North korea is pissing everyone off..

Even China is getting upset with them.

See, China is in an interesting place right now. They can't attack the U.S., much as I'm sure they would like to. This is because we are investing a lot of money in/with them, and they require the financial capital in order to grow.

China is attempting to play on the public market, and requires some clean-up in order to do so. For instance, with the Bejing olympics only two years away, they are attempting to teach their populace to wash their hands and not spit in public.

How does this fit in with North Korea? Well, as China can't attack us directly, they have to use intermediaries. And right now, they have us in a bind.

North Korea, has enough conventional arms pointed at Seoul to wipe it out on first strike if a war should break out.

So we have to protect our ally carefully.

On the other side, we have to protect our heavy investments in Taiwan. China wants to bring Taiwan back into the fold, but Taiwan isn't having any.

So how are these related?

Simple. China will use the threat of one to counter-act the other. If we protect South Korea in a war against North (again), our protection of Taiwan falters. And, if China makes a push to retain Taiwan, it simply has their North Korea puppet get hot over in South Korea in order to spread our forces out.

Bush is playing a diplomatic tightrope right now, and playing it well. The only reason we aren't in a mad rush to go in hot and heavy into North Korea is that Kim Jong Il isn't paying $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers in South Korea. He is only starving his own people, and not really attacking outside his borders, except for the occasional saber-rattling (I.E. missile tests). We can take our time and see how far a diplomatic approach takes.

The religon of peace...

It is times like this that I am grateful for people like Jack Hayford, who provide a moment of clarity in the chaos.

To stand with Israel is not to oppose Arab peoples as an entity or to oppose the rights of Arabs living in Israel to a peaceful, politically secure, and prosperous life.

God has no disposition against any human being, certainly not Arabs who are the
offspring of Ishmael, the other son of His chosen leader Abraham. Standing for Israel doesn’t require an anti-Arab stance and doesn’t require us to be loveless toward other peoples.

The relentless animosities of sectors of the Arab world are not merely political causes but are driven by spiritual powers that will not be satisfied until Israel ceases to exist.

The forces opposed to Israel are not simply those of people who don’t like Jews. We are caught in the stream of spiritual forces greater than humanity, forces that cannot be overthrown politically or by the power of persuasion. These forces can only be broken by intercessory prayer where principalities and powers are cast down.

The same spirit driving these animosities is equally opposed to Christians as to Jews and in time will eventually bring persecution to both.

Just as Scripture states there are two witnesses that will be put to death in Jerusalem at the very end of time (Revelation 11), there have been two witnesses that have stood for God throughout history – the Jews and the Christians. The hostilities and animosities are just as leveled at believers as they are at Israel, because there is a spirit in the world that is against all that is called God and everything about Him.
• God as Creator – to Whom we owe our worship.
• God as Judge – to Whom we owe our accountability.
• God as Redeemer – Who has shown Himself through His Son, Jesus.
• God as the moral Lawgiver of all humanity – to Whom we owe a responsibility in terms of our behavior.

I have no problems with any Muslim who wishes to live in peace. However, it is the passive/agressive nature of the people of Muslim faith that has me concerned. Those not performing acts of violence are very often supporting it passively, or justifying it.

As I commented in another blog, to take a lesson from another Jewish-hating culture, and, at the risk of Godwin-ing this blog:

"Reading Steven Ambrose’s books (Citizen Soldier, Band Of Brothers, etc.), which are biographical accounts of WWII’s european campaigns, the soldiers were amazed how they travelled up and down Germany, but never found a nazi. (Imagine that).
Yet, the culture is what allowed for Auschwitz, Chełmno, etc. It wasn’t that the whole of the population was active in the Extermination camps, but because they were hardened via propaganda/culture, even if it didn’t lead to ACTIVE agression towards jews, gypsies, homosexuals, etc., the culture they contributed to allowed these atrocities to occur.
In Islam, I see much of the same."

Awww...how cute!

Looks like China gets to share something with Germany

See? East and West can get along!

Simply amazing...

Sooo....I'm visiting out here in San Fernando Valley with some friends (LA for those of you who don't know around where that is... )

It seems that I've met up with a bunch of my former classmates...It was cathartic to hear about all of the "in-crowd"'s "after-high-school" lives. (Hint to all you High Schoolers...once High School is over, popularity means nothing..)

I was amazed at how many times someone would say, "so-and-so turned into a complete [Rhymes-like-witch]", or, "She was so stuck up...". Meanwhile, I, having been on the outside of the whole social scene, simply went, "umm...duh?"

I'm also glad I skipped out on the whole "oh, she met this guy, got pregnant, married the guy, cheated on him, divorced him and re-married after she became pregnant with his kids, etc." drama scene. Turns out that many of my former classmates didn't have it together nearly as much as they let on.

All those Friday nights alone with my computer seems like time well spent...

In the twinkle of a Liberal eye...

I was thinking of something while driving home...Those of the left-leaning ilk have set themselves up for quite a conundrum:

They make the insinuation that life under Bush is a facist government.

Yet they support Gun Control.

Let me tell you why that is a contradictory point of view to take:

"but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.''

--Federalist Paper #29.

The purpose behind the second amendment is to assure that, should the government become too abusive of power, the people could take it back.

The typical liberal slant on the US today is that the present state is the end-times for the US, and all is lost.

If that were the case, you would think they would be all for unrestricting Gun-control laws to take back the govnerment.

But, they aren't.

Why?

Because it is simply more political posturing.

Please, make no mistake. I am NOT advocating the overthrow the US by force by any means.

I think the measures that the liberals decry so much are being done because of the times that we live in.

We can't go back to being isolationist.

And we've done this sort of thing before.

FDR had six Nazi terrorists shot without a trial.

Lincoln arrested southern politicians, thereby denying southern governments the chance to get together to vote for secession. And denied due process for their trial.

Go read up on the the stuff we did during the cold war...it'll raise your neckhairs...

The point is: the purpose of our military and intelligence services is to protect democracy, not practice it.

And as far as I am concerned, if you are in the US or another country, and you are attacking us without wearing a uniform, you have no rights to geneva convention protection.

We play by the rules. You should too.

With that, I'm out