North Korean cosmic cornucopia

Miserable shit!

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for the development of more powerful rockets after last week’s successful launch of a satellite into space.

This ugly prat (with his exclusive coiffure and ill-fitting suits) calls for his  exclusive bunch of scientists to “go to the moon”, as it were,  while he refuses to feed “his” own starving populace, hugely dependent as it remains on foreign aid.

Despicable fat little shit! And, I’m not speaking about the way he looks.

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(This could be) The Last Time*

‘The Last Time’: Rolling Stones (1965).

Have to post this in haste – it’s already almost 21.12.2012 here in Bulgaria!

We all know the end of the world is due some time tomorrow, of course.

So, here’s a parting, nostalgic piece of music from *The Rolling Stones, to comfort you all. (Click on the image above to go to YouTube).

•Rolling Stones ‘The Last Time’ Lyrics

Songwriters: Jagger, Mick / Richards, Keith

Well I told you once and I told you twice

But ya never listen to my advice

You don’t try very hard to please me

With what you know it should be easy

Well this could be the last time

This could be the last time

Maybe the last time

I don’t know. oh no. oh no

Well, I’m sorry girl but I can’t stay

Feelin’ like I do today

It’s too much pain and too much sorrow

Guess I’ll feel the same tomorrow

Well this could be the last time

This could be the last time

Maybe the last time

I don’t know. oh no. oh no

Well I told you once and I told you twice

That someone will have to pay the price

But here’s a chance to change your mind

Cuz I’ll be gone a long, long time

Well this could be the last time

This could be the last time

Maybe the last time

I don’t know. oh no. oh no

Well, this could be the last time

The Last Time lyrics © ABKCO Music Inc., EMI Music Publishing

***********

Чао, ciao, bye-bye!

philinsofia.

Image: YouTube

What’s in a name?

Park Geun-hye, newly elected president of South Korea.

South Korea has voted  in the conservative candidate Park Geun-hye as the country’s new president. The daughter of the country’s late dictator becomes its first female head of state.

1: a female head of state – good!

2: a first for a female in her country – good!

2: whose daughter? – surprise!

3: everyone I ever met from South Korea was called Park – fact!

Il Buffo (meaning: fool, funny; debt)

As smug and arrogant – and idiotic and corrupt – as ever.

What a prospect for Italian voters – and for the rest of Europe! The living undead return…

US torture disclosure dilemma: film versus facts

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, wearing a camouflage vest, sitting in the courtroom in Guantanamo in October. Former Guantanamo chief prosecutor Morris Davis has demanded that testimony be made public. (Graphic: AFP)

You’ve probably noticed I don’t, generally, hold positive opinions about the moral high ground of the USA, in all respects. It’s not to do with American people (several of whom I know, and admire, personally); it is, rather, about the official attitudes those people in power display and their arrogant (supply your own favoured adjective) behaviour.

So, here’s a vexed one! Disclosure, or not? Transparency, or not? The truth (unvarnished), or not?

A report from Spiegel Online International (SOI) gently, but meticulously, unpicks a moral and operational dilemma faced by various US “big suits”. Some, including Obama, come out of it quite well (he’s so frequently accused of not being able to achieve anything during his first term as President). Others – as patronising, inimical individuals who, basically, have no regard for democratic responsibility or respect.

So, I urge you to take a couple of minutes to read a most perceptive article – before you all rush to the cinema to see “Zero Dark Thirty”. And note what Senator McCain (remember him?) has to say!

Two quotes from the SOI article

“There is currently a confluence of events that will focus attention on America’s post-9/11 record of torture: a trial, a congressional report and a movie. Will they end up contributing to a more accurate accounting of what happened over the past decade? Or… ”

“On Dec. 6, 2012, Colonel James Pohl, the judge in the military commission trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM) and four others charged along with him, ruled that anything an accused says in court about his treatment while in US detention is classified information that must be shielded from public disclosure. He upheld the continued use of a 40-second audio delay so such information does not get into the public domain. So much for the transparency part of the Office of Military Commissions motto: “Fairness — Transparency — Justice.”[1] [My emphasis]

Meanwhile, let us not forget that several European governments (including the UK) have been shown to be involved in ‘secret rendition’ and other such miserable – disgusting – activities.

[1]: Spiegel Online International

Image:  Spiegel Online International/AFP

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, wearing a camouflage vest, sitting in the courtroom in Guantanamo in October. Former Guantanamo chief prosecutor Morris Davis has demanded that testimony be made public.