South Korea has been on fire lately. I think they are about to eclipse Japan.

>> ^TheFreak:

Don't know what's been happening with tae kwon do in the past decade. It's developed this strange focus on ineffective spinning-jumping kicks. More like gymnastics than martial arts.

Government interference is what happened.

First they pressured the separate kwons to unify in an attempt to form one universal Korean martial art. This is what created TKD (in name, at least). Then they sought ways to make it a symbol of the country, to give the Korean people something to be proud of. Ultimately this culminated in an effort to introduce it to the Olympics. In order to accomplish this, they had to turn it into a sport. The military style of TKD still exists but, aside from the actual military, it's hard to find anywhere that teaches it inside Korea.

I have a friend who is from South Korea. He was adopted and brought to the US when he was still a baby. He's a TKD black belt. He's taken trips back to Korea and he's sparred with people who have learned TKD there and they are all horrible because they've been taught to dance rather than fight.

The only fighting they know is point fighting so they do not learn to defend and they do not learn how to generate power. They are incredibly fast but, in a real fight, he had no doubts that they would pose little to no threat unless he was greatly outnumbered.

>> ^rottenseed:

How are you going to yell profanities and use subculture specific colloquialisms to a non-English speaking person in their own country?
Maybe he saw a teaching opportunity.

I'm embarrassed just watching it. Sorry, South Korea.

The irony of Ron Paul is: I like the underlying idea VERY VERY much.
However I'd absolutely love to actually see him get down to details. HOW would he actually reduce the American military withdrawal as a World Police Force with doing as little additional damage as possible (You can't just stop the machines of the Military Compelx dead in their tracks- that would have absolutely horrible results- both economically and on a world-scape (Israel, Colombia, South Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq...).
How does his ideology of ptotecting other's lives extend into the right of abortion (Something I remember him being kinda ...meh).



AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: How can he implement this without breaking a system which has by now become VERY MUCH accustomed to all the shady deals he so much despises and WITHOUT breaking the world economy and creating an ugly power vaccuum.
This guy unfortunately is not young enough anymore to become a pioneer. He seems more like someone we'd very much be disillusioned with once he runs into the actual political roadblocks that exist.

The irony of bush and the neoconservatives is that they aspired to achieve a situation like it is now happening in the middle east (albeit a very warped version of) something which IS ACTUALLY happening NOW (though probably without any causes lying in the US).
This will NEED the American military complex and extroverted American foreign policies to work.

Ron Paul would need at least 3 terms to push what he works for. It's just that difficult. And I can't see a second Ron Paul behind him who'd continue once he is worn down (if you know more than me please PM me)

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

But why is it that always seems to be way down on the list. Taken from This site:

III. The Global Deployment of US Military Personnel

There are 6000 military bases and/ or military warehouses located in the U.S. (See Wikipedia, February 2007).

Total Military Personnel is of the order of 1,4 million of which 1,168,195 are in the U.S and US overseas territories.

Taking figures from the same source, there are 325,000 US military personnel in foreign countries:

800 in Africa,
97,000 in Asia (excluding the Middle East and Central Asia),
40,258 in South Korea,
40,045 in Japan,
491 at the Diego Garcia Base in the Indian Ocean,
100 in the Philippines, 196 in Singapore,
113 in Thailand,
200 in Australia,
and 16,601 Afloat.

In Europe, there are 116,000 US military personnel including 75,603 who are stationed in Germany.

In Central Asia about 1,000 are stationed at the Ganci (Manas) Air Base in Kyrgyzstan and 38 are located at Kritsanisi, in Georgia, with a mission to train Georgian soldiers.

In the Middle East (excludng the Iraq war theater) there are 6,000 US military personnel, 3,432 of whom are in Qatar and 1,496 in Bahrain.

In the Western Hemisphere, excluding the U.S. and US territories, there are 700 military personnel in Guantanamo, 413 in Honduras and 147 in Canada.

Scenes include (in order of appearance):

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
Mono Lake
Joshua Tree National Park
Alabama Hills
Lunar Eclipse of December 2010
Monument Valley
Salton Sea
Tuscon, Arizona
Jeju Island, South Korea
Yosemite National Park
Petrified Forest National Park
Death Valley National Park
Horseshoe Bend

I am not sure why TESCO, a UK based company, is trying so hard to cut into the South Korean market. Wal-Mart Korea was competed out by E-Mart in 2006. Whatever the reason, they sure are giving their competition a run for their money.

This is possible only because South Korea has the infrastructure already built in where every underground subway is laden with phone and free wifi signals. American cities have far outdated infrastructure and shortage of funding. I doubt this will happen in our subway stations any time soon. But I do see a possibility for bus stations.

>> ^Trancecoach:

>> ^xxovercastxx:

As for this being propaganda, it doesn't seem like the kind of thing South Korea would put out. Maybe North Korea.

Oh no?
What about this?
and this?
I'm not saying S. Korean gov't lies, but they have been caught in a lie before.


I didn't mean that South Korea wouldn't make shit up, I meant that this didn't seem like the kind of thing that South Korea would make up.

>> ^xxovercastxx:


As for this being propaganda, it doesn't seem like the kind of thing South Korea would put out. Maybe North Korea.


Oh no?

What about this?
and this?

I'm not saying S. Korean gov't lies, but they have been caught in a lie before.

>> ^Trancecoach:

were the gum sales enough to pay for master classes?
if i was cynical, i'd say this smacked of government propaganda.


Even without knowing Korean you can tell the translation is clearly off in some spots just because the results don't make any sense. I can't help but wonder if "I took master classes if I had a chance" was actually "I would take master classes if I had a chance". It seems to fit better that way.

As for this being propaganda, it doesn't seem like the kind of thing South Korea would put out. Maybe North Korea.

Alt URL (whole documentary in one single video).

I kind of agree with Deano. The abuse of montage and trippy soundtrack gets tiring after awhile, and you wonder why computers are supposed to be the central character/concept. Also, Acts Of Sloppiness Spotted: South Korea is not in South East Asia (in episode 1); and it's Ukraine, no "the", thank you.

And in case you're wondering, the grossly glossed-over genius demoing what would basically become the future of computing, around the 24-minute mark (Graphical User Interface, mouse, network, Instant messaging,etc...) is Douglas Engelbart. His demo is called, in all simplicity, The Mother Of All Demos. Remember this was done in the 60s, so even basic components of modern computing like the C language or Unix were not invented yet. Many people were still on punch-cards back then.

>> ^dag:

That's one thing we can agree on, my Libertarian leaning friend. Get the troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany, South Korea, Okinawa, Pine Gap ... the list goes on. >> ^blankfist:
They didn't propose to cut enough, IMO. Though really they need to start with defense spending and work from there.



Troops already ARE moving out of Germany :-) That causes lots of problems btw, whole cities heavily depend on providing infrastructure for US forces. We're getting real "ghost towns" (i.e. neighborhoods) because huge areas and numbers of houses etc. were hired out to US government via xx-year contracts. Some cities have hundreds of empty apartments (still hired by US gov while uninhabited) while affordable places for students etc. are lacking.

Nevertheless i'm a fan of US pull out of troops, never understood why they're here in the first place after WW2 and later the cold war were over. Plus: it must cost the US gov a SHITLOAD of money providing for the tenthousands of troops in Germany alone.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

That's one thing we can agree on, my Libertarian leaning friend. Get the troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany, South Korea, Okinawa, Pine Gap ... the list goes on. >> ^blankfist:

They didn't propose to cut enough, IMO. Though really they need to start with defense spending and work from there.

I have to completely disagree with the formation of your argument. Unfortunately, you have presented a very shallow, 1 dimensional view of violence; most would refer to it as a scarecrow. I wish to state before I go further that I wish I lived in this world you imagine. I long for a world where violence isn't an answer. Let us take on your examples one at a time, then go into the thrust of the issue.

As far as terrorism goes, it is hard to even understand what terrorism is. It isn't very rigidly defined. Is it terrorism to force people to pay taxes, or is it only when you blow them up when they aren't expecting it? Terrorism is more of a red herring word used to justify actions rather a "thing" itself. that is a dodge of the issue, but then again, so was this word all along. So lets move into some of your better examples.

Was the objective of Vietnam and Korea to stop Communism? If so, then the success rate is 50%. As far as things go in the world, those aren't terrible odds. South Korea still exists as a democracy, violence won out in that case over rivaling violence.

The world war 2 example is a curious example to use. It actually shows a different picture then I think you would like to present. In the end, Germany ended up with a ruined country, as you say. But, that is only because it met up against resistance/violence. In the end, Germany was BOMBED into submitting, not talked into it. A greater force of violence stopped the lesser source of it. It was the rule of the jungle carried out in its most prime. Countless attempts by Brittan and France to talk Germany out of taking over its neighbors had no effect, only when the grind of blood and bullets was too much for her to bear did Germany relent. Indeed, WW2 is a horrible example for you to use...probably the worst I can think of.

Instead you should of used people like Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther, and Martin Luther King Jr. These people were truly non-violent and changed the world. However, they are the conspicuous examples. The reason they stand out in history is because all to often, non-retaliation results in certain defeat. Look at the plight of the native Americans. While history tells the tail of all the tribes that fought, many did not. Many made deals with the White man. The history of these arrangements is grim indeed. For the White man would constantly renig the terms and send into exile the native Americans. Even the great Jefferson, the champion of democracy, sent the native Americans further and further down the trail of tears. They did not fight. The suffered...and suffered. Perhaps, if they fought, they would off been completely eradicated, so, instead, they choose exile and decimation. Which is better, I am not one to say. But surely, their non-violence did not result in one could consider a victory.

You need to remember your fathers. And I don't mean the founders of the USA. I mean 2 billion years of evolution on this planet. Humans are not some sanctimonious super being. We are composed of the same shit, sweat, and tears as everything else. The history of all animals is almost wholly violent. The lion doesn't solve his mating deputes with a rival by any other means than brutality. Your immune system doesn't win out by being less virulent than the infection it sees to mend. Your food won't survive long enough to reap if you don't stop the insects and vermin from eating it. Washing your hands is akin to mass murder of bacteria. Anti-bacterial soap is akin to genocide. But we resolve ourselves of these sins almost constantly so that we can be naive in the construction of our morality when dealing with each other. In this world, it is life for life. Nothing alive doesn't take life as well, spare most planets. Plants are only noble creation along with some fungi. Most every animal on the planet exploits unto pain through violence some other organism. herbivorous being the most foul violator eating the only noble life on the plant. Carnivores are their penitence.

This world is a cycle of pain, and its root is violence. Violence is what drives evolution forward. One of the expatiations of the Cambrian Explosion is the arrival of carnivores. And billions of years later, you stand on the top of the tradition of exploitation. And you won't be rid of it be ignoring it inside you. You might construct a society that can slowly cope and perhaps even bread out billions of years of evolution. And in perhaps 10 thousand years, you can look back and see that you reduced human violence by 20%. And that would be a great accomplishment. Only to then be wiped out by a asteroid ending all human life to be replaced by the new slug overlords. The great comedy of life is to think you can make a difference in the 80 years we have vs the billions that the history of life has been with us. Unless you are talking about complete genetic experimentation to change the face of what it means to be human, I don't see anything working. Maybe you make a government system that handles the nature of man better, but the nature of man...the 2 billion year old murder animal, is still set before you.

Like I said, I don't like this world. I would rather live in your fantasy world. A world of reason, of peace, of progress. We don't have that world. We have a world of brutal, violence. It's only true self is that of conflict and competition that is all to often violent. It the a 2 billion year old rule that we didn't make up but have had to better realize, lest make poorly designed strategy to deal with the beast that is man.

>> ^SDGundamX:

>> ^BoneRemake:
UPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTEEEEEEEEEEE

"violence doesnt solve anything "
and yet we go to war, explain that mrs former cop.

By the way, you forgot to quote her whole comment, which in its entirety goes:
"My message to the young people out there is that violence does not solve anything. It can get you into more trouble than what it's going to solve. [If you are being bullied] don't suffer in silence: find a trusted a adult and let them know what's going on."
So first off, your question about wars was completely off-topic. But I'll take a shot at answering it anyway.
She didn't say people were smart. She didn't say people don't ever get violent. She instead pointed out violence doesn't solve any problems. Did we solve the terrorist threat with the Iraq and Afganistan wars? Did we stop Communism with the Vietnam and Korean wars? Part of the reason Germany went to war in World War 2 was because their economy was in the crapper after World War 1 and they owed money in reparations. Did they solve that problem by getting their country bombed to rubble?
Nations go to war for many reasons. There's the ostensible reasons like "spreading freedom" that the population is forced to buy and there are the actual reasons like securing resources or the sheer madness of the country's leadership. My question for you is, at the end of the day, can you really think of a war that "solved" a problem in a way that couldn't have been solved peacefully?