North Korean verbal saber-rattling over silly movie a precursor to ... ?

BBC News - North Korea threatens war on US over Kim Jong-un movie:

Franco & Rogen getting their orders.

 The North Korea spokesman was quoted by the state KCNA news agency as saying: "Making and releasing a movie on a plot to hurt our top-level leadership is the most blatant act of terrorism and war and will absolutely not be tolerated."

He added that the "reckless US provocative insanity" of mobilising a "gangster filmmaker" to challenge the North's leadership was triggering "a gust of hatred and rage" among North Korean people and soldiers.

"If the US administration allows and defends the showing of the film, a merciless counter-measure will be taken," the spokesman was quoted as saying.

Remember that movie that got some radical Islamists all riled up, or not, and then Benghazi happened and the Fox News team has been trying to make political hay for their army of zombies over it ever since?  Now that another movie is set to chage another group of dangerously unstable minds I can't help but wonder, how are conservatives preparing to make this into another campaign against Obama?

What sort of triangulations are being calculated under the tin foil hats of the white supremacist/libertarian coalition crowd? Do they think this is the POTUS's attempt to cause another Benghazi to distract from the last Benghazi so HRC can get elected and finally institute World Socialism and Racial Mixing Under Gay Sharia Law?

Or is this another false flag operation where North Korea is actually a super black cadre of IRS agents working for the POTUS to kill prominent American freedom loving conservatives to grease the wheels for UN takeover of health care so they can finally get those Death Panels up and running?

I'm tempted to look into the dark corners of the internet and see what the gobshites are saying ... but, I'm sure I won't have to wait long for the level-headed likes of the Chuck Todds of the world to start reporting fairly on the merit of the arguments for impeachment because ... James Franco.

North Korea Threatens South Korea With Nuclear War Over Cooperation With US, Japan

North Korea Threatens South Korea With Nuclear War Over Cooperation With US, Japan:

Cooperation between the three nations is 'escalating the tension between the North and the South and bringing the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the Korean peninsula,' read the North Korean newspaper commentary. South Korea, the US, and Japan said last week that negotiations with North Korea will not resume until the North stops, as Adm. Mike Mullen put it, its 'belligerent, reckless behavior.' South Korean and US officials met again today for regular defense talks.

I'd rather be noting the appearance of Bed Intruder Song on year end lists than the sobering news of North Korea's transition of power threatening the lives of millions.

North Korea unhinged, bellicose. (Even more than usual.)

North Korea Warns of More Strikes:

(NEWSER) – North Korea has warned it will attack the South again if it carries out any 'reckless military provocations.' The statement from a North Korean military delegation—which promised 'second and third strong physical retaliations without hesitation'—didn't specifically mention the US-South Korea joint military exercises set to begin on Sunday, but the drills are certain to infuriate Pyongyang, the AP notes.

Sparks and powder kegs.

NKorea fires artillery onto SKorean island :: WRAL.com:

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired artillery barrages onto a South Korean island near their disputed border Tuesday, setting buildings alight and prompting South Korea to return fire and scramble fighter jets. At least one South Korean marine was killed and 13 wounded, the military said.

This is not the kind of headline I like seeing with my first coffee of the morning. The prospect of another war on the Korean peninsula doesn't bode well for anyone.

The Splendid Splinter

Ted Williams passed away today at 83. 

He was the last .400 hitter, probably the greatest hitter ever to play the game (Bob Feller is on the air now attesting to the fact) -- he definitely had the sweetest swing. He was, by all accounts, a great fighter pilot who saw extensive combat in WWII and in Korea. He was active in supporting the Jimmy Fund.

Baseball and the Red Sox are a part of the New England identity; Ted Williams, moreso than any other Boston sports legend (Bird, Orr, Yaz...) was the living embodiment of that identity. Prickly, brash, reclusive, gifted, generous ... in some regards he's not an easy guy to warm up to the idea of, but the way he dreamed as a kid of being the greatest hitter ever, then applied himself wholeheartedly to that goal -- learning the science and mechanics of hitting, applying his mind and that wiry body of his to the task with single-minded devotion -- those qualities made him, in my imagination, the most fascinating figure in sports.