Carnival 2006 - Premortem

Einstein´s lost equation

The Ugly American

Please, Eva Golinger, either shut up and go home or move permanently to Venezuela, where you will be able to enjoy all the benefits a socialist banana republic like this one can offer you.

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"The Capitalists will sell us the rope by which we will hang them."

Not a single day passes by without the usual verbal sparring between the the US and Chavez. Diplomatic relations are at an all time low. Chavez recently expelled from Venezuela an American Naval Attaché and threatened the US with withholding oil shipments if invaded or attacked in any way. Nevertheless, it is business as usual for Washington. Because of high oil prices, tight supplies, and the Looney Tunes in Tehran, the US chooses to ignore Chavez' insults and erratic behavior, and keeps on buying his oil, even though he uses his Petro-dollars to wage a propaganda war on the US through the entire Continent. When will Washington's patience run out? I cannot help but feel sorry for the Americans' conundrum.

Richard Leider

"The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose."

Adolf Hitler

"How fortunate for leaders that men do not think."

Bill Cosby

• "In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."
• "Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it."
• "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
• "The past is a ghost, the future a dream, and all we ever have is now."

Bertolt Brecht

"Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life."

Eyes wide shut

It never fails. Take my wife, put her inside a car, start driving and five minutes later she is in the arms of Morpheus. I end up making the trip alone, bored as hell. I cannot understand how easily some people trust others to take them to their destination without exerting some sort of supervision over their driving skills. When I am not behind the wheel, I am constantly watching over whomever is driving, monitoring the speed gauge, checking road conditions, measuring distances between cars, never relinquishing control completely. Whenever I see my wife sound asleep, I begin to swerve crazily from one side of the road to the other, just to scare her into waking up, then tell her I just missed hitting an iguana.

Gandhi

Why is Gandhi so relevant in the current political context in Venezuela ? Let's take a look at some of his thoughts:

• "Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt."
• "Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side."
• "The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular."
• "Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep."
• "Nonviolence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and bravest."
• "We must become the change we want to see in the world."
• "In true democracy every man and woman is taught to think for himself or herself."
• "In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place."
• "Democracy and violence can ill go together."
• "A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a "Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble."

"I pity the fool"

"Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?"
Obi Wan Kenobi.

"Every nation has the government it deserves."
Joseph de Maistre.


The fact that Mr. Chavez has been able to hold on to power for seven years now, and with no end in sight, speaks volumes about the political IQ of the average Venezuelan. A tyrant like Chavez would not be electable in any civilized country, not even as a city Councilman. His antics are reminiscent of those of a snake oil peddler in a Western movie and he speaks with the forked tongue of a used car salesman. Nonetheless he seems to hold under his spell a wide chunk of the population. That is why democracies do not always work in nations where ignorance is paramount. There is the ever-present danger of a snake charmer, or a pied piper taking center stage. I feel sorry for Venezuela, but at the end, I have to admit, it had it coming.