Cuba

Two prophetic dreams in the past week - possibly on the same night.

In the one, I inadvertently smash my current favourite tea vehicle (a red "McVitie's Digestives" mug). Two days later while washing up I noticed the handle flexing…. Ok, possibly my subconscious noticed the crack first, and fortunately I could bust it off and Araldite it back on. This anecdote may have more to do with Cuba than even I realise.

In the other dream, Fidel Castro is present by the casket at the funeral of Raúl, his brother, who is presently in power.

Would such an occurrence make the transition of power in North Korea look like, well, what it looked like?

Raúl is has lately been sounding the trumpet of party reform - the party founded in 1965, following the revolution - and their annual conference is about to commence as I write. What might the reform entail? Only the separation of Party and State. Only the abolition of the de facto requirement for party membership, the imposition of five year term limits, an end to corruption, and the elimination of discrimination by race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation - the first ever mention at a communist event of that last barrier, according to el Público, a left-wing Spanish daily newspaper.

If Raúl can pull all that off without his ticker suddenly failing, good on him. One can easily imagine encountering some resistance to changing just the carpet on which so many entitled persons are standing, let alone the floorboards. Best of luck with that.

Speed Limit

I do not believe in speed limits. They are usually arbitrary, incorrect for a great many vehicles and misleading for most drivers, offering no more than vague guidelines and a false sense of security. The only criteria for judgement of safe driving belong to a set of conditions most often ignored until after a collision. The term 'accident' seldom really applies, but is the best way to duck and deny responsibility for failing to recognise and respond appropriately to these various changing conditions, of which speed is nearly the last.

We owe the existence of speed limits to the assumption that excessive speed is a major if not determining factor in most collisions. Certainly my professional advice to any driver is that, nine times out of ten, you will avoid, escape or minimise a dangerous situation more readily by slowing down than by speeding up - in no small part owing to the fact that most vehicles are capable of braking far more rapidly than they could ever accelerate - however when it comes to 'accidents' and 'mishaps', or even near-misses, it cannot truthfully be said that speed itself is other than one ill-considered factor in a much larger equation.

The Clean Room

1. There are no self-cleaning surfaces.

2. It is easier to keep things clean, than to get things clean.

3. Own your mess.

Ouverture Facil

The most dreaded phrase in the French language.

What a Character

I find that persons who are genuinely poor judges of character generally start out by grievously misjudging their own.

anti-social networking

Google "anti-social networking", if you never tried it. We are not alone…

Decisions, decisions

It is one thing to know what decisions others have made or appear to be making, quite another to know why they have made them - in many cases based on limited choices, knowledge, or resources, or predetermined by a similarly influenced action made at any time by another person or perceived group, and therefore equally faulty and really no choice at all - too often lacking any genuine decision-making process….

Though I suppose it saves thinking for oneself.

Dear Sir,

You must know that the military's and all other institutional intolerance for and hazing and bashing and bullying of perceived and self-identified homosexual and transgender persons is in no small part responsible for the broader social antagonism in this country which itself has cost the lives of so many young individuals in recent weeks, and countless others in my lifetime alone - a few of whom were known to me personally.

In light of this I beg you to make a swift and definitive end to "Don't ask, don't tell", and a major public policy address condemning all discrimination - discrimination which has been transferred from one minority to the next throughout our history, and which I feel you yourself must know all too well.

Heaven

The ultimate gated community.

Revolution

The Revolution will not be televised.

It will be pay-per-view.


I've said this only half jokingly since at least the mid-1980s, only I feel the time has long since arrived to modify my prediction.

The Mythology of the Liberator

Invasion is not liberation. Withdrawal is liberation.

The Myth of the Liberator is a ideological carrot dangled before the reluctant beast. To the driver, only the stick is a real tool, and its application is purely strategic.

Strategy is for commanders. Ideology has no place in strategy.

Ideology may benefit warriors and camp followers, yet there has never been so much as a skirmish over ideology, let alone a war.

Battles are fought for resources, tangible or otherwise - cattle, captives, goods or territory. Control of (or even simple access to) resources is not ideological, though the successful promulgation and manipulation of ideology may rank among its quantifiable benefits.

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Size queen?

Size does not matter - not at all in the sense in which it is customarily used. No, the crucial element is fit.

Fit matters.

A good fit. Size can only be properly evaluated when fit is fully taken into account.

I am a fit queen.

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