft carrier for the ROK Navy. He shouldn’t do that if his goal was to weaken the ROK so the Norks can gobble it up. Must be just an elaborate plan to give that aircraft carrier to Kim Jong Il, so he can use it to attack South Korea.
Ok, explain to my why Roh Moo Hyun is responsible for the Aegis fleet and the Jae Ju naval base and the purchase of modified, upgraded F-15s. I see ! These will eventually end up in North Korea one way or the other, and the Jae Ju location will be eventually used to spread Juche to Japan.
those cunning bastards.
Who’s selling the weapons to North Korea? Let’s see..
Is it Russia? Is it China? Both should be bombed if true.
I don’t think DaeWoo is shipping K type rifles to North Korea. That, I think I can bet on.
Is North Korea producing all their weapons within their borders? Gosh, they must be really self sufficient.
By the way, what happenned to the luxury import ban that Bush put on after the Dong Dong 1,2,3 were fired towards the East Sea (East Sea, you Japanese people. East Sea. Go check old maps of Hamel, maps drawn by Europeans in the 15th, 16th centurys, they all pretty much say Sea of Coree, etc)
?
Was that scrapped with the supposed April deal that the North still hasn’t honored?
That,
would be a shame.
Because all they got out of the deal was the usual South Korean aid that was coming anyway and money that was theirs to begin with in Macao.
By the way, wouldn’t it be child’s play for the ROK to assasinate Kim Jung Nam in Macao?
Why don’t they do it and see what happens, although I understand Kim’s eldest is no longer in the range for successor.
actually I think I heard that 14 day bullet supply story from someone else before. A Vietnam War Veteran, from the ROK army.
Isn’t that irrelevant with war in the peninsula, though?
The North’s food supply. Will that last a month?
Here’s some more head-up-the-ass reporting from the Chosun Ilbo: Korean Students in U.S. Under Threat From ‘Chindians’
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200705/200705220013.html
How about if the NY Times had a headline that said U.S. Students Under Threat From ‘Kapanese” or ‘Joreans’ and arbitrarily, demeaningly lumped two nationalities together in a headline?
They’re competing for education resources in the U.S. their own country’s gov’t is too incompetent to provide, and whining is too much.
Would that it were mere incompetence! Their own country’s government (at least in ROK’s case) refuses to provide it because 1) they espouse an utterly ridiculous notion of egalitarianism, and 2) they’re in bed with the teachers’ union, which makes the NEA and AFT in the US look like Cub Scouts by comparison.
I’m generally sympathetic to unions but yeah, get rid of the Korean teachers’ union and the country will be far better off for it.
Here’s some more head-up-the-ass reporting from the Chosun Ilbo: Korean Students in U.S. Under Threat From ‘Chindians’
“Chindian” is a mythological creature, like a chimera, which originated in the North American press at about the time when xenophobia (ie the thing that many expats seem to believe is unique to Korea) about US service and manufacturing jobs being offshore outsourced to India and China was at it’s height. It is unfortunate that this monstrous and unattractive word has creep its way to the Korean press. I personally would prefer to read more about stupid foreigner tricks of Canadamerican English teachers myself.
“…xenophobia…about US service and manufacturing jobs being offshore outsourced to India and China.”
앗!
““Chindian” is a mythological creature, like a chimera, which originated in the North American press at about the time when xenophobia (ie the thing that many expats seem to believe is unique to Korea) about US service and manufacturing jobs being offshore outsourced to India and China was at it’s height. “
“Chindian” is no mythological creature. Real Chindians exist in Malaysia and Singapore; they are people of mixed Chinese and Indian heritage. The word “Chindian” carries no negative connotation in that meaning. There have been mixed Indian-Chinese on the Malayan peninsula far longer than the West has been outsourcing, so the Chinese-Indian person usage probably predates the Western outsourcing usage and the latter may well have borrowed it from the former.
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