Althouse: "I think this is an attempt to improve the image of the current government, a little, before the Sochi Olympics

December 23, 2013

"I think this is an attempt to improve the image of the current government, a little, before the Sochi Olympics — particularly for the Western Europeans."

"But I don’t consider this humane or merciful... This is a lie," said Maria Alyokhina, one of 2 members of Pussy Riot, who was imprisoned in Russia for staging a protest in Moscow's main cathedral and who has now been set free. She says she was forced out and would prefer serving the full 2-year sentence to serving as a propaganda tool for Putin.

Having chosen a church for their protest, they were accused of religious hatred, but they say they chose the church because of its political political support for Putin.

9 comments:

Ruth Anne Adams said...: Happy Festivus!; 12/23/13, 7:19 AM
Clyde said...: Reposting my comment from the Justine Sacco post below, since it also applies here:

The Russkies have freed the last two Pussy Riot girls from prison. Here we see a contrast between our two systems. In Russia, if you say or do something offensive, the government will send you off to Siberia for a couple of years for hooliganism. Here in America, we just hold people up to a public shaming in the social media stocks, resulting in them losing their jobs and having their lives ruined.

Like the Tom Petty song "You're So Bad" said, "I can't decide which is worse."; 12/23/13, 7:56 AM
Bob Boyd said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/23/13, 8:39 AM
David said...: Phil Robertson is getting off easy, folks.; 12/23/13, 10:27 AM
Michael said...: I think the Pussy Girl has a point. Putin should put her back in the slammer. So cool to do uninvited Pussy Girl concerts in holy places. Very transgressive. Very illegal.; 12/23/13, 10:53 AM
mccullough said...: Russia is nowhere near as bad as the Soviet Union. The Soviets killed millions of people. The people on the Left were almost completely silent. But Russia is anti-gay, so now the Left must condemn them. What a fucking farce.; 12/23/13, 10:55 AM
mccullough said...: Solzhenitsyn was a political prisoner. Pussy Riot were trespassers.; 12/23/13, 10:57 AM
n.n said...: Pussy Riot is the propaganda. They should thank Putin instead of condemning him. Under normal circumstances, espionage is considered a high crime.

mccullough:

Russians are not anti-homosexual. They oppose, and with cause, the normalization of a dysfunctional behavior. This is not strictly a moral issue, as Pussy Rioters would have us believe. There is a firm basis in human biology to oppose normalization of dysfunctional behaviors, including homosexual behavior, adultery, abortion, etc.

Unfortunately, sexual education has displaced science (e.g. biology) and moral (i.e. self-moderating, responsible) education, and the predictable outcome has been a progressive confusion and dysfunction.; 12/23/13, 1:14 PM
William said...: There was a Soviet sponsored famine in the Ukraine in 1932 that killed two to three million people. At the time there were only two published reports in the western press about this famine. I'm glad that Pussy Riot can go free, but don't you think that the disparity in coverage says something bad not only about Russia but about our press......Also look at that girl that got fired for a lame tweet. She has been punished worse than that South African president who denied the existence of AIDS or the need for retro viral drugs in SA. All by himself that man was responsible for hundreds of thousands of AIDS deaths. He got to deliver a eulogy at Mandela's funeral.; 12/23/13, 5:27 PM