YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett

I'm sure this is just what my Bosnian Croat guy wanted to read while drinking his morning coffee! It's about the most socially rebellious thing I can think of for a Croatian person as Croatia was known for centuries as 'Ante Muralis Christianis' the Wall of Christendom. These are voluntary conversions, this is nto something happening because of tax benefits under the Ottoman Empire, this is not something done to avoid persecution.
Basically Muslims are not persecuted in Croatia, but it's nto socially an advantage either to be Muslim in Croatia either. I'd say that it might be a bit hard actually outside of areas which border on Bosnia-Hercegovina, where at least there are quite a few Muslims. I can just imagin what Mama i Tata have to say.
Still given how the Church has handled itself in certain recent scandals in the U.S. and in the rest of Europe, maybe it's not so unforseeable developement. The article is in Slobodna Dalmacija and I don't have time to translate the lot. I will come back and update later.

The two of them are still out, probably in the lower valley, but they could especially one of the guys be about anywhere. None of them are terribly nice guys, d'uh jailbirds, but seriously the rap sheets on these guys are really prison-worthy, not jail worthy. Their pictures will be on a large billboard located on a major arterial road, and there is a reward out for them.

On another subject, latest big fat urban talk radio rumor to take with many grains of salt: They have found food packages with Arabic lettering on them. D'uh! increasingly you can find such packages in all kinds of food catagories, I got for example some cans of chicken Vienna sausages with Arabic writeing on it to the effect that it was 1. halal, 2. a list of ingredients. I have also purchased containers of Thai coconut milk and noodle soup products that have had lists of ingredient and notation that the food inside was halal. I personally am Catholic, but I do buy cans of Vienna sausage, and if the chicken kind is on sale for REAL DIRT CHEAP I am going to over look little oddities like Arabic writeing, French writeing, Spanish writeing. I notice that overseas, places like Ireland, the U.K. So anyway the fact of detritus on the border that happens to have the odd bit of Arabic writeing is not that significant.

There are still two escaped prisoners out of the nine that made the break. five never made it out of the yard, the new fence may have been of some use there, and four made it out, of that four, two were arrested within four miles of the jail. I hope they arrest the last two soon. We have enough criminals loose thank you.

Reports in the foreign press have picked up the story, and it's really sad this happened. There were wine bottles and beer bottles found around the statue and the chain and numchuks were stolen. I think that's just sad, but then there isn't a lot being doen to keep young people off the streets and out of trouble in BiH, no jobs etc, so some of them are going to get into the pointless acting out one sees in any country. It probably would have happened here too.

9 prisoners escaped the Yakima County Jail, which is located in the downtowon area of Jakima, they did so on Friday night, around 5:45, by makeing holes in one of the cielings, crawling someplace or other in the empty spaces of the roof then tieing togthere a bunch of sheets, to use as a rope. Five of them never made it out of the yard, but four did get out, as I write this two of them are still out there, two were recaptured withing four miles of the jail. This of course is not helpful to the career of Sherrif Ken Irwin.I rather think his career is toast at this point.
Of course how badly the jail is bult is not entirely his fault, other people were in on the decisions that led to a badly built facility that everyone knows could easily be escaped.

There have been over the years numerous articles about the poor design of hte place.

Yakima has an unfair share of the state's criminals in any case, mostly in the form of Level 3 sex offenders, and meth heads and crack heads. It all makes the place more dangerous than it has to be, and the stupid city is worried abotu graffitti and lawns, much more than figureing out where the sex offenders who register as transient live.

Thanks Mario. Presented in the interests of fairness. I don't know what is going on there, but this looks at least like a plausible denial. It seems an unlikely location anyway because Kosovo isn't THAT remote. It's actually really hard to hide anything in that region, unless people are scared to talk or totally on your side. Even then, well I have my doubts. The exceptions I can think of are all 'local heros' like Karadzic, Gotovina, Mladic, people in other words who are strongly backed by one side or another, and not by foreigners present in the region. I still think hideing a whole camp would be difficult to impossible in the region. Hideing a few guys is another matter, that as we see is totally possible.

Thanks Skelly, this was in his Idajevo blog. Do give him a visit he often had good stuff.

NPR is running a story about oursourceing and how it affects the Indians. The effects of workign in these call-centers isn't so good. These are very educated people who are not able to do jobs in the call center industry. Employees are under more survellence than prisoners or slaves. It's pretty terrible. The up-side is the better call centers do treat the workers well, pickeing them up for work and such. The pay is good. I can tell you as the third generation in my family to have worked in a call center, it's VERY stressful work, in some ways I physically have not recoverd. My son is doing similar work here, at a fairly high level,for a very good company. He at least feels his talents are used and that he is in fact of help to people.
But then again he has not gotten one of those high up there degrees like some of those people in India. Another thing, I thought as I heard the story, I had to 'tone down' my resume to get the job when I did. If I went for such a job now, the same thing would be true.
Well I feel sympathy for the young people working in those places. The ones I heard on the program sounded intelligent, these are the very sort of young people who used to immigrate here.

Phelps Dodge being in Kosovo is intesting because few Americans are in the know about the mineral wealth of most Balkans countries. That part of the world was once a place of great wealth. I know the region is not famous for this anymore but it is still the case, taht people do not have to starve or suffer want. All of that was not a product of the location and it's resources but of oppression.

Great, let's just keep imitating what was wrong with the former Yugoslavia without even imitating any of the good stuff...
Again Thanks Mario, incidentally if you don't read Kosovoreport, and want to keep track, it's a good place The guy does his best to just be objective. Some nasty little flame wars in thsere though.

Thanks Mario!

YES I MADE IT!!!! **Fires off five long bursts from the trusty Kalashnikov and knocks back a serious shot of slivo***
Yes I am a NaNoWriMo winner, the novel the is called 'The Last Queen' and it halfway sucks but it's overall decent, Hell it beats Danielle Steele!



So you come out of this thing with a serious looking Certificate, I suppose I shall have to have it printed out and get out it suitably inscribed by someone who has prettier handwriting than I do I mean I have only been in one country where people thought I was pretty Bosnia and Hercegovina and only one country where anyone besids my immediate family thought I was pretty, and that too was BiH.
So anyway I have the thing written and all it needs is some revision.

Yes at last the novel is done, it's actually not so bad as all that, I exceded the 50,000 word goal at 4:04 this morning and my head is still ringing as if someone left me in a big church bell and began to ring it. I am in pain Thank God I don't need to do anything but a small thing for Billing and Codeing. I do have a final in the class for medical interpreters. I think I might actually enjoy teaching it! This is the best thing of all, to think of actually being damn near done, I was wrong the externship is in Spring! That's ok, I have some B&C and for purposes of maintaining proficiency, I'm takeing a Spanish conversatinoal class. The instructor is Peruvian! That is cool, I have a great love for Peruvian music, it is so wonderful. Incidentally I have heard bands from the Balkans playing stuff that has a Peruvian sound to it. Irish musicians have been stealing riffs from the Peruvians for a couple of decades now, because the old Irish music, I mean the REALLY old stuff is on a similar scale and an eagle bone flute, the most special instrument of all Native Americans has the holes about like on a tin whistle. So that isn't so surpriseing. I very much want a bone flute or a jade flute one day. I play whistle sometimes still. Bone or jade would be nice because the sound is so much nicer than tin! eerm back on track here! I am glad that I have some leeway on the other stuff simply because of the final in the one class. You are going to see a tiny bit less of me for a couple weeks. Then perhaps too much of me.
Anyway I am glad this is all over. I can now fully concentrate on school and my sucky few pages of a sucky novel is a full first draft, and can be edited, livened up and etc. I think it might make a good screen play actually...

Bosnians feel peace deal needs remake

AIDA CERKEZ-ROBINSON

Associated Press

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Ten years after Bosnia's bloodshed ended in a peace accord reached 5,000 miles away in Dayton, Ohio, a bunch of Bosnian teenagers set out to determine why their country is still dysfunctional.

They soon discovered what a new generation of Bosnians has learned the hard way: Dayton was a roadmap to peace, not a blueprint for the future. So they have written a new mock constitution for a nation with an unwieldy power-sharing system that is designed - but often fails - to satisfy everyone.

"Dayton may have worked at the time to stop the war, but its shelf life has expired," said 15-year-old Senad. "On the state level, we have three presidents and they don't get along. Such a country cannot work."

The high schoolers' work has drawn the attention of the U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, Douglas McElhaney, who says he will take it to Washington, where negotiations are under way for changes in the existing constitution. But the negotiators face many of the same problems that bedeviled the authors of the Dayton accord - rival claims, rooted in ancient historical, ethnic and religious grievances, over a corner of the Balkans smaller than West Virginia.

Brokered by the United States in the privacy of Wright-Patterson Air Force base, the accord was announced on Nov. 21, 1995, in Dayton and signed in Paris three weeks later. It ended a 1992-95 war among Muslims who call themselves Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Roman Catholic Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes.

The accord recognized Bosnia, formerly a piece of an imploded Yugoslavia, as an independent country. NATO deployed 60,000 peacekeepers to keep its armies apart. Now a force of 7,000 European Union troops busies itself with fighting organized crime and illegal logging in Bosnia's lush forests. Bosnia's own army, 13,000-strong and multiethnic, is being formed.

More than 1 million refugees have returned to their homes, and this week Bosnia is expected to sign an agreement to prepare it for its cherished long-term goal of joining the prosperous, democratic EU.

"The peace stabilization has been a miracle," said British diplomat Paddy Ashdown, Bosnia's international administrator for the past 3 1/2 years. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. diplomat who brokered the Dayton deal, says: "It is hard to think of any other peace process in the last decade - anywhere in the world - that has done nearly as well as this one."

Bisera Dzidic, a 46-year-old news editor, says of Bosnia's new army: "I never expected soldiers who shot at each other 10 years ago in such a brutal war to now be serving a unified army under one flag. That's truly amazing."

The Dayton accord divided the nation of 3.2 million into two ethnic mini-states with broad autonomy, a shared parliament and government and a three-man presidency. But the power to impose laws and fire officials is in the hands of a foreigner, currently Ashdown.

A consensus has emerged that Bosnia has outgrown Dayton. "The current constitution of Bosnia is not really sufficient. If they want progress with Europe, they have to amend it," said European analyst Tomas Markert.

Parallel or overlapping agencies compound Bosnia's problems of poverty, corruption and 40 percent unemployment. Sixty-two percent of Bosnia's youths want to leave, a recent U.N. study found.

But Senad and his friends who spent their summer writing a constitution are resolved to stay and wear clothespins on their collars to symbolize the effort to hold Bosnia together.

"Our constitution erases the mini-states, foresees one president and does not separate 'us' from 'them,'" he said.

"I swear now that I will stay here and fight for my dream to come true," he added, his voice rising to a shout. "Please help me!"

There are other harbingers of changing mindsets.

The country is still run by its wartime parties, but more flexible leaders are ready to talk and make small steps forward. The old nationalists have been removed from the leadership or even put on trial for war crimes, mismanagement or corruption.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, wanted since 1995 for genocide and crimes against humanity by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, still eludes capture. Yet there are signs that some of those who once lionized him as a hero now disparage him as a burden.

Graffiti urging the former psychiatrist to surrender has appeared even in fiercely nationalistic Serb regions such as Mount Romanija. "Hospital in The Hague urgently needs a psychiatrist," says a slogan sprayed on a billboard.

No one seems to know what is going on in Travnik. Taht or the police are being unusually discrete. This is not good.

Scott Simon performed an English language reading of the poem that has been out awhile in 'Under the Left Breast of the Century' One of my favorite comments was 'um what happened to the right breast?' Anyway he didn't supply my peerless textual analysis and it took him awhile to get to it too. Perhaps they could not fit him in before today. That has been known to happen.
NaNoWriMo update, 35,624 words in my kind of sucky little novel. Probably someone is going to want to kill me, I have her emotionally but NOT physically involved with a peasant who used to live in the village below the castle. It's not as bad as it sounds, she is widowed, and the most they do is kiss and hug. It is a comfort thing that a couple times almost got out of hand, nothing worse.
I'd like to sell this book and you have to put some sex in a book if you are going to sell it. The only actual sex is legit, the people doing it are married. The plot isn't running out too soon, but it's been fun makeing sure of details sometimes.
I am not sharing it with you guys cuz seriously it sucks.
I am closer all the time though to the 50,000 word goal.

My son, a very clever young man who is in a reasponsible position in his company, a major appliance firm, was telling me about his day at work.
I am in awe of him and my daughter, at what they do. They make things work for people. my daughter is a baker, she makes cakes for people, and bread, and other good things of life, and my son makes sure someone gets to your house and fixes your fridge, you oven, your washer, your dryer.
There is a lot of logistical talent required in games like 'Kingdom of Loathing,''Everquest' and other real time strategy based Massive Multiplayer games. The good players develope skills useful for careers in management, dispatching, air traffic control, etc. So I'm proclaiming this weekend 'Get off your kid's back weekend'

DSCN3691
Originally uploaded by Melita.

whnvr someone rites al rong and mestup well I like to ask if they learned their English at the James Joyce Linguistic Institute in Pula. James Joyce spent a lot of time in Pula because it was cheaper than Triest, and above all it wasn't Dublin! He led a pleasant life in boht places.

You will never ever guess this if you didn't read The Glory of Carniola the other day!

For the record narodni muzika mixed with turbofolk is not a bad mix for writeing. The problem is I need to get up and have a drink, I probably need coffee, meze and rakia and I most of all need sleep, but the good news is I'm close to halfway. I wanted to do 5000 words tonight and today. I might manage it later prijateljima

I find this one funny as Hell, because I encountered some form of several of these with people who speak Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and it makes me smile.
One thing I like about the Australians is they are a lot less 'politically correct' than Americans are. Sometimes all that sensitivity gets to the point that no one knows what is being discussed anymore. I want to print this out for my instructor in Medical Interpreting so that she too can have a good laugh.
Disclaimer NOTHING IN HERE IS IN ANY WAY INTENDED TO UPSET OR OFFEND ANYONE!

Go check out this blog-carnival, it will improve your mind! besides he gave this place space and as a result I'm now a up a notch in the TTLB Ecosystem! Anyway you should be reading this guy's work, his comments on American life from a liberal serbian perspective are interesting and well written.

*Fires off a burst from the trusty AK47*Starts singing 'Bosna moj domovina* the dogs howl again, and then rocks are thrown at the house but I fire off another burst from my beloved AK47 and tell them all jebote! wearily I walk to the kitchen in search of rakija, aaaah Makarska Slivovica yes windshield wiper fluid to you silly Amerikanci! but for me mmmmmm the reward of a hard day's writing and annoying of neighbors! YES YES! sip slup sip Ziviot!
See you guys all in the 15-20k club, yes this novel sucketh but like children what sucketh groweth!
Dovijenja comrades! over the hill to the next battle!
yes that is the sound of someone not doing their homework! xaxaxaxaxaxaxax
oh don't think you can find me, I have an alias going. laku noc prijatelje!

These Al Qaida wackjobs really need to go get a life. jebiga

We agree, it does. Quick before anyone does anything stupid.

While the press leaves much to be desired in the Balkans, I don't think Rupert Murdoch would improve matters.

I really hate bombing it's cowardly and people who do it are cowards.

also filed under 'Mind Improvement' The people in the Balkans are the best lovers! At least according to this survey.

I have been working for some years on a novel about Queen Katarina Vukcic-Kosaca of Bosnia, the last queen, and a rather remarkable character. Basically to get motivated to move beyond mere scribbles and the endless very difficult research, I decided to do NaNoWriMo. Ivan the Terrible told me about National Write A Novel Month, aka NaNoWriMo, and I decied 'ah what the hell!' and loaded my most necessary book marks, the dates people got born, died, got married, and where. As well as if I knew what they died of, that's useful. Then I got cracking. Probably there are some glareing anachronisms. I'm not letting you guys see this because if I get the damn thing finished, if I can fix anything that sucks badly, I want to be able to get it published. Then I want to let you my loyal readers see it when it no longer sucks. Right now, the main goal is to get to 50,000 words by month's end.
Never mind if it sucketh badly.

I have to say I didn't like what I saw of the new mosques built in Sarajevo. Not because I have a problem with mosques as such. I have a problem with how the new ones are so sterile, so un-Bosnian, and not beautiful.
For the record I feel the same way about modern churches, especially those damned ugly concrete things that over do the modern bit by resembleing washing machine agitators and which have meaningless decorations which are not even beautiful.
It's my dislike of the most sterile, conformist, plasticated aspects of modern life that is my problem with this. Nice to know I'm not alone, and nice to know a lot of people in BiH feel the same way.
There is a lovely picture of the rebuilt Stari Most in the article. check it out.

I love stuff like this! Not that I have met anyone above the level of ambassador but still of interest and a vital part of anyone's education....

They should consider haveing the next meetings in France and Germany...
This talk of integration is all very well but there is more to it than that. These young men in France need more than 'integration' 40% unemployment of young people in France in general is 10%. I think if the situation were reversed there would be French youth of purely French descent rioting.
At the same time, there is 50%+ unemployment in BiH among young people, and it doesn't cause rioting, so I don't know. Perhaps the fact that in France, there are gangs dealing drugs doesn't help, but that exists in the U.S. and there are not riots as a rule.
Perhaps the difference in BiH is they can see that the misfortune is pretty evenly spread around, that religion and ethnicity are not really factors, the economy and the fact of the war 10 years ago fell as hard on everyone. I'm not saying that's not dangerous for the future, but it's so far been possible to avoid this sort of violence.
What I find puzzleing is why are the latest riots worldwide in the WINTER? In the old days no one would go out and riot in the cold like that...sorry I had to put in that snarky comment, but hasn't anyone else noticed this? seriously what's up with that?

So far of course there have been denials all around...

Yeah I know...file under Mind Improvement but still...thought you might like to see it.

you can't find the bird flu samples....

One of my favorite time wasters is this nifty game called Nation States. Bit by bit some of the older Nations in my region, the Balkans have died. I have ended up without seeking it, with a lot of power in the region. I have been useing that power for the good of the region, and of course, my Nation.
A lot of the players in this region are actually from the Balkans, some of us have ethnic ties, ancestral ties and some are just interested. I've made a few friends from all over and I like the game. Of course at whatever point I need to leave the Yakima Gulag, I probably can't play regularly and will have to allow my carefully cultivated Nation to die. That will feel very sad for me even if it's just a game.
Anyway I recomend this Region for anyone who can't get enough of the Balkans, we do have some empty map space drop me a line if you'd like to join in on the fun!

I have invented a cast of characters for my Nation, so has Annoyastan, and so have all the others, our Nations each have complex histories and places on the map which only have the vaguest relationship to actual historical facts.
People who ordinarily might not get along have been reaching out to one another and makeing friends too. That part is most cool... And no the game's not just for bored teenagers, as you can see the age range in my Region is 60 something to 13. Go ahead, check out the map, check out our Forums.

LAW-BOSNIA-TERRORISM
Bosnian court accuses Serb, Turk of terrorist acts on foreigners

SARAJEVO, Nov 6 (KUNA) -- A Bosnian court said Sunday it accused a Serb and a Turk of attempting to carry out terrorist attacks against foreigners in Bosnia, the Bosnian radio said.

The attacks were foiled by Bosnian police in cooperation with European forces on October 19. The culprits were arrested and identified as Muslims from different European nationalities.

The radio quoted court spokesman Nenad Cavka as saying the court accussed Mirsad Bektasevic, A Muslim Serb from Sandzak, and Censur Abdulkader, A Turk living in Bosnia, of trying to attack an European embassy and official Bosnian-based west European institutions.

The court is still questioning three others over the same case, while the two accused will remain in custody for another month.

The spokesman said the court was interrogating dozens of Bosnians over the attacks. (end) yr.

This is interesting on several counts, I noted that the Bosnian accused in the case has been let go, and hasn't been named anywhere so far, I think this individual might have been the informant. The other interesting thing is that the earlier information I had indicated that the Turk was a person born in BiH. The other one Mirsad Bektasevic has a pretty typical name for the region, and is from Sandzak. One doesn't hear much about disturbances in Sandzak. The one thing I ever read about disturbances there was an altercation between Muslims with political differences, and didn't involve any Orthodox Serbs. So why is this guy even IN BiH? Seriously!

On the upside, at least there is an effort being made to disrupt terrorist activity in BiH that is from the government. That has to be viewed as progress.

Another type of statement not useful to peace....

Perhaps the time has come for it to end....

I just hate reading stories like this!

WHAT it's not a party until someone blows something or someone up?

I can just imagine the debate on this one!

I think nearly every one of the nations which used to be part of Yugoslavia need to revamp their laws in important matters like Family Law, Inheritance Law, but not necessarily on a U.S. model. From what I understand, the laws about all matters of personal life haven't undergone a lot of updateing since the Austro-Hungarian era, and this negatively affects business and family life. It is very hard to handle cases in Family Law matters in most of the Balkans, not just the former Yugoslavia. I think that reforms, consistant of course with local culture and custom, local sense of justice, but sensitive to the needs and rights of women and children is long over-due.
Peace begins in the home! Without peace in the home there is no peace in the world.
So I hope that the Serbian visitors are asking to see how these things work and don't work here in the States, that would be great!

This is a very common situation in post-Communist states. The same thing happened in the former Soviet Union, it began happening after the Afghan War.

This is a bad case of 'There goes the neighborhood. Especially given the guy's ages.
Again thanks Mario!

not Slavonija, not Slovenija! I did not know that President Gasparovic was of Croatian descent. interesant...but I suppose not so surpriseing, there are Croatian minority groups all over the place in Central and Eastern Europe.

I couldn't do this without Mario's Cyberspace Station!

OK so you are asking, WTF DOES Harry Potter have to do with the Balkans? Very little perhaps except one of the actors in the movie was born in Sofia, Bulgaria! Ministartstvo Veselje says 'uzivaj!'

couternix who visits East Ethnia often and has a good blog of his own posted this link in comments and really you should go to this site even if you do not read the language because of the pictures, there are a lot of them, one of the best is in htis advertisement for apples.
The Yakima Gulag is Apple Country, the Fruit Bowl of the World etc 7rla i.t.d. So I noticed that picture right away, besides the handsome guy who has the box of apples D'uh what girl with anything like red blood in her veins would not look at that covjek? I mean really, very good lookinig guy!
oh then there's the apples. I mean for ONCE an advertisement aimed at the primal urges of FEMALE HUMAN BEINGS! DA!

OK my funny apple story. When I was in Sarajevo the second time, my Significant Other was not well. He is also a terrible cheapskate. I love him, but he IS let's just be honest about it. It's ok, so am I.
Anyway, I was going to need to go to the airport and it was horrible and cold out. I did not want him going to the airport which had not been refurbished yet, and was horrifically cold, and which due to the fact Bosnians like to smoke a LOT, would be smoke filled. I could see him getting sick again, we'd already had kind of a lousy time because both of us got sick during that time. I didn't want him to get sick again, I knew he'd take the taxi there with me and go home in the tram. Ordinarily that would have been ok but both of us were recoveing from bad flu. I said 'I don't trust you, you will take the tram back and get sick again..you should not be in a freezeing cold airport, you should be resting. Just call the taxi and go back to sleep when I'm gone.' He argued about it, but I insisted. So he called his friend that drives a taxi, a very fine looking man who is Muslim. My significant other is a Croat. Anyway was afraid I'd be nervous about rideing in the same car with someone Muslim, so he said 'I have known this man for years and he is a good guy even if he is Muslim, and you don't need to worry because he's one of the best drivers in Sarajevo!' Anyway the man arrived, called us on his mobile phone that he was there. Right there that is SERVICE because there is nothing like a cold dark predawn in Sarajevo. He came just after the first azan, and wasn't the least bit late!
So once I was in the cab, the driver remembered me from my first trip to Sarajevo, and said 'I remember you, you are from America, I notice now you speak our language pretty good' 'Thanks' I said 'Where are you from in America?' 'Yakima Washington' 'Were is that?' 'In the very middle of the State of Washington' he didn't say anything, so I said 'Our town is famous for apples' and he laughed out loud 'You mean those very pretty big huge red apples which taste of nothing?' 'You should give them another chance, they are better now! Everyone is trying to raise apples that taste better now.'
Anyway let it not be said that I didn't defend the Washington apple!

Thanks to Radmila over at 'My2SecondShelfLife' There was this funny little dittie produced by some British soldiers in Kosovo. I laughed my butt off!

This is great that this music is getting arond so well. I am a big fan. It has got to be some of the best dance and party music going.

While I am rather left of center, I draw the line at Communism. It really isn't my thing. Here is one example why. Given that Milosevic was the worst sort of thug and not really much of a communist, given that he began the process that led to all those closed factories etc. I have to laugh at this article. I haven't visited their page too often, I take enough cognitive dissonace on a daily basis. The worst of which is I can hear Rush Limbaugh every so often say how badly done by poor old Slobo was or I can hear the same from Mike Savage at the same time he denounces Communists, the same from Paul Harvey. If this is red-baiting make the most of it!

bonus points for makeing it down to this tid-bit:

The meeting paid tribute to Harold Pinter, playwright and author and recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who was a strong opponent of the NATO-sponsored war that led to the dismemberment of Yugoslavia.

uummm Comrades, Pay attention, I will speak very slowly..... the dismemberment began and was well underway before ANYONE did anything one way or the other about it!

Dog Witch
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

Attack of the CAT PEOPLE
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

Venus Fly Trap
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

on the Dark Side
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

Trinity
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

Trinity who won for 'Weirest'

Beautiful Butterfly
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

This was one of the best costumes in my opinion, it is so hard to choose because everyone was really creative.

Pimpstress!
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

I loved this costume, despite the bling it was really more respectable than the normal everyday attire of some of my fellow students!

Queen of the Last Mardi Gras
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

Whew I feel so much BETTER rightside up!

Ofrenda1
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

If you live in the Yakima Gulag, don't forget to go see this exhibit.

Off topic, did you all hear that because of this Bird Flu business there may be travel restrictions?

The Clergy were much in evidence, keeping some sort of order I suppose! But LOOK! 'Reverend Ian Paisly was RIGHT about the Kremlin Vatican Axis! oooooj

This is a good friend, the Queen of the Last Mardi Gras, 'I walked all that way after my house blew away, I walked so long I broke my foot walking and I STILL haven't got my check!'

I loved the Mardi Gras beads and the absolutely beautiful mask, the photograph doesn't do it justice, there were all those beautiful peacock feathers on it and quail feathers. This lady is a very cool person anyway, and it was a pleasure seeing her, quite aside from the fact that we represented destroyed places, I dressed as Comrade Katjusa was representing the old Soviet Union and she was representing New Orleans, right there, is vast common ground!
The winners were a dreamer and his nightmare, shown at the top.
Other pictures will follow later today. Must do some actual school work...