This should stop the whining about a little lead in tea pots. I had been following this story as well as most inhabitants of planet earth, but now it takes an intriguing twist that will interest tea drinkers the world over.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/200 ... the_t.html
Jan 27th, '07, 00:42
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Holy heebie jeebies! I can't say anyone would have ever guessed "Lugovoi in the Millenium Hotel with a radioactive teapot." As repugnant as the whole poisoning episode was, however, there's a small part of me that is impressed by the creativity of this particular caper.
Political assassination is a tricky mess. It's completely immoral and unforgivable to murder a person, yet the strategic death of key players can have drastically positive results for millions of other people. Honestly, I don't know which is the greater good.
Nevertheless, I'm appalled that the poisoners knowingly left a radioactive teapot in the hotel service. The article said that afterwards 128 people were in contact with the "hot pot." Assassination is one thing, but the endangerment of innocents...that's cold.
Political assassination is a tricky mess. It's completely immoral and unforgivable to murder a person, yet the strategic death of key players can have drastically positive results for millions of other people. Honestly, I don't know which is the greater good.
Nevertheless, I'm appalled that the poisoners knowingly left a radioactive teapot in the hotel service. The article said that afterwards 128 people were in contact with the "hot pot." Assassination is one thing, but the endangerment of innocents...that's cold.
Jan 27th, '07, 12:33
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...I was thinking the same thing...who knows how many innocent victims there truly are in this...it was a ruthless act that I cannot begin to comprehend the kind of mind that would do this...
The whole thing was playing out in my mind last night as an old Columbo episode where he visits London and is called in by Scotland Yard to help solve the caper...and it comes down to a freakin' teapot...seems too strange to be real. There must be about a million better ways to kill someone...
If it was a Russian hit as they say, I guess it should not surprise me given their history with Chernobyl where they sent thousands of workers to their deaths when they sent them to clean the site with nothing more than dust masks.
The whole thing was playing out in my mind last night as an old Columbo episode where he visits London and is called in by Scotland Yard to help solve the caper...and it comes down to a freakin' teapot...seems too strange to be real. There must be about a million better ways to kill someone...
If it was a Russian hit as they say, I guess it should not surprise me given their history with Chernobyl where they sent thousands of workers to their deaths when they sent them to clean the site with nothing more than dust masks.
Jan 27th, '07, 14:42
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Let's not start confusing Russia with the U.S.S.R. They still have some growing to do, but that's like saying "I won't buy a VW because of the holocaust."
(Though not really.)
(Though not really.)
For tales of the utmost stupidity, the outright thirsty, and the obscenely fickle eccentricities of tea drinkers, transporters, and makers of tea visit:
http://teasire.blogspot.com
http://teasire.blogspot.com
Jan 27th, '07, 16:04
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It was not my intention to get into international politics...but I was not confused.himthatwas wrote:Let's not start confusing Russia with the U.S.S.R. They still have some growing to do, but that's like saying "I won't buy a VW because of the holocaust."
(Though not really.)
But let's not confuse modern day Germany with Russia...Russia still has a striking resemblance to the former USSR and a strong basis for comparison when they poison who knows how many innocent people in London with radioactive materials...allegedly of course...and to me it struck a striking resemblance to the former USSR's inhumane premeditated actions concerning the lack of regard for human life at Chernobyl.
The former USSR is much more recent than Nazi Germany, and Germany has done much to redeem themselves since then. The verdict is still out on Russia in light of this recent development.
Having said all that, I do not go out of my way to bash Russia...and no country is perfect...
Jan 27th, '07, 16:54
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Sorry, I got this Samovar for Christmas (when you put hot water in it it glows, OMG!!!) and...
No really, I agree that it is a "shades of" thing to do and totally messed up, but I tend towards to theory that this was bad a cleanup job / incompetence rather than a let's leave something totally traceable but that has the up side of killing random other tea drinkers.
Perhaps I should have made the VW reference more time specific like hippies buying them in the 60's. The verdict is still out on Russia, and of late my own country as well has put itself on the questionable side of the scale.
I totally didn't think you were being out of line but I hear people talking about Russia like it's still the U.S.S.R. only smaller and it nags at me a bit so I chime in from time to time. I should also remember that Russia pre-communism wasn't exactly the good guys all that often.
No really, I agree that it is a "shades of" thing to do and totally messed up, but I tend towards to theory that this was bad a cleanup job / incompetence rather than a let's leave something totally traceable but that has the up side of killing random other tea drinkers.
Perhaps I should have made the VW reference more time specific like hippies buying them in the 60's. The verdict is still out on Russia, and of late my own country as well has put itself on the questionable side of the scale.
I totally didn't think you were being out of line but I hear people talking about Russia like it's still the U.S.S.R. only smaller and it nags at me a bit so I chime in from time to time. I should also remember that Russia pre-communism wasn't exactly the good guys all that often.
For tales of the utmost stupidity, the outright thirsty, and the obscenely fickle eccentricities of tea drinkers, transporters, and makers of tea visit:
http://teasire.blogspot.com
http://teasire.blogspot.com