Occasionally we're forced to learn harsh truths. Santa Claus does not exist. The Tooth Fairy is bullshit. New York is not the center of the world.

Natural disasters have a way of pushing these stark realities to the forefront. Searching for information about Hurricane Gustav, we stumbled upon the Cuban News Agency, which provides a decidedly non-American perspective on the island nation. So the Cubans aren't ungodly heathens? Shock.

Fidel Castro called the devastation a "nuclear strike."

From the same article:

"It has been a hard blow; I could not even imagine it," said in a hoarse voice, hurt by the effort but steady and resolute, Ana Isa Delgado, the Party Secretary and President of the Defense Council in that important municipality.

We also learned that the Venezuelan Community Party and the Russians will help Cuba and how Gustav affected the United States. Good stuff throughout.

Thanks for listening. We will now return to our regularly scheduled narcissism.