As far as South Korea being the melting pot that the U.S. is or not even close to the melting pot that countries such as France and the U.K. are is a big dissapointment.  Is it the lack of education that results in the “look down” of other races such as Africans and Indians particularly those of darker featuers.

Well recently a  South Korean man has been fined one million won ($865) for making discriminatory remarks against an Indian professor.  The conviction is the country’s first involving racist remarks towards a foreigner, Incheon District Court officials told local media.

The man yelled racist comments and said “Arab! Arab!” at the Indian man while on a bus in July, the judge said.  The professor felt publically insulted by the comments, he added.  The 31-year-old South Korean had objected to Bonogit Hussain talking loudly on a bus.  Mr Hussain had been in South Korea since 2007 and had studied for a master’s degree from Seoul’s SungKongHoe University, later working as a research professor there.  Park could have faced up to one year in prison and 2 million won in fines for public insult, Associated Press reported.

It is truly sickening that we cannot care for our solidiers who put their lives in danger.  This is an article by the AFP that shows the lack of healthcare support to our veterans are costing them their lives.

The number of US veterans who died in 2008 because they lacked health insurance was 14 times higher than the US military death toll in Afghanistan that year, according to a new study.  The analysis produced by two Harvard medical researchers estimates that 2,266 US military veterans under the age of 65 died in 2008 because they lacked health coverage and had reduced access to medical care.  That figure is more than 14 times higher than the 155 US troop deaths in Afghanistan in 2008, the study says.

Released as the United States commemorates fallen soldiers on Veterans Day, the study warns that even health care provided by the Veterans Health Administration (VA) leaves many veterans without coverage.  The analysis uses census data to isolate the number of US veterans who lack both private health coverage and care offered by the VA.  “That’s a group that’s about 1.5 million people,” said David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program who co-authored the study.  Himmelstein and co-author Stephanie Woolhandler, also a Harvard medical professor, overlaid that figure with another study examining the mortality rate associated with lack of health insurance.

“The uninsured have about a 40 percent higher risk of dying each year than otherwise comparable insured individuals,” Himmelstein told AFP.  “Putting that all together you get an estimate of almost 2,300 — 2,266 veterans who die each year from lack of health insurance.”  Only some US veterans have access to medical care through the VA and coverage is apportioned on the basis of eight “priority groups.”

“They range from things like people who were prisoners of war, who have coverage for life, or who have battle injuries and therefore have coverage for their injuries for life,” said Himmelstein.  Veterans who fall below an income threshold that is determined on a county-by-county basis can qualify for care, but many veterans are “working poor” and fall just above the bracket.  “The priority eight group, the lowest priority, are veterans above the very poor group who have no other reason to be eligible and that group is essentially shut out of the VA,” according to Himmelstein.

The study comes as the US Senate weighs health care reform legislation and whether to offer government health insurance.  Himmelstein warns that congressional proposals could still leave veterans uncovered and favors a national health care program similar to those in Britain and Canada.

Well their new album is out and although I haven’t finished the whole album.  There is this song that is made me jam on my way home from work today!  Enjoy. It’s called “Tired of waiting”.

The idea of sending your child who spends too much time online might seem harsh but sending your child to a boot camp where they beat you if you can’t control your online urges is just a little too much!  Read more…

The BBC reported that there are dozens of treatment centres offering to wean youths, mostly boys, from spending hours on the web.  Many of them are military-style boot camps that rely on tough programes of physical exercise and counseling.  Two boys were beaten at separate camps earlier this year, one died and the other was severely injured.  “When intervening to prevent improper use of the internet we should… strictly prohibit restriction of personal freedom and physical punishments,” the ministry said in a draft guideline quoted by Reuters news agency.

In July, the ministry of health formally banned the use of electroshock therapy as a treatment option.  There was a public outcry after 15-year-old Deng Senshan died in August less than 24 hours after arrival at the Qihang Salvation Training Camp in Guangxi province.Days later, 14-year-old Pu Liang was put in a Sichuan hospital in a series condition after allegedly being beaten by his boot camp’s principal and other students.  Some estimates suggest up to 10% of the country’s 100 million web users under the age of 20 could be addicted, and a growing number of rehabilitation services have sprung up to deal with the problem.

Some define an internet addict as anyone who is online for at least six hours a day and has little interest in school.  The goal of intervention is… to urge the target people to use the internet in a healthy way,” the ministry of health statement said.  “It’s not to stop them from using the internet.”

I can tell you there are a bunch of idots in our government.  The BBC reports that the US will start to pay the Taliban to switch sides.  Well, you know you are losing the war when you have to pay your enemy not to kill you!  This of course is not the first time the US has resorted to paying off its enemies.

October 28, 2009 “BBC” — The US military in Afghanistan is to be allowed to pay Taliban fighters who renounce violence against the government in Kabul.   The move is included in a defense bill which President Obama is set to sign.  Such payments have already been widely used by US commanders in Iraq, but it is the first time the system is being formally adopted in Afghanistan.  Early on Wednesday, Afghan troops were engaged in a shootout with suspected militants at a house in Kabul.

A day earlier eight US soldiers were killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan.  The deaths make October the deadliest month for American forces in the eight-year war in Afghanistan.  President Obama is yet to decide whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan.  Mr Obama has said he will not risk their lives “unless it is absolutely necessary”.
The latest attacks come amid heightened tension in Afghanistan in the run-up to the second round of a presidential election marred by widespread fraud in favour of incumbent President Hamid Karzai.

The Commander’s Emergency Response Programme, or Cerp, was set up to give the US military the means to clear roads, dig wells and provide other urgent humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, the BBC’s Richard Lister in Washington says.  But in Iraq, the money can also be given to insurgents provided they switch sides. Backers of the Cerp scheme say it enabled some 90,000 formerly hostile Iraqis to form local militias and protect their towns from militants, our correspondent says.  He adds that now the same authority is being given to US commanders in Afghanistan.  A clause in the annual defense appropriations bill says they can use the money to support the “re-integration into Afghan society” of those who have renounced violence against the Afghan government.

Although $1.3bn (£691m) has been authorized for the fund as a whole, no specific sum has been allocated to the re-integration programmes, our correspondent says.  The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator Carl Levin, has said he envisages the money being used to pay former Taliban fighters to protect their communities.

Ohh I can say is what an invasion of privacy and down right obsessive behavior.  I mean we all know the paparazzi, this isn’t as bad as the paparazzi we see in America but for heaven’s sake just leave this guy alone.  If he wants to do an interview I’m sure he knows who to call.  Anyways judge for yourself.

credit: time2sub2

OK, so I’m really a huge Sci-Fi buff and of course have been following the new show Stargate Universe on the Syfy network.  I must say though, the storyline has huge potential but so far the show has been filled with mediocre acting and a waste of obvious talent. The new episode Light comes on tonight.  The episode is about the ship supposedly” going off course and running into a sun as the power on the ship is gone. ” See the preview below:

Now let’s think about this for a minute.

1. The ship was built by the ancients.
2. The ship has been in space for thousands of years.  So how can the ship replenish its power supply?
   
3. What is the sun?  ENERGY.

So here we have a plot where at least 2 people are scientifically smart .  The ship’s brilliant Machiavellian scientist Nicholas Rush and the kid genius Eli.  So anyways, once the crew finds out the ship is heading into a sun they all want to evacuate thinking they are going to die.  Hummm does that make any sense that Nicholas or Eli can’t possibly think the ship will regenerate it’s power by the sun’s energy.  Remember in the 3 episode I think where Nicholas told Eli to put his hand in the stargate so that it wouldn’t disconnect.  He was like “i assume the ancients would have programmed a fail safe for this kind of event to happen…”  So someone that can make that conclusion can’t see that the sun is energy I mean even people on the current Earth know that.  Also the show so far has made Eli into an annoying little brat that is reduce to playing with those flying balls aka “kinos”.  What a waste of talent, why make him a genius at all.  So my whole point is if this whole episode turns out to be what I have said that the ship will regenerate itself using the sun…then Stargate Universe needs to fire it’s writers and get people who actually know how to write a story.   Not to mention I’m going to be pissed and think that one minute this show smart people on it and the next minute they can’t even come to the conclusion or ask themselves how does the ship regenerate it’s power??  I better be wrong about this!

What do you think?  Comment here.