In the great counting house of Moscow, the accountants are breaking out the vodka. Boss Putin's economic enhancement plan is working.
--Russia announced it would charge Ukraine more for natural gas.
--Secretary of State Kerry immediately went to Kiev with a billion dollars in hand to help the peasants pay Russia for higher priced gas. (He added a promise of "technical assistance," price tag unspecified.) So if you want to think of the Ukraine as a big pipeline for whooshing your money to Russia, I will not argue with you.
--The European Union then announced it would add $15 billion to the Ukraine kitty if the IMF also kicks in, which it will. It is useful to recall from time to time that the United States provides at least 17 per cent of IMF money.
--President Obama is not to be outdone in personally saving Ukraine. He is moving heaven and earth to ramp up exports of America's new natural gas. It is better, he decides, that the U.S energy bonanza be directed to the benefit of central European peasant hovels. Cold hovels in Minnesota are of less concern. For one thing, he believes, warm American homes are largely responsible for global warming and the concomitant damage to snail darters and spotted owls.
Short the greenback. Go long rubles. Get yourself a wood burner.
---
--The citations are here and here and here.
Mar 6, 2014
Mar 5, 2014
Be careful what you point, kids
Nathan is 10, goes to Devonshire (Ohio) Alternative Elementary School.
He just drew a three-day suspension for pointing his finger, or, as the school czars call it, a "level 2 lookalike firearm."
I salute the school authorities with a stiffly raised adjacent finger. Call it a level 2 lookalike one-tine pitch fork if you want.
And, just horsing around here, what happens to a sixth-grade guy who becomes suddenly and, shall we say, pointedly aroused when the short-skirted little knockout in the next chair crosses her legs? Maybe an NFA violation?
H/T Joel
He just drew a three-day suspension for pointing his finger, or, as the school czars call it, a "level 2 lookalike firearm."
I salute the school authorities with a stiffly raised adjacent finger. Call it a level 2 lookalike one-tine pitch fork if you want.
And, just horsing around here, what happens to a sixth-grade guy who becomes suddenly and, shall we say, pointedly aroused when the short-skirted little knockout in the next chair crosses her legs? Maybe an NFA violation?
H/T Joel
Mar 3, 2014
Jim's Beauty Secrets
And here you thought I was going to advise you to irritate an authoritarian statist every day, didn't you? You should, of course, because that makes you smile, and a smile is about the sexiest thing going.
But I'm really talking about skin beauty. This time of year my hands get all crinkly. When I pick up my 1943-issue 1911 A1 in order to irritate an authoritarian statist it sounds like a class of junior high kids wadding up their D-minus English essays. You don't want that. For one thing, it might alert the statist and give him time to hide.
My usual beauty aid is Corona, sometimes known as horse liniment. It works pretty well, and if you use it while drinking Mexican beer you might break into a syncopated Corona Corona improvisation. That would be sexy too, especially if your date is named Juanita or something like that.
Last night, however, I found something better. I went to an auction and came home with a professionally done 1903 Remington sporter. It needs a spa day too, but that's okay because dirt cheap. One problem was the sling, high quality leather but drier than high-noon Yuma.
Dry leather requires mink oil, and I used my fingers to smear great gobs of it all over the strap. It's still soaking in, but, ooh lah lah! My silken hands. I dare not go to the WalMart today lest droves of lady associates swoon.
But I'm really talking about skin beauty. This time of year my hands get all crinkly. When I pick up my 1943-issue 1911 A1 in order to irritate an authoritarian statist it sounds like a class of junior high kids wadding up their D-minus English essays. You don't want that. For one thing, it might alert the statist and give him time to hide.
My usual beauty aid is Corona, sometimes known as horse liniment. It works pretty well, and if you use it while drinking Mexican beer you might break into a syncopated Corona Corona improvisation. That would be sexy too, especially if your date is named Juanita or something like that.
Last night, however, I found something better. I went to an auction and came home with a professionally done 1903 Remington sporter. It needs a spa day too, but that's okay because dirt cheap. One problem was the sling, high quality leather but drier than high-noon Yuma.
Dry leather requires mink oil, and I used my fingers to smear great gobs of it all over the strap. It's still soaking in, but, ooh lah lah! My silken hands. I dare not go to the WalMart today lest droves of lady associates swoon.
Mar 2, 2014
Geopolitical grabass?
Grinning Russians in the Crimea. Smug Havana political thugs showing Russian sailors around town. It could be serious.
Or it could be like the locker-room games in 6th Period PE. Big jocks identify the chess club nerds and snap their butts with wet towels. The weakest and most excitable get the worst of it.
The idea is more to humiliate than to hurt.
So. Who has Putin identified as the easiest mark in his campaign to restore Russian respectability after his own nation's humiliation in our Reagan years? Could it be a ward heeler who lucked out and opened his hope-and-change reign with a world apology tour?
Or it could be like the locker-room games in 6th Period PE. Big jocks identify the chess club nerds and snap their butts with wet towels. The weakest and most excitable get the worst of it.
The idea is more to humiliate than to hurt.
So. Who has Putin identified as the easiest mark in his campaign to restore Russian respectability after his own nation's humiliation in our Reagan years? Could it be a ward heeler who lucked out and opened his hope-and-change reign with a world apology tour?
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