We need not name the most unlikable characters of the past. We all have our own list. Even more perplexing, even the worst scoundrel has his champions, if for no other reason than national pride. For instance, we understand that the Mongols are avid fans of Genghis Kahn.

Now, to our own time. Once again, we will not enumerate. We will only lament.

As part of our lamentation we note that one of the indisputable members of this disreputable group, Osama Bin Laden, evidently has a great number of fans in the now especially insane Arab world. We will not say the Muslim world, because we still remember that there are quite a few million inhabitants in that divisive region who are something other than Islamic.

For the sake of our more sensitive readers, let's define "unlikable" as people who do repellently inconsiderate things, like kill other people or make repeatedly destructive decisions.

The question is, why have we had the misfortune to live at a time when so many of the culprits are disgracing the frequently lamentable stage of history?

The world is, in fact, so rife with a selection of history's most unlikable people we often joke that we don't even go outside anymore without peeking first. About Author :

Tom Attea, humorist and creator of NewsLaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway. Critics have called his writing "delightfully funny," "witty," with "good, genuine laughs" and "great humor and ebullience."