12/19/11
Kim Jong Il Is Dead. Can We Feed North Koreans Now?
Usually I use "RIP" in the headlines of obits. Not this time. I'm not much of a dancer, nor do I condone killing people, but I would dance on this fucker's grave.
Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim (according to Soviet records)[2][3][4][5] (16 February 1941/2 – 17 December 2011),[6] was the supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). He was the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party since 1948, Chairman of the the National Defence Commission of North Korea, and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, the fourth-largest standing army in the world.wikipedia
In April 2009, North Korea's constitution was amended to refer to him implicitly as the "Supreme Leader".[7] He was also referred to as the "Dear Leader", "our Father", "the General" and "Generalissimo".[8] His son Kim Jong-un was promoted to a senior position in the ruling Workers' Party and is heir apparent.[9] In 2010, he was ranked 31st in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People.[10] The North Korean government announced his death on 19 December 2011.[6]
Details surrounding Kim Jong-il's birth vary according to source. Soviet records show that he was born in the village of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk, in 1941,[11] where his father, Kim Il-sung, commanded the 1st Battalion of the Soviet 88th Brigade, made up of Chinese and Korean exiles. Kim Jong-il's mother, Kim Jong-suk, was Kim Il-sung's first wife.
Kim Jong-il's official biography[12] states that he was born in a secret military camp on Baekdu Mountain in Japanese Korea on 16 February 1942.[13] Official biographers claim that his birth at Baekdu Mountain was foretold by a swallow, and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountain and a new star in the heavens.[14]
In 1945, Kim was three or four years old (depending on his birth year) when World War II ended and Korea regained independence from Japan. His father returned to Pyongyang that September, and in late November Kim returned to Korea via a Soviet ship, landing at Sonbong (선봉군, also Unggi). The family moved into a former Japanese officer's mansion in Pyongyang, with a garden and pool. Kim Jong-il's brother, "Shura" Kim (the first Kim Jong-il, but known by his Russian nickname), drowned there in 1948. Unconfirmed reports suggest that five-year-old Kim Jong-il might have caused the accident.[15] In 1949, his mother died in childbirth.[16] Unconfirmed reports suggest that his mother might have been shot and left to bleed to death.[15]
12/18/11
Vaclav Havel, R.I.P.
Vaclav Havel, the former dissident playwright who led Czechoslovakia's 1989 "Velvet Revolution" against communism and then served as his country's president, died Sunday. He was 75.LAT
Havel, a former chain smoker with chronic respiratory problems, had been in failing health the past few months and died at his weekend home in Hradecek in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant, Sabina Tancevova, told the Associated Press.
Walkin' To DC Jesse Has Some Words For America About Education
Sending out a thank you to teachers everywhere. Letting Secretary Arne Duncan that our children and our teachers are more than a test score. I'm sending out a call to action for Americans to occupy their Departments of Education with "Opt Out The National Movement", and 'Children Are More Than Test Scores" this March 30, 31, and April 1 & 2. Let's show teachers and children we care. Think about joining, and thank a teacher today.
Thank you for listening to my call to action.
God bless you America,
Walking to DC Jesse