In a world that already doesn't make much sense these days, why not double-down and really go where sense, in and of itself, is relative? That would be the world of esoteric languages and the most brain-frazzling of these languages is known as "Malbolge". Its name is taken from Dante's Inferno, where 'Malebolge" is the eighth level/circle of hell. How very fitting this name is for a devilish and hellish trinary language.

Malbolge I have recently learned is the single most difficult programming language in the history of existence. Now, that covers a lot of virtual ground I would say. Malbolge is a language that was designed to be difficult or perhaps impossible - until recently, there was not even an informal argument showing 'Turing' completeness to program in. (i.e. Alan Mathison Turing was a British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of an actual human.)

Okay, at this point I will do a pulse check to see if any of you have nodded-off or otherwise slipped into a narcoleptic state after reading the first couple of paragraphs on this bizarre topic.

You may also, at this time, have some Q & A for me, as to why I decided to traverse the virtual world of computer speak. By process of elimination, I would first say to you that, no I have not been ingesting any of Jack's 'magic beans' or partaking of any exotic libations, e.g. snake's blood and rice wine (this is a drink served in Southeast Asia, which contains cobra blood drained from a live snake that has been made extremely angry before it is killed and its blood is mixed with rice wine ... it is, primarily, considered an aphrodisiac for men. Let's just say it puts lead in the pencil for up to 36 hours with no blue pill in sight, but I digress) and, last but not least, I have not suffered a recent head trauma.

As I stated earlier the language is named after Malebolge, the eighth level of hell in Dante's Inferno, which is reserved for perpetrators of fraud. Once I discovered this connection a revelation hit me as viscerally as a lightning bolt to the groin. This trinary language, and its appropriately named place in hell, belongs to none other than the power crazed tyrants of this world who would destroy anything and anyone who get in their way.

For example: Bashar al-Assad of Syria. This crazed power monger looks like an accountant in a Brooks Brothers suit, yet he has seen fit to turn his army on his own people and proceed to mow them down like so many weeds on an unkempt lawn.

Then we have Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinegad. He's the guy with the creepy smile, who still wears a Members Only Club jacket publicly. He and the Ayatollah have an iron grip on the Iranian people and they and their cohorts are rapidly developing a nuclear weapon to unleash on Israel.

Last but not least, on our gruesome little hit parade of whacked out world tyrants, is North Korea and its supreme leader Kim Jong-un. He is the 5 feet nothing legacy to the late Kim Jong-il. Kim Jong-un is a pampered, spoiled and chunked out little douche bag in an ill fitting military uniform. He is a twenty-something brat who has inherited his father's position of power over the impoverished North Korean populace. He too is pulling the nuke card and rattling his sabers on the Korean Peninsula.

Naming these three alone gives us a clear picture of the international 'crazy quilt' of lunatics who are now running the asylum. They are at the top of a long list of those with insane ambitions to dominate the world order and do it with mass destruction if necessary.

Throughout history there have always been those who would control and rule over others at any cost. However, given today's arsenals of horrendous weapons readily available to these mad men, never has it been a more dangerous time to be alive.

Even back in the late 50s and early 60s, when the US was engaged in the Cold War with Russia, we were still able to bring them to the table for dialog. Granted Nikita Khrushchev was given to fits of temper and was even said to have removed his shoe and pounded it on his delegates-desk at the UN General Assembly in protest of speeches he did not like.

Khrushchev was a pudgy little man who wore a double breasted, baggy suit straight out of a Philip Marlow detective movie, complete with a floppy fedora. He was not what one would call a class act, but he could be reached when necessary and world opinion did directly affect his actions on the global stage. A prime example of this was the US standoff with Russia over the missiles in Cuba. In the end Russia blinked first and Khrushchev accepted a face-saving deal brokered by the Kennedy administration.

In today's world, given the mindset of those in positions of power and their ability to create a reign of horror upon the entire world, there is not one ounce of reason floating around in their bubble wrapped craniums.

My fascination with Malbolge is the mere fact that it is intentionally designed to be opaque. I know absolutely nothing about esoteric programming languages, but they do seem to fit nicely with the current group of esoteric world leaders, whose thinking is obtuse and erratic.

When reading about the characteristics of Malbolge they seem eerily similar to the unpredictable characteristics of those of the tyrants mentioned above, which leads one to hypothesize that perhaps these cold and calculating individuals are the result of some computer lab experiment gone seriously wrong. They are possibly the product of a master programmer in a parallel universe who has sent them to ply his mad programming cocktail on our blissful blue ball.

Tyranny and tyrants are not new and I doubt they will ever be completely eradicated as long as there is a hunger in the heart of Man for power and unbridled control. As long as they abide with us, we must always find ways to keep defeating them and their wicked agendas. Perhaps one day we will finally be able to contain them in that eighth circle of hell; one can only hope.

"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant." - Maximilien Robespierre