One Less Hydraphobey Skunk!

 Haven't had much to write about lately, a lot going on but it seems that by the time I find out about it, then think of something to say, someone else has already said it.

 So, I was polishing the all brass shotshells I use in Cowboy Action Shooting and doing a little other cleaning of my various accountrements when I finally turned on the Internet and discovered that Kim Jong Il is seriously dead. I hope the readers can forgive me for hoping it was painful and frightening.

 Korea is an interesting experiment. In the South we have Capitalism, in the North, Stalinism. It's funny, the difference. Two countries with the same people, genetically, the same resources, the same climate and topography. One county starving, the other country well fed.

 I managed to spend my late teens and early twenties kicking around the Orient, courtesy of my then wealthy Uncle Samuel.  I never got to spend much time in the Republic of Korea but I did visit, Older Koreans were kind of scrawny, by the time the post-Korean War kids had grown up they were towering over their grandparents. That's South Korea. North Korea, why there was no growth spurt. Most of the younger generation of the north are functionally mentally retarded through malnutrition.

 I wonder what is going to happen when that whole house of cards in the DRPK collapses. Is the poor excuse for a government going to be able to transition to a new "leader"? If not, what happens? The only way they'll keep the starving people in is with the military. Meanwhile, that military is on it's last legs. Yes, they have a bazillion obsolete artillery tubes dug into tunnels near the North-South border. That would be even more scary if only the artillerymen were nor so malnourished that they can hardly handle the shells these days.

 So, the North Koreans coming over the Chinese borders won't be too much trouble, the Chinese have never fainted at the sight of Korean blood. It's the ones coming south or, worse yet, if Korea is again unified, it will take at least a generation, more likely two or three, before the North Koreans are healthy enough to be useful in a modern society. This means they'll need to be cared for. Question is, by whom?

 Oddly, with the evidence of the two Koreas, the two halves of Germany and the way Cubans are still betting their lives on getting to Florida, people still believe that Socialism can work. Sigh.