Thank you, Aine - whatever happened to a sense of proportion? According to people who keep track of these things, Elian has outpaced the Death of Princess Di and the Great JFK Jr. Plunge in media saturation, and is closing in on OJ himself.

Think of how different it would be if:

1) Elian was Haitian: 2) Elian was a BLACK Cuban (the racism of the Miamistas is notorious); 3) It was Elian's mother that wanted him back.

If we really wanted to get rid of Castro we would take away the soapbox we've handed him with the embargo and let him rot away the way that the other collectivist nightmares of the 20th Century have. Castro is a pig - the US has prolonged his life in power by giving him something he can blame for the wretchedness of his country other than his own Stalinist idiocy.

The Miami community is dominated by families like the Mas Canosas who hate Castro because he broke their oligarchic Mafia-like hold on the country under Batista. We should be taking them just about as seriously as we take the folks who want to restore the French monarchy.

Anybody remember the armed federal troops that were sent to desegregate the schools in Little Rock pursuant to a federal court order? Were they storm troopers?