Now this, on the other hand, is delicious. Here’s a list of the twenty-one “republics” in Russia (twenty-one out of eighty-four administrative units). You’ll note (or let me inform you) that all of those except Dagestan are named for ethnic groups.

Adygeya, Altay, Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Chechnya, Chuvashia, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Karachayevo-Cherkesia, Karelia, Khakassia, Komi, Mari-El, Mordovia, North Ossetia, Sakha [Yakutia], Tatarstan, Tuva, Udmurtia.

Had we an intelligence service worthy of the name “intelligence,” we’d be setting up phantom “independence” movements in, oh, a dozen or so of them. Just another card we could play.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.