Why is This Asshole Living in America??

Nothing really needs to be said here. But the "moral equivalent" drawn in this case by the Music Director of the NYP...is little short of astonishing. What a dipshit. A powerful, influential, respected, "fine arts" dipshit of the lowest caliber. May he burn in hell.

From Opinion Journal:

The New York Philharmonic leaves this week on an Asian tour that includes a Feb. 26 concert in Pyongyang, North Korea. This has drawn much criticism, including from Terry Teachout http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110010791 in The Wall Street Journal:

*** QUOTE ***As [music critic Greg Sandow, who supports the trip] acknowledged, "Attendance at the Philharmonic's concerts will be carefully controlled. And of course any concert in Pyongyang can't possibly reach the North Korean people, because only the elite, for the most part, are allowed into Pyongyang." Even if such a concert were to be telecast, the handful of North Koreans lucky enough to see it, isolated as they are from the rest of the world, might well conclude that by sending a great orchestra there, the U.S. was showing its support for the tyrants who rule them. That's why I've come to the conclusion that should the Philharmonic choose to play in Pyongyang, it will be doing little more than participating in a puppet show whose purpose is to lend legitimacy to a despicable regime.
*** END QUOTE ***

The Associated Press http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080204/ap_en_mu/violin_diplomacy reports that some in the Philharmonic, including Korean-American violinist Lisa Kim, have misgivings about the trip. But Lorin Maazel, the Philharmonic's music director, waves away those concerns:

*** QUOTE ***Maazel rejects such assertions, noting that he had conducted concerts in Brezhnev's Russia, Salazar's Portugal and Franco's Spain.

"I thought I was making music and stretching out a welcoming hand to the folks who might not have been believers of the regime under which they were living. I feel this way certainly about North Korea," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Besides, he added, "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks, should they? Is our standing as a country--the United States--is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated? Have we set an example that should be emulated all over the world? If we can answer that question honestly, I think we can then stop being judgmental about the errors made by others."

Does this pass for moral principle, or political insight, or intellectual argument in some dimension I'm unaware of?

Notice how this excremental cretin is incapable of rendering a judgment on North Korea, but perfectly happy to render one on the United States. What a typical fucking Liberal hypocrite.

God, I hate 'em.

*click* (cocking my pistol)

The Gunslinger