Unless you read the European press you probably don’t know that there are blacks living in Russia.
I followed a link in Some Old Dude’s blog to the English Russia site.
There I followed the link to some photographs of the homeless in Russia and discovered this shot.

While I am assuming that one or both of the women in the foreground are homeless. It was the two men in the background that caught my eye.

Like most people I have seen photographs of Russia and her people, but these are the first blacks I have ever seen photographed out on the street.

I read an article on the BBC’s website about race relations in Russia, but without context, it’s just portraits and rhetoric with no solid associations. Those people could have been anywhere on the planet. In fact they could have been models hired for the job sitting in front of backdrops in a studio in London.

Somehow the news manages to portray people in a closed environment, detached from wherever the story occurred. If you see a person on the street amongst other people it makes that person and their story more real and gives them a location for you to reference.

The Nevada Caucus is over and Billary won the most votes, but Obama got most of the delegates. This makes sense… but only if you don’t think about it.

In Nevada they created what they call at-large precincts in several hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. The votes cast in those precincts counted five times as much as the votes cast elsewhere in the state.

Fair election…..What a fascinating concept.

I haven’t looked into the maneuvering that went on in South Carolina, except to note that McCain won by a decent margin and has a better chance of winning the nomination than I would have thought.
My advice is never look too closely at political goings on, it will only create frustration.

If you still feel that the system works and your vote counts, Google for the phrase “faithless electors.”
It seems that the Electoral College is under no obligation to vote the way the delegates voted…… Sleep well.

Russia is rattling sabers again.
In a speech to a military conference broadcast on state-run cable TV, Gen. Baluyevsky said there were potential threats to Russia from international terrorism or countries seeking global or regional hegemony.

“We do not intend to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand … that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons,” he said.

This comes from Russia’s Defense Minister in 2003:
Russia will not strike first with nuclear weapons, reserving them, instead, as “a means of political deterrence,” the Russian defense minister said Thursday in Colorado Springs.

And on, and on, and on……..

Bush warned Russia to act more like a democracy. —Or what?
Bush learned that Iran has long since quit trying to build nukes, but he still says they maybe, might, possibly, try again, and are therefore are a great threat and inherently evil.
Iran is an ally of Russia… and on, and on, and………

The cold war is alive and well and thriving.

Austrian Pfeifer-Zeliska .600 Nitro Express Magnum

The website is mostly in German and before you start drooling I believe that that caliber limit is .50 in this country.
The weapon weighs just over 13lbs.
It’s a five shot, single action revolver.

Bullet Weight of 900 grains
Muzzle Velocity of 1950 fps
Muzzle Energy of 7591 ft/lbs

The cost is $13,840 Euros.

A handgun of this power is like owning a 200mph sports car. Aside from bragging rights, what good is it out in the real world?

I suppose you could take this beast out on the freeway and hunt eighteen wheelers.

A man from Kootenai County, Idaho put a tourniquet around his arm and proceeded to cut off his hand using a circular saw. He then cooked his hand in the microwave and called police. He believed he bore the “mark of the beast”.

The book of Matthew contains the passage: “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for you whole body to do into hell.”

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A man dressed as a priest was caught in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport carrying 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds) of cocaine under his robes.
The man, who refused a body search at one gate and then tried a different gate, was traveling from Bolivia. He continues to insist he is a priest and does not confess any wrongdoing, arguing his rights had been violated by the search.

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Lam Luong, 37, came to the police station and confessed Tuesday night to driving to the Dauphin Island bridge in Alabama, stopping and tossing his four children off the span, which is 80 feet high in places.

Missing and presumed dead were 4-month-old Danny Luong; 1-year-old Lindsey Luong; 2-year-old Hannah Luong; and 3-year-old Ryan Phan. Phan is not the man’s biological child, but Luong raised him from infancy.

Luong now says the confession was coerced.

Luong told the police the children were taken Monday morning by a woman named Kim who claimed to know their mother and would get them food and clothes. He said they were not returned later Monday as promised.

Note:
A hunter found one of the bodies.
………So much for “a woman named Kim took them.”

The US Navy says three of their boats were threatened by Iranian speed boats.
The US military said video and audio that it released confirmed its allegation that Iranian speedboats harassed US warships and threatened to blow them up in a radio communication.

The US has sent Iran a formal protest over Sunday’s stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has accused the US of faking its video of the incident.

Can anyone else remember the Gulf of Tonkin and the lack of the reported 22 torpedoes?

The complete lack of ambient noise is explained by the Pentagon as a broadcast from another location or the possible use of high quality radios in the speedboats.
Zero ambient noise while transmitting from a open speedboat? That’s damn good filtering.

Fake audio and video. With no repeat video sequences? Not very likely.

Who do I believe?
Obviously: NONE OF THE ABOVE.

There are way too many testosterone driven, chest beating, knuckle draggers, in charge of way to much ordinance on both sides.

This begs the question. How long before some overly excited adolescent pulls the trigger?

Right or wrong. We don’t have enough troops to fight a war in yet another country.

Afghanistan is appealing to the international community to provide extra supplies of wheat to alleviate a shortage.

Commerce Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang said this shortage could lead to serious problems during the winter.

The reason for both the shortage and the spiraling cost of grain, has nothing to do with the war or a shortage of farmland. Instead it’s good old fashioned economics.
Wheat is cheap and requires a great deal of land to grow enough to make a profit. Poppies on the other hand produce a very high per acre ROI.

As long as the various powers don’t intrude overly much, farmers will take the risk and grow a high profit crop. Using this approach, instead of a subsistence living a farmer can make enough to buy a truck or shoes for their children.

As long as there’s no way for a farmer to make life better for his children growing politically correct crops, growing what’s illegal and in demand is going to be an option that is seriously considered.

Meanwhile back in the halls of power. The rich and powerful, the politicians, the local army, and the local police are content to take their cut. Leaving absolutely no incentive for change.

Now some well placed minister, looks surprised, and asks for foreign aid. Experience has taught us that this aid, whether it be cash or sellable commodity, will be diverted for the personal use of various national and local bureaucrats.