Shhhhh!

Don't tell Uncle Jimbo that I am stealing his stuff. If you don't read Uncle Jimbo over at Blackfive, you should. I have met him and he just exactly as crazy as his blogging makes him appear.

Tough times on the lunatic fringe
Posted By Uncle Jimbo

All right let's take a quick look at what went where with all of this North Korean fireworks.

First, and I take complete credit for this, they took the threat of our knocking their toy down enough to fire some Scuds attempting to draw our fire. Sweeeeet.

Second, none of their 1950s vintage tekmology (to quote Ali G), worked worth a damn. Well maybe the Scuds, but we knew that, the rest of their stuff didn't even really make the Japanese nervous.

Read the rest here.
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So what's funnier than Uncle Jimbo? Real life. BJ Barron left a comment about China, North Korea and trains. The story is over at The Stratagy Page.

Forget the Missiles, This is Even More Bizarre
July 5, 2006: While everyone's attention was focused on North Korean missiles, the real story is the North Korean economy. It continues to fall apart, and more North Koreans are unhappy about that. Worse yet, more North Koreans are finding out how badly they have been screwed by their leaders. Meanwhile, North Korean officials engage in even more bizarre behavior. For example, food and fuel supplies sent to North Korea have been halted, not to force North Korea to stop missile tests or participate in peace talks, but to return the Chinese trains the aid was carried in on. In the last few weeks, the North Koreans have just kept the trains, sending the Chinese crews back across the border. North Korea just ignores Chinese demands that the trains be returned, and insists that the trains are part of the aid program. It's no secret that North Korean railroad stock is falling apart, after decades of poor maintenance and not much new equipment. Stealing Chinese trains is a typical loony-tune North Korean solution to the problem. If the North Koreans appear to make no sense, that's because they don't. Put simply, when their unworkable economic policies don't work, the North Koreans just conjure up new, and equally unworkable, plans. The Chinese have tried to talk the North Koreans out of these pointless fantasies, and for their trouble they have their trains stolen. How do you negotiate under these conditions? No one knows. The South Koreans believe that if they just keep the North Korean leaders from doing anything too destructive (especially to South Korea), eventually the tragicomic house of cards up north will just collapse. Not much of a plan, but so far, no one's come up with anything better.