The joy that is Hugo Chavez, and a bear named Mohammed

I was going to write this post about how Hugo Chavez is just another thug using the system to push his own agenda no matter what the people want... but his referendum was actually voted down. This means that, in 2012, he cannot run for office again. His time will be up. The interesting thing will be if he actually goes along with the vote, or, if he sees his power diminishing, just seizes control. He'll be hard pressed to justify his actions at that point, though... his whole "doing the will of the people" only works when he's, you know, doing what they want.

Still, give it up for Venezuela... they voted and it worked.

Now, on to this whole "bear named Mohammed" thing. Normally I'd jump all over a country who's religion lets people die for inappropriately naming teddy bears (I'm a Zen Bhuddist... the Bhudda would laugh and ask if the teddy bear really cared about his name, and send you off for a year to think about that), but this time, I'm gonna smack the teacher. What kind of idiot IS this woman? She TEACHES in this country, she MUST know what they will and will not tolerate. To be that stupidly insensitive to their religious beliefs takes either a LOT of damaged brain cells, or a lot of misplaced balls. Either way she's an complete moron who I have no sympathy for. She's lucky she made it out alive. I honestly would have chalked her up for a Darwin Award if they had put her to death, with no hard feelings for the people of Sudan. As it was, they only had her serving 15 days in jail, and the Sudanese president communted some of that, saying that he believed she meant no harm.

This whole thing goes to show you just can't go to another country and expect them to cater to YOUR beliefs just because you come from YOUR particular country. These people have the right to do what they want, and if people don't like it, they can get the fuck out and go back home.