Merged Kim Jong Il is dead / You must cry

[bigred]

Like father, like son

Unfortunately yes. Business as usual.

 

[NoahFence]

Bad year for bad guys, eh?

 

[timhau]

Say what you will about him, at least he proved how easy we men have it. You can be short, fat, wear a jumpsuit, have a bad hair day that lasts decades, and still be a big hit with the ladies.

 

[AvalonXQ]

Say what you will about him, at least he proved how easy we men have it. You can be short, fat, wear a jumpsuit, have a bad hair day that lasts decades, and still be a big hit with the ladies.

In all fairness, he was Number One of World Indisputable Best Handsome Man.

 

[Mark6]

"I'd like to think God let Havel and Hitchens pick the third."

Seen on Twitter

 

[Mark6]

In all fairness, he was Number One of World Indisputable Best Handsome Man.

Is that a parody or an actual translation of Pyongiang newspaper? I can't tell.

 

[Lowpro]

"I'd like to think God let Havel and Hitchens pick the third."

Seen on Twitter

hah, that's comedy.

 

[FreshHat]

Natural causes?

Not from what I can gather from the headline I read last night:

Kim Jong Il Dead At 69​

Too much pyongyang,it seems.

 

[DrDave]

Don't mention that sack of (poop) in the same sentence with those two great men. Said with a smile to you and an eternal pitchfork in the ass to him.

I know Hitchens could be a bit of a twat, but he's just died. Show some respect will you.

 

[IDB87]

In all fairness, he was Number One of World Indisputable Best Handsome Man.

World's Incomparable Best of Spaghetti Wonderful Man (Gold)

What does that even mean?

*ETA

And then I notice "something Awful" and it all makes sense.

 

[CORed]

That's pretty standard. Any time a major event occurs over there they go on alert.

Being next to North Korea is a good enough reason to keep your army on alert.

 

[Ziggurat]

People elsewhere probably, but what about people in North Korea ? From a couple of documentaries I've watched I tend to believe that they have suffered so much brainwashing that by now most of them are probably crying as if they've lost a family member.

It's really hard to tell from the outside. In fact, it's probably hard to tell from the inside. One of the effects of such pervasive totalitarianism is that people master the art of preference falsification. Everyone learns to fake their opinions, because it's a necessary survival skill. So I have absolutely no doubt that the public display is of universal mourning. But that tells us little about what people actually think. I expect some significant fraction of people honestly would mourn him, but the number is unknown, and almost certainly less than the number of people who are seem mourning him.

In fact, this sort of preference falsification can run so deep that even when everyone is engaged in it, people can still think that they're the only ones. Everyone could be pretending to mourn Kim falsely, thinking that they need to fake it because everyone else is mourning Kim.

And that's part of what makes totalitarian regimes so fragile: if the illusion ever breaks, things can turn 180 degrees in a heartbeat, once people start realizing that their concealed preferences are actually widely shared. This is sometimes referred to as a preference cascade. It's hard to predict what will set one off, but it would be great if something did in North Korea.

 

[Ziggurat]

I wish Christopher Hitchens could have lived just a few more days. Based on some of the things he had to say about the "Dear Leader," I think he would have enjoyed outliving him.

Death comes in threes.
"I'd like to think God let Havel and Hitchens pick the third" - Joshua Tevino

 

[A Laughing Baby]

I hate to break up the celebration and all, but Kim Jong-Un is likely to be the successor, lacking a junta takeover, and from what I've seen about him, he looks to be that particularly terrifying combination of sociopathic and spoiled to be something to worry about.

 

[Arcade22]

He gave his people so much and asked for so little.

 

[A Laughing Baby]

To paraphrase someone who posted in another forum, it's amazing that people have such a negative view of Kim Jong Il, especially those who think he led an unfairly appointed life compared to the poverty of the general DPRK population. His job was much harder and he created far more wealth than them, so did he not deserve it?

 

[Stout]

Did anybody ever use Google Earth to check out the mega yacht he has on the lake that adjoins his private golf course ?

ETA here it is

 

[sts60]

I hate to break up the celebration and all, but Kim Jong-Un is likely to be the successor, lacking a junta takeover, and from what I've seen about him, he looks to be that particularly terrifying combination of sociopathic and spoiled to be something to worry about.

We were kicking around what his title should be, since "Great Leader" and "Dear Leader" have been used.

My suggestion: "Strike Three".

 

[Tricky]

I'll bet it was radiation poisoning. Rumor has it he liked to sleep cuddled up next to his nuclear warheads.

ETA: That would also explain the hair.

 

[peanutbrittle]

not only can they die they can be replaced by a worse troll... one we dont know