I remember asking dad about Castro when I was about 9 years old. I asked, "Is Castro a good guy or bad?"
Dad said he couldn't tell!! This was about 1955. We were living in Louisiana at the time. Dad was in the army there.
Cuba was fairly close and in the news a lot. The Cubans were asking the same question! Ike was president.
This past July, we had the pleasure of sharing a summer barbecue with a refugee from Cuba .. Our dinner conversation was starkly different than most.
This refugee came to the United States as a young boy in the early 1960s. His family was more fortunate than most as they were able to bring a suitcase and $100 when they fled Castro's newly formed revolutionary paradise.
Our dinner consisted of all-American fare: hamburgers, potato salad, watermelon and fresh ears of sweet corn. This is a menu shared with family and friends nationwide, while celebrating the birth of our beloved America on the Fourth of July.
We began with a simple discussion about our country and the direction it has taken since Barack Obama came to power. We shared the usual complaints about the sour economy and liberal social engineering emanating from the rulers in Washington .
But then he said it. The sentence came naturally. I assume it was unplanned. But it carried the weight of a freight train. "You know when Castro took power, none of us knew he was a Communist"
We sat stunned. He continued, "Yes, we all thought he was a patriot, a nationalist. Before the revolution he didn't sound like a radical."
The comparison at this point was easy, and I interjected, "You mean just like Barack Obama?"
He continued, "We were all shocked as the government just continued to grab more power. First they said the revolution is over, so please turn in your guns. We all complied."
"I remember my uncle saying after it started; 'Castro will only nationalize some of the big industries, he will never come and take our family hardware store.' But that is exactly what happened; Castro started with the sugar mills and the large industries, but they eventually came and knocked on the door of our family hardware store. My family had run this store for generations. They said we now own the hardware store, you work for us. And that nice, large four-bedroom home you own, it is now our property also, and you can move yourself and five children into two rooms of the house because others are moving in with you."
The lesson learned from this discussion is a lesson most Americans refuse to hear. Political leaders can lie about their agenda and once in office they can take totally unexpected turns.
If you had asked us three years ago if we thought General Motors would be nationalized, we would have never believed it. We could never contemplate a country where the rule of law, the most fundamental building block of a justice society would be evaporating just like it did in Castro's Cuba in the early 1960s.
But the news of injustice keeps increasing. Black Panthers are not charged with wrongdoing by the U.S. Department of Justice because their crimes are against whites. The bondholders of GM are stripped of their assets without due process by the government. Governmental leaders are bribed in full daylight only to have all investigation of the crimes stifled by the Attorney General. The U.S. borders are overrun with crime and illegal activity and the leaders in D.C. act as if it is important to protect the lawbreakers while the innocent are killed and overrun. When local communities attempt to enforce the law, they are ridiculed and threatened as racists and bigots. They are sued by the very administration entrusted with enforcing the law.
Without the rule of law the U.S. Constitution is a sham. Without the rule of law our beloved America is swiftly becoming a country where only the well connected and politically powerful will be safe. As Michelle Malkin has so eloquently explained in her recent book, a culture of corruption has replaced honest government.
The only way this problem will be fixed is by massive citizen action. All honest citizens that want to be treated equally must come together and demand that the favoritism, the bribes, the uneven enforcement of law end now. And yes, it can happen here.
as well). No comments or remarks made today are intended to favor or blame any political, religious or social group over another, Regardless of political persuasion , religious belief or social or cultural group we share equal blame.
- This "revolution" is not necessarily good, we must be mindful of who wins control of these countries, "power to the people" is not always good if it is the wrong people with the power. We cannot choose for them but we can and must respond to what ever choice they make a make it abundantly clear what our response will be if they choose leaders who will further destabilize the area.
before one becomes too excited about the "reemergence" of this group I suggest you
it.Many of you may be tired of my consistent references to Nicoli 
but you may want to check him out also.
North Africa is in chaos,Egypt, Libya,The Sudan, Ivory Coast we (America) have ignored problems there for the far too long. We are preoccupied with our own myriad of problems. My pet peeve and heartbreak in this region is 
which as not functioned as a country since the very early 90's. 
] . The deaths of these brother Rangers and others was not avenged because we did not "know" who to punish. I would suggest that several B-52 strikes would exact punishment and cure the pirate problem as well.["grab'em by the B###s their hearts and minds will follow"] Four Americans were just slaughtered on board their own boat.
- The link is to a game and that is what Europe has become , the 
is a joke. It's leaders hapless and a violent up surge in fascist philosophy is everywhere. Every time a crisis exists our allies, except a few, give only lip service to our efforts and commit no material assets or man power. They have forgotten the investment made by Americas and the thousands of our dead who rest in their soil. We have fought their wars, paid their bills and forgiven their debts, as have they.
the song talks about the bond between family and friends and asks if, after death in "Heaven" will that bond still exist. Among theologians there is debate regarding whether relationships established in this dimension will be maintained in the next. For those with no belief in an afterlife the answer is simple-NO. Those who believe in reincarnation think that their will be some connection though all parties may not be aware of it.[the puppy you picked because it licked your face when you first picked it up may be your best friend from a previous life].I think that there will be an awareness of a connection, a "Kindred Spirit" but not of a relationship in the earthly sense. 
who literally have thousands of FB Friends, I now have around 200 and when the number gets that high I get uncomfortable for reasons I cannot define. People I know and currently interact with on a personal level are on the list, associates in the motion picture business, contacts in the music industry, a few relatives and friends from the past.
, by Malcolm Gladwell. It is a work describing how different groups of people interact in society, it is a good read. In it there is a chapter called "The Rule of 150" which discusses how we can best interact [learn, teach, emote] with no more than 150 persons at a time. When the number of individuals approximates this level it is time to began to form another group, this often takes place naturally with out any deliberate action by anyone.People discover other common connections with other members of the group and "splinter" while still maintaining the original connections but forming a new group.
and Sociologist have discovered that, so called "primitive" peoples banded together in tribes or "family groups" which seldom exceeded more than 100-150 individuals. The reasons varied based on logistical and social dynamics.In the
a Company of men in the Roman Legions was 150 as it is on average today. During the industrial revolution large factories put no more than 150 people on one task.
card list, Twitter and MySpace . Can you have a real connection with more people than that and what can they add to your life ?
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