THE AGE DEMANDED

The age demanded that we sing
And cut away our tongue.

The age demanded that we flow
And hammered in the bung.

The age demanded that we dance
And jammed us into iron pants.

And in the end the age was handed
The sort of shit that it demanded.

--Ernest Hemingway, 1922

CIGAR BOX ART

I love old cigar boxes -- and the old weird artwork that decorates them. The beautiful lettering, and rich lurid colors make me want to smoke a nice Cohiba or Montecristo -- and now that Castro has stepped down perhaps our fearless leaders will lift the longtime ban on Cuban cigars. (Damn, I promised myself I'd be civil. Oh, well.) Anyway, these are some of my cigar box favorites! Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

FIDEL CASTRO RESIGNS

After surviving invasions, assassination attempts, and embargoes, old age has forced Fidel Castro to announce his retirement. For nearly fifty years, the tiny island ninety miles off the coast of Florida has remained a socialist country, ever since a small band of rebels led by Castro overthrew the US-supported dictator, Fulgencia Battista, on New Years Day, 1959.


President Bush predictably called for "democracy," a word he doesn't seem to fully understand worldwide (since the US picks and chooses which dictators to support) and certainly doesn't understand in regard to Cuba, where the US controls Guantanamo military prison (see map); in "our" Cuba, prisoners wait years for secret "trials," experience torture at secret CIA "black sites," and systematically lose rights guaranteed by the Geneva Convention.

I'm just saying, if you live in a glass house...

Photograph: Castro and friend, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who was killed by the Bolivian Rangers directed by the CIA in 1967.

FAIR AND BALANCED ELECTION COVERAGE

Here are some great FOX moments.

Here's FOX News on Obama and Hillary...and Fidel Castro!


FOX News on Barack Obama:


We all know FOX News is a right-wing propaganda machine, but this is ridiculous. Critical thinkers, take note. These are classic examples of what these moth-eaten wolverines do best. For extra credit, define "fair and balanced."

If FOX had covered the Civil War, it might have looked something like this:

thanks to democraticunderground.com

CUBA LIBRE

Sorry, you aren't free to travel to Cuba.

US State Department prohibits Americans traveling to Cuba, 90 miles off the coast of Florida, because Cuba is not "free."

However, you are "free" to travel to China, Vietnam, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Go figure.

For extra credit, define "free."