Some Random Ramblings...

1. Hugo Over the Edge

Venezuelan populist strongman Hugo Chavez decided that having absolute control over the national media, triggering a regional arms race, and the suppression of free speech just wasn't enough.  So, he decided to dust off the old dictator's chestnut and start picking on the Jews.  Last week his police raided the private Jewish school Colegio Hebraica in Caracas.  They claim that they were looking for evidence of Mossad involvement in the assassination of political prosecuter Danilo Anderson.  That's logical, Mossad agents always use Jewish schools and synagogues as fronts.  We all know the story of the Mossad agent who became Deputy Defense Minister of Syria while undercover as an Orthodox Rabbi. (In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic.)  A nation's treatment of its Jewish population has always been the proverbial canary in the human rights coalmine, and judging by what's happening, Venezuela's history of tolerance is now just that: history.  I think old Hugo has fallen prey to Michael Moore's frequent assertion that the freedom of the lumpen proletariat is dressed in a burqa, and is probably trying to cozy up to such bright lights of freedom like Iran, Syria, and Libya.  Bright move Hugo.

 

2. Do They Care It's Chistmas?

This year is the 20th anniversary of "Do They Know It's Christmas" the groundbreaking charity single performed by Band Aid.  For the anniversary a collection of Brit pop/rock luminaries recorded a new version to raise money for the poor and starving of the Darfur region in the Sudan.  I think it's rather ironic.  They might know it's Christmas in Darfur, but they probably don't care since it's a Muslim community.  What's really ironic was that during the 90's people who do celebrate Christmas, the Christians of Southern Sudan were starving and tormented by the genocidal terrorist government in Khartoum, yet there was no charity album for them. Their misery didn't fall on a landmark anniversary year, so they were just shit out of luck.

 

3. Rich Gets Richer...

Fugitive financier, tax-evader, black market oil dealer, and Democratic Party fundraiser Marc Rich has his rather sticky fingers deep into the UN Oil for Food scam.  Apparently after his eleventh hour pardon by President Bill Clinton old Marc went into business with that paragon of ethics and purity Saddam Hussein.  He loaned the Butcher of Baghdad money in exchange for very lucrative oil deals that involve many in the Kofi Annan regime at the UN.  It seems that Marc Rich doesn't want to just get rich through hard work and smart investing, it has to have that element of evil and human misery to make it worth his while.  I hope the Clinton Library was worth all that suffering.