Nostalgia for the Evil Empire

Just a random thought after seeing the Arab world's dictators fall one by one, to be replaced by mobs of fanatics...I'm starting to wonder whether dictatorial regimes are all that bad. Remember back when the Soviet Union existed? The one thing you can say is that they definitely kept a lid on Islamic extremism. I'm wondering whether the evil we know (Qaddafi, Mubarak, Hussein, Assad, etc.), as despicable as they are, is at least predictable and rational, at least to a greater degree than those that fill the power vacuum when they are gone. As one commenter ( Jaysboytoy ) emailed me, there may be some value in rooting for Qaddafi to win. I can't say I understood how Jaysboytoy found Libya to be much like Mill Valley, and I didn't know that hermits actually existed, but the point remains.