Picture Of The Day II

I'm doing my part. Cthulhu bless America.

(via)

Something Someone Else Said

"[W]e really judge the extremism of legislation based on the positioning of Republicans and Democrats. If I'd told you that the Obama administration was going to release a health-care bill that would attract every Senate Democrat -- from Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer to Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman -- and either endorsements or neutrality from the American Medical Association, the hospital industry, the pharmaceutical industry, AARP, labor, and much of the insurance industry (though their press releases have become more oppositional recently), you'd have thought that was a pretty moderate, consensus-oriented bill. Which it is! But most Americans don't think that because the Republicans decided to treat it as the second coming of fascism." -Ezra Klein, The Washington Post.

And they've said and done everything they possibly could in order to portray President Obama as a mixture of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. It started on day one and they've just gotten louder and more absurd every day since. I shudder to think of how bad things will get in Washington if the GOP is able to take control of even one house of congress in November, let alone both of them. And if either of those scenarios does happen it won't be because their ideas were better or smarter, only that they were able to yell "Fascist!" long enough and loud enough over the previous two years as Obama has been trying to pull us out of the economic nosedive he inherited. Sometimes I really hate politics.

(via)

Glenn Beck: Crazed 9/11 Trajedy Whore

I was watching Glenn Beck on the FOX News channel yesterday. Yes, I know... After showing the obligatory montage of the 9/11 attacks set to ominous music that he plays every year to remind us why we should be scared of terrorism he actually started saying something I agree with. Ever on the verge of tears of course, Beck was lamenting the fact that eight years after the World Trade Center had been destroyed there was still just a huge hole in the ground where it used to stand.

He basically said that this is fucked up, and I agreed with him. Then he said that since the Empire State Building was completed in 400 days we should definitely have been able to build the new Freedom Tower with its memorial to fallen Americans in eight years, and I agreed with him. Then he began to decry the name change from "Freedom Tower" to "One World Trade Center", and I agreed with him. Then he said that the change was made to keep from offending people who don't like freedom, and I said "Wait, what the hell...?":

You know why we're not even calling it the Freedom Tower anymore? It's gonna be One World Trade Center. One World, isn't that great? Oh, might be too offensive to call it the Freedom Tower, we sure wouldn't want to have anybody offended by that! We want to make sure we have the occupancy there. Really?! They used to call it the Empty State Building. Do you want somebody who's offended by freedom in that tower? Who could they be? Oh well, China, China. I don't want anybody in the Freedom Tower who's offended by freedom, do you?

Now obviously communist China is hardly a bastion of freedom but I found it a little hard to swallow that we'd changed the name strictly because it offended them or anyone else. It turns out that it was hard to swallow because it wasn't true:

...this week, the owners of ground zero publicly parted ways with the Freedom Tower name, saying it would be more practical to market the tallest building in New York as the former north tower's name, One World Trade Center.

...others privately repeated fears that have plagued the building as negotiations with major corporations to take up space in the tower came and went: that the 102-story Freedom Tower's name could make it more susceptible to future attacks than a symbol of defiance against it.

"The fact is, more than 3 billion dollars of public money is invested in that building and, as a public agency, we have the responsibility to make sure it is completed and that we utilize the best strategy to make certain it is fully occupied," the agency said in a statement Friday.

Agency chairman Anthony Coscia was more critical in remarks Thursday, when the Port Authority announced its first corporate lease at the tower with a Chinese business center.

"As we market the building, we will ensure the building is presented in the best possible way," he said. One World Trade Center is "easiest for people to identify with, and frankly, we've gotten a very interested and warm reception to it."

So Beck was telling the truth when he said that the name change was made to better facilitate its occupancy but he flat out lied about the name offending China or any of the major corporations which might become future occupants. It was changed by a group of bureaucratic businessmen for marketing purposes in order to ensure a larger profit. It was Glenn Beck's good friend capitalism. The Invisible Hand had scratched out the old name and written in a more profitable one but for right-wing screechers like Beck it's better for ratings to rail against non-existent political correctness than corporate profit motives.

And as to those legitimate, yet in my opinion exaggerated fears, that the old name might have made the building more of a target? Beck had this plan for how he and his followers would have redesigned and built the new building:

The Freedom Tower would have been done years ago and it wouldn't have been the Freedom Tower, it would have been the Freedom Towers because we would have built both of these towers back the way they were before except we would have built them stronger. We would have built them in a way that they would have resisted attack. And do you know what my guess would...? They would have been 25 stories taller and have a big fat "Come try that again!" sign on top of it.

Brilliant. We're having trouble filling the tower with paying occupants because of fears of another terrorist attack and Beck's (who will not ever personally be working there, mind you) response is to dare our enemies to do it again. Does this style of arrogant schoolyard taunting remind you of someone else?


Just like every other chicken hawk screaming about how tough we should be in the face of terrorist danger neither of these men has ever been a rescue worker nor have they served in a combat zone. This is the type of tough guy bravado that passes for patriotism amongst the political right in this country now that their savior Ronald Reagan has passed away into that great Drug War in the sky. Hallelujah!

Something Someone Else Said

"Contra Rush Limbaugh, history’s actual fascists were not primarily known for their anti-smoking policies or generous social welfare programs. Fascism celebrated violence, anti-rationalism and hysterical devotion to an authoritarian leader. To date, the Obama administration has fallen rather short in these departments.

Perhaps uncomfortably aware of the shortcoming, the hardliners have developed — okay, invented really — their own mythology about Obama “brownshirts.” (The popular conservative website RedState.org literally uses the term.) The complaint rests on a single case — that of conservative activist Kenneth Gladney, who got into a scuffle at a townhall in St. Louis, Missouri. The altercation was captured on video and you can watch it on YouTube. What you’ll see is a man, already on the ground, and another man stepping back in order to avoid tripping over him. The man on the ground is Gladney. Gladney walked away from the confrontation and later went to hospital, where he was treated for light injuries and released the same day. Whatever happened and whoever started it, this happily bloodless encounter bears not even the most glancing resemblance to the brutality that made Hitler’s brownshirts notorious. And yet, look up Gladney’s name online and he’s suddenly a poignant martyr." -David Frum, New Majority.

But "fascist", "nihilist", "socialist", "marxist", "atheist", "communist", "brownshirt", these terms are all equally inherently bad, right? Their actual definitions or the context of their usage don't really matter, just that one yells them loudly and often enough about one's enemies in order for something to stick. That's how you win political debate in this country and it's why wanting to make sure that every American has affordable health care obviously makes Obama a dirty Nazi.

(via)

Something Someone Else Said

"The error in 1956 was on the part of Radio Free Europe, in holding out to Hungarian resisters the false hope that the West would or could intervene on their behalf. It would be similarly cruel and immoral to give Iranian demonstrators the false idea that we in the democratic world can offer them anything more than our sympathy. We can’t. We will not invade Iran, and nothing else we do will have much of an effect on the behavior of a regime fighting to retain its hold on power. The demonstrators in Iran must know that they have to win the struggle for a fair election on their own, and must be prepared to face the consequences of failure. And they do know this. That is precisely what makes them so courageous. It would be stupid and irresponsible of the US to use their struggle as an occasion for ineffectual rhetorical grandstanding, and fortunately President Obama, unlike our last President, seems able to resist the temptation." -Matt Steinglass, Accumulating Peripherals

(via)

Masked Men And Fascism In Iran

Videos like this one of jack-booted policemen beating a defenseless young man with truncheons in Iran today are hard to watch but they should not be ignored:


A Daily Dish reader translates:

It's very hard to understand, but what I can make of it:

They are shouting at him, "This is what's done to the scum (arazel)", "what else have you done", "Will you do it again?" and shouting at crowd, "watch this".

Towards the end they order the young man, "stand up", so that they can beat him again.

And Sullivan quotes Orwell:

There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.

I still think that it's too early to tell how much, if at all, this public outcry will change things in Iran but this blog is firmly on the side of the protesters. The human spirit doesn't always win out against oppressive regimes but when it does it's because of brave people like this.

[Update: It turns out that this video is not from the current protests but rather from two years ago. I apologize for stating otherwise but from everything I've seen and read I'd say that it is still very indicative of what is now happening in the streets of Iran. It also shows that the Iranian people have been subject to this kind of thuggery for quite a while.]

[Update II: Glenn Greenwald makes a good point about how the images from these protests should be affecting the American right:

Much of the same faction now claiming such concern for the welfare of The Iranian People are the same people who have long been advocating a military attack on Iran and the dropping of large numbers of bombs on their country -- actions which would result in the slaughter of many of those very same Iranian People. During the presidential campaign, John McCain infamously sang about Bomb, Bomb, Bomb-ing Iran. The Wall St. Journal published a war screed from Commentary's Norman Podhoretz entitled "The Case for Bombing Iran," and following that, Podhoretz said in an interview that he "hopes and prays" that the U.S. "bombs the Iranians." John Bolton and Joe Lieberman advocated the same bombing campaign, while Bill Kristol -- with typical prescience -- hopefully suggested that Bush might bomb Iran if Obama were elected. Rudy Giuliani actually said he would be open to a first-strike nuclear attack on Iran in order to stop their nuclear program.

Imagine how many of the people protesting this week would be dead if any of these bombing advocates had their way -- just as those who paraded around (and still parade around) under the banner of Liberating the Iraqi People caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of them, at least. Hopefully, one of the principal benefits of the turmoil in Iran is that it humanizes whoever the latest Enemy is. Advocating a so-called "attack on Iran" or "bombing Iran" in fact means slaughtering huge numbers of the very same people who are on the streets of Tehran inspiring so many -- obliterating their homes and workplaces, destroying their communities, shattering the infrastructure of their society and their lives. The same is true every time we start mulling the prospect of attacking and bombing another country as though it's some abstract decision in a video game.

Putting a human face on the people we call our enemies is something President Obama has been trying to do since the beginning of his presidency but to many right-wingers empathy equals weakness, and is therefore useless to America. Can you imagine what things would be like right now if John McCain and Sarah Palin had been elected last year? One shudders.]

The Redemption Of Twitter

In the past I've made no secret of my dislike for this narcissistic, celebrity and politician laden, rapid burst social networking and communication application but with many of the recent revelations about the apparent stolen Iranian election coming out of that country via this service (the government there has censored a vast swath of websites and other media outlets) I am forced to give Twitter my grudging respect. I still think that most of it's potential has been fairly useless to date (I'm looking at you, Ashton) but the fact that it has helped to facilitate the dissemination of information about a stolen election from within an oppressive police state can not be overlooked.

I did sign up with the service a while back just to lay claim to the "BrainRage" appellation before it was snatched up by someone else and a few people have even signed up to follow me although I have not yet uttered a single tweet. You're welcome to do the same but I'll warn you now: even if I ever do start to Twitter it will most likely be in a largely ironic capacity without much real substance or relevant commentary. Hey, that's just how I roll with the new, bitches.

Something Someone Else Drew

A political cartoon by Nikahang Kosar, a leading cartoonist and blogger, portraying the apparent over sized stolen victory in the recent Iranian presidential election by incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

(via)

I'm obviously far from being an expert on Iranian politics but everything I read and hear tells me that this election was fixed for Ahmadinejad in the worst and most obvious ways. But perhaps this is encouraging in the long run. It seems to me that the only reason the current theocracy in Iran would fake results this blatantly is because they are that scared of a result from the populous that they could not control. Know hope.

[Update: Andrew Sullivan asks an obvious question:

Under what circumstances with a turnout of 85 percent do landslides for incumbents happen, as the regime claims in Iran? Are there any precedents for this in electoral history? One way of tackling the question of fraud is simply probability. How many election results in history have never varied from region to region or from the beginning of the count to the end? Does this result have any serious precedents? Or is it as self-evidently rigged as it increasingly seems?

This is not surprising considering the current players but somewhat hopeful when you look at the make up of the Iranian population. Just as in America, the younger generation is more politically engaged and progressive than ever before. I take heart in this new trend in both cultures.]

[Update II: A green shirted Mousavi protester rescues a beleaguered state policeman during a post-election riot following the apparent victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinajedad in Iran:
Humane acts such as this distinguish the true heroes from the theocratic monsters in every society.]

The Pittsburgh Police Murders

A troubled young man named Richard Poplawski murdered three Pittsburgh police officers with an AK-47 assault rifle when they arrived at his home on a domestic disturbance call last Saturday morning. Poplawski is a neo-Nazi skinhead who frequented and posted on White supremest websites and feared that a violent societal upheaval was imminent, chiefly caused by a Jewish media and economic conspiracy and the election of Barack Obama as the president of the United States.

Shortly after the slayings, many left-wing blogs were reporting (correctly) that Poplawski is a far-right conservative and that one of the triggers that set him off was the meme circulating in the right-wing blogosphere and media that President Obama was going to do everything in his power to take lawfully owned guns away from Poplawski and other Americans like himself. These rumors are of course completely false but this incident demonstrates the danger that callously fanning the flames of this kind of paranoia can produce.

Many have stated that Poplawski is not representative of the right in this country, and they're correct; he no more represents the average conservative than does William Ayers and the Weather Underground represent the average liberal. The vast majority of Americans on either side of the current political divide in this country are good people who want nothing more than to peacefully live out their lives and take care of the ones they love. Troubled men like Poplawski are exceptions to this rule and one would be correct to relegate him and others with similar beliefs to the fringes of society, but sometimes all it takes for these dangerous individuals to act out their paranoid fears and fantasies is an ideological push in the wrong direction and unfortunately it has been quite easy for these people to find that message in the mainstream political media.

Now obviously Poplawski is the only person responsible for the deaths of these three men; they died by his hand and his alone. But let's be honest here: this young man did not create these paranoid delusions or plan these violent acts in a vacuum. The steady drumbeat of right-wing talk radio, bloggers and other media about Obama taking away our guns, about re-education camps and civil indoctrination squads, about the supposed descent of this country into socialist/Marxist chaos, about capitulation to our enemies and secret Muslim conspiracies has had a definite effect on the mentally deficient and morally weak amongst us, and for those who have been spewing this garbage to now throw their hands up as if they were not at least tangentially culpable for creating the atmosphere that helped lead to this tragedy is an act of outright dishonesty and rank cowardice.

Freedom of speech is one of our most cherished and safe-guarded rights as American citizens and I would never suggest that this right be curtailed for any reason. Fascism lies down that road and like so many other rights and privileges in a free society, once the individual relinquishes them to the state it is almost impossible to reattain them. But with all rights and privileges also comes the responsibility to not abuse them or use them to harm other individuals or society as a whole, and the political right in this country has utterly failed on this count. The recent atmosphere of malice and paranoia being cultivated against President Obama and the political left for power/ratings/whatever is only hurting us as a society and denigrating us as a people, and until we recognize that fact and take appropriate steps to alleviate these intolerable levels of hatred we will fail to advance our civilization and more innocent people will almost assuredly die tragically as a result.

I Am Once Again A Guest Blogger

It seems that those godless believe-nothings at American Nihlist have once again poached one of my late-night, Chardonnay-fueled rants left on my conservative counterpart's site American Power. I've reproduced the post below with newly added hyperlinks to better explain some of the more inside political and blog-centric jokes:

In the grand nihilist tradition of stealing from the rich (in this case, the intellectually & verbally rich) and giving to the poor (not that we ignorant nihilist trolls here are intellectually or verbally poor exactly, but...), I present another JBW offering that he accidentally posted somewhere other than it's natural habitat, here at AmNi.

This might be a good time to remind the esteemed author of Brain Rage that he's more than welcome to join us here at AmNi, where he can post such things more... "...willingly," should any others ever rattle his proverbial Brain Rage cage. (His writing is generally top notch... But when his balls itch in that particularly nihilistic way... I think you know what I'm sayin', here...)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Attention neocons, Christian conservatives, Republicans and others who would foolishly resist that which Allah, Pelosi and the guys from that Queer Eye show hath wrought! Emperor Obama has once again transmitted a new list of commandments to myself and the other members of the Nihilistic Obamania Terrorist-appeasing Socialist Idolator (or N.O.T.S.I.; catchy, huh?) Brigade via telepathy. Yeah that's right, it's one of his powers now; he went all Syler on some medicine man in Nairobi a while back when he was there rehiding his super-secret and totally real original birth certificate. Good luck finding it now, suckers!

But for the immediate future cower before our liberal, then progressive for a while, then liberal again and now totally radical might! Your magical ability to successfully identify everyone with whom you disagree as a "socialist" or "postmodern nihilist" simply by having heard of these ideologies notwithstanding, the following decrees are to be enacted immediately:

-Recognizing that Democraticic (there will now be two "ic"s in the spelling of the Democraticic Party) "big government spendathons" are not nearly big enough to truly destroy our economy His Oneness has instructed that the thousands of gold statues of himself to be installed at the center of every city and town in America by the National Endowment for the Arts will now be constructed of solid cash (and then dipped in gold). Also, the word endowment will now be emphasised in that agencies name because he's a black guy (and if you laugh at that you're a dirty, stinking racist). But seriously: swinging to his knees.

-"Anything goes free-love values" are not only to be the norm from now on in the social sphere (which will be geometrically changed to a long thick social column, per the fine print in the last decree) but Bristol Palin will also now be in charge of the country's sex-ed programs (He's all about bipartisanship), instituting her "Stuff Happens" agenda with the aid of her inbred-but-lovable boyfriend and baby daddy, Levi. Also, all moose-on-buffalo love will be roundly encouraged as it acclimates the population to the eventual goals of The Onester's gay marriage agenda (the policy of diddling little boys currently being carried out by Catholic priests will also stay in place for these same reasons). How Santorum got ahold of that memo ahead of time is still a mystery.

-The current Democraticic Party's "terrorist appeasement" policy does not sufficiently endanger America and its citizens so from here on out not only will people who we totally know are terrorists be given immediate sanctuary and full immunity from prosecution but they will also be given an hour-long hot stone massage, a Vera Wang-designed Oscar gift bag and their choice of one target indicative and symbolic of "traditional" American values to crash a 747 or a plane of lesser size into. Keep your heads down.

-Lastly, to symbolically preempt any debates about America being a "center-right nation" all males are now required to wear their genitalia down their left boxer short leg as a reminder of Emperor Obama's extreme awesomeness. Briefs are now outlawed since decreased sperm production will just mean fewer unwanted teen pregnancies, per the fine print in the "Stuff Happens" legislation. Plus, abortionists gotta make their money too.

This will be the only time you will receive these instructions. Failure to comply will result in a decidedly non-honor beheading by a very dull and rusty sword swung by a gay vegetarian with a nervous tick; it won't be pretty. The recent attack on Phyllis Schlafly's hip during her visit to Berkeley was carried out as a warning to the rest of you non-non-believers and will be repeated as often as is necessary. She knows what she did.

The One-World, black helicopters are coming (once you're all in the camps they will be repainted with rainbows, of course). The "statist mandarins who have mainstreamed Marx's theories of class struggle into a hip postmodern ideology of anti-American multiculturalism and social-leveling big government" are gonna be all up in your collective grills. This is the change we've been waiting for! Obama! Nihilism! Wooo!

P.S.-The first run of Emperor Obama's new book: To Serve Babies will be coming out in stores this week. He'll be autographing copies at the West War Memorial Drive Borders book store in Peoria, Illinois this Friday from 6-9 pm. Bring the kids. The juicy, succulent kids. Nihilism! Eatin' babies! Wooo!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Borrowed" from: N.O.T.S.I. Decree, posted March 2, 2009 2:59 AM (AmPow time)

Again, I'm not holding my breath that Don will have anything to say about my liberal taunts. And again, I'm flattered that repsac3 has chosen to steal my stuff for his AmPo-taunting site. I may still join the motley crew at AmNi but to be honest I don't really plan these little outbursts; they usually just happen as a random yet direct result of Napa Valley. If only I could harness my powers to do good...

I Am A Guest Author

I was invited to join the American Nihilist (named tongue in cheek, of course) blog and have not yet done so but that has apparently not stopped me from becoming a guest blogger. repsac3 has reproduced my comments from one of my conservative counterpart's blog entries thusly:

(Is a writer considered a "guest author" if I cut & paste his words without asking?)

Well... It's too dang late now...

JBW of Brain Rage exposes the truth about Democrats and babies. It's on, people.
--------

"The Democrats want a war on babies. I cringe at the thought of just being around people like Katha Pollitt, and for my readers with infants and young children, hold your loved ones close - you might have one too many for the state-planning mandarins of the Obama-Pelosi new age."

Well said, Don! You're right to try scaring your readers with this; Pollitt speaks for the entire left and now you've exposed our diabolical plan: forced abortions for whomever Emperor Obama chooses! China was just the remote testing ground for our culling program but we long ago refined our baby-hating agenda and were just waiting for the go ahead from "The One" (that's the secret code-name we've given him; shh, don't tell anyone) to launch the operation.

But now that the secret is out enough messing around: I want every reader of this blog to register with the Obama White House posthaste, informing them of how many children you have, their age and weight (fat kids eat more) and whether you are more willing to embrace communism or nihilism as your family's new religion.

Oh, I almost forgot: you'll also need to report to your local mosque to receive an "O" tattoo around your right eye, a la X-men: Days of Future Past-style (Obama's a comic fanboy, after all). It'll incorporate a tiny bar code that will have to be laser-scanned several times a day once everybody except Muslims and atheists have been rounded up and placed in their respective camps; the shit part is that you'll be painfully yet temporarily blinded for awhile every time you're scanned but the really shit part is that this was done intentionally, so as to fulfill Emperor Obama's decree that every law now be enforced "in a dickish manner".

I've been made assistant precinct captain for the local Christian internment camp here in the Bay Area but I hope to be running my own precinct by Obama's first State of the Soviet Union address (yes, that's what you're going to have to start calling it now). So let's get moving, people! This is the change we've been waiting for! Obama! Nihilism! Wooo!

---

(At least he doesn't let the baby out of the bath regarding "The One's" new book: To Serve Babies. I'm not sure the public is ready for that bit of "hope and change," yet. But soon, fellow nihilists... Soon.)

As far as I've seen, Don has not replied to my liberal taunts but I am eternally hopeful, and if you don't get many of the jokes about his site you can receive a healthy dose here. As far as being quoted without my permission: no worries, repsac3. I'm sure that I'll warm to your new venture as soon as I have the time to commit my energy. All the best, amigo.

Something Someone Else Said

"Let’s just quickly describe in the most dispassionate terms, as few of euphemisms, as possible, where we are and what has happened over the last eight years. We have a law in place that says it is a felony offense punishable by five years in prison or a $10,000 fine to eavesdrop on American citizens without warrants. We have laws in place that say that it is a felony punishable by decades in prison to subject detainees in our custody to treatment that violates the Geneva Conventions or that is inhumane or coercive.

We know that the president and his top aides have violated these laws. The facts are indisputable that they’ve done so. And yet as a country, as a political class, we’re deciding basically in unison that the president and our highest political officials are free to break the most serious laws that we have, that our citizens have enacted, with complete impunity, without consequences, without being held accountable under the law.

And when you juxtapose that with the fact that we are a country that has probably the most merciless criminal justice system on the planet when it comes to ordinary Americans. We imprison more of our population than any country in the world. We have less than five percent of the world’s population. And yet 25 percent almost of prisoners worldwide are inside the United States.

What you have is a two-tiered system of justice where ordinary Americans are subjected to the most merciless criminal justice system in the world. They break the law. The full weight of the criminal justice system comes crashing down upon them. But our political class, the same elites who have imposed that incredibly harsh framework on ordinary Americans, have essentially exempted themselves and the leaders of that political class from the law.

They have license to break the law. That’s what we’re deciding now as we say George Bush and his top advisors shouldn’t be investigated let alone prosecuted for the laws that we know that they’ve broken. And I can’t think of anything more damaging to our country because the rule of law is the lynchpin of everything we have." -Glenn Greenwald

Lit 101 Class

In three lines or less; an example:

1984

WINSTON: Don't tell the Party, but sex is way better than totalitarianism.

EVERYONE: Surprise! We're the Party.

WINSTON: Oh, rats.

I wouldn't say that you get the full impact of the message of the works but it is much faster than reading the CliffsNotes.

Korea's Dark Half

North and South Korea have been separated by the 38th parallel since the Korean War in the early 1950's. While the south has become relatively prosperous under an elected government and a free-market system, the people in the north have suffered many hardships and near starvation under an oppressive, brutal dictatorship trying to run a closed economy. These stark contrasts are extremely evident when comparing the availability of working electricity as seen in a night-time illumination photo of the peninsula:

The metropolitan area of Seoul, the South’s capital, holds 23 million people and is the second-largest conurbation on the planet (after Tokyo). Its huge lit-up area, close to the border with the North, is clearly visible from space. Other Southern cities, while quite a lot smaller than Seoul, are also clearly distinguishable on this satellite map, for example Gunsan on the western coast, directly below it the inland city of Gwangju, the cities of Masan and Busan on the southern coast, and several other cities, much smaller still.

By contrast (quite literally, even), the only speck of light north of the DMZ is the North’s capital of Pyonyang, a single, neat pinprick of white punched through an otherwise completely black canvas. The minimal lighting belies the fact that Pyongyang is home to an estimated 3 million people. Gunsan, in the South, has under 300.000 inhabitants.

There is only one bright side to this darkness that I can think of: North Korea must be a fantastic place for stargazing…

It's truly unfortunate that so many people are forced to suffer and live like this in the 21st century, and I'm sure that it doesn't help that their leader is so bat-shit crazy either. But yeah, I'll bet the sky is one of the more beautiful things they get to see every day. Sad.

Burn Baby Burn

Just one more reason for people to make fun of the South. From the great state of Louisiana:

About 30 people gathered for a regional revival Friday night that included a book burning as a statement to reach out to local residents.

"It is allowed for Harry Potter to be taught in our schools, but not the Bible," International House of Prayer pastor James Crawford said during the Shreveport Regional Unity of Faith Revival.

That is one reason pastors from several denominations and races ripped pages from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Those and pages from a pornographic magazine were put into a burn pit and set afire as praises bellowed from the congregation.

On a side note, I've never read any of the Harry Potter books but I really like the way they've contributed to a rise in the popularity of reading amongst kids; every other aspect of this story is utterly ridiculous and slightly troubling.

Fascism Advances Another Step

A story about FBI efforts to recruit spies to infiltrate protest groups ahead of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis this fall. Disgusting:

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

J. Edgar Hoover just smiled in his grave, and free speech just died a little more. This is your government under the Bush Administration.