>George,
>
>>>John,
>>>
>>>>You mean Putin? Dunno, he's hard to read.
>>>
>>>Uh uh.. He's trying to rebuild the old regime. Just before the collapse the old power brokers all gave themselves ownership in the new privatized industries. The rest went to their version of the mob. Not much has changed therefore. <g>
>>>
>>DD,
>>
>>Not that this thread hasn't drifted < bg >, but I can't help think about the most recent episode of "The Sopranos". It had some pretty funny scenes.:-)
>
>Dunno.. I don't have cable or Dish. Ergo I don't have HBO. Could care less though I may get it some day so I can watch the political shows. I'm ..ehrr.. something of a political junkie. <g>

I just dropped my Direct TV subscription... All those channels and nothing worth watching...

IF they would just market an "Education" package, (Your favorite news , weather, Sci-Fi, TLC, Discovery, CSPAN, CSPAN2) that would be all I'd need. $30 for 'basic' pkg of paid ads and 1970's reruns is too much. As it is, they tried to convinence me to pay $7/month just for the previledge of being able to buy pay-per-views, nothing else.