Kim Jong sang of his frustration in "Team America: World Police". Were we not listening?!?

There's no one

Just me onry

Sitting on my rittle throne

I work very hard and make up great prans

But nobody ristens, no one understands

Seems that no one takes me serirousry

And so I'm ronery

A little ronery

Poor rittre me

There's nobody

I can rerate to

Feer rike a bird in a cage

It's kinda sihry

But not rearry

Because it's fihring my body with rage

I work rearry hard and I'm physicarry fit

But nobody here seems to rearize that

When I rure the world maybe they'rr notice me

But untir then I'rr just be ronery

Rittre ronery, poor rittre me

I'm so ronery

I'm so ronery

Dude,

really, that made me laugh. It's God's will that Bush is an idiot and that 10s or 100s of thousands of innocents die for no reason other than his inability to understand anything but his "gut?" I suppose it's God's will that Foley was allowed to prey upon teens for a decade?

The God I know would have turned over the tables on the pharasies and sent them out of town on a rail, which is what needs to happen here. Accountability my friend, what is so difficult about that?

You can hide your head in the nameless sand of nothing with him if you like. See how that works out for ya.

Barnaby

Not to pick nits here stevio, and not to endorse the current regime of either country, but there really is not evidence as yet that an actual nuclear device was set off.

As a better safe than sorry concept, officials are taking Kim at his word, but seismic results so far do at least leave open the possibility for this to be a huge publicity stunt.

One of the real problems with the terror people have of nuclear weapons comes from a complete misunderstanding of how incredibly difficult these weapons are to make.

Although North Korea may have sufficient capital and intellect to devise such a weapon, there are real reasons to doubt their honest intent to create them.

Nuclear weapons are quite frankly a state of the art 1940's technology that was obsolete in 1946. Although certainly scary, they serve all but no actual tactical purpose. The reason only one country has ever used a tactical nuclear weapon has less to do with mutually assured destruction and far more to do with the complete impracticality of destroying a city with an expensive and horrific weapon which renders said city uninhabitable.

While the U.S., Russia, & China had reason to fear each other's "lunatic" leaders in the past, no small country (or large country for that matter) has any real need for nuclear weapons today. Iran & North Korea's quest for these weapons are based more on bargaining chips and less on strategic need or even practical desire for these weapons.

Once one realizes that the quest for nuclear weapons by small countries are primarily a canard one can likewise see how faked tests and bluster about nuclear weapons are just a useful to the small country as the weapon itself.

Iran may theoretically want an actual bomb, but not for terrorist activities. Israel’s open secret nuclear program does worry many, as having a demilitarizing force that no one knows about defeats its purpose and implies that one might actually use it. If Israel would openly admit to having the bomb, and agree to disarm, the entire nuclear stand off in Tehran might be avoided. Tehran may still seek the bomb, but primarily just as a bargaining chip with the west.

For the most part, these small countries want the bomb so they can receive credit when they eventually get rid of them. It’s not impossible to imagine Kim using his countries limited funds on other projects while still implying an active nuclear bomb program, as the eventual results (no bomb and gifts from the west) would be the same as if he did invest heavily in bomb making.

is pointing out that Imelda Rice stated in an interview last year:

"...last year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed the North’s declaration that it had nuclear weapons as a bid for attention. “I do think the North Koreans have been, frankly, a little bit disappointed that people are not jumping up and down and running around with their hair on fire,”.

She told this to The Wall Street Journal.

Whose hair is on fire now Condi? Oh, and by the way, nice shoes.

or is there anyone out there that can honestly say that since Bush grabbed power that they feel safer than they did before that scary grab? I mean does it occur to you, as it does to me, that our "leaders" are paranoiac?

If, in January 2003, you asked 1000 foreign policy experts how best to crush whatever leverage the Western World had on Iran and North Korea, and push- prod- needle- these two countries into the pursuit of nuclear weapons, the President's "Axis of Evil" State of the Union speech would have been roundly congratulated as a powerful first step.

That's just one reason why it's hard not to visualize the classic X-Y axis of a "business graph" when thinking of the Bush/Cheney Administration, and thinking of the line going Down and to the Right, consider that this is the direction the revenues of companies who make their living off of military actions -- Haliburton's KBR, Bechtel, what have you -- should Peace Suddenly Break Out all over the f&*#&)g place.

Not that these guys are keenly aware that they're sacrificing the security of the nation's children for the trust funds of their own children, but that they, and everybody they hang around with, has for decades been spending every waking moment --- and who knows, probably their dreams and machinations as well --- figuring out how to justify being in the business they're in, and doing anything they can to influence foreign policy (like, becoming VP!!) to make that business thrive. There are a million reasons to wrench the dials of power to suit your business interests --- after all, that's precisely what the next bastard who sits in the hallowed halls of power is going to do for his intersts! Isn't it? Hello? Is anybody there? Is anybody here? It sounds so hollow in here... Donna? George? HELLO!?????? WHERE IS EVERYBODY!!!!

Where indeed. Where indeed are the Rod Serlings of the world? Why has there been no Dead-on Fiction to stay irreproachably metaphorical, while hitting the ball of the lunacy that is George W. Bush's foreign policy Out of the Park?

Where have you gone Rod from Twilight Zone? Jesus loves you more than you will know.