The Kim Is Dead. Long Live The Kim.
Sometimes wry comedy strikes one like an unexpected missile from the most unlikely places.
Sky News, helpfully, showing a map of all the places that could be reached by a North Korean missile. The outermost circle is not even about a weapon they have. It is about one they COULD develop.
I, for instance, have found myself amused by the coverage of Kim Jong-Il’s death and his son’s succession. The general sense is one of gloom. Various pundits have expressed the “slim hope” that this might herald a new era. That, at long last, North Korea “shall join the West”.
Meanwhile the gap between the rich and the poor in the US and Europe is at its widest and growing at its fastest, senseless bombings and shootings in our capitals, election-rigging in Russia, child poverty reaching new highs, the finger-pointing between France and Britain reaching new lows, the collapse of the banking system, police brutality in the breaking up of the Occupy movement in the States, war raging in the Middle-East and North Africa, appointed rather than elected leaders of two of the world’s oldest democracies, the oppression of dissenters, the demonisation of the poor and ill.
So, cheer up folks. Maybe your hope that North Korea will join the West is not so far-fetched. We are showing a tremendous willingness to meet them half-way.
And as for the trepidation about someone considered “an unknown quantity” in control of nuclear weapons… We survived eight years of George W Bush with his finger on the button and The Voice of God in his head. We may just make it again.
Margaret Cho as Kim Jong-Il in 30Rock
sturdyblog 
Yes, we are making much progress with the meet halfway project, perhaps NK’s regime will be kind enough to lend us some troops and help us learn how to manage the masses before they become irksome?
With comments from MPs about shooting rioters (& protesters) on sight last summer I don’t think our elected leaders have all that much to learn.
Little wonder Cameron & his condem cronies want rid of the European Convention on Human Rights.
I never expected a return to these Dickensian values but hey ho – you live & learn.
Yes indeed! Perhaps with no hope of a nation-shaping and population adjusting WWIII in sight, perhaps now is the time to declare war on the ingrate serfs?
Yes Stuart, we may find ourselves seeking political asylum over there by next summer as Cameron shows determination to have no riots, or indeed any sign of malcontentment among the minions when the eyes of the world are on his glorious England.
well yes, the queue for the office for exit visas will have to be in shielded remote powerless wifi and satellite signal dead zone so that there will be no YouTube postings by and of the malcontents desperate to leave for life with even the remote prospect of a better life than here. The US wiill of course be repelling all boarders to avoid the ghastly prospect of boat people who claim to speak their language while a Franco-German initiative will be creating a massive workforce to rebuild the Atlantic Wall.