Desperate Despots (updated)

As Arik notes, we may be running low on deranged dictators, but like sharks' teeth, it seems there's always another one waiting in the wings. By the way, did you hear about the one who doesn't really have a problem with using armed drones to whack his disobedient minions fellow citizens? Crazy, right?

I'm glad I live in a country where we never have to worry about that stuff, or about radical overlords insisting that we can't use reasonable force to defend ourselves, or that we can't, say, sell beverages above a certain size because they could be harmful to our health. I mean, freedom-loving Americans would never stand for such nonsense, much less elect leaders like that.

At least there's one who is making an attempt to endear himself to the world by doing photo ops with an eccentric pop culture icon — that is, when he's not threatening his neighbors and the western world with nuclear annihilation.*

I see that North Korea's Divine Poobah is even rebranding himself, apparently to appeal to the kids who enjoy seeing his bright shining face on their boxes of breakfast stubble every morning.

Kim Jong-un Releases New Official Portrait

*I posted this before this story came out. Either I'm psychic, or the regime is rather predictable — or maybe they base their foreign policy on NP postings?