¿Asistiremos a un funeral de estado por el Padre de la Revolución? Yo me pienso tomar un mojito a su salud en cuanto ponga mis pies en La Habana.

Feliz puente pre-navideño a todos
Aussi paradoxal que cela puisse paraître, bienvenue.
As Bechtel Goes, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times:
Bechtel, the giant engineering company, is leaving Iraq. Its mission — to rebuild power, water and sewage plants — wasn’t accomplished: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq’s population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers’ money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract.
As Bechtel goes, so goes the whole reconstruction effort. Whatever our leaders may say about their determination to
stay the course, I mean, complete the mission, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq they’ve already cut and run. The $21 billion allocated for reconstruction ... has been spent, much of it on security rather than its intended purpose, and there’s no more money in the pipeline.The failure of reconstruction in Iraq raises three questions. First, how much did that failure contribute to the overall failure of the war? Second, how was it that America, the great can-do nation, in this case couldn’t and didn’t? Finally, if we’ve given up on rebuilding Iraq, what are our troops dying for?
There’s no definitive way to answer the first question. You can make a good case that the invasion of Iraq was doomed no matter what... But the lack of electricity and clean water did a lot to dissipate any initial good will... And Iraqis are well aware that the billions squandered by American contractors included a lot of Iraqi oil revenue...
Consider the symbolism of Iraq’s new police academy, ... “the most essential civil security project in the country.” It was built at a cost of $75 million by Parsons Corporation.... But the academy was so badly built that feces and urine leak from the ceilings in the student barracks.
Think about it. We want the Iraqis to stand up so we can stand down. But if they do stand up, we’ll dump excrement on their heads.
As for how this could have happened, that’s easy: major contractors believed, correctly, that their political connections insulated them from accountability. Halliburton and other companies ... were ... so closely identified with President Bush and, especially, Vice President Cheney that firing or even disciplining them would have been seen as an admission of personal failure on the part of top elected officials.
As a result, the administration and its allies in Congress fought accountability all the way. Administration officials have made repeated backdoor efforts to close the office of Mr. Bowen, whose job is to oversee the use of reconstruction money. ... And now, ... Congress has passed a bill whose provisions include the complete elimination of his agency next October. ...
But that’s all in the past. What about the future?
Back in June, ... Mr. Bush said something I agree with. “You can measure progress in megawatts of electricity delivered,” he declared. “You can measure progress in terms of oil sold on the market on behalf of the Iraqi people.” But what those measures actually show is the absence of progress. By any material measure, Iraqis are worse off than they were under Saddam.
And we’re not planning to do anything about it: the U.S.-led reconstruction effort in Iraq is basically over. ...[T]he United States has accepted defeat on reconstruction.
Yet Americans are still fighting and dying in Iraq. For what?
Not all of that history, however, is being left behind. Owner Hilly Kristal said he's negotiating to open up a CBGB in Las Vegas, as early as March...
Wherever the next CBGB ends up, Kristal said he's planning to take everything he can with him: the stage, the bar, the floorboards and assorted memorabilia. The scraps, he said, may be auctioned on eBay.
"We're going to take the urinals," Kristal said. "Joey [Ramone] went to the bathroom there.
"We can charge admission," he said, laughing.
The whole story, here.
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The flight attendants are now pointing out the emergency exits. This is the part of the announcement that you might want to pay attention to. So stop your sudoku for a minute and listen: knowing in advance where the exits are makes a dramatic difference to your chances of survival if we have to evacuate the aircraft. Also, please keep your seat belt fastened when seated, even if the seat-belt light is not illuminated. This is to protect you from the risk of clear-air turbulence, a rare but extremely nasty form of disturbance that can cause severe injury. Imagine the heavy food trolleys jumping into the air and bashing into the overhead lockers, and you will have some idea of how nasty it can be. We don't want to scare you. Still, keep that seat belt fastened all the same.
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After take-off, the most dangerous part of the flight, the captain will say a few words that will either be so quiet that you will not be able to hear them, or so loud that they could wake the dead. So please sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We appreciate that you have a choice of airlines and we thank you for choosing Veritas, a member of an incomprehensible alliance of obscure foreign outfits, most of which you have never heard of. Cabin crew, please make sure we have remembered to close the doors. Sorry, I mean: ‘Doors to automatic and cross-check’. Thank you for flying Veritas.”
“¿Por qué me gustan las medusas? No lo sé. Las encuentro bonitas. Antes, mientras las miraba, he pensado una cosa. Escucha, lo que nosotros vemos es sólo una pequeña parte del mundo. Damos por hecho que esto es el mundo, pero no es del todo cierto. El verdadero mundo está en un lugar más oscuro, más profundo, y en su mayor parte lo ocupan criaturas como las medusas. Eso nosotros lo olvidamos. ¿No te parece? Dos terceras partes del planeta son océanos y lo que nosotros podemos ver con nuestros ojos no pasa de ser la superficie del mar, la piel. De lo que verdaderamente hay debajo no sabemos nada”.
¿Conoces bien el mundo y la vida? Pues mejor podrás ayudar a los hombres y mujeres de este mundo. Y no serás la primera: Santa María Magdalena, sin ir más lejos, también fue una cachonda como tú.
Piénsalo. Piensa en ser religiosa. Más que valor, hace falta mucho amor. (P.C.)
Wow, this order must be desperate to get new recruits...