Amazing. Just fantastic. The entire thing centers around a painting of mountains, sea, and a smiley-face sun. Kung-fu wires, firework footsteps, schoolchildren, and dancers are just some of the highlights.
A great start to the 2008 Beijing Games!
From an online chat I had with a reader. I cleaned up my spelling and grammar… slightly:
After Georgia came out of its civil war, there were three provinces that had declared Independence and were backed by Russia.
Russia gave the residents of these provinces Russian passports, the local governments military aid, etc
a few years ago Georgia reincorporated one of them.
A few months ago Georgian UAVs (given to them by US) started being shot down by Russian fighters — supposedly belonging to the local governments, but piloted by Russians.
exactly what happened is unclear, but this morning Georgia first complained about Russian bombing, then shot down 2 Russian planes, then Russia sent/is sending its army into one of the 2 secessionist regions.
I assume this is revenge for what’s happening in Serbia — us recognizing Kosovo and then arresting Karadic (the former president of the Serbian Republic in Bosnia).
As I’m writing, CNN is discussing Russia’s invasion of Georgia. CNN online has an article about the tank rush, though more is available elsewhere online.
Russia is a parasitic state, a net-destroyer of wealth with no ability to generate wealth on its own. Russian state policy is consistently determined by energy prices: trading land for cash when prices are low, trading influence for cash when prices are high. This is an example of the second: Russia’s invasion of Georgia naturally spooks all of its neighbors and shows it to be an unreliable warlord-state. Russia is an oriental potentate, a Central Asian Despotate.
Russia is so reckless and incompetent in foreign affairs that it has gaind the freedom of little left to lose. It’s economy is a function of European and Asian energy demands, so there are no productive industries that could be effectively sanctioned. Russia has scared all of its former friends away, so even other dictators like Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Islom Karimov of Uzbekistan have little fondness for the Rus.
Still, it is important that Russia be struck for its war against peace. Russia is a greater and more systemic enemy of globalization than al Qaeda, because Russian culture and geography itself generate hostility toward globalization, while al Qaeda is merely a function of a screwed up Islamic civilization. Russia must be rolled back. Ukraine must be admitted Europe. Georgia must be defended at the price of Russian blood. George Bush, John McCain, and Barack Obama must forcefully denounce Russia and outline plans for containing that vampire-state.
There’s a lot of cool stuff about the video, #1 being they built a time machine and... I... I can’t recall a similar episode of the military or security services attempting to silence a... Prosecutors have...