New at Reason

Scott Stantis has trouble turning on his TV set for the latest edition of Friday Funnies.

Comments

sage | June 1, 2007, 10:14am | #

That's a really unflattering picture of Hillary.

joe | June 1, 2007, 10:59am | #

Do those remote controls come with a bottle opener by any chance?

Pluribus | June 1, 2007, 11:05am | #

The sad part is not only is it pretty accurate over in that country, but it could very well be the truth here if certain politicians get their way.

Lawyer Frito | June 1, 2007, 11:19am | #

Bottle opener included. AND! the E-Z-Boy has a built in toilet, too! (So you can watch "Ow My Balls" and the BATIN channel sans interruption)

Charlton Chavez | June 1, 2007, 11:33am | #

"They'll pry my remote control from my cold, dead fingers..."

CC

CEO Dan Halen Sheetrock International | June 1, 2007, 12:47pm | #

I am so sick of people pimping that buffoon Chavez like he's some some kinda comic-book super villain. A pal of mine married a Peurto Rican princess, and that's all the bitch can talk about. I saw her yesterday and she was going on and on about what a super dangerous tyrant kinda guy Hugo is. I (gently, by local standards anyhow) snapped on her. It went something like this:

Hugo the evil clown isn't what ails your pals in Maracay (she was boasting about e-mail back and forths with childhood buddies now living/working in Venezuela.) Hugos happen in democracies when >70% of the population is poor and ignorant. Wring our hands because some TV station got the plug pulled plays well and good here, where the TV holds a place (much like a family member) in most everyone's daily home life. We can identify with that poor poor TV station struck down by the cruel and violent tyrant dictator. But the landless dirt poor and dispossessed citizenry that makes up the bulk of Venezuela's rank and file? There's just not much for us enlightened folk to empathize with there. Fuckers don't even own TVs. How weird is that?

Chavez isn't in office (democratically elected several times) because he promised someone he'd drag a TV station into the bathroom and drown it in the toilet. He's in because he promised the nation's landless and dispossessed majority a better life, and they're so hard up/ignorant, they believe him, and vote for him repeatedly.

This begs the question, how bad does a democratic nation have to be managed, and for how long, before someone like Hugo Chavez looks like a viable option to the bulk of its citizenry?

To me, that's not funny.

but this is.

;)

Pluribus | June 1, 2007, 2:23pm | #

I am so sick of people pimping that buffoon Chavez like he's some some kinda comic-book super villain.

The reason why he's being shown as a comic-book super villain is because in addition to him being the walking-talking stereotype of a banana republic dictator, he's also runs the country that controls a significant portion of the world's oil supply, including oil that comes to the United States.

In other words, he has our economic stability by the balls!!! And he knows it!

All Chavez has to do is pull his best "Soup Guy" impersonation and say "No oil for U.S." and we get to see $8/gallon at the pumps before we can even come up with a response. (Yes, the "Soup Guy" is known by a different name, but I'm not going to invoke the thread-killer rule here!)

I'd say that's worth a little demonizing.

eugene | June 1, 2007, 2:28pm | #

Pluribus, thanks for at least being honest that it's really all about oil. You'd have no problem if Chavez's regime was more like the Nigerian dictatorship. Hey, a brutal military dictatorship that has never one a single fair election (never mind 2 like Chavez), but it's all good as long as the black sticky stuff keeps on coming.

eugene | June 1, 2007, 2:28pm | #

one->won

R C Dean | June 1, 2007, 2:41pm | #

All Chavez has to do is pull his best "Soup Guy" impersonation and say "No oil for U.S." and we get to see $8/gallon at the pumps before we can even come up with a response.

As if.

Unless Chavez wants to shut off his entire oil industry, he can't affect the supply of oil to the US. Anyone who doesn't realize this should probably refrain from publicizing the extent of their economic ignorance.

Now, I don't know how delusional Chavez is, but frankly I have higher standards for random interweb posters than I do for crypto-Marxist caudillo wannabes.

Isaac Bartram | June 1, 2007, 2:46pm | #

You'd have no problem if Chavez's regime was more like the Nigerian dictatorship.

Nigeria is ranked No 12 compared to Venzuela's No 9

Isaac Bartram | June 1, 2007, 2:47pm | #

A little less oil but a major producer nonetheless.

Just saying.

Pluribus | June 1, 2007, 2:49pm | #

Unless Chavez wants to shut off his entire oil industry, he can't affect the supply of oil to the US. Anyone who doesn't realize this should probably refrain from publicizing the extent of their economic ignorance.

Get a life Dean. You don't know squat. It's arrogant people like you that put banana republic thugs in power in the first place.

H. Chavez | June 1, 2007, 3:36pm | #

Unless Chavez wants to shut off his entire oil industry, he can't affect the supply of oil to the US.

You forget all of those sweetheart oil deals I've been making with my new non-US friends. Or did you really think I've been on these world tours and special "I hate USA" conventions just to see the sights?

Isaac Bartram | June 1, 2007, 8:33pm | #

Ummm, what is about the word "OIL" that brings out the stupid?

joe | June 1, 2007, 8:37pm | #

R C Dean,

Mark this as our weekly agreement.

What's Chavez going to do, feed the stuff to villagers?

joe | June 1, 2007, 8:39pm | #

Oil is fungible.

If Hugo's new buddies buy more of his oil, they're buying less of somebody's else's.

R C Dean is, indeed, the sort of person who puts and keeps banana republic thugs in power.

But that doesn't make him wrong about oil being fungible.

Hugo | June 2, 2007, 5:53am | #

YOU MAKE FUN OF ME? NO RCTV FOR YOU!!