- Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.—Gravity’s Rainbow
‘Is it about a bicycle?’ he asked.—The Third Policeman Categories
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- WorldWideWeber on Prefix
- WorldWideWeber on Phew!
- Prince Myshkin on Beastie
- WorldWideWeber on Teatime
- WorldWideWeber on Hitchhiker
Tags
- Armenia
- art
- blogging
- Cleveland
- cycling
- daily life
- ecology
- education
- family
- fauna
- food
- genocide
- Great Britain
- hearth and home
- history
- humor/farce
- Iraq
- Israel
- language
- literature
- mathematics
- media
- Middle East
- militarism
- music
- mysteries
- nature
- patriotism
- philosophy
- phone
- photography
- politics
- privacy
- psychology
- religion
- Russia
- science
- security
- Slovenia
- technology
- terror/-ism
- Turkey
- TV
- U.S.
- Washington DC
Archives
Our Pledge
You will never see an ad here. If you want or need something, we trust you will be able to want or need it without us planting the urge or ache. You certainly do not need our help finding what your heart desires on the internet.- “When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.”—H.G. Wells
More bicycle quotations »
Tag Archives: Russia
Preacherman
Our beloved vice president has journeyed to Vilnius in the former Soviet Union to criticize the democracy being run by the current Kremlin-dwellers. The Russians, naturally, found him “completely incomprehensible.” (Welcome to the club, друзья.) Cheney also accused the Russian government … Continue reading
Pentagon
What a coincidence (see the previous post). Over at Salon, Farhad Manjoo interviews James Carroll, author of a “biography” of the Pentagon, House of War. “[I]f Carroll’s book actually reads … like a story not just of the Pentagon but … Continue reading
Fandorin
I really should be writing the post I’ve been planning on deteriorating relations between the United States and Russia. It’s just a matter of digesting about eight or nine articles and a couple of major policy statements. So instead I’ll write … Continue reading
Tunes
Russia would very much like to join the World Trade Organization. Two countries currently stand in its way: The United States and Colombia. Well, one country, really. At least, that’s how President Putin sees it (as reported by Lenta.ru): At the … Continue reading
Searching
Now that warrantless wiretaps have apparently become part of the American way of life, can physical searches without a warrant be far behind? [Cartoon by Andrey Bilzho] (who? here!)
Khrushchev
Today is the 50th anniversary of Nikita Khrushchev‘s historic “secret speech” at the 20th Communist Party Congress in which he denounced Stalin and his brutal ways. The American historian William Taubman notes the “unintended consequences” of the speech: Khrushchev’s goal was to … Continue reading
Thaw
According to the New York Times, if you want to have fun at the 2006 Winter Olympics, hang out with the Russians. Outside the Russia House, headquarters for the Russian delegation in Turin, a horde of people gathered at the … Continue reading
Afghanistan
Last Wednesday Moscow News somberly noted the 17th anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. In the course of the ten-year war, more than 14,600 Soviet soldiers died and some 50,000 were wounded. Since the US entered Afghanistan in 2001, … Continue reading
Hamas
Vladimir Putin has invited Hamas leaders to Moscow, and the world press has dutifully reported the yowling from certain quarters of Israel and from their amen corner abroad (most particularly, in the US government and mainstream American media). As usual, there … Continue reading
Hazing
A particularly vicious form of hazing had existed in the Soviet army for years. I remember friends in Moscow in the late ’80s desperately trying to get their draft-age son into an American university. It was the dedovshchina (дедовщина) they were … Continue reading
