Leniency for the Tycoon

What a phrase. And what a fighter!

A South Korean tycoon on trial in a sensational assault case said Monday he punched bar workers after his son was hurt in a scuffle, but denied using a steel pipe and stun gun.

"I delivered several hooks," Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn said under questioning by the prosecution at Seoul central District Court, using boxing terminology to describe the punches.

Clad in sky blue jail garb, Kim, one of South Korea's richest men, said he chose the description for the punches because he was once head of South Korea's amateur boxing association.

Kim said it was he himself who "mainly beat" about half a dozen bar workers, although he added that his bodyguards were involved later, when "I got tired."

Well hell yes! When you get tired, you've got to have your minions step in, to do at least some of the ass-kicking.

Among charges the tycoon faces are illegal detainment and assault with dangerous objects over the alleged revenge attack after a March altercation at a Seoul karaoke club with his 22-year-old son, Kim Dong-won, a student at Yale University.

[. . .]

The dramatic details of the case, which media have likened to something out of a gangster movie, have drawn intense public interest in South Korea, where the heads of family controlled conglomerates wield great economic, political and social clout.

At one point Kim told the packed courtroom that he lightly hit one of the workers on the head with a steel pipe to scare them. He later retracted the statement and denied using a stun gun.

Kim's lawyers said the attack was not organized or premeditated in nature, and called for leniency for the tycoon. They said his prolonged absence from management could cause a crisis at the conglomerate.

And if anybody deserves a little leniency now and then, surely it's the head of a family-controlled conglomerate?

And while we're in Hanguk . . . what do you think your first public statement would be after finally getting the hell out of the world's most backward state?

A North Korean family of four arrived in South Korea on Saturday after leaving Japan, where they landed two weeks ago after a rare boat voyage from the communist country.

The family - a couple and their two adult sons - arrived at the international airport in Incheon wearing hats and covering their faces with masks.

"Liberty, democracy, human rights!" yelled one of the North Koreans at an airport gate, before airport security officials escorted the group away.

He couldn't hold it in; he had to shout it! Loud and proud.

Finally, ever wonder what W's Secret-Service codename is? Here's a hint: It fits, and on multiple levels.

Old Sparky . . . Works?

Interesting article in the AP about recent studies claiming that the death penalty in the United States . . . prevents murders?

Among the conclusions:

- Each execution deters an average of 18 murders, according to a 2003 nationwide study by professors at Emory University. (Other studies have estimated the deterred murders per execution at three, five and 14).

Just for good measure, there's some academic snippiness too (the phrase "second-tier journals" is used).

Iraq in a Nutshell

In a recent dispatch from the IHT covering the continuing horror of Iraq, John F. Burns provides (almost as an aside) a solid summation of what the deal is:

Shiites now hold power for the first time in centuries through the embattled Shiite-led, U.S.-supported government in Baghdad. They have been the principal targets of bombings by Sunni insurgent groups seeking to drive American and other foreign forces out of Iraq and to restore Sunni minority rule. But Shiites have also suffered increasingly in areas of southern Iraq, where most Shiites live, from internecine violence among rival Shiite militia groups.

I've never seen anyone spell out the situation that clearly and succinctly before.

I can never complain again about my personal life. No matter how "bad" things get for me, I do not live in Iraq.

What Humans Do

Great article about wildlife in the 1100-square-mile contaminated zone around Chernobyl.

Also, archaeologists have found a passageway George Washington built, so his guests wouldn't have to look at the slaves coming and going. George was real hospitable like that.

"As you enter the heaven of liberty, you literally have to cross the hell of slavery," said Michael Coard, a Philadelphia attorney who leads a group that worked to have slavery recognized at the site. "That's the contrast, that's the contradiction, that's the hypocrisy. But that's also the truth."

[. . .]

The findings have created a quandary for National Park Service and city officials planning an exhibit at the house. They are now trying to decide whether to incorporate the remains into the exhibit or go forward with plans to fill in the ruins and build an abstract display about life in the house.

"fill in the ruins" . . .

After all, the guests didn't want to see the slaves then . . . why should they have to look now?

Wild Ride

Dude got a wild ride, true dat.

What Happened to Oetzi?

Now we know, and it ain't pretty. Dude got shot in the back. The AP's all over it, but the BBC coverage is deeper and more interesting. They even tell what he had to eat!

Now that we know so much about him, why doesn't someone make an Oetzi movie?

And All of Your Usefulness

Best song of the past year or so, from Shara Worden, better known as My Brightest Diamond. I just tracked it down. Good God this woman rocks.

Listen to the song (courtest Team Clermont--scroll down to "Workhorse"), rock out, see her on tour this summer, buy the CD from Asthmatic Kitty.

Sugar?

Stunning, memorable, horrifying and sickly hilarious. "The tortured lives of interrogators."

My friend Eb is right--this piece is wall-to-wall quotable quotes.

The best place to go to unwind, Sheriff said, was the municipal garbage dump. After work, he'd set up a beach chair on top of the landfill, under the Israeli sun.

Now Sheriff was high up on the dump, safe from vindictive prisoners, boiling water on a portable gas burner to make some tea. "Sugar?" he offered. Sheriff stretched, relaxed. "I've got a clean conscience because I rarely use it."

But Sheriff's got nothing on the American profiled in the story--the one who was encouraged by his superiors, IN OUR GOVERNMENT, to torture more or less at random. Cut a guy's fingers off because he stole a can of benzene? Why the hell not? That's just "being creative."