Always on the cutting edge

While he still maintains that Facebook is just a passing fad, beloved leader J. F. McLuggage has finally agreed to take a step into the twenty-first century and give Twitter a try. @jfmcluggage immediately gathered a following of millions, worldwide, with the heaviest representation being among citizens of the Crimea.

"Oh, glorious day", said Nicholaivich Upski, of West Sebastopol, " Not only we are happy new citizens fabulous Russian not-empire, but now we can follow Wood Charles News Service thing!"

In Turkey, the Prime Minister immediately rescinded his ban on Twitter. "I know when I'm licked", he was quoted as saying.

Blatant International Aggression

Bad timing in the world of international thought experiments.  If I were going to advocate for a large, well-armed, well-funded company country taking over a smaller, more primitive, and less-prepared neighbor, I wouldn't have done it right this month.  Nevertheless, author Diane Francis is apparently unapologetic for the opinions expressed in her book, Merger of the Century. She proposes nothing less than a US takeover of Canada.

Okay, she calls it a "merger", but we all know how that works out. Just ask the Philippines. Or Panama.  If we don't get enough respect from the Russian Federation over the Crimea thing, it's not hard to imagine Washington cooking up a distraction. We start by painting Rob Ford in darker and darker tones, internationally. Then we claim that "extremists" in Prince Edward Island are threatening our vital sources of shellfish.  There are some Iroquois First Nations people blockading roads right now (really), and we can say they're being brutally oppressed by a ruthless majority (they are, more or less, but that's beside the point).  We cozy up to the Quebec separatists, and then publish a CIA report that says this winter's weather was really manufactured in Ottawa.  We seize one of their warships and tow it to Pearl Harbor.  The forts at Michilimackinac, Mackinac Island, and Detroit are re-militarized. Littoral Combat Ships appear on the St. Lawrence. Armored vehicles are re-equipped to be poutine-resistant. Oh, it'll be just awful.

Anyway, it probably won't happen.  Probably.  But if I were Stephen Harper, I'd be looking for support from ... hmmm. Somebody. England, maybe?  Nah, they're too busy trying to scare the Scots into voting against devolution. Oh, I know: France! Canada can buy the two Mistral-class ships the French won't be selling to Russia. That'll scare us off.

Update: the world edition of COPS.

Putin says he was invited to invade the Crimea, and those aren't Russian troops, anyway. And he was only trying to distract the world's attention from all the sev 1 incidents the Indian Navy keeps opening on the floating (sometimes) rubbish they bought from him.

I swear to God, officer, some guy just ran up to my armored personnel carrier and threw all those soldiers in here! Those aren't MY mechanized infantry!