Putin does not bluff, signs gas for rubles decree. Update 3

How I love to see the Russians outsmarting everybody.

The Crazy Sh*t Americans Say from Reddit

Think of this blog as a kind of Seurat-like impressionist painting: dots of pure pigment juxtaposed. In this video we have the color of median base American Intelligence, in its own evaluation of itself. Ping.

Putin‘s Power & Western Impotence

Stamattina,

I  feel strangely well--as I've noticed the past few days, fits of which bien-être seem to come over me, every other day or so. I'm not complaining. It's just that there should be a reason for it, and I fear it may signal further decline of my cognitive faculties, that I can't find it. Normally, I would attribute it to drugs or pleasant sensory experience, but I cannot do so in this case, because it seems to come from within--like it did when I was a kid.

Speaking of Euphemism

Il modo di scrivere e di parlare della politica sono generalmente in difesa dell'indifendibile, portandolo così ad un eufemistico stile gonflato: NATO in Ukraine? NATO?

Class

is a fine thing to have, and a bad-smelling, burdensome, insufferably offensive thing to be. Is there seismic tension in this distinction? Maybe. Unlike the Queen, I see nothing funny in Hyacinth Bucket, though I grant the comedic artistry, and perfectly pleasant private character, of Patricia Routledge.

Permanent Daylight Savings Time Is Farmers' Hours

Which will probably be good for us, minding us that our first duty in life is to feed the kids and animals.

Old Norse and Old English

Bravo.

Civilization, arguably,

even more than The Tempest, is Twelfth Night. Why one cannot exactly say, or tell. Whatever the magic is, it doesn't work when girls play the boys' parts. And it does work when boys play the girls' parts.

Civilization,

Civilization, such as sent Francis Drake around the world murdering and plundering and holding open-air concerts for various voices and instruments, concluding with a dance performed by one of the younger crewmen. There's no reason why the Fun and Profitable can't also be Beautiful. Or that the Beautiful can't be,  as well, young, agile and muscular.

Shakespeare

Can we not agree that he was Elizabeth I's (and Robert Dudley's) bastard?  Or Francis Bacon? Or Elizabeth herself? I vote for Elizabeth herself, on the evidence: We know that Elizabeth spent several hours every day writing--double-translating Greek and Latin tragedies into English (and back into Latin and Greek) being practically her all-time favorite thing to while away an idle hour. Who else could have, or would have, written 'Julius Caesar' or 'Antony and Cleopatra'?

Question of authorship aside, caustic doubts of authenticity remain. Shakespeare elocuted, in Received Pronunciation, is not Shakespeare. And it takes ever so much longer to say.

Inside a $32,000,000 BEVERLY HILLS Modern MEGA Mansion with Amazing Views

Refinement, elegance, simplicity.

Ukraine and Russia: What the Media Wants You To Think!

¡Hail J.P. Peerless Paragon of Dead-on Verity!

Who Wins--and Who Loses--a Nuclear War

The first, most obvious loser will  be the country with the greatest number of civilian deaths--which, in the event of an unthinkable NATO/Russia Nuclear War, would certainly be the Eastern United States and Western Europe. Equivalent numbers of nuclear detonations would kill fewer Russians than Americans and Belgians, when allowance is made for population density.