--- ok, so I admit

--- ok, so I admit it. I have the attention span of a gnat. I've lost
interest in writing about DWI. Sorry to have teased you in a such a
manner. You may call me Jezebel, if you so choose, but I've come to the
conclusion that I'm still not ready to see this in a rational light. My
fault completely---I overestimated myself. I tried five different times
to sit down and write something that was coherent and rational and it
just didn't happen. I wound up deleting everything. So, I'm backing
down. In my estimation it's better to pull back than spew shit. Back to
our regularly scheduled blogging activities. --- Interesting tidbit
from The Economist's Business This Week section.

Yukos proposed an unusual asset swap with Russia's government. Big
shareholders in Russia's largest oil company offered to give a
controlling interest to the government in return for the freeing from
jail of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Yukos's chief executive, and two
associates, who are in prison awaiting trial on charges of tax evasion.
As the husband incredulously phrased it, Greenmail? They're trying
greenmail with Putin?
Now, do these people have balls or what? I love the audacity of this.
It's one thing to try and bribe a company that's trying to take yours
over with a stock swap or cash. That's a case of two private entities
doing business. But to offer this sort of agreement to a government, to get someone out of jail? Holy cow! That's brash and bold and ballsy. And has got to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records
for the largest amount of bail paid---ever. Putin, whether he goes for
it or not (something tells me that the greedy pragmatist in him will
take the offer), has got to appreciate what lengths these people will
go to get their rainmaker out of jail. Appreciation aside, just think
of the offer in itself. Think of YUKOS as an old Ferrari that was
rusted, beat to hell, and it looked like there was no way it was going
to get back up and running, let alone scream down the highway as God
intended it to do. You sell it off, disappointed you couldn't fulfill
the car's potential, but you're ok with the sale to a
refurbisher---maybe they'll succeed where you couldn't, plus, thanks to
the money they paid you for the Ferrari, you'll now be able to feed
yourself. So, fast forward a few years, the Ferrari is now restored to
its original glory; in fact, it's better than it ever was, thanks to some tinkering, and you've got the opportunity to get it back---for next to nothing.
What would you do? What would Putin do? (heh, new bracelet fad in
Russia---WWPD). It's a win-win situation for him: he loses no face and
he gets control of a cash cow in a place where cash is king. Seems like
a no-brainer to me. The catch? If his shareholders manage to purchase
his release, will Khodorkovsky back down? Hmmmm. Interesting question.
If the deal goes through Putin would, essentially, be his boss. Could
that work? Probably not. Khodorkovsky would probably dump his stock and
flee the country. How deep does Mikhail's devotion to his country go
and will he stick? But we won't find out about any of this until after
Putin is safely reelected. After all, wasn't that the point in throwing
Khodorkovsky into jail in the first place? To keep him from swaying the
election away from Putin? Heheheheh. I love crafty Russians. --- So,
I'm waiting for the UPS guy to show up. This is annoying. I've never
had this problem before---it's a new situation for me. Usually I'm the
girl who's always home and who signs for anything they need signed for.
Then the neighbors come over, retrieve their stuff and then go home
happy. Today, however, we're
having something delivered. Something that has to be signed for. And I
wish the guy would just ring the bell so I can get on with my day.
We're getting a new printer, you see. {Insert angels singing
HALLELUJAH! from on high here} We ordered it last week from Dell and it
should be getting here today. Sometime between 10:30 and 2:30. Very
exciting stuff. I don't know if I'll be able to handle the drama of it
all. The tension is killer. We played taps for the old printer, an
ancient HP laserjet, last month. We had to move the budget around a
little and do some serious research, but we were finally able to find
what we wanted at Dell. It's an all in one---printer, fax, copier and
scanner---everything we wanted, but for half the price of what HP
wanted for the same damn thing. I'm a little leery about going with
Dell: they only started putting out printers last year. The HP lasted
eight years---it had earned its stripes. We'll have to see just how
well the Dell version works. And I'm installing it. I know. Odd, eh?
You'd think the husband would be all over this one, but he's out
visiting his client's remote locations, doing site inspections or
something like that. Pffft. Whatever. So, to spare him the business of
the installing after listening to everyone's computer woes all day
long, I thought I'd give it a whack...
And there's the doorbell. Gotta go. Should have interesting tales of
printer installation tomorrow.