I have been working intermittantly on Chapter fourteen of Bunnies of Love, I have eight pages done so far and I hope to have it complete late tonight or by the middle of monday.  That means I will be splitting my attention between the Cowboys game and writing from noon until about three fifteen or so when the game should wrap up.  Also I should have a couple of posts going up in the late afternoon, one on the situation in Burma and another dealing with the political situation in Japan, and possibly one more piece about the upcoming inter-Korean summit.  Beyond that maybe a fresh from the front, but that will probably wait till monday night given, we shall see.  So now back to work on that chapter, since I can't really weasel out of it now.

     Oh if you are wondering what the heck I am talking about in the first half of the paragraph above I should reiterate that I write fan fiction. (how otaku is that?) Not too surprisingly I post under the name Raging Tachikoma at Fan Fiction.net.  Bunnies of Love is my only story thus far but I will probably be throwing the first part of a FMA story up later this week or early next.

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     Just as the above implies, various and sundry dirty and not so dirty Bleach pictures, and something new for one of these posts..

As for the dirtiness, it is just below the fold as always, and after all a surprise of sorts awaits.  So just click 'more' already.

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From the Japan Times: The rise of the middle-ranking powers.

     The security environment since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States has clearly demonstrated the limits of the United Nations, or even the U.S. as the world's sole military superpower, to maintain international security. However, like-minded mid-level powers with similar intentions could complement what the U.N. or the U.S. lacks, effectively generating sufficient clout to stabilize the global security environment.   

     Japan, Australia, Germany and Canada might be just such powers. They share common values as free and democratic countries. Moreover, they are nonnuclear powers with no permanent seats in the U.N. Security Council. All are longtime allies of the U.S. In fact, over recent years these countries have already had many opportunities to demonstrate their ability and willingness to contribute to international security if called for. They all also share a recognition that global stability directly serves their own national interests.

     Nevertheless, subtle differences among these countries may influence their bilateral cooperation or coordination with the U.N. or the U.S. As a result, they must complement each other's advantages, characteristics and interests in order to optimize their role in promoting international security.

     While the proposal put forward here is an interesting one it has one major failing, it ignores the fact that such coalitions fail to work as desired due to  each nation putting its needs ahead of those of their partners.   It is most assuredly better to work with allies rather than going it alone, but any nation that wishes to have a real affect on the world must also be prepared to act alone when need be.  The time for loose multilateral organzations like the UN are past, they are remants of the last century, dinosaurs that somehow survived into the age of mamals.  The only effective alliances are those based upon deeply held and shared convictions and codified by clear and concise treaties and agreements.  The UN is a dsicredited organization in the eyes of nearly every American, yet in many places it is still seen as the great panecea where the worlds problems can be solved through talking.  Ignoring the fact that the UN is more often than not a key contributor to the problems it is called upon to fix.  And when they do try to fix them they quickly descend into a fiasco of immoral behavior and a vertiable financial black hole.

     Multilateralism has a place in the world, but not in the formalised, corrupt framework that the United Nations represents.  The way of the future is coalitions of the willing, bypassing the staid and bloated beuracracy of transnational organizations for the expediency of actually getting the job done in a timely and effective manner.

     The author also ignores that while Australia, Canada and Japan have indded been stalwart allies to the US the reliabillity of Germany to the same alliance is questionable.  For a nation of her size, wealth and military potential Germany has deployed a tiny force in Afghanistan and has largely held them out of combat for fear of the public reaction to causalties at home.  Austarlia with its small population has managed to send forces to both Afghanistan and Iraq and to carry out smaller missions in and around the south-west Pacific region.  Why then can Germany not supply another 6 or 8,000 troops to the NATO force in Afghanistan?  Because they have decided that they don't want to take any risks so they focus instead on intergrating into the EU's ERRF while leaving the NATO nations doing the heavy lifting in Afghanistan dangling in the wind.  Alliances only work if the allies are willing to carry their share of the load. 

     The concept is a good one, it just misses the point, the middle rank powers can have a greater effect on the international scene if they join together to work outside of the failed trans-national structure, and that they keep the interests of their own nations in proper perspecctive to the inerests and goals of the alliance.  When that happens this could work, but I remain sceptical.

See my concept for a loophole free and effective alliance for the Pacific rim and Indian ocean here

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From First Multi-National Force Iraq and Defend America:

Rashid citizens march in support of security volunteers.

Explosives removed from streets of Jamia.

Defenders conduct first-ever cooperative medical engagement.

Fallujah Citizens Honored for Volunteer Work.

Marines Help Djiboutian Villagers.

Airfield Recycling Project Creates Jobs for Afghans.

828 Iraqi Police recruits graduate training.

Putting Iraqis out front: U.S. Soldiers aid Iraqi Police with missions.

Diyala Governor: Attack “will not weaken good people."

Operation Blore Heath III

Basrah Regional Courthouse Project Reaches Halfway Mark.

Troops Learn to Factor Helicopters into Battle Rhythm.

Operational Security is everyones responsibility!

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     The sad fact is that repressive regeimes repress their citizens.  While I had followed the events in Burma with the quiet hope that perhaps their could be an Asian velvet revolution that is obviously not to be.  The Chinese backed Regeime in Burma has obviously taken to heart the methods its master in Beijing prefers in dealing with peaceful dissent.  The world at large has expressed outrage, and rightly so.  What needs to happen next is that the civilised nations of the world need to take real, meaningful actions to punish the Burmese government.  Sanctions against Burma are all well and good but to be truly effective they should be aimed at the country that keeps the military Juanta in power, China.  Only China has the clout to force Burma to change it behavior, and by making China hurt they will put the screws to Burma and put a stop to the violence.

From Fox News: Myanmar Security Forces Open Fire on Protesters, Killing 9.

     YANGON, Myanmar  —  Security forces fired automatic weapons into thousands of pro-democracy protesters for a second day Thursday, and the military government said nine people were killed and 11 wounded.

     Tens of thousands defied the ruling military junta's crackdown with a 10th straight day of demonstrations. Security forces also raided several monasteries overnight, beating monks and arresting more than 100, according to a monk at one monastery.

      The protests were the stiffest challenge to the generals in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike and has drawn increasing international pressure on the isolated regime.

     Rather more uplifting is proof that the people of Burma are not going to simply sit idly by while these events unfold.  The mass media may yet be the undoing of the brutal and illegitimate regieme in Burma.

From the China Post: Internet, mobile phones aid Myanmar pro-democracy activists spread news.

     OSLO, Norway -- Cell phones and the Internet are playing a crucial role in telling the world about Myanmar's pro-democracy protests, with video footage sometimes transmitted one frame at a time. Reporters Without Borders said the junta has cut some cell phone service.

     On the other side of the world in Oslo, a shoestring radio and television network called the Democratic Voice of Burma has been at the forefront of receiving and broadcasting such cyber dispatches by satellite TV and shortwave radio.

     Chief editor Aye Chan Naing said the station, founded in 1992 by exiled Myanmar students, is able to pass on nearly real-time images and information about anti-government protests - unlike in 1988, when a similar uprising was shut down in a bloodbath that left more than 3,000 dead.

     On Wednesday, the military opened fire after a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations by tens of thousands led by Buddhist monks, and the government confirmed at least one demonstrator killed and three wounded. Activists reported the death toll was five.

     This time, the world has been watching through television and still images smuggled out of Myanmar over the Internet - sometimes, Naing said, one frame at a time. Dramatic images arrive via e-mails to exiled activists and via mobile phone calls to journalists outside the country, also known as Burma. Hundreds of images are simply posted on the Internet for anyone to see.

     Those inside Myanmar receive information about the protests on shortwave radio broadcasts.

    "This time, compared to 1988, there are lots of new technologies to get the news out of Burma ... People are able to take pictures, videos to evidence what is going on. It is quite amazing for Burma, which is a very poor country," said Vincent Brossel, director of the Asia desk for Reporters Without Borders. "Technology is the most useful weapon you can use in such types of pacifist struggles."

     Aung Zaw, editor of the independent Irrawaddy Magazine in Thailand, said that in 1988, "it took days, sometimes weeks, even months" to get images out. "Now, it's so fast."

All Photos Copyright Associated Press, 2007.

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Fro the Yomiuri Shimbun: Fukuda urges DPJ to discuss MSDF mission.

     Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called on the Democratic Party of Japan to enter discussions on the extension of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, likely by compiling another law to extend the operation.

     "To make a new law is one way. I think the overall direction is rather going that way," Fukuda said during a press conference held after the formation of his new Cabinet. "If so, we may explain it before [the submission of a bill for the new law] to the opposition parties to win their understanding, or we can discuss it in the Diet."

     The LDP's comittment to continuing Japan's support and Participation in the Global War on Terror is comendable, but the stubborness of the DPJ remains a stumbling block.  I hope that the instalationof Fukuda as PM can break negotiations loose between the two parties.  But if the DPJ refuses to play a part in reaching a compromise solution it is likely then that Fukuda will simply use his control of the lower house of the Diet to ra through a bill over the objections of the upper house.  He has the politiacl capital to due so that Abe had lost when this issue first reared its head last month.

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     When taking office any leader hopes fora honey moon period that will give him the time and political capital to acomplish some of their key aims, and in so doing generate more public support and momentum to keep pushing their agenda forward.  Just how long the honey moony will last for the new Japanese prime minister Fukuda is hard to say.  He may recieve the benefit6 pf the doubt and get several months.  Or the public could keep him on a short leash and it might last a week or two.  As of right now the indicators seem to be pointing toward a short honey moon for Fukuda.

From the Yomiuri Shimbun: Fukuda Cabinet approval rating at 58%

      Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's newly formed Cabinet recorded an approval rating of 57.5 percent, according to a nationwide Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

      The telephone poll of 1,557 eligible voters, conducted Tuesday night through Wednesday, showed 27.3 percent of 926 people giving valid responses disapproved of the Cabinet.

       Among those saying they approved of the Cabinet, most said they did so because they felt it had a "sense of stability."

       The approval rating for the Fukuda Cabinet is the fourth highest recorded in a poll taken immediately after a cabinet has been formed, following the 87.1 percent recorded for Junichiro Koizumi, 71.9 percent for Morihiro Hosokawa and 70.3 percent for Shinzo Abe. Similar surveys have been conducted since the Cabinet of Masayoshi Ohira took office in December 1978.

     While the poll numbers are promising they must be considered in the light that the recently departed abe started with even higher approval ratings that soon came crashing down to earth.  With this sort of thing one just has to watch and wait.

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From the Yomuiri Shimbun: NHK business plan rejected.

     The committee overseeing NHK decided Tuesday not to approve the public broadcaster's business plan, which includes a proposal to cut the viewing fee by between 50 yen and 100 yen, effectively demanding a bigger cut, committee members said.

     The NHK Management Committee asked the national broadcaster's executive to revise the business plan, saying it does not contain measures to ensure a fair share of costs among the public that will promote the maintenance of the public broadcasting system, they said.

     The committee, led by Fujifilm Holdings Corp. President Shigetaka Komori, asked the management to resubmit a revised plan by September 2008. It is unusual for the committee to reject the business plan.

     By refusing to approve the plan, the committee effectively demanded that NHK offer a greater reduction in the viewing fee. While NHK originally planned to start lowering the fee from October 2008, the fee reduction will be postponed to in or after April 2009, due to the committee's decision.

     While I applaud the committe's efforts to drive down the public subsidy that NHK recieves  the real question is why do entities like the NHK and BBC continue to live off of the public's teat when they are now all fighting with successful privately funded competitors.  The original idea for public funding was to ensure equitable access to the airwaves for all citizens, rather than private companies focusing on highly profitable markets, and ignoring rural and small town customers.  The fact that can, and do act as propaganda tools for their parent governments was certainly not lost on their creators.  In the age of video on demand, live streams, DVDs and staellite sytems with 300+ channels the days of the publicly funded, state owned broadcasters should be over, yet they continue to cling to life in places as far apart and dissimilar as Britain and Japan.  The strongest argument against such fees is the fact that since they are no longer the sole content provider why sould people pay for content that they may or may not view.  Thankfully the US avoided such siliness and has always had ad revenue supported radio and television.  I know that the NHK has turned out some fine programs, including the Planetes anime, which is excellent.  But it can not realisticly maintain that it requires public dollars to survive when none of its competitors need public largesse to produce programming of equal quality.

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     A personal peeve of mine has been for a number of years the term "Emergency Management."  What is it I dislike about this term?  I dislike it for the passive-re-active nature of it and the mindset that it breeds.  In some ways the poor response to hurcane Katrina in New Orleans was due to the mindset that the job of officials was to re-act to a major emergency, rather than taking procative steps to amielorate the damage done by taking proper precautions before hand.  I would like to see "Emergency Management" replaced by the term it has largely superceded, Civil Defense.  The Intelectual concept behind Civil Defense is that one must have and maintain the capability to re-act to emergencies the best protection and response is to be prepared ahead of time and to take steps that limit the damage and suffering that a major emergency can cause.  If one takes the problems at the Superdome as an example the technology (extremely low tech at that) and capability to prevent many of the problems has long exsisted as a response to the needs of the cold war.  In the '60s and 70's the federal government located and stocked public fallout shelters across the US.  The basic needs that had to be met were the same and simple, robust and inexpense solutions were found and deployed before they would be needed.  If the superdome had been so stocked many of the issues relating to basic first aid, clean water, sanitation and food would have been avoideed.  Certainly the ration for fallout shelters was the absolute bare minimum but with modern technology a much better and fully balanced diet could have been prepositioned and ready to feed those in need.

     Why then were these measures not taken in New Orleans?  Govermental incompetence at the city, parish and state level certainly played a large part.  But what is left unsaid is that "Emergency Managers" are trained to think only of how they will react to a situation and little to no thought is given to preventing it in the first place.  Furthermore the concept of "Emergency Management" seperates those in governemnt charged with responding to disasters and emergencies from the skills and abilities of the public at large.  The backbone of Civil Defense in the US during the cold war was the participation of civilian volunteers from all walks of life in dozens of capacities to reinforce first responders in time of need. Even with proper planning the New Orleans police force would have been well served by a few hundred civilian auxillaries called up before the storm to provide additional manpower in the aftermath.  In the end the mindset of people has a real affect on how they do their jobs, and what those jobs are called has a direct and major bearing on that mindset.

For a good overview of US Civil Defence go to the  Cold War Civil Defense Museum.

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     The funniest Manga I have ever read, and likely ever will read is hands down Kyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba&!  Following the adventures of a green haired little girl it is full of funny, genuine and warm humor.  Combined with Azuma's always fantastic art and an uncanny ability to climb into the head of a Kindergarten-First grade aged kid makes for humor that is fit for anyone young or old.  This book is a great way to introduce some one who is unfamiliar with manga to the medium.

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Both Storeis from the Korea Times:

NK Denounces US for Defending Israel Against Syria.

     North Korea on Monday denounced Washington and U.S. media for siding with Israel after its air strike on Syria, but kept silent on suspicions raised by the New York Times and other American media about possible trade of nuclear materials between the North and Syria, Yonhap News reported.

     "Israeli warplanes' intrusion into the territorial airspace of Syria and subsequent bomb-dropping are an outright and violent violation of Syria's sovereignty. The Israeli acts are also a grave crime that destroys regional peace and security," Yonhap quoted the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North's Workers' Party, as saying in an article.

Rice Calls on NK to Make Nuke Issue Transparent.

     U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sunday called on North Korea to make transparent fully its nuclear weapons program amid reports it was secretly assisting Syria to develop an atomic weapons facilities, the AFP reported in New York.

     Heh, I wonder if the Israeli's blew up a few of Kim's technical advisors to whatever the Syrians and by extension the Iranians were up to.  No real in depth analisys tonight, I am too tired.  One more post and then I am off to bed.

Feeling Tired, and Sleepy.

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     It sucks, well actually it sucks spending all day sitting around getting nothing done and not ending up on a jury.  Fortunately I don't have to go back tomorrow, but I probably will have to go in on wednesday.  I don't mind performing my civic duty, but the lawyers could try and move things along just a little bit more quickly.    I mean really, I was in the first pool called and it was the last to leave. I know that the process is important but it isn't rocket science either.

  Feeling tired and a bit frustrated, excuse me while I go get me a stiff drink.

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     One of our four dogs, and two Labs, Jasmine doing what she does best, converting oxygen into carbon dioxide.  I speak for all dog owners here when I say that I can't help but to be jealous of them at times.  They certainly seem to have come out on the better end of this whole domestication thing.  The live longer, sleep more, work less and are lavished with attention whenever they want it.  Yeah I could handle being a dog, except for maybe that whole butt sniffing thing they have going on.

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     I know that I hardly seem the type, but I too have a softer side, okay I'll be honest, I have a less abrasive side.   A good story that revolves around people and their feelings for each other is one of the hardest things to write consistently well from volume to volume, or even from chapter to chapter.  There is only so much ground that you can cover and it has all been well covered by everybody and their third cousin twice removed since time immemorial.  Hell, the very first novel, the Tale of Genji was a romance story.  Affairs of the human heart are something that we love to read about because it is something that we all have first hand knowledge and experience with in some way or another.

     For good old no strings attached romance three series stand out for me, Pastel, Gacha-Gacha (Capsule, not New Revolution) and Suzuka.  Of the three Suzuka is by far the best, with its multifaceted charcters and wonderful art.  Pastel takes the classic guy living with the girl of his dreams story and runs with it, but rather than being boring the characters are sympathetic enough to draw you into their world, and when ever things get too heavy a bit of humor helps bring things back to a normal level.  My only complaint about Pastel is the rather spineless nature of the protaganist, but still it is well worth checking out.  Gacha-Gacha is, as I am aware, is vey much a hate it or love it series.  I like it for a couple of reasons, one it treats a serious condition in a way that is more than just an excuse for cheap laughs, not a lot of authors would be able to treat a main character with multiple personality disorder with the kind of respect that Hiroyuki Tamakoshi manages.  I was able to empathize with the people portrayed in this series.  The other thing I like about this one is that it is short and sweet, while I love a big ongoing masterpiece as much as anyone sometimes it is nice to have a story that you can breeze through in an afternoon.  Romance, with a dash of humor these three fit the bill very nicely, maybe I am not so hopeless after all.  I mean none of these are overflowing with pointy chins or angst.

Pastel: 7 Volumes out now from Del Ray, Vol. 8 drops on tuesday.            

Gacha-Gacha (Capsule): All Five volumes out now from Del Ray

Suzuka: Five Volumes out now, again from Del Ray. 

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     There is one thing that anime and manga companies love about Otaku.  Not that they are reliable consumers of their product, that is a given, no it is the fact that if you include some sort of fairly inexpensive to make trinket and call it a special edition they are all over it.  I am guilty of this just like so many others.  It has an art box that holds all the discs?  Who cares that is five or ten dollars more. forgetting in that moment that the vox probably cost them all of thirty or forty cents to make.  Now that is not always the case of course, the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex SE's gave you alotfor your money, and ditto the SE's of Haruhi Suzumiya, FULLMETAL Alchemist and Eureka Seven.  It doesn't bother me though, I gave in and accepted it a long time ago.  I am looking forward to the first Bleach DVD box set, and yes I will be getting the special edition with the chain snatch wallet, just like I will be getting the Naruto Shadow Box that comes with the manga volumes 25,26 and 27.  Sometimes it is better to not fight these things and just roll with them.  Pictures of one of those aforementioned trinkets, the mini figure of the Major that came with the GitS SAC 2^nd Gig SE volume seven along with a soundtrack and a tin to hold all the DVD's.

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     As I noted here, my feelings about the upcoming meeting between President Roh and The Dear Leader are unchanged.  The best outcome for this summit is that things remain as they are.  At worst Roh screws up momumentally and gives the staggering regieme in the North a new lease on life.  Roh's continual attemps at opening up the hermit kingdom have been a series of failures that have only given a mesure of undeserved legitimacy to the last of the Stalinist regiemes.  Yet the preparations for the summit go forward despite political turmoil at home and rapidly fading support from the public.

From the Chosun Ilbo: Taking the Roh Moo-hyun Show to Pyongyang

By Kim Dae-joong,

      An old saying has it that you can only do well and exercise your power abroad if all is calm and peaceful at home -- a lesson that a person from a noisy and dysfunctional home can’t accomplish much in society. The same applies to a country. If the leadership puts the country into turmoil with corruption and fosters a society whose members feud and clash, it cannot expect to be treated well abroad, nor can they acquit themselves well. It's impossible for such a country to conduct proper diplomacy.

      Many people watching President Roh Moo-hyun go to Pyongyang early in October will feel that way. A president with less than three months left in his tenure whose closest aides are being grilled by the authorities about corruption scandals; a politically sterile president devoid of a ruling party to lead, whose de-facto party is torn asunder: seeing such a president make a grand entrance in Pyongyang is rather pitiful.

      How will he sit down face-to-face with a self-confident man used to absolute rule? Will he have the nerve to say what he should, and reject what he should, with dignity as the representative of South Korea? Will he be able to act as a bulwark for the South's security and peace, its leader in reality as well as in name? The public is uneasy about that.

      Unfortunately, he keeps betraying public expectations. He ridiculed public hopes that the first point on the agenda of the inter-Korean summit should be the complete dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear facilities and weapons because that was like “provoking a quarrel.” That is incoherent babble from a person responsible for the security of the country.

      Sadly it appears that President Roh is posessed of the same need for peace at any cost that animated the other apeasers of history like Chamblin and Daldier.  His own words make it clear enough that he is far to willing to give up the farm for "peace" with a nation whose stated national policy is the destruction of the nation he leads.

From the Korea Herald: Glimpse into inter-Korean summit

      With only 10 days left before the second inter-Korean summit Oct. 2-4, a rough picture of President Roh Moo-hyun's schedule for his visit to the North is taking shape.

     The president's schedule, which has always been highly confidential, is expected to be announced at the last moment. Roh's possible activities during the inter-Korean summit include watching the North's ultra-nationalistic Arirang Festival and visiting the Gaesong complex to encourage workers.

     Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said yesterday that Roh watching the Arirang performance together with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could be a "message for peace to the world."

     Peace huh?  Just how is a nationalistic, jingo-istic anti-South Korean and anti-American display of total subversion to an oppresive regieme that starves its citizens while it spends what little it does have on A-bombs and luxuries for the elite.  Sadly delusion and stupidity aren't checked at the door when one gains high political office.  I would like to see this summit canceled in the wake of the revelations of what is going on in Syria, but that isn't likely to happen.  All anyone can do now is hope that some one on his team will keep President Roh's head screwed on straight and keep him from treading on his three peice set with the old golf spikes.

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     South Korea is in an unenviable situation at the moment, just when it seemed that relations with the North were improving every so slightly, word comes that the Nork's are bussy shipping their suppousedly dismantled nuke program to Syria.  What could be worse than this on the eve of the second Korean summit beteween the leaders of the North and South?  The South Korean Forgein minister making a fool of himself.

From the Korea Times:

     South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon on Monday dismissed recent reports of alleged nuclear
cooperation between North Korea and Syria, saying no one has any concrete evidence to prove the allegation.

     Song also pointed to conflicting reports on the level of cooperation between the countries.

     "If Syria received nuclear materials from North Korea, it must have a facility to store the nuclear material, but as far as I know, Syria does not have any nuclear (storage) facility," Song told reporters.

Foreign Minister Song Dismisses Reports on Alleged NK-Syria.

     I feel the need to remind the South Korean government of Mark Twain's sage advice. "Better not to speak and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

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     Taiwan is in a bizarre situation, one that should never have happened.  While I believe that preisdent Nixon was right in opening relations with the PRC, president Carter screwed the pooch by withdrawing US recognition of Taiwan for that of the PRC.  The PRC should have been made to live with a two China policy wether they liked it or not.  As far as I am concerned Taiwan, was and is a free, independent and sovergein nation state.  The UN, for what little it is worth does offer a certain level of defacto legitimacy to it members.  The general assembly, and the US and Japan in particular should be ashamed for not doing more to facilitate Taiwan's retun to the UN.

From the China Post on Taiwan's latest UN bid.

     Taiwan's long march to re-join the United Nations has been most arduous, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. On Wednesday, the United Nations spurned Taiwan's application for membership for the 15th time in as many years. The General Committee of the U.N. General Assembly deliberated behind closed doors on whether to put the application on the agenda of the 62nd General Assembly, which opened Tuesday. The decision against the application was made by "consensus," according to the Associated Press.

Ful Story: Long March to the United Nations

From a rather interesting letter to the Taipei Times.

     What is the "status quo" in East Asia anyway? New democracies in Taiwan and South Korea, a Japan slowly normalizing in terms of foreign relations and defense, a North Korean basketcase fiddling with nuclear bombs and kidnapping foreign nationals, and a China that is growing economically and militarily in a rapid, unpredictable, and opaque fashion.

     The "status quo" is what anybody makes of it at any given time. It is hardly the basis for a foreign policy of a superpower with vital interests in the region.

     US reservations about what is happening here are certainly understandable, as is its need for Chinese help in protecting Japan and South Korea from the regime in Pyongyang, but the US will find that it has been outmaneuvered by the "status quo" if it cannot come up with a more creative foreign policy than one that simply appeases Beijing.

     Taiwanese political and economic development will be stunted and erratic so long as such fundamental questions regarding the sovereignty are kept "undecided" by the powers that have set themselves in judgement over Taiwan.

Read it all in the whole letter here. 

     From my position it seems simple enough that the US has a ready made excuse for serving relations with the PRC.  Namely that the government of the PRC, never having recieved the just consent of the governed is, as a result illegitimate.  Constrated with the freeely elected Goverment across the straits of Taiwan.  If only someone with the power to do so would speek the truth and do the right thing.  For the US to remain a credible supporter and creator of democratic nations it must stop giving recognition and assistance to non democratic regiemes.

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     The Israeli raid of September 6^th wasn't a smash and dash but a grab and go raid, as I noted here.  It is nice to be ahead of the curve occansionaly, and the independent confirmation is just, well not reassuring, but useful.

From the Sunday Times via Fox News

     Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to Sunday Times report citing informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

     The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.

Report: Israeli Forces Seized Nuclear Material During Syrian Raid.

    The US had no veto over this raid, we were informed as a courtesy from one ally to another.  Still though, just what was it that they seized?  We aren't likely to find out any time soon, so let the speculation begin.

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Musuko no Koibito

     Two Midori Days Doujins for your pleasure, be warned though doujin #1 contains tiny girl sex, while #2 is pretty much normal.  Both translated into english and both are pretty funny.  These are zipped file so decompression should be easy, but as always if you need file management software I shall once more pimp for 7 Zip.  Oh and the image for Musuko no Koibito is just about the only work safe page, even the cover was a no go for above the fold, check it out below the fold if you want to see what I mean.

Takako na Hibi

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