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{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
How’s Seoul’s Grand Sale going? Bargains galore?
Will serious jailtime ever be given to crooked politicians HERE?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/13/jefferson.sentencing/index.html
@2
no.
koreasentry = sockpuppet
anyone else on board with this idea?
Accountability / responsibility are generally not an behavior that is espoused in Korea. This is the antithesis of the ME ME ME society.
Nothing is ever going to change, until someone gets some cajones and makes things stick.
As long as someone higher up on the food chain feels that they can & have the right to put down the person below them, it will just continue.
I don’t think that China is much more open about this either. The way their cagey mind works, I don’t trust most of the numbers that get thrown out. There are so many levels of cadre, they each add a little to make it look better to the next level, and by the time you hit Beijing, it’s an economic miracle.
Jefferson received the longest prison sentence ever given to a member of Congress for a corruption conviction, and he won’t be getting a pardon in six months for some bullshit holiday or in the name of “national reconciliation.”
It may not be as serious as you or I would like, but given the precedents and in comparison to the routine light punishments handed out in most other western democracies, it’s significant.
Brett M. said:
“I don’t think that China is much more open about this either.”
I’m not sure what that means, but here are a couple of instances where China took a hard line against some high-ranking dudes:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/chinese-regulator-executed-for-graft/story-e6frg6so-1111113931211
http://www.echinacities.com/main/news/shownews.aspx?n=3505
If you have Verizon FIOS, you can watch ESPN360 without paying anything extra. I had no idea until I just happened to come across it.
http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index
Whoops, I guess it’s not just verizon
http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/affList
Does anyone out there have any information on the swine flu vaccination being offered in Korea? My daughter is being offered the vaccination free at her elementary school, and we are uncertain whether we should allow her to have it. There seems to be quite a few concerns in the Korean community, whether the vaccine is safe or not. The whole process of acquiring the vaccine raises suspicions. First the Korean government fails in its bid to secure the vaccine from foreign manufacturers, then silence, then a surprise announcement that somehow the Korean government has succeeded in making a safe and effective vaccine for the masses. Does anyone know the name of the company manufacturing this vaccine? Are there any health concerns? Has anyone with children out there refused the vaccine, and if so why?
China only takes a hard line when the show trial is meant to impart a lesson to the masses. And this is usually when the accused have been way too far over the top, or have gotten too close to the ruling elite.
# or haven’t gotten their share of the cut.
“It may not be as serious as you or I would like, but given the precedents and in comparison to the routine light punishments handed out in most other western democracies, it’s significant.”
Examples please?
the japanese face-off killer of the british english teacher might have been into necrophilia realsports 신문 says 용의자가 평소 즐겨봤던 만화책이나 잡지 가운데는 사후 육체와 정신의 형이상학적인 관계를 다룬 내용들이 많았다”며 이치하시 용의자가 범죄행위 전 자주 들렸던 집근처 성행위 관련 잡화가게의 관계자를 인용해 보도했다. 이치하시 용의자는 도주기간 오사카 건설회사 등에서 일할 때도 ‘헌터x헌터’나 ‘기생동물’과 같이 사람의 신체를 해부하거나 인류와 기생충간의 전투를 묘사한 만화를 애독해 왔던 것으로 알려졌다. the suspect was into necrophilic and having weird sexual encounters with dismembered parts of the human carcass or into the weird manga featuring dissection and warfare between humans and parasites etc..
now THIS is wkj’s own topic.
France’s mammoth Elf corruption case, probably the biggest political and corporate sleaze scandal to hit a western democracy since the second world war, drew to a close yesterday as three key former executives of the oil giant were jailed for up to five years.
Canada’s sponsorship scandal, involving $100 million in fraud, resulting in sentences of 2 – 3.5 years.
Jefferson’s case involved hundreds of thousands, and got him 13 years. If you can find me any harsher sentences for corruption on a similar scale to what Jefferson was convicted of, I would be very, very surprised.
So go ahead, surprise me.
cod: mw 2 is a decent game. excellent graphics, effecient engine – how do they do it? — but single player seems too brief, is about 1/3-1/2 shorter than mw 1. there’s also, more than any other cod game, too much of a ‘chauffeur’ feeling in gameplay, which makes it feel very automated, linear, and not much of a game. then again, i played in ‘regular’ difficulty. the game would be improved if it weren’t full of pointers, tips, and guides, and such — if it were a tad more realistic, and longer. still a good ride that makes me want to play again. i won’t be purchasing the game for multiplayer mode. i already purchased l4d 2, which seems to be suckass so far, judging by the demo.
Just in the news, ten Japanese tourists have died in a Pusan fire. Something to do with pistol shooting place, a small explosion and subsequent fire. It’s all over the Korean news now.
Trolling the news and I spotted:
“Fort Hood suspect may be permanently paralyzed”
Bet he didn’t see that coming. Not only will you not be receiving 70 virgins you won’t even be able to jerk off to the fantasy either while waiting for your execution.
What a complete loser.
“What a complete loser.”
No argument here.
Say, with the newest Nobel Peace Prize recipient on the verge of ramping up the eight-year old war in Afghanistan (yes that’s correct: eight years), how about discussing THAT particular quagmire for a change?
I’ve never understood what the U.S. hopes to accomplish there. There’s no THERE there. There’s nothing TO win. No victory is POSSIBLE.
(Why am I SHOUTING?)
After 9/11, I imagined a six-month, maybe twelve-month worldwide manhunt for binladdin and crew. Instead, we got a war much like Vietnam that has killed ungodly numbers of Afghan civilians in the name of propping up the regime of one of the world’s biggest opium dealers, while binladdin and crew have been in Pakistan since 2001.
What’s wrong with THAT picture?
Meanwhile American Wingnuts (see News, Faux) berate the manhunt by police approach – which woulda worked in 2001-02 with the whole civilized world on America’s side after 9/11 – as Teh Stuff of Wimps.
Pointless, endless wars that kill thousands of people: Teh Right Stuff.
Effective police work that actually catches bad guys: Freedom Fries!
Bush Jr., Cheney, Obama = same same same
And eight years later binladdin and crew are STILL at large. I tell ya, bub, it’s enough to make a libtard want to scream. Retort?
The contards had eight fucking years of genius rule to git ‘r dun, an they dint neither. How ’bout it’s just too gawdaym profitable for either bullshit “party” to pull the plug on? Name one warwhore corporation (or ceo) that’s taken a loss.
And don’t forget, all you ‘tards out there in keyboard geniusland, profit comes in many forms. Power gained through fear is one off the top of my libtard head.
number (#5) five: here is how the system works in China:
from:
http://biglychee.com/blog/2009/11/13/breaking-news-ngo-discovers-something-we%e2%80%99ve-all-known-for-ages/
China’s top-down system by which central edicts are enforced by threats passed down through the chain of command goes back centuries. A rough example:
Minister to sub-minister: “Produce result, or your chances of making Politburo will be hurt”
Sub-minister to Province chief: “Produce result, or you won’t be promoted to Beijing”
Province chief to city boss: “Produce result, or we’ll transfer you to a town too poor to pay decent bribes”
City boss to county boss: “Produce result, or you won’t get a bonus at the end of the year”
County boss to township boss: “Produce result, or you’ll lose two months’ salary”
Township boss to cadres and cops: “Produce result, or I’ll fire you and your family will have nothing”
The threat of punishment from above is why vicious fights, even to death, break out between low-level municipal enforcement officials and illegal street vendors: one group will lose its livelihood – it’s just a question of which. It is why Falun Gong practitioners have been murdered by local police. It is why local officials, with strict birth limits to enforce, compel women to have abortions. It is why tens of millions starved and people in Guizhou turned to cannibalism in the early 1960s when officials falsified food production data. It is why SARS killed nearly 300 people in Hong Kong when Guangdong cadres covered up the disease rather than warn us. Higher officials don’t order juniors to fix problems; they just demand that there shall be no word of problems and aren’t interested in how that’s arranged.
over on another thread, there’s a comment by mkaplan pointing out irish food is really just british food. still on another thread, there was discussion on how central language was to forming a seperate identity for any given group of people. about a year ago, marmot used the irish as an example of how koreans should behave towards the japanese and it’s occupation of korea. his basic point was the british did far worse things to the irish than the japanese did to the koreans and yet, the irish don’t go on and on about the british like the koreans go on and on about the japanese.
he’s right about that, but i want to point out that there is really no such thing as ‘irish’ anymore. that vanished long ago when they stopped using their own language. yes, i know about the gaeltacht but gaelic is anemic and dying, and ireland really doesn’t have much to distinguish itself from britain.
when i think about today’s modern world, there are really two things that make people immidiately different from one another: food and language. the irish speak english and they eat english food.
perhaps the irish aren’t complaining because there’s really no irish people to make any complaints.
Now it is official. The blueblooded inbreds are ugly.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/33889605
Pawi,
“i want to point out that there is really no such thing as ‘irish’ anymore.”
Do you know why? 4/5 of the Irish have moved to the US. They were tired of the British protestants living in Ireland and bashing the native by marching through their main street picking fights.
I think this should be the natural progression of Koreans as well. 4/5 of the Korean should move to the US, taking up residence in LA, NewYork and Chicago.
Nobody can talk about American history without the Irish as the coolies. Koreans should come to the US and become the real powerhouse, building ships,weapons, airplanes, cellphones, cars and softwares.
The 21st century should be the time for Koreans to move out of Korean peninsula. And, into the US. Following the Irish example.
Anybody in NYC area wanna invite me over for Pacquiao vs Cotto??? I’ll bring chips.
Now that Korea has decided to send 300 troops to Afghanistan, it will be interesting to see if the Korean government will take the “we are Koreans we use only good Korean stuff” path and equip the soldiers with Korean made vehicles that have no IED protection.
They will equip the forces with nice SUV’s ( domestic version ) with tail lights that don’t work, but a great set of blue flashing lights around the license plate.
Just bought your book, Robert. It looks nice just by flipping through it, I’ll dig into it later on. Good job.
Scroll down to the bottom of this story
on the storm battering Britain to see a spectacular photo of nature’s fury.
actually after brendon’s remark about irish language on the other thread i asked ian the irish guy in the next office who’s irish. (he’s a hard man). he said he used to be fluent in irish, until he learned german and now that’s pushed it out so he’s not as fluent as he was…he says he thinks everyone in ireland should learn irish, because it’s part of who they are (and there are some villages where they only speak irish)..
he has told me in the past, though, that he is getting tired of the potato jokes.
“the irish guy who’s irish”
Wow what a fascinating story, did you ask Iain the scottish guy who’s scottish too?
LOL
Pawi’s hyper sensitivity about ethnic identify to make up for his dismal self identity.
abcdefg — picked up COD: MW 2 yesterday at Yongsan, actually. Definitely worth the won spent on it.
You’re going to have to refresh my memory here. I know I’ve cited the Irish in a discussion on heritage preservation (i.e., Georgian Dublin) and I would certainly agree that the Brits did much worse to the Irish than the Japanese did to the Koreans (caveat: the British had a lot more time to do it) and are not especially apologetic about it — Tony Blair’s apology for the Potato Famine not withstanding — but I’m not sure if I said the Irish don’t go on and on about the British. Having never been to Ireland, I can’t really say whether individual Irish do or not, but the Irish diaspora in the US bitches about what Britain did in Ireland ALL THE GODDAMNED TIME. I would, however, say that the politics of apology are quite different.
There’s a lot of men lying in graves from the Easter Uprising and Irish War of Independence who might beg to differ. They might also point out that unlike, ahem, certain other ex-colonies, Ireland attained independence with its own hands, not as a by-product of the United States nuking London and Manchester.
And on that note, just for you Pawi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13MQFCfCYdQ
Unfortunately, couldn’t find the Clancy Brothers version for ya.
Also picked up COD:MW2. Most excellent. Many are complaining about the short length of the campaign mode, but I still found it to be amazing.
@ 19
So nobody has anything to say about the once and future war against the Tollyban in Afghanistan? None of the neo-cons who sold this war (instead of actually going after binladdin and al-Qaeda) will defend it? None of the Bush-Cheney-Palin Republicans who think Faux News is telling it like it is (I’m looking at you, Brendon) are willing to try to justify Obama’s imminent escalation, or tell us what the mission is?
I’m not surprised.
Losers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ethicalman/2009/11/time_to_eat_the_pets.html
discusses a new book published recently, on the effect of keeping pets on the climate.
Obviously the Koreans were not consulted :
The book draws a blank here. It doesn’t have a single recipe for dog!
Indeed!
Kim Yu Na reportedly said in an interview that she really likes the good wishes of the Korean people but she thinks they don’t really care if she wins a gold medal.
What do you think of this?
It’s from yesterday’s Globe and Mail, also containing quotes from Canada’s most famous skating coach, Brian Orser.
She probably said something like, 한국팬들은 내가 이기든 말든 무조건 응원해 줍니다. Ahhhh that’s right, we’re with her no matter what.
Holy Shit Michelle Wie actually won!!!!
cmm November 14, 2009 at 11:47 am
koreasentry = sockpuppet
anyone else on board with this idea?
—————
Lol, may be cmm = cm
We koreans had our last chance against the Pac-Man in 2000…unfortunately, that chance evaporated relatively quickly in the first round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aF_FmQ1AYg
#43,
Thanks for digging out the quote – it makes more sense in Korean.
Do you know if her English is adequate for being interviewed in English?
Err, if the interview was done in english (which I think is highly likely, i don’t recall any translators with her during interviews), then I guess her intentions were miscommunicated by her limited english.
The recent photo of Gina Davis.
http://photo.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/11/14/2009111400415.html?Dep0=chosunnews&Dep1=left_photo&Dep2=photo03
She is saying “I know, I know”.
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