Dead or Not Dead?

Coalition forces in Afghanistan have announced that they killed Mullah Osmani, allegedly one of the top commanders of the Taliban, on Tuesday in the area near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Almost immediately the Taliban denied that the Coalition had done any such thing. If this guy really died, and if he really held a high post in the Taliban, how come I never heard of him before? Granted, I don't know everything about Afghanistan, but I do read vast (and I mean vast) amounts of world news every day.

It seems like every week or so the other Coalition forces (the ones in Iraq) announce that they have killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. That poor guy just keeps dying over and over, kind of like Cartman on South Park. Well, maybe this Mullah Osmani fellow is like Kenny, he keeps getting killed every few days.

Less Than Two Days to Live

According to the CIA estimate, Fidel Castro suffers from an aggressive cancer that will take his life "before Christmas." Well, for the CIA to be right (not that they have ever gotten much right about Fidel), it means he has less than two days left to live. I suppose he knows that and will do whatever it takes to prove them wrong. I guessed in a previous post that the CIA had engaged in wishful thinking, and it looks more and more that way.

So far anyway, he has remained alive and kicking, figuratively speaking. He still takes Hugo Chavez' calls, so he must have held off death for a little while.

I look forward to seeing what the supporters and detractors will have to say when he finally kicks the bucket. The posts after Pinochet died showed a wide variety of feelings about him from Chileans. I expect no less from the Cubans - in exile or not.

Turkmenbashi Dead

Another brutal, vicious dictator is dead. No, it's still not Castro. This deserving dictator is Sapamurat Niyazov. He's the narcissist that has had Turkmenistan under his thumb for years after he named himself President for Life. In the arrogant and self-centered world of dictators, Niyazov had a special place. He changed the names of the months and days of the week to have his name or his mother's name as part of it. Canals, cities, airports, vodka, even aftershave bore the name he gave himself - Turkmenbashi, which means Father of All Turkmen.

This guy beats the Dear Leader in naming things after himself. Of course, I don't know if Turkmenbashi could have made 18 holes-in-one the very first time he played golf like Kim Jong Il did. Niyazov makes one more dictator that we're better off without.

We Are Winning this War

That depends which side you're on. And I'm not talking about Iraq or Afghanistan or Terrorism. No, I'm talking about the War on Drugs. A new report by John Gettman shows that marijuana is the largest cash crop in the U.S.A. Yep, brings in more money than wheat, corn, soy, etc. We produce 10K tons of marijuana per year that has a value of $35.8 billion...that's with a "b" not with an "m".

Of course, if we stopped the "War" the value would probably drop to less than one-third of that. Oh well, we gotta keep Wall Street in business.

I Would Like to Thank All the Little People

Thank you so much, Time Magazine, for naming me Person of the Year for 2006. You don't know how much this means to me. I want to thank my wife, my daughters, my parents, all of the people that stood by me during those long years...