From the Stars & Stripes:

A 2nd Infantry Division soldier was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for downloading child pornography and soliciting sex via chat room exchanges with a police officer posing as a 14-year-old.

Spc. Wesley S. Edmond of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry’s headquarters company, also received a bad-conduct discharge and a rank reduction to E-1.

Sometime between September and October 2006, Edmond downloaded and saved pictures of underage teens having sex, according to testimony.

He also entered the “Virtual Shagging” room at a popular online chat site and conversed with what he thought was a girl who eventually introduced herself as a 14-year-old. The “girl” was actually a female police lieutenant acting in a sting operation to catch sexual predators.

Another soldier going to jail for something stupid. This guy is 31 years old and should know better and even has a young daughter himself.  What are people like this thinking?

From this Milblogs post is an excellent link to an Atlantic Monthly article that is the best reporting I have seen yet on the reality of US military recruiting.  The article tends to confirm my thesis that  fatter, momma’s boys are being allowed in the military compared to past years, not an influx of gang bangers as some want to believe. 

For additional reading I direct everyone to my prior post that lays to rest the other myth that the Army is recruiting uneducated low lives and exploiting minorities as conventional wisdom suggests.  In fact military recruits are smarter, increasingly middle class, (even the numbers of wealthy enlisting is up) and the number of poor and minority recruits are dropping with more whites joining and the overall numbers are nearing the make up of the average US population.

Facts are hard for the demagouges, the race baiters, and class warfare specialists to accept, but longer the War on Terror goes on, more the demographic make up of the US military is becoming a direct reflection of American society itself.  

After an $80 million bribe a train has finally traveled a few miles across the DMZ into North Korea:

Trains crossed the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Thursday for the first rail journey through the border dividing the two Koreas in more than half a century, the latest symbol of historic reconciliation between the longtime foes.The one-time test run of trains through the 2 1/2-mile-wide no man’s land along two restored tracks on the west and east sides of the peninsula comes after repeated delays since the rail lines were linked in 2003 — and despite unresolved tensions over the North’s nuclear weapons.

As all ways you can count on the South Korean uni-fiction minister to describe thing in ethnic terms:

"It is not simply a test run. It means reconnecting the severed bloodline of our people. It means that the heart of the Korean peninsula is beating again," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said at a ceremony at Munsan station, 7 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone, before boarding the train.

Instead of trying to justify things in ethnic terms in a typical pathetic attempt to appeal to Korea’s homogenuous society, how about Minister Lee justify this one time test run in economic terms?  How the heck do you justify one test run by bribing the North Koreans with $80 million dollars:

Each year since 2004, the two Koreas had agreed to hold the trial runs and had even set a date, but cancelled each time because North Korea’s military did not promise a guarantee of security or safe passage. During the latest round of general-level talks, North Korea insisted it would provide only a one-off security guarantee.

As if it was doing South Korea a huge favor, North Korea got US$80 million worth of raw materials from the South to manufacture shoes, soap and other goods, for allowing one trial run of the reconnected railways.

This is just like the June 2000 Inter-Korean summit where approximately $500 million dollars worth of bribes were paid by the Kim Dae-jung government to secure a photo op with Kim Jong-il and justify the Sunshine Policy.  The Inter-Korean summit was nothing more than the world’s most expensive photo op.  Likewise this news today is simply the world’s most expensive train ride.

From Reuters:

Jeff Stith of the National Center for Atmospheric Research communicated with reporters via Web chat from a research jet flying 40,000 feet above the ocean as part of a mission to track dust and pollution particles blown from Asia to the United States.

“We have found enhancements in pollution levels in some of the upper regions of the storm clouds we studied, just yesterday for example,” Stith wrote.

Stith and his ground-based colleague, V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, aimed to study the interaction between the pollution and dust with high-altitude clouds bearing ice crystals.

Ice crystals are found in extremely cold clouds, and when the crystals are composed entirely of frozen water, they reflect lots of sunlight — that’s why these clouds look so white, Ramanathan said by telephone after the Web chat.

However, if particles of dust and a dark pollutant known as black carbon managed to get inside the crystals, these clouds might absorb more solar energy rather than reflecting it all, Ramanathan said.

You can see interviews with the two scientists here and here, but they say the significance of this dust mixed with Asian pollution blowing across the Pacific, is that they believe it effects weather patterns by influencing precipitation levels once the clouds reach the US. They also believe the dust and pollution is possible for anywhere from 20%-80% of global warming.

Here is computer enhanced image of the dust and pollution crossing the ocean from the PACDEX website:

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It seems like the dust has been getting worse nearly every year, maybe some of you Korea old-timers can verify if the dust was as bad 20-30 years ago as it is now. It will be interesting to see what the scientists findings are once they complete their research.

The Chosun is not happy that members of the US Congress are trying to begin renegotiations of the recently signed Free Trade Agreement between Korea and America:

Two U.S. Congressmen — Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sander Levin, chairman of the trade subcommittee — have written to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to call for renegotiations of the U.S. free trade agreement with Korea. The letter urges new talks with Korea on systematic barriers in automobiles, industrial products, agricultural and service markets.

This is the second time the U.S. has raised objections to the Korea-U.S. FTA, following a call for renegotiations on the environment and labor. These requests for renegotiations go against the general principles of negotiations and international norms.

Here is my favorite paragraph from the article:

The existing Korea-U.S. FTA was reached only after both sides took strenuous pains to find a balance between each other’s interests. Trying to unilaterally redesign the agreement to their advantage is tantamount to attempting to break the backbone of the trade pact. And the moment the U.S. shifts the burden of fresh negotiations onto Korea’s shoulders, the deal will go to pieces.

What I like about this paragraph is that it is quite ironic if you substitute Korea-US FTA in the paragraph with the US-ROK cost sharing agreement.  The US-ROK coast sharing agreement was reached late last year after long negotiations only to be unilaterally changed by the Korean government (see here & here) when they saw an opportunity to do so to their advantage when former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was forced to resign. 

The FTA will not be renegotiated.  The two Congressmen in question are trying to score domestic political points with their constituencies in the US over the FTA, especially Senator Levin since he is from Michigan the home of the American auto industry.  They have to give an appearance of going down fighting against the Korea-US FTA in order to secure votes at home. 

With all this said I find it more than little ironic that the leading South Korean newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo is complaining about a couple of Democrat Congressmen playing domestic politics over the FTA and yet says nothing when the Korean government pulled one of the biggest back stabbings of the US in the history of the US-ROK alliance last December. 

Did you get a bigger than normal paycheck this week?  If you did don’t spend it:

Eighth U.S. Army officials have a message for 713 Korea-based soldiers who discovered extra money in their mid-month paychecks Tuesday: Don’t spend it!

The bigger-than-normal paychecks are the result of a system error in the Automatic Rent Collection Program.

The glitch meant that the soldiers’ Overseas Housing Allowance wasn’t automatically deducted and paid to off-base landlords for the first half of their June rent.

And officials warn the same thing is going to happen with the end-of-the-month May paychecks.

The soldiers will be required to use both overpayments to pay their June rent, officials said.

The moral of this story is, don’t piss off your co-workers if you are over staying your visa:

A Pakistani man in custody for overstaying his visa did not plan a terrorist attack against Camp Casey, U.S. and South Korean officials confirmed Monday.

The man — identified only as “S” — was arrested May 9 after someone called an FBI hot line a day earlier to say the man was a member of a terrorist group and intended to attack the base.

The FBI relayed the information to South Korean police and intelligence agencies as well as U.S. military intelligence officials. Officials say they determined he was not a threat.

“They confirmed to us that there was not a credible threat to U.S. installations, and that was corroborated by our intelligence people,” said Lt. Col. Anthony Allen, U.S. Forces Korea deputy chief of force protection.

“S” said he believes a Pakistani co-worker whom he owes 300,000 won (about $325) called in the fake tip, police said.

To be fair I see a lot of problems with this survey overall so take what it says about Korea with some healthy skepticism:

In most countries, at least a plurality of respondents thought the UN Security council should prevent countries from acquiring nuclear weapons. South Korea and the Palestinian territories were the notable exceptions, where 55 and 59 percent, respectively, opposed such action to prevent nuclear proliferation.

Steven Kull, editor at WorldPublicOpinion.org, said the positive response showed that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was becoming "something like international law."

He said focus groups suggested that South Koreans generally felt they could best deal with their neighbor North Korea, which has delayed implementing a pledge to halt its nuclear weapons program. The Palestinian response may indicate a feeling that Islamic countries have the right to nuclear weapons, Kull said. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, although it has never acknowledged it.

Here is the actual site that did the survey which also asked people specific questions in regards to strengthening the United Nations:

Now this is where I have serious problem with the survey because it asks these questions of people with the assumption that the UN actually wants to do the things listed in the survey.  Take a look at the first question, the UN has peacekeeping forces around the world now that for example watch as Hezbollah smuggles arms into Lebanon from Syria or watch as the Arab Sudanese slowly ethinically cleanse the country of blacks.  Additionally many of the UN peacekeepers are often complicit in rapes and the sexual trafficking of women in the very countries they are supposed to be keeping the peace in.  On a side note does anyone find it interesting you hear so very little of this sexual abuse by the UN which is far worse than anything that ever happened at Abu Graib, yet the media can’t get enough of talking about Abu Graib any chance they can get?  Anyway, if the UN cannot manage the few peacekeepers that they have now what makes anyone think they can command an even larger force? 

The assumption that the UN even cares about human rights is another fallacy of this survey.  The lack of doing anything in regards to North Korean human rights violations and the sexual slavery of Korean women in China should be enough to prove this but just take a look at the countries on the human rights council.  Who wouldn’t want such great defenders of human rights like Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia standing up for their basic human rights?  I do have to give new Secretary General Ban Ki-moon some credit for cleaning up the council a bit, but much more work still needs to be done. 

The questions only get more ridiculous:

So according to this survey world opinion would justify both a strike on North Korea for human rights violations and on Iran for supporting terrorist groups and trying to develop a nuclear weapons program.  Heck according to this survey both Thailand and Fiji should be invaded as well to restore their governments.  Does anyone really think the UN much less global opinon would support any of these operations? 

You have to like this solution the IHO came up with for the Sea of Japan/East Sea issue:

The International Hydrographic Organization on Friday made a proposal that could favor Korea in its dispute with Japan over the name of the body of water between the two countries.

At the group’s general meeting in Monaco on Thursday, the IHO discussed how to officially refer to the sea that Korea calls the "East Sea" and Japan calls the "Sea of Japan." No agreement was reached.

Instead, David Wynford Williams, chairman of the meeting, proposed omitting the name from the fourth edition of "Limits of Oceans and Seas," the guide the IHO publishes for map makers around the world.

Under the proposal, an oceanographic map of the area would be published in a two-page appendix to the guide after the two countries settle on a name.

So it is official now it is not the Sea of Japan or the East Sea its just the Pacific Ocean.  Using this logic the Korea Strait between Korea and Japan should also be removed from the map one would think. 

The Korean government is of course over joyed by this announcement and here is why:

The deletion of the name in the upcoming guide should draw international attention to the issue. For Korea, making the dispute a global issue could prove helpful to its efforts, while Japan is trying to keep the matter quiet to preserve the status quo.

Here is a reality check to the Korean government, nobody but Korea and Japan give a crap about this issue and that is why the IHO just pulled the name off their map because their tired of hearing about it because it is so stupid.  This is not a global issue and will not ever be a global issue and no one besides Korea and Japan cares. 

This story should sound familiar:

Military Judge Col. Gregory Gross sentenced Kevin Sowers to 18 months in prison, forfeiture of all pay and a rank reduction to E-1, with credit for 141 days served in pretrial confinement.

A rape charge against Sowers, who is attached to the 2nd Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery, Bravo Battery, was dropped prior to Wednesday’s trial after the alleged victim declined to testify.

Sowers says he stole from two soldiers’ bank accounts and defied his commander’s orders after falling for a bargirl working in “The Ville” outside Casey’s main gate in Dongducheon. The woman became Sowers’ fiancee.

It should sound familiar because this scenario has been playing out for years and making some headlines recently. I call these guys juicy addicts because these girls in the club are like drugs to some people. These soldiers act just like drug addicts the way they are caught stealing other people’s property and commiting crimes to finance their juicy habit. Read the whole thing and see how as always immediate families that really suffer from these things.