Excuse Me!

Covered Body in the Pickup.
I hate to interrupt, but one of the South Korean hostages in Afghanistan has been excecuted. It's not on Yahoo news when I log in, and so I went to CNN dot com.
Here's what was there:

Latest News
Vick pleads not guilty to dogfight charges
FBI head, Gonzales differ on hospital showdown
NASA suspects space-bound kit sabotaged
Men framed by FBI for murder to get millions
Family tries avoiding everything 'Made in China' (by the way, CNN, the Corporate News Network, is on a Jihad lately against China, that's another entry...yes I know there are concerns, but the news coverage is laughable. I mean look at this...it's not even about the issues, it's about scaring people- How To Avoid Chinese Products...shame)
Report: Drunk astronauts allowed on shuttle
Gene therapy patient dies; trial shut down
CNNMoney: Dow suffers 2nd worst day of 2007
KPHO: Man accused of Tom Cruise extortion plot
Ticker: Clinton on Obama: This is getting 'silly'
Pilots blamed for Kentucky plane crash
High-speed pursuit ends in a fiery crash
500-pound man told he's too fat to adopt
Big, odd and useless projects that failed
CNN Wire: Latest updates on top stories

OK, this is distressing. So I clicked on the international CNN page:

Here is the international page for CNN
Top Stories
Afghans enter hostage negotiations
Tour rolls on in shadow of scandal
Thousands arrested in Zimbabwe
Men framed by FBI get millions
Blast at desert spaceport kills 2
Pilots blamed in Comair crash
Wires cut in space-bound computer
9/11 rescue dog dies of cancer
Drunk astronauts 'let on shuttle'
Emotions flow after nurses return
CNN Wire: Updates on world's top stories

Excuse me, but what?
The Bush administration promised that they were going to Iraq to fight "them over there". So people said, "How come Iraq? I thought Afghanistan..."
"Shhh" they said, "You don't love America."
"Mr. Bush, are you going after Osama Bin Laden?"
"Saddam Hussein is a bad guy."
"Yes, we knew that when you put him in his regime...any way...Osama.."
"You hate America. We are fighting them over there."

One day back in the Clinton administration, Bill bombed Afghanistan. Remember? Or maybe we don't remember because that was during zippergate. People said, oh, look wag the dog. Well, no Afghanistan was important zippergate was not.

He was bombing Osama Bin Laden's hideout and missed him. He had no support as the country was torn apart by Kenneth Starr's Whitewater rampage that ended in nothing useful whatsoever for anyone. Bill left office, and passed on the documents to Bush about what was up with Bad Boy Bin Laden. We know what happened next. Nothing, and then something...9/11

Now ITS NOT EVEN NEWS that the Taliban in Afghanistan continually kidnap and sometimes excecute people.
So HOW about fighting them OVER THERE?

LIARS

Go get these people, or you're over there for nothing.
Oh yeah, we already knew that.


Why are South Korean troops in Afghanistan? You think SOUTH KOREA has some beef with the Middle East? They're supporting US troops. I see in the news today that there is fighting going on there, and some Taliban have been taken out...and some NATO troops have gone down.

My question is, at the very least, why is this not a big news story in the US?
The US is the one that should be busting those hostages out or negotiating. I know that I don't fully understand the current Afghanistan situation, but I know that it's our beef (US) and others are supporting the cause. Shouldn't they be helped?

LIARS Bush, Cheney and the whole Lot of you.

George Bush

I went to a popular photo website and typed in George Bush, and almost the whole page filled with this picture above, there were at least 9 on one page. I laughed.

You know I have to admit, I know I joke around alot, but this makes me angry. What did this monkey do to deserve being dressed up and called George Bush? People can be so cruel.

Tough Morning

Warning: I've got biting humor at the moment, if you don't like that, you'll want to skip this post.
New class today at 8:30 am. In the first class I find out what levels I'm dealing with and prepare to adjust accordingly. I have a memorized vocabulary of basic English words that almost all students know when they arrive, no matter what their level.

The first class I use common vocabulary in short sentences. I make sure that even without verbal cues, the conversation is manageable, meaning my questions relate to each other, follow a logical sequence, no non-sequitir curve balls.

Yeah.

No. This group does not know English. They also managed to tap into my pet peeve of not following logic, which is a separate issue than a language barrier. I'm not able to get into details without being lengthy, I wish I could give concrete examples.

Student:"The Philippines?"
In my mind: No, we've completely changed the subject in the last five words and now all of a sudden without explaining myself, I'm talking about London.

Student:"North Korea?"
Me-in my mind: Why would I think that you served your military duty IN NORTH KOREA? Why would I think that?

The consolation of incidents like these is that there's always at least one other student with a facial expression that betrays shock, so at least it's not just me. Communication frustrations get us where it hurts, there are very few things in life more emotional. Long story short, we all lived through it.

I'm going to have to choose our lowest level conversation book for this group. And I've got a student who chose the name Arnold for himself because of you-know-who. He reminded me that he's the governor of you-know-where. Yeah, I know where. I used to live there. That's my state.

You know, every once in a while I get a student that's like this: If people in his country made it a habit to strangle newborn infants and then use the carcass as a football until the intestines fall out, and then cook them into a tasty dish, he would say: "Well that's a tradition in my country.", proudly. And this same type of student is the one who brought up the subject in the first place, trying to corner me into an opinion he may not like. Newsflash for ya honey,I don't care what traditions are in my country, so guess what?- I don't care what they are in yours either. I didn't bring it up, and I'm not trying to change you. If you don't want my opinion, don't ask for it. There are some Korean things for which I'll be adopting a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy.

Yeah, well you know what? This is a tradition in my country:

You know who this is, right? He's the president of you-know-where. I know that every Korean I've met hates him, he likes to invade other countries and attempt take-overs for control of natural resources no matter what anyone thinks, and include the soldiers of innocent countries like South Korea, but you know what? That's a tradition in my country. And there's your salute in the above photo.

Ok, Ok, done. Even students like that end up being likable for 100 other reasons, I don't sweat it. Just today I thought I'd blog it because it's bothering me at the moment.

I've got a student leaving this weekend who I'm really really going to miss. Erk.

Korea Times Article, N. Korean General Scorns Bush

There is no direct link to this article, it's on koreatimes.co.kr

N. Korean General Scorns Bush
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Tuesday’s inter-Korean military talks got off to an unusual start with the chief of the North Korean delegation recalling an Internet joke about U.S. President George W. Bush.

Shortly after the meeting began, Lt. Gen. Kim Young-chul of North Korea started proceedings by telling a joke at Bush’s expense called ``Saving the President.’’

The story was about Bush who, going out jogging one morning, is so preoccupied with international affairs that he fails to notice a car heading straight for him.

A group of schoolchildren pull the president away just in time, saving his life. Bush offers them anything they want as a reward.

``We want a place reserved for us at Arlington National Cemetery,’’ say the children. ``Why is that?’’ Bush asks. ``Because our parents will kill us if they find out what we've done.’’

South Korea’s chief delegate Maj. Gen. Jung Seung-jo appeared befuddled but defended Bush, saying the fact that such humor about the president is circulating freely on the Internet reflects how democracy works in the United States.gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr

George Bush again.

I know I make jokes about George Bush, but the plain fact is that I don't enjoy talking about him.

Today, though, I feel that I need to jot some things down here.

One, he was on American Idol last night with his lovely wife, who I will forever now only refer to as "Corrina". People who followed Hurricane Katrina (a group which ironicly does not include Mrs. Bush) will know why.

They were both stiff and wooden and reading from cards. George didn't seem to know what to make of his statement, and he akwardly had to mention Bono, which I think was a joke written for him that was lost on him. Frankly, I thought thanking Bono by name was a little strange myself, but...

So that was weird enough, but after the show there was a live speech on CNN. There's a time difference here so we were getting ready for bed.

I got so frustrated listening to him I told my son, just turn this off and let's go to bed, he's making me mad.

How? Well there's a chance I'm ignorant but I really felt insulted with his same old schtick of 'we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here' What? You're still saying that? Don't you read? (Sorry, I take it back). Since the Iraq war began terrorism has increased by 25%. That's a CNN stat.

And he kept saying something that was lost on me. He kept using the term 'global war'. Is it just me that's ignorant? It's a GLOBAL war now? So a few years ago he and his cronies wanted to convince us that there was no global warming, and now they want to convince us there's a global war (not warming for those of you paying attention).

Well maybe he is going to attack Iran after all. Maybe someone handed him the wrong speech. Maybe this is the one he's supposed to read next year.

George Bush News...er...

Mystery fossil turns out to be giant fungus-link

Cho Seung Hui and George Bush

What's the difference?

A: George has opted to remain among the living.

(I'm in a bad mood today.)