White Water Rafting

I don't get into foreign events much here, for obvious topical reasons, but watching this

Pakistan's Bhutto killed in attack

makes me think way too much of my teaching the history of the Soviet Union in another lifetime and how the Bolsheviks and their peculiar misery were brought upon Russia through the chaos of events spinning out of control that the "wise" people thought they understood and could manage (those clever Germans shipped Lenin back into the country). Pakistan has nuclear weapons, so does its mortal enemy India. Pakistan houses al-Qaeda and bunches of people who helped to bring down that Soviet Union (although Tom Hanks is getting the credit now). Streams go along very smoothly for long stretches and fool us into thinking they'll never swirl and eddy again. But from where I'm sitting, the waves are getting some pretty impressive white caps.