Yeah, That’s The Ticket!

Did I mention that I love the Saracuda?

America’s Future

And no pantsuits. 😉

Tech beats State: SOS

cross-posted at Pike County Times

Same old State.
Can’t run, can’t pass. Multiple turnovers. Special teams are anything but.
Bonehead personal foul penalties.
Not a single first down in the 4th quarter.
Shut out in the second half.

And yet they still had a chance to win.
Trailing by eight points with 3 minutes to go, a State punt was mishandled by Tech, giving the Dogs a 1st down in Tech territory.

Same old State.
A three-and-out, featuring a dropped pass gave State one more opportunity to punt, netting a lousy 15 yards. Tech runs out the clock, punts on the last play, and it’s game over.

C-L reported that Coach Croom was coy in the week leading up to this disaster, promising a more exciting brand of football for State fans. “You need to buy a ticket to see for yourself,” he said. He was right. It was an exciting night to remember for La Tech, and another forgettable night of frustration for the Maroon.

Coach Croom has been given every opportunity to field a competitive team. I’m sorry to say that my patience has been exhausted. This loss was every bit as difficult to watch as the Maine debacle. It will be Same old State, as long as we have the same old excuse for a weak football coach.

Fire Sylvester Croom.

Introducing…Gov. Sarah Palin

In Dayton, OH, Sen John McCain introduced his VP selection, Gov Sarah Palin of Alaska.
Here’s the vid…

McCain-Palin: Confirmed!

“There will be a woman on the ticket. And, it isn’t Hillary.”

So stated Fox News’ Carl Cameron as he confirmed from the McCain Campaign that Sarah Palin, the 44 year old Governor of Alaska is the choice for the GOP VP nomination.

Great choice for VP, and a true game-changer.

Here is an earlier blog entry about Gov Palin, including a nice writeup from Pat Ruffini.

And, a video interview of Gov Palin on the Beck Show.

more at CNN

Katrina+3: Waiting on the Big Swede

Gov. Haley Barbour issued a state of emergency declaration for the southern part of Mississippi on Thursday afternoon due to the potential threat coming from the Big Swede.

“Now is the time to prepare yourself, your family and your friends,” Barbour said in a statement.

Barbour also urged “all Mississippians to please take this storm seriously. One of the most important lessons we learned after Hurricane Katrina was that there is no substitute for awareness and self-help, especially in the days before a hurricane is predicted to hit.” link

We’re ready. I think. Still have a few loose ends to tie up, but most of the preparation has been done.

This is the Labor Day Weekend/World Famous Friday Open Thread. A Free speech zone.

WFFOT: College Football season gets going big time this weekend.

Ahhhhhhhhh! Life is good.

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Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Virtuous Republic, Mark My Words, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, DragonLady’s World, Shadowscope, , The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Democrat=Socialist, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, third world county, , Woman Honor Thyself, , The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, A Blog For All, Cao’s Blog, , Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Political Byline, Allie is Wired, The World According to Carl, , and CORSARI D’ITALIA, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Vimto: Secret Agent Reveals All…..Exclusive to NN&V.

Vimto, Welsh secret agent reporting back for duty.

I wonder if you have found the news blackout from the UK suspicious recently? Truth to tell we are now under Sharia Law and I am risking my life smuggling this article to you.

Since that guy in Denver died I haven’t been safe. There seems to be a plot (so I’m told – emailed to me – honest guv) that the 3 guys that went to shoot Obama were recruited by this Somalian guy but double crossed him. Still can’t work out why they left the cyanide…. deeply mysterious.

In the UK we are bending over backwards (as it were) to please our new Islamic masters. As good Dhimmi’s were are not just letting Muslims celebrate Ramadan but want to join with them in fraternal solidarity.

I have to be brief – there is someone at the door – from now on please refer to me as Usaf vimto. Got to go…. I may be some time…..

Hopiate of the masses

Wish I could take credit for the clever title, but I stole it from the People’s Cube.

Liberals just can’t understand why we on the Right mock them for their cult of the Obamessiah, or given his now confirmed Muslim upbringing, perhaps we should be calling him the Obamahdi.

They just don’t get it. Just for s*its and giggles, take a look at film maker Spike Lee, who says the election of the Hopiate will actually be a messianic calendar time divide , AB and BB. Yes, “After” and “Before” Barry.

You can’t make this stuff up.

New kids on the block

Welcome to the blogosphere: Club Penguin Cheats

Best of luck guys!

Outbreak

Update:  35 more have died

“We really don’t know what exactly it is; we are depending on the finding of a team of specialists from New Delhi.”

R.C. Agarwal, chief medical officer, Uttar Pradesh, India. source

“It” is a deadly virus that has in two weeks spread to 350 villages in northern India. So far, the mystery virus has taken 160 lives. Specialists from New Delhi’s Infectious Disease and Surveillance Program have collected the blood samples of a few patients, and will release its findings in a few days.

But now, a panic-induced exodus from the affected villages have left schools closed, and basic services at a standstill. Thousands are bed-ridden, with an average of 15 to 20 deaths per day.

Kanpur, on the Ganges River, is the closest major city. Some 4.1 million people in the immediate area could be affected.

Gustav strengthens

Hurricane Gustav, which sounds suspiciously like some sneaky Russian bastid, is poised to make landfall today in Haiti. Then, in a typically treacherous Rooskie manuever, is expected to skirt around the southern coast of the worker’s paradise of Kooba before entering the GOM.

“This time next week it will be somewhere in the Gulf,” said Eric Wilhelm, senior meteorologist at private forecaster AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. “All the states lining the Gulf Coast of the U.S. will be on the lookout.”

Gustav will probably intensify into a Category 2 hurricane later today with winds of at least 96 mph and may develop into a Category 3 or 4 by the end of the week, Wilhelm said. Hurricanes are rated on the 5-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with Categories 3 or higher deemed “major” storms, with winds of 111 mph and higher.

Come to think of it, Gustav coming this close to the 3rd anniversary of Katrina is too much of a “coincidence” for me. You know, the more I think about it, “Katrina” sounds like some kind of Russo-Cuban hybrid fusion beeyotch name, doesn’t it.

Another coincidence? I think not.

/he says, removing his tin foil hat.

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Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Virtuous Republic, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Mark My Words, Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Blog For All, Right Truth, DragonLady’s World, Shadowscope, , Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, Allie is Wired, third world county, Political Byline, McCain Blogs, Woman Honor Thyself, , DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, , , The Pink Flamingo, CORSARI D’ITALIA, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

What do you really know about BO?

This ad reportedly has BO’s camp “furious.”

Message to BO: If you lie down with dogs, don’t be surprised if you get up with fleas.

Late Nite Jam

Van Morrison, Tupelo Honey

Nite y’all. have a great weekend.

Hope our friends in Florida get a chance to dry out some before the next blast comes in. I think I saw one of Ed the Jerky Weatherman’s multi-colored masterpieces forecasting another storm following a similar path as Fay. Hang in there Swamps.

My favorite Bidenism-“My state was a slave state”

With the VP speculation settling on Joe Biden, I thought I would reach into the archives and pull out one of my all-time favorite Bidenisms.

Friday Linkage: WFFOT

Get the latest election news from Rasmussen.

• Electric Cars, Nuclear Power Seen as Top Non-Drilling Alternatives to Foreign Oil
• Patriots are Top Pick to Win Super Bowl, but Peyton Tops Quarterbacks
• Most Americans Would Choose Watching Olympics over Campaign Coverage
• Most Adults Say Starbucks is Overpriced
• “Yepsen: Decisive McCain Gains on Tentative Obama”
• “Obama Shores Up N.C. Base”
• “Latest State-by-State General Elections”
• “Parent Connection”
• “Potential Vice Presidential Candidates Tread Lightly”

+++++ This is the World Famous Friday Open Thread. Track-backs welcome.

The DNC and RNC Conventions are upon us. So is the college football season. Yeah baby!!

WFFOT: “The chains of habits are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” Samuel Johnson
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Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Democrat=Socialist, Pursuing Holiness, Allie is Wired, Political Byline, McCain Blogs, DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, , The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Tales from Kindergarten and First Grade

“Jeeeeeesus Christ, this is BULLshit!” said the cute little kindergarten boy with big brown eyes and a truculent expression. Papers and crayons had just been passed out to color circles in either red or blue, depending on the colors of the circles above the blank circles, the purpose of which is to work on developing pattern recognition and not to torture little kindergarten boys.

So far this week, I have been kicked, hit, spit at, had green snot sneezed all over me, had shoes thrown at me, and told how much I am hated. I’ve also been hugged, kissed, and told “I love you!” and, a high point, have not (yet) been thrown up on or had to change poopy pants. (These are developmentally delayed children; one is not “potty” trained.)

After explaining to the cute little kindergarten boy that first we do our work, then we play, he muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “ain’t no bitch gonna tell ME what to do”.

Sigh. It’s gonna be a loooooong year.

School Days

The first week of school in Ridgeland, Mississippi was memorable for this brand-new kindergartener

(who just happens to be Nuke’s granddaughter).

Special thanks to Annie at The Madison County Herald for graciously providing this wonderful photo.

Mrs. Nuke is thrilled.

It’s all good.

Dead ant. dead ant. dead ant. dead ant. dead ant

Calling it a “routine procedure,” TSA spokesman Elio Montenegro from Chicago explained to ABC News that a TSA inspector was simply trying to determine if airplanes on the tarmac could be broken into. Unfortunately for American Airlines, and the passengers who were scheduled to fly out of O’Hare Field on the nine damaged American Eagle planes, the inspector’s overnight inspection damaged “sensitive instrument probes.”

The TSA agent, as part of spot inspection of aircraft security, climbed onto the parked aircraft using control sensors mounted on the fuselage as handholds, according to a TSA official in Chicago, Elio Montenegro.

I feel so much safer now, don’t you?.

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cross-posted and Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Full Metal Cynic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Mark My Words, A Blog For All, Right Truth, DragonLady’s World, Shadowscope, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Political Byline, DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, , The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Ich bin ein beginner

An interesting contrast for your reading and pondering pleasure….

On tonight’s Hardball, Chris Matthews resurrected the old liberal saw/strawman of Obama as the victim of racist Republicans. (via Newsbusters):

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me ask you this. Isn’t he [McCain] handing out permission slips to vote against Barack? “Inexperience” is my favorite. Because you could have all kinds of problems with Barack Obama: ethnically, politically, culturally, class—I don’t know what the adjective is for class, but “classily.” And you can have every problem in the world with Mrs. Obama. But you could hide it all under, not hide it all, you could present it all under one word: “you know, I’ve got nothing against him. He’s a bright young man with a quality education, interesting new ideas. But he’s not quite ready yet.” And that’s a fair critique which covers all your reasons for opposing him.

Let’s cut through Matthews’ miasma. No one needs a “permission slip” to oppose a candidate on political, cultural or class grounds. Matthews’ allegation was unmistakable: McCain is intentionally broadcasting a subliminal appeal to racists. If ever a candidate has tried to avoid the race issue, it’s John McCain. Matthews should put up, shut up, or better yet, apologize.

And continuing along the same theme, a total and complete contradiction of Mathews’ assertion by film-maker Michael Moore, who in an open letter to Caroline Kennedy said this:

The toughest thing Barack has had to overcome — and it will continue to be his biggest obstacle — is that too many of the voters simply don’t know him well enough to vote for him. The fact that Obama is new to the scene is both one of his most attractive qualities AND his biggest drawback.

Talk about pretzel logic.

In the twisted reasoning of the left, Democrats fear Obama will lose because the American People rightfully question his lack of experience. But to question his experience is in itself a form of racism.

*Sigh*

Tuesday Open Thread

In honor of our very special guest commenter on the previous thread, here is a classic music video for your viewing and commenting pleasure.

Turn it up

Gut-Wrenching inexperience

From Part 1 of the Saddleback Civil Forum transcript … Rick Warren asks Obama the following question..

Q WHAT’S THE MOST SIGNIFICANT — LET ME ASK IT THIS WAY: WHAT’S THE MOST GUT WRENCHING DECISION YOU’VE EVER HAD TO MAKE AND HOW DID YOU PROCESS THAT, COME TO THAT DECISION?

A WELL, YOU KNOW, I THINK THE OPPOSITION TO THE WAR IN IRAQ WAS AS TOUGH A DECISION THAT I’VE HAD TO MAKE NOT ONLY BECAUSE THERE WERE POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES BUT ALSO BECAUSE SADDAM HUSSIEN WAS A BAD PERSON AND THERE WAS NO DOUBT THAT HE MEANT AMERICA ILL.

BUT I WAS FIRMLY CONVINCED AT THE TIME THAT WE DID NOT HAVE STRONG EVIDENCE OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND THERE WERE A LOT OF QUESTIONS THAT AS I SPOKE TO EXPERTS KEPT ON COMING UP: DO WE KNOW HOW THE SHIITES AND THE SUNNIS AND THE KURDS ARE GOING TO GET ALONG IN A POST SADDAM SITUATION; WHAT’S OUR ASSESSMENT AS TO HOW THIS WILL AFFECT THE BATTLE AGAINST TERRORIST LIKE AL-QAEDA; HAVE WE FINISHED THE JOB IN AFGHANISTAN.

SO I AGONIZED OVER THAT, AND I THINK QUESTIONS OF WAR AND PEACE GENERALLY ARE SO PROFOUND YOU KNOW WHEN YOU MEET THE TROOPS, THEY ARE 19, 20, 21-YEAR OLD KIDS AND YOU ARE PUTTING THEM INTO HARM’S WAY THERE IS A SOLEMN OBLIGATION THAT YOU DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO GET THAT DECISION RIGHT. AND NOW AS THE WAR WENT FORWARD, VERY DIFFICULT ABOUT HOW LONG DO YOU KEEP FUNDING THE WAR IF YOU STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT IT’S NOT AMERICA’S NATIONAL INTEREST AT THE SAME TIME YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TROOPS WHO ARE OUT THERE WITHOUT THE EQUIPMENT THEY NEED. SO THAT ALL THOSE QUESTIONS SURROUNDING THE WAR HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME.

The toughest, most gut-wrenching decision this then-unknown, Illinois state legislator has ever made in his entire life was a political one. He was willing to bet his political future that the Iraq War would go badly. And, he based his decision on the fact that he KNEW Iraq did not possess WMD’s?

How prescient.

Obama KNEW something that was directly contradicted by the very best evidence and intelligence provided by US and international intelligence as well as Saddam’s long history of flaunting UN resolutions. He was firmly convinced, despite a bi-partisan consensus, the best opinion from the previous Democrat administration, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Yet Obama, who had no access to any of the classified information, no access to any of the evidence presented to members of Congress, nothing at all upon which to base a reasoned position, was “firmly convinced” that the intelligence was faulty.

The guy is truly amazing. I can see why Sally Quinn wants to live in his world.

Unfortunately, Obama’s world is a make-believe one. His lack of any substantial life experience concerns me. The fact that the most gut-wrenching decision he has ever made carried no personal consequences for himself or his family, but rather centered upon his political viability as a candidate. is telling indeed. He was an unknown state senator in Illinois, representing a district in Chicago with a strong antiwar constituency, including the likes of Pentagon bomber and Weather Underground leader William Ayers.

This one answer at Saddleback, more than any of the others, exposes Obama as a truly empty suit.

Saddleback Civil Forum: the transcript

Rick Warren has the transcript from last night’s discourse… If you missed it, don’t worry. There was enough meat there to provide the pundits with material for weeks. (AP photo)

PART 1: MS Word Format | Text-only Format
PART 2: MS Word Format | Text-only Format
PART 3: MS Word Format | Text-only Format
PART 4: MS Word Format | Text-only Format
PART 5: MS Word Format | Text-only Format
PART 6: MS Word Format | Text-only Format

Zot Media — Denver cyanide connection?

I received an email today from Vimto, regarding the comments made at Zot Media by one Abdirahman Dirie.

As you may know, a Somali immigrant from Canada by the same name was found dead in Denver, in possession of enough cyanide to kill hundreds.

So, here is the breaking news: At the request of The Jawa Report, I asked Vimto to help us by revealing the IP address of the commenter on his blog, who wrote,

“Please don’t talk shit , that man deserves what happened to him , simply because having the bible in one hand , and a bread in the other hand , is not a correct thing ,! Kill Them , Kill them , Kill them , that is my massage,!” Comment by Abdirahman Dirie — July 11, 2008 @ 10:33 pm

OK all you internet sleuths, the IP address 193.251.135.88.

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This is the World Famous Friday Open Thread: a free speech zone. Comments, questions, track-backs welcome.

WFFOT: Because a thread is a terrible thing to waste.

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Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Shadowscope, , Cao’s Blog, , Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, Pet’s Garden Blog, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Political Byline, third world county, Allie is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, DragonLady’s World, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, , , The Pink Flamingo, , Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Thursday Open

courtesy of Mad Magazine

Where there’s smoke

Is Barack Obama a Muslim?

Does it matter?

This registration document, made available on Jan. 24, 2007, by the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia, shows the registration of Barack Obama under the name Barry Soetoro into the Catholic school made by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro. The document lists Barry Soetoro as a Indonesian citizen, born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, and shows his Muslim step-father listed the boy’s religion as Islam.(AP Photo/ Tatan Syuflana)

source

So, what do you think? Is he a Muslim? His step-father certainly thought so.

Does it matter? I would find it difficult to believe that anyone who has been even half-awake for the last seven years wouldn’t agree that it matters. It matters a lot.

h/t Free Republic

Russia’s Dirty Game!

As more information comes available, it has become painfully clear what Russia is doing and has done.
Now information is available, that weeks ago was puzzling, that Russia was conducting cyber attacks on Georgia, as a dress rehearsal for the day they could attack.

As it turns out, the July attack may have been a dress rehearsal for an all-out cyberwar once the shooting started between Georgia and Russia. According to Internet technical experts, it was the first time a known cyberattack had coincided with a shooting war.

NYT.

This info is critical, and shows the Russians were being provocative, as usual, and were moving their pieces on the board weeks ago.
This also raises the question, how could Russia plan for a war with Georgia, when they were only defending their interests in Ossetia, after Georgia attacked? How could they know that Georgia would attack? If they knew, why not take intense diplomatic action, to prevent this war, save human life, and spare the destruction? But then, why conduct cyber attacks weeks before, and then initiate a full scale cyber attack when they invaded?
The answer or answers are not difficult to understand, now.

Observers believe Mr Saakashvili’s decision to move into South Ossetia last week followed about two weeks of provocation by Russian forces and their client militias. “Russia wanted to manoeuvre Saakashvili into a situation where he would be seen to be making the first move and then provide a pretext for Russian action,” said an observer.

UK Telegraph.

While these “observers” aren’t identified, it is known that there are U.S. military trainers in that region, as well as other international connections. We could argue over the validity of any “observers” comments in this conflict, including the “observers” who claim that Georgia was committing atrocities against the citizens of Ossetia.
I think we are getting a clearer picture of Russia’s shame game, that they had been provoking Georgia in Ossetia, knowing that they would eventually take action, and when they did, Russia would attack, all the while claiming they were the defenders in the hostile actions of Georgia. Winning a propaganda war in the initial phases, bought Russia a little time so they could cause as much damage as possible, without serious opposition from the international community.
As to what the rest of the board looks like, in Russia’s dirty little game, it is a desire of Russia to either reacquire territory that was once under the former Soviet Empire’s tyrannical grip, or to control the resources from that region, particularly the oil pipelines that run through Georgia, from the Caspian.

Between Russia and Iran, in the lower Caucasus, sits a small wedge of independent soil — namely, the soil of Azerbaijan and Georgia combined. Through those two countries runs the immensely important Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which delivers precious oil circuitously from Azerbaijan to Turkey and out to the world. This is important not just because of the actual oil being delivered free of interference from Russia and Iran and the Middle East, but also for symbolic reasons. It says to the world that if any former Moscow colonies wish to sell their wares to the West directly, they have a right to do so, and the West will support that right. According to Georgian authorities, Russian warplanes have tried to demolish the Georgian leg of that pipeline several times in the last days. Their message cannot be clearer.

Besides their own pipeline, Georgia and Azerbaijan offer a fragile strategic conduit between the West and the “stans” of Central Asia — including Afghanistan — an area that the Soviets once controlled in toto. We should remember that an isolated Central Asia means an isolated Afghanistan. Look at the countries surrounding Afghanistan — all former Soviet colonies, then Iran, then Pakistan.

WSJ.

The game is under way, and Russia has made some bold moves, which have yet to be countered, but countered they will be. How remains to be seen.
Will Russia be countered militarily? I don’t know, but I don’t think Russia could afford heavy military losses, or would be willing to risk it, not at this stage.
Will Russia be evicted from the G8? That proposal is already being discussed, and may be the single biggest threat to deter Russia’s ambitions of conquest.
For my part, Russia needs to be spanked hard for provoking this conflict. I believe Russia is exhibiting behavior consistent with a lashing out, the death throws of, what Mark Steyn has described as, a dying nation.

Russia is literally dying. From a population peak in 1992 of 148 million, it will be down to below 130 million by 2015 and thereafter dropping to perhaps 50 or 60 million by the end of the century, a third of what it was at the fall of the Soviet Union. It needn’t decline at a consistent rate, of course. But I’d say it’s more likely to be even lower than 50 million than it is to be over 100 million. The longer Russia goes without arresting the death spiral, the harder it is to pull out of it, and when it comes to the future most Russian women are voting with their foetus: 70 per cent of pregnancies are aborted.
———————
Add to that the unprecedented strains on a ramshackle public health system. Russia is the sick man of Europe, and would still look pretty sick if you moved him to Africa. It has the fastest-growing rate of HIV infection in the world. From virtually no official Aids cases at the time Putin took office, in the last five years more Russians have tested positive than in the previous 20 for America. The virus is said to have infected at least 1 per cent of the population, the figure the World Health Organisation considers the tipping point for a sub-Saharan-sized epidemic. So at a time when Russian men already have a life expectancy in the mid-50s — lower than in Bangladesh — they’re about to see Aids cut them down from the other end, killing young men and women of childbearing age, and with them any hope of societal regeneration. By 2010, Aids will be killing between a quarter and three-quarters of a million Russians every year. It will become a nation of babushkas, unable to muster enough young soldiers to secure its borders, enough young businessmen to secure its economy or enough young families to secure its future. True, there are regions that are exceptions to these malign trends, parts of Russia that have healthy fertility rates and low HIV infection. Can you guess which regions they are? They start with a ‘Mu-’ and end with a ‘-slim’.
———————
We are witnessing a remarkable event: the death of a great nation not through war or devastation but through its inability to rouse itself from its own suicidal tendencies. The ‘ideological vacuum’ was mostly filled with a nihilist fatalism. Churchill got it wrong: Russia is a vacuum wrapped in a nullity inside an abyss.

Russia is dangerous, and made even more so without direct and decisive action, to contain their lashing out. The attack on Georgia is an early indicator of just how dysfunctional, and threatening Russia is, and can be.