"We are half a step away from a police state"

I have a grim facination with Russia, so this caught my eye today because it seemed just so *upbeat and jolly* in it's observation about being a whole half a step away.

We have a dictatorship in Russia, we know it's been heading there for a while but banning an opposition party on the basis that there are too few members really seems to have tipped over yet another edge.

Earlier this week I caught an interview on Womans Hour on Radio 4 with the sister of the murdered Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. Her last book has just been published posthumously, The Guardian has a few extracts, 'Fascism is in fashion' makes a really chilling read.

if not the actual teapot that killed Litvinenko...

It is allegedly a remarkably similar one.

feeling 'russian'

Shortly before Christmas, a new Tesco's opened in Carmarthen. It is allegedly the largest Tesco in West Wales... I hate it. I used to hate the huge one in Swansea, but this one really bites. What I hate about it most is the inhuman scale of the place, the only way I can describe it is to borrow a word from Watership Down - Tharn.

The first time I remember going tharn in a supermarket is the first time I visited the Safeway near B's old place in Portland. I stood in front of a dizzying array of 'hamburger helper' which seemed to stretch off as far as my eyes could see. What the hell was 'hamburger helper' and why did it need a whole aisle?

Anyway, this picture took me right back to that day in Portland.

If you are wondering why we shopping has become such an ordeal of endless choices, Malcolm Gadwell's Ted Talk might give you some insight as to why there are so many spaghetti sauces in the next aisle to all the hamburger helpers.