First Blog

What’s good about the world?   We’re not looking for miracles or final results. We are looking for improvement.   Let’s not look at the world we don’t have now, but look more at the far and recent past where almost nothing was possible, available, accessible, and the like.  Our list does not include everyone everywhere.   Progress is not constant nor uniform.   In some places forward steps come in leaps while in others backward steps seem the rule.   With all we hear daily of riots here, wars there, violence in the streets, intrigue in the palace, assassinations,   subversions, perversions, and all others, we take a pause and consider what we have is far, far beyond the situations of almost all only a century or two ago.       We now live in a world where most people --- Have some civil rights. Have basic schooling. Have machines to make life easier. Have food produced by an agricultural bounty. Have some rights to practice a religion of choice. Are neither s

Why will North Korea’s strong man dictator Kim Jong Un will never permit any sort of coorperation with South Korea or inspection of his country by outsiders? It's all about the consequences of exposure.  Many of his sins are hidden because of total news blackouts.  His master state, China, may be aware of many of his sins, but for them it becomes a conviction by proxy should the sins become known. Thus Kim is indirectly protected.  Both China and Russia (thought to be Kim’s supplier of rocket engines) are aware and dread the day Kim is exposed.  Such is Kim’s buffer. Kim’s sins and secrets: Nuclear weapons – the open sin Offensive ICBM and other missiles – the delivery vehicles of choice Weapons export – to Iran and elsewhere Radiological contamination – almost a certain consequence of nuclear testing* Biological testing – e.g. possible Anthrax experimentation* Slavery – export of his own to forced labor in China and other countries Torture – of prisoners, e.g. W