Windows to Russia

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee here in Moscow, Russia and thinking about Obama and why he has sent 17,000 more troops into Afghanistan. I had been talking to Svet about the fact that by doing this Obama has made the Afghanistan war his war. It no longer will be the Bush failed war but the Obama failed war.

This video is an interview by Russia Today with Andrew J. Bacevich. Very intelligent man and highly educated. (Link) His views are very similar to mine and having been been in the military, I understand where he is coming from. Though his view point was from a much more lofty Colonel rank against my First Sergeant!

Andrew J. Bacevich, Sr. is a professor of international relations at Boston University and is the author of several books. Which include The American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy, The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War and The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. He has been a vocal critic of the US occupation of Iraq, calling the war a impending doom of failure. He has described George W. Bush’s endorsement of such doomed wars as “immoral, illicit, and imprudent.”

Bacevich graduated from West Point in 1969 and served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, serving in Vietnam from the summer of 1970 to the summer of 1971. He retired from the service with the rank of Colonel in the early 1990s. He holds a Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University, and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University prior to joining the faculty at Boston University in 1998.

He has irrefutable credentials and makes no qualms about his feelings when associated with the Iraq or Afghanistan War. He also lost a son in combat in Iraq.

I watched this video from Russia Today three times and have to say that he makes allot of sense in what he says. America (Obama) had a chance to leave the blame on Bush’s head. So it looks like we spend the rest of our lives in Iraq and now Afghanistan will become even more of a huge endless money hole…

Windows to Russia!
Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

PS: Tidbit of information from Windows to Russia:

The largest groups of armed forces by the USA are the 142,000 military personnel in Iraq, the 56,200 in Germany, the 33,122 in Japan, 26,339 in South Korea, 31,100 in Afghanistan and approximately 9,700 each in Italy and the United Kingdom.

Altogether, 84,488 military personnel are located in Europe, 70,719 in East Asia and the Pacific, 7,850 in North Africa, the Near East and South Asia, 2,727 are in Sub-Saharan Africa with 2,043 in the Western Hemisphere.

No wonder no one in the world likes us…

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and checking up on the Danilov Bells: The Danilov Bells are famous because they escaped the Communist era destruction. They were sold to the U.S. in the late 1920s and returned to Russia after 78 years of exile. Harvard kept them safe until last year, when they were returned to their original home. They have now rung today at their original residence in Moscow for the first time in 78 years.

These links are direct to my last articles on the bells and gives history on these famous bells from the Soviet era.

http://kylekeeton.com/2008/06/russia-soviet-union-history-charles.html

http://kylekeeton.com/2008/09/russia-danilov-bells-are-almost-home.html

I wish that I had not missed the ceremony today. I guess I am going to have to do a better job of keeping up on things. 🙂

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Today on Windows to Russia, I got totally fed up with fighting the Blogger comment system. I have lost hundreds of comments and have no spam control other than going through comments myself. I want a system that I can allow comments to be posted as they are done by the commenter. I like the system to allow the people to see their comment right after they post it.

Blogger had no filters to automatically cut out cussing and spam. Blogger does not have a very friendly comment system and I decided to change all that. Blogger comments sometimes took two or three tries to get them to post… (some of the problem may be that I have somewhere around 5000+ comments)

I have tracked comments for months and found that the biggest country for rude comments is the USA and followed by Russia. I have a huge following in South America, India, Japan and Middle America. I do not get spammed or slammed with messages of love by them.

The Akismet Spam Filter is in effect now. (Link) They say 83% of all comments are spam and they are correct at least on this blog. There are days that I have spent hours removing spam and comments with cussing. Many times I have had 25 comments and only keep 3. The influx of comments has caused me to sometimes not answer for two or three days. So I have at least 83% more time to answer real comments. 🙂

I also have embedded the comment system called IntenseDebate. (Link) This comment system I hope will solve some problems. I picked this system after a lot of research and I hope that I have picked the external system that helps more than hinder the blog.

The new system allows people to post You Tube Videos in comments. It allows people to start a poll. It allows many functions that you could only dream about in blogger.

What is IntenseDebate:

IntenseDebate provides many new features meant to inspire discussion and easily follow the conversation.

In order to better organize the discussion, we’ve implemented comment threading which allows users to directly reply to one another.

Users also have an identity that spans across all blogs powered by IntenseDebate. Along with this is a reputation value, based on the quantity and quality of the comments users make, meant to give an overview of a user’s commenting history. Quality is determined by the users through comment voting, which also serves to move the best comments to the top.

With all of our comment systems being interconnected, we make it easy to track users and their activities across all blogs using our system by providing email and rss notifications.

In short, IntenseDebate has completely transformed the commenting experience.

So lets see what happens and as always Svet and I at “Windows to Russia” thank you very much for the patronage and support given.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

PS:
IMPORTANT NOTE:
I want to make sure everyone understands that just because I’m using IntenseDebate, doesn’t mean you need an account to comment. It’s totally optional. If you aren’t interested, that’s cool, you can comment just as you did before the exact same way.

Hello,

In Russia there are two foods that all Russians love. Mushrooms and sour cream. This is a recipe that gives the best of both…

* Chanterelles – wild or farm raised!
* 0.5 lb sour cream (fat percent your choice)

Cooking:

Rinse Mushrooms (some people soak in a very mild salty solution of water over night) to get all bugs and debris out.

Drain the mushrooms before use so that there is no liquid left and let sit to drain another 5 minutes. Re – drain mushrooms again.

(You can substitute store bought can variety – just drain well before use. Remember that any mushroom that is your favorite can be used instead. Warning: Wild Mushrooms are potentially deadly if you are not sure what you are picking!)

Fry in a skillet at medium temperature with a bit of butter till they acquire a slight golden brown tint.

Then add sour cream and simmer for 5-7 minutes on a medium-slow heat, mixing it all the time.

This is just too simple for how wonderfully delicious it is.

Yummy!

Windows to Russia!
Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

In Moscow, Russia a new metro station is about to be opened a station that was started back in the early 90’s. The area that it is located is on the blue line and it really needs this station.

It is a good video and lets hope they get it done in 2009. The area of Mitino is nice.

“Mitino, the second station on the Moscow, Russia metro outside the city’s ring road, will link the suburb of Mitino with the city center. Rail service on the link will begin later this year.”

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

I was sitting here in Russia, drinking my morning cup of coffee and reading up on the North Korean Satellite Issue! (Notice I said satellite not missile)

The new terror in the Western press is North Korea and the satellite (missile) of death. Of course Iran is still developing nuclear bombs but North Korea has over shadowed Iran in the press. Now North Korea is being threatened by Japan, USA and South Korea. They all say they will shoot that missile down.

North Korea has responded: Leave our Rocket alone it is a satellite Rocket and has nothing to do with missiles. If you shoot our Rocket down we will declare it an act of war by the USA, Japan and South Korea. Leave our rocket alone – Damn You!

I was wondering over my cup of coffee – How many countries can we fear and not like all at once?

Don’t like Mexico, the drug lords will cut your head off. Don’t like Russia, because the Mafia will rob and murder you. Don’t like Iran, because they are making a bomb (big bomb). Don’t like Iraq, because they have weapons of mass destruction (Oops). Don’t like Afghanistan, because they fight back when we try to take over their country. Don’t like North Korea, because they are launching a Rocket. Don’t like North Vietnam because they are communist. Don’t like the Gaza because they pick on Israel (Yea right). Don’t like China because they have no Human Rights. We could go on for quiet a while with the list…

So now the Western world once again threatens a country for working in a forward fashion. Here is a letter that I found by a Russia teacher who wrote to President Obama in the USA.

Lioudmila T., Nizhnevartovsk, Russia, teacher

Dear President Obama,

I have a question for you, that really bothers me. We are all convinced so much that the USA is a very democratic country. But what does exactly the word of “democracy” mean to you? Isn’t it connected with the conception of FREEDOM? If so, why does America has a problem with the choice of directions, that other countries want to go? Why does the word “socialism” sound like “plague” among Americans?

Best regards,

Lioudmila T.(Link)

Do you think Obama will ever see it? I doubt it. It was sent to Obama and printed in a Russian news source. It is a good question and one that comes from an educated person.

So think about what is happening right now:

Japan says, that they will shoot down the satellite from North Korea. America says, that they might shoot it down. South Korea says, we want it shot down and they might just do it. Everyone in the West says OMG North Korea is making a Nuclear Bomb and the delivery vehicle is this ballistic satellite carrier.

North Korea says, “Shoot down our satellite. There will be war!”

Russia says: West Go Home!

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

PS: (two thoughts)

Did you know that the United States, has 28,500 troops in South Korea – still? Looks like we like to keep about 30,000 troops in our take over countries.

and

If Russia is such a bad evil Empire why is it that the USA is the one behind all military threats made to other countries.

Hello,

In the last few weeks the prices of food have been dropping at the stores. I do not know if it is because they are really dropping as a whole or the stores are having to adjust down because of competition.

What I can say is that: (The food brand is what I buy on a regular basis and there are hundreds of variations available. Prices vary according to quality and brand.)

Eggs (brown) per 10 (no dozen in Russia), have gone from 37 Rubles to 25 Rubles. (1 $ = about 35 Rubles)

Flour (white plain) per kilo has dropped from 25 Rubles to 15 Rubles. (1 kilogram equals 2.2046226 pounds)

Cheese (White) from 185 Rubles per kilo to 134 Rubles per kilo.

Milk (no powder in mix) per liter from 48 to 35 Rubles. (Price is my brand that I drink – But the fall is the same across all milk brands.)

Bread per loaf from 51 to 40 Rubles. (White sliced American style) Bread Russian Black style non sliced has dropped from 15 Rubles to around 10 Rubles at this writing.

Whole Chicken from 148 Rubles per kilo to 89 Rubles per kilo. (Big drops in poultry and pork. Beef is too high!)

On and On and On, I could keep listing the drops in price. Some drops are only a few Rubles and other are huge drops.

The news press in Russia keeps saying that inflation is still terrible and prices are going to the sky and beyond.

I do not see that. Maybe the prices in Russia are going up, but prices in Moscow where I live, for the staples type of foods, are going down.

I spent a good portion of my career watching food prices, so that interests me. I still watch prices and they are going down in Moscow, Russia…

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.