Spanking Bad People Who Abuse Puppies

No, this post *isn't* about the crapweasels in Texas who murdered former SEAL Marcus Luttrell's dog Dasy.  But it's applicable in a different way.  When those a$$hats die, I hope they spend some time being pooper scoopers at Piddler's Green before they amble on down into Hell.

In a sense, it's a lazy post - in that most of what I'm doing is pulling comments up into the light...

Yesterday, Boq ran a post on the shenanigans involved in the recent elections in Moldova.

Josh, a younger member of the Castle Commentariat, had this to say about that:

I don't want this to come off the wrong way, but I'm exhausted and possibly drunk so it probably will...

Um. Yes this is an injustice to the people of Moldova, but from a global political perspective, does anybody even notice Moldova, much less care about it? Or, more to the point, does the fact that Russia can throw its weight around (or even thinks it's worth its time to throw its weight around) in a place like Moldova really imply that Russia can throw its weight around in a country that, for lack of a more nuanced description, matters?

I'm not saying they AREN'T dangerous, or that they CAN'T throw their weight around in somewhere important. The Georgian mess points to that. But this is just like beating up a puppy...

Bill explained why keeping an eye on this sort of thing is important, as well as reinforced my post preceding this one:

Or, more to the point, does the fact that Russia can throw its weight around (or even thinks it's worth its time to throw its weight around) in a place like Moldova really imply that Russia can throw its weight around in a country that, for lack of a more nuanced description, matters?

It doesn't imply that Russia has that capability, no.

What it *does* mean is that Russia will be more willing to do just that -- continue pushing the edge of its sphere until it is, in fact, throwing its weight around in a country that "matters"...

Which brings us to another fly in the ointment -- which countries "matter" and why and to whom. Moldova evidently "matters" to Russia. It also "matters" to Romania and, to a lesser extent, Hungary. Romania "matters" to us and, to a greater extent, so does Hungary.

Besides, if Commie ballot-box stuffing practices -- exemplified by fraudulent voter registration, casting multiple ballots in multiple precincts, and allowing dead people to continue voting -- ever make it to our shores, who knows what unscrupulous, scum-sucking, hypocritical, bottom-dwelling, amoral lying bastige dillweed sleazebag crapweasel politicians might be tempted to use them?

Oh. Waitaminnit...

Admittedly, Bill snuck in some domestic snark, too.

I see things like this as a test.  Russia is testing how much we pay attention to her behavior, and how far we are willing to go in response.  I, for one, think that pushing NATO to Russia's borders was very arguably a provocative act on the part of NATO.  And, a form of doing to Russia what Russia is doing in response.

As for the level and character of our response, Josh's observations have validity.  The flip side - Czechoslovakia in 1938.

Using Josh's puppy analogy, I responded with this:

Looked at another way - to use Josh's puppy metaphor, treat this as a gateway behavior that requires some form of intervention, to prevent an escalation.

Realize the seriousness of the problem. Studies have shown a strong link between violence to animals and violence to humans. The desire to abuse animals stems from the same root desires as human abuse. History has shown that serial killers like Jeffery Dahmer started out abusing animals before moving on to human victims. If left untreated, this condition can manifest itself in much more serious ways.

Previous Russian governments have gone the Jeffrey Dahmer route.  We'd like to avoid that, methinks.  Of course, it's always so much more obvious on the other side of the veil, looking back, just like what was clear by 1945 wasn't so clear in 1938. 

And sometimes, the timelines are that short.