Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Dennis Rodman--WTF???

Okay, let's just get this out of the way so I don't get sued for defamation. I'm sure that, deep down, Mr. Rodman is an outstanding citizen who pays his taxes and makes charitable donations and always signals before turning. This is not a personal affront or anything...it is just an opinion. That opinion can be summed up in three words:

Mother. Of. God.

You know, I don't believe in ranting on things. Seriously. Or maybe it was just irony that I had just read the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick (awesome book. I'll shamelessly plug it later on)...but when Rodman mentioned that Kim Il Un (or whatever his name is) was really, deep down, just a cool dude like the rest of us, every cell in my being screamed WTF?????!!!!

I've been fascinated by North Korea for a long time. A friend's girlfriend claimed she visited Pyongyang  when she was teaching English in South Korea and was somehow able to get a visa (I seriously doubt folks knew she was American)  and her description of North Korea was something like this:

Her:  You know George Orwell's 1984?

Me: It was like that?

Her: No. It was much worse.

Yeppers. North Korea makes 1984 look like bleepin' Disneyland.

Let me just say this is just a reflection on the government. I would love to meet some North Korean people, and let them see that we aren't as evil as they are told we are (though, for their sake, I do hope they can't get our reality TV shows over there....)

Okay, sorry, this is kind of going to be the blogs of some strong opinions. I've always tried to avoid strong rants, because it seems it only makes people angry and then there's a comment war and next thing you know someone is pulling a Glenn Beck and drawing stuff on a whiteboard that all inevitably leads to 1984 (or North Korea).

But due to my interest in North Korea, I couldn't let this go.

PLEASE---people. Let's pray for the people of North Korea. Give donations to  help North Korean refugees who arrive in South Korea completely clueless and overwhelmed. Must be like the detox from hell.

And if praying is not your persuasion, then I ask that you please send a copy of this book to Mr. Rodman.

This was an amazing, heartfelt book. And yes, this is a google ad link so I am advertising it, but I promise you---I'm not going to advertise stuff in the text of my blog posts that are crap. (fair warning though---stuff in the sidebar are random ads.)


Saturday, March 16, 2013

Short Short Story in Dr. Hurley's Snake Oil Cure

My recent short short story--Denmark High School Reunion-- appeared in Dr. Hurley's Snake Oil Cure (don't you love that name?)
Click here to read it.