Enjoying the view from Limbo
Look at the following images, from Moon Jae-in’s latest surprise get-together with Kim Jong Un, on May 25th: And here are some images from the two leaders’ similar meeting a month ago: And here are the two men and their wives clinking champagne glasses and pretending to enjoy some kitsch-for-peace performances: All smiles, all unity, all friendship across borders, all “reconciliation.” What could...
Ideas and Reflections / Socialized Medicine / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published December 3, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
Korea’s recently-elected progressive government has announced plans to begin “research” on the country’s restrictive abortion laws, which, of course, is another way of saying they are going to get the ball rolling on legalizing abortion. This initiative is merely an effort to bring the letter of the law into sync with the spirit of national decay, since many thousands of illegal abortions are...
Imagine a world in which one can actually describe the human species concretely, as one finds it, without measuring every utterance against the ever-changing barometer of political correctness. Imagine a language that actually communicates positively, naturally, rather than forever masking itself in unnecessary, propagandized euphemism in order to avoid the ultimate progressive sin of “offending” someone’s indoctrinated sensitivity and delicateness. Imagine the freedom...
Wednesday, October 4th is Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival, a major national holiday scheduled according to the lunar calendar. The event has no strictly religious significance or affiliation, but is rather an ancient tradition of families gathering to welcome autumn by enjoying nature’s bounty, typical of any society that remains at least sentimentally attached to its agrarian, agricultural heritage. For a North American...
As an indefatigable, some might say incorrigible, walker, one of my peripatetic missions is to try to see the predawn sky each day. For me, the relative loneliness of this time, before normal life commences, is an excellent opportunity for fresh reflection on old ideas, or old reflection on fresh ones. These days, here in Korea, my early morning thoughts frequently settle for...
Yes. John Bolton, like a lot of his neoconservative allies, is a very smart and well-spoken man who never met a war he didn’t like — unless someone was asking him to fight it. So naturally he is on Fox News these days drooling with excitement over the possibility of a preemptive strike on North Korea. .@AmbJohnBolton: Every American citizen, has to ask...
On Tuesday, May 9, the Republic of Korea will elect a new president. All signs indicate that the next president will be a socialist, after a decade of governance by the country’s relatively conservative party — a party which, in a desperate attempt to save itself from being tarred with President Park Geun-hye’s recent impeachment, has tellingly rebranded itself as Liberal Korea. Given...
South Korea’s ex-President Park Geun-hye was recently impeached and removed from office after a long investigation and widespread public outcry over allegations of extorting corporate donations in exchange for political favors, particularly involving financial benefits to a long-time friend and advisor. In the process, major business leaders, including top Samsung Group executive Lee Jae-yong, have been arrested on charges of bribery. Now, ex-President...
If you read my New Year’s post from a few weeks back, you already know how little interest I have in New Year’s Day as a holiday or tradition. Perhaps it is not surprising, therefore, given the theme of this website — life in Limbo — that I have been saddled with a perpetual punishment suited to my peculiar form of crankiness, namely...
Happy New Year, Everyone! I like to say that to my friends, as we all do, because it is another way of wishing them well, which is always pleasant. To be honest, however, New Year’s Day as such is probably the least interesting of all the major festive days for me, just slightly below Hallowe’en. Yes, it’s time to restart the yearly time counting system, at least for those of us...
Follow: