Miscellaneous contrariness on a dismal Saturday. And welcome to March.

I noticed a tiny TV news snippet about demonstrators in Mexico demanding the release of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the jailed lord of the Sinaloa cartel.  Here is a Washington Daily News piece on the demonstrations.  They see Guzman as a "defender and protector of the people" who supports the poor.  The TV news readers noted that his organization provided jobs.  Hmmm??  A Mexican drug lord vs our 1%?  I suspect that the former might deserve the title of "job creator" more than the later.

I think this might be a good idea if they provided a clear definition of "terrorist."  That, however, is a might big if given how the word has been applied (in this country and else where) to mean anyone who disagrees with the powers that be and their good buddies.  The major proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have referred to peaceful demonstrators (often landowners who object to the seizure of their land) as "terrorists."  The ex-president of the Ukraine referred to the demonstrators (peaceful before the security forces attacked them) as "terrorists." Nicolas Maduro, besieged president of Venezuela, refers to all opponents as "terrorists." The list goes on.

A long but very interesting article in the Economist that could be titled "Democracy and its Discontents."  I have long wished our politicians would stop invoking "freedom and democracy" every time they want to interfere in other countries.  All too often the recipients of our "generosity" get neither.

And consider this blog from David Kaiser.  I always thought the notion that the dissolution of the Soviet Union marked the beginning of a Golden Age when Western values in government, society, and commerce would rule forever was so much bullshit.

This is not in any way unexpected.  Evidently Vladimir Putin has decided that whatever "costs" the U.S. and the E.U. can extract are well worth the effort.  The question is now how far he will push things.  Will he simply stop at annexing the Crimea or will he go on to try for all of Ukraine?

So, how vulnerable to cyber attack are energy and how effective are their defenses?  Lloyds of London, evidently, is refusing to issue policies.  What does that tell you?

And then there are the increasing number of internet capable appliances that the manufacturers have been pushing at consumers.  The implications of which few think about.

Oh, yes, language does matter!!