This does not, of course, mean that they have something that they can mount on a missile.  And from what we’ve seen, it’s not like they have a working long-range missile anyway.  By most accounts, it will take them at least a couple more tests to get to that point.

The Obama Administration has reacted the same way that previous ones have.  A warning of dire consequences and an attempt to restart talks.

DPRK has responded by declaring the 1953 truce to be void, and every time anyone says anything - seemingly anything at all - they call it an Act of War.

So where does this leave us?

I’m beginning to think that this is all a big joke, and I’m really starting to think that the best approach to North Korea would be to ignore it.  Completely.  Like so:

NK: “Hey, USA!  We’re going to test a nuke!”
USA: (Yawn) “What’s on CBS?”
NK: “Really, we’re going to test, and we’re restarting Yongbyon!”
USA: “Oh look, Dave’s got Madonna on again - we can’t miss this.”
NK: “Okay, we’re going to do it now!”
USA: “click….click….”

And really, after that, who cares?  Why should we care what they do?

Here are a couple of reasons why we’re supposed to care:

• North Korea has enough arillery in range of Seoul to flatten the city in short order, and doing that would be a bad thing.
• They have close to 1.2 Million-strong standing army, and everyone else that can carry a chopstick is said to be in reserve.  Basically, the country is a barracks.
• They might have a nuke or two they could deliver on the back of a truck.
• We’re scared of them.

Seriously, I’m tired of it.  Tired of it, and I’m nobody.  I have no power, no armies at my command, and I’m 39 years old which means I don’t even remember the Korean War.  And I’m so tired of this crap.  It needs to end so the rest of us can get on with our lives.

I’m worried that Kim Jong Il is losing it.  Losing his grip on reality, and maybe losing his grip on his country.  It makes me want to tell a story.

Over the weekend I visited an old friend of mine for his 40th birthday party.  He held a poker game, $20 buyin, so we played.  I lost a couple hands on bad beats that could have gone the other way, and then I went on tilt.  I went on tilt because I was frustrated and I wasn’t thinking clearly.  I already lost the game and it was going to take something big to get me back in it.  So, in for a penny - in for a pound.

And I think the DPRK is on tilt right now.  The thing that’s kept me believing that they’ve always been about bluster and brinksmanship - but not actual action - is that Kim Jong Il likes being alive.  He drinks Hennesy, like show tunes, writes his own plays and so forth.  He hasn’t been a man that you would think is just plain nuts.

But, with him havnig suffered a stroke and obviously looking very gaunt in recent pictures, I’m wondering if he’s still playing with a full deck.

It’s time to call the bluff.

If completed, that would make Fiat one of the largest carmakers in the world, and Sergio and his buddies will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Picking up one of the “Not So Big Three” American carmakers - which has some not-so-bad products these days - gets Fiat firmly into the North American car market, and it does it at pennies on the dollar from what it would have cost just a year ago.

And now to consolidate their position in Europe they’ll get Opel, Saab and Vauxhall - and they’ll get those three marques at fire-sale prices because GM is looking to consolidate in North America.  Oh, and because GM is out of money and there are no other buyers.

I think the one lesson we can all take from this is that in a downturn the best-run and most forward-looking companies are the ones that stand to profit from the colossal stupidity of others.

Have any doubts about Fiat being forward-looking?  Even though the software is by Microsoft, try to find this on an American car:  Fiat Eco-Drive

"HOPE" by Shepard Fairey

I read in the news today that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now decided that CO2 is a pollutant that needs to be regulated, and that they’re going to do just that.  It was only two years ago that Bush quashed a similar push.

This is only the latest in an absolute flurry of tectonic shifts away from the policies of the Bush Administration.  It seems that it’s almost every single day that some old policy is nullified, exposed or outright revoked.  It is as though America - with President Obama at the helm - is entering a new age of enlightenment.  Can you tell I’m excited?

Already this week he gave Cuba (and Cuban-Americans) something to cheer for, released Bush-era documents that justified torture - while rightly saying that those who followed the bad advice would not be prosecuted, and announced plans for a national high-speed rail network.  Today it’s CO2, and somewhere in there the First Family managed to get a new dog!

Add this onto everything he’s done since he took office, and if it wouldn’t kill me I swear my head would actually spin right off.

One thing I’ll remind you of, dear reader, is that I’m Canadian.  During the eight years of Bush - beginning, fittingly enough, with a stolen election - I had thought America was all puffed out.  An old power, past its prime, that would just have to learn to take a new place in the World.

Well, America will certainly take a new place in the World, but for sure it won’t be anything less.  President Barack Obama most definitely has what it takes to get it done, and I say good on him.  He is exactly what America needs to pull itself away from fear and xenophobia, and toward enlightenment and justice.

What is good for the USA is good for me, so I say GOBAMA, and GO the 21st Century Renaissance!

Update:  CNN is saying that President Obama may be the “Superpresident“, and I couldn’t agree more.

If you do not meet that requirement, you cannot be a member.

If you do meet the requirement, you now have a very nice reason to believe that you’re better than everyone else out there because they aren’t as smart as you are.

I don’t really want to get into the whole “IQ isn’t intelligence” argument here.  I think we can all agree that although IQ tests are not empirical scientific tools, they do show abilities and aptitudes that would serve you well in life.  That, and people who score low on such tests are usually very different than those who score high.

What this does is bring together a group of people who are joined by their common belief that they are better than the average person.  By gathering together, they validate and reinforce each other.

Back in 2000 or so, I sat the Mensa test.  There were 2 tests; the Wonderlic and the SCAT.  I did very well on the Wonderlic but not quite good enough…the SCAT I apparently did very well on, so I was invited to join.

Join I did, and then I went to a couple of meetings.

And that’s when it fell off the rails for me - right there.  Here I sit, surrounded by people who are obviously very much in their element.  There were some in the room that obviously believed they were superior to everyone, and others that believed they were only superior to people not in the club.

The problem is that the single requirement for entry is a high IQ.  This gives everyone the very false belief that they are better than other people, and I just don’t like the smell of that.

All of the other clubs, groups, societies and such that I have been a member of over the years have only your interest as a requirement.  People gathering to share in a common interest is always a good thing, and you can make real friends this way because at least you have somewhere to start.

A club that founds itself on its members being in some way better than all others is unjust.

I’ve got dozens - literally dozens - of articles in an unfinished state.  Either drafts on this site that will never get finished, or text files on my computer that will likely see the same fate.  It’s got to stop, because too many good ideas are getting stuck in the machine.

I don’t have to prove myself, so I’m not going to.  Here’s to more blog entries and fewer novellas.

What the thing is is irrelevant to wha I want to say, but safe to say it’s a flat panel LCD with several HDMI inputs on the back.

We had the cable people come out and give us a new HD cable box.  It’s got all manner of outputs on the back of it - cable, composite, s-video, component and HDMI.  I elected to go HDMI because I know it’s the only digital signal of the bunch and I thought it surely must allow the best picture quality.So I trip myself over to a local big-box to fidn myself an HDMI cable to do the job.

For starters, all of the prominently displayed cables were from two companies; Rocketfish and Monster.

For Rocketfish, the cheapest cable they had was about $46.00.  For Monster, it was $150.00.

Come on now…$150 for a 3 foot cable?  Are you shitting me?

So I ask this guy, “Hey, there must be soemthing cheaper, but where are they?” and he proceeds to fetch a 6-foot Recoton cable that’s $25.00.

Then he says, “So, what’cha going to hook up?”

I say that I’m hooking up my cable box and that I’m buying the “cheap” cable expressly because I can’t see the sense in spending major dollars on a short cable.

He comes back at me and says that I might likely “get away” with this cheapo for my cable box, but if I were to buy a Blu-Ray or something similar I’d be wise to get a “premium cable”.

My only response to that was, “HDMI is digital.  As long as the dits and dots get to the other end of the cable without running together or fading out, there’s nothing to be gained from pricey cables.  And I really don’t think that one meter or six feet or whatever is worth throwing that money on…and I don’t know what the difference might be.”

To this, the response was, “Oh, there’s a difference.”

At this, we parted ways.  I went home, hooked up my el-cheapo cable and the quality of the picture on my TV is perfect.  And to think I saved more than $125 by not buying snake oil!

Just as an aside, I know there was a time - and there may still be - when you really did need the premium cables to pinch the most out of your HiFi.

Over short distances, it doesn’t really matter in any case, but certainly for shorter distances with a digital signal it matters less.

Selling a $20 one-meter cable for $150 should be illegal.

“For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” (CNN)

Regardless of your political affiliation, I don’t see how you could take this to mean that Mrs. Obama was ever anything but a proud American.

Did anyone on the right stop to consider what might actually be going through her mind?  And what it means?

I believe that what she meant to convey is that, just perhaps, on the momentous occasion of a black man - and the one she married - being put up as one of the major parties’ nominees for president, that a wall has been knocked down.  An injustice corrected.

That, from today forward, the game has changed.  40 acres and a mule be damned, we’re going for the big prize.

And also perhaps a bit of defiance, in that it doesn’t matter how many white racist bigots might still be out there and what they might think - because they, as of this moment, don’t matter a damn anymore.

The tide has finally turned, and the equation now works in favour of those so long oppressed and dispossessed.  It really is a new day.

Being Canadian, and - incidentally - white, you might expect that I have a different perspective on things.  Canada, as most of you should know, was the destination of the Underground Railroad.

Some examples:

• “Man, get a haircut.  You’re such a mildewd.”
• “That shirt was mildewd 20 years ago.”
• “I don’t want to go to Shifty McNasty’s, it’s a bar for mildewds.”
• “The mildewd, no longer fashionably late, received a scowl from the prestigious crowd.”

I hereby submit this word to the English language.  If you have other, more interesting uses, of the word - please feel free to leave them in a comment.

Special thanks to SarZ for causing me to think of this.

The Federal Minister of Industry, Jim Prentice, says “This bill reflects a win-win approach.”

Just who will be doing all the winning with this is pretty clear. And it’s not me and you.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/12/tech-copyright.html

Bll C-61 has all the hallmarks of being written by lobbyists. American lobbyists. Through the”process” of writing this bill, neither Industry Canada nor Mr. Prentice have held any public consultations or met with any Canadian industry groups that might be affected by this legislation. No public consultations at all. At the same time, meetings with American industry lobbyists have been free-flowing.  Canadian associations and industry as well as legal experts have expressly requested meetings about this, and all have been denied.  Just what the hell is that about?  Who do you work for, Jim Prentice?

Are we the 51st fucking state, already? Does our government have to kowtow to everything that the US government - and US business - wants? The only “Canadian” groups that support this - ACTRA and CRIA - are American puppets anyway.

And how is it that we keep coming back to this?  How is it that conservative governments in this country continually introduce - and ram through with some success - such unpopular pieces of legislation?  Think back to Free Trade, the GST,  Meech Lake…the list goes on…until we get to the current capstone of this rotting pile of faeces wesee labelled as copyright “reform”?

Seriously, the Liberal Sponsorship Scandal was a big deal, but when you stack that up against the towering pile of shit that has been forced upon us by our Conservative governments … the mind just boggles.

To Mr. Prentice: Any government that passes legislation that changes the status quo so starkly and revokes hard-won rights is going to be fought. I can bloody well guarantee you whose campaign I won’t be volunteering for and donating to at the next go-round. Serve your people, serve their interests, and don’t turn millions of us into instant criminals simply because we own iPods and like to take music with us.  You, sir, are - in my opinion - no better than a weasel.

Makes you wonder what ol’ Jim will be doing for a living when he’s through with politics…nice cushy job with CRIA, perhaps?  And let’s not forget his partner in crime, Heritage Minister Josée Verner, who is every bit as guilty in this.

Anyone concerned with this further erosion of rights should visit the nerve-center of opposition to this: Michael Geist.