North Korea news and other stuff

John Bolton... human scum? He must be doing something right if North Korea thinks he's lower than protoplasm. Too bad the NKers won't let him sit at the table with them.

In a shocking electoral development, the surprise winners are... the Stalinists by a landslide!

Chechens lose my sympathy.

Mad scientists developing blueberry burgers! The last line of this article confirms all my childhood suspicions about school burgers being mystery meat: "Bushway hopes the burgers will be a big hit with children who participate in taste tests for the program. "

I saw this story first unfolding on Instapundit a few days ago, but French unilateralism has taken a new twist.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, DC continues its slow fester...

George Bush passes a test!

Watch this carefully. I tend to think of Anglicans as evolving faster than Catholics, as they encounter and deal with certain key social and theological issues. They're certainly far ahead of us Presbyterians, who have also been kicking around the homosexuality issue for decades, but with far less actual, visible progress. Tentative prediction: schism if the gay bishop is approved. On a related note, read Den Beste on marriage amendments to the Constitution.

This is actually ancient news about a longstanding phenomenon, but the Scotsman's doing a report, soooo... here ya' go.

A film about a new Korean pastime that's been gaining in popularity.

This article brings up an interesting question for me: is it at all possible that the current North Korean "acquiescence" to 6-way talks is based in part on a belief that the US is showing weakness by withdrawing its troops? The larger issue: I think NK would love to push across the border and enforce reunfication, Kim Family-style. I'm sure it's desperate enough to be thinking along these lines at least part of the time. Certainly, when NK speaks of "reunification," they're assuming it'll be under the NK flag. Is it possible they misperceive US strength in the region and think that, if we pull back far enough and/or eventually leave, they can simply roll across the border? Would we be wrong to discount this as a possibility? Or has Bolton's rhetoric shown them we're not as spineless as all that?

China, in the meantime, continues to punch itself in the head. Communist government... privatized media?
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