You guys are havin' a great old time on this thread, aren't you? Well, we have some problems in Canada too, eh? But man, they are like oatmeal compared to the spicy gumbo you've got happening south of the border!

I will say this: the world was actually far more stable when we had 2 superpowers. Checks and balances. That's how it works, not only in the US government, but in the world in general. When the Soviet Union collapsed, stability went right out the window, and a great many people have suffered, lost everthing, and even died violently as a consequence. I'm not saying that to exonerate the Soviet system in any way, I'm just pointing out that power vacuums result in thievery, carpetbagging, chaos, and dirty little wars....which sometimes mutate into even bigger wars, given a bit of time.

The Russians, BTW, got robbed by the West (which promised them all kinds of wonderful things if they dumped Communism...ha! ha!)...and they KNOW IT. (My dad was there on business awhile back, and heard a lot about that from Russians he talked to.) I suspect Putin is quietly figuring out now how to go about restoring some of what they lost. He is no drunken fool like Yeltsin was.

- LH