AbsolutKazakh

We got our first two medals: silver in women's weightlifting and bronze in men's greco-roman wrestling

1. United States- 21 (7g, 6s, 8b) 2. China- 18 (11g, 3s, 4b) 3. S. Korea- 11 (5g, 5s, 1b) 4. Italy- 9 (3g, 4s, 2b) 5. Australia- 9 (3g, 1s, 5b) 6. Russia- 8 (1g, 4s, 3b) 7. N. Korea- 6 (1g, 2s, 3b) 8. France- 6 (4s, 2b)

The Americans will open up the can when track and field starts though...and I think we can just give them the gold in basketball.

1. China- 12 (8g, 3s, 1b) 2. United States- 12 (3g, 4s, 5b) 3. S. Korea- 6 (4g, 2s) 4. Russia- 6 (4s, 2b) 5. Australia- 5 (2g, 3b) 6. Italy- 5 (1g, 3s, 1b) 7. France- 5 (2g, 3b)

I'm still patiently waiting for our first medal...

The American swimmers took it to the French. I think we can all enjoy that.

No one else has actually seen a black hole either...so maybe you can volunteer to be the first.

Have you read about Nagorno-Garabagh (or Karabakh if you will)? It's kind of a similar situation involving Azerbaijan and Armenia that Russia has been behind the curtain on. They supplied both sides with weapons and money. Latvia and Estonia are getting into Europe and I will admit I don't know too much about Europe so I can't comment on those two, but I see what you're saying. I called Turkey a Muslim country because the majority of its citizens are. It's not any better at all. France just turned away a woman from Africa I believe because she refused to stop wearing the headscarf. They denied her citizenship. Why not let people choose their own lives? It is her option to wear it, not the government's. This is an entirely different issue though.

I'm in America right now...so I am going to walk away from this before I get flagged by the Patriot Act. They regularly monitor Toontastic. Yeah, they secretly flag everything English

I'm in America right now...so I am going to walk away from this before I get flagged by the Patriot Act.

The United States "Dream Team" playing China soon. Should be interesting, but I doubt the U.S. can pull together all those egos.

Turkey has a pact with Israel and 2 U.S. airforce bases. Doubt they're doing anything for Russia. Not for Russia, but for themselves involving the Caucasus.

You'll need to black hole America first. Nah, by the time I get it, Obama will be president and he'll just want to talk about things.

Right now I am doing work for adaptive optics, which is completely out of my field and also out of particle physics, but I just got an email saying that I might be in for a trip to CERN to help with this thing. If I can generate black holes...will global domination be more of a reality than a dream for me?

I can't explain it, but I have a thing for German music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YClJQBq4qpU

Yeah, Astana. It's very nice, but no city on Earth rivals Dubai. We're in the process of building ourselves up, though not where I am from. I lived in the mountainous region, where if you don't have any contact with the outside world, you would think you're living in B.C. times. Turkey and the UAE should be models for Muslim countries. You don't need a religious government and you can still have your Muslim faith.

And they do that by attacking countries much weaker than themselves. This situation can get really ugly, very fast. I know the West feels like something needs to be done, but what can you do? If you step in, you make Turkey, Russia, us, and the rest of Central Asia very uneasy...and people forget how close Iran is to all of this. Granted, Iran's relations with Georgia aren't the best, but they are good friends with Azerbaijan. All the countries you've mentioned, well I know Russia, Turkey and Iran (I'll add China to that as well) would sacrifice thousands and thousands of men to achieve objectives. It's the type of war Western Europe and the USA would not favour, hence why they would virtually be left alone, or at least why disputes would not be met with force but only diplomatic protests. Turkey may not, they're still after the EU bid, but Russia, China, and Iran would. They are preparing themselves for that. As far as Kazakhstan and the other 'stans, what we do with our military is for defense. I highly doubt we would get involved in this particular, hypothetical conflict because we really don't have any bad relations with anyone. We would be neutral, but that would mean no free airspace.

WOW! Go China: 1. America- 8 (2g, 2s, 4b) 2. China- 7 (5g, 2s) 3. S. Korea- 5 (3g, 2s) 4. Russia- 4 (3s, 1b) 5. Japan- 3 (1g, 2b) 6. Italy- 3 (2s, 1b) 7. N. Korea- 3 (1s, 2b) Australia, Netherlands, Cuba, France, and the Czech Republic all tied at 2

And they do that by attacking countries much weaker than themselves. This situation can get really ugly, very fast. I know the West feels like something needs to be done, but what can you do? If you step in, you make Turkey, Russia, us, and the rest of Central Asia very uneasy...and people forget how close Iran is to all of this. Granted, Iran's relations with Georgia aren't the best, but they are good friends with Azerbaijan.

In fairness Blair largely dragged the USA in to Kosovo, but since then it's certainly been the other way around. True... It looks like there are strong connections between the U.S. and U.K. and Canada. I kind of admire that. From the outside it looks like you guys will always help each other out.

Yep Russia doesn't want Georgia to join NATO. They've (Georgia) got a oil pipeline going through there country too. As it stands Russia dictates the price of oil that it sells to Western Europe. Georgia may have been tempted to lower their prices which Russia won't like. You've got to love punishment...Russian stylee. Russia would LOVE to control Georgia. Not just for the ease of sending oil but for other exports. It would be complicated for Georgia to lower the prices since it is not their oil. The oil usually comes from us, Russia, or Azerbaijan and I think we and the Azeris would bomb Georgia if they lowered the price of OUR oil.

What do you think it's about? (indirectly anyway) Ironically this will be another situation that the USA would (rightly) get slated for in the West, but Russia (or China as they usually are) will be given a much easier ride. Having said that this is a fairly decent overview. I would argue that and I think a lot of ex-Soviet countries would and we'd be right. That's the only way to get Russia to listen. Treating Russia like a defeated enemy after the Cold War and telling them what's best for Russia is what soured relations with the West in the first place.

Georgia or Russia? Both? Neither tbh. As a wooly liberal I was satirising foreign policy in the west. The U.S. and UK only attacks when there is sketchy or no evidence of WMD's. FYP I don't know enough about the politics in the U.K. to make that assumption. I just know you guys and/or Canada are always willing to follow the U.S. into combat.

But on a more serious note, this has been going on for a long time...Russia has just decided to raise the stakes. It may have something to do with the fact Georgia has recently made moves to join NATO thus taking them out of Russia's sphere of influence. They've done a good job at keeping Azerbaijan in their realm. I would not be surprised if Russia makes some violent moves against Armenia in the near future...no wait, nevermind...they have Turkey doing that.

Georgia or Russia? Both? Neither tbh. As a wooly liberal I was satirising foreign policy in the west. The U.S. only attacks when there is sketchy or no evidence of WMD's.