Better Dead Than Red http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=TopNews&storyID=2006-08-01T093040Z_01_N31365302_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-CASTRO.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-TopNews-2

So this is what communism comes down to: a feeble near-octogenarian dictator lying in a hospital bed, bleeding from an unmentionable part of his digestive tract. As Reuters reports, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has "stepped down temporarily . . . handing over power for the first time" to Crown Prince Raul Castro:
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[Fidel] Castro, who will be 80 on August 13, said in a statement read out on television that he overexerted himself this month on a trip to a summit of South American leaders in Argentina and celebrations of his 1953 assault on a military garrison.
"This caused an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obliged me to face a complicated surgical operation," he said in the " proclamation http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5233770.stm " read out by his personal aide Carlos Valenciaga.
"The operation obliges me to remain for several weeks resting, away from my responsibilities and duties," it said.
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Now of course Castro is merely going the way of all flesh, but this apparently is a surprise to some of his enthusiasts among Western journalists. The Associated Press http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060801/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_castro "reports" that the Cuban people are morons who had no idea Castro was mortal until recently:
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Talk of Castro's mortality was taboo until June 23, 2001, when he fainted during a speech in the sun. Although Castro quickly recovered, many Cubans understood for the first time that their leader would eventually die.
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Reuters http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060801/ts_nm/cuba_castro_dc_8 , too, is impressed with the emperor's elegant clothes:
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The left-wing leader has enjoyed a revival in international support. . . . Castro is admired in many Third World nations for standing up to the United States and providing free education and health care. He has won friends. . . . Castro was greeted by crowds like a rock star. . . . Anti-globalization youths see him as a hero. . . .
Yet, at home critics say Castro has subjected Cuba's 11 million people to collectivized poverty in a police state.
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Yeah, well, nobody's perfect. In his statement, Castro vows to "fight until the last drop of blood." We will be keeping an eye on his condition. May it stabilize soon.