- Look at Belarus, puffing out its chest and acting all thug
in its economic dealings with big, bad Vlad Putin and Russia. While few have
any freaking clue where Belarus is and more than a few may not even know it’s a
real county, the world had best take notice now that the Belarusians have taken
a sledgehammer to exiting cracks in a Russia-led economic alliance. Belarusian President
Alexander Lukashenko dropped a verbal nuke by saying his country may opt out of
the alliance and he also sent a firm warning to Moscow that his nation of 10
million will never be part of the "Russian world," a term coined by
the Kremlin that encompasses Putin’s ambitions to yank ex-Soviet nations back
to Russia’s sphere of control. Making sure a threat is usually a bad move given
Russia’s proclivity for invading anything close enough to spit on, but Lukashenko,
who has been at the helm since 1994, is clearly feeling swagger-licious even
though he has relied on heavily Russia's economic subsidies and political
support. Like a degenerate gambler who doesn’t realize that loan shark isn't really
his friend and doesn’t lend him money out of the goodness of his heart,
Lukashenko someone didn’t realize that taking Russia’s money and help meant he
was opening the door to Moscow openly attempting to expand its control over
Belarusian assets. Just last month, Lukashenko accused Russia of damaging
Belarus' economic interests with moves to restrict exports to Russia, which he
said violated the rules of the Eurasian Economic Union, a grouping that
comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Let’s go ahead
and start the countdown clock to a Russian invasion at one month and counting………
- The real point to note isn’t that organizers of the torch relay for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro claim
it will reach 90 percent of Brazil’s 200 million people. What matters more is
the financial disaster of paying to put on the games by building venues that
won't be used beyond the Games and renovating others while bulking up
infrastructure will impact even more Brazilians. Sure, it’s a fleeting fun
moment when relay organizers lay out the parameters of what’s going to go down
next year, but the reality is that a nation when the impoverished people who
comprise a disturbingly large chunk of the population and whose slum housing is
put in peril when land is needed for various Olympic (or 2014 World Cup) venues
and infrastructure are living in such squalor, it’s difficult to celebrate an
Olympic torch relay too much. According to organizers, the torch relay will
cross all 26 states, and it is expected to start about 100 days before the
games open Aug. 5, 2016. Beyond that, there weren't many details, even though Rio
organizing committee president Carlos Nuzman poured on the hyperbole by saying the
relay will "give millions the chance to participate." If only you
gave those people a chance to participate in deciding whether their country
would spend billions of dollars on a sporting event rather than spending
billions of dollars to help them better their lives and improve their
future………..
- Now THIS is the kind of chick every straight guy wishes he
went to college with. Oregon is
often thought of as a haven for free-spirited souls, but that usually centers
around the hippie-friendly, über-laid-back city of Portland and not necessarily
Oregon State University in Corvallis. Maybe it’s time to rethink that line of
logic based on the case of an unidentified 19-year-old woman who has been
accused of recording an adult film in the main campus library at OSU. According
to university spokesman Steve Clark, the school only found out about the video
on Tuesday, but officials believe it was recorded during the fall semester and
eventually made its way online. University police – i.e. the guys whose job
revolves around underage drinking citations - investigated and charged the
woman with public indecency. It turns out, shockingly, that although the woman
was a student at the time, she is no longer attending the university. Wait…..a
chick who is willing to film porn between the reference desk and the microfiche
archive on the sixth floor isn't the kind of disciplined, hard-driving academic
achiever who carries a 4.0 GPA and never misses a class? Of course, every male
student who is just now finding out about this video is kicking themselves and
wishing they had invited this chick to one of their parties back in the fall.
As it turns out, even though the library is patrolled by campus security and
police, the film was recorded on the sixth floor, which can't be monitored all
the time. The real question now is who’s going to come up with the best name
for this low-rent porno and find a way to monetize this woman’s extremely low
ambitions for life………
- Tom Petty won't back down, but he will sit down and watch
the money roll in 26 years after one of his songs was released. Petty has been
locked in a relatively amicable legal dispute with British singer Sam Smith
over Smith’s usage of Petty’s iconic 1989 track “I Won't Back Down” as the
basis for his hit “Stay With Me,” which essentially sounds like a slowed-down,
balladized take on Petty’s original tune. The two artists’ respective
publishers settled out of court in October and the details are just coming out,
with the revelation that Petty now makes 12.5 percent royalties on Smith's 2014
single due to it's similarity to “Back Down.” The aging rocker posted a
statement to his website that didn’t bash Smith or his team, but rather praised
the singer for how he handled the situation. “About the Sam Smith thing. Let me
say I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam. All my years of songwriting
have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets
out the studio door but in this case it got by,” Petty wrote. “Sam’s people
were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement.
The word lawsuit was never even said and was never my intention. And no more
was to be said about it.” Petty claimed he didn’t know how the details leaked
to the press but insisted neither he nor Smith made any effort to publicize the
case. It makes perfect sense that petty wouldn’t be pissed; after all, dude is getting
one-eighth of the revenues from one of the biggest hits of the year without
doing a damn thing and a whole new generation of music fans who otherwise would
have no idea who his aged-out ass is are getting exposed to his music. So it’s
not too difficult to write the words, “I wish Sam all the best for his ongoing
career. Peace and love to all," or to say that the eerie similarity
between the two songs is a total coincidence. Money is one of life’s great
deodorants and at the tail end of his career, give Tom Petty credit for
realizing that the almighty dollar and a dose of forgiveness trump all………..
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