Russia

Persian Pickles

A pickle isn’t just something to eat. A pickle is also something to try to get out of. A problem, in other words. A dilemma.

And of course you know Iran is ancient Persia.

So here you go, straight from the folks at Stratfor:

Misreading the Iranian Situation

After the last round of meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama, the Israelis announced that the United States had agreed that in the event of a failure in negotiations, the United States would demand — and get — crippling sanctions against Iran, code for a gasoline cutoff. In return, the Israelis indicated that any plans for a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be put off. The Israelis specifically said that the Americans had agreed on the September U.N. talks as the hard deadline for a decision on — and implementation of — sanctions.

[…]

Obama’s assurances notwithstanding, there accordingly is no evidence of any force or process that would cause the Iranians to change their minds about their nuclear program. With that, the advantage to Israel of delaying a military strike evaporates.

Here are a few more isolated statements from the above article:

  • Moreover, the Israelis have Obama in a box.
  • If that’s true, then the current crisis is more dangerous than it appears.
  • Given that, the United States might as well do the attacking.
  • It isn’t clear that Obama can do that, however.
  • That consensus causes foreign leaders to take risks; it also causes Obama to have an interest in demonstrating that they have misread him.
  • We get the sense that everyone is misreading everyone else.

Then, at the end (where you would expect to find it), the closing paragraph:

The current situation is not as dangerous as the Cuban Missile Crisis was, but it has this in common: Everyone thinks we are on a known roadmap, when in reality, one of the players — Israel — has the ability and interest to redraw the roadmap. Netanyahu has been signaling in many ways that he intends to do just this. Everyone seems to believe he won’t. We aren’t so sure.

I wonder what Joel C. Rosenberg has to say about this whole mess. OK, I just peeked. There’s this and this and this.

USA Blinks; Putin Winks

I thought of that title when this photo greeted me at Drudge a few minutes ago:

Vladimir Putin wins, but at whom and why?

What’s with that?!

This?

Scrapping the missile shield

The Bush administration had said that the shield was intended to protect Eastern Europe from the threat of a nuclear Iran, but Russia bristled at the idea of U.S. interceptor rockets being set up near its border.

Maybe. But probably not.

But to whom is the Russian Premier or President or Prime Minister winking?

Foreign Teachers in Russia

Mission Network News is reporting this Moscow news:

Currently, foreigners in Russia only need a visa to teach. A draft bill has been submitted, however, that claims the current policy opens doors for the spread of “extremist ideology, national and religious hatred.” All of this poses a national security threat, according to the bill.

Persuaded by the threats, the Moscow City Dumas deputies approved the creation of the bill last Tuesday which would require a work permit for foreign teachers. This can take months to acquire.

Welcome to Today!

Putin

Oooops! 😯 Maybe that’s not such a good photo to go with the title!

Here, this next one is better:

Apply our hearts to wisdom

Today is our daughter Dora’s twentieth birthday. So I made the above wallpaper with her in mind because of this transition from her teens to her twenties. Of course, it’s a good verse for all of us.

Now…two news items to start out your day….

Happiness is key to longer life

“Happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill” says Ruut Veenhoven of Rotterdam’s Erasmus University in a study to be published next month.

After reviewing 30 studies carried out worldwide over periods ranging from one to 60 years, the Dutch professor said the effects of happiness on longevity were “comparable to that of smoking or not”.

That special flair for feeling good, he said, could lengthen life by between 7.5 and 10 years.

The finding brings a vital new piece to a puzzle currently being assembled by researchers worldwide on just what makes us happy — and on the related question of why people blessed with material wealth in developed nations no longer seem satisfied with their lives.

And this less happy story:

Russia vs Georgia

A fragile cease-fire appeared even more shaky as Russia’s foreign minister declared that the world “can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity.”

The declaration from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came simultaneously with the announcement that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting in the Kremlin with the leaders of Georgia’s two separatist provinces.

“One can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state,” Lavrov told reporters.

[…]

Russian troops also appeared to be settling in elsewhere in Georgia.

[…]

The scene underlined how closely the soldiers Russia calls peacekeepers are allied with its military.

I said two news items, but here’s a third one to end on a more positive note:

Anything into oil

“Working with the USDA we’ve identified enough waste material around the country, we truly believe we can make the United States totally energy independent of foreign countries in about five years,” he said.

WND originally reported on the project in March as Bell, an agricultural researcher, confirmed he’d isolated and modified specific bacteria that will, on a very large scale, naturally and rapidly convert plant material – including the leftovers from food – into hydrocarbons to fuel cars and trucks.

That means trash like corn stalks and corn cobs – even the grass clippings from suburban lawns – can be turned into oil and gasoline to run trucks, buses and cars.

Make it a good day today!

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Above all, love God!