I am afraid that this year has been filled with so many jaw-dropping headlines that we have almost become numb to their power and eventual fallout that will result from them.

Take, for example, the headlines that have been splashed around the world about North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Il’s death. For most Americans, they didn’t even see the headline, for some it was simply another foreign dude that died or got killed, and for the rest of us we understand that this could be a moment of liberation for the North Korean people if the world is able to shift political power away from his son.

His son, who is 28, takes over a country that his dad tried to make into a world nuclear power while starving millions of his people to death. His father, 70 at the time of death, has tried for decades to pit one nation against another in an effort to circumvent international economic sanctions, amass political strength, and turn the world’s attention away from the horrible treatment of his citizens under his watch.

His son, Kim Jong-eun or “The Great Successor”, is considered by most in the Southeast Asian region to be even more dangerous than his father because he doesn’t fully understand the political ramifications of his actions and may cause tensions in the region to escalate at a time of political unrest around the world.

Meanwhile, American intelligence officials were caught completely off guard by the former dictator’s death, illustrating the lack of ability inside our intelligence system to monitor the leaders that most threaten our nation. I am not going to ask what went wrong but it seems that the US government’s vast intelligence network should have known this was coming.

Now, the world is posturing around the death of such a ruthless dictator. China is defending the policies of the North Korean government, South Korea’s military is on alert, and America is saying all the right things to keep a relative balance on the Korean peninsula. We can only hope one man’s death will lead to the freedom of his people.

The last bite…

So, I am going to 587,297 holiday parties like the rest of the world and eating normal party food at most of them. However, Sunday I was invited to the Marmillion-Gray Holiday Party in Baton Rouge and was pleasantly surprised by the food served by Mid-City Market.

This company went over the top! There was a platter of amazing chicken salad, bowls of hot crab dip, steamed vegetables by the pound, a praline and caramel baked brie, and my favorite: a duo of tortes. One torte was a raspberry and goat cheese torte that made every other torte taste like Easy Cheese. Rannah Gray outdid herself with the food selection and I was honored to be invited. I give raspberry and goat cheese tortes 4.5 (out of 5) crumbs!

Buddy Boe, a resident of Garyville, owns a public relations and program management company and is well known on the local political (and food) scenes. His column appears Wednesdays in L’Observateur.