I have indeed--and was briefly speaking to some friends who were trying to raise funds to make it into a movie and wondered whether I'd like to work on the screenplay. (I said of course.) But the project never went anywhere, alas. Too bad. It would have been a great movie--and a great gig.

Okay, okay ... I'll give my thoughts as soon as I've watched it. I'm working (on deadline, piece overdue, hence my silence) on a piece about Gülen for City Journal. Right now I'm so sick of thinking about him--you have no idea how complicated this subject is and how much havoc it's causing here--that the thought of watching that program makes me want to bang my head against a wall. But I guess I have to. I'll be back soon. I just got a bit overcommitted this month.  

Diane, as  for your friend's question--"Why isn't the US intervening"-- this might be a good opportunity to remind him of the 33,686 Americans who died in the Korean War--a scale of death, by the way, comparable to the First World War, in which 53,402 Americans died. It would also be a good opportunity to remind him why we still have 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea.  We can't solve all the world's problems with military force--but in this case, we certainly contained it. 

Here are concrete things that can be done--short of going to war. Volunteering for or supporting these organizations will not help every suffering prisoner in North Korea, but they may help some. 

Justice for North Korea

The Korean Underground Railroad

LINK

NKHR Campaign

North Korea Freedom Coalition

Mark, this is a really interesting question and the answer is quite complicated. This Wikileaks cable actually explains the situation very well. (And it's a perfect example of over-classification: There's no reason this should not be in the public realm. It's also a perfect example of the superiority of our State Department bureaucrats to our foreign correspondents: Just try to find a an explanation of the situation this clear in any mainstream news organ. You won't. But why not?) 

Anyone ever wonder where our Turkish members went?

Have you noticed that smells have an immense power to evoke nostalgia? I wonder why that is. It's as if the sense of smell is more directly connected to memory than the other senses. 

Thanks for this, Mark. This is going to be my new motto whenever I check my bank balance. I'm not failing, I'm just creating new and amazing things.

See my previous comment; c.f.--Catherine Ashton is our lead negotiator with Iran.

No, I dare say I never will--but man, does it scare me.

It's a mixed blessing. I assure you that no one who branded me a lunatic at the time has picked up the phone to say, "Hey, Claire, seems I owe you an apology--looks like you were right."

What's this "we" business, kimosabe?

I'll grant you that I didn't see it coming at all in 2006, which was a real failure of foresight. There's a limit to how much I can revel in my own prescience when I didn't notice these processes at work in my own country.

Funny you should mention that, because, why, I am taking that course on line! And I highly recommend it.

Yes, I think this is a very important point, and one that I overlooked.

It's really only the fact that the idea of North Korean and Pakistani ICBMs scares us witless that enables us to consider Indian ICBMs with relative equanimity, you know. 

May I be permitted to have the last word here?

YUCK.