I've been in a funk all day over the North Korean situation. This seems really, really bad to me.

Then I read the chinese reaction and realized I'm not the only one:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3034696

So, of course to take my mind off of it, I turn in the Tivo and what do I see? "Inside the Hermit kingdom" - a documentary of life inside North Korea.

Of course I watch it. Now Ive got the feeling that we will look back on the Iraq/Afghanistan wars as the salad days of sunshine and sweetness.

This is not good. And now all I can think of is what the great philosopher Han Solo said:

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings and she won’t sing until we leave Iraq. Have you ever noticed that revolutions don’t really change things? The Russian Revolution exchanged the tyranny of the Czar for the tyranny of the Politburo. The Iranians exchanged the tyranny of the Shah for that of the mullahs.

We did a slapdown of Saddam to be replaced by what? Democracy? Theocracy? If we build a police force or army strong enough to maintain peace, what’s to prevent some general from using it for his own purpose? And if we don’t build up the army, anarchy will rein. Am I being cynical or realistic? History is not on our side. The fat Massachusetts liberal will be proven right, and that’s the song the fat lady will sing.

Oh thats right... we're supposed to be in the middle of hockey season right now... I complete forgot. Guess we don't need hockey as badly as the owners and players think we do.

Some good news for hockey fans:

Huge games with national implications...Wisconsin plays Denver for a leg up on the WCHA titel, considering 3 of the top 5 teams in the nation are WCHA teams, this series is HUGE!

You can watch the game online

http://www.uwbadgers.com/sport_news/mhky/headlines/index.aspx

(For those unfamiliar with the acronyms, the PRC is the Peoples' Republic of China, the Chinese communists; the DPRK is the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, or North Korea; and the ROK is the Republic of Korea, or South Korea.)

It seems to me that what we're doing is giving the PRC a little time to ponder the situation and react... If the DPRK officially is acknowleged as a nuclear state, Japan (as the country the DPRK tends to shoot missiles over, and the most hated country in easy reach) could go nuclear as soon as they have the political will to do so, which if this is taken seriously could be very soon. The PRC would not be happy with a nuclear Japan. If Japan goes nuclear, the ROK and Taiwan would most likely do it as well, as fast as they could. Any one of these would be bad for the PRC (the ROK being least troublesome) but all would mean that the PRC's dream of Asian hegemony would never come to pass, because a nuclear Taiwan, Japan and ROK will never be compliant to PRC demands, even if they somehow manage to get the US to leave the region. If you are sitting in Beijing looking at this, the DPRK threatening to get nuclear weapons gives you diplomatic power because many countries around the world believe you have at least some influence in Pyongyang, so they will give you concessions for your assistance with the DPRK (although I believe the idea of PRC influence on basic policy matters as opposed to tactical political maneuvering is basically nil; regime survival trumps all other considerations in Pyongyang). A DPRK with nuclear weapons becomes a problem that could blow your entire long-term strategy out of the water, and remove your influence; after all, if they have the weapons you are no longer in a "power" position to help prevent it. I think our reaction so far, to sit back and wait, is the right thing to do. The way to solve this (if there is one) is to make the countries in the region get off their asses and finally deal with the cancerous hole in their midst. This will only happen when the DPRK becomes a bigger threat to their own (I particularly mean the PRC here) interests than we are, and right now they are positioning themselves right into that precarious position. We'll have to see how this plays out. Personally, I won't believe they have a weapon until they do a test. Saddam was bluffing in an attempt to ensure regime survival by appearing too difficult to attack (the hunkered down porcupine strategy). We went and got him anyway, but he never claimed to have a nuke; right now the DPRK is trying to up that ante, and Iran is half-assing at the same strategy.

That's my two cents.

Scout29c:

"Have you ever noticed that revolutions don’t really change things?"

No, I haven't. I'd say the Russian Revolution changed things dramatically for the worse. Ditto the Iranian revolution. And I think you'd have a hard time making the case that the American revolution didn't change anything much.

Your pessimism may turn out to be correct. What you don't seem to acknowledge is that it might not.

And yes, my senior senator might turn out to be right, but to borrow a phrase from you, history is not on your side.

You people are ignoring the real issue here, which is:
Why did the Buffalo Sabres change their uniforms from the classic blue and yellow to the godawful black and red and silver or whatever they are now?

Any chance of getting Jimmy Carter appointed Ambassador to the Moon?

Pronouncements from Ayman al-Zawahiri are news. Of course, the REAL big news from al-Queda land is the announcement from The Man himself, reported exclusively at The Onion:

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4106

"Any chance of getting Jimmy Carter appointed Ambassador to the Moon?"

He'd never go--unless you could fool him into thinking there was some nasty anti-American dictator there whose ass he could kiss. In that case, he'd make it up there even if he had to walk.

Whatever is going on in North Korea, we certainly don't know the whole story. "We" meaning the public, and to probably a lesser extent, even our government.

The North knows it's living on borrowed time and that the time is running out. Their latest saber rattling is probably a desperate attempt to wring concessions out of the US or China to keep their teetering "economy" from total collapse.

The worst thing about the North is that just about anything they do is a lose-lose scenario. War has obvious consequences. A coup will probably just put a new dictator in power. Captiulation and surrender to the South would lead to civil war. Even with a buy in from the military, reunification with the South would saddle Korea with an enormous humanitarian and economic burden.

In any case, the Axis of Evil is certainly living up to its billing these days.

Ah, yes, the hockey tragedy. My wife is inconsolable over it. Not even two syndicated episodes of C.S.I. per night have eased her pain.

I've feared that some long-unknown conservation law would kick in, and we'd start reading about violent domestic brawls between hockey players and their family members, or between hockey fans within the same family who somehow attached their allegiances to rival teams.

Nothing of this sort has yet made the news, but it could have a long incubation period. Remain vigilant.

Another banging on the high chair look at me tantrum.

Here's something else to put into the mix, the smart money is leaving China.

Read econopundit.

Stephen -

Im posting this here because you need to know. It has nothing to do with this post. Before I pass this link on to you (its from Sullys site by the way.. originally), keep in mind that at this very moment, one of my Russian developers has this open, about 45 times, at low resolution, playing... 45 instances of it simultaneously...

http://db.playego.com.br/orafiles/01122005120941567g.swf

Steve -

Lord Stanley called for the Cup to be awarded to the best team playing hockey each year. Typically, this would mean NHL teams, but as no such teams are playing, anyone is eligible - AHL and IHL teams, college teams, etc.

Go to www.freestanley.com to learn more.

Free Stanley!

Screw hockey (and basketball); pitchers and catchers on Tuesday!

As for Carter being ambassador to the moon, there is a mad, bad King of the Moon (see, Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Whaddya mean it's fantasy? It's where Jimmy Carter lives.)

I have it on good authority that the leader of North Korea and the Taco Bell chihuahu are one in the same.

You're totally wrong about Jimmy Carter, Steve, He fell down on his clear duty to jump on a plane and fly right out to Indonesia!

How so say you? Look it it this way. When the UN sent out it's poobahs to demand that USAID and the sailors on the Abraham Lincoln help them to evict refugees from enough 5-star hotels and provide servants to provide 24-hour gourmet room service, Jimmy could have handled the high-level discussions and allowed the aid workers and sailors to get on with the relief unimpeded by flapping jaws. See what I mean?

Bender,

That guy looks just like a coworker, so when he had a meeting a few minutes ago, I opened it up in six windows on his computer, tile style, so that it was playing round robin style for about 25 minutes while he was in a meeting...absolutely hillarious!

Thanks!

OK, what is the name of the song that the guy is jamming to!

Anty

Any chance of getting Jimmy Carter appointed Ambassador to the Moon?

No, no, you don't understand. He's the ambassador from the Moon.