The Thrill is Gone

New Europe is too successful for its own good. That’s the take-away from CSIS’ New European Democracies Director Janusz Bugajski on the dying love between Central Europe and the United States. The GMF story is really getting legs. (Thanks to everyone who sent along links.)

"These countries may be victims of their own success," Bugajski said Monday. "They're fairly stable. There's no major social unrest or political instability, no real security threats. The more successful you are, the more you tend to slide down the agenda of U.S. foreign policy," said Bugajski.

Even The Economist is getting on the bandwagon (pictured).

But we must ask, why is our beloved region always represented by a babushka? Yes, the babushki secretly run the place. But have we no time to consider the ways in which we shamefully neglect beautiful gold-diggers and the morally bankrupt businessmen who's gold they dig?

And for the record, the existence of a babushka in fishnet stockings has never been scientifically verified [by an alert reader].

/shudder