Shame on Us

Hardly anyone in this corner of Blogopolis recognized the 55th anniversary of this hemisphere's greatest triumph of socialism, and so I leap into the breech.

Fidel, being somewhat under the weather despite Cuba's universal health care system (which features a public option*), did not speak. Instead, brother Raul sang the praises of socialist solidarity and the terrestrial heaven it spawns.

NPR covered the celebration extensively and reported on El Supremo Raul thusly:

His biggest announcement was a prediction that an aqueduct renovation to provide water every day to Santiago should be completed by 2010. Residents there complain that the water is often out for days and even weeks on end.

And so we understand that socialism is that form of government which, after only 55 years in power, can promise that there will be running water in its second largest city** in only two more years.

Perhaps someone on better terms with Current Administration than I am might mention some of this to Our Leader.

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*And damned little else, if anything.

**Santiago gets 43.6 inches of rainfall a year, leading to a sort of WTF? moment. I mean, if the unemployed, approximately everyone, were assigned to catch rain in coconut shells and dump the surplus in a reservoir...

Talking to Judge Bean

Ambulance Driver comments about a girl battered beyond recognition by her boy friend:

"It may not be codified into law, but in some places in this country, "the sumbitch needed killin'" is still a viable legal defense." (Let's reopen the hearings and see what a wise Latina thinks of that.)

As a bonus he also gives us: "Remember, the recidivism rate for freshly ventilated girlfriend beaters is zero."

A professor of rhetoric would credit A.D. with admirable idea density in the post and a follow-up. A professor of morals would add that they can be good ideas. A screen printer would visualize a tee shirt with a message on the back, another on the front.

Prickley libertarians

The AP's Adam Geller joined some of our comrades at the Porcupine Freedom Festival. His report is a pleasant read if you appreciate nice, breezy newspaper style. I leave it to the reader to judge whether Geller assumed a tone of amused condescension, particularly toward the shooters and shooting contests.

Mushroom Food

It was a measure of the nation's keen sensitivities on matters of race that the fallout from a disorderly conduct charge in Massachusetts — and the remarks of America's first black president about it — had mushroomed....

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So says AP, stupidly.

The mushroom results from a President who shot his mouth off on a pending legal situation without having a clue as to what he was talking about.