So, Kim Jong Il, the tiny little madman in charge in what has been characterized as "the most oppressive regime" currently active over in North Korea, has died recently. Maybe. In truth, the little asswipe might have popped off weeks ago with the way the North Koreans control information. Good. The world is better off without Kim Jong Il. Now, of course, one of his kids will take over, but there's been talk of an attempted coup if that happens, so NK might be really interesting for awhile. In connection with Kim, I still recommend watching this movie, and I can't begin to fathom this.
Vaclav Havel has also died. A true modern renaissance man, last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic, and leader of the Velvet Revolution; anti-Communist, essayist, playwright, broadcaster, and campaigner for human rights, Havel is a hero to many for bringing about "bloodless" change, but of course there are always dissenting opinions, and Havel likely would have encouraged that. In Havel, I believe, the world has lost a great voice for non-violent change, and one of the coolest heads of state we ever had. Dude, he used to hang with Lou Reed. (Who, it seems, is doing a thing with Metallica right now, so I think we need a sliding scale for coolness to measure ebb and flow. A social thermometer?)
Christopher Hitchens has died this week, and I have less to say about this than you might have thought. Hitchens was most definitely a crusader against organized religion and faith, which he saw as one of the most destructive forces on the planet, a point with which I am inclined to agree. However, he was also an early and continued supporter of Dubya Monkeyface's Big Sand Adventure, which indicates a blind spot that was probably larger than it looks from here. Additionally, despite what I may myself do, if you're actually on a crusade to change the way people think about what is, for the majority of people, the most important thing in their lives, perhaps being an easily-mockable provocative lush dickhead isn't the way to go about it. Watch a group of committed religious but reasonable people in the bookstore sometime and see how they react to God Is Not Great. A Hitch attack is less effective than a Dawkins analysis, is what I'm saying.
Finally, the ones you probably didn't notice (especially if you're an adherent to this "they die in threes" crap); Joe Simon, co-creator of Captain America, has died, aged 98. Simon and Jack Kirby created my favorite superhero in 1940, two years after Superman, and had him punching Hitler's stupid Nazi face months before Pearl Harbor. This current crop of Avengers movies? Cap predates Thor, the Hulk and Iron Man by 20-odd years. Simon also had a hand in the Newsboy Legion, the Fly, the Manhunters from Green Lantern, and most importantly, negotiating a fair wage for guys making comic books. Jerry Robinson also died earlier this month, and he's responsible for some stuff people like in the Batman franchise - Robin, Alfred, Two-Face, and depending upon who you listen to, the Joker, arguably the world's first supervillain, no matter what Kim Jong Il would have liked you to think.
The world is now less interesting with these men gone.
