Korea’s Winter Olympic bid has passed it’s first test:

Three cities — two from Europe and one from Asia — made the cut Thursday as the IOC trimmed the field for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Salzburg, Austria; Pyeongchang, South Korea; and Sochi, Russia; were selected as finalists by the International Olympic Committee’s executive board.

Eliminated from the race were Almaty, Kazakhstan; Borjomi, Georgia; Jaca, Spain; and Sofia, Bulgaria.

While Thursday’s cut was made by the Olympics’ 15-member ruling body, the full 100-plus IOC assembly will select the host city at its session in Guatemala City on July 4, 2007.

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Salzburg and Pyeongchang were finalists in the vote for the 2010 Olympics, which were awarded to Vancouver, British Columbia. The little-known Korean bid finished a surprising second, and the Austrian city third.

Pyeongchang, in Korea’s Gangwon Province, is hoping to build on its momentum from the first bid to establish itself as an Asian winter sports capital.

“Pyeongchang is unique in that we are located in Asia and we will be able to expand the Olympic movement in our part of the world better than the other two cities,” bid chairman Han Seung-hoo said.

The Chosun Ilbo has published some recently rediscovered photographs from the US National Archives from the Korean War that are worth a look.Here is a picture of the Namdaemun Gate in Seoul during the war:

For comparison here is what the Namdaemun Gate looks like today:

I can’t believe the Washington Post is advocating starting a war over the North Korean missile test?:

Fears have grown in recent weeks following reports of activity at a site in northeastern North Korea where U.S. officials say a Taepodong-2 missile — believed capable of reaching parts of the United States — is possibly being fueled.

An op-ed piece in Thursday’s Washington Post by William Perry, secretary of defense under former President Bill Clinton, and Ashton Carter, Clinton’s assistant secretary of defense, advocates a pre-emptive strike to destroy the missile.

“The United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched,” it said.

Cheney, however, told CNN that, while “I appreciate Bill’s advice,” such an action could worsen the situation.

It appears the same people that were against a pre-emptive strike in Iraq, now want the US to start a pre-emptive war with North Korea which would be a thousand times more bloodier than anything we have seen in Iraq over a missile test? Let them fire their stupid missile and once it is over they will once again retreat back into international obscurity. Bombing them is the absolutely worse course of action one could take in this matter. I think the left in America since they are perceived by the American public as being weak on defense are trying now to come out as hawks against North Korea because they know that President Bush isn’t stupid enough to launch a war against North Korea over a stupid missile test.

I fidn this picture from CNN quite interesting:

This picture is misleading to the fact that most South Koreans could care less about this stupid missile test which is a point the US media has made sure that they have avoided. South Koreans live within artillery range of North Korea, so dropping a missile on you after getting hit by a massive MLRS blast really doesn’t matter. The US media though has made sure to inform everyone though of the possibility of chemical and nuclear warheads raining down on the west coast of the United States from this missile test. Scare mongering at it’s best.

Big hat tip to Nomad for pointing out this classic piece of journalism from Oh My News. I have always maintained that Oh My News is way left wing in their writing but this article is just plain kooky. At Camp Humphreys located in Pyeongtaek, South Korea; they have a radar dome that towers over the base because the camp is home to a major airfield shared by both the US and Korean militaries. The Oh My News “reporter” speculates that the radar is actually part of a sinister super secret US “Orwellian” plan to rule the world:

“Its been there about seven or eight years. We have no idea what it is; we just thought it might be a water tank or something. People have said is an oil tank, or some kind of antenna. But why should we even bother to try to figure it out. Isn’t it easier if we just consider it as a big ball? I like it because it makes the scene of our village very familiar from a distance.”

A titan standing 30 meters tall, the “ball” is about eight years old. For the residents living near the field of Daechu-ri, located in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, their lives have revolved around a mysterious ball mounted in the sky, all the while never knowing exactly what it is.

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“Right now, somebody is watching your every movement.” This may sound like something from a science-fiction movies, but instead, it’s real.

In the greatest surveillance effort ever made, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) created a global spy system — codename ECHELON — which captures and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world. ECHELON is controlled by the NSA and operated in conjunction with the Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) of England, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) of Canada, the Australian Defense Security Directorate (DSD), and the General Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) of New Zealand. These organizations are bound together under a secret 1948 agreement, UKUSA, whose terms and text remain under wraps even today.

I wonder if this super secret 007 golf ball is manned by Elvis and Bigfoot? That is just about as credible a theory as the one put forth by Oh My News. What’s next, an article on the Indianhead statue in front of Camp Casey is actually a US homing beacon for UFO’s to land on the camp and dump flemeldahyde into doo-doo creek thus creating the Lochness Monster of Dongducheon? Just when you thought journalism in Korea couldn’t get any worse, it does. Well it’s good that the “reporter” at least has some serious photographic talent because the pictures in the article are quite good. However, he is going to need that photographic talent in the future because he sure isn’t going to make it as an investigative journalist for much longer unless he writes for the Weekly World News.

Now the French are condemning Lance Armstrong for taking a prescribed steroid when he was dyeing from brain cancer:

Lance Armstrong admitted he has taken the performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin (EPO) at the time he was treating his cancer, French daily Le Monde reported on Friday.

“According to new testimonies gathered from October 2005 to January 2006 by a court in Dallas, the seven-times Tour de France winner told a Indiana University Hospital doctor on October 28, 1996 he has taken performance-enhancing drugs,” Le Monde said in a report to be published later on Friday.

“The doctor questioned him on a possible use of doping products after his brain surgery in order to prescribe his post-surgery treatment.

This is just pathetic.  Taking a prescribed steroid during a fight against cancer is not the same as him taking a steroid while competing during the Tour de France.  Every allegation the French throw at Lance gets shot down which was evident by allegations made against him before this latest one:

French sports daily L’Equipe reported last August that it had access to laboratory documents and that six of Armstrong’s urine samples collected on the 1999 Tour showed “indisputable” traces of the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin.

Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman, a former director of the Netherlands’ national anti-doping agency, was appointed by the UCI last October to investigate the allegations.

Vrijman, who led the probe, said the World Anti-Doping Agency and the French national doping laboratory had effectively pronounced Armstrong guilty of a doping violation without sufficient basis.

WADA chairman Dick Pound rejected the Vrijman report as “bordering on the farcical.”

Yes “farcial” just like this latest accusation.

Well everyone I am officially back and blogging again. I appreciate all the e-mails I received from everyone wondering what happened to me. No I was not arrested in the Philippines for sodomy or thrown in jail for assaulting a Korean taxi cab driver as some have speculated. Actually I have been busy with work. If you can believe it, I actually have a day job besides blogging. I unexpectedly moved to another overseas assignment to train allied soldiers and have had very little Internet access the past month. Not the case anymore though, so expect regular blogging once again.

Looking through some of the other K-blogs it has been quite an interesting month I have missed. Then again what month in Korea isn’t interesting? What really jumped out at me was the suicide of Shawn Matthews from the former Korea Life Blog. Like many people KLB was actually the first Korea blog I read before reading others like the Marmot’s Hole. I wish things could have worked out better for him because suicide was definitely not the answer; god bless his family and may he rest in peace.

Let’s see what else has been going on, well foreign English teachers are being blamed for sexual assaults they had nothing to do with. I can still remember the good old days when soldiers would try and pass themselves off as English teachers. I think those days are long gone now.

Nomad has started a series on trash left by Koreans along some of the water holes he likes to fish at. I have plenty of pictures myself of the garbage left by the dreaded picnickers who pollute the beautiful country side in Korea. I remember the last time I climbed Sorak mountain seeing people throw their garbage off into the strong wind that was blowing up there that day just so they could see their garbage go flying off the mountain. A continual frustration for those of us who like to do outdoors activities in the beautiful Korean country side.

The World Cup madness had hit Korea again, and I have had the opportunity to watch the Korean team play this past month. I don’t know if it is a strategy or not, but it seems like they play like crap for most of the game to wear down the other team and then pull it out in the end. The expressions from the French players and coaching staff after the last game was absolutely priceless. The Red Devils do continue to get calls from the referees to go their way some how, but I can’t fault the Korean team for taking advantage of it. Bad calls are part of just about any sport. I just wish Team USA could get the calls Koreans do sometimes, such as the second goal against Italy being counted. Emotions are running high in Korea over the World Cup which is evident by this confrontation in the good old 2ID city of Uijongbu. Can you believe it, there are also Koreans in Uijongbu getting into trouble besides just US soldiers?
Speaking of soldiers getting in trouble, the monthly Taxi Cab Related Incident for the month of June has occurred as well, with a soldier throwing a bike at a taxi in Chuncheon. As you all know, I have no love for the cab drivers in the 2ID area due to my own run ins with them, but at no means should anyone get in a physical confrontation with them because you cannot win, even if the cab driver provoked it. It is best just to walk away.

Then you have the Norks ready test fire a missile. (Yawn) Those of us who have lived for long periods of time in Korea know, most of Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea so most Koreans could care less about a missile test. However this story is getting big attention outside of Korea which is what the Norks want. They have to push the envelope every once in a while to make sure no one forgets about them and keeps the aid rolling in.

Then finally USFK is being blamed for creating a murderous monster in the Han River. You can’t make this stuff up, with headlines like these obviously things are going on as usual in Korea and that is why Korea will always be the land of endless blogging.

It looks like peace is at least breaking out somewhere:

Montenegro, Japan To Declare Truce
Jun 16, 2006
Montenegro says Japan has recognized the Balkan country as an independent state, ending more than 100 years of a state of war.
Akiko Yamanaka, Japan¿s deputy foreign minister and the prime minister¿s special envoy is scheduled to arrive in Podgorica next week to deliver a letter to Montenegrin officials declaring the war is over and Tokyo recognizes Montenegro as an independent state, Belgrade¿s B92 radio reported Friday.

It is good to see these guys receive some appreciation for the thankless job they do:

The Korean National Police guards who toured Yongsan Garrison on Monday are in the midst of their 2½ years of mandatory national service. When their stint is up, many will go to college ¿ becoming
classmates with those protesters.

About 100 members of the KNP toured Yongsan Garrison at the installation¿s invitation Monday. A handful of policemen received certificates of appreciation for their service from Area II commander Col. Ron Stephens at the Army Community Services building, where the KNP guests watched two short films.

This post from Celestial Junk pretty much sums up how I feel about the recent news of the beheading and mutilating of the two US soldiers in Iraq this week:

As news reaches us that two US troopers were ¿slaughtered¿ by Islamo-fascist terrorists, we must brace ourselves for the inevitable Mainstream Media outrage, human rights organization fury, and overall international do-gooder annoyance. It¿s going to be quite something as page after page of editorials from BBC to NYT scream headlines like, ¿US Troopers Denied Geneva Rights¿, or, ¿Islamist Crime Evidence that Freedom Fighters are Just Terrorists¿. Daily KOS will launch into days of angry profanity filled rage against the Islamist thugs who committed the crime, and even Al Jazeera will bemoan in giant headlines, ¿Islam Slandered Once Again by Islamist Extremists.¿

Brace yourselves boys and girls, it¿s going to be ugly. Amnesty will of course decry the fact that Islamist terrorists, after this sadistic act, are now even more depraved than the Abu Ghraib bum-pile perverts. Leftist blogs the world over will warn Muslim fanatics that they had better start wearing uniforms if they want to be accorded Geneva convention rights. And, the CBC in Canada and the BBC will come to the conclusion, that the murder of the two US servicemen, proves once and for all that ¿Terrorism is the enemy of all Civilization¿.

And of course, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, rep. Murtha, Jack Layton, and an army of elite will come to the conclusion that this act alone proves that the United States must remain in Iraq until the job is done. ¿How can we expect the Iraqi nation, in fact any nation, to have to stand alone against such barbarism,¿ they will crow, ¿ All freedom loving people everywhere must stand fast, shoulder to shoulder, and defeat Islamo-fascism.¿

Yes siree boys and girls, brace yourself for the inevitable Socialist Utopian outcry.

Just in case there was any doubt:

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that civilian employees of the U.S. Forces Korea fall under South Korea’s criminal jurisdiction in peacetime. This is stipulated in the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) concerning the USFK, but it is the first time that the Supreme Court has issued a ruling on the matter.

The court on Monday upheld W5 million (US$5,000) in fines levied against a U.S. troop supply worker (49) who was brought to trial on charges of causing a traffic accident while driving a cargo vehicle.

The court said in its ruling, “In accordance with section 22 article 1 of SOFA as well as annals of agreements reached, the Republic of Korea has jurisdiction in times of peace on the peninsula to prosecute criminal trials against civilian employees of the USFK. “

I didn’t even realize there was a gray area here, but obviously there isn’t anymore.