Reason Morning Links: Korea, Arizona, and Other Trouble Spots

• Tensions mount in Korea.

• The SEIU picks a new president.

• Reports that troops killed three Afghan civilians prompt protestors to destroy NATO supply vehicles.

• Activists organize a trucking boycott of Arizona.

• George Bush: The Book.

Comments

[Johnny Longtorso]

For those who missed the post a few months ago, here is my one page (or so) explanation of how the Fannie/Freddie post-accounting-scandal loan orgy of 2004/5, combined w/ 2005 changes to the CRA, caused the housing crisis.

[MNG]

It’s incredible people are still peddling this…

[The Libertarian Guy]

It’s amazing, yes. Most people are content to believe government didn’t bungle things at all, and the housing crisis can be blamed solely on the private sector.

[Rich]

The law will require police to check the immigration status of anyone they have “reasonable suspicion” to think might be in the country illegally.

What would the uproar be if the law had instead required police to check the immigration status of anyone “reasonably” stopped for a traffic violation, say, or “reasonably” arrested for a felony? This’ll just get more interesting by the day.

[JohnD]

Frankly, I couldn’t care less what the Mexicans think… They can all go back to Mexico if they don’t like it.

[sage]

Ugh. D-

[barfman]

*barf*

[johndd]

i could care less what white racists do let them go back to europe

[Joel]

I hope both people who rush out and buy Dubya’s book post reviews, so I can know how upfront he really is about his flaws. That would be a new thing.

[ed]

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that God made him an imperfect man, Satan pitched in a little, but in the end Jesus saved him.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Good madlibs, but I prefer the following inserts for the proper names:

Barbara Bush
Dick Cheney
Robert Gates

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

It’s a good thing that the new law in Arizona won’t be used to profile people. I know this because the governor said so, and because the law enforcement officers are the finest citizens in this country and they can be trusted to exercise this law fairly.

[Young New York Black Male]

Hard to argue with that.

[MNG]

In fact, since we can all trust the government to do the right thing by us there really is no need for so much focus on those pesky federal and state constitutions with all those superflous provisions.

I mean really, what a stupid comment from the governor. We don’t want your word that questionable things will go one, we want legally enforceable provisions to that effect.

[SIV]

April 26 (Bloomberg) — U.S. meat prices may rise to records this summer after farmers reduced hog and cattle herds to the smallest sizes in decades, the result of surging feed costs linked to demands for more ethanol.

[Warty]

THIS IS THE LAST STRAW

[Pro Libertate]

No, the last straw was when Mexican farmers began burning their agave crops to grow corn.

[Joel]

NOOOO!

War on Mexico!

[Pro Libertate]

My reaction exactly. We ran a number of posts about the War on Agave when it began in 2007.

[SIV]

Blame Bush

Domestic supplies may drop to a 13-year low because of culls to stem losses caused by corn prices that doubled after former President George W. Bush set targets to increase ethanol use.

[Steve Smith]

SILLY PINK SKINS *BUYING* YOUR MEAT. STEVE LAUGHS AT YOUR IMPOTENCE.

[Death Penalist]

The SEIU picks a new president.

Which means our president has a new president.

[The Libertarian Guy]

Good one!

[John]

Please God don’t let there be a Korean war. I thought electing Obama, as opposed to that war monger McCain was going to keep us out of really big wars? Let’s hope that keeps working out for us. But, I have a horrible feeling it won’t.

[.]

I thought we were still at war with N. Korea. No?

[John]

Technically we are at war with a going on 60 year ceasefire. But since there is rarely shooting, it is hard to say we are at “war” in the ordinary sense of the term.

[.]

Except that it wouldn’t take an act of Congress to start the shooting again. Not that we don’t routinely bypass that silly Constitutional anachronism anyway.

[Charles Montgomery]

put down the pipe…

this is the normal bullshit that NK does…

never anything big enough to start a war (well, since they had the commies behind em), just enough to seem relevant….

They know China won’t let them get too spanked, so they act like (homicidal) chilluns…

not good, but no real threat for war…

LOL.. I hope.. as I live in Seoul…

[John]

The Kim’s like every other homicidal dictator, are more afraid of their own people than they are of the rest of the world. As things start to fall apart there and there is great danger of an uprising, there is greater danger that they will finally do something crazy because their only alternative is to be hung by their own angry mobs. Something has got to give up there. And when it does, it won’t be pretty.

[Mike Laursen]

Not following your logic here. If fighting breaks out, why would it be Obama’s war-mongering?

[John]

It wouldn’t be Obama’s fault. The point is that wars tend to start on their own. As they say “the enemy gets a vote”. Further, weakness can cause wars just as easily as strength. So the idea that vote for Obama because he is less likely to get us into a war, seems pretty foolish.

[MNG]

They’ll just send them some tons of grain to feed the people that their wicked system is regularly unable to feed and things will die down.

Hopefully.

[Mike Laursen]

I think you just shifted the goal post on me. You were talking about Obama and war mongering, and now you’re talking about Obama and showing weakness.

McCain has explicitly made statements of a war-mongering nature, has he not? Hell, on one occasion in song.

[ev]

Well, the Koreans here certainly aren’t worried. I live about 2 hours south of the DMZ but no one seems to care. This is all over print/tv/web news but no one’s in a tizzy. (Wow I can’t believe I just used the word “tizzy.” It came naturally and I think I’ll let it be.)

I’ve been told to not worry until I start to see the Koreans freak out. It’s not even really a topic of conversation, at least not at the water cooler. The basic feeling is that if the North invaded (What if they bombed us?,I ask…) they would drop their guns as soon as they saw the first department store. They’d be shocked and awed into surrender.

[John]

I think the Korean friends are right about that. But that first barrage is a killer.

[Corduroy]

North Korea has a inordinate number of artillery weapons directed at Seoul if I remember correctly. The end of the war would probably come quickly for the North, but the beginning would probably suck for the South.

[ev]

That’s my natural reaction, too. But hey, at least I don’t live in Seoul.

One thing that terrifies me: uh…guns don’t exactly exist in this country. “In South Korea, it is a capital offense for anyone not related to military to own or distribute firearms.”

The libertarian in me does not like this.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

Execution seems a bit strong for possession of a gun. That sounds like a law from some third world dictatorship, not a modern, post-industrial country.

[John]

Until the late 1980s, South Korea was a tinpot authoritarian regime.

[Warty]

I can’t think of a single example where a people who have emerged from despotism to democracy have gotten their gun rights back. Can you?

[James Brady]

Sounds reasonable to me.

[SIV]

One thing that terrifies me: uh…guns don’t exactly exist in this country.

Get a Dragon Slayer .50 caliber air rifle.

http://www.shinsungrifle.com/html/eng/main.htm

[bigbiglsacker]

Can you really slay a dragon with that? I couldn’t find any specs on the website.

[R C Dean]

Kim’s plan is probably to level all the grocery and department stores with artillery before sending the troops in, so they won’t distracted by food and toys.

[Kim Jong Il]

Correct. However, before the barrage my special forces will score all the Hennessy in Seoul.

[J sub D]

George Bush: The Book.

Will not waste money buying it.
Will not waste time reading it.

[Warty]

I’ve had this terrible feeling lately that Bush will somehow or other be “vindicated” by historians, and be counted as one of the greatest presidents, right alongside Harry Fucking Truman and Teddy Fucking Roosevelt.

[John]

Get used to it Warty. I think that feeling very well may come to fruition.

[hurly buehrle]

It’s really not a “somehow” thing. Between the military aggressions and the massive expansions of the welfare state and citizen surveillance, it’s only a matter of time.

[MNG]

Maybe not vindication, but I honestly think people will, and hey should, look back at all the over the top hate of the guy and wonder what he did that inspired that. I opposed him at every step, but he was hardly the worst guy I could think of to be Prez…

[Warty]

Consider George Bush’s record. Now imagine that that same record had been accomplished by an atheist Democrat from New York City instead of the Bible-thumping Texan son of a Connecticut blueblood Republican prick. Almost all of the people who love Bush would hate inverse-Bush, and vice versa. You know it’s true.

[MNG]

Sure, I agree. Apart from any ideological disagreements his main legacy was one of bumbling: everything from Katrina to Iraq to the prescription drug program was horribly administered.

But it’s not like he declared martial law or saw us into a civil war or Great Depression…

[Mike M.]

He gets a big plus in my book for cutting taxes, but other than that, there’s not much to like as far as I’m concerned.

Probably the worst thing about him is he was so generally incompetent and despised in the end that it caused America to elect this worthless, unknown piece of crap we’re saddled with now, which would have been unthinkable just ten years ago.

["Teabagger"]

That, above all else, is why I have no sympathy for any Bush basher anywhere: you demonized him endlessly, and now you’re blaming him for your own damn stupid mistakes. Until the Republican resurgence, I hope this racist commie you’ve elected continues to suck all you parasites dry. The Losertardian Party: the party in which everyone has to take responsibility for his own mistakes… except for Losertardians.

[Warty]

Interesting. What else?

[Warty]

Stupid maximum nesting depth.

[Jersey Patriot]

He didn’t cut taxes, just deferred them.

[Young New York Black Male]

Bush the Lesser’s reputation will not be rehabilitated ’til after I’m decomposed. My mission for the remainder of my life is to remind everybody I know, be they left, right, libertarian or other, what a complete and utter disaster the retarded son’ss governing and policies were.

[J sub D]

Fucking joke tags!

["Teabagger"]

Given that you’ve never actually wasted much time thinking either, I guess that’s pretty consistent with your life’s philosophy.

[Rich]

I’m still waiting for Chelsea Clinton’s tell-all.

[John]

I don’t like Bill and Hillary, but I hope there never is one. There are few things lower than privileged children who use their parents’ fame as a way to sell a book dissing on them and revealing every family secret. I have nothing against Chelsea. And I honestly hope she is a better person than creatures like Christopher Buckley.

[Ron Reagan]

Why is everyone looking at me?

[Ska]

I think it’s the ascot.

[Ron Reagan]

It’s all the as I scot.

(sulks)

[Slut Bunwalla]

George Bush: The Book.

Cue lots and lots of people saying “He wrote a book? I didn’t think he could even READ hyuck hyuck hyuck”

[bigbiglsacker]

Bill Ayers authored it. He’s doing everyone’s books these days.

[Lou Mann]

No doubt about it some serious issues indeed.

Lou
http://www.anon-vpn.se.tc

[capitol l]

Totally off topic…

Anyone watch Breaking Bad last night?
Spoiler Alert.

There is a new character, a chemist, who is a self identified libertarian. This probably means he is either going to be killed or arrested, but good to see anyways.

[Joe M]

High Court to Hear Videogame Case

It’s Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association. The former violent movie star wants to restrict the sale of violent video games. Haha!

[Rhywun]

Saw it. Yeah, I wouldn’t expect him to be around much longer either. He’s probably a murderer or rapist – just like libertarians in real life!

[capitol l]

Doesn’t have to be a rapist, don’t forget for most Americans, a meth cook is worse than a rapist, or a murderer for that matter.

Especially an unapologetic one, meth cook that is.

Though I cannot wait for the episode where he talks of his hatred for poor minorities.