brainstorming

China Bringing Capitalism to North Korea??

A Canadian journalist in Pyongyang reports on visiting an experimental capitalistic market in North Korea:

A silent but significant change is taking place in the southern suburbs of Pyongyang. Throughout the day, a steady stream of shoppers comes to the Tong II market to buy scarce consumer goods. The scene is truly revolutionary for this closed communist state. Tong II is an organized, private market. Enclosed in a large structure, thousands of North Koreans search for goods ranging from televisions to food, from foreign cigarettes to shoes. They move from stall to stall. Merchants, registered with nametags, sell their goods. Unlike the state stores, there are no shortages here. Food is in abundance; so is clothing and electronic merchandise. The prices are also much higher than in state stores. Tong II -- "reunification" in Korean -- is North Korea's first formal experiment with limited capitalism.

It took five days of negotiations with officials just to get permission to see the market. Once allowed in, no photos or video of the commerce were allowed. "Maybe in September," officials said, an indication of their unease with this new reality.

And the source of this radical idea? Would you guess China?

Chinese citizens can enter North Korea without visas. Ironically, this is because they are fellow communist states. The Chinese, however, are bringing in vigorous capitalism. Apart from the goods sold in Tong II, Chinese and North Koreans are collaborating in less-formal business relationships. They are "illegally" selling mobile phone services near the frontier. When foreigners arrive in North Korea, they must deposit mobile phones with the authorities. All North Korean cell phones are monitored, but the Chinese cells give North Koreans an opportunity to speak to the outside world without being intercepted. Local officials admit this is a "major problem."

North Korea is without a doubt the most closed society in the world today, with leader Kim Jong Il elevated daily to its people to god-like status. If he takes a cue from the success of China in implementing captialistic reforms, how long can he maintain control over what his citizens learn about the outside world?

China has managed to retain its one party system so far, but with access to technology it becomes more of a challenge to limit outside information to the public. Could this be the first crack in the dam to freedom for the people of North Korea?

This is really a stunning story if this change takes hold. Read the whole thing and scroll up and down for more news from North Korea.

Welcome Emily's List Readers

Someone over at Team Emily, a project of EMILY'S List thought it would be a good idea to point their readers to Brainstorming to discuss politics. I agree it's an excellent idea and I welcome all readers here.

After all I am a woman and EMILY's List is all about electing women to federal, state, and local offices.

They also use the term Democratic, and I'm a fan of the democratic process, so we have that in common.

Apparently EMILY's list is also all about Pro-Choice. You could say I'm pro-choice also, but I doubt we define "pro-choice" in the same way.

See, we all have a choice whether or not to choose to have sex.

Then we all have a choice whether or not to use birth control protection if we do choose to have sex.

Choices are great!

Finally, if we choose to have sex, and for some reason find ourselves facing an unplanned pregnancy, we have another choice.

We can choose to keep and raise our child or we can choose to give that child up for adoption.

I wholeheartedly support all these choices.

I cannot support ending that child's life through abortion.

We have all these other choices. The choice to take the life of another is a choice I have to leave to God. For that reason I will not be supporting any of the candidates endorsed by EMILY's List.

Blogs, Blogs, and More Blogs

Two new neighbors! (Sorry, no baked goods forthcoming guys.)

I've added Pinkmonkeybird and Plastic Hallway to the Neighbors links. I've met both of them at twin cities blogger bashes and I think you'll enjoy their sites. So stop by and check them out.

RNC Convention Blogging

Be sure to follow Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters and Hindrocket, (aka John H. Hinderaker), at Powerline for RNC convention blogging. Congratulations to both Minnesotans for receiving rare blogging credentials, (only about 20 were granted.)

Also, Powerline informs us that RNC Bloggers has been set up to RSS feed all the posts from the convention bloggers. I'm adding it to the top right sidebar for quick access.

Fair Inequity

I took the kids and a friend each to the Minnesota State Fair on Saturday. I gave them cash so they were happy to run around while I watched the live broadcast of the NARN on AM 1280 The Patriot.

The guest for hour 2 was Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

In an audience participation moment, they recruited Kerry impersonators.

Hour three brought with it a parade. Great for live radio!

And guest Hugh Hewitt, Honorary Hockey Commissionor or something along those lines.

Hugh claims to love Minnesota, but it left me wondering when he insisted his producer Generalissimo taste test everything in advance. In this case, Scottish Eggs. Hasn't he ever heard of Minnesota Nice?

I did get him to sign my copy of If It's Not Close They Can't Cheat.

They also nominated Hugh The Ambassador of the Pronto Pup.

After the show, we lugged the electric scooter The Boy won back to the van, (Poor kid now doomed to a life of believing you can win at carnivals. What kind of parent am i!), and I let them loose again.

I caught Al Franken giving a speech at the huge DFL spot right on the main intersection near the entrance to the fairgrounds. Who could take Stuart Smalley seriously?

Later I stopped by the small GOP booth tucked over on a side street.

What's up with that? How does the DFL rate prime fair real estate when you have to stumble across the GOP by luck? Fair inequity. That's what it is.

The good news though is the GOP was aleady sold out of Bush/Cheney buttons. I also noticed while sauntering through the number of young republicans on hand, including two seemingly college age guys who took their turn out front dressed as Kerry Filp Flops. (By then my camera battery was dead.)

All this evidence of a young conservative revolution left me unsurprised when the Kerry daughters were booed at the MTV awards.

We left the Fair broke but happy, full of food on a stick. As it should be.

Where's DC?

Let's play a game called Where's DC?

Here are some clues........(Click any image to enlarge.)

The scenery looks something like this:

Or sometimes like this:

You could take this ride:

Or you might like this ride better:

The wildflowers would look like this:

Or maybe like this:

The locals seem to be really nice:

You could let your family disappear into here:

And they might come out with this:

If you run across something that looks like this:

You might find tree mail around that looks like this:

After all that exertion by the end of the day, you might look like this:

Where do you think DC is?

Kerry, the Swift Boat Vets, and The Man Behind the Curtain

Lileks, (whose Bleat is read in the White House, by the way, which I discovered through Instapundit), points us to a preview of a Beer with presidential candiate John Kerry article that includes this tidbit:

Kerry says he loves competition, loves the feeling of it, throwing the lacrosse ball around, and talks about his greatest athletic moment: "A hat trick as a senior in the Harvard-Yale soccer game ... I think I got down on my knees and hit the ground."

Considering all the news that's come out about inconsistencies in John Kerry's depiction of his time in Vietnam via the Swift Boat Vets, when I come across a specific claim that Kerry makes about his past, a little alarm goes off in my head. Is it true that John Kerry scored a hat trick in a Harvard-Yale soccer game? Has anyone independently verified the facts?

Given all the time and resources in the world, I might take the time to investigate the hat trick story myself. Not that it's germane to the election, except as it speaks to his credibility.

Let's be clear. I am not asserting that John Kerry did not, in fact, score a hat trick against Harvard, nor have I seen anyone else claim this story to be false or exaggerated.

My point is that John Kerry's credibility about his past has sunk to such lows that anytime I see him state specifics I'm hoping there's independent testimony, a witness, a blogger like Captain Ed to check out the facts.

It seems I'm not the only one feeling this way.

Vietnam veterans opposing John Kerry have scored a hit with a tough TV ad that claims he lied about his war record — it makes swing voters think twice about backing Kerry, an independent study has found.

The ad planted doubts in the minds of 27 percent of independent voters who planned to vote for Kerry or leaned pro-Kerry. After seeing it, they were no longer sure they'd back him, the study found.

Speaking of the Swift Boat Vets, Mitch does an admirable job of knocking down the democrats attacks on the messengers. Although they're still keeping candidate Kerry away from the press so he won't have to answer questions about those pesky facts, the campaign must finally realize the story has legs. I caught out of the periphery of my vision some vets standing behind a Kerry podium. They again seemed to be attacking the messengers, rather than addressing the charges.

Ignore that man behind the curtain!

Summer's slipped by like a dream I can almost remember on waking. I find myself shaking my head, trying to catch the fragments before they dissipate. When I try to explain it, my sentence trails off with no ending because as I speak the thoughts out loud I realize the words don't make sense.

Like a sci-fi character who finds herself out of phase with the rest of the world, I can see all of you, but can't quite connect with reality. The world's clock is moving so fast, it must be some kind of time space distortion, dontcha think?

Or it could be just me.

Me. Shocked by the calendar and the realization that we've not yet planned a summer family get-away. (What shall the children write about for their first back to school essay assignment?)

Because I live by the maxim that nothing must be done before it is Absolutely Neccessary.

Maxim: A succinct formulation of a fundamental principle, general truth, or rule of conduct.

A rule of conduct. Or ...As a rule I conduct myself as such................

It fits I guess.

So now by the Absolutely Neccessary rule of conduct, we decided today we will in fact attempt a vacation. We have chosen a destination. Now to find accomodation.

Which is never easy.

Never ever.

Because horror of all horrors, we are Smokers! Gasp! (Obligatory non smoking message...don't ever ever ever start, bad bad bad disclaimer)

Number of bedrooms....check
Location......................check
Hot tub.......................check

Smoking?

No. No. No. No. No. No. NO

On the other hand. We could always stay home.

Bits and Pieces

Due to the wonders of PVR, (love ,love love my PVR's I do), we were thrilled to discover last night that the incomparable Moxie was on the varsity panel of Dennis Miller's show Friday, Aug. 6. She was great, even leaving Miller a little speechless at one point. A Powerline reader also nominated her for "Babe of the week." Did I make any media appearances this week, you ask? Not so much. Mox is up to the challenge.

*****

If you missed it, Dale Franks at Q and O updates us on securing our borders. I'm puzzled and disappointed by the pandering on this issue by both sides of the aisle. Mostly because it's not logical to me. I believe the first candidate who stands up for taking border security seriously would get a standing ovation from a huge majority of the citizens in this country. I do find this plan to allow border guards to deport people on the spot encouraging, but why exclude illegal immigrants, (note - NOT undocumented workers), from Mexico?

*****

This is not another site by me, though the name would fit, Messy Christian. She has an interesting story and I like her style.

*****

Another busy day tomorrow. See you around!

Seeking God

My first post on Genesis can be found here, covering the order of creation and the first hint of a triune God, (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.)

Let's be frank, shall we? I find that post a little dry, which is not at all what I intended. Hopefully I won't continue to bore you to tears. I thought it might help if I explain a little bit about where I'm coming from, why I would choose to post on the Bible. After all, I'm no theologian and there are plenty of sites out there written by professionals.

I believe the Bible is true.

I believe it's purpose is to reveal to us the nature of God, the reason for our existence, and His plan for us.

Many have called it a love letter, and in many ways it is God's love letter to His people, calling them into relationship with Him.

I meet so many people who see christianity as a set of rules, the "Thou shalt nots....."

But that's not what the book says. Would it surprise you to know that one of the main purposes of the Ten Commandments is to demonstrate to us that you and I are not capable of living our lives according to them?

Does that surprise you? Is there anyone among us who has not lied? Is there any among us who hasn't loved something or someone in our lives more than we loved God? The point is that we can't live by the rules.

Well, you say, I do know we're all sinners.

We know we're all sinners and then we start the game of rationalization. After all God knows that I really want to be good and I've definitely done more good than bad, right? Can we earn eternal life by good intentions? A loving, merciful God is going to forgive me, right? I'm not as bad as.......

When serious the only people we see in hell are Hitle, Stalin, and murderers. When joking we imagine joining our friends there for a game of cards and a party.

But, God never says he'll weigh the good we've done against the bad we've done.

He only has one measure of our lives, one question to ask.

Do you believe in my Son?

Why is that so important? What about people who were never given the chance? Could it really be that simple, and at the same time so difficult?

There are so many things in the world that demand our attention. Our home, kids, families, spouse, work, politics, sports. How much time do we give to the question of our existence? If we are as the bible says, eternal, how does our time on earth compare to the rest of time we will exist?

Our time here is a blink of an eye.

But, this is the time we have to answer these questions.

In other words, if this story is true, there's nothing more important we can ponder. There's nothing more important to give our attention to. There's nothing more important for us to study and understand.

Why are we here? What does God require of us? Is there evidence that there is one true God? If there is, what can I know about Him?

I certainly don't have all the answers, but I hope it will be interesting to explore the questions.

I also seriously doubt I have the discipline to start in Genesis and go through the bible. We'll just have to see where this leads us. I hope we can all enjoy the journey.