The Illuminated Donkey

Well, at least things are exciting there now. In her rather condescending "In the Time of Hugo Chavez" article in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, doesn't seem to have much interest in whether Chavez is good or bad for Venezuela, or how he'll accomplish any of his stated goals, outside of consolidating power, but rather just seems oh-so-thrilled that at last things are interesting there:

For decades, Venezuela had plodded along as perhaps the dullest and least fantastic country in the region. An oil nation with the largest reserves outside the Middle East, it has boasted a relatively dependable, although flawed, democratic system since 1958. Then [...] along came Chávez with his camouflage pants and his talk of revolution. Finally this spring, the Venezuelan president, a throwback in so many ways, provoked an equally retrograde reaction: a coup. And the events in Venezuela raised unsettling questions in the region as a whole: Could epaulets come back in style?

It's all so...quaint!