last of the good rubber bands

wishlist:
abandoned houses, atolls, beards, bicycles, change, charcoal, dance, dreams, denim, electric kool-aid acid tests, experimentation, escapism, early morning, faith, fields, fire, fireflies, glitter, gasoline, graveyards, heroes, hovercrafts, idealism, james and ginger, john lennon, keith richards, kisses, library books, london, love letters, magicians, music, midnight, moon, modern art, nostalgia, notebooks, obsessions, peaches, penpals, pockets, polaroids, proverbs, rolled down windows, rooftops, rootbeer, rain, shoes, stars, smoke, swing sets, tattoos, tents, tree houses, vegetable gardens

heroes:
The Motley Fool boys, The Three Wise Men, mavericks, the inventor of the saxophone, Harry Houdini, Keith Richards, John Maynard Kaynes, Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, Susan Strange, Iggy, Jonathan Ian Mathers, Walt Disney, Stephen King, Stevie Jobs, and Tristan.
February 22
To his many victims, and to anyone with a sense of justice, it is deeply wrong that Kim Jong Il died at liberty and of natural causes. The despot ran his country as a gulag. He spread more misery and poverty than any dictator in modern times, killing more of his countrymen in the camps or through needless malnutrition and famine than anyone since Pol Pot.  Today Kim Jong Un inherits two valuable prizes: nuclear weapons (and the leverage they offer) plus unambiguous support from China.  North Korea cannot avoid change. Black markets have sprung up, along with a thriving petty trade across the boarder with China. North Koreans watching South Korean soap operas on smuggled DVD players now know that their leaders have lied about the supposedly poor and oppressed people in the South.  The strategists in Beijing have propped up the regime both because they fear instability on their border and even more because they fear instability on their border and even more because they worry about a unified Korea, perhaps with American troops hard up against the Chinese frontier for the first time in over 60 years. Their dilemma is that whatever they do, North Korea will eventually collapse.

To his many victims, and to anyone with a sense of justice, it is deeply wrong that Kim Jong Il died at liberty and of natural causes. The despot ran his country as a gulag. He spread more misery and poverty than any dictator in modern times, killing more of his countrymen in the camps or through needless malnutrition and famine than anyone since Pol Pot.  Today Kim Jong Un inherits two valuable prizes: nuclear weapons (and the leverage they offer) plus unambiguous support from China.  North Korea cannot avoid change. Black markets have sprung up, along with a thriving petty trade across the boarder with China. North Koreans watching South Korean soap operas on smuggled DVD players now know that their leaders have lied about the supposedly poor and oppressed people in the South.  The strategists in Beijing have propped up the regime both because they fear instability on their border and even more because they fear instability on their border and even more because they worry about a unified Korea, perhaps with American troops hard up against the Chinese frontier for the first time in over 60 years. Their dilemma is that whatever they do, North Korea will eventually collapse.

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