There's no place like home.

I don't need a Wizard of Oz experience to remind me of what home means; just a little excursion to pretty much anywhere for more than 36 hours, which should tell you all you need to know about what a reclusive shut-in I really am.

It was really a working vacation that called me to Jamaica, but I'm glad I didn't describe it as such before leaving, as my conscience would be porous from guilt since my time was mostly spent in a hammock, by the pool or parked at the bar with a big, fat spliff working up an appetite for lobster, conch fritters, callaloo and ackee.

Speaking of spliffs: Oddly enough, the cannabis in Jamaica is wildly inconsistent. Kofi Anan should appoint Jack Herer to head a campaign for Dutch & Canadian cannabis enthusiasts to collect five hundred pounds of pollen to be dispersed over the entire island by crop dusters. Trust me, the Jamaicans would be no less grateful than the tourists.

But I digress.

How wonderful it was to return in time to catch James Wolcott mentioning the latest dis from Hugo Chavez:

"HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Saying that U.S. citizens are oppressed by their own government, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised Friday that he would not visit the United States again until Americans 'liberate' their nation.

"Chavez, in Havana for trade talks, told an international gathering of activists here that before an earlier trip to Cuba, a U.S. State Department undersecretary he did not identify warned him not to go because he would no longer be received in Washington.

"He said he went ahead with that trip anyway, and later traveled to the United States to visit U.S. President George W. Bush, who he said greeted him with a Coca-Cola in his hand.

"'I have not returned, nor do I think about returning again, until the people of the United States liberate that nation,' said Chavez, saying that Americans are 'oppressed' by their government and U.S. media.

By my estimate, probably one third of United States citizens - and 98.3% of lefty bloggers - agree with President Chavez. Apparently, when one tries to kill a foreign adversary and fails, it is unrealistic to expect said adversary to engage in the flowery talk of diplomatic lies comprising the usual and customary chorus of world leader speak.

While I was drinking Ting & Absolut and enjoying the company of the lovely people of Jamaica, the often prescient and always formidable Juan Cole made a similar point with regard to Americans being oppressed by the corporate news media, even though the word oppressed isn't explicitly stated.

Matthew Haughey says he won't read our blogs if we use the term "mainstream media" (a.k.a. MSM).

A news flash for Matt: We don't care.

We don't care if you read our web logs.

The difference, Matt, is that we are independent actors, not part of a small set of multi-billion dollar corporations. The difference is that we are not under the constraints of making a 15% profit. The difference is that we are a distributed information system, whereas MSM is like a set of stand-alone mainframes. The difference is that we can say what we damn well please.

If we were the mainstream media (perhaps better thought of as corporate media), we would care if you threatened to stop reading us. Because although we might be professional news people, we would have the misfortune to be working for corporations that are mainly be about making money.

Journalism is out and stock value is in, and this won't be changing anytime soon. Sure, we all know this and say so with some frequency, but few articulate it quite as well as Juan Cole. I love that guy.

In addition to the vortex of despair I missed out on for the past couple of weeks, I have lots of mundane things to catch up on here at la hacienda, so if I'm not as graphically entertaining as usual, cut me some slack. Recognizing the need to add a little beauty to my surroundings, I also have a hefty aquarium to set up this week. Viva pim pictus!