Quote(s) of the Day

From Copenhagen. Mugabe:

Why is the guilty north not showing the same fundamentalist spirit it exhibits in our developing countries on human rights matters on this more menacing threat of climate change?

Chavez:

If the climate was a bank, they would have already saved it.

Fair play on the last point, although criticizing governments for being active in their domestic economies is a strange complaint from Hugo. There's more at the link, and Ahmadinejad is on the schedule tomorrow.

Question: how seriously should we take these sorts of complaints? It's a logical fallacy to dispute an argument based on the character of the speaker, but still (to quote HST): do we gotta take guff from these swine? Especially when their nations' biggest industries are exports of carbon-emitting fossil fuels to the Northern economies they bemoan.

(ht: KPC)

Take a Pill

Valium, that is. "Taking aim at opponents who say he is assuming too much power, Chávez said, "I recommend they take a pill, what do they call it, a Valium."

The remark came as Chavez announced his intention to alter the Venezuelan constitution to remove term limits.

His other proposals include reducing the working day to six hours, easing restrictions on the government's ability to nationalize industries, and reasserting government control over the Venezuelan central bank

In other news about autocrats' economic policies, Mugabe's Zimbabwe draws ever closer to chaos. "Official inflation is given as 4,500 percent, the highest in the world, but independent estimates put it closer to 9,000 percent." The price controls that Mugabe imposed have emptied shops of goods as people find it unprofitable to produce anything at the price the government deems reasonable.

Not that Mugabe is unconcerned about the crisis: "I would like to invite our true and genuine friends to join hands with us in investing in the abundant natural resources of this country," Mugabe said at a ceremony to mark Defence Forces Day. Apparently not appreciating the irony, he noted that "The security and safety of their investments is guaranteed by the professionalism and loyalty of our defence forces."