Snowflakes in Hell

One of the last “Witness Trees” on the Gettysburg Battlefield has died.  Visit enough places, and you’ll be impressed by just how much changes through time.  Fredericksburg Battlefield has become almost completely overgrown.  Look at historical pictures, much of it is clear, but where fields once were, forest now abounds.

Apparently there are two other surviving trees on the battlefield, but living things do eventually die.  Such is nature.

From the HuffPo of all places:

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Fundamentally at stake is what kind of role Russia will play in the new international system. Unfortunately, Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to Stalin’s and Hitler’s in the late 1930s. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has correctly drawn an analogy between Putin’s “justification” for dismembering Georgia — because of the Russians in South Ossetia — to Hitler’s tactics vis a vis Czechoslovakia to “free” the Sudeten Deutsch.

Let’s hope we don’t have to repeat that sorry bit of history.  We need a comprehensive missile defense system.  We need it yesterday.  It makes this all the more troubling:

God help us all.

Head on over to The Firearm Blog.

It’s occurred to me that I’m not certain that I would like to support Putin’s thuggish regime by helping their economy by purchasing more of their ammunition.  But what if the response to the Russian invasion of Georgia is sanctions?  Would the shooting community be willing to endure even higher ammo prices to teach the Russians a lesson that we won’t stand idly by while the Red Army strangles nascent democracies?

I for one, am willing to make that sacrifice.  I think the cold war is probably back on after this, which would mean the end of cheap supplies Russian made ammunition.

… the big brown truck of joy could bring me things like this.

The Belmont Club has been an excellent resource in the following the happenings.  Also be sure to read the comments.  It’s hard to see, if Putin and his puppet in the presidency are intent in extinguishing Democratic governments, how this shouldn’t reignite the cold war.  At some point, the governments of the west are going to have to stand up to Putin.  That’s going to be hard when Europe has become dependent on Russia for energy.