No, no, no, no DougR, I'm not making any crazy claims about life in Cuba being a bed of roses - not yet anyway. I'll know more about that when I've been, but I'm fully expecting to find plenty of shortcomings.

First off, someone - maybe the Roger who started this thread - pointed out that the death penalty is still in play, and my own view is that the death penalty offends against humanity.

All I'm saying is that Cuba under Castro is not the unmitigated disaster that many Americans are led (and I mean led) to believe.

I've pointed to the evidence about infant health, and to me infant health is a pretty significant indicator. I have now read more about that book I mentioned, and it's obvious that Cuba has done some smart things in education too.

It's surely wrong to believe, just because it's had the label "Commie" stuck on it, that this is a worse regime than any other. In terms of basic rights it is demonstrably better than Saudi Arabia, for instance, with which the west loves to trade. It is demonstrably better than many other regimes that the USA has installed or supported. Surely this at least is beyond argument.

BTW I was not meaning to arbitrate on what is to be tolerated in this forum - just saying in response to Lonesome, with a self-evidently tongue-in-cheek phrase, that participation here is not conditional on tolerating intolerance. Not so far as I know, but it's Max's shout - you're right about that.