From Russia, With Love...

So, I have to admit. The more I think about the Russian invasion of Georgia, the more I'm indifferent towards the whole thing.

I realize this is a whole "act of aggression" and "Putin trying to reunite the Motherland" and all, but the level of international hostility towards this action really has me a little surprised.

Case in point, isn't this essentially just another superpower enacting the "Bush Doctrine" of preemptive attack on a sovereign nation that goes against their national interests? Shouldn't we be encouraging this type of action, given our propensity towards solving problems via regime change (whether it be military or subtle "Mujaheddin" type actions)?

Am I being unreasonable here, or should I be viewing this as different since USA isn't doing it this time?

Either way you look at it, Russia doesn't really appear to be leaving anytime soon, despite any withdrawal promises:

"... forces are in the process of leaving Gori, a strategic city that sits on Georgia's only significant east-west road.

Also, Russian tanks moved even deeper into Georgia on Sunday, digging in at a checkpoint barely 30 kilometres west of the capital, Tbilisi, the CBC's Mike Hornbrook reported from
the city.

Under the European Union-brokered peace plan signed by both Russian Presient Dmitry Medvedev and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, both sides are to pull forces back to positions held before last week's outbreak of fierce fighting in the breakaway region of South Ossetia."

Yea, that doesn't sound all that promising to me as far as any "troop withdrawal", unless you redefine the Georgian-Russian border to annex current gains by Russian troops, THEN they'd be withdrawn technically right?

We would probably be banned in Russia

"In America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, party finds you!" - Yakov Smirnoff

I love the Russians. Every one I've met so far has been gregarious, fun to hang out with, and pretty light-hearted about things. Partly full of bullshit, but the same goes for the rest of humanity.

Well, this story reeks of bullshit in my opinion. Seems that if you are part of the Russian opposition, you can't even get on television. If you do get on, you get digitally edited out (sometimes your legs are left behind though). It's a clever ploy. One cannot say that you aren't being allowed to speak your mind, the state is just not going to allow anyone to hear you. It's no secret that Russia is not exactly rushing headlong to embrace democracy or free markets. But editing people out of broadcasts? That's just bushleague. I'd expect to see that on some Taliban-sponsored political show, right after Johnny Chimpo re-runs, not from someone quite as bad-ass Vladimir Putin (left, looking scary).

Five for Friday

First out, an interesting column from former Phillie, Cub, and Ranger Doug Glanville on how quickly a baseball player goes from green horn to wise old vet. But, I think there's a subtext here that we can apply to the 2008 election. Writes Glanville:

These inspirational anomalies make us understand that experience and time are not one and the same. You could have sat in major league locker rooms for decades and still not have the impact of a one-person movement. And when that kind of universal and era-free player comes knocking, we have to answer the door and let him in.

Second, if you're in the Vermont dating scene like me, watch the eff out.

Third, back to baseball. Anyone catch Justin Masterson's line yesterday? 6 IP, 2H, 1ER, 4BB. Not bad for a 23-year old making his debut against a lineup that includes Torii Hunter, Vlad the Impaler, and the AL hits leader, Chone Figgins. Also, Masterson is the first Jamaican-born player to make it to the bigs. Not bad at all Mr. Masterson. He's been lights-out in AA, with a 0.95 ERA so far. Can't wait to see what he can do in the rotation full-time.

Fourth, and I'm super pumped about this one: Guillermo del Toro is going to direct the forthcoming Hobbit movies. In my opinion, the man is a genius. They are going to be spectacles to behold.

Last, on the international scene, the NYT ran a feature on Vladimir Putin and his cronies essentially making the Russian Orthodox Church the official religion of Russia, or at least the official Christian church of Russia. There's a ton that you can read into this article, but I think that the most striking, in my opinion, is how illustrative this is of the lengths Russia still needs to go to become a modern democracy. It's not just that there is no practical freedom of religion in Russia; its that the people interviewed in this article don't seem to understand the concept. The article displays some cognitive dissonance: they are intellectually in favor of religious freedom, but on a day to day basis support hegemony and state-sponsored religion in the name of preserving Russian-ness. There simply isn't a practical understanding by the Russian people as a whole of what this means, or so this article demonstrates. It's truly sad.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

So the deciderererer this week declared that if we don't stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities we risk World War III occurring. I kid you not, our President stated that if Iran goes nuclear World War III occurs, you know the dream he's had since he got the job.

“We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel,” Mr. Bush said at a White House news conference, referring to a remark by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel “will disappear soon.” Mr. Bush said he had “told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

That's what we need right now, a leader who says that unless something happens we're gonna be in the greatest fight the world may have ever seen. World War I and World War II are going to be nothing compared to what we are able to do in today's world with our technology. It will also be the first true World War, if it erupts I don't know if we won't see the entire world in flames in the palm of Ares.

The situation has escalated since then as now Russia has thrown its own hat into the ring. They have signed a pact with the five Caspian Sea nations stating that if any of them are attack Russia will side with them.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia said at a summit meeting of five Caspian Sea nations in Iran on Tuesday that any use of military force in the region was unacceptable, and in a declaration the countries agreed that none of them would allow their territories to be used as a base for military strikes against any of the others.

"We should not even think of making use of force in this region," Putin said.

So Dubya in his infinite wisdom has decided to take on the world, because after all you don't mess with Texas right? We want to start shit with Iran, who has Russia on their side. Not only that, China will be on their side since China gets the majority of their oil from Iran. That hurts us since the majority of our debt comes from China. In the traditional military sense, Russia and China are our biggest threats and now Dubya has rallied them to protect Iran from the US attacking them.

So, for once, Dubya had to do some damage control over his most recent remarks.

President Bush was simply “making a point” when he stated at his press conference this week that anyone who wants to avert World War III wants to keep nuclear weapons out of Iran’s hands, the White House said today.

“The president was not making any war plans,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said today. “He was not making any declaration. He was making a point.”

Ah, I see, the President of the United States arguably the most powerful man in the free world was merely...making a point. I'm sorry, but stop acting like a fucking child who isn't getting his way in the supermarket. You don't need to make points, you need to be a fucking leader who has the god damn common sense not to piss into the wind. Sometimes I wish you still drank, then at least we could have something to blame all this stupidity on.

Military commanders have said they have crippled Al Queada in Iraq, not destroyed or eliminated but definitely crippled. Things are starting to look bright once again in Iraq as General Petraeus' surge and plans are showing some benefit. You however will not see this as a positive sign that maybe we can begin to bring some of the troops home. No, we all see your colors now. You want the troops in Iraq, not to stabilize or fight terror. No you plan on using those troops to attack Iran without provocation.

I'm sorry folks, what happened in 1979 is not reason. Hell, what happened ten years ago is not reason enough to go to war. This President is hell bent on sending us straight to hell on Earth and World War III and there may be no place in the world that is safe for any of us if that happens.

Dews Tuesday Round-up

(Picture shamelessly taken from Drudgereport.com)

Putin and Ahmadinejad are good buddies apparently... Personally I think Putin is just getting on the "We hate America" bandwagon, but just a bit too late given the elections aren't THAT far away... He shoulda been doing this 2 years ago.

Now he's taken a pretty tough stance though against the "Great Satan", he is actually warning us against attacking Iran...

"We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," Putin said.

Thats as subtle as then following up with how much damage said Caspian nations would be in line to receive from Russian Military after said involvement. Basically, Russia no likey US in Irany.

The most wonderful invention ever (The Pill) is apparently being bounced around as something to be given away to students as young as 11?
Hope this isn't anything to do with those Sex in the City crowd...

Finally our lovable "Idiot Boy King" gets to meet with the Dalai Lama... No clue as to what the hell either of them could possibly say to each other, but this has certainly pissed off the Chinese government (Costco, Walmart, etc).

Finally, a quick admission on my own part, as I have officially become part of the Corporate whore/Capitalist Pig world today... Yes, I have outsourced a web project overseas... To be fair though, I have never made any false pretenses about how easily I could be bought and sold like a commodity and quite frequently have been quoted as saying I aspire to be treated "Like a piece of meat", so its not like this is a stretch and yes, I do intend to keep railing against other companies that do the same exact thing as me!

That is all.

SuperBaby eat your baby!

(REUTERS/Andrey Kasprishin)

Wow.

So apparently that whole "Day off" was a step in the right direction, though Russians need more babies, not HULK SMASH ones.

A Siberian woman who gave birth to her 12th child -- doing more than her fair share to stem Russia's population decline -- was stunned to find that little Nadia weighed in at a massive 7.75 kg (17.1 lb).

"We were all simply in shock," said Nadia's mother, Tatyana Barabanova, 43. "What did the father say? He couldn't say a thing -- he just stood there blinking."

I can't help but think the baby on the right is scared to death right now... As well he should be, that kid is huge!

No no, stay home, have sex, its cool...

(Stock photo of happy Russian couple)
Those wacky Russians may be on to something here...

They apparently want to counteract a shrinking population problem from immigration (as well as that whole AIDS thing), by encouraging people to stay home and make babies!

The governor of a central Russian province urged couples to skip work on Wednesday and make love instead to help boost Russia's low birth-rate.

Now, I am almost 100% behind this concept. The part that gets me is the whole having to have a baby part though.... Not really sure if they'd be cool with this if you were on the Pill, or some other form of birth control, but at least its something!

As a side note to this post, taking the Pill (the most wonderful creation ever) has recently shown to lower women's risk of cancer later in life! Provided, I guess, they keep taking it?

The study found that overall cancer risk was up to 12 per cent lower for women who took the Pill for less than eight years. But, for the minority of women who took it for more than eight years, the news was less good: for them, the risk of cancer increased by 22 per cent.

Well, you take the good with the bad I guess?

Back! With a blast....

So, after a brief hiatus (of a few days), I've gotta start getting back into the swing of things here...

What more positive way of doing this, then talking about a potentially new arms race between us and that lovable "I can see his soul" Putin.

Russia has tested the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, which unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear blast, the military said on Tuesday, dubbing it the "father of all bombs".

Also thrown out is the oh-so-important quip:

"The defense ministry stresses this military invention does not contradict a single international treaty. Russia is not unleashing a new arms race."

Now, I'm all for blowing stuff up (all legal ways where I live are boring), but no matter how you sell this, this is indeed a bigger better bomb, so why wouldn't this be an arms race?

We have to have a bigger one right? Its the only way to combat their big one right? We aren't compensating for anything right?

Also have to really love the timing of this announcement as Putin dissolved the government in the run up to their elections...

So to recap.

Russia has bigger bombs on the same day that Putin dissolves the guvmint.

More to come soon...