As a little kid I vaguely remember the Lockerbie bombing and the subsequent attempts on Gaddafi's life. I remember "Get Gaddafi" target t-shirts, Ronald Reagan calling him a "mad dog" and didn't Weird Al make a music video or something? Gaddafi even popped up in a small local paper a few years ago with this mention in an article about my old Cross Country Coach from High School (highlighted paragraph).
Weird. I have to tell you that Mike and I had some good laughs over that one. Especially when we thought of the cute lady at the Riverton Post Office with a national security threat on her hands. How absurd it must have been. But then again Gaddafi was a poster-boy for absurdity.
The thing about dictators/totalitarians is that laughing at them helps us deal with their atrocities. Maybe it's the world's way of getting back at them.
*Related digression*
Some years back we attended a wedding reception in my parents' neighborhood. The father of the bride was totally decked out in some unidentifiable military dress uniform. It didn't fit any US Service branch that any of us knew of. Even my dad, who served in the military was completely puzzled. We smiled politely and shook hands with the guy. Later, my Dad leaned over and said, "I felt like saying, 'I know you're a dictator, I just don't know from where.'" We couldn't stop giggling. That crack is legend in the family.
Mike pointed out last night that the SV Journal story has lost some of its humor after the events of this year, and specifically this week. Yeah. That's true. I found myself really uncomfortable this week when I saw footage of a badly wounded Gaddafi stumbling around in a jeering crowd. Mob justice is unsettling. I think it quickly crosses a line and becomes blood thirst. He had to go. Sorting out the humanity in it all is more difficult.
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