This is from a party that I went to on 10/21/05. It was Troys Birthday. He is a foreign teacher who lives near me in Daejeon. Troy turned 25 on Friday. He is from Australia and works at a school near where I live. He has a fiance named Alwyn. She also works with Troy at his school.

We all met up and caught a cab to Outback and Troy, Derrick and myself were talking about Derrick's 25th birthday and he had his in Korea also, I then realized in 1991 I was 25 and I celebrated mine in Waegwan South Korea. All 3 of us celebrating our 25th in Korea at all diffent times. (A WEIRD BUT TRUE STORY FROM THAT NIGHT)

Now he was telling us what was from Australia and what wasn't from Australia at Outbacks. It is an american chain that plays like it an aussie restaurant. I told our waiter that Troy was 25 and they brough him and me funny hats to wear. I look like an older version of Harry Potter. We had a great time and then we went to the Cool Bar and I retired at 0100 hrs in the morning. I Quoted Dave Chappell at the party, "Drink and be Merry. I's Rick James, Enjoy yourself Bitch, its a celebration.

welcome to "ICE CREAM AND CITY" here in Korea. (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP)

We have a tv channel here in korea called on style and alot of people think its "the Channel" "Sex and the City" is popular here in Korea and its played alot on this channel. Baskin Robbins Korea, got this crazy idea that we should incoporate the theme into our commercials. Here in Korea I have seen the commercial with Drew Barrymore as an "Sex in the City Girl" who loves here ice cream. There is even a flavor named "Drew Barrymores best flavor" The ex past here laugh at the commercials because she wasn't even on the tv show.

When I want Ice cream I do say baskin Robbins anymore its... lets go to Ice Cream and City..

Like I have always said the truth will be stranger than any fiction that I could possibly create.

Clint's Double Take
Eastwood directs two films on the battle of Iwo Jima: one from the U.S. side, the other from the Japanese.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118382,00.html

Sometime this month in Chicago, Clint Eastwood will complete principal photography on his latest movie, Flags of Our Fathers. It's the 26th feature film he has directed since he made Play Misty for Me in 1971. And just as he has done before (The Bridges of Madison County, Mystic River), he is basing it on a best-selling book. But this movie is different from all the others that he or anyone else has directed, for Flags is only half the story he wants to tell.

The book, by James Bradley and Ron Powers, recounts the ultimately tragic tale of six young U.S. Marines who happened to raise a huge American flag atop Mount Suribachi in the midst of the great battle for Iwo Jima during World War II, of how an Associated Press photographer squeezed off what he thought was a routine shot of them doing so that became an iconic image, of what happened to some of those kids (only three survived the next few days of battle) when they were hustled home to be heedlessly exploited by the U.S. government to raise civilian morale and, incidentally, sell billions of dollars' worth of war bonds. That story, rich in darkly ambiguous nuance, would have been more than enough to preoccupy Eastwood's attention for a couple of years.

But when Eastwood tried to buy the rights, he discovered that Steven Spielberg already had them, and so he moved on instead to Million Dollar Baby. Then, backstage at the 2004 Academy Awards (at which his Mystic River was a multiple nominee), Eastwood encountered Spielberg, and before the evening was out, they agreed to a Flags co-production, with Eastwood directing. Shortly thereafter, the project began to elicit an uncommon, almost obsessive, interest from its director. He has not often attempted fact-based movies, and he had never undertaken one that contained such huge combat scenes. He began to read more widely and deeply on the subject. And he began talking to both American and Japanese veterans of Iwo Jima, which remains the bloodiest engagement in Marine Corps history and the one for which the most Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded (27). As for the Japanese, only about 200 out of 22,000 defending soldiers survived. At some point in his research, Eastwood realized that he had to find a way to tell both sides of the story--"not in the Tora! Tora! Tora! way, where you cut back and forth between the two sides," he says, "but as separate films."

So, beginning next February, Eastwood will start shooting the companion movie, tentatively called Lamps Before the Wind, scheduled for simultaneous release with Flags next fall. Typically, Eastwood (who is an old friend of this writer's) is not able to articulate fully his rationale for this ambitious enterprise: "I don't know--sometimes you get a feeling about something. You have a premonition that you can get something decent out of it," he says. "You just have to trust your gut." He asked Paul Haggis, who wrote Flags, if he would like to write the Japanese version as well. The writer of Million Dollar Baby and director of Crash, Haggis was overbooked but thought an aspiring young Japanese-American screenwriter, Iris Yamashita, who had helped him research Flags, might be able to do it. She met with Eastwood, and once again his gut spoke; he gave her the job and liked her first draft so much that he bought it. It was she who insisted on giving him a few rewrites she thought her script still needed.

Taken together, the two screenplays show that the battle of Iwo Jima--and by implication, the whole war in the Pacific--was not just a clash of arms but a clash of cultures. The Japanese officer class, imbued with the quasi-religious fervor of their Bushido code, believed that surrender was dishonor, that they were all obliged to die in defense of their small island. That, of course, was not true of the attacking Americans. As Eastwood puts it, "They knew they were going into harm's way, but you can't tell an American he's absolutely fated to die. He will work hard to get the job done, but he'll also work hard to stay alive." And to protect his comrades-in-arms. As Haggis' script puts it, the Americans "may have fought for their country, but they died for their friends, for the man in front, for the man beside 'em."

Yamashita's script is much more relentlessly cruel. In essence, the Japanese officers compelled the bravery (and suicide) of their troops at gunpoint. Only the Japanese commander, Lieut. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (a mysterious historical figure who fascinates Eastwood), and a fictional conscript, Saigo, whose fate Yamashita intertwines with his commanding officer's, demonstrate anything like humanity as a Westerner might understand it. The lieutenant general, educated in part in the U.S., is respectful of its national spirit (and industrial might) and believes that a live soldier, capable of carrying on the fight, is infinitely more valuable than a dead one enjoying an honorable afterlife. Thanks to his preservationist tactics, a battle that was supposed to last five days consumed almost 40, though honor demanded his suicide in the end. Saigo, who, as Eastwood says, "wants what most human beings want" (a peaceful life with friends and family), meets an unexpected fate.

The Japanese film derives much of its strength from its claustrophobic confinement to a horrendous time and place. Haggis' work gains its power from its confident range. The screenplay starts with the Americans on the beaches and the protagonists raising the flag. It follows them on their vulgar war-bond tour (they were obliged to re-enact the flag raising on a papier-mâché Suribachi at Soldier Field in Chicago) and then traces their postwar descent into dream-tossed anonymity. You could argue that the Japanese were the lucky ones: their government and religion foreordained their fate, and they had no choice but to endure it. Chance played more capriciously with the Americans, who liked to think they were in charge of their destinies. Yet Flag's protagonists end up knowing that they were blessed by nothing more than a photo op--and knowing that the true, unacknowledged heroes were the men left behind to fight and die on Iwo Jima's black sands. The film follows three survivors: Ira Hayes (played by Adam Beach), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) and John Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), the co-author's father. To put it mildly, their lives do not continue on a heroic trajectory. At one point Bradley, forever assailed by nightmares that he never discusses, wishes that "there hadn't been a flag on the end of that pole."

The inscrutability of fate has always been a major Eastwoodian subtext. But now, as he approaches his 76th birthday, he has begun to take it personally. "There are so many people who are as good or better than me who aren't working," he says of his career, "while I still am. I can't explain that, but luck has to play a part." Here's hoping his luck holds.



2 films together about Iwo Jima, where does the line form I am so their, I am currious, how will the second film play in Korea?

All I can say is wow.....

A President Reviled Means a Country Shamed by Kim Dae-joong

Perhaps no other country has seen its elected president become the object of so much ridicule among citizens as ours. Whatever meeting you go to and whatever taxi you take, you find the president caricatured. Sometimes he is subject to indescribable slander. In the past, people brought up the subject after giving their interlocutor a thorough once-over and lowering their voice; these days it is a way of starting up a conversation. The president’s prestige is at a low ebb, and the shame is the country’s.

On the contrary, some say, the fact that the president is being abused and ridiculed is proof that we live in a free country; they say complaining about power and men of power has long been a way for the public to relieve stress. They may have a point. It is a fact that in the past people kept mum even if they wanted to abuse the head of state for fear of being arrested. But while past attacks came from political resistance to authoritarianism, the current ones reflect a sort of contempt borne out of resentment of economic hardship and distrust of government policies.
The people’s lives are getting more difficult by the day. The problem is no longer how to eat and live better, but how to eat and live. Consequently, people abuse men in power and the chief executive not out of a frustrated sense of expectation, but from their indignation that the president and government are unable to understand their suffering and disappointment. When they cannot see a future for themselves, how can they respect the president and prime minister? So they turn to abuse and ridicule.

But incompetence and lack of policies on the part of the president and the ruling forces have their part to play, and so does the gap between the way they see the world and the way their rulers do. In other words, the world the president and his associates have made baffles people and makes them uneasy.

A country where one Prof. Kang Jeong -koo of Dongguk University -- man who has hailed the “spirit of Mangyongdae” (where Kim Il-sung lies embalmed) -- threatens to sue the Republic of Korea at the UN if he is prosecuted for his remarks; a government that doesn’t pay attention to the return of South Koreans abducted to the North and prisoners of war still languishing there, even while attempting to return North Korean spies who served long prison terms here home to the North; a government that does not utter a word of complaint when a long-term prisoner is publicly praised as a "patriotic fighter”; a country whose Human Rights Commission says restrictions on students' hairstyles breach their human rights but averts its eyes from the starvation and suffering of our brethren in North Korea; a country whose unification minister slanders a majority of the people as Cold War relics; a country where huge numbers of people flock to the North to watch the "Arirang" mass calisthenics, which North Koreans have been
forced to rehearse at the end of a club -- that is the sort of state the president has got us into, and the 70 percent whose views differ from the president’s have no reason to respect him. That is why he is being ridiculed and reviled.

I could go on. A president still harping on a coalition government, apparently indifferent to people’s trepidation over taxes and unemployment; a president who dismisses calls for an economic recovery as "demagoguery"; a president who, referring to attempts to topple a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur in Incheon comments, "History, bad or good, is history"; Cabinet ministers who slander citizens as "speculators" while they themselves speculate on real estate; ruling-party lawmakers who bash Seoul National University, the country's leading higher seat of learning; public broadcasting networks that do not cover live the opening of the reclaimed Cheonggye Stream in Seoul, one of the most remarkable achievements today, perhaps for fear of playing up the opposition Seoul mayor; a fearless administration that saw its national debt double in the two years since it assumed power; a society where citizens are chastised as collaborators just because they worked in public jobs during Japanese colonial rule, while
vicious stooges of Japanese imperialism who tortured patriotic citizens are let off the hook; and opposition parties who, despite such dire problems, get caught up in the nomination of candidates out of lust for future power -- In a sense, it may be a natural consequence that a desperate public resorts to ridicule and abuse.


url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200510/200510090021.html

I have no idea if this is a true story but if it is....

A little girl went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet.

She poured the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to
be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes.

Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door
and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall's Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door.

She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention but he was too busy at this moment.
Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most
disgusting sound she could muster. No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged
it on the glass counter. That did it!

"And what do you want?" the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. I'm talking to my brother
from Chicago whom I haven't seen in ages," he said without waiting for a reply to his question.

"Well, I want to talk to you about my brother," Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone. "He's
really, really sick... and I want to buy a miracle."

" I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.

" His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a
miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?" "We don't sell miracles here, little girl. I'm
sorry but I can't help you," the pharmacist said, softening a little.

"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how
much it costs."

The pharmacist's brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind
of a miracle does your brother need?"

" I don't know," Tess replied with her eyes welling up. I just know he's really sick and Mommy says he
needs an operation. But my Daddy can't pay for it, so I want to use my money."

" How much do you have?" asked the man from Chicago. "One dollar and eleven cents," Tess answered barely
audibly. "And it's all the money I have, but I can get some
more if I need to."

"Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents---the exact price of a
miracle for little brothers. "

He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said "Take me to
where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the miracle you
need."

That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neuro-surgery. The
operation was completed free of charge and it wasn't long until Andrew was home again and doing well.

Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of
events that had led them to this place. That surgery," her Mom whispered. "was a real
miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?"

Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle
cost...one dollar and eleven cents .... plus the
faith of a little child..

The first picture from the new movie, "King Kong." All I can say is, "Awesome"

IMAX Signs Four Theatre Deal With Largest Exhibitor in Korea

CJ CGV to Open First Two Retrofitted IMAX(R) Theatres by End of 2005

TORONTO, April 13, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- IMAX Corporation IMAX IMX and CJ CGV Co., Ltd, the largest commercial exhibitor in Korea, today announced an agreement to install four IMAX(R) MPX(TM) theatre systems at multiplexes in Korea in the next two years. CJ CGV operates a total of 388 screens at 50 state-of-the-art multiplexes across Korea, with 233 screens at 29 sites under the CGV brand, and 155 screens at 21 sites under CJ CGV's affiliate company, Primus Cinema. CJ CGV is a subsidiary of CJ Entertainment Co., Ltd., the leading film distribution and production company in Korea, which is a significant stakeholder in DreamWorks SKG, and holds the distribution rights for Korea, China and Hong Kong for movies produced by DreamWorks. Under terms of the agreement, CJ CGV will open new and retrofitted IMAX(R) theatres at leading multiplexes in and around Seoul and Busan, the two largest cities in the country, with the first two locations scheduled to open in December 2005.

All four CJ CGV IMAX theatres will be capable of showing Hollywood event films converted into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience, as well as original 2D and IMAX(R) 3D films. The IMAX MPX theatre systems will be installed at multiplexes in the following locations: the Wangshipni area of Seoul; Incheon and Ilsan, suburbs of Seoul; and the Seomyun area of Busan, a city of 3.9 million on the southeastern coast of the country. The two IMAX theatres scheduled to open in December 2005 will be the first to exhibit IMAX DMR(R) (Digital Re-mastering) releases in Korea.

So the left blames the USA for not going to war to protect Korea, when Korea couldnt do it themselves?
They also blame the USA for a divided Korea. I just love their logic..

Good Editorial by the Chosun.


Damned If They Did, Damned If They Didn't

A ruling-party lawmaker, Kim Won-wung, last week asserted that all the nation's misfortune was planted in a secret 1905 agreement between the U.S. and Japan, the so-called Taft-Katsura Agreement, in which Washington acknowledged Japan's colonial control of Korea. "We have to protest to the U.S. against this secret agreement, which was a serious criminal act under international law, and demand an apology for it," the lawmaker demanded during a parliamentary audit of our embassy in Washington. "We must seek a redress of past wrongs in Korea-U.S. relations."
In the secret accord, signed in Tokyo in 1905, the U.S. and Japan acknowledged the latter's control of the Korean Peninsula and the former's control of the Philippines. Korea was at the time already in Japanese hands as a result of Japanese victories in wars with both Russia and China. Calling for the U.S. to be held to account for the agreement is tantamount to asserting that it should have intervened on the Korean Peninsula even if that meant risking a war with Japan. By the same token, one might contend that any colonies should demand a redress of injustices not merely from their former colonial master but from any country that acknowledged their control. That logic is not going to wash in the international community.

It is not difficult to find voices in and around the ruling camp that will portray the Taft-Katsura agreement as the source of all our ills. Some even argue that the nation's division into North and South can be traced back to the accord. A group of legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties that included Kim in July submitted a draft resolution to the National Assembly calling for a formal repeal of the Taft-Katsura Agreement and for apologies from Washington and Tokyo.

But the purveyors of this historical view also grumble about the U.S. intervention in the Korean War and want to topple a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur in Incheon. It must be based on such views that Rep. Kim alone did not go along with the other lawmakers when they paid their respects at the Korean War memorial after the audit in Washington.

To blast the U.S. for failing to intervene in one instance and for intervening in another, for not seeing one attack on our sovereignty (by Japan) but seeing another (by North Korea) is tantamount to damning the U.S. if it does and damning it if it doesn’t. While anti-American acts may seem profitable gimmicks for our politicians and America-bashing is rewarded with popular applause, we should also think how such careless accusations make us look in the eyes of the international community. (sad to say like howling fools.)



url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200510/200510020006.html

Seoul revives buried stream in a bid to turn green

By Jon HerskovitzSat Oct 1, 6:05 AM ET

As a top executive at Hyundai Construction, Lee Myung-bak helped pour the concrete that turned the South Korean capital Seoul into a massive gray city in its headlong rush to development in the 1960s and 1970s. Now Seoul's mayor, Lee has overseen the launch of a project which tore down an elevated highway in the heart of the city and on Saturday restored a stream buried underneath it for almost 50 years.

Environmental experts and urban planners say what is happening in Seoul with the restoration of the stream will provide an interesting case study to see if a city that rushed to become a major urban center without proper planning can replace concrete jungles with green spaces.

"Since I participated in the construction, I am well aware of the mistakes I made back then and I am trying to undo those mistakes and transform Seoul into a greener and more culturally rich city," Lee said in a recent interview with Reuters. The Chonggyechon stream once flowed for about 10 km (6 miles) through the center of Seoul, home to about 10 million people, from mountains behind the presidential Blue House and was central to life in the city.

Work to restore about 6 km of the stream began in July 2003 at a cost of around $350 million. The stream flows through a narrow park that celebrates the history of Seoul. There are 22 bridges across the waterway.

GREEN DREAM

Kim Jin-ai, a leading urban planner, said it remains to be seen if places such as Seoul, which quickly became modern urban hubs can develop comprehensive plans that lead to greener cities. "Development in these types of cities focused on quick and effective means to create urbanization and environmental concerns were often placed on the back burner," Kim said.

"A project like Chonggyechon stream is a good start which shows the country just realized the importance of preserving the environment, but it needs to be integrated into a well-developed, long-term and comprehensive plan," she said. Critics have called the project short-sighted and say Lee is using it to boost his bid to become the country's president. According to the U.N. Environment Programme, it is imperative that major urban centers use resources efficiently because of the enormous strain they put on the environment.

"Cities demand huge amounts of energy to run their infrastructure and fuel their transport, they suck in vast quantities of water, they demand large amounts of food," said Nick Nuttall, a UNEP spokesman. By 2030, more than 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities, up from almost half now, and just a third in 1950, according to the UNEP.

Lee thinks a good place to look for an environmentally friendly future may be in Seoul's past. He is planning a green belt around Seoul to link the city's ancient gates, palaces and parks with the Chonggyechon stream flowing through its heart.

From the Northwest Florida Daily News comes this story of a Crestview couple who drove their car to Wal-Mart, only to have their car break down in the parking lot. The man told his wife to carry on with the shopping while he fixed the car in the lot.

The wife returned later to see a small group of people near the car. On closer inspection, she saw a pair of male legs protruding from under the chassis. Although the man was in shorts, his lack of underpants turned private parts into glaringly public ones. Unable to stand the embarrassment, she dutifully stepped forward, quickly put her hand UP his shorts, and tucked everything back into place.

On regaining her feet, she looked across the hood and found herself staring at her husband who was standing idly by. The mechanic, however, had to have three stitches in his forehead.

It was a different week here in Korea. My co-worker had her birthday party and we went to Itewon and I stayed awake until 0500 on Sunday morning. I have got to quit doing that.

Last week on the 19th It was Korea Thanksgiving. My students have been telling me of what they do. They went to their grandparents house and ate a lot of different types of foods and they went to the cemeteries to pay respect to their ancestors.

A few of us gathered at my co-workers place and had a Cook-out. I was listening to everybody talk and the point of family came out. My co-worker made the point that the foreigners here in our little circle are a family. We argue, bitch and generally try and help each other. I was looking at this motely crew who we have here, 2 from New Zealand, 2 from Australia, 3 from USA, a few from Canada and others that seem to come and go, depending on which way the winds blow on that day.

It should be an intresting year here in Daejeon.

I have never been a fan of Norte Dame Fottball at all. When I read this I thought, Well done sir.




SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Charlie Weis doesn't usually let anyone else call plays on offense. He made an exception for 10-year-old Montana Mazurkiewicz.

The Notre Dame coach met last week with Montana, who had been told by doctors weeks earlier that there was nothing more they could do to stop the spread of his inoperable brain tumor. ``He was a big Notre Dame fan in general, but football especially,'' said his mother, Cathy Mazurkiewicz.


Weis showed up at the Mazurkiewicz home in Mishawaka, just east of South Bend, and talked with Montana about his tumor and about Weis' 10-year-old daughter, Hannah, who has global development delay, a rare disorder similar to autism. He told Montana about some pranks he played on Joe Montana -- whom Montana was named after -- while they were roommates at Notre Dame.

``I gave him a chance to hammer me on the Michigan State loss, which he did very well. He reminded me of my son,'' said Weis, whose son, Charlie Jr., is 12 years old. Weis said the meeting was touching.

``He told me about his love for Notre Dame football and how he just wanted to make it through this game this week,'' Weis said. ``He just wanted to be able to live through this game because he knew he wasn't going to live very much longer.'' As Weis talked to the boy, Cathy Mazurkiewicz rubbed her son's shoulder trying to ease his pain. Weis said he could tell the boy was trying not to show he was in pain.

His mother told Montana, who had just become paralyzed from the waist down a day earlier because of the tumor, to toss her a football Weis had given him. Montana tried to throw the football, put could barely lift it. So Weis climbed into the reclining chair with him and helped him complete the pass to his mother.

Before leaving, Weis signed the football. ``He wrote, 'Live for today for tomorrow is always another day,''' Mazurkiewicz said.

``He told him: 'You can't worry about tomorrow. Just live today for everything it has and everything you can appreciate,'' she said. ``He said: 'If you're (in pain) today you might not necessarily be in pain tomorrow, or it might be worse. But there's always another day.''

Weis asked Montana if there was something he could do for him. He agreed to let Montana call the first play against Washington on Saturday. He called ``pass right.'' Montana never got to see the play. He died Friday at his home.

Weis heard about the death and called Mazurkiewicz on Friday night to assure her he would still call Montana's play.

``He said, 'This game is for Montana, and the play still stands,''' she said. Weis said he told the team about the visit. He said it wasn't a ``Win one for the Gipper'' speech, because he doesn't believe in using individuals as inspiration. He just wanted the team to know people like Montana are out there. `That they represent a lot of people that they don't even realize they're representing,'' Weis said.

When the Irish started on their own 1-yard-line following a fumble recovery, Mazurkiewicz wasn't sure Notre Dame would be able to throw a pass. Weis was concerned about that, too. So was quarterback Brady Quinn. ``He said what are we going to do?'' Weis said. ``I said we have no choice. We're throwing it to the right.''

Weis called a play where most of the Irish went left, Quinn ran right and looked for tight end Anthony Fasano on the right.

Mazurkiewicz watched with her family. `I just closed my eyes. I thought, 'There's no way he's going to be able to make that pass. Not from where they're at. He's going to get sacked and Washington's going to get two points,''' she said.

Fasano caught the pass and leapt over a defender for a 13-yard gain.

``It's almost like Montana was willing him to beat that defender and take it to the house,'' Weis said.

Mazurkiewicz was happy. `It was an amazing play. Montana would have been very pleased. I was very pleased,'' she said. ``I was just so overwhelmed. I couldn't watch much more.''

Weis called her again after the game, a 36-17 victory by the 13th-ranked Fighting Irish, and said he had a game ball signed by the team that he wanted to bring to the family on Sunday. `He's a very neat man. Very compassionate,'' she said. ``I just thanked him for using that play, no matter the circumstances.''

Just when I think the North Korea Story cant get any weirder, Here comes good old Ted Turner...

Ted Turner's never met a communist he didn't love.

Sometimes I really feel for Wolf Blitzer. Not only does CNN make him work on camera 60 hours a week, they still only let him have a chair about one segment an hour. Anyway, on The Situation Room today on Wolf-TV, the founder was interviewed. Ted Turner and Wolf on North Korea. Keep in mind all the atrocities that have been documented by Claudia Rosett and others.

WB: You spent some time recently in North Korea, Ted. Did this agreement come to you as a surprise?

TT: No. No, I talked with quite a few of the North Korean leaders and South Korean leaders, too, and spent really the most time with the head negotiator for North Korea. And I was really over there to try and persuade North and South Korea to make the DMZ into an international peace park when they sign a peace treaty, which I anticipate will be fairly soon, now that we have these six-party talks. We have agreement there. But I had a great time. I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There's really no reason for them to cheat or do anything to violate this very forward agreement. I think we can put the North Korea and East Asia problems behind us, and concentrate on Iran and Iraq, where we still have some ongoing difficulties.

WB: I've got to tell you, Ted, given the record of North Korea, especially the fact that in the Clinton administration, in '93-'94, they made a similar pledge which they violated and they backed out of. I'm not exactly sure that I accept all your optimism.

TT: Well, you know, I was optimistic about the Cold War when I got to Russia, too. But I looked 'em right in the eyes, and they look like they meant the truth. I mean, you know, just because somebody has done something wrong in the past, it doesn't mean they can't do right in the future, or in the present. That happens all the time.

WB: But this is one of the most despotic regimes, and Kim Jung Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn't that a fair assessment?

TT: Well, I didn't get to meet him, but he didn't look...in the pictures I've seen of him on CNN, he didn't look too much different than most of the other people I've met.

WB: But look at the way he's treating his own people.

TT: Well, hey. Listen, I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin, and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars. But I didn't see any brutality in the capitol, or out in the DMZ. We drove through the countryside quite a bit to down to P'annumjom and Kaesong. We traveled around. I'm sure we were on a special route, but I don't see...there's really no reason...North Korea's got enough problems with their economy and their agriculture. I think they want to join the Western world, and improve the quality of life for their people, just like everybody else. And I think that we should give them another chance. It doesn't cost us anything. They already have agreements, and then North Korea never posed any significant threat to the United States. I mean, the whole economy of North Korea is only $30 billion dollars a year. It's less than the city of Detroit. It's a small place, and we do not have to worry about them attacking us.

WB: You know, they have a million troops within literally a few miles...

TT: A half million.

WB: Well, best estimates are a million. A million troops along the DMZ...

TT: Yes, and we have a half a million troops, of which 28,000 are Americans, and they've been there for fifty years. One of the things I've said in both North and South Korea is, it's time to end the Korean War officially, and move on and get those hundreds of thousands of young men that are sitting there back building hospitals and roads and schools in both North and South Korea, and improving the gross national product. It's just a waste of time and energy for them just to sit there.

WB: I think the bottom line, though, Ted, and I think you'd agree. They had this opportunity in the nineties, when they signed this first agreement, and they cheated. They didn't live up to it. Now they have a second chance. I hope you're right. I certainly do.

TT: Well, I hope I'm right, too. But, you know, in the Bible, it says you're supposed to forgive seven times seventy, or something like that. Just because...in 1940, the Germans were our enemies. For the last fifty years, they've been our allies. The same with the Russians...The Russians were our enemies before '91 when the Cold War ended. Let's give them a break. Give them a break. Besides, even if they do threaten us again, the threat is non-existent to the United States. They can't threaten us. I mean, it's like a flea attacking an elephant.

WB: What about those ground-to-ground missiles, and the...

TT: They can't reach us.

WB: They can reach Japan. They can reach South Korea. They can reach a lot of our allies.

TT: They can't reach the U.S.A., and we can pound them into oblivion in 24 hours.

WB: But you don't want to get to that. There's some estimates, by the way, they could reach Alaska.

TT: Well, what? The Aleutian Islands? There's nothing up there but a few sea lions.

WB: Well, you know, this is a serious issue. I hope you're right, as I said. But...

TT: I know it's a serious issue. I mean, I didn't go over there to waste my time.

WB: No, no, no. I'm just saying the point that you said...

TT: Have you ever been there?

WB: I've been to South Korea. I've been to the DMZ.

TT: Have you ever been to North Korea?

WB: No. I've never been to North Korea.

TT: Well, you know, at least go up there and look in their eyes and have a chat with them, before you accuse them of...

WB: I've made several requests, but they haven't let me into North Korea.

TT: Then go on your vacation.

WB: Maybe if I go with you the next time.

TT: All right. I took Christianne Ammanpour with me this time.

WB: Kim Jung Il, I'll look him in the eyes, and we'll see how he's doing.

End of lunacy.

People are thin and ride bicycles instead of cars? What an evil man Ted Turner is to not recognize that countless people have starved to death because of this psycho in pajamas. Wolf at least asked the appropriate questions to follow up, but you know he's having a bad day when he gets into an argument with the founder of the network he works for, and knows he's arguing with a crazy person. No wonder Turner doesn't see a problem with Kim Jung Il. Crazies don't often see problems with other crazies.

As for the Aleutian Islands, or Alaska for that matter, if Ted has such disdain for all the nothing that's up there, how could he possibly object to drilling for oil, since there's nothing up there but sea lions?

Turner is a goofball, and the only reason anyone cares about what he says is because he's a goofball with a lot of money

Good old Ted he went from a Billionare to a millionare with the AOL-Time Warner merger...

I was going to give the Korea Times a pass on this article but when I review it today. It made me a little mad.

New Dispute on Old Soldier
Historical Reappraisal Should Be Rational Than Emotional


U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur has neither died nor faded away, but stands at the center of renewed ideological battles in Korea. It is regrettable to see what should be an academic debate turn into a political and even diplomatic dispute. Historical reassessment of the Korean War and the U.S. military operations here should be made, but in rational, not emotional, ways. It appears abrupt and fussy for the nation to tussle over a foreign soldier who died 41 years ago.

The problem is that MacArthur has recently become a symbol of two polarizing sets of perceptions on modern Korean history. Young leftist groups see the late general as the head of occupying forces who divided the Korean Peninsula and would have annihilated its northern half with atomic bombs given the chance. Old rightists regard him as a savior and liberator, first from Japanese colonialists and then from North Korean communists. The truth, however, may be that MacArthur ㅡ or America ㅡ had both aspects.

There are mixed evaluations of Gen. MacArthur in the United States, too. He seemed to be a solider with big political ambitions and an extreme abhorrence of communism but was frustrated by American public opinion, which wanted no further escalation of war in Asia. Regardless of the U.S. appraisal of the late general, his statue was erected to commemorate the Inchon Landing, one of the most decisive battles of the 1950-53 war, which turned the tide of the war. No more ㅡ and no less.

Events, even ones not so proud, should have their own places in history and be remembered for good or bad reasons. So the attempted removal of MacArthur's statue can change nothing really, but shows our own historical immaturity. Moreover, it is true that many South Koreans fought to their deaths not to be communized by their northern compatriots, and the U.S. spearheaded global support for such a struggle, whatever its motivations may have been. It was apparent 55 years ago who our enemies were and who were our friends.

As long as Korean War veterans are still alive, the leftist revision of modern history may not be easy. The civic groups' efforts are attempts to bring the hitherto conservative, ideology-driven historical pendulum to a progressive, nation-oriented one. It will stop near the center, not artificially and forcefully, but in due course of time. This is the time not for emotional or physical conflicts over historical events and individuals but for a calm analysis of their merits and demerits. Only time will tell.

As President Roh made it clear that it is the government's position to keep the statue, U.S. lawmakers had better wait and see. Nor is this an issue for partisan wrangling domestically. Related officials can consider relocating it to a war memorial from the present public park someday. We have never heard of a statue of Dwight Eisenhower in Normandy to commemorate D-Day. (This is a lie)

Somebody called them out in this Letter to the Editor.

Regarding your editorial of Sept. 20,New Dispute on Old Soldier, you write "We have never heard of a statue of Dwight Eisenhower in Normandy to commemorate D-Day."

Perhaps you should spend more time on fact checking before you write erroneous information for public dissemination!

There is in fact not only a statue of Eisenhower, but a whole plaza dedicated to the general in Bayeux, France _ which is in the Normandy region.
The statues, parks, and plazas that have been dedicated to numerous generals and soldiers of many of the Allied nations are well taken care of and respected in many European countries, not only France.

Your ignorance does not make a fact, nor does it entitle you to write untruths in a public forum.

Get your facts straight!


http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/940605/06050091.htm

In 1994 Monday June 6th.

Bayeux, France - The first monument on continental Europe to Dwight Eisenhower is unveiled by Eisenhower's son John, with U.S. Ambassador Pamela Harriman, 4:30 a.m.

This took 1 minute on a yahoo search engine...


And If you can look above here is 2 photos of this statue that I found on this site

http://www.pierrecarion.com/blog/archives/2003/07/14/0909.html

We demand an apology and better facts checking from this newspaper

If you remember a statment that I made a few post ago about The Fucking MacArthur song..

Ok Mr. Park please show your records of this so-called statment, I am A world history major and I couldnt not find any records of this statment. Now release the statment or shut the fuck up!


Well guess where he got this from...North Korea...

You’ll remember “Fucking USA” singer Park Seong-hwan recently did a song calling Gen. Douglas MacArthur a murderer and accusing him of ordering atrocities during the Korean War. In the song, he does a bit of narration:

Between verses two and three, Park adds his own narration. “Seize Seoul. There are girls and ladies there. For three days, Seoul will be yours — UN Commander Douglas MacArthur, September 1950.” Park says historical records confirm that this is an authentic quote by the maverick commander.

Well, this sparked OhMyNews’ Son Byeong-gwan’s curiousity, namely as to where the quote came from. So he called up the singer, who told him he got the quote from a June 25 op-ed by Jang Chang-hun, a researcher with a center attached to a particular left-wing civic group. Son then calls up Jang, who says he found the quote via an Internet search when he was writing a 2002 report, and while he couldn’t remember the source exactly, he believed it to be Sungkonghoe University professor Han Hong-gu. Hong, however, denies ever saying such a thing, even though he was quick to note that in his view, MacArthur isn’t the kind of person you should build a statue to (one might wonder about Han’s thoughts on a Kim Il-sung statue, though). He also noted that he didn’t know if Big Mac ever directly ordered atrocities, although his subordinates might have.

So Son asked Park Se-gil, the writer of “Rewriting Modern Korean History,” where the MacArthur quote might have come from. Park answered that one could guess he might have said something like that because there were materials related to it, but he didn’t know the exact source.

This didn’t satisfy Son, or another university professor familiar with modern Korean history (who chose to remain nameless, I guess lest his commie friends give him grief during faculty drinking parties) that it was nonsense that MacArthur ordered the massacre of civilians, and that he was concerned about some of the claims that were currently being pushed that were not grounded in fact.

Anyway, to make a long story short, Son concluded in his first piece that one could not, as of around noon Friday, say that Park’s song was based on objective fact. About this, the singer said, “Because we aren’t scholars… we’re going to have to look a little more for material [to prove the lyrics].”

Later on Friday afternoon, however, Son got his answer. Jang Chang-hun wrote OhMyNews to tell them that he had found the source of the quote — a North Korean history book that had been translated by pro-North Korean scholars in Japan in 1972 and retranslated into Korean in South Korea in 1991. Jang noted, however, that the book did not attibute sources, either, and said:

“One could easily dismiss it as groundless North Korean propaganda and fabrications… But one cannot conclude that the statements are ‘groundless’ or ‘fabricated’ just because concrete sources for MacArthur’s comments aren’t clarified.”

What the f... So the quote comes from a history book with no real source and this is the truth?

Mr. Park once again I say, please show your records of this so-called statment, I am A world history major and I couldnt not find any records of this statment. Now release the statment or shut the fuck up!

So sir please be quiet and shut up and never sing your lies ever again.

N.Korea Agreement Hits Snag Already


With the ink not yet dry on a joint statement of principles that ended a grueling round of six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program on Monday, the Stalinist country is already locking horns again with the U.S. over a light-water nuclear reactor it wants and the timeframe for abandoning its nuclear arms.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry on Tuesday offered an idiosyncratic reading of Monday’s agreement, saying the country would rejoin the Non-Proliferation Treaty and come back into full IAEA compliance “when the U.S. provides us with a light-water reactor that can be the basis of bilateral confidence.” It said Pyongyang was “fair and square, consistent and deep-rooted like a rock. The U.S. should not even dream of asking us to give up the nuclear deterrent we already have before providing a light-water nuclear reactor. That is the security of building bilateral confidence, physical security.” The statement of principles was understood to be merely envisaging “discussion” on the thorny issue that had threatened to scupper the talks.

The U.S. reiterated that the North must completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program before talks on the light-water nuclear reactor can begin. The U.S. State Department told reporters the six-party statement referred to the light-water reactor as a “future issue” that should be taken up at an “appropriate time.” When asked to define “appropriate time,” U.S. officials said, “When [North Korea] has rejoined the NPT and once again comes into compliance with IAEA stipulations.”

A senior South Korean official said the North Korean statement suggested Pyongyang was determined to get the maximum benefits it can from the agreement.


To be honest, why is anybody surprised?

South Korea is still giving free food, electricity, ect ect. without any inspections. Sound familiar?

Now for the US response..


U.S. Dismisses N. Korea Reactors Demand

The Bush administration is dismissing North Korea's demand for civilian nuclear reactors and appears confident of a final agreement to end that nation's nuclear weapons program. Still, the administration and South Korea foresee difficulties.

The next round of negotiations is planned for early November. In the interim, informal discussions among the six negotiating nations — the United States, North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia — are expected. "We are going to get this done," U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill told The Associated Press in an interview. He stressed that North Korea must agree to international restraints before its demand can be considered seriously.

In New York, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "we will not get hung up" on the North Korean statement. "We can make progress if everybody sticks to what was actually agreed to," Rice said amid meetings with foreign ministers attending the U.N. General Assembly session. "I think we will just stick with the text of the Beijing agreement to which the North Koreans signed on," she said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, meanwhile, said that if North Korea needed some time to reflect on the agreement reached this week, "We'll give it to them." McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush to survey Hurricane Katrina relief efforts that the agreement spelled out the steps needed to be taken. "Once they take those steps, then we would be prepared to talk further," he said.

Bush spoke by telephone with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and they agreed that verification of North Korea's pledge to abandon its weapons program was critical, McClellan said. Roh's office in Seoul took note of the prospect of "various difficulties" in resolving the nuclear issue and said the South Korean president told Bush he appreciated U.S. "flexibility" during the negotiations in Beijing.

State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said: "There are going to be differences. That's to be expected." Describing North Korea's demand as remote, Ereli said, "We're not even close to going that far." North Korea said Tuesday it would not dismantle its nuclear weapons program until the United States first provided light-water reactors.

"Life is too short to overreact to every statement coming out of Pyongyang," Hill said upon his return from negotiations in Beijing. "It obviously was not a helpful statement. But it was not unexpected, either." Still, Hill said North Korea's demand would be discussed at the next round, although he ruled out any such arrangement until North Korea rejoined an international treaty designed to limit the spread of nuclear technology and agreed to international supervision.

Under the tentative agreement, South Korea would provide North Korea with the energy it says it needs, Hill said. "They know what they signed on to," Hill said. "We are not surprised by these sorts of statements. There probably will be more of them."

Asked if he was confident the breakthrough agreement would be concluded, Hill replied, "I wouldn't have supported it if I did not think it would get done." He noted the agreement is not with the United States alone but with North Korea's neighbors. "That means something in Asia," he said.

Well the "Tripletts" are now in The Ring Of Honor. The Redskins won also. This will be (hopefully) a good season for Us Redskin fans.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has sent a written response to Rep. Hyde stating the Korean government’s position not to permit the statue of Gen. MacArthur to be removed or damaged. He also mentioned that high-ranking Cheong Wa Dae officials planned to meet with those calling for the statue to be removed to explain to them the importance of the Korea-U.S. alliance and the sacrifices made by Gen. MacArthur. On a more feel-good note, he also said neither the Korean government nor the Korean people have forgotten the sacrifices made by Americans in protecting democracy in Korea, and that they remember Gen. MacArthur as a “great and brave hero of the Korean War.” He also noted that when, thanks to the North Korean nuclear issue, the importance of a strong Korean-U.S. alliance was been highlighted, he was sure that the regrettable actions of some would not influence the bilateral relationship.

HERE IS THE WHOLE ARTICLE.

Ban sends letter to U.S. Congress to pledge statue protection

NEW YORK, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has sent a letter to Henry Hyde, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, to commit the Seoul government to preventing the demolition of a controversial statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Ban, visiting here to attend the special session marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, said he recently sent the letter on the order of President Roh Moo-hyun.

In the letter, Ban pledged his government to do its best in thwarting any attempt to demolish or damage the statue, saying such a bid runs counter to the "mature perception of history by South Koreans".

Ban reiterated that Roh had officially opposed destruction of the statue on multiple occasions, saying he was confident attempts by a minority of Koreans to harm the statue will not adversely affect the South Korea-U.S. relationship.

The South Korean people and government will never forget the sacrifices Americans made to defend democracy in South Korea, Ban said, adding most South Koreans remember MacArthur as a "great and courageous hero" of the Korean War.

The House Committee on International Relations sent a letter to Roh Thursday, saying the U.S. Congress was "disturbed" by reports of protests around the statue of MacArthur whom protesters describe as a "war criminal." The letter, signed by five members of the committee, including Hyde, urged Roh to take "all necessary action" to prevent defilement or destruction of the statue.

"If this is not the case, however, and the violent attempts to topple the statue continue, we would respectfully suggest that, rather than allowing the General's statue to be defaced or torn down, the people of (Incheon) and all of South Korea turn over the statue of General MacArthur to the American people," said the letter. Roh has denounced the liberal activists who are calling for the demolition of the statue, which commemorates the generals contribution to the defense of South Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The president dismissed any effort to dismantle the statue as an "unwise act" unhelpful to South Korea's relationship with the U.S. Roh said any demolition of the statue would not only "greatly undermine the pride of American people" but also seriously aggravate U.S. sentiment against South Korea and U.S. citizens' perception of Korea.

"I do not know the reason why the statue should be demolished," he said. "I like that they would recognize history as it is and I do not understand why they are trying to abolish all of the past now." Once revered as a hero of the Korean War in South Korea, MacArthur recently became a controversial figure, with some civic organizations holding demonstrations near the statue to demand its relocation. Critics say the statue is incompatible with ongoing inter-Korean efforts to promote reconciliation. Korean War veterans groups have also staged rallies to counter the campaign to remove the statue.

MacArthur directed the famous landing at Incheon on September 15, 1950, in the third month of the war that turned the tide of battle and helped U.N. forces restore most of South Korea. MacArthur later sent U.N. forces into North Korea that advanced to China's border before being forced to retreat in the face of overwhelming intervention by Chinese forces.

The 5-meter-tall bronze statue, established at Freedom Park in Incheon in 1957, depicts the U.S. general looking over the port and holding a pair of binoculars. The MacArthur issue emerged as South Korea began to question long-standing historical assumptions with the launch of the Roh administration in early 2003.

Elected on various liberal election campaign pledges, one of which included a call for a more equal footing in the country's relationship with the U.S., which stations 32,500 U.S. troops in the South Korea, Roh has pursued greater independence from Washington than his predecessors on the North Korean nuclear issue and other security matters.

I agree with the Marmot that President Roh should of been the one to have sent the response himself clearly stating the policy of the Republic of Korea. Instead President Roh has decided to have Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon to respond instead. President Roh can't even write a letter himself stating his own government's policy much less thank 32,000 American soldiers serving in his country.

See also my article about the 2002 attack any you see why I really doubt Presidents Roh words. Mr President, words are nice, I value action and right now all is see is a whole bag of noting.

Now the US Newspapers are starting to follow this story. The LA Times writter, who I have quoted upon in the past, has written this story. This is from the Boston Newspaper www.boston.com.

S. Koreans battle over MacArthur legacy

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times | September 17, 2005

INCHON, South Korea -- General Douglas MacArthur can't be seen around these parts without his bodyguards.

The old soldier stands high on a bluff here looking out to sea, binoculars slung around his neck and an officer's cap perched jauntily on his head. In a cordon in front of him are several burly riot policemen, their shields raised in defensive posture. At least a dozen other officers, some in plainclothes with wires dangling in their ears, are fanned out around the flowerbeds, on the lookout for trouble.

For nearly half a century, a 16-foot bronze likeness of the late war hero has dominated a park near the shores where thousands of US troops under his command landed Sept. 15, 1950, to expel North Korean forces. It is considered one of the decisive battles of the Korean War, one that many here credit for the eventual success of the prosperous, free-market nation that is South Korea.

But not all. A movement to tear down the statue has been gaining momentum recently among some younger South Koreans, who call it a symbol of US occupation and oppression.

MacArthur, remembered for his quote that ''old soldiers never die, they just fade away," has hardly faded when it comes to the controversy surrounding his life and legacy.

On Sept. 11, more than 4,000 anti-MacArthur demonstrators armed with bamboo sticks clashed with an almost equal number of riot police.

From the sidelines, nearly 1,000 conservative defenders of the statue, many of them Korean War veterans, threw eggs and garbage at the protesters. Some blocked an ambulance carrying away injured protesters, screaming that communists didn't deserve to be rescued, witnesses said.

''We've had demonstrations here before, but this is the first they've turned violent," said Kim Kyeong Ho, a police official surveying the site Wednesday. ''There is a real clash of values going on. People consider him either a savior or a war criminal."

The protesters are led by a coalition of student and labor groups, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union. Their argument is that the US effort in the Korean War was not so much an altruistic defense of South Korea's freedom as an attempt to gain hegemony over the region, and that it needlessly caused the division of the peninsula.

''It is time to reappraise MacArthur's role in history. If it were not for him, our country would not have been colonized and divided as it was," said Kim Guk Rae, a 40-year-old activist from Inchon who is one of the leaders of the movement.

Getting in on the act, a popular radical performer, Park Seong Hwan, whose song with an obscene reference to the US was the ballad of demonstrators during a string of anti-American protests in 2002, came out last week with a piece calling for the removal of the statue.

The drive to remove the statue has inspired a determined backlash. On Park's Web page, furious veterans have denounced the singer as an ''ungrateful commie" and suggested that he move to North Korea. Defenders of the statue are planning a major demonstration Thursday to mark the 55th anniversary of the Inchon landing, and police are girding for another brawl.

Even before the historical revisionism, MacArthur was a controversial figure in this country and at home.

He was removed from his command by President Harry S. Truman for insubordination in 1951 after he pressed to expand the war across the border into China, and some historians believe he needlessly prolonged the war.

Regardless of their feelings about MacArthur, many South Koreans seem to be deeply embarrassed by the clash on Sept. 11.

The wave of anti-American demonstrations in 2002, sparked by the accidental death of two schoolgirls hit by a US military vehicle, damaged South Korea's relations with the United States and its image abroad. Anti-Americanism is believed to be bad for business here, and many fear that a brouhaha over MacArthur will play badly with American conservatives.

Well I finally bought me an Ipod, its a 20GB and I like it. I easly recommend it to everybody. Cost was 290,000 w but with the small 512 mb for 200,000 w it wasnt that hard of a decison.