North Korea and my farts are a lot alike … silent, but deadly As America prepared to resume spy flights off North Korea yesterday, a senior US official warned that the secretive state could have not one, but two separate methods in place within months for the production of nuclear weapons. The West has long known that reactivation of the experimental reactor at Yongbyon for the reprocessing of spent fuel rods is all that stands between President Kim Jong Il and plutonium- based weapons. … Washington responded by suspending fuel shipments. In retaliation the North pulled out of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, expelled United Nations weapons inspectors and may now reactivate the Yongbyon reactor. If so, America says, North Korea could be producing enough plutonium for one nuclear device a month. Yet we’ve got our guns pointed at Iraq. Maybe if North Korea had oil we’d be concerned. In the mean time, we’ll allow them to develop a nuclear program and test missiles when we have (clear) knowledge that they could reach the shores of the U.S. I think was truly bothers me is that we’ve concluded that diplomacy is necessary in neither case. Some people are gung-ho about the war with Iraq and oblivious to the problem in N. Korea. After all, we’ve got troops in the Gulf ready to lay down their life. That’s a good reason, right? Just because someone is willing to die for a cause does not make it right. As I recall, there were a few Muslims who thought giving up their lives to take out a few office buildings was the right thing to do… The article may be found here Say it with me, kiddies: drugs are bad, mmkay? Prosecutors can reduce drug crime more effectively by sending nonviolent drug offenders to a strict treatment program instead of prison, according to sponsors of a study released Tuesday. ... The study compared 280 program participants with 130 drug offenders who served prison terms. It found that those in the Brooklyn program were 67 percent less likely to return to prison. Graduates also were 3 1/2 times more likely to have a job after they left the program than before they went in, the study found. ... It costs about $33,000 to send an offender through the treatment program, compared with about $64,000 to send an offender to prison for the same period, the study said. So, basically, we can actually help addicts for less money than it costs to imprison them. Much less money. So why aren’t we doing it? Probably because those bad bad drug men deserve to be in jail. They are corrupting us middle class white people, right? Making our kids take drugs and ruining their lives. Yep, that’s what those bad bad drug men do. They deserve to be in jail. But seriously, drugs can be a problem … when they are abused. Recreational drug use doesn’t hurt anyone more than recreational alcohol use. As an adult, if you go out on the weekends and drink a bit, no one would think you a horrible person. No, you’d be normal. If you didn’t drink, that’s when you’d be a freak. On the other hand, if you did all the same and just smoke some weed, you’d be a criminal. Does it make sense? Is marijuana that much worse than alcohol? The public service announcements lately would have you believe otherwise. And it really all depends on your perception. I did a research paper on it (for a blow-off class), so I just looked for pro-weed issues. And man is it easy to find them. But it’s just as easy to find otherwise. So if you want weed legal, you’ll be able to find proof as to why it ought to be. If you want it to be the devil’s tool to corrupt our youth, well, you can find proof for that too. As it is now, drugs are illegal. We might as well treat our abusers rather than make them even more resentful of “the man” who put them in jail. You can find the whole news item here. They did kinda, you know, help us gain independence House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney, Ohio Republican, changed the House cafeteria menu yesterday to "freedom fries." He also declared "french toast" anathema, too. The toothsome breakfast treat will henceforth be patriotic "freedom toast." … It's also a message about French policy: "It's nothing against the French people, the French language. This is simply stating the French government is wrong." … "Hit 'em where it hurts," said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat. But other options are under consideration. "We're not touching French dressing yet," he says, "but we'll consider it." There's no word yet on whether congressmen who wear shirts with French cuffs will be served their freedom fries. … "It's a good gesture. Walter came up with a way to unite people, send a message without getting into trade wars." Lighthearted or not, the boycott of the name if not of the actual dishes follows sentiment for more serious trade warfare, including sanctions. Several congressmen have suggested tariffs on French wine and water, as well as a ban on Pentagon participation at the Paris Air Show this year. My government teacher told my class about this little tidbit this morning. He’s generally a goof and a dumbass, so I disregarded it. I was browsing through some news and discovered this item. He was telling the truth. I almost crapped my pants. They compared what they are doing to when the US (I would use the term ‘we’, but I’m not including myself in this) renamed Sauerkraut to “liberty cabbage” in World War II. OK comparison, right? Almost makes sense? Yeah, it almost does, until you realize that we are not at war with France like we were with Germany. And then, after you realize that, you realized that French Fries were not even invented in France (so they Bleh. It almost sickens me to think we’re considering boycotting a country simply for not agreeing with our policies. And it’s a “good policy?” Please. I just don’t see how this should deteriorate into such a juvenile situation. We’re locking them out of our country, it seems. Seriously, this seems like something I would have done to my brother when I was 8 if he pissed me off. I think I did do something like this one time, actually. He was beating up on me so I ran in the house and locked the doors. He wasn’t able to get in for about an hour. When he did, though, I got even more of a beatdown. The lesson? Don’t lock your big brother out of the house unless you want a beatdown. Now, France is obviously not the big brother. But hopefully - as a country and a government - the United States is more mature than my brother. If someone doesn’t agree with you, it’s not because they are evil, or they have it out for you, or because they support terror. It’s simply a disagreement, and it doesn’t mean we should entirely discount their views. Read the whole article here. Feel free to send comments, complaints, praise, unsolicited advertisements, money orders, porn, jokes, or anything else to my email address at dpdylla@hotmail.com Send Feedback to Daniel Dylla |