Friday, September 12, 2008

Head To Head

I wrote last month that my taste in men had evolved from the skinny boys of my youth to "short, stocky, even chubby Latino men with strongly Indian features." Two prime examples are above, though I admit I don't know how tall they are. (Photo via.) If only they had time to make love, not war, but alas...

Both Evo Morales (left) and Hugo Chávez (also left, but to your right in the photo above) have expelled the American ambassadors from their respective countries. Chávez claims that the US has been supporting a military coup against him; well, it wouldn't be the first time. According to the New York Times, "'When there is a new government in the United States, we’ll send an ambassador,' Mr. Chávez said, using an expletive to refer to Americans." Morales says that the US has been supporting terrorist groups in eastern Bolivia, which have blown up a gas pipeline among other things. This is also, unfortunately, plausible; the US has a long history of such behavior.

In addition to the provocation of expelling the US ambassador to Venezuela and recalling his own ambassador to Washington, Chávez is talking about engaging in joint naval exercises with Russia. Russian strategic bombers have already landed in Venezuela (in Spanish). This makes me a bit nervous, recalling how the US reacted to similar collaboration between Cuba and the Soviet Union during the Kennedy administration. The US is now so stretched militarily that Chávez might be able to get away with thumbing his nose at us some more; I hope so. But with the US already making bellicose noises at Russia for its humanitarian intervention in Georgia (I'm being just a wee bit sarcastic there, but see FAIR's take on the background), I can't help but worry.