About 40 military veterans wearing army uniforms staged a gory protest outside Japan’s embassy yesterday.

They cut the heads off live pheasants, Japan’s national bird, and dripped the blood on Japanese flags and on pictures of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and former Japanese leaders. Some battered birds to death with hammers. Others cut open bellies and ate the livers, shouting: “Dokdo is our territory!”

Believe it or not this protest is not as gory as either the finger chopping lady or knife in the gut man. This protest is also not as imaginative as the bee man or the flag eater but it does serve as a perfect example of how absurd these Dokdo protests can get.

For more than a month, downtown Seoul has been a scene of lawlessness as it has been occupied by protesters every night, and inconvenience and anxiety of ordinary citizens are growing. But the government, preoccupied with trying to gauge public sentiment, has been largely in abeyance.

On Wednesday night, protesters pelted police with dirt and bricks, broke the windows of police buses, and tied the buses with ropes to pull them from the barricades in scenes reminiscent of the democracy protests of the 1980s. Pushed to the ground by protesters, riot police troopers had their shields and helmets snatched and were kicked and trodden on. Some were seen pleading with the protesters, saying if they returned without their shield and helmet they would be confined in the lockup.

More pictures of these violent protests can be viewed here and here.

The number of protesters has been reduced dramatically in the past week as most of the Korean public abandoned the protests when Korean President Lee Myung-bak signed an improved US beef deal that addressed most of the publics’ concerns about the safety of US beef. This has left nothing but the hard core anti-US groups to protest against the beef deal. These same groups are the ones that were largely behind the misinformation campaign against US beef that caused the Korean public to become concerned with the safety of US beef in the first place.

These groups are notorious for their violent anti-US protests that have included everything from trying to tear down statues of General Douglas MacArthur, celebrating the 9/11 attacks, to launching epic Braveheart style battles against the relocation of US forces in Korea.

Here is a picture of the violent protests against the US military relocation in Korea:

Here is another picture of these groups trying to tear down the MacArthur Statue in Incheon:

Finally here is an image of the Hanchongnyun group celebrating the 9/11 attacks:

It just so happens these groups have been linked to a North Korean spy ring that was helping to organize violent anti-US movement that was uncovered two years ago.

Now these same groups are out assaulting policemen and destroying property in the streets of Seoul all in the name of stopping the importation of US beef. The fact of the matter is that these people do not care about food safety and their real agenda is to intimidate the newly installed conservative government in order to advance their own anti-US agendas.

What really bothers me about these protests is the fact that the riot police being assaulted and brutally beaten by these thugs are young conscripted men conducting their two year mandatory service to their country. To get an idea of how badly these young conscripts are being beaten by these thugs I highly recommend everyone watch this video of the protests.

These young men get paid no more then $40 a month to be assaulted and beaten by these thugs while the Korean government does little to stop them. The Korean government finally announced today they would begin arresting these violent thugs. It seems like this would have been a good idea a month ago before the thugs took over the streets of Seoul and destroyed so much property and injured so many people, not to mention causing great harm to the national reputation of South Korea.

It seemed dramatic. President Bush stepped into the Rose Garden to announce plans to remove North Korea from the U.S. terrorism blacklist and ease sanctions against a country he once branded as part of his “axis of evil.”

But just as soon as he said it, he played down its significance.

Bush said what the U.S. was giving North Korea in exchange for its long-awaited accounting of its secretive nuclear program was largely symbolic — that they would have little impact on North Korea’s financial and diplomatic isolation.

If removing the North Koreans from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List is symbolic then the nuclear declaration the North Koreans presented to get off the list is just as symbolic because it leaves out key nuclear information:

The number of bombs in storage, or information about what’s going to happen to them. The North proved it could build a working nuclear bomb when it carried out an underground nuclear test blast in October 2006. Details on the bombs, however, will be left to the next stage of the talks, when Pyongyang is supposed to abandon all its nuclear weapons program.

_Details about North Korea’s suspected nuclear program to seek weapons fueled by enriched uranium.

_An account of North Korea’s alleged role in helping Syria build what senior U.S. intelligence officials say was a secret nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium used in making high-yield nuclear weapons. Israeli jets bombed the structure in the remote eastern desert of Syria in September 2007.

For those that don’t know there are two ways to make a nuclear bomb either through uranium or plutonium. The nuclear bomb the North Koreans detonated in 2006 was a plutonium bomb which was made by plutonium extracted from the nuclear facility at Yongbyon that the North Koreans dismantled for a steep price even though the facility was old and decrepit and wasn’t safe to operate anymore anyway.

Then late last year North Korea was caught proliferating nuclear technology by helping the Syrians construct a nuclear weapons facility that has since been linked to Iran’s nuclear program. Despite all of this the Bush administration is still eager to cut a deal with North Korea. Why is this?

The Bush administration has been so eager to cut a deal with the North Koreans in order to create the illusion of a rare foreign policy achievement. It has gone to great length to appease North Korea by even returning money to them raised through counterfeiting American currency and even agreeing to launder the money for them through the US Federal Reserve.

Even more incredible is the fact that the US government agreed to these demands due to a vague promise from North Korea to use the money to buy humanitarian aid. The odds of Kim Jong-il using this money to buy humanitarian aid is about equal as the odds of him dismantling his nuclear program, which as their nuclear declaration shows is zero.

It is unlikely North Korea will admit to their secret uranium program as well as it is totally unlikely they will actually dismantle the nuclear weapons they currently possess. A goal of the North Korean strategy for using the six party talks is to buy time. The more the North Koreans delay the more time they buy for their scientists and researchers to further develop their infant nuclear program and improve the capabilities of their tactical ballistic missile program. In just the past few month the North Koreans have been conducting regular missile tests of their newly developed missiles. Once the North Koreans have developed their nuclear and missile programs to a level they feel would ensure the regime’s survival from external attack they will then begin to implement the policy of Strategic Disengagement.

So why is the US government so desperate to keep this deal at all costs? The reason is to keep the myth of progress alive. The Bush administration is desperate for a non-military foreign policy success in order to bolster their diplomacy credentials. So in order to keep the myth of a “diplomacy success” alive, the Bush administration is willing to appease the North Koreans and mortgage the North Korean problem for the next US presidential administration to handle. It is 1994 all over again and this time Jimmy Carter wasn’t even needed.

However, the big difference from 1994 is that when North Korea decides to act up again under the next US presidential administration to test and see what they can get out of them, they will be playing with a much stronger hand with the possession of nuclear weapons and a tactical ballistic missile program to deliver them. The payoff next time for appeasement will come at a much higher cost.

This is just sickening and infuriating:

One witness estimated that this deranged adult delivered in excess of 100 stomps, kicks, and punches in an attack that lasted at least seven minutes.

At the time of the first 911 calls, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department helicopter happened to be in the sky above Turlock. This air unit responded within six minutes to the frantic citizen reports, along with ground units. From the air above the scene, the helicopter crew (SCSD pilot and Modesto Police Department observer) witnessed the brutal beating as they lit up the man and the toddler with their spotlight.

The pilot made a skillful, night emergency landing as closely as possible in a field. It was a cow pasture separated from the road by a daunting obstacle electrified, barbed wire fencing.
Immediately upon landing, the Modesto officer sprinted 20 yards to the fence – commanding the suspect to cease his brutal attack against the helpless baby. The suspect’s response was to say “I’m not going to prison.” He raised his middle finger to the officer and continued kicking and stomping the baby.

The officer responded with the only option he had left. From a reported 10-foot distance, he shot the suspect in the forehead. The suspect dropped, dead, ending one of the most brutal and horrific attacks imaginable.

I wasn’t there and maybe more information is needed to draw conclusions but I can’t help but wonder why didn’t any of these witnesses that saw this man beating this baby to death do more to stop him before the police arrived?

By the way great shooting by the policeman and hopefully no one accuses him of police brutality for shooting the man in his attempt to save the baby.

Australia has been recently hit with a wave child starvation cases that has been topped off by this incredible story in Adelaide:

FOURTEEN malnourished children have been hospitalised and a pregnant mother has been charged with neglect after up to 21
starving children were found crammed into one suburban house.

An emergency hearing of South Australia’s Youth Court will this afternoon decide on their custody, amid allegations of neglect.

The children’s plight was uncovered after one boy, aged five, was taken to hospital suffering hypothermia and malnutrition.

Amazingly South Australian authorities have let the kids stay in the house claiming it is safe for the children to stay even though the house wasn’t fit for dogs to live there:

The RSPCA visited the house after concerns were raised about the conditions in which the dogs were being kept.

One neighbour, who yesterday visited the property to offer food and support to the remaining children, strongly criticised the Families SA decision to permit children to remain in such living conditions.

The woman, who asked not be named, told AdelaideNow she could not understand why welfare authorities believed the house remained suitable for children while the RSPCA yesterday removed two dogs.

For those that don’t know welfare benefits in Australia for mothers are extremely generous to include a $5,000 baby bonus for every kid you have. This bonus is meant to help families buy child care, diapers, etc. to raise the child but all too often people use the generous benefits to bank roll themselves with which has caused many Australians to call the bonus the “Plasma Bonus” because what many people do with the bonus is buy a plasma TV.

It is pretty clear what this woman has been doing with her “Plasma Bonus” and it sure had nothing to do with buying food and properly raising her kids. The Australian government has shown little initiative to crackdown on this behavior and it has gotten to the point where child welfare has become less important then the welfare of dogs. Shocking and extremely sad.

Australia has become the fattest nation in the world, with more than 9 million adults now rated as obese or overweight, according to an alarming new report.

The most definitive picture of the national obesity crisis to date has found that Australians now outweigh Americans and face a future “fat bomb” that could cause 123,000 premature deaths over the next two decades.

If the crisis is not averted, obesity experts have warned, health costs could top $6 billion and an extra 700,000 people will be admitted to hospital for heart attacks, strokes and blood clots caused by excess weight.

The latest figures show 4 million Australians — or 26% of the adult population — are now obese compared to an estimated 25% of Americans. A further 5 million Australians are considered overweight.

At first glance it appears Aussies may be eating a little too much vegemite. However, I find this claim very dubious because just by walking around Australia it is very easy to see that yes there are plenty of obese people, but Australia still has a ways to go before catching America in the obesity department.

For example when you go to a shopping mall or grocery store in Australia you do not see people so obese that they need motorized carts to get around on like you regularly see in the US. I’m willing to be that if this study was based on per capita percentages the US would come out on top.

My suspicions about these findings are only heightened by the fact that Australia has the world’s second longest lived people:

AUSTRALIANS are now the second-longest-living people on earth with falling death rates for cancer, heart disease, stroke and injury, but the indigenous population continues to die earlier.

The latest comparative study of the nation’s overall health by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) - the government body responsible for compiling health statistics - shows that a baby born in Australia today can expect to live for 81.4 years, with men expected to live for 79 years and women for almost 84. Australians’ life expectancy is bettered only by the Japanese at 82.2 years.

If Australia really is the world’s fattest nation then maybe we all need to put on a few more pounds to live as long as the Aussies?

US Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama has had dictator and terrorist endorsement problems and now the worst endorsement possible has been given to Obama from none other then Kim Jong-il:

The Chosun Sinbo, the mouthpiece of North Korea’s Japanese front organization Chongryon and often for the North Korean regime itself, has announced its preference for Obama over McCain, whom it calls “a variant of Bush” and “nothing better than a scarecrow of neoconservatives,” which is a bit odd considering that the Bush Administration’s giveaway diplomacy is better for Kim Jong Il than even Clinton’s awful performance.

It’s worth pausing to consider the disturbing rhetorical similarity between the Chosun Sinbo and Daily Kos, although the sheer incoherence of Bush’s North Korea policy makes any comparison to it questionable. ...

I guess Kim Jong-il is really looking forward to that meeting with no pre-conditions from Barack Obama. What is most interesting about this endorsement is the fact that it comes shortly after Barack Obama’s flip flop on his North Korea policy and advocating for the removal of North Korea from the US State Sponsors of Terrorism List.

Obama is advocating for the removal of the North Koreans from this list despite his promise to the American family of US resident Reverend Kim Dong-shik to not remove the North Koreans from list until they come clean on what happened to Kim. Reverend Kim was kidnapped in China by North Korean agents for running an aid organization helping North Korean refugees in China. It is suspected that Kim was taken back to North Korea where he was then tortured and killed.

Now a few years later Barack Obama is running for President and he has conveniently forgotten his promise to the Kim family who are his constituents in Illinois in favor of appeasing a brutal dictator in order to score points with the Daily Kos crowd. This broken promise is much worse then any endorsement from Kim Jong-il.

With such an increases in forces the obvious question being asked is whether this small Pacific Island can support it:

However, it is questionable whether Guam, already a bristling US stronghold that is only 48 kilometers long and 19 km wide at its widest point, can handle the new troops. The US military already occupies nearly 30 percent of the island. Successive reports by the General Accounting Office (GAO) the investigative arm of Congress — the latest one produced in May, have seriously questioned whether the US can meet the agreed deadline of moving the Marines.

In all, the active-duty and dependent presence on the island is expected to leap from 14,000 to nearly 40,000, effectively increasing the island’s population by 23%. It is as if Hong Kong were suddenly asked to taken in an additional 1.6 million people. (...)

The GAO outlines in considerable detail Guam’s relatively weak civilian infrastructure, which cannot support such a massive influx without considerable help. The military buildup alone would require that the commercial port double its current capacity simply to accommodate construction materials that need to be imported.

“Guam’s highways may not be able to bear the increase in traffic associated with a military buildup, and its electrical system may not be adequate to deliver the additional energy needed. Its water and waste water treatment systems are already near capacity, and its solid waste facilities face capacity and environmental challenges even without the additional burden associated with the projected increase in U.S. forces,” maintains the GAO.

The increase in soldiers and their families will of course be a logistical challenge but will bring much money and jobs to Guam. If more roads and facilities need to be constructed who is going to build them? Citizens on Guam of course. There will be plenty of positive long term economic impact for the citizens on the island as well because of the increase in jobs on US military bases for the locals.

Currently US forces stationed in both Japan and Korea provide thousands of jobs to the citizens of those countries. The redeployment of forces to Guam will mean Americans will be working these jobs while still maintaining a strategic position in the Pacific.

Besides the strategic, political, and economic reasons for the expansion of the US military on Guam, personally I hope the expansion happens because I would love to be stationed in Guam, even if it means it may be a little crowded.

From an American point of view with no context about Japan, it is easy to see how this commercial could be looked at as being racist. However, for those that are familiar with Japan this commercial can be looked at as not being racist at all because E-mobile has had a monkey as their mascot for prior commercial doing the same type of parodies of humans. Here is a perfect example of one of their prior commercials using the monkey:

So it isn’t like E-mobile just decided to use a monkey to parody a black person in America.

Because of this in my opinion at worst E-mobile is guilty of just cultural ignorance because of how they failed to understand how the monkey commercial could be perceived to Americans, but then again the target audience of the commercial wasn’t Americans but the Japanese public.

So is E-mobile guilty of racism or is this just a simple cultural misunderstanding? Also, does anyone think the commercial should be taken off the air regardless of the motivations? I don’t think so but I’m curious to hear what others have to say.