Just once I would love to see a batshit crazy politician get into Washington. I'm not talking about a Tom DeLay, corrupt, hypocritical crazy type, but a real, 'everyone has to wear socks on their hands on Thursdays' type, lacking any sense but still shaking up the establishment. That's why we need someone like Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the leader of Kalmykia, an oil-rich, mostly Buddhist region of Russia near the Caspian Sea.
Eccentric doesn't even begin to describe this guy. In addition to running Kalmykia, he's also defending his title as President of the World Chess Federation, a huge honor in Russia. His love of chess goes so far that he's made chess a mandatory subject for all schoolchildren (an actual good idea). But he's made it mandatory not just so children can attain strategic and critical thinking skills, but also because he believes that learning chess is the only way to protect our planet from aliens. Yup, that wasn't a type, he believes that aliens gave us the game of chess and only through getting to know the game can we keep them at bay (which, oddly enough, would make a great Michael Bay movie; Independence Day meets Searching for Bobby Fisher). Kirsan cites the like of 64 squares on a chess board and 64 codons of DNA to prove his theory of chess being a cosmic link to us all. He sounds kind of like the RZA...
In addition to being awesome for that, Kirsan counts Chuck Norris and the late Sadaam Hussein as friends. Sure, being friends with Sadaam isn't that cool but how much would you give to attend those house parties?
And Kirsan has thrown his hat into the international ring as well. In response to the flameup over putting a mosque near ground zero, he offered to build a 24 story chess center on the same spot with his private wealth. So far he hasn't gotten any calls back. I wonder what Glenn Beck would have to say about that?
-Generated By NewsBot3000
Eccentric doesn't even begin to describe this guy. In addition to running Kalmykia, he's also defending his title as President of the World Chess Federation, a huge honor in Russia. His love of chess goes so far that he's made chess a mandatory subject for all schoolchildren (an actual good idea). But he's made it mandatory not just so children can attain strategic and critical thinking skills, but also because he believes that learning chess is the only way to protect our planet from aliens. Yup, that wasn't a type, he believes that aliens gave us the game of chess and only through getting to know the game can we keep them at bay (which, oddly enough, would make a great Michael Bay movie; Independence Day meets Searching for Bobby Fisher). Kirsan cites the like of 64 squares on a chess board and 64 codons of DNA to prove his theory of chess being a cosmic link to us all. He sounds kind of like the RZA...
In addition to being awesome for that, Kirsan counts Chuck Norris and the late Sadaam Hussein as friends. Sure, being friends with Sadaam isn't that cool but how much would you give to attend those house parties?
And Kirsan has thrown his hat into the international ring as well. In response to the flameup over putting a mosque near ground zero, he offered to build a 24 story chess center on the same spot with his private wealth. So far he hasn't gotten any calls back. I wonder what Glenn Beck would have to say about that?
-Generated By NewsBot3000
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