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I'm an expat Californian who is obsessed with traveling to strange and exotic destinations in the former Communist Bloc. I also like tacos, beer, surfing, trapshooting, and the geopolitics of oil. I currently live in Arlington, Virginia and work in Washington, DC. Read more about me here, check out my photo album, or send me an e-mail.

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    North Korea’s Funniest Home Videos: Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum

    And here is the video that accompanies my previous post on the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum. Watch it so that you may familiarize yourself with the “immortal military exploits” performed by Kim Il-Sung.

    North Korea: US Imperialists visit the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum (Korean War Museum) and learn how the Korean War really started

    Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) — At least 550,000 foreigners visited the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum over the past more than 50 years since it was opened to visitors in Juche 42 (1953).
    Exhibited at the museum are materials and evidence proving that the army and people of the DPRK heroically defeated the armed invasion of [...]

    Berlin: The Berlin Wall East Side Gallery

    Along the banks of the River Spree runs a 1.3km long section of the wall that divided East and West Berlin for 28 years. This particular part of the wall, the longest stretch still standing, is now home to the East Side Gallery, which hosts over 100 paintings by artists from all over the [...]

    North Korea’s Funniest Home Videos: U.S. Imperialists aboard the USS Pueblo

    Here is the North Korean Tourism DVD footage of our trip to the USS Pueblo in Pyongyang. In this clip you can hear the narrator describe how the “US armed spy ship Pueblo” was “captured by the heroic Korean People’s Army while committing espionage acts”. You can also see us “imperialists” playing around [...]

    “Immediately”

    The NYTimes has an excellent series of articles commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was only seven years old when this happened, but can still remember watching the news reports showing Berliners attacking the wall with sledgehammers as they were sprayed with firehoses. What an amazing moment [...]

    School in the DMZ / Yankees in North Korea / Potemkin picnickers

    Over the past few weeks there have been several interesting articles about North Korea. The first, “Soldiers, Mines and Sounds of Children Playing” is actually about the South Korean Taesung Elementary School, the only school inside the Korean DMZ.
    Kim Han-seul, a fifth-grader, attends a most unusual school. Each morning, his school bus [...]

    North Korea: U.S. Imperialists attempt to retake the USS Pueblo, and fail miserably

    If you’ve known me for a while then you’re well aware of my interest in touring US warships. Ever since I can remember, my parents would take me down to San Diego so we could visit whichever ship was open to the public. I’ve been on everything from aircraft carriers to dock landing [...]

    The USS Pueblo / North Korean Special Forces

    A few days ago there was a segment on NPR about North Korea. The correspondent had actually been allowed into North Korea, but from what I could tell they are basically shown the exact same thing as us regular tourists. I really should have pursued that foreign correspondent career. I could have [...]

    POTD: Nixon/Khrushchev Kitchen Debate, 1959

    Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (2L) vehemently arguing w. VP Richard Nixon (2R) who is furiously objecting as an excited interpreter (C) translates their firey words re US ideas on home construction during “kitchen debate” at American Natl. Exhibit at Moscow Fair
    The entire transcript is worth reading, but this is the best line:
    Khrushchev: You’re a lawyer [...]

    In which Gorbachev slays Stalin zombies and gets all the ladies

    This music video by Russian metal band ANJ leaves me almost speechless. In it, a buff Mikhail Gorbachev slays Stalin-like zombies and frees the Soviets to party on the beach and consume Coca-Cola and Twinkies. No need to study the fall of the Soviet Union, as this video says it all.
    GORBACHOV: THE MUSIC [...]