Gettin' Lazier
The posts have been pretty thin these days....

All I can say is that if you keep your expectations tiny, you won't be some whiney.

My Thoughts On Cuba
The other day I kind of touched on the Cuba issue without saying anything substantial (in all fairness to myself, I did warn you all in that very post not to expect anything meaningful from me), but I want to make this blog (at least some of the time) more than just ankle biting, snide remarks and ad hominem attacks. So today, I will do as North, one of my friends and readers suggested and actually write what I think about Cuba, rather than just make fun of what other people have said about it. I'd like to begin by saying that anticommunism is not really an obsession of mine. I disapprove of much of the the US cold war meddeling in Latin America (Pinochet, the Contras, etc., etc.) and have never thought Cuba (at least since they 1963) was much a concern. I think that US should end its embargo against Cuba, because Castro isn't much of a threat to America these days, the embargo impovrishes Cuba without weakening the regime and provides a convient excuse for Castro. However, Castro's new crackdown is completely inexcusable. No amount of "provocation" justifies this and any attempt to defend it is just nonsense mongering. By that kind of faulty reasoning all tin pot dictator's crimes are perfectly acceptable because Western (usually American) "Imperialism" can always be blamed for the latest tightening of the screws, even when in the case of the Afghanistan war the "provocation" is completely unrelated. I'm really disgusted by this kind of boot licking anti-enlightenment moral relativism that serves as a justification for "revolutionary", "third world" or "anti-imperialist" tyranny. Anyone with a brain ought to see that Castro (or for that matter, Arafat and Saddam) are responsible their own crimes and their people's suffering, to say otherwise is behave like the mealy mouthed pro-stalin party liners of the 30's and 40's.

Pointers
I've found this economics wesbite
The Library of Economics and Liberty
Haven't seen too much of it, so I'm not sure what to think.

A First Rate Jerk and Castro Apologist To Boot
Hunter Gray (Hunterbear) writes:

I've personally been quite supportive of the Cuban Revolution since
its onset -- and I certainly continue to be.

As I've noted earlier, I used Wright Mills' excellent Listen Yankee
as a text of mine in a number of sociology courses in the early '60s
and I was an early member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
Although I've never been to Cuba -- and do hope to go at some point
-- I have kept up with things fairly well. And I also know the
history of an important part of the Mexican Revolution -- in whose
tradition I have consistently seen the Cuban Revolution. Granted,
the high water point of the Mexican Revolution was not my particular
war -- my hatch came much later -- but it was my father's in 1913-14.
A 15 year old Indian kid who went down to Boston and shipped out as
cabin boy on a boat which was ostensibly carrying "agricultural
implements" to Mexico, he was on the high seas when he realized they
were actually carrying Winchester 44/40s and ammo to the Zapata side
of the Mexican struggle. That realization struck a ready note of
empathy and resonance within him and, when they landed at Vera Cruz
[where the bodies were stacked six feet deep in the streets], he
joined the Indian side of the Revolution as a gun carrying trooper
and remained with it for over a year -- eventually returning to the
'States via Puerto Rico where he picked up some cash dealing cards in
gambling houses. Much later, as an artist, he established close and
enduring relations with a number of the Mexican Indian artists who,
like himself, had been active in the Mexican struggle. From young
childhood on, I was privileged to know some of those great people.

Since the days of Aaron Burr, the United States has tried
consistently to make everything South of the Border its plantation.
It's used open military might, overt subversion through surrogates,
and clandestine subversion. Virtually no student I've ever taught has
realized, until I told them, that the United States maintains a
formal military base on Cuban territory -- where now, of course, the
U.S. is compounding Sin by violating International law, United States
law and Cuban law through its illegal incarceration of prisoners from
the so-called Afghanistan War.

At the very point, the United States -- using the Afghanistan "War"
as its precedent [that, in turn, building on Clinton's 90 day
bombing of Yugoslavia] -- launched its blatantly illegal and bloody
assault on Iraq, Cuba moved against its Dissidents. Given the
history of the United States in Latin America -- and certainly in and
around Cuba -- and the Bush ties with Cuban fascists in Florida [to
say nothing of Bush relationships with the government of Florida] --
Cuba's actions are certainly understandable. I'm not surprised at the
right wing social democrat and SDUSA types -- and fence straddlers --
who find Cuba an easier personal target than, say, Bush and Ashcroft
and Ridge.

My wife, Eldri, is Saami [Lapp] and Finnish. Frankly, the position
of Cuba vis-a-vis the United States of America, reminds us of what
we've heard about the position of Finland just before Stalin's
unprovoked and opportunistic invasion of that country. The
difference is that the Cubans are well armed and ready -- as they
have been for a long, long time indeed.

Hunter Gray [Hunterbear]
www.hunterbear.org
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

I subscribe to a left wing mailing list and today I was hit with this nonsense. Its a prime piece of leftist dictator coddling and moral relativisim. I was considering writing some insightful cricitism of this, but instead I'm just going to repeat a bunch of dumb slogans:

THE PEOPLE UNITED, CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED!

NADER FOR PRESIDENT

PHRASE DELETED.....

RESIST US IMPERIALISM

NO BLOOD FOR OIL

Sorry folks, but if your looking for anything brilliant, I recommend you go to another site.

Edwards Touts Diplomacy on N. Korea

"There's a real chance that diplomacy can work in a place like North Korea," he told about two dozen Democrats over breakfast Monday. "The last thing we need is for North Korea to feel more isolated."

Hey, look this guy has some sense! At least more sense than the Bush administration, which has so far completely ignored the North Korean crisis. Edwards (unlike some of the administration hawks, that are actually talking about a military solution) understands that its best to avoid a war with a nuclear power if its possible. Of course such talk is nearly high treason these days, I'm suprised Edwards hasn't already been visciously attacked by the GOP superschiesters...er...superpatriots as an "appeaser" simply because he want to avoid a confrontation that could easily kill hundreds of thousands. The demands being made by North Korea aren't really that awful (bilateral talks and a non agression pact) and its not likely we have another choice. Unless you consider a horrible war a good idea, we're beat, its time to fold and given them what they want.

Edited for paranoia and over the top rhetoric.

I'm No. 1!
Hey everybody, I'm the top rated "Brian's Blog". Yep, out fo the 438 other Brian's Blogs, it appears I'm the people choice, so suck on that Brian Grainger! Its all thanks to you, my loyal readers, who have given me more than 700 hits in the last few months, that make this possible.

In light of my posisiton as the No. 1 Brian's Blog, I think I deserve a little respect. You all should take much more seriously from now on and what I say should be accepted solely on my authority.

Photographs show a patient whose brain is infested with Maggots
Oh yeah, that is some gruesome stuff. Perhaps later I'll feel like I'm not ten years old and post something intelligent, but for now its time for the gross out material.

Reader's Response
brian god damn it, i want that partisan website of yours OFF the internet. right now. we dont have time for divisiveness in the media today.and stop your explicit kow-towing to special interests. noam would be very, very, disheartened.
thank you.

HEATHER NEWMAN: Recording industry has warning: File-sharers have to face the music
Heh, heh, it must fun to fight against the irresistable, because the RIAA does it so much. File sharing is here to stay and any attempts to shut it down now are just wasted efforts.

Blast Rocks Toilet at Lebanon McDonald's Restaurant
These attacks on "American" brands are another case of Arabs choosing rage over happiness. These McDonald's franchises are owned by Arabs and employ Arabs, attacking them will have zero influence on US policy and will only succeed in chasing investment out of the Mid East and depriving other Arabs of their jobs.

I've been cutting down on the blogging lately. I don't really like to play arm chair general and so have decided not to comment on most of the war. However, I still feel like playing InstaExpert on domestic policy. You may have noticed that Bush is still pushing for a new tax cut, peddling the tried and true supply side nonsense. The supply siders claim that tax cut pay for themselves and have lobbied for years to get the Congressional Budget office to use "dynamic scoring" when calculating tax cuts, so that the deficit predictions reflect the "stimulative" effects of tax cuts. The wing nuts finally got their wish, but even when they cook the books with dynamic scoring it turns out that the tax cut still produces a deficit. Of course, it would be foolish to expect them to change their rhetoric in the face of such strong evidence that they are wrong. Oh well, there they go again.