Pass the Parmesan cheese

Take a guess where an Italian restaurant opened in late 2008. From AP-

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has ordered the opening of the isolated country's first Italian restaurant, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper reported, despite the nation's continuing struggle to feed its 24 million people.

Kim -- a reputed gourmand -- sent North Korean cooks to Naples and Rome last year to learn how to reproduce authentic Italian pizza and pasta after "repeated trial and error," the newspaper said Saturday, citing a restaurant manager.

If my father was still alive, he should have sent the cooks to Florida. Dad* used to make the best meatballs.

"Our people should be also allowed to enjoy the world-famous food," the manager of the Pyongyang eatery quoted Kim as saying, according to the Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo newspaper.

The newspaper, considered a mouthpiece for the communist regime in Pyongyang, said the North's government buys wheat flour, butter and cheese from Italy for the restaurant.

It is unclear how many North Koreans can afford to eat out -- let alone eat imported food -- in a country that is among the poorest in the world. The average per capita income was $1,150 in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, according to the South's central bank.

The article went on to say the restaurant was crowded since its opening last December. Do the laws of supply and demand work in the Hermit Kingdom? Either they don't or the reporter's tour was carefully arranged. The North Koreans wouldn't do that, would they?

*- My father passed away 12 years ago yesterday.

To the Moon

Guess what country full of starving people claims it is building a space program?

NORTH Korea has declared it is actively pursuing a space program, amid reports from US and South Korean officials that Pyongyang is preparing to test fire a long-range missile.

Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the ruling communist party, said the North had every right to develop a space program, as a member of the international community.

"The DPRK's (North Korea) policy of advancing to space for peaceful purposes is a justifiable aim that fits the global trend of the times. There is no power in the world that can stop it," the newspaper said in an editorial.

"As long as developing and using space are aimed at peaceful purposes and such efforts contribute to enhancing human beings' happiness, no one in the world can find fault with them."

It noted that Iran on Monday successfully launched a satellite carried by a home-built rocket, setting alarm bells ringing among Western powers because of the implications for the range of its ballistic missiles.

I think it is a great idea. As long as Kim Jong-il flies the first craft into orbit. The world would be so much better off without him.

Hat tip- GI at ROK Drop who writes- "The big question is that why does the international community have moral responsbility to send hundreds of millions of dollars in food and aid to North Korea every year when they have enough money to start a "space program"?"

Lipstick on a white elephant

The ugliest piece of architecture in the world is getting a facelift. Yes, the Ryugyong Hotel after being abandoned for 16 years is having glass panels installed.



Why don't they just tear down the monstrosity some call 'Hotel of Doom', 'Phantom Hotel', or The 'Phantom Pyramid'? In Asia saving face is often more important than displaying common sense. No hotel guest is likely to ever stay in the place. In the meantime more money will be poured down a hole making this building pretty. LOL, bureaucrats are alike all over. They all know how to waste money.

Hat tip- Robert Koehler at Marmot's Hole

In the dark

Some South Koreans had an interesting experience when they visited North Korea recently.

Blackouts frequently interrupted a four-day stay in Pyongyang for South Koreans attending a rare joint seminar between the Cold War rivals, with the North's showcase city often plunged into pitch darkness by power outages.

'What is going on here?' a North Korean border control officer said when computer terminals lost power and the lights went out at the Soviet-era Sunan Airport terminal, which serves Pyongyang, while he was processing the documents of the visiting South Koreans.

There's another famine going on. As a result there isn't food around to feed the gerbils that spin the wheels and produce the electricity in The Hermit Kingdom.

One of his colleagues tried in vain to keep the line of visitors moving by checking passports in the faint light from a distant door.

They must be out of flashlight batteries too.

When the sun goes down in Pyongyang, people hurry along unlit sidewalks before they have to grope their way home in near total darkness.

Giving new meaning to the North Korean philosophy of Juche.

The visiting South Koreans were treated to a performance by artistically gifted students but had to wait to applaud because the lights went out at the end of the show in an unheated hall, leaving them wondering if the darkness was part of the act.

Yes. North Korea is one great big improvisational theater. That as a result of food and power shortages.

Outside observers are equally in the dark over Mr Kim's health and succession plans in Asia's only communist dynasty.

Kim Jong-il was recently seen picking someone's nose.

US and South Korean officials said Mr Kim suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about who was in control of the reclusive state and who was making decisions about the North's nuclear weapons programme.

On a serious note, China recently massed 150,000 of their troops along the DPRK/China border. Beijing, one of North Korea's few friends, seems to be concerned with potential regime change in Pyongyang. If the government collapses there, the Chinese moving in seems more likely than the South Koreans to me. Though I wonder if anyone really wants to inherit that disaster of a nation.

Is Kim Jong-il a ghost?

Either that or the photo below is the product of some very poor work with photoshop. Note the lack of shadows.

I'll leave it to readers to judge the photo's authenticity. Those lamposts also seem out of place.

Hat tip- Robert Elgin at Marmot's Hole

Back to normal

Mail from Washington DC to Pyongyang must travel awfully fast. From Reuters-

SEOUL- Days after the U.S. president sent his first letter to North Korea's leader in a bid to further diplomacy, the communist state accused the American government on Tuesday of being reckless criminals trying to stir up war.


North Korea's official media slammed the United States for a recent deployment of fighter jets and other armaments in and around South Korea.

"Such moves are a part of the U.S. conservative hardliners' invariable hostile policy towards the DPRK (North Korea) and a reckless criminal act of chilling the denuclearisation process in the Korean peninsula and driving the situation into the brink of war," said the communist party mouthpiece, Rodong Sinmun.

Anti-U.S. diatribes of this sort are common fodder in the North's official media but this report comes after President George W. Bush made his first direct appeal to leader Kim Jong-il in a letter delivered last week.

It was only last month that the DPRK was thanking the US for its assistance in fighting off pirates. I remarked the event was unlikely to improve US-North Korea relations. Seems I was proved correct.

Hey TFM can be right twice in a day sometimes.
Linked to- Morewhat, Pirate's Cove, Populist, Right Voices,

Nothing works

An unusual immigration related story.

A New Zealand woman who married an American man with “ambiguous genitalia” has had her marriage licence quashed and been refused permission to stay in the United States.

The woman, who has not been named, married Stephan Thomas Calewarts - also known as Stephanie Tia Calewarts - in September 2006.

Then in October 2006 Stephanie Calewarts - whose name was legally changed in 2000 - asked a Brown County, Wisconsin circuit judge to change his birth certificate back to a male gender.

When the judge refused, the county revoked the couple’s marriage licence because Mr Calewarts’ birth certificate listed him as female because same-sex marriages are illegal in Wisconsin.

Because the marriage was null, the New Zealand woman couldn’t get a visa to stay in the United States, Mr Calewarts told the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

“Oh God, no,” Mr Calewarts said when told of an appeals court decision released today.

“I am scared to death right now. I am not going to see my wife. She is the only thing that means anything to me. I am a nobody right now.”

He had claimed that the 2000 court order changing his birth certificate to female was an error based on mistakes and misunderstandings.

Mr Calewarts, 58, said he had some surgery done for health reasons, not to change his sex.

But the District Court of Appeals ruled that Mr Calewarts had run out of time to appeal or challenge the earlier court decision.

*****

According to court records, he was born with “ambiguous genitalia” - tissue for both a penis and a vagina - because of birth defects, but his birth certificate identified him as male.

He had surgery in July 1999 to remove his testicles and after gender reassignment surgery in Montreal in 2000, asked for his birth certificate to be changed to female, court records said.

“I thought I was going to have two birth certificates. One of each. Big deal. I was born with two genders,” Mr Calewarts said today.

“I can’t have sexual intercourse because nothing works."

I have some sympathy for Mr. Calewarts. Children born intersexed or with undescended testicles, can end up be labeled the wrong gender at birth.(Sometimes with the parents making the choice.)

However once Calewarts had GRS surgery, I just don't understand how they could think they'd have two birth certificates and the ability to choose between male and female. I do however wish Mr. Calewarts and his wife well. Maybe he should look into immigrating to New Zealand. That may up working for the couple.

Hat tip- Ann Althouse
Linked to- Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,

Give us your poor, your tired, your skinny

From The Guardian-

New Zealand has added another cruel cut to the myriad indignities visited upon those of larger girth: anyone with a dangerously high body mass index (BMI) is likely to be denied permission to emigrate there. Richie Trezise, 35, a Welsh submarine cable specialist, was initially rejected because of a BMI of 42 (25 or higher is regarded as overweight); he lost weight, but his wife Rowan, 33, has not found it so easy. For months she has tried to slim down enough to join her husband; if she can't do it by Christmas, he will have to give up his job and come home.

The government's reasoning is simple: it will take only immigrants of an "acceptable standard of health", ie those "unlikely to impose significant costs or demands on New Zealand's health or special education services" (a requirement that raises the even more controversial possibility of applicants being turned down for mental health reasons). Obese people are more likely to suffer from heart disease, diabetes, strokes and high blood pressure; ergo, obese people are not allowed.

*****

It can work the other way. Australia, famously strict with its entrance requirements and literalist about BMIs, last year refused citizenship to a healthy British woman who wasn't heavy enough.

If they're worried about a person's health, why isn't all potential immigrants required to have a comprehensive health screening? How about MRIs, Cat scans, Pet scans. No one should be allowed in if they have cancer. How about this- Tanned people aren't allowed. They are at risk for skin cancer.

Some will say a country has the right to choose who immigrates there and who doesn't. I'll also admit that yes, overweight people are costlier health maintenance wise. Do you think what New Zealand is doing is correct?

Hat tip- Overlawyered
Linked to- High Desert Wanderer, Perri Nelson, Pursuing Holiness, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary,

Outside calling

The latest insanity from the hermit kingdom-

A North Korean factory boss accused of making international phone calls was executed by a firing squad in front of 150,000 people, it emerged today.

The manager was gunned down in a sports stadium in South Pyongan province after authorities claimed he'd installed 13 in a basement to reach the outside world, the Good Friends aid agency revealed.

And six people were also crushed to death and 34 others injured in an apparent stampede as they left after the execution, it was claimed.

The factory chief's death last month came as executions in the communist dictatorship began increasing after a seven-year decline in the number of people publicly killed.

That's just the official executions. No one is counting the North Koreans who die the result of famine, floods and other natural disasters, being political prisoners, and other assorted causes that were all the result of Kim Jong-Il's policies. Those North Koreans were just as easily executed as the factory manager.

Hat tip- Betsy
Linked to- Blue Star, Commonsense America, Right Wing Nation, Third World County,

Planned escapes

From Indian Express-

SEOUL, NOVEMBER 19: Brokers here are busy selling what they call “planned escapes” from North Korea. Given enough money, the brokers say, they can now get just about anyone out of the dictatorial Stalinist state that human rights activists call the world’s largest prison.

A low-budget escape through China via Thailand to Seoul can cost less than $2,000, according to four brokers here.

North Korea’s underground railroad to the South is busier than ever because the number of border guards and low-level security officials in the North, who are eager to take bribes, has increased exponentially.

With the disintegration of North Korea’s communist economy and the near-collapse of its state-run food distribution system, the country’s non-elite population is in dire need of cash for food and other essentials, experts agree. “More than ever, money talks,” said Chun Ki-won, a Christian pastor and aid worker in Seoul, who has helped 650 people elude Chinese authorities and settle in Seoul.

Religious groups once dominated the defection trade in North Korea, but in recent years defectors themselves, many of them former military and security officers, have begun to take over.

These brokers, based in Seoul, use personal and institutional contacts to hire North Korean guides and bribe officials. The guides make clandestine contact with defectors, then escort them to the Chinese border.

During the cold war, Eastern Europeans paid to be smuggled out from behind the iron curtain or had family and friends who paid the expense. It is entirely reasonable to me that the same state of affairs is taking place in North Korea today.

I do find it interesting that a smuggler quoted a price for the above article. $2,000 seems pretty cheap for the risks involved. I wonder if that figure is accurate.

Hat tip- DPRK Studies
Linked to- High Desert Wanderer, Pirate's Cove, Populist, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary,

You're welcome

This news makes me feel faint.

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea is grateful to the United States for helping the crew of a North Korean cargo ship fight off pirates in waters off Somalia, the North's official news agency said Thursday.

The North's Korean Central News Agency said the incident was a "symbol of cooperation" between the two countries "in the struggle against terrorism."

Last week, the U.S. Navy boarded the North Korean ship Dai Hong Dan to provide medical assistance at the crew's invitation after they had already overpowered and detained all pirates.

"The pirates' recent armed attack on our trading ship was a grave terrorist act perpetrated against a peaceful ship," KCNA said. "We feel grateful to the United States for its assistance given to our crewmen."

KCNA said that seven pirates, "disguised as guards," boarded the North Korean vessel on Oct. 29, and demanded that the sailors pay them $15,000 and move the ship to the waters they want.

The USS James E. Williams and a helicopter rushed to the scene and "helped the (North Korean) sailors in fighting, threatening the pirates over walkie-talkie," KCNA said.

Earlier reports said that the standoff left at least one pirate dead and three North Korean sailors wounded. KCNA said six North Korean sailors were hurt.

All joking aside, I'm glad the United States could be of help. This incident however is unlikely to change relations between the two nations.

Thanks to GI at ROK Drop for the above photos. Who says "Something I haven’t seen anybody ask yet is what was the North Koreans transporting?" Ping pong balls?(Cue the sarcastic laughter)

Also commenting- Robert Koehler at Marmot's Hole
Linked to-Leaning Straight Up, Outside the Beltway, Pirate's Cove, Yankee Sailor,

Out of gas

From the BBC-

North Korea has been forced to ground a fleet of Soviet-era military planes because of the high oil price, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

Fuel is being diverted for other training flights, Yonhap quoted a military source as saying.

The Antonov An-2 biplanes - of which North Korea's air force is thought to have about 300 - are able to drop special forces behind enemy lines.

The planes, which can cruise below radar, carry some 12 soldiers.

North Korea's impoverished economy has suffered from energy shortages for years, and rising oil prices have made the situation worse.

No doubt North Korea is lacking many things. Food, medical care, oil, leaders with any brain matter. ROK Drop has a different take on what is going on north of the 38th parallel.

I have to wonder if an ageing fleet and availability of parts may be the real reason why these planes are being grounded. Call me cynical but just like anything else with North Korea I never accept what they say at face value.

Good point. Though my take on the matter is, it may be a combination of the two. Lack of parts and oil.

Another point- Does a modern army and air force have reason to fear a military that uses 300 of these aircraft?

Linked to- Big Dog, Right Wing Nation, Webloggin, Yankee Sailor,

If we got room for 32.....

From Digital Chosunilbo-

The U.S. will soon admit more than 30 North Korean defectors from a Thai refugee camp. Radio Free Asia quoted aid workers helping North Korean refugees in Thailand as saying Washington has completed identity checks on 24 of them and collected fingerprints of eight others. On Oct. 12, the Bangkok office of the International Organisation for Migration began the finger printing, which will end this week.

It remains to be seen whether the 32 North Korean defectors will leave for the U.S. in one group or several. According to the aid workers, no other North Korean defectors are seeking asylum in the U.S., discouraged by the long wait of more than one year.

This is great news for the refugees and I approve of the decision to allow these men and women to immigrate to the US. It is the humanitarian thing to do.

Now tell me why this immigration travesty is allowed to continue. If this country can allow 32 refugees in, we have room for the 85 or so widows whose only crime was their husbands died before their immigration paperwork was done.

Hat tip- ROK Drop
Linked to- Big Dog, Blue Star, High Desert Wanderer, Stuck on Stupid, Third World County,

Tone Deaf

An orchestra is traveling to Pyongyang. You won't believe what they intend to play.

In talks with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, North Korea has reportedly agreed the orchestra can play "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the U.S., during its first performance in Pyongyang.

A South Korean government official on Tuesday said North Korea is keen on the New York Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang and told the U.S. there would be no problem if the orchestra plays the anthem.

The New York Philharmonic does not usually play "The Star-Spangled Banner" in concert overseas. But the orchestra asked North Korea in talks early this month if it could play the U.S. national anthem considering the symbolic nature of its concert in Pyongyang.

The orchestra is still talking with North Korea about a possible performance around February. If that happens, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a big fan of music, might attend. It would be the first time the U.S. national anthem has been played in front of the North Korean leader.

Will Kim be clapping like shown above afterwards? Or will he respond by singing the North Korean national anthem? The world awaits.

Hat tip- DPRK Studies
Linked to- Big Dog, Right Wing Nation, Stuck on Stupid, Webloggin,

Internet expert

From AP-

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il called himself an "Internet expert" during summit talks with South Korea's president this week, a news report said Friday.

The reclusive leader made the remark after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun asked that South Korean companies operating at an industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong be allowed to use the Internet, Yonhap news agency reported, without citing any source.

"I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired," Kim told Roh, according to Yonhap.

"If that problem is addressed, there is no reason not to open" the Internet, Kim said.

Kim Jong-Il is about as likely to allow DPRK citizens access to Yonhap news as he is to allow people to freely emmigrate from the country. The article even says "Radios and TV sets in North Korea can only receive state broadcasts and ordinary people are banned from using mobile phones, let alone the Internet."

If Kim is an internet expert, what does he think about this post of mine? He hasn't changed tailors.

Linked to- Bullwinkle, High Desert Wanderer, Outside the Beltway, Right Wing Nation,

Actions not words

From AP-

SEOUL, South Korea - The leaders of North and South Korea pledged Thursday to seek a peace treaty to replace the Korean War's 1953 cease-fire and expand projects to reduce tension across the world's last Cold War frontier.

The pact came a day after a deal at China-hosted arms talks among North Korea, the U.S. and other regional powers, in which Pyongyang promised to disable its main nuclear facilities and fully declare its nuclear programs by Dec. 31.

The move would be the biggest step North Korea has taken to scale back its nuclear ambitions after decades of seeking to develop the world's deadliest weapons. President Bush hailed it as a key for "peace and prosperity" in northeast Asia.

The bilateral agreement capped three days of meetings in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. They "agreed to closely cooperate to end military hostility and ensure peace and easing of tension on the Korean peninsula," according to a joint statement.

Substantive progress on any peace treaty would require the participation of the U.S. and China, which also fought in the conflict. South Korea never signed the 1953 armistice ending the war.

Pardon me if I sound cynical, but I will believe this summit made real progress when North Korea takes the steps they promise. Kim has repeatedly failed to live up to previous agreements.

In the end, this summit is going to be considered just another disappointment. How much did the South Korean government pay this time for a glorified photo op? A half billion dollars? A billion dollars? Remember the price was approximately 186 million for the 2000 affair.

Linked to- Bullwinkle, Cao, Perri Nelson, Woman Honor Thyself,

The Gap

No we're not talking about the popular retail chain store, but the sizable difference between the economies of North and South Korea.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea dreams of forging an economic community with North Korea, using trade and investment to foster closer ties and help smooth the way toward eventual unification of the divided peninsula.

The impoverished North, for its part, has visions far less grand, coveting basics like energy, fertilizer and light industrial equipment, things taken for granted in the wealthy South.

The huge prosperity gap that separates ethnic kin divided for decades stands as one of the most sobering challenges as the leaders of the two countries gear up for a summit meeting this week, the first in seven years.

South Korea, where sleek Hyundais cruise Seoul's boulevards and top-flight corporations like Samsung Electronics Co. seize global market share, has a nearly $900 billion economy, the world's 12th-largest.

Across the demilitarized zone dividing the two countries, North Korea's economy was estimated at just $25.6 billion last year, less than 3 percent of the South's — or about the size of Seoul's 2007 defense budget.

These numbers probably tell just part of the story. If the two Koreas were re-unified, the cost to citizens of South Korea could be astronomical. Almost all of the twenty three million people in the North are almost certain to need public assistance. That doesn't include money needed to be spent on food, repairing and building infrastructure and more. I once read South Korea had twenty times the GNP of North Korea. The above article, if I'm reading it correctly, could be putting that figure at thirty times. At the time East and West Germany were re-united, it was like two or three to one.

Bottom line- Some Koreans are going to prefer the current status quo.

Linked to- Adam, Leaning Straight Up, Morewhat, Webloggin,

Over one million

From Yonhap News-

SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- More than one million North Korean people are believed to be imprisoned in the communist state's concentration camps, a Christian activist group said Wednesday.

Open Doors, a Netherlands-based human rights organization, said in an interview with Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) that at least one million North Koreans are held in 30 labor camps and 8 prison camps, far exceeding the number previously estimated.

With North Korea's population estimated at 23 million, that means at least four percent of that country's people are imprisoned in concentration camps.

Someone should pass a copy of this news to South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung. Will Lee still deny there being no evidence of human rights abuses in the DPRK?

Hat tip- DPRK Studies
Linked to- Bullwinkle, Point Five, Third World County, Yankee Sailor,

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung. He gets the award for the following.

According to the testimony of North Korean defectors, one side of the May Day Stadium where the performance takes place often smells of urine. That’s because students are not allowed to leave their positions while practicing the flash card performance. So they simply urinate while sitting down in their seats. Many children are said to end up getting bladder infections. One wrong move and children are clubbed and punished in groups. Kim Hyun-sik, former professor at Kim Hyung Jik College of Education, said the Arirang performance was “soaked with the blood and tears of the North Korean people.”

Regarding questions as to whether the South Korean president should attend such a performance marred by allegations of child abuse, South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung retorted whether the lengthy training of South Korean children for a play or sports event could be viewed as abuse was uncertain. Regarding North Korea’s human rights violations, Lee pretended not to know, saying human rights issues should be interpreted according to the unique circumstances of a particular society. He added that there was no concrete evidence of human rights violations in the North.

As GI at ROK Drop says 'Absolutely and utterly unbelievable. This is on par with denying the Jewish Holocaust of World War II.' No evidence? That means this woman's tales are all a lie then. Lets not forget the recent famines that has killed thousands or millions of North Koreans while Kim Jong-Il builds his military.

Either Lee is a complete idiot, or has a case of raging political blindness. One thing is sure, South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

A big thank you to GI at ROK Drop. His milblog which concentrates on news out of Asia, is one of the better kept secrets in the blogosphere.

Linked to- Adam, Big Dog, Blue Star, Bright & Early, Leaning Straight Up, Mad Pigeon, Outside the Beltway, Pirate's Cove, Rosemary, Yankee Sailor,

The return of the prodigal son

Kim Jong-Il's oldest son has returned to North Korea.

The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam (36) has returned to Pyongyang and is working at the Organization and Guidance Department of North Korea's Worker's Party, an intelligence source said Sunday. The department is the key agency that controls all of the party, the military and the government of North Korea. This has prompted analysts to speculate about a reconciliation and the possibility that Jopng-nam, who has been living in exile in Macau, could inherit the leadership instead of his younger half-brothers Jong-chul (26) and Jong-woon (24), who were variously tipped for the succession.

*****

In 2001, Kim Jong-nam was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport. He had been living overseas because he fell out of favor with his father. Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea specialist at Korea University, said, "Kim Jong-il could not ignore the existence of his eldest son Jong-nam. It seems that Kim Jong-nam is being given new weight, so North Korea has apparently entered a new phase in choosing Kim Jong-il's successor."

Is the writer of the above Chosunilbo article trying to be punny. GI at ROK Drop notes that Jong-nam is now the fattest man in North Korea(surpassing his father).

Jong-nam could have a long wait ahead of him. Kim Jong-IL is in his sixties, and despite the Fidel like rumors of poor health, could easily be ruler of the DPRK for many more years yet. Would Jong-nam be any different than his father?

Linked to- Pursuing Holiness, Random Yak, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary,