World in turmoil: Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan

We’ll open with [fanfare] things the media is parroting that I don’t give a crap about and you probably shouldn’t really focus on either [fanfare].

This guy

Moving on.
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The latest AP article on Iran:

Iranian authorities arrested 70 university professors who met with embattled opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, his Web site said Thursday, but he vowed to persevere with his election challenge despite the apparent attempt to isolate him from his supporters.

Since Saturday, demonstrators challenging the election results have found themselves increasingly struggling under a blanket crackdown by government authorities.

State media reported Thursday that in addition to the 17 protesters killed in the recent unrest, eight members of the pro-government Basij militia were killed and dozens more wounded by weapons and knives. The reports could not be independently verified.

Stay strong, Iran.
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In other news, what the hell, North Korea?!?!?!

North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.”If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.

A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and “bunker-buster” bombs in response to North Korea’s provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.

Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.

Russia‘s top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.

In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defense officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.

South Korea has proposed high-level “consultations” to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.

I need a foreign government expert here. What is North Korea trying to accomplish? It can’t hope to go head to head against the United States in a war. So is the leadership legitimately crazy? Seriously, I thought North Korea stopped being relevant after Kim Jong Il was turned into a puppet and laughed at by all America.

Things are inevitabrey going to change! God damn it, open your ****ing ears!

Seriously, at this point I worry more about innocent North Koreans who are going to get caught in the unholy wrath of the U.S. and its allies if they launch a missile. So, please, North Korea…calm the hell down.

And to round out our eye on international issues, the Pakistani government is calling for an end to United States drone missile attacks.

ISLAMABAD – President Barack Obama’s national security adviser reiterated the United States’ strong support for Pakistan in its battle with Taliban militants during talks with senior Pakistani leaders on Thursday.

Islamabad, meanwhile, called for an end to U.S. missile attacks on its soil, two days after a suspected drone strike killed 80 people in the country’s northwest.

The Obama administration has made the region a focus of its foreign policy, and is deploying an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan in an attempt to tame a growing Taliban insurgency there. Pakistan shares a long and porous border with Afghanistan and has its own problems with militants, and Washington views Islamabad’s role as crucial to returning stability to the region.

[Pakistani Prime Minister] Gilani, meanwhile, voiced concern that the beefed up U.S. presence in Afghanistan could send a new wave of Afghan refugees across the border, his office said in a statement.

Militant leaders have been targeted in dozens of strikes in the past two years from U.S. drones, high-tech, remote control planes used for both surveillance and to fire Hellfire missiles. The U.S. military concedes it uses drones in Pakistan, but never comments on the strikes.

Pakistan has loudly disapproved of the attacks because they involve the use of force by a foreign government on its soil and sometimes kill innocents and are highly unpopular among the Pakistani public.

No hard stats out there on how many Pakistani civlians have been killed by drone attacks. But that doesn’t change the fact that civilian casualties should be unacceptable. What are we fighting against anyway? Terrorists, right? You know…those guys who kill innocent people? Those people?

With each piece of news, I come closer to trying to find a way to protest this. At the very least, politicians should recognize that there are people who do not support mindless killing in the Middle East.
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Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

“You can’t say that civilizations don’t advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.” – Will Rogers

Wildlife in Crisis, Black Holes & Futurama, plus Ivo demands Apple coverage

Quote of the Day:

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons. – Bertrand Russell

Magnanimous Monday

So I went to the Mill Mountain Zoo on Saturday with Pocahontas. My zoo experiences are primarily the National Zoo in DC and the San Francisco Zoo last summer, so this was smaller than I expected, but it was still nice and worth the affordable price of admission ($7.50). My favorite animal was the Wolverine, which wasn’t vicious at all, but energetic and bouncy. Unfortuantely, Roanoke’s tiger is apparently dead, leaving only a statue. Sidenote, there may have been more small children than animals at the zoo.

Anyway, that inspired me to devote today’s Magnanimous Monday to the animals. Today’s good cause is Wildlife in Crisis, Inc.

I know, right?

Wildlife In Crisis, established in 1988, is Connecticut’s wildlife rehabilitation center. Each year, the center cares for over 6,000 injured and orphaned wild animals. WIC answers over 15,000 phone calls each year with questions concerning care for wildlife. And WIC’s Land Trust addresses the umbrella issue of habitat loss. Our staff of unpaid resident interns and volunteers work 16+ hours per day, 7 days a week year round caring for the animals….

Wildlife In Crisis is staffed with unpaid resident interns from around the globe and local volunteers.

WIC accepts over 6,000 debilitated wild animals each year.

WIC receives over 15,000 calls each year.

WIC accepts all species of native wildlife for rehabilitation.

In addition to our wildlife rehabilitation and environmental education efforts, WIC established The Wildlife In Crisis Land Trust in 1993 to address the umbrella issue of habitat loss.

You can donate and become a member to support WIC’s efforts or you can volunteer as a resident intern if you want to spend some time helping rehabilitate animals. And here’s a list of wildlife organizations from Idealist.

In other news…

Free the Press. The latest journalists detained by a state government are Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were working for Current TV in China when North Korean authorities arrested them under vague charges.

The case gives the two sides an excuse to talk, with the U.S. possibly sending a special envoy, said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University.

“I think the North is going to try to use the reporters to facilitate relations with the U.S.,” said Kim, adding that he didn’t think the women would be mistreated and would even be kept separate from North Korean inmates.

“The sentence doesn’t mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end,” Kim said.

The journalists were arrested March 17 near the China-North Korea border, and it’s unclear whether they tried to sneak into the North or if aggressive border guards crossed into Chinese territory and grabbed them, as has happened before. A cameraman and their local guide escaped.

I think this quote sums it up best:

The International Women’s Media Foundation condemned the conviction, and the group’s executive director, Liza Gross, said in a statement that “press freedom must not be used as a pawn in chess games between nations.”

Best of luck, Euna and Laura. See you stateside soon, I hope.
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In science, astronomers have found the most supermassive black hole ever.

I thought I was a fool for no one

But, ooh, baby, I'm a fool for you

Higher black hole masses could also solve a paradox of the masses of faraway, developing galaxies called quasars. These mysterious denizens of the early universe are very bright, developing galaxies with black holes surrounded by gas and dust, all rife with star formation. Quasars are colossal, around 10 billion solar masses, “but in local galaxies, we never saw black holes that massive, not nearly,” Gebhardt said.

“The suspicion was before that the quasar masses were wrong,” he said. But “if we increase the mass of M87 two or three times, the problem almost goes away.”

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Futurama fans have something to party about. Fry, Leela, and Bender return for all new episodes on Comedy Central. Now, personally, I’m content with as much Futurama as exists, but who am I to deny the happiness of millions of sci-fi-comedy animation fans out there? So, for their sake, altogether now. Everyone, what kind of news is this?

Good news, everyone!

Finally, Ivo said I should blog about this, although why, I’m not sure.

New, cheaper Apple products!

• iPhone 3G – 8GB storage, $99
• iPhone 3G S – 16GB storage, $199
• 13-inch Macbook Pro – $1200
• 15-inch Macbook Pro – $1700
• 17-inch Macbook Pro – still $2500, but supposedly faster
• Macbook Air – now $1500

You will obey the Fruit.

This is all particularly mouth-watering after struggling to save my three-year-old Macbook Pro’s hard drive. I’d blame it all on planned obscelence and no doubt that has a little bit to do with it, but I’ve been knocking poor Rajah around pretty harshly since college began.

But I still won’t get an iPhone until it’s at least 32GB for $99 and comes with Verizon.

This is PhilthePill and next time we see each other I should be knee deep in Virginia Democratic Primary coverage.

Sonia Sotomayor nominated….FIESTA!

It’s the end of the world as we know it again, with returning player North Korea.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how unsafe does Phil the Pill feel?

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In other news, Obama has made his Supreme Court pick and it is, in fact, an Hispanic woman!

President Barack Obama named federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, praising her as “an inspiring woman” with both the intellect and compassion to interpret the Constitution wisely.Obama said Sotomayor has more experience as a judge than any current member of the high court had when nominated, adding she has earned the “respect of colleagues on the bench,” the admiration of lawyers who appear in her court and “the adoration of her clerks.”

…The Senate Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, issued a statement that said: “Senate Republicans will treat Judge Sotomayor fairly. But we will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law evenhandedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences.”

…Democrats hold a large majority in the Senate, and barring the unexpected, Sotomayor’s confirmation should be assured.

Fiesta!

As a Latino, it’s good to see that we’ve made it to a prominent level of office. Also, it’s funny to see Republicans squirm, because they can’t block the vote without offending the growing amount of Hispanic voters.

So, I was going to put up something more relevant, but my rule is, if it passes a certain treshold of offensiveness, it must be shared.

Actually, let’s see what our friends at the Drudge Report have to say about all this.

Republicans F*cked.

From Jeffrey Rosen at The New Republic

Her former clerks report that because Sotomayor is divorced and has no children, her clerks become like her extended family–working late with her, visiting her apartment once a month for card games (where she remembers their favorite drinks), and taking a field trip together to the premier of a Harry Potter movie.

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was “not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench,” as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. “She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren’t penetrating and don’t get to the heart of the issue.”

…Her opinions, although competent, are viewed by former prosecutors as not especially clean or tight, and sometimes miss the forest for the trees. It’s customary, for example, for Second Circuit judges to circulate their draft opinions to invite a robust exchange of views. Sotomayor, several former clerks complained, rankled her colleagues by sending long memos that didn’t distinguish between substantive and trivial points, with petty editing suggestions–fixing typos and the like–rather than focusing on the core analytical issues….

…I haven’t read enough of Sotomayor’s opinions to have a confident sense of them, nor have I talked to enough of Sotomayor’s detractors and supporters, to get a fully balanced picture of her strengths. It’s possible that the former clerks and former prosecutors I talked to have an incomplete picture of her abilities. But they’re not motivated by sour grapes or by ideological disagreement–they’d like the most intellectually powerful and politically effective liberal justice possible. And they think that Sotomayor, although personally and professionally impressive, may not meet that demanding standard. Given the stakes, the president should obviously satisfy himself that he has a complete picture before taking a gamble.

So she’s a typo-correcting, perceived dumbass who can’t see the forest for the trees, and she takes out her law clerks to see Harry Potter?

Hmm…BUT SHE’S HISPANIC!

Seriously, let’s let the confirmation process go forward. Different judges have different styles and it seems like most criticisms stem from a single contention: Obama picked her. Go boil your heads, knee-jerk reaction conservatives. The Court is still fairly balanced. You can keep your guns.
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In other news, this kid keeps a lending library of books that are “banned” in her school in her locker.

I encourage everyone who goes to a high school that bans books to do this. Spread information. Spread ideas. Crush ignorance.

And. finally, continuing with the theme of animals and pictures:

That’s it for today. Until next time, this is Phil the Pill and I’ll be throwing a FIESTA!…while working and taking summer classes, but as much as posisble