"Recent accounts of Hugo Chávez's politicized necrophilia may seem almost too lurid to believe, but I can testify from personal experience that they may well be an understatement. In the early hours of July 16—just at the midnight hour, to be precise—Venezuela's capo officiated at a grisly ceremony. This involved the exhumation of the mortal remains of Simón Bolívar, leader of Latin America's rebellion against Spain, who died in 1830. According to a vividly written article by Thor Halvorssen in the July 25 Washington Post, the skeleton was picked apart—even as Chávez tweeted the proceedings for his audience—and some teeth and bone fragments were taken away for testing. The residual pieces were placed in a coffin stamped with the Chávez government's seal. In one of the rather free-associating speeches for which he has become celebrated, Chávez appealed to Jesus Christ to restage the raising of Lazarus and reanimate Bolívar's constituent parts. He went on:
I had some doubts, but after seeing his remains, my heart said, 'Yes, it is me.' Father, is that you, or who are you? The answer: 'It is me, but I awaken every hundred years when the people awaken.'
As if 'channeling' this none-too-subtle identification of Chávez with the national hero, Venezuelan television was compelled to run images of Bolívar, followed by footage of the remains, and then pictures of the boss. The national anthem provided the soundtrack. Not since North Korean media declared Kim Jong-il to be the reincarnation of Kim Il Sung has there been such a blatant attempt to create a necrocracy, or perhaps mausolocracy, in which a living claimant assumes the fleshly mantle of the departed."
Seeing how this is Hugo Chávez we're talking about, any particular flavor of cultism makes perfect sense, and it supports my theory, also perfectly, that the more to the Left one is, the less of a grasp on reality they will possess - as they openly grasp for power.
Have you ever noticed how many articles you can read that will never say the word "cult" but will say all this:
"Kim Il-sung, whose uncle was a Christian minister in pre-communist days, banned Bibles, closed churches and turned himself into a divinity. Government newspapers described miracles. A turbulent sea suddenly grew calm when sailors sang hymns to him. When he attended a meeting in the demilitarized zone, a mysterious fog descended, saving him from potential assassination by South Korean snipers. At the birth of his son, Kim Jong-il, a radiant star illuminated the sky.
Efficient, relentless brainwashing worked."
It's like they want you to think "cult", but don't want to say it themselves. Why the reluctance? Because, after 40+ years of operation in America, the cults (like Scientology and The Landmark Forum) have got everyone so cowed that, if you even say the word "cult", it's just assumed you're crazy.
So what else can I point out, since I'm feeling all World-Cuppie today, that can top the very-unpeaceful NewAge spectacle of a French astrologist leading his team and his country to madness and ruin? Well, how about an entire country that's just one big cult? Where it's claimed the "Dear Leader" (this is my favorite) makes the sun rise. That's right: The One was going to "lower the oceans", but this motherfucker makes the sun rise. And, also unlike The Won, he runs a very tight operation:
"After the complete rout of North Korea by Portugal on Monday in their second match of the World Cup, some observers have seized on the opportunity to blame North Korean leader Kim Jong-il personally.
The license was provided by a claim by the team's coach Kim Jong-hun that the dictator 'gives regular tactical advice during matches using mobile phones that are not visible to the naked eye.' The coach added the fantasy device was invented by Kim Jong-il himself.
'Given the way the North Korean regime works, a football coach can't just mention Kim Jong-il's name and talk about him as he likes,' a South Korean official said. 'The invisible-mobile-phone part may be silly, but it's probably true that Kim Jong-il's orders are delivered to the coach.'"
Now that's hot. No, I'm serious, I'm getting off on it because,...it's hot:
The North Korean coach is speaking in code to the media.
Listen to me: North Korea works like homeopathy, alright? It works through invisible-motherfucking-mobile-phones. I'm pretty sure, if you had a talk right now with Kim Jong-il, he'd tell you the more invisible the phone the more powerful the signal. Shit, the coach got it. As he, too, led his team and his country to madness and ruin.
Hey! James Cameron - definitely a NewAger - gave us his goofy, hectoring blue-peopled, got to "save the planet" movie, Avatar. I want you to remember that, too.
I can't help but dwell on the current popularity of Yoga (as exercise, mind you) without also thinking about the conmen and Nazis who were determined to bring it here.
With that background, is it any wonder that all the cool kids are the same people leading most of the wrong-headed - including anti-Semitic - movements today?
"A death cult: This horror show is in our future, and is so ghastly that our own darling leaders dare not face it and can only peep through their fingers at what is coming."
-- Christopher Hitchens, writing on The Adam's Family known as North Korea - I'm telling y'all: that situation ain't as simple as Saddam's - and finding a confrontation with cultism, turning people thin as a piece of Slate.
"When I first saw the Obama Joker poster on my block in April I tried to read the website featured in the upper right-hand corner, but it was too pixilated to decipher. Is anonymity part of the artist's message? Possibly. However, if anonymity is not a part of the message, can you blame the artist for wanting to remain anonymous given the irrational and racially-charged criticism the poster has received?
I find it hard to believe that the Obama Joker creator is the only serious detractor (assuming that it is a critical commentary) within the art community. And I'm sure the incendiary criticism will keep others from creating similar images. But regardless of political affiliation, the art community must embrace all rational dissenters. Art must not exclusively serve the interests of any presidential administration.
It's time for the art community to return to its historical role in political affairs, which means speaking to power, not on behalf of it. Which leads me to the second case where art enters politics on a mass scale. The power of art, in combination with the suppression of free speech or a free press, has been used as a tool by authoritarian governments to control their citizens. From Hitler, Stalin, and Mao to Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il, art has been used to deify leaders while preserving the position of the ruling class. Most artists would not want to be referred to as tools of the state, but in the case of Obama's administration, that's exactly what they've been so far. "
-- Patrick Courrielche, speaking to my fellow artists - who have been acting like a bunch of pussies - on what their actual role is, using Reason.
"The Obama administration characterized Bill Clinton's unexpected visit to Pyongyang to secure the release of two American reporters, held unjustifiably by North Korea for nearly five months, as a private, humanitarian mission. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has insisted that the fate of the women who strayed into the North (whether accidentally or deliberately is still not clear), should be separated from the unresolved issue of the North's nuclear weapons program.
But North Korea has seen it very differently. Former president Clinton was met at Pyongyang's airport by notables led by Kim Kye Gwan, the North's long-time chief nuclear negotiator, an unmistakable symbol of linkage. In Pyongyang's view, the two reporters are pawns in the larger game of enhancing the regime's legitimacy and gaining direct access to important U.S. figures. The reporters' arrest, show trial and subsequent imprisonment (twelve years hard labor) was hostage taking, essentially an act of state terrorism. So the Clinton trip is a significant propaganda victory for North Korea, whether or not he carried an official message from President Obama. Despite decades of bipartisan U.S. rhetoric about not negotiating with terrorists for the release of hostages, it seems that the Obama administration not only chose to negotiate, but to send a former president to do so.
While the United States is properly concerned whenever its citizens are abused or held hostage, efforts to protect them should not create potentially greater risks for other Americans in the future. Yet that is exactly the consequence of visits by former presidents or other dignitaries as a form of political ransom to obtain their release. Iran and other autocracies are presumably closely watching the scenario in North Korea. With three American hikers freshly in Tehran's captivity, will Clinton be packing his bags again for another act of obeisance? And, looking ahead, what American hostages will not be sufficiently important to merit the presidential treatment? What about Roxana Saberi and other Americans previously held in Tehran? What was it about them that made them unworthy of a presidential visit? These are the consequences of poorly thought-out gesture politics, however well-intentioned or compassionately motivated."
-- John R. Bolton, accurately profiling another bone-headed move by the Clintons and Obama - look who's smiling in the photo, above - as, once again, they've abandoned The Washington Post.
"North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days."
-- Hyung Jim-Kim, reminding us why we love cults so much - and, also, how much Barack Obama's charisma as president has changed everything (just as promised!) - so we can now stop missing the warm presence of President Bush, and start clinging to the cold, harsh reality of The Associated Press.
Kim Jong Il has defied the odds and been re-elected as North Korea’s Leader, despite the fact that he ran no campaign, raised no money, had no debates, placed no ads and had no opponent.
Kim Jong-Il's Birthday 'Improves North Korean Weather’
North Korean State Media Have Credited The upcoming Birthday Of Leader Kim Jong-Il For A Spring Thaw On The Mountain Where He Is Said To Have Been Born.
The snow has begun melting around Jong-Il Peak at Mount Paektu on the border with China and the temperature is warmer than normal, making willow catkins open, the Korean Central News Agency said.
An “unprecedented phenomenon of moon halo” was also observed on Sunday evening, making the night view above the leader’s birthplace “brilliant”.
“Those who witnessed the opening of willow catkins earlier than the previous years and the unprecedented nocturnal view said excitedly that even the nature and the sky unfolded such mysterious ecstasy in celebration of the birthday of leader Kim Jong-Il,” the agency noted.
Kim Jong-Il, like his father before him, is the subject of an officially inspired personality cult which ascribes almost supernatural powers to him.
His official biography is steeped in myths, such as the rainbows that appeared over Mount Paektu, his official birthplace, when he was born, or his 11 holes-in-one in a single round of golf.
Independent experts say Kim, who turns 67 next Monday, was actually born in Russia.
His birthday will be marked with rallies, gala events and flower shows featuring the national bloom, Kimjongilia.
So, as we all should know by now (don't we?) Kim Jong-Il reportedly has had a stroke, or died, depending on who's talking. What nobody's talking about - but should be of grave concern to us all - is what happens next:
Just like people (myself included) are predicting a very-negative reaction if the "Cult Of Obama" isn't satisfied this November, the people of North Korea are going to have a very-difficult time understanding how the sun came up if they discover there's no pudgy, bouffant-hairdoed, Yoko Ono-styled-aviator glasses-wearing, jumpsuited "Dear Leader", in elevator shoes, to make it happen.
No, seriously, this could get really ugly: I write a lot about the cults, and cultish strains, running through the western world, but the idea of an entire nation of radical "eastern" whackjobs, finally unhinged from their crazy belief system, is terrifying - and has the potential to cause a lot of trouble for the countries on their border. It's enough to make me feel sorry for China.
What's going to happen? I don't know. Depends on how long the regime can keep a secret (so far, so good) and how they handle it from there. Who knows: maybe they can convince the morons somebody else is The Sun King.
I'm using a lot of stuff from The Onion here, but don't laugh Democrats and NewAgers: you look just like these guys, but with a different set of fetishes. You flock to Barry, and Oprah, and Sylvia, without thinking, wore the robes of the Rajneesh, and still do everything the bogus Maharishi said (meditation, anyone?) and on and on and on. You're a bunch of freaks.
It. Just. Never. Stops:
Seeing how this is Hugo Chávez we're talking about, any particular flavor of cultism makes perfect sense, and it supports my theory, also perfectly, that the more to the Left one is, the less of a grasp on reality they will possess - as they openly grasp for power.
Read the whole thing.
