I was hoping that one of the US candidates would be an Alaskan. I have an antique dealer-artist acquaintance in Ketchikan. She's socially liberal and has served on some local board there, perhaps she could be vice-president of the US?
Well, maybe; standards are different there. If you're someone in Alaska, you're automatically tougher. If you go back to what I said about finding the reincarnation of T.R., Alaska might be a good place to look. So I don't care about the experience thing so much in the case of Palin. It's just too bad the Alaskan (if one were to be selected) was picked on the Republican side. This particular one seems like too shrill a pairing. McCain the "old coot" as one person called him, and now just as intense an unknown quantity who is a sop to the evangelical vote that McCain cannot otherwise deliver.
But, as an exercise in fantasy politics, a Hawaiian-Alaskan Democratic ticket would be interesting. A Hawaiian-born president with a sunny message of hope and tolerance and some Alaskan vice-president who knows first hand the cost of summer ice loss, who can weigh salmon against copper, ecosystems against oil, and who is used to having the Russians next door.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
I'm telling on Ames
I don't go around baiting published authors into such comments. I'm tattling on him here because this hit me in a very deep place. Besides being an escalation of the South Ossetian conflict in some sense. And possibly the Abkhazian one, too.
When I got his e-mail, I was jetlagged and had just had an IPA, which I can tell you based on the infinite store of knowledge in my brain is is an American beer that is extremely heavily hopped, and it can have a sedative effect. I usually drink only Arrogant Bastard Ale. In my befuddled state, I only vaguely remembered writing anything to Ames, and certainly I didn't remember the original Ames piece I was replying in re to.
Ames's complete message to me was this: "Hey, know-it-all dumbfuck, read your letter again. Yep, the Russians are still in Gori."
Indeed, but this raised a number of questions, first of all being: was Ames also drinking? Perhaps, in a weird twist, he was also jetlagged and drinking an overhopped American pale ale, and reading my letter over and over again.
I briefly wondered if I could get away with using the quote for the blog cutline, much as the City Paper has quotes from readers inside its front cover: "An invaluable source of information." "Your editor is a complete know-it-all dumbfuck." Etc.
Clearly it's all good (press), but I couldn't tell if he meant it as a compliment or not. I pondered this. People in my dorm used to always salute each other with "Asshole!" and it was a measure of respect, with the accent on the second syllable. But did they also do this at Berkeley, Ames's alma mater? Probably not. Certainly it wasn't a complete dismissal because he had read my letter at least twice, hadn't he? Days apart. It sounded like he had reconsidered his original piece in light of developments (or my letter), re-consulted my letter to him, and that he was grudgingly admitting, in a characteristic macho way, that I was right?
If, that is -- and it's a big, big if -- he wasn't ordering me to read my own letter again: "Hey, know-it-all dumbfuck, (you) read your letter again."
I read my letter again.
Sure enough, it was highly obnoxious and, had I received it, I would have definitely called the sender a dumbfuck. I had employed a wheedling tone of false familiarity and had used the phrase "it was pretty clear to most of us from the get-go" a number of times. My thesis was good, though. It was basically this: 1) don't trust the Russians; 2) I told you so. The original Ames piece's thesis was 1) So the Russians invaded; 2) And? So what?
One thing is clear: I may be a dumbfuck, but I may not know everything. And I remember even less. And Ames's original piece was a bit of a know-it-all dumbfuck piece.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The last leg of our Tallinn-Helsinki-Paris-JFK trip was aboard a Boeing 777. Wow! I felt like a country boy from Tallinn. I had known only medium-haul Airbuses and smaller airlines like Icelandair. This thing had 400 people on it and it looked like business class. You should have seen business class.
Air France fed us almost too well. They take their food seriously. I had forgotten about this in my recent Italophilia. You even get a little menu with Tintin style art on the cover (not that you will have much of a choice if you are sitting in seat 46K at the very back).
There was some sort of yoghurt product from Normandy that was not exactly yoghurt, a "first-course" tomato goat cheese crumble that was as big as the entree, and butter, cheese, and many other things with butter and cheese in them.
Naturally there was an in-flight entertainment system on the back of every seat. I think each channel was looped (not completely autonomous, that is) but there were 26 channels. The 3-D-modelled map of the plane's route was interesting in that famous shipwreck sites were marked (for want of cities and towns on the ocean floor I guess). A bit macabre, though, as some were from as late as the 1950s. Would an interactive map on a cruise ship show famous air crash sites?
Someone forgot to load Morgan's car seat but Air France said it was on them, promising to FedEx the seat the next day to Virginia and giving us a booster seat (which we didn't have to use luckily, as the car rental also came through with a proper seat).
European airports usually smell like chocolate factories or pastry shops. JFK smells like pine resin or a cedar grove.
Morgan noticed an American flag hanging at JFK. It was the only flag at an airport we saw.
Landing in the US is an experience. Every thing about the process is different, starting with the customs form. The whole system is like a finicky antique car that needs special parts.
The East Coast humidity was also something else...when the plane made its usual loop over Fire Island on final approach, you couldn't really see anything of the city but grey. It was like arriving in a jungle. Even Rome weather wasn't anything like yesterday. Something always seems overgrown and crumbling about Brooklyn. The narrow inadequate Bay Parkway that connects JFK to the New Jersey Turnpike. The one-lane surprise exit for the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which I missed at first and found my way toward the Bronx.
Morgan was impressed by the Verrazano Bridge and after the Goetthals Bridge I was a little worried about him in his overtired state, he carried on a very long monologue and I thought he was going to lose it. He asked to see the road atlas, which I gave to him after we were safely on 76-W heading toward the Poconos. I looked over and he was on the Arizona page, plotting something really in-depth.
Air France fed us almost too well. They take their food seriously. I had forgotten about this in my recent Italophilia. You even get a little menu with Tintin style art on the cover (not that you will have much of a choice if you are sitting in seat 46K at the very back).
There was some sort of yoghurt product from Normandy that was not exactly yoghurt, a "first-course" tomato goat cheese crumble that was as big as the entree, and butter, cheese, and many other things with butter and cheese in them.
Naturally there was an in-flight entertainment system on the back of every seat. I think each channel was looped (not completely autonomous, that is) but there were 26 channels. The 3-D-modelled map of the plane's route was interesting in that famous shipwreck sites were marked (for want of cities and towns on the ocean floor I guess). A bit macabre, though, as some were from as late as the 1950s. Would an interactive map on a cruise ship show famous air crash sites?
Someone forgot to load Morgan's car seat but Air France said it was on them, promising to FedEx the seat the next day to Virginia and giving us a booster seat (which we didn't have to use luckily, as the car rental also came through with a proper seat).
European airports usually smell like chocolate factories or pastry shops. JFK smells like pine resin or a cedar grove.
Morgan noticed an American flag hanging at JFK. It was the only flag at an airport we saw.
Landing in the US is an experience. Every thing about the process is different, starting with the customs form. The whole system is like a finicky antique car that needs special parts.
The East Coast humidity was also something else...when the plane made its usual loop over Fire Island on final approach, you couldn't really see anything of the city but grey. It was like arriving in a jungle. Even Rome weather wasn't anything like yesterday. Something always seems overgrown and crumbling about Brooklyn. The narrow inadequate Bay Parkway that connects JFK to the New Jersey Turnpike. The one-lane surprise exit for the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which I missed at first and found my way toward the Bronx.
Morgan was impressed by the Verrazano Bridge and after the Goetthals Bridge I was a little worried about him in his overtired state, he carried on a very long monologue and I thought he was going to lose it. He asked to see the road atlas, which I gave to him after we were safely on 76-W heading toward the Poconos. I looked over and he was on the Arizona page, plotting something really in-depth.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Slip on the slippery slope...
From the New York Times:
The Georgian government has registered some 112,000 refugees from the conflict in South Ossetia, though the real number could be as high as 200,000, Ms. Razmadze said. These include ethnic Georgians from in and around Gori, ...
Now, how are people who may have lived in Gori all their lives related to the conflict in South Ossetia? Perhaps this is shorthand for "the conflict that started over South Ossetia"?
The Georgian government has registered some 112,000 refugees from the conflict in South Ossetia, though the real number could be as high as 200,000, Ms. Razmadze said. These include ethnic Georgians from in and around Gori, ...
Now, how are people who may have lived in Gori all their lives related to the conflict in South Ossetia? Perhaps this is shorthand for "the conflict that started over South Ossetia"?
Facelifts...and masks
Big developments at our ühistu, or apartment association. For years, it puttered along under the laissez-faire management of one guy, a champion of historic wooden buildings, fundamentally honest, but perhaps not the most financially transparent manager. Now an energetic young car dealer has taken over as the driving force. A $60,000 loan was lined up and secured in record time, doubling the association's financial obligations (and naturally everyone's monthly payments), which will finance a facelift of the historic exterior and paving of the drive. The paving has started and the scaffolding will go up tomorrow.
I opposed the decision. For one thing, interest rates have peaked in Europe, and this is a bad time to be taking any additional obigations for non-emergency repair work, fixed-rate or otherwise. The former head of the apartment association also had reservations about the selection of the firm and the prevailing atmosphere of pre-autumn haste. But as said, the association was not a model of transparency under his watch -- apparently invoices and documentation of the roofing work done with the last loan are missing -- and some residents are impatient with tinkering and patching -- although undoubtedly the guy is an expert when it comes to historic authenticity.
The other reason why I opposed the new loan is more specific. Certainly the building will not collapse in the next few years if this facelift is not undertaken. As such, this is an investment decision. And there is a discrepancy with how the loan will be serviced -- everyone's monthly payments are calculated according to the square metre, as legislation dictates. But legislators did not consider people living in basements.
We own 9% of the building by floorage, but because 100% of our apartment is on the basement level, we own only about 6-7% of the value of the building. If we put money toward the repair work on the basis of floorspace, what we get back will be a function of value. Our ROI will be lower than anyone else's, not that anyone feels any sympathy for us on this count.
Yet some people in our building have nice apartments on the first and second floor. The Mercedes dealer who laid the groundwork for the loan bought his apartment at over $350,000 I believe, over three times what we paid for our comparable-size digs. He bought in a year after us, after the real estate boom had kicked in, but still, his gains will be huge, I am sure.
Our apartment is OK, but it automatically gets docked 30% sight unseen because of its basement location. Almost everyone else we know who has basement property has a two-level apartment or has a company. We're not a company with a picture of the facade on our webpage, with advertising on the building facade with clients coming in and out. We're just a family who owns some property in a basement as a hedge. But try telling it to the car dealer. He sees nothing wrong with a situation in which his loan dollar goes further than anyone else's. After he lined up the loan. He talked to the banks. He has a law degree. He's the man. But is all that worth essentially an extra couple hundred thousand kroons into his pocket? Probably not.
Association resolutions are passed by simple majority, with each unit getting a vote. If Mercedes dealer were unethical and decided to put gold trim around the facade on his storey, I guess he would need merely to cobble together a simple majority. (I don't think the bank would even ask about the creditworthiness of the individual residents, though they would of course be paying for it...) Oh, the law says improvements and repairs have to be "necessary" but tell it to the judge...
I opposed the decision. For one thing, interest rates have peaked in Europe, and this is a bad time to be taking any additional obigations for non-emergency repair work, fixed-rate or otherwise. The former head of the apartment association also had reservations about the selection of the firm and the prevailing atmosphere of pre-autumn haste. But as said, the association was not a model of transparency under his watch -- apparently invoices and documentation of the roofing work done with the last loan are missing -- and some residents are impatient with tinkering and patching -- although undoubtedly the guy is an expert when it comes to historic authenticity.
The other reason why I opposed the new loan is more specific. Certainly the building will not collapse in the next few years if this facelift is not undertaken. As such, this is an investment decision. And there is a discrepancy with how the loan will be serviced -- everyone's monthly payments are calculated according to the square metre, as legislation dictates. But legislators did not consider people living in basements.
We own 9% of the building by floorage, but because 100% of our apartment is on the basement level, we own only about 6-7% of the value of the building. If we put money toward the repair work on the basis of floorspace, what we get back will be a function of value. Our ROI will be lower than anyone else's, not that anyone feels any sympathy for us on this count.
Yet some people in our building have nice apartments on the first and second floor. The Mercedes dealer who laid the groundwork for the loan bought his apartment at over $350,000 I believe, over three times what we paid for our comparable-size digs. He bought in a year after us, after the real estate boom had kicked in, but still, his gains will be huge, I am sure.
Our apartment is OK, but it automatically gets docked 30% sight unseen because of its basement location. Almost everyone else we know who has basement property has a two-level apartment or has a company. We're not a company with a picture of the facade on our webpage, with advertising on the building facade with clients coming in and out. We're just a family who owns some property in a basement as a hedge. But try telling it to the car dealer. He sees nothing wrong with a situation in which his loan dollar goes further than anyone else's. After he lined up the loan. He talked to the banks. He has a law degree. He's the man. But is all that worth essentially an extra couple hundred thousand kroons into his pocket? Probably not.
Association resolutions are passed by simple majority, with each unit getting a vote. If Mercedes dealer were unethical and decided to put gold trim around the facade on his storey, I guess he would need merely to cobble together a simple majority. (I don't think the bank would even ask about the creditworthiness of the individual residents, though they would of course be paying for it...) Oh, the law says improvements and repairs have to be "necessary" but tell it to the judge...
Thursday, August 21, 2008
My oldest and deepest aviation fears
1. Engines will fail as plane is lifting off. Madrid has of course brought this back into the public mind, but this is a deep-seated one*.
2. Flaps in wrong position upon takeoff or deicing not performed thoroughly.
3. There's always mild turbulence when coming through the last cloud bank on overcast days. Around this time, it always seems a little touch and go. What if the clouds are only a little ways above the runway?
4. Plane will flare too much upon landing, and bounce, bounce again, then break into pieces.
A comforting fact you can tell yourself in the first minute of a flight (I do):
If the chance of a plane crash is one in 2 million and I fly 2 million times, the chance of a fatal incident is only around 63.2%.
* I don't even remember the Cold War, but the winter of 1980-81 was a banner year for childhood lessons in the real world -- John Lennon died, and the same day a DC-area doctor was shot and drove himself to the hospital, but didn't make it. A month later, a plane taking off from Washington National Airport didn't clear the 14th Street Bridge. My dad was late coming home (this was before cell phones) and we thought we saw his red pickup crushed on the bridge on the TV news. I've been able to get over my fear of heights, but I'm always white-knuckled upon takeoff. Then, in March, Reagan was shot.
2. Flaps in wrong position upon takeoff or deicing not performed thoroughly.
3. There's always mild turbulence when coming through the last cloud bank on overcast days. Around this time, it always seems a little touch and go. What if the clouds are only a little ways above the runway?
4. Plane will flare too much upon landing, and bounce, bounce again, then break into pieces.
A comforting fact you can tell yourself in the first minute of a flight (I do):
If the chance of a plane crash is one in 2 million and I fly 2 million times, the chance of a fatal incident is only around 63.2%.
* I don't even remember the Cold War, but the winter of 1980-81 was a banner year for childhood lessons in the real world -- John Lennon died, and the same day a DC-area doctor was shot and drove himself to the hospital, but didn't make it. A month later, a plane taking off from Washington National Airport didn't clear the 14th Street Bridge. My dad was late coming home (this was before cell phones) and we thought we saw his red pickup crushed on the bridge on the TV news. I've been able to get over my fear of heights, but I'm always white-knuckled upon takeoff. Then, in March, Reagan was shot.
Cultural observation #26 in the form of a riddle
I stood in a long queue on a dimly lit side street at 11pm last night across from the former Bronze Soldier statue. I was surrounded by pale, sickly people. Every once in a while, someone would exit the building and a signal would be given for the next person on the pavement to enter. Once inside the airlock, they bent down to an awkwardly positioned priesthole to voice their request to a grave-faced steward who treated the request as an unwelcome imposition but nevertheless shuffled off to retrieve the item. After being given what they wanted, they left without saying a word and the line would inch forward.
What was I up to? What was this establishment? Why the hell are the products sold by this establishment not available in a section in a well-lit 24h supermarket, next to the bloody toiletries?
What was I up to? What was this establishment? Why the hell are the products sold by this establishment not available in a section in a well-lit 24h supermarket, next to the bloody toiletries?
Me ought know English better
I took the International House Tallinn English test yesterday. I do such things from time to time to prove I have't lived overseas too long. I expected to get a perfect score. To my chagrin, I got 49/50. This is the type of score that Nazi spies trying to blend in get. My level was "Post-Advanced", which doesn't sound flattering. It sounds like I'm some guy from Bangalore or Bahrain who has studied assiduously all his life but did not quite garner "Native" status despite knowing words like "assiduous" and "garner". The results aren't itemized, and I don't know which one I missed.
Some of the questions do have more than one conceivable right answer, evincing (demonstrating) multiple choice's inherent weaknesses.
Example:
3. He is ... engineer. a an the one
Clearly "a" is wrong, though if you ax the people in my old neighbourhood, that would be acceptable.
"An" is what they are looking for. But "the"? Not at all far-fetched: "I have two children, a wino and a engineer. This is John. He's the engineer."
I think, but am by no means sure, that #16 is the one I missed:
16. I normally live in London but this year ... in Tallinn.
I live
I'm living
I do live
I would have
My answer, after sounding out C -- "Ah do live in Tallinn, yes indeedy ah DO, hallelujah" -- was "I'm living in Tallinn". But maybe my brain is terminally McDonaldized and prone to hip use of present continuous. Just the other day, I told my wife I was lovin' her. Hopefully this blog's guest guardian of the English language will help out. Present continuous (like perfect/imperfect) is certainly a big stumbling block for local Balts though I didn't expect it to be my nemesis.
Some of the questions do have more than one conceivable right answer, evincing (demonstrating) multiple choice's inherent weaknesses.
Example:
3. He is ... engineer. a an the one
Clearly "a" is wrong, though if you ax the people in my old neighbourhood, that would be acceptable.
"An" is what they are looking for. But "the"? Not at all far-fetched: "I have two children, a wino and a engineer. This is John. He's the engineer."
I think, but am by no means sure, that #16 is the one I missed:
16. I normally live in London but this year ... in Tallinn.
I live
I'm living
I do live
I would have
My answer, after sounding out C -- "Ah do live in Tallinn, yes indeedy ah DO, hallelujah" -- was "I'm living in Tallinn". But maybe my brain is terminally McDonaldized and prone to hip use of present continuous. Just the other day, I told my wife I was lovin' her. Hopefully this blog's guest guardian of the English language will help out. Present continuous (like perfect/imperfect) is certainly a big stumbling block for local Balts though I didn't expect it to be my nemesis.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wondering whether to go to the States next week. We would not get much of the airfare price back at this point, true -- but the trip itself will be costly and in light of what we know about the economy since buying airfare in May, it does not seem smart to compound the hit.
The USD is 8% more expensive than it was just two weeks ago, meaning that even going for kids' clothes and electronics would be questionable. And we're not planning to do much driving for the cheaper price of gas to compensate. The round trip travel, once we land, will be $400-500, as usual. It seems pointless all of a sudden. I can think of many other uses for the money.
We'd love to see relatives of course, but it's been years since anyone's been to Estonia, if at all, so we'll see them sooner or later, I figure, on one side or the other. My sister and her family lead an existence where 100% of their rent and utilities are subsidized at a lake house (note to self: look into this possibility!!!), and the grandparents are, well, grandparents and still in their prime, so I don't feel guilty. And they want to see baby Lorna, too, who would not be going this time.
Officially it's still only a 10% chance we won't get on the plane, but the idea of getting a cabin in Estonia or touring the Baltics with Morgan for two weeks and having him back in Tallinn for his 3rd birthday is very attractive. His second birthday was spent in the States.
The USD is 8% more expensive than it was just two weeks ago, meaning that even going for kids' clothes and electronics would be questionable. And we're not planning to do much driving for the cheaper price of gas to compensate. The round trip travel, once we land, will be $400-500, as usual. It seems pointless all of a sudden. I can think of many other uses for the money.
We'd love to see relatives of course, but it's been years since anyone's been to Estonia, if at all, so we'll see them sooner or later, I figure, on one side or the other. My sister and her family lead an existence where 100% of their rent and utilities are subsidized at a lake house (note to self: look into this possibility!!!), and the grandparents are, well, grandparents and still in their prime, so I don't feel guilty. And they want to see baby Lorna, too, who would not be going this time.
Officially it's still only a 10% chance we won't get on the plane, but the idea of getting a cabin in Estonia or touring the Baltics with Morgan for two weeks and having him back in Tallinn for his 3rd birthday is very attractive. His second birthday was spent in the States.
Soviet slip
Michael Dobbs (taking reader questions in the Washington Post): Since Georgia was not in NATO, this does not set a precedent for how the U.S. will respond to attacks on NATO members, e.g. Poland and the Baltic States. Had Georgia been in NATO, there would obviously have been a much greater fallout from the Soviet attack.
(He did also note that Putin is Realpolitik and the US is far more ideological than Russians these days.)
(He did also note that Putin is Realpolitik and the US is far more ideological than Russians these days.)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Maureen Dowd says everything that needs to be said about Bubble-Boy W, who is now on vacation after a slight inconvenient delay.
This piece contains at least two quotations that will run and run.
Indeed, the Cold War is back, if it wasn't quite before.
**
I don't know if anyone has noticed (if it's a valid impression, that is) but as of around August 14, the Estonian press's coverage of the conflict has been very objective, even seemingly contrarian at times.
The international press, insofar as it devotes front page coverage, has been pretty skeptical of the Russians, while Estonia starting around Aug. 13 became seemingly more selective. It had been very anti-Russian, with Postimees filing all stories under a special report banner with the Georgian flag and Russian armour. But since then it has compensated. For example, at a time when www.nytimes.com, and www.iht.com etc were in the midst of talking about how the Russians or Ossetians were burning villages, the Estonian online press quoted the Georgian government as refuting a claim that the Russians were advancing on Tbilisi.
Both Postimees and EPL have been covering a variety of views; for example a British military official who said the delay in Russian withdrawal was not malicious.
Nothing in the online editions at least suggests any current malfeasance by the Russians. No coverage of the military action in Poti and capture (kidnapping?) of 12 Georgian soldiers today.
And www.epl.ee now reports based on Reuters that the first units have started leaving Gori.
I wonder if they are the same 5-10 units that the Americans say are just going aimlessly back and forth or if this is the start of something substantial.
This piece contains at least two quotations that will run and run.
Indeed, the Cold War is back, if it wasn't quite before.
**
I don't know if anyone has noticed (if it's a valid impression, that is) but as of around August 14, the Estonian press's coverage of the conflict has been very objective, even seemingly contrarian at times.
The international press, insofar as it devotes front page coverage, has been pretty skeptical of the Russians, while Estonia starting around Aug. 13 became seemingly more selective. It had been very anti-Russian, with Postimees filing all stories under a special report banner with the Georgian flag and Russian armour. But since then it has compensated. For example, at a time when www.nytimes.com, and www.iht.com etc were in the midst of talking about how the Russians or Ossetians were burning villages, the Estonian online press quoted the Georgian government as refuting a claim that the Russians were advancing on Tbilisi.
Both Postimees and EPL have been covering a variety of views; for example a British military official who said the delay in Russian withdrawal was not malicious.
Nothing in the online editions at least suggests any current malfeasance by the Russians. No coverage of the military action in Poti and capture (kidnapping?) of 12 Georgian soldiers today.
And www.epl.ee now reports based on Reuters that the first units have started leaving Gori.
I wonder if they are the same 5-10 units that the Americans say are just going aimlessly back and forth or if this is the start of something substantial.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
RANT: Shifting political truths
I was in the US Embassy in Tallinn recently to pick up a passport. It's more homey than it was a couple months ago. There are some toys for kids there now. Some wag in Consular has taken a Magic Marker to the portrait of Bush, giving him duck feathers, a bum leg and a cartoon bubble reading "quack". Just kidding. Actually ostrich feathers might suddenly be more appropriate, but no, no one has touched the portrait. Not yet.
Bush is not the only portrait hanging there. The FBI Most Wanted list is posted there just as Americans might recognize them from their local post office. The murderer's row appears in two rows of five A4 sheets. Osama bin Laden is second from the left on the bottom row next to some racketeers and crazed survivalist prison escapees -- and his name is spelled Usama. That has to do with those shifty Arabic vowels, of course, but it threw me; for a second I wondered if the reason we have not caught him is perhaps something that obvious.
Maybe they vary the position of the portraits to make it look like to people that some of the most wanted people get apprehended periodically. Nevertheless, Osama appears to be only #7 on the most wanted list. The amount of information we get about Usama is pathetic: Walks with a cane, has beard. It would be cool if he sometimes checked into hotels as "Ben Ladden" or something -- there's that underground cavern hotel in New Mexico for high rollers, you know -- but no.
Usama is not #1, and the truths are shifting under our feet. Pretty soon no one will even understand the reference in the title of this blog. Terrorists? No matter how badly the Russians torment the Georgians psychologically, we can't use that word anymore. We're going to have to get used to symmetric warfare all over again. Even the Taliban is proving too much to handle in Afghanistan. Russia? Forget about it. Rice will be lucky if she even gets access to Medvedev the next time; they'll have her talk to Borisov, commandant of Gori, who'll make a special trip to Tbilisi.
And I suspect I know what the Surge In Iraq was: like the grand finale at a July 4 fireworks display.
And yet it's the greatest nation on earth. I do believe it. Not that Estonia is not equal in terms of enlightenment and as a place to live, but Estonia is not a macrocosmos, it is an attractive niche. The potential for the US is there as long as we keep provincialism, puritanism and our base Red America lower middle class in remission, but our real value is dropping.
Somewhere among the 300 million plus people, a Teddy Roosevelt is hiding. Maybe it is like the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, we should have something like that. We should scour the American population for the baby who has T.R.'s traits and build him up, give him the right environment, the right asthma inhalers and wrestling lessons, instill a love of the outdoors, just the right amount of hawkishness -- yet a conscience...until he is ready to become president.
Teddy Roosevelt was about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Right now, we have McCain (speaking loudly and soon to be walking with a stick), Obama (speak eloquently and not much else) and not too many other possibilities.
Ah well, time to sign off. As Stipe sang, I know that this is vitriol...but I feel better.
Bush is not the only portrait hanging there. The FBI Most Wanted list is posted there just as Americans might recognize them from their local post office. The murderer's row appears in two rows of five A4 sheets. Osama bin Laden is second from the left on the bottom row next to some racketeers and crazed survivalist prison escapees -- and his name is spelled Usama. That has to do with those shifty Arabic vowels, of course, but it threw me; for a second I wondered if the reason we have not caught him is perhaps something that obvious.
Maybe they vary the position of the portraits to make it look like to people that some of the most wanted people get apprehended periodically. Nevertheless, Osama appears to be only #7 on the most wanted list. The amount of information we get about Usama is pathetic: Walks with a cane, has beard. It would be cool if he sometimes checked into hotels as "Ben Ladden" or something -- there's that underground cavern hotel in New Mexico for high rollers, you know -- but no.
Usama is not #1, and the truths are shifting under our feet. Pretty soon no one will even understand the reference in the title of this blog. Terrorists? No matter how badly the Russians torment the Georgians psychologically, we can't use that word anymore. We're going to have to get used to symmetric warfare all over again. Even the Taliban is proving too much to handle in Afghanistan. Russia? Forget about it. Rice will be lucky if she even gets access to Medvedev the next time; they'll have her talk to Borisov, commandant of Gori, who'll make a special trip to Tbilisi.
And I suspect I know what the Surge In Iraq was: like the grand finale at a July 4 fireworks display.
And yet it's the greatest nation on earth. I do believe it. Not that Estonia is not equal in terms of enlightenment and as a place to live, but Estonia is not a macrocosmos, it is an attractive niche. The potential for the US is there as long as we keep provincialism, puritanism and our base Red America lower middle class in remission, but our real value is dropping.
Somewhere among the 300 million plus people, a Teddy Roosevelt is hiding. Maybe it is like the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, we should have something like that. We should scour the American population for the baby who has T.R.'s traits and build him up, give him the right environment, the right asthma inhalers and wrestling lessons, instill a love of the outdoors, just the right amount of hawkishness -- yet a conscience...until he is ready to become president.
Teddy Roosevelt was about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Right now, we have McCain (speaking loudly and soon to be walking with a stick), Obama (speak eloquently and not much else) and not too many other possibilities.
Ah well, time to sign off. As Stipe sang, I know that this is vitriol...but I feel better.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thanks, Condi
UPDATE: Well, Saaskashvili signed the accord, but it apparently still contains the provision that Russians can act in a peacekeeping role in Georgia proper. It's the same document Medvedev signed earlier. More tough rhetoric, but no promise of any action in the event of Russian non-compliance. No date or time specified for the complete pullout of all 15,000 Russian troops the US believes are in the country. So I'll stand by my sarcasm and reserve judgment until every last one is gone. For now, thanks for nothing, but I will delete this post if it is effective.
Bush's contribution to the English language is "strategerie" and "childrens". Condi Rice seems now on the verge of becoming a contributor to the lexicon of newspeak with "light patrolling ability", with all of 4 hits on the Internet at this point, but every bit as important and utterly meaningless. The worst thing of all is that the US is portraying this term as toughness on its part when it is a concession to the status quo.
Like a lot of English words, the French came up with the phrase; Condi only edited for clarity. What does it mean, faire le light patrolling?
More importantly, if Russia, a nation with no territorial claim on Georgia, can "lightly patrol" a couple klicks across in Georgia, can I do it too? Can I lightly patrol my neighbours' houses? "I wasn't trespassing, ocifer, sir, because, see, I was lightly patrolling and all."
Can North Korea "lightly patrol" on the other side of the DMZ? Maybe this is the road to unification?
Usually, in the art of negotiation, you make one concession at a time. One would have been giving South Ossetia to Russia -- bad enough. A second one would have been Abkhazia. But it looks like, if Condi does not edit the text a bit better, there will be a third one: le light patrolling. And what did Russia pledge in return? Not to cut off gas to Europe this winter, then we'll see? Just a speculation.
I guess Condi's hands are tied. Judging from the "West's options are limited" style stories, the US has no oil, will soon have no space shuttles, has no available troops to allocate, and has a economy that is deteriorating. In this situation, you don't want to set hard and fast rules but rather say wearily, "OK, guys, but just keep it light, and only a few klicks across the border, no more, otherwise we'll, uh, there will be setbacks when we get home." That's the translation of the surrender specialist plan into Modern American Parentian.
I don't believe the situation with the US all this bad. One thing that would help boost our confidence is a decisive military action. Sneaky things like using military planes to deliver humanitarian supplies -- what does that actually mean? It seems...Russian, who have always been fond of using the military for civilian efforts. It just opens the door to accusations of a covert military involvement. The whole point is to be overtly involved and make it very clear.
The problem is that we have fallen into the trap of thinking that any tough military action will automatically end up like Vietnam(Iraq or World War Three. But at worst, they might call it a "silly little war" or make a whole movie about a downed helicopter later, but at least we will have stopped a dangerous animal. Russia will back down if the US uses military force.
It'll be interesting to see how the deal ends up in final form.
Bush's contribution to the English language is "strategerie" and "childrens". Condi Rice seems now on the verge of becoming a contributor to the lexicon of newspeak with "light patrolling ability", with all of 4 hits on the Internet at this point, but every bit as important and utterly meaningless. The worst thing of all is that the US is portraying this term as toughness on its part when it is a concession to the status quo.
Like a lot of English words, the French came up with the phrase; Condi only edited for clarity. What does it mean, faire le light patrolling?
More importantly, if Russia, a nation with no territorial claim on Georgia, can "lightly patrol" a couple klicks across in Georgia, can I do it too? Can I lightly patrol my neighbours' houses? "I wasn't trespassing, ocifer, sir, because, see, I was lightly patrolling and all."
Can North Korea "lightly patrol" on the other side of the DMZ? Maybe this is the road to unification?
Usually, in the art of negotiation, you make one concession at a time. One would have been giving South Ossetia to Russia -- bad enough. A second one would have been Abkhazia. But it looks like, if Condi does not edit the text a bit better, there will be a third one: le light patrolling. And what did Russia pledge in return? Not to cut off gas to Europe this winter, then we'll see? Just a speculation.
I guess Condi's hands are tied. Judging from the "West's options are limited" style stories, the US has no oil, will soon have no space shuttles, has no available troops to allocate, and has a economy that is deteriorating. In this situation, you don't want to set hard and fast rules but rather say wearily, "OK, guys, but just keep it light, and only a few klicks across the border, no more, otherwise we'll, uh, there will be setbacks when we get home." That's the translation of the surrender specialist plan into Modern American Parentian.
I don't believe the situation with the US all this bad. One thing that would help boost our confidence is a decisive military action. Sneaky things like using military planes to deliver humanitarian supplies -- what does that actually mean? It seems...Russian, who have always been fond of using the military for civilian efforts. It just opens the door to accusations of a covert military involvement. The whole point is to be overtly involved and make it very clear.
The problem is that we have fallen into the trap of thinking that any tough military action will automatically end up like Vietnam(Iraq or World War Three. But at worst, they might call it a "silly little war" or make a whole movie about a downed helicopter later, but at least we will have stopped a dangerous animal. Russia will back down if the US uses military force.
It'll be interesting to see how the deal ends up in final form.
Russian 58th Army Commander: "I'm being ignored"
Lieutenant General Anatoli Khrulyov, who is resting comfortably in hospital in Vladikavkaz recovering from a shrapnel wound, has expressed resentment to Blue, Black and White Alert that all the attention is going to another general who was not injured.
"For the last two days, it's been all about Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Borisov. He is getting all the press," said Khrulyov, speculating that Borisov, sometimes spelled Borissov, is becoming the next media darling and go-to source for Western journalists in Georgia.
"He didn't even have a fucking Wikipedia entry until like yesterday, and he's positioning himself to be the next leader of occupied Georgia," added Khrulyov.
Borissov has been mentioned in numerous major newspaper articles in the past two days.
So dominant a personality is Borisov that the question of who is in control of Gori seems secondary.
"I don't know who's in control. I thought my men were running amok. Now I hear to my relief that it is the South Ossetians. I suppose Borisov will rein them in. Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Borisov," Khrulyov said, pronouncing the middle name peevishly.
"This guy is Georgia's top cop all of a sudden," said a journalist, referring to the fact that the Russian Major General is personally in command of Georgian police officers. "He's like a cool Bremer who's easy to talk to."
Meanwhile Khrulyov even claims he is being plied with mind-control drugs and pain-killers and has been effectively relieved of his command, a charge Russian officials deny.
"I have to have Interfax translate my sound bites into American English," said Khrulyov, while Borisov gets a private cadre of translators.
A spokesman for Maj. Gen. Borisov declined to comment, saying that the Major General was planning a trip to Tbilisi to speak before parliament and was "busy" with a number of meetings with Georgian labour unions and NGOs.
"For the last two days, it's been all about Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Borisov. He is getting all the press," said Khrulyov, speculating that Borisov, sometimes spelled Borissov, is becoming the next media darling and go-to source for Western journalists in Georgia.
"He didn't even have a fucking Wikipedia entry until like yesterday, and he's positioning himself to be the next leader of occupied Georgia," added Khrulyov.
Borissov has been mentioned in numerous major newspaper articles in the past two days.
So dominant a personality is Borisov that the question of who is in control of Gori seems secondary.
"I don't know who's in control. I thought my men were running amok. Now I hear to my relief that it is the South Ossetians. I suppose Borisov will rein them in. Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Borisov," Khrulyov said, pronouncing the middle name peevishly.
"This guy is Georgia's top cop all of a sudden," said a journalist, referring to the fact that the Russian Major General is personally in command of Georgian police officers. "He's like a cool Bremer who's easy to talk to."
Meanwhile Khrulyov even claims he is being plied with mind-control drugs and pain-killers and has been effectively relieved of his command, a charge Russian officials deny.
"I have to have Interfax translate my sound bites into American English," said Khrulyov, while Borisov gets a private cadre of translators.
A spokesman for Maj. Gen. Borisov declined to comment, saying that the Major General was planning a trip to Tbilisi to speak before parliament and was "busy" with a number of meetings with Georgian labour unions and NGOs.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
BACK TO REALITY: Send in a "Georgian" mediator?
If you believe the whole half-truth about Georgia invading South Ossetia, you may also believe that Bush, no doubt cackling his trademark dry cackle, goaded Saakashvili into the fraternity stunt, as illustrated here.
Certainly, after a truce engineered by the Finns and French, Bush taunted the Russians by saying they had buckled under American influence. About two seconds later, reports were received that the Russians were not honouring the ceasefire. Who could have guessed?
That, I guess, is American soft power for you and I sometimes don't know which is more unsavoury -- hard or soft.
Now things are looking up again. It almost seems like there will be something concrete happening. The air support is coming! Maybe there will be no triumphant aircraft carrier landing for Bush in the Black Sea, but Condoleezza Rice has been sent to Paris and on to Georgia!
I've learned not to get my hopes up. There's so often a letdown with the US. But something is a little different. If you are a Bush-watcher, watch the clip of his remarks. I have never seen him do that little head-toss before each paragraph and look so deadly serious. Clearly he is worked up about it.
Of course, it's still possible that next thing we will hear, Rice's plane from Paris will land at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson (Georgia, get it?), while Congress appropriates a shipment of medical supplies to Tbilisi like the corn and beans allocated to Budapest in 1956.
And all the while, Russian troops are, at best, ripping out copper telephone wire to sell and, at worst, massacring civilians and inexorably moving closer to Tbilisi.
Before I watched Bush and saw the serious tone (not quite "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall" but an improvement) I was already thinking along a different line of intervention.
Jokes about the shared name with the southern US state got old 15 years ago, but maybe native Georgian Jimmy Carter might intervene. Wouldn't that be a fitting close to his career?
Between the high-strung (Caucasian) Georgians and the priapic, zonked, brutal Russians, couldn't the universally respected (while himself somewhat of failure of a president) frank, quietly religious man from Plains accomplish something good?
Naivete does not die after all.
Certainly, after a truce engineered by the Finns and French, Bush taunted the Russians by saying they had buckled under American influence. About two seconds later, reports were received that the Russians were not honouring the ceasefire. Who could have guessed?
That, I guess, is American soft power for you and I sometimes don't know which is more unsavoury -- hard or soft.
Now things are looking up again. It almost seems like there will be something concrete happening. The air support is coming! Maybe there will be no triumphant aircraft carrier landing for Bush in the Black Sea, but Condoleezza Rice has been sent to Paris and on to Georgia!
I've learned not to get my hopes up. There's so often a letdown with the US. But something is a little different. If you are a Bush-watcher, watch the clip of his remarks. I have never seen him do that little head-toss before each paragraph and look so deadly serious. Clearly he is worked up about it.
Of course, it's still possible that next thing we will hear, Rice's plane from Paris will land at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson (Georgia, get it?), while Congress appropriates a shipment of medical supplies to Tbilisi like the corn and beans allocated to Budapest in 1956.
And all the while, Russian troops are, at best, ripping out copper telephone wire to sell and, at worst, massacring civilians and inexorably moving closer to Tbilisi.
Before I watched Bush and saw the serious tone (not quite "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall" but an improvement) I was already thinking along a different line of intervention.
Jokes about the shared name with the southern US state got old 15 years ago, but maybe native Georgian Jimmy Carter might intervene. Wouldn't that be a fitting close to his career?
Between the high-strung (Caucasian) Georgians and the priapic, zonked, brutal Russians, couldn't the universally respected (while himself somewhat of failure of a president) frank, quietly religious man from Plains accomplish something good?
Naivete does not die after all.
58th Russian Army has vanished in Georgia -- general
Russian Lt. General Anatoly Khrulyov, who as reported is recovering in hospital from a shrapnel wound, says his 58th Army has gone missing. "They are lost in Georgia," he said. "They were supposed to withdraw from Georgia and report back to me yesterday."
"We're trying to withdraw our troops," said Khrulyov, spreading out his one good hand. "But we don't know where they are. The entire 58th Army has gone AWOL."
Russian news sites have suggested that the entire 58th Army has been taken hostage by US-backed Georgian forces, or that they were poisoned by tamadas -- roving Georgian toastmasters known as "dictators of the table" -- who slipped poison into their wine as they slept.
Others criticize this theory as far-fetched. Observers point out that no Georgians have actually been seen engaging advancing Russian troops on Georgian soil at any time during the conflict.
Reports have come in that troops are advancing on Tbilisi. But the reports cannot be independently confirmed, as everyone has taken sides in the conflict.
Although it is possible that the troops are lost and scattered across remote valleys, some have suggested that they may have gone insane and formed loose marauding bands.
The "hidden enemy" has been long been a subconscious fixture in Russian ideology and military training, said a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is not out of the question that some of the junior Russian commanders from the countryside actually believe there is an invisible guy and that they have adopted a scorched earth policy to drive the enemy out of Georgia."
For now, Khrulyov, the special-forces-trained general, rests in the comfort of a hospital in Vladikavkaz, haunted by the scenario that the 58th Army under his command is rampaging in mufti through Georgian villages and towns, burning everything in sight and killing civilians.
Khrulyov speculated that a garbled radio transmission may have led to a misinterpretation of the order to "stand down" as "burn down".
"It's horrible," he said in a hoarse whisper as an orderly dimmed the lights. "It's horrible."
"We're trying to withdraw our troops," said Khrulyov, spreading out his one good hand. "But we don't know where they are. The entire 58th Army has gone AWOL."
Russian news sites have suggested that the entire 58th Army has been taken hostage by US-backed Georgian forces, or that they were poisoned by tamadas -- roving Georgian toastmasters known as "dictators of the table" -- who slipped poison into their wine as they slept.
Others criticize this theory as far-fetched. Observers point out that no Georgians have actually been seen engaging advancing Russian troops on Georgian soil at any time during the conflict.
Reports have come in that troops are advancing on Tbilisi. But the reports cannot be independently confirmed, as everyone has taken sides in the conflict.
Although it is possible that the troops are lost and scattered across remote valleys, some have suggested that they may have gone insane and formed loose marauding bands.
The "hidden enemy" has been long been a subconscious fixture in Russian ideology and military training, said a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is not out of the question that some of the junior Russian commanders from the countryside actually believe there is an invisible guy and that they have adopted a scorched earth policy to drive the enemy out of Georgia."
For now, Khrulyov, the special-forces-trained general, rests in the comfort of a hospital in Vladikavkaz, haunted by the scenario that the 58th Army under his command is rampaging in mufti through Georgian villages and towns, burning everything in sight and killing civilians.
Khrulyov speculated that a garbled radio transmission may have led to a misinterpretation of the order to "stand down" as "burn down".
"It's horrible," he said in a hoarse whisper as an orderly dimmed the lights. "It's horrible."
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
THIS JUST IN: Medvedev orders halt to action
Translation: Russian forces in Georgia proper are hereby instructed to take off their Russian uniforms and put on their "South Ossetian" and "peacekeeping volunteer" insignia, then resume assault in more decentralized fashion, pending next "escalation".
With Senaki out of the picture, mate in one move, without needing to take Tbilisi.
With Senaki out of the picture, mate in one move, without needing to take Tbilisi.
Interview with the Russian general, Part II
After a whistlestop trip to Moscow to commission a la-di-da view of the conflict from Mikhail Gorbachov, our intrepid team of Western journalists travelled back to Vladikavkaz to continue their more hard-hitting interview** with General Anatoli Khrulyov of the 58th Russian Army in Georgia, still recovering from a shrapnel wound.
**The Russian Foreign Ministry requested that we edit the first part of the interview for content, including the questions. We flatly declined. Finally a compromise was reached for a second interview with the general. Again, he was game, although drifting in and out of consciousness and more irascible.
How is your health, General?
I'm doing better. By the way, you gave me a promotion. It's Lieutenant General. (laughter all around). Leave that to Putin. Or Medvedev. Or Putin. Or Medvedev. Damn it, tell you what, just call me General. It's fine. (More laughter).
They have restricted my medicines, except for chewable cadmium isotope and lead vitamin supplements. But I have been taking those ever since I was a major in the Far East and to stop now would mean to become soft like the West.
How are you coping with the injury?
It is nothing.
In fact I am spending my time learning North Ossetic from this handy phrasebook. Luckily it's in Cyrillic or I think I would go mad. It is a beautiful language. I like it almost as much as South Ossetic.
How is the campaign in South Ossetia going?
It is an operation, not a campaign. It is surgical. It should be over soon, as our President says.
Let's turn to Beijing. Have you been watching the Olympics?
Every day. I have asked the staff to record the Games so I can watch every minute. It should take me right up to November at which point, if I am not well yet, I will switch to other entertainment.
What channels do you get?
One channel.
The schedule of events seems really long. Do you have any tips for people with more channels who might want to tune in?
(pause) You should watch the one channel.
OK, you are a Westerner. Fencing. Go with fencing. Or equestrian. It is my favourite sport. It is the best, number one.
Now wait a second. You said yesterday synchronized swimming was your favourite sport?
No, I did not. Now you must interview me again tomorrow.
What other sports?
Of course, judo. It is the 90 kg men's final. Our President, as you know, is in the 70 kg class of judo but can defeat most people in the 90 kg final. He also has a perfect record in the 50 kg class and the 30 kg class, and is 1-1 in the 15 kg class.
There is still a little confusion about what exactly Russia is doing in Georgia.
Russia is not in Georgia. Russia is in autonomous South Ossetia and Abkhazia. North Ossetia. Russia is also in Chechnya and Mari-El, Tatarstan, and independent East Karelia. We support the right to self-determination. We support the right to Georgian self-determination and autonomy.
But there are reports of a military base on Georgian soil being destroyed.
If Ukraine does not allow our ships to return to our ports, why should we allow the Georgians to return to base? It is not fair.
Why is the world picking on Russia? Why do we not have the right to breathe? It is nothing but first strikes, first strikes.
**The Russian Foreign Ministry requested that we edit the first part of the interview for content, including the questions. We flatly declined. Finally a compromise was reached for a second interview with the general. Again, he was game, although drifting in and out of consciousness and more irascible.
How is your health, General?
I'm doing better. By the way, you gave me a promotion. It's Lieutenant General. (laughter all around). Leave that to Putin. Or Medvedev. Or Putin. Or Medvedev. Damn it, tell you what, just call me General. It's fine. (More laughter).
They have restricted my medicines, except for chewable cadmium isotope and lead vitamin supplements. But I have been taking those ever since I was a major in the Far East and to stop now would mean to become soft like the West.
How are you coping with the injury?
It is nothing.
In fact I am spending my time learning North Ossetic from this handy phrasebook. Luckily it's in Cyrillic or I think I would go mad. It is a beautiful language. I like it almost as much as South Ossetic.
How is the campaign in South Ossetia going?
It is an operation, not a campaign. It is surgical. It should be over soon, as our President says.
Let's turn to Beijing. Have you been watching the Olympics?
Every day. I have asked the staff to record the Games so I can watch every minute. It should take me right up to November at which point, if I am not well yet, I will switch to other entertainment.
What channels do you get?
One channel.
The schedule of events seems really long. Do you have any tips for people with more channels who might want to tune in?
(pause) You should watch the one channel.
OK, you are a Westerner. Fencing. Go with fencing. Or equestrian. It is my favourite sport. It is the best, number one.
Now wait a second. You said yesterday synchronized swimming was your favourite sport?
No, I did not. Now you must interview me again tomorrow.
What other sports?
Of course, judo. It is the 90 kg men's final. Our President, as you know, is in the 70 kg class of judo but can defeat most people in the 90 kg final. He also has a perfect record in the 50 kg class and the 30 kg class, and is 1-1 in the 15 kg class.
There is still a little confusion about what exactly Russia is doing in Georgia.
Russia is not in Georgia. Russia is in autonomous South Ossetia and Abkhazia. North Ossetia. Russia is also in Chechnya and Mari-El, Tatarstan, and independent East Karelia. We support the right to self-determination. We support the right to Georgian self-determination and autonomy.
But there are reports of a military base on Georgian soil being destroyed.
If Ukraine does not allow our ships to return to our ports, why should we allow the Georgians to return to base? It is not fair.
Why is the world picking on Russia? Why do we not have the right to breathe? It is nothing but first strikes, first strikes.
Monday, August 11, 2008
INTERVIEW: Gen. Anatoli Khrulyov
Russian 58th Army Commander Anatoli Khrulyov, who suffered a shrapnel injury in Georgia, has long been regarded as one of the most media-friendly Russian commanders. Our crew of Western journalists caught up to him in a hospital in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia. The General, bolstered by a combination of fentanyl and sodium pentathol, seemed no worse for the wear and gave us a remarkably lucid and candid interview on Russia's goals in the conflict as well as beach volleyball and his dacha in Sukhumi.
How is North Ossetia treating you?
It is a wonderful country. They are a spirited nation. It is amazing that they have the time and energy to minister to a poor old warrior like me while their kinsmen are still pouring northward through the tunnel to freedom.
The West is very worried about Russia expanding the conflict and waging an all-out war. What is Russia's strategy here anyway?
We drop hints that Georgia could be overrun, and we make reference to the process having taken on a life of its own. Perhaps it has. Is it effective? Yes, thus. The paratroopers, by the way, was a clever reference to 1979, I don't know if anyone got it. They were not tactically necessary.
Let's turn to Beijing. Who do you think will more gold medals?
The hosts.
But overall medals?
I think it will be a very close match between Russia bloc and the US.
Any hopefuls you are fond of?
I will be rooting for Russia in synchronized swimming. I have always felt it has a military kind of discipline to it. I love the sport.
Back to the war in South Ossetia. Are you going to conquer Georgia by land?
Are you going to let us? (laughs)
I think there is some confusion here. It is a fluid situation. I was watching beach volleyball yesterday here in the hospital room. The man jumps up at the net to block -- ah, but too early. The ball is nudged into the open corner. We have the control right now. It is no secret, that the West was not too early but it is too late.
Of course the ultimate goal is regime change. We have no quarrel with the Georgian people, only their leader.
Regime change? That's the US's speciality.
The US has power and authority, we should have the same right. If you have the substructure, you have the superstructure.
The West can chip, chip, chip away at what is our culture and our space. If they can have their Kosovo, then we can have South Ossetia. If the West tries Milosevic, we can try Sakaashvili. If they can have their Iran, then... But for me (lifts arm to display wound), it is beach volleyball right now. Ah, but I wish I were on the Black Sea. Or in Jurmala. Yes. And a working vacation, instead of this (jerks arm, causing IV stand to teeter and monitor to emit an alarm.) Of course it is not up to me, but my commander in chief.
We're running out of time. What happened in Tskhinvali?
A little of everything, and a whole lot of nothing. War is hell. It doesn't matter. There are too many perspectives. Whoever is in Tskhinval will be able to write the scenarium. The image of a "capital city" laid waste is a major coup for us. I suppose it would go too far to talk about how the Georgians looted the museums of national treasures and blew up the Metro tunnels in Tskhinval.
That's terrible.
...as I was saying, the tunnels collapsed completely. Nothing left.
But now we need to focus on chasing down the retreating Georgians. And now you will have to excuse me, it is time for me to take my medicine and supplements. Nurse! Radium!
How is North Ossetia treating you?
It is a wonderful country. They are a spirited nation. It is amazing that they have the time and energy to minister to a poor old warrior like me while their kinsmen are still pouring northward through the tunnel to freedom.
The West is very worried about Russia expanding the conflict and waging an all-out war. What is Russia's strategy here anyway?
We drop hints that Georgia could be overrun, and we make reference to the process having taken on a life of its own. Perhaps it has. Is it effective? Yes, thus. The paratroopers, by the way, was a clever reference to 1979, I don't know if anyone got it. They were not tactically necessary.
Let's turn to Beijing. Who do you think will more gold medals?
The hosts.
But overall medals?
I think it will be a very close match between Russia bloc and the US.
Any hopefuls you are fond of?
I will be rooting for Russia in synchronized swimming. I have always felt it has a military kind of discipline to it. I love the sport.
Back to the war in South Ossetia. Are you going to conquer Georgia by land?
Are you going to let us? (laughs)
I think there is some confusion here. It is a fluid situation. I was watching beach volleyball yesterday here in the hospital room. The man jumps up at the net to block -- ah, but too early. The ball is nudged into the open corner. We have the control right now. It is no secret, that the West was not too early but it is too late.
Of course the ultimate goal is regime change. We have no quarrel with the Georgian people, only their leader.
Regime change? That's the US's speciality.
The US has power and authority, we should have the same right. If you have the substructure, you have the superstructure.
The West can chip, chip, chip away at what is our culture and our space. If they can have their Kosovo, then we can have South Ossetia. If the West tries Milosevic, we can try Sakaashvili. If they can have their Iran, then... But for me (lifts arm to display wound), it is beach volleyball right now. Ah, but I wish I were on the Black Sea. Or in Jurmala. Yes. And a working vacation, instead of this (jerks arm, causing IV stand to teeter and monitor to emit an alarm.) Of course it is not up to me, but my commander in chief.
We're running out of time. What happened in Tskhinvali?
A little of everything, and a whole lot of nothing. War is hell. It doesn't matter. There are too many perspectives. Whoever is in Tskhinval will be able to write the scenarium. The image of a "capital city" laid waste is a major coup for us. I suppose it would go too far to talk about how the Georgians looted the museums of national treasures and blew up the Metro tunnels in Tskhinval.
That's terrible.
...as I was saying, the tunnels collapsed completely. Nothing left.
But now we need to focus on chasing down the retreating Georgians. And now you will have to excuse me, it is time for me to take my medicine and supplements. Nurse! Radium!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
WAR IN EUROPE: Thoughts on the Russian invasion of Georgia
1. The U.S.: Self-interest and general principle
Wow. What a chance for a legacy. The only one, in fact. Georgia is one of the only countries in the world where George W. Bush's approval ratings are positive. The road leading to Tbilisi airport is even named after Bush. (The country itself was already named after another George.)
Even if you are among the many who don't believe that Bush is sincerely concerned about democracy, you would think that it would vex and sting when sites near the airport get bombed, and that a hawkish president would spring into action. Here you have a man who, again according to the cynical reading, squandered his political capital fighting his old man's battles, and now the only country in the world where he, the younger one, is liked - gets invaded.
What is the US waiting for? Where is the ultimatum that it issued when Kuwait was invaded? That is pretty much the same situation. Putin has as much claim over South Ossetia and Abkhazia as Saddam did over Kuwait. Does the U.S. now need the imprimatur of the UN? Que? Or is the US waiting for Georgia's infrastructure to be so destroyed that US private contractors can have a chance at rebuilding the country?
Unfortunately, this seems to be the case one way or another. The U.S. still dreams of a city on a hill and various destinies -- some manifest, some not so obvious -- but it seems to have become a heavy-handed blunderer in terms of military. I am beginning to suspect that the US knows that it is too clumsy to intervene without sparking a larger war. Or worse, that it isn't but thinks it is.
But there is no other solution but direct intervention. If the U.S. has some sort of special forces involvement plan up its sleeve (which I doubt, as it seems more concerned that its 160 advisers currently in country will break a nail), it will only end up mimicking Russia's formerly covert involvement and "volunteers". No, the solution has to be a binding ultimatum requiring Russia to withdraw.
And though administration officials' statements get the emphasis right, it is still vaguely insulting to Georgia to be called a "democratic experiment". To Iraq, the US basically did what Georgia pointedly did not do to Tskhinvali -- razed it and tried to start from scratch. That's a democratic experiment, or more accurately, a democratic crap-shoot. But all of a sudden, now, with Georgia, an ancient integral country with bona fide social democratic traditions invaded by a larger neighbour, it is a tenuous "democratic experiment".
Georgia pulled its 2,000 soldiers from Iraq only just now, and I would like to see them at least matched by Americans.
What a perfect way to speed the Iraq troop withdrawal, besides effecting a return to the status quo ante in Georgia.
***
2. Estonia and Georgia
They say Georgia used to be Russia's Italy, but it sometimes seems like it is Estonia South.
Ever since the Rose Revolution, there has been a love affair. Former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar (blog here; he was angry when he posted and he hasn't edited it yet?) has taken more of a back seat in Estonian government but one would be forgiven for thinking he occupied one in the Georgian cabinet. Georgian wines -- good, dry reds -- are exported and talked about. Dramatic changes have taken place in the way the country is pronounced in Estonia -- it is now pronounced "Gyor-gya" with hard G-s to distance from the Soviet word. Thbilisi is spelled with an "h" -- I'm not sure why, maybe to indicate that the Georgian alphabet is way weird and it is not just transliterated from Cyrillic as city names (like Tallin) once were.
**
3. 1938 redux
It might be too confusing to compare the conflict to Israel and Lebanon (though I am prepared to explain at length what I meant) but I think Swedish FM Carl Bildt is spot-on about comparing Russia to Nazi Germany. For once, I think we can liken something -- the tactics -- to Nazi Germany and not feel upon reflection as if we have overstated the issue. As maligned as Bush is, I'm not quite sure a German justice minister's "Hitler" analogy from a few years back was watertight. Ahmadinejad? Hmm. But Putin? Straight outta the 1930s playbook. The moves, if not the man.
**
4. War in the 21st century and semantics
Because war has been abused in recent years as a punitive or morally superior action -- which it cannot be -- there's an odd situation. Is "invasion" an apt enough word? There is no good word anymore for an unprovoked offensive invasion of a country. At least to me, when I re-read this post, I am unsatisfied with "invasion" in the title of this post. I automatically entertain a thought: what did Georgia do that Russia is "punishing" it by invading it? It doesn't have the shock value -- and it is and should be a truly shocking thing, when foreign troops are pouring over your borders, shooting at everything in sight -- and there's no recourse to any civil authorities anymore...as a small-town resident in Ohio once asked my grandmother about 1939-41, "Uh, why didn't you call the police?"
I can't think of a better word -- "offensive" would be a campaign in a larger war. You can't say "rape of Georgia" because hopefully the West will step in and prevent anything like that from occurring.
The NYT, which admirably for 36 hours in its online pages kept the conflict across all columns, without letting volleyball or the race against the clock to clean up the Drum Tower crime scene, used the expression "all-out war" (possible development) in opposition to just "war" (events of August 8). This is I think similar. War has become such a chess game of "terrorist" attacks and surgical strikes -- either that or it's a low-level never-ending guerrilla engagement -- that there is no word for an old-school war where, as I said, the troops come pouring in, on the offensive.
5. The .ge domain
If Estonia was the victim of cyberwarfare, looks like Tbilisi is the victim of all-out cyberwarfare. Looks like Russia's private contractors in IT have worked out the bugs in their program. It's as quiet as Hiroshima.
Wow. What a chance for a legacy. The only one, in fact. Georgia is one of the only countries in the world where George W. Bush's approval ratings are positive. The road leading to Tbilisi airport is even named after Bush. (The country itself was already named after another George.)
Even if you are among the many who don't believe that Bush is sincerely concerned about democracy, you would think that it would vex and sting when sites near the airport get bombed, and that a hawkish president would spring into action. Here you have a man who, again according to the cynical reading, squandered his political capital fighting his old man's battles, and now the only country in the world where he, the younger one, is liked - gets invaded.
What is the US waiting for? Where is the ultimatum that it issued when Kuwait was invaded? That is pretty much the same situation. Putin has as much claim over South Ossetia and Abkhazia as Saddam did over Kuwait. Does the U.S. now need the imprimatur of the UN? Que? Or is the US waiting for Georgia's infrastructure to be so destroyed that US private contractors can have a chance at rebuilding the country?
Unfortunately, this seems to be the case one way or another. The U.S. still dreams of a city on a hill and various destinies -- some manifest, some not so obvious -- but it seems to have become a heavy-handed blunderer in terms of military. I am beginning to suspect that the US knows that it is too clumsy to intervene without sparking a larger war. Or worse, that it isn't but thinks it is.
But there is no other solution but direct intervention. If the U.S. has some sort of special forces involvement plan up its sleeve (which I doubt, as it seems more concerned that its 160 advisers currently in country will break a nail), it will only end up mimicking Russia's formerly covert involvement and "volunteers". No, the solution has to be a binding ultimatum requiring Russia to withdraw.
And though administration officials' statements get the emphasis right, it is still vaguely insulting to Georgia to be called a "democratic experiment". To Iraq, the US basically did what Georgia pointedly did not do to Tskhinvali -- razed it and tried to start from scratch. That's a democratic experiment, or more accurately, a democratic crap-shoot. But all of a sudden, now, with Georgia, an ancient integral country with bona fide social democratic traditions invaded by a larger neighbour, it is a tenuous "democratic experiment".
Georgia pulled its 2,000 soldiers from Iraq only just now, and I would like to see them at least matched by Americans.
What a perfect way to speed the Iraq troop withdrawal, besides effecting a return to the status quo ante in Georgia.
***
2. Estonia and Georgia
They say Georgia used to be Russia's Italy, but it sometimes seems like it is Estonia South.
Ever since the Rose Revolution, there has been a love affair. Former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar (blog here; he was angry when he posted and he hasn't edited it yet?) has taken more of a back seat in Estonian government but one would be forgiven for thinking he occupied one in the Georgian cabinet. Georgian wines -- good, dry reds -- are exported and talked about. Dramatic changes have taken place in the way the country is pronounced in Estonia -- it is now pronounced "Gyor-gya" with hard G-s to distance from the Soviet word. Thbilisi is spelled with an "h" -- I'm not sure why, maybe to indicate that the Georgian alphabet is way weird and it is not just transliterated from Cyrillic as city names (like Tallin) once were.
**
3. 1938 redux
It might be too confusing to compare the conflict to Israel and Lebanon (though I am prepared to explain at length what I meant) but I think Swedish FM Carl Bildt is spot-on about comparing Russia to Nazi Germany. For once, I think we can liken something -- the tactics -- to Nazi Germany and not feel upon reflection as if we have overstated the issue. As maligned as Bush is, I'm not quite sure a German justice minister's "Hitler" analogy from a few years back was watertight. Ahmadinejad? Hmm. But Putin? Straight outta the 1930s playbook. The moves, if not the man.
**
4. War in the 21st century and semantics
Because war has been abused in recent years as a punitive or morally superior action -- which it cannot be -- there's an odd situation. Is "invasion" an apt enough word? There is no good word anymore for an unprovoked offensive invasion of a country. At least to me, when I re-read this post, I am unsatisfied with "invasion" in the title of this post. I automatically entertain a thought: what did Georgia do that Russia is "punishing" it by invading it? It doesn't have the shock value -- and it is and should be a truly shocking thing, when foreign troops are pouring over your borders, shooting at everything in sight -- and there's no recourse to any civil authorities anymore...as a small-town resident in Ohio once asked my grandmother about 1939-41, "Uh, why didn't you call the police?"
I can't think of a better word -- "offensive" would be a campaign in a larger war. You can't say "rape of Georgia" because hopefully the West will step in and prevent anything like that from occurring.
The NYT, which admirably for 36 hours in its online pages kept the conflict across all columns, without letting volleyball or the race against the clock to clean up the Drum Tower crime scene, used the expression "all-out war" (possible development) in opposition to just "war" (events of August 8). This is I think similar. War has become such a chess game of "terrorist" attacks and surgical strikes -- either that or it's a low-level never-ending guerrilla engagement -- that there is no word for an old-school war where, as I said, the troops come pouring in, on the offensive.
5. The .ge domain
If Estonia was the victim of cyberwarfare, looks like Tbilisi is the victim of all-out cyberwarfare. Looks like Russia's private contractors in IT have worked out the bugs in their program. It's as quiet as Hiroshima.
WAR IN EUROPE: The death of naivete
I didn't think Russia -- the new, rich, self-confident Russia -- would bomb a sovereign state. I was under no illusions about the skulduggery it is involved in "disputed territory" or that it might even come to the "aid" of the corrupted Russian citizens in South Ossetia, but they've crossed a line by attacking Georgian population centres. I thought it had put such actions in its past.
It also seems a lot like Lebanon and Israel, except Russia is playing both sides -- both the petty Hezbollixed provocations that led to a moderate response from Georgia, and now Russia is taking the moral high ground (from the air) like an advanced civilization in the role of regional policeman bringing the Georgians (ordinary citizens, no doubt, who have nothing to do with it) to "justice".
I don't care in this case about the undemocratic tendencies of Mikheil Saakashvili. This is a country that has been Christian almost as long as Rome and is currently defying geography to integrate with the West. It makes Russia with its, as Ed Lucas calls it, 19th century view of Westernness seem hopelessly backwards.
Hopefully the world can turn its head away from the Olympic events long enough today to do something.
It also seems a lot like Lebanon and Israel, except Russia is playing both sides -- both the petty Hezbollixed provocations that led to a moderate response from Georgia, and now Russia is taking the moral high ground (from the air) like an advanced civilization in the role of regional policeman bringing the Georgians (ordinary citizens, no doubt, who have nothing to do with it) to "justice".
I don't care in this case about the undemocratic tendencies of Mikheil Saakashvili. This is a country that has been Christian almost as long as Rome and is currently defying geography to integrate with the West. It makes Russia with its, as Ed Lucas calls it, 19th century view of Westernness seem hopelessly backwards.
Hopefully the world can turn its head away from the Olympic events long enough today to do something.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Blogs and diaries
Some quick updates.
I forgot to add The Eesti Connection back to the links. It's back from hiatus, but you all probably knew that. I got an incestuous shout-out there, but what I really liked is the coverage of the Vana-Lõuna and Väike-Tallinn area. If I bought a house in Tallinn, that is one nice quiet yet central area I would look, making sure that Pärnu mnt or Järvevana tee would not be directly in my backyard.
I think Vello Vikerkaar's blog is excellent. First of all, it has that way of making the template its own. Good blogs have this quality. The blog has the self-confidence to assert that not much else is worth our while. The content is a column of enduring importance, every couple of days. Some are reprints from Baltlantis, but he is also producing new material.
Estonia now has what it does in Andrus Kivirähk but has thus far lacked in the English language: a columnist qua storyteller, an Astute Observer. An A. Whitney Brown in the middle of pen-twiddling Dennis Millers. Am I going too far? Probably.
I was confused for a while. Flasher T has just insisted that Vello is a real person, not a figment of the imagination. I think maybe Flasher is trying to come up with an allibi for the spare ribs he mentions, which may or may not have been ingested against doctor's orders. Because I have it on good authority that Vikerkaar is a figment or at least a Shakespearean composite, "the spirit or essence of the expat identity" etc.
Then I unexpectedly found out the truth. Everybody is partially correct. Vello Vikerkaar is actually Thomas Pynchon, who is living a double reclusive life in Estonia. Hence the double letter V.
What I agree whole-heartedly with in VV's latest piece is that Estonia needs a kind of Marlboro Man or an Old Man of the Sea as its image. Somethng craggy and Nordic to boot.
***
I feel like this blog has been sliding into irrelevancy as of late. I think I know why: I keep putting off dealing with a personal issue in these pages. It's on my mind a lot of my time and has real tangents with other issues. It's nothing serious, not a marital issue or anything -- but is obliquely related to family. A source of low-level irritation.
So I guess I'm self-censoring myself, and as with any form of censorship, it ends up sapping some of the vital strength of things, or at least the enjoyment of keeping a blog.
Some people keep private blogs to deal with such issues. But a diary wouldn't satisfy me. I don't really understand why people keep diaries. Yes, valuables are placed in safe deposit boxes and kept there, but you wouldn't put an animal in a safe deposit box, and you shouldn't do so with a thought either. Thoughts are living things (with memes, not genes) that should be allowed to breathe and interact with other ideas. Always. Writing a thought in a notebook and imprisoning it in a leather-bound covers is thought cruelty.
As I see it, my blog should be a news site about the "world and I"; nothing should be off-limits if it might be of interest to readers and is in the "public interest" as well, as defined by press ethics codes. What the blog shouldn't be is self-serving. It shouldn't be a propaganda vehicle for the "I" part of the equation.
But more about the issue later, when I get around to it. :P
I forgot to add The Eesti Connection back to the links. It's back from hiatus, but you all probably knew that. I got an incestuous shout-out there, but what I really liked is the coverage of the Vana-Lõuna and Väike-Tallinn area. If I bought a house in Tallinn, that is one nice quiet yet central area I would look, making sure that Pärnu mnt or Järvevana tee would not be directly in my backyard.
I think Vello Vikerkaar's blog is excellent. First of all, it has that way of making the template its own. Good blogs have this quality. The blog has the self-confidence to assert that not much else is worth our while. The content is a column of enduring importance, every couple of days. Some are reprints from Baltlantis, but he is also producing new material.
Estonia now has what it does in Andrus Kivirähk but has thus far lacked in the English language: a columnist qua storyteller, an Astute Observer. An A. Whitney Brown in the middle of pen-twiddling Dennis Millers. Am I going too far? Probably.
I was confused for a while. Flasher T has just insisted that Vello is a real person, not a figment of the imagination. I think maybe Flasher is trying to come up with an allibi for the spare ribs he mentions, which may or may not have been ingested against doctor's orders. Because I have it on good authority that Vikerkaar is a figment or at least a Shakespearean composite, "the spirit or essence of the expat identity" etc.
Then I unexpectedly found out the truth. Everybody is partially correct. Vello Vikerkaar is actually Thomas Pynchon, who is living a double reclusive life in Estonia. Hence the double letter V.
What I agree whole-heartedly with in VV's latest piece is that Estonia needs a kind of Marlboro Man or an Old Man of the Sea as its image. Somethng craggy and Nordic to boot.
***
I feel like this blog has been sliding into irrelevancy as of late. I think I know why: I keep putting off dealing with a personal issue in these pages. It's on my mind a lot of my time and has real tangents with other issues. It's nothing serious, not a marital issue or anything -- but is obliquely related to family. A source of low-level irritation.
So I guess I'm self-censoring myself, and as with any form of censorship, it ends up sapping some of the vital strength of things, or at least the enjoyment of keeping a blog.
Some people keep private blogs to deal with such issues. But a diary wouldn't satisfy me. I don't really understand why people keep diaries. Yes, valuables are placed in safe deposit boxes and kept there, but you wouldn't put an animal in a safe deposit box, and you shouldn't do so with a thought either. Thoughts are living things (with memes, not genes) that should be allowed to breathe and interact with other ideas. Always. Writing a thought in a notebook and imprisoning it in a leather-bound covers is thought cruelty.
As I see it, my blog should be a news site about the "world and I"; nothing should be off-limits if it might be of interest to readers and is in the "public interest" as well, as defined by press ethics codes. What the blog shouldn't be is self-serving. It shouldn't be a propaganda vehicle for the "I" part of the equation.
But more about the issue later, when I get around to it. :P
UTTERLY IRRELEVANT REVIEW: Hansabank coffee
No doubt trying to stay ahead of their main competitor (who I call "Ühispank" or "AS Pank", Hansabank's central office is becoming a good place just to pass the time. They have a free self-service coffee and espresso machine (the only place I know of in town). I live close by, so I have recently been stopping by just for my morning caffeine. It started innocently enough. I had legitimate business to transact, but my number was never called**, so at least I got some coffee.
The thing is, it's really good coffee for an automatic machine. Compared to "other automatic coffee machines I have known", it beats the socks off Statoil machines (which cost 10 kroons or so). It's better than the machine at Fertilitas birth centre (which only takes 1-kroon coins). You can adjust strength, and amount of sugar and cream, and it makes 6 or 7 different drinks, both "filter coffee" and "bean coffee". (Go with the latter -- "oakohv".) Wow! It is even better than the coffee at the Viru Hotel bar, though not as good as Olümpia Hotel. If Hansabank wants to give other establishments a run for their money in espresso, though, they will have to work on their crema. But maybe it's just a sign of the Swedish ownership -- welfare coffee -- and they don't have any ambitions to expand laterally beyond maybe insurance and factoring.
Hansabank Central also offers WiFi -- it's not free, but only five kroons, payable by mobile phone. And I think I spy an electrical outlet on the other side of the room, near some soft furniture. Oh boy.
I'm having such a mellow caffeinated time, I don't know if I will even go when my number is called. I hope this post doesn't ruin it for everyone.
**This is not usually an problem in Estonia, even on the rare occasion that you need to go to a bank office in person.
The thing is, it's really good coffee for an automatic machine. Compared to "other automatic coffee machines I have known", it beats the socks off Statoil machines (which cost 10 kroons or so). It's better than the machine at Fertilitas birth centre (which only takes 1-kroon coins). You can adjust strength, and amount of sugar and cream, and it makes 6 or 7 different drinks, both "filter coffee" and "bean coffee". (Go with the latter -- "oakohv".) Wow! It is even better than the coffee at the Viru Hotel bar, though not as good as Olümpia Hotel. If Hansabank wants to give other establishments a run for their money in espresso, though, they will have to work on their crema. But maybe it's just a sign of the Swedish ownership -- welfare coffee -- and they don't have any ambitions to expand laterally beyond maybe insurance and factoring.
Hansabank Central also offers WiFi -- it's not free, but only five kroons, payable by mobile phone. And I think I spy an electrical outlet on the other side of the room, near some soft furniture. Oh boy.
I'm having such a mellow caffeinated time, I don't know if I will even go when my number is called. I hope this post doesn't ruin it for everyone.
**This is not usually an problem in Estonia, even on the rare occasion that you need to go to a bank office in person.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Yay, Mac
A small, important victory for Mac. (I'm still tallying the pros and cons at this point. I'm pleased but nothing's perfect.) I started using our Mac Mini desktop as a wireless router. Just went to the Sharing panel of System Preferences and turned Internet sharing on. Voila. Instant savings of at least $60. I don't think it's quite that simple on PCs.
It was a little tricky to share a secure wireless network with our Windows computers -- I think it's a developers' oversight about having to convert the alphanumeric password into hex for Windows but needing the same number of characters, a logical impossibility -- but I found an alternate path after some digging. You just have to add the network manually under Wireless Network Connection/Properties. Really quite simple.
It was a little tricky to share a secure wireless network with our Windows computers -- I think it's a developers' oversight about having to convert the alphanumeric password into hex for Windows but needing the same number of characters, a logical impossibility -- but I found an alternate path after some digging. You just have to add the network manually under Wireless Network Connection/Properties. Really quite simple.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Black and white blues
A rainy day today, and feeling a bit down. No doubt it's the low pressure system and some rather bleak online newspaper articles.
For starters, there was a beheading that didn't take place in the Middle East, but on a bus in Canada. Basically, from what we know, and maybe from what we ever will know, a hard-working model employee from Edmonton and a "happy, bubbly young guy" from Winnipeg were on the same bus, never exchanged a word, and the first guy ended up killing the second guy, eating and beheading him in front of everyone else. The first guy was not a contract killer or from Irian Jaya. Why? Temporary insanity? Crowding psychosis? Glitch in the matrix programming? How would Thomas Aquinas explain such an occurrence? My idea is that if you live long enough, everything will happen. But this is cold consolation.
Follow that with the usual global warming gloom, which I had forgotten about, as the summer has been so perfectly cool here: Baffin Island melting and crumbling as temps have been in the 80s. (Well, I guess there's still Ellesmere.) Jellyfish (read: cockroaches of the damaged environment that the ocean is) are proliferating in the Mediterranean. I learned about a jellyfish that is so fragile that it will die if it contacts the side of a fish bowl (research is a bit complicated) yet it will may kill you.
I saw a NYT magazine feature on Internet trolls, which I thought might cheer me up ("trolls" and "hackers" also having a positive side, you know) but it turned out to be about egotistical cruel people and teenage suicides they cause/exploit and I had to stop reading.
My favourite troll story, apart from the one in The Hobbit, is now the Three Billy Goats Gruff, which I read to Morgan the other night. I thought it was a very comforting story in our demon-haunted world. It's not exceptionally clever or anything. The third biggest billy goat beats the heck out of the troll and that's it. It's good to know someone's got your back and you don't even need to do anything. In contrast, there's Three Little Pigs, which also has a happy ending, but it appears to be moralizing about construction materials and self-reliance a little bit, no?
WHat else? I found out that in my haste to get cheap airfare to the States for myself and Morgan, I bought not only a ticket to and from distant, inefficient JFK (the idea is to take a train south from Penn Station so Newark would have been the right call), but we get there an hour after the Crescent goes. And the return flight in September departs at 1am. Good one. Three flights each way including Helsinki-Tallinn, plus 45 minutes on A-train? That's probably like another leg right there. Perhaps I will rent a car after all?
I wonder if I can board in Helsinki. Or do I have to check in at Tallinn airport? Thinking about taking the ferry across a day earlier. We could find some things to do and it would break up the trip a little.
For starters, there was a beheading that didn't take place in the Middle East, but on a bus in Canada. Basically, from what we know, and maybe from what we ever will know, a hard-working model employee from Edmonton and a "happy, bubbly young guy" from Winnipeg were on the same bus, never exchanged a word, and the first guy ended up killing the second guy, eating and beheading him in front of everyone else. The first guy was not a contract killer or from Irian Jaya. Why? Temporary insanity? Crowding psychosis? Glitch in the matrix programming? How would Thomas Aquinas explain such an occurrence? My idea is that if you live long enough, everything will happen. But this is cold consolation.
Follow that with the usual global warming gloom, which I had forgotten about, as the summer has been so perfectly cool here: Baffin Island melting and crumbling as temps have been in the 80s. (Well, I guess there's still Ellesmere.) Jellyfish (read: cockroaches of the damaged environment that the ocean is) are proliferating in the Mediterranean. I learned about a jellyfish that is so fragile that it will die if it contacts the side of a fish bowl (research is a bit complicated) yet it will may kill you.
I saw a NYT magazine feature on Internet trolls, which I thought might cheer me up ("trolls" and "hackers" also having a positive side, you know) but it turned out to be about egotistical cruel people and teenage suicides they cause/exploit and I had to stop reading.
My favourite troll story, apart from the one in The Hobbit, is now the Three Billy Goats Gruff, which I read to Morgan the other night. I thought it was a very comforting story in our demon-haunted world. It's not exceptionally clever or anything. The third biggest billy goat beats the heck out of the troll and that's it. It's good to know someone's got your back and you don't even need to do anything. In contrast, there's Three Little Pigs, which also has a happy ending, but it appears to be moralizing about construction materials and self-reliance a little bit, no?
WHat else? I found out that in my haste to get cheap airfare to the States for myself and Morgan, I bought not only a ticket to and from distant, inefficient JFK (the idea is to take a train south from Penn Station so Newark would have been the right call), but we get there an hour after the Crescent goes. And the return flight in September departs at 1am. Good one. Three flights each way including Helsinki-Tallinn, plus 45 minutes on A-train? That's probably like another leg right there. Perhaps I will rent a car after all?
I wonder if I can board in Helsinki. Or do I have to check in at Tallinn airport? Thinking about taking the ferry across a day earlier. We could find some things to do and it would break up the trip a little.
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