Libyan Dictator Wants to Abolish Switzerland

During Libyan Dictator Muammar Qaddafi's rambling 90 minute address to the UN's General Assembly last week, the movie character come to life hit many high points, some points that even made sense, but did not even once mention his crusade against the existence of--no, not Israel--Switzerland. The Land of Switzers. Crazy old Ben Kenobi out in the desert wants Switzerland divided into three pieces--one each for France, Germany and Italy.

In July, Qaddafi broached the subject of Swiss elimination to the peeps at the G-8 Summit in Italy--right next door. He didn't screw around. He said, "[Switzerland] is a world mafia and not a state." Take that Switzerland, who Qaddafi's naked contempt for stems from the July 2008 arrest of Qaddafi's son, who's name is Hannibal, and his wife in Geneva for allegedly beating two of their servants at a local hotel. Qaddafi retaliated by instantly shutting down Swiss business interests in Libya. Libya also arrested two Swiss businessmen because, uh, Ugarte stole their papers and was hiding out with them at Rick's Cafe Americain in the somewhat nearby Casablanca, Morocco. Qaddafi also took $5 billion out of his Swiss bank accounts. Poker night at Muammar's next week!~ As you can imagine, the Swiss response was strong. Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz went to Libya in August to apologize for the arrest and to ask for the Swiss nationals--this was so unpopular in Switzerland Merz received repeated calls for his resignation.

The irony of all of this has not been lost on the Swiss. A Socialist parliamentarian who actually blogs about Qaddafi named Baptiste Hurni said, "It's a paradox that Qaddafi wants to dismantle Switzerland because, as he claims, it is not a homogeneous country, while Libya is divided by a desert into two regions that hate each other." Qaddafi went on to lobby for the reunification of Upper and Lower Uncton.

The latest edition of The Bugle podcast and Frogette at Ragebot and has more on the zany, yet momentous meeting of the UN General Assembly (especially for President Obama) where Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and moving target Hugo Chavez took second and third in the crazy dictator derby, respectively.