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.

google

I typed in my webpage's violinhunter.com name on the google browser and the thingy game me a warning that the site might be harmful to my computer. No such thing of course. It is perfectly safe. I had never seen that before so I checked with the automated google help site and I could not make the google automatons understand that they need to check things thoroughly before putting such alarming notices on my search results. Perhaps they do these things to encourage people to buy their spyware protection services? I do not know. I do know McAfee does the same thing. They tell you your site is not safe but they can make it safe for you if you do this and that - become a client of theirs. It's soft blackmail - like the old protection rackets. It is annoying.

Riots in Paris

I'm sure you noticed that a few Parisians rioted yesterday because they thought they were not getting a fair shake in their government's plans to easy the economic downturn in France - they thought the banks were getting all the benefits and they were getting nothing but a debt burden. The guys who created this mess were getting taken care of nicely and they were being ignored. I would not know. New Yorkers will not riot like that, unless, of course, they start running out of things to eat. This topless woman does not care either way - she lives in Rio.

Liberals and Conservatives

Alfred Wiggam (yes, that Alfred Wiggam) said: “A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.” Then Jim Brown (yes, that Jim Brown) said “A Liberal will cut off your leg so he can hand you a crutch.” I do not know anything about this but they are both amusing. I don't know what this young topless woman thinks.

Bishops and Rabbis

The Chief Rabbis of both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic branches of Jews signed some letter expressing consternation and severing ties to the Vatican because the Pope reinstated some wayward Bishops, one of which is a Holocaust denier. The group representing the rabbis also canceled some meeting between the Vatican and the rabbinate which was set for March. The Pope must have known that the Rabbis would squirm once they found out. I think he sort of asked them to reconsider their protest but he did not apologize. Since the Pope is infallible, can he change his mind on reinstating that particular Bishop? The situation is kind of interesting. Most people do not know that one of the biggest anti-Jewish persons in history was none other than Martin Luther – the founder of Protestantism. It appears there are more than enough skeletons in all the closets to make for interesting conversations among people who like to talk about religion.

Blagojevich again

Irish writer and malcontent Brendan Francis Behan once said: "I was court-martialed in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence." Governor Blagojevich may have to be fired from his job in his absence since he is refusing to attend his own impeachment trial.

JOBS

From Yahoo! Hot Jobs: "As long as human beings continue to inhabit the planet, there are many worthwhile and fulfilling jobs that will never go away." The jobs listed were ACCOUNTANT, COMPUTER SUPPORT SPECIALIST, TEACHER, ENTREPRENEUR, AUTO MECHANIC, and PARAMEDIC. Please, please, please!!! They completely forgot about DOCTOR, LAWYER, MEDICAL field employee, PHARMACIST, GOVERNMENT employee. CARPENTER, PLUMBER, ELECTRICIAN, and FARMER. We all need houses, food, medical care, and transportation. Everything else can wait. That man is not a government employee - he's my grandpa.