Putin: Life Imitates Art

Oscar Wilde, in his “The Decay of Lying,” wrote that “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”
Few places on earth give expression to this principle, defying Aristotle, than Russia.
Stalin, Rasputin and Putin, to name just a few, not to mention the literary characters like Raskolnikov.
And there are cases where life imitates life, as in the many U.S. gun massacres.
But because life is imitating art, the script is already known. Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to fool many in the world for a time, partly because had had employed thousands of stooges and moles, and partly because of lingering resentment of the U.S. war in Iraq.
Now the president is naked. Many Russian agents who infiltrated the Ukraine have spoken to Western reporters from Vice to the New York Times.
Commentators who had been fooled by Putin now realize the country he is destroying most is Russia. Even Russian officials admit Western sanctions are tipping the country into recession.
But art, too, can imitate life.
In theaters now is “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.” It is a Tom Clancy special.
Since he was dead before Putin was unmasked, the Clancy-inspired film clearly was relying on history.
You can’t teach an old dictator new tricks.
Kenneth Branagh plays Russian oligarch Viktor Cherevin. He is tasked by the Kremlin with destroying the US economy because it is supporting efforts to destroy Moscow’s control of energy in Europe. The idea is another 911, blowing up Wall Street banks and driving investors from the dollar and U.S stocks.
It is not nearly as easily as has been repeatedly argued here on the pages of Allvoices. It would take a huge bomb that disabled the American economy to do it, and it would take Beijing with it. Only Moscow would survive.
Perhaps Putin saw the film. In any event, he is backing off and settling for merely disrupting the Ukraine. He is even offering deals to Kiev to let them catch up on their energy bills.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman puts it on a par with the Soviet Union turning its warships around when they approached the U.S. fleet during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Friedman says Russia, as well as the Ukraine, could become the failed state now because world economies are intertwined as never before.
“Let's add it up: Putin's seizure of Crimea has weakened the Russian economy, led to China getting a bargain gas deal, revived NATO, spurred Europe to start ending its addiction to Russian gas and begun a debate across Europe about increasing defense spending. Nice work, Vladimir. That's why I say the country Putin threatens most today is Russia,” wrote Friedman.
Sources:
New York Times
Wikipedia
Life Imitates Art

Women make just as good killers as men

While the militaries around the world are finally putting women in combat situations, here in the US rants about misogyny would have people believe that women can only be victims.
Anything a man can do a woman can do, whether it is run a country, or kill. And this is not something that only became true in this century or at the end of the 20th.
The latest killings in Isla Vista, adjacent to Santa Barbara, was followed by one of the biggest Tweeting bonanzas ever. The point was that killer Elliot Rodger hated women, and his slayings were a prime time example of misogyny. The fact that he killed more men than women was ignored, as well as the medical fact that Rodger may have feared women more than hate them.
As is often the case in the American media, supporters of the misogyny argument followed it like lemmings, right out of the window.
One of the nation’s leading “editorial engineers,” Adam Mordecai, has claimed he can generate millions of headlines on any subject, no matter how absurd. “I make your stuff go viral every once in awhile.”
He succeeded this week with a story about how 70 of 71 mass murders in the past 33 years were committed by men.
The beauty of the ancient expression reductio ad absurdum is that it can be used to show that something absurd is not true either because it is denied or because it is accepted. A win-win situation for those who have an agenda that will not withstand scrutiny.
The Internet trend to make news interesting by getting people to interact with it means “Surfing idiots are tough to beat…,” as the New York Times pointed out.
The notion that virtually only men commit mass murders is the perfect notion for such dogma.
Even though proving women have committed many mass murders, the idea will stay alive because to deny it is to prove it.
In fact, the idea put forward by Adam Mordecai in “Upworthy.com,” uses figures that are absurdly low.
FBI records analyzed by USA Today found there were "146 mass shootings since 2006 that matched the FBI definition of mass shooting, where four or more people were killed."
For those who want to know what role, if any, women played in this violence there are numerous Websites available.
Before starting the search, however, make sure that the inquiry is not limited to shootings. Often, women commit murders other ways. Drowning children is one of the least endearing.

More than one woman mass murderer has used a gun.
Some of what is being said is attributed to an American myth about "female virtue.”
Patricia Pearson hypothesizes in her book, “When She Was Bad: How and Why Women Get Away With Murder,” said women killers are studied less than males.
Pearson wrote: “the capacity of women to use masculine violence emerges very clearly in those societies that sanction its expression.” America isn’t one of them.
How many people have ever heard the word “misandry,” let alone used it.
Also, do not believe that men only kill with guns. Rodger stabbed three men to death, and he didn’t even have a Special Forces knife or Navy Seal training.
It is hard for anyone, even a man, to top the record of Elizabeth Bathory, “the Blood Countess.” The countess who had help from four collaborators “was accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls – one witness attributed 650 victims, but the conviction sat at only 80 – although Elizabeth was never tried or convicted in the true sense. She did end up imprisoned in Csejte Castle now in Slovakia in 1610, and died four years later.”
Sources:
Female Mass Murders in Recent History
New York Times
USA Today

International Red Cross appeals for blood and medical supplies as Kiev government pummels Russian rebels

The International Committee for the Red Cross is calling for blood and other medical supplies as the death toll rises between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed rebels. The death toll could reach 100, with all but a handful rebels.
A few civilians were reported killed as the Donetsk airport was retaken by government security forces.
"There is an urgent need for medicines and wound-dressing materials, as the number of casualties is increasing," Vera Radovic, head of the ICRC office in Donetsk said in an email Wednesday.
"Medical supplies have already been delivered to four civilian hospitals in Mariupol and two hospitals in Donetsk, and will soon reach near Kramatorsk,” she said.
US President Barack Obama virtually gave the Ukraine the nod of approval by saying war was not the only answer or even the main answer to world problems. But he told West Point graduates the nation was not retreating from the world stage either. Obama has been criticized for pulling all but 10,000 soldiers from Afghanistan.
Obama will meet new Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, next week during a European trip. Poroshenko, asking Washington and NATO for weapons, has done what the acting Kiev government was hesitant to do. Three days after winning election he sent warplanes and helicopters in to crush “the little green men.”
The new Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, has done what the acting Kiev government was hesitant to do: send warplanes and helicopters in to crush “the little green men.”
Vice News said the rebels had gotten the backing of Chechnyan fighters who crossed the border into Ukraine. Some fighters admitted to Vice News that they had volunteered to come and fight from Chechnya. The New York Times confirmed the presence of Chechnya "volunteers." But they were no match for jets and helicopters.
Obama said, ""In Ukraine, Russia's recent actions recall the days when Soviet tanks rolled into Eastern Europe."
Russian TV, the mouthpiece for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said “bodies are piling up in Donetsk morgues after Kiev unleashed fighter jets and and artillery on the country’s southeast just hours after the presidential election.”
Poroshenko, the oligarch known as the “chocolate king,” won a first-round victory in the voting last Sunday. Although he doesn’t take office until June, Poroshenko said an offensive to drive out the rebels would not wait.
Interfax Ukraine said no talks are possible yet.
"The government's position concerning talks with the Russian Federation remains unchanged as well: in present-day conditions, bilateral negotiations are not considered possible without the presence of the U.S. and the European Union," he said Tuesday.

The Guardian said the rebels still held some government buildings in Donetsk. The government planned to use “special high-precision weapons” against these facilities if the rebels did not withdraw or surrender.
Donetsk, with a population of 1 million, is the second-biggest city in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko was committed to not allowing the rebel occupation of portions of the east, near the Russian border, become a fait accompli as had occurred when Putin sent troops in to occupy Crimea. The offensive would be over “in a matter of hours,” not weeks.

Sources:
Russian TV
Interfax Ukraine
Guardian

Golden Gate could build suicide net with red tape

Faced by the seemingly hopeless cause of getting a suicide barrier installed on the Golden Gate Bridge, perhaps there is a way to retain government inefficiency and save lives.
How about a barrier for the nation’s No. 1 suicide destination made of red tape?
Despite yearly pleas to stop the killing, and this year a petition signed by 100,000 no money has been found to build the barrier.
History buffs say such a barrier was built during the construction of the bridge, and it saved lives.
San Francisco and California do not have the money, and have asked Washington to help.
Last year a record 46 people jumped to their deaths off of the 4,200-foot-long bridge.
Since 1937, when the bridge was completed, more than 1,500 people have died.
Some argue that building a net would mar the bridge’s beauty, though proposed nets would blend in and not be ugly.
Others have said people should have the right to jump, and it might make more sense to post psychiatrists at each end.
Bridge workers have blocked an unknown number of fatal jumps.
There is a four-feet-high rail that wouldn’t even stop Tryion Lannister.
It was originally estimated it would cost $50 million to build a safety net, now $66 million and likely to end up costing $100 million.
The Marin Independent Journal says it is hoped funding will be found by next month.
It is highly unlikely the net can be built without the loss of workers’ lives. Eleven died during construction of the bridge.
In addition to speeding travel, the bridge has brought hundreds of millions of dollars to the Bay Area. Seeing it covered in fog is a marvel to behold.

It also attracts those wanting to end their lives in a beautiful style that escaped them in real life, just as the Royal Gorge does in Colorado.
Figures must be taken with a grain of salt since no one wants to publicize deaths.
Golden Gate is only No. 2 in suicide jumps. The leader if the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.
Nationally, the number of suicides has risen, partly due to foreclosures, and reached nearly 3 million in 2010.
Sources:
Visit California
Wikipedia
Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge
Marin Independent Journal

What would Noah say about climate change

Resistance to climate change refuses to die, mostly among fundamentalists and Republicans, and course those who fit both categories.

It makes sense to see what Noah, a prophet in Islam as well as Christianity and Judaism, would have to say.

Although he didn’t have access to power points and weather records for at least a century, not to mention satellite photos, Noah it is claimed in the Bible had lived almost 500 years when the flood hit.

Therefore he did not need to keep records to see the change

Though not a drop of rain had fallen Noah warned anyone who listened that a great flood would come. Only a small group of Godless troublemakers who wanted on board the Ark paid attention. Only eight people were on board when the boat and its animals began floating after 40 days and 40 nights of rain. That may not even be a record these days.

The other NOAA, based in Boulder, Colorado, also has warned of weather disasters that have already hit and that more are to come.

It reports global temperatures and sea levels have been rising for a century. Temperatures, especially in the US because it is easier to monitor one nation, have been rising.

Skeptics would ask if the glass is half full or half empty.

Climatologists say only a half of the freakish weather of 2012, including Hurricane Sandy and temperatures that would fry an egg on the sidewalk, were the result of climate change.

“The other half — including a record wet British summer and the U.S. drought last year — simply reflected the random freakiness of weather, researchers with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British meteorological office concluded,
AP reported.

Associated Press

Of course it is not much consolation if you were killed or lost everything, or both, because of weather influenced by man or natural factors.

Hardly a month goes by that disturbing weather disasters are not recorded.

This month includes the worst flooding in the Balkans since record-keeping began 120 years ago.

This week a mudslide near the Grand Mesa of Colorado, billed as the world’s largest flattop mountain, covered eight square miles and three people. A mudslide two months ago in Washington state only covered one square mile, though it destroyed hundreds of homes and claimed at least 41 lives.

The mudslide near Collbran, Colorado,  hit  a largedly unpopulated area. Three farm workers are believed to have died.

Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said the slide was so big “that it’s understatement to say it is massive.”

Denver Post

Both the Oso, Washington and Collbran slide followed heavy rain.

Opinion

There is one thing that fundamentalists who disbelieve in anti-evolution and anti-climate change can accept.

As in the days of Noah, the world is full of evil, especially abortion, same-sex marriages, divorce, marijuana, evil, separation of church and state, and blasphemy, the list is long.

Noah's helpers

Isla Vista, the director's cut

In 2001, the son of a filmmaker mowed down five people with a Saab in Isla Vista, killing four of them.
The self-proclaimed “angel of death” was later committed.
This Memorial Day Weekend, the son of a second filmmaker killed six people in the same university town. Do “The Hunger Games” ring a bell.
Director Peter Rodger took his son, Elliot, 22, to the opening.
Elliot’s killing field started in his apartment complex where he stabbed to death three male roommates.
What they had to do with his being horny and a virgin was not clear. These deaths didn’t fit the misogynistic motive that quickly ignited Twitter.
Not even Daniel Tosh can offer this guy a redemption.
Being a weekend, news outlets had skeleton staffs, and perhaps did not know how to look up events in 2001 in the University of California Santa Barbara town.
Many media outlets kept reporting Elliot had shot dead six people, plus himself, knocked down some bicyclists, then crashed his shiny BMW into another vehicle after being wounded by deputies.
Elliot had done everything but hire a plane to carry a banner over Santa Barbara announcing his plans.
He posted a “chilling” video on YouTube a day earlier. It was not nearly as chilling as a surveillance camera in a deli that he shot up, killing 20-year-old Christopher Martinez. CNN said what was obviously an important piece of evidence was a network exclusive.
The country has become so used to dealing with these massacres, at least as far back as Columbine in 1999, Christopher’s father, Richard was ready.
He “self identified,” a sort of new kind of “selfie,” where you tell the world that one of your family was among those killed.
To help news crews announced his name and said, “common spelling.”
The New York Times told the brave story of Rodger’s parents speeding up from Los Angeles after they clicked on his killer 140-page manifesto.
“Parents frantic race failed to stop killings,” the headline said.

Law enforcement congratulated itself on reacting so fast some lives no doubt were saved.
They claim he “flew under the radar.” In fact they had met with him at least three times.
The Southern Poverty Center said Elliot was a frequent contributor on an online hate site.
So far, the only deviation from the script of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris at Columbine was that Elliot hadn’t been arrested and put on probation for stealing electronics from a car.
Those cops also said they could not have known his online threats were serious.
Last month deputies did a check on Elliot but found him a nice, shy, quiet kid, though obviously mentally disturbed.
"I had the striking and devastating fear that someone had somehow discovered what I was planning to do, and reported me for it," Rodger wrote toward the end of a 140-page account of his life. "If that was the case, the police would have searched my room, found all of my guns and weapons, along with my writings about what I plan to do with them,” CNN reported Elliot had written.
After the Columbine shootings it became very clear that if the killers’ parents had searched their basements they would have found weapons and a video tape laying out their plains.
As for mental illness, Elliot had the best health care money can buy.
Given everyone in the Isla Vista area’s knowledge of how to react to massacres perhaps Hollywood should build a filming lot for the sequel.
This story cries out for the full cast and crew.
The dead roommates, all males, are Cheng Yuan Hong, 20; George Chen, 19, and Weihan Wang. All University of California Santa Barbara students.
The three shot dead are Katherine Breann Cooper, 22; Veronika Elizabeth Weiss, 19, Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, 20. Police said they know of 13 people who were wounded
Sources:
CNN
New York Times
Santa Barbara Independent

Nothing new in California slaughter

The NRA is earning its money, promoting the sale of guns despite massacres and slaughters. In the Wild West they would put notches on their guns for each person killed.
Add seven more, but this time the would-be Billy the Kid was among the dead.
To be fair, though there seemed no need for the group to rush to defend itself. After all, the NRA is the most successful lobby group ever and no doubt gets its word in soon enough, there was no immediate word from the gun rights’ group.
But even if there was no NRA the collective loss of memory the nation suffers every time there is a massacre would take care of it.
The San Diego Independent reported it brought "echoes of David Attias." Perhaps the university town should become a studio production lot.

The video game industry will also claim, again, that the violent games do not create violence.
One of the fathers of one of six victims killed in Isla Vista, adjacent to Santa Barbara, wasted no time Salon.
In fact, the killing has become so commonplace, their families have learned to “self identify,” as Salon called it, not waiting for police who are faster to kill than identify.
Richard Martinez said his 20-year-old son, Chris, was shot dead in a deli where he headed to buy a sandwich. His death was shown on the above surveillance cam video. “Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights, what about Chris’ right to live? When will this insanity stop?” said Richard Martinez.
The Daily Beast put it this way: “Here, in the good ole US of A, we’ve allowed a group of rich, entitled thugs who run an operation fronting for arms dealers—guys who represent a minority position on pretty much every issue having to do with reasonable regulation of firearms CNN Justice —to dictate our policies to cowardly, careerist politicians.
Because Hollywood was involved this time, there were even bigger promises to bring the violence under control. The father of shooter Elliot Rodger, that would be Peter Rodger, one of the directors of “The Hunger Games,” vowed to battle until he died to expand mental health care in America.
In the incident Friday, three of the six people murdered were stabbed to death, as promised they would be in Elliot Rodger’s script, a 137-page script/manifesto.
“My clients’ mission in life will be to try and prevent any such tragedies from ever happening again. This country, this world needs to address mental illness and the ramifications from not recognizing these illnesses,” said Elliott's father's lawyer.
It also become clear from the start that the younger Rodgers had actually received the best mental health available, far better than is available to most Americans.
As for film directors and Isla Vista, the Washington Post reported it was the second time the son of one of Hollywood's movie makers had committed mass murder in the university town. "This is not the first mass killing in Isla Vista: In 2001, David Attias, the son of a film director, ran over five people in a car, killing four of them. He was convicted of second-degree murder, then ruled insane and sentenced to a mental hospital."
Again, it was also clear that police had been warned this time, but cleared the younger Rodgers of being a threat. While a black likely would be thrown in jail for carrying a small stash of weed Elliot went free.

Police interviewed, finding him, a "perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human.”
It appeared Elliot had given plenty of warning that he was a loose hand gun. Just as in the Aurora “Batman” shootings, doctors had warned cops. The psychiatrist treating him had even suggested he be arrested. He was not, and the death toll in Aurora was higher, 12 killed and 70 wounded.
In Isla Vista, 13 were injured or wounded, including bicylists mowed down by the killer's BMW.
Law enforcement again congratulated itself, again, on its quick response, preventing more deaths. They learned their hubris from a nation that boasted of "The Power of Pride" after the 911 terrorist attacks.
Investigators said the multiple guns and hundreds of rounds of ammo were all purchased legally, which the NRA likely will say shows that gun control laws do not work.
The gun rights group, which has had perhaps the most successful lobbying record of any in the nation, also probably will try to obfuscate the questions by arguing over whether weapons were automatic or semi-automatic.
In his hate-filled video rant Elliot had said he would get “retribution” for all those who had taunted him and would “annihilate” anyone he encountered, even using his BMW to knock down bicyclists.
Elliot, who also was horney, had plenty of hate practice. had a record of posting hateful comments about women and blacks, the Southern Poverty Law Center, according to Ryot.org. His comments were posted on a site with the URL PuaHate.com.
Just like the threats of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were ignored before Columbine, Elliot had made at least one YouTube threat.
Sources:

Sacramento BeeAP
ABC
Video transcript
Daily Mirror