http://blog.weatherland.com Commentary and analysis on news, events and the media Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:04:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Scary topic, I know. But this’ll be fun. The only phrase to describe my reaction to Costco’s spread of Christmas lights this week is utter glee. White LED strands in a white that is a lot closer to incandenscent–not the really high-Kelvin blue, not the amber-ish stuff, no, good warm ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=179 I had my birthday kegger last night, complete with keg of Twilight Ale from Deschutes, the hookah, and two rounds each of Kings and Lick-it-and-Stick-it. Alas, despite the valiant efforts of my heavy-drinking friends and a good 200 pumps on the tap at the end of the night, the remaining ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=178 According to the Southeast European Times, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Volker said that the US would recognize Kosovo if the province declares independence. Volker sees this as “the only stable way forward in the Balkans.” Really? Comments from Republika Srpska’s prime minister earlier linked the status ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=177 A federal judge declared parts of the Patriot Act unconstitutional today. He ruled that the portion of the law pertaining to national security letters violated both the First Amendment and the Constitutional separation of powers. In the decision, Judge Marrero wrote that recipients of the letters were “effectively barred ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=176 B92 is now reporting that Serbia’s goals in the Partnership for Peace program no longer include NATO membership. However, cooperation with NATO, particularly on the Kosovo issue, remains a goal. In other news, the presidents of Hungary, Croatia, and Serbia met on Tuesday to discuss environmental issues. From the looks of ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=175 Apparently a B-52 bomber “mistakenly” armed with nuclear warheads flew across several states last week. Whoops. The best quote in the article comes from Representative Markey: “Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible.” Looks like he’ll have to rethink that ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=174 While browsing B92 today (and putting off the inevitable work I must do on my thesis), I found a couple of interesting articles. Slovenia will hold the EU presidency next year, and has pledged to make Western Balkan integration a priority. It will be interesting to see how they do ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=173 Just a quick note to say that I’m back in The States, and all of the stuff I sent from Serbia arrived safely. It might be a bit slow, but the Serbian post office is reliable! I’ll probably take a short break from blogging to catch up on things here ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=172 I spent my last week in Europe traveling down the Croatian coast. Croatians are blessed with the most beautiful coastline. It’s a rocky coast, and in places, mountains reach all the way down to the Adriatic Sea. My first stop was Zadar, a walled city on the Central Dalmatian Coast. ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=171 I included this as a rather long comment to an earlier post. I put it here, for those of you who don’t click on the “comments” link. Regarding Croatia breaking away from Yugoslavia, I don’t think it’s as easy as saying “Croatia wanted independence. Serbs didn’t. So they went to ... http://blog.weatherland.com/?p=170