Monday, March 10, 2014

Russia Inviting Paid Observers To Supervise Crimea Referendum

A revolution has taken place in Ukraine this February. The President has fled, an interim government is installed. The country is the battlefield between the autocratic East and the postmodern West


A value is only a value if someone is willing to defend it. Putin is well aware the West is bluffing. He knows no one is willing to go further than the empty call for some symbolic sanctions. Cartoon by ©Rumpelstiltskin.

UPDATE: Latest updates:

  • In advance of the referendum Russia's propaganda channel RT has already altered the map to reflect the projected results.


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Sunday, March 9, 2014

Why We Need Heroes

Man needs heroes. As examples how to act morally and to have faith in the triumph of Good over Evil; but also that it is necessary to accept great challenges and not to despair during the darkest hours



Epic Heroes Tribute - Máximus, Leonidas & Achilles

What trials unite not only Achilles, King Leonidas, Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins but many of literature's most interesting heroes? And what do ordinary people have in common with these literary heroes? 

Heroes are not perfect. They are the sons and daughters of men, not the unreachable stuff of the gods. They succeed after enormous trials which they overcome at great odds. 

Heroes teach us that the individual, though partly the product of fate and sometimes fickle coincidence, ultimately has power over himself and that his efforts may save the day.



Matthew Winkler takes us step-by-step through the crucial events that make or break a hero.

More on the nature of heroes.

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Saturday, March 8, 2014

Putin Proves Postmodern Foreign Policy is Dead

The seizure of Crimea is Putin's challenge to the EU. It is meant to prove that values cannot defend themselves. They must be defended. In the EU peace trumps rights. Putin has proved the EU's moral authority is non-existent



The Putin System.

The breathtaking ignorance in the West on Ukraine and Crimea leaves one almost speechless. In short, here's the deal.

1. Crimea has existential-level historic resonance for Russia. In the context of the political-psychological loss of the Soviet Union for Russians, it is inconceivable that Vladimir Putin can now back down over Crimea. The referendum must, by fair means or foul (Putinism is controlled democracy) agree to Crimea becoming part of the Russian Federation.

2. The West is led by Barack Obama -- the most incompetent American president in all American history; and a 'leader' who does not believe in the free world, let alone American leadership of it.  

3. The EU is a foreign policy disaster, led, foreign policy wise, by Catherine Ashton someone who supported the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

4. Crimea is now part of Russia. End of story. Putin would have to quit politics to allow any other outcome.

5. The only question is whether Russia's annexation of Crimea leads to other parts of Ukraine in the east following suit. A question we already answered here.  (Source) 

Is that it? Well, not quite. 

If Russia swallows Ukraine, the 'European system' is finished. The seizure of Crimea was meant as a challenge to the EU. It is meant to prove that values cannot defend themselves. Timothy Snyder is correct. Rights do not defend themselves. They must be defended. And since peace trumps rights in the postmodern EU, the EU's moral authority is bankrupt.

That is why Verhofstadt and Van Baalen look like clowns when they're telling the people of the Ukraine to fight for liberty. Everyone knows instinctively that when push comes to shove, these generals will be out to lunch. 

Postmodern foreign policy basically consists of being seen as fighting for basic principles without actually having to uphold them; they think that simply by declaring that they do, the world accepts that premise. 

So while having signed off on Ukraine's security, the US and the EU can state they stand for democracy and liberty without actually having to go to war with Russia over them: they simply declare that this is what they stand for. But this is not how reality works. Putin has shown that the emperor has no cloths. And that's just for starters. 

Secondly the EU isn't sure if they side with the US against the aggression of Putin on the Crimea, or whether they are a neutral broker between the US and Russia. Verhofstadt in an article on The Guardian proves these points and more: 
This is where EU and US soft power can be as effective (and less dangerous) than the blunt use of force and sabre-rattling that characterised the cold war. However, we have to be prepared to see such threats through if we are to be credible in the eyes of the Kremlin. 
At no point in the article does Verhofstadt make plain how he intends to accomplish that. He goes on:
The US under Obama has shown great reluctance to get involved in distant conflicts that are not perceived to be in the country's vital strategic interest. So the EU is presented with an opportunity to step in, broker a solution and live up to its high ideals as a peacemaker and forum for conflict resolution. Is it up for the challenge? 
Now which is it? Upto this point the EU is neither a party nor a broker. Verhofstadt speaks of danger of the "blunt use of force and sabre-rattling" of the cold war, but what is presently the gravest danger are these postmodern bunglers: basically babies with razors playing at geo-politricks. 

More background:
  • Anne Applebaum on the ideology of Putinism (video)

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Israeli Navy Captures Iran Missile Smuggling Ship

The West has a new Messiah: the Iranian Mullah, President Hassan Rowhani who succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this year

In this pre-election videotape Hassan Rowhani brags about deceiving the West over the illicit nuclear program and claimed credit for vastly expanding it. H/t Nasim Online, translation: Reza Kahlili 

UPDATE: On Wednesday, in the Red Sea, Israeli commandos intercepted a freighter carrying a secret cargo of munitions loaded in Iran and hidden under bags of cement. The weaponry included dozens of Syrian-made M-302 rockets which Israeli authorities say were bound for terrorists in Gaza, and from there would have been capable of striking almost anywhere in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.


The next day, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ridiculed the munitions seizure, implying it was a public relations stunt (...) Perhaps Zarif had no idea that while he was shilling for “peace,” Iran was shipping Syrian missiles via Iraq toward Gaza — the latest in a long series of Iranian weapons shipments to terrorists. Perhaps Zarif’s Iranian colleagues waved him off to meet with Assad in Damascus without a word about the Syrian rocket shipment transiting Iran. Perhaps Iran felt no need to alert the Iraqi authorities not to look too closely at the cargo aboard the Klos C. Perhaps Putin, international overlord of Syrian weapons deals, had no idea such smuggling was still going on. Perhaps, by amazing coincidence, Zarif knows less than do the Israelis about the regime he serves. That would leave America and its diplomatic cohorts negotiating over a nuclear weapons program with an Iranian foreign minister who is so far out of the loop that he believes his own lies. But should we? (Source) More IDF Blog

In the other news: rapprochment between the Shia en Sunni rivals, Iran en SA. Rouhani accepts invitation to visit SA (Source)
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Romantic Realism: Rachmaninov's Second (Adagio)

"Listen to (...) Rachmaninoff’s Second. Men have not found the words for it, nor the deed nor the thought, but they have found the music (...) Let me see it made real. Let me see the answer to the promise of that music (...) the final, the fulfilled, innocent of pain". ~~Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead



 Soloists: Olga Smirnova and Vladislav Lantratov. Choreography: J. Elo
Dedicated to a bizarre week in captivity in anticipation of the deal of a life-time (well, for now ;-)
The dancers in the video are rank amateurs performing in a Russian So You've Got Talent kinda show. The adagio from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. At its 1897 premiere, Rachmaninoff's first symphony was derided by contemporary critics. The second piano concerto confirmed his genius. 
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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Obama Draws Another Red Line

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The Left Ticked Off About a Cadillac Commercial

The Huffington Post is all worked up and calls a Cadillac commercial that celebrates the American Dream a "nightmare". But, but, it's a green, electric hybride!



"You work hard, you create your own luck and just gotta believe, that ANYTHING is possible". 

Displaying its typical anti-American exceptionalism bias, the Huffington Post is calling a Cadillac commercial that celebrates the American Dream a "nightmare." The commercial promoting Cadillac's first ever ELR features a actor strolling through an American Dream house to his brand new American Dream Cadillac, all the while asking:
Why do we work so hard? For what? For this? For stuff? Other countries they work, they stroll home, they stop by the café, they take August off. Off. Why aren't you like that? Why aren't we like that? Because we're crazy, driven, hard-working believers, that's why. Those other countries think we're nuts. Whatever. (...) (Source)
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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Obama Channels Scarface

Our postmodern rulers are living in their own constructed reality which may be filled with unicorns and fairies. But overall, the moral standard is expediency


















Meaning, anything goes that leads to results. 

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From Russia With Love: Letter From Putin

In September of last year a letter from Vladimir Putin to the American people was circulating around the Internet. Since we're on the brink of war, let's see if we understand the enemy




























In the letter Putin re-introduces Americans to some unpleasant events from his perspective.

A letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the American people has been circulating around the internet for the past couple of days. In the letter, Putin re-introduces Americans to some unpleasant facts about history and life they’d rather forget, such as Nixon’s reasoning behind massive carpet bombing of millions or North Vietnamese for the purpose of ‘looking good’ while exiting the war, and how Pakistan has been using the U.S. as a ‘false ally’ to gain foreign aid, while using the funds to embolden the Taliban in Afghanistan. 
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