Once Upon a Time in Russia…

A recent visit to St. Petersburg stimulated my recollections of the six or so encounters I’ve had with the evil empire and its minions over the years.  Yes, I know, a few visits over 30 years does not an expert make, but it does allow me to have an opinion.  I previously shared my observations of one early encounter in a blog titled “The People I Think I Know” in August, 2011.  It didn’t involve my own personal interaction with something Russian, it described an encounter of Margaret Thatcher’s (then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) which she related to me at an engagement party for her son Mark.  To get to the point, she...

The Khashoggis

If you were surprised by the killing and dissection of Jamal Khashoggi by representatives of the government of Saudi Arabia, you have not been paying attention.  Execution by beheading has been the preferred method of ridding the Kingdom of its undesirables for decades if not centuries.  Even today, through the first four months of 2018, at least 48 souls have been dispatched to the great hereafter by the Saudi authorities wielding swords, often carried out in the town square at 9:00 in the morning.  They are now working on their technique of executing multiple beheadings simultaneously. I guess this is what counts for progress in The Kingdom.  And what were...