From the "let's give a pat on the back to another tyrant" department...

Jeremy Irons can now be added to the list of the leftists that kiss the posterior of Cuban despot Fidel Castro. From the story: International Cigar Festival Ends in Cuba:

HAVANA (AP) -- Hundreds of cigar lovers, including British actor Jeremy Irons, wrapped up an international cigar festival with an extravagant gala dinner featuring flamenco dancing and sleek acrobatic performances.

Elaborate humidors signed by President Fidel Castro were auctioned off for $700,000 at the Friday night event, where cigar merchants and aficionados from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America puffed away for hours on the island's famed stogies before returning home.

The annual festival brought together nearly 1,000 cigar connoisseurs from more than 50 countries this year. Participants visited tobacco plantations and factories and attended cocktail parties.

Irons, an Oscar winner known for roles in movies such as "Lolita," "The French Lieutenant's Woman," and "Stealing Beauty," was on his first trip to Cuba. He arrived in the capital Thursday night, and was immediately taken to a club where he danced until the pre-dawn hours. He planned to leave the island Saturday.

"Cuba is great. It has personality," Irons told The Associated Press. "And it has great mojitos, great daiquiris, great food."

In remarks made on stage, Irons paid tribute to cigars, prompting hearty laughter when he cited a conversation he had earlier in the day with a female lunch companion.

The Ice Palace notes.....

hahaha--I'll bet all the dissidents are laughing in the Cuban prisons, too, aren't they? Hey, I like a good cigar as much as the next guy, but I'm tired of the leftist half-wits glorifying Cuba as some kind of worker's utopia (although in Irons' and others' view, it is probably so). On that note, with all their lip service paid to human rights, why is it that the left invariably align themselves with those whose denial of others' rights is a way of life? For all their talk about freedom, why is it that the left always align themselves with those who would see to it that freedom to all would be denied? Whether it's Castro or Hussein, Gorbachev or Pol Pot.. what a friend they have in leftists!
-Psycmeistr-