Hey, Castro is a friend to the proletariat, not a dictator. And SOMEONE has to tell the filthy proles what to do, and bust their stupid heads when they don't do what they're supposed to. The good of the people demands it!

Here's a fun quiz: count the number of articles that mention Pinochet, while hardly an exemplary ruler, instituted wildly successful economic reforms and eventually relinquished power to a democratic process.

The funny think about Pinochet is that he had an understanding of economics and brought in the Chicago Boyz to repair Chile's Social Security System.

It worked.

So Pinochet who killed hundreds vs Castro's thousands and Saddam's tens of thousands actually left his country better off and voluntarily left office in favor of a democratically elected government.

So did Saddam voluntarily leave office? Did Castro? Did any of the other tyrants mentioned?

Didn't think so.

Good points. I think there's also a higher value attached to the lives of Communists, because they are higher beings, and morally superior.

An acquaintance of mine, with typical "liberal" muddleheadedness, has a virulent case of BDS and thinks Bush is moving us toward fascism. (Considering he's now had six years to do that and only two more years to go, shouldn't he get cracking on that by now?) Yet she once praised Castro. I have learned to just let her spout her bovine excrement, but that just demanded a Jack Benny-like "Now, wait a minute . . ." I pointed out that Castro is a dictator, and yet she fears and loathes Bush for being a dictator-in-the-making. Which one has liquidated and imprisoned the most dissidents? All she could do is go into denial about Castro's record and insisting that the number of his murders has been exagerrated by Miami-Cuban Battista-ites.