Senior U.S. administration officials held secret talks in North Korea on at least three occasions in 2011 and 2012, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.
Although the visits had potential implications for Japan, Washington did not inform its security partner at the time and only informally confirmed one of them when the Japanese side pressed, government and other sources in Japan, South Korea and the United States said.
The U.S. State Department even warned the Foreign Ministry against making further inquiries, saying they would harm bilateral relations, the sources said.
U.S. military planes flew from an air base in Guam to Pyongyang and back on April 7, 2012, and again on a longer visit lasting from Aug. 18-20, the sources said.
Category Archives: Tyranny
Silicon Valley Libertarians Cling to Their Guns: “Gun Control is Technology Control” | TechPresident
Gene Hoffman is standing in the middle of his sunny corner office in Belmont, California, and he’s showing me his AR-15.
If California State Senator Leland Yee had his way, Hoffman could get arrested for this. In 1989, the California legislature passed a law banning semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 on the basis of a combination of features such as pistol grips and telescoping stocks. But Hoffman and some other gun enthusiasts scrutinized state regulations and found a way around the legal code in 2007 by creating a button that fixes magazines in place. That theoretically renders a rifle legal because its magazine could then not be detached without using a tool, as required by state law. Gun owners could still rapidly reload with this button in place, because all they have to do is poke it with the tip of a bullet to unlock empty magazines. Last year, Yee floated a bill that would add button-equipped guns to a list of banned weapons.
So when I asked Hoffman to explain the device — a controversial add-on called the “bullet button” — he didn’t have to close his office door before pulling the seven-pound Lauer LCW-15, unloaded, from a large rectangular case on the floor. He did anyway — “Just so I don’t alarm anyone,” he said.
via Silicon Valley Libertarians Cling to Their Guns: “Gun Control is Technology Control” | TechPresident.
MASSIVE TURNOUT at Hudson Council Meeting After Lib Alderman Slams “Psychotard” Gun Owners | The Gateway Pundit
Committee President Moore said the group was upset at being confronted by such a large and angry crowd who were obviously “against us” and stressed the committee was not trying to “do anything sneaky.”
But shouted questions from the audience forced the committee to call on Marston to respond to the vile comments he had written to Smith when she had questioned his stance on the proposed law in an email several weeks ago.
Besides calling her a “gun toting tea party psychotard,” he had accused her of “grandstanding on mythical narratives of victimization,” described her ” spit” as “the white stuff frothing on the ends of that rotten little mouth of yours from which you spew this hateful ignorant trash,” and invited her to come to Hudson to protest the law, writing, “We’ll be happy to beat you barbarians back with the clubs of reason & responsibility, radical lunatics that you are.”
Liberal David Marston told the crowd tonight, “I let my lesser self get the better of me.”
He ended his rant with this classic:
“And say, a quick ProTip, since you’re the ‘organizer’ for unemployed guns nuts USA. Next time you think these unhinged rants will change the mind of anyone who has even a modicum of intelligence, you might instead just go back down into your basement & watch another episode of wheel-of-fortune. It’ll certainly be just as effective. Remember: there are millions of Eagle Scout God Worshiping Patriots who find you & your radical ilk as disgraceful to American Democracy as the Brown Shirt jackboots you act like. I happen to be just one of them. Good Luck.”
Before the crowd of hundreds of infuriated gun rights activists Marston told a different story. He apologized, saying he had drafted his response to her in “the heat of the moment” and he acknowledged the email had been inappropriate .
“I let my lesser self get the better of me,” he said.
That wasn’t good enough for the crowd. One shouted, “Joanne (Smith) is the one he insulted, He should issue her a public apology.” They also insisted the Committee permit her to speak.
When she moved to the front of the room to say a few words the crowd erupted in cheers.
Smith, who is responsible for organizing the Second Amendment Rally in Albany on Thursday, February 28, featuring NRA President David Keene, State Legislators, the NYS Rifle and Pistol Association and SCOPE said she expects a turnout of between 10,000 to 15,000 at the event.
And, for what it’s worth, according to the Hudson City Attorney there’s no chance of the proposed gun law going into effect as it would be preempted by county and state ordinances already in effect.
Obama DHS Purchases 2,700 Light-Armored Tanks to Go With Their 1.6 Billion Bullet Stockpile | The Gateway Pundit
Maybe this could have been part of the sequester. Are they this worried about IEDs in Kansas?
The Department of Homeland Security (through the U.S. Army Forces Command) recently retrofitted 2,717 of these ‘Mine Resistant Protected’ vehicles for service on the streets of the United States.
Although I’ve seen and read several online blurbs about this vehicle of late, I decided to dig slightly deeper and discover more about the vehicle itself.
The new DHS sanctioned ‘Street Sweeper’ (my own slang due to the gun ports) is built by Navistar Defense (NavistarDefense.com), a division within the Navistar organization. Under the Navistar umbrella are several other companies including International Trucks, IC Bus (they make school buses), Monaco RV (recreational vehicles), WorkHorse (they make chassis), MaxxForce (diesel engines), and Navistar Financial (the money arm of the company).
North Korean fashion women are ‘encouraged’ to choose from 18 officially sanctioned hairstyles | Mail Online
Why does this make me think of Michael Bloomberg?
Back in 2005, North Korean state TV launched a five part series entitled ‘Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle’ with the aim of promoting short back and sides for its male population.
At the same time, a number of reports appeared in North Korean press and radio urging tidy hairstyles and appropriate clothing.
The TV show sent out teams with hidden cameras to catch ‘rebel’ North Koreans who were breaking the North Korean strict hairstyle code.
The makers of the program went so far as to name and shame those who had the audacity to get their hair cut differently.
The program even claimed there were health reasons not to grow long hair including the bizarre claim that long hair would rob the brain of energy.
Men should keep their hair shorter than five centimeters and have it cut every 15 days.
7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About If Bush Had Done Them
Last year, a teenage American citizen, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was taken out in a drone strike without a trial.
via 7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About If Bush Had Done Them.
After soda regs, Bloomberg’s NYC eyes Styrofoam ban – Washington Times
Let’s see how he handles the snow this weekend before we let him regulate more personal choices. My prediction – New York is in for some rough days with the snow. Last time this happened, the plows hit the streets where city officials lived, but didn’t get anything else done.
First, he limited the size of drinks allowed throughout the city. Now Mayor Bloomberg and his administration are mulling a ban on the plastic foam cups they’re sold in.
Polystyrene foam, sometimes sold under the brand name Styrofoam, is popular at thousands of delis and food carts across New York. The city prepares to roll out a major recycling announcement in the coming weeks, with Styrofoam cups on the chopping block, a Sanitation Department official said Wednesday.
via After soda regs, Bloomberg’s NYC eyes Styrofoam ban – Washington Times.
Oregon Bill 71. Death of FPV in oregon which may spread.
This bill would make putting a camera onto out quads illegal and send us to jail and heavy fines for flying them. Yes this is only in oregon now but if they pass it into law it WILL spread to to other states. We need to help fight this, sign the petition and start contacting your lawmakers and get this re-written. I do agree laws need to be passed for GOVERNMENT use of UAV’s but the videos we do should not fall under those laws. RC fliers have a history of great self regulation, with a few instances of idiots but they are few and far between, lets prevent the government from making us all criminals by doing what we love.
via Oregon Bill 71. Death of FPV in oregon which may spread..
Waterboarding Bad, Assassination Good – By Peter Kirsanow – The Corner – National Review Online
So, as NBC News’ Michael Isikoff reports, according to an Obama/Holder Justice Department memo, it’s okay for the U.S. government to authorize the extrajudicial killing of American citizens who are believed to be senior operational leaders of al-Qaeda, even if there’s no intelligence that they’re involved in an active plot against the U.S. According to Jay Carney, such killing is “legal, ethical, and wise.”
On the other hand, it’s inarguably torture and a war crime to waterboard a non-citizen who’s the confirmed No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda and who actually planned the most horrific terrorist attack in American history. CIA officers involved in enhanced interrogations are kept in fear of possible criminal prosecution for years by the same Obama/Holder Justice Department. The author of memos on the legality of enhanced interrogation (the felicitously named “torture memos”) is the subject of endless vitriol and opprobrium from the Left. Leftist foreign leaders call for the arrest of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld as war criminals. And if you depict waterboarding in a movie without explicitly condemning such waterboarding as torture most heinous, you don’t get an Oscar.
Got it. When engaged in wet work, make sure it’s the permanent kind. And that the rest of your policies are favored by the Left.
via Waterboarding Bad, Assassination Good – By Peter Kirsanow – The Corner – National Review Online.
This gun rights backer, armed with his Glock and his blog, is always on alert – The Washington Post
Sitting in his living room with Farago looking on, Kenik shows off a couple of his black rifles. Farago generally defers to Kenik’s expertise on technical firearms issues. They’re something of an odd couple: Farago is tall, mild-mannered, bespectacled, and with his gun on his hip could pass for a plainclothes detective. Kenik is short, round and intense, prone to emphatic declarations.
Both are Jewish, and both lost grandparents in the Holocaust — surely a source, Farago says, of their wariness of government. Farago says he feels betrayed and abandoned by fellow Jews who favor gun control.
“Because of all the people on the face of the Earth who should be pro-gun, the Jews should be right at the top of that list,” he says. “How many Jews have to die before they realize that ‘never again’ means being prepared — personally prepared?”
via This gun rights backer, armed with his Glock and his blog, is always on alert – The Washington Post.