Hmm, Socalist paradise?

I have been mainly nodding my head when various lefty pundits, notably Molly Ivins and Tom Teepen, point out the stuff that isn't awful about Cuba (relatively good health care and education, particularly compared to other Caribbean countries).

But we mustn't overdo it here and claim that Cuba is a good place. It's a Commie dictatorship. Commie dictatorships suck.

Sure, corporate America is designed to grind the masses under the wheel of wage slavery. But if you have a little something on the ball, you can generally trade in your crappy corporate wage slavery for a different, more benign master.

In Cuba, there's only one team to play for. If you don't like it, and don't want to be quiet and take it, you can cast yourself into the sea on a Michelin inner tube. Or you can wait around for some minion of the secret police to come cast you in a dungeon.

The U.S., of course, has a slightly larger proportion of its population in dungeons than does Cuba. But hardly any of them are there for "disobedience." Most American dungeon dwellers who aren't out-and-out hoodlums are there because of their choice of chemical entertainment. In Cuba, you can't outgrow the activity that is likely to put you behind bars.

I am not, of course, claiming our system lacks flaws. But if you hate corporations, you ought to REALLY hate a monopolistic corporation run by one old cigar-smoking guy. And I'm not talking about Microsoft.