Posted on 08/23/2007 3:37:27 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
Oh sure, Hugo Chavez might have his quirks. But at least he's not George Bush. That's Gail Collins' operative thesis in The Great Clock Plot [subscription required] in this morning's New York Times.
Collins riffs off an announcement Chavez made this week of his plan to move Venezuela's clocks ahead by half an hour. Writes Collins:
Reaction was swift, with many people recalling the scene in Woody Allen’s “Bananas” when a revolutionary hero becomes president of a Latin American country and announces that from now on, “underwear will be worn on the outside.”That democracy-repressing strongman really cracks Gail up. But that's when Collins gets off the first of her barbs against President Bush:
The other popular coment was that Americans are in no position to make fun of countries whose leaders make incoherent speeches.
Wonder where that comment was "popular": the Times' newsroom, perhaps?
Collins then mocks Chavez's loony justification for the move: that it will increase productivity and create a “metabolic effect, where the human brain is conditioned by sunlight.”
But once again, Chavez daffy, Bush bad, as Collins continues:
Now I know all this sounds extremely silly, but in the name of fairness, remember that:
1) You live in a country where the administration believes that cutting taxes for the heirs to billion-dollar estates will lead to increased prosperity for unemployed steel workers. [Yes, everyone knows that the way to expand the economy is not to leave money in private sector but to hand it over to the government.]
2) Every year, most Americans spring forward and fall back so that the Sun God will send extra rays to we who honor him with the ceremony of the changing of the clocks. [You mocking Ben Franklin now?]
3) So far, Hugo Chávez hasn’t invaded anybody.
Later, Collins quotes an American academic to the effect that, unless they're repeated, rational people in the Venezuelan government tend to ignore Chavez's nuttier announcements. That gives the columnist the opening to take this parting shot:
If only we had a similar system in the United States, imagine all the things we might have avoided over the last six years.
Gail Collins: living proof that there's absolutely no subject under the sun, even time changes in Third World countries, that the MSM can't use to bash President Bush.
Chavez daffy, Bush bad. Gail Collins-New York Times ping to Today show list.
Is it me or has Chavez’s decision to change the clocks gotten more press coverage than his President for life act?
Typical leftist. Going off half-clocked.
Liberal kooks must live in some wacky parallel universe.
>>>Reaction was swift, with many people recalling the scene in Woody Allen’s “Bananas” when a revolutionary hero becomes president of a Latin American country and announces that from now on, “underwear will be worn on the outside.”
Wouldn’t have hurt you Finkelstein to give credit.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1884695/posts
You’d probably write with dementia too, if you looked like that.
Can’t give credit where it’s not due. Sorry, but I [Finkelstein = me, governs] learned about the clock shift from the Collins column, not the FR thread.
Hasn’t Chavez given material support to the FARC terrorists in Colombia?
[bubbler] I’ve made certain decisions about my immediate future: for example, I’ve decided that I must journey to Colombia, and I’m pretty excited about this. ...Ref: Manderson’s Bubble (blog) @ http://bubbler.wordpress.com/2007/06/16/colombia-ho/
5. on 15 Jul 2007 at 7:48 am supposeSay hello to Chavez, the commie dictator. Better yet, don’t say anything to him, no matter what.
6. on 15 Jul 2007 at 11:20 am bubbler
Hugo Chavez is the president of Venezuela, not Colombia. And I would love to meet him. At least his “dictatorship” is benevolent, as opposed to our current dictatorship by Dick Cheney.
7. on 15 Jul 2007 at 12:30 pm suppose
Bubbler,
Hugo Chavez ordered that a television station[network] he does not like will be closed down. By any definition Hugo Chavez is a dictator and I’m sure you would love to meet him.
8. on 15 Jul 2007 at 3:38 pm bubbler
Yes, of course every action taken by Chavez that can be considered unsavory is blown up by the American media, and our government would love to see him deposed (we supported the short lived coup of Chavez in 2002). But closing down a TV station seems pretty darn insignificant in comparison to things that our own government have been doing on a consistent basis. I don’t think I need to list these things, as you have obviously been paying attention to the news, but here’s a reminder: firing of US attorneys, Jack Abramoff, Valerie Plame, unauthorized wiretapping, nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, Halliburton, Tom Delay, Abu Ghraib, etcetera etc ad nauseum.
Let me also remind you that we don’t exactly have a “free” media in these parts either. Now, I’m not trying to justify Chavez’ actions. But I also don’t know anything about Venezuelan politics yet, and I have the feeling that neither do you, aside from the one-sided portraits painted by the American media.
We got plenty to criticize within our government before we start criticizing foreign governments.
[ The march of folly continues ... so many, like young "bubbler" want to join the march! ]
The gag sort of loses some of its humor when I find it’s posted to the actual author. :)
Small correction, her ideology and proponent of destruction of the things that brought on this Country's greatness is worse than Osama and Hussein.
It’s easier picking out those that physically harm us and engage in battle, the traitor within who wants to destroy self defense and not protect our way of life is a far worse animal.
Whatever the subject, be it national or local, libs always work Bush and Iraq into the equation. I was reading an article by a local guest columnist the other week about some LOCAL!! matter, and naturally the writer mentioned Bush and the “illegal” Iraq war. Which just proves that Bush Derangement Syndrome affects virtually all lefties. Whether writing about growing tomatoes or paneling the rec room, lib writers never have Bush far from their twisted little minds. This writer (I prefer to call them scribblers) is no different. Stalin or Hitler could still be in power, and this twerp would still go about her Bush-bashing literary excretions.
Yes, it's called the Bizarro World. Everything libs do has the reverse effect of what was intended.
Not to mention the fact that if this idiot tried to write her columns in Venezuela, Chavez would have her banned and be seeking ways to throw her stupid trasero in the hoosegow. Lib scribblers never get it. It's only those nasty, evil people like Reagan and Bush who are protecting her and allowing her to write her ridiculous articles.
I’m not as stunned to hear of another NY Times idiot as I am that the Times would charge people to read such crap.
I think her eyebrows have eaten their way into whatever brain tissue she might’ve had.
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