A life in words

  • Ukraine and Yuschenko Stand Firm on Gas

    Forbes reports that Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has rejected a Russian loan as a means of coping with impending hikes in prices by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom. According to the article, Gazprom is forcing a 4-fold increase in prices upon the Ukraine. Others have speculated that this action comes as retribution for the defeat of the…

  • The Return of Russian Despotism

    This Washington Post article sums up the state of affairs in Russia. Key points include: Supression of free media outlets Forced nationalization of key economic sectors, such as the oil industry Punishment of neighboring countries using oil prices as a weapon Manipulation of the national legislature to make it subservient to the Kremlin The net…

  • Longing and Delight

    The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things — the beauty, the memory of our own past — are good images of what…

There is nothing I dread so much, as a division of the Republic into two great Parties, each arranged under its leader and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This in my humble apprehension is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.John Adams, Letter to Jonathan Jackson, 2 Oct 1780