Boza found Color in a Tree…

ballons

I was walking Boza the Russian dog, in a Russian park covered in Russian snow and it was a typical Russian no sunny day! I had been thinking how colorless the world is here in Russia. The people dress in black, brown and other earth tones. The buildings are predominately grey and tan. There is just a splash of color here and there. Very unlike Georgia when we visited, they love purples…

Then I saw Boza had stopped and was staring at something in a tree. Most of the time this means a kitty in the tree, but when I looked at where he was looking. I saw color and it was beautiful. The balloons were whipping in the wind and caught Boza’s eye with the movement…

The background is the common denominator of typical Russian colors and the balloons just stand out in regal glory…

I walked on for a few minutes and then since it did not leave my mind. I went back and took pictures. It was hard because the wind blew so hard, it was so cold and the sky is so dark, that it took a few minutes and I finally got a picture that I could use…

I like it and it was as if it was in answer to my thoughts I was having as I walked. I thought that it would be nice to see some color…

Well I find God works in mysterious ways and this tickled my fancy today as I (Boza really!) found a spot of color in a tree, captured just for the moment, so that it would brighten my heart and make life a little bit better…

Of course Boza prefers kitties in trees… 🙂

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

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You Really Do Think You Are Free…

IMG_20121213_125249It is hard to explain and most of you, until you wander away from the country you were born in, will never realize what it is like in the rest of the world. Hence this is my thinking’s as I sip a cup of coffee…

It was not easy at first. I had many things of freedom-less freedoms ingrained in me. You know those items that we rant about being free, but never realize that we are really not free…

Things like? Well like, just about everything I do and say…

Everyday that I am in Russia, I am reminded of how different the people are. I am reminded how different the mindset is. I am reminded how much freer I am…

Sveta use to look at me really strange and I know now that she felt sorry for me. Yes she felt sorry for me, that I came from a country as repressive, depressive and socially unacceptable. Yes she felt sorry for me and she could not understand why I reacted the way I did to many things…

Things such as walking, trespassing, time frames, foods, stop lights, u-turns, speeding, carrying ID, crossing the street and a hundred other items too numerous to mention. All items that I use to believe I had freedoms in, now I realize that I had only options of the way I perceived that freedom…

It has not been easy on me and now a good example of how I deal with it, is this: When we are driving, I drive as I was taught and drive as lawful as I can. That is the American in me! This type of driving does the job 50% of the time, then I will say to Sveta, “Time to drive like a Russian!” or I say, “That was driving like a Russian!” after I have done something that would get me a ticket in America, in a heartbeat. What I mean is that if we are on a one way street, so what go the wrong way. If we need to turn around, so what do a U-turn and get where you need to go. If we need to park on the sidewalk, so do it and get your shopping done. Etc etc etc etc…

Even today after celebrating my 7th Thanksgiving in Russia, I still have reservations about running red lights and driving against all rules. But I enjoy my new found freedoms and the total lack of anyone caring how I drive…

Yes we have cops, but our cops are really easy to get around and they definitely have a lack of desire to enforce rules and regulations. I think that comes from the fact that they are Russian and hate rules and regulations! I hope that we keep the cops just like they are… 🙂

I could go on and on, things like political correctness, lawsuits (if you stumble on a crack or banana peel) and a million other things, are non existent in Russia and actually most of the real world. Life goes on and does not get ruled by the pettiness of human, court and political issues…

I am free and the thought of ever having to go back into the repressive society that I was blessed to have left is actually bothersome to me. It really is an issue with me that I would have to live once again in America and be constantly under the magnifying glass on everything I do…

Funny and not Ha Ha funny, I have a hundred stories of issues and jail-cell tales from America. I can tell you stories about voter fraud to people being hanged in the highest trees. From when I grew up to now, I have seen a whole bunch and done a whole bunch…

In the last 7 years in Russia, doing what I always did in America and being who I was in America (Other words being just Kyle!), I have never had any issues. My way of life fits perfect in Russia…

I can’t say that about America, I was always being controlled and that never has set well with me…

I will say again and again, “My dad saw this in me and he gave me a special carved stone one day before he died!”

The stone said, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. – Henry David Thoreau.”

This heavy stone in the picture above, has been with me for over 40 years. It is the only personal thing that has survived the ravages of time and life…

Well I really do think that I am freer in Russia and in fact freer everywhere, I have traveled in the world, than I ever was in America! I can’t travel that path that America has laid out for the masses! I am not a follower and I am not a sheep. Hence, I am not and have never been happy with the path that America is taking down the road…

imagesThe US government has grown too big, too fast, too fat and too violent for my tastes. The US government has become the worst nightmare that I could imagine and all I could do was to get away from it the best I could. For to stay in America would mean that I would have to, “keep pace with his companions” and that means I am controlled and not free…

So I am glad that you are happy with something controlling every move/thought you make, but that is definably not freedom. Maybe it is comfortable for you, but it is not freedom and freedom is sometimes uncomfortable…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

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Ractopamine: Russia Just Doesn’t Want It In Their Meat… (Me Either!)

Ractopamine is a drug that is used as a feed additive to promote leanness in animals raised for their meat. Pharmacologically, it is a beta-adrenoceptor agonist. It is the active ingredient in products known as Paylean for swine and Optaflexx for cattle, developed by Elanco Animal Health, a division of Eli Lilly and Company, for use in food animals for growth promotion. Ractopamine has been banned in the European Union, Taiwan and mainland China and now in Russia… (Link)

In fact a 160 countries have banned ractopamine…

Now America (USA) is having a stinker fit and falling in it as they have it! The threats are coming hot and fast and this is while the USA just shipped 210 shipping containers of US pork and beef worth $20 million and Russia has said, “Hold on just a second!”

It is a meat war and the US is very very unhappy about the loss of a huge market like Russia’s, but as I have said several times Russia is developing their meat market and tainted product from America is not right…

Washington has urged Russia not to restrict beef and pork imports from the U.S. Russia’s plant and health regulator, Rosselkhoznadzor, earlier ruled that meat imports from producers using feed additive ractopamine must be tested and certified. The U.S. says the move violates the WTO norms…

Russia, which joined the world trade club as its 156th member in August 2012 after 18 years of negotiations, announced on Friday beef and pork imports from US producers using ractopamine must be tested and certified free of the feed additive…

The move came a day after the US Senate repealed the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik restrictions on trade with Russia and simultaneously passed the Magnitsky Act, which targets Russian officials deemed by Washington to have violated human rights…

“The United States is very concerned that Russia has taken these actions, which appear to be inconsistent with its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a joint statement…

“The United States calls on Russia to suspend these new measures and restore market access for U.S. beef and pork products.”

Russian officials denied allegations that the decision to restrict US meat imports was made in response to US sanctions against Russian human rights abusers adopted in conjunction with the trade bill.

The Magnitsky Act specifically targets Russian officials considered by the White House to be involved in the death of Russian whistleblower lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, but it extends to other purported violators of human rights in Russia as well.

“The United States sought, and Russia committed as part of its WTO accession package, to ensure that it adhere rigorously to WTO requirements and that it would use international standards unless it had a risk assessment to justify use of a more stringent standard. Especially in light of its commitment to use international standards, this is an important opportunity for Russia to demonstrate that it takes its WTO commitments seriously,” the statement further said.

But….

European Union, Taiwan and mainland China and now in Russia does not want this (ractopamine) crap in their food and these are some big markets. Looks like the USA needs to start raising food correctly and not poisoning all our asses – all the time…

Ractopamine is responsible for hyperactivity, muscle break down and 10 percent  mortality in a recent pig study. It is banned in 160 nations world wide – but not in America. In China ractopamine was banned in 2002 after more than 1700 people were “poisoned”   from eating Paylean (trade  name for ractopamine) fed pigs.  In Taiwan it has been banned since 2006.

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

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Another Russian Tradition: Rug Snow Cleaning…

Every year I watch the Russians when it snows real good for the first time. They have a tradition that involves rugs and snow. That is my thoughts this morning as I sip that cup of coffee. This morning I even added a pinch of nutmeg and Cinnamon to it and it is really good…

When you go to the parks, you will see what Russians do with rugs and snow. They lay the rugs on the snow and beat them with sticks, flip them over and repeat the beating process. So at the end of the day, you have lots of black patches of snow all over the park…

It is considered the best and virtually only way to clean those throw rugs that you have scattered all over the house, on the floor and on the walls. Yes Russians love to hang carpets on the walls…

Today I watched a babushka with a tennis racket beat the living daylights out of a huge carpet laying on the snow. Boza looked at me like, “Is she going to use that on us?” I told him that we will go away quietly before she decides to use it on us… 🙂

This is tradition to do every year and it makes for interesting designs in the snow as we walk around…

Kyle and Boza
Windows to Russia…

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Nobel Peace Prize or better yet, Nobel Gutter Prize…

The Nobel Prize festivities are in full swing, the award presentation ceremony and a reception for the Laureates and guests, will take place in the Swedish and Norwegian capitals this week. This year it will be awarded to the European Union? 🙂

“Tra ra ra boom di ay!” Goes the band on the stage…

I remember I really thought that when they gave the prize to Warmonger Obama, (Yes I have called him a warmonger since before he was elected the first time and many dislike me for that!) I thought that they had hit the low spot, but they have succeeded in going lower…

Welcome to the New Era – Nobel Gutter Prize…

“Tra ra ra boom di ay!” Goes the band on the stage…

1 – 2 – 3 – 4
Ready set, shut the door.
Tra la la boom di-ay
There was no school today.
Our teacher passed away,
She died of tooth decay!
We threw her in the Bay,
She scared the fish away!
And when we pulled her out,
She smelled like sauerkraut!
Tra la la boom di-ay
There was no school today.

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

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Dulce et Decorum by Fred Reed…

Source: Dulce et Decorum by Fred Reed.

I am a soldier. I am dirt. With Joshua I put the cities of Canaan to the sword while women screamed and tried to protect their babies. I spent long days in Nanjing butchering and butchering civilians because I enjoyed it. For I am a soldier. I am dirt. I firebombed Hamburg till the wind-fanned flames left nowhere to hide and the people burned screaming and their fat puddled in the streets. I am a soldier. I am dirt.

On the crumbling walls of Angkor Wat, the Cold Lairs, trees now crawling over the walls, you may see me carved, marching, marching to kill forgotten peoples, it matters not whom. In the sweltering heat of Chichen Itza and the terrible winter of Stalingrad and the flaming paper cities of Japan and on the Death March of Corregidor I killed and killed, for I am a soldier. I am dirt. I kill.

In this I glory. I spend my declining years drinking in bars with old soldiers I knew when Breda fell to us and we raped and killed and looted, when we torpedoed the troop ships and left the soldiers in their thousands to drown slowly as their strength gave out. The fierce exultation of watching Atlanta burn, Pearl Harbor, Nagasaki, these I remember lovingly. For I am dirt…

Brings back memories… (You should read the rest! Link at beginning of article…)

Windows to Russia…

Hillary Clinton: thwarting re-Sovietization or imposing Americanization? by Boris Volkhonsky…

English: Signature of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
English: Signature of Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“We are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it.

”Indeed, they are. For that, the US has launched full-scale wars in close vicinity to the region (not to mention local clashes and a “limited” use of drones on a wider number of countries), slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans, depriving them of the basic human right – the right to live; successfully destabilized the situation in their “Greater Middle East”, flooded the whole of Central Asia with Afghan opium and heroin (with metastasis reaching as far as Russia and Western Europe). And after that Ms. Hillary is trying to present her country as a champion of human rights and finds it OK for herself to criticize others.

As reported by the Financial Times, on Thursday, hours before meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference that the US is to prevent Russia from integrating more closely with its neighbors in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

“There is a move to re-Sovietise the region,” said the US Secretary of State. “It’s not going to be called that. It’s going to be called a customs union, it will be called Eurasian Union and all of that. But let’s make no mistake about it. We know what the goal is and we are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it.”

What irritated Ms. Hillary to the extent that she is obviously going to rethink the “reset” policy in relations with Russia, declared in 2009 and launched with her direct participation, is the process of growing integration between former Soviet states, and in particular Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which formed a customs union in 2010. In 2012, the union was transformed into a common economic space with prospects of turning into a Eurasian Union that would enable other neighboring countries to join it along lines similar to of those of the European Union.

In October 2011, in an article published by the Russian Izvestia newspaper, the then-premier of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin wrote, “There is no talk of reforming the USSR in some form. It would be naive to restore or copy what has been abandoned in the past, but close integration – on the basis of new values, politics and the economy – is the order of the day.”

So, there is a clear impression that when Ms. Hillary speaks of “re-Sovietization” , she barely notices the real goals formulated by Russian politicians, but rather suspects that Russia in its policy regarding its neighbors is following a pattern with which she, as the head of American diplomacy, is well acquainted.

Hence, her claims that Russia is following an expansionist policy, and hence her desire to see the retreat “of so many of the hoped-for indicators of progress” she saw 20 years ago.

And when Mr. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov called Ms. Hillary’s comments “a completely wrong understanding” of integration efforts and said. “What we see on the territory of the ex-Soviet Union is a new type of integration, based only on economic integration. Any other type of integration is totally impossible in today’s world,” he was right in essence, but his words are sure to fall on deaf ears. As, for example, the vote in the US Senate on the so-called Magnitsky Act has shown, the top brass of US foreign policy are too blind-folded by the old stereotypes, and still believe they are living in the times of the Cold War.

But what Ms. Hillary’s statements do really reveal is the unchanging US strategy towards Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Despite her obvious blunders concerning the nature of Russian policy with regard to its neighbors, her statements concerning the US line really ring true. “We are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it.”

Indeed, they are. For that, the US has launched full-scale wars in close vicinity to the region (not to mention local clashes and a “limited” use of drones on a wider number of countries), slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans, depriving them of the basic human right – the right to live; successfully destabilized the situation in the “Greater Middle East”, flooded the whole of Central Asia with Afghan opium and heroin (with metastasis reaching as far as Russia and Western Europe). And after that Ms. Hillary is trying to present her country as a champion of human rights and finds it OK for herself to criticize others.

In fact, one passage from her speech is worth quoting once more – “Let’s make no mistake about it. We know what the goal is.”

Thou hast said it, Ms. Hillary!

Boris Volkhonsky, senior research fellow, Russian Institute for Strategic Studies…

Windows to Russia…

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This is something to think about: Russia borrowing money?

In the news today they are talking about the fact that Russia will borrow $7 billion on foreign markets with US dollar-denominated Euro-bonds during 2013.  This is because they are predicting a budget deficit of 0.8 of a percent for the 2013 budget…

Okay I then looked around and saw this:

In 2010, Russia took out Euro-bonds worth $5.5 billion for the first time after a 12-years of not taking any money. Then in 2011, Russia did not borrow any Euro-bonds and in 2012 it is predicted to borrow $7 billion total in external borrowings…

Have you taken in what was just said above?

If you are from the Western World and feel a little bit overwhelmed with the trillions and trillions of borrowed money being thrown about all over the news. Then stop and grab a cup of coffee and think about how many countries in the world literally do not borrow money, nor have hardly any debt…

Then to top it off we are literally the only ones (The Fed!) which is buying or bonds. That is a whole bunch like using a “visa card to pay your visa payment.”

It just does not work…

Try looking it up on the internet! What you will find will surprise you and there is so many ways to be in debt that it is scary. The scariest issue is derivatives and I have heard Ron Paul talk about this issue and what he says should make you cringe…

9 Biggest Banks’ Derivative Exposure – $228.72 Trillion… >>>

We should be very scared and you should be trying to understand it and we should be doing something about it…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Video: The $1.5 Quadrillion Dollar Derivatives Crisis, & Growing…

Hmm…

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Good Example of being Russian…

This morning while I was sipping that wonderful cup of coffee and contemplating another cup on this cold and blowy snowy/rainy day. Sveta is at the dentist and that is in the back of my mind as I am having some thinking’s…

Once again that Russian smile comes to mind and it was brought about when I was walking Boza the other day and I saw a couple walking along talking and laughing and heaven forbid smiling…

According to the Western world and the new media, Russians have some sort of illness that makes them never smile. In fact I have seen a new article a week on the subject and sometimes two or three pop up. This is on the main news sites and not some blogger that has nothing better to do… 🙂

This couple was happy and you could tell that they enjoyed each others company very much. Now in Russia people who are close to each other smile and share their feelings. But if you are just someone who they do not know or just see once in awhile, smiles are not forthcoming. Smiles are special and reserved for special…

It was all brought forth full force as I watched some videos from America. The people on the videos were forced smiles and happiness. It was all fake and unbecoming to reality…

That then brought back memories of working in the US and everyday, I had to remind my employees that a happy face is a productive face and when you answer the phone say hello with joy…

I like the Russians, they do not understand false emotions and are confused by those emotions…

A smile is one of the most important things in the world and to toss them around like last weeks leftovers is a mistake. A smile has meaning and should have the power behind that meaning…

This is from someone that grew up with everyone telling him, “SMILE KYLE!” and laughing as they ran away to play… 🙁

I smile when it means something and I smile at Sveta, because she means something to me, just like she smiles back. But the local store personnel gets no smiles and they do not expect a smile/nor give a smile either…

As Sveta would say, “That is just right!”

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

PS: I guess the fact that Russians do not smile as much as Americans is important (?) and the fact that Russia has a thousand times more important things that the Western media should write about is really the most important issue…

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Coffee and the Winds are Changing from that Russian Window…

I hope you are watching and thinking about what has been happening lately. No I am not talking about watching just the Western Press, I am talking about really looking around and checking out what the world is doing…

A whole bunch is happening…

While you are “Drinking the Kool–Aid” and dancing to their (government) tune and watching the stars on TV and not in the sky! Things are changing and changing fast…

You should concentrate on the Eastern half of the world and that is really hard for you to do, because the West is crumbling as we keep the blindfolds on, so we will not see it happen. Those blindfolds also keep us from seeing what is really happening in the world…

The winds are changing and actually starting to blow much harder. I am amazed at the extent that Russia and China have excused themselves from reliance upon the Western World financially. In a few more years the reliance will be very noticeable, as both countries have shifted their priorities to the East…

Want a silent tidbit?

“In 2006, the U.S. was the larger trading partner for 127 countries, while China was the larger trading partner for 70, AP reported. By last year 2011, the two had traded places: 124 countries for China, 76 for the U.S…” Here is one of few links… >>>

There are thousands of such tidbits and you have to look, because the main stream news just is not allowed to print it and or does not want to print it. I guess you would get upset to know that things are a lot worse then you understand…

Time to crawl back into your hole you live in! I hear that Lindsay Lohan is being bad again and that “fiscal cliff” is going to take your world and destroy it…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

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