Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The Wisdom of Ted Turner

Usually, I don’t include long quotes in my posts, but I want you to read all of this one. Wolf Blitzer recently interviewed CNN's founder, Ted Turner about the situation in North Korea:(TT = Ted Turner; WB = Wolf Blitzer)
WB: You spent some time recently in North Korea, Ted. Did this agreement come to you as a surprise?

TT: No. No, I talked with quite a few of the North Korean leaders and South Korean leaders, too, and spent really the most time with the head negotiator for North Korea. And I was really over there to try and persuade North and South Korea to make the DMZ into an international peace park when they sign a peace treaty, which I anticipate will be fairly soon, now that we have these six-party talks. We have agreement there. But I had a great time. I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere.

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WB: But this is one of the most despotic regimes, and Kim Jung Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn't that a fair assessment?

TT: Well, I didn't get to meet him, but he didn't look...in the pictures I've seen of him on CNN, he didn't look too much different than most of the other people I've met.

WB: But look at the way he's treating his own people.

TT: Well, hey. Listen, I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin, and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars. But I didn't see any brutality in the capitol, or out in the DMZ. We drove through the countryside quite a bit to down to P'annumjom and Kaesong. We traveled around. I'm sure we were on a special route, but I don't see North Korea never posed any significant threat to the United States. I mean, the whole economy of North Korea is only $30 billion dollars a year. It's less than the city of Detroit. It's a small place, and we do not have to worry about them attacking us.

WB: You know, they have a million troops within literally a few miles...

TT: A half million.

WB: Well, best estimates are a million. A million troops along the DMZ...

TT: Yes, and we have a half a million troops, of which 28,000 are Americans, and they've been there for fifty years. One of the things I've said in both North and South Korea is, it's time to end the Korean War officially, and move on and get those hundreds of thousands of young men that are sitting there back building hospitals and roads and schools in both North and South Korea, and improving the gross national product. It's just a waste of time and energy for them just to sit there.

WB: I think the bottom line, though, Ted, and I think you'd agree. They had this opportunity in the nineties, when they signed this first agreement, and they cheated. They didn't live up to it. Now they have a second chance. I hope you're right. I certainly do.

TT: Well, I hope I'm right, too. But, you know, in the Bible, it says you're supposed to forgive seven times seventy, or something like that.

WB: What about those ground-to-ground missiles, and the...

TT: They can't reach us.

WB: They can reach Japan. They can reach South Korea. They can reach a lot of our allies.

TT: They can't reach the U.S.A., and we can pound them into oblivion in 24 hours.

WB: But you don't want to get to that. There's some estimates, by the way, they could reach Alaska.

TT: Well, what? The Aleutian Islands? There's nothing up there but a few sea lions.

WB: Well, you know, this is a serious issue. I hope you're right, as I said. But...

TT: I know it's a serious issue. I mean, I didn't go over there to waste my time.
For the first time in my blogging career, I am just about speechless. The brilliance of the left. Think of it—Ted Turner, his ex-wife, Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, Barbara Streisand, Cindy Sheehan.

The collective wisdom is astounding. It makes me want to go back to being a liberal.

Rock


(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)


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11 comments:

Neil said...

Wow... that's a great interview, Turner's responses had a lot of bite to them, really sharp. I've nothing more to say... nothing I say could match up to that interview.

Andy D said...

Did I read that correctly, Turner is basing his assessment of Kim Jong-il on a picture?

Rock said...

LAEvanesce,

Wow... that's a great interview, Turner's responses had a lot of bite to them, really sharp. I've nothing more to say... nothing I say could match up to that interview.

Can't tell your true response to this. You're being coy and humorous, but which way does the satire blow?

Good hearing from you.

My blog, by the way, won Bestest Blog of the Day, and will appear on their site tomorrow for the award. I'll put the info in my post when I see it with my own eyes.

Rock

Rock said...

Andy D,

Did I read that correctly, Turner is basing his assessment of Kim Jong-il on a picture?

Andy D, nice to hear from you. He was basing it on how he looked in person I thought. He looked like a regular guy, so he must be one.

paz y amor said...

MAN, he's smoking pulverized hundred dollar bills! I have to say though that contrary to popular belief, he doesn't represent ALL liberals and no sober person would even attempt to form foreign policy regarding N. Korea around Ted Turner's influence- especially if he really said this mess. Hollywood types can be a little loony, I agree- BUT Sean Penn did go to Iraq before the bombs began falling on Baghdad and he said that he saw nothing that would indicate that Saddam had these fabled WMD's and guess what? HE WAS RIGHT!!! Can we completely discount what they say? No, because obviously there is some truth to what they say, e.g. N and S Korea need to come to terms with each other,

Anonymous said...

Ted Turner is not a political leader, he is a Businessman, and a pretty darn successful one. Anything he says will be from his own perspective. There are some pretty good nuggets in what he had to say, and if our country's leaders would take more of a reconciliary approach, a glass half-full approach, and find ways to communicate instead of barricade, we would be better off.
Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War that way. Like it or not we live in a World Community. (Hmm, I see you have "Comment Moderation" here. Are we censoring free speech?)

Rock said...

Ted Turner is not a political leader, he is a Businessman, and a pretty darn successful one. Anything he says will be from his own perspective. There are some pretty good nuggets in what he had to say, and if our country's leaders would take more of a reconciliary approach, a glass half-full approach, and find ways to communicate instead of barricade, we would be better off.

Even a monkey could be right guessing the time twice a day by holding up his 10 fingers repeatedly, all day long. Ted Turner is an idiot. Yes, he has some nuggets. Just kiss the tyrants and they’ll be nice. Hug a terrorist and he’ll turn in his bombs. Neville Chamberlain did this with Hitler in WWII, or haven’t you read history?

Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War that way. Like it or not we live in a World Community.

Ronald Reagan ended the cold war by going ahead with the much-maligned Star Wars research and by spending the Soviets into the ground on defense. Again, do you read history?

Yes, we live in a World Community, and it’s full of idiots at this time in history. You turn this sad state around by speaking the truth. You don’t do it by singing Kumbayah.

(Hmm, I see you have "Comment Moderation" here. Are we censoring free speech?)

Kind of like the students at Columbia University that wouldn’t let the Minutemen speak, huh? Actually, I’ve had a true psychopath stalking me on my blog, leaving hate-filled speech on every comment, comment after comment, day after day. You are not a psychopath, so your comment got through. You weren’t censored, were you? You’re naïve, but not censored.

You seem like nice people, and bright. Not bright enough, though. Get your stories straight. Do keep reading, and not just liberal hacks.

Love and hugs from the big guy.

Have a great day.

Rock

Rock said...

Paz,

MAN, he's smoking pulverized hundred dollar bills! I have to say though that contrary to popular belief, he doesn't represent ALL liberals and no sober person would even attempt to form foreign policy regarding N. Korea around Ted Turner's influence- especially if he really said this mess.

Bravo paz.

Hollywood types can be a little loony, I agree- BUT Sean Penn did go to Iraq before the bombs began falling on Baghdad and he said that he saw nothing that would indicate that Saddam had these fabled WMD's and guess what? HE WAS RIGHT!!!

That makes twice that Sean Penn has been right in his life. The first time he said, “Excellent!”

Can we completely discount what they say? No, because obviously there is some truth to what they say, e.g. N and S Korea need to come to terms with each other

I agree paz. One way would be for Kim Jung Il to say, “You know what? I’ve been starving my people for years and torturing my political enemies, but you guys in South Korea are such nice people that I’ve decide to read books about Mother Teresa, and emulate her for the rest of my life.”

Rock

Rock said...

LAEvanesce, you sly young man! YOU were the one who nominated me for the award! God bless you. I'm going to make sure I help you and feature you as much as I can. As you know I've thought highly of your blog anyway. Thank you so much, and good wishes from the big guy.

Anonymous said...

I've noticed an interesting trend. CONSISTENTLY, whenever I leave a comment on a conservative or republican blog, I'm rebuffed with personal attacks about my intelligence, character, or patriotism. If I don't agree with you then I am not "bright enough"...?? It would be a pretty boring world if everyone agreed with everyone else, then we COULD just hold hands and sing "Kumbaya".

Rock said...

Rick and Kathy,

I've noticed an interesting trend. CONSISTENTLY, whenever I leave a comment on a conservative or republican blog, I'm rebuffed with personal attacks about my intelligence, character, or patriotism. If I don't agree with you then I am not "bright enough"...??

I assume I’m talking to Kathy. Correct me if I’m wrong. Your site really touched me.

Lives are being lost in this world of ours, Kathy, because of pacifists like you. You are probably a legitimate liberal. If so, then I can respect you. If you are just the normal Bush-basher, like most of the left of today, though, then who are you to correct me for attacking you? You guys bash an innocent, decent human being all day long.

I didn’t attack you anyway. I attacked your specious arguments. Do you own those arguments? If you’re wrong on history, I can’t point this out to you?

The left and logic are not friends. If you are logical, then fine, I’ll see that and give you credit for it. Anybody who makes a legitimate point on my site gets credit. I’m not against the left. I’m against people that don’t make sense.

You’re the one who attacked me, Kathy. You assumed I was curtailing free speech.

It would be a pretty boring world if everyone agreed with everyone else, then we COULD just hold hands and sing "Kumbaya".

No, I’d like this kind of a world, boring or not. Fine, you are correct in having the right to have a different opinion than mine, but I’m used to the left not allowing that same right to me.

I respect paz y amor, for example, a left-wing blogger who disagrees with me all the time. Yet, he is respectful in his arguments and backs them up with his logic. I disagree with him, on everything, but he is not just your average Bush-bashing, hate-filled liberal. Have you seen your liberal websites? Of course you have. Pictures of Bush as a chimpanzee and so on. You on the left have strayed very far from FDR and JFK, good liberals I can respect.

If all this doesn’t apply to you, then shrug it off and just make your points. If you are a good person, not a hater, and firmly believe in your liberalism, in a positive way, I’ll see that, and give you credit for it.

Rock