Hmmmm:

Though the North Korean government hasn’t officially announced it, it looks like the country will hold its renowned Mass Games from August through October this year, opening a window for American tourists to travel to the otherwise closed nation. The Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which handles travel for about half of all Westerners who visit North Korea yearly, is currently accepting applications from Americans interested in traveling during the Mass Games period, based on North Korea’s history of allowing Americans to visit during the event (as happened in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2008).

Koryo’s Simon Cockerell says he’s already seeing thousands of North Koreans practicing for the Games on the streets of Pyongyang, so his company anticipates confirmation of the event in early summer. He expects the usual restrictions to apply to U.S. travelers, including a four-night maximum stay and mandatory arrival by plane rather than over land.

This could be the year I finally make it out there. We’ll see.

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Via Paul Krugman:

…the rhetorical response of conservatives to the stimulus plan — which will, it’s worth bearing in mind, cost substantially less than either the Bush administration’s $2 trillion in tax cuts or the $1 trillion and counting spent in Iraq — has bordered on the deranged.

It’s “generational theft,” said Senator John McCain, just a few days after voting for tax cuts that would, over the next decade, have cost about four times as much.

It’s “destroying my daughters’ future. It is like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of thugs,” said Arnold Kling of the Cato Institute.

Yeah, I love hearing the Republicans bitch about “generational theft” (I guess that would be stealing from my generation, and about 15 generations thereafter) when the Iraq War will end up costing some three trillion fucking dollars. I thought the Iraqi oil revenue was supposed to pay for that, huh? Oh, I guess not.

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Dudes, I’ve got a serious case of wanderlust right now. As such, I’ve spent way too much time researching possible travel destinations. I’d love to go to Turkmenistan…maybe in 2010. According to the WSJ, Turkmenistan is becoming more “tourist friendly”:

Since Mr. Niyazov died in 2006, the country has tentatively begun to open up. Regular visitors say it used to take two hours, and wads of dollars in bribes, to get out of the arrivals lounge of Ashgabat airport. Now passengers are waved through in minutes.

Tourist visas are a bit easier to come by — though you still require a letter of invitation that can take up to three weeks to arrive — and Turkmenistan is now a fixture for specialist tour operators geared to Central Asia. Ashgabat-based Ayan Travel says it handled 2,200 tourists in 2008, up from 1,500 in 2007. “People’s perception of Turkmenistan is changing — it’s seen as safer and more accessible,” says Ayan sales manager Dovran Orazgeldiev.

Certainly access isn’t a problem for the capital’s sights. The city comes across as a kind of Soviet Disneyland, with Mr. Niyazov taking the place of Mickey Mouse. The manicured parks and squares are full of golden statues of the portly president, who called himself Turkmenbashi, or Leader of the Turkmens. (He named one month of the calendar after himself, another after his mother.)

Must. Go. Soon.

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A man who drove up to the U.S. Capitol complex and told police he had a delivery for President Barack Obama was arrested by police after telling them he had a rifle in his truck, police said on Tuesday.

The man “told officers that he had a delivery for President Obama so the officers began to question him further and he admitted to having a rifle in his truck,” said Kimberly Schneider, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Hill Police.

Wow, looks like somebody fell asleep during their high school government class. Dude, the President lives and works at the WHITE HOUSE, not the Capitol building. Jesus.

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Hilarious. Thanks to Ryan for sending me this button. Aspiring Daniel Plainviews can order them from democraticstuff.com.

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One of their pilots is drunk and the passengers demand that he be removed before the plane leaves Moscow for New York. Aeroflot’s response?

At the same time, an Aeroflot representative sought to assure them that “it’s not such a big deal if the pilot is drunk.”

“Really, all he has to do is press a button and the plane flies itself,” the representative said. “The worst that could happen is he’ll trip over something in the cockpit.”

The Boeing 767 – so easy to fly, even a drunk could do it!

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I can hardly believe it myself. It’s been almost ten years since we graduated from high school. Ten years since we “acquired” several orange traffic cones.

Godspeed, orange traffic cone. Enjoy your freedom.

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