Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

True story:

I lived in a group house in Rockville back in 1997 where we had a shrine to Kim Jong Il, the dictator of North Korea.

Of course, it was set up for ironic effect, but nonetheless it was complete with a scattering of foreign coins, candles and toy fighter jets mounted on tiny plastic airplane stands.

We were amused by the North Korean propaganda my Russian friend Anya smuggled to us for comedic effect, and so we decided to take it to another level with a bona fide shrine.

But now there's youtube for all my North Korean entertainment needs -->



Throughout that video I kept thinking about Christopher Hitchens' new book, God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

He mentions how god believers and their ideologies are similar to totalitarian belief systems like North Korea's. (He's one of the only journalists to have visited).

I really should read his book, shouldn't I ...