printLisa Ling of the National Geographic Channel can usually be found running around the world transmitting the propaganda du jour about “dying,” forests, “melting” icecaps, and “exploited” peoples. For some time, however, this annoying female has been preoccupied getting her sister Laura Ling released, after the woman was caught nosing around in North Korea with another “journalist,” Euna Lee.
How American! You land on foreign soil with a distinctly American approach to everything—you ignore borders, dangers, and differences. You demand in Yankee drawl, “Let’s have a show of hands for American values.” And you proceed to stomp about “exposing” the ills of the world. When some hostile primitives enforce their jurisdiction and show no appreciation for your patronizing good intentions, you cry foul. Oh please!
An extension of this mindset is the habit of stupendously naïve American parents sending their precious progeny, during their most stupid years—the teens—to dangerous spots around the world for a “growth experience.” My comments here.
(The CNN version: “Lee and Ling were arrested while reporting on the border between North Korea and China and sentenced in June to 12 years in prison on charges of entering the country illegally to conduct a smear campaign.”)
I don’t wish these silly girls ill—although Mr. J-Il obviously did—and I’m glad Bill Clinton rode to the rescue. Bill was, in all likelihood, asked to assist by Al Gore, who employs these broads in his California-based Current TV media venture.
Bill ate humble pie for the women, apologized for their idiotic indiscretions, and has brought them back home. One less topic for Larry King to stagger through on his nightly scintillating hour (He’s currently stuck on M. Jackson).
It’s not over for Bill; he had better pack his bags again. This time for Iran. A couple of American hikers wondered into … Iran, after backpacking across … Iraq. You heard right. Their greeno friends stateside say they’re just amaaazing human beings, thirsty to embrace the world. (Here’s a pic of one Californian adult blowing bubbles into the ether; she’s a “teacher-activist-writer from California currently based in the Middle East.” ) Apparently the feeling was not mutual.
Is natural selection at work?
Update (August 6): One ought to separate heartfelt sympathy for these young women from what I have done above: taken a close look at the hubristic arrogance and self-righteousness often undergirding their actions. Every bit of cynical approbation is warranted, that is if you’re not Oprah, and few on this site, thankfully, wish to emulate Oprah’s weak minded, anti-intellectual mushiness. Someone has to say the politically unpalatable: these broads are levitating in la-la land.
The Teacher-activist was accompanied by two others named “fiercely intellectual” and “gifted linguist and photographer.” So it seems Teacher-Intellectual-gifted linguist couldn’t read a map between the three of them. I can’t resist the comment- “Gee Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.” But the corollary is interesting in that if you consider the three nicknames in the article, closely relate to the three companions of Dorothy, except in this case Dorothy stayed off the yellow bricks. I wonder what Slick Willie offered under the table for a pair of, (no, it’s not polite to say- twits,) lost souls.
I’m glad it was a selection of arrogant moonbats who got their butts handed to them this time round.
The Iranians probably thought they had nabbed Delta operatives cleverly disguised as lunatics. By now, they’ve probably realized that they indeed were lunatics, annoying, nonsense-sprouting, spwl-type ones, at that. No doubt they’ll be in a hurry to hand them over to whoever will come to collect them. On a similar note, a big round of applause for Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They’ve helped to conclusively demonstrate that any kind of nuclear capability will effectively deter US saber-rattlers. How do you say ‘I told you so’ in Farsi ? I can almost hear that Hugo Chavez guy pestering his new-found Chinese friends.
We are talking about the North Korea that has concentration camps with gas chambers, yes? The one which is arguably the most perfected tyranny in human history?
Colleague of mine is on that border, helping smuggle people out of the hell-state and get them to a place where their lives have half a chance of meaning something.
This incident demonstrates some incredibly stupid traits that some Americans, unfortunately, possess. I agree with Ilana that it’s ridiculous to travel to a hostile, foreign country, and try throwing your moral superiority around. I don’t disagree with Hugo Schmidt that N. Korea is a vile dictatorship; but these girls were not the “journalists” I’d choose to expose the issue (for that, really tough guys—or “Y-chromosome women”—are needed.)
I’m reminded of an incident many years ago, in which a young American Fulbright scholar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Biehl), the daughter of liberals, was beaten to death in Africa. I think the tagline read something like, “Those who killed her were the ones she sought to embrace.” I guess things like this continue to happen because so many Americans believe that the world is just like Disneyland, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The world is a beautiful vase filled with scorpions.
–Taraghay, father of Tamerlane
I doubt that sort of idiocy is limited to Americans, although they seem to be particularly good at it. In April, a Frenchman died during a military operation to free him, his family, and his yacht from Somali pirates. This article from the English Telegraph is quite sickening. So they aimed to leave “the consumer society and its routine” behind them. I think it’s not totally improbable that the wife and the family still think that the temporary freedom from shopping mall muzak was worth it. Also, totally lost in their own arrogance, people like that have no regard for the safety of others either, including their own small children.
[Excellent example. And who did they rely on to rescue them, or attempt to?]
[Excellent example. And who did they rely on to rescue them, or attempt to?]
I suppose we can be grateful that no rescuer was killed. There are people who think they can go mountaineering with nothing but trainers or sandals on their feet. I don’t even want to know how many valiant mountain rescue men have died attempting to save those irresponsible idiots. But at least they don’t have a political agenda. That makes it worse in my book.
Not to disagree with the general sentiments about stumbling into dangerous situations that they don’t even slightly understand. It’s just that the colleague of mine isn’t exactly a “Y-chromosome woman”; she’s a decent, over-average intelligence girl who is just trying to do simple good, which isn’t simple to do at all. I’m suggesting that an entirely ungenerous assessment may not be warranted.
“Colleague of mine is on that border, helping smuggle people out of the hell-state and get them to a place where their lives have half a chance of meaning something.” “the colleague of mine isn’t exactly a “Y-chromosome woman”; she’s a decent, over-average intelligence girl who is just trying to do simple good”
Not to worry Mr. Schmidt, I don’t think any of Ilana’s readers would confuse a person, part of the “Underground Railroad” as being anything but a person who knows the risk and acts carefully in accordance with that risk. We understand the difference found in foolish people moving into dangerous situations, ignoring warnings and then having to be rescued by someone else, lots of time at the risk of the rescuer’s life. Your friend has my respect and appreciation for what she does.