From Russia, with polonium 210

Say what you will about western leaders, but they don’t order the assassination of their critics. If they did, Bush would have a lot of killing to do.

Putin is a murderer and an autocrat and Russia is slipping back into its old ways.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Thank goodness my great grandparents fled that cesspool a long time ago. Spit!

Incredible recipe

Zak’s Famous Chopped Vegetable Feta Salad

This recipe was invented by me (hence the name) and was inspired by Israeli and Serbian salad.

Ingredients:

Cucumber (a big one or two small ones)
Bell Pepper (green, yellow and red; one of each)
Red Onion
Tomato (two, not too ripe but preferably a bit firm)
Feta cheese
Goat cheese
Olive oil
Lemons or limes (two)
Balsamic vinaigrette
Love

Directions:

Dice vegetables finely. I mean finely. No big chunks. Don’t be lazy. With the cucumber you must remove the mushy, seedy center; same with the tomatoes. Too much mushy shit will make the salad too watery. Place all of this in a shallow yet wide container so that once the veggies are mixed and evened out they are about one and half inches deep. Juice the lemons or limes over the veggies. Add a little olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. Mix it up well. Sprinkle cheeses on top so that it creates about a quarter inch-thick covering.

Remember, it is important to dice the veggies finely because every bite should contain multiple pieces of vegetable and bits of cheese.

Everybody who has ever tried this salad has fallen in love with it. You will too, I promise.

(If you don’t fall in love with my salad it’s because you done fucked it up somehow when you were preparing it)

Holocaust archive tells many new stories

The Iraq situation

Call me stubborn, but I still believe that overthrowing Saddam was the right thing to do. That said, I realize democratic nation-building in Iraq has turned into a fiasco. We are partially to blame—partially.

We tried to fight the war on the cheap. It is apparent we needed more boots on the ground to pacify the country. Perhaps we should never have disbanded the Iraqi military? I could go on and on.

But, the bulk of the blame lies at the feet of the Iraqis, and specifically the Sunni and Shia (The Kurds are doing quite well). Blame also goes to the outside Arab world, which has done much to ensure the Iraq democracy experiment fails.

There is a lot of blame to go around and things are not going to plan. Only the willfully myopic won’t admit that. But again, it doesn’t invalidate the original aim. If Saddam was still in power I believe the US would be in a worse situation than we are now. Prior to the invasion Saddam was on the cusp of breaking out of the sanctions all together. The world community had no stomach for enforcing its own Security Council resolutions. The French and the Russians were lining up to make lucrative oil deals with Saddam. His evil sons were well on their way to taking power after his death. According to translated Iraqi documents, Saddam was as little as one year away from building a working nuclear device. All the know-how for other WMD’s was there and could have been activated with a simple order.

I am not entirely disappointed by the results of the midterm elections. It’s good to bring the Democrats on board and let some of the responsibility for Iraq fall in their lap too. Let’s not forget, many Democrats also voted for the war. Further, it might not be such a bad idea for the Maliki government to feel the pressure, to know we won’t be there forever and hopefully start to get its house in order.

Finally, the problem with Iran is not going to go away. Come what may, I believe this country will best be served by having unity in the face of the Iranian nuclear threat. If the decision to take military action is made, it will be better if it’s a bipartisan decision. With the Democrats wielding significant political power, they will have to take considerable responsibility regarding how to react to the Iranian threat.