Who steals my purse steals trash

Now that the world can no longer deny America's willingness to blow off our debts, who'll put money in our purse?

Of course, [China's moves into the euro, South Korea's into the renminbi and gold, and other nations' into gold] are all minor moves in a currency market still dominated by U.S. dollars. That's good news for the U.S. economy in the short-term, because it lessens the threat of a massive sell-off and keeps borrowing rates relatively cheap. But the recent pileup of central banks and sovereign wealth funds into gold (according to the FT, central banks are on their biggest bullion buying spree in 40 years) is a warning signal that global esteem the almighty dollar (and the U.S. economy's strength) is already eroding.

There's a huge and growing overhang of dollar positions that other countries want to unwind. Whenever the race for the exit starts, it's going to get ugly for us. Uglier.

Everyone else at Fox

John Bolton is thinking about running for President. Not of his condo association. Not of the Anti-North Korea Association. No, of the United States!

I mean, shit, why doesn't he just announce to the world, "I'm so vain, self-centered, and totally ignorant of politics and human relations that I'm willing to say out loud my furiously egotistical fantasy."

Sotto voce: But everyone else at Fox is running. And I'm smarter than all of them.

Face of royalty

Click image for full Mike Keefe/Denver Post cartoon.

Yo mama Pyongs her yang

Hillary Clinton makes a few mildly derisive comments about North Korea:

"small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention."

The PRK, which could teach even Rush Limbaugh a thing or two about incendiary bullshit, responds with ironclad proof that Hillary is spot on:

At a meeting of southeast Asian nations in Phuket, Thailand, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman blasted Clinton for what he called a "spate of vulgar remarks unbecoming for her position everywhere she went since she was sworn in," according to the state-run KCNA news agency.

The spokesman called Clinton "by no means intelligent" and a "funny lady."

"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping," the statement said.

There are lots of possible rejoinders appropriate for middle school. How's that sticks and grass diet working out? Gooood haircut - you still using the Flowbee? Pointing and giggling would also be fun.

But, alas, we're the grown-ups here. Hillary can't even laugh and say, "At least they didn't call me a bitch."

It might be reasonable to mention that this sort of behavior is why we don't want them holding nukes. North Korea, putting the MAD back into nuclear policy! Socialist workers paradise? I'd hate to see hell.

North Korean style rhetoric

Sen. Al Franken has hired an aide. The Republican response?

"This is another shameful episode of disenfranchising voters from Al Franken, and his disrespect for the constitutional rights of all citizens. While the due process and equal protection rights of our fellow citizens are being denied, Al Franken is determined to thumb his nose at the Minnesota Supreme Court," [State GOP chair Ron Carey] said in a statement.

Kim Jong Il would be so proud.

Free market

I define market broadly as any decentralized system for allocating resources, any system that relies on many choices of many actors. Obviously, some markets are freer than others, but freedom in a market is often not proportional to its success, either in efficiency or in fairness.

In China, private choices have led to too many boys and not enough girls. This is the result of the collision of culturally driven demand, biotechnology, and entrepreneurship.

One might argue that the legal constraint of China's draconian one-child policy was the definitive source of this future problem. I don't find that credible because the very same trend is also occurring in India and South Korea, which do not have similar policies. No, those couples who selectively abort their female fetuses are mainly responding to the incentives their cultures provide for sons.

Keep this in historical perspective. The West is ahead of the East on the role of women but not that far.

In any case, markets as well as government plans have unintended consequences. The Chinese sought to solve their runaway population growth, and they did. But they got this demographic weirdness.

Scarce commodities become more valuable, but the expressions of the new value of females in China will probably take many forms. A few possibilities:

• Women will be able to choose among suitors.
• China will import women from neighboring, poor countries - Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia. Many will be used as prostitutes and discarded.
• There will be a diaspora of Chinese men. Some of them will assimilate; some will be spies.
• Homosexuality among men will be more common.
• War is likely as a response to domestic social unrest.
  

The future is always uncertain. Extra men with nothing much to lose might revolutionize Chinese politics, though I look around at recent history of hopelessness in Ireland and the Middle East, and I'm not optimistic. Still, there's no reason my crystal ball should have all the answers. Add yours in comments.

Bloodthirsty

We Americans like to think of ourselves as a peace-loving nation. We aren't.

Sure, some of us are, possibly many, maybe even a majority. Maybe not. But there's a strong current of blood lust not even a step up from savagery that runs through many Americans' violent and ugly view of the world.

Iran's nuclear ambitions? Don't ask questions. Don't talk. Don't bother with economic coercion. Attack.

To your lastpoint: eliminate their capability now, so they cannot use it later. Do not make the mistake of thinking they won't. and, talking will not get us there. --ronreganfan [sic] (4/9/2009 12:18 PM EDT)

Pirates from lawless Somalia? Don't negotiate the release of their hostages, backed by the threat of force. Attack everyone everywhere.

Yesterday, April 8th, 2009, Somali pirates attacked an American merchant ship. To the government of Somalia, I say the following: You must get contol of your population and end their piracy right now. If you don’t, we will. If ending their piracy means destroying what little there is of your sorry nation, we will destroy your sorry nation. If any Somali pirate ever again attacks an American ship, we will act accordingly. Do not appeal for mercy. Do not mistake our resolve. --camper9574 (4/9/2009 5:22 AM EDT)

Negotiation is not an option. Get Captain Phillips back safely, then take quick and severe action.
If some innocents get in the way then they should not have been in the area. --icepack (4/9/2009 7:30 AM EDT)

These idiots have no idea how vast the Indian Ocean is. (Note: I have no qualms whatsoever about defending shipping. I'm just not willing to kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out.)

North Korean missile? Never mind that Kim Jong Il is probably sick. Never mind that this society will collapse under its own weight quite soon. Attack.

Newt Gingrich says he would have disabled the long-range missile before it ever left the launch pad. --from the CNN story

Yes, the US should have bombed the launch pad as soon as the threat became known. Now the North Koreans will think they can get away with it every time. --Cameron (April 6th, 2009 4:00 pm ET)

Fortunately, many commenters on the Jack Cafferty story of Jingo Newt recognize the Republican war drumbeat for what it is.

This is what the bully faction of the conservative movement has to offer: perpetual war. Fer chrissake, in 2003, they wanted to invade France for merely verbal disagreements with the Bushists.

We're already in theater in two wars, maxed out on both our soldiers and our credit cards. If we fought all the wars the wingnuts want us to fight, we would be on a permanent war footing. And our deficits? We'd never see a balanced budget again.

The stupidest attitude of all that the bully faction of the Republican Party sweats out through every pore is that if you don't agree with their every carpet-bombing knee-jerk reflex, you must want to befriend every enemy and show America's throat to their knives.

So, of course, it's all Obama's fault that these conflicts heated up. It's all Obama's fault that he hasn't yet killed anyone. Never mind that all three of these problems have been going on for years. Nope, the wingnuts' selective amnesia prevents them from ever seeing problems in context, where those problems are more complicated.

Fear is the mind-killer

Contrast the Bushist response to North Korea with the Obama administration's response.

Bushist: Screaming, fear-mongering Chicken Little, followed by the silent treatment that a high school girl might inflict on her puppy love.

Obama: Measured, serious, reassuring. No panic, no stupidity. Diplomatic but no pushover.

Now, remind me, who are the grown-ups?

Fart in the general direction of North Korea

It's hard to believe that Newt Gingrich gets credit for being smart when he's this willing to pander to the stupid, jingoist wing of his party. Of course, it's just that the non-stupid, non-jingoist wing is so tiny.

Time for ridicule, not a spanking?

As long as I can remember, North Korea's response to any controversy or criticism has been to take its hysterical rhetoric straight to DEFCON 2-year-old:

But Pyongyang said Thursday that it was ready for an "all-out confrontation" with South Korea, calling President Lee Myung-bak a traitor and accusing him of "frantically inciting hostility" toward North Korea and "kicking up ... war hysteria," North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said.

Their tantrums would be funny if they didn't have such a large and relatively well-fed army and an insane leader.

While it hardly seems productive to respond in kind - and Hillary doesn't - is it time to open up a new front in diplomacy and poke fun at their, ah, lack of maturity, perspective, and proportionality? Of course, as with most two-year-olds, North Korea's frantic screaming usually means they feel left out and want attention - and probably something else.

I'm guessing they need more food aid to feed everyone besides the army.

Click image for public domain notice.

Update (2/21): Hillary opts to spank North Korea:

"North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the U.S. while insulting and refusing dialogue with the Republic of Korea," she said.

Duhbyomacy

Click image for full (week-old) Mike Luckovich cartoon.

Not that Iran's really a responsible party, but it makes a good laugh.

Duhbya has excused North Korea from the axis of evil. Could Iran be next with a get out of dutch free card? Then Duhbya will claim the conquest of the whole axis as his legacy. Sow's ear, silk purse, ah, the magic of Republican marketing.

Bushist dream

South Korea has the right(-wing) view of kleptocracy. Business executives are too rich and important to send to jail.

The Bushists can only dream and hope.

Conscience-free

Duhbya can sleep at night because he lacks any conscience. He can't find any humanity in his enemies. They aren't people. He doesn't just despise them, he thoroughly hates them. He is, like so many others, a Christian in name only.

Duhbya and Darth Cheney and David Addington and John Yoo and Donald Rumsfeld have loosed on our enemies torture. That word is its due and the least we can offer to describe waterboarding. Christopher Hitchens may be easily despised in other venues, but this is how he puts it:

You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning...

Many times before we have described this as torture, as we were learning it from Communist enemies practicing it on us in Korea and Vietnam. At the time, we universally abhorred it. Now many Americans defend it as a necessity, the failed Nuremberg defense, a defense we never accepted when the Chinese did it any more than when the Nazis did.

We said it was a war crime, a crime against humanity. It still is.

Apologizing for daughters

Catching up on the dead tree edition of the Boston Globe...

This story on sex selection abortion gladdens my heart. Fingers crossed, it's a start on avoiding the military diaspora of Asian males that a lack of prospects for marriage and family that might otherwise be caused by the foolishly chosen scarcity of females.

One line half-way down the column buried the lead:

[M]others would often apologize for giving birth to a girl.

I think of the day my daughter was born, and I wonder how anyone could possibly apologize or expect an apology about such an event.

Of course, before I get too happy about the news from South Korea, there on the facing page is the Globalist Quiz, which has far worse news about India's cultural and institutional discrimination against women.