September 2, 2001

7:28 PM

Gadhafi Mania! The proverbial fly on America's arse strikes again. To celebrate his coup, the Libyan leader thumbs his nose at Uncle Sam while announcing some bold policy initiatives. My favorite: We should make drinking glasses smaller so people won't drink so much water!
posted by Zbobo (11 comments total)

We should make drinking glasses smaller so people won't drink so much water!

A man after Coca-Cola's own heart.
posted by turaho at 7:39 PM on September 2, 2001

He's clearly been studying the policy proposals of the late, lamented Screaming Lord Sutch and his Monster Raving Loony Party.
posted by MrBaliHai at 8:30 PM on September 2, 2001

Oh wow, wowie wow wow. This guy, man. They say absolute power corrupts absolutly. I think in Gadhafi's case it just made him a paranoid looney, who is prone to underestimating the intelligence and thirst of his people. Or maybe he just forgot how hot it was outside his concrete reinforced, air conditioned bunker/house/capital.
posted by neon_slacker at 10:47 PM on September 2, 2001

Overachievers, hell. He didn't learn how to use the net until three years ago. I mean, any ambitious opportunist can run a country for 32 years, but without an e-mail address, gawd, what does that matter?

He also said that Saudi terror suspect Osama bin Laden, "a thin man with a weight of about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) and armed only with a kalashnikov ... scares America more than the former Soviet Union did."

So if he was 6'6" and 240, then it would be okay for him to get all nyah-nyah-nyah at the Mighty Stars & Stripes?

You know, all in all, he don't sound so nuts, really. 400 families running the USA is probably pretty close to right. And if evidence came out about the AIDS virus being a U.S. government creation, I can't say I'd be terribly shocked.

So I guess I'm siding with the insane dictator from half a world away for the moment.
posted by chicobangs at 1:51 AM on September 3, 2001

It's believed he gave guns to the IRA to use to fight the British. Yeah, he's a real nice guy.

And then there's Lockerbie which he's meant to have had a part in. Yeah. Real nice.
posted by tomcosgrave at 2:43 AM on September 3, 2001

Some years ago I saw a television interview with Gaddafi in which the fellow looked crazy. I missed everything he said because I was fascinated by the way, before each answer to the interviewer's questions, his head lolled back and his eyes rolled as if he was losing consciousness or communicating with spirits. He was sort of like William F. Buckley Jr. but, if you can imagine this, even a little scarier.

> It's believed he gave guns to the IRA to use to fight
> the British.

Maybe, but he's not alone. I suspect that quite a few Americans, for example, also gave guns or gun money to the IRA. Nationalism makes people stupid and cruel (or nationalist efforts attract stupid, cruel people) and terrorism, unfortunately, sometimes works, especially when it's deployed as the bad half of a good-cop-bad-cop strategy.
posted by pracowity at 3:12 AM on September 3, 2001

By the way, I just googled all of these variants:
Moammar Gadhafi
Mohammar Qaddafi
Mohmmar Qadaffi
Muammar al-Qaddafi
Muammar Al Qadhafi
Muammar Qadhafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gadhafi
Muammar Qaddafi
Mu'ammar Gadhafi
Mu'ammar Qadhafi
etc.
Someone really should establish a standard way to transliterate between Arabic (and Mandarin and...) and Roman characters.
posted by pracowity at 3:54 AM on September 3, 2001

The Libyan connection to Lockerbie is a sham, actually; if you look at something like Paul Foot's Private Eye investigation, the extent to which the trial was a stitch-up, designed to cover the arses of the CIA and MI5, becomes horrifyingly clear.


State sponsorship of terrorism is a fact of life: put together the names "Iran" and "Contra" and you come up with some interesting things. Not that this leaves Gadafy with clean hands, but if you judge by consequences, there's not much difference between an unhinged pocket dictator and a bunch of calculating cold warriors.
posted by holgate at 4:29 AM on September 3, 2001

He gifted one of his sons with the world's worst name - Hannibal
Gadhafi.
posted by flowerdale at 5:14 AM on September 3, 2001

Maybe, but he's not alone. I suspect that quite a few Americans, for example, also gave guns or gun money to the IRA.

Oh I know he's not alone - I just brought him up because the link was about erm, him. NORAID are the Americans who donate money and weapons to the IRA in the States. IIRC, they sent over some weapons by postal mail a year or so a go only to have them found by customs officers...
posted by tomcosgrave at 6:49 AM on September 3, 2001

You want to read something REALLY crazy? Ghadafi wrote a book of short stories!!!

My local library in Portland had it... and I've gotta tell you, it is a very strange collection of short stories. It does kind of let you know where he's coming from, though.
posted by ph00dz at 7:04 AM on September 3, 2001