chenGOD

I'm drunk by myself and wallowing in self-pity/loathing.

do you live on the island or in van? if you live in van i have a couch from my old place you can have for free. its in good condition.

i dont know if I'll be able to afford to go on vacation with my gf or not...:(

pretty much what mirezzi said. the racism (questionable due to cultural misunderstanding blah blah blah) and diving, i can overlook - that's just gamesmanship. But biting someone? Fuckkkkkk no. Definitely not the biggest cunt - John Terry is still playing.

fucking hell that was a tackle and then some!

Jones makes some classic faces. lol

Anything under 150 i wont bother with costumer support (hell anything under 500), i wont even try to get a replacement, i'll just buy another one or get a better version of whatever broke. I bought like 3 ipod shuffles in like a 4 months period just because i can't be bother. By the way im not bragging about money (im kind of poor), i just cant deal with people, i dont want to talk to anyone, i dont want to bother someone with my problem ( i know its their job but i dont want to bother them). I like what amazon is doing now, everything is automated, if you want to return something you just check a box and the delivery man will pick it up for you, but even with an automatic system i dont think i would try to return something under 200 dollars, i dont care about money i dont have anymore. And you wonder why you're poor? It's alright mate - gentlemen like Zeffolia are fighting for your rights. In the mean time, you can contribute to your infertility by eating lots of junk food, smoking, and drinking, thus denying women the opportunity to steal your precious sperm while dumpster diving.

Very good piece! Wondering what the anti-emperialists/iinterventionalists think about this one. Forgive me my naive misunderstanding, but it's OK for the US to act out some diplomatic play on the international podium, right? diplomacy is fine. i mean, as long as we go by the traditional kind of definition of diplomacy. dialogue and engagement that is. compson, please keep this on topic or i will remove your ability to post in this thread.

a well reasoned article from Jeffrey Sachs. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/jeffrey-sachs/a-better-approach-towards_b_3083799.html

About a month and a half ago, I ate at this delicious Pho restaurant - the staff (it was a family joint) was going on vacation the next day - now I want to eat there again, but I can't remember where it was. And there are like a thousand Pho restaurants in Vancouver...

da supa lol They can't reach Niagra Falls.

Easy... if Hitler would have won WW2.... Which is why intervening is potentially the only real solution. But Hitler didn't win WW2, so that's a moot point. lol and I missed this little nugget... You said NK leadership isn't crazy. Then you go on a rant about how evil the US is. Then you defend NK government. lol.. Also, I can be Pro-US and still find aspects of US policy crazy... But unlike NK, we have freedoms and don't get thrown into concentration camps for saying words. Therefore in my opinion its a little offensive to North Koreans to say the NK leadership isn't crazy I didn't go on any rant about how evil the US government is - I was using a comparison to indicate the futility of calling an organization crazy. Please show me where I defended the NK government on human rights issues? Not sure why saying NK-government is crazy needs to be rebutted with an US-government is crazy as well argument. Those are independent instances, with largely independent problems. The way NK-civilians are living can't be defended by the way other governments deal with their society. And isn't there a bit of irony in the statement that economic and humanitarian engagement is infinitely more valuable? If the US would engage economically, it would be either seen as the Darth Vader of capitalism turning over NK to the dark side, or it would be seen tas the US supporting a dictatorial regime (?) in NK. At least, that's what I would expect would be the interpretation of any involvement of the US internationally at this forum. Please shoot me in the head for exaggerating. It's an attempt to illustrate the futility of calling an organization as vast as a state bureaucracy "crazy". Why would the US be seen as the Darth Vader of capitalism? For fuck's sake, this is not some childish SF flick. We should all want NK to develop economically (and before this gets out of hand, I am not saying that capitalism is without flaws, certainly not the rampant greed-based capitalism of the last 20 years), as this has proven the best way to promote internal pushes for human rights. One needs look only at the development of South Korea's economy throughout its own period of dictatorial rule for a clear example. Don't worry though goDel, many US policymakers also fall under the belief that "talking" with the NK government would be a form of rewarding NK's bad behaviour. Here's a good article from former US ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/04/116_133776.html

right...self destructive. which is why of course three generations of Kims have destroyed themselves. If they're crazy, how did they go about developing a cult of personality and maintaining it for 60 years? goDel: by your measure then the US government must be crazy too, considering thy have the highest number of prisoners both on total and per capita? and they put people in jail for possessing a plant that grows everywhere!! or did you mean the starvation issue? well yes the impact of the drought could have been lessened. no denying that. and no denying that some of the NK government's economic prescriptions have been puzzling. however the sanctions imposed by the US certainly didn't help that situation either. anyways it's a complex issue with no simple solution. but one thing i am certain of: economic and humanitarian engagement is infinitely more valuable than bombing the crap out fo them.

have you read those books yet? no? get to it man. also maybe pick up a couple of books on international relations and/or political theory. might help you understand why nation states act the way they do.

the NK leadership isnt crazy. they're not gonna start a war cause they know they would be wiped out in a hurry. and yeah headcount doesn't really matter...especially with the NK troops being underfed. a month is optimistic.

wait they get to see your previous tax returns? fwp: i dont have any money.

oh i see you're not serious. @compson

i said soon...meaning real life soon not internet forum soon. do you mean pdfs on learning Korean or Korean pdfs on North Korea?

Alright start posting in the thread when you've read them all. Also, maybe consider learning Korean, then you can get a Korean perspective on things.

OK Bruce Cumings - The Origins of the Korean War (1981) William Stueck - Rethinking the Korean War (2002) Jian Chen - China's Road to the Korean War (1994) Shu Guang Zhang - Mao's Military Romanticism (1995) Andrei Lankov - pretty much his whole bibliography (at least the English stuff, I don't read Russian, to my shame) for a general overview of Korean history, Michael Seth's - A History of Korea is a pretty good read. Some quibbles that only a Korean history nerd would care about. I'll post up some PDFs soon, although if you can read and digest those books in a critical manner in less than a week, I'd be impressed.

No, it's so you can actually gain some useful knowledge about the korean peninsula and the geo-political forces (both domestic and foreign) that have been in play since the end of the Second World War.

You want some starters?

damn. NK still hasn't blown up the world. By the way - the next big celebration for NK is going to be July 28th. That is "Victory Day", and it's the 60th anniversary of the armistice. If they haven't blown up the world by then, will you stop posting wikipedia articles as the basis for your arguments compson?

i mean all one has to do is look at the pattern. in the past, NK has attacked without warning. When they do make threats, nothing ever happens. I'll post a link tomorrow from Andrei Lankov (who, in my not so humble opinion, is one of the most preeminent NK scholars around) and his take. btw, brits have said they will not withdraw from NK mission.

North Korea has some 10,000 artillery pieces pointed toward Seoul and Tokyo (primarily, obviously they are targeting other locations). The population density in those two cities would guarantee a casualty rate in the millions. You do understand that artillery is not the same as air force right?