TNR's Today in Despotism

T.A. Frank take on those naughty tyrants has a familiar cast this week. Not only are the players familiar but so is the banality that Hannah Arendt so aptly described. The tyrannical military lunatics formerly known as SLORC that are still running the nation formerly known as Burma are hyping the use of spare parts and poetry feting the regime. In Belarus Lukashenko is demanding more from his athletes. N. Korea makes fun of Japan and Libya marks the 44th anniversary of Muammar Qaddafi's expulsion from school.