A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Hugo Chavez discusses oil companies operating in Venezuela:

"These old parties, they are already dead, but they are still hanging on, resisting death," Chavez told reporters after voting, without referring to the pipeline incident. "Now they've accelerated their own demise."

Let's break this down:

• Oil companies are "already dead."
• Despite the fact that oil companies are "already dead," they are "still hanging on, resisting death."
• Despite the fact that oil companies are "already dead," and that they are "still hanging on, resisting death," they have nonetheless "accelerated their own demise."

So the oil companies are dead, but fighting against death but will be dead soon, according to Hugo Chavez. I guess keeping a coherent train of thought is not the man's strong suit.

UPDATE: More fun with Hugo Chavez: Russell Roberts comments on Chavez's (propaganda inspired) decision to sell heating oil to the good people of Massachusetts at a 40% discount. He notes the following passage from an article covering same:

Linda Kelly of Quincy, Mass., said she feels grateful to Chavez for the fuel that her family of five received this week at a 40 percent discount.

"He's doing the right thing," Kelly, 44, said in a phone interview Wednesday. "The people of Venezuela are lucky to have him. That's what government is supposed to be about -- taking care of the little guy."

Professor Roberts's savage response?

Yes, the people of Venezuela are lucky to have him.  He's selling oil at a 40% discount to people in a country whose per-capita income is over SIX TIMES that of Venezuela's.  That's a man who really knows how to take care of the little guy.