St. Theodore - Patron Saint of Greens The Washington Post says the Unabomber is back:
From Jail Cell, Unabomber Finds a Forum Essay in Newsletter Pits Prison Rules vs. First Amendment Claims
... In an article published this spring by Green Anarchy, a radical environmental newsletter, Kaczynski calls on revolutionaries to "eliminate the entire techno-industrial system" by "hitting where it hurts" and disparages the activities of most radicals as "pointless."
The essay, which repeats Kaczynski's contention that modern society must be destroyed, has disturbed Unabomber survivors as well as prison officials, who are investigating whether the article violated rules that prohibit prisoners from publishing under their own names. Even the newsletter's editors objected to some of Kaczynski's views.
...
The Green Anarchy article is not Kaczynski's first published piece from prison, but it is the longest and the one most similar to his 1995 manifesto. In 1999, OFF! Magazine, produced by students at the State University of New York at Binghamton, published a "parable" by Kaczynski entitled "Ship of Fools," in which Kaczynski ridiculed the advocates of animal rights, gay rights and other leftist causes.
The fall 2001 issue of Green Anarchy -- whose slogan is "For the Destruction of Civilization . . . For Reconnection to Life!" -- published a letter from Kaczynski complaining that Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, Mexico, was insufficiently pure as a revolutionary because he advocates bringing water and electricity to peasants. Letters to the editor do not violate prison regulations.
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In a rambling style, Kaczynski's "Green Anarchy" piece dismisses the tactics of anti-globalization and pro-environment militants who focus on "smashing up McDonald's or Starbucks" instead of working to "destroy . . . modern technology itself."
He says the "most promising target for political attack is the biotechnology industry," whose leaders should be encouraged to "get out of biotech."
Kaczynski repeatedly stresses in the treatise that he is not advocating violence or "illegal activity of any kind," but he also uses a number of violent analogies, including fistfights and vandalism against bulldozers.
"Just as in a fist-fight, you can't win by hitting at the fist," Kaczynski writes. "You have to go behind the fist and strike at the most sensitive and vital organs of the system. By legal means, of course, such as peaceful protests."
Kaczynski's article was accompanied by a note from the "Green Anarchy editorial collective" explaining that, while the group supports Kaczynski as "an anarchist political prisoner," it disagrees with his views on feminism and other "liberation struggles."
Elsewhere in the same issue, the newsletter lists Kaczynski as a "prisoner of war" along with others convicted of crimes that include murder and arson. The periodical describes the Unabomber's victims as "industrialist scum."
The article has a lot more about 1st Amendment issues, but I am less worried about whether a nutcase killer can publish his views than I am about the Green wackos that worship him. Check out Green Anarchy's website and the "Green Anarchy Tour 2002 : Destroying Civilization in this Stolen Land." All the usual Green suspects are there or in the wings. And violence is their byword.
Stunned by the Revelation! The Boston Herald reveals that:
Senate Democrats, after railing last week against the rising tide of corporate abuses, Friday hopped aboard a fleet of company jets for a secret Nantucket weekend retreat with top party donors.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a leading Senate health-care reformer who this week will launch a major fight on prescription drug coverage, flew aboard health insurance giant AFLAC's company jet, an aide confirmed.
Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Bay State colleague Sen. John F. Kerry are among the 16 senators and 250 big-ticket contributors - mostly corporate executives and lobbyists - schmoozing at Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee events on the island.
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The annual weekend - which includes tennis, golf, sailing, cocktails and lavish meals - provides wealthy donors with extraordinary personal access to lawmakers.
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"Senator Kerry is helping to elect Democrats who will actually vote to curb corporate abuses instead of just talking about it," said Kerry spokeswoman Kelley Benander.
Just before departing Capitol Hill Friday, Senate Democrats voted to shut off debate on legislation cracking down on corporate accounting abuses.
Kerry hosted a Friday night dinner with his wife, Teresa Heinz, at their Brant Point mansion. Kennedy, who attended an issues briefing breakfast with top donors yesterday before heading to his family's Hyannisport compound, hosted an annual clambake.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) are among the Nantucket participants.
Some of America's largest corporations - Federal Express, Bell South Corp., Eli Lily and AFLAC - provided jets for the Nantucket getaway at a cost of nearly $50,000. Corporate executives and lobbyists were aboard.
I'm told there were once honest socialists. But I don't believe it.
There's Racism Everywhere! Remember the Georgia crematory operator who was stacking the bodies instead of cremating them? The AP reports that
The operator of a crematory where investigators found hundreds of discarded corpses made his first public comments since the bodies were discovered, saying he was aware of the hostility he would face if he were released while awaiting trial.
"We live in the South and I'm a black man,"' Brent Marsh said Thursday, the day Cobb County Superior Court Judge James G. Bodiford set bond for him at $159,200. "A lot of people don't like me because I am me."
In February, more than 340 human remains were found on the grounds of the Marsh family's Tri-State Crematory at Noble, a small, northern Georgia town near the Tennessee border. Bodies were found in the woods, stacked in storage buildings, stuffed in burial vaults and buried in pits. So far, 167 bodies have been identified, most of them white.
Marsh is charged with 398 felony counts, including theft by deception and abuse of a body, for allegedly accepting money and never performing the cremations.
Marsh, who has been held since mid-February, was denied bond three times previously.
Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson testified that releasing Marsh could put him and innocent bystanders in danger from lingering community hostility.
Sorry Brent, but I don't think the race card is going to cover this one. Bzzzzzt - Game Over.
Giving the Pledge Drive New Meaning NYC Public Radio fans ended up making a bigger contribution than they thought according to NY1:
Law enforcement officials revealed Thursday that a janitor at a New York City public radio station was arrested earlier this month for stealing credit card and personal check information from the station's donor rolls, then selling the data to a major identity-theft ring.
I love NPR, I really do. Nothing like listening to their blather in the morning to get your heart started. Of course for blood pressure enhancement, the unchallenged leader is WorldLink TV (on a home satellite dish near you). James Zogby's whining is very nearly the least offensive of the left wing propaganda they peddle.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:20 PM -
Customers who book a seat on Fuji Kyuko's Friday night beer run can sit back and spend a two-hour trip being served as much locally brewed beer as they can drink.
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However, beer-drinking passengers should take advantage of stops at stations along the route because the train has no toilets.
Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum The Independent Online (South Africa) reports on the piracy problem off African shores:
Heavily armed pirates targeting cargo ships along the African coast - many of which have passed through Durban - are raking in billions of dollars in trade on the international black market.
In the first six months of this year, 28 cargo ships were attacked by gangs of sea pirates operating around Africa.
Last year, 97 ships were attacked on Africa's coastline - more than half of the vessels attacked throughout the world.
Most of these ships were attacked after either berthing in Durban or Richards Bay to deliver or collect cargo, such as oil, iron, steel and coal, worth millions of dollars.
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Using state-of-the-art boats, helicopters and weapons, pirates storm ships at night and hold the crews hostage for ransom before stripping the vessels of their cargo and fleeing, sometimes leaving their victims dead.
By the numbers, it actually looks like the trend is slowing. Maybe it's those new African "democracies" coming of age, now that they have escaped colonialism. Oops, IOL also reports that Germans make Somali pirates walk the plank.
A German naval vessel patrolling the coast of Somalia as part of the war on terrorism helped rescue the Filipino crew of a ship captured by pirates, said media reports on Thursday.
Actually, they just ensured a peaceable end to the usual extortion negotiation, but it's the thought that counts.
Bubbaland The Dallas Morning News relates the Sinkmeister's visit to the construction site for his presidential library in Little Rock:
"It's almost hard to visualize," Mr. Clinton said. "They [the contractors] have done a good job. I'm really impressed. It really is going to make a big difference to the community."
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A 120-foot interactive timeline will show every date during the Clinton administration. Mr. Clinton told reporters that visitors will be able to click on a date and see what Mr. Clinton, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Vice President Al Gore were doing on any given day during the presidency.
The mind boggles. One can't help but wonder about the accuracy of the rendition. If they skip the juicy stuff, there won't be any content except Buddy's exercise schedule.
The library also will have a penthouse suite for Mr. Clinton. He said he plans to spend about a week each month in Little Rock once the library is finished.
"I hope in five years to be doing 100 percent foundation work," he said. "My plan is to spend a week on the road, a week in Little Rock and two weeks in New York." He said he would also spend time in Washington with his wife.
(snark) Almost blew it there, Bubba.
The library, Mr. Clinton said, will be a signature landmark in Arkansas. He said there would be a lot of "international activity" at the library.
Skip Rutherford, president of the Clinton Presidential Foundation, said that the library was expected to attract 300,000 visitors annually.
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Mr. Rutherford said the library would draw most heavily from places within driving distance of Little Rock.
Said Mr. Clinton: "It's good for Little Rock ... good for America to have a facility like this in the heartland of the country."
Still full of more crap than a Christmas goose, eh Bubba?
Israel's deadly air strike on Gaza City was a war crime which falls within the jurisdiction of the world's new criminal court, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations says.
In a letter to the head of the UN Security Council, Nasser al-Kidwa said the killings of 15 Palestinians on Monday was the first war crime to have been committed since the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened on 1 July.
The only criminals are terrorist thugs like Shehada and al-Kidwa that try to shield themselves with the bodies of civilians.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:56 PM -
Socialist Lobotomies Notra Trulock has a nice discussion of Ronald Radosh's book, Commies, about the old/new left in the USA of which Radosh was, at one time, a member in good standing. Yes, Virginia, there really are Communists in the USA. I previously mentioned Radosh's article on the NY Times Continuing Love Affair With Communism which provides a flavor of the book, including Camp Kinderland, where NYC Communists sent their kids for the summer.
Trulock notes that:
Radosh observes that leftists spent most of their time putting out journals and newsletters. These journals and the leftist movement, in general, spawned several prominent players in the American media and, later on, a remarkable number of members of the Clinton administration. In his first term, Clinton intended to appoint Johnetta Cole as Secretary of Education. But she was soon identified as a leader of the Venceremos Brigades and a member of the U.S. Peace Council, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Soviet-run World Peace Council. Her most outspoken defender was Jesse Jackson, who claimed that the opposition to Cole's appointment came from "Jewish complaints." Clinton eventually backed away from nominating her. Another leftist star, Michael Lerner, became Hillary Clinton's guru during her "politics of meaning" phase.
One left-wing journal, In These Times, produced John B. Judis, now a senior editor of The New Republic, as well as Sidney Blumenthal, who became a Washington Post reporter. He later became Bill Clinton's chief hatchet man with the media. Another left-wing star, David Gelber was the staff director for the massive May Day 1971 anti-war march on Washington, before moving to network televison news. After a stint producing for Dan Rather, he ended up as Ed Bradley's senior producer at "60 Minutes."
And then there is Robert Scheer, contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times and The Nation, syndicated columnist, and senior lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication. Scheer's current bio omits some intriguing highlights, however. He visited Kim Il Sung's North Korean paradise and told Radosh, in a taped interview, that Kim had created a true path to socialism. Scheer's views were too much even for Pacifica radio, which refused to run the interview. Scheer later became Wen Ho Lee's staunchest defender.
I'm shocked! Truly shocked! Needless to say, the book did not get a good review in the Times. But the best part of the article is:
During a 1970s trip to the Havana General Psychiatric Hospital, a group of visiting American leftists were told that this hospital led the world in the percentage of its patients lobotomized. The leftists had already encountered "perfectly sane" homosexuals in the mental wards, because the Castro regime believed that homosexuality was a disease justifying commitment. Some leftists were horrified, and exclaimed that this "was exactly what we're working against at home." But another retorted, "We have to understand that there are differences between capitalist lobotomies and socialist lobotomies."
Aren't the little varmints a hoot!
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:22 PM -
Ted Rall the Super Stud See Damian Penny for all the dirty details.
Teddy, it's a small dog that barks over its own bone.
Clueless Losers Alert! Stanley Gudgeon puts the hammer down on the sack-cloth-and-ashes crowd in Australia who are so "ashamed", they pretend to be from New Zealand.
By the way, what's up with the Margo Kingston look?
Did she miss a Mad Max casting call for the part of the feral girl?
An asteroid discovered just weeks ago has become the most threatening object yet detected in space.
A preliminary orbit suggests that 2002 NT7 is on an impact course with Earth and could strike the planet on 1 February, 2019 - although the uncertainties are large.
Astronomers have given the object a rating on the so-called Palermo technical scale of threat of 0.06, making NT7 the first object to be given a positive value.
From its brightness, astronomers estimate it is about two kilometres wide, large enough to cause continent-wide devastation on Earth.
Hmmm. Time to take out lots of long term loans and start the party early.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:41 PM -
Why Am I Not Surprised? Stanley Kurtz asks in NRO:
Suppose that, in the wake of 9/11, the government had decided to spend millions of dollars developing American expertise on the languages and cultures of the Middle East. Sounds sensible enough, doesn't it? Now suppose that in order to cultivate this sorely needed expertise on the Middle East, the American government had turned for help to an organization headed by Noam Chomsky, or some like-minded individual. Sounds utterly loony, doesn't it? Yet that is exactly what has happened.
Have a sick sack handy when you check out the full article.
Blast from the Past CNN reported on Dec. 15, 2000 about everybody's pal, Salah Shehada:
Cheers erupted from thousands of Hamas supporters as a sheep bearing a picture of Israeli leader Ehud Barak was slaughtered Friday at a rally marking the militant Islamic group's founding.
The rally marked the 13th anniversary of the birth of Hamas, which has rejected Israeli-Palestinian peace deals and has carried out a spate of bomb attacks against Israelis in the past.
During the rally, the founder of the organization's military wing, Salah Shehada, vowed to persevere with an armed struggle against Israeli occupation and to resist peace negotiations.
"Our people are not in need of a new compromise. They are in need of a rifle," Shehada, protected by three armed bodyguards, told the crowd.
Salah was wrong, he should have tried cast iron underwear.
He's Baaaack! Taking time off from sparking the staff, "Jesse Jackson pointedly criticized President Bush's handling of the Middle East and said he will seek to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on a peace mission to the region 'soon,' although he could not give a definite month."
Republican administrations tolerate Jesse's shenanigans, Democrats make him official.
The Vast eBay Conspiracy The San Diego Union Tribune reveals that while the San Diego County Treasurer/Tax Collector rarely shows up at the County office building, he is a Power Seller of computer games on eBay with 22,000 positive feedbacks.
Meanwhile, according to an LA Times report, lawyers are bidding against each other for evidence on eBay. Anybody want an unopened pack of Kents with asbestos filters?
who served as youth minister at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen (and) pleaded guilty to a Internet pornography charge yesterday, admitting that he received graphic images of children on his computer in the church rectory.
Court records released yesterday also showed that authorities moved to arrest the Rev. Thomas A. Rydzewski last year after an eBay seller grew suspicious of Rydzewski's online purchases, which included anatomically correct dolls, photos of altar boys and adult "baby briefs" - men's underwear decorated with dinosaurs, trucks and tractors.
It seems that the mailing address he used for his more than $6000 worth of purchases was that of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:52 PM -
Don't Tell Yasser! Agence France-Presse reports "Eight people were wounded today after a horse laden with dynamite exploded today in Guadalupe, in the province of Antioquia, northwestern Colombia, police said."
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:25 PM -
I'll Be Gobsmacked II Is there something going around? First, the EU refuses to deposit anything in Cuba's tin cup. Now uberliberal Richard Reeves says that Terry McAuliffe should resign or be fired as the head of the Democratic National Committee.
This is what you need to know about his story: McAuliffe invested $100,000 in Global Crossing, one of the big companies that has screwed its employees, shareholders, customers and creditors, and then made $18 million on that investment when the company went public. Next, of course, it headed for disgrace and bankruptcy.
McAuliffe may have known nothing of the hype and hanky-panky that destroyed Global Crossing and the people who worked for it or believed in it. Doesn't matter. The fact is that anyone who can count knows there's something wrong here.
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McAuliffe, a protege of former President Clinton (he was going to loan the Clintons the money to pay for their new home before cooler heads prevailed), is one hell of a nice guy -- so they say. He has been chairman of the party since the beginning of 2001, after serving as Clinton's finance chairman. But, unlike former political finance guys, he was never the quiet type. When he was asked about his Global Crossing killing, he said that just showed the miracle of capitalism.
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But, whatever happens, if corporate corruption is the overriding issue, the Democrats will have to choose between their boy Terry and victory.
Mr. Reeves is rather too gentle in his condemnation of the Eddie Haskell of American politics. Some of Terry's other hijinks (courtesy of the New Republic) include:
More than almost anyone else, McAuliffe personifies Clinton-era sleaze. It was McAuliffe who, as Democratic finance chair, dreamed up the idea of parlaying White House hospitality into campaign cash. It was McAuliffe who broke down the barrier between hard money contributions, which are regulated and go directly to candidates, and soft money contributions, which are not limited but are supposed to be restricted to party-building activities. And it was McAuliffe who presided over Democratic fund-raising while the party surreptitiously sought illegal money from foreign donors--the scandal, you'll remember, that probably kept the Democrats from retaking the House in 1996.
And then there's the corruption drama that may ultimately bring McAuliffe down: the Democratic National Committee's role in Ron Carey's campaign against James Hoffa for president of the Teamsters. Four Democratic Party officials and Carey campaign workers have sworn under oath that McAuliffe tried to help Carey illegally launder contributions to his campaign through the DNC. Specifically, they say McAuliffe tried to convince donors who had no particular interest in the Teamsters to give money to Carey on the condition that the Teamsters would make equal or greater contributions to the DNC.
It looks like Terry will beat the rap on the Teamsters scam thanks to Mary Jo White's ineptitude which adds even more luster to his crown as Sultan of Sleaze.
The real question is how a young man of modest circumstances became a multimillionaire through a career as a political fund raiser. The question provides its own answer, but Byron York gives a brief catalog of some of the shadier deals. It's that darn miracle of capitalism again, eh Terry?
July 22, 2002 -- "Meet My Folks" Tonight at 8 on WNBC/Ch. 4
JUST when you thought television couldn't possibly sink any lower in the swamp, along comes "Meet My Folks," which should be titled, "Meat My Daughter."
Each week parents allow three strangers to come and spend a weekend with them and their single young daughter.
At the end of the weekend, the parents get to decide - get this - who will go away for a week on vacation alone with their daughter! I swear!
What is this? The Taliban? Who could be so horrible as to think it's OK to give your daughter away to a jerk you've all just met?
It's so sleazy that even Jerry Springer would be ashamed to participate.
In the premiere, one good looking blond girl, (Senta) who still lives at home, is basically given away by her chipper, overweight, extraordinarily annoying blonde mother, and her overweight, extremely annoying football-coach father.
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The problem is that it's so amoral and decadent that it does have it's fascinating moments, like Senta telling one of the guys in front of mommy and daddy, "You need to get your little ding-a-ling cut off." This, mind you, is an NBC network show.
The parents go to bed and she hops into the Jacuzzi with all three guys. Unbeknownst to them, however, the parents are watching on closed-circuit as their daughter makes out with one of the guys in the tub, tries to act like a lap dancer at his request, and is all over the guys like a bad smell. Yuuuuck.
Daddy hops out of bed to put a stop to it, but the dopey mother - obviously living through her kid - "No, let's see what she does," or some damned thing. Skaaaanky.
God Save America!
Aren't the parents even a little embarassed at pimping their daughter for whatever the producers paid them? What do they say to people they meet after this little bonbon hits the airwaves?
Around here, folks tend to view the goings-on amongst City folks with a great deal of amazement, but this is so bizarre that it will likely rate special comment. When it comes to daughters, W. Bruce Cameron's 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter aren't comedy, they provide a useful guide.
Flying Fishstick Lounge Alert FOXNews is reporting that
American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh is glorified and called Jesus-like in a country-rock song to be released soon by maverick singer-songwriter Steve Earle.
The controversial ballad called "John Walker's Blues" is backed by the chanting of Arabic prayers and praises Allah.
Earle's lyrics describe the United States as "the land of the infidel." Those fighting Usama bin Laden's declared jihad against the United States and Jews are said to have hearts "pure and strong."
The song says when Lindh dies, he will "rise up to the sky like Jesus."
It's really swell that washed up losers think this kind of drivel will get them some publicity so that they can break out of the Holiday Inn lounge circuit.
Earle had hits in the 1980s with "Guitar Town" and "Copperhead Road." But his career was derailed in the '90s by a heroin addiction that led to an arrest and time in prison.
Friends of the outspoken singer believe Earle will welcome any controversy generated by the new song.
"He can take care of himself if anyone confronts him on the issue," said Grant Alden, publisher of No Depression, the alternative-country music magazine. "He will not back down."
Yawn! Back to the gutter, Steve.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:50 PM -
Programming the Guidance Systems I noticed that the Iraqi military was high stepping around their Unknown Soldier monument the other day. It certainly would make a good aim point:
Buttheads Are Everywhere The Great White North apparently has its share of the violently PC crowd. According to the Toronto Sun:
A Liberal MP blew his top at Pearson Airport early this month, berating customs agents for their lengthy questioning of two Middle Eastern men, airport sources have told Sun Media.
Scarborough-Agincourt MP Jim Karygiannis reportedly tore a strip off the officers July 1 in front of airport staff and passengers disembarking an Olympic flight from Greece.
Witnesses say Karygiannis accused customs agents of "racial profiling" for questioning the Middle Eastern men, who were brandishing U.S. passports, more extensively than other people.
"He started yelling at the officers," said a source. "He was belligerent... He's using words like racial profiling."
Customs referred the two men to the immigration office because they felt the duo weren't clear as to their place of residence or why they were in Canada, an airport source said.
A background check found a rap sheet for both men, which included convictions for drug possession.
Karygiannis has quite a checkered history including threatening political opponents and being voted "Laziest MP" by parliamentary staffers. He apparently feels he is Canada's immigration poster boy:
Jim Karygiannis, M.P., born, Athens, Greece, immigrated to Canada as a teenager with his family in 1966, settling in Toronto, Ontario. Graduating in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto, he worked in the family business until 1988 at which time he ran for political office, winning a seat in the House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament. Representing one of the most ethnically diverse federal ridings in Canada – Scarborough-Agincourt – Mr. Karygiannis has been an effective voice for small business, immigration, and multicultural matters in the House of Commons.
My advice to the customs agents is that when you see Jimbo, break out the shoulder length examination gloves.
Price War! The Financial Times reports that Opec warns of oil price war with Russia.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Friday it was prepared for a price war unless Russia took steps to curb its rapidly growing production.
A senior Opec official said the cartel, which supplies about a third of the world's oil, was becoming increasingly frustrated by Russia's improving relationship with the US and its growing share of the world market.
"The Russians are playing a dirty political game with Opec and it is becoming very hard to trust them. If they are keen on having a price war, so be it. It is time we abandoned the soft approach and became more aggressive," said the official.
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In February this year Russia briefly overtook Saudi Arabia, the leading member of Opec, as the world's biggest oil producer.
Leo Drollas, oil analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies, said any move by Opec to drive down the crude price would be "nonsensical".
"The only way Opec could win the market share issue would be by dropping prices to $12-$15 a barrel and that would hurt Opec countries more than Russia," he said.
Looks like the Mercedes dealers in the OPEC countries will have to tighten their belts.
"It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out."
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