I remember back a few years ago, when Russia was beginning to recover from their economic collapse, seeing Vlad Putin make an impassioned speech about Russia’s return to greatness (or something like that). I remember getting a cold feeling about Putin. He just looked so “Soviet.”

I shrugged it off and blamed it on the fact that I grew up during the Cold War. Probably just some old propaganda in my subconscious, right? Riiiight.

In more recent years, good ol’ Vlad has been doing a lot of chest thumping. Blocking Bush’s missile defense plans. Making friends with our enemies (*cough* Iran *cough*). Generally sounding more and more like the old bullies that the “old Cold War propaganda” warned me about. Still, this is just a guy looking out for his own country, right? Doing what a president… er… sorry… prime minister should do. Right?!

But don’t forget. Russia is famous for it’s chess masters. They understand dubious strategy (maybe better than anyone). Let’s take a chess master’s look at the Georgian conflict.

With oil hitting record prices, the entire western world has been focused on our energy dependence problems.  With all our hand wringing over the Arab shaikhs taking all our money, we probably didn’t notice that Russia is a huge oil exporter and has been quietly raking in the dough, not to mention that Putin’s government has been centralizing the energy market, putting all that black gold under government control.

Georgia, a pro-western US ally, has been working with its central Asian neighbors to build some natural gas and oil pipelines to eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. This would undercut Russia’s control of Asian oil.

For the last few months, any headlines that are not about the high cost of gas are focused on the US presidential race. Now, for the next couple of weeks, every self-respecting journalist in the world is holed up in China covering the Olympics. You could say we’re all a bit preoccupied.

If I was a power-hungry leader of a first-world country and I wanted to punish a tiny little neighbor of mine for mucking around in my power structure, my first concern would be media coverage. If a bunch of bleeding heart western journalists started broadcasting video of my tanks crushing this third-world annoyance, there would be all sorts of outcries, political pressure would abound and those saps over at the UN would start spitting out non-binding resolutions like crazy. I can’t have that. So, I’d wait until all the world’s journalists (at least the good ones that anyone will listen to) are completely preoccupied and unable to combat my state controlled media reports.

If, somehow, the word did get out, and the West got wind of my little sand kicking exercise, I would make sure the world knew that the little guy started it (“The aggressor has been punished…”) and then I would graciously offer the little pip-squeaks a cease fire.

Of course, the conditions of that cease fire would have to include that the little guy’s military would have to stay exactly where they were. No retreat and regroup. No fortifying weak spots. Just freeze. Then, I could run a couple dozen tanks right up to whatever target of opportunity I could find and blast the blazes out of it. No media means no video and no video means I can deny the whole thing as sympathizer propaganda. (“A Western news photographer” is a pretty poor eye witness. Easy to dismiss.)

Some pundits are waxing quizical over Russia’s apparent back-stepping. They look to internaltional pressure, economic threats, etc., to say that Putin has been “forced” to back down. That’s straight up bolshevik. Putin did exactly what he wanted to do. He gave the little nerd a big, puffy, black eye and now he just has to mutter an unsincere, “sorry,” and walk away. Nerds with big, puffy, black eyes tend to be more careful in the future about crossing the big bully.

Georgia is not destroyed, but they have been punished and that’s all Putin needed. He’s set a precedent. If you mess with me, I’ll black your eye and it’ll be over before the teacher can do anything about it. I may get a detention, but you’ll still have a black eye. And don’t think for a minute that all of Russia’s little neighbors (all former soviet republics, by the way) got the message loud and clear.

About a year ago I wrote a post about the immigration reform debacle. Since then, there hasn’t much much talk about it. I ran across an article last week that proves a very important point.

You see, after the Bush administration’s complete failure to reform the immigration law, they switched to enforcing the existing law with renewed fervor. The running theory is that this was an attempt to stir up sympathy for the illegals and build momentum for a future amnesty bill.

However, the effect has been quite different. It turns out that when you enforce the law, the law serves its purpose. It dissuades people from breaking it!

According to a recent report by the Center for Immigration Studies (based on Census Bureau data), the estimated illegal immigrant population has decreased by 11% (about 1.3 million people) since the Bush administration gave up on their reform bill and started serious enforcement (around August of 2007).

You might be thinking, “Of course the population is down! We’re deporting all those poor immigrants!” But you’d be wrong. The US has only caught and deported about 185,000 illegals. That means that nearly ten times as many have left on their own.

According to the report, there was a spike in illegal immigration last summer when congress was debating immigration reform (folks hoping to get across the border in time to cash in on the amnesty bill), but as soon as the legislation failed, the exodus began.

Imagine that. Law enforcement works. It’s a tough job being right all the time, but somebody has to do it.

You can read the full report here. But keep an eye on your clock. It’s forever long.

Let’s start off with this week’s white board quip.

I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.
– Steven Wright

That means that, once again, I have two WBQotW posts back-to-back. Which means that I have, once again, gotten lazy about blogging. Yes, I know. I said that I’d be busy and that posts would get scarce, but it’s not just the blog that has fallen behind.

So, I’m back to that point in the cycle of my life where I’m irritated at myself. Call it procrastination. Call it sloth. Call it plain old lazy. Whatever it is, it’s crept back into my life. Time for a change.

Change. There’s been a lot of talk about “Change” in the last year thanks to one particularly shallow and insipid presidential campaign. Change is a dangerous word if left to itself. Change what? Why? How? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then change can ruin.

In my personal case, the “what” is my attitude toward tasks and goals, my level of self discipline, my work ethic. These things need to change. The “why” is pretty basic. I have a lot of things to do that aren’t getting done. This reflects poorly on me both personally and professionally. The “how” is more complex (as it always should be). I need to get back to making lists and accomplishing those lists. I need to more closely manage my time. I need to get back into an attitude-building routine.

But what if you seek change without answering the qualifying questions? “We need change.” Ok. From now on, your salary will be paid not in US dollars, but in monopoly money. That’s change. Or, from now on, police officers will be allowed to shoot you if they think you’re ugly. That’s change. Or, from now on, you’re only allowed to eat lawn trimmings and dog turds. That’s change. What if change means destroying the economy with huge tax increases, taking away basic freedoms, protecting trees and bugs while declaring human life expendable, and making the pursuit of happiness impossible?

I hope you see where I’m going with this. Sometimes change is needed, but only when you can answer the what, why and how. If you want change just for the sake of change, you’d better not be ugly and you better have the stomach for some mulch and dog turd stew.

I’m back from the San Antonio mission trip. I’m pretty tired and have tons of stuff to do. I need to compile hundreds of pictures and a couple hours of video into two slide shows (one for Mexico, one for San Antonio). I’m about half way through a blog page on the Mexico trip and haven’t started one yet for S.A. I’ve got stuff piled up at work and a have a private client waiting for me to design his web site. That and I’ve started another book that I’d like to have finished before… oh, you know… 2009. In the mean time…

I’m writing an unauthorized autobiography.
– Steven Wright

P.S. Happy birthday, Dad!!

I got back from Mexico last Saturday. I had enough time to get caught up at work and I’m leaving for San Antonio tomorrow.

Tammy took me to see Dark Knight last night and we watched Night at the Museum on DVD today. Both great. I hope write reviews sometime in August. See you then!

So, if I post my own quote, does that make me an egotistical jerk, or merely a “self-proclaimed” sage?

It seems that every human has a miraculous, powerful, innate ability to justify the dumb things they do.
-Trint Ladd

I brought home quite a few new conversation enhancements from the Mexico mission trip. I figure I spent about 32 hours over the last week in a van full of teenagers. During this time, I heard many bad jokes, gross stories, and countless repeats of the same less-funny-each-time catch phrases.

From this I came away with a new term which I define below.

collateral audience, n.:
A person or group of people who, despite their best efforts to avoid it, are forced to hear or see something, regardless of whether or not the thing they experienced was intended for their entertainment, consumption, or torture.

Here are some examples to help you know when you are part of a collateral audience.

1) Someone says, “Have you heard the one about…” to which you (and those around you) respond in the affirmative, but one person out of the group says, “no.” Thus you (and all those around you) must endure the story again for the sake of that one person, who, in the end, didn’t think it was funny either. These stories, more often than not, involve farts or Monty Python.

2) An excited youth points and exclaims, “Hey! Look at…” and you instinctively turn your head in the direction which the youth points, burning into your mind an image which you normally would have avoided at all costs, before your brain has time to process the rest of the youth’s statement, which turns out to be something like, “…that bloated dog carcass on the side of the road!”

3) You are in a confined space, say in a restaurant or driving a church van, and roughly 18 inches from the back of your head, two people are having a conversation in which you have no interest, but can not avoid hearing. This can also occur when the conversation in question is happening via cell phone and you’re only hearing half of it. Inevitably, this conversation involves female hygiene products and/or the “hotness” of someone you don’t know, and at least 37 incorrect uses of the word “like” per minute.

I’m back from Mexico and busy as ever. I hope to find the time to compile a short video from the trip and write a long post about my experience. But for now, I’ll have to settle for a white board quip.

There are many kinds of tired. There’s the “I shouldn’t have stayed up that late just to see the end of a crappy movie” tired. Theres the “I spent my weekend stacking 750 bales of hay” tired. And then there’s “mission trip” tired, where you’re spiritually, emotionally, and physically drained to the point where your brain just isn’t able to cope with daily life.

Case in point, from my dear Miss Katie:

Dang! I got conversation all over my pants.

It’s that time again. Crunch time. Between work and church, my summer is already spent. I’ve got two mission trips in July and a major project due at the first of August. So, don’t be surprised at the pitiful lack of posts this month. See you in August.

You may have heard about Newt Gingrich’s “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.” campaign. But accessing out own natural resources is only one of the three points in Newt’s plan. Watch this to hear all three very simple and sensible steps in his own words. And SIGN THE PETITION!!