My first person account of hanging out in the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya – the most oppressive country in the world after North Korea – has been published by the LA Weekly: In the Land of the Brother Leader.
I don’t know if this is the best thing I’ve ever written, but it’s certainly my favorite.
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Facinating article to say the least.
So do you recommend traveling to Libya?
Wow, that was really amazing. I'm sending that link to everyone I know.
=darwin
Amazing read. I felt like I was right there with you. I have posted a link on Right Truth (Ever wanted to visit Lybia)http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2005/12/ever_want_to_vi.html.
Enjoyed the read...sort of sounds like the various travelogues of Pyongyang that I've seen.
SIgh...oh, but to have the chance to rule my own country someday.
I'm surprised that Turkmenistan isn't at least in the running for the most oppressive country after North Korea - you guys are familiar with Turkmenbashi's antics, right?
There's an interesting show for the travel channel, 'The world's grimmest vacation spots'.
On the topic of Turkmenistan, I just stumbled across this piece on Turkish investment there, e.g. in a factory that takes in Central Asian cotton and makes "underwear, T-shirts, shirts, and bed sheet covers" for export. It's probably salutary for us to read news from Turkmenistan that's about something other than pipelines and megalomania.
You never mention brothels.
You go to all these foreign lands and never the sample the indigenouis females (or, if you do, you don't share your impressions).
PLease include R&R potential in your future posts.
Thanx
[A.L. - this comment is from Avedis' IP. See my comment below.]
Avedis,
I sample the local males - or rather they sample me. I consider my diplomatic duty, "For God and Country!", say I.
On that note, the Libyans are mediocre. A little fiestier than Lebanese, but not nearly as naughty as those barbaric Turks....oh, so "in your face"....
Previous comment was not from me.
No, sadly the faked Totten comment is from commenter avedis at IP 67.51.168.121.
avedis, you're banned as of now, but I'm open to an email from you apologizing to Michael and explaining WTF you thought you were doing with that comment. If you choose to send it, Joe and I will discuss it and consider lifting the ban - depending on what you have to say for yourself.
I'll remind people that impersonating somone else is an immediate ban here.
A.L.
Thanks, A.L. Avendis is now blocked from even reading my site. (I love that feature.)
A.L., I can't imagine any response from Avedis that would justify impersonation - our policy there is absolute. Even if it wasn't, the nature of his comment is utterly indefensible.
That isn't how we conduct ourselves here - it's way, way over the line, and I can't imagine anything he could say.
Couple that with the frequent "Jewish conspiracy" comments - and the Bouncers have been called with clear and inflexible instructions.
#13 -- Ditto
-- MC
His comments usually consist of ad hominem attacks and his stated purpose in being here to begin with is get us angry in order to "expose" us. Entirely apart from his conspiracy theories, I think that the former more than qualified him as a troll but the above is more or less middle school locker room stuff.
I'm with Joe and Cicero on this one.
Well, I'd say that closes the Avedis chapter here at Winds...
Joe - I'm always open to someone screwing up and apologizing; I've certainly stepped in it enough in my life, and simply being an adult, recognizing error and moving on seems like behavior we ought to encourage.
Having said that, I've got three kids of my own and don't need to tend any more children here on the blog. And there's no other description for what he did.
Bye, Avedis. Have a good New Year's, and I hope that some enlightenment comes out of this for you.
A.L.
Marc, Agree with you on the wisdom of encouraging recognizing error and moving on - but just as there are some things in society which cannot be expunged that way, there are some things here which cannot be expunged that way.
Impersonation is more than just childish, which is why it's an instant banning offense. Impersonation which is designed to promote the impression of criminal behaviour by the impersonated individual... dude, babysitting doesn't even begin to describe the situation it represents.
I'm glad that impersonation is an instant ban offense here, guys. All we have of value on this site is our identity tied to our comments. Impersonation instantly destroys all that we can have here.