SOCHI 2014.

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As people like me actually know very little about competition in winter sports, and despite this, the 2014 Sochi, Russia Winter Olympics have been outstanding to watch on television, of which the skiing, hockey (especially), cross - country skiing, and even the curling.  Have been searching for an appropriate pictorial for the young people competing in the various events in Sochi, and one might lookup the photoportraits on "Sporting News" or Time.com for starters, and then later at, i.e., the "Sports Illustrated" site that has its annual swimsuit issue out now. 

The thing that struck me about these 2014 winter Olympics as televised on N.B.C. has been that portrayal of the contest times as happening extremely quickly, especially for the individual events like the Downhill and Slalom races, the ski jumping, rink skating and so forth.  I am sure this was the result of the goals of network coverage that called for everything to be timed to the millisecond.  With respect to the commentators, the N.B.C. Sports broadcasting crew remains the best for such events and brings out the competitive and dedicated spirit of every contestant on screen, especially again among those who are interviewed during and after matches.  People like me also greatly enjoyed watching the snowboarding as this is a sport that appears not to be too well - defined, but that captures young peoples' attention and interest among others in the featured sporting contests.  This shows the contests are much more equalized and the winning contestants more stratified than typically was the case in the days of old.  Last, but not least, were things like the speed skating and figure - skating that for me have a more specific and specialized audience, maybe more among actual skaters, that also proved to be well - worth seeing,


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and are apparently the calling for many superior contestants on a very high competitive level.  Overall, many of the happenings at this year's winter Olympics, and obviously I did not catch everything despite watching lots of programming, both early and late when the broadcasts were televised, I still have to mention here as probably being the best winter games since Lake Placid, NY, in 1980.  At least this is a little true for the Norwegians, Canadians and Russians who came out with more gold medals than the Americans who have the most medals overall to date in Sochi.  The television coverage of these games was quite good and everyone need have picked an event and to have made an effort to tune in to their contests - I chose the hockey (USA men's and women's) this year and the teams as they were did not disappoint.  Those Canadiens, especially those from Toronto, ... , are especially tough with their hockey, though people like me believe some voodoo was involved in cutting off the U.S. hopes for the gold medals in this area (no sour grapes here, however).  Am as well not taken aback by the sports successes of the Netherlands (22 medals,) and for instance, Japan (8,) that show how the contests at the Olympics now are more equalized and stratified - that they make room for everyone more than before at this point.  Really a good games so far. 

Winter Olympics 2014 site.

United States Olympic Committee site.

International Olympic Committee site. 

Periodic Interest: Fifty Years Ago - At The Edward Sullivan Theater: ...

Periodic Interest: Fifty Years Ago - At The Edward Sullivan Theater: ...: "New York Times" article on the event there - click here . Media Photo Remember there's an arg...

Fifty Years Ago - At The Edward Sullivan Theater: "The Beatles!"

"New York Times" article on the event there - click here.

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Remember there's an argument that while "The Beatles" were great, "The Stones" were better, and younger at the time.  Everyone likes them nonetheless; "Stones", too, maybe, at this point as well. 

New Book: "Duty" by Robert M. Gates.

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There are lots of books that have been published about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, including those by Robert Woodward, Donald Rumsfeld, and company, etc., though this one appears to be the most devoted to actually illustrating the details of the time, and not the strictly autobiographical take on the times of those conflicts to date some of the texts have.  Robert Gates, as a kind of unsung personality from the State of Texas, and from academia, who has held various underrated posts in government under six presidents, and who might rival people like Clark Clifford and other major personalities in how he has helped the various parties in leading the country in recent history, has written here an exemplary text mostly about what it is to be responsible executive - wise during times of war and other conflict.  In the modern, sterilized - type of view that many have of armed conflict and in principle with respect to the 'cut and try' and 'simple' approach to the recent wars, Mr. Gates portrays the complexities and intricacies of these and this with the overall influences of public finances and the crises of 2007 - 2008, including the overall lessening of the U.S. war effort as an indirect result of the financial crises of the time.  The issues here as presented are heart - rending and Mr. Gates at the executive level is highly partial and sympathetic even to the vagaries of the common soldier and service person not just in the battle phalanx, but in supply and and back office as well.

Evident from any reading of this text is the overall pessimism and downbeat criticisms of the war and the effects it had on the offices of government executives conducting the war at the time, including the generally dismal reports of late that have been offered by military staff due to lack of support from the public and financial and other support in their various departments.  The battle ventures of the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered from popular criticism and political backbiting, and other angles as being Napoleonic in nature, and this text includes many arguments that refute this characterization that is made from a comic - book - type of view on things like cultural traditions in the Middle East and modern world society and the importance of the Middle East in this and the conduct of military affairs there.  The book discusses the threats of Al - Q'aeda and other groups such as Hamas as well, including a related military history as detailed starting in the Bush Administration's response to 9 / 11, and even the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 as it was in the Clinton administration years.  The text also reviews the military approach to the capture of Sadaam Hussein, the pursuit of Al - Q'aeda people and the responsible pursuit of these individuals and related matters, including the overall reservedness and reluctance of the military to use greatly destructive anti - personnel methods in prosecuting the wars.  With this tone in mind in reading any such text, and any writing by Robert Gates about Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts and the U.S. military responses to them, the difficult politicking of the time in both countries that really had been done on a shoestring, the high - minded dedication of U.S. personnel from every government department and policy or project under Mr. Gates, the author portrays the conflicts and ancillary military strikes and activities as completely and persuasively necessary.  The writing in its entirety transcends the traditional approach to administration and the military of one based upon relationships and foreign policy ties of the same nature, and is new in its approach to having considered the importance of the sovereignty and role, and political impact of nationalism and its derivative influences in the Middle East and related developments that caused deliberate U.S. actions there and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The paradoxes and ironies of this and other political and military imperatives of the day chewed up lesser people than Mr. Gates and there is a laundry list of them:  All of whom did their supreme best and who performed as commanded to do - all extremely commendable people who are to be rewarded for their meritorious actions and herculean efforts in reply to the calling to battle and other obligations of their profession of service to country, the U.S. and America, in view of the torn and distorted fabric of the world of the Middle East that has been the story of this place for a long time.  Mr. Gates took on all this after being called to office again by president Bush in the mid - 2000's as a person who could take the office of the Secretary of Defense and related executive offices and turn them again into the dynamic, resilient, formidable, and resoundingly and administratively useful offices they needed to be.  Little light is shed upon the seeming deficiencies of Mr. Gates official predecessors, and judgment as to this either way is substantively left to the reader of this writing.  Mr. Gates had been comfortably, again, accumulating experience in the field of academia at the time of his additional calling to office by the president, and had been selected probably then due to his own self - governing insight, among other greatly ignored values and merits, that the greatest "doves" in America anywhere on the globe are those in uniform of the U.S. armed forces.

Given this axiomatic and very sophisticated, and then formalized view through his office, and again on

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a shoestring, the war effort methodically gained efficacy and effectiveness due to Gates' using the best personnel, including the input and views, good counsel and persuasive actions and examples of people like Condoleezza Rice, Richard Cheney, Michael Mullin, N.A.T.O. people, and so on.  All this carried on, in fact, though not greatly evident, despite there being a paucity of rewards for the administrative, political and other principals involved.  The look of the flyleaf and the title as illustrated on the cover illustrate on the service the meaning patriotically of the efforts of all these people to facilitate and assure international security and the abatement of any terrorism as it emanates from the regions examined in the text.  Any reading of content as further illustrated in the pages, and page - by - page, word for word, this writing brings forward in captivating and scrupulous detail all the issues and related values in play in any looking into the content examined therein - and greatly dispels the concerns about the purposes of such subject matter or matters as they are portrayed.  Overall an outstanding read for anyone.

"New York Times" book review - click here.

Stalin's Curse by Robert Gellately (2013, Knopf Publishers.)

Stalin’s Curse (Gellately, Robert, Knopf, 2013).

This  really good text about the efforts of the U.S.S.R. in Eastern Europe over the crucial decades – Great Depression and WWII – of the 20^th century does begin as many biographical texts do with a brief summation of Stalin’s young life, how he became a communist and was influenced by Lenin, and by the mid – 1920’s was positioned and then allowed control of the U.S.S.R. administration until 1953 when he died at more than seventy years of age.  Keep in mind as well, that while in many cases briefly, the Bolsheviks themselves as they rose to power only made progress by small fits and starts, and only when conditions in Russia were truly surreal were they allowed to stage their coup and take over Russia at the end of WWI.  This biographical text of Josef Stalin does not deeply examine the Russian Civil War, nor does it deeply look at the path to power the Bolsheviks took under Lenin:  It really begins with the accession to power of Stalin and the kind of revolutionary government, what was to become typical among communist regimes, he promoted as heavily dependent upon the military, and heavily doctrinaire in its practices in what concerned the carrying out of Marxist ideals that indeed included elimination of any threats to his singular power and the primacy of socialism / communism in the former Russian empire. 

Mostly, the level of analysis of this text appears to be the dissuasion of Eastern Europe away from the West, including White Russia and Ukraine at the end of WWII.  As well, the illusions of the West to transform Germany from a bitter, brutal and primitively defeated axis power into a European country again, were dispelled by machinations involving the demands of communism in reparations, primarily as stated, for Red Army losses during the war, and this not only in personnel, but in property and goods as the Wehrmacht had been as far East as the outskirts of Moscow, and perhaps further East in the Southern part of the U.S.S.R. and had done much damage to the soviets in the process before retreating.  Due to adamant demands from foreign minister Molotov and Stalin himself, Western powers were compelled to allow for the expansion of soviet influences into Eastern Europe, and into places like the Balkans, Central Europe and even places like Italy where communism was to have its moments of prominence.  Remember the Red Army was the first to capture parts of the WWII German capitol, then the British and Americans, and as occupiers placed themselves in no other position than to make demands upon the Western Powers as far as regional politics and influence were concerned.  The terror of the 1930’s and then WWII had taken a heavy toll on soviet society due to attrition among the intelligentsia, including in the soviet military, and due to the number of war dead including civilians. 

The text goes on to explain the power relationships among the great powers of the day, chiefly Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt and then including U.S. president Harry Truman after the passing of FDR.  One might remark here that post – WWII Europe had been settled at Potsdam, FRG, outside Berlin and the agenda that followed included the foreseeable increasing importance of Asia (mostly China and Japan) and the nuclear arms race.  Russia did not yet have a thermonuclear weapon and as the U.S. developed one, the soviets followed with their own about a year later.  There were additional purges in the soviet union after WWII in the 1950’s that provoked a re – affirmation of increasingly dogmatic Marxism in the country and in this way a kind of ideological contest, as at least in part documented for example in the sixteen bound volumes of Stalin’s writings, took place with PRC that led to an international party split.  Nonetheless, new communist regimes as directly sponsored by Moscow were enforced in Poland and Czechoslovakia, and important ones arose in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.  Important and major communist influences on administrations were reified elsewhere in Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece, and a party system as set up in Europe overall continued the structure of soviet efforts in this way.  These communist regimes of the time were and should be viewed as dictatorships that were choices and deliberate efforts of the Kremlin to shape the future of Europe, and this despite the again foreseeable failures of the soviets in Yugoslavia and Germany. 

There are other important details that make this work entirely worth a critical reading and analysis by any interested reader, including some of the long – held attitudes of the Kremlin about Asia and the future of Stalinization everywhere, including obviously in places like North Korea and Southeast Asia, Cuba and Latin America.  Overall, the text has many insights and includes narratives on many levels about the life of this notorious and powerful 20^th century political figure.  

Ariel Sharon (Bulldozer) - That We Knew Him Better.

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Pre - deceased by many public figures and activists in the world of Zionism, including Itzak Rabin who portrayed for much of the world public the paradoxes of the Middle East, Ariel Sharon saw in his vision for Israel and for the Hebrew people a clear future in which the bothersome issues of the day, primarily in the region those of race, politics, and ethnic heritage, whence all Israelis could call their country and overall territories free and safe.  His idea in general for such goals and any interim accomplishments in that very difficult challenge as indirectly stated over time, itself fraught with internecine strife, was reachable as much with force of arms as with flag - waving and peace overtures and initiatives.  This is perhaps an oversimplified statement and offered in terms that are too strong for those who remember Sharon as a jovial, strong willed, personable, and good - to - know type of public figure who would never really raise a hand at anyone without reason, and only in self - defense.  Even though in the Middle East, especially with the conflicts of late involving Iraq and Afghanistan, at this time there are students of history who have read and know of the role of many Hebrew leaders vis - a - vis the British in colonial times and the wear and tear of that period in the story of Israel; and how vitally important it has been until recently with respect to its leadership.  Sharon is portrayed in life and in his passing as a great warrior and one who would never rush to judgment about the issues of the day on the Palestinians and Arabs in Israel itself.

People who read of his life, given their ability to stomach the visceral and pitched battles, literally and ideologically over the years, first between Israel and its territorial neighbors and then more recently between Israel and a terrorism with a 'virtual' territory that is characterized by an anytime / anywhere / any - who - type violence, might cite that the sabre - rattling that Sharon infrequently engaged in over the years is and was irksome.  That there was someone in the Knesset as Mr. Sharon was is a great tribute to the system in that country whereas politics and society might have given in long ago to the vagaries and demands of fanatics without him and his colleagues.  Public and political figures like Sharon switched political affiliations and took a difficult line against Palestinian ideological influences whereas many editorials have stated this worked to damage politics in Israel and its value before stakeholders in the region and the world.  This on his broad shoulders and that of the Likud party and conservatives as currently led by Benyamin Netanyahu have undoubtedly assured the clear sovereignty of Israelis in their continued settlement of their homeland.  As followers of the news in the Middle East and of its different countries, and as listeners to policies as pronounced in the past, and acted upon by Sharon and his associates, all of us need to learn to listen and listen carefully to the reasons and rationale for the continuation of Israel as everyone's friend in that region and as one, a people advocating for resolving dilemmas for the Palestinians as well as its own.  The withdrawal of Hebrews from some areas (in 2003?) by Sharon when he was last in power is an indicator of this.  One could go on and on about this and related topics, and how this leads starting from the public bars, cafes, restaurants and hotels; where people gather in Beirut, Lebanon in their daily lives and given the occasion, to Jerusalem where everyone of us either brings to mind what they have seen in books and articles or remember from their visit(s) there and how this all sums up to the ideas and vision that the place, and all of Israel as it needs, settle into a territory finally of 'peace and light', not of the destructive kind or as the result of violence, but of one dissolution with the conflicts and primitiveness of the past including any violence between Arabs and Israelis themselves.

People know the place does not have to become a party if past and present conflicts and adversities are ever resolved, and this hopefully given the legacy, (again for some in the passing) of Sharon and his friends and associates, though the Middle East needs at this point to take some stock of any continuation of bloodletting and destruction, however specific and specialized it might be today against the Hebrews as in the days of the height of Al fatah and Abu Nidal.  The passing of Ariel Sharon and the related dialogue in every forum paying any attention gives the world a cue to begin seriously considering a fulfillment of the need(s) for peace, and this is especially palpable in the reaction of Israel's territorial near and far neighbors with respect to Sharon's public funeral.  In addition, that there are now again and again new momentarily lengthy phases of this 'peace and light' gives one reason to pause and reflect on the possibilities for an end to the violence, and the potentialities as well for a release of all from the hatred and vicious oppositions that drive the conflict(s) in the region.  Public and popular acceptance of these and related considerations would be great for business, culture, and the business of government in the region for everyone, and then everyone would start forgetting what the fighting is for right now.  This is what might have said Sharon in one way or another, even incidentally or as an aside to what he and his colleagues dealt with each and every day.

NYT Coverage (article.)

"The Ecnomist." - editorial 

Remember places like Detroit and Birmingham, but help Syrian and Lebanese children refugees (and ignore the influence of Hezbollah, Al Aqsa, ... , right now, for instance).

Humble Hunger Relief Ambassador - Media Photo

CNN Impact Feature Story and CNN Syrian refugee news.

Wishing You A Speedy Recovery ... .

Michael Schumacher Racing (Statistics.)

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Pour saluer presqu'une fin a l'an 2013 - et une passation aux nouvelles oubliant le timonier et ses analogues: New York Times Article.

Exemple des croyances chinoises:  Comment laisser "Le Grand Timonier" et ses enfants au moins de son comportement et de son esprit, ceci dit par chacun(e) selon leur propre niveau, aux annales de l'histoire (pour commencer) -- (encore opinion) article - et son image, impression, ses papiers, articles, textes, ... et ses photos iconographiques jusque dans les rayons d'anciens personnages dont la voix hante l'oreille des contemporains les plus curieux et immondes venant des engins de loin de chez eux - Cliquez une fois que vous ayez compris, et nous soyons amis amicales (au moins pour le moment je vous le promets).  En court, oubliez tout cela pour le plaisir et le bien de tous maintenant, enfin assez.  Se rappelles, et il le faut, cette fois que je vous l'aie promis.

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Cette photo ne puisse, une fois y mise, sortir du dossier circulaire -- aussi, je vous l'assure encore depuis tous les bords de nos rencontres, communications, dialogues, ... .   

Release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky (Russia.)

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With the nightmarish beginnings of Mr. Khodorkovsky's judicial case in Russia some time ago, through his release yesterday, one now knows about the magical, chaotic and whimsical tone of administration in Russia at this point.  In fact, given the case of Mr. Khodorkovsky and his judicial pummeling at court in Russia and by the prison system there, one again is averse to possibly paying attention to the internal workings of the judiciary there aside from the simple application of the newer purported freedoms, civic and political and otherwise, set down in that country's constitution during the 1990's Yeltsin years.  That various political and other freedoms have been now instituted in Russia and its people have read the new rules, now that there have been 20 years or more since the inauguration of such rights in that country, it remains to be seen after this long time in what way the system involving the new rights will work for free - thinking people and those who wish to become and remain politically active, for instance as Kremlin outsiders.  

While I am sure that people like Mr. Khodorkovsky themselves have tremendous respect for the Kremlin, one reason why he appeared to allow the prosecutors to catch up to him and then that he even appeared at trial, and this despite the dubious character of the charges carried out against him, the idea that political activism and forces for liberal change in Russia continue to be muted by the regime are evident in every news report about the subject that has been published since some time ago.  Along with this is a kind of anti - Western tone that pervades many Russian establishments and institutions that has an attitudinal bent warranting, i.e., some Adlerian psychological analysis and evaluation.  While this will never happen, obviously many people are happy the Russian administration is able to deal with the politics of it and has allowed the release of Mr. Khodorkovsky to authorities in Germany who helped free him.  His family and admirers are surely very happy with the German authorities and Chancellor Merkel for their help and this might be grist for the mill of European politics that continues to appeal to Eastern Europe, and there are editorials about this every day, to simmer down politically.  The only judicial case in Russia I am able to remember in recent times or going as far back as the 1980's, for example, that has the same profile is the Scharansky story that was so well - publicized and covered in U.S. national papers for some time.  Mr. Scharansky is apparently alive and well somewhere, and still greatly influencing  international policy toward Russia and the former soviet union.  Mr. Khodorkovsky, inasmuch as he has vowed to stay away from politics, might continue at present as just quietly talking to people about his circumstances and career that have been in primitive and repressive circumstances, and as a commentary on his home country now might speak outside of Russia on the whys and wherefores of his own path through business and administration and his sentence, and in a place now where one finds the listening much more accommodating in mind(s.)  

Links:

RFERL Podcast.  RFERL News Coverage of Mr. Khodorkovsky's Release.  UK Guardian World News.