World: Benazir "Pinkie" Bhutto Is Dead

As tempted as we are to say "La Reine est mort, vive La Reine," we'll hold our tongue this once.

Her autobiographical work, "Daughter of the East," tells you all you need to know about the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Mangoes from Fortnum & Mason, is all I have to say.

On the other hand, the political situation in Pakistan has been steadily spiraling out of control since Zulfikar Ali Bhutto first came to power. Since then, it's been a succession of militarist dictators, coups, assassinations, judicial murders, and mayhem. We would speculate that erstwhile Bush-butt-buddy Musharraf is now in some serious doo-doo. He had this to say:

President Pervez Musharraf condemned the killing and urged people to remain calm so that the "nefarious designs of terrorists can be defeated."

From Auntie Beeb's news story.

Various political panjandrums have already made mouth-noises of appeasement at the populace of Pakistan, who will now decide what comes next. We expect the mullahs to win out. The various governing entities of Pakistan, much like those of the U.S. of late, have assiduously courted religious extremists in order to prevent true democracy taking hold. They are about to reap the whirlwind. They deliberately kept vast sections of the populace in the grip of a fundamentalist-based ignorance, preferring to let the madrassahs give the people a pitiful excuse for an education. Now those same uneducated, fundamentalist, crazed beasts will rise up to bite the hand that feeds them.

It's sad, but to be expected. Freedom is the right of all people. If their desire for it is perverted, then a perverted freedom is what they will strive for.

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