Sunday, September 28, 2014

That little itching feeling...

...so many weak links in the cellulose that comprises the Paper Dragon.

Good luck recycling this particular component.


Pro-democracy protests expanded in Hong Kong on Monday, a day after demonstrators upset over Beijing's decision to limit political reforms defied onslaughts of tear gas and appeals from Hong Kong's top leader to go home.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Crimea...

...has always been the target, and with it, control of the Black Sea.  The Great Game is upon us once again, with the usual players  (Anglo-Saxons, Russians, Asians, Arabs, etc.) occupying the chess board.

Its only a couple moves for Russia to take Istanbul  and full control of its previous central Asian empire.  These are not outrageous goals for a newly competitive Russia, nor are they out of reach for a man who clearly believes history is on his side.

Recall that Moscow is the Third Rome.  And I also note this article.  It appears as though Putin has chosen his ideological lever.  Constantinople (and its significance in the Orthodox church) is the glittering prize just south of Crimea in the Black Sea.

We can assume increased instability in Turkey, backed by Russia.  Putin and Russia are in an excellent position.  All that is required for Western concession are promises to assist in the organized Fundamentalist Muslim threat...which, conveniently, also exists in Turkey.

The U.S. has sent Destroyers to the region of a class that has little to no capacity to strike ground targets.  This speaks volumes to the priority targets amongst the players. Its not Ukraine, but the Black Sea that is in play.




Scotland

Wether or not 4 million people decide to collectively re-program their "nationality" is not so interesting as the current global trend towards increased autonomy and the return of "sovereignity", which has been under siege for the last 40 years.

Globalization has been wonderful for commerce, but unfortunately, when you scale power to global levels the opportunity for corruption and control becomes too intoxicating.  What we are witnessing is the concept of subsidiarity writ large.  It is beneficial to have globally connected commerce, but the power structures that follow this phenomenon have proven to be less useful.

This is a simple re-pricing of information.  Modern goverments would have you believe that smaller countries will not enjoy the benefits of large-scale information matrixes (like currencies, regulation, courts, etc.).  This is of course nonsense as most of these matrixes have become increasingly cheap due to technological advances.  What real disadvantages would Scotland suffer if they vote for independence?  Would they somehow be untethered from the entire world and set adrift at the mercy of the elements like the Pequod?  Or will they be able to chart their own course and bestride the world on their own power like the Nautilus?  Predictably, the owners of this current global system are concerned.

The desire to de-scale governmental power is entirely logical, and in this blogger's opinion, necessary in order to prevent more violent means of re-pricing information.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

With power so concentrated...

...access to policy makers is priceless.

As I have stated previously, most philosophers (or to use the modern appelation "intellectuals") are apologists in one form or another.