Friday: Hili dialogue

January 21, 2022 • 7:00 am

Welcome to the weekend: it’s Friday, January 21, 2022: National New England Clam Chowder Day. This is, of course, the only palatable version of clam chowder, as it contains just claims, broth, butter, and cream, lacking the odious addition of tomato that characterizes (and spoils) “Manhattan” clam chowder. Do not accept any clam chowder that is red!! If you’re in Boston, I suggest trying it at the Union Oyster House, where you’ll get a recipe several hundred years old.

Look how thick it is, loaded with chunks of clam! (Those lumps on top are chowder crackers, which are optional.):

Do not order or accept a bowl of “clam chowder” that looks like this:

It’s also National Granola Bar Day, National Hugging Day, Squirrel Appreciation Day, and, in Poland, Grandmother’s Day.

Here’s a young squirrel on my office windowshill to whom I’ve given his very first walnut.  (I believe it has testicles.) It took him a long while to open the first one, but they learned quickly where to attack the nut to get at the toothsome nutmeat.

Wine of the Day: Initially I found this 2019 French chardonnay ($16) disappointing despite the very good review by Jeb Dunnuck, who gave it a massive score of 94. His take:

All Chardonnay brought up in used demi-muids, the 2019 La Colline Aux Fossiles sports a medium gold hue to go with terrific stone fruits, caramelized citrus, white flowers, and honeysuckle-like aroma and flavors as well as a beautiful sense of minerality that emerges with time in the glass. Medium to full-bodied and beautifully textured, with a layered mouthfeel and a great finish, it’s another knockout Chardonnay from the team of Eric Solomon and Jean-Marc Lafage.

But the problem was mine: I poured a glass right after the bottle that had been removed from the fridge. White wine that is too cold generally tastes much better after it warms up for a while, as the cold numbs the taste buds. The first glass was okay, but nothing I’d pay $16 for. The second glass I left aside after I finished dinner (black beans and rice with a dollop of sour cream), and in a half an hour it became a totally different wine, with notes of honey and pear, and less dry.  It was now at $16 wine au minimum. 

I should have learned my lesson by now: drink wines at the right temperature, and for whites that means “cool-to-cold but not refrigerator temperature.” That also goes for reds, which should never be drunk at American room temperature (70 F or 21C). I always wrap one of these “cooler sleeves” which you keep in the freezer) around a room-temperature bottle of red for 4-5 minutes, which cools it but doesn’t make it cold. Red wine drinkers without a cellar absolutely need one of these. It’s cheap, and will immensely improve your drinking experience.

News of the Day: Once again, it’s nearly all grim and depressing.

*As Putin and his thugs prepare to invade Ukraine, Biden and European leaders are showing some division about how they’ll respond—a division that’s undoubtedly heartening Putin. From the NYT:

In the current Ukraine crisis, the leaders of Germany’s new governing coalition have stopped short of a commitment to halt the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, a joint Russian-German project that U.S. officials fear will enrich Mr. Putin and give him further leverage over European energy supplies.

And on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron of France surprised and irritated many European Union colleagues with an address to the E.U. Parliament in Strasbourg in which he called on Europeans to come up with their own proposal on European security. “We must build it between Europeans, then share it with our allies within the framework of NATO,” he said. “And then propose it for negotiation to Russia.”

French officials said Thursday that Mr. Macron was not seeking to undermine NATO’s unity. But the net effect of the words by Mr. Biden and Mr. Macron accentuated the frictions within the Western alliance, analysts said, a potential advantage for Russia.

I still think that Russia will invade Ukraine, and will do so before too long. I would be happy to be wrong.

*According to a new AP/NORC poll, Biden’s approval rating is really in the dumpster now:

More Americans disapprove than approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, 56% to 43%. As of now, just 28% of Americans say they want Biden to run for reelection in 2024, including only 48% of Democrats.

Asked on Wednesday at a wide-ranging news conference about his flagging popularity, Biden responded, “I don’t believe the polls.”

It’s a stark reversal from early in Biden’s presidency.

In July, 59% of Americans said they approved of Biden’s job performance in an AP-NORC poll. His approval rating dipped to 50% by late September in the aftermath of the chaotic and bloody U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid surging coronavirus infections and the administration’s fitful efforts to push economic, infrastructure and tax policies through Congress.

Granted, a lot of the dip isn’t Biden’s doing, but, as Harry Truman said, “The buck stops here.” But—Biden “doesn’t believe the polls”? It’s not a matter of belief —it’s an empirical result That doesn’t mean the sample is accurate, but other polls support it. He’s sounding like Trump in this respect. He’s entitled to his opinion, but not to his own facts, especially because a. this is a reputable poll, and b. Other similar polls have given similar results.

*The legal news from Ken:

A Tennessee law designed to allow state-sponsored Christian-based adoption agencies to discriminate against gays is now being used to prevent Jewish couples from adopting.

This is unbelievable. What if the best parents available are gay couples or Jewish couples? This can be understood only as reflecting a fear of Christians that “Christian children,” whatever those may be, may lose their “Christian values” (which they don’t have yet) and–horrors–may grow up thnking it’s okay to be gay or Jewish.

*More depressing legal news: in an unsigned order, but with the three liberal justices dissenting, the Supreme Court extended the validity of Texas’s new antiabortion law indefinitely. From the WSJ:

The court’s order was unsigned and, as is typical, provided no explanation. The three liberal justices dissented, arguing that Thursday’s order undermined the court’s December decision permitting abortion providers to proceed in limited fashion with their lawsuit against the Texas law.

“This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas, who have a right to control their own bodies,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

The Texas law, known as S.B. 8, bans nearly all abortions after about the sixth week of pregnancy, a restriction at odds with current Supreme Court precedent allowing women to obtain abortions prior to fetal viability, which occurs at about 24 weeks.

The Texas law is unconstitutional on its face and also makes no exception for rape or incest.  We know what’s coming next. . .

*Two nights ago the statue of Theodore Roosevelt, a native American, and a black men were removed from in front of New York’s Museum of Natural History. The statue was deemed “problematic” because it showed TR sitting on a horse with the Native American and black man walking beside him. The WaPo gives its new home.

The Roosevelt statue will be on long-term loan to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library due to open in 2026, in North Dakota, where Roosevelt spent time in the Badlands. The presidential library was termed “a fitting new home” by New York City officials when the decision was made last year, noting it could be “appropriately contextualized” there.

But I note that a year ago, Greg Mayer argued in these pages against the statue”s removal , and reproduced an email he wrote to the President of the Museum. Go have a look.

*Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 860,316 an increase of 2,029 deaths over yesterday’s figure. The reported world death toll is now 5,594,955, an increase of about 9,500 over yesterday’s total.

Stuff that happened on January 21 includes:

I can’t find a first edition on sale, so it must be pretty rare, but here’s the title page of the first edition:

The Queen, Marie Antoinette, was also executed in October.  A note from Wikipedia involving DNA:

While Louis’s blood dripped to the ground, several onlookers ran forward to dip their handkerchiefs in it. This account was proven true in 2012 after a DNA comparison linked blood thought to be from Louis XVI’s beheading to DNA taken from tissue samples originating from what was long thought to be the mummified head of his ancestor, Henry IV of France. The blood sample was taken from a squash gourd carved to commemorate the heroes of the French Revolution that had, according to legend, been used to house one of the handkerchiefs dipped in Louis’s blood.

(From Wikipedia): Louis XVI imprisoned at the Tour du Temple (by Jean-François Garneray)
  • 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
  • 1908 – New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.

In reality, it penalized the management of any premises on which women smoked; no woman was ever fined. But it was a stupid ordinance that wasn’t really enforced

  • 1948 – The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Québec Flag Day.

It’s a nice flag, too:

  • 1950 – American lawyer and government official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.

His was accused of spying, but since the statue of limitations for espionage had expired, he was tried an convicted for perjury. He served 3.5 years.

  • 1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.
  • 1981 – Production of the iconic DeLorean sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

I didn’t realize until recently that Jay Leno has one of the biggest collection of rare and expensive cars in the world. He shows off one per video and has a gazillion videos. He knows his onions, too! Here he highlights not a genuine DeLorean, but the replica used in the movie Back to the Future.

  • 2009 – Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending a three-week war it had with Hamas. However, intermittent fire by both sides continues in the weeks to follow.
  • 2017 – Over 400 cities across America and 160+ countries worldwide participate in a large-scale women’s march, on Donald Trump’s first full day as President of the United States.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1738 – Ethan Allen, American general (d. 1789)
  • 1801 – John Batman, Australian entrepreneur and explorer (d. 1839)

BATMAN! He helped found Melbourne:

Painting of Batman by William Beckwith McInnes

The Tsarina with Rasputin and her children, including Alexei, a hemophiliac who, thought the family, Rasputin could help. Would you let this man near your kids? Photo from 1908:

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with Rasputin, her children and a governess.

 

Is there a resemblance?

  • 1905 – Christian Dior, French fashion designer, founded Christian Dior S.A. (d. 1957)
  • 1922 – Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
  • 1924 – Benny Hill, English actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1992)
  • 1940 – Jack Nicklaus, American golfer and sportscaster
  • 1941 – Richie Havens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)

Here’s Havens’s famous version of “Freedom” played at Woodstock. He had no teeth in his upper gums, which you can see in the video:

Those who sang their swan song on January 21 include:

  • 1793 – Louis XVI of France (b. 1754)
  • 1924 – Vladimir Lenin, Russian lawyer and politician (b. 1870)

Lenin in 1920, four years before his death:

Two great writers:

A photo with members of the Bloomsbury group, including Strachey:

Left to right: Dora Carrington, Ralph Partridge, Lytton and Oliver Strachey, and Frances Partridge; snapshot by Ottoline Morrell, 1923. Carrington had a platonic but intense relationship with Lytton, and she shot herself after his death. 

by Lady Ottoline Morrell, vintage snapshot print, 1923
  • 1950 – George Orwell, British novelist, essayist, and critic (b. 1903)

Orwell broadcasting for the BBC. He died of TB at only 46; a great pity:

  • 1985 – James Beard, American chef and author (b. 1903)
  • 2002 – Peggy Lee, American singer (b. 1920)

One of my favorite jazz videos: a young Peggy Lee singing with Benny Goodman’s band. Her understated version of “Why Don’t You Do Right” mixes perfectly with Goodman’s sweet licorice stick.

  • 2020 – Terry Jones, Welsh actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1942)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn:

A: Where have you been the whole night?
Hili: I was watching what the forest looks like in the moonlight.
In Polish:
Ja: Gdzie ty chodziłaś przez całą noc?
Hili: Patrzyłam jak wygląda las w świetle księżyca.

From Tom, who says, “The greatest cookie astrophysics meme ever conceived.  Hawking would have been so proud!”:

From Merilee:

From Divy:

A tweet from Titania. Yes, it’s true, and you can read about it here. I don’t think I’ve seen a case of performative wokeness more ridiculous than this one.  Apparently it’s about equalizing the gender of the candies, not their race, since they have no race to begin with. And have women really felt excluded by M&Ms being largely “male” (were they?)?

From AdWeek:

The times are changing, and so are M&M’s well-known mascots.

In an effort to better align with today’s emphasis on inclusivity and belonging, the 80-year-old brand has given its cast of candy characters a modern makeover.

“We took a deep look at our characters, both inside and out, and have evolved their looks, personalities and backstories to be more representative of the dynamic and progressive world we live in,” Jane Hwang, global vp of M&M’s at parent company Mars, told Adweek.

Red, for instance, will be less bossy. Orange will acknowledge and embrace his anxiety. Green, who will come across as more confident, has traded in knee-high boots for casual sneakers, while Brown has transitioned from high stilettos to lower block heels and a fresh pair of glasses.

Hwang noted that Green and Brown will team up more as a “force supporting women, together throwing shine and not shade.”

At the same time, the company will stop attaching prefixes to the characters’ names to prompt people to focus more on their unique personalities rather than their gender.

And though the individual candies tend to possess similar dimensions per package, marketing efforts moving forward will present them in different shapes and sizes to promote diversity.

“M&M’s is on a mission right now to create a world where everyone feels they belong,” Hwang added.

Why don’t they just shut up and make candy. They’re not going to make the world any better with this insanity.

From reader Sue: best practice from the CDC:

From Malcolm: a gorgeous starling murmuration over Rome. Watch your heads, Romans!

From Simon: This is definitely on my bucket list:

Tweets from Matthew. These are cool, but I was quite disappointed that there was no duck. Well, there’s a vessle that looks like a duck, but it chirps rather than quacks.

More signs of global warming:

Look at the trans-Arctic journey of this intrepid fox! I wish I could meet it:

I may have posted this before, but I really like it. Look at that nice diver trying to help an octopus find a proper home. The cup is not good at all because it’s both flimsy and transparent:

44 thoughts on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Quick Profile: Formerly Anonymous, Sorry. I would like to give readers a little background information on why I was using the username ‘Anonymous’. I’ve mentioned most of these points separately over the past few months, but they make more sense in context. I am a queer libertarian atheist expat, partly of Jewish descent, who has lived in a Middle Eastern theocracy for over a decade. I already have five strikes against me. On an interpersonal level, locals are warm and welcoming, as long as I do not give them a reason to turn against me; a lot of them have at least one of those strikes against them, too, but do not talk about it openly.

    I’ve learned to be circumspect in what I say, so sometimes you’ll have to read between the lines when I make reference to Arab, Arabian, or Muslim culture. The two books I most highly recommend about culture in Arabia are Raphael Patai’s The Arab Mind and Matthew Gray’s Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World.

    I am aware of the apparent contradiction of being libertarian and living voluntarily in an authoritarian regime – but (for me) the contradiction applies under any government (and it’s not up for debate). As a skilled westerner, I can have a much more enjoyable lifestyle in Arabia than in many other places.

    My professional background has nothing to do with biology, but I do enjoy reading some evolutionary texts. I have enjoyed this site for quite some time. Back to our regularly scheduled programming…

    Reply

  2. Red wine drinkers without a cellar absolutely need one of these. It’s cheap, and will immensely improve your drinking experience.

    I have a small wine fridge that holds ~24 bottles. I keep it at 50ish for red wine (the rare white I buy goes in the regular fridge). If you don’t have the house or budget for a full size wine fridge (or a cellar), it’s pretty good.

    Those who sang their swan song on January 21 include:

    2022: Meat Loaf. (b. 1947) Like a bat outta hell, you were gone when this morning comes…

    Reply

      1. Curious that they would have to smuggle it in. At that high level of politics, I’d assume nobody would really bat an eye about it being there. Heck I’d think it was expected as part of the ‘entertain foreign dignitaries’ function. I’m sure the WH has an infinitely well stocked bar.

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    3. I just put them in tap water for a while, ‘cold’ tap water has a remarkable constant temperature between 15 and 19°C here, even when it is much warmer or colder outside. Probably because much of it’s trajectory is underground, I’d guess. However, I doubt whether that is true in non-temperate climates.
      Note, in South Africa one can get agreeable to good wines for as little as <3 U$D a bottle; when you're talking 10 U$D you can get some outstanding wines. In general the price/quality ratio is is quite low (ie. very good) here.

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  4. Here’s a young squirrel on my office windowshill [sic] to whom I’ve given his very first walnut. (I believe it has testicles.)

    The walnut? 🙂

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    2. WEIT reader Dom issued a library card (complete with photo ID if I recall correctly) to a squirrel that regularly visited the specialist library where he worked. Unfortunately, the critter’s visiting rights were withdrawn after it took a leak on the head librarian’s chair…!

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    1. Bah. You and our host are, respectfully, Wrong about clam chowder. Manhattan style is a much more complex, interesting, and tasty stew than the unctuous creamy glop of most Boston style chowders (the best red I’ve had was on the fishing pier in Freeport, Long Island).
      Of course, it’s not really the dichotomy that most Americans think, and ‘New England style’ chowder is a misnomer for the Boston kind. New England actually hosts a wide variety of local regional styles, including Rhode Island clear (no cream nor tomatoes), Connecticut semi-clear, and others.
      All of them, in my opinion, superior to Boston white goo..

      Reply

          1. There’s a place in Del Ray Beach on the intercoastal at the foot of a bridge that has (had? been awhile) the best she-crab soup ever (damn good burgers too). I agree, I’d take a good she-crab soup over any chowder, any day.

          2. I’ve never tried that soup, nor have I ever heard of it, but it looks delicious. If I ever see it on a menu, I’ll order it. I imagine you can only get it on the East coast. Is it seasonal as well?

          3. I believe it started in the Carolinas and that’s it’s available year round.

            When my buddy and I were heading down to Key West for the first time, after our undergraduate days, we had car trouble while drive along the coast of South Carolina, so we stopped and got jobs there for the rest of the season, to earn enough money to get the car fixed. I worked in a restaurant kitchen under a top-notch chef who made the best she-crab soup ever. That’s where I developed a taste for it.

            There’s a little restaurant halfway down the Keys, in Marathon, that also has really good she-crab soup, but conch chowder rules down here.

          4. Conch chowder is another dish I need to try, but can’t find in the PNW. Thanks for the added info, and another Kukec tale. 🙂

        2. I’ve never tried it myself, but this conversation made me think that mixing the two would be pretty darn good. In general terms adding cream to a tomato sauce is damn good (i.e., alla vodka).

          Reply

          2. They like to do that–mix Boston and Manhattan together–out in Suffolk County, Long Island.

  6. Here’s Havens’s famous version of “Freedom” played at Woodstock.

    The festival’s opening act, I believe.

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  7. A photo with members of the Bloomsbury group …

    What was Dorothy Parker’s line about the Bloomsbury Set — “lived in squares, painted in circles, loved in triangles”?

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  8. The red chowder might be bad – I had a terrible sample at a dive – but do not let that inhibit the tasting of the Italian dish of fish stew (I think).

    I found seafood and tomato in general distasteful, but fish stew is heady enough to merit a try – the breadth and intensity of flavors overcame my fundamental distaste of seafood with tomato. It is, clearly for me, an exception and an acquired taste.

    I think this book has a recipe :

    De’ Medici Lorenza
    Italy – The Beautiful Cookbook

    Reply

    1. Bouillabaisse and Cioppino are two of the best tomato/seafood “stews” ever invented. I would never consider the combination an “acquired taste”. There are also a variety of Mexican seafood stews with tomato that are outstanding.

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    2. Dear seafood-plus-tomato fans (not really me except this one!), give you : a short background and ingredients :

      CACIUCCO ALLA LIVORNESE
      Livorno Fish Stew
      Livorno, or Leghorn, is a city by the sea,[…]

      ½ cup (4 fl oz/125 ml) extra virgin olive oil
      1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
      1 medium-size carrot, finely chopped
      1 celery stalk, finely chopped
      ½ cup parsley leaves, chopped
      a small piece of hot red chili pepper, minced
      1 small lobster, in shell
      1 lb (500 g) large shrimp (king prawns), in shell
      1 medium cuttlefish or squid, cleaned and sliced into rings
      10 oz (315 g) octopus, cut into small pieces
      1 cup (8 fl oz/250 ml) dry white wine
      ½ cup (4floz/125 ml) hot water
      10 oz (300 g) plum (egg) tomatoes, put through a food mill
      salt
      11b (500 g) fresh mussels
      1 lb (500 g) fresh clams
      2 red mullet or small red snapper, filleted and cut into
      pieces
      1¼ lb (625 g) fillets of white-fleshed fish (scorpionfish or
      bream), cut into pieces
      10 oz (315 g) dogfish or shark, cut into pieces
      8 thin slices of firm, coarse-textured bread
      2 garlic cloves, halved and crushed

      [ recipe truncated ]

      For the rest, see the cookbook, p. 80 – great stuff in there.

      Reply

  9. Bravo re your denunciation of Manhattan clam chowder. How I wish I was having the real clam chowder for lunch or dinner today.

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  10. I’m pretty sure “Clam Chowder” is the secret password in Ace Ventura – Pet Detective. The follow up question is “Is that the red or the white?”

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  11. TR statue: In Slovenia, up along the border with Italy in what I guess would be the higher foothills of the Julian Alps in Log pod Mangartom, there is a statue in a WWI cemetery that is said to be the only one anywhere depicting a Muslim and Christian together. They are recognized by their chapeaux.

    The inscription cadged from the pic, reads: The impressive monument that stands in the middle of the big Austro-hungarian war cemetery. It was erected in memory of the soldiers of Mount Rombon,realized by the artist Ladislav Kofranek, from Prague. It represents a Bosnian soldier with fez and an Austrian soldier with Kaiserschutzencap. The abbreviation BH4 stands for 4th Reggiment Bosnia Herzegovina, while LIR stands for Lands Imperial Regiment. Both man are represented looking towards the nearby Rombon.

    I’m sure that would offend someone, somewhere.

    Reply

  12. I’m looking forward to the Professor’s take on today’s Bret Stephens column in the NYT, in which he excoriates the FBI and the media for largely ignoring the anti-semitic motivation of the Texas synagogue hostage-taker.

    Reply

  13. Rasputin: As I understand it, he was offed with cyanide-laced chocolates, but they seemed not to be having the desired effect, and so in the end he was dumped in a nearby river.

    I suspect that what happened was that the sodium or potassium cyanide encountered acidity in the chocolate and off-gassed as hydrogen cyanide, leaving them poorly effective.

    Reply

    1. I seem to recall hearing somewhere that he had deliberately built up tolerance to the poison as a precaution following an earlier assassination attempt, but I can’t seem to find a source for that so perhaps I’ve fallen for an urban myth.

      Reply

  14. Very much impressed by these whistling vessels or huaco silbadors.
    How do they work?
    Somehow that eight legged octopussycat is very funny, had to look twice.

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  15. ‘The 2000 year challenge’ came up with two portraits that almost certainly do not look like Jesus would have. The question is moot, of course, because he probably never even existed.

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  16. The situation with Russia is more complicated. You can test this with a role reversal. Would the USA agree if Mexico were to join a Russian-led alliance, where the obvious next step was to place missile sites south of the Colorado River? I guess not. It doesn’t matter if the president is a “thug“ to quote the OP, or infirm, or both. It would be a bad idea to force a standoff in any case.

    Remember, the US under Trump in 2019 withdrew from the INF Treaty, which banned certain missile types since 1987. With the treaty gone and Ukraine wanting to arm up, Russia has some reasons to worry. The US probably felt unfairly handicapped seeing the growing missile capacities of China. Russia faces the same problem with China, too, but probably sucked it up (or in 2018 appeared to creatively tried work around the rules) because it also locked Ukraine out of having such weapons. Exacerbating the problem, the USA and its allies once promised Russia not to push NATO into the suburbs of Moscow if they agreed to German reunification and NATO membership in return. Take both together, Ukraine wanting missiles and NATO encroaching, and it is probably less risky to pull the tail of a Siberian Tiger.

    It looks like the military complex needs to justify the extreme military budget, with arms dealing in a slump. The massive transfer upwards into the pockets of a few need some justification. The press needs to pump up the threat narrative in 24/7 “news” cycles. That’s why Trump also canceled the agreement with Iran. More weapons for Israel, then Saudi Arabia —America’s second-best friend— and then Jordan wants weapons too, and round and round it goes, and some suckers from Alaska to Wyoming, and from New York to LA will pay up. Other reasons are not realistic due to the excessive budget and military presence everywhere (the US maintains 95% of extranational bases, 800 known, against a few of everyone else combined, it also outspends the next couple of countries etcetera).

    But there is more. Freedom-Lovin’ Americans like Mitt Romney hate North Stream 2, which is a gas pipeline circumventing — you guess it — Ukraine in the Baltic Sea and emerging in Germany, and supposed to bring energy to Europe. Another role reversal. Think of a Chinese politician shaking his first on national TV and yelling threats towards the US if they dare to trade with Canada. And that’s not laughed out. Whatever happened to the Free Market. It’s a joke, but for a short moment, everyone could see it, but no hard questions were asked, and Romney was not laughed out.

    Despite my criticism of US foreign policy, I prefer a western-bound and transatlantic alliance. Putin is a ruthless authoritarian who will use every opportunity he gets to advance his goals. However, some are legitimate (the US would chimp out if it happened to them), and some shouldn’t be an issue, ‘cause of Free Market (imagine a bald eagle scream to underscore). However, nobody on the planet, including the lesser strata of US society is worthy of consideration to US elites, who showed time and again that extremely dangerous and selfish interests outweigh any other concerns. Kennedy once nearly wiped out the planet in the Cuban Missle Crisis with his idiotic decisions. Among them dropping practice depth charges on Soviet submarines. It would have been somewhat hilarious, though, if humankind was wiped out because an American Idiot Extraordinaire thought it a great idea to run into a hostage standoff with a realistic-looking toy gun.

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  17. >To stop the warming we need to stop burning fossil fuels.

    But we (the world) aren’t going to. So what’s the Plan B?

    Reply

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