"Vampire" Milosevic's grave desecrated.

Could it be a case of someone taking negative political imagery too literally, or just literally enough?

The grave of former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević was found desecrated this week in the town of Požarevac, after a man drove a three foot stake through the remains of the corpse's heart. One of the suspects has given himself up, claiming that he and a group of other men had performed the act to prevent Milošević from rising from the grave as a vampire.

It's entirely likely this act had purely political, instead of folkloric, significance amid fears that Milošević's former party may return to power in Serbia. I think it's safe to say that Serbia is less in danger from Milošević's corpse than it is from Serbian anger over the United Nation's plan to grant de facto independence to the former Serbian province of Kosovo.

All the same, Dictators of the World applauds the brave attempt to prevent dictators rising from the grave as vampires or zombis. Am I worried about the supernatural returns of Josef Stalin or François "Papa Doc" Duvalier? Maybe not, but I'm not above having a group of amateur vampire hunters bust out the wooden stakes to make sure, either.

Finally, congratulations to, well, me, for my 100th post. 2007 promises to be a much busier year than 2006 did, but I'll make sure that you, my loyal dictator loving readers, get your fix of stories about the world's most notorious tyrants.