Was Just Too Spooky...

On a New York trip in Spring of 2019 our walking route back to our hotel after a day of sightseeing often took us past the KGB Museum. Open and maintained by a father daughter team of Lithuanian immigrants it reportedly provided an unbiased view on the cold war and a large collection of espionage equipment. We never darkened the door because coming of age in the Cold War era when nuclear war was possible and perhaps still likely any exposure to items that might have been used by Russian agents in an attempt to gain world domination gave me the creeps.  There was a restaurant next door with a sign advertising boiled crawfish. I did not darken the door there either because like KGB espionage crawfish in New York City is an experience I chose to avoid. 

So I write about things like this on a day that Russia invades the Ukraine. Some say to mark this as the day WW3 began because like at the beginning of WW2 the USA tried to stay out of it. Like at the beginning of WW2 there are various opinions on which side we should take with some even calling Putin a genius. They use the term in a good way and he is certainly a genius at emboldening  dictators and opponents of human rights across the globe. 

Right now there are people dying in a real shooting war. Americans, on the other side of the globe will moan about rising gas prices which I am sure are higher at the pump this morning. Not as bad as tanks in the streets but remember that Europe imports 27% of it's crude from Russia and they combine with the USA and several other countries to provide 70 percent of the natural gas. It's estimated that 60 percent of Russian export income comes from fossil fuel. This pays for their military adventures. 

The rest of the winter in Europe promises to be expensive, cold and without much driving. 

I often get to observe the effects of climate change brought on by the effects of fossil fuel use in my little corner of the world. I can't help but think how different things would be with renewable energy sources which will certainly bring about a difference in the way we do things but would be crippling to people like Putin who can influence the politics and perception of fault with the turn of a valve. We would have a better planet and screw a dictator. I'm all in. 

The KGB Museum closed, like so many people in these times a victim of Covid 19 impacts. The exhibits are to be or maybe already have been auctioned off. I don't know if the restaurant has crawfish this year but we ate some at a local boil joint the other day and they were good.