Hugo Chávez not even a Crypto-Socialist

My foot is healing quite well, but I still depend on my friends to do my shopping, go to the Post Office and such. Yesterday's snow has given the old feeder a chance to read the week's worth of Wall Street Journals that was delivered on Saturday. The Journal is my favorite paper newspaper, and the only newspaper I pay to read. That doesn't mean much unless you know just how frugal (read: tight) the old feeder is. I like to read the Journal even when the news and the investment dope therein is stale. At least the opinion columns, reviews and the Weekend section are still good. The money isn't wasted.

To get to the point, one of the columns on the opinion page, Burning Down The House In FranceLand, by Daniel Henninger, he refers to: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's crypto-socialist theories...". What is a crypto-socialist? What are crypto-socialist theories? Why would Mr. Henninger apply this term to any 'theories' Chávez might promote? Does this mean Chávez is a crypto-socialist? Maybe Mr. Henninger just wanted to use more syllables than the next journo calling Chávez a socialist, marxist or communist. Or perhaps the 'theories' Chávez spouts are so incomprehensible they are as if in a secret code.

Chávez isn't really any of these things. He isn't anything but an opportunist despot and a tinhorn one at that. Same old latin american dictator, but with different 'theories'. Chávez would spout crypto-scientology theories if he tought it would enrich or otherwise aggrandize him and his pals. Or if he thought Fidel Castro would like him just a little more. And that is just the trouble. Castro is a real communist, grinding Cuba down to nothing as he clings to his failed revolution. With oil money from crypto-idiot Chávez, the suffering can continue. Now how did I get from France burning to Cuba?
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For a little Schadenfreude, pop over to Babalu and KillCastro, to help celebrate el barbudo's CIA diagnosis.