Is Kim Jong Il About to Die?

The NYT reports that the Great Leader

“is seriously ill and might have suffered a stroke weeks ago, an American intelligence official in Washington said Tuesday, after Mr. Kim failed to attend an unexpectedly small-scale celebration of his country’s 60th anniversary. “

The trouble with having a crazy, isolated dictator and the lack of an independent press is that no one really knows what condition Kim Jong Il is in.

If you thought the possibility that Sarah Palin might succeed as the POTUS is scary, think about how incredibly scarier an tuncertain succession scenario for one of the world’s most deranged, lunatic dictator is.

Here’s a fantasy scenario a friend and I hashed on Google Talk at work: Kim Jong Il bites the dust, the South Koreans, with the (implicit or otherwise) support of the US, pushes for Korean re-unification. China, on the other hand, seeks to keep the two countries divided, fearing that an united Korea might challenge future Chinese hegemony in the region. Eventually, tension boils over into conflict, the US is involved: all the ingredients of the next World War.

But no one is taking bets on that one.

They Fought the Law, and the Law Won

From KTVU: Last stand ends; tree-sitters surrender

“BERKELEY, Calif. — The last remaining protesters living in trees at UC Berkeley descended from their perch Tuesday, ending a 21-month occupation of a campus grove aimed at stopping construction of a new sports center.

The tree-sitters said they agreed to come down on the condition that the University of California create a land use committee that will include input from students and residents into the school’s future land decisions. But a UC spokesman said there was never such a deal made, and the university has no plans for the committee. School officials had said they were prepared to forcibly remove the activists and had constructed scaffolding around the tree to mount the effort. But early Tuesday afternoon, the protesters slowly climbed down to cheers from supporters below. They were arrested immediately by police and face charges including tresspassing and violating a court order, authorities said. Five other demonstrators on the ground also were arrested and face charges including resisting police officers.”

Ah, good ol’ Berkeley–that’s the fucking spirit man! Sure, the cause was dumb, but the protesters were really passionate, and I never really questioned their sincerity of belief and intensity of efforts. Sure, this is exactly the type of shit that makes people think that Berkeley is still a (in)famous bastion of radical liberalism, despite the fact that Cal has the largest college republican presence in any campus, and that it continues to employ John Yoo.

But you know what? Fuck all that shit: some people somewhere are still willing to do ridiculously stupid shit for a cause they believe in, even if the cause is a trivial one. It is merely moral luck that their cause is inconsequential: if they did this for genocide or human rights, I’d be singing a completely different tune.

Tree-sitters of the world, UNITE!