| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
'Grave' Prognosis For Castro
According to a Spanish newspaper, ailing dictator Fidel Castro
is facing "a very grave prognosis." As in, six feet under very
soon? Let's hope so. Looks like the much ballyhooed Cuban
healthcare system -- so often cited by diehard leftist
Castro-lovers as one of his great achievements -- isn't going to
be able to save the great one.
But a Cuban diplomat in Madrid said the reports were all lies. I
guess they were capitalist and imperialist lies, at that. On the
other hand, Castro hasn't been seen in public in a month of
Sundays, so maybe, despite official Cuban denials, the bearded
one really is close to buying the collective farm.
Why won't Cuba just be honest with its people for once and tell
them the truth about Castro's condition? What are they afraid
of? If the revolution was such a smashing success as they are so
fond of telling the world, then Castro's passing shouldn't be the
cause of any particular problems and the Cuban people will
simply fall in line behind the next Stalinist tyrant.
Or is it possible that the whole thing has been a miserable
failure and was maintainable only by Castro's famed charisma
(well, that and a murderous police state) which fueled a
perverse cult of personality? Maybe Cuban officials are worried
that when the personality finally croaks, the communist
dictatorship that has kept the island in a state of pathetic
dilapidation for nearly fifty years will come crashing down like
a bad Ponzi scheme.
But hold everything, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
another inveterate Latin American loser and thorn in the side
of decency. His mentor's recovery from surgery is slow and has
risks, he admitted, but he also denied the Spanish report that
Castro's condition was serious. In other words, no problemo,
the dictator will be back on his feet in no time and lording over
the island with his beloved iron fist.
Notwithstanding all the denials, the Spanish report was quite
specific in its medical details: Castro, suffering from
diverticulitis (bulges in the large intestine) had decided to
avoid a colostomy, which would have been the standard
procedure, and instead opted for riskier surgery which could
have gotten him back on his feet sooner -- if it had worked. But
the surgery, which involved sewing the colon to the rectum,
went bad when the incisions failed to heal properly and broke
apart, releasing gastric fluid with feces that caused serious
infection.
I know, it's way more than you ever wanted to know about
Castro's innards, but it's all in the interest of getting at the
truth. Anyway, the guy's 80, Cuba is a squalid mess and
communism has either already collapsed or is in the process in
a last few hold-out countries. Give it up already. Castro is soon
to be a goner and his regime is doomed. Let the celebrations
begin!
According to a Spanish newspaper, ailing dictator Fidel Castro
is facing "a very grave prognosis." As in, six feet under very
soon? Let's hope so. Looks like the much ballyhooed Cuban
healthcare system -- so often cited by diehard leftist
Castro-lovers as one of his great achievements -- isn't going to
be able to save the great one.
But a Cuban diplomat in Madrid said the reports were all lies. I
guess they were capitalist and imperialist lies, at that. On the
other hand, Castro hasn't been seen in public in a month of
Sundays, so maybe, despite official Cuban denials, the bearded
one really is close to buying the collective farm.
Why won't Cuba just be honest with its people for once and tell
them the truth about Castro's condition? What are they afraid
of? If the revolution was such a smashing success as they are so
fond of telling the world, then Castro's passing shouldn't be the
cause of any particular problems and the Cuban people will
simply fall in line behind the next Stalinist tyrant.
Or is it possible that the whole thing has been a miserable
failure and was maintainable only by Castro's famed charisma
(well, that and a murderous police state) which fueled a
perverse cult of personality? Maybe Cuban officials are worried
that when the personality finally croaks, the communist
dictatorship that has kept the island in a state of pathetic
dilapidation for nearly fifty years will come crashing down like
a bad Ponzi scheme.
But hold everything, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
another inveterate Latin American loser and thorn in the side
of decency. His mentor's recovery from surgery is slow and has
risks, he admitted, but he also denied the Spanish report that
Castro's condition was serious. In other words, no problemo,
the dictator will be back on his feet in no time and lording over
the island with his beloved iron fist.
Notwithstanding all the denials, the Spanish report was quite
specific in its medical details: Castro, suffering from
diverticulitis (bulges in the large intestine) had decided to
avoid a colostomy, which would have been the standard
procedure, and instead opted for riskier surgery which could
have gotten him back on his feet sooner -- if it had worked. But
the surgery, which involved sewing the colon to the rectum,
went bad when the incisions failed to heal properly and broke
apart, releasing gastric fluid with feces that caused serious
infection.
I know, it's way more than you ever wanted to know about
Castro's innards, but it's all in the interest of getting at the
truth. Anyway, the guy's 80, Cuba is a squalid mess and
communism has either already collapsed or is in the process in
a last few hold-out countries. Give it up already. Castro is soon
to be a goner and his regime is doomed. Let the celebrations
begin!