this can't be real life...

It’s a real-life scenario so bizarre and outlandish it seems like it was dreamed up by the writers of “South Park” or “30 Rock”: Retired NBA player turned C-list reality star Dennis Rodman travels to North Korea, becomes the first American known to publicly meet with dictator Kim Jong Un, then returns to the U.S. proclaiming his admiration for the leader on ABC's “This Week."

Rodman sat down for an interview with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, a situation that would have been mind-bogglingly weird even if the “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” cast member hadn’t just returned from one of the world’s most isolated and oppressive countries.

Oh, but he had. Throughout his conversation, Rodman brimmed with praise for the young leader – voted Sexiest Man Alive by the satirical website the Onion last year – calling Kim a “great guy” and delivering a message to President Obama on his behalf:

“He wants Obama to do one thing: Call him. He said, ‘If you can, Dennis, I don’t want [to] do war. I don’t want to do war.’ He said that to me.”

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Pressed repeatedly by Stephanopoulos about Kim’s dire record on human rights, Rodman reluctantly conceded that his friend "loves power” and “loves control" but portrayed Kim as a well-meaning but misguided young man desperate to emerge from the shadow of his late father, Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011.

“He’s not his dad. Not his grandpa. He’s 28 years old,” Rodman said, adding that even though he doesn’t condone Kim’s litany of abuses – which include the mass imprisonment of some 200,000 citizens in forced labor camps and widespread, government-induced food shortages – he’s not passing judgment. After all, didn’t Bill Clinton sleep with his “secretary”?

In addition to his ubiquitous sunglasses, Rodman wore a flashy blazer festooned with American currency, a curious wardrobe choice given his new ties to the world's most brutal communist regime: Was Rodman reassuring us of his love for capitalism, making an ironic statement about Western greed, or had he simply left his other garish attire at the dry cleaner?

Rodman, who traveled to North Korea with members of the Harlem Globetrotters and a film crew for the upcoming HBO series “Vice," instead chose to focus on the common ground he shares with the dictator and our own commander-in-chief.

“He loves basketball. And I said the same thing, I said, ‘Obama loves basketball.’ Let’s start there,” Rodman told Stephanopoulos.

Only a few weeks ago, the former Laker was generating headlines after an emotionally unhinged appe...t Show.” Now Rodman, who hasn’t been this close to a powerful tyrant since his brief fling with Madonna in the mid ’90s (hey-o!), finds himself in the unlikely position of having more first-hand knowledge of Kim than just about anyone in the American intelligence community.

As Col. Steve Ganyard, a former deputy assistant secretary of State, told ABC’s Martha Raddatz: “There is nobody at the CIA who can tell you more personally about Kim Jong Un than Dennis Rodman, and that in itself is scary."

No kidding.

Why is he talking with that weird accent?

babynoz said:

Why is he talking with that weird accent?

we should start a pool on how long before dennis ends up in rehab.

oh, god... the video was even worse than the article made it sound.

Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?

guess what? Dennis has jumped the shark many times before, but this time guess what he might have jumped a whole megalodon

"guess what as a person to person, he's my friend"

whatever guess what he's a spoiled asshole, an enemy of human rights, an enemy of freedom, and probably of the entire free world (not just the USA)

and what's up with that korean accent

Guess What?, You Know What? Dennis looks like a Slestak from Land of the Lost.

Hanging with Trump and now Kim Jong. This brother IS Lost.

Hey, I have somefing in common with boaf Obama & with Kim Jong in that I too love basketball.

Well, guess what? Dennis Rodman probably prevented World War III with his visit. Now that he and Kim are buddies Kim is definitely not going to do anything against the USA because he doesn´t want to hurt his friend (and his country) and he´ll probably change the foreign policy of his country.

Dennis Rodman will probably receive a Nobel peace prize real soon.

Ugly jacket though.

Poor Dennis. He's officially run out of "shock" factors and desperate to keep his name in the limelight. Such a talented ballplayer but everything else about him is . In fact, I'd rather see him play ball again than to watch him doing this mess.

And what's up with his skin? Why is it so much darker than from what I remember his skin being? Is it make up or surgery or something? Just looks odd and slimy.

[Edited 3/5/13 5:25am]

NDRU said:

That looked like a animatronic Dennis Rodman dummy. I'm not convinced it was the real thing. Why were his lips so creepy?

Yeah, he actually was on "Celebrity Rehab" with Dr. Drew, it was alcoholism if I recall.

Rodman is a talented basketball player no doubt... but is he REALLY going to be remembered for that?

For someone like me growing up i knew Rodman from playing with The Bulls and Laker very briefly.

Almost everyone else i know is awake of Rodman cause of

A. him coming to that book signing or whatver that was in a damn wedding gown

B. Being married to Carmen Electra for a minute

C. Dressing up as a drag queen on more than one occassion

D. Having clown color hair and then looking like Wesley Snipes Demolition Man era for a few years

E. Posing naked for PETA

Not many people i have encountered remember him for basketball...

Oh lets not also forget his ''movie'' career and his reality shows... also he has had more drunk driving situtations than George Michael

He also had a brief wrestling career and wrestling reality show... now he has been to North Korea and has a fake Korean accent.

THis guy is the closest we have to an actual comic book character

Gunsnhalen said:

Rodman is a talented basketball player no doubt... but is he REALLY going to be remembered for that?

For someone like me growing up i knew Rodman from playing with The Bulls and Laker very briefly.

Almost everyone else i know is awake of Rodman cause of

A. him coming to that book signing or whatver that was in a damn wedding gown

B. Being married to Carmen Electra for a minute

C. Dressing up as a drag queen on more than one occassion

D. Having clown color hair and then looking like Wesley Snipes Demolition Man era for a few years

E. Posing naked for PETA

Not many people i have encountered remember him for basketball...

Oh lets not also forget his ''movie'' career and his reality shows... also he has had more drunk driving situtations than George Michael

He also had a brief wrestling career and wrestling reality show... now he has been to North Korea and has a fake Korean accent.

THis guy is the closest we have to an actual comic book character

yeah, something like that.

I think it's great that this unusual American man visited North Korea and hung out with their leader on grounds of their mutual love of basketball. It just reminds everyone that underneath the bravado and politcal grandstanding, we're all just human.

If we'd take time to find more common ground with people who supposedly are our enemies, imagine the possibilities.

nd33 said:

I think it's great that this unusual American man visited North Korea and hung out with their leader on grounds of their mutual love of basketball. It just reminds everyone that underneath the bravado and politcal grandstanding, we're all just human.

If we'd take time to find more common ground with people who supposedly are our enemies, imagine the possibilities.

Maybe it's me, but I didn't get that folks here were opposing the fact that Dennis was discussing basketball with the North Korean dictator, it's the fact that Dennis came back the US nearly claiming that he had inside political information that none of us do and asking our President to give Kim a call.

missfee said:

nd33 said:

I think it's great that this unusual American man visited North Korea and hung out with their leader on grounds of their mutual love of basketball. It just reminds everyone that underneath the bravado and politcal grandstanding, we're all just human.

If we'd take time to find more common ground with people who supposedly are our enemies, imagine the possibilities.

Maybe it's me, but I didn't get that folks here were opposing the fact that Dennis was discussing basketball with the North Korean dictator, it's the fact that Dennis came back the US nearly claiming that he had inside political information that none of us do and asking our President to give Kim a call.

That, and scenes like the one described above in the article Babynoz posted.

Being and American expat you do get to learn A LOT about different cultures up close and personal, as well as a lot about hot spots in the world and trouble foreign policy issues that we don't get to learn about at home- so your perception does change when you look at what's going on in the world, but sorry, Dennis just sounds high to me.

I have a friend from my church that actively chooses to use her vacation time outside of her job as a nurse on prayer missions in North Korea each year. She just returned from a Christian prayer mission again in November. As a western foreigner, they wine and dine you something splendid alright, with you feasting like a king every night, while the rest of the nation is pulling up weeds to eat and make it through another day. Propaganda on the supreme leader is piped every place you go, along with national rabble rousing on how superior the country is to any place on earth. You're also guarded everywhere you go with people standing over your shoulder while you pray with others in the country. One wrong look in the eyes of a North Korean while you are praying can get you into God knows what kind of trouble at best (held as a spy, perhaps?), and get that person you were praying with/for and their entire family immediately executed at worst. The hotel rooms are bugged right down to the toilet. .

So yes, so what Kim is 28 and likes basketball? Him being only 28 is one of the leading factors in why he has tightened the noose on North Korea's citizens; the young, spoilt rotten, jackhole of a leader is fearful that he will not get the respect that his father commanded, and so his ass is all extra with restriction and brutality just to prove a point, & force people into loyalty via fear. What that man is doing to those people sucks, and Dennis Roman can kiss my butt talking about how great he is. He clearly had too much freakin Korean BBQ and plum wine while he was partying over there.

and how the hell, BTW are they so damned chubby when the entire world knows that country has no damned food? And don't get me started on First Lady's Christian Dior clutch.

[Edited 3/6/13 12:54pm]

Visionnaire said:

I really wish that was me that reported was trying 2 grill...............

Visionnaire said:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Graycap23 said:

I really wish that was me that reported was trying 2 grill...............

why, would you have spoken a better fake accent?

Cuddles said:

Graycap23 said:

I really wish that was me that reported was trying 2 grill...............

why, would you have spoken a better fake accent?

Every single thing the reporter accused North Korea of, the U.S. is currently doing times 10.

Graycap23 said:

Cuddles said:

why, would you have spoken a better fake accent?

Every single thing the reporter accused North Korea of, the U.S. is currently doing times 10.

Dude, I got friends that go to North Korea on prayer missions. On the regular. They stand on the land, and feel the fear that these people are experiencing. Between the bugging hotel toilets, the guards standing over them 24/7, the concentration camps, and the government killing 3 generations of your family for so much as looking in the eye of a westerner or uttering the name Jesus, I would say that they sort of have us beat in the cruelty department at the moment.

Ottensen said:

Graycap23 said:

Every single thing the reporter accused North Korea of, the U.S. is currently doing times 10.

Dude, I got friends that go to North Korea on prayer missions. On the regular. They stand on the land, and feel the fear that these people are experiencing. Between the bugging hotel toilets, the guards standing over them 24/7, the concentration camps, and the government killing 3 generations of your family for so much as looking in the eye of a westerner or uttering the name Jesus, I would say that they sort of have us beat in the cruelty department at the moment.

Every country has it's issues..............including the U.S. which tries 2 make itself look above it.

Graycap23 said:

Ottensen said:

Dude, I got friends that go to North Korea on prayer missions. On the regular. They stand on the land, and feel the fear that these people are experiencing. Between the bugging hotel toilets, the guards standing over them 24/7, the concentration camps, and the government killing 3 generations of your family for so much as looking in the eye of a westerner or uttering the name Jesus, I would say that they sort of have us beat in the cruelty department at the moment.

Every country has it's issues..............including the U.S. which tries 2 make itself look above it.

Oh absolutely, I totally agree with that.

But there are just certain things that you can't make comparisons between in terms of human rights, even if every country has its' own jacked up issues. We have at least improved in that area since the 1960's when Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia had the worst human rights on record as reported by the United Nations. Back then we as well had been the Congo or Apartheid South Africa, but we manges to make advances. We still obviously have deep seeded issues as a nation in many areas, they're just different than those of NK.

Ottensen said:

Graycap23 said:

Every country has it's issues..............including the U.S. which tries 2 make itself look above it.

Oh absolutely, I totally agree with that.

But there are just certain things that you can't make comparisons between in terms of human rights, even if every country has its' own jacked up issues. We have at least improved in that area since the 1960's when Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia had the worst human rights on record as reported by the United Nations. Back then we as well had been the Congo or Apartheid South Africa, but we manges to make advances. We still obviously have deep seeded issues as a nation in many areas, they're just different than those of NK.

The U.S. is regressing. When u can invoke "National Security" and remove all right from a person......something is very wrong. What is the point of the Constitution?