own your own republic

What's the deal with all these lofty but standardized country names? Democratic Republic of Congo. People's Democratic Republic of Korea. Islamic Republic of Iran.

Why don't these dictators just stick their own names on? Come on--Pervez' Republic of Pakistan. Mitt's Massachusetts. Chris Webbistan.

time for someone to get creative. At least the ruler of Turkmenistan (turkmenbashi) has renamed himself "Leader of the Turkmen".

Lamont & al Qaeda

A poignant and hard hitting piece from the Daily Show. Someday I'll get cable and watch the show on a real TV rather than on YouTube.

ALL QUIET

on the western blog.