Michael Cohen seems to me to be quite right to be skeptical that cultural exchanges of the sort typified by the New York Philharmonic’s recent visit to Pyongyang could play a constructive role in “opening things up” in North Korea. The DPRK is just too despotic and locked-down for whatever you might want to communicate to the North Korean people to get through. But that said, I also don’t understand the worry that a visit of this sort will “provide international credibility to a terrible regime (probably the worst in the world).” I mean, how so?

Someone says to you “North Korea, that’s gotta the worst regime in the world.” Then you reply, “no, no, the New York Philharmonic played there, it can’t be so bad.” And then what — he’s supposed to say back “man, you’re right, I suddenly find Kim Jong-Il very credible!”

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/

Olympic Bloggers Learn The Rules; First Rule: No Blogging Anything Interesting

from the the-gold-medal-for-idiocy dept

The International Olympic Committee is known for their ridiculously overreaching attempts to claim intellectual property rights over all aspect of the games — including various efforts to have laws changed just to give the Olympics special trademark and copyright protection that would bar things that would normally be considered fair use. At the 2004 Olympics, we noted how ridiculous it was that the IOC even banned athletes from blogging anything about the event, afraid that it would upset the media companies who paid their millions of dollars for “exclusive” rights. About a year ago, they promised that for the 2008 Olympics they would allow some blogging, but the rules had yet to be set. Now, the IOC has come out with the official blogging rules for athletes participating in the Beijing Olympics, and they seem particularly burdensome.

Bloggers will not be able to post any audio or video (remember, that might upset the media partners). They can post still photos but only if they were taken outside of “accredited” areas or inside those areas if no sporting events can actually be seen in the photos. In other words: please make your blog posts as boring as possible and make sure they don’t include any of the stuff that people might be interested in. Then there’s a bit of a contradiction, as the rules state that blog posts should “adhere to the Olympic spirit,” but that “there should be no commercial reference or advertising.” That’s funny. I thought commercial references and advertising were the Olympic spirit.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080217/231158275.shtml

Tree falls in Forest; leaves fractured nuts.

Whether we like it or not, life is as temporary and as fleeting as that corporeal feeling a young child gets on Saturday mornings, literally swelling with the happiness and freedom possibility yields. I’m no mad scientist, and I offer no magic potion that counters this very basic truth. But immortality does exist for those brave enough to claim it. For those dumb enough to make a dash for it. For those lucky enough to comprehend it.

It is in this vain of thought - a thought, by the way, that is not nearly as morbid as it may appear upon first read - that I bring you the examples of IT; a Pantheon of Rockin’ Heroes we all should celebrate and canonize. It may appear that this is a random list, with a random number of members, with random tangents entwined randomly. Well … that’s the point. Random is good. Because if greatness is anything, it is random. These individuals did more than Embrace the Suck, and went beyond discovering that Happiness is Diggity. They evolved into the walking manifestation of the Toro, waving the red cape of history, deftly toying with the raging bull of existence. Some eventually felt the horns’ gore, some did not, but that’s not the point. The point is that at one time, even if it was for just one illustrious moment, they were completely and utterly in charge and brimming with anticipation, shunning the reactionary nature of their human brethren.

Cleisthenes – The godfather of Athens. He rocked the Spartans, ousted the oligarchs, seized power for himself — and then he willingly handed over demokratia to the masses. In classic political study circles, there is only one word for this: Pimpin.’

13-Gambit- The X-Men cartoon revolutionized my youth. No longer would I be content to be just another sprite suckling off the world’s metaphorical tit until I grew weary of the polluted milk only to realize that my deathbed was near so it was time to embrace God ‘just in case.’

12—Tupac Shakur – I realize I’m prone to romanticism, especially when martyrdom is involved (blame that damned Celtic blood), but ‘Pac’s eternal duality strikes a chord in all young American males who feel caged by their surroundings, no matter what those surroundings may be. Just because it comes in gangsta’ rap form doesn’t change the broad appeal of his message. He had groupies but hoped for one love, he screamed Thug Life but cried when he was alone in jail, he wrote elegant poetry but also sang “Hit Em Up.” Complexity shatters labels; always has, always will.

8- Senator Barack Obama – I’ll spare you a political diatribe, and simply state that if you can’t recognize the vital importance of hope and change in modern American government as personified by this man, I sincerely recommend taking a cyanide pill to cleanse you of your rampant cynicism. It’s the only remedy. (I’m kidding, of course … mainly because I get the feeling the vast majority of my readers are proud conservatives.)

6- Jim Morrison – The Lizard King himself, crooning ballad after ballad about the coming End and the rivers of sadness and the killers on the road, and exploring the outer wilds of all that is bizarre, prosaic, and …
Immaculate.

99- Betrand Russell – I will not bow before the inevitability.

inspirational by LT G.

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Thanatologists believe that humans have compartmentalized death in a quest to trick ourselves into believing that we will not die. Unfortunately, by failing to confront our own mortality — or even the mortality of those around us — we will be ambushed when death inevitably comes knocking. What’s worse, we will fail to live our lives in the best manner possible: It is the person who has accepted his own mortality who will live life to the fullest, say thanatologists.

This is what the psychologist Ernest Becker considered a distraction. Becker won the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for his book, “Denial of Death.” It was Becker’s opinion that culture at large served to distract all of us from our impending deaths.

But although some allow themselves to be distracted, we are all unconsciously fully aware of our finite time here on Earth. In Becker’s opinion, this causes feelings of anxiety and woe and is expressed through aggressive acts like invasions and wars.

Becker’s fied of study — referred to as the psychology of death — does suggest a worst way to die. Since culture has the potential to distract us from confronting death, it can lead us to waste our lives. The worst type of death, according to Becker’s theory, would be one that followed an insignificant life.

how is a life judged significant? 

The same night awaits us all.

(Horace)