Sunday, January 07, 2007

It's a fine day for treason and treachery.

Few things elicit the same hindbrain twinge of revulsion in me as betrayal, and boy, oh, boy is my hindbrain all a'twinge after reading the news this morning. The sin of Judas is a popular one in the news these days, from places as far apart as Warsaw and Havana.

The new Archbishop of Warsaw had his job offer revoked when it turned out that he'd spent twenty years playing Bishop Finkski, stool pigeon extraordinaire, to the Communist-era Polish security services. Wonder how many kneecaps got broken in questioning thanks to tips from the good cleric? Wonder how many Poles will never look at the inside of a confessional quite the same way again?

Meanwhile, to the south of here, Cindy Sheehan will be manning a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun travelling across Castro's Cuba to go denounce her homeland on foreign soil. When reminded of the US trade embargo that makes travel to Cuba technically a crime for US citizens, she airily responded that she believed her mission was exempt from those restrictions, since she was only travelling there for the purpose of lambasting her government and gaining publicity by doing something goofy on the wrong side of the Guantanamo gates.

Lastly we go to my old stomping grounds of Cobb County, Georgia, where a local woman apparently noticed that, while her wedding vows went on at length about loving and cherishing and that sort of thing, they were pretty much silent on the topic of slipping your beau an antifreeze mickey. Having done in her husband in such a fashion, she went on to poison the man with whom she was cheating on him. Now the state of Georgia intends to kill her, but not with antifreeze, more's the pity.

Dante reserved the ninth and lowest circle of hell for the sin of treachery. Betrayal of friends, betrayal of country, betrayal of family; each had their own special area and gruesome torment. Oddly, there appears to be no shortage of people clamoring to get in...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can the government strip Sheehan of her citizenship and leave her stuck in Cuba? At the very least they should stick her jail when she gets back, maybe they could nail her on the habitual offender laws.

Brass

Anonymous said...

Since her release from New York jurisdiction for blocking a passageway, with the admonition that she 'stay out of trouble', I'm a little surprised her parole wasn't revoked for blocking the road in Crawford last month. Granted, the latter infraction and arrest didn't happen in NY but in Texas...but she's sure setting herself up to be a habitual offender under the laws of several jurisdictions.

I've met several folks who have been to Cuba on fishing trips over the years, always going in through Mexico as an intermediate stopover, but you'd think if the .gov was interested in enforcing the prohibition they'd make mention of a passport stamp that shouldn't be there as they re-entered the US.

Regards,
Rabbit.

Matt G said...

"As a Canadian, I don't agree with the American position on Cuba. I honestly believe you could have brought about the downfall of Castro years ago if there had been regular contact after the Russians skedaddled."
Funny thing is, George, I almost agree with you. Then you blow up your own point with the best counterpoint: US actions on spending CAUSED the implosion of the USSR command economy.

The main reason that I would be for opening trade with Cuba is simply this: nothing gets the people to embrace capitalism like seeing it all around them. Couple of years of seeing trade with the US, and the Cubans would demand a change.