Putin is Alpha Dog?

Black belt

Vladimir Putin cheers on judo stars in London's Olympic games and has a black belt in the sport himself. Putin, who was chief spymaster in Russia's dreaded KGB, is also a horseman, a shooter, a diver and a concert pianist. Some fear that Putin is leading Russia into a new dark age of tyranny and despotism, others think that he is "Lord of Awesomeness" and the reincarnation of St. Paul.

Kind

Following a letter to the Times, signed by pop luminaries such as Jarvis "Menswear" Cocker, Putin has urged  leniency today for Pussy Riot, an all girl punk band who face up to seven years in jail for inciting "religious hatred."

Menswear

Putin is known in diplomatic circles as "Alpha Dog." Jarvis Cocker is known as "Menswear."

Barry with Alpha Dog

Then there's our leader, he used to go by "Barry." 

"Menswear" is a fan of "Barry," apparently.

God bless,

LSP

Miserable Offender

guard dog

This incredibly fierce Golden attack dog managed to get himself skunked last night. Well done, dog. Fortunately it wasn't a severe skunking or the brave defender of hearth and home would be outside for the duration.

Here's another criminal.

nice

Don't be priestess. Do something else instead.


Just sayin'.


LSP

Masters of the Universe

draghi

You'll have to forgive me for a shameless re-post, but I liked it so here it is, from ZeroHedge. Make of it what you will.

The astounding hubris of central bankers is comical, but the consequences of their actions are playing out as needless tragedy.

Central bankers present themselves as Masters of the Universe. They are, but only in their own little Theater of the Absurd. In the real world, they are as clueless as any other mortals about the unintended consequences of their actions and the speed with which the corrupted, unsustainable financial Status Quo will decay and die.

The only attribute they possess in abundance is hubris. Their claims to godhood are comical when viewed in their little Theater of the Absurd, but they become tragic when the consequences of their actions play out in the real world.

Their job, such as it is, is to deflate a tottering system based on phantom assets slowly enough that it doesn't implode. Stripped of mumbo-jumbo, their strategy to accomplish this is to inflate other phantom assets to replace the phantom assets that are falling to zero.

All their promises, preening and posturing boil down to patting their breast pocket and speaking vaguely about a "secret plan" to end the crisis without bringing down the system that spawned the crisis as a consequence of its very nature.

There is no secret plan, of course, and no secret financial weapons; all they really have is artifice and the hubris to present artifice as reality.

To admit the usustainable is not sustainable would bring the entire rotten edifice crashing down, so the central bankers invite us into their little Theater of the Absurd and evince a phantom confidence in their phantom solutions that depend on phantom assets.

A swollen cloud of doom hangs over the central banker's little Theater of the Absurd; all their chest-pounding hubris and empty confidence is artifice, as phantom as the assets they claim will replace the phantom assets that have been destroyed by exposure to reality.

On their absurd little stage, they claim the Emperor's robes are thick and fine; and we laugh, bitterly, for these threadbare lies are all they have to "save" a parasitic, predatory, anti-democratic financial Status Quo.

We're all doomed. Here's a picture of the Fed for good measure.

Operation Overlord

Cheers,

LSP

War Games

The helmet taking cover at the chair is an American rifleman; the blueshirt advancing to contact from the wooden F.O.B is a member of the German Wehrmacht. In a closely fought action, both sides acquitted themselves bravely before falling back to their respective positions.

It's curious, I think, that children should still be fighting WWII. Let's hope and pray they won't have to go through the real thing and if they do, return home safely.

ET Come Home?

In other news, Calgary has become a UFO hotspot, with 26 sightings recorded last year alone. Could it be that the mysteriously small ACoC (Anglican Church of Canada) is returning home? Experts are divided.

God bless,

LSP

Mystery Billionaire Builds Huge Yacht

A mystery billionaire has built the world's largest yacht, leading some experts to speculate that the Episcopal Church's leaderene is looking for a quick getaway from her rapidly sinking denomination.

From over three million members in the 1960s, the Episcopal Church has shrunk to a mere one million members, but only 657,000 of these can work up the energy to turn up to church for Sunday worship. That number's shrinking fast, with some 50,000 members exiting the pews every year.

that'll bring 'em in

Maybe allocating $1 million of the shrinking church's $111 million budget towards "church planting" and $13 million towards legal costs, will help to bail out Episcopalian fortunes.

sorted

There is no line item item for shipbuilding in the Episcopal Church's triennial budget. Jefferts Schori is a keen boat person and a marine biologist.

Anchors away!

LSP

Episcopal Church Transtastic!

All means All

The Episcopal Church is declining at a rapid rate, but perhaps their new slogan "All Means All!" will reverse this disturbing trend.

You be the judge.

LSP

Fort Calgary

Col. MacLeod

One of the things I like to do is stroll down to Fort Calgary to look at the statue of Col. James MacLeod, who sits on his bronze horse gazing out at the city's ever taller skyline and a Union Jack, which reminds us of a time not so long ago when Canada was a far flung Dominion of the Empire.

hang out more flags

MacLeod seems to have been one of those tireless men of the nineteenth century, an adventurer perhaps, who managed to combine Law, which apparently bored him, with military service and a founding role on the NWMP (North West Mounted Police). 

He was respected by the Indians and rather less so by Montana's whiskey traders. A brief biography talks of his vision: 

"James Farquharson Macleod exercised a decisive influence on the early development of western Canada. More than any other single individual, he was responsible for establishing the policies followed by the NWMP in their dealings with the Indians and for setting the tone of Canadian Indian policy in the NWT. His vision of the region was of a place where newcomers and the native population might live together in peace and where disputes could be settled by reason."

He died in 1894, just 20 years short of World War I and the opening shots of a new and different age.

Long live Queen Victoria,

LSP