The North Korean media has add a new bizarre claim to the already bizarre demonstrations following the death of the “Dear One,” Kim Jong-il — a petty dictator who starved his people and destabilized a region. Now the state-run media in “the second happiest place on Earth” is proclaiming that Nature is mourning the passing of the dictator.
The media is citing ice cracks in the volcanic Chon lake near his reported birthplace at Mount Paektu and a mysterious glow on a mountain top as evidence that Nature is weeping. They cannot say God is mourning since the state is atheist.
In the meantime, Western experts are finding evidence of less divine signs over the death. South Korean intelligence is saying that satellite photos show the train that the “Dear One” supposedly died on never left the station on the claimed trip.
In the meantime, the “Nature mourns” crowd is continuing to find signs including a major snowstorm that hit when Kim died. Then again, there is that other notable event during the same period called winter.
Source: BBC
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Here you go O.S. This is from a Huffington Post. I posted this directly to this blog from Human Rights Watch just the other day but I’ll repost it from here.
S.M. Telling the truth is not “trashing”. It is telling the truth. Talks about anyone’s appearance are stupid and cruel. Telling the truth about war and financial crimes is not “trashing”.
“(Washington, DC) – The US government should transfer Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) command of aerial drone strikes to the armed forces and clarify its legal rationale for targeted killings, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Barack Obama and in a questions and answers document. A dramatic increase in the use of CIA drone strikes underscores the need for the US to demonstrate that the CIA adheres to international legal requirements for accountability, Human Rights Watch said.
“CIA drone strikes have become an almost daily occurrence around the world, but little is known about who is killed and under what circumstances,” said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. “So long as the US resists public accountability for CIA drone strikes, the agency should not be conducting targeted killings.”
In the decade since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Bush and Obama administrations have engaged in a campaign of “targeted killings” – deliberate, lethal attacks aimed at specific individuals under the color of law. Estimates of the number of deaths of alleged al Qaeda members, other armed group members, and civilians from US targeted killings range from several hundred to more than two thousand. Most of these attacks are believed to have occurred in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, armed with missiles and laser-guided bombs.
The lawfulness of a targeted killing hinges in part on the applicable international law, which is determined by the context in which the attack takes place, Human Rights Watch said…”
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/lawmaker-says-michelle-obama-has-large-posterior_b59691 Some fat white man from Wisconsin criticizes Michele Obama’s appearance. The trashing of this family never ends.
Otteray Scribe 1, December 22, 2011 at 10:10 am
Dredd, the burden of proof is on the person making the claim.
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The government makes extraordinary claims of innocence. They should be held to prove it, not the victims.
Since many fail to call them on it, they now even claim the right to send American citizens to foreign lands to be … or not to be.
I apply that burden to all “Dear Leaders” who run The Mom & Pop Show con.
Bron, Wrong…. Warren Buffett is as savvy a businessman as there is in the US, and he is best friends with Obama.
Dredd, the burden of proof is on the person making the claim. In criminal cases, it is the government, since they are the plaintiffs. Jill is making some extraordinary claims without proof other than to suggest I read the writings of some pundits who may or may not know what they are talking about.
Jill:
“This is a man who has destroyed our economy by handing over ever larger sums to his savvy businessmen friends.”
that is pure Bravo Sierra, savvy businessmen friends? Name one. They seem to run things into the ground or at GE the stock is still treading water and has been for a few years.
I dont think savvy and businessmen apply to any of Obama’s friends.
But good post on the drone strikes, had this been done by a republican president there would have been media outrage.
Otteray Scribe 1, December 22, 2011 at 9:33 am
Jill, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
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In our system the burden of that proof is upon the government, or at least it once was.
“I used to care, but things have changed.” – Bob Dylan
Dear Leader is going through maggot therapy.
Pietro – my fav was from an note from Texas Gov Perry this week in which he identified the guy as “Kim Jong the Second”. He did it 3 times so its not just a slip, he really didn’t know the guys name was il, not II.
I suppose if asked if he knew who the leader of NK was his response would be a petulant “No, do you?”
Korean names when translated in writing into English are bent around a bit.
So would be wrong if we simply named these dynasters: Kimster I, Kimster II and Kimster III? That way we could leave the “IL” out which suggests illness and the Jung out which implies a mispronunced dung.
The new Kimster deserves some slack in our criticism. The departed Kimster deserves some slack because he is dead and cannot defend himself. John McCain was a bit rude in his recent comments about rotting in hHell. I am sure that McCain believes in rot, Hell, damnation and such
notions but those who do are destined to repeat themselves. Johnboy McCain willl not be reviewing this blog so someone might clue him in. God does not appreciate those who wish Hell on another.
O.S. The hatred and fantastical thinking is unbridled. I don’t read it any more.
O.S.,
Go to Greenwald and Scahill, along with Andy Worthington. They have facts and testimony to back up what I am saying. They link to references.
(BTW, is every other day killing O.K. by you?) However, it is every day.
Jill, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Obama is killing people daily? And torturing them? Same as Kim? Um…..I don’t think so, but am willing to entertain your proofs.
Kind of scary when 85% of one Country’s GNP is attributed to one country….China…..But then again….they already have a 2 class system in place….The Have and Have Not’s….
Belief in Nature…is not a sort of a religion?
O.S.,
You show me the difference. I just gave you an excerpt describing the drone killings of civilians. Those are ordered by Obama every day. This is a man who has destroyed our economy by handing over ever larger sums to his savvy businessmen friends and refusing to help the increasing numbers (now 1 out of 3) in poverty in the US. The fact that you will not come to terms with Obama’s war and financial crimes and devastation is living proof that “leaders” are not just excused for their foulest deeds by other nations. It has been the hallmark of the Obama presidency as well. If it makes you feel better for me to say this, this is exactly what Bush supporters did.
Comparing Obama with Kim?? WTF? Is this the new version of Godwin’s Law?
As Blouise says, “Lord love a duck!”
I want to excerpt from Glenn Greenwald today. I see little difference in Obama supporters and those of Kim in their attitude towards their chosen one. The indifference towards the suffering of others tolerated by supporters of both men is striking.
“Along those lines, CNN.com, to its credit, today has a stomach-turning story of a 4-year-girl Pakistani girl who was severely burned by an American drone strike back in 2009, when she was a year old, complete with horrifying videos of her injuries:
She has eyelashes but no eyebrows. She has all her fingers but is missing four nails. Her skin is so taut now that she can no longer frown.
But she can still smile.
Her face tells a story of suffering. . . .Shakira, believed burned in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, will undergo reconstructive surgery in January. . .
In 2009, [Hashmat] Effendi was on a medical mission with Texas-based House of Charity in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The region’s natural beauty was once compared to Switzerland’s, but by then it was a Taliban-infested area rife with violence.
One of the doctors found three little girls left in a trash bin. They’d suffered horrific injuries.
“Who are they?” the doctor asked.
Nobody knew.
Where were their parents? Where were they from?
Shakira, 4, is believed to have been burned in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2009.
All anyone could say is that there had been a U.S. drone attack.
The doctor, who was traveling with House of Charity, took them back with him. They were in grave condition. Two of the girls died, but the littlest one had a chance of making it if she were treated right away.
She was only a year old, Effendi guessed, but small for her age. She was skinny. Dirty. Very bloody. She had fresh burns all over her face, her scalp and on her arms.
This repeats itself over and over. And yet, it could hardly be less controversial in the country responsible for these attacks, largely because there is no partisan gain to be had from caring about it (merely to mention the irony that the GOP candidate currently leading most Iowa polls is the only major candidate from either party who opposes all of this is to trigger all sorts of recriminations; apparently, the ongoing slaughter of innocent men, women and children is far too insignificant an issue even to make the agenda of discussion). In fact, literally every time I even raise the horrors of the Obama drone program and the secrecy and lawlessness under which it’s conducted, I’m bombarded with arguments that drones are not an important issue or, from the most pathological Obama apologists, even fun drone humor designed to mock concerns about these attacks (such frivolity follows in the footsteps of their leader himself and his top aides). Contrary to the outright lie told by John Brennan, the President’s top counter-terrorism adviser, the fact is that the U.S. is continuously blowing up, burning, and killing innocent people, including numerous children, in the Muslim world. The program under which that is done is shrouded in almost complete secrecy. And it not only continues, but does so with little controversy.”
The US thinks this type of thing happens in other countries. But our leaders get away with everything Kim did and worse because we also have a population willing to accept things that don’t make sense and which are wrong. This is a dangerous part of American and other cultures.
Nature is breaking him down and passing his stuff on for recycling. If the microbes are whistling while they work it is not because of who it is that is being recycled. They are unconcerned.
What surprises me here is that they didn’t wait for some event & then announce his death as having happened at that moment.
They could go on pretending he was alive until there was some great storm, earthquake, volcano, comet, eclipse, fish die-off what have you. Then they could have proclaimed that it was his death that caused or marked the event. Thats how the used to roll in the Dark Ages so it would have been fitting.
Dear One v Hans Blix