Will put it back soon. Need to restore from backup.

Will put it back soon. 

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So, last Thursday , there was this employee of the U.S. consulate in Lahore, a certain Raymond Davis, driving along minding his own business, when a couple of Pakistani youths on a motorbike pulled up alongside him.

Fearing, with some reason, it seems, that they might steal his mobile phone, car-jack him, or worse, Davis pulled out his (apparently unlicenced) gun and shot them both dead.

Hat-tip to Mangan for pointing out what he rightly describes as "a simply amazing post " by Degowulf at "The Joy of Curmudgeonry."

Long story short: documents released by WikiLeaks reveal our public officials busily meddling in the internal affairs of France, in an attempt to promote their worldwide agenda of egalitarianism and multiculturalism. Here's a sample:

My girlfriend and I have a simple system for choosing movies, since many -- ok, most -- of the movies we each want to see fall, to put it in terms of a Venn diagram, outside the area of overlapping circles of our respective strong interest. We alternate choices (who gets to pick), while maintaining some concern for each other's sanity by staying within some bounds (e.g., no, I wasn't going to see Sex & The City even if it was her pick, nor would she even think of suggesting I had that obligation per our system). 

Well, the Obama presidency is only a few days old and it's been pretty good...so far. Yes, there will be disappointments and bad policy in the coming months (from my POV at least) but in these first few days, Obama has made or is starting to make good on some good campaign promises...and that's always a good thing.

As a libertarian, I don't get much to cheer about regardless of which party is in power so seeing little battles being won in a long, daunting and bleak war is the best I can hope for.

...authorities feel the need to create and post a sign like this: Such is the lost luster of the Zimbabwean dollar, which is experiencing insane inflation. To put it into perspective, if Bill Gates were to convert his entire net worth of $40 billion into Zimbabwean dollars today, his portfolio would be worth $173 in twelve short months.

As I drove to work today, I saw that the gas price at station I pass is now $2.13 per gallon. Yesterday, it was $2.15, the day before, it was $2.17 and $2.19 the day before that. We have all watched with some relief as gas has slipped and tumbled down to prices that we haven't seen in a few years. And while it all seems good from a consumer standpoint, I still reflect on what it all means geo-politically.

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I missed out on some otherwise excellent conversation about the Georgia-Russia conflict because I was in the middle of settling down in my new home, but I wanted to take a few minutes to weigh in on some issues related to American foreign policy, perceptions of Russia and perceived Russian imperialism, and the impact on the current presidential race. I couldn't agree more with John's diary on the matter, but I wanted to flesh out some of the political issues that are currently important to the region, as well as discuss some historical parallels that may be uncomfortable to revisit, but are nonetheless instructive.

Part of this is motivated by a roundtable discussion I attended this week on this very issue: the panel included historians, political scientists, and former NATO advisers. The most controversial statement was made by a political scientist who has lived and worked in Georgia, and who has no hesitation in comparing the current situation in Georgia to the Serbian conflict - although I disagree on some of the specifics and implications, which I'll note below.

Looks like Israel is going to take matters into there own hands if something doesn't happen here pretty quick...

Superb commentary at Cato by Patrick Basham on US relations with Russia at this crucial time.

Says Basham:

Washington's desire to lash out economically and diplomatically at Russian misbehaviour in the Caucasus is trumping rational thinking on the future of a vital strategic relationship.

Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out

They leave the West behind

And Moscow girls make me sing and shout

That Georgia's always on my mind.

I'm back in the USSR

You don't know how lucky you are boys

Back in the USSR

- John Lennon

and Paul McCartney

I'm not enthused in any way about the fall election and for many, many, many reasons. The ham and jelly vs. peanut butter and cheese sandwich choices (from my POV anyway) when all I want is a damned "ham and cheese sandwich" leave me opting to skip lunch...so to speak. But, I guess all I can do is favor ham or cheese and tolerate the rest.

So, whether you want to label foreign policy "ham" or "cheese" is kind of irrelevant in the analogy but whichever it is is the one that matters more right now.

The war in Georgia escalated dangerously last night after Russian jets reportedly bombed a vital pipeline that supplies oil to the West.

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