there are some times when you read something and you just know that people will take it as certain evidence for their worldview.  the eggheads call this "conceptual goggles" but the rest of us call it what it really is, intellectual laziness.  there are probably a ton of interesting and hilarious jokes that could be made about this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15947626/?GT1=8717

"what, no more hennessy?  no more wide format director's cuts?  this means war!"

rather than try to mine this for comedy gold, I'll share with you my own piece of intellectual laziness.  i see this as sure proof that regis debray was right all along when he said that "the revolution revolutionizes the counter-revolution".  the man is trying something new.  during the cold war, america tried to tackle the revolution head on through armed combat and spy vs. spy silliness.  by the eighties and nineties, we attempted a stealthier approach of economic destabilization and producing armed paramilitary groups that looked like authentic revolutionaries.  and now it's come to this.  why mess around with big budget diplomacy or arms shipments or a school of the americas.  just cut off the congac.  no more luxury cars, no more ipods, no more segways.  how will they possibly endure?  this alone has an uncomfortably elitist undertone: "you  know old boy, they simply can't get by without the finer things."  but at least it shows some adaptability and a remarkable amount of depth in that these sanctions won't affect the average citizen in the slightest.  how about that?  the counter-revolution is slowly being revolutionized. 

- - - posted by scott, link by chris.