Speech made by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of Cuba, at the ceremony for the 51st anniversary of the attack on the Moncada: "June 21, at the Anti-imperialist Forum I read Epistle Number Two to the president of the United States, responding to an infamous State Department report on trafficking in human beings, one of those reports the government of that country usually issues, as if it were the supreme moral judge of the world. In that document Cuba is accused of being one of the countries that promotes sexual tourism and child pornography."

This is such a strange document. I've never read anything that castro has written or said, but it is so strange to hear a leader ramble on, quoting from texts and studies. This must be something that is only the privilege of a dictator: he can afford to be boring and underwhelm the television viewers. It is also strange to think of Cuba as anything more than a dictatorship--or to consider it from one polemical view or the other, i.e. as either a vicious dictatorship or a helpless pawn being bandied about by the US. Either way the speech is interesting.

The Democratic Dividend - The stock market prefers Democratic presidents to Republicans. Why? By Carol�Vinzant

I've been a bit absent, working (some) on fields, but mostly grading papers--a fairly instrumental process since it seems that both the students and I are hip to the fact that it's mostly a lot of busy work. But they get credit for it and I get paid so no one's talking.

YellowTimes.org - "America's pathetic liberals: the sequel"

Out of town for a while...the first thing I've read in a few weeks that has really turned my head. I have never felt so awed by being abused and criticized. The author makes some brillint points about the current situation but, of course, leaves no indication of what might be done about it. Typical.