Tuesday, November 27, 2012

People's Daily believes Kim Jong Eun ‘Sexiest Man Alive’

It's happened to me, being fooled that is. With that in mind I am not going to go on and on as to how stupid the people are at China's newspaper, the People's Daily.

After all, anybody can be fooled, no? It is just I am not all that forgiving when it comes to the official newspaper of China's communist party.

My prejudice against that paper aside, how in the heck could they take such a story seriously? I mean really.  who do they think they are, the Los Angeles Times?

People’s Daily Quotes the Onion: Kim Jong Eun ‘Sexiest Man Alive’

The official voice of the Chinese Communist Party appears to have been had.

The People’s Daily newspaper, which for more than six decades has sternly spouted the party line, on Tuesday posted on its website a 55-photo slideshow dedicated to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Eun. The occasion: The satirical newspaper the Onion earlier this month declared the double-chinned Mr. Kim the “sexiest man alive for 2012.”

The slideshow – which begins with a photo of Mr. Kim astride a dappled gray, looking stoically into the distance – quotes liberally from the Onion and offers no evidence that a tongue is anywhere in the vicinity of a cheek. “With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true,” the text below the slideshow says, citing the Onion.

STORY CONTINUES

Now from the The Onion.

Kim Jong-Un Named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive For 2012 [UPDATE]

The Onion is proud to announce that North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un, 29, has officially been named the newspaper’s Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012.


With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper’s editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile.

“He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time,” Onion Style and Entertainment editor Marissa Blake-Zweibel said. “And that’s the quality that makes him the sort of man women want, and men want to be. He’s a real hunk with real intensity who also knows how to cut loose and let his hair down.”

Added Blake-Zweibel, “Ri Sol-ju is one lucky lady, that’s for sure!”

With today’s announcement, Kim joins the ranks of The Onion’s prior “Sexiest Man Alive” winners, including:

•2011: Bashar al-Assad

•2010: Bernie Madoff

•2009: Charles and David Koch (co-winners)

•2008: Ted Kaczynski

•2007: T. Herman Zweibel

The Onion’s commemorative “Sexiest Man Alive” issue will be available on newsstands everywhere this Friday and contains a full 16-page spread on Kim.

UPDATE: For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades.


From the Peoples Daily it self.



U.S. website The Onion has named North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un as the "Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012".

"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile," it said.

"He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time," said Marissa Blake-Zweiber, editor of The Onion Style and Entertainment. 

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Story of Columbian Jews

Colombian Jews, who would've thought?

Not at all surprised to find Jews in Columbia as anywhere in the world.  To be spread out across the globe seems to be our fate, but this story I find particularly interesting.

I am not one to just accept that somehow it is in the soul of these people to rediscover a lost/stolen heritage. But who knows the whole story?

Colombian evangelical Christians convert to Judaism, embracing hidden past

BELLO, Colombia — They were committed evangelicals, devoted to Jesus Christ.


But what some here called a spark, an inescapable pull of their ancestors, led them in a different direction, to Judaism. There were the grandparents who wouldn’t eat pork, the fragments of a Jewish tongue from medieval Spain that spiced up the language, and puzzling family rituals such as the lighting of candles on Friday nights.

So, after a spiritual journey that began a decade ago, dozens of families that had once belonged to a fire-and-brimstone church became Jews, converting with the help of rabbis from Miami and Jerusalem. Though unusual in one of the most Catholic of nations, the small community in Bello joined a worldwide movement in which the descendants of Jews forced from Spain more than 500 years ago are discovering and embracing their Jewish heritage.


They have emerged in places as divergent as the American Southwest, Brazil and even India. In these mostly remote outposts, the so-called Anusim or Marranos, Jews from Spain who fled the Inquisition and converted to Christianity, had found refuge.

Historical record



With a void in the historical record, it’s hard to say for sure how the past unfolded for the converted Jews who arrived here centuries ago, establishing themselves as merchants and traders. But there is evidence that they played an important role in the founding of towns here and that their numbers were significant, which is largely unknown to most Colombians.
FULL STORY

Richard III bones bring new discussion

Old bones which bring back history causing discussion and controversy fascinate me.

My knowledge of British history, especially in regards to their kings is truly lacking. But then again, thanks to Shakespeare I have had the pleasure to have some knowledge of this Richard III dude.
Of course, the Bard's version may be flawed, as some real historians on the subject seem only to eager to point out.

 Unverified remains dig up the twisted legacy of England’s Richard III

 LONDON — Tyrant or hero? Rightful monarch or child-killer? Despotic hunchback or brave scoliosis sufferer? Now is the winter of our debate over one of England’s most notorious villains: Richard III.




Underneath a drab parking lot 90 miles northwest of London, archaeologists have unearthed what may become one of this nation’s finds of the century — half-a-millennium-old bones thought to be the remains of the long-lost monarch. But if the discovery has touched off a feverish round of DNA tests against his closest living descendants, it has also lurched to the surface a series of burning questions in a country where even arcane points of history are disputed with the gusto of modern-day politics.

Whether the bones prove to be Richard’s or not, the discovery in September has already set academic journals, Web sites, university lecture circuits and the mainstream media abuzz across Britain, sparking intense and occasionally impolite exchanges. On the floor of the House of Commons, members of Parliament are eloquently clashing, with representatives from York — for whom Richard was the last hope against rival Lancastrians in the War of the Roses — demanding the restoration of his tarnished image. One organization of die-hard Richard III supporters (there are at least two) is running a national ad campaign to clear the king’s name.

FULL STORY-Washington Post


I only posted three paragraphs to this story, follow the title link or the one just above for a very interesting read.