DPRK (North Korean) Communists Hold American Journalists; Threaten A Kangaroo Court

Communists don't change. From Stalin to Mao to the current leadership of DPRK (Pronounced Dee-Perk), it has always been the same: Sustain a reign of terror, even if it means trying and convicting innocent people. Evidence and transparency are irrelevent, just make arrests and start tossing people in prison.

According to the late Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his epic work The Gulag Archipelago, that is how communists work. North Korea hasn't changed one little bit along those lines.

From the Associated Press:

North Korea announced that two U.S. journalists were about to go on trial — then came the mysterious silence. The day passed Friday with no updates of the criminal proceedings that were supposed to begin Thursday for TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

And what were these two supposed to go on trial for? Read on:

The journalists — working for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV — were arrested March 17 as they were reporting about the trafficking of women. It's unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China. Although the Americans were accused of illegally entering North Korea and unspecified "hostile acts," Pyongyong has yet to publicly announce the exact charges against them. South Korean legal experts have said a conviction for "hostility" or espionage could mean five to 10 years in a labor camp.

Given the track record of lies and distortions that make up the bulk of the history of communist regimes, I would venture to guess that aggressive border guards crossed into China. How can I make such a claim? Read the history of "justice" in DRPK:

Venezuelan poet Ali Lameda described to the human rights group Amnesty International in a written report his experience in a North Korean court that sentenced him to 20 years in a labor camp in 1967. Lameda, a member of the Venezuelan Communist Party, said he was working as a translator in Pyongyang when he was accused of spying, sabotage and infiltration — allegations he denied. No evidence, formal charges or specific allegations were presented during the one-day proceeding, he said. Instead, court officials repeatedly demanded that Lameda confess his guilt. A defense lawyer was assigned to him, but the attorney gave a long speech praising the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung before suggesting his client be sentenced to 20 years.

No, the communists haven't changed one little bit.

Where is Barack Obama and why isn't he demanding the release of these two Americans being illegally held by DPRK? He and the Democrats are certainly vocal enough when it is the U.S. holding legitimate terrorism suspects.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

North Korea Silent About US Journalists' Trial
William Foreman, Jean H. Lee and Kwang-tae Kim
Associated press
June 5, 2009

Homeschooling Case Exposes Liberal Left

Leftists are becoming bolder about what they really stand for. That is actually an amazing fact since left-wing policies were shown to be such dismal failures, especially in Eastern Europe and most third-world countries.

This time, the left has come out and stated in unambiguous terms their goal with our children through public education. It came out in a case in California where an appellate court ruled that parents have no right to homeschool.

According to John Stossel at TownHall.com:

The cat is finally out of the bag. A California appellate court, ruling that parents have no constitutional right to homeschool their children, pinned its decision on this ominous quotation from a 47-year-old case, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train schoolchildren in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare." There you have it; a primary purpose of government schools is to train schoolchildren "in loyalty to the state." Somehow that protects "the public welfare" more than allowing parents to homeschool their children, even though homeschooled kids routinely outperform government-schooled kids academically. In 2006, homeschooled students had an average ACT composite score of 22.4. The national average was 21.1.

Yes, I too noticed the phrases "primary purpose of the educational system" and "lotalty to the state." It immediately reminded me of what Albert J. Nock wrote in his classic essay, Our Enemy, The State. But that will be a topic for another post.

What should be scaring the living bejeezus out of you right now is that little phrase "loyalty to the state." It means that our public education system is no longer committed to educating our children, rather that it is now in place to indoctrinate them the same way Soviet-style Communist regimes indoctrinated their children. It is there to teach kids to become dependent on the paternalistic government rather than be self-reliant and self-determinating.

But dependency on the State worked so well in the old Soviet bloc, didn't it? Leftists and libs are completely ignorant of history. And they seem to want to make everyone else ignorant of it too. Hence, the ruling by the California appellate court.

Stossel also notes something else:

The court finds no constitutional right to homeschool one's children. But in a free country, people are free to do anything not expressly prohibited by law.

Yep. If libs think that parents shouldn't be allowed to homeschool because that right is not specifically listed in the Constitution, then all libs should be required to change their beliefs from pro-abortion to pro-life since the right to an abortion also does not appear anywhere in the Constitution.

But then, hypocrisy is a garment the left has always worn with pride.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Threat To Homeschooling
John Stossel
TownHall.com
April 2, 2008