Note To Fidel: Cut The Crap -- 4/28/2003
I had a delightful week's respite from blogging's arduousness. First, I welcomed Kenneth Starr and Newt Gingrich to the estate for a delightful two-course dinner. We went to see Robert Goulet, who was starring in Man Of La Mancha at the Mount Winchester Community Playhouse. Then we stayed up late discussing the exciting possibilities of a U.S. imperium. After they left, I worked on an essay called "In Defense Of Plunder," which I believe will challenge the political-science establishment like no piece of writing since my Oxbridge mentor Sir Francis Crapshoot's legendary book "Obtuseness As Dogma."
Finally, the date arrived for my trip to San Francisco and the second-annual International Festival Of Teabagging. It went on for three days, and to say the least, I am sore. Pictures can be found here. It may look like an ordinary bookstore reading, but let me tell you, people, it was really a fortnight of ball-dipping madness. See you there next year.
Regrettably, while I pursued the pleasure principle, the news marched on. It appears that Attorney General John Ashcroft now believe that the indefinite detention of foreign asylum seekers is a key component to maintaining national-security in a time of terrorism. I tend to agree with him. After all, Haiti has a long history of violence, and so does every other country in the world. Letting in refugees with god knows what kinds of issues and grudges is just asking for trouble. Meanwhile, Fidel Castro has been busy, jailing 75 dissidents and executing three hijackers, all the while blaming his own repressive techniques on the United States.
Though I did write a book in the 1980s called "My Friend Fidel," I have to admit that he's gone off his nut in recent years. While I won't necessarily call for an invasion of Cuba per se, I will say that if one occurred, you wouldn't hear objection in this space. And I don't want to hear any whining from liberals about how we have a double standard when it comes to Cuba. If John Ashcroft wants to detain intellectual dissidents from other countries, that's fine, because they may be a threat to democracy. That's in no way equivalent to what Fidel's doing. A Cuban intellectual is dangerous whether he's in Cuba or Florida. And there's no inherent hypocrisy in the fact that Fidel is indefinitely detaining people without charges in Cuba, and so are we. Fidel has imprisoned his own people, which is horrible. We have imprisoned hundreds of people from 42 countries, including at least three teenagers. That's all right by me. They had it coming.
One more troubling note. I returned home to a somewhat nervous phone call from Roger, who had taken his vacation time to visit his ailing mother.
"She's having trouble breathing," he said.
"That's too bad," I said.
"I may have to stay here a while," he said.
"Where's there again?" I said. "I can never remember."
"Toronto," he said.
Oh, dear.