Joseph Carnevale, a student at NC State, collected a bunch of traffic barrels, added a bit of imagination and created the monster pictured to the left - a fine piece of artwork compared to some of the crap that hangs in many art museums around the country.  The Raleigh police didn't think it was all that clever or funny and busted him for larceny for taking the barrels from a construction site. They pick up a "pricks" tag for being, well, cops with no sense of humor.

 Buffoons, idiots and douchebags represent a rather large realm of possibilities for subject matter, and  when I built this site I thought they would pretty much cover the bulk of blog entries here at Dooferbook. Recent events in the Caucasus demand that I add another genre - "Pricks".

It seems Vladimir Putin's goal is to remake post-Cold War Russia into the 10' bear they used to be when they were pinko commies mo'fos. He constantly butts heads with the US on any matter of foreign policy, lends support to Islamic regimes like Iran (even though Russia itself  is often a target of Islamic terrorism)  and is on a dangerous mission to make his country 'relevant' in the world politic. He seems to take it personally that many former Soviet states seek closer ties to the West and gets really paranoid when they say they want to join NATO. Little did I know that a video we posted a few months ago demonstrating the poor BFM skills of a Russian pilot would portend a full-scale invasion of tiny Georgia.

Georgia is partial host to the 2nd largest oil pipeline in the world, the BTC, which delivers 1% of the world's oil from fields in the Caspian Sea to ports in Georgia and Turkey. Russia opposed construction of this vital feed, (the project was spearheaded by former USSR Foreign Minister and President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze), viewing it as a great big middle finger from a few of their former Soviet Republics. The West was of course all in favor of it and coughed up close to $4 Billion to make it happen. Over the years, this led to growing ties with the West, which really pissed Putin off and drove him to the recent  military action. By invading Georgia and toppling the democratic govt., he sends a very strong message to other former republics like Ukraine and all the "-stans" that close ties with the West and NATO will be dealt with harshly.

The invasion puts the US in a really awkward position. If the stated goal of US foreign policy is to support and encourage democracies around the world, how the hell can we sit back and do nothing about this prick Putin steamrolling over our closest ally in the region? Georgia has been a huge supporter of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, (even committing troops to the cause) and will always be an important strategic location for the ongoing War on Terror. Watch this one closely --  it has the potential to spread into a huge conflict that the US will be drawn into unless Putin can be stopped.