Babalú: Deleting Its Way to Sanity

The Babalunians have deleted Henry's post "Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows" on which we commented yesterday. Anyone could have predicted it from the general tenor of the dialogue on Henry's end as well as from Val's ringing of the bell towards the end.

It is Babalú's aspiration, über alles, to be "respectable." This sometimes means fawning, grovelling and other breaches of self-control and self-worth. Even the occasional well-placed obscenity is tolerated; but Henry's fusillades at Rick of Stuck on the Palmetto mostly misfired, not because the gunpowder was wet, but because Henry greased the cannonballs with his own excrement. Such foul language, in mixed company, puts Habla Mierda to shame. Certainly I never elicited such a reaction from Henry and I actually hit him where it hurts. Is Henry really so invested in Fred Thompson that questioning his candidate's motives can awaken in him the ire that pointing out his endless missteps on Cuba does not? Apparently so.

I also wonder what strange powers Rick has over him. Maybe Rick's long association with the wrong sort of Cubans has led him to seek other resources in order to gain mastery over Henry. I should not be surprised as Rick's rhetoric per se is nothing to send a man climbing up the walls. (In fact, Rick has always had a strange fascination with santería; but I didn't expect that to be the road to his assimilation to the dominant culture).

I find it difficult to summon up much sympathy for Henry. A little girl who's been abused every day of her 4-year-old life — well, I can understand her having panic attacks. How else can she get it across to the adolts surrounding her that she doesn't want to be dropped down Castro's well by her father? But Henry, Elenita's sometimes nemesis, should be able to keep his emotions in check, unless his new babies are bringing out the baby in him.

Henry's sparring partner at SotP has yet to notice that yesterday's Babalú post dedicated to him has been deleted but he's been in a daze ever since he repatriated temporarily to the heartland.

Of course, I saved a copy. So did the Babalunians, of course. So did Rick (unless he condemns himself to repeat the past).

Let's see who puts it up again first.