Tag: North Korea

Hollywood cowers before Kim Jong-un, refuses to sign George Clooney petition for free speech

December 19, 2014December 19, 2014by Douglas Ernst33 Comments

Free speech is taking a beating these days, and the punishment is coming from the one place that should be its staunchest defender: Hollywood. In an exclusive with Deadline Hollywood, George Clooney says he circulated a petition to support Sony Entertainment on the grounds that pulling “The Interview” would, for all intents and purposes, be an abdication of free speech to its enemies. The number or people in Hollywood willing to sign the petition: ZERO.

Here is an excerpt from the petition:

This is not just an attack on Sony. It involves every studio, every network, every business and every individual in this country. That is why we fully support Sony’s decision not to submit to these hackers’ demands. We know that to give in to these criminals now will open the door for any group that would threaten freedom of expression, privacy and personal liberty. We hope these hackers are brought to justice but until they are, we will not stand in fear. We will stand together.

The fact that Mr. Clooney’s friends within the industry refused to sign such a statement is pathetic. Dec. 16, 2014 marked the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, but on that very same day Hollywood studio heads couldn’t even bring themselves to sign a piece a paper in defense of free speech. Ask yourself: Would you want to go to war with anyone from Hollywood? Do you want these people and their friends running the country and shaping the culture? How much damage have they already done?

After discussing his spineless friends (without naming names, of course), Mr. Clooney then goes on to talk about the ramifications of the Sony hacking with Deadline Hollywood’s Mike Flemming Jr.

DEADLINE: What kind of constraints will this put on storytellers that want to shine a critical light on a place like Russia, for instance, with something like a movie about the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the KGB officer who left and became an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin?

CLOONEY: What’s going to happen is, you’re going to have trouble finding distribution. In general, when you’re doing films like that, the ones that are critical, those aren’t going to be studio films anyway. Most of the movies that got us in trouble, we started out by raising the money independently. But to distribute, you’ve got to go to a studio, because they’re the ones that distribute movies. The truth is, you’re going to have a much harder time finding distribution now. And that’s a chilling effect.

Mr. Flemming’s hypothetical scenario involving a movie about Alexander Litvinenko is impressive. It shows that he knows how dangerous of a precedent it was for Sony Entertainment to pull “The Interview.” Unfortunately, he and George Clooney appear to be in the vast minority in Hollywood. The erosion of free speech is happening before our eyes — we just can’t see it. You can’t see or hear the movies that were never written out of fear. You can’t hold the DVD of a movie that was never made because cowardly men and women in Hollywood are slaves to the desires of dictators and despots. You can’t smell and taste the popcorn for a blockbuster movie that was killed before pen was ever put to paper.

People laugh because a giant free speech debate has been generated over a Seth Rogen movie, but what happened at Sony is no laughing matter. Regardless, Americans should stand up and applaud George Clooney for shining a light on the character — or lack thereof — of the men and women running Hollywood.

Sony caves to North Korea: ‘The Interview’ capitulation clowns give Kim Jong-un free speech veto

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014by Douglas Ernst21 Comments

The Founding Fathers knew that the right to free speech was important, which is why it is covered in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights. Today, Dec. 17, 2014, is the day that U.S. capitulation clowns at Sony gave a dictator veto power over the free speech rights of its American artists and sent a message to thug regimes that if they have enough tech savvy, then they can make studio executives cower in fear.

Here is what the First Amendment says:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” — Amendment I, U.S. Constitution.

Sony isn’t rolling over for the U.S. government, but instead doing something even worse — it’s censoring itself to appease a Communist thug regime that runs gulags.

Here is Sony’s statement regarding its decision to pull “The Interview” from theaters. It also has no plans to release the film in any form — including VOD or DVD.

“We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.”

Cowards. American blood was shed to guarantee that our rights to free speech, press, petition, assembly, and religion could be upheld, but in the face of threats by anonymous hackers on the other side of the globe, Sony crumbled. And before Sony made an utter embarrassment out of itself, the five major movie theater circuits did the same thing: Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Carmike Cinemas, Cinemark and Cineplex Entertainment.

Imagine you’re Vladimir Putin. Imagine you’re Iran’s Ali Khamenei. Imagine you’re Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro or China’s Xi Jinping. Is it more or less likely that you would be willing to use hackers to impose your will upon American companies and stifle dissent?

Imagine you’re a writer for a major motion studio. Would you craft any screenplays in the near future that challenge the world’s worst dictators and despots? The message Sony has sent to the world by pulling “The Interview” is downright chilling and its executives should be reminded of it for years to come.

Anyone who cares about free speech should be downright terrified that companies operating in the U.S. would run for the hills the moment a nebulous hacking group threatens Americans with violence. The fact that it was even under consideration to torpedo the film is an indicator that America’s cultural rotgut has grown to gargantuan proportions. We have been hollowed out from the inside, and Sony’s reaction to being hacked by the “Guardians of Peace” has exposed that sad reality for everyone to see.

Sony does not “stand by” its filmmakers. In fact, it is doing the exact opposite. It stabbed Seth Rogen and James Franco in the back, and it sucker punched millions of Americans who realize just how dangerous it is to appease dictatorial regimes.

Calling someone “un-American” should be done only on rare occasions due to the seriousness of the charge. However, I firmly believe that any American employee of Sony who backs the decision to kill “The Interview’s” theatrical release is taking part in something that is wholly and unequivocally un-American.

Seth Rogen rightly called out Sony’s capitulation to North Korean thugs prior to hacking

December 11, 2014December 11, 2014by Douglas Ernst8 Comments

It’s not very often that I find myself in agreement with Seth Rogen, but leaked Sony emails reveal that even a comedian who often spews leftist talking points understands the importance of free speech — when his own is threatened.

As Seth Rogen’s and James Franco’s “The Interview” was filming, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai took issue with a scene that depicts the death of North Korea’s gulag overseer, Kim Jong-un. He stepped in to make sure that the feelings of a dictator weren’t hurt too much. Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, then had to figure out a way to deliver the news to writer and co-director Mr. Rogen.

Reuters reported Dec. 10:

In an exchange with Rogen, Pascal said she was in a difficult position because Hirai had asked her to make changes in the film.

“And this isn’t some flunky. It’s the chairman of the entire Sony Corporation who I am dealing (with),” she said.

Rogen responded by promising to remove three of four burn marks on Kim’s face, and reduce the “flaming hair” by 50 percent. But he said he could not meet all the demands. …

Rogen initially told Pascal he objected to requests to modify the death scene, which he said would be viewed as censorship and hurt sales.

“This is now a story of Americans changing their movie to make North Koreans happy,” he said in an Aug. 15 email. “That is a very damning story.”

In the end, enough edits were apparently made to satisfy Mr. Hirai, but at what cost?

This blog has covered Hollywood’s willingness to appease Chinese censorship boards if it will bring in a few million dollars more, and now it’s confirmed that similar measures were made out of the fear of what a North Korean dictator might do when he is openly mocked.

There is no doubt that Sony will lose millions of dollars as a result of its recent hacking. There is also no doubt that it is also quite embarrassing when wealthy Jewish liberals are exposed saying things about the first black president that would get a conservative kicked out of the industry in a second.

Buzzfeed reported Dec. 10:

In what has become the latest embarrassing email uncovered in a trove of messages leaked by hackers who attacked Sony, Pascal wrote Rudin: “What should I ask the president at this stupid Jeffrey breakfast?” She was referring to a breakfast hosted by DreamWorks Animation head and major Democratic donor Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Rudin, a top film producer responsible for films like No Country for Old Men and Moneyball, responded, “Would he like to finance some movies.” Pascal replied, “I doubt it. Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?” Rudin responded: “12 YEARS.” Pascal quickly continued down the path of guessing Obama preferred movies by or starring African Americans. “Or the butler. Or think like a man? [sic]”

Rudin’s response: “Ride-along. I bet he likes Kevin Hart.”

Hopefully, future liberal Hollywood power players will understand that free speech is much more important than their reputations. Yes, there is a risk when taking on powerful regimes that it will result in your personal emails being shared with the world — your very racial, very liberal emails — but that is a risk worth taking.

Seth Rogen is a liberal guy, but it’s refreshing to see that even he understands how bizarre it is to curb creative endeavors because ruthless dictators might throw digital temper tantrums. When Hollywood censors itself because anyone with some top-notch hackers behind them might retaliate, then it is a sad day for freedom of speech.

Guy Delisle’s ‘Pyongyang’ — a comic can become essential reading

October 15, 2013November 15, 2014by Douglas Ernst40 Comments

A comic book can be more than just a comic book. In fact, some are essential reading. Guy Delisle’s ‘Pyongyang’ is one of them. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Delisle, he has a number of graphic novels under his belt (all of them excellent), but perhaps the most illuminating is ‘Pyongyang.’ In 2001, the artist was sent into the North Korean police state to work on a project for a French animation company. ‘Pyongyang’ is his first hand account of a country that comes straight out of the Twilight Zone.

Did you guess who the spy was? The answer was #6, because he wasn’t wearing his official Kim Il-Sung or Kim Jong-Il pin.

In America, people who wear American flag pins are sometimes laughed at for their patriotism. In North Korea, citizens wear pins of the “Dear Leader” because not doing so might get entire families a one-way ticket to the gulags.

If Shin In Geun’s “Escape from Camp 14” showed the free world the bowels of North Korean police state, Guy Delisle’s ‘Pyongyang’ is the skin — more specifically the dermis — the middle layer that is more authentic than what the majority of the outside world is allowed to see (the epidermis), but also not the inner workings of the Communist regime (the subcutis).

Before we move on, let us briefly revisit ‘Escape from Camp 14,’ if only to appreciate a bit more just how close Mr. Delisle was able to get to the belly of the beast:

Shin’s story revolves around his life at Camp 14, a “total control” camp, which meant he was born there and he would die there. His earliest memories were of watching executions—mouths filled with rocks and bound tight (we can’t have anyone criticizing the Dear Leader in their last moments) before rounds of bullets blew their heads off. Camp 14 had a prison camp within a prison camp (where Shin was tortured). Sons and daughters are taught to snitch on their parents, snitch on their peers and to live in a constant state of paranoia. Women are raped and then executed when they become pregnant. Starving kids like Shin find themselves picking undigested kernels of corn from animal feces…to eat. In short, the North Korean regime seeks to strip every ounce of humanity from its citizens, and they have shown that they are willing to go to great lengths to succeed.

Not everyone in North Korea was born into a “total control” camp; some of them have a modicum of freedom. They use that to … buy red or blue shoes. Sadly, no white at the department stores Mr. Delisle was given access to.

The entire book is fascinating, from the stone-faced translator “Mr. Sin” to movies like ‘The Destiny of a Member of the Self Defense Corps.”

Guy Delisle’s ‘Pyongyang’ manages to be informative, funny, sad, irreverent and incredibly frightening all at the same time. If you have a know-it-all teenager or relative who takes their own freedom for granted, slip a copy under their door one night. If you want to know what it might be like to live in another dimension (or perhaps the United States on a long enough time line if we continue to erode the pillars of Western Civilization?), head on over to your local comic shop and purchase it for yourself. You’ll be glad you did.

N. Korea now using ‘Occupy’ talking points

June 18, 2012June 22, 2012by Douglas ErnstLeave a comment

Not too long ago I wrote a piece titled ‘Occupy’ lies with anarchist dogs, wakes with ammonium nitrate fleas. North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, has forced me to change ‘ammonium nitrate fleas’ to ‘enriched uranium fleas’ since the regime has adopted “Occupy” talking points.

North Korea referenced the so-called Occupy movement in a rebuttal to last week’s human rights criticism from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. …

Pyongyang, through its official Korea Central News Agency, retaliated [to Clinton’s suggestion North Korea drop its nuclear ambitions] by pointing to economic gaps in the United States.

“It is the U.S. where people’s livelihood and vital rights present themselves as serious problems, in fact, as 99 percent of its population is exploited by those who account for just 1 percent,” a message read.

On some level it’s rather humorous to be lectured to on exploitation by a guy running modern day gulags and torture chambers. However, for the “Occupy” movement it must be quite sad. When the world’s worst dictators attempt to cloak their true nature by using your favorite rhetoric, perhaps an intellectual pivot is in order. A good start might be getting rid of those Communist Manifestos from the free library.

While each foreign policy situation is unique, I find it amusing how often dictators and despots down the line almost always adopt the talking points du jour of hard core leftists. Let’s take Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un just to name a few. Without fail, they almost always sound like they’ve been coached by Jimmy Carter, or someone who believes that pulling on the heartstrings of the Jimmy Carters of the world will yield results.

Dumb and Dumber — “Excuse me, Flo? What are the liberal talking points ‘du jour’? The talking point of the day? Mmmm. That sounds good. I think I’ll have that.”

Dear Occupy,

The next time you set out to build a movement, I suggest drawing from the Founding Fathers instead of Karl Marx. You might have more luck with that. Freedom and liberty aren’t things international thugs are eager to hijack, and together they make for a much brighter future.

Your conservative pal,

Doug

Escape from Camp 14: A haunting tale of North Korea’s gulags

April 19, 2012January 2, 2013by Douglas Ernst9 Comments

Where does one begin when reviewing Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14? The story of Shin In Geun’s (now Shin Dong-hyuk) life inside a North Korean gulag is one not many people in free societies can ever really fathom, which is probably why the book is a harder sell than it needs to be. Americans think torture is something they see in a movie theater while chomping on overpriced popcorn, or if they’re more socially conscious they might ramble on about water boarding terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In both cases they miss the mark completely.

Conservatives are often laughed at and ridiculed for speaking about certain countries in terms of good and evil, but the truth of the matter is that good and evil exist, and perhaps there is no closer embodiment of hell on earth than North Korea.

Shin’s story revolves around his life at Camp 14, a “total control” camp, which meant he was born there and he would die there. His earliest memories were of watching executions—mouths filled with rocks and bound tight (we can’t have anyone criticizing the Dear Leader in their last moments) before rounds of bullets blew their heads off. Camp 14 had a prison camp within a prison camp (where Shin was tortured). Sons and daughters are taught to snitch on their parents, snitch on their peers and to live in a constant state of paranoia. Women are raped and then executed when they become pregnant. Starving kids like Shin find themselves picking undigested kernels of corn from animal feces…to eat. In short, the North Korean regime seeks to strip every ounce of humanity from its citizens, and they have shown that they are willing to go to great lengths to succeed.

Fear societies, despite their best efforts to turn people into animals, can not succeed. The human spirit will often find a way to break free. People are not meant to be cattle, and they will either unshackle their spirit through suicide…or die in the pursuit of freedom.

What is most interesting about Escape from Camp 14 is that even though Shin was born and raised in an environment of pure evil, he seemed to know deep down that there was a right from wrong. Looking back on his actions now he struggles with the repercussions (e.g., the execution of his mother and brother…and quite possibly his father), but the free, adult Shin is too harsh of a critic of the 13 year old version of his imprisoned self.

For example, should Shin feel guilty for having to climb over the electrified, charred remains of his friend in order to obtain freedom?

Without hesitation, Shin crawled over his friend’s body, using it as a kind of insulating pad. As he squirmed through the fence, Shin could feel the current. The soles of his feet felt as though needles were stabbing them.

Shin was nearly through the fence when his lower legs slipped off Park’s torso and came into direct contact, through the two pairs of pant he was wearing, with the bottom strand. Voltage from the wire caused severe burns from his ankles to his knees. The wounds bled for weeks. But it would be a couple of hours before Shin noticed how badly he had been injured.

What he remembers most clearly about crawling through the fence was that Park’s body smelled like it was burning.

There is a reason why Shin still wakes up from nightmares, screaming as his mind conjures up images of his dead mother, brother and friend. The guilt that he feels, however, is misplaced, as it is the tyrannical North Korean regime’s seeds that sprout in his mind. They are responsible for the heartache and pain Shin feels, not him.

We all have a purpose in life, and I can’t help but think that Shin’s was to break free from North Korea and tell the world what is truly going on inside their border. If you get a chance, pick up a copy of Escape from Camp 14. You’ll be glad you did.

Why North Korea fears John Bolton, Trey Parker and Matt Stone

March 21, 2012March 21, 2012by Douglas Ernst5 Comments

In response to my recent post on the nature of North Korea and the case for Jimmy Carter’s insanity, I was told I had ideological “blinders” on. Apparently, Jimmy Carter’s short tenure as mouthpiece for North Korea’s state run media, in which he had the gall to place culpability for starving North Koreans onto the United States’ shoulders, was a brilliant move meant to encourage them to do the right thing.

Not 24 hours later John Bolton and his magic mustache reminds me that perhaps I should at least put some shades on, because the truth he speaks is bright enough to melt retinas:

Heads of state and foreign ministers from 50-plus countries will gather next week in Seoul, South Korea, to discuss the threat of nuclear terrorism, a follow-up to the first “nuclear-security summit” convened two years ago in Washington by President Obama.

Ironically, as the Seoul summit opens, North Korea will be preparing to launch a ballistic missile next month, blatantly flouting repeated UN Security Council resolutions and its own prior commitments, particularly a recent deal with the United States made public on Feb. 29.

Yes, Pyongyang says it’s merely sending a communications satellite into orbit; it blithely announced last Friday that this “satellite” will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-Sung, the founder of its hereditary communist dictatorship.

But no one doubts that the launch’s real purpose is to advance North Korea’s capacity to target and deliver its nuclear weapons anywhere on earth.

Yet, under the Leap Day deal, Pyongyang agreed to a partial moratorium on nuclear activities and missile launches in exchange for “humanitarian” food aid. Its contemptuous violation of that agreement after a mere two weeks punctures two myths simultaneously.

Most visibly, it shows yet again that North Korea is profoundly unserious about the commitments it makes to limit, suspend or abandon its nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

For more than 20 years, the regime has contemptuously exploited P.T. Barnum’s insight that “there’s a sucker born every minute.” Time and time again, it has promised to set aside its nuclear objectives in exchange for tangible economic and political benefits; and time and time again, it has broken those commitments.

The United States, Japan, South Korea and others have consistently fallen for Pyongyang’s ploys. George W. Bush’s administration, for example and to its eternal shame, removed North Korea from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism in hopes it would advance US nuclear negotiations with the North.As so often before, Pyongyang pocketed the concession and moved on to its next objective, leaving the State Department bewildered.

As I told the guy who suggested Carter was onto something when he rhetorically licked North Korea like a smitten kitten—we already tried that. Democrats tried that. Sadly, Republicans did too. The result is always the same: when you trust a tyrant, you get burned. There was this guy named Ronald Reagan (you may have heard of him), who believed in “trust, but verify.” It sounds funny, but that’s exactly what you need to do with Communists because they lie. All the time. And yet, over and over again each new batch of world “leaders” think they have the diplomatic acumen to bring around the guys running gulags. Newsflash: they don’t.

And with that, I leave you with one of the most vulgar, but spot-on interpretations of global politics I’ve ever heard. Matt Stone and Trey Parker are, quite literally, geniuses.

Shin In Geun’s story: Proof Jimmy Carter is insane?

March 18, 2012April 19, 2012by Douglas Ernst20 Comments

If you haven’t had a chance to read Shin In Geun’s story, you should. All of it. Shin is a survivor of the North Korean gulags, and his experiences offer the world another example of just how evil the North Korean regime really is. It’s 2012, and there are still places in the world that actively seek to strip people of their humanity in ways that are difficult to fathom. Unfortunately, many Americans don’t realize it, a situation that’s made worse by “comedians” like George Lopez. (He spends his time comparing Sarah Palin to genuine tyrants.) In recent memory, I can’t think of a better example of the “useful idiot” than Jimmy Carter, who went into North Korea, only to come out and hold a press conference to announce that the United States was guilty of war crimes!

Read these excerpts from Shin In Geun’s story, and then think about Jimmy Carter’s surreal North Korean conclusions:

His first memory is an execution. He walked with his mother to a wheat field, where guards had rounded up several thousand prisoners. The boy crawled between legs to the front row, where he saw guards tying a man to a wooden pole … Guards stuffed pebbles into the prisoner’s mouth, covered his head with a hood and shot him. …

The chief’s lieutenants pulled off Shin’s clothes and trussed him up. When they were finished, his body formed a U, his face and feet toward the ceiling, his bare back toward the floor. The chief interrogator shouted more questions. A tub of burning charcoal was dragged beneath Shin, then the winch lowered towards the flames. Crazed with pain and smelling his burning flesh, Shin twisted away. One of the guards grabbed a hook and pierced the boy in the abdomen, holding him over the fire until he lost consciousness.

Shin awoke in his cell, soiled with excrement and urine. His back was blistered and sticky. The flesh around his ankles had been scraped away. As his burns became infected, he grew feverish and lost his appetite.

Shin guesses it was 10 days before his final interrogation. It took place in his cell because he was too weak to get up. For the first time, he found the words to defend himself. “I was the one who reported this,” he said. “I did a good job.” His interrogators didn’t believe him. He begged them to talk to Hong Sung Jo.

Shin’s fever grew worse and the blisters on his back swelled with pus. His cell smelled so bad, the guards refused to step inside.

Knowing that there have been millions of stories just like Shin’s, what would prompt Jimmy Carter to do anything other than to condemn the heinous regime responsible? How could Carter blame the United States for anything involving the plight of North Koreans? Food meant for starving people went to the military—not the kids looking for undigested kernels of corn from inside cow crap. (Again, read Shin’s story.) There is literally no excuse whatsoever for pointing fingers at anyone other than the animals in charge of the North Korean asylum…and yet Carter did so anyway.

Every day I try to give my political opponents the benefit of the doubt. I want to believe they’re well-meaning, but dangerously-naive folks. When George Bush was in office, liberals attempted to portray the man as someone who looks into the mirror each morning as his shaves and wonders how to make the world a more despicable place. I never wanted to think that way about my ideological opponents, but Jimmy Carter has to know the truth. He has to. And yet, through his words and actions over the years he’s found new and inventive ways to blame the United States for the litter left behind by dictators and despots.

Perhaps Jimmy Carter should have consulted Kang Chol-Hwan, another gulag survivor and the author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang, before he sat in front of a microphone and served, however briefly, as the mouthpiece for the North Korean regime. The only thing that I can think of is that Carter is a seriously deranged, mentally ill old man. But that still doesn’t explain his time in office… Regardless, all Americans should keep Carter’s track record and sick statements in mind when the occasional liberal pundit calls him “the best former president” we’ve ever had.

Update: My review of Escape from Camp 14

Carter Finds U.S. Human Rights Violations in North Korea. Seriously.

May 1, 2011May 3, 2011by Douglas Ernst1 Comment

I always thought former U.S. presidents had Secret Service agents with them. Apparently not, because Jimmy Carter is a danger to himself and his country. And yet, they keep letting him out the front door. The former Peanut Farmer in Chief shouldn’t be allowed to cross the street alone, never mind a trip to North Korea. Why? Because he’s one of the few people alive who can go to a country with modern-day gulags and return to find U.S. human rights violations!

According to the 39th President of the United States, not giving food to North Korea is tantamount to human rights violations. I suppose the logic goes, that if we give Kim Jong Il enough food some of it will actually make it to starving people. I’m sure the dictator’s inner circle of police state overseers get a good laugh out of that one.

Listening to Jimmy Carter makes me think of Kang Chol-Hwan, author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang, and a gulag survivor who risked his life to escape to South Korea. He wrote:

During the first days of my detention, I met a kid who wore black socks. At least that’s what I thought until I realized his socks in fact were an incredible layer of dirt and grime. I, too, would one day wear such “socks.” I’m still grateful to my grandmother for forcing us to wash our hands and feet whenever we had a little time and energy. It was a way of resisting the imposed conditions and the feelings of exhaustion and self-loathing they engendered (The Aquariums of Pyongyang, 74).

I’m guessing Jimmy Carter wasn’t allowed to see Kang Chol-Hwan’s North Korea. That would be the one with half-delirious, unwashed women who eat “nothing” and sleep outside. Instead, he was probably treated to kindergarten kids that play guitar like they’ve practiced with pistols pressed to their foreheads.

Jimmy Carter is part of a rare breed: those who could go into a black hole, where the “well off” and the tortured both look like zombies, and hold a press conference that places the blame at the feet of his home country. Is it possible that the lint from decades of sweater-wearing worked its way up into his brain and now prevents him from seeing the difference between free societies and fear societies? Did he drown in his culpability for the disaster that was Operation Eagle Claw, and suffer brain damage as a result of a lack of oxygen? It’s tough to pull punches and play Mr. Nice Guy when you’re dealing with a man who can’t even tongue lash Kim Jong Il.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program: The Walking Dead…I mean, North Korean Kindergartners.

Kim Jong Il Crazy for Robert Rodriguez: Fandango for Dictators on Fire.

June 16, 2010by Douglas Ernst1 Comment

One of the reasons why the United States Kicks Ass is because it’s habitually in the position of having to control its border to stop millions of people who want to enter the country, while

kjongdamon — Kim Jong Il is probably a huge fan of Matt Damon's national self flagellation flicks for self loathing liberal Americans.

countries like North Korea have troops at the border to stop people from leaving. The United States has actors and directors who go around the world bashing the freest country in the world, while North Korea hires actors to put a happy face on a regime that runs gulags like a successful fast food chain restaurant.

That’s why I find it interesting that Robert Rodriguez and his liberal Hollywood friends spend more time stoking cultural fires within their own country instead of pointing to the dysfunctional dictators who really pose a threat to the freedom, liberty, and civilized societies throughout the world.

Likewise, it’s very telling that satirists and comedians around the world feel perfectly at ease mocking Christians when they’re desperate for an easy laugh, and yet they now openly acknowledge that “speaking truth to power” doesn’t include mocking Islamic terrorists because…that might actually require some inner fortitude. Today’s liberal “thinkers” (or wannabe “thinkers”) talk tough to talk show hosts…but clam up when it comes to the guy who wants to chop your head off, brunoise the First Amendment, and serve it to his jihad buddies for dinner.

While I’ve already let it be known how I feel about Robert Rodriguez, I still can’t let the issue go. I want so badly to believe that I’m not living in The Twilight Zone, but every day I’m reminded how Hollywood shuns real life American stories of Audie Murphy-type heroism in favor of filmic self flagellation on a national scale.

Am I suggesting we pay filmmakers to make American versions of creepy North Korean propaganda pieces? Of course not. But, personally, I think America is a pretty cool place with quite a bit to be proud of. And I just wish that the Matt Damon-standing-up-against-corrupt-U.S.-government cinematic skid marks were exposed for the self-righteous Ashtonian idiocy they are.

When someone with Robert Rodriguez’s skills finally decides to highlight how great this nation is within the confines of an awesome action flick…they’re going to make a lot of money.