His name is Saparmurad Niyazov. And here's a fascinating article.

I guess it's synchronicity. He got mentioned on NPR this morning on my way into work, and he was mentioned on another site I look at sporadically. And then this story pops up in Washington's Quaint Little Alternative Newspaper, as G. Gordon Liddy refers to it.

I'll comment in a couple of ways. First...ain't it scary? That in this day and age, we still have apparent madmen who can rise to such heights, so as to become gods (in their minds) among men.

I'll say that this sort of megalomania is appealing in an abstract sort of way, too. With all the crappy reality television programs we have today, we can't get one on the dictator who has taken it upon himself to rename the days of the week? I'm looking for a little more information on this guy. From what I've read so far, he's come up with his own national philoso-religion, which in part defines youth as lasting up to age 37, and he calls the period from 61-73 as the enlightened time. He is himself 62.