A few weeks ago I wrote something here about the new Voice of Russia AM radio station in the New York metro area (at 1430 on the dial). They broadcast 24/7 and focus on news and international issues, at least when I listen during my morning and evening commutes to work. When I last wrote, the VofR announcers were mostly English-speaking Russians with noticeable accents. But since then, VofR decided to ‘Americanize’ things a bit; they focus more on local news in the New York and DC metro areas (those are the two places where they have stations; sorry, Chicago, Atlanta, LA, Dallas, etc., but you can listen on the web site). They even give occasional weather forecasts for DC and NYC, and have toned down the critical commentary (somewhat hypocritical, coming from Russia) regarding American imperialism. And instead of cuing “expert commentary” from old men with turgid accents at quasi-governmental institutions in St. Petersburg or Novosibirsk, VofR is now featuring mostly American guests on their shows. Again, at least during drive-time; at 10 PM on Sunday or 12 noon on Tuesday it might be Moscow Mailbag or Musical Tales from the steppes, or recipes for sturgeon and cabbage.

To deliver this lighter blend with an American flavor, VofR recently hired several aspiring young American news journalists as hosts. It’s quite an improvement and it gives VofR even more of an NPR flavor (but without all the pledge drives!). I still haven’t figured out just why the Russian government is spending good money on this, unless it’s a prestige thing (or maybe it’s good for business; perhaps it encourages American financial leaders to consider investing in Russia). But I’m glad they are doing it, as it presents a welcome alternative on the AM dial for us news junkies and policy wonks when the local network news stations are rattling off their commercials (dirty capitalists!) and NPR is begging for cash or playing “groovy” international music (damn socialists!).

One of the new drive-time shows on VofR is called “Capital to Capital”, hosted by two American announcers, one based in Moscow and the other in Washington. They discuss the local headlines from each capital and exchange thoughts  »  continue reading …

I just saw an article about a recent computer hacking against an Al Qaeda web site. Unlike most web site attacks, however, this one was pulled off by the British intelligence service. How about that, digital counter-terrorism! The spook-geeks at MI6 got onto the web server and replaced a downloadable article on bomb-making with a web page containing cupcake recipes!!! American cupcake recipes, to boot.

The article, known as “make a bomb in your mom’s kitchen”, was written by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American radical imam based in Yemen. Some observers recently stated in the NY Times that al-Awlaki is mostly an outsider to al Qaeda and is mainly a freelance terrorist. But there was al-Awlaki’s ‘bomb for mom’ article on al Q’s “Inspire” web magazine, replaced for a few days by American cupcakes. The bomb article made its way back after a week, unfortunately.

Nevertheless, BRAVO MI6 !! That dry British wit (not the silly Monty Python stuff) still holds true in the face of modern techno-evil. So God Save the Queen ! And Hail Britannia !! RULE BRITANNIA!!! Ruler of the (quantum) wave(packet)s . . .

In The Prince, published in 1513, Nico Machiavelli wrote:

one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.

That quote makes me think of Operation Odyssey Dawn, the US-led air war in Libya. Although this is supposed to be a UN sanctioned operation carried out by NATO, it’s actually Barack Obama’s first real war. A bit embarrassing for a guy who just a year or so ago received the Nobel Peace Prize. So, you can’t blame Obama for going in with “limited goals” and much ambivalence. Obama obviously wanted to support the idealism of the “Arab Spring” as it spread from the east, challenging an old-time tyrant like Muammar Ghadaffi. We want to be on the side of what appeared, according to the western press, to be a movement of young Arabs with smartphones who were networking their thirst for democracy and freedom via Facebook and Twitter. Unfortunately we didn’t stop to think this might just be another garden-variety, old-world tribal battle, where the forces challenging the bad guy aren’t all that much different from those supporting him. Suddenly, a nutty strong-man whom we tolerated and even cooperated with (in return for Ghadaffi’s 2005 pledge to give up weapons of mass destruction) became our bitter enemy.

It appears to me that our President has placed our nation in an embarrassing position. This war was supposed to be over in days,  »  continue reading …