Love-struck little man acting out...

...but Obama still won't take his calls. From Itai News, Japan:

"North Korean rhetoric has reached a new crescendo of violence, with their latest threats being to wipe out a third of Japan’s population in a stroke if Japan “attacks” the wretched slave nation:

“If Japan wages another war of conquest, their whole land will be subject to our retaliatory strike! Japan’s major cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kyoto are home to over a third of Japan’s population, and house most of its industry.

Should we launch our powerful counterattack, Japan will become a scene of carnage!”
The remarks were published in the “Rodong Sinmun”, or Newspaper of the Workers, which is generally taken to be an official mouthpiece of North Korea’s government, and are thought to be in response to strands of the LDP which would like to see Japan possess the ability to deal with threats to its security before they crystallise into actual aggressive action.

These calls have themselves been provoked chiefly by North Korea repeatedly menacing Japan with its growing missile arsenal.

2ch is less than impressed:
“It’s a declaration of war!”
“Lucky I live in Gifu. Phew…”
“This little yakuza country is cooking up fights with all kinds of countries. Doesn’t it understand its own position yet?”
“Even if it lost a third of its population, Japan is still vastly stronger, right?”
“With a Hiroshima type blast in Tokyo, most government would cease.”
“Even so, the SDF and American armies would be unaffected. They could still crush North Korea on their own…”
“Why don’t we ask the Zainichi Koreans about this? If you keep sending them remittances and support their games, all you get back is a missile strike. It is splendid to be willing to die for the great general, is it not?”
“Why don’t they try ‘reducing Seoul to a sea of fire’ first?”
“So the Zainichi are no good as hostages then? What a pity their motherland has abandoned them so…”
“Try shooting one into Akihabara, the world’s otaku will turn on you!”
“Talk is cheap. Why don’t you try firing them?”
“Even if Japan becomes a scene of carnage, it can be rebuilt. But North Korea will be wiped from the face of the earth.”
“It would take them days to fuel that many missiles. In the mean time, North Korea would be reduced to ashes.”
“Finally we’ll be able to build Neo-Tokyo…”
“Weak dogs howl the loudest, don’t they? But we’re running out of patience. Anymore idle chatter and they should be annihilated. Hurry up and change the Constitution already…”
“This is great. Soon public opinion will favour Japan having nuclear weapons…”
“What’s up with this crazy country, it sounds like 2ch…”

Bellicose threats from North Korea have been one of the major arguments used in favour of eliminating Article Nine of Japan’s US imposed Constitution, which heavily restricts Japan’s ability to defend itself. North Korea seem to be their own worst enemy in most respects…

HT: Sankaku Complex

Rule 5 and a Half!

Doña Rheumy arrives home to find her husband Don Cobwebs in a passionate embrace with the maid.

"Cobwebs!"
"We're caught!"
"Aah!"
"You can't get it up!"
"Not once... but the second time...!

Rule 5 Saturday!

Michael Steele's Bad Business Model

Work long enough in the modern job market, and sooner or later you're likely to wind up working for a company that fails. But I've encountered multiple companies that followed a business model whose appeal I have to admit escapes me.

My first such experience was a company that had decided to branch out from running a cell phone franchise to publishing comics and making low-budget films. But they had an original vision of how to do business: they offered a bit less in product than their competitors and charged a bit more for them.

Their idea was, there were people who simply had to have what they were selling but who would not do the legwork to find the best merchandise available at the best price, and that there were enough of these lazy customers careless with their money to make a living off.

Their last project, these respectable married businessman, was to try to save their venture by making a movie about strippers, because strippers were popular and would appeal to people.

Turned out they were mistaken. There were already a ton of stripper movies on the market, many of them in focus. The demand for what they were offering was long since sated. They never realized it, because they based their ideas of what would be hot on what had already been hot. They started behind the curve and only lost ground from there. And they would not listen to people who tried to tell them differently.

With Charlie Crist, Michael Steele and the RNC are offering us their stripper movie. Look! Crist has name recognition! People like Charlie! If we run him, people will like us too!

Except that Charlie with his pro-stimulus campaigning, cost us more, and the public is already rejecting the big-spending governments they've got. Putting a bag over his head and telling him to shake his tired tassels one more time will not make Charlie Crist or other old-news politicians like him the next big thing.

Progress!

Memorial Day Weekend 3

(With thanks to A.E. Houseman)

Rule 5 Sunday!

Memorial Day Weekend 2