Author: Jeremy Sapienza

The organization Reporters Without Borders reports on Press Freedom Day that in Latin America, The Island and the Bolivarian Republic lead the rest of the hemisphere — in the censorship of journalists. In anti-imperialist, pro-classic car Cuba alone 22 were (and continue to be) held behind bars. In the progressive hero Hugo Chávez’s private revolutionary playground of Venezuela, the state has closed numerous publications and shut down many TV stations for refusing to march to Chávez’s tune.

It seems the more the rest of the Americas continue their drift to the left, the less chance there is anyone else will hear about it.

¡Viva la Revolución!

Antiwar.com isn’t even supposed to have a position on Mark Thatcher and his merrie band of overthrowers, since it’s not a US foreign policy issue and it’s not really a war issue. But I have a position on the subject, and it is this: if I had known they were planning on overthrowing that monster in Equatorial Guinea, I would have been cheering them on.

Am I supporting war? Of course not. Am I supporting violating the sovereignty of a country? You bet I am. Dictators have no rights, and human beings have no responsibility to continue on under the thumb of dictators. Teodoro Obiang has ruled since 1979 (since he had the former ruler, his uncle, executed), and lives in lavish luxury, with all dissent crushed, while the population starves and cowers. He siphons tens of millions off the country’s oil profits. He is an absolute dictator and on his state-owned radio station, one of his aides said:

“He can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell because it is God himself, with whom he is in permanent contact, and who gives him this strength.”

Go ahead, complain that I’m no different from the people who think the US is liberating Iraq — you’ll be dead wrong. Unlike Iraq, the coup plotters weren’t forcing anyone else to pay for their operations, as the US is. Unlike Iraq, this would be a surgical operation to attack the key points in the country — here I am assuming the presidential palace and key ministries and oil fields — and not anything anyhere near civilian population centers. Unlike Iraq, collateral damage would be nonexistent, because these are businessmen with a budget — not career bureaucrats with a bottomless pit of funding — and collateral damage is expensive.

And of course I don’t think the mercs cared about the Equatoguinean people. I’m not a dingbat — they were in it for profit. But so what? Who cares what the motives are, as long as the result (and the means) are unobjectionable? I can’t know who they were planning on replacing Obiang with, if anyone at all, but you can be damn sure it was someone who would create a more favorable business climate. This would allow Equatoguineans to improve their personal lots — instead of those of the ruling dynasty.

Every other day or so, a news story describes life in North Korea. It is invariably a story about the totally asinine pronouncements of the government there. It almost makes me want to have a section on the page entitled “Those Wacky North Koreans,” under which we would place headlines such as:

Get a Socialist Haircut, North Korea Tells Men, on how the NK govt says that long hair saps the brain of its energy.

North Korea Orders Preparation for War With US, where one of the preparations include food, water, weapons, and portrais of Kim Jong Il.

North Korea: Train Blast Victims Died Saving Portraits of Kim, noting the official (and to me, highly offensive) reasons for the death of a few NK “heroes.”

Communism doesn’t just make you short; it makes you a total retard, as well. Hopefully, this is all coming to an end very soon…

I hate Michael Moore for making me defend Bush.
I hate Bush for making me defend Michael Moore.
I hate Bush for making me root for Democrats.
I hate Kerry for making me agree with Ralph Nader.
And Edwards. I hate Edwards, too. Mostly because I can’t stand his corny face. And because of his creepy Israel obsession.
I hate the US Military for making me support Islamic fanatics.
I hate Islamic fanatics for making me support Iraq’s newest jackboots.
And I hate Bush again for making me support Saddam!

‘I tell them straight up. Miami is the biggest war zone we’ve got,’ he said. ‘Every time you turn on the TV we see someone shot.’ Bass uses simple figures. Nine people from southern Florida have died in Iraq, compared with 338 murders in the Florida region last year: ‘They have a better chance in the army than on the streets of Miami.’

No you shady pig, you LIE straight up to people not sharp enough to do the math.

338 “murders” (in quotes because most are most likely the result of membership in some kind of gang organization) out of population of 16,713,149 (Florida in 2002) gives me a death ratio of 1:49,447. I have no idea how many troops in Iraq are from South Florida, but since there are about 135,000 troops there from the US, and then taking into account the population of South Florida, but then also the general absence of patriotism in Miami — well, American patriotism, anyway (yeeees, I’m from there) — let’s guess there are around 7000 troops from South Florida in Iraq. That gives us a 1:777 death ratio for South Floridians in Iraq. Even if there are 20,000 troops in Iraq from SoFlo, that still gives us 1:2222 death ratio. So there’s roughly between 22 and 63 times better chance that some Floridian, mostly likely a gang thug, will get their ass shot off in Iraq than Florida. The number skyrockets when we’re talking about normal people who aren’t criminals.

Death waits in Iraq. But the recruiters don’t care, they’ll pump the propaganda machine and get their bonuses; make another mark on the wall as they send another recruit to their death or their more likely mutilation or mental scarring. The State and its armies want you to sacrifice your life to their glory. And they’ll get you with lies, boys and girls. Outright, obvious, glaring lies.

(If any of my math is wrong, please tell me and I’ll post an embarrassed correction.)

Israel warned Syria on Tuesday that it can’t use Hizbullah as its proxy in a war against Israel and get away with it.

Hahahahahaha…….aaaaahhhhhahahaha!