Viva Honduras!

Before getting to the main topic, I'd just like to point out that about the only argument for socialized medicine I've been hearing the last couple of days is: "The USA is the only First-World nation that doesn't have socialized medicine."

When I was little and believed I just had to have a Mousketeer hat or a poodle skirt, my mom would always ask: "If all your friends go and jump in the lake, does that mean you have to, too?"

I mean, WTF? What kind of "reasoning" is this to support wrecking the US health care industry? Those who offer don't-you-want-to-be-like-Canada? as a selling point might want to consider that the USA also has much better health care than other First World nations. Not coincidental. By the way, for info on health care from several perspectives, go to: www.pjtv.com . Very good videos.

Second, it is quite possible to reform the health care system as it is without nationalizing it and letting the government run it. Maybe try some free market solutions?

And that's all on that subject for now. I've been trying to find out what's going on in Honduras.

The removed-president of Honduras, Zalaya, walked to the border between Nicaragua and Honduras yesterday, slipped under the chain that separates the two countries, said something that apparently was supposed to inspire a Honduran border guard -- but didn't -- and then stepped back into Nicaragua. If Zalaya has any sense, he won't try to get any farther into that country.

It's a complicated story. Here's the Wall Street Journal's version:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124847775316780293.html

Reading that is actually rather cautionary, if not downright scary... But first about Honduras. It's a constitutional democracy with a single term limit on the office of the president. The military takes an oath to uphold the constitution, not the president.

Zalaya was elected, but has been unpopular -- and increasingly so as he's grown closer personally and politically to an alliance between Castro, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Chavez sells petroleum at a discount to local states that join a local coalition established to oppose US influence in South America. Zalaya joined this organization at the behest of his nation, which was going broke last year on fuel supplies. But the alliance apparently also planted some seed of ambition in Zalaya to make Honduras his private playground.

Must say, the US has a rather dotty history in South America. In the 1840s, there was that Mexican War thing, where we ended up not only with Texas, but also everything else north and west, including Eldorado. (They can have that back now, if they take Pelosi with it.)

In the 1850s, one pro-slavery American lunatic failed to persuade the US government to conquer Nicaragua to enlarge the lands available for slave-based plantation agriculture, but he did convince some rich southern planters to back his scheme. And he did conquer Nicaragua -- for about two weeks before they tossed him out. He tried again and failed.

In Guatamala, the US for years supported what amounted to a clique of rich guys who ran the country rather ruthlessly to promote their own interests and keep the peons as peons. And a similar story can be told about many of the other states in South America. Not a whole lot to be proud of.

According to WSJ, there seems to be a general trend in Central and South America for strong dictators to move into once-democratic nations and pretty much take over. This is apparently what Zalaya was trying to accomplish in Honduras. Under Honduras' constitution, presidents are limited to one term. Zalaya allegedly (they have it on video tape) stole $2 million from the nation's treasury to fund a referendum that would allow him to remain in the presidency indefinitely. Honduras' Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional: the term limit provision cannot be changed or amended; and also under the nation's constitution, if the president won't leave as he should, the nation is compelled to remove him. So Zalaya was removed.

Castro, Chavez, and Ortega.... and our own Comrade Osama.... have called what happened in Honduras a "military coup." That infers that the Honduran military, on their own authority, toppled the head-of-state and took over the government. That's not true. An interim president has replaced Zalaya, and the military remains faithful to its oath to support the constitution.

Honduras also has been an abiding friend to the USA. However, we've cut about $20 million in aid to that nation due to the "coup." Honduras is looking to the US for support -- at least for moral support to preserve its constitutional democracy. Comrade Osama, like Castro, Chavez, and Ortega, initially said that Zalaya should be returned to his position as president of Honduras.

But now Hillary Clinton and apparently the US State Dept. also recommends that Zalaya remain in Nicaragua -- or at least outside of Honduras.

That seems advisable for his own health and safety. I don't think Honduras is willing to tolerate his crap, and Honduras is just about the only really free nation left in the region.

Especially interesting -- also in the WSJ article -- is a kind of outline for how to destroy a constitutional democracy and replace it with a marxist dictatorship. A caller on Hannity's radio show the other night suggested that our own Comrade Osama might trump up one or another crisis to 1.) not allow the mid-term elections in 2010, which more than likely will change and reduce the Democrat majority in congress; 2.) claim some kind of emergency to keep himself in office without the 2012 election.

Sean Hannity pooh-poohed the idea, but now I see where the caller got the idea. This is exactly what's happened in South America. And those dictators consolidated their power by taking over the economies of those nations and eradicating capitalism. Sound familiar?

As I've said before, I'm not a big believer in conspiracies. And for lots of reasons. Number One, usually they involve less-than-ethical participants or actual criminal types, and these are not the kind of people who will work together for very long before playing their power games on each other for their individual personal gain. They all end up wanting their own country to push around and abuse, bleed dry, and bully. They usually end up killing each other, along with lots of innocent bystanders.

But the whole thing is just something more to think about.

In the meanwhile, I hope Honduras sticks by its guns, literally. And I wish there was something I could do to help them.