Generalísimo Francisco Franco is still dead.....
 

..and so are these guys.

I'm starting this thread to (dis)honor the memory of those who we are not sad to see go.

Augusto Pinochet - Chile
President Saparmurat Niyazov - Turkmenistan

Probably noone remembers the running gag on Saturday Night Live about Franco, but the fact was that his death was big news due to the power vacuum it left. With the Pact of Madrid Franco was another anti-communist dictator ally of the United States. 30 years after his death, most Amercians forget that Spain was a dictatorship up until 1975.

As for Niyazov, he was another cult-of-personality type, like Kim Jong-il. Noone would have noticed him if it weren't for the natural resources in Turkmenistan and it's strategic location.

After hearing about the death and illness of various Russian figures from radiation and dioxin poisoning, you have to wonder if Niyazov's heart attack was a natural occurrence. If so, well, I'm not going to go all Pat Robertson and advocate the assassination of political leaders, no matter how odious I find them, but you're not going to hear me complain about this one much.

So ... how's Castro doing lately?

I have found myself have to explain the Generalissimo Francisco Franco joke a number of times ... sometimes just on the running gag bit, other times, because of the "News for the Hearing Impaired" version.

I usually start with "Back when Saturday Night Live was funny, long before you were born ...

(Yeah. I had to walk uphill both ways to the drug dealer after school too.)

Excellent thread, Rich. I often say to friends things such as, "(famous cool person's name here) is dead, Saddam Hussein...still alive" as a way of pointing out the unfairness of life.

This thread should help equalize things a bit in my mind.

Pol Pot, however, is under the sod. Too late for a couple million Cambodians, though.

Bad timing, that.

Same-o same-o Idi Amin Dada.

speaking of which, I wont be posting much for the next week or so, I'll be in Phnom Penh and Siem Riep.

Watching the killing fields now, in fact.


Well it's a holiday in cambodia...

...which means you'll be closer or farther from the earthquakes?! check in please