Maybe his name really is "Antonio Montana" ...:hmm
Rigdvr, if someone who adopts the moniker of an (albeit fictional) Cuban drug king-pin, opens his post to me by calling me ignorant that's fine, but when they close it by making a genital insult to me personally, they should pretty much expect the cocaine bomb I'm going to lob at them. I was retaliating, yes. But for me it was the right thing to do. Have you never been in an online spat? Given that you called me "asswipe" in your neg karma comment, I would venture to guess that you have had your moments. As far as your points to me: it's really not worth it to make the effort it takes to regress into the retarded logic that you use, but... :head here goes!
"A dictator is a dictator is a dictator..." :hmm Very nuanced; case closed I guess!? Of course there are differences between leaders of countries! Generalisimo Franco was a fascist dictator who ruled Spain from the late 1930's until his death in 1975. He and Hitler were both dictators but that does not mean they were the same or equally evil. If that were the case Franco would have been put on trial at Nuremburg, instead or being "allowed" to rule Spain well into a ripe old age.
"Why don't you go live there..." Regarding today's Cuba, in my posts I have only mentioned the presence of healthcare there and have defered to Cuban emigres knowing better about present living conditions in Cuba. I have never said it's an ideal or even good place to live today; my main point in these posts has been to remind people of the universally accepted historical facts regarding the subhuman living conditions of the majority of people in pre-Castro Cuba. I don't have to go live in Cuba in order to have credibility on that subject.
Everyone:
When the positive subject of a freediving clinic in Cuba was raised, Castro and his crimes were immdiately brought into it. I got annoyed by that. I believe my opinions reflect the dismay of at least some Americans at how it seems that whenever there is any hint of rapproachment between our countries (U.N. recommeded lifting of sanctions, Carter visit to Cuba) or whenever there is almost any kind of Cuban issue in the news (Elian Gonzalez, tourism to Cuba) the powerful Cuban-American lobby too often raises an hysterical anti-Castro fuss. Post-Castro the issue will be Cuba's relationship with the U.S. government, America as a whole, not just Cuban-Americans. I concede this is all closer to home for Cuban Americans, so I'll say no more about it, other than I for one would not hesitate to attend a Cuban Freediving camp.
My apologies to Daniel for the part I have played in the degeneration of this thread and to the DB powers-that-be if I have strayed from forum rules or etiquette, and to any others I may have bored with my ranting. I'm checking out for awhile; you all can have the last word.
Roan