October 11, 2006
North Korea, North Korea, North Korea and some local news and whatever
In today's news, 
Canada joins the global chorus in support of sanctions against North Korea as it threatens more nuclear tests. Korea promises to greet sanctions as an act of war. The US says it won't invade and wonders what more the dictatorship wants. The Toronto Korean Senior Citizen's society and Canadians teaching English in North Korea are nervous.
Toronto Police Union head Dave Wilson was re-elected by a narrow margin of 24 votes yesterday. Rival, Mike McCormack, wants a recount.
Stephen LeDrew enters the mayoral race with promises to cancel remaining contracts to complete the St-Clair streetcar right of way, despite not knowing what such a cancellation might cost the city. He nevertheless insists long-term savings would be "considerable."
The requisite daily violence round-up includes revelations of strange twists in the Matthew Daley murder case, a youth sentenced in the death and aggravated assault of a senior who spat racial insults at him, and a double shooting in East York that left one man dead and another with bum injuries.
Toronto gets a smog report card grade of C- and is rumoured to face new competition from Milan in its bid for Expo 2015.
In sports, the Leafs learn that veteran defenceman Kubina is out for a month with a sprained medial collateral ligament.
Cheesy sex comedy Porky's loses it's 25-year Canadian box office record to blow-em-up cop comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop. It remains to be seen whether the Canadian film industry will take the hint about what Canadians really want from a movie.
And following up on earlier deadly threats, that spitting cobra is still on the loose, and if you've contracted botulism from carrot juice, the manufacturer would like you to know it's your fault. Learn to use your fridge, already.
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Hmm Porky's and Good Cop Bad Cop and the Trailer Park Boys didn't do all too badly this weekend either.
Judging from that the Canadian film going public doesn't want to see art house flicks about school bus drownings, or historical dramas about French missionaries.
The ultimate Canadian film (and if any of you telefilm types steal this you'll be hearing from my lawyer) would include randy and attractive high schoolers from both sides of the language divide getting together in the nation's capital a la Encounters with Canada who have to stop an American plot to steal our water. Explosions, bilingualism, possiblities of T n'A. All you need now are "hicks" and lots of drinking and swearing.
yes, north korea has detonated a nuke with the equivalent of what was dropped on Hiroshima (~15 kilotons). devasting, horrible, disgusting for sure.
BUT let us not forget that BOTH the USA and Russia STILL have 10s of thousands of warheads of the MEGAton variety aimed on hair triggers at each other. this is like getting all upset because your nieghbour fianlly got around to buying a pellet gun.
Kim Il Jon(sp?) is most likely friggin' crazy BUT not crazy enough to actually do much with what he's got. he realizes that in the space of an hour either Russia or the USA could turn his country into an ashpile...
also, i forgot, why is it ok for India, Pakistan, Israel, CHina, USA, Russia, and Britain to have nukes??????
Ron, you left out hockey and beer.
Chris, I don't know either, but thanks for venting here.
If getting a nuke is the only way to stop the US from invading, getting a nuke is a pretty smart thing to do. Actually using them on civilians is abhorrent, of course, but the threat of M.A.D. seems to have kept us out of serious trouble so far.
I'm supposed to be moving to Seoul in the new year, but I was there back in the early 90s when there was a lot of sabre rattling and foreigners in the city were scrambling to get on evacuation lists just in case something were to happen. When I was there it was pretty much the consensus opinion (among foreigners and dual-nationalities) that North Korea needed South Korea's infrastructure too much to actually bomb the city.
yeh, Kim ain't gonna do squat. the USA was never serious about invading the North before the nuke. no strategic value, as opposed to Iraq and the Middle East. follow the money and oil ....
Did someone say Encounters with Canada and T&A in the same sentence? Because I don't know about you, but I didn't get enough T&A when I went to Encounters in high school.
That being said, Ron, make that movie. I'd watch that. Might even buy the DVD.
Getting a nuke to prevent the US from invading is a smart thing to do? Perhaps the American presence prevents the North from invading the South. How vulnerable is North Korea with China as their closest ally?
I don`t believe it`s "ok" for anybody to have nukes, but they`re out there, so now what?
DRH - Even China is condemning the tests. If North Korea wanted to invade the South, it would bomb the US military installations too. It's no secret where the bases are, there's even one (Yongsan) in the heart of Seoul. The US also manages to deter invasion of Taiwan with just a few air craft carriers passing by now and then. Japan and Guam are close enough that NATO/UN/US troops could land at Pusan within a few hours of an incursion. And that's if South Korea even needs the help.
Exactly, so the US presence is a good thing, as hard as it is for many people here to accept.
Congratulations on missing my point. The US already has its foot in the region, it doesn't actually need to be in South Korea to help keep the North out. Its Korean bases are well within the bombing reach of the North, and are probably at the top of the list on any hypothetical invasion plan the DPRK may have, so they don't exactly form an impenetrable shield over the Land of the Morning Calm.
Not that it's at all likely the North would ever invade.
Or that the South couldn't kick them back out on their own.
No point was missed. The US presence there has more to do with China than North Korea, since North Korea would not invade without their support.
It is also debatable that South Korea could go it alone.