Giving nir the benefit of the doubt, I read his comment as a pretty clear reference: > "Kremlinology is the study and analysis of Soviet (and today, Russian) p

Giving nir the benefit of the doubt, I read his comment as a pretty clear reference: > "Kremlinology is the study and analysis of Soviet (and today, Russian) politics and policies based on efforts to understand the inner workings of an opaque central government" [...] > "During the Cold War, lack of reliable information about the country forced Western analysts to "read between the lines" and to use the tiniest tidbits, such as the removal of portraits, the rearranging of chairs, positions at the reviewing stand for parades in Red Square, the choice of capital or small initial letters in phrases such as "First Secretary", the arrangement of articles on the pages of the party newspaper "Pravda" and other indirect signs to try to understand what was happening in internal Soviet politics. In the German language, such attempts acquired the somewhat derisive name "Kreml-Astrologie" (Kremlin Astrology), hinting at the fact that its results were often vague and inconclusive, if not outright wrong." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology ---- If you read it this way too, and responded how you have making the same assumptions I did... then I suppose you are just a more civil-minded person than I am. I thought it was a worthwhile contribution, and as much as I love to keep HN's signal:noise high, I have a soft spot for this kind of sardonicism. And I think it was an important reminder amidst this highly speculative discussion, that I don't see any other comment making as tersely.