To say the people running this country are sick in the head is an understatement. How in the world does the average person in the United States benefit from this? The US has two hundred trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities, and its currency is going into the trash: now there'll be an obligation to protect yet two more countries! Not to mention, Putin is being totally up-front like he always is: "Go ahead and do this, but I will need to start militarizing that border as well, increasing tensions."

And Vladimir Putin is the bad guy?

In car-related news, Eric Peters once again brings up this excellent point: the article is well worth the read. How in the world are car brands going to differentiate themselves, if all they sell are the auto-equivalent of cordless drills? They are already having this problem: to pick one of my traditionally favorite car models, the WRX from 2015-on doesn't even look like a Subaru-- and now the model is essentially dead (or literally in the case of the STI). The newest one doesn't even have the glove-friendly gear-shaped knobs: instead, it has a giant touch screen!

I suspect that in ten years, maybe as many as half of the car brands currently on the market are going to be gone.