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WONDERFULLY DOOMED

Hugo gets all huggy towards evil Bush:

Hugo Chavez has called President Bush a devil, a donkey and a drunkard. But on Wednesday the Venezuelan leader said his comments were “nothing personal.”

“One day, if maybe George Bush and I survive all of this, we will reach old age, and it would be good to play a game of dominos, street baseball,” Chavez said on his weekday radio program.

The great thing about Venezuela, however, is that even the dead get to “play” … as the BBC’s Justin Webb explains:

I am sitting in a car in a petrol station on the outskirts of Caracas watching evidence of the pleasures and the pitfalls of being a wealthy Venezuelan …

Minutes later we are on our way and Jose - my friend and guide for the evening - is shouting over the sound of the engine. Like all Venezuelans Jose talks without pause for breath, and drives almost entirely in second gear.

We are careering under a bridge when he announces: “And some of the men - they had sex with the bodies of the dead women.”

What an odd thing to say. Odd in any circumstances but particularly these. Jose and I are discussing the mudslide of 1999 which killed between 10,000 and 30,000 people in a slum not far from here.

Speaking of odd things to say, here’s a line from BBC boy Webb himself:

I find myself torn by Venezuela - its economic experiment seems to me utterly doomed, and yet at the same time, wonderfully noble.

(Via Nick G.)

Posted by Tim B. on 03/15/2007 at 02:34 AM
  1. Socialism and necrophilia, but I repeat myself.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 03 15 at 02:44 AM • permalink

  2. Webb seems to be reaching for the Walter Duranty prize, but can’t quite get there.

    Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 15 at 02:48 AM • permalink

  3. Afternoon Infidel tiger! grrrr

    Posted by 1.618 on 2007 03 15 at 02:54 AM • permalink

  4. He could play dominos with Bush? and maybe go on a hunting trip with Cheney!

    Posted by jonnyswell on 2007 03 15 at 03:27 AM • permalink

  5. Fuck me dead, I hate commies!

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 03 15 at 03:29 AM • permalink

  6. Hugo Chavez has called President Bush a devil, a donkey and a drunkard.

    The left are a strange lot. Will anyone complain about ‘slinging mud’ or of Chavez sticking his nose into US politics?

    Posted by Nic on 2007 03 15 at 03:42 AM • permalink

  7. (Chavez) also taunted the U.S. leader for skirting questions about Chavez during his Latin American tour in the past week, comparing him to a matador avoiding the bull with his cape.


    uh oh.  I’ve seen this before. If Chavez doesn’t get some attention soon he’ll start sleeping around and drinking and he’ll probably end up with a nasty VD.

     

    We are careering under a bridge when he announces: “And some of the men - they had sex with the bodies of the dead women.”


    I bet his waiter’s friend’s cousin also told him there was cannibalism in New Orleans after Katrina.  (btw, shouldn’t that be careening?)

    Which parts does he think are noble? The gas cheaper than bottled water, the 20 percent inflation, the price controls or the taking over of private industry?

    Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 03 15 at 03:48 AM • permalink

  8. I like how Pres Bush never responded while Chavez followed him around, making him look like the yapping little lapdog he is.

    Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 15 at 03:55 AM • permalink

  9. Useful idiot alert.

    Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2007 03 15 at 03:57 AM • permalink

  10. Anyone’s been to Caracas recently?
    One reads horror stories of the crime situation.
    I need to make a sentimental journey there; a wayward uncle lived there, I might even have some cousins…

    Posted by Honkie Hammer on 2007 03 15 at 04:01 AM • permalink

  11. Way o/t but can somebody explain to this newb how to link? I push the link button and I’m supposed to copy that longass http thing that makes Andrea mad? It’s been said it’s “easy peasy” but I admit, I’m technostupid.

    Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 15 at 04:10 AM • permalink

  12. Dead or alive, the Venezuelans are being screwed.

    Posted by Penguin on 2007 03 15 at 04:34 AM • permalink

  13. But, of course, a BBC man will think its a “valiant attempt” after all that is what they think of the Soviet Union still.

    Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge on 2007 03 15 at 04:55 AM • permalink

  14. dean, dean, dean

    To copy the link with your mouse, click the right mouse button on the link at the top of the webpage you want to link to
    right mouse click “copy”
    right mouse click in the first box that comes up when you click “link”
    right mouse click “paste”
    click “OK”
    in the second box which comes up, type in the name you want the link to have.
    click “OK”

    remember, “perview is my fiend” (PIMF)

    Posted by kae on 2007 03 15 at 05:02 AM • permalink

  15. Good luck, dean.

    Posted by kae on 2007 03 15 at 05:02 AM • permalink

  16. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I guess that makes Webb the cement sub-contractor.

    Posted by hayesy on 2007 03 15 at 05:08 AM • permalink

  17. You racist barstards,humping dead people is part of their culture,think of the diversity people.Bring forth boat loads of them now to make Australia better…...........Um just put them out in some working class suburb,can’t have them shagging the dead out the front of my trendy cafe.

    Posted by sparrow on 2007 03 15 at 05:34 AM • permalink

  18. I find myself torn by Venezuela - its economic experiment seems to me utterly doomed, and yet at the same time, wonderfully noble.

    Yes.  That would be because BBC boy can always return to his cushy existence in Clerkenwell and admire the poverty of Venezuela from afar.

    Posted by murph on 2007 03 15 at 05:44 AM • permalink

  19. #17 sparrow .. why not? 

    Couldn’t you use a few extra bike stands on the footpath?

    Posted by Wand on 2007 03 15 at 05:46 AM • permalink

  20. “its economic experiment seems to me utterly doomed, and yet at the same time, wonderfully noble. “

    Why does it always seem rosey to these twits that don’t have to live under diabolical madness?

    Posted by Lonetown on 2007 03 15 at 06:11 AM • permalink

  21. BBC boy sees wonderful nobility in Zimbabwe too, perhaps?

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 03 15 at 06:13 AM • permalink

  22. #19 LoL, Reminds me of a Billy Conelly joke.

    Posted by sparrow on 2007 03 15 at 06:28 AM • permalink

  23. Okay, again: if it’s so wonderfully noble to live dirt poor in a shit-hole, why not go there and join in the righteousness? Cast off all your worldly goods, etc.?

    Posted by wreckage on 2007 03 15 at 06:29 AM • permalink

  24. #1 Infidel tiger sums it up best

    Hello mud slide victim,in case socialism has not fucked you over,we shall give you a damm good rodgering just to make sure.

    Posted by sparrow on 2007 03 15 at 06:33 AM • permalink

  25. #23

    In summary: he’s a cunt and snob who knows nothing and values nothing.

    Posted by murph on 2007 03 15 at 06:39 AM • permalink

  26. Well, this is a new development. Usually under socialism it’s future generations who get screwed.

    Posted by Don Charleone on 2007 03 15 at 06:46 AM • permalink

  27. Here goes, giving it a try.try volume warning

    Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 15 at 06:49 AM • permalink

  28. It worked! Thanks Kae!

    Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 15 at 06:51 AM • permalink

  29. I promise I’ll keep my blogal footprint small and on topic from here on.

    Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 15 at 07:05 AM • permalink

  30. #7, the writer was correct.  Careening means out of control.  Careering means traveling at speed.  You can always learn something reading this blog.

    Posted by anthony_r on 2007 03 15 at 07:08 AM • permalink

  31. Hey Hugo, fuck off you dumb fuckwit.

    By the way, these comments aren’t supposed to be personal.

    Posted by The Best Infidel on 2007 03 15 at 07:21 AM • permalink

  32. O/T but boy is Holland doomed.

    Check out the last paragraph from this article.

    He said that 40 of Holland’s 100 hospitals were run by Catholic or Protestant foundations. There are no Muslim hospitals, though Muslim immigrants make up a fifth of the population.

    Stck a fork in Europe, its done.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 03 15 at 07:48 AM • permalink

  33. #32 maybe tfm, but they are fighting back Cronulla-style…

    Posted by anthony_r on 2007 03 15 at 08:07 AM • permalink

  34. rebase
    Thanks for the link.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 03 15 at 08:16 AM • permalink

  35. #32 That reminds me of an incident back in the mid-90s while I was stationed in Alabama. We had 5 middle eastern officers attending a 5 month course. One of them, from Egypt, had been injured in a car wreck and was in the hospital. The other 4 clowns came to my office and said they needed to cut class for the day to visit their brother in the hospital. I told them no because I had scheduled a visit for them the next day.  They stopped in their tracks and said, “But that is the day we are going shopping in Atlanta?” 
    So I asked them what was more important, visiting their injured brother or shopping?

    They did come back with some handsome suits and jewelry though.

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2007 03 15 at 08:21 AM • permalink

  36. #30, careening is a boat term for us yachties. It means putting a yacht on its side on a beach at high water to clean or do repairs, and refloat at a further high water. Careering is travelling at speed without due care in a vehicle on land.

    Cheers, Maree

    Posted by mareeS on 2007 03 15 at 08:23 AM • permalink

  37. #36 careering.
    Thanks for clearing that up mareeS. I thought it was Australian for job-hunting.

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2007 03 15 at 08:51 AM • permalink

  38. The best thing about necrophelia is that the offspring can become matyrs and get 70 odd something virgins in heaven.

    Posted by surfmaster on 2007 03 15 at 08:51 AM • permalink

  39. And since I’m on an off-topic roll: I’m driving to Paris tomorrow for a long weekend. With any luck I’ll get some nice photos of burning Renaults or Peugeots. Stayed tuned.

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2007 03 15 at 09:03 AM • permalink

  40. A mate of mine works for an oil exploration company and was recently offered the choice of two overseas postings: Venezuela or Angola.

    He chose Angola.

    I shit you not.

    Posted by Young and Free on 2007 03 15 at 09:13 AM • permalink

  41. Dunno why I thought “noble” meant giving of oneself to serve others.

    In Webb’s lexicon, it means Chavez’ stealing from others to serve himself.

    Posted by Rittenhouse on 2007 03 15 at 09:28 AM • permalink

  42. I find myself torn by Venezuela - its economic experiment seems to me utterly doomed, and yet at the same time, wonderfully noble.

    I read this, and found myself exclaiming “WTF!?!?!!?!?!

    I’ll second the “Useful idiot alert”.

    TB: Have fun in Paris!

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 03 15 at 09:47 AM • permalink

  43. I find myself torn by Venezuela - its economic experiment seems to me utterly doomed, and yet at the same time, wonderfully noble.  One of the headlines in the NY Times, the day after Gorbachev officially declared the end of the Soviet Union was:
    Soviet Union, Born of a Dream, Dies.

    A dream?  More like a nightmare.  Heck, even many “progressives” in this country realized that our “noble experiment” with alcohol prohibition was a failure, and reversed course.

    Posted by rbj1 on 2007 03 15 at 09:53 AM • permalink

  44. #30

    Careering means traveling at speed.  You can always learn something reading this blog.

    I learned something today.

    #23

    If it’s so wonderfully noble to live dirt poor in a shit-hole, why not go there and join in the righteousness? Cast off all your worldly goods, etc.?

    I don’t think he meant being poor is noble but that Chavez efforts towards the poor are noble.  I think teaching children, adult literacy programs and helping the poor are noble ideas, but if everyone ends up poor except for the Chavistas then it might not be so noble. Or if they end up in a civil war (Chavez doesn’t seem to be the type to exit the scene quietly - or exit at all. Chavez is constantly talking about Chavez).

    One would think the noble ideas could be accomplished without him being a douchebag/dictator/demagogue/idiot.

    Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 03 15 at 09:57 AM • permalink

  45. At least the islamists wait until AFTER they’re finished to kill the women and/or livestock.

    ¡Todos tus cadavers son pertenecen a nosotros!

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2007 03 15 at 10:23 AM • permalink

  46. #45 TxBob:

    That was cause for a spit-take.

    Also, I thought that the value-added function of The Media was that they were effective “gate-keepers”. I’d say someone was asleep before the portculis on that one. As in - WTF does that little necrophilic anecdote have to do with Chavez’s Venezuela? Como se dice ‘non-sequiter’ en espanol?

    You’d think these guys would get tired of playing Charlie Brown trying to kick the football to the populists’ Lucy. Maybe one day they’ll get their collective nose out of the upper colon of the enemy of prosperity. ‘Course, that may not be in their interest since voyueristic drive-bys of crushing poverty sells news.

    Posted by brett_l on 2007 03 15 at 10:38 AM • permalink

  47. Hugo had better not get too friendly with El Diablo or he might just lose his invite.

    Posted by CO² max on 2007 03 15 at 10:46 AM • permalink

  48. I don’t understand Webb’s confusion.  Chavez hands out a million AK-47’s and closes the food stores.  What could possibly go wrong?

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 03 15 at 11:02 AM • permalink

  49. #44

    There’s nothing wrong with trying to help the poor.

    There is something wrong, however, with forcibly acquiring other people’s property to do so.

    There is something wrong with siezing absolute power and removing the natural rights of the citizenry in order to do so.

    Comprende?

    Here endeth the lesson.

    Posted by murph on 2007 03 15 at 11:29 AM • permalink

  50. #44

    I’ve just re-read your post and apologise for my terse response.

    However, I can guarantee that Mr Webb is almost certainly an economically illiterate Marxist dingbat who would approve of Chavez thieving people’s property in order to redistribute wealth.

    Posted by murph on 2007 03 15 at 11:35 AM • permalink

  51. I find myself torn by Venezuela - its economic experiment seems to me utterly doomed, and yet at the same time, wonderfully noble.

    To a leftist, the most abhorent thing is for there to exist any gap between the income and wealth of any people.  The closer the gap, the more egalitarian the society.  Even if it means everyone is dirt poor.

    Posted by wronwright on 2007 03 15 at 12:32 PM • permalink

  52. I think Hugo Chavez is a ruthless, thieving, murdering, Marxist, oppressive Saddam-in-training, and I don’t mind saying so to anyone.  But it’s not personal.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 03 15 at 01:03 PM • permalink

  53. “I find myself torn by [Venezuela|Russia|Cuba|China|North Korea|Cambodia|Zimbabwe] - its economic experiment seems to me utterly doomed, and yet at the same time, wonderfully noble.”

    Yup, works anytime.

    Posted by PW on 2007 03 15 at 02:28 PM • permalink

  54. I wonder what kinds of foreplay are considered appropriate for necrophiliacs?

    Would oral sex with a dead person be macrophage?

    Posted by Grimmy on 2007 03 15 at 03:39 PM • permalink

  55. “To a leftist, the most abhorent thing is for there to exist any gap between the income and wealth of any people.  The closer the gap, the more egalitarian the society.  Even if it means everyone is dirt poor except them.”

    There - fixed that for ya’, #51 wronwright.

    Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2007 03 15 at 04:30 PM • permalink

  56. #54, me:

    Macrophage should have been necrophage. I really need to remember to double check the spell checker ... or learn how to spell, or something.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2007 03 15 at 04:40 PM • permalink

  57. Grimmy

    Being a necrophilliac is overrated, its just dead boring…

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 03 15 at 05:10 PM • permalink

  58. #57

    Groan.

    Posted by kae on 2007 03 15 at 05:12 PM • permalink

  59. #52 RebeccaH, you forgot “megalomaniacal”.

    Posted by texasred on 2007 03 15 at 05:23 PM • permalink

  60. #58 - an even bigger groaner…

    If you’re into sadism, necrophilia and bestiality, you’re just flogging a dead horse.

    Posted by David Morgan on 2007 03 15 at 05:23 PM • permalink

  61. David Morgan

    My worst joke.

    Why did the CIA kill Albert Einstein?

    Because he knew too much.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 03 15 at 05:48 PM • permalink

  62. The Great Emo:

    I was with this girl the other night and from the way she was responding to my skillful caresses, you would have sworn that she was conscious from the top of her head to the tag on her toes.

    Posted by jgm on 2007 03 15 at 05:56 PM • permalink

  63. #39 Texas Bob, Paris or Paris, Texas?  Enjoy your trip and don’t let your rental get turned into car flambe.  But then again, it is a rental…

    Posted by anthony_r on 2007 03 15 at 06:17 PM • permalink

  64. ‘wonderfully noble’
    Sums up the Hollywood attitude to 70 years of World Communism, compareed to the very regular denouncing of Hitlerism.

    They can’t and won’t see the nobility in fighting the totalitarians of the Left.
    Solzhenitsyn gave us at least 50 wonderful scripts for films about this terrible human nobility and degradation that he evidenced in the Gulag.
    The West’s cinematic response after 60 years?  Silence - except for One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich  - one terrific [in every sense] film no-one knows about..

    How can our children avoid being ignorant morally about Marxism-in-action?

    Posted by Barrie on 2007 03 15 at 06:41 PM • permalink

  65. I’ve just re-read your post and apologise for my terse response.

    No problem.

    However, I can guarantee that Mr Webb is almost certainly an economically illiterate Marxist dingbat who would approve of Chavez thieving people’s property in order to redistribute wealth.

    Without a doubt. Refreshingly, he did acknowledge Venezuela’s problems which many leftists completly ignore or blame on Bush. It is bizarre how he can write that “It ends in repression” and note the inflation that could ruin them and he still decides that it is “wonderfully noble.”

    Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 03 15 at 06:52 PM • permalink

  66. Noble? Wrong word. I believe the word he was looking for was “naive”.

    Posted by Nicholas on 2007 03 15 at 07:01 PM • permalink

  67. There was a young man from Belgrade,
    who kept a dead whore in a cave,
    He said “I’ll admit,
    I’m a bit of a shit,
    but think of the money I save”.

    Bloody necro commies. No wonder they embalmed Lenin, Mao and Ho, and it explains the queues.

    Posted by Habib on 2007 03 15 at 08:52 PM • permalink

  68. The only equality is the equality of the grave. 

    And filling graves is what Marxists have been so successful at.

    Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2007 03 15 at 09:32 PM • permalink

  69. #27- nice rod. Love the Motorhead soundtrack as well- caused quite a bit of alarm from my office girlies.

    Posted by Habib on 2007 03 15 at 09:35 PM • permalink

  70. #64 Barrie,
    You’re right, that movie of Ivan Denisovich was great, and followed the book closely. 

    I’ve always thought that one of the most disturbing things about that story is that, while horrible from our point of view who never experienced such oppresssion, it was a good day, a very good day, for Ivan.

    Posted by Michael Lonie on 2007 03 15 at 10:54 PM • permalink

  71. I find myself torn by Venezuela BBC Journalists - economic experiment their reasoning power seems to me utterly doomed, and yet at the same time, wonderfully noble stupid moonbattery.

    Posted by Bonmot on 2007 03 16 at 01:16 AM • permalink

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