Tuesday 20 June 2017

This Otto Warmbier Story

I've sat for several days looking over this story of the American kid who finally got removed from North Korea, and passed away in the US in the past twenty-four hours.  There are a lot of mysterious things over the Warmbier story, but the top one that interests me....is how he got to the point of being in a vegetative state.

My guess?  I think toward the conclusion of the court case.....they began to dope him up.  Guard A would be given some instructions, and in some shift change....give out a dope-dose.  Guard B would come on and get the same instructions.  Guard C would get the same instructions. At some point, Warmbier is permanently in a coma.  The guards can truthfully say they followed the precise instruction they were given, and the idiots above them will realize that they'd killed Warmbier without any intention. The sad fact is that they probably do this several hundred times each month to other prisoners and no one ever says anything about what was done.

My observation on traveling to North Korea?  Why not just select downtown Detroit for a week, and go on nightly tours of the no-go areas of Detroit?  Why not select the gang zones of Atlanta?  There's just no reason to go into North Korea.

Sunday 18 June 2017

The Levy Email

This past week, I got this personalized email from a big-wig (Cliff Levy) from the New York Times.  Basically, it was a personalized appeal that I needed to support and read the Times because only they had brilliant journalists.  The hint also....was that bloggers simply didn't have the sources for the news.....like the anonymous source folks.....to help give you a four-star story.

It took me about sixty seconds to assess that it was a rather weak and marginalized attempt to get me to subscribe with a newspaper known greatly for it's biased reporting and comical analysis.

The best quote from the email?  "Real reporting is vital in a media landscape full of deceptive or outright false news. And we can do it because we have the support of our subscribers".

Maybe a decade ago, I would have easily bought off on quotes or news from the Washington Post or New York Times.  In the past decade.....I've gone to a different plateau and ask a lot more questions.  Just say some news comes from the Times or Post.....doesn't mean anything to me.  I get this almost nightly now from public TV here in Germany, and find the handcuffed method of convincing me of things to be questionable.

How many people will buy off on this email from Cliff Levy?  My humble guess is less than a hundred people will subscribe.  I would even make the assessment that the Times has reached a point of desperation where it really needs another twenty-thousand subscribers.

Friday 16 June 2017

Resolution Ten Crowd

While I was off on a short trip this week.....the fine folks at the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution referred to as "#10".....condemning the Alt-Right crowd/all forms of racism.....in accordance with the gospel.

Yeah, it's actually written into Mathew, Mark and Ezra.  Even Moses hyped up the issues of being Alt-Right and a member of the GOP.  Jesus wept at some point and noted that Alt-Right was a terrible thing....it's all in the scriptures....you just need to read between the lines.

Well......no, it's not there.

Some SBC dimwits made up some hype and went off to say that the Gospel was interpreted to mean this and Alt-Right was something that ministers need to talk negative about.

In a way, the move helps to lessen the appeal of the Southern Baptists and focus some members on the comical behavior of the organization.  It's pretty simple to just say adios and let go of the politicized organization.

The odds that Minister Bob or Deacon Joe will come to visit you after you stop showing up?  You can just bring up resolution ten, and that you think Jesus was actually an original part of the Alt-Right trend.  Minister Bob or Deacon Joe will stand there with some deer-in-the-headlight look, and realize their gimmick to paradise just isn't going to sell well.

In a way, the SBC folks are helping to dissolve the whole organization, with a long-term plan of non-existence.

London Fire

I sat this week and observed the news-feed over the London fire.  A number of things bothered me about this episode.

This was a building with roughly four apartments on each floor....one single elevator, and one single stairway.  In a fire situation, it was a no-win situation.  If you were above the fifth floor, your odds of getting out were severely limited.  If you were above the 15th floor....it's just about impossible odds of getting out.

This material added in the renovation phase from a couple of years ago?  It's been a big sales item in Germany, and I noted last year in Frankfurt.....they had a building which went quickly from a minor one-apartment fire to a massive fire.....same type material.  Luckily, this was a three-story building....not a multi-floor building.  My guess is that in roughly four months.....some PhD guy will come out and prove this renovation material is a major threat, and trigger a massive removal-type situation across Europe.  Billions will be spent to remove it from the exterior of buildings.

Then I come to this personal feeling....that you need some type of rope-harness deal in your apartment and a repel-type device that you could just hook onto a doorway and break a window and slide down.  It doesn't require rocket-science.  Some engineer ought to be able to fashion something that cost less than a hundred bucks and guaranteed to dump you 300 feet to the ground....safely.