To paraphrase Clarence Darrow, I’ve never wished anyone was dead, but I have read a few obituaries with great pleasure.

That said, the chances are his successor, his son Kim Jong-un, as in “young-un”, will be no different than his father or his grandfather and keep North Korea as a medieval state with nuclear weapons. So the benighted people who live in that country aren’t going to find anything different about their daily lives from one Kim to the next. If anything, the next few months are going to be even harder as the new boss consolidates his power and makes sure that there are no dissidents or usurpers lurking within his government. The rest of the world is watching with not just a touch of anxiety and wonder.

By the way, any guesses on which GOP candidate will be the first out of the blocks to somehow blame this on President Obama and demand that he send in a preemptive military strike? My money’s on Michele Bachmann.