George Rebane

 
 
Few picked up “We are sure that any aggression against our citizens (italics added) will be given a worthy reply,” President Dmitry Medvedev said in a speech in Red Square side-by-side with powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.  In this ‘Victory Day’ celebration reminiscent of the old days of Cold War Communism, Russia is again threatening its neighbors – the countries that it invaded and annexed during the expansion of the USSR.  Russia today threatens to invade you, not for violating its territorial interests, but for aggressing “against our citizens” of which there are millions (of ethnic Russians) left in the neighboring countries.  (They were too smart to go back to Russia when the USSR collapsed.)  We recall Russia did exactly that when its “citizens” in Georgia were judged by Moscow to be in peril.  Most ethnic Russians in the neighboring countries take their orders from Moscow while holding dual passports and citizenship giving Mother Russia a free hand to play whenever it wants.  (On the lighter side, check out the dude in the big blue flat-hat comparing medals.)
  
With recent California tax increases, the Laffer Curve inevitably raised its head again to confound the liberal statists.  Higher tax rates and taxes have yielded less revenue to the state.  Aaron Klein gives the details at aaronklein.com.

The 747 over Manhattan fiasco gives us all a little reminder of how government works, and why socialist regimes have a hard time running industries (as if today we needed more examples).  The ‘Air Force One’ overflight was checked out through all the reasonable appropriate channels and agencies in Washington, New York, the FAA, and the Air Force.  In any large bureaucracy, especially the government, the notification and need-to-know threads that fan out from any project or administrative decision are numerous and ill defined.  So everyone on both ends thought that all the ancillary notifications would be done in a pro forma manner – not a chance.  It turned out that the President and NYC Mayor were left un-notified, and some poor middle level schlemiel had to be publicly decapitated so that the big guys wouldn’t take any heat.  The MSM, of course, co-operated to the max.  Now consider these guys being in charge of something even more complex like HusseinHealth that will start rationing healthcare nation-wide.

[update] Bella Sera Restaurant in Grass Valley is a new find.  We just returned from there where we celebrated Mother’s Day with friends enjoying wonderful dinners served by a friendly and attentive staff in great surroundings, all presided over by Mama Mia who runs the place.  Bella Sera recently moved from Colfax to a more hospitable clime in our neck of the woods.  We stayed long after dinner, enjoying fine wine, coffee, and conversation until they started closing up the place.  You need to give them a try.