This seemed apt...

... hopefully, folks will forgive the language. I heard this here in Turkey, and the "n" word sometimes gets thrown around by Turks who have no idea of the baggage it carries. I figure, they wrote the joke, so it's a little dishonest to rephrase the thing.

A new agent was brought into Langley for training by the CIA. The program took years, and cost millions, as the agent was trained for all possible mission circumstances: jungle and arctic warfare, high an low elevation para trooping, airplane and helicopter flight, deep sea diving, Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, and Polish.

Weeks of his training emphasized the history and geography of Moscow. The agent became an expert in the Kremlin, and needed to be, as he would be a covert operative in the heart of Soviet Union. Studying maps, local stories and anecdotes, he was prepared to appear a native of Moscow, born and raised, and to reside in the city for five years.

The insertion itself was dangerous, involving (surprisingly) both a submarine and a high altitude jump. After his arrival in Moscow, the operative met his contacts, settled into his safe house, and took his first week to explore the city, finding it just as he had been trained to.

After receiving orders for his first mission, the agent stopped into a local pub, known as a gathering place for intelligence personnel from various agencies. It was a good place to get information.

The agent went to the bar and ordered a vodka, in fluent Russian. Striking up a conversation as the keep poured his drink, he felt confident that he would begin to glean information about the patrons. Setting down the vodka, the bar keep stopped the agent mid-sentence.
"Look, if you want to talk with your KGB friends, go over there, table is in the corner."

The agent was dumbstruck. "How did you recognize that I'm an agent?"

Cleaning out a glass, the bartender looked at him, "Your Russian is fluent, you know city and culture well. Only, we have not a lot of niggers in Moscow."

Reading this article, I remembered the joke...

If it's true, all I can say is, way to go, 'Red, White, and Blue'.

To avoid appearing a Rusky-phile, I'll add that Putin's idea of a measured response to conflict is, well, so much like Israel's that it confounds all notions of justice. I reckon Saakashvili got more than he bargained for, but it's all pretty complicated.

In high school, I remember studying a little-known kid named Gavrilo Princip, who somehow managed to spark The Great War by assassinating Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria. Beats the hell out of your best college prank. Chopping the history lecture down to size, EVERYBODY in Europe, and a number of others, decided to get involved in one of the largest land-grabs since the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889.

Quite a few parties involved, and a whole lot of oil, gas, and other stuff. Looks like we're getting ready to see how much like the 20th century we can make our 21st.