I just got hold of Mark MacKinnon’s book The New Cold War.

I’m not so into the title which arguably conflicts with MacKinnon, who comes across (at least so far in my reading of his book and from what I previously know of him) as a a moderate extremist (especially when compared to Gaffney)

The best line in the above article is without doubt ‘Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin is not exactly known for his sense of humour…’. Luke Harding, Moscow Bureau Chief correspondent and plagarist (www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=8637&IBLOCK_ID=35)

The BBC isn’t much better. There was a good 10 minutes on the US/Russia missile defense bust up yesterday. First on was Frank Gaffney ‘Russia is authoritarian and wants to rebuild the Soviet Union’. Then they had some russian senior associate from a think tank that said it was all about russian politics (elections, la la la). Only towards the end with former conservative defense minister Rifkind & someone else who pointed out that both the US and Russia were deliberately hamming it up. Poor, very poor journalism.

Still, the military strategic argument that missile defense was not a threat to Russia was not questioned. I thought that was the whole point. Funny that!

Unfortunately, ‘red lines’ are only for western democratic countries.

Still, the BNC should beware of cleaning ladies and the local council, considering what has happened to a Banksy mural and the odd piece contemporary art.

Kyrill, thanks for putting up the link. I was to say the least, a bit surprised!

As all can see, those pictures don’t just involve kissing.

As for kissing, there was a time when the most heterosexual of Russian men would kiss each other without any inhibitions of it being mistaken. This especially relates to when they haven’t seen each other for quite some time.

Sometimes, it seems as if we’re living in some contradictory times. American public schools and colleges have official gay orgs. Simultaneously, it’s more fashionable for men’s locker rooms to be revamped with individually enclosed showers as opposed to one that’s fully open. This latter mentioned instance seems to contradict the former. On the other hand, maybe it acknowledges that some in the locker room might’ve potentially conflicting feelings with someone else in the same environment; thus acknowledging what has otherwise been hushed.

All this led to a locker room conversation involving a 40 something heterosexual married friend of mine and a young heterosexual undergrad. student (the two know each other). The latter commented how older gym members were more prone to showering at public gym showers, whereas the younger crowd had more a discomforting sense when doing so; and would instead shower at home. This despite the likelihood that the 40 plus group is probably the more stuck up when it comes to issues concerning perceived gay behavior.

http://kinst.livejournal.com/19581.html

it is huge print (2 x 3 meters) with video installed in the center of it.

Good point – I never thought of it that way! So maybe the culture minister is actually more savvy than I thought. After all, in the long term, controversy is what makes money…

Still, the culture minister has done a brilliant piece of publicity for teh BNC! I wonder if he’s getting a cut?