Where's My Great Grandfather?

Where's My Great Grandfather?

Below is where my great grandfather's statue used to stand but Castro sawed him off leaving just his shoes. Why just his shoes? Did Castro have the delusion that HE could ever have filled these shoes?

Many thanks to Maria for sending me this photo of Castro's insecurity.

ARRESTADOS!

Go To Hell!

Go To Hell!

Hugo tells me and the rest of you Americans to "go to hell." But we don't want to go. So I propose a compromise. Tomás Estrada-Palma and hopefully the rest of you Americans agree to go to hell - before we buy gas again at CITGO! As for Verizon stock-holders who continue to buy gas at Citgo, there is a word for you - chumps...


Tomás Estrada-Palma

Rebellion

Rebellion

It is common to read that nothing is happening in Cuba, as Fidel Castro, seems to be dying. However, this is not exactly true, what is more appropriate is to say no news of rebellion reaches the outside world. For instance here is a description (footnote 1) of a minor rebellion among army recruits, which involved an escape and a relatively large military operation to capture them. The rebels are expected to be shot.......

Footnote 1

Enfrentan la pena de muerte jóvenes que se rebelaron en la prisión "El Manguito".

Por Lisette Bravo/APLO*

Bitácora Cubana, 24 de enero de 2007 - Santiago de Cuba - (APLO)
http://www.bitacoracubana.com/desdecuba/portada2.php?id=3837

Los tres jóvenes del servicio militar obligatorio y los dos reclusos que en la madruga del pasado 20 de diciembre protagonizaron la revuelta en el penal El Manguito, donde murieron los oficiales, Teniente Oliverio Orozco y el Subteniente José Antonio Tamayo, podrían estar enfrentando la pena de muerte, según la madre del joven Irán Cabrera León, uno de los reclutas participantes.


Según un funcionario de Cárceles y Prisiones, que por razones obvias pidió el anonimato, cuenta que uno de los reclusos cortó la corriente del servicio de teléfono a la prisión. Los reclutas se dirigieron a la enfermaría, donde los dos oficiales se encontraban conversando con la enfermera. Uno de los oficiales le dijo al recluta que no jugara con el arma que eso era peligroso. El recluta le contestó: "yo no estoy jugando, esto es de verdad". El recluta Yoelvis Delgado Arvelo comenzó a disparar, dando muerte a los dos oficiales, mientras la enfermera se tiró al suelo, dándose por muerta y los reclutas se dieron a la fuga, llevándose 5 fusiles AK-M de fabricación soviética y 37 cargadores de balas.


Los 3 reclutas y uno de los reclusos fueron capturados en la zona de Bolaños, a unos 10 Km. del lugar de los hechos y a unos 40 Km. de la ciudad de Santiago de Cuba, mediante una operación militar que involucró al Ejercito Oriental, las tropas especiales del MinInt y fuerzas combinadas con paracaidistas y la Policía Nacional Revolucionaria En un enfrentamiento con una patrulla de la PNR el recluso en cuestión recibió dos impactos de bala en el glúteo derecho. Los reclutas scondieron las armas y luego se entregaron sin hacer resistencia.


El hermetismo informativo de las autoridades no ha permitido conocer el móvil de la revuelta, pero uno de los reclusos participantes se declaró responsable de la organización y desarrollo del complot. Dicho recluso, quien cumple una sanción por atentado, bien pudo tener una motivación política, al tratar de liberar a los más de 500 presos que se encuentran recluidos este penal.


En el día de ayer, los detenidos fueron sometidos a un peritaje psiquiátrico en el Hospital Gustavo Machín, más conocido por el hospital de Jagua.

Manipulation

Manipulation

Perhaps you already know this fact or perhaps not. But I feel it is important for you to know that every waking second of your life you are being manipulated. Everyone recognizes that commercial entities are manipulating us to gain our commercial patronage. In addition, you pay a good deal of your tax money so that your government can alter your perception of reality to one that corresponds favorably with the state. Ignorance driven fear is the most effective tool in the box of the manipulators. The vast majority of people seem powerless against the onslaught of the manipulators. Generally, the manipulators overwhelm the public with unimportant information that occupies most of the average person’s idle time. The average person is adept at knowing who is screwing Madonna lately, the winner of American Idol, which politician has been caught with his drawers down, etc. But they have never had the time to find out that inflation is simply another way government taxes us by printing up too much extra money thereby diminishing the value of everyone’s money.

We are being manipulated to believe if we leave Iraq then Islamic radicals will soon take over here in America. But no one seems to recall that this domino theory was employed once before during the Vietnam War. Fifty thousand dead GI’s and almost 40 years later not only are commies not marching down Main street, as the manipulators assured us would be the case if we lost in S.E. Asia, the USSR actually collapsed and China is more capitalistic everyday. The manipulators depend on short-term memory loss of the masses. The manipulators would have you believe that sending in more troops will “fix” things in Iraq. It is a sad thing. In reality Iraq is a part of the collapsing Ottoman Empire which has ever since been dominated and manipulated by Western powers then by Saddam Hussein. The reality is since the days of the Ottomans the Sunni minority has been in charge of the Shiite majority through brute force. The Sunnis enjoyed being in charge. To end the violence the same thing must occur in Iraq as occurred here with our civil war. Namely, enough mostly Sunnis are going to have to be killed to convince the remaining ones that it is best to get along. Either the Shiites will have to kill the Sunnis; American troops will need to kill them or a combination of the two. Remember that our civil war lasted over one hundred years. If you don’t believe so then ask a black guy who lived in the South during the 1960s and earlier. The manipulators don’t want you to ask the question: “Why are Americans dying in Iraq’s civil war when there is not even one Iraqi who died fighting in ours?”

So why are the vast majority people so easily manipulated when I can see right though the fog of the manipulators? I’ll tell you my secret so you too can live without fear. I cannot hope to know all the information and facts of every detail in my universe so I must use a filter to eliminate the need to bother examining the manipulators’ information salvos. That filter is the “NON INITIATION OF AGGRESSION” principle. In other words, I don’t care how noble the cause – I never support initiating the use of violence to achieve those goals. Violence I reserve to respond to violence or to prevent clear and present threats of violence before they strike. Everybody agrees that if a thief puts a gun in your back and steals your wages that it is wrong. However, when a government does so using the excuse of feeding the hungry, enlightening the ignorant, protecting the weak, etc, it is thought perfectly acceptable. Not only is this government thievery unprincipled, it has not accomplished its stated goals. Every day we have more and more poor, ignorant and abused weak people. People are still amazed that government can’t tax the poor into prosperity. What the majority can’t see is when people are subjected to violence they begin to use more and more of their resources to evade that violence. This causes the manipulators to employ even more counter measures. An extreme example of this situation is of course Cuba where the entire economy is basically shut down. The entire apparatus is set up to manipulate the majority then strike out violently at the ones who fail to be deceived by the manipulators. But to a lesser degree in most places in the world this same unprincipled behavior occurs. In a few places like North Korea and Iran it is even worse than Cuba.

So the majority of the masses of manipulated people waste time worrying about what to do with the drug war, public schools, homelessness and all the other problems caused by the acceptance of violence perpetrated by one or more men against his fellow man for his own good, according to the manipulators. The manipulators are going to keep you from hurting yourself gambling, having sex with a prostitute, taking drugs, etc. even if they have to kill you. The manipulators admit that they have to kill people involved in these activities because they say these things are the cause of crime and other violence in society.

The manipulators once asserted that outlawing alcohol would eliminate crime and decadence in society. For some reason the people of that era never bought into the propaganda of the manipulators that this was the case. The people recognized that the violence was due to the illegal markets. The violence stopped immediately once alcohol was re-legalized. Yet when two drug dealers shoot it out in the streets or the cops get the wrong house and kill an innocent old lady, the manipulated public chants “those darn drugs,” when they should be saying “that darn drug war.” But they have been manipulated and as usual it is for cash and power. The manipulators use fear and warn that without the drug war our children will get hooked in schools and people will do drugs in the street outside of our home. But attempting to outlaw chemicals and vegetables for personal adult consumption everywhere all the time has resulted in these very same things! The illegal markets are happy to supply the kids at school with drugs. I’ve lived in a neighborhood that suddenly was taken over by a drug gang selling crack 50 feet from my door. The manipulators never admit that it would be far easier to focus limited resources on preventing these things than to try to be the nanny for a couple hundred million American adults behind closed doors. That is why I am perfectly fine with a grown man overdosing on drugs and dying. This sets a good example of what not to do for the rest of us especially the children. What I cannot support is the police murder of an 86 year-old non-drug using elderly lady while attempting to win the un-winnable drug war.

When I point out how the manipulators give the people “the once over” the manipulators scream that I am wrong. They accuse me of manipulating you. However, to manipulate you must be motivated by pure self-interest. While I am interested in myself, I stand to not gain one penny as a result of my beliefs – at least no more so than everybody else does when society improves drastically as a result of people finally listening to this consistent principled approach that I follow. The governments and their police, jailers, taxmen, accountants for wage slavery and other enforcers on the other hand stand to lose a great deal – their jobs. Who are YOU going to trust? The manipulators or me…

Tomás Estrada-Palma

Cuba: Why I care

By Claudia Fenelli

I am not Cuban. I don’t attempt or pretend to be. I am Italian-American, the granddaughter of economic, not political, immigrants. As a result of my background, the concept of political immigration was foreign to me until I met my Cuban-born Spanish professors in college twenty years ago. Even so, knowing them as well as I did but never discussing their ordeals, I had only marginal knowledge of Cuban history. With regard to the Cuban exile experience, well, let’s just say that if I didn’t hear it from Tony Montana, then I didn’t know about it. My ignorance was never questioned much since I live in Pennsylvania where the Cuban population is sparse. However, now that Cuban history and literature are part of the high school Spanish curriculum where I teach, I felt compelled to know more than what the student textbook told me. Books, Blogs, movies, documentaries and talking to Cubans have helped me to understand what is so seemingly foreign a concept to the average American: the current situation in Cuba. Read more