North Korea
December 19, 2014 — John Hinderaker
On November 24, the news broke that Sony Pictures’ computer system had been hacked. Today, 25 days later, President Obama finally addressed the issue in one of his rare press conferences. In the meantime, Sony had already announced that it is killing the movie that was the apparent cause of the intrusion, “The Interview;” showings of another film, “Team America,” had been canceled, and production of a third film that
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December 17, 2014 — Steven Hayward
Hollywood is already caving in to liberal guilt over its capitulation to North Korean intimidation, apparently agreeing with Hillary Clinton that we need to empathize with our enemies. In an article out this afternoon in the LA Weekly that ostensibly laments giving in to threats, it isn’t long before the article goes full tilt boogie for liberal guilt: The movie about a talk TV crew’s CIA-initiated plot to assassinate a
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December 17, 2014 — Steven Hayward
No sooner than I suggest that Hollywood order up a whole slate of movies mocking North Korea than the news comes that Sony is pulling theatrical release of “The Interview,” about which the hackers have threatened terrorist violence. Call me a cynic, but I wonder if this isn’t a brilliant marketing play on behalf of a movie that was heading for total bomb status at the box office. Sony will
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December 16, 2014 — Steven Hayward
So far most news reports about the massive Sony hack are expressing “uncertainty” about whether North Korea is behind the cyberattack. Today Variety reports that the hackers are threatening 9/11-style terrorist attacks on theaters that screen “The Interview,” the Seth Rogan/James Franco vehicle making fun of the latest Little Kim to tyrannize the unfortunate northern half of Korea. Frankly this threat makes me skeptical that the Norks are behind this.
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November 10, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
North Korea has released two American prisoners — Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller. I agree with Claudia Rosett that we should be glad for the two prisoner/hostages, but unhappy about the way their release was brought about. President Obama secured the release of Bae and Miller by sending James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, to North Korea. Clapper carried a message from President Obama to North Korean tyrant Kim Jong
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October 3, 2014 — Steven Hayward
Is there some kind of power struggle or coup going on in North Korea? The Daily Mail is reporting today that Pyongyang is on “lockdown,” that Little Kim (as I call him) hasn’t been seen in public for almost a month, and that perhaps his sister (I’ll call her “Little Kim” too, because chauvinism) is actually running the country, or may have been running it for some time. “Gateway Pundit”
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June 21, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Reading Obama’s speeches is a little like reading New York Times editorials. They don’t withstand close scrutiny, but that’s the least of it. They should be accompanied by a warning that they may be hazardous to your health. They kill brain cells. George Will suffers through Obama’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin so that we don’t have to. Will takes up the arms control thread in Obama’s speech.
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May 8, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Back in the 1980s, when The New Republic described Jesse Jackson as “the great ambulance chaser of American politics,” it was Jackson who would insert himself in every foreign crisis he could. He sprung a downed airman from Syrian captivity in 1984, and then got on the phone with various Lebanese terrorists trying to mediate the 1985 TWA flight 847 hijacking and hostage crisis. (He was unsuccessful that time.) At
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April 6, 2013 — Steven Hayward
There’s so many good memes about the nattering nabobs of North Korea that it calls for a special photo spread. I’ll have the best of the rest of the week in a later post.
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April 4, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I want to second Steve’s thoughts about Kim Jong Un and North Korea. The recent words and moves by North Korea strike me as saber rattling for a purpose (or, more likely, purposes). One purpose, as Steve says, is to obtain new concessions from the U.S. Another purpose may well be to shore up the dictator’s standing with the military. It has been reported that Kim Jong Un has turned
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