Fidel being Fidel: ex-dictator defends judge-kicking Cuban Olympian

Fidel Castro's 82-year old body may be failing him. But, dios mio, his famed obstinance has never been healthier.

You'd think it might be hard to defend a taekwondo athlete who used his potentially lethal skills to attack a sporting judge. But, oh my Capitalist swine, you know little about Cuba's mean grand-dad- the same guy who stared down a gaggle of American presidents and chuckled away a decade's worth of CIA assasination attempts. The last thing Castro is afraid of is humiliating himself. And apparently, the phrase "picking your battles" doesn't have a Cuban Spanish translation.

Yesterday, Castro penned an essay in which he defended Angel Matos, the Cuban fighter who kicked a judge square in the face after being disqualified from a bronze-medal taekwondo match.

Matos was reacting justly to Olympic corruption, Castro wrote, backing up the fighter's coach's claim that he had been offered a bribe to throw the match. His rant really gained some steam around that point, as he rattled of "European chauvinism, judge corruption, buying of brawn and brains..." before taking a cat nap, drinking a mug of herbal tea, re-dipping his quill in an ink well, and resuming with the declaration "I do not have to remain silent in the face of a mafia!"

At this point, he's almost adorable.

-- Gus Garcia-Roberts