Our intelligence agencies must really be red-faced now that even the most die-hard hawk has had to come to terms with the fact there were no WMDs to be found in Iraq, our official reason for attacking and occupying that country. Instead one of the poorest nations, starving North Korea, has managed to detonate a nuclear bomb right under our nose on the Korean Peninsula. With its highly irrational leader, the country could feasible even use such a weapon against its rich neighbors. No wonder the mood in Japan and in South Korea is rather somber and people are frightened. Uncle Sam is using verbal threats of sanctions as usual, and our president has condemned the ‘nucular’ test, but I doubt China or even Russia would allow the U.N. Security Council to pass any meaningful countermeasures. It is hard to remember that during Clinton’s last presidency we were actually talking with this rogue state in a civilized manner and peace seemed within grasp. A Madame Albright Mr. Bush is not, nor is anyone else in his cabinet. If military action was called for, we couldn’t come up with the manpower needed with our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not that we would want to fight the North Koreans again as they taught us a lesson by almost wiping out the U.S. army during the early 1950s. 
Some world leaders may breathe easier, strangely enough, as this news has replaced a lot of embarrassing items on the front page. Vladimir Putin might be one of them, after the assassination of “Russia’s Conscience”, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, in her apartment building’s elevator. The writer had been one of the remaining critics of Putin and Russia’s war in Chechnya, so one cannot help but be suspicious about the motive of the murder. Russia’s flirtation with freedom and democracy seems to be rapidly coming to an end. Putin rules the country like the old timers did, with a fist of steel. Perhaps that is what Russia needs: many elderly people still remember Stalin as a great man and miss the good old times; never mind that some twenty million Soviet citizens died or disappeared during his long dictatorship. Not that our country’s past is all that exemplary either, as so many progressive civil leaders were assassinated in the 1960s alone. Will the killer or killers in Moscow be caught and will the investigation reveal the truth behind the brutal murder? Of course Putin has promised this, but it is highly unlikely, as we will probably never learn the true political reasons for killing the Kennedy brothers or Martin Luther King.
The old mentality of getting rid of people who speak the truth is unfortunately alive and well even today. On a personal note, there have been people who have wanted to destroy me and my family. Short of using bullets or poison, they have tried just about every dirty trick in the book, unsuccessfully however. Of course, for a Finn all that just builds character. I’m wondering
whether I need to start wearing body armor, just to be safe. A few nights ago I saw the Devil in a dream, for the first time that I can recall. He had some familiar facial features, but otherwise looked like a troll. It was a powerful dream in which evil was everywhere to start with, but little by little goodness prevailed. The Devil ended up being powerless in front of me and I ordered him to fix the house’s toilets. I’m still trying to fully understand what the symbolism was, the incarnation of evil being reduced to a plumber. There was a time in my life when a ‘Kakkenputz’, a poop cleaner, was hired by an organization to take care of its unpleasant business, so this could have been behind the dream. Had I been a prophet, I could have written another Apocalypse for a religious book based on this ‘vision’, although it would have been more optimistic than the one we now read, and “666” could have become “285” or something of the sort.
Our intelligence agencies must really be red-faced now that even the most die-hard hawk has had to come to terms with the fact there were no WMDs to be found in 
Some world leaders may breathe easier, strangely enough, as this news has replaced a lot of embarrassing items on the front page. Vladimir Putin might be one of them, after the assassination of “
whether I need to start wearing body armor, just to be safe. A few nights ago I saw the Devil in a dream, for the first time that I can recall. He had some familiar facial features, but otherwise looked like a troll. It was a powerful dream in which evil was everywhere to start with, but little by little goodness prevailed. The Devil ended up being powerless in front of me and I ordered him to fix the house’s toilets. I’m still trying to fully understand what the symbolism was, the incarnation of evil being reduced to a plumber. There was a time in my life when a ‘Kakkenputz’, a poop cleaner, was hired by an organization to take care of its unpleasant business, so this could have been behind the dream. Had I been a prophet, I could have written another Apocalypse for a religious book based on this ‘vision’, although it would have been more optimistic than the one we now read, and “666” could have become “285” or something of the sort.
