Protests in Moscow

People in Paris might riot but Russians can only protest - if they riot they'll probably be shot on sight. Anyway, thousands showed up in a Moscow demonstration on Saturday to show their anxiety over the global economic crisis. As far as I know, nobody was hurt, though police kept a watchful eye on everybody. What good is a demonstration anyway? Will that create jobs? Are Russians allowed to own guns? I do not know. On January 19, two people were shot while walking near the Kremlin - Anastasia Baburova, a reporter for Novaya Gazeta (New Gazette), and Stanislav Markelov, a human rights attorney. Both were very young. Many thought the murders were orchestrated by conservative political fringe groups. I had recently heard a story on NPR about the Russian Orthodox Church getting cozy with the Kremlin. Is that really so? In the eyes of a lot of people, a re-uniting of church and state is probably overdue. Imagine the power that can emanate from such an entity.

Macy's

By now, everyone knows that Macy's is closing eleven stores here and there. If you looked carefully at the list, these are all stores that have been in operation for a long time - some from as long ago as 1956. I think the newest among these stores being closed was opened in 1990 - eighteen years ago. I have no idea what that tells us but I'm sure someone out there does. My guess is that the older stores were under performing because they were old and Macy's was not about to spend a small fortune refurbishing them. What do I know??? Perhaps this woman used to model at one of those stores.