God is great, God is good, Let us thank Him for this food.

There's a long tradition of tyrants in this world. Some are smart, some stupid. Some are ugly, some are handsome. Some are more ruthless than others. But the one quality that they all possess, is a singular desire to maintain a status quo. To hold on to thier power.

It is no surprise, therefore, that Saddam Hussein did everything that he did. I mean, megalomania coupled with a certain degree of charisma can give someone the potential to do most anything in this world. Hussein was almost artistic in the way he subjugated the Iraqi people. I think it was Laurie Anderson who said that the only true avant-garde artists left in the world are terrorists, because they are the only people who can still manage to surprise us. Of course, that was true when Laurie Anderson said it, it may not be as true today. The terrorists of today are less and less able to shock anybody, save those who are victims. In fact, terrorist attacks are only becoming more banal and routine, particularly to those of us who merely read about them in the paper, or hear about them on BBC news.

But maybe there's one man out there, who still has the balls to subject millions of people to his will and continue to come off as a pretty nice guy. Of course, you already know just who that might be. The question is, is his brand of terrorism less, equal, or more artistic than the al-qaeda's or the now defunct regime of Saddam Hussein. Did you know that President George Walker Bush is part of school of thought that truly believes that the "end of days," the second coming of Jesus Christ, can't happen until the Jews are all back in Isreal (or maybe it's that Isreal has to be completely under the political jurisdiction of the Jews, I can't remember exactly)? Regardless, it is interesting to note that this dictates a nice chunk of his foreign policy, particularly as pertains to the Gaza Strip. Okay, I have not done the actual research on this tidbit, but a history professor told me about it, and I tend to believe her.

So, lets examine: Osama bin Laden believes that Allah has charged him with expelling the infidels from the Middle East. Bush believes that God put him in office. Saddam told his people that they should believe that Allah put him in office (a subtle but important difference). I think the question remains, who is the most sane of these three men? I think it all comes down to what carries more of a burden of insanity: a god complex or megalomania. Hmm... Since it could be argued that a god complex is just a more severe form of megalomania, it is pretty evident that Saddam Hussein is probably the sanest person in this group of crazed psychoes who have somehow ended up in charge of decision making for large numbers of people. And now which ones are still in power? An interesting trend: the most insane people are tending to stay in power.

The lesson: If you want to stay in power, you had goddamn well better be bat shit crazy and have a god complex to boot.