Category: Internet

— We scooped the Western press on the Leno/Korean dogmeat flap here, sourcing the Korea Herald Monday. The story has legs like a Russian Wolfhound (Yahoo! News – NBC Seeks to Quell Flap Over Leno Dog-Meat Joke)

But she said Leno himself was “very gracious” during a 30-minute telephone conversation with her and the head of the Korean-American Coalition, Charles Kim. But she said the comedian at first professed surprise that his joke was so hurtful because “from his perspective it was based in fact.”

Leno says what we said. I really should be charging for this.

A relative who works for Dell Computer has this to say about the Sierra Times fiasco:

The export compliance lawyers and administrators at Dell [are] at a heightened
state of alert. The US government told Dell and other computer
manufacturers that if they sold computers to those who they shouldn’t “like
terrorist corporations, bad countries and such” that Dell would be fined a
Million Dollars a day.

The people on the phone taking orders are just that… order takers with a
script they have to follow. Many of them are contactors hoping that Dell
will hire them one day, scared to make any mistake. They were told to be
careful selling anything to anyone that might be on the bad guys list. I am
sure this is just one of these people that did not understand any more
detail then that. Kind of like going to Wal-Mart and trying to get help
from the sales people behind the counter. The service is less than you
would expect many times.

We were told in England you have to sign a document that says you will not
use the computer for terrorist activities!

Bureaucrats!

Make of it what you will; we report you decide.

— Robert Locke, writing for FrontPage Magazine, makes a strong case for Islam as a defective religion that gives rise to a defective civilization. The main points appear to have been cribbed off this blog, which makes them credible, of course. Here’s a sample of Locke’s argument:

There are also disturbing aspects about Islam purely as a religion, independent of any social consequences. For example, its conception of paradise with the 70 virgins, et cetera, is, to be quite blunt, repulsively crude and I do not think this is just a Western bias. Everything I have gathered in conversation with representatives of other traditions suggests to me that a serious Buddhist, Hindu or Chinaman finds this equally unattractive. The ultimate end of man should not be a teenage fantasy. It is, of course, a wonderful myth for motivating young men to become killers.

The Sharia problem, the non-separation of church and state problem, and the crude nature of the Islamic religious imagination all weigh heavily against Islamic progress. Certainly, there is a serious force pushing Muslims in the direction of madness for them to believe that Arabs were not involved in 9/11.

— Transterrestrial Musings floats a cover story to misdirect the innocent:

My new theory: Instapundit is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner with a staff of thousands.

But we know the truth.

works, according to William Schneider, who compares “Axis of Evil” with Reagan’s “Go ahead, make my day.”

Reagan’s policy was, “Talk tough, and carry a big stick.” In the end, it worked. The evil empire crumbled. Europeans scoffed in 1987, when Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” But two years later, the wall came down.

The Euro-weenies have such a short memory.

the big news is the prospect of bringing the Summer Olympics to the Frisco Bay area in 2012 (Bay Area bid for Games gets boost) “SALT LAKE CITY – The beauty and the success of the 2002 Winter Olympics could propel San Francisco’s campaign to bring the Summer Games to the Bay Area in 10 years.”

I would hope that the Bay Area Games would include some new demonstation sports that highlight local culture, such as, well, Demonstrating for Lost Causes, where the medal would go to the group with the cause most reflective of unreconstructed 60s values. Or Ordering Chinese and Then Eating it with Chopsticks, even if the main course is rice (something an East Asian wouldn’t do, actually). Or Driving Too Slow on the Freeways, something we do better than anybody in the world. Looking down our Noses at Iowa would be fiercely competitive, and engaging to the Europeans. But nothing would better highlight the essence of the Valley than the Mad Dash for Cash with a Startup, unless it’s Moral Sanctimony without any Discernable Morals, or the Green Card Race.

Silicon Valley and the Frisco Bay Area generally have so much to share with the world.

about curling stones is found on JohnEllis.

— This puts some of this mania in perspective (Korea Herald Infotech):

According to Yahoo! Korea, Korean Internet users are crowding message boards and breaking Web traffic records. Its Kim Dong-sung message board surpassed the daily page view figure of 10 million.

Yahoo! said the popularity of the Kim Dong-sung message board is unprecedented. Even the message board about the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. stopped short of 3 million daily page views, it said.

That’s OK, we’ve got Andrew Sullivan and Instapundit.

— From Korea Herald National:

[Jay Leno] said the Korean player must have been angry enough to have kicked and eaten a dog when he returned home.

Leno’s remarks were broadcast on SBS, one of South Korea’s major TV network, on Saturday, and immediately prompted angry reactions from South Korean’s viewers.

But they do eat dog:

A group of 100 dogmeat restaurant owners will set up a nationwide federation next Monday in a city on the outskirts of Seoul to outline plans to promote the meat to foreign tourists before and during the World Cup period.

So where’s the beef?

— Curling is taking-off in the land of the cube rats (New fans get swept up in curling):

Forget figure skating, snowboarding and moguls. From coast to coast, young and not so young are suddenly clamoring to learn about curling — not hair, but stones.

There may be hope for this stinky place after all.