7 thoughts on “TBLPOD23may2013”

1. Here is something from Taburetka about the priest with the wooden stool: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=517965738263662&set=a.515491478511088.1073741827.515489885177914&type=1&theater

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2. And here is the priest forcibly removing a police officer from the police cordon: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=516715808388655

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3. And here, the most frightening, is the last marshrutka getting attacked as it tries to get through the crowd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f4lMuAhORU

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4. And here is something, penned by Vova Shioshvili, that has said can be reposted:

   dear georgian orthodox church,

   this is a long overdue break-up notice. i know it’s a cliche, but it is really me, not you. from the early days, i’ve been unfaithful to you. I ventured into science and started learning things that you just recently started to accept as possible and permissible.

   i have been socializing with people of other creeds – people of different religion, ethnicity, color, people of different social status, and even people of different sexual orientation, and you are right, they have effect on a person. they influence you, they change you. they dull your ability to see the wrong in them, you start to accept them. i know you disapprove of that, but unfortunately i have been turned.

   it is me, and not you because i am unable to follow your guidelines. i am unable to chase a bus with a few women-folk in it to lynch them in the name of christ almighty. things are so bad, that i am even having hard times remembering a verse where christ asked for that.

   part of the problem is the timing, had this been 1000 or even 500 years ago, i am sure this relationship would work, but we missed our chance.

   i know that i am privileged to have been born into religion that’s truest of the thousand or so religions out there. i know that of 7 billion or so people living these days, 4 million of us are the only ones who know what god likes and what he hates, but i have disappointed you.

   i am sure my departure (we never were very familiar anyway) from your ranks will be painful, but i am sure it will go unnoticed. from what i see, you have enough dedicated young men and old women armed with nettle to defend you against twenty-odd rebellious sinners. you can certainly defeat anyone armed with nettle. why didn’t we think of that when persians, arabs, mongols, ottomans, russians, germans were invading!

   by the way, how’s god? he seems to be ignoring me, do you think it’s because i started ignoring him? i think he has his number blocked, so maybe it was all those anonymous calls i’ve been rejecting. I’ve been hearing about his doings from the press, you know earthquake here, tsunami there. is he acting out again?

   unfaithfully (formerly) yours…

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5. Most foreign invested farms here focus on the domestic market; agricultural commodities in Georgia generally are priced above global norms, particularly out-of-season, and returns are higher in the local market than in very competitive export markets. While some Iranian investors are considering exporting products to Iran, most Chinese and Indian investors are focused on domestic markets. Farm plot sizes here are so small that assembling 20,000-100,000 Ha estates for serious basic commodity production, such as is done in South America/Africa/Russia/Ukraine, is almost impossible; Georgia really is off the map of institutional agriculture funds for this reason.

   Retroactive dispossession of foreign landowners would provoke a flurry of lawsuits in Brussels and huge capital flight from the broader economy, so I doubt it will come to pass.

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6. Dear Sirs,
   I would think that as you fellows seem to know everything about everything, you would have understood about the timing of the arrest of Vano. Were you unaware of the Parliament overidding Misha’s veto of the judicial bill last week? Sheesh, do you think justice would have been served under the old system, which was created to protect these criminals?
   I think that the German dude makes his points clearly, but the other two deep voiced guys are annoying.
   By the way, Misha was in Thailand, in case you forgot to read the news last week

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7. Mark, why do you usually spell out things using the NATO phonetic alphabet? Do you fly airplanes or were you in the military? Just wondering.

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