The net is buzzing with news of two journalists being freed from North Korea, and politicians are jived up about health care "reform".

And yet it seems nobody really grasps the consequences of either of these events. The Obama administration is still under the illusion that North Korea has any notion of droping nuclear ambitions - it doesn't. And quite honestly, nothing short of war would deprive them of that desire. They look to their nuclear capability as its one trump card against its rivals, primarily the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. Where these countries can rely on strong economies and high standards of living, the backward NK state can only look to its nuclear capacity as any deterent in the case of war. They have no more intention of giving up that capacity than America does of giving up its own.

Again I say, nothing short of war with NK would deprive them of their nuclear capacity. No ammount of economic sanctions will change that fact. The regime has already demonstrated previously that it is more than willing to let its citizens starve if it means they dont have to sacrifice their nuclear ability.

Even if NK would agree for a second time to dismantle its nuclear reactors, it wouldn't change anything. NK has reneged already on the issue, and in the previous aggreement we gave them huge energy supplies in order to agree to dismantling. They lied to our faces and to the whole world about dismantling; why should we believe their promises to dismantle *even if they did agree to such a thing, which they aren't going to*? Its nonsense; they aren't agreeing to that, and even if they did they would bring the issue up again to try and get further concessions out of six party talks while maintaining their nuclear arsenal.

And the health care reform, what a crock. There are two reasons for this reform: the rising costs of health care, and supposed 40 million "Americans" wiithout health care.

This refomr isn't going to decrease the costs of healthcare, it is going to increase them. Even assuming that the costs are going to continue to increase without this reform, the reform is going to act as a catalyst to speed up the price increases, not decrease them. Further, of these 40 million Americans without health care, nobody seems to care that over half of those people (20 million right off the top) are illegal aliens in our country. And the rest of the number of uninsured, nobody cares to ask whether those people can afford private healthcare; most of those people of these legal 20 million people are more than capable of having private healthcare insurance, they simply dont want to pay for it.

Reasonable enough, I don't like paying my bills either. But thats life. And there is no reason for a few million out of a country of over 300 million people to cause huge tax increases on the rest of the population because they dont want to pay their premiums.

Of our remaining 10 million some odd people who cannot afford healthcare, my heart truely goes out to you. Really it does. But this simply isn't the way to fix the problem. The system that is being designed is fraught with inefficiencies and illogical decisions. The way it works is very simular to an HMO, but your primary doctor has a financial incentive to not give you high quality health care and to not send you to necessary specialist. He gets paid the less health care you need basically. This is supposed to give an incentive for doctors to help prevent health care problems, but all it is going to do is lead us into a brick wall of not recieving necessary care.

If you want more information, here's a very informative link.

It is all just stupid, stupid, stupid. And I wish that our leaders would pull their heads out of their you know what.

Update: The icing has just landed on the cake. Sonia Sotomayor was just confirmed as a Supreme Court Jutice. How pathetic...the vote went right along party lines.

If you have never taken a book recommendation from me, take this one. This book is nothing short of awesome.

Its called Reality Check: The unreported good news about America. Co-authored by two MBA graduates from UCLA, the book's premise is going around and examining several widely reported and widely believed myths about the USA, everything from the economy, to the wars in Afganistan and Iraq, to Hurricane Katrina, and weighs the facts against the near universal popular view of these issues.

Just one thing examined for example, is the widely believed thought that China is somehow getting ready to take over the global economy. Fact is, is that just the increase in the US economy over the past 6 years under President Bush, just the increase, is equal to the entire economy of China.

Another one that really caught my eye was the belief that Bush's tax cuts for the rich was unfair and that it contributed to an unbalanced budget. Fact is that tax revenue was up over $168 million, due in large part to economic growth of the middle class in America because of Bush's tax cuts. Bush isnt an MBA graduate for nothing; his economic policies helped bring about unprecidented economic prosperity in the US, and those of us who benefited most dare think he is one of the worst presidents? What ingrates we are!

Just two issues out of about a dozen examined in much greater detail than I could provide here which you should research. The book is really small considering everything it covers, less than 200 pages. This book is definately one of my favorite books I've ever read. If you havent read this book yet, I strongly recommend it.

"International relations today are in a kind of limbo. Few politicians and diplomats really believe that any power other than the United States can guarantee the peace or punish aggression. But neither is there sufficient cohesion in the west to give America the moral and material support she must have to fulfill that roll.

This has to change. America's duty is to lead. The other Western countries' duty is to support its leadership. Provided western countries unite under American leadership, the west will remain the dominant global influence' if we do not, the opportunity for rogue states and new tyranical powers to exploit our division will increase, and so will the danger to all." Margeret Thatcher, British Prime Minister

Words spoken just over one decade ago ring true as prophetic. After the collapse of the USSR, America and our western allies was almost completely unchallenged the world over. On key issues however, there have been rifts in this western alliance. As Thatcher spoke in 1998, this has caused rogue states which endanger the lives of millions to grow in the power vacuum at the end of the Cold War.

Just one nation, North Korea, is currently threatening our ally of South Korea and potentially Japan, both of which are key allies in Asia. Complicating issues further is surrging nationalism in Korea and large agitation for war between the north and the south.

Probably more disturbing than these developments though, is the general lack of sympathy or interest in many of our European allies. It is one thing to sing praises of American support, it is a very different thing to put forth effort to help. I think on the whole, Europe sees itself rather disconnected from these potential flashpoints and battlegrounds.

Dont misunderstand me though, I think that there is support for us on the global stage, but not nearly strong enough as the former British PM requested of the European allies.

So, what is America's way forward? To a large degree, I support Obama's foreign policy of trying to reintegrate Europe into our military responces world wide. France has recently reintegrated its military into the NATO command structure. Eastern Europe has moved to support a planned missle shield on their territory. And while Russia vehemently opposes the proposed shield, it has done nothing to offer possible alternatives, such as assisting in disarming potential rogue states that the shield is designed to protect against.

In Asia, tensions over Taiwan and China have subsided very substantially with the installation of the KMT party, which has gone to considerable lengths to strengthen ties with the mainland while maintaining independence. Nations in Indochina have, for the most part, democratic governments, with the exception of Vietnam and Laos. The Philipenes and Australia continue to be strong allies, with Australia recently asigning a large budget to revamp its military, especially the navy, to be a stronger deterent to any aggression in the Pacific.

The primary concerns of the world in foreign politics is the recent events and threats from North Korea, and the potential nuclearization of Iran in the near future. Thousands of military men and women are deployed in Afganistan to fight counter insurgency operations, with a great deal of success I might add.

So then, what is the point of this blog post? To help inform my fellow Americans that solidarity with our friends the world over is key to maintaining this Pax Americana that was born from the ashes of the Pax Atomica of the Cold War. Solidarity especially with our Asian allies is key; failure to support them in any area would erode western support throughout the entire region. If you are one of our allies, or you have close contact with our allies, tell them that America thanks them for their support. We need you and your support more than ever in these trying times; not in order to spread American dominance or influence, but in order to build a stronger world and a more secure future for all people on Earth.