Besides the drama over whether reporters would be allowed to the Sheldon Adelson fundraiser for Mittens in Jerusalem where he’s going to announce he “respects” going to war with Iran, the Mittster managed to step into a little pile of local politics poo, with the last minute cancellation of a meeting with the Labor Party leader after meeting with Netanyahu.

As far as we know, he has managed so far to not tell anyone in Israel that he helped baptize their grandmothers murdered in the Holocaust.

[Wikipedia: Golden Plates/Alt-text explanation]

While traveling abroad, as part of Stinque International Outreach, I happened to be in Reykjavik overnight before heading west to the fjords. Iceland has a population of just over 300,000, of which 200,000 live in the capital. In the summer months there are more tourists on the island than inhabitants. Our global financial collapse began in earnest when three small icelandic banks were taken out of government control, decided they wanted to replace JP Morgan, made crazy deals, promised the moon, and then cratered.

To rescue/punish the nation, the IMF imposed harsh penalties, strict austerity measures, and a gradual repayment of the huge private debts the banks had accrued with public money. Icelanders said ‘fuck you’, threw out the government, elected a woman as prime minister, and took their finances back under government control. Will they make it?

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Apparently some Japanese do not know what they are signing up for:

With a Confederate flag no less!

The other day on the occasion of Obama’s visit to Indonesia, the Gray Lady had an article about his experiences living there from ages 6 through 10.  While going over some familiar territory (young Barry went to a Catholic school, not a madrassa) and less well-known (he ran like a duck), this little nugget was slipped in to the article:

His nanny was an openly gay man who, in keeping with Indonesia’s relaxed attitudes toward homosexuality, carried on an affair with a local butcher, longtime residents said. The nanny later joined a group of transvestites called Fantastic Dolls, who, like the many transvestites who remain fixtures of Jakarta’s streetscape, entertained people by dancing and playing volleyball.

OMG! Volleyball? What’s next, cricket?

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Quick! Somebody sacrifice a virgin! If the radar photo above is any indication, Europeans have clearly pissed off Mother Earth with their excesses. After the jump, heartbreaking stories of “tragedy” from some of the world’s most privileged people.
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NYT:

A plane carrying the Polish president and dozens of the country’s top political and military leaders to the site of the Soviet massacre of Polish officers in World War II crashed in western Russia on Saturday, killing everyone on board…

The crash came as a stunning blow to Poland, wiping out a large portion of the country’s leadership in one fiery explosion. at the moment that Russia and Poland were beginning to come to terms with the killing of more than 20,000 members of Poland’s elite officer corps in the same place 70 years ago.

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Your favorite foreign correspondent has taken time out of her busy wine-drinking schedule to report on a bunch of fuckery happening presently:

Italy

Berlusconi, class clown, made fun of the lefty governor of the Piemonte region: Read more »