Oranckay wrote:
He never said “nuclear,” the implication that distance had anything to do with it would lead you to assume, if anything, that he wasn’t even _implying_ nuclear, the delegate himself was later canned by NK for that, and furthermore the SK delegates went out of their way to piss him off and make him lose his temper.

Um...people piss me off on a daily basis. They cut me off while driving, they don't do what they say they're going to do, they give me deadlines that they know are impossible, etc., etc. Yet I don't recall ever threatening to turn them or where they live into "a sea of fire."

If it's that easy to push someone's buttons, they probably shouldn't be a government negotiator.

Curzon, in response to Sonagi, gratuitously attacked my sense of humor:

My humor is rooted in sarcasm. Kushibo’s sense of humor is stuck somewhere between ironic and satirical (he may not even understand the difference between the two).

Ooh! Call on me! Call on me!

Satire is a literary work in which human folly is attacked through irony, sarcasm, derision, or caustic wit, or some other form of writing where these same elements are used as a device to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

Irony is what we do after we finish the washy.

Recipe for a popular K-blog

1. Describe personal anecdotes or those of people you have met.
2. Make broad-stroke comments about Korea based on the (often misinterpeted and/or one-sided) account.
3. Get angry and defensive when anyone points out the misinterpretation, the one-sided way you presented what went down, or the imprudence or naïvete of applying that particular incident to the society in general.
4. Get minions to serve as attack dogs.

Serve chilled. Feeds three thousand.

I had fun tweaking Curzon's nose after he took your dry comment seriously.

You really are funny, Kushibo. Have you ever been published? Is your Korean good enough to pull off the same dry humor?

Brendon Carr wrote:
Male naturalized Koreans are currently exempted from military service under the same theory that mixed-race Koreans are exempted from military service — “difference” being a bar to integration within the unit.

How silly. Everyone (in the US military) knows that the only "difference" that is a bar to integration in the unit is a different sexual orientation.

Kushibo,

Ok, I'm a little slow sometime...why might you be going into semi-retirement?

Lost Nomad wrote:
Ok, I'm a little slow sometime...why might you be going into semi-retirement?

Good news, Lost Nomad, your not knowing to what I'm referring has nothing to do with senility or slow uptake; I never really stated why, only that.

The original comment was half jokingly meant as a response to the idea of having a beer with Shelton and Brendon.

But then, like hitting your head against a wall, it felt so good to stop. I was awakened to the re-realization that blogging, not commenting, is where it's at.

Of course, there could be some other reasons. Readers can take their pick:

1. If I'm going to supply witty banter and pithy commentary, I should probably do so on my own blog. Why help Marmot and AsiaPages increase their blog hits when people google something I write and it ends up there?

2. I've realized how insipid, asinine, vacuous, and inane my comments are. I've decided to spare everyone the daily sight of me being ano offensive, condescending jerk.

3. I really need to focus my time on important real-world matters. I'm leaving Korea (temporarily at least) in a few months and I have a lot to prepare.

4. I wanted to test a theory someone suggested to me, that my very presence — much like a Shelton post — generates much more commentary, even if it is not about me.

For example, I compared the number of comments one week prior to my "retirement" and one week after.

#33565
April 19, 2006, 11:26 p.m.

#34352
April 26, 2006, 11:30 p.m.

#34709
May 2, 2006, 5:30 p.m.

prior to my departure:
787 posts per week

after my departure:
357 posts per week

I call this the Kushibo Synergy Effect. It's related to the Shelton Singularity Effect.

5. This is the next step in a twelve-step program to end my blogging addiction. Even back in the days of Kexpat, I sometimes spent too much time on-line and I realized the only way to fix it was going cold turkey, and I left with little fanfare. A couple weeks later, people were privately emailing me and asking, "Hey, what happened?" although that's not why I'm doing it; I certainly get enough traffic to my blog to satisfy my egomaniacal need for adulation.

6. I evoke a love-him-or-hate-him response by so many people, and I just got tired of all the hate. On my blog, it's all about love.

7. The negative, down-on-Korea or down-on-kyopo, Korea-bashing bullshit is off-putting in a certain way. In real life, I meet such people on a fairly regular basis. I've worked with some and I run into them at Starbuck's and what-not. But the difference between real-life and the blogosphere is that in real life you can just go home at the end of the day. In the blogosphere, they're their in your living room or breakfast nook 24/7. I just need a break from it sometimes. Really, I never found myself feeling so funky about Korea except in the past year in the K-blogosphere. It's like (some of) the people there are creating their own black hole of life experience.

And I don't need that kind of toxic waste in my living room.

8. By not participating in the commentary, I can more easily ignore the inaneness.

9. Marmot's Aggregator allows me to still get the traffic without actually commenting.

10. I'll think of some more reasons later. But for now, some of the above are true.

I may occasionally still try to get the first comment in on certain issues, and then not comment after that, but I like how things are going now. I don't have the number of hits of Marmot, Jodi, or the fellator, but at around 1000 a week, I do all right.

Ah you're leaving Korea.. There's a good chance I might be visiting Seoul..;/ Well, good luck with your move.

Minty, nothing is 100% certain, but I may end up in a PhD program in Hawaii, which would call for me spending the next four or five semesters there doing academic work, although I will be spending most of the vacations back here in Seoul.

I love this city that much.

"I love this city that much."

Ah, come on..that can't possibly be coming from someone who agrees with The Marmot most of the time. Besides how can you favor that God-forsaken racist place over Hawaii? ;)
All kidding aside, I envy you...going to school in Hawaii.. sigh..I wish I had studied harder in my school days..;/

Thanks for your concern about my Korean friend. She went to the hospital and got checked. But the doctor talked her out of going to the police!Why would he do that?! She went back to her husband and they had fights for about 4 days after that, but he didnt hit her again. If fact, that was the only time he evr hit her.

Melinda wrote:
Thanks for your concern about my Korean friend. She went to the hospital and got checked. But the doctor talked her out of going to the police!Why would he do that?!

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing some people simply think that being married is better than getting divorced. Even when there are serious problems in a relationship. A lot of people — including medical professionals — don't always realize how serious physical abuse can be.

She went back to her husband and they had fights for about 4 days after that, but he didnt hit her again. If fact, that was the only time he evr hit her.

Did she say that? I somehow doubt that's true.

Anyway, if you can email me, I would like to ask you and tell you some more stuff related to this, off-blog.

The Marmot wrote:
Although it bears reminding that it was the Clinton administration that actually came closest to bombing the Bejesus out of the North when it parked to carrier groups off the North Korean coast. And Bill almost pulled the trigger because North Korea was threatening to do things that under the Bush administration it has actually done seemingly without raising undue alarm.

Just as only Nixon could go to China, only Clinton could bomb the crap out of North Korea.

I'm a little disappointed (i.e., very disappointed) that all of the hilarious comments on this Marmot's Hole post (which I mentioned here) have been removed. Yeah, a lot of it was picking on Shelton, but a lot of it was constructive criticism. Pure censorship of unpopular (i.e., popular) views.

Dogbert wrote (remove "ZZZ" in link to go to actual comment):
And people wonder why I dislike kyopos.

You take the most outrageous statements on the Internet from the most militant and/or racist kyopo out there, and generalize them to the entire population of a million or so kyopo. And for reinforcement of your sentiments you spend considerable time dueling with those belligerents at those same sites to get more fuel for your righteous indignation and anger.

Nobody wonders why you dislike kyopos, Dog Quixote. We all know.

Shakuhachi writes:
At some point people have to stop worrying about Korean reactions and just treat them like the crazy homeless guy yelling obscenities on the street.

Do you also have an entire blog on the crazy homeless guy yelling obscenities on the street?

(I mean, besides the one where you take the most extreme of Korea's population and try to make it seem like the entire populace thinks/does the same thing.)

gbevers wrote:
It appears that Mizar has taken the time to look at the claims in the Dokdo/Takeshima issue in an objective way and has come to many of the same conclusions I have.

No, it appears that Mizar has taken the time to look at your claims then regurgitate your conclusions about the Dokdo/Takeshima issue.

josesiem writes:
Korea — the highest suicide rate in the OECD…
But what about DOKDO?

What about suicide? The Korean media talks about suicide all the time.

Your problem, josesiem, is that you're assuming Koreans think about Tokto as much as K-blogs like Marmot's Hole write about Tokto.