Daily Rant 2008-02-19

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem; it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.

David Friedman

The world is just full of news lately. For nearly fifty years Fidel Castro has been the putative Communist Dictator of Cuba. Since the fall of the USSR and the loss of their financial support Cuba has fallen on hard times. I realize that a one-week vacation in Cuba hardly makes me an expert in Cuban politics but I’ve always said I’d love to go back but I wouldn’t want to be around if something happened to Castro. The man his been more of a cult in Cuba than its leader. Standing in Havana City of an afternoon and witnessing everything come to a stand-still for the playing of the National Anthem on loud speakers is a phenomenon that is hard to forget. The man was given to the making of 5-hour-long speeches to a captive populace on National Holidays. I realize my own Martin Luther was noted for his hour-long sermons but I’ve always figured that if you can’t say it in 10 minutes you don’t have anything worth saying. As I’ve implied I fully expected the man to hang onto office until death but today word comes to us of his retirement. Whether it be the recognition of failing abilities due to failing health or from a desire to see an orderly succession to his rule Castro has committed a statesmanlike act; history is not over-populated with absolute rulers who willingly relinquished power. Intelligence networks worldwide will be working overtime to analyze the implications of this move. His demise will mark the funeral of this young millennium. Even more interesting is the fact that Fidel made the announcement in the middle of the night via his personal online blog. Who knew an 81-year-old Castro was computer savvy. I’d be tempted to check it out if I read Spanish.

In other news the death from natural causes of Willie P. Bennett was announced today. A singer/songwriter who received high recognition from his peers; he was satisfied to ply his chosen career without seeking the limelight. In an industry littered with shy individuals who pushed themselves too far with disastrous results Willie was willing to restrict himself to small venues and backup gigs. To someone who is two years his senior fifty-six seems too young to be dying of natural causes but in the entertainment industry this would seem to be old age.

Continuing on the Entertainment industry theme it would seem that the writer’s strike has finally come to a close. Hopefully this marks the demise of ‘Reality TV’ programming. I have lost patience with broadcast TV interrupted by up to 20 minutes of commercials per hour but without new episodes there will be no new complete series to purchase on DVD.

There has been a great deal of ballyhoo today about the demise of HD-DVD. Before you rush out and invest in Blu-Ray remember Sandisk has developed a memory card one-quarter the size used in most Digital Cameras capable of storing 26 hours of High Definition TV programming without any moving parts. When the technology has been perfected and the costs come down conventional DVD’s will be history.