Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Castro’s retirement

Fidel Castro "retired" as president of Cuba today. He stayed in power 49 years – that is easy when you do not have to worry about majority votes or term limits and the Constitution is what you say it is. Hearing the name Castro always reminds me of John Derbyshire's gloss on a George Orwell quote -- "Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy."

One side note, although Orwell is always quoted as "Jackboots", in actuality, he only mentioned boots. Not really that important, unless you are concerned about precision.

2 comments:

Rodak said...

Anthony--
It's nothing short of amazing how the post-9/11 Derb has mellowed. I hope that you won't think me overly self-congratulatory if I ascribe the better part of that Derbian mellowing to my excellent influence on him over the years.

That said, I have just been banned for life from a blog called "What's Wrong With the World" by fascist elements in control of the posting there. These folks will never, alas, benefit, as has Derb, from the Rodakian methods. Oh, the humanity!

Anthony said...

So, are you trying to mellow me oout?