Former Korean War POW Recieves Diploma from Hometown High School Before it Closes Down Forever

This story is actually a couple of years old, but I recently found out about it and thought it would be worth re-visiting on Memorial Day weekend nonetheless.

Some 56 years after he left high school in his west Texas hometown of Spade to join the Army in the early stages of the Korean War, veteran Sherman Jones was invited to receive an honorary diploma from the class of 2006- the last class that would graduate from Spade's high school before it was closed down forever.



After 2006, students attending Spade's high school were combined with classes from the neighboring Olton school district.

Although Sherman would eventually receive enough credit for a high school diploma and would go to college after his military service, he never had a ceremony where he received his diploma.

Jones was taken prisoner with about 1500 other American soldiers after his unit was encircled and they ran out of supplies and ammunition. As a POW, Jones endured what historians call "Korea's Bataan Death March" where he was only one of 17 survivors. He was found bleeding from gunshot wounds by advancing American forces and would later have to undergo 65 surgeries and would eventually lose his right foot in 1957.

The high school in Spade had to close due to decreased class sizes and lower enrollment. Jones was just one of six members of the 2006 Spade H.S. graduating class

Sony Pulls The Interview From Theaters After Suspected North Korean Hackers Issue Threats

Sony Films announced this week that they were cancelling the release of the Seth Rogen comedy The Interview after the studio's emails and files were on the receiving end of a sophisticated hack.

Sony has confirmed it has no plans to release the satirical film The Interview internationally, in any form, following threats from hackers.

Cinemas in the US cancelled screenings of the film, about a plot to kill North Korea's leader, prompting Sony to shelve it altogether.

But there has been dismay in Hollywood, with Ben Stiller calling the move "a threat to freedom of expression".

Hackers had issued a warning to cinema-goers who planned to watch the movie.

Sony said it was "deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie".

"We respect and understand our partners' decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theatre-goers," the studio said.

It added: "We stand by our film-makers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome."

The cancellation comes after hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace released emails and data stolen from Sony in late November.

In a later warning to cinemas screening The Interview, they referred to the 9/11 attacks, claiming "the world will be full of fear".

"Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time," the hacker group wrote, in a message on Tuesday.

"Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment."

Sony had given theatres in the US and Canada the option to bow out of showing The Interview in the wake of the threats.

Sony had given theater chains throughout North America the option to pull out of showing The Interview. Once major chains like Regal Cinemas [NYSE- RGC], Cinemark [NYSE- CNK] and AMC Cinemas [NYSE- AMC] opted out of distributing the film that reportedly had a cascading effect on other distributors.

The comedy stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as two bumbling Hollywood insiders who manage to land an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.

The move by Sony to pull The Interview from its scheduled Christmas day release as condemned by many in Hollywood, Washington DC and on social media, with actor Rob Lowe [who has a cameo in the film, according to the IMDB- NANESB!] tweeting that Sony's decision "would've made Neville Chamberlain proud". Comedian Steve Carell simply tweeted a clip from Charlie Chaplin's 1940 satire The Great Dictator in which Chaplin was mimickinng Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's speeches and mannerisms.

Shortly after Sony announced the cancellation of The Interview, some theaters announced that they would be airing the 2004 comedy Team America: World Police which mocked Kim Jong Un's father and then North Korean-leader Kim Jong Il. However, Paramount Pictures has told theaters not to air the movie.

UN Climate Official: Communism Most Effective Form of Government to Fight Global Warming

Once upon a time, if you were suspicious of climate change alarmism on the grounds that it was some sort of international plot to undermine representative government and economically cripple developing nations, you would've been written off as some sort of fringe black-helicopter conspiracy theorist. 'What do you mean global warming is simply a tactic to scare free societies into allowing unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats to control an increasing number of aspects of their daily lives? That's just right-wing climate-denier crazy talk!'

However, nowadays it seems as though some of the adherents to the cult of global warming are confident enough to be more straightforward on their endgame.

Enter UN Climate Chief Christina Figueres, who openly declared earlier this week that Communist governments were the best means to combat global warming. In her prepared statements, she favorably cited Beijing for making improvements in China's environmental policy, whereas 'climate change' legislation has mostly died in the United States Congress [although the White House has been using regulatory fiat through the EPA to circumvent lawmakers- NANESB!].

China may be the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and struggling with major pollution problems of their own, but the country is “doing it right” when it comes to fighting global warming says Figueres.

“They actually want to breathe air that they don’t have to look at,” she said. “They’re not doing this because they want to save the planet. They’re doing it because it’s in their national interest.”

Figueres added that the deep partisan divide in the U.S. Congress is “very detrimental” to passing any sort of legislation to fight global warming. The Chinese Communist Party, on the other hand, can push key policies and reforms all on its own. The country’s national legislature largely enforces the decisions made by the party’s Central Committee and other executive offices.

Environmentalists often hail China as a model for fighting global warming, since they are a “leader” in renewable energy. The country set a goal of getting 15 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020. In 2012, China got 9 percent of its power from renewables — the U.S. by contrast got 11 percent in 2012.

However, the country still gets 90 percent of its power from fossil fuels, mostly from coal. In fact, Chinese coal demand is expected to explode as the country continues to develop. China has approved 100 million metric tons of new coal production capacity in 2013 as part of the government’s plan to bring 860 million metric tons of coal production online by 2015.

China has publicly made big efforts to clean up its environment. The country’s booming industrial apparatus has caused so much pollution that the skies have been darkened over major cities and the air quality has heavily deteriorated.

The Wall Street Journal notes that China’s air quality was so bad that about “1.2 million people died prematurely in China in 2010 as a result of air pollution” and Chinese government figures show that “lung cancer is now the leading cause of death from malignant tumors. Many of those dying are nonsmokers.”

The Soviet bloc’s environmental track record was similarly dismal.

The Communist Party’s National Action Plan spent $275 billion to combat rampant pollution through 2017, including reducing particulate matter 2.5 levels in the Beijing region by 25 percent.

Beijing's long-standing air pollution problems became an international issue when the city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, leaving athletes to wonder if they'd be competing for medals amid a thick blanket of smog. China's Communist government was able to partially alleviate that problem in the weeks and months leading up to the Olympiad by severely restricting vehicle traffic in Beijing and relocating factories and power plants to provinces outside the capital- however, after the closing ceremonies in August 2008 the pollution returned and has only worsened since then.

The problems aren't limited to Beijing, however. Pollution in major waterways like the Yangtze River are killing off fish and making the water unfit for human consumption. China has also suffered widespread deforestation over the past few decades with dozens of square kilometers being clear-cut simultaneously. To the east and across the Yalu River in North Korea, deforestation is thought to have contributed to the massive drought and famine in the 1990s.

Figueres' claim that communism is somehow better for the environment than a free market and democratic system is also laid to waste by just a cursory look at the former Soviet Union. Perhaps the most stark example of communist stewardship of the environment would be the irradiated and uninhabitable territory around the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. An April 1986 meltdown and explosion at the facility just outside the city of Pripyat sent plumes of highly radioactive materiel into the skies over the western USSR as well as Scandinavia and western Europe. Unlike the devastation wrought at Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic 2011 Sendai quake and tsunami, Chernobyl happened due to a simple test. To this day, an 'exclusion zone' of nearly 2600 km stretches through what is now the Ukraine and Belarus with Chernobyl and the ghost city of Pripyat at the epicenter.

But ecological catastrophe in the former communist Eastern bloc isn't just limited to Chernobyl. Factories in Russia and the former Soviet satellite states are still home to factories that spew pollutants into the air and water unchecked- with some cities competing for the dubious 'honor' of being the most polluted spot on earth.

The Aral Sea- at one time one of the largest lakes in the world- has been shrinking at an exponential rate since a massive Soviet public works project in the 1960s diverted water from two of the rivers that fed the Aral sea to irrigate cotton fields. By the 1991 breakup of the USSR, the central Asian former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan inherited two polluted, shrunken and depleted lakes where there used to be one Aral Sea. Considered one of the biggest environmental catastrophes on the planet, between 1960 and 1998 the total area of the Aral Sea shrunk by more than 60%. Although Kazakhstan has been able to partially restore the northern portion of the Aral Sea in recent years, the southern half continues to recede leading to sights such as a pier stretching out over nothing but grey desert or camels standing near the hulks of abandoned ships, miles away from the nearest navigable body of water.

Even more problematic is a former Soviet bioweapons facility that was once housed on Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea- the facility was once on an island and Red Army scientists experimented with weaponized strains of botulism, smallpox and anthrax. In 1971 a weaponized strain of smallpox was released and infected a passing research vessel. An infected crewmember disembarked at the port of Aralsk and infected their family. The disease spread and Soviet officials quarantined the city and vaccinating some 50,000 residents- although this incident wasn't generally known to the public until 2002. Since the outbreak, Vozrozhdeniya became a peninsula and then part of the mainland as the Aral Sea shrunk. The facility itself was hastily abandoned in 1992 shortly after the collapse of the USSR and weaponized strains of anthrax and bubonic plague were improperly stored in containers that continue to deteriorate over time.

Lake Baikal- the world's largest freshwater lake and dubbed 'The Pearl of Siberia'- also suffered considerably in Soviet times. The 25 million year old lake is home to several species not found elsewhere such as the Baikal seal or golomyanka fish. In the 1960s, the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill was constructed along the lake's southern shore and discharged waste directly into the lake. Ironically, even though the plant continued operation well into post Soviet times, it was ultimately killed by capitalism when it was shut down in 2009 due to unprofitability.

Perhaps the most galling thing about Figueres' statement is that she likely knows EXACTLY how poor a steward of the environment communism has been but has decided to praise the same system that drained the Aral Sea and gave us Chernobyl and countless polluted rivers and lakes throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. More likely, the people pushing for unilateral government action on 'global warming' are doing so under the premise that they'll be exempt or they can purchase some sort of exemption through carbon offsets or a cap and trade system. I suspect even if they get their way, the carbon footprint of aircraft, ships, trains and automobiles won't bother them so long as those methods of transportation are providing them with conveyance or goods and services.

Breaking Bad, Gangham Pyongyang Style- North Korea Reportedly Manufacturing Crystal Meth for Export

Thai Prime minister displaying seized methamphetamine in June 2012

With the series finale of Breaking Bad - AMC's popular drama about a New Mexico high school chemistry teacher who receives a terminal cancer diagnosis and decides cooks meth with a former student- coming up this weekend, it seems as though North Korea wants to get in on the act. But can it really be considered Breaking Bad if you're already in the most despotic nation on the face of the earth to begin with?

A report from South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper from earlier this year alleges that North Korean diplomats have been ordered to sell drugs to give Kim Jong Un's government foreign currency reserves with which the regime uses to reward loyal officials and further their nuclear weapons program.

The drugs in question are said to be locally manufactured crystal methamphetamine produced in state-run facilities, which is then reportedly smuggled across the border and sold in China.

However, some of that meth has made its way back into North Korea or never even left, creating an epidemic of drug users on the most totalitarian state in the world. With a scarcity of medicine, North Koreans have reportedly taken to using meth to alleviate ailments and some defectors claim parents encourage their children to take the drug to help them stay alert for their studies.

Despite official denials from Pyongyang, North Korea has been allegedly raising funds to shore up their foreign currency reserves for years through illicit means- including drug trafficking, counterfeiting, money laundering, arms trafficking and insurance fraud. Many of these activities are said to be overseen from a mysterious agency known as Bureau 39 headquartered inside the ruling Worker's Party headquarters in Pyongyang.

Panama Seizes North Korean Vessel Carrying Heavy Weaponry and Components

Panamanian Troops stand guard aboard the seized North Korean vessel Chong Chon Gang as police cadets prepare to search the ship's cargo hold for additional weapons and military hardware. Carlos Jasso photo

Authorities in Panama discovered a cache of Cold War era weaponry after seizing and boarding a North Korean cargo vessel that was approaching the Panama Canal. Panamanian authorities became suspicious when the vessel approached the canal with its maritime transponder shut off and believed the vessel was carrying drugs.

The captain of the North Korean-flagged dry-bulk freighter Chong Chon Gang reportedly had a heart attack and attempted to kill himself as Panamanian soldiers boarded the vessel while the crew resisted arrest before the vessel was redirected to the Caribbean port of Colon. A search of one of the cargo holds turned up Soviet-era surface to air missiles and guidance system components buried among tons of sugar. The ship's crew and captain were detained by Panamanian troops on charges of violating national security and transporting undeclared weapons.

The freighter was returning from Cuba and the government of Raul Castro claimed that the weapons found were Cuban and being sent to North Korea for refurbishment, despite an international arms embargo against the secretive Marxist regime. A further search of the Chong Chon Gang's cargo hold has also turned up two MiG 21 fighter jets in addition to 15 engines- also concealed among two tons of sugar. Officials estimate there are a total of 27 container under the sugar in the Chong Chon Gang's cargo hold and are awaiting the arrival of a team of UN inspectors to further examine the ship next week.

Under current sanctions, all U.N. member states are prohibited from directly or indirectly supplying, selling or transferring arms, missiles or missile systems and the equipment and technology to make them to North Korea, with the exception of small arms and light weapons.

It also lets countries inspect cargo destined for North Korea if a state has credible information the cargo could violate Security Council resolutions.

The discovery aboard the freighter Chong Chon Gang was expected to trigger an investigation by the U.N. Security Council committee that monitors the sanctions against North Korea.

If Cuba wanted to send the weapons for repairs and have them returned, it would have needed to get a waiver from the Security Council committee monitoring the North Korea sanctions.

According to maritime blogger Convenient Flags, North Korean merchant ships appearing in Panamanian waters is relatively rare, with a grand total of five traversing the Panama Canal since 2010. The Chong Chon Gang passed through the Panama Canal on its way to Cuba earlier with a load of sheet metal- Panamanian authorities inspected the vessel then. The seized freighter's route and ports of call were similar to that of the 2012 voyage another North Korean vessel made in 2012- only the O Un Chong Nyon Ho's voyage didn't attract as much attention at the time.

Cuba had told Panamanian officials that the outbound cargo on board the Chong Chon Gang was a 'donation' of sugar to North Korea and both North Korea and Cuba have called for the ship's release. Former Colombian president Alviro Uribe also speculated that the arms on board could be destined for a third party if they were on their way to being refurbished by North Korea- Uribe says he believes Ecuador or one of the nations that was part of Hugo Chavez's Bolivar Axis was a likely destination.

[I maintain that the ship's final destination was actually Mike Bloomberg's New York, and the contraband sugar would've been smuggled in by hiding them among the MiG jets and surface to air missiles- NANESB!]

North Korea Threatens Nuclear Strike on South Korea, US Military Bases

Female North Korean soldiers in high heels on patrol along the Yalu River along the border with China. Reuters photo/Jacky Chen

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been ratcheted up in recent weeks as North Korea has threatened to attack South Korea and the United States after the United Nations approved a fresh round of sanctions for the secretive Stalinist nation, up to and including scrapping the 1953 armistice that led to a ceasefire in the Korean War.

A North Korean general said on Tuesday that Pyongyang was scrapping the armistice. But the two sides remain technically at war as the civil war did not end with a treaty.

North Korea threatens the United States and its "puppet," South Korea, on an almost daily basis.

"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest," the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

North Korea conducted a third nuclear test on February 12, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, and declared it had achieved progress in securing a functioning atomic arsenal. It is widely believed that the North does not have the capacity for a nuclear strike against the mainland of the United States.

With tensions high on the Korean peninsula, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to expand its sanctions on North Korea. The new sanctions were agreed after three weeks of negotiations between the United States and China, which has a history of resisting tough measures against its ally and neighbor.

The resolution specifies some luxury items North Korea's elite is not allowed to import, such as yachts, racing cars, luxury automobiles and certain types of jewelry. This is intended to close a loophole that had allowed countries to decide for themselves what constitutes a luxury good.

"These sanctions will bite and bite hard," said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

The export of luxury goods to North Korea has been prohibited since 2006, though diplomats and analysts said the enforcement of U.N. sanctions has been uneven.

Shortly after North Korea issued their threats and said they would no longer abide by the armistice the United States deployed stealth bombers for joint excercises with South Korea at the end of March. In response, the North has positioned mobile missile launchers on the country's east coast and blocked South Korean workers from entering a joint manufacturing facility at the border in Kaesong in advance of threatened missile tests.

David Guttenfelder/AP Photo

There has also been a noticeable buildup of troops along China's border with North Korea in recent weeks. China remains North Korea's primary ally in the region, although public sentiment in China seems to have turned against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for his ill advised nuclear brinksmanship as much of North Korea's population is starving.

China still holds significant leverage with North Korea, but the current situation on the Korean peninsula benefits Beijing by diverting resources from Japan's Self Defense Forces. Since late 2012, Chinese aircraft and vessels have repeatedly made incursions into the disputed Senkaku Islands, which are claimed by both Japan and China.

Juche Apparently Isn't Rocket Science

Just in case you were wondering, 'Juche' is a political thesis from the late North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung that supposedly emphasised military and economic self-reliance. This is somewhat ironic, considering that Sung and his successors have relied heavily on imported food and materials long before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union- one of North Korea's main trading partners.

As North Korea dedicated its efforts to building up their military arsenal in recent years, North Korean civilians have endured drought, famine and government crackdowns. This did not change after Kim Il Sung's 1994 death or the December 2011 passing of his son Kim Jong Il. Within weeks of Kim Il Jong's death, his youngest son and heir apparent- Kim Jong Un- took power.

In carrying on his father and grandfather's traditions of flouting treaties and international agreements, North Korea had been preparing all month to launch a long-range rocket. As US, South Korean and Japanese forces in the region went on heightened alert, the secretive North Korean government took the unusual step of allowing foreign reporters in to view the Sohae launch site, which is in the northwestern part of the country along the border with China. At the end of March, Japan's defense ministry announced they would shoot down North Korea's rocket should it pass over Japanese territory. In 2009, a long-range rocket from North Korea overflew Japan's home islands during a similar launch.

The US State Department says the launch is a breach of United Nations Security Council sanctions andan agreement reached between the USA and North Korea in February of this year restricting further development of North Korea's long-range weaponry. The North Korean regime, however, insists that Thursday's launch was to put a satellite into orbit to mark Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday. Japan, the South and the USA believe the lauch is to further develop long range missile technology.

However, in what was probably the least surprising development since the sun rising in the east, the Unha ("galaxy") rocket followed a similar trajectory to that of Keith Olbermann's broadcast career- crashing and burning spectacularly shortly after launch. The Nork rocket reportedly didn't even make it as far as 100km before exploding over the East China Sea.

In a rare move, the state-run news agency reported to a North Korean audience that the launch was unsuccessful. North Korean broadcasts are typically reserved for flowery, melodramatic propaganda heaping nonstop praise on the communist government. South Korean military experts believe that Un will try and deflect attention away from the failed launch or a military provocation directed against the South.

Report: North Koreans Sent to Labor Camps By Regime For Not Appearing Distraught Enough While Mourning Kim Il Jong

Not sufficiently weepy? Off to the labor camps with you!

Shortly after the death of North Korean leader Kim Il-Jung was announced last month, the regime-controlled media made it a point to broadcast video and images of grief-stricken mourners wailing in the streets of Pyongyang over Dear Leader's ascent to that worker's paradise in the sky.



For those of you unfamiliar with the North Korean regime, they control just about every aspect of life in the country and any large-scale event (i.e. parades or something called the Mass games) that takes place is typically very well choreographed. Lining people up on the streets of Pyongyang to wail in anguish on cue for cameras would be a fairly simple task given the ornate nature of some of the other events that have been choreographed.

There's a school of thought that the mourning was genuine either because the indoctrination has clearly taken hold or because those wailing the loudest had it pretty good under Kim Il Jong but could face an uncertain future under Kim Jong-Un, Kim Il Jong's heir apparent.

It's also worth noting that not only does North Korea's state-run media have zero connection to reality, they seem to do so with a melodramatic flourish when it comes to anything related to the regime and ruling party. That's not just this lackey lapdog of Yanqui imperialism speaking- check out these reports from the KCNA (North Korea's official media outlet) that Reuters thoughtfully passed along for us.

(Reuters) - The passing of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il has been marked by plunging temperatures, mourning bears and now, according to North Korean state media, by flocks of magpies.

Kim, who died in December aged 69 years after 17 years running the world's most reclusive state, was reputed to be able to control the weather, as well as to have scored a miraculous 38 under par round of golf.

"At around 17:30 on December 19, 2011, hundreds of magpies appeared from nowhere and hovered over a statue of President Kim Il Sung on Changdok School campus in Mangyongdae District, clattering as if they were telling him the sad news," state news agency KCNA reported on Monday.

KCNA reported last week that a family of bears who usually hibernate through the fierce Korean winter had been seen lamenting Kim Jong-il's death.

"The bears, believed to be a mother and cubs, were staying on the road, crying woefully," it said

Now, reports are circulating that mourners in Pyongyang are being sentenced to several month stints in prison camps for not looking distraught enough on camera.

According to South Korea-based Daily NK, authorities have convened 'criticism sessions' with the aim of punishing those who skipped organized events during the mourning period or those who did but didn't cry or "seem genuine".

The informant from North Hamkyung Province told the website: 'The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labour-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organised gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine.'
The source claimed the criticism sessions created a 'vicious atmosphere of fear', which meant the new leader, Kim Jong-un, was being accused of preying on the people now that he has taken power.

It is unclear how many people face incarceration but the figure could be many thousands.

Shortly before the NKDaily reported the official 'criticism sessions' resulting in the incarceration of lackluster mourners, the regime announced a 'Benevolent' amnesty for convicted prisoners to commemorate the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung. The announcement didn't clarify how many prisoners would be granted amnesty, although there is speculation that this might've been done to make room for the newly-sentenced North Koreans who were mourning insufficiently.

Report: North Korean Communist Dictator Kim Il Jong Dead

Kim Jong Il (left) with heir apparent Kim Jong Un (right) in 2010

North Korea's State TV is reporting that 69 year old strongman Kim Il Jong passed away over the weekend. The reports indicate he suffered a fatal heart attack while travelling by train on Saturday.

Kim Il Jong assumed power in 1994 after his father, North Korean founding father Kim Il Sung, passed away at the age of 82. Both Kim Il Sung and Kim Il Jong maintained a belligerent and acrimonious relationship with South Korea, the United States and Japan since the 1953 ceasefire in the Korean War. Kim Il Jong continued his father's legacy of isolating the country from the rest of the world and restricting the individual rights of North Koreans, subjecting them to arbitrary imprisonment or execution.

However, these abuses under Kim Il Jong's were compounded by widespread famine and his ambitions to see North Korea a nuclear state. It's thought that anywhere from 200,000 to 800,000 North Koreans perished annually during the famine that struck the country in the late 1990s.

North Korea at night as seen from space, standing in stark contrast to free-market and much more technologically advanced South Korea

While outside observers such as the United Nations and the CIA noted that North Korea became a nuclear power in 2009, the nation's infrastructure is crumbling, media and telecommunications remain strictly under state control and to this day isn't self-sufficient in providing food for its people.

In South Korea, President Lee Myung-Back convened an emergency national security council meeting and the South Korean military was placed on alert as a precaution, increasing border and maritime patrols.

In March 2010, South Korean Navy Corvette Cheonan was torpedoed by a submarine from the North, killing 46 sailors. Then in November 2010, North Korea shelled a populated island off the coast of South Korea.

According to South Korea's spy agency, Kim Il Jong's ailing health prompted him to prepare an heir apparent to assume power that much quicker. It appears likely that Kim Il Jong's youngest son, Kim Jong-Un will assume power after having been promoted to 4-star general in the North Korean military and was awarded senior level posts in the ruling party.

North Korea Shells Populated South Korean Island- South Korea Scrambles Fighters, Returns Fire

North Korea fired artillery rounds at a South Korean military garrison on Yeonpyeong Island on Tuesday, killing a South Korean Marine and setting buildings on fire while prompting the South to return fire. The shelling took place in the midst of South Korean military exercises in the area.

South Korea's YTN TV network aired footage showing columns of smoke rising from the island of about 1300 inhabitants, with the White House issuing a statement condemning the attack while China and the Kremlin cautioned both sides against escalation.

The latest provocation from the North comes only a few days after the isolated, communist state revealed that it was enriching uranium at a facility visited by the US Special envoy on North Korean denuclearization Stephen Bosworth and about a month after an ailing Kim Jong Il announced his son Kim Jong Un as his heir apparent.

In March of this year, a North Korean submarine torpedoed the corvette ROKS Cheonan, killing all 46 South Korean sailors on board.

Sports Chowdah Update- USA Advances At the Last Minute; Sox Road Trip off to Rocky Start; Anybody Else Feeling a Draft?

"IN YOUR FACE, ALGERIA!!"

Well- that was a close one. I actually caught my first televised 2010 World Cup game on Tuesday; Mexico versus Uruguay. Tuned in just in time to see Uruguay's Luis Suarez score the only goal of the match right before halftime before getting distracted and losing interest. I was quite disappointed to learn Tommy Smythe wasn't calling the game for ESPN- as it turned out the diminutive Irishman was broadcasting with ESPN Radio for Wednesday's USA/Algeria game. I tuned in fairly late for that one (vuvuzelas and all) and it appeared for all the world that the USA would be eliminated from the tournament with a scoreless draw. And that's how it would end in regulation- but there was three minutes of injury time remaining and throughout the second half, the announcers were commenting on how tired the Algeria players were looking. Algeria's goalkeeper Rais Mbolhi gave up a rebound in the 91st minute when USA Midfielder Landon Donovan finally booted one past Mbolhi for the only goal of the game. The win means that Team USA advances to play Ghana in the next round on Saturday.

Elsewhere in the World Cup: Argentina took down Greece 2-0 Tuesday in the 'self-inflicted-economic-ruin' Pool of the FIFA World Cup.


In a schadenfreude-tastic moment, Portugal beat the ever lovin' shit out of North Korea by a total of 7-0 on Monday. Apparently the Kim Jong Il endorsed Juche ideal of insular self-reliance is no match for a moderately talented (and well fed) team from a Western European liberal democracy. It reportedly got so bad that at one point, the Chinese fans the North Korean regime paid to travel to South Africa renounced their North Korean citizenship that they never had.


MLB: After dropping the first two games against the Colorado Rockies in Denver, the Red Sox managed to avoid the three game sweep in extra innings on Thursday night [better at this late date than in October 2007, I suppose- NANESB!]. Papelbon failed to seal the deal in the bottom of the 9th, giving up a one out 2-RBI single to Brad Hawpe to tie the game at 11-11. Having said that, there's something in the Colorado air that seems to agree with Dustin Pedroia.

Dustin Pedroia put the Sox up 13-11 with 2-out 2 run homer in the top of the tenth off of Huston Street- Pedroia's 11th inning dinger was his third of the night, going 4 for 5 with 5 RBI on the night. 3B Adrian Beltre was a respectable 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and a homer of his own. Papelbon had a 1-2-3 bottom of the tenth to hang on for the win.

The Sox will head back to sea-level tomorrow night where they take on the San Francisco Giants in the City (and ballpark) by the Bay. Tim Wakefield (2-5; 5.33 ERA) is expected to go up against Jonathan Sanchez (5-5; 2.90) for Friday night's game.

Other Red Sox News: 20-year old Red Sox prospect Ryan Westmoreland, along with his rather Ron and Sox GM Theo Epstein, spoke to reporters in a conference call. Westmoreland announced that he does plan on returning to baseball and has taken an "all-business" approach to rehab. Ron Westmoreland said that Ryan was able to walk around on his own power the day after his surgery on a cavernous malformation of his brain back in March. The Westmorelands have actually attended games at Fenway Park and Pawtucket's McCoy stadium this season.

WIMBLEDON: Like the World Cup and soccer, I don't normally follow tennis that much. Having said that, the match between the USA's John Isner and Frenchman Nicholas Mahut was one for the ages as Isner defeated Mahut by a final of 70-68 in the fifth set, with the match clocking in at 11 hours and 5 minutes spanning over three days. On the first day, the match was suspended on account of darkness and was eventually moved to one of the courts on the periphery of Wimbledon. Three-time Wimbledon champ John McEnroe was present for all 20 of Thursday's games between Isner and Mahut.

This epic matchup broke pretty much every record in the book on the very same day the Queen of England visited Wimbledon for the first time in 33 years.

NBA: The Celtics chose Texas guard Avery Bradley with their first round (19th overall) selection in the 2010 NBA Draft. Notre Dame forward Luke Harangody was selected in the second round- 52nd overall.