Matilda He Take The Money and Ruin Venezuela
It’s a great strategy. Burn down the house to roast marshmallows, but rig it so that whoever takes over the ruins gets blamed for the leaking roof. The narrative in the making is that Chavez brought the good times, the compassion, the caring, and when he died — as Evita did — then the bad old capitalists came back and stopped the music, raised retirement ages, implemented austerity, etc. Nobody will notice that Chavez ran everything into the ground and died taking orders from Castro. Toro writes:
What we’re seeing, in other words, are the building blocks of a heroic narrative arc for Chávez’s memory falling into place. It reads like a chapter of the book Open Veins of Latin America, the heroic leftist leader who held back the rapacious capitalists up until his last breath, only to be betrayed by his closest ally.
Maybe there’s a movie in the works featuring Sean Penn. Senor Hugo’s Los Miserables. I Dreamed a Dream of Days Gone Bad. But it’s not just Venezuela that will miss the credit card binges of the Commandante Presidente; the regional deadbeats will be hurting too. The Cato institute notes:
Regionally speaking, Chávez’s death will have an important effect on Venezuela’s satellite countries. Cuba is certainly the most vulnerable.
…
The Cuban economy would probably implode without the massive oil subsidy it receives from Venezuela. This would jeopardize the continuity of the Castro regime. This is why Havana is playing such an active role in deciding who will replace Chávez and how the succession should play out. Other regional allies such as Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia would also face cutbacks in economic assistance but not big enough to threaten their leaders’ hold on power.
What does the Obama administration do in all this? It has found itself before a succession of opportunities in recent years. The fall of Assad in Syria was potentially a chance to get at Iran; now the natural demise of Chavez threatens to knock out the pins from under Cuba. The Christian Science Monitor writes:
Experts suggest that a change in leadership in Venezuela could have huge consequences for Cuba. … Business with Venezuela consists of 40 percent of all Cuban trade, and Cuba receives 60 percent of its energy needs on preferential terms from Venezuela.
Havana has “30,000-50,000 Cuban technical personnel working in Venezuela as physicians, teachers, and other instructors” who will be unemployed if they have to return to the Worker’s Paradise. But if the Syrian case is any guide, the Obama administration will manage to turn gold into pyrite; to get the worst of all worlds plus its embassy burned to boot, metaphorically speaking. In the Middle East they’ve watched the growing destabilization of a region without the recompense of a decisive gain against the American foe.
What happens in Latin America after Chavez dies remains to be seen. But unless the administration’s luck or skill changes, the Venezuelan president’s death may simply result in an unrest more easily directed from Havana than Foggy Bottom. Certainly if Venezuela goes bust, it won’t be Fidel who will be asked to foot the rescue bill.
It will be — guess who.
Leftist politics in its essentials is identical, whether practiced on an international or domestic scale. Transfer money and take credit. Domestically, it depends on income transfers between citizens of varying incomes. Internationally, it does as well. To do this it manufactures a drama with a hero and a villain; the Left always stars as the Hero. Why does it work?
Perhaps the only reason world socialism has survived as long as it has is through subsidies from the American taxpayer.
Hugo Chavez’s career is a cautionary tale. You can’t live on the Socialist Credit Card unless you can trick someone into paying the bill. Of course, that’s not hard if you graduate an entire generation of people trained to buy the world a Coke. But when they have to buy themselves a Coke and can’t, then what? The ultimate reason why socialism can never in the long term work in America is that when the U.S. goes bust, there’s no one left to pick up the tab.
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Cuba went from being the Soviet’s b*tch to being Venezuela’s. Who can the Castro brothers turn to now as they sink down market, South Africa? Pity that Quckadaffy shuffled off to soon. He could have been a contender.
The tab will be sent to Uncle Sugar. He will inform the public that all the money is being hoarded by an evil secret consortium of Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Big Gems, aka the Jooooos.
The contemporary Left is so divorced from reality, so reactionary, so steeped in mythologies from a hundred years ago, that normal people simply cannot comprehend them. To grasp the world that they are living in you have to spend a week rereading the works of the two Johns, Steinbeck and dos Passos.
“Burn down the house to roast marshmallows but rig it so that whoever takes over the ruins gets blamed for the leaking roof.”
Since WWII compliant Gramscian leftist press corps around the world have been complicit in this. The only way this works is if you have reporters and news organizations like our alphabet networks and public broadcasting which filter out any negative stories on issues of substance so that their dedicated listeners can tell themselves that the bad stuff their heroes do, and the evil of the policies their heroes put in place, never happened, because they never heard it on a “legitimate” news stream.
There are various people like Bozell and his group who provide pages and pages of stories about misdeeds of left-of-center politicians and officials and of harm done to innocent people as a result of leftist policies which are literally never seen on CNN or the big three or on taxpayer funded NPR and PBS. As long as this is the case, as long as the fig leaf is intact and the facts giving lie to the narrative can be ignored with ostensible legitimacy, then this sort of thing can occur anywhere. The people who do the evil get away with it and blame those who are either innocent or actually tried to help. It has been happening in the U.S. for decades now. The financial crisis we find ourselves in has much less to do with capitalism and much more to do with government than the Democratic operatives in the press will tell, and, as Mead and others have pointed out, the failure that has occurred is not one of free enterprise but one of the Blue State model of corporate/big government hegemony. The narrative in the press all along has been that it is a failure of capitalism. They are wrong, provably wrong, of course, but they can get away with being wrong, because they can simply delete the facts at will that provide such proof.
While it is true that vast numbers of people actually want this sanitized and dishonest type of information stream to preserve their precious little narrative (con men know that the best marks want to believe the con), it is also true that if such tainted information streams did not exist and the news organizations pursued the truth equally aggressively regarding left-of-center wrongdoing a lot many of what are termed “low information voters” would have a very different and more accurate view of the world and the effect would be immediate and significant.
I just watched a documentary about attempts to build a “windfarm” near New York City. I put off watching it for a long time because I already know a lot about the subject (40 story windmills scattered all over the place etc.). The new thing I learned is that they apparently kill bats — not moonbats, just bats.
What was fascinating were the people complaining about it all. They are obviously liberals but lacked a vocabulary for discussing the problem. They kept talking about Cooperate America being to blame. And yet it is a totally leftist, crony capitalist, Obama, Gore, Sierra Club, global warmist deal (see: Goldman Sachs).
In addition to the self licking ice cream cone we now have the self screwing Democrat. But, hey, it’s not their fault.
The name of the Documentary is “Windfall.”
And right on cue: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2013/01/04/1376742/regimen-cubano-orquesta-la-transicion.html
If I interpret correctly, the interim Prez’s first name is “god-given.” Caray!
Having watched Mugabe destroy the economy in Zimbabwe – the Z$ went from 12 to the US$ in the late 90s to 800 to one when I lost count in the early oughts, I am disappointed by Hugo’s apparent demise. An artful dodger, he! I so wanted to see if he could outdo Dear Robert in taking the inflation rate closer to infinity. Now, alas, we shall never know who was really the better man!
On the face of it, this is bad news for those Canadian sex tourists who have been jetting into Havana and renting the English-speaking daughters of Cuban ‘middle class’ families for a week. But maybe the Canadians can now trade up to the beautiful daughters of poverty-stricken Venezuelan ‘middle class’ families instead. Never let a crisis go to waste, as our Boy President’s hero once said.
HD Greene #3:
What was fascinating were the people complaining about it all. They are obviously liberals but lacked a vocabulary for discussing the problem. They kept talking about Cooperate America being to blame. And yet it is a totally leftist, crony capitalist, Obama, Gore, Sierra Club, global warmist deal (see: Goldman Sachs).
This is dictionary-definition Orwellian newspeak. The state and it’s propaganda arm and education industry, in the book 1984, rewrote the language so that people could not express ideas that were a threat.
The complaining liberals? Petards. Hoists. Some assembly required.
“Oil-exporting countries rarely face hard currency shortages, but the Chávez regime may be the exception.”
Along with Russia, Mexico, Nigeria, Iran…
A lot of exceptions there.
NYT swings at slow pitched soft ball… misses…
Economic ignorance is the hallmark of the well educated Liberal.
AT last! Someone finally recognizes that world socialism is financed by American capitalism. If ONLY we could decide that we were only going to subsidize the spread of freedoms that we demand in our own society.
The United States should not EVER allow visas, aid of any flavor, or special considerations in trade with any country that doesn’t enshrine the First Amendment. THAT should be our red line. We can trade with the Nazis but we won’t let them visit our universities, travel our highways, or feed their starving people on our dime.
Freedom will eventually win out, but the financing of our enemy’s infrastructure does nothing to move the world forward.
Sigh… So many opportunities for a competent international criminal organization. Go into a Venezuela, knock off all the leadership and enough of the military that they get the message, and then tell them they’ll get a piece of the action and the garbage will get picked up, the lights stay on, and food provided if they just play ball. People who need to get disappeared will just disappear. Make it clear you are capitalists and only care about the bottom line but you also know that the means of production has to be kept painted and lubed. You won’t be “fair” but you will sure as hell be effective.
Where’s a THRUSH or SPECTRE when you need one? Shucks, the people in Chavez’s Workers Paradise probably even would be happy with CHAOS.
And I think that’s the way we are going, folks. Power vaccums simply mean you can create old fashioned vaccum tube power amplifiers.
In the upcoming debt limit discussions, the GOP (or someone) perhaps could grab the mantle of “sustainability” from the left.
What the left means by the term is subsidized, crony-ized social welfare and feel-good environmentalism. An alternative definition would involve conservative economic policy.
The Spaniards have been the stars of “sustainability.” Now the Spaniards are raiding social security funds to buy Spanish bonds until the time “the economy recovers.” But the process is not sustainable: no real investment, no improvement in economy. (Of course the U.S. does this, too, but we have a market for the time being for our debt.)
Without money, the leftist music and dancing stops.
“They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’”
Of course, the reality for current regimes is that print money they must, and print money they will, a la Spain, until the very end. No one wants real sustainability, because real sustainability is about scarcity, which is an unpleasant reality, and not fair.
In Century 16, Spain pillaged the Americas and sent millions of ounces of gold and silver to mother country. So much, that the new coins caused general inflation in Europe.
However, the Spanish state was improvident. It squandered the money in wars and the politics of the Absolutist era Europe. 2 wars, the Dutch war of independence, and the 30 Years War, consumed the treasure of the New World, and then some.
Phillip II defaulted on his debts 4 times. There were several more defaults in the next Century. By the end of Century 17, Spain ceased to be an important power in Europe.
Any government, in any era, can consume all available resources, and then some.
I say let Hollywood foot the bill, they just received a tax waiver. With all that saved money they could help the chavistas continue their socialistic agenda. On another note, doesn’t Iran have a influence in Venezuela? Seems to me we should be engaged in this situation, but we will dither and lose an opportunity to help.
“Members of Hadassah”
Oy! My Zel-da; My Zel-da; My Zel-da, she took the money and ran off with the tailor.
Sorry – I am living in occupied Kailua having flashbacks of the 60′s.
(it was the bad shrooms that Barry sold me)
There is a much more important point about Spain and its 16th/17th century actions. Spain concentrated on pillaging the New World for gold, silver and gems; the Dutch and the Brits concentrated on trade and industry.
The point is that the Spanish had nothing to back up the huge piles of loot. Money and valuables such as gems have very little intrinsic use; although silver can be used to make table utensils and cutlery, and gold can be used for similar purposes, the use is distinctly limited. Whereas many other items of trade have practical uses.
Paper money, and even more so collections of numbers in computer storage (the latter constituting perhaps 90% of money nowadays) are even worse.
I thought I was the only one who remembered the “Matilda” song…
FWIW I had a young Venezuelan engineer working for me not long ago. We followed, day by day, the Chavez Ravine. He still has (had) family in country, visited from time to time and was in routine contact.
Lots of talk got me thus… the ignorant always want stuff, with the least amount of effort possible. This is the hidden danger of the universal franchise.
And, as I have noted before, the Latin (including South West Europe) Catholic culture does not view bribery, corruption, cronyism, etc. as all that bad… absolution on Sunday means the only risk for bad behavior is not living, at worst, 7 more days. Saturday sins are least risky.
Sorry folks, tis what it tis.
6. Kinuachdrach
On the face of it, this is bad news for those Canadian sex tourists who have been jetting into Havana and renting the English-speaking daughters of Cuban ‘middle class’ families for a week
The one single way in which Castro improved Cuba over its previous iteration is that now the whores are literate and get free medical care.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPTdSYTLA10
You tell me there’s an angel in your tree
Did he say he’d come to call on me
For things are getting desperate in our home
Living in the parish of the restless folks I know
Everybody now bring your family down to the riverside
Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide
Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps
It’s time we put the flame torch to their keep
Burn down the mission
If we’re gonna stay alive
Watch the black smoke fly to heaven
See the red flame light the sky
Burn down the mission
Burn it down to stay alive
It’s our only chance of living
Take all you need to live inside
Deep in the woods the squirrels are out today
My wife cried when they came to take me away
But what more could I do just to keep her warm
Than burn burn burn burn down the mission walls
This article presents clear idea for the new users of blogging,
that genuinely how to do blogging.
RWE, Sigh… So many opportunities for a competent international criminal organization.
The Cuban Communists are already looking into it.
It’ll be interesting to see how the drug lords & the Iranians fit in.
Send money to Venezuela and Cuba, hey no problem, we can print all they need, all we ask is that they pay the shipping and handling cost with oil or sugar.
Perhaps if the other so called Christian nations in Europe had helped Spain (instead of supporting the Mohammedans) expel Islam from the continent and helped pay the massive expense of arming a fleet and defeating the Mohammedan Turks at Lepanto, Spain would not have gone broke.
England slithered to prominence on the back of a Spain bent under the heavy burden of her fidelity to the one true faith. Should Sr. Alighieri have the opportunity for a sequel Elizabeth I can join Martin Luther and Mohammed in the depths of hell.
This could be very bad indeed. The United States imports a considerable amount of Venezuelan oil. If anything interrupts the flow of that oil, the economic situation here at home could go from fragile to frightening very quickly.
One minor (but important) quibble I have with the original post. It wasn’t really capitalism that was sustaining Hugo Chavez and his socialist government. It was the surplus of work, knowledge, resources, and productve capacity stored up by industrial societies that did that.
We needed the oil so we had to tolerate Chavez, which we supposed would be easier than imperialising Venezuala. In fact we should have imperialised it—Cuba and Mexico, too—but the Western man apparently no longer has the stomach for building empires. That’s too bad; if we had vested more interest in the places they might have at least been governed competently for a few generations.
Instead, we are stuck with the reality that if Venezuela goes by the boards it could very well plunge the entire world into geopolitical upheaval.
****
Michael Hoskins, those anti-Catholic canards are quite in poor taste. And in any case, if you visit the sacrament of Confession without a contrite heart, you may receive absolution from the priest but you will not receive forgiveness from God, which fact would no doubt have made your acquaintance if you had looked into the Church’s theology before defaming it.
re: The Spanish, distilled. Look people, here’s the skinny. Any culture that takes 3 of the most productive hours of the day and uses them to take a nap just isn’t going to finish the race first. It’s that simple.
#21. Fausta
We don’t need a new criminal organization. I don’t know that they are especially competent, but they are successful. Its called the UN.
Cynics called him dead long ago, but they don’t know how science works to keep people living today. Shame also on doubtful nihilists for thinking that moderate mainstream religion doesn’t cause healing miracles… Those people are dumb like the cynics.
#24 Matt,
Michael appears to be saying that in his experience, Spanish-speaking Catholics commit the sin of presumption a lot. I don’t have experiences that would refute his claim.
Spanish-speaking Catholics
Isn’t that a rather large club to be swinging around?
2 @no mo uro
I’m firmly convinced that we’d have a chance at turning things around in the country if the MSM were to magically disappear. It’s a close race between them and the educational system, but I think the enemedia is the #1 reason why our country is broken so badly and can’t be self-corrected.
3 @hdgreene
That reminds me of Waiting for Superman. Tons of leftists were outraged by that movie, but their conditioning literally prevented them from knowing where to fix the blame, because the entire public educational cartel is 100% progressive controlled, from top to bottom. So their minds just short-circuit, and they wander off mumbling and forget about the whole thing.
23. Peter Boston
“England slithered to prominence on the back of a Spain bent under the heavy burden of her fidelity to the one true faith.”
Yes but the Inquisition turned a very hefty profit. Only the wealthy non believer Jews and Mohammedans were burned at the stake.
Michael may have a point, to a certain degree, regarding commercial development in Europe after the Spanish conquest. On the other hand, as Peter points out, could you imagine an Islamic Europe for the past 400 years? Where would we be now? Thanks, Spain, for your expended blood and treasure in saving Europe, at least for a few hundred years. I’m sure the Spanish soldiers and sailors missed a few naps while defending Europe. Sin of Presumption of Spanish-Speaking Catholics? Where is the experience to make the claim, never mind to refute it? Painting with a wide brush?
CARACAS FAREWELL
Hugo Chavez is gone, but his spirit will long live on in Venezuela. Death brings with it sainthood, possibly godhood, to the man who looked after the poor, and the poorest of the poor will sing the song of Chavez the Provider, and look out to sea, determined to be there when he returns in triumph, shining like the sun on the mountaintops.
Gone away are the nights so gay
And the sun shines dully on the mountaintop
Our hero gone and the bitter dawn
Means the low gas prices they are gonna stop
Yes it’s sad to say that he’s gone away
And he won’t be back for many a day
Our hearts are torn but he’ll be reborn
And when we reach Caracas we’ll get our pay
We’ll be fine and the sun will shine
On the oil rigs rusting in the distant haze
Our cupboard’s bare but we never care
For Chavez is here and so are happy days
Yes it’s sad to say he’s gone away
And he won’t be back for many a day
Our hearts are torn but he’ll be reborn
And when we reach Caracas we’ll be okay
“What will Obama do,” you ask?
He’ll somehow find a way to put the Muslim Brotherhood in power.
31. spindok
Could not have been much of a profit as Inquisitor executions only averaged about 15 per year. Henry and Elizabeth would hang, draw and quarter that many Catholics before lunch every day, and with far, far fewer procedural safeguards than the Inquisitors were bound to.
The Inquisitors kept very detailed records which are available to researchers. The few scholars that have availed themselves of the opportunity to actually learn the truth of the Inquisition tell a very different story than the Black Legend initiated by the toadies of Elizabeth the Wicked. It’s no wonder that most modern history about the Inquisition is a lie because the Elizabethan scholars that wrote the sources relied upon by modern historians were liars.
For the record, the Inquisitors had jurisdiction only only over professing Catholics. No Jews or Mohammedans, professing as such, were ever prosecuted.
aardvark @ 11 – Indirectly bring back the term “welfare queen”.
You’ve hit upon a fact derived from control theory. For a system to be stable, it needs at least a slightly negative feedback loop. Once upon a time people did not go on food stamps because of the negative connotations. Now people get the equivalent of a food stamp debit card. The result is out of control food stamp spending. There is no shame attached to getting food stamps.
Put a little shame back into the process and watch the result! A negative feedback loop!
Just hook up a little speaker at the checkout counter that says “The working people of the United States hope you find work very, very soon!” every time someone uses food stamps.
That’s not cruel is it? Hoping someone FINDS a job? We can’t be cruel, now can we?
Let’s hope that Michael Moore and Sean Penn receive the same fantastic medical care in Cuba when they are in need of health care!
35. Peter Boston
For the record, the Inquisitors had jurisdiction only only over professing Catholics. No Jews or Mohammedans, professing as such, were ever prosecuted.
Professing Jews in 1492 and professing Muslims in the early 1600s were given the choice in Spain of converting to Christianity or leaving Spain. [Those who converted were called Conversos.] That is, during most of the time that the Inquisition was in place, there were no openly professing Muslims or Jews in Spain. The Inquisition did go after Conversos and descendants of Conversos in the belief that the conversions were feigned. There was some truth to that belief. I once worked with a Spaniard whose family had secretly practiced Judaism for 400+ years until it became legal in the 20th century to practice Judaism in Spain. IIRC, Torquemqada was a Converso.
Your point that the Inquisition didn’t kill that many people is well taken. IIRC, witches in northern Europe were killed in greater numbers. But we don’t hear much about them.
Many Conversos immigrated to inaccessible ends of the Spanish Empire, such as New Mexico or Antioquia in Colombia, far from the reach of Madrid.
38. Gringo
35. Peter Boston
Jeez, I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition to be our subject.
Waiting for it … waiting for it …
39 @SBW (aka Roughcoat)
LOL! Wasn’t there someone who stated that the longer a thread carries on, the probability of a Monty Python reference approaches 1?
#33. Walt
Jamaica Farewell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B9Lq4p9xnM
mierda para cesos!
It’s an awesome post in support of all the internet visitors; they will take advantage from it I am sure.
For the life of me, it reminds me of a group of jugglers keeping many balls in the air to distract an audience. They work furiously even helping each other. But to achieve desired distraction they must keep adding balls till one or two falls then without warning all fall.
40. Dworkin Barimen
Either Monty Python or the Three Stooges, nyuk nyuk.
Black Bart/41
Hadn’t heard that version. Many thanks! Always brings back memories of the islands.
Walt
So Chavez is slowly shuffling off this mortal coil. But hey while he lived he got all the thrills of absolute power. The best wine, the fastest cars, the hottest girls.
The party lasted to the end of his lifetime; now that he’s dying it can all fall apart and go to Hell as far as he’s concerned. Many of our US “leaders” feel the same way.
15. Fletcher Christian
There is a much more important point about Spain and its 16th/17th century actions. Spain concentrated on pillaging the New World for gold, silver and gems; the Dutch and the Brits concentrated on trade and industry.
The point is that the Spanish had nothing to back up the huge piles of loot.
…………
The silver that the English privateers in the late 1500′s like Sir Francis Drake plundered from the Spanish Maine — was not silver from the silver from the Silver hoards of the Aztecs or Incas–that had been plundered decades earlier–… but rather silver from silver mines in Peru Bolivia and Mexico.
Here’s a quote with a link to the details.
Meanwhile, with science emerging from the Dark Ages, improvements in mining technology allowed a vast expansion in the production of silver and other metals. Bolivia was the first New World target for silver mining. According to data from the Silver Institute, between 1500 – 1800 A.D. Somewhere around 1 billion ounces of silver were extracted there.
However, while Bolivia was the initial destination in the Americas for silver mining, Mexico soon became the largest silver producer. Over the same time frame, there was an estimated 1.5 billion ounces of silver produced in Mexico, with the majority of that production occurring in a single century: from 1700 – 1800.
The third, principal producer in the New World was Peru. Silver mining in Peru did not commence until significantly later than in Bolivia or Mexico. However, by 1600 it is estimated that annual production in Peru had reached roughly 3 million ounces per year, with more than half a billion ounces extracted by 1800.
To provide some perspective as to how important these new centers of silver production were, from a global perspective, between 1500 and 1800 these three New World producers accounted for roughly 85% of the global silver trade – despite the fact that in 1500, silver production was just beginning there.
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/06.09/build.html
……………
Interestingly they did the dame thing here in Hawaii.
When congresswoman Patsy Mink was brain dead they kept her on life support so that the election could be held and the correct succession could be assured.
It worked for the Party.
Back in the late 40′s or early 50′s my mother used to attend communist party meetings in Hawaii with Patsy Mink and Jean King (who later became Lt. Governor). Jean joined the communist party. My mother and Patsy became Democrats.
(memories)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mQO1GlWG8Y
FC@15: Money and valuables such as gems have very little intrinsic use; although silver can be used to make table utensils and cutlery, and gold can be used for similar purposes, the use is distinctly limited.
Hauling your potatoes to the shoe store can be real pain especially if the cobbler prefers pork. A single check can buy a new pickup, but nobody knows what the check will be worth by the time it gets to the bank.
Script is a bit more burdensome than a check, but it has the same dubious value as the check. Two pounds of gold can buy a new pickup; too bad we can’t print as much as we need. It would take 63 pounds of silver to buy that new pickup, but only a few ounces to buy dinner.
Everything, indeed, has its season.
Sure, Charles. And just what does mining silver get you, beyond a big pile of not-very-useful metal?
Mining for useful stuff like tin, copper and iron would have had considerably more effect on the economy of Spain – and the rest of Europe, too.
May the Lord have mercy on his soul.
The more things change…
Mighty Sparrow explains:
Parables
http://youtu.be/NiqiVTjWtFI
Our Model Nation
http://youtu.be/_VL3p_9e4QY
No Money for Dat
http://youtu.be/s28OYyI8go4
Life Down In Hell
http://youtu.be/EMV5_88IHCQ
…Rinse and repeat.
27. Baobo
Cynics called him dead long ago, but they don’t know how science works to keep people living today. Shame also on doubtful nihilists for thinking that moderate mainstream religion doesn’t cause healing miracles… Those people are dumb like the cynics
……………….
Christians, in the last 80 years or so, have only been seeing things as bits and pieces which have gradually begun to trouble them and others, instead of understanding that they are the natural outcome of a change from a Christian World View to a Humanistic one; things such as overpermissiveness, pornography, the problem of the public schools, the breakdown of the family, abortion, infanticide (the killing of newborn babies), increased emphasis upon the euthanasia of the old and many, many other things.
All of these things and many more are only the results. We may be troubled with the individual thing, but in reality we are missing the whole thing if we do not see each of these things and many more as only symptoms of the deeper problem. And that is the change in our society, a change in our country, a change in the Western world from a Judeo-Christian consensus to a Humanistic one. That is, instead of the final reality that exists being the infinite creator God; instead of that which is the basis of all reality being such a creator God, now largely, all else is seen as only material or energy which has existed forever in some form, shaped into its present complex form only by pure chance.
I want to say to you, those of you who are Christians or even if you are not a Christian and you are troubled about the direction that our society is going in, that we must not concentrate merely on the bits and pieces. But we must understand that all of these dilemmas come on the basis of moving from the Judeo-Christian world view — that the final reality is an infinite creator God — over into this other reality which is that the final reality is only energy or material in some mixture or form which has existed forever and which has taken its present shape by pure chance.
The word Humanism should be carefully defined. We should not just use it as a flag, or what younger people might call a “buzz” word. We must understand what we are talking about when we use the word Humanism. Humanism means that the man is the measure of all things. Man is the measure of all things. If this other final reality of material or energy shaped by pure chance is the final reality, it gives no meaning to life. It gives no value system. It gives no basis for law, and therefore, in this case, man must be the measure of all things. So, Humanism properly defined, in contrast, let us say, to the humanities or humanitarianism, (which is something entirely different and which Christians should be in favor of) being the measure of all things, comes naturally, mathematically, inevitably, certainly. If indeed the final reality is silent about these values, then man must generate them from himself.
So, Humanism is the absolute certain result, if we choose this other final reality and say that is what it is. You must realize that when we speak of man being the measure of all things under the Humanist label, the first thing is that man has only knowledge from himself. That he, being finite, limited, very faulty in his observation of many things, yet nevertheless, has no possible source of knowledge except what man, beginning from himself, can find out from his own observation. Specifically, in this view, there is no place for any knowledge from God.
A Christian Manifesto
by Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer
This address was delivered by the late Dr. Schaeffer in 1982 at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is based on one of his books, which bears the same title.
But it is not only that man must start from himself in the area of knowledge and learning, but any value system must come arbitrarily from man himself by arbitrary choice. More frightening still, in our country, at our own moment of history, is the fact that any basis of law then becomes arbitrary — merely certain people making decisions as to what is for the good of society at the given moment.
Now this is the real reason for the breakdown in morals in our country. It’s the real reason for the breakdown in values in our country, and it is the reason that our Supreme Court now functions so thoroughly upon the fact of arbitrary law. They have no basis for law that is fixed, therefore, like the young person who decides to live hedonistically upon their own chosen arbitrary values, society is now doing the same thing legally. Certain few people come together and decide what they arbitrarily believe is for the good of society at the given moment, and that becomes law.
The world view that the final reality is only material or energy shaped by pure chance, inevitably, (that’s the next word I would bring to you ) mathematically — with mathematical certainty — brings forth all these other results which are in our country and in our society which have led to the breakdown in the country — in society — and which are its present sorrows. So, if you hold this other world view, you must realize that it is inevitable that we will come to the very sorrows of relativity and all these other things that are so represented in our country at this moment of history.
It should be noticed that this new dominant world view is a view which is exactly opposite from that of the founding fathers of this country.
(to continue reading …go to the link below.)
http://www.peopleforlife.org/francis.html
51. Fletcher Christian
Sure, Charles. And just what does mining silver get you, beyond a big pile of not-very-useful metal?
…………
I’m not disagreeing with you that the the Dutch and the Brits concentration on trade and industry–served them better than than Spain’s concentration on Gold and Silver.
It can be argued that resource countries today like Saudi Arabia and even Russia are aware of their weakness in this regard. But Venezuela…not so much.
My only point about the Spanish of the 16th-18th centuries was that for most of that time they were not looting old Indian empires for the their gold and silver but rather they were mining it themselves. This caused a huge monetary expansion in Europe. So that the first speculative bubble in recorded history happened in Holland with the tulip craze.
The reason this is important is that these kinds of bubbles happen today. The last bubble was the big housing bubble. Its a safe bet too that bubbles will happen in the future too. space mining companies are already forming today. All they’ll do for the next decade or two is survey space between here and the asteroid belt for rich rocks. 40-50 years from now — using technology that’s pure science fiction in today’s terms–these companies or others will bring riches from space–on the scale that Europe experienced through the Spanish for 2-3 centuries.
54- I can’t imagine what prompted all that, since I was referring to Hugo Chavez. He is going to survive cancer, demons, and the plague if somebody’s brilliant scam works.
Gringo @ 38 said:
“Professing Jews in 1492 and professing Muslims in the early 1600s were given the choice in Spain of converting to Christianity or leaving Spain. … Many Conversos immigrated to inaccessible ends of the Spanish Empire, such as New Mexico or Antioquia in Colombia, far from the reach of Madrid.”
It’s my understanding that a significant fraction of Spain’s Jewish community immigrated to Mexico in order to escape religious persecution. This was explained to me by a Jewish Mexican waitress as she was bringing me some tasty albondigas soup. At the time, she was wearing a Star of David which prompted my asking her about it.
I recall reading that Spain’s Jewish community made the classic error of backing the Moslems during the Reconquista. One wonders why Spain’s Jews made that choice.
Charles @ 55 said:
“All they’ll do for the next decade or two is survey space between here and the asteroid belt for rich rocks. 40-50 years from now — using technology that’s pure science fiction in today’s terms–these companies or others will bring riches from space–on the scale that Europe experienced through the Spanish for 2-3 centuries.”
It would be wonderful if this proved true. Supposedly there are asteroids that are loaded with platinum and industrial quality diamonds. However the cost of getting into space today is so expensive that there could be pure gold nuggets in Low Earth Orbit and it would still be uneconomical to mine them. I’m hoping Elon Musk and SpaceX will change that.
I will not be able to attend his funeral but I will be sure to send a nice card saying I approve.
e @ 57: It would be wonderful if this proved true. Supposedly there are asteroids that are loaded with platinum and industrial quality diamonds. However the cost of getting into space today is so expensive that there could be pure gold nuggets in Low Earth Orbit and it would still be uneconomical to mine them.
A space-based civilization already up there could fairly easily dump stuff downwards. OTOH receiving payment for them up in orbit would be the next problem, what would they have on Earth that would be worth the energy to put it into orbit as payment? So they could deliver stuff, but would have no reason to do so! Given a self-sustaining space civilization it’s those living down the hole who it doesn’t pay to receive pure gold from!
But it seems we’re still a long way from any such problems … if ever.
This little piggie went to market
This little piggie stayed home
This little piggie had roast beef
This little piggie had none
This little piggie died and went straight to Hell where sadly he was only a minor leaguer in the game with Stalin,Mao,Marx,Uncle Ho and Pol Pot. And when Fidel gets there, Piggie will probably get put on waivers.
So this is the version of Mathilda I remember from the Ed Sulivan show;
http://youtu.be/160rGid_TFw
(that one from Paris recently)
by the way … be ready to go to jail:
Harry Belefonte was interviewed by Al Sharpton on MSNBC today and offered President Obama some advice on handling the GOP and opponents.
“That there should be this lingering infestation of really corrupt people who sit trying to dismantle the wishes of the people [Republicans, Conservatives, and The Tea Party], the mandate that has been given to Barack Obama, and I don’t know what more they want. The only thing left for Barack Obama to do is to work like a 3rd world dictator and just put all these guys in jail.”
http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/harry-belafonte-says-president-obama-should-work-like-3rd-world-dictator-put-gop-in-jail-28116/
rocky times indeed
SF
People who say that gold and silver have no intrinsic value make me laugh.
Oh, wait… Profound ignorance of basic economics isn’t funny.
Especially when it’s shared with the world via a device which is connected to a system which then shares it with other devices which all depend heavily on gold and silver.
Try building a computer (router, cellphone, stereo, MP3 player, HDTV, etc.) without them.
Doesn’t work very well.
Economic Reforms under Raul Castro
Cuban economy czar Marino Murillo told the assembly that the government is planning more measures to support and increase the ranks of independent workers and small business owners.
Real estate broker, delivery person, antiques dealer and produce vendor will all be newly legalized private jobs in a country where the government has long dominated the economy and employed nearly the entire workforce.
The self-employed “are gaining space,” Murillo was quoted as saying by the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina.
Economists have said Cuba needs to expand the number of allowable private enterprises, with an emphasis on white-collar work. Real estate has been a particular concern. Cuba legalized the buying and selling of property 12 months ago, but has yet to allow agents to facilitate transactions.
Some 400,000 people now work in the private sector in 180 legally approved job areas, Prensa Latina said. That’s up from 156,000 in late 2010, the onset of Castro’s five-year plan to reform the economy with a dash of free-market activity.
This is an internal matter of the party, to improve it,” he said. “It needs a lot of improving in many senses, to adapt to the times we live in.”
Raul Castro is also first secretary of the Communist Party, the only political party on the island.
Over the past year Cuba has opened up more of its largely state-controlled economy, expanding self-employment in sectors such as hairdressing and watch repairs.
More than 357,000 people now have licences to trade, helping boost their income considerably beyond the average state salary of just $20 (£13) a month.
Many restaurants and food stalls are already privately operated
Larger, privately run restaurants have also been permitted as Cuba attempts to slim-down the state payroll, and cut costs. The goal is to transfer up to 40% of the workforce into the private sector by 2015, where they’ll pay taxes for the first time.
Many moves – such as a decision to allow Cubans to buy and sell property – were approved during a rare Communist Party congress last April.
That congress, Raul Castro said, was the “defining event”.
When he goes maybe he can take that slimy little bastard sean penn with him.
#63 Doug
I am watching this with some cynicism. I remember that the New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union was replaced by collectivization and the “elimination of the Kulaks as a class”. There were similar reversals in China. The tide of freedom may be ebbing in the world, and the “Seguridad del Estado” may be taking capitalist roaders away again if the mood changes.
As far as what Buraq Hussein will do with the “opportunity” in Venezuela; I can easily see him transferring some tens of billions of dollars from our treasury to the UN or IMF to be used as cash and in kind aid for Venezuela. With those organizations involved, maybe one or two billion may actually be delivered to Venezuela, marked as UN, Russian, or Chinese aid.
Subotai Bahadur
Doug @ 63 “Economists have said Cuba needs to expand the number of allowable private enterprises …”
Reduced political control of the marketplace has been tried at several points in time in several different localities since WWII — New Zealand, Ireland, Russia, most famously China. Seems to have worked every time it has been tried, although success then brings out the redistributors as the Big Wheel keeps on turning. Despite all the problems in Europe & the US from Big Government printing more money to spend, the fundamental issue is that the Political Clique has created not just Big Government, but Big Intrusive Government.
The key to untieing today’s economic Gordian knot is — regulatory roll-back. Instead of that Boner guy in Congress pre-emptively surrendering to the forces of darkness by making an initial demand of only $1 “cut” in spending for each $1 increase in the Debt Limit, he ought to be demanding elimination of 1 page of regulations for each dollar increase. It is a shame that Boner is nothing but an Institutional — as apparently are most of his caucus.
We can take grim solace from the fact that this too shall pass as the Big Wheel keeps on turning — although it will grind many of us to dust as it turns.
12. Walter Sobchak
According to one R.B. Southwaite, author of “Inflation in Tudor and Early Stuart England” (1969), the price of a basket of foodstuffs in England rose by 460% between 1520 and 1700.
Apparently, for Britain at least, the jury is out on whether the price increases were caused by the increased money supply; or by the increasing scarcity of agricultural products in relation to the demand for them; or by a combination of the two.
The extra supply of silver from the New World enabled the mint to increase the issues of silver coins (the money supply) and in the 1540′s and 1550′s the Crown also debased the coinage which lowered the exchange rate for English coins and contributed to inflation. Apparently, during this period (1520 t0 1700) the population increased at a greater rate than agricultural production increased.
6. Kinuachdrach
Never been to Cuba (don’t want to support their communist government) so am not familiar with the export of Canadian Sex to Cuba. Where do they get the canoes? I do think that sex tourism anywhere is a sad and creepy thing and I wish those Canadian tourists would stop being a part of it.
So he is dying. Just not fast enough for me.
So, is there a Vegas line on who attends the funeral? Obumma, Biteme, Nutsy Pelosi… maybe Penn or some of his ilk? Surely Michael Moore will be there.
So after the funeral and festivities later this month, does the country become a naked dictatorship?
I’m talking about Venezuela not the USA. Or maybe I’m talkin’ ’bout….
I have been asked to say something significant with respect to this event. The first thing came into my mind was the last verse to the Eagles song, “Hotel California.”
Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
“Relax, ” said the night man,
“We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! “
stargazer @ 68 – Here’s something to pray for, a meteor strike on the funeral procession.
God works in mysterious ways. Taking out everyone nasty from Sean Penn to A-Jad to Putin with one little snowball from Heaven!
One can dream can’t he???? The Bolivarian Apocalypse!
Come on team, cheer up!
Now that low information voters have seen their payroll taxes go up, it won’t be long before buyer’s remorse sets in and they will be singing the blues!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPlsqo2bk2M
And in his one cogent moment throughout that long campaign, Joe Biden made sense just one time when he said the American people don’t like being played for fools.
Well peep’s, how do you like the Biden midwived, fiscal cliff, “tax the rich” plan’s effect on your take home pay?
How IS that hope and change thing working out???
#42 Karl, Heh! Google translate says this is “Shit processes”.
My TexMex street spanglish says it is ” Shit for Brains “
Charley Hua Chu @ 72 – Under Obamacare it is known as RCF.
Recto-Cranial Fistula
And BHO II is the poster boy.
@62. Mark v
People who say that gold and silver have no intrinsic value make me laugh.
Oh, wait… Profound ignorance of basic economics isn’t funny.
No one here said that they have no intrinsic value. Fletcher Christian said that they have “very little intrinsic use.”
People who say that they have no intrinsic value are correct, because nothing has intrinsic value. Economists abandoned the concept of intrinsic value back in the 19th century. Ignorance of this fact is ignorance of economics, but ignorance of the industrial uses of gold and silver is not.
Smoking Frog – Thanks. Note, please, that I said “very little” not “none”. Silver is of use in antibacterial devices of one sort or another, also in photography; also to a small degree in the manufacture of tableware – although silver tableware is only really used by people who want to show off; stainless steel does a better job except for that. It’s also used in jewellery and similar decoration, as is gold (obviously); similar comments apply there, too.
Gold has uses in electronics, as noted, and also in the manufacture of some drugs used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (IIRC). It’s used where its relative inertness offsets its lack of durability – gold is one of the softest metals.
However, having said all that; Gold’s use in industry is essentially a 20th century and later phenomenon, as is the use of silver for the most part. In the 17th century or earlier? Iron, tin, copper, and zinc were much more useful. The concentration on obtaining silver and gold was a very bad thing for Spain.
And the present-day monetary value of both metals is still vastly inflated compared with their actual usefulness.
How does the Armada fit into your theory of England sliding to power on the back of poor Spain ?
And we should all remember that our very own Jimmy Carter certified Chavez’s last election as free and fair.
Sure sounds a lot like what’s bound to happen in the U.S. some day thanks to the moron vote.
There should be a special ring of hell reserved for that punk and his coterie.
last year’s news but I watched the 2003 documentary, “The Weather Underground” last night. It was made by sympathetic lefties who overlooked certain things like the details of David Gilbert and the black thugs killing the cops in Nyack and Bernadine Dohrn’s grooving on the Manson murders.
Try as they might to whitewash the Weather Creeps, one thing bled through, most of them, particularly Dohrn and the women are totally unrepentant and committed to the destruction of American capitalism and revolutionary socialism.
In a lot of ways they’re cartoon characters. A Black Panther in the film tagged them as anarchist clowns playing at revolution. In a sense that’s true as they’re by and large pathetic guilt ridden children of privilege. In their stupid delusions they believed white workers would join them on the battleground.
One of the most galling scenes was their mourning for Terry Robbins, Ted Gold and Diana Oughton who blew themselves up making a bomb to kill GI’s at Fort Dix. Would to God everyone of these cretins was in the townhouse.
I say all this to make the case that these are respected members of the left and tenured faculty at American Universities. Their influence, particularly Ayers and Dohrn on Obama is pretty clearcut evidence that he and his party are not inept but evil and malignant aiming at nothing less than the revolution destruction of traditional America. Keep your powder dry.
fc @ 75: Gold’s use in industry is essentially a 20th century and later phenomenon
Pragmatic uses sure, but that’s because of price, which is based more on its monetary role.
Otherwise in the 19th century and previous technologies gold can be used and is even preferable to lead in most applications, and actually lead is supposed to be more rare. Gold would make lovely fishing weights and ships ballast, gold plating prevents corrosion in all sorts of mundane applications, gold alloys could probably replace brass and bronze in a lot of applications, if only. Today it could replace copper in most uses, if it were crazy abundant and cheap. Gold bullets would be so much more environmentally friendly.
(CSI NY just last night had a plot element of “green bullets” using bismuth instead of lead. bismuth? No wait – that was Blue Bloods. CSI NY had a 3D printer gun! of course it blew up in use)
Silver is more problematic because it corrodes so easily, but silver alloys like sterling could be more widely used just because they are pretty. Platinum has many of the pragmatic (weight, corrosion resistance) virtues of gold and a much higher melting point.
79. trangbang68
Try as they might to whitewash the Weather Creeps, one thing bled through, most of them, particularly Dohrn and the women are totally unrepentant and committed to the destruction of American capitalism and revolutionary socialism.
In reading Bill Ayers’s Fugitive Days, I was also struck by the lack of remorse. I would have thought that, in addition to what you pointed out, someone who advocated Dictatorship of the Proletariat, as Ayers and his co-authors advocated in Prairie Fire, would later have some remorse.
There is also a Venezuelan connection with Bill Ayers. Chesa Boudin [as in Che Guevara-South America], whom Bernadette Dohrn and Bill Ayers raised from infancy while his terrorist parents were in prison, took a backpacking trip through Latin America. Within several days of arriving in Venezuela, Chesa was working inside Miraflores, the Venezuelan equivalent of the White House. The inside of Miraflores is not a standard backpacker destination in Venezuela. But when terrorist royalty is in your family tree, doors open in certain places. Chesa Boudin later wrote Gringo, a book about his experiences in Latin America.Worth a read.
Bill Ayers has made several trips to Venezuela, such as at the World Education Forum in Caracas in November 2006. Bill Ayers’s affinity for dictatorships, which he expressed in Prairie Fire, continues with his praise of Thugo. It might be seen as just some more PSF [Pendejo sin Fronteras] boilerplate.
Bill Ayers hasn’t changed a bit. He is still spouting standard leftist clichés- Hasta La Victoria Siempre…motor-force of revolution..failings of capitalist education.. – et al left over from the Sixties. He apparently believes that “enlightenment and liberation” are what Chavista education is all about. Fool or knave? Knave, I say.
Will Huge-o be blamed for what’s happening to Venezuala’s economy? Hell no. It’s Bush’s, Republican’s, old white guys, etc., etc. fault. So goes the liberal mantra.
81 @Gringo
Pendejo sin Fronteras
Brilliant. Consider that stolen. I mean redistributed to the humor-impaired.
Joe Kennedy mourns
That commie pig can’t go fast and hard enough for real SOCIAL JUSTICE. Watch. They will keep him on life support for as long as they can. Maybe even stuff him like Lenin so he will really never go away. Just hang around like the stench he is.
Chavez used his petroleum production the same way USA uses Its own Petro-Dollar system. Making comments about Venezuelan Debt Vs. Petroleum production without comparison of America’s own problems is a bit disingenuous. In fact what the USA does is worse, it uses Petroleum production of Saudi Arabia as basis for settlement accounts in NYC.
This is why Saudi Arabia can thumb its nose at the world and fund global terrorism and fund Sharia schools in the USA without fear of retribution.
Gold has been the backbone of Banking in Europe since the early middle ages. London Goldsmiths began to issue receipts of Gold holdings to merchants as payment and thus was born the first banknotes in the 1300′s.
The US Federal Reserve used Gold to back U.S. Dollar until Petro-Dollar system was instituted by Nixon. The result; US Dollar has lost 92% of its value since petro-dollar system was created in 1971.
Gold coins are a currency unto themselves, convertible any country in the world. The price of Gold has rocketed up the last 10 years because currencies are collapsing, public debt placed on them by their governments unsustainable.
In the USA alone there is just under 300 Trillion in Derivative Debt held by American banks, and this is the next bubble to burst.
Its only in America that people think Gold has no value. In Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, Russia…every other country families and Governments store what wealth they can in Gold and Silver. It maintains pace with inflation and hedges value against collapsing currencies just as it is doing today.
well you should read the stinging letter or eulogy written by Hugo Chavez’s ex woman. to paraphrase a little, she said he brought a lot of pain and suffering, and mourning to his people and instead of dying amongst his beloved people, friends and family, he was dying amongst strangers in a foreign land, in an exile of his own making. the best line all together was socialism only works in 2 places, in Heaven where it isn’t needed and in Hell where they already have it. this letter was printed in the National newspaper. he must be dead otherwise these people have put their lives at risk.
Despedida a Hugo Chávez de Nancy Iriarte, su ex mujer: “Pasarás a la historia como un traidor y un cobarde”.
Impresionante, profunda despedida de Nancy Iriarte Díaz a su ex esposo Hugo Chávez, publicada en uno de los periódicos venezolanos de mayor circulación “El Universal”. La publicamos para equilibrar la balanza y demostrar que no todos son alabanzas en torno al dictador venezolano, que perece.
“Algunas consideraciones sobre tu muerte: No quiero que te marches de esta vida sin antes despedirnos, porque has hecho un mal inmenso a mucha gente, has arruinado a familias enteras, has obligado a legiones de compatriotas a emigrar a otras tierras, has vestido de luto a incontables hogares, a los que creías tus enemigos los perseguiste sin cuartel, los encerraste en ergástulas que no lo merece ni un animal, los insultaste, los humillaste, te burlaste de ellos, no solo porque te creías poderoso, sino inmortal… porque el fin de los tiempos no era contigo.
Pero llegó tu turno, los plazos se acaban, el término de tu contrato llega a su fin, tu “ciclo vital” se apaga poco a poco y no de la mejor manera; probablemente morirás en una cama, rodeado de tu familia, asustada, porque va a tener que rendir cuentas una vez que des tu último aliento, te vas de esta vida lleno de angustia y de miedo, allí van a estar los curas a quienes perseguiste e insultaste, los representantes de esa Iglesia que ultrajaste a placer, claro que te van a dar la extremaunción y los santos óleos, no una, sino muchas veces, pero tú y ellos saben que no servirá de nada, es solo para calmar el pánico que hace presa a tu alma ante el momento que todo lo define.
Mueres enfermo, padeciendo el desahucio, las complicaciones inmunológicas, los terribles efectos secundarios de las curas que prometieron alargar tu vida, tus órganos se van apagando uno a uno, tus facultades van perdiendo el brillo que las caracterizaba, tus líquidos y efluvios son colectados en bolsas plásticas con ese hedor a muerte que tanto te repugna.
Dime si en este momento, antes de que te apliquen una nueva inyección para calmar los dolores insoportables que padeces, vale la pena que me digas que no te pueden quitar lo bailado, ¡ah! los viajes por el mundo, los maravillosos palacios que te recibieron, las paradas militares en tu honor, las limousines, los títulos honorarios, los pisos de los hoteles cinco estrellas, las fastuosas cenas de Estado… dime ahora que vomitas la papilla de auyama que te tratan de dar las enfermeras, si era de eso de lo que se trataba la vida, pues ese brillo y el oropel ya no están entre los monitores y máquinas de resucitamiento que te rodean, esas marchas y aplausos ahora son tonos y alarmas de sensores que regulan tus signos vitales que se hacen más débiles.
¿Puedes escuchar al pueblo de tu país afuera de tu cuarto?… debe ser tu imaginación o los efectos de la morfina, no estás en tu patria, estas en otro lado, muy lejos, entre gente que no conoces… sí, estás muriendo en tu propio exilio, entre una banda de pilluelos a quienes les has tratado de entregar tu propio país, tus últimos momentos los pasarás entre chulos y estafadores, entre tu corte de aduladores que solo te muestran afecto porque les dabas dinero y poder, todos te miran preocupados y con rabia, nunca dejaste que ninguno de ellos pudiera tener la oportunidad de sucederte, ahora los dejas al descampado y tu país al borde de una guerra, ¿Era eso lo que querías? ¿Fue esa tu misión en esta vida? Olvídate del cuento de los pobres, ahora hay más pobres que cuando llegaste al poder, olvídate de justicia e igualdad cuando prácticamente le entregaste el país a una fuerza extranjera que ahora tendremos de desalojar a la fuerza y a costas de más vidas.
Tengo la leve impresión que ahora sabes que te equivocaste, creíste en un cuento de camino y te creíste revolucionario, y por ser revolucionario… inmortal, convocaste a tu lado a los muertos, a tus héroes, a esos fantasmas que también creíste con vida, a Bolívar, al Che, a Fidel, al Marx que nunca conociste y que recomendabas su lectura… el andar con muertos te llevó a la magia y a los babalaos, te metiste a jurungar tumbas, y a ofrendarle a una corte de demonios y malos espíritus que ahora te acompañan… ¿Sientes su presencia en el cuarto? Vienen a cobrar, a recoger lo único que tenía valor en tu vida y que tan malamente apostaste por la oscuridad y el mal, tu alma.
Bueno, me despido, solo quería que supieras que pasarás a la historia como un traidor y un cobarde, que no rectificaste cuando pudiste, te dejaste llevar por tu soberbia, por tus ideales, por tu ideología renunciando a los más preciado, a tu libertad y a la libertad de los otros, y la libertad nos hace humanos.
El Socialismo solo funciona en dos lugares: en el Cielo, donde no lo necesitan, y en el Infierno, donde ya lo tienen”
Nancy
I am surprised that no BC posters have commented on the incident several years back when Hugo Chavez addressed the UN General Assembly after GWB and made a snarky comment about President Bush’s prior address. I believe he said something to the effect that he “could still smell the brimstone”.
Wonder how he feels about that now, and if he can smell it himself now…
79. trangbang68 said…
“I say all this to make the case that these are respected members of the left and tenured faculty at American Universities.
Their influence, particularly Ayers and Dohrn on Obama is pretty clearcut evidence that he and his party are not inept but evil and malignant aiming at nothing less than the revolutionary destruction of traditional America. Keep your powder dry.”
—
It is sad that so many on the right stop short of this truth, for whatever reason.
(makes them feel uncomfortable? Don’t want to suffer namecalling? Simple Ignorance? Cowardice? …who knows)
Anyone who has been in the movement, like Dave Horowitz, knows this is delusion.
I spent enough time around such characters to know better than to not ascribe evil intent to their thoughts and deeds.
Ayers and Dohrn like to pretend the were never directly connected to the deaths of others.
The record shows otherwise.
Horowitz owns up to treasonous behavior, and spends his days working like Hell to atone for it.
Ayers, Obama, and Dohrn continue to shovel more lies on their personal histories, allowing them to continue as effective agents for the dark side.
@88. john from cincinattus
The letter from Chavez’s ex-wife very much deserves to be presented in translation. I tried Google Translate on it, but the result does not do it justice. I’d translate it myself, and probably do a pretty good job, but I’m not qualified, really.
It’s a very moving letter, and I suppose everything she says is true, but my response to her would have to be to advise her to pray for his soul.
As a software developer with a very longstanding interest in computer science, I find it hard to understand why Google Translate should be so bad in places. For example, the headline is wrong, even though the Spanish prepositions make it very clear that she and not Chavez has issued the fare(not)well.
Why didn’t Obama just send Chavez some American doctors? By the way; did Obama send Chavez any American doctors? Why didn’t Chavez come here? Didn’t he want the best?
#23 Peter Boston
Perhaps if Catholic Europe had helped the Byzantines in their fight for survival against the Mohammedan Turks (instead of supplying the Turks with the latest wall-smashing cannon), Constantinople would not have fallen and there would not have been a Battle of Kosovo, and Battle of Nicopolis, a Siege of Vienna or a Battle of Lapanto. But the Byzantines were schismatics who refused to submit to the authority of the Pope in Rome and, therefore, heretics deserving their fate.
I find militant Catholics as personally offensive as militant Muslims; the difference being that, since there’s zero chance I’ll be hauled up before the Inquisition for my “heresy”, those like Peter Boston can only tell me I’ll burn in Hell for not being Catholic, while the militant Muslim wishes to send me there himself for not being Muslim.
”* 23. Peter Boston
Perhaps if the other so called Christian nations in Europe had helped Spain (instead of supporting the Mohammedans) expel Islam from the continent and helped pay the massive expense of arming a fleet and defeating the Mohammedan Turks at Lepanto, Spain would not have gone broke.”
Perhaps if Spain had not spent so much effort attempting to conquer and oppress other Christian nations in Europe then Spain would not have gone broke.
Come on, people, show some appreciation for our host! Buy a coke. Pick up the tab. The tab. Coke. Get it?