• Checked Off My Bucket List: Visit A Korean Festival

    You mean to say that going to a Korean Festival is not on your bucket list? Then my bucket list (if I had one) definitely kicks your bucket list’s ass.
    The best thing about going to a Korean Festival is a lot of Koreans, they are nice and friendly people who don’t mind a freeloader who showed up as a friend of a friend of a guest.


    Any self-respecting Korean Festival starts off by singing Korean National Anthem followed the US National Anthem.

    httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXIJKyuU1d4

    httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdki1LhKT5k

    Korean War Veterans get a lot of respect at the event.


    You’d think that reading Korean is hard…

    …but you’d be wrong, I immediately knew what the 3rd prize was.

    Another great thing about Korean Festivals is a combination of soccer, tennis and volleyball they play there.

    For the entertainment Koreans enjoy making fun of the non-Koreans pretending to do martial arts.

    I thought something was strange when whatever the martial arts people were screaming sounded a lot like “Jesus First” but then they proceeded to create cross formation and re-enact the Passion of the Christ.

    This is the part after they crucified their instructor a.k.a. Jesus…

    httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxnZAqZ97BI

    …so he can return from the dead.

    httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5aAhsfRSl0

    Of course no one leaves hungry.


    To recap: nice people, a show about Jesus and martial arts, good food and lots and lots of soap.

    Now on to the next item on my list….

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  • McFlation

    During my trip to St.Louis I made my annual visit to McDonald’s because my daughter requested McSalad. I was disappointed that inflation continues to devastate McValue “dollar” menu. You used to be able to get medium French fries in a cardboard package, and now it’s downgraded to small fries in a little paper bag.
    Very old people would be able to recite McDonald’s original prices:
    hamburgers–15 cents; cheeseburgers–19 cents; fries–10 cents; soft drinks–10 cents and 15 cents; coffee–5 cents; and shakes–20 cents.
    With higher prices and crappy food there shouldn’t be any reason to go to McDonald’s, while we have plenty of local hamburger joints such as Town Topic, Harold’s and Winstead’s.

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  • Move ’em On, Head ’em out, Then Hide!

    Another key to an 83% approval rating? Put all your political opponents in jail.

    TheDLC

    The comment above was posted on my recent post about Vladimir Putin. Today my blog feed brings an illustration.

    Here we see a participant of a legal non-violent picket of the Moscow City Hall being carefully handled by the militia (Russian name for police).

    ©www.sasha-utkin.ru

    Here we see his partner being picked up as well.

    ©www.sasha-utkin.ru

    And after a short pampering…

    ©www.sasha-utkin.ru

    …being loaded in the van.

    ©www.sasha-utkin.ru

    Single-person pickets do not require permission. According to the article these people were asked to leave and when they refused, were carried out and taken away. To the best of my knowledge protesters are usually let go the same day or the next morning, apparently Russian militia just enjoys the process and resulting news reports.

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  • Kansas: As Red As You Think It Is

    Recently through the magic of Facebook an article came to my attention. Bruised Kansas by Jeffrey Ann Goudie laments the transformation of the State of Kansas from a state on the forefront of racial equality and “proud history of women in politics” to a state where Governor Brownback autocratically imposes his “boilerplate political agenda”.

    The only thing missing was one of those before and after photos that get passed around on the internet.

    A15DPtCCYAAyYJ1

    When I read the article, I kept thinking that the author must not be living in the same Kansas I live in; one can argue that Johnson County, KS is not representative of the entire state, but I am fairly familiar with a large part of it, having driven thousands of miles on my semi-frequent road trips to familiarize myself with the state where I made my home for the past 20 years. During that time I have met many Kansans, had candid conversations with countless acquaintances and coworkers not necessarily constrained by Codes of Business Conduct and unnecessary politeness, so I have a pretty good idea about the people I am surrounded with in my daily life, and, boy, is this state RED.

    I’d be the first one to defend Kansas for being unfairly maligned, but not because the criticism and stereotyping is misplaced, but because, in most cases, it’s coming from places that are no better and not much further along on the scale of progress. I will never stop saying that people of Kansas are some of the most kind, helpful, compassionate people I’ve ever met. But boy, is this state RED.

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  • Speaking about ugly cars with high gas-mileage…

    Some old Soviet car commercial.

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