Sunday Morning Open Thread

I imagine there is all sorts of news in the world.

Comments

[Thomas Collins]

But all news pales compared with the possibility that the Steelers, after a horrific start, could make the playoffs by winning today while the Ravens, Dolphins and Chargers all lose.

[Threadkiller]

Speaking of Steel:

Millions of Tons of Metals Stashed in Shadow Warehouses

By Tatyana Shumsky

A Metals Mother Lode Sits in Shadows

Banks, hedge funds, commodity merchants and others are stashing millions of tons of aluminum, copper, nickel and zinc in a hidden system of warehouses.

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304244904579276830893405644?mobile=y

Didn't we go over this once?

(It is behind a paywall, so in all honesty I am counting on others to tell me what I posted)

[TexasIsHeaven]

Good Morning Y'all! Some of the nieces and nephews are way out in west Texas this morning - sittin' on a deer stand just waiting for a nice fat deer - wish them luck. We are going to fill up the freezer! Beef prices are way, way up. Going to go duck hunting too.

And a Happy New Year to us all.

[Threadkiller]

rse, have you seen this video? For anyone else, it is 8 worthwhile minutes long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGph7QHzmo8

[Extraneus]

Here, TK. (I think the WSJ paywall only works if you don't google the headline or something.)

Millions of Tons of Metals Stashed in Shadow Warehouses

[Account Deleted]

TK,

Your free copy.

Yes, this isn't news. It's legal market manipulation, illusion maintenance and a rather high stakes game of musical chairs. I'm sure the traders feel they are well hedged, with risk models which account for all outcomes but so were a lot of MBS/CDS players.

It's just another Fed "free money" circle jerk.

[sbwaters]

Clarice, as you guide your mother toward a more comfortable seniority, let me wish you smooth sailing during 2014.

These are things we do that, while not always easy, are not a burden, just part of life. Soldiering on. Thank you for your duty and your love.

[narciso]

Great pieces again, clarice, Broadcast News ended up all too prophetic about the news, so did Network. Glover Park were the ones who sold Solyndra, I'm wondering if Fenton, is behind the Fukushima spamming, it's in the wind,

[Fed ass-spread]

Surely it's no attempt to manipulate markets. The Super-Rich know currency is in it's death throes.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/09/24/svalbard_global_seed_vault_a_giant_fridge_that_stores_food_for_doomsday.html

[narciso]

I put a few dots together, from that period;

http://narcisoscorner.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-travesty-of-two-mockeries.html?view=mosaic

[JIB]

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Most voters now see marriage as a religious institution rather than a civil one and still overwhelmingly believe in the importance of marriage before having children.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters now view marriage as a religious institution, up from 48% in October. Forty percent (40%) consider marriage a civil institution, a five-point drop from 45% in the previous survey. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

[Possible DD fallout?]

[miss Marple]

Could be DD fallout. People are revaluating the current state of affairs.

Lots of people would like to have a large, close-knit family like the DD people. Maybe they are asking themselves if the religious aspect has some merit.

[Extraneus]

White House says ObamaCare sign-ups passed 1 million mark

A few states offering their own updates have posted encouraging totals, including New York, where more than 200,000 have enrolled either through the state exchange or through Medicaid, a government program expanded under Obama's health law to cover more people. In California, a tally released Friday showed nearly 430,000 have enrolled through the exchange so far.

"The basic structure of that law is working despite all the problems --despite the website problems, despite the messaging problems," Obama told reporters before departing for Hawaii.

Another major unknown is whether the recent surge in enrollments skewed toward older Americans whose medical needs are expensive to cover, or whether the administration succeeded in recruiting younger and healthier people whose participation is critical to the law's success. Those details for December are expected to be released in mid-January.

AP, so you have to read to the end to get to that stuff.

[Fed ass-spread]

OK.. Do the Black Hats outnumber the White Hats? People lie to pollsters, but when the rubber meets the road will we see skid-marks?

"We have, in the span of just 10 days, seen two diametrically opposed judicial rulings about the legitimacy of the government's controversial bulk metadata collection program, the existence of which we learned about just this past year thanks to Edward Snowden. Although the two opinions apply the same law and essentially the same facts, they are so contradictory they cannot be reconciled. One judge will be proven right and the other proven wrong, although I suspect it may be 2015 before the final tally is recorded."

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/12/is-the-nsas-spying-constitutional-it-depends-which-judge-you-ask/282672/

[JIB]

Putin sweating bullets: Is this a warning shot for Sochi?

Suicide bomb blast in Volgograd, Russia Train Station. Female suicide bomber (but she wasn't gay).

[JIB]

Forgot the link:

Putin Sweating Bullets: Is this a warning shot for Sochi?

[narciso]

Kirkpatrick's Officer Kripke act, wears thin:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/29/house-intelligence-chair-benghazi-attack-al-qaeda-led-event/

what I think happens is they get the latest missive from CAIR, Levick, Fenton affiliate, and they have that shape their news, facts are immaterial,

[narciso]

The Kavkaz Emirate, is sending a nasty calling card, the second one, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Sochi,

[Captain Hate]

narc call this number: 917-285-7362. Assuming you haven't called it before, you should find it amusing.

[Captain Hate]

It's just another Fed "free money" circle jerk.

They all need to be throat-slashed. Every fucking one of them.

[miss Marple]

Narciso, I wonder if that is why Obama isn't going.

And does he know something he has not shared with the Russians or the US Olympaians?

Somebody ought to be asking those questions instead of letting him play golf in Hawaii.

[Palin-drone]

"Sarah Palin told FOX News that this is another example of the attack of Christmas."

http://thelapine.ca/ohio-wife-torches-husbands-truck-after-getting-crock-pot-and-cheap-lingerie-for-xmas/

[JIB]

For the car culture set:

The Snake and The Mongoose Trailer

Pangs of nostalgia.

[JIB]

From that 10;29 link, a take away line:

“Now the truck’s gone, the wife’s gone, and she even broke the crock pot.”

[Captain Hate]

Joe Lieberman says he would still vote for 404Care. No wonder he got along with McRINO.

[clarice]

Thanks, sbw.

[matt]

I used to watch those two go at it when I was a kid.

[Upanishag]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6161691.stm

Over 1,200 volunteers from the length and breadth of the country had their penises measured precisely, down to the last millimetre.
The scientists even checked their sample was representative of India as a whole in terms of class, religion and urban and rural dwellers.

The conclusion of all this scientific endeavour is that about 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture.

[Captain Hate]

I used to watch those two go at it when I was a kid.

I paid attention from a distance. Those two, Garlits, Don Nicholson, Sox and Martin and Dick Landy were some of the big names back then. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

[Ignatz]

That metals story is pretty scary....at least it ought to be for the guys with the metal. Just ask the Hunt brothers.

The same chilling story can be told about big, scary trees.
Millions of tons of them are being secretly hidden on hillsides all over the world. When too many are hiding or the government decides to give everyone free money to do stupid things they otherwise wouldn't do the price goes up and many of them creep out of hiding which eventually drives the price down and many of the remainder go back into hiding again.
Pretty scary stuff.

♫ If you go out in the woods today....♪♫

[Jane]

Narciso, I wonder if that is why Obama isn't going.

And does he know something he has not shared with the Russians or the US Olympaians?

That must be why he's sending the gays.

[Ignatz]

--I used to watch those two go at it when I was a kid.--

Couldn't figure out if that was in reference to the Snake and the Mongoose, the Ohio gal and the hubby who gave her the cheap lingerie or McCain and Lieberman.

Didn't think it was the last two since all they do is play sucky face but then "go at it" can have a lot of meanings.

[Threadkiller]

The last two would be Snake-oil and Goose-egg.

[undood]

Even scarier are the FFlibertarians who's roots system joins with conservatives littering the landscape. Every ring in the structures screams for glacial progress.

[Ignatz]

I have no problem with the government keeping track of new Medicaid enrollees but to include them in the number of Barrycare "sign ups" is absurd. They pay essentially nothing into the system and represent a dead loss revenue wise.

It's especially absurd in a story where the author highlights the question of Invincibles vs geezer sign ups since at least the sickly geezers do pay some premiums and deductibles, even if subsidized.

It's almost as though the government had millions of tons of shadow Medicaid patients hidden in secret warehouses and are now dumping them on the market.
It's the particular genius of government that it can flood the market and make prices go up.

[Extraneus]

That must be why he's sending the gays.

More evidence of Hillary's candidacy?

[Captain Hate]

Lieberman stated some daft prediction that the Pukes and Redskins will trade quarterbacks. That would be extreme even for the Summer of Dan and would effectively end my fan interest.

[Account Deleted]

Ignatz,

The shadow tree inventory doesn't possess the same dynamic economic growth possibility as shadow metals inventory. The trees are rather static while the metals must be moved from warehouse to warehouse in order to increase in value. The movement involves paying forklift and truck drivers plus paying for the utilization costs for their equipment. Add in the building rents plus the money utilized to increase the warehouse space required to store ever growing inventory and one can clearly imagine the economic dynamo being created by Fed policy.

The only thing going for the shadow tree inventory is continuous low cost growth controlled only by nature.

[Thomas Collins]

CH, I think Snyder should try to convince turnaround artist Bill Parcells to join the Redskins front office and do one last turnaround job. I know Snyder is probably too much of a control freak to consider it. On the other hand, it would be a short term thing, and Parcells has no peer in turning a franchise around.

[Captain Hate]

I dunno, TC; I think he actually gave up a lot of control to Shanny. I doubt that the Tuna feels like doing it.

[Ignatz]

That's true Rick but I did neglect to mention the shadow cast by the millions of tons of secret tree inventory sitting in sawmill log decks which are also moved around, albeit by gigantic LeTourneaus and front end loaders and trucks.
Since mills have watering systems which allow extended storage of the wood in log form the story gets even creepier.

[Thomas Collins]

Tuna probably wouldn't want to do it, CH. But it would be worth asking.

Meanwhile, turning to Jetsland, I hope Rex is retained as Jets coach. Jets and Rex, they go together, just like Bogie and Bacall, and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Or, perhaps the more appropriate analogy would be Cheech and Chong.

[Captain Hate]

Model franchise:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mike-shanahan-hasnt-solved-washington-redskins-problems-during-uneven-tenure/2013/12/28/7df92930-6fd5-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html

[undood]

you sure know alot about trees.

[Extraneus]

I hope Rex is retained as Jets coach.

Me, too. I hated Walton, Coslet, Kotite, Groh, Herm and Mangini. I don't hate Rex yet.

Stick it out another year with him and the kid, I say, and get some receivers. (And cut Holmes.)

[just break your neck on the Path.]

" the Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

Why is these assholes deliberately create acronyms that are oxymoronic?

[just break your neck on the Path.]

'why is it, these...'

[Old Lurker]

Iggy & Rick, after we perfect the business model for metals and trees, how bout we buy some super tankers, fill them with crude and park them somewhere? What do you say?

[Jane]

More evidence of Hillary's candidacy?

I swear that NY Times piece on Benghazi was written specifically to give her an out on her biggest problem.

[AliceH]

--More evidence of Hillary's candidacy?--

Richard Grenell says on twitter that anonymous sources indicate David Kirkpatrick, the NYT reporter who wrote the Benhghazi piece, is marketing a book.

[Federalism's RICO has not changed]

Da Krug.

"Did they admit having been wrong? No, of course not. But their excuses shifted. Through 2011 and even through 2012, it was still mainly “just you wait!” — inflation was coming any day now, or maybe it was already here but sinister statisticians were faking the numbers. In 2013, however, it became “I never said that!” — declarations that they only said that inflation was a risk, not that it would necessarily happen, so the failure of inflation to materialize was no big deal.

This is, I’d argue, a significant development, because it gives us a new window into the nature of the disagreement. As late as last year you could view this as a legitimate contest between rival models. But we’ve now seen that one side of the debate not only refuses to take evidence into account, but tries to dodge personal responsibility for getting it wrong. This has gone from a test of ideas to a test of character, and a lot of people failed."

[JIB]

CH,

When ego's collide:) There is a lot of truth in that piece on the Shanahan's and Snyder. I can believe it all. RBIII caught in the middle with a bad wheel, no OL to speak of and a defense who doesn't give a damn.

Deadskins redux!

[Opinionated Vogon]

Obamacare is a disaster from beginning to end.  A point I make with my new parody video:

A Day In the Life (under ObamaCare)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oo-JOikE-M

Cheers,

O.V.

[Pharmafrauds]

All you suckers on statin drugs for cholesterol; save your money and your life. Chronic inflammation's cure is fresh garlic, the best anti-inflammatory AND anti-biotic.

http://myscienceacademy.org/2012/08/19/world-renown-heart-surgeon-speaks-out-on-what-really-causes-heart-disease/

[Janet]

O.V., The lyrics are great. Very clever.

[matt]

Rex and the Jits go together like Laurel & Hardy or Abbott & Costello.

The NYT on September 12, 2012 published an in depth article attributing the attack to Islamic militants likely associated with AQ.

In addition, we supposedly had surveillance of the sites which means video. License plates, visual ID and other data can all be traced and yet the FBI allowed the "crime scene" to be compromised and also did not pick up many documents from the wreckage marked "classified". Reporters found them later on.

The Libyan president id'd the terrorists the next day and detained several suspects, who sort of just vanished. Since then the FBI investigation has been a complete joke. Sort of like digging down on the Boston massacre. More crickets.

[Threadkiller]

Thanks for the link to the article I linked, Ext and RB.

I read it and I read your comments. I have to admit that I'm gonna need a sarcasm Cliff's Notes on this one.

Is the Alcoa guy worried over nothing?

As a side note:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_1501-1550/ab_1508_bill_20120228_amended_asm_v98.html

[Captain Hate]

(And cut Holmes.)

What a horrible season he's having. What is it with the Jets and their mancrushes on troubled receivers? When Brainless Edwards was on the Browns, it was pretty well known that he had a fairly significant alcohol problem. Going to NYC isn't exactly the same as a twelve step program.

[Threadkiller]

Missed some text...

That link is what Californians have to provide, ID wise, if they want to turn their metal into money.

[narciso]

Now mind you getting a huge story, wrong, is a career advancement at Carlos Slim's ask Tom Friedman, but it is a particularly maladroit piece,

[Danube on iPad]

From the previous thread:

"And maybe some of those kids you save, after bouncing around several abusive foster homes, would rather not have been born."

The woods do not exactly seem to be full of people who wish they hadn't been born. But any such creatures who actually exist have a remedy right at hand, and at least they get to have a say in whether to use it.

[Marlene]

I've got a bit of football info,not exactly a big secret but...on Friday we had lunch with our former neighbors from northern Maine who live in NH now. The kids (now adults) joined us and I had an interesting chat with their daughter,our daughter's dearest childhood friend. She works for an interior design firm in NYC. She worked on Roger Goddell's summer home on Prout's Neck (Maine).In Maine,a summer place means a cottage,camp or cabin.She told me his place is a mansion. How much does he make?

[NKonIPad]

OL@12:05-- been there done that, see contango.

[Threadkiller]

Going full garage TV now. I'll check in later. One last survey for JOM to help me out on.

Does anyone have a french door refrigerator with a bottom drawer freezer? What is your opinion?

Thanks!

[Danube on iPad]

"One judge will be proven right and the other proven wrong,"

Happens all the time. When it happens at the appellate level it's called a split in the Circuits, which greatly increases the chances of Supreme Court review. That's where this one will be resolved, even if the Circuits don't split.

[Captain Hate]

How much does he make?

$29.49 meeyun in 2011

[Account Deleted]

"Is the Alcoa guy worried over nothing?"

TK,

No. Alcoa has been unable to move as much of their operation overseas as necessary to mitigate the damage done by Progressive Democrats to the point where Alcoa's existence as a going concern is more a crap shoot involving loaded dice than a simple economic proposition . Alcoa's concerns about having no seat when the music stops on the Fed driven shadow inventory illusion are therefore legitimate and will remain so until Alcoa succeeds in dumping US capacity to the point where misgovernance risk is not economically life threatening.

Alcoa has absolutely no reason to feel lonely in its fear of annihilation by misgovernance. The Progressive Democrat Party continues to make sure such fear of annihilation is widely shared.

[Danube on iPad]

"Does anyone have a french door refrigerator with a bottom drawer freezer? What is your opinion?"

We do. It was my Beloved One's choice and she likes it a lot. I think I would prefer one with an ice dispenser, but no doubt that's because that's pretty much the only thing I use the fridge for.

Good morning, TK.

[JIB]

Marlene,

$30 million. Cottages are for the guys who actually make tackles, blocks and catch passes:)

[NKonIPad]

DoT-- I mentioned a few days ago that the trolls don t bother me at all at this point. Their comments just reinforce my view that the Dems are doomed in '14 and probably '16 as well. So their snark and inanities are just.... nice. That said the 'never been born' crap is so revealing of the Left. They are misanthropes, nihilists, and like the jihadis they crave death more than we love life. Pope JPII called them the culture of death. The left covers it from abortion to euthanasia, they are the Alpha and Omega of death.

[Ignatz]

Krugman's article has a little merit. I can remember listening to Kudlow and Jimmy Rogers saying all through the nineties and even the 2000s that inflation was just around the corner because of the constant gyrations and generally expansive Fed policies over the period, even as the CPI stayed fairly flat or at least subdued.

However it reinforces my theory that with modern IT and the information age general inflations are being replaced by targeted asset bubbles as free Fed money is much more able to chase particular assets.
Considering the dizzying array of inflated and popped balloons concentrated in a segregated and distinct class of assets as opposed to a general inflation over the last 20 or 25 years, including the present elevated and IMO unsupportable valuations of treasuries, oil, metals and even the stock market, I'd say they may some day name it Ignatz's Law although that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. :)

[Old Lurker]

That's what I was thinking about NK. Not much new under the sun since tulips. Depending on how the banks play, this is just one more way for them to destroy themselves rather than, say, bank.

[Danube on iPad]

In answer to MarkO's inquiry: yes, I loathe Jim Harbaugh and relish his every defeat. The dream scenario is for Pete Carroll's Seahawks to eliminate the Niners enroute to a Super Bowl championship.

It is discouraging that the Lightning Bolts' chances are dependent on Andy Dalton.

[JIB]

TK,

It takes lots of baseload electricity to make aluminum. Cheapest electricity is hydropower (the fuel cost is basically free). One reason Alcoa is in TVA territory - lots of Hydro but aging. Hard to build them greenfield anymore in the States.

Look to Iceland, some parts of Africa, Canada (but they make more selling power to our Northeast), etc.

[narciso]

No, Krugman has no merit, prices for basic staples are not at a all time high, but they are higher than one would expect, as with other aspects of modern life, it is 'samizdat' as is the cause,

Do they really need two Dave Brooks;

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2013/12/29/what-i-got-wrong-this-year/

[Probing for response times]

"Around 1:00 AM on April 16, at least one individual (possibly two) entered two different manholes at the PG&E Metcalf power substation, southeast of San Jose, and cut fiber cables in the area around the substation. That knocked out some local 911 services, landline service to the substation, and cell phone service in the area, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Foreign Policy. The intruder(s) then fired more than 100 rounds from what two officials described as a high-powered rifle at several transformers in the facility. Ten transformers were damaged in one area of the facility, and three transformer banks -- or groups of transformers -- were hit in another, according to a PG&E spokesman. "

- See more at: http://complex.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/12/24/power-station-military-assault#sthash.UDMVdhUQ.LD6ZxBlB.dpuf

[narciso]

Going blindfolded, is no way to go through life;

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/29/i-read-this-report-i-was-really-incredulous-ex-cia-analyst-rips-nyt-benghazi-report/

[NKonIPad]

2 fiance things. Ignatz, the Ignatz Law is true enough, so long as present Fed 'strings' to the QE 'liquidity' remain in effect. The QE stays in a closed circuit of buying Wall St MBS bonds and financing Federal gov t deficits. Propping up bank balance sheets and subsiding government spending we now know doesn t materially improve economic growth (somebody tell Krugman) If the Fed ever marketed its $4 Trillion of QE bonds, serious inflation would result. So.... They don t dare sell those bonds, they ll hold them to maturity.

OL -- the Banks? Lend? For what a 3-4% spread? Their shareholders would drop them faster than a senior at a casino slot machine.

[James D.]

Watching Giants vs. Redskins. Talk about ugly.

When's the last time there was a 0-0 tie in the NFL?

[daddy]

It's Okay, you can admit it. If you've bought an item or 2, or 10 for yourself, you can click on Clarice's Pieces to see how stupid you were to buy anything at all from the Main Stream Media:)

Good Morning Ms Clarice. Winner!

[Ignatz]

--subsiding government spending we now know doesn t materially improve economic growth--

Some of us suspected as much before now. :)

[daddy]

James D,

In my hotel room in Memphis all I can find is Houston versus Tennessee. That blows:(

Off to find a decent sports bar. Ciao.

[Danube on iPad]

Excellent dish on Client No. 9. It is a pity that this knave cannot be tied to a tree and horsewhipped.

http://nypost.com/2013/12/29/call-girl-tell-all-eliot-spitzer-liked-to-choke-me-was-into-struggle/

[AliceH]

A first for me (so far as I know). Just had a tweet of mine copied and tweeted by someone else (an MD!?)as though it was their own words - w/ no attribution or tag. Not even quotes.

Weird. It's not like it was an especially good tweet.

Checked their profile - "Harvard trained, Adolescent & Adult Psychiatry & Psychopharmacology." Also, "Florida".

That explains it then.

[Ignatz]

Hadn't got to clarice's pieces yet daddy. Thanks for the reminder.
A tour de force this week, featuring not only clarice's usual brilliance but a cogent bit by some undoubtedly suave and urbane dude called, improbably enough, Ignatz. :P
Best of all it came with a delightful ad for these;

And now time to go reroute a few HVAC ducts.

[narciso]

this is just plain silly;

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/27/the_year_of_living_hegemonically#sthash.9ccH6FMP.dpbs

[James D.]

So it won't be a scoreless tie.

Now the question is, will the Skins shut the Giants out for the 3rd time this season?

[narciso]

Not surprising, he did that to leading financial institutions and the State of New York,

[Captain Hate]

James D, I will not have you impugn a defensive classic in the NFC BEAST. I WILL NOT!!

[James D.]

Wow! A touchdown! I wasn't expecting one of those today (by either team)

[narciso]

it is telling, that Ford is not near, the most irresponsible member of the Norridge, I mean Toronto city council

[rich@gmu]

Clarice's Great Pieces quoting Ignatz.

like pb and jelly, milk and cookies, coffee and the morning.

[James D.]

DoT at 2:02

In a sane society, Spitzer would either be spending the remainder of his life in prison, or he'd be shamed into hanging himself.

What a despicable human being he is.

[Marlene]

Re Goddell's Maine summer place,I searched a bit in the Portland paper. Cumberland County registry of deeds says the 1.15 acre property was $5.87m,the cost of demolition of existing structure and construction is estimated at $4.6m. Ocean view: priceless.

[NKonIPad]

Could someone be kind enough to link the Americares vote site. Down to last 3 days.

[rich@gmu]

NK-

http://www.10millioncharitymiles.com/

thanks for the reminder.

[rich@gmu]

down to 10th.

[peter]

scoreless tie- 1941

[Man Tran on iPhone]

TK,

We have one and the layout is good, BUT it is a F/P and suffers a chronic problem that apparently a lot of their stuff has problems with, namely error codes that pop up and can't be eliminated without $700 service calls. Ours beeped 20 beeps every time you open a door until Mrs. MT finally had a triple snit and I ripped its voice box out. Not for the weak of stomach. Open heart surgery on the motherboard was the only permanent solution. The Mrs. calls it Christine now.

[narciso]

Questions no one is asking;

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2013/12/29/why-the-west-hasnt-boycotted-the-russian-olympics/