Some Links

It is not unusual to see in city squares or outside shops in Benghazi the American flag along with that of France and Turkey and Qatar, countries that, albeit almost never without ulterior motives, helped Libya’s revolution. Yet notwithstanding that sincere gratitude, many Libyans continue to associate America, because of its actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its defense of Israeli policy, with violent imperial pursuits and double standards.

-- Hisham Matar, in The New Yorker.

Yevgeny Y. Satanovsky, president of the Institute of the Middle East in Moscow, said American leaders should not expect “one word of sympathy” from their Russian counterparts.

“It is a tragedy to the family of the poor ambassador, but his blood is on the hands of Hillary Clinton personally and Barack Obama personally,” Mr. Satanovsky said. He said Russian warnings against intervention in the Middle East came from the bitter experience of the Soviets in Afghanistan.

“You are the Soviet Union now, guys, and you pay the price,” he said. “You are trying to distribute democracy the way we tried to distribute socialism. You do it the Western way. They hate both.” He said dictators were preferable to the constellation of armed forces that emerges when they are unseated.

-- From this New York Times article (HT: Anti-Gnostic)

-- The notorious NYC large-sized soda ban is up for a vote today. (Things that will soon be illegal?)

-- Another great day in a very good year for Sanofi investors.

This little vignette from the always-fabulous Best of the Web Today is too good not to quote in full:

Aloha, Red Ink
"Washington [D.C.]-area consumers have the second highest average credit card balances in the nation, and mortgages that rank in the top 10, according to credit monitoring service Credit Karma," reports the Washington Business Journal:

Nationally, consumers currently have outstanding credit card balances averaging $5,403. In Washington, the average outstanding balance is $6,439, second only to Honolulu, at $6,846.

That's nothing. We know this guy who was born in Honolulu and moved to Washington a few years ago, and you'll never believe how much debt he ran up!