New at Reason

April 2, 2007

Cathy Young reports on Vladimir Putin's attempt to rein in the pesky free speech of Russian blogs.

(Alternate "new at reason" text: In Soviet Russia, internet searches you!)

Comments

|4.2.07 @ 1:10PM|#

With the Russian election slated in 2008 I'm wondering whether Putin is going to:

a) Retire and allow a successor to take over; or
b) "Retire", but create a post for himself that allows him to maintain control; or
c) Amend the Russian Constitution so that he can run again?

Viking of Naboo|4.2.07 @ 1:13PM|#

d) get Jar Jar Binksov to propose voting him emergency powers

|4.2.07 @ 1:14PM|#

e) Burn down the Duma?

|4.2.07 @ 1:17PM|#

f) Turn the Kremlin into a whorehouse?

|4.2.07 @ 1:18PM|#

f) Kiss some little kid's tummy.

|4.2.07 @ 1:21PM|#

g) Give way to Lenin after he punches his way out of his tomb and all the parade floats are revealed to be hiding missile launchers?

|4.2.07 @ 1:22PM|#

Љ) Get a tattoo that says "Cuntpuncher"?

|4.2.07 @ 1:29PM|#

d): Already done.
e): Yeltsin did it. Why can't Putin?
f) @ 1:17: Always has been
f) @ 1:18: Done. Eeeyew.
g): I would. Zombies scare the **** out of me.
/b): Have you checked?

|4.2.07 @ 1:37PM|#

Tummy kiss photo (SFW)

|4.2.07 @ 1:45PM|#

I find the synergy behind the concurrent (f) options disturbing.

|4.2.07 @ 1:46PM|#

h) Authorize a movie recounting the true story of how Firefox and Red October were both metaphors for the body of Mary Magdelene?

|4.2.07 @ 1:51PM|#

i) Break some minions on the wheel.

|4.2.07 @ 1:51PM|#

(i) Make a plan, then take a dump.

|4.2.07 @ 1:51PM|#

i) Switch from hilariously bad Russian to Scottish accented English after a quick fade in / fade out.

NOW GET OOOOOT!|4.2.07 @ 1:52PM|#

all things Kremlin. And Pizza.

ktc2|4.2.07 @ 1:59PM|#

So, they are catching up with us on shutting down "free speech".

Passim|4.2.07 @ 2:05PM|#

All of the above is why libertarianism is doomed. Children.

|4.2.07 @ 2:09PM|#

j) Publish his memoirs, go on international book tour. Appearances on Larry King, Charlie Rose, and The View.

|4.2.07 @ 2:11PM|#

I thought libertarianism was doomed because libertarians are boring, old, bitter, white stiffs. Or was that last week's reason?

|4.2.07 @ 2:19PM|#

(z) Blame Cesar Chavez for all of Russia's woes

Chucklehead|4.2.07 @ 2:20PM|#

I thought we were doomed because we want to force people, at gunpoint, into slave-pits run by Wal-Mart.

|4.2.07 @ 2:21PM|#

Passim

If you've forgotten how to have fun, you're not grown up, you're just a bore (and probably were as a kid, too.)

|4.2.07 @ 2:24PM|#

Every time I hear that Russian leader's name, I think of "Putin on the Ritz": "Trying hard to look like Josef Stalin. . . .Super Maulin'"

|4.2.07 @ 2:31PM|#

Jeez, PL, I guess payback is a bitch! I'm going to have that song in my ear all day.

VM|4.2.07 @ 2:32PM|#

Passim certainly does have fun here - check out the lit thread from last week, for example!

He reacted strongly to our wonderful government's behavior hier.

He is genuinely concerned with such abuses of government power. His statement on that thread, What concerns me is the use/misuse of foreign law to convict a man and send him to prison for 8 years. is well taken and very important.

Think of Radley's work with SWAT tactics, think of these moves, and think of how you can get busted if the feds think you have too much cash on you. Those are very important issues.

All of those points are sickening and terrible, and are cause for great concern.

Now, back on topic - ProL: can we have them sing Putin on the Ritz not in Capitol Steps style, but in Peter Boyle style?

Keep hanging' out here, Passim - there is serious discussion here. Lots of it is also discussion akin to making jokes while on death row: it's better to laugh than to cry.

(oh - it's hard to pop zits when you're spankin' to boob33z on Hbo! grin)

you'll get my accutane when you pry it from my cold, dead... oh, nevermind.

/trods off.

|4.2.07 @ 2:40PM|#

Putin is just the tiny center of my Lenin nesting doll.

ed|4.2.07 @ 2:45PM|#

Is he crunchy, or a creamy nougat?

|4.2.07 @ 2:49PM|#

de stijl,

(Re: tummy kiss):

Wow. That *is* creepy. Really creepy.

|4.2.07 @ 2:59PM|#

The Real Bill,

It's overpowering, isn't it? I can just see Vlad and Gene Wilder singing on stage now. . . .

|4.2.07 @ 3:10PM|#

He's wood.

|4.2.07 @ 4:12PM|#

Someone wake up Karl Marx and tell him the state is refusing to wither away.

|4.3.07 @ 10:19AM|#

Despite his move toward an "Old Skool" CCCP-style of Government, I've always thought that a world leader having a black belt in judo was pretty cool.

Every time you see him standing next to another prominent figure on the global stage, you just know he's thinking [in Russian, natch]: "Comrade, I could kick your ass. You puny capitalist weakling."