"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The Sochi Winter Olympics

Since the Regular Son was little, I've preached the value of knowing geography to him, and over the years we spent a lot of time looking at globes and maps.   It's hard to understand the world if you don't understand where things are.   For instance, people may wonder why there is a concern about terrorism at the Sochi Winter Olympics.   A casual glance at a map would probably tell you everything you need to know:




































Sochi is at the "A" on this Google Map.   As you can see, it's on the border of Georgia, and much closer to Turkey and Syria and Iraq and Iran than it is to Moscow or Leningrad or the "European" parts of Russia.   In essence, Sochi is our first Middle Eastern Olympics.   I hope it goes well, but you can understand the trepidation.





 

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