Call me paranoid, but it all seems connected, somehow.

Several stories popped up today that seemed, to me, to be connected by a solid dislike of the West in general, and the US in particular.

Russia's threatened NATO with an unspecific "response" to armed vessels in the Black Sea. They say that the response "will be calm, without any sort of hysteria. But of course, there will be an answer." All Putin would say when asked "what kind?" was "You'll see." Both he and his puppet say that NATO would suffer far more than Moscow would, were the strict sanctions that Georgia, Poland, the Ukraine, and the US have asked for were enacted.

Europe has allowed Putin to get them by their short and curlies where their oil and natural gas supplies are concerned, much like we in the US have allowed the Middle East to do. I'd bet that this is a threat to cut Europe's oil supply. This isn't an insubstantial threat, either: currently, "Russia supplies the EU with a third of its oil and 40 percent of its natural gas — a dependence that the EU's administrative body says will rise significantly in the future." Especially after a recent announcement of "a new natural gas pipeline to cross Uzbekistan, strengthening Russian control over Central Asian gas exports to Europe and undermining Western-backed efforts for a rival trans-Caspian route."

Second, and of less immediate importance, North Korea is reversing its disassembly of its nuclear plant. They're pissed at us for not taking their country off our terror watch list. We might have, had they simply allowed inspectors in to demonstrate that they were keeping their word. In any case, the timing's suspicious. Say the words "nuclear reactor" in most of the US, and there's a veritable panic reaction that drowns out anything else.

And last, Iran's calling for a reduction in oil output amongst the OPEC countries. Venezuela jumped to side with them. Neither country likes us. Iran deals with Russia as a close ally, and arms supplier. Venezuela is a Soviet Union wannabe that idolizes their Big Brother. As I said, for whatever reason, neither country likes us.

There are, at least superficially, connections between the first and last bits I've discussed in this post. Both Russia and Iran seem to be threatening Western oil supplies. The other link doesn't look connected, but really. The timing of all three stories released at once is a bit...unnerving. Call me paranoid, if you want, but it seemed like a one-feint-two hit at the West.