Category: Random Stuff

Top countries by military spending. Evolution from 1914 – 2018. pic.twitter.com/OlOliJaBtn

— Bobbie☀️ (@bo66ie29) August 24, 2019

Air-raid shelters with WIFI open to public to beat summer heat https://t.co/7KebvkCEzV pic.twitter.com/nr5bavCvRs

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) July 21, 2019

I fail to see what the big deal is about the July 4th celebration involving the U.S. military:

As they strolled along the National Mall Tuesday, visitors to the nation’s capital were just learning about the grandiose July 4th celebration that will showcase Army tanks and military flyovers beyond the usual pageantry.

“Awesome,” California school teacher and U.S. Air Force veteran Walter De Graaf, 57, said as he stood near the Washington Monument. “Let’s show America who we are. Let’s show the world who we are.”

“A little extreme,” David Havens, 67, a salesperson from Sebastian, Florida, said about the military display. “Not so sure about that.”

Trump has yet to deliver his address near the Lincoln Memorial Thursday, but his “Salute to America” already is eliciting strong opinions over whether a president revered by supporters and reviled by opponents was injecting politics in an event above the partisan fray that enjoys national appeal.

USA Today

You can read more at the link, but there is going to be two Abrams tanks and two Bradleys on static display and a fly over by military aircraft which has people all worked up like this has never happened before when it has many times in the past.

The $2.5 million cost that National Park Service reportedly said the event is going to cost has also been widely cited with claims the money would otherwise go to park improvement projects. What the media isn’t saying is that the annual fireworks show in Washington D.C. usually costs the National Park Service $2 million to put on. I have never heard the media tell the NPS to stop the annual fireworks show because it is a waste of money, it is only a waste of money when the President shows up.

That pretty much sums up all the criticism to the event, Trump is involved so it must be bad.

Anyway I hope everyone has a great 4th of July holiday.

Here is an update on the military family that has been trying to adopt their Korean niece in order to give her citizenship in the United States:

That was when the former Army lieutenant colonel and his wife Soo Jin were informed by the Federal District Court of Kansas that their adopted daughter Hyebin will be deported back to South Korea due to U.S. immigration law that cuts off the age when foreign-born adopted children can become naturalized U.S. citizens at 16.
The Kansas court ruled that Hyebin must return to Korea after she finishes earning her chemical engineering degree at the University of Kansas, which she will do in December. Schreiber and his wife are appealing through the 10th District Court of Appeals, though they are not optimistic about their chances of winning.
“We have no delusions that everything’s going to come out like a flowing bed of roses,” Schreiber told the Military Times. “We’ve always planned for two courses of action. So it was never something that we thought, ‘Yeah, things are going to work out the way we wish they would come out.’”
The immigration policy that is forcing Hyebin to leave the U.S. is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A spokeswoman for USCIS told the Military Times via email that “it is USCIS policy not to comment on ongoing litigation, nor will we speak to individual cases due to privacy concerns.”

Army Times

You can read more at the link, but this is a really tough case because LTC Schreiber missed the cut off date because he deployed to Afghanistan. When he came back to do her citizenship he found out it was too late for Hyebin to receive citizenship.

I am a bit surprised she not able to get a work visa sponsored by an employer considering she is about to graduate with a chemical engineering degree.

What is amazing about this is if she was a child of illegal immigrants she would be allowed to stay, but since she is a daughter of American citizens she will likely get deported.

Although he has lived in Japan for 25 years, Pico Iyer doesn’t choose to learn more than a smattering of Japanese because he says needs mystery and “a sense of open space in life, something to offset the sense of the familiar.” https://t.co/0JpPZ4e03m

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) April 23, 2019

Honestly, I despair of politics. Everywhere has gone mad. Or is there still a good country on this earth, where thinking voters elect honest, wise leaders, who debate civilly and rationally, consult widely, seek unity not division, and do sensible things? Is there? Anywhere?

— Aidan Foster-Carter (@fcaidan) April 2, 2019

Is anyone surprised that CNN is trying to sensationalize this nuclear football story to make the claim that President Trump doesn’t care about Puerto Ricans:

He was there to survey the path of destruction left by Hurricane Maria. But when President Donald Trump visited Puerto Rico in October 2017, the island’s dire predicament was hardly the only topic on his mind.
People familiar with the visit said the President was distracted by other matters — including his then-devolving war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — as he toured devastated neighborhoods and took an aerial tour of the damage.
At one point, Trump pointed to the “nuclear football” — a briefcase always in the President’s vicinity that can be used to authorize a nuclear attack — and claimed he could use it on Kim whenever he felt.
“This is what I have for Kim,” he said, according to three people familiar who witnessed the remark.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.
The episode came amid an increasingly acrimonious period that saw Trump boast of the size of his “nuclear button” and threaten to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea. Since then, he and Kim have developed a warm friendship and met for two summits.
But at the time, the casual reference to his nuclear capabilities was another sign of the spiraling rhetoric that marked his early interactions with Kim.
And, to some officials, it was an indication of Trump’s disinterest in the plight of Puerto Ricans, who suffered for months without power and limited resources as their island recovered from the walloping storm.
“There were other topics that were being discussed and my view is that the sole focus of that trip should have been on Puerto Rico,” said Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

CNN

You can read more at the link.

The country where “The Simpsons” cartoon is animated was finally featured in the long running series:

Popular animated sitcom family The Simpsons have been all around the world. They went to Japan where Bart and Homer became fluent in Japanese in prison and they nearly died on a game show, Australia where Bart escaped the country’s supposedly brutal justice system, and Brazil in an episode that had the local tourist board threatening a lawsuit over its depiction as a crime-ridden slum. Now in their 30th season, the Simpsons have finally made it to Korea, the country where they are animated.

In the episode aired March 17 U.S. time, Bart goes to Seoul to participate in an esports tournament. The whole family comes along after Lisa, a practicing Buddhist, expresses interest in visiting Jogye Temple for its salt mandalas. On arrival, they drive past the “Simpsons Animation Studio and Casino” and stay at the “Courtyard by DMZ.”

At Jogye Temple, parents Homer and Marge both achieve “zen” by making salt mandala portraits out of salt and destroying them. Monks, including one voiced by Korean-American actor Ken Jeong, admire Homer’s sudden enlightenment and compare him to a portly Buddhist statue at the temple.

The episode ends with the esports match at Sangam World Cup Stadium broken up by riot police and robots as the theme to “M*A*S*H” plays. 

Like past Simpsons vacation episodes, the story is entertaining if not examined closely. But The Korea Times got David A. Mason, a professor at Sejong University, and history researcher Matt VanVolkenburg to watch the episode. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, if you want to read an overthinking by experts about The Simpsons episode.

Here is a good reminder to any Korean-Americans that immigrated from South Korea as a young man, check with the Korean consulate to make sure you don’t get detained for draft dodging when re-entering the country:

U.S. Army combat veteran Tong Yi flew home on Monday, nearly a month after he was detained in South Korea for allegedly violating strict conscription rules.
Yi, a 40-year-old Ohio restaurant owner who also goes by the name Don, traveled to Seoul last month to attend his father’s funeral.
But airport authorities prevented him from leaving the country on Feb. 6 because he faced a decades-old accusation of draft dodging.
South Korean police detained him for several hours. He was later released from custody but barred from leaving the country until March 2 pending review.
Prosecutors later said he was guilty, but they decided not to pursue the case, according to Yi.
Yi, who was born in Seoul but emigrated with his family at age 9, said he’s not angry about the experience.
“I don’t think anyone meant me harm, and I believe they have these laws in place for a reason,” he told Stars and Stripes in a text message Monday from the gate while waiting for his flight.
He said all the officials he met were “sympathetic to my situation and were very professional.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Are there any ROK Heads living in Korea excited about this news?:

The Seoul High Court ruled that the import of sex dolls should not be prohibited on grounds that that it corrupts public morals.

In 2017, a company made an import declaration of a 159-centimeter-tall headless sex doll made of silicon that resembles a female body, but Incheon Customs put the entry on hold, saying it corrupted public morals. (…….)

In reversing the lower court decision, the Seoul High Court said that while it may seem vulgar, it does not show the sexual areas in full display to justify the claim that it destroys human dignity.

The court added that the country should not interfere with one’s private life to protect dignity and freedom, and there are no legal grounds to regulate the import of sexual devices.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.