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"What's Different about Kim Jong IL"

Another one bites the dust. This arrogant, hard-line, old-world crank, narcissist has finally bitten the dust. Bad hair-do, bad manners, bad tailor and bad temper sums up Kim Jong Il. In most ways he was right up there with Saddam, Mohamar, Basshir, Fidel, Pinochet, Papa Duvalier, Noriega, The Ayatollah, and Osama just to name a few of the despots that have given migraines to the rest of the world. But Kim Jong Il was very different in two significant ways.

First of all, he had nuclear weapons. That's huge. The other nuisances on my list were dealt with by internal uprisings or if they insisted on pissing off enough people, for a long enough period of time, they were neutralized externally. I mean Noriega is in jail, and the others are either dead or hanging on by their cigars (Castro). BUT Jong Il had the capability of creating cataclysmic mayhem.

The other difference with him was how reclusive he was. No one really knew what exactly was going on in his country. Saying he played it close to the vest is an understatement. He wasn't like those other preening roosters showing the world contempt, parading around in their costume military garb, defying the US to come kick their ass. NOT Kim Jong Il. No, he said little, made few appearances, and rarely did he openly threaten anyone. (There were a sizable number of veiled threats) But he also made it clear that he had no moral objection to letting letting missiles fly.

He's the one foreign leader many American statesmen have said they were far more worried about than the Bin Laden's or Qaddafi's of the world. We always had to be careful with him because he was hard to read and made it clear he didn't care about anyone else in the region or world. He's managed to brainwash his people into thinking he was sent from God, and we all know the effects of fear and blind loyalty (Hitler, Stalin, Emperor Hirohito).

Here is all you need to know about how unstable North Korea was under Kim Jong Il. He sank a South Korean military ship (in the last year or so) and dared South Korea to do something about it. Fire on us they said, go ahead, make our day. They didn't care what the repercussions were. Thank God South Korea didn't even though they wanted to. Very dangerous move by Jong Il but that was what we were up against with him.


Now that he has died, his son, a replication of his father, sits on the throne. Have you seen a picture of his son, the new ruler? He looks like the lost shy kid at the HS dance. So did Carrie! But this kid controls enough munitions to change everything. What will he do?


Their people suffer tremendously, most nights in fact 90% of the country is in total darkness. Satellites flying over show a country in darkness. It's the law. A perfect metaphor for their view of things. Will Jon Il's son move the country onto the world stage? Will the lights stay on? There is always reason to be concerned about the brooding malcontent sitting in the corner of the room, armed to the teeth.

"Shakespeare and Penn State"

I don't know how many of you have ever read or seen Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. It was his shortest play, one of his bloodiest, and one of his strangest. The King of Scotland is murdered in his sleep by Macbeth, in a power play mixed with an evil wife, 3 witches prophesy's and in short it gets pretty weird. The night the King is murdered, Shakespeare, in the play, refers several times to how weird and strange everything around the castle feels; how nothing seems in it's right place. The characters were noticing that nature itself seemed disturbed. His point was that somethings that people do are so offensive that even nature is thrown out of whack. Things get weird. He called it a perturbed spirits.

Well, I don't know if you can feel it where you are but such perturbations now float over the not so Happy Valley, Pa. world of Penn State University.
The natural order has been disturbed there and things around the place just seem to be getting weirder. Long time (and highly successful) football defensive coordinator at Penn State, Jerry Sandusky, has been accused of, arrested for, and bound over for trial in the alleged molestation of at least 9 young boys going back 20+ years.
That would be bad enough, but trouble for the PSU faithful was just getting started. Two senior level college administrators were arrested for perjury and obstructing justice by lying to authorities about what they knew about Sandusky. Apparently, as the charges are outlined, they had been told sometime ago about Coach Sandusky but claimed under oath they knew nothing. Undoubtedly, they were trying to protect Sandusky but more likely they were trying to protect Coach Paterno, the football program and the University.

Would that were all there was!
But no, it seems that head Coach (Papa Joe) Paterno had also been told (years before) about goings on in the men's locker room between Sandusky and a boy. Coach Paterno has admitted in his own sworn statement that he was told (in graphic detail) that his defensive coordinator was molesting a boy in the locker room. What did he do? He told a senior member of the athletic department what had been reported to him. He never followed up and continued letting the man coach.

His claim, today, is that he did what he was legally obligated to do. Apparently it's true that he met his legal obligation but if you had been told your number #2 man in the program had been seen (by another coach) in the shower doing illegal and gross things with a boy wouldn't you not sleep until you knew for sure that he had been investigated and either charged or cleared? How many more boys were molested during the time that Paterno was content to have fulfilled his "legal obligations"? He said no more, never followed up and just let things alone. Alone in this case means the team won a lot of games, the university made a lot of money and apparently everyone at the University slept well at night.

Aye, there's the rub. This one didn't sit well with a "perturbed nature" and now it has all come back to wreck havoc on the the whole Penn State community. The University President has been fired, athletic director has been fired, Coach Paterno has been let go, the coach that saw the molestation (McQueary) has been under fire for not having told more people and has been let go or surely will be let go. Former coach Sandusky has been arrested and will likely go to trial. ( I suspect he'll do a plea deal to avoid putting his family through more humiliation + the victims testifying and the continued ugliness for the University) Will that be enough?

Apparently not. Coach Paterno now reports having lung cancer of the treatable kind. This prevents him from being able to travel to and from hearings and so forth, As the Church Lady said on Saturday Night Live, "how convenient". Essentially, poor coach Paterno is "out of the legal loop" just as some would argue he took himself out of the "moral loop" years ago. In truth, he probably has paid a heavy price if he's the good man everyone swears he is. Knowing about what his assistant did, not pursuing the matter to protect the boys (ironically he made his legend being a mentor to young men)and losing his job mid season in what would have been the last season of a Hall of Fame career. You can put that thought on hold for the time being. Who knows what the future is for Coach Paterno?
Is this enough?

Apparently not. There was talk (albeit briefly) of not inviting a "damaged" Penn State team to a bowl game this year but fortunately smart people got involved and realized the obvious that this group of players and coaches had NOTHING to do with what happened years ago and they were rightfully invited to a bowl game. STILL, it goes on in Unhappy Valley. Friday the starting quarterback got into a fight with a second string receiver in the locker room after practice. The quarterback suffered a seizure during the fight and was taken to a hospital. He seems to be okay now.

Allegations, affidavits, depositions, arrests, resigning, firings, moral lapses, seizures, fighting, likely molestation's, ruined families, victims, and who knows what still might ooze to the surface of this mess? All in the name of winning football games, and the closed ranks of the "coaching fraternity" and the desire to make money for the University. Some of you may think I don't like college athletics or Penn State. It is completely the opposite. I love college football, followed Penn State for years. I admired the football coaching philosophy they adhered to over the years (run the ball, good special teams and defense). When every team in the country was lured into wearing multiple alternate jerseys, weird stuff like Oregon and Maryland wear, not Penn State. Dark Blue tops, white pants, and helmets with no logos on it. Circa 1967, about when Coach Paterno showed up. But beneath the "classic" veneer was a "classic" cover up of major proportions. It doesn't matter how many wins your program racks up (USC/CLEMSON) or how much money your bowl appearances make for the University. It doesn't matter the name, the brand, the image of Papa Joe, or the back story if/when the time comes you choose all of that over making sure things are right.

Macbeth had a lot of reasons for why he had to kill King Duncan and cover it up.
But he never felt right about it. "Macbeth hath murdered sleep, Macbeth shall sleep no more"and he never had another good night's sleep again. A heavy pall hung over Scotland for years. Eventually Happy Valley will be happy again. Meantime, perturbed spirits are in the air and I suspect some people are not sleeping well at all.

"Slab City"

Have you heard of "Slab City? It's located outside the city limits of Modesto, Calif.
It is a city with no Mayor, no residential neighborhoods, no street lights, no Chucky Cheese, no schools, no playgrounds and very few rules. You don't want to live there, you don't want anyone you know to call "Slab City" their home. Yet plenty of people (too many) do live in "Slab City", well, sort of.

A huge slab of concrete was laid down on a wretched piece of ground and people live in motor homes, cars, tents, and card board boxes. These are NOT illegal aliens on the run. These are American citizens, families with kids. There is no running water, just a hole in the concrete where run off water goes. That is what passes for a shower. People bring in food, whatever they can. However, recently a "Slab City Cafe" opened. I doubt you would go there for the ambiance; I doubt the menu is extensive. Some old recliners sit on part of the slab and people hold court there daily.


Dave is there, a middle aged man with a pretty wife and 2 small children. Dave worked in a white collar and tie job for years in the Bay Area but the economy finally forced his company to lay him off. Unable to find another job, the family went through their savings until finally the day arrived where Dave and family couldn't even afford to live in a trailer park. Now, his kids play in a junk pile, and when they get to be school age he wonders where will they be? He does odd jobs and augments what little he makes with food stamps. He hopes to get a job in LA soon.

Sandy is living out of her station wagon, a single mom with 2 daughters, one aged 13 and the other one 11. Money ran out for them in their home state of Washington so mom was forced to bring her and the girls to "Slab City". The girls are being "home schooled" but its questionable how much they are learning. The girls understand why they are there, but they also hope their friends back home don't find out.

Dave keeps a loaded 12 gauge shotgun by his side at night. he says the 12 gauge shotgun is the protector of choice for "Slab City" residents. He said, "I'm the nicest guy in the world but if you mess with my family you'll see another side".
There are plenty of drugs and drug dealers in "Slab City".

When I first read about the Joad family in the Steinbeck novel The Grapes of Wrath about the depression era okie family, I thought how can this happen? How can a hard-working law abiding family just be ruined through no fault of their own? They weren't wall street financiers, hedge fund operators, or leaders of Governments or Industry. Nevertheless, it was the Joad family that had to pile all their stuff into a pickup, and leave the dust bowl of Oklahoma for California. Even in high school (back then) I thought this wasn't right. People that gamble away their own fortunes have nobody to blame but themselves. BUT people that gamble away the fortunes of others have to be held accountable or they will do it again.

There it sits, "Slab City" just outside the city limits of Modesto where the 21st century version of the Joads reside. The calloused, irresponsible people have done it again. The legal system should hold those people accountable but it's clear they are not going to.

However, we can. Please try to stay up on who is running for which elective office. Find out what have they done in the past for the people they represented. Know what they stand for. Look past the rhetoric, the teleprompter, the nice suit, the melodramatic ads. We have to have better people in offices on all levels. We need to get rid of the people that created "Slab City".

"Black Friday" and "Marshal McLuhan"

I am sorry my weekly blog has not been written for 3 weeks. My bad. Traveling, a friend having a melt down complete with a 5 minute ha-rang like a scene out of Shakespeare's King Lear and just being derailed from a lot of little things but The Bailey Post is back.
2 things on my mind in recent days:

"Black Friday" So Americans have a new national obsession. As we closed in on Thanksgiving wasn't it enough that we culled the turkey herd with our need to sharpen our carving knives? Wasn't it enough that we watched one football game after another, smashed our faces with devil eggs, chips and drank booze and soda like we were Saharan camel jockeys drinking water on a caravan?

Oh no,instead we were bombarded with reminders that "Black Friday" was looming. People geared up for this day like post apocalyptic nut jobs hording water and buying camouflage unis. It used to be that the merely obsessed would be content to sit in their lawn chairs in front of Walmart, K-Mart, or any other mart to be the first one in. Sit there all night waiting for that special magic to happen, the doors of wisdom to open, the religious experience to transform them. They were dumb asses but they liked knowing they could and would do what reasonable thinking people wouldn't. (hence the expression dumb ass)

Well, the stores trumped these masochistic shopaholics by changing the paradigm. The stores would now open at midnight. Why sit when you can spend? What has happened to Americans? When the country seems to be on life support, when every adult needs to understand what is happening around them, they instead stampede to Targets and Macy's and frantically buy bobbleheads, fruitcakes, and tires. People were shot, one man fell with a heart attack and the people stepped over him, not taking the time to see if he was even deal (apparently there was a bargain on the snow cone making machine).

C'mon people if it has Black in the title it's probably not good for you. People did not embrace the "Black Plague" and didn't people jumped off the buildings on "Black" Thursday, 1929?
If there had been a "Black Friday" in 1348 the people would have asked this question at the place where the plague victims were taken....."how much for just the tunic"?

My second topic is based on Marshal McLuhan's 1970's book: The Medium is the Message. Among many other ideas he made the case that the perception of reality is reality. This may be true. Consider: Herman Cain dropped out of the Republican race for president. At the heart of his quitting was his wanting to spare himself and his family from relentless media scrutiny about alleged sexual harassment charges from his past. He believes Rick Perry and/or his minions created all this to get him out. Others believe the democrats were behind a smear campaign.

It's true that several women came forward with claims that he made suggestive comments and perhaps more. But where was the trial back then? Why didn't they claim this years ago when he had deep pockets and could have been sued or perhaps blackmailed into a big payday? Yes, the organization he was chairman of did payout cash settlements to 2 or more women but the amount they got was pretty minuscule considering the "outrage".
Here is my point: he clearly may have done these things, the women may be absolutely telling the truth, and then again it could all be BS. Companies settle claims all the time to avoid bad publicity and a potential costly trial. A company settling is not in itself a de facto guilt of anything.
HOWEVER, the perception that he did wrong things is that was needed. In the court of public opinion he must be as guilty as hell. Well, that's good enough for the media and John Q. Public. In short, maybe a bad guy dropped out as Republican contender and then again maybe a heretofore not taken seriously contender emerging had to be gotten rid of. The bigger point is IT DOESN'T MATTER which of those two scenarios is true...that's what McLuhan was saying, you don't have to be guilty....just get the "knee-jerk" reactors and the uninformed to think you are and you are.