I appreciate the kind words, David. Thanks.

But more on topic: I used to know a lot about the Cold War. It fascinated me for a long time, but now my history is a bit rusty so thanks for the reminder.

On the upside, in 2003, Carlos Sanchez from the International Lesbian and Gay Association issued a report on the status of gay people in Cuba that claimed that the Cuban government no longer offers any legal punishment for its gay citizens, that there is a greater level of tolerance among Cubans for gay and transgender people, and that the Cuban government was open to endorsing a gay rights plank at the United Nations. I guess it’s a start.

As far as the cold war stuff, on the otherside (if you like) is what Che was up against, if he indeed did advocate those positions regarding bombing civilians. Obviously I’m against nuking civilians (unless they exist in the context of a Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus concert) and think there’s something severely dangerous with anyone who *would* advocate nuking civilians or anyone else for that matter (besides the aforementioned exclusion).

Maybe you already know this but it does fill in a bit of how crazy the time was:

In WWII Curtis Lemay for the American’s targeted civilians during the fire bombing of Tokyo and many other Japanese cities that wiped out hundreds of thousands of civilians. He took out 100k in Tokyo in one night. According to McNamara, Lemay believed had the Americans lost the war everyone associated with it would have rightly been prosecuted as war criminals. The question left was, “what makes it moral if you win and immoral if you lose.”

The US invaded Cuba. They’re on record with over 700 CIA financed and planned attempts on Castro’s life. The US track record in Latin America and South America as far as putting up puppet governments or assassinating elected leaders isn’t all that inspiring to anyone living in the region. They funded both Batista and Castro during the revolution. And one of the interesting angles on the Cuban Missile crisis is that while it’s generally talked about as if the Russian’s started it by arming Cuba, the US had already armed Turkey with nukes right in striking distance of Russia. Cuba was a response to that aggression. I’m not clear why Turkey doesn’t come up more when the missile crisis is discussed.

Anyway, too much information must likely.