Why people don't throw shoes at Kim Jong-un

Richard Fernandez illustrates the reason why people feel free to throw shoes at George Bush or call him "Hitler."

Indignant protesters can safely throw shoes at John Howard or George Bush yelling “Hitler” precisely because they know they ain’t. If they threw shoes at a real Kim Jong-un — or Hitler — the results would be rather different. We throw shoes at those we are sure won’t strike back.

Here's what happens if you displease Kim:

A few months ago the Telegraph reported that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s ex-girlfriend and a dozen of her friends were executed by machine gun for pornographic crimes. “All 12 were machine-gunned three days later, with other members of North Korea’s most famous pop groups and their immediate families forced to watch. The onlookers were then sent to prison camps, victims of the regime’s assumption of guilt by association, the reports stated. ”

What has become apparent is that the rules governing the Ruling Class have primarily been enforced not by law but by custom.  The Country Class has to fear the constable and the prosecutor.  Not so the governors.  Not so long ago politicians resigned because they made mistakes or did things that were considered "out of bounds."  Richard Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment.  But when Clinton was impeached for his crimes, he fought refused to go.  And the Ruling Class (of which the Press is a full fledged member) moved the goal posts and today he's viewed as a stalwart of his party and his wife - complicit in his crimes and misdemeanors - is the leading candidate to be our next President.  The current occupant of that office simply ignores the laws he dislikes, changes the ones he wants by executive order, refuses to provide Congress it's rightful demands even as his polling numbers plummet.  But the thought of removing him from office is viewed as out of bounds, and his resignation is a fantasy.

Who is going to hold him within the constraints of his Constitutionally mandated limits? The Congress will not because part of Congress is of his party.  The people cannot because they are powerless.  The courts cannot because, as Stalin once said "The Pope! How many divisions has he got?"  How many divisions does the court have?

Custom and a sense of shame once made questions of "who has the guns" not something that people in this country needed to worry about since Independence was won.  That's a very dangerous situation because it increases the likelihood that the conflict between the rulers and and ruled will not be settled at the ballot box but in the streets.  

No one apologizes any more; least of all the wicked. We misspeak but never lie; we make excuses and evade responsibility; or worse we create new frauds to conceal the old. In place of the old injunction “go and sin no more” we have substituted the new commandment: “sin is no more.”

Rare images show Kim Jong-un's uncle being dragged away

Via the UK Telegraph

Jang Song-Thaek reportedly being dragged from his chair by two police officials during a meeting in Pyongyang

A series of images have emerged from North Korea showing the moment the uncle of Kim Jong-un was dragged away by uniformed guards, confirming rumours that the dictator’s onetime mentor has been purged.

Jang Song-thaek had not been seen in public since late November, amid reports two of his closest aides had been executed in public after being found guilty of a litany of crimes.

The humiliating pictures were the first such images since the late 1970s from North Korea of a purged official, according to analysts in South Korea, who believe they have been released to show the world that Mr Kim is firmly in charge....

The images showed 67-year-old Mr Jang in an auditorium, being pulled into the aisle by his arms as dozens of other officials look on. He has already been airbrushed out of other images, while his name has been removed from previous news reports.

It is not clear when the photographs of Mr Jang were taken. Unconfirmed reports from Free North Korea Radio suggested that he may already have been executed.

Among other crimes, Jang is accused of "... such factional acts as dreaming different dreams ..."  I wonder how long American will be allowed to dream their own dreams instead of  the dreams from The One's father.

Norks aim missiles at Hawaii, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.

This gives our Dear Leader, the Won, an opportunity to show his magnificence.

North Korea Goes Nuclear

And Obama chooses John Kerry as Secretary of State and Chuck Hagel and Secretary of Defense.

You Didn't Lift That

From the Dignified Rant.

A North Korean won Olympic gold. But he didn't lift that:


"I am very happy and give thanks to our Great Leader for giving me the strength to lift this weight. I believe Kim Jong Il gave me the record and all my achievements. It is all because of him," Om said.

Glenn Reynolds notes:  He’d fit right in on the Obama campaign team.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was named marshal of the army, the country's top military rank. Like another national leader, his birth is in dispute.

Like another national leader, his birth is in dispute.

The new title completes Kim Jong-un's elevation following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December. He already heads the Workers' Party of Korea and is First Chairman of the National Defence Commission.

Kim -- believed to be in his late 20s -- has steadily worked to impose his own stamp on the top leadership of North Korea, and on Sunday ousted Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, the country's leading military figure, who was seen as close to Kim Jong-il.

Obama Honors South Korean President with Japanese Food

What’s next? German beer for when Netanyahu visits? Does the President of the U.S. not know the history of Japanese atrocities in WWII? Koreans in all 57 states would like an explanation.

North Korean economy struggles ... "unexpectedly." University students sent to work.

North Korea has shut down its universities for the next 10 months and sent students to work in factories, agriculture and the construction sector as it struggles to rebuild its economy. Pyongyang has told the North Korean people that the nation will have achieved its aim of becoming "a great, prosperous and powerful nation" in 2012, which marks the 100th anniversary of the founder of the reclusive state, Kim Il-sung.

North Korea is run in the way that the Left prescribes as the answer to America's problems. For some inexplicable reason, that "great, prosperous and powerful nation" status is always a year away.

WHO criticizes Amnesty report into NKorea health

The debate about health care in the US always involves statistics from international organizations and one of the most frequently cited is the World Health Organization (WHO), an arm of the United Nations (UN).  In its latest report it ranks the US #37, behind #1 France, #2 Italy and #3 Andorra.  These "unbiased" statistics are always cited to close debate about whose health care system reigns supreme; anyone who disagrees is accused of being uninformed, biased or in the pocket of Big Pharma.

Its spokesman, Paul Garwood, has now come out in defense of the North Koran medical system.  He has to because his boss was recently quoted as delivering effusive praise of health care in the North: 

The issue is sensitive for WHO because its director-general, Margaret Chan, praised the communist country after a visit in April and described its health care as the "envy" of most developing nations.

Amnesty International, on the other hand, describes North Korean health care this way ...

Amnesty's report on Thursday described North Korea's health care system in shambles, with doctors sometimes performing amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat and power. It also raised questions about whether coverage is universal as it — and WHO — claimed, noting most interviewees said they or a family member had given doctors cigarettes, alcohol or money to receive medical care. And those without any of these reported that they could get no health assistance at all.

WHO learned from Obama after the election of Scott Brown to the "Kennedy Seat" in Massachusetts.  Remember how he said the election of Brown confirmed the fact that the people were angry about Bush and that's why Brown was elected?  So WHO ("North Korea is the envy of the developing world") and Amnesty ("North Korean medical care is a shambles") were really saying the same thing.

Garwood and WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib insisted that Amnesty's report was complementary to their boss' observations, and sought to downplay Chan's praise for North Korea. Instead, they focused on the challenges she outlined for North Korea, from poor infrastructure and equipment to malnutrition and an inadequate supply of medicines.

In the end they gave the game away.  Just as CNN whitewashed Saddam Hussein's Iraq just to maintain access to that country, WHO does the same for North Korea.

Asked Friday what countries were envious of North Korea's health, Chaib said she couldn't name any. But she highlighted the importance of maintaining the health body's presence in the country, where officials do their best to save lives despite "persisting challenges."

"We are an organization dealing with member states, and we respect the sovereignty of all countries," Chaib said. "We need to work there to improve the lives of people."

H/T Bloodthirsty Warmonger

The next time you hear WHO cited as the definitive word on health care in the world, keep this in mind: WHO has told us whose medical system it admires most and is a model for the developing world.

U.S. Implicates North Korean Leader in Attack

WASHINGTON — A new American intelligence analysis of a deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship concludes that Kim Jong-il, the ailing leader of North Korea, must have authorized the torpedo assault, according to senior American officials who cautioned that the assessment was based on their sense of the political dynamics there rather than hard evidence.


The officials said they were increasingly convinced that Mr. Kim ordered the sinking of the ship, the Cheonan, to help secure the succession of his youngest son.

Not a very good sign. But then, he knew that he was facing down the Obama administration who will make this "go away."

Journalists spied, refugees died ...

It seems that the video shot by the two Al Gore sponsored journalists will lead to torture or death ...

Other refugees, denied the assistance of a network to help them escape North Korea, will now be limited to the option of dying in place. There won’t be a Bill Clinton visit for them, and I doubt Bill Richardson raised the subject while he was whoring for the cameras.

[...] I hope that Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee will use some of the media interest they’ve attracted to bring attention to the horrors they were used to help perpetrate. I suppose there is no undoing what is done, but there is atonement in what Ling and Lee could still do to save others.

They’d better start soon. A lifetime may not be enough to repay a karmic debt this ghastly. But that’s still more than can be said for the thugs who run China.

When Multilateralism Falls Short

Jonah Goldberg, writing in NR Online, reminds us that the truth is not found in numbers; that getting people on your side does not make your side right and, conversely, if you are alone you are not therefore wrong.

The Jimmy Carter vision holds that North Korea’s nukes are coupons to be redeemed for groceries. But the North Koreans pocketed U.S. concessions after face-to-face talks in 1994 and continued pursuing nukes because ... they wanted nukes. Bush’s strategy has been, first, to declare that advances in North Korea’s nuclear program are “unacceptable” and then do nothing, and second, to insist that the U.S. can’t accomplish anything because our “partners” won’t cooperate.

The North Korea dilemma — much like the threat of Islamic fanaticism – is Aesopian. The frog in Aesop’s fable did not wish to be stung by the scorpion. The scorpion’s position? Wishing’s got nothing to do with it. Americans tend to think — and Europeans consider it gospel — that all differences can be negotiated. The truth is that only negotiable problems can be negotiated. Just ask Hamas if everything can be bargained for around a table. Their one non-negotiable principle is that Israel must cease to exist. Beyond that, they’re open to all sorts of creative proposals.