June 02, 2008
Dictator trading cards
There's an interesting auction on Ebay, for a piece of dictator-related memoribilia. According to Jay Nordlinger:
Up for bid is a baseball card picturing Fidel Castro; embedded in the card is his autograph. Last year, a friend of mine bought this item, so outraged was he that it even existed. He has since “improved” the card — defacing it to note that Castro is a murderer and tyrant.
Taking a page from Rush Limbaugh, he decided to auction the card on eBay — giving the proceeds to a worthy and apt cause, specifically the Center for a Free Cuba. This center stands for everything that Castro despises: freedom, human rights, decency — and truth.
I hadn't realized that there was a market for dictator trading cards, but apparently Topps knows better than me. The seller has this to say.
ALL folks interested in bidding on this item should be FULLY aware that this item -- which contains an authentic cut signature of Fidel Castro -- has been substantially modified since it was manufactured by The Topps Company. Allow me to explain.Since card manufacturers began including cut-signature items in their offerings, some people in the hobby have speculated as to whether or not any card company would ever cross the line of good taste by offering an inappropriate -- offensive -- product (for example, a cut-signature card bearing Adolf Hitler's signature).
Although Topps in general should be commended for doing a good job with regard to most of the cut-signature cards it has created the last several years, Topps has clearly vaulted over the line of common decency by creating a cut-signature card of Communist dictator Fidel Castro, one of the most notorious mass murderers in the history of the Western hemisphere.The card is clearly an attempt to portray Fidel in a positive light -- note, for example, the baseball cap that Castro is pictured wearing on the front of the card. What is the message Topps is attempting to send? That being a mass murderer is somehow "OK" and "acceptable" so long as that person is also a ... baseball fan?
To more accurately reflect the true Castro legacy, the card has been altered so that it now includes numerous words and phrases pertaining to Fidel on both the front and back of the card. For example, phrases on the front of the card now include:
* mass murderer
* Communist
* El Manbu concentration camp
* Free Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Oscar Biscet!And, phrases on the back of the card now include:
* firing squads
* author of the Camilo-Cienfuegos forced labor plan
* violator of peaceful journalists' free-speech rights
* Remember Pedro Luis Boitel!Also, all bidders must be aware that the corners of this card have been damaged by whacking each corner against a rather hard table several times (these damaged corners represent the damage to Cuba done by Fidel). In addition, all bidders must be aware that the sides of this card have several small cuts in them made with a knife (these cuts represent the torture -- and worse -- suffered by thousands of political prisoners during Fidel's regime).
Please note that this auction is in full compliance with eBay's Offensive Material Policy, as this auction does NOT glorify hatred, violence, racial or religious intolerance, or items that promote organizations with such views.
In fact, this auction serves as a reminder that -- despite what the lamestream media, nitwit "celebrities," and ivory-tower university ostriches would have us believe -- it was Fidel who made a career out of glorifying hatred, using violence, and stoking racial and religious intolerance.
There is NO shipping/handling fee for this auction.
Show YOUR support for the individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that every human being enjoys by bidding on this item today!
The auction ends June 6.
I can think of few causes more worthy than freedom for the Cuban people. Can you?
Posted by Mike Lief at June 2, 2008 08:01 AM
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Comments
"Fidel worship" highlights the stupidity and historical ignorance of non-conformist celebrities. With their pot smoking self-indulgent lifestyles, they would have been some of the first to meet Fidel's firing squad in the Marxist paradise that is Cuba.
On a high note, Cuban poverty might actually have been a cure for Michael Moore's obesity problem had he ever been a permanent resident on paradise island.
Posted by: Rip Wilson at June 2, 2008 09:33 PM