License to Il

What IS it about these juche videos?They're like candy; you just can't resist putting them to goofy pop music and dancing around the unheated hovel as you slowly starve to death.

I wonder what the ghosts of the hard men who died for Granddaddy Kim Il Sung in the freezing mountains of 1951 think about the ascent of the third Kim to the Throne of the Hermit Kingdom? From red revolution to hereditary monarchy in three generations?

God, what ridiculous monkeys we humans are.

Friday Jukebox: Juche Edition

Say what you want to about North Korea; yes, it's a vicious, paranoid dictatorship, bristling with weaponry, brutal and callous to the point of internal genocide.But...damn those rascals can get down!

No wonder that call it the Communist PARTY!

(h/t to Armchair Generalist)

Happy 4th...er, I mean 9th of July

Incredibly cool, if more than a little terrifying. I advise following the link to see the NPR video - we're talking megatons of man-made aurora borealis.

Christ, but the Cold War attitude towards radiation was fucked up. Let's not forget about all those glowing sheep in Nevada. You have to look back at the beginning of the Atomic Era and shudder; like giving a monkey a machine gun.

Happy Fourth! (h/t to Crooked Timber)