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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"

 "Blogis triumfuoja kai geri žmonės nieko nedaro"

                                                              - attributed to Edmund Burke


P.S. dabar siūlau šokti ir pasitikrinti savo politines pažiūras čia - tam kad žinoti už ką balsuoti ateinančiuose rinkimuose ;)

P.P.S. 2012.10.1 geras A.Užkalnio straipsnelis apie pilietinę brandą

Dvi antraštės

Ne tai kad aš nusistatęs prieš konservatorius, bet mano akį pagavo dvi antraštės:

2012.09.16 Rinkimus laimėti nusiteikusi Irena Degutienė: esu kategoriškai prieš gėjų santuokas

2012.09.16 Irena Degutienė: dalis visuomenės nežino, kaip gyventi laisvėje

Ką gi, tikrai kai kurie žmonės iš tikrųjų nežino kaip gyventi laisvėje, ypač jei jie mano galintys nurodinėti kitiems kaip jiems gyventi ...

Niall Ferguson / Reith lectures

The BBC has an interesting series - Reith lectures. I've listened to all four parts of the last one - by Niall Ferguson. I find it great - especially the last one (the transcript is here) - it discusses the civil and uncivil societies. I find this goes to the core of the current problems in the post-soviet societies where the the state has long ago replaced the civil society and we basically have strangers living next to each other.

Lithuanian election, Gazprom etc

WSJ has an interesting post about GAZPROM problems with the EU. The Economist puts this in a context of the upcoming Parliamentary elections in Lithuania. As for GAZPROM, they can cut all their gas to Lithuania if they want to starve Kaliningrad. Their abuse of their monopolistic position in Lithuania is ridiculous - to me it does not make sense that Lithuania pays the most in Europe for Russian gas while it is right next to Russia on the same pipelines that provide gas to Germany. As the WSJ article comment points out:

• • 5:27 am September 7, 2012
  • putin the puppetmaster wrote :
  What this article unfortunately fails to mention is that Lithuania is the link to getting those overpriced natural gas resources to Kalingrad at least for the time being. Also, if the EU was serious about backing their eastern eurpean member countries they would have disallowed the pipeline that is being run through the baltic sea straight to germany. Prepare for another cold winter from Kiev through Warsaw to the Baltics. Unite and survive or stand alone and be dominated.

In light of the upcoming elections, things do not look good in this context considering the popularity of the Labor party run by Mr. Uspaskikh (a former Gazprom man?) and "Order and Justice" run by Mr. Paksas.

What frustrates me is the inability of the liberal parties to work together and avoid this perilous vote splitting.  They should put the personal conflicts and unite, if they want to make difference in Lithuania that is.

Just to put things in perspective, the Lithuanian position is weak as far as the support from stronger and bigger Western countries is concerned - Germany is sold on the Nord Stream, France/Italy have never cared, and the US position regarding the support for small democratic countries next to Russia is unclear, as this video shows.

Baltic sea - one of the most polluted places in the World

According to this article, the Baltic sea is one of the most polluted places in the World. Apparently in 1947 the WWII chemical weapons were dumped there - around 40 tonnes of them. It is claimed that the casings have rusted through, and people started noticing the effects on sea life in the last decade or so. Apparently Lithuania is not as affected as for example areas next to Bornholm/Denmark or Liepaja/Latvia. Still - there is plenty of reasons to get worried ...

V. Noreika išeina

Visi žino kas yra Virgilijus Noreika. Gaila kad jis išeina, bet - kaip sako - laiko nesustabdyt ... Ačiū

Įdomus pokalbis su V.Bumeliu

...yra čia.