'The Autobiography of Malcolm X'

+ I really enjoyed this book. Compelling life and Malcolm X impresses me most of all as being amazingly charismatic. Watched a fair number of video clips on YouTube and he's almost mesmerizing to me. In interviews, he seemed to be able to absolutely disagree without making it personal. He remained polite. I admire that mix.

+ I agree with a lot of what Malcolm X says about the oppression of black people by whites. How can we ever atone for that? Should we?

+ Obviously, the stuff from Elijah Muhammad and Fard is crazy. As impressive as Malcolm X is, it's hard to believe he got taken in by some of that stuff. Not to mention the extent of Muhammad's ultimately-revealed adultery.

+ Then again, Malcolm X was very naive about areas of life he did not know. On one hand, he was a very hardened, streetwise crook. On the other, he was taken in completely by Elijah Muhammad and also by Islamic and African dignitaries. All of them could do no wrong, in his opinion.

The most evil people in history

Studying Hitler and Stalin and got to thinking about this question. I know you, my friends, will have good contributions. Stupid answers like 'Bush' or 'Obama' will be deleted with extreme prejudice.

Started with this search and found:

Top 10 Most Evil Men
Top 10 Most Evil Women
Most Evil Men and Women in History

Nominees:

Mao
Stalin
Hitler
Leopold II of Belgium
Pol Pot
Hirohito/Tojo

My main criteria is body count. Did Pol Pot and Hirohito/Tojo get into the millions like the top 4?

What do you think? I'm sure there's much I don't know that you can teach me.

PS: reading 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' now and wonder how to factor slavery in. More on that in a subsequent post...