Beauty is Imperfection

(Originally posted Saturday, October 13, 2007)

I read a headline the other day: “Half of the world’s coral reefs could be destroyed.” And they let that conditional sentence hang like that. “Half of the world’s coral reefs could be destroyed,” and in my mind I’m adding, “If we only had the guts.”
Meanwhile,

A motivational speaker has unearthed the 10 habits of highly effective psychopathic dictators.

1. Take a mistress, and if she makes demands, strangle her
2. Follow to the letter the instructions given to you by the Torah, the New Testament, and the Koran, including the stuff about how many shekels you must pay for a sheaf of millet
3. Keep your urine stocked in a row of carefully labeled jars
4. Say to yourself every day, “I’m a winner.” Whenever you hear somebody else claim that he is a winner, kill him in front of his wife and children
5. Don’t eat your enemies until you’ve thanked God for them, unless you are God, in which case you are free to smite the infidels and covetous ones as you see fit
6. Kill cats
7. Create many statues of yourself. This will act as a magnet to your enemies and bring them like lambs to slaughter.
8. Don’t buy a German car; the parts are way too expensive over here.
9. Enjoy a drink now and then, perhaps during a beheading.
10. Start a war against somebody who has not attacked you