Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Posted on December 8, 2010 - by Venik
Nobel Prize for Assange
An unnamed member of Medvedev’s administration told Russian new agency RIA Novosti that nominating Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize should improve his chances resisting legal and political pressure. While it is unlikely that such a nomination will come from the Russian administration, the fact that they are even talking about this in the Kremlin [...]
Posted on December 7, 2010 - by Venik
PayPal dumps Wikileaks
As you already know, PayPal stopped accepting charitable donations for Wikileaks. The Guardian reported that PayPal froze about eighty thousand dollars donated to Wikileaks via PayPal Donations service. So far PayPal has refused to release the funds, nor has it issued refunds to its customers who donated the money. I know this because I donated [...]
Posted on December 6, 2010 - by Venik
Low Hanging Fruit
The US government is pressuring Assange, his co-workers, Internet service providers, house pets, and even his lawyers. Ignoring the obvious illegality of this tactic, the more important question is: what exactly is the Department of State hoping to accomplish by harassing Wikileaks? The cat is out of the bag, the worms are out of the can. The entire collection of 250,000-some US embassy cables has already been widely distributed among leading newspapers and private citizens in various countries.
Posted on December 4, 2010 - by Venik
US Embassy Cables: Amateur Hour
By shining the light on the kindergarten that is the US Foreign Service, Wikileaks has effectively put an end to US diplomatic activities worldwide. No amount of damage control by the Department of State will turn the clock back and give back American diplomats the respect they lost. It will have to be earned from scratch over the coming years and decades. Short of a major asteroid impact, this leak of embassy cables is the most damaging thing that could have hit America’s national interests.
Posted on December 1, 2010 - by Venik
NATO, Russia, and Romania
In the recent interview for Romania Libera, Basescu announced that Romania will absorb its poor neighbor Moldova within twenty five years. According to Basescu, this “reunification” is a done deal and would have happened earlier if it wasn’t for the interference from the evil Russians. Acquiring Moldova’s territories is a key aspect of the Greater Romania concept.
Posted on October 27, 2010 - by Venik
Breaking WikiLeaks
It is a familiar feeling: you work on a major project, build something from the ground up, stick your neck way out to keep things running smoothly and suddenly all kinds of coauthors and collaborators come out of the woodwork to take credit for the job well done. True, I did not work alone. I [...]
Posted on August 30, 2010 - by Venik
Global Moron Alert
Here’s my scientific study* on the density of morons in various almost randomly-selected countries. We deal with morons on a daily basis. Some of us would swear we are surrounded by morons. But how many morons are there? I decided to try to answer this question and arrived at some unexpected results. Wikipedia defines “moron” [...]
Posted on August 25, 2010 - by Venik
Microsoft for Soviet Macedonia
I don’t know why, but today I stopped by Microsoft’s Bing search engine. I was greeted by a photo of Lake Debar located in western Macedonia near the border with Albania. When I hovered the mouse over little black squares on the photo, I was given a quick lesson in Macedonia’s history. My knowledge of [...]
Posted on July 27, 2010 - by Venik
The Biggest Secret
While the US Army is revving up its investigation of Bradley Manning, those of us with a gift for diagonal reading are sure to be very busy for the next couple of weeks. However, I think it is safe to say that the Afghan war’s two biggest “secrets” have been sufficiently exposed. And they are [...]
Posted on July 20, 2010 - by Venik
The Water Boys
The best way to keep a secret is not to concede its existence. Indeed, it would be difficult for your neighbor to poison your dog, if he doesn’t know you have one. Should, nevertheless, the facts escape, your next best defense is wordiness. You shall contribute to the spectacle at every opportunity in the hope [...]
Posted on May 30, 2010 - by Venik
Deepwater Sombrero
According to the latest news reports every attempt to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has failed. At some point last week it became obvious that BP has been copying the failed attempts to stop the 1979 Ixtoc spill. It is interesting to note, that the two drilling rigs – the Ixtoc [...]
Posted on May 29, 2010 - by Venik
Yak-130 Crashes in Russia
A Yak-130 advanced trainer jet crashed earlier today at the Lipetsk combat flight training center of the Russian AF. Both pilots ejected and were treated for minor injuries. There was no damage on the ground. The aircraft went out of control on takeoff during a routine training mission. This is first crash of an in-service [...]
Posted on April 20, 2010 - by Venik
Why Russia and Poland Will Never be Friends
You probably heard the story by now: a plane full of Polish russophobes flew into a tree in Russia. Too bad Dante is dead: a lot of good material for a Commedia sequel. There is a veritable flurry of news reports and editorials predicting an epic thaw in relations between Russia and Poland. A brief [...]
Posted on April 20, 2010 - by Venik
Journalists Killed in Iraq
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists published a report claiming there were 88 unsolved murders of journalists in Iraq between 2000 and 2009. Incidentally, nearly all of the 88 murders occurred in 2003-2009 when the country was under American occupation and some of these eighty eight journalists died at the hands of the US [...]
