Great news, Russia’s new (self-anointed) Czar, Vladimir Putin, and his loyal number two, Dmitry Medvedev, have decided to go Stalin on Russians’ ass. They’ve ordered the police to confiscate 100.000 copies of a book written by prominent members of the opposition, Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov.

The reason, you ask? Well, they had the audacity to criticize Putin’s legacy.

That’s the way to go about these things, isn’t it? What do Milov and Nemtsov think, damnit!, that we’re living in the 21st century or something?

Putin’s right: no more criticism should be allowed. This whole “freedom of speech” thingy is greatly overestimated anyway. It’s not as if it’s vital for your happiness or anything to be able to speak your mind without fearing the government’s wrath.

Besides, those pesky books take such a long, long time to read.| MORE ›

Writing for The Atlantic, Mitch Moxley recounts a gig he recently took up in China.  Apparently, Caucasian males living in the country are being recruited to pretend to be high ranking officials of American companies.  They go for ribbon-cutting ceremonies, to schmooze with local dignitaries, and to give speeches about how wonderful it is to expand their business to China:| MORE ›

Harvard-trained historian Richard F. Miller, author of In Words and Deeds: Battle Speeches in History, wrote a guest post for Jules Crittenden’s blog about President Barack Obama’s West Point speech. His assessment: it a “midst of war” speech, and not a good one.| MORE ›

Say it ain’t so!

An advertisement showing a woman bound with rope and exposing her thighs has been banned by the industry watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the image used by tile company Bisazza implied sexual violence “had taken place or was about to”.| MORE ›

Rioting Muslim workers in Lahore murdered their employer and two others over another alleged Koran-desecration incident.  Once again “alleged” is one important key word since no such act of vandalism has yet been demonstrated, to say nothing of what was known prior to the pogrom.

These are the facts of the case as understood at present:| MORE ›

This article on China and Russia by Professor Barry Rubin, is the most interesting analysis of international politics I’ve read this week:

China is very much motivated toward development rather than ideology or geopolitical ambition. It wants to get along with everyone as much as possible and make lots of money.| MORE ›

This analysis is brought to you by Stratfor.com: the best online intelligence community.

Obama’s Plan and the Key Battleground
By George Friedman

U.S. President Barack Obama announced the broad structure of his Afghanistan strategy in a speech at West Point on Tuesday evening. The strategy had three core elements.| MORE ›

North Korea, the world’s last Stalinist government which maintains an extensive network of forced-labor camps with hundreds of thousands of inmates and which has a history of kidnapping Japanese civilians from their homes in Japan, has demanded that the newly elected Japanese government apologize for its use of “comfort women” during World War II.

The only word that springs to mind is “chutzpah”.

Former President Bill Clinton’s quick success in obtaining the release of two American journalists held captive in North Korea highlights the usefulness of the former President.| MORE ›

John Bolton says that Bill Clinton’s diplomatic rescue of two American journalists being held hostage in North Korea was unwise, not only because it puts more Americans at risk in the future but because it continues the Clinton tradition of giving in when rogue states begin to behave badly.| MORE ›