Gromnir

"A pup? Most people eventually grow old, so do many trees, thinking thats a feat and bragging with it like you constantly do is really sad. Having nothing better to do than nitpicking on someones carpet in the Internet is worse though." ... sorry, but your utter and clear oblivious hypocrisy is astounding. thanks though. and if you is thinking that we is bragging about being old, you is wackier than you seems... which is wacky indeed. *shrug* as you say, pm sounds like a better venue for discussing what we thought were the obvious merits o' avoiding tile and carpet for weight training. HA! Good Fun!

ok, that were kinda funny, and in a sense, we agree. please note we didn't bother to read any of this thread save the last few posts-- the title o' thread were enough to prevent our contribution. no doubt we missed "important" stuff and perhaps we will be redundant. we read the recent codexian review for wasteland 2, and we couldn't help but laugh. some o' the old skool crpg staples that is seeming at the top of the hill is stuff we thinks best left behind. if vd honestly thought all skills in ws 2 were useful and the busted attribute he saw as most deserving recognition were coordination, then something is wrong with old skool. the stuff that vd and others see as the qualities necessary to put a game at the top o' the hill is clearly not what we were seeing as important. ... when kotor were released, we were mighty ambivalent. the combat were suck and the rules mechanics were shallow. nevertheless the game had interesting characters and the plot were clever. sure, the plot and main characters o' kotor were largely a re-imagining o' the original star wars movies, but that is what made it work. people were disappointed with the prequel movies, and kotor brought back the original star wars themes and characters and even the big reveal. kotor was a well-told story with interesting characters and we enjoyed it very much in spite of shallow mechanics and boring combat. it took us a short bit o' reflection to make us make the connection between kotor and the game it very much reminded us of: ps:t . were another game with an amnesiac main character. were another game with shallow mechanics and terrible combat. ps:t strengths were the the handling o' the unique setting and the character development o' party and non-party characters. well guess what, those were the strengths o' kotor too. ps:t were (and is) our favorite crpg, and on the downward slide o' the crpg genre, kotor managed to replicate much of what we liked about ps:t. is many games released this century that we has enjoyed very much. is some game we like far less... is no more a trend for good or bad than we has seen at anytime in the past. we generally liked the ie games, but there were also many Horrible crpgs released at the same time. even so, while we were seeing many flaws in bg2, we still think it were the best and most complete crog we ever played, even if it weren't our favorite crpg. conversely, we were not a fan o' elder scrolls and we absolutely loathed oblivion... so it were kinda shocking to us that we liked fallout 3. how could we like fo3 given that it played so much like oblivion? as much as fo purists hated it, we thought the strength o' fo3 were the setting. bethesda did a fantastic job with the fo setting, and placing the game in washington DC were inspired. oddly enough, we saw the gameplay o' fo:nv as superior to fo3, but the vegas setting were lacking. other than hoover damn, vegas is what makes vegas compelling for Gromnir. for obvious reasons, obsidian could not recreate the vegas strip. still, we enjoyed fo:nv well enough. the nwn2 games had us similarly conflicted. am knowing folks in these parts is big fans o' motb, but we found it kinda meh... and too many characters were poorly written and over dependent on their hook to be interesting. we liked mass effect but hated the dialogue wheel, the mako and the shallow combat. mass effect 2 was both better and worse than mass effect... depends on which feature we mentions. still, overall we liked me 2 in spite o' the fact that the ultimate story o' me 2 were silly and the over-reliance of joinables with daddy issues. old skool games we loathed includes arcanum. if that is a game at top o' the hill, we don't wanna return. arcanum were a poorly balanced and buggy mess that had a boring story, and worse, forgettable characters. there has been no pc game, crpg or otherwise, for which our anticipation were so utterly destroyed by the reality. arcanum suffered from the one insurmountable flaw no game can overcome regardless o' depth o' rules o'r multitude o' quests: it were boring. Gromnir is no sucker for old skool crpg greatness. we liked many old games and we like many newer games. am not a fan o' the skyrim and oblivion kinda open-world trend that seems to sacrifice character and story in favor o' giving us panoramic vistas, but keep in mind that before oblivion were released, many developers, including obsidian developers, were telling us we would never see another enormous game in the near future. bg2 size could never be replicated, or so we were told. as much as we loathe the skyrim kinda stuff, bethesda helped show that big games ain't outta reach. even games we don't like has helped make games we do like more likely to get made in the future. regardless, we don't see some kinda crpg general downward descent into mediocrity or failure. over the years we has played a few gems o' games along with a good number o' moderate entertaining games. we don't recall a golden age or a dark ages for the genre. in our experience, the next game development has as much chance as being a gem as a turd.... same as was true for the previous anticipated role-play game developments. HA! Good Fun!

After many years of lifting there I never had problem with the carpet + floor combination, as usual the problems only exist in your head. Also if you knew anything about lifting you'd know thats its a really bad beginners habit to drop weights, a professional could lift heavy on the fragile tiled belly of the Space Shuttle without scratching the surface. If you throw the weights around that tiles crack you're doing something very wrong.Thanks for your concern though. telling us about sweating during weight training? is rich. you is a pup compared to Gromnir, and as we noted, we played d-1 football. we has been working out longer than you have been alive, and we will note that we sweat a great deal during weight training, and not necessarily just during super-sets training. if you don't noticeably sweat during weight training, we suggest going to the doctor... seems like you need do that frequent regardless. *chuckle* is funny... woldan is funny. as for dropping weights... is more funny. am not speaking of bouncing weights off the ground. a 45lb plate is heavy. no matter how careful you is, you is eventually gonna drop a plate, maybe only a 25lb plate. Olympic bar or curl bar drops? is gonna happen. f=ma is not your friend. HA! Good Fun! ps any gym we has been to in the last +20 years requires us to bring a towel with us to wipe off equipment... and not just cardio equipment. we even need(ed) a towel at Super Training Gym in sacramento, which is kinda famous 'mongst the serious weight training crowd. (edit: haven't actual been to ST for two years... which is likely a good thing.)

am gonna note, once again, that there needs to be a national dialogue on police relationship with the public. in spite o' less violent crime, distrust o' cops is higher today than we can ever recall. the President's proposed executive order that will do nothing more than alter the manner in which military-grade weapons reach local police departments, is a largely pointless measure that will, in light o' recent events, go over like a lead balloon with cop organizations everywhere. nyc felt compelled to take all their un-armed cops off the street following recent events. regardless, there is a near complete disconnect between the public and cops regarding what constitutes reasonable force and that issue is what we is thinking the President should use his influence to start a national debate concerning. ... Gromnir works with attorneys. most is white. they is educated and they know law even if they don't have much experience with criminal law. virtual all such folks who saw the eric garner tape were appalled by what they saw as excessive force. on the other hand, Gromnir, who were trained in peace officer pain-compliance practices, saw the event different. the plausible improper cop behavior we saw in the video were tied to the lack o' alacrity with which the cops attempted to get aid for garner After he complained o' an inability to breathe. possible police failure as we saw it occurred once they had mr. garner on the ground. we didn't see a chokehold, 'cause the guy resisting arrest could actual speak, which is largely impossible with a properly applied chokehold. the actual autopsy didn't find any damage to mr. garner's throat, which is what is the expected result from a chokehold. nevertheless, Gromnir and his largely conservative and white colleagues were on complete different planets regarding mr. garner. in the initial action to detain mr. garner, the cops were using the training they were given. we has seen literal hundreds of instances wherein restraining an individual who failed to comply with an officer were resulting in much more violent uses o' force. Gromnir himself has utilized much more violent means. a major outer reap throw is far more likely to see our target's head bounce on the ground-- arm breaks and dislocations is also possible with such a move. such were our go-to move. we wrote up such incidents exactly as they happened and were never criticized for excessive use o' force. again, our extreme educated white colleagues saw garner video different... and we bet that the average American sees different than did Gromnir. the problem ain't that the force used on mr. garner were legally excessive, but perhaps the force were, from the perspective of a reasonable person, genuine excessive. our cops and peace officers is being trained in techniques that shock the conscience o' the public, which is not a good thing. the goal o' the officers in restraining a suspect is to do so as quickly as possible. priority #1 is to ensure the safety of the cop and any innocent bystanders. o' secondary concern is the safety o' the person being detained. get the suspect immobilized on the ground as quick as freaking possible. reasonable force as has been decided by courts for many years is violent and dangerous. as for guns, cops is taught to shoot reflexively-- if you actual have time to think about proper force, you may be dead. the 21' foot rule is kinda a joke, but it is not necessarily wrong. the time it takes to recognize a threat, un-holster a weapon, release the safety and accurately fire at an assailant is minuscule. cops, right or wrong, is trained to react instinctive to threats given the reality that there ain't time to balance the pros and cons o' the appropriate force in a situation. but again, perhaps the training cops is getting is wrong. we need a serious looksee at the massive disconnect between what cops is being taught is reasonable, and what the public deems to be shocking and appalling when they is seeing videos o' such behavior. btw, our white lawyer friends is more frightened o' cops than is Gromnir, and we is a minority. we were surprised to discover that our lawyer colleagues, for the most part, think that cops is a bunch o' poorly educated clowns who likely joined the police force 'cause they were looking forward to the possibility o' getting to play hero or maybe even 'cause the would-be cop were wanting an excuse to shoot people. Gromnir is not frightened o' cops. yeah, if we get pulled over we immediately remove keys from the ignition and put them on the dashboard. we place our hands on the steering wheel and wait patient for cop instructions... is not precautions our white colleagues think to take. even so, we is not genuine scared in most any cop situation. we need dialogue. we ain't seeing any such dialogue as Gromnir is suggesting. HA! Good Fun!

well, alexei kudrin is russian, and the russians didn't wanna listen to him either. am thinking that long-term, the best thing for the russian economy would be fewer russians in russia... though that actual is part o' the current problem as the actual folks with money in russia is doing their best rat-on-a-sinking-ship impersonation. HA! Good Fun!

we were likely gonna get steam versions o' dragon age:origins (deluxe?) and perhaps shadowrun. is it worth getting shadowrun returns, and dragonfall, or should we get dragonfall solo as it appears to be a standalone product? got no games on our to-do list til we is satisfied that da:i is well and fully patched, and then we likely wait 6 more months so that we can get it for a bargain price. therefore, we will likely get a few steam games to sate us in the interim, or take another shot at the PoE beta. we almost purchased fo:t for $2.99 a month or two ago. HA! Good Fun!

Hey, its part of my workroom, it is supposed to be dirty! Only a lazy craftsmans workroom is clean. I was thinking more along the lines that it looks like something one might've bought at a CSI:garage sale. Maybe it's the lighting, but there's the one giant, faint-reddish stain.... the discoloration, likely from sweat or water or whatever, were visible and... foul. is another good reason to get a gym membership as there is people who clean up after Gromnir leaves a trail o' sweat that lady crimson's csi folks could no doubt use to track each piece o' equipment or weight Gromnir utilized on recent visits to the gym. we tend to sweat a great deal, and toweling equipment off is always striking us as insufficient... and we can't imagine how revolting such work areas would be if they were carpeted rather than the typical concrete covered with rubberized pads we sees in most gyms work areas. we also were thinking that the thin carpet we saw in the picture were likely insufficient to protect the faux brick tile woldan had, but that is a different issue altogether. HA! Good Fun!

there is some incidents that ain't getting much press that makes such more likely. there were a seeming copycat traveling from tennessee (apprehended... thank goodness) whose social media suggested he were going to try and kill 2 more cops, and there were another seeming randomn ny shooter that were apprehended last night, though he were taken into custody without any injury to the shooting suspect or the arresting cops... apparently he emptied his weapon and did not have more ammo. also, there has been an increase in police-related vandalism... one example were that the lug nuts on one wheel from a cop's personal car were removed resulting in a crash. no doubt the vast majority o' folks find the recent shooting o' two cops to be abhorrent, but the recent protests has likely resulted in significant anti-cop sentiment. also, even back in july, we had similar stuff that national news did not cover. http://www.northjersey.com/news/memorial-to-alleged-jersey-city-cop-killer-removed-1.1051421 the jersey city memorial for the cop killer were substantial larger than those for the dead cops. we live in strange times. as noted elsewhere, violent crime has gone down significantly in recent years, and that is a nationwide trend. unfortunately, the hard economic times brought a good amount o' general and misdirected anger to the surface, and while statistically more people is employed now than before the economic downturn, the black community has not recovered. many black jobs were cut and has not been replaced. regardless, am sadly less suspicious than malcador o' reports such as this one: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/20/sick-cheers-for-cop-killer-in-brooklyn.html hopefully the numbers who see the killings as justified is insignificant, but we don't doubt there is a few such folks in many crowds. HA! Good Fun!

inspired by another thread discussion. HA! Good Fun!

you genuine don't read your own posts. *sigh* repeat that faymann's concern's is related to lost revenue AFTER Gromnir mentioned lost revenue in the west has a point? also, tell us that the overriding strategic concerns for russia is greater than any amount o' economic damage (HA!) makes your comments about common sense o' faymann utter ridiculous. faymann noted that the initial sanctions were a matter o' self-defense. those concerns has not changed whether you think they is valid or not... though you did note that faymann has common sense, so... regardless, if the ukraine situation is "so vital as to trump any economic pressure," then clear you is advocating a tougher stance from the west perspective. even faymann, your common sense guy, sees a genuine self defense concern. you is telling us that no amount o' economic pressure is sufficient to alter putin/russian behavior. so, in point o' fact you is complete refuting faymann position. and we is mighty amused by your dismissal o' the impact o' the current economic crisis on russia. am not thinking you understand just what a desperation move the raising o' interest rate to 17% were, but if you don't get that, then we will have great difficulty explaining just how serious the russian problem is for russians. HA! Good Fun!

ah, that explains it. old dinosaurs such as Gromnir only had 3-5 television channels and none were particularly specialized. nowadays we watch news/financial channels, espn, and a handful o' shows that is unlikely to have a kid's audience. HA! Good Fun!

Common sense really. At least someone in the EU has it. you don't even see what you did there, do you? russian crisis is no big deal, but at least one guy in the west isn't happy about russian collapse and he is the one with common sense. ... ... *shrug* maybe you will figure it out. regardless, as we noted earlier, few folks is happy about a possible russian collapse, even if such a thing were predictable. am not certain why you honestly believe that folks in the west is happy 'bout russia economic collapse. as noted above, food sanctions by russia were a joke as far as hurting the west, but collapse o' russian economy and the plummeting ruble is cause for concern. example: volkswagen does big business in russia. the plummeting russian currency makes it extreme difficult for russians to buy foreign goods such as german autos. volkswagen has taken a serious hit this year, and the russian crisis is partial the cause. russia attempted to halt/slow the slide of the ruble by raising interest rates to SEVENTEEN freaking percent, but not even that slowed the fall. russians will have considerable difficulty buying many foreign goods for the foreseeable future, and a serious and enduring russian recession is now a forgone conclusion. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fault-for-the-rubles-collapse-lies-with-mr-putin/2014/12/16/3f9a8a1a-8548-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html?tid=gravity_1.0_strip_2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/15/russias-economy-is-doomed-its-that-simple/ we prefer wsj as the audience o' that periodical is business folks, so the editorializing is kept to a minimum... in spite o' number's amusement. nevertheless, the washington post articles is helpful... even got graphs for those o' you visual learners who clear ain't getting a clear picture from text explanations. the problem with faymann's comments is that he didn't offer an alternative. he made a general appeal for peace negotiations and a neutral role... the stuff that has been attempted with putin many times in the past. putin predation and intransigence has made so that many in the west is no longer willing to waste efforts on faymann pleas. nobody other than a few investors who is waiting for crisis to bottom out before they swoop in to pluck the russian carcass is wanting a russian collapse, but putin miscalculations (stupidity) and earlier western enabling has created a situation in which even tougher sanctions may be the only viable option available. however, we will once again note that Gromnir were never pleased with sanctions as this situation were so complete and utter predictable. HA! Good Fun!

You'd be posting from Folsom Prison if you did! Thanks Gromnir,I'll have that song stuck in my head all day now because of you! we would expect thanks for getting a johnny cash stuck in your head. this time o' year, we almost always had, "i wanna be a toys r us kid" playing in our noggin 24/7. don't see many toys r us commercials no more... which is odd as we still see their stores, so is not as if the internet put them outta business. heck, Gromnir didn't even have tv til the mid 80s, so we can't explain how the toys r us jingle managed to worm its way into our brain. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain we would describe your comments as "truth," but even so, we would be disappointed if you were banned for your comments, which were, at worst, tasteless. you got a warning. is now up to you to decide how to respond. steam's board is steam's board, so they can pretty much ban you for any reason, no matter how ridiculous or inequitable. wanna see how far you can push'em before they make good on the threat? *shrug* is only a message board. HA! Good Fun!

we know very little about poetry, which is embarrassing given we have an mfa in english. we barely passed p-chem in college. we don't play any musical instruments, much to the shame o' our paternal grandmother who tried tirelessly to get us to learn to play music. we will never advise a person 'bout how to raise children. we worked at juvenile hall and there were actual a unit for younger kids... kids younger than 12. the little psychopaths scared the crap outta us. we don't know anything about flower arrangements and apparently our aesthetic notions for home decor is embarrassing... so says numerous past girlfriends. we don't know anything about watch repair. we can build a pc, but we have very little notion as to how they work... when folks on this board discuss technical aspects o' games or pc hardware, we got pretty much 0 to contribute. etc. the things we don't know far out number what we does know. that being said, we have a relative diverse background. our grandfather (maternal) were a carpenter, and we did work in a machine shop for a summer. we also worked roofing and roofing supply. as noted earlier, we worked at a juvenile hall and we were working for the US attorney at one time, so while we don't have much current experience with criminal law, we ain't a complete n00b. our current occupation is as brain surgeon... not literal. we is a attorney who is ultra- specialized in first amendment law. we played college football at the d-1 level, and we had scholarship offers for both swimming and fencing... though the fencing scholarship were partial and we suspect we were offered 'cause we were a minority and the school in question were looking to be more diverse. our father were career military and we took more than a few military history courses at University, but am never gonna pretend to know what actual modern combat is like. we grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and had a horse (pony) before we had a bike. we has experienced winters without enough food to eat or enough fuel to heat our home. we currently own enough real estate such that we could easily retire. we got a bs in physics from Cal, which were a waste, and a bfa from ucsb in english/creative writing... got an mfa too. we taught, briefly in europe and enjoyed spain in particular. while in europe we learned a bit about polish cooking from a woman in gdansk. we got our jd from boalt, which we is actual quite proud of... most o' our accomplishments is stuff we never bother to share, but getting through boalt were the single toughest thing we did during the first 25 years o' our life. our mother died of cancer, and our sister had lupus-- we watched both of them die ugly deaths. our sister had mental health issues and she were sexually assaulted while attending Cal. we has been playing pnp crpgs since the d&d white box edition were first released. we is a moderate competent home cook. ... oh, and 2 (3?) years ago we honest-to-god saved a drowning puppy from a near freezing lake... though we bitched and moaned about the feat before and after doing so. it were monumentally stoopid of us to swim out into that water, but there were a girl crying and, well... we shot a man in reno just to watch him die. mostly, we got the advantage o' being old, so we got lots o' experience in many different things. the things we know nothing about, we typical keep silent 'bout... you might wanna try that more often. HA! Good Fun! ps, we never shot a man in reno, or anyplace else in the continental US. however, we did own a winchester, bolt-action .22 from before we has clear memories and we killed innumerable small mammals with it. we know rifles. perhaps ironically, we is so completely incompetent with handguns that we suspect the average 8-year-old handling a handgun for the first time is a better marksman than is Gromnir with any handgun you care to mention... is one reason we never contribute to the handgun discussions.

“skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. imagination without skill gives us modern art.”-- tom stoppard maybe we messed the quote up slightly, but it looks right. regardless, how you do anything is how you do everything. learning to maintain tools and workplace is always step one. get caught up in the process and leave cleaning for later? sure, that happens, but when done, you clean. virtual every carpenter, welder, and any other competent craftsman we care to mention gots workplaces that you could eat off the floor... not metal shop floors as they always got oil and metal shavings. "Hey, its part of my workroom, it is supposed to be dirty! Only a lazy craftsmans workroom is clean." he forgets what he posts. *shrug* how you do anything... and this guy makes his own ammo? *shudder* HA! Good Fun!

Look who's talking. Before criticizing people you should first learn how to read, then you'd know what the word ''necessary'' in my sentence actually means. we read, and we understand the meaning of necessity. the slovenly and slip-shod craftsman is the one who sees proper maintenance of his workplace and tools as unnecessary. HA! Good Fun!

given such a peculiar attitude, the mystery o' why woldan is so frequently injured no longer strikes us as mysterious. in our experience, first lesson a craftsman is taught is to maintain his equipment and workplace. HA! Good Fun!

at least you wore pants. am suspecting that at least 10% o' Gromnir's Cal graduation class (undergrad) went al fresco. freaking hippies. congrats and all that. HA! Good Fun!

according to at least one report, the suspected shooter also shot his girlfriend, though she appears to have survived. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=dontrunup as an aside, obama's forthcoming executive order is not so much meant to regulate police brutality as it is directed at regulating military hardware reaching police departments. a US President can do less about perceived or real police excess than many folks realize... set the national agenda is his most vital role. HA! Good Fun!

ridiculous and utterly myopic. how on earth can you even suggest such a thing with any degree o' seriousness? as to your nonsense about "pure necessity..." HA! hell, the same reasoning can be used by folks in the west regarding sanctions. same reasoning has been used, badly, to explain US involvement or non-involvement in any number of foreign debacles. call something "necessary" absolves you o' all sins or stupidity, eh? am understanding why zor is afraid to do so, but drowsy should go back to july and august in this thread. it will be useful to you to see just how utterly predictable this situation were even to a bunch o' geeks posting on a game development board. btw, Gromnir were never a fan o' sanctions as the means to respond to russian actions. we noted that there likely no better option available to the west in 2014, but we didn't like sanctions. the food sanctions imposed by russia were laughable as they were seeming designed to hurt russia more than the west (wacky) but we has always been concerned that the russian economy is too freaking fragile. petroleum is the russian economy. to make matters worse, russian entrepreneurs and investors are notoriously fickle-- they will yank out their money and invest in foreign ventures at the first sign o' trouble. etc. western sanctions were designed to hurt russia, but you got sanctions aimed at a complete bass ackwards economy that were already on the brink o' recession... with a moron at the helm o' the country. the food sanctions were just sorta so over-the-top idiotic that it were near impossible to laugh away putin nonsense any further. but again, the biggest and most obvious fail is 15 years o' allowing the russian economy to be complete driven by a single volatile commodity. in spite o' various booms and busts during putin reign in russia, no genuine attempt has been made to develop the russian economy beyond its singular dependence on petroleum. how you can look at the current russian financial crisis and Not blame much o' the problems on russian stupidity is actual a bit mind-boggling. HA! Good Fun!

*sigh* am understanding your attempt to ignore reality, but as we said, your subjective notions o' right v. wrong regarding russian behavior is wasted. Gromnir ain't referencing right v. wrong. the west reacted predictably to russian actions with sanctions, regardless o' whether you thinks putin were just and right and noble or not. this crisis were all very predictable and very avoidable. 'course the biggest example o' russian stupidity were the one that is gonna take decades to fix. an economy near complete dependent on a single resource is extreme vulnerable. maybe this is the wake-up call the russians needed? dunno. given the recent history o' russian stupidity... HA! Good Fun!

of course you don't wanna touch the predation bit. wsj don't care who were right or wrong regarding crimea, but the western sanctions that followed were predictable. right v. wrong is complete separate from the question o' whether russian actions were stupid. putin stupidity related to malaysian air made it so that even the pro-russian western governments lobbied for harsher sanctions. and your amusement regarding wsj don't change the fact that any yutz with even high school level comprehension o' economics could see just how vulnerable the russian economy were given its near complete dependence on petroleum exports. ... is honestly shocking to see just how hard folks will ignore reality regarding russian economic woes. honestly, all you gotta do is go back six or seven months in this thread and you will see who were being obtuse and who were predicting just what has happened. can go back further than that if you wish. there ain't no big surprises. HA! Good Fun!

amused. yeah, russian stupidity is in large part to blame. there has been little attempt to diversify the russian economy since putin came into power. even putin has finally admitted the need to modernize the economy in light o' the present crisis. 15 years too late to make that change, eh? furthermore, the initial sanctions were the result o' russian intransigence and predation... but no doubt such actions get a different spin in russsia. writers at wsj and nasdaq (the nasdaq article were actually originally printed in wsj, but we couldn't link for those without a subscription) don't care much 'bout politics save for the impact on money... is one reason why wsj is our primary news source. investors don't so much want or need to hear spin. so... back to the topic at hand... following western sanctions, in an act o' unrivaled idiocy, russia attempts sanctions o' their own on western foodstuffs, which predictably made russian problems worse as the typical russian already spends a far greater % o' their income on food than does westerners. this all happened before the tanking o' oil prices btw. the russian economy were already heading towards recession when putin comes up with the brain fart move o' trying to impose sanctions o' his own. the article(s) then observes how putin dealt with pro-russian supporters in the west following the malaysia air incident. moron. etc. yeah, russian stupidity were/is a large part o' the problem. HA! Good Fun! ps please note our post at the top o' this page. you can go back and look at posts from Before tanking oil. what has happened to the russian economy were not unexpected even by the largely clueless posters on these boards.

what on earth did you read? wishful thinking? with some extreme few exceptions, a collapse o' russia would hurt everybody. oh, sure, a functional collapse similar to even 1998 will hurt russia more than the united states or even germany, but a collapse o' russia is bad for business... most everybody's business. major US corporations such as Ford does considerable sales in russia, and more then a few American banks have investments in the ruble or have made loans to russia. financial havoc in russia as wishful thinking? what articles are you reading? where is you getting such a notion? the articles does show that the crisis is more serious than the russians pretend and that the troubles is the result o' misfortune AND russian stupidity. ... is amazing what spin folks add to articles based on their own biases. HA! Good Fun!