YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett

Anyone who remembers the era of struggle for Civil Rights remembers her, she was a great lady, I think I have more fond memories and respect for her than even for Dr. King.
She suffered a lot recently with the stroke and the heart attack and everything.
She will be greatly missed.
+Rest in Peace!+

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New High Representative in BiH

It looks like there is a successor to Rugova.

Proposed Sucessor to Rugova

I don't know what ANYONE in New Mexico thinks they know about Macedonia one way or tthe other, all I know is that it's not the place of a State to be involved in a matter that has given well qualified State Department people FITS! I'm glad this got tabled. Let it stay that way!


THe Most Balkans like Stete in the U.S. takes a side

These days one cannot speak of 'ethnic cleansing without remembering that this is going on NOW in Darfur. I've remarked on Darfur before.

Lessons From the Balkans Should be Applied Elsewhere

Serbia admits Mladic Family Talks

OK so he's in a bunker someplace in Serbia or a Serb area of BiH or something....




I thought this was an interesting article.


Conclave of Enclaves

My mouse really misbehaved this time. man that's frustrating.

I think I may have gotten clearer images this time, hard to tell just in thumbnails but here it goes.
I should say that the woman of the house, tried to get in my face. if I'd seen her I would not have filmed them, she started yelling at me and I just kept walking. I have every right to be on the street. She tried to say I was harrassing her dogs. These dogs bark the moment I step on my porch! They barked at me from TWO blocks away. I know there is absolutamente no one else they could have been barking at. She was never there when those dogs cornered me or spoke in such an ineffectual voice, weak and frankly a bit whiney, that of course they did not go home, or stop whatever they were trying to do with me. I had ALL kinds of things I wanted to say to her. I put my camera in my pocket and kept walking. I did not even ecknowlege her. She should have bothered doing something when the dogs came after me all those times. I bought the camera partly because of them. Since the fence the dogs have gotten loose twice. Once a young Black man got the bitch by the collar. What have they got going on that they think they need such aggressive dogs? Oh she threatened to report me too! That's nice. I've reported their dogs in the past three times. They should just forget it. If I do recieve a visit from the police I will tell them that calmly. I will also tell them that I filmed in such a way as to not reveal their house or address. Only the dogs. This is mostly so that I would gain skill before the next time they get loose. They've gotten loose before, it will happen again and if they bother me again I will sue them. Probably in some corner of their minds they realize that.

Netherlands The Hague, Zuid-Holland

I noticed this and had of course hilarious fantasies of various persons reading my humble blog. Perhaps Milosevic, perhaps Gotovina, perhaps Amir Kubura, perhaps even they are discussing my post about the Hell Hounds!
Eyeing the pictures of the tomatoes, or looking at old posts with pictures of the landmarks of the Yakima Gulag and near vicinity!
Well if this is so, they are part of a very select and small leadership.

I kind of took a break, the locksmith arrived! It was not too painful a repair process but no, I did not make it in to lab, and I'm not leaving until close to time for Conversational Spanish. Actually I use my Spanish more all the time. Right now I am going to go back to that self abuse over at 'Learn2type.com, I have to master 10 key, and it's miserable, my fingers hate it!
I really wish they'd listened to me that it would be better to train me as a medical transcriber rather than in B&C. For me believe it or not it's less to look up. They did things as they did because of outsourceing. A lot of medical transcription in English speaking countries is now done in India. That is because it's cheaper of course. There have been problems with confidentiality and other serious matters doing that because the laws are not the same. I think another thing, if someone abroad is going to do this they should be paid what I'd get paid, and be held to the same standards. I don't think putting this work in India at below the normal wage for Americans is fair to Indians who ahve gone to great expense to learn about medicine and such. It's no favor to them, it's yet another exploitation.
I have a Macedonian radio program on. I rather like the music on this station. It's possible to get all kinds of cool music on the Internet. In fact they had something with Macedonian bagpipes a bit earlier. I really like it. For my American friends who never heard them, actually if you were a viewer of Xena Warrior Princess, the music often included Makedonian bagpipes and Bulgarian vocalists. I think this was to convey that they were Thracian. ... whatever....
Earlier that Russian station had a LOT of marvelous old stuff. I will definately give them a listen again.

I find every so often an online radio station that just is wierd, this is from Russia, and they do Scottish and Irish music, sometimes old original stuff, sometimes new, sometimes Russian covers. They have had Rebel songs, songs about recruiters, a pirate song, anyway it's just wierd and strange out there.
I'm stuck at home because the lock on the basement door is broken. I am awaiting the Lock Smith. I called at like 8:20, it's now 11:OO am
well I'm not going to make it to Lab at this rate. I e-mailed my instructor. I'm sure she'll understand, hey at least I didn't forget!
Oh NOOO I never heard this, the Clancy's singing 'My Father Loves Nikita Khruschev! ooooj I'm surprised they let them in with stuff like that!
it's FUNNY!

Yesterday the Augustine volcano in Alaska blew, and there was film of it on TV. I was visiting a friend in the hospital, and we watched it. As someone who witnessed several eruptions of Mt. St. Helens, I have to say this was a pretty impressive eruption.

Map of Springfield

Remember when Mr. Burns went to dinner kod Simpsoni and they served up Blinky the Fish for dinner? Remember he had 3 eyes? So where was he caught?
ba neznam!

The cold has been so bad throughout Eastern Europe, and there have been people dying. One small newborn baby died in Bulgaria because her family were so poor they could not afford heat. Adults too have died from the cold.
It hasn't only affected people, of whom in Romania 55 have died. href="http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/01/28/1322359.htm>55 Deaths in Romia from Cold Weather have died, but over 100 Red Breasted Water Hens froze to death as well.
Also the bird flu has crossed into humans, a woman in Romania is sick with it now.Bird Flu Victim in Romania

Then there was an attempt to take meat which was 21 years old into Bulgaria, the meat was from Ireland and they think it could even have had mad cow disease. That's wierd because I didn't hear of mad cow disease in Ireland at that time. Still 21 years old how does meat end up sitting around someplace for that long? SERIOUSLY!
The other news is that one of the people who handled Mladic's security got arrested.Mladic's Head of Security arrested

This gives you an idea of how serious the snow is in Eastern Europe this year.
Collapse under snow

A good idea since the courts are pretty crowded in Croatia. Might this not be useful elsewhere?

Mediation Center for Croatia

The Kukeri tradition is really interesting, and they had a nice picture of one of the masks.


International Kukeri Festival in Bulgaria

Warning: this link is from an Iranian news service there is a cute cartoon in there but maybe you don't want the attention from whoever.

Cats simply refuse to accept the Light of Christ what can I say!

Dr. Ibrahim Rugova's Funeral

This funeral would be remarkable even if it were not for someone who played such a key part in recent Balkans history, simply because of the sheer numbers present. I think it may be that this was among the largest funerals in history. I certainly never heard of one more attended.

Interesting rumours that Dr. Rugova may have been a closet Catholic are in this article, you remember that I posted a picture of Dr. Rugova at home with his wife and one of his sons. There was definately a Christmas tree in the background. Now I have to say, a Christmas tree in a Muslim home is not entirely unprecidented. I knew a Muslim family in San Francisco, both parents were Muslim but the mom was a former Catholic. The kids were seeing Christmas trees everywhere in San Francisco so with her husband's permission she put up a Christmas tree. I went out and helped her buy it actually the same day I bought a tree for my home. We took them home in a cab while her poor husband watched ALL the kids, my two and her five. He was soooo glad to see us!

Once the mom had me take her two boys to Mass with me, so that they could see that it's a perfectly dignified place, and not bad. Again with her husband's permission.She was concerned they were becoming affected by bigots in the community of Muslims and she rightly decided, that exposure to other religions combined with CORRECT education in their own religion was the right step to take.
I also used to take the oldest boy up to the mosque if she was not well. I didn't go in past the foyer, simply handed him over to the teacher, went to a donut shop for a coffee and donuts and came back for him when class was over.

Her husband's rationale for allowing a Christmas tree was 'Well was not Nabi Isa peace be upon him, one of God's prophets? There is no sin to honour him!'

He was a man from a small village in the Middle of Nowhere, Yemen.

Still in Kosovo the majority in the last two centuries is Muslim, so there would not be so much temptation from beautiful, brightly lit Christmas trees.

The funeral being more of a State funeral than a normal funeral isn't entirely a reason for an absence of Muslim as opposed to Christian or secular type ceremonies.
I think that it's left out of the article taht Dr. Rugova was for many years a member of the Communist party. He may not have been particularly attached to any religion.

Carnival of the Balkans is up over at Estavisti's place go and have a good time! I espe cially recomend the Stare Razglednice, it was hypnotic in it's small way.

Salt Cellar

poljubac
Originally uploaded by gustomaina.

General Gotovina mets His Holiness Pope John Paul II. I don't know when but anyway, the link includes the indictment before the Hauge Tribunal

OK I was listening to the local English medium AM station and learned something a bit disturbing..
The government has the ability to find out what is in your e-mail, your faxes, they can listen to your phone calls, and tune in on your Blackberry thingumbobs, well there's two listening centers for all that stuff, DIG THIS, they said on KIT that one of them is here in the Yakima Gulag! jebi that was like mind-blowing. I dare Mario Profaca to pick up this story, because this is like just too wierd for me.

Hell Hounds the movie

The Turkish Government decided to drop the case against Orhan Pamuk! YEAH!!!!!
Thansk for letting us know Scissors!

The first one just has a lot of movie clips, I suspect it's a deal that works a bit like Flikr, if that's so I'll have to film the Hell Hounds again and put them there!

YouTube

This is just for fun, short Bollywood clips, you make up whatever subtitles you want, and send them to your friends.
Subtitle Bollywood Films

my effort with one of the clips. I looked for people who didn't look especially Indian.
Up in Smoke

This is on Google Videos, a parody of the popular TV show COPS. I thought it was hilarious...warning not entirely safe for work, despite pixelated censorship.
CLOPS

Anyway this is a lot of fun, I hope people have fun with these things.

I just heard this on NPR, they interviewed the editor of the main Kosovar paper Koha Dittore whose narrow escape from the area during the war I remember reading an account of in the New Yorker.
Rugova was a pacefist, he did not like war.
He was 61 years old and suffered from lung cancer and heart problems. He was recently in Camp Bondsteel for medical attention, and has veen under treatment in Pristina for lung cancer.

While I cannot say I'm surprised, given his illness, I think his loss is very sad and probably not good for the region as a whole.

Any voice which is against the use of physical force is a loss, especially in a region where physical force is so commonly resorted to, is a bad thing. I am sure many in Kosovo mourn his loss, as a man and as a leader. This report from RTE online

RTE Online report of Ibrahim Rugova's death

This report has a recent picture of him, he definately did not look well.
The talks on Kosovo's status have been postponed for a week.

family photo showing Rugova with his wife and son in their home in Pristina, note, isn't that a Christmas tree in the background?

Family picture

I feel slightly like a navel gazer to put this in but oh what the Hell zasto ne?

Estavisti has kind of a different blog, and I visited there and saw this post about the Roma that live in Belgrade, who recycle things.
Estavisti

The entire film is on Google, I found it not too difficult to understand the people in there, but he says even native Serbian speakers will need the subtitles, which are there.

Google link to 'Beautiful Dyana

One thing became pretty obvious about the Gypsies in the film early on. Most of them; are Muslim at least nominally. I wonder if this plays some part in the hassles they get?

The other thing, as a person who has been around people from India a lot, I noticed right away their physical features are VERY Indian. It looks to me like they try their hardest to have an independant life.

I noticed that they don't want to beg, just to have some way to make a liveing.
These people went to Belgrade during the Kosovo war. Some fought for Yugoslavia and lost everything. It is known that Roma in Kosovo had land, and farmed, they didn't just wander. Basically both sides treated them wrong. That's really too bad.

I also think it's too bad that some people commenting on Estavisti's blog said things like 'Who wants to watch a film about Gypsies?' Well the thing is that these folks try to survive any way they can. What they can do to survive anyone can be reduced to in any country. These people don't whine and complain, they do the best they can with what they have and they try to be clean. It is not easy in their circumstances.
Instead of despising Gypsies, they deserve some respect and some help.

Tariq Aziz Asks Croatia for Asylum

He has certainly aged quite a bit. Tariq Aziz in fact is from an Iraqi Christian family, and his original given name was George. I'm not makeing this up.

I always KNEW THOSE VIDEO GAMES WERE DANGEROUS!!!

But seriously this is a great interview with one of the cofounders of Otpor. He has a lot of interesting ideas.


So this is a Rastafarian Orthodox Church Right? Didn't mean to offend any Orthodox readers but I could not resist being snarky there.


Mladic in Russia? I've been szying that for some time now. What took Nasdaq so long? I think a lot of secret promises were made to protect people like Mladic and Karadzic and Hell of the West could have a Ratline, why can't the former Soviet Union?
I mean Russia is a big country and even if it still has some degree of control of movement of people left, it's a big country and it would be easy for Mladic to hide there or Karadzic.

And my zek comrades what did I tell you?

It wouldn't be so bad if the slightest bump didn't destroy a test I'd worked on for HOURS! I hate this. If it happens to me again I'm going to get all Medieval on everyone. This is perfectly disgusting. It's not my instructor's fault, she's been every sort of good, it's the way the stupid website is set up with everything so needlessly TINY and in FRAMES. I want to kill the jerk that invented those frames. Some sites are designed with way more of it than is necessary. I have Lab, and I have a night class and I wish I'd never gone back to school. Where do I go to quit and get the hell out of here? The first try resulted in the worst grade I ever HAD on a codeing test, in fact on any test where I answered all the questions and kind of knew what to do. I admit there were some stupid mistakes on my first attempt but to have my second one go straight to Hell just because makes me sick.

The first I saw of this story was yesterday, From Ha'aretz via Mario's Cyberspace Station.It all connects one way or another.
From Disinformation:
Pavelic story
From Slobodna Dalmacija
Front Page

Rest of the Story

Increasingly, Slobodna Dalmacija has been carying stories like this.

The first of it is of course the allegations that the U.S. was behind 'Operation Storm' planned the whole thing. That is a huge part of the planned Gotovina defense at the Hague.

Just for you Bora, I hope I scooped you! :) Did you know what you eat or don't eat can affect your mental health?

Food and Mental Health


New flights to Croatia so...maybe I'll go first to Dublin, then take a bus up to Belfast, see beautiful Northern Ireland now that the war is not an issue..and then take another bus to Larne, take the ferry sse a little of Scotland, and then fly to Pula...give a lecture at the James Joyce Linguistic Institute...take the bus to Sarajevo...yeah this could work.


Worlds oldest mother Obviously this reporter never met any ladies from the Balkans before, they in general don't age as fast. OK I had my critique of the whole notion but she's doing alright from the sound of things and this is a very wanted baby. Some of what she said about the whole relationship thing made sense to me. There are a lot of compromises in relationships and I can see why even an affair was out of the question. I"m glad that someone has let this lady tell her side of the story. That's good.

Montenegrin Independance?
How Medieval to go to the Pope and talk about this! I am generally in favor of getting all Medieval, but this is unique since Montenegro is an Orthodox majority area. It's not without precedent in the Balkans for Orthodox rulers to do this though.

I am really glad I reminded my son that the busses would run less today because normally he takes the bus if it snows. It snowed quite a bit this morning. I took the bus downtown anyway, to go to the march. A lot of my friends didn't go. Normally I would not want to be out when it's that cold. It was slushy, there've been years it snowed, but not like this year, the snow was comeing down hard. still lots of people did show up.
Of course all sorts of media were there, all three TV stations and the newspaper. Once at Davis High, I got to see the William O Douglass statue, which is really quite good. I haven't been there since the statue got put in.
The usual program was decent too. There were guys that did some drumming. That's when B. a guy who means no harm but can be a wee bit annoying asked if he could sit with me, so I said o.k. Don't get me wrong, he's a good guy but he's got some problems and he's very repetative sometimes. He was being particularly repetative today. Plus, he could really have used a bath. Anyway, after a bit, he saw some friends of his, took his stuff and went to hang with them which was ok. The music usually is good with this program and this year was not an exception.
There was a young minister, a slight man of slender build who gave a very good talk, and said 'No it's not just about race anymore, it's about other stuff too. Sometimes money, sometimes just preferences in music. You know, the people who like Hip Hop and the people who like Country Western just aren't going to hang with each other!' (quick aside here, Americans can be so musically 1 thing and 1 thing only! you don't see that so much in Europe!)
Then I realized the walk from the high school isn't that far. While I was downtown, I found some nice books that I want, they are about the Byzantine Empire, one is a seris, adn there's family trees for the various royal families in the Balkans in one of them, and lots of interesting stuff in them one has pictures of Serbian frescos that even Serbian Unity Congress hasn't got on their site. So I'm going tomorrow and buy them. There was in another shop, a lovely Eygptian coffee service, I really like it, so I may be totally indulgent and buy it. There were also some small coffee cups of the type intended for Turkish coffee. So I may get them too, I have some of the right sort of cups but they are really ugly. These ones are plain, but plain is better than ugly!
Right now I'm listening to some loud Gypsy Brass on Radio Bombardier, in Macedonia. It's good.
I love that music to start with, I don't know who these guys are but man they are good!
Anyway, then I have more homework to do. Reading tonight and a thing to submit written. I should go look at the two assigned reception areas and I decided which one to look at for one of my own. Hopefully no one else decided to look at it too, but know what, I don't even care. It's a place I can get to on foot.
I have to do that assignment soon, cuz the next part of this module needs to get done. I guess it gives me something to do Wednesday for Lab time.
The worst thing is I probably should not have been out to the march at all. I try to avoid getting cold, the problem is my boots that are light leak, the heavy ones don't but I save them for deeper snow because the raised soles on them make it hard for me to walk. I feel like I just acquired horses hooves, and I don't move well in them.
I made dinner, because I had a feeling my son would need something extra tonight. I was right, he had kind of a rough day at work.
Some days I have so much homework the last thing I feel up for is to cook. I try to always cook if there's a day he has to work and I don't need to be in classes.
Oh, I almost forgot, some fascist and yes I am correctly useing the word, not as invective but as a statement of political fact, posted extremely offensive propaganda against Dr. Martin Luther King, they put it up with duct tape. I pulled it off the pole, not a hard job, it has to have been posted after it began to snow, because the duct tape didn't hold, that or the fascist(s?) went with a cheap brand.
Unfortunately, assorted fascist organizations have attempted to recruit around the gulag in the past. Anyway, I don't care for that sort of thing.
Dr. King may not have been a perfect person, but this accused him of being an assasin! oooj! That was not something he would have done.
God doesn't expect us to be perfect. He expects us to try to do the right thing, but perfection belongs to God alone!
There is a lot happening out there, I'm bonked and trying to avoid catching cold, I need to see if the same stuff happens with my computer, I did a virus scan yesterday. So I'll have to see if that worked.

I don't know what the problem is exactly but it makes posting here difficult, and it caused me to lose some time sesnsitive news which I wanted to share with you.
Instead, I had to abandon that as there was a test I needed to do, and that test wasn't fun either. It took a long time and left me wrung out and wishing I could just quit school. I got through the reading once, but there was a lot of it, in a book that is physically heavy. For a person with visual limitations, I am surpriseingly visual in how I learn. The books I have to use weigh a damn ton, and I have damage from a fall in my neck. It's not even major damage, but it makes carrying stuff, pulling stuff, and reading very large books rough. There is NO damn need for how large some college test books are. With the field I am in, that is probably unavoidable though. The test ran me all over the book too, which is fine, I mean in real life. Whatever I work with is also going to run me all over the book. That part isn't what upsets me, what upsets me is that it took me all night, and I did so damn badly.
I have to say that I have been really blessed with wonderful, understanding teachers. They all are really out to help.
I never am reprimended without totally deserveing it. They are all courteous and professional. It's me running up against physical shortcomeings. I feel very close to the wall. The worst part is that it won't get easier, somehow I have to survive externship.

ran accross this on Shoutcast, it was too wierd not to listen to for a bit. It's an actual Loyalist radio station from Northern Ireland. Not haveing heard a lot of this sort of thing growing up, it's exotic and wierd, let me tell you, I HATE Lambeg drums! They set my teeth on edge even over the Internet, and turned down. Also the flutes are not in such good tune as all that.
This goes out to Mladen and Johnny who will be in the book i'm writeing someday about my travels in BiH. I will say no more, they were nice guys.

The guys who started this band are not directly from the Balkans, but are Israelis who had ancestors that lived in the Balkans. So they have a feel for that music and for wahat sounds like deadly Palest\nian Rap, Rai, and they mix the lot wth Balkans type Gypsy brass, Klezmer adn Bog znais sto vise.
On this site you can listen to each song until you decide you need the album. It's some crayzy mad stuff I'm telling you!
Joe Bob says check it out.

It turns out that this was not a bomb after all, but a lost or disposed of flashlight caseing, a homeless man picked it up and dropped it in the restroom of the Starbucks. In a way that's wierder than a bomb. I think they have not told us the whole stupid story.

One of the things that most annoys me about Walmart in particular and similar business enterprises in general is thet a person can be working and still have to rely on the welfare system for health care. That is disgusting, part of why one goes to work is to NOT be dependant on the welfare system and when people make the effort to
1 Get up in the morning
2. Clean themselves
3. Dress themselves
4. Get themselves to the job
5. Do the job properly

They have earned their money and other benefits. Certain benefits used to be standard even in the most govni jobs.
About when I started to work, that was changeing. It used to be that even non-union jobs had some benefits, and that companies which did not wish to be unionized realized that they had to provide certain benefits to avoid the attentions of union organizers.
It was considered good business too to have employees that felt their compensation was reasonable.
Walmart was by no means the first company to change this, they in fact are only one of many.

IN my opinion when ANY company avoids paying some benefits like health care, or a salary that would allow people to seek it individually, thus compelling their workers to go to rhe welfare office and get state medical aid, that COMPANY IS ALSO ON WELFARE.
The funny thing is that the right wing anarchist useful idiots who defend this as being good business don't realize that most of our lack of freedoms even now under a less than optimum government, in time of war, corporations intrude FAR more into our lives than government does.
For example, for me or anyone else, to come to the attention of an entity such as Homeland Security, I have to at least be suspected of something bad. Sure this can wreck a person's life, but there is at least the justification in the name of national self defense. It's not nice or pretty or acceptable but it IS understandable.
What I can't stand is that no one wants to even talk about the intrusion of corporations into people's private lives, and their failure to take up their responsibilites as part of this country. Corporations have their interests defended, and are benefitting from the fact of America as much as some person who just lives here and works here, some ordinary citizen. Ordinary citizens have responsibilities and duties that come with this, and they have requirements set on them because of this.
I think the State of Maryland did the right thing. Such huge companies CAN TOO afford to have group insurance plans for their employees. Once a company is so big the price goes down a lot and there are all sorts of measures to save money on it.
I would like to see similar laws in all 50 states, not for small businesses, which genuinely can't afford this, just for the big guys that whine so much about it.
Look, it's that or defnately go for National Health Care for everyone and stop the stupid arguments about it.
I don't think companies should be on welfare past a certain point any more than people should be.
People should be on welfare only long enough to get on their feet, and companies of the size of Walmart should not be on welfare at all.

Well my friend wasn't at my place by 6:28 and my clocks in the liveing room basically are set to school time so I decided I better get moveing, and left.
The big thrill was a comedian from Hawaii. Well I like comedy and young comedians you never heard of before can be funny, they are trying anyway, and for two bux why the Hell NOT right?

So I walked along in the dark, past Hell Hound House which was QUEIT! YEAH, and Hood Hand House where there seemed to be many guests.
It was raining which made things very film noire somehow.
Anyway, Kermit Apio was funny, what can I say? He has a very dry sense of humor, sometimes it took a few minutes to get it, but that's ok,
Being Hawaiian he had some jokes about Hawaiian pizza and how it should be Spam NOT Canadian bacon.
There was a riff about going through Zillah and how he loved seeing and photographing the Church of God Zillah!

Everyone liked that one, and there was some great stuff about being named Kermit, and you know I wish he'd been my classmate! There's a million things that would have gone un noticed about me back then!
Anyway it was good, those of you zeks who did not go for one reason or another missed a nice show, and missed seeing Joel on stage in a Hawaiian grass skirt. He looks cute in it, I found a stalk of grass from it on the floor in the Hopeless Union Building.

After the show, I explained to him about how popular Spam is in Sarajevo with the Croatian and Serbian inhabitants. It is actually kind of hard to get pork products in Sarajevo, because the majority of the butchers are Muslim, of course so are most of the people who own small grocery stores, so if someone who is a Croat or a Serb has guests one thing it's considered nice to serve is the 'poor man's pate' Spam sliced thin, there are local knock-offs of this product too. It's served sliced thin, with onion slices, or green onions or slices of garlic and thin slices of white cheese,bread, and coffee, and a few shots of rakija. It's not bad that way actually. The trick is to get the Spam nice and cold in the fridge first.

He liked hearing that and my description of the piles of Spam in Saddam's spider hole.

This article in Slobodna Dalmacija is of interest to those following the history of Gotovina, Operation Storm and who were the key players.

Gotovina and Tenant Story Front page Slobodna Dalmacija


Rest of Story

I think this is because a lot of Montenegrins expect a push for independance soon. I just h ope that stayes peaceful!
Montenegrin citizens applying for Serbian citizenship


This is late, but important. The Catholic Albanian community doesn't get a lot of coverage.
Catholic Bishop of Kosovo dies of heart attack

This last in my opinion is a valuable and long overdue effort, looking at the war from the sides of all parties. The worst thing about Balkans history is that no one covers the whole story, makeing it very hard for people to know really what is or is not true. It is a step toward permanant peace and stability to do this, I know it may seem unimportant, but the very fact that someone considered it, and went ahead and dis this sort of film about such a terrible incident as Vukovar, is tremendous, it is progress in the front which is really the most important. How we think about things forms our actions. in turn, what we do or do not do, based on these perceptions form s the future. I haven't seen this film, I want to see it, I consider the very concept wonderful.

First Joint Croatian Serbian film on Vukovar

@Radmila: Do you know how that happens? Someone reads John Malloy's book 'Dress for Sucess' and they get CRAZY!!! I HATE John Malloy, I wish someone had ethnically cleansed his damn family while the world still had a chance! He is at the other extreme from the Birtany spears crowd, Somewhere in the middle is fine. Basically Westerners need to mellow out on that whole 'power suit' vs 'slutwear' vs fat ladies in stretch pants thing. I'm tired of it being such a fucking ISSUE that a musician feels he must wear a suit to madly play drums. Not that there's anything wrong with suits but you are right.
The other thing that is pissing me off seriously is that it is difficult to find ladies blazers which have REAL pockets instead of little flaps of cloth inside that SHOULD have been pockets, and the outside sewn up, hermetically sealed, WHO is the idiot that decided my pockets needed to be INFIBULATED?

This makes me glad my annonymous flameing days, short lived as they were are far behind me! I think actually what they really are talking about is 'trolling' which actually blogging seems a cure for. I mean I don't need to go to someone's blog and say nasty things to them about them, not when it's perfectly possible within limits to simply talk about the behavior that annoys me without specifying a person or group of people.

Still I think this law is unConstitutional and un-democratic in the *best* totalitarian traditions. I think it would not stand up. There's a couple message boards I remember of old that were rich in great potential test cases!

So now that they are off the streets and out of trouble what do accused war criminals DO while awaiting trial or being tried? This article answers all those persistant questions.

Incidenentally I think the choice of a prison warden who served in Northern Ireland was briliant, because he learned so much from the success and the mistakes, and yes as upset as anyone is by the crimes, innocent until proven guilty is the basis of European based law, and must be abided by!

Of course anyone who is proven guilty should be punished, and in my opinion severely, still, I think McFadden is right, and it looks like it works.

Might his ideas not have some validity for the larger world?

I have been saying it for years, I will keep on saying it until they drag me to the stake and burn me for it, Fundamentalism isn't religion, it is something else, something evil and deadly.

If you suffer from it just go get deprogrammed or something.

I find it wierd when people commit that sort of crime, it's usually some drkar that badly needs a spanking, especially since it was just a damn coffee house!
I mean damn give me a BREAK!

No one has admitted to placeing the bomb which was left in a restroom, and which did not detonate.

ONe thing very especially pissed me off about this, that is the fact that people lived in apartments above the Starbucks. They all had to be evacuated, and faced loss of their belongings.

I guess California long ago joined the list of places I no longer care to live, but this was especially stupid.

A lot of that sort of thing went on in the 1960s and it was a reason my family left.
Boze moj how I hate Revolution Fakers!

I hope this is a happy day for my Muslim readers, I know some people read this in Malaysia, Turkey and Jordan and possibley BiH.
Whoever you are, best wishes
Katja

Tonight I ate the two pretty little tomatoes I raised, I saved the seeds, there were not many a whole quarter teaspoon from BOTH. The seeds have been set aside to dry, then I cut the tomatoes up, cut up some onion and some garlic, and opened a can of tuna, and drained out the water, then I put the tomatoes, the onions and garlic on that, and drizzled a little balsamic vinegar, and a little olive oil and put a couple pinches of italian seasoning.
I cut a slice of French bread, buttered that and mixed a drink, Sambucca Romana in 7-Up. mmmm

Thanks Metafilter! I included this because it does have a Balkans connection. Perhaps the worst thing about war is when it is fought by means which have these effects on all involved long after the war is over. Thke article mentions that the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was a place this stuff was stored. I remember liveing in San Francisco and seeing the big serious white trucks that had no signage. Thos trucks must have been carrying something nasty. Normal trucks, even normal military trucks have signage.
Aside from family one friend of mine lived in San Francisco, AND worse yet, she lived in Hunter's Point. She's had health problems similar to those described in this article.
The quote at the begining of the article from Henry Kissinger is worht noteing too.
I never liked Kissinger very much to start with.

Perhaps some of you have been following the aftermath of the mine disaster in West Vierginia. The one survivor may have survived because the other trapped miners shared oxygen and other survival items with him. He is the father of young children and they all knew they all faced death, so they chose to help this young man. It takes a very special person to go into the mines, it's not the most dangerous job of all, but it is right up there.
So many people have to do so many dangerous things to make our comfortable life possible. We owe those people a debt of grattitude and respect.

In India and Pakistan they are experienceing the coldest winter in 70 years. Now cold winters do happen sometimes, and Kashmir does get snow sometimes quite a bit of snow, still parts of Lake Dal froze, that doesn't happen very often.
It's pretty cold here too.

Three children recieved Hepatitis C contaminated blood in Croatia

the rest of the story

Usually the health system in Croatia does a good job, but it's a small country so news like this is upsetting.

Welcome to Commie Town

I'd forgotten all about the Lenjin statue in Freemont. Or the rocket, but here is an article that covers it. Thanks Radmila!
There is mention of Lenin Soda, which is just too wierd a concept. I bet Lenin didn't drink a lot of soda somehow, maybe mineral water or Ruski Chai, and the odd Georgian wine while visiting at Uncle Joe's place.
I could be wrong. I don't know a lot about Lenin's private life, let alone his drinking habbits.
The Lenin statue in Freemont is actually supposed to be the biggest in the world. It's typical awful Commie art, this man bought it thinking he could sell it to someone, the asking price is $150,000. Meanwhile the statue shipped at great cost to the U.S. in the aftermath of the Great Soviet Yard Sale is in Freemont in a public square. Must round up comrades for field trip to see this! xaxaxaxa!
Also Bora by way of East Ethnia made me aware of the situation of urban coyotes in Chicago, this is sooo cool, finally a remedy for the problem of Canada geese slimeing the place with their horrid bodily wastes! There was a picture of one coyote in the arms of a researcher, a very healthy specimen, he looks to be too!
Gracias Don Coyote por su ayuda!

These were found recently, and it's always exciteing. One of the world's oldest musical instruments a bone flute was found in this cave too.

Pardon my linking in this manner, I'm not at home and the font is too small for me on this computer. I have trouble enough doing it at home. This says more aboout the suspect and what happened.
I feel bad things went so badly in this arrest, but the arrest and trial of these people is important. It has to be done. Maybe less resistance to arrest would be useful on the part of suspects, it's not like the Hague administers the death penalty!

I would like to have seen this go more smoothly myself.

This isn't good at all. People who ask me what I have against transplantation in general need to realize how easily this can be abused.

To the Orthodox believers who visit this site, Srecan Bozic! to the Catholic believers who visit this site, happy Day of the Three Kings!

It is cold in the town where I am which is near to the Yakima Gulag, but is more of a Potemkin Village than a Gulag, think of it as Gulag Lite, fewer sex offenders, and no drive by shootings why have a driveby when it's legal to to fire weapons in one's own back yard!
The kids are haveing fun I took them to some websites with pictures of Baba Yaga, I mean damn that IS an important part of their heritage. They LOVE stories with Baba Yaga. I make them up if I can't remember any real ones, it's not so much the story itself they like as the descriptions of her, rideing around in the pestle and morter and eatting bad children, and the house that walks around on chicken feet, and her long snaggly hair and bony legs. They like that stuff.
The dog and the chicken are fine, the hen has cold feet this time of year, nothing worse than being a chicken in winter! Chickens are basically a tropical creature, just like humans! Unlike dogs who are adapted to every climate.
I actually read some of my home work. Some of it might be better done at home. Some has to wait until the grandbabies go to sleep. At least I got my hellos in at two classes. I realized I need two code books too! That could be a bad thing!
If I drove, I could just strap the kids in and go get the books but I don't so it must wait, meanwhile I have the other books, which weigh some 50 or 60 pounds.
At least in the house it is warm and I slept a little better.
My son in law found a Physicians Desk Reference for medicinal herbs, he gave it to my daughter, I told him if he finds another I would love to have one too! It's great, it has photographs.
I have used herbal treatments on my own family, with caution of course because just because a thing is natural doesn't mean it's always safe, tigers are natural are they safe? Of course not!
My daughter of course understands this, and so does my son. Still times when I could not afford a doctor, the treasury of herb books in my household have been a great help.
In my future work as a medical interpreter, knowing what herbs patients might have used will be helpful too, because then I can tell the doctor and help them have better care. Some herbs go badly with some allopathic medicines. Some can't be taken at all with certain allopathic medicines, some help.
I use these things when there isn't a doctor because some herbs are either growing where they can be picked, or they are not that expensive compared to prescription medicines.
The main thing is to KNOW with certainty what you have.
The PDR for herbal medicines has photographs of all the herbs, and many were things I didn't realize had medicinal uses. That's always cool to find those things out.
Our ancestors who traded far and wide for black pepper just to give one example, got a plant which can be used to kill E. coli, which can cure coughs, and which tastes nice.
In fact people in Dalmacija valued pepper highly, and felt that no one could live a long life who didn't use it.
Or look at garlic, which Russian people say is 'better than ten mothers' It is useful for blood pressure, and for lowering blood fats, or ginseng, or ginger which have uses, these plants were not just valued for their nice tastes. Modern doctors will use them sometimes too if they know about them.

To the Orthodox believers who visit this site, Srecan Bozic! to the Catholic believers who visit this site, happy Day of the Three Kings!

It is cold in the town where I am which is near to the Yakima Gulag, but is more of a Potemkin Village than a Gulag, think of it as Gulag Lite, fewer sex offenders, and no drive by shootings why have a driveby when it's legal to to fire weapons in one's own back yard!
The kids are haveing fun I took them to some websites with pictures of Baba Yaga, I mean damn that IS an important part of their heritage. They LOVE stories with Baba Yaga. I make them up if I can't remember any real ones, it's not so much the story itself they like as the descriptions of her, rideing around in the pestle and morter and eatting bad children, and the house that walks around on chicken feet, and her long snaggly hair and bony legs. They like that stuff.
The dog and the chicken are fine, the hen has cold feet this time of year, nothing worse than being a chicken in winter! Chickens are basically a tropical creature, just like humans! Unlike dogs who are adapted to every climate.
I actually read some of my home work. Some of it might be better done at home. Some has to wait until the grandbabies go to sleep. At least I got my hellos in at two classes. I realized I need two code books too! That could be a bad thing!
If I drove, I could just strap the kids in and go get the books but I don't so it must wait, meanwhile I have the other books, which weigh some 50 or 60 pounds.
At least in the house it is warm and I slept a little better.
My son in law found a Physicians Desk Reference for medicinal herbs, he gave it to my daughter, I told him if he finds another I would love to have one too! It's great, it has photographs.
I have used herbal treatments on my own family, with caution of course because just because a thing is natural doesn't mean it's always safe, tigers are natural are they safe? Of course not!
My daughter of course understands this, and so does my son. Still times when I could not afford a doctor, the treasury of herb books in my household have been a great help.
In my future work as a medical interpreter, knowing what herbs patients might have used will be helpful too, because then I can tell the doctor and help them have better care. Some herbs go badly with some allopathic medicines. Some can't be taken at all with certain allopathic medicines, some help.
I use these things when there isn't a doctor because some herbs are either growing where they can be picked, or they are not that expensive compared to prescription medicines.
The main thing is to KNOW with certainty what you have.
The PDR for herbal medicines has photographs of all the herbs, and many were things I didn't realize had medicinal uses. That's always cool to find those things out.
Our ancestors who traded far and wide for black pepper just to give one example, got a plant which can be used to kill E. coli, which can cure coughs, and which tastes nice.
In fact people in Dalmacija valued pepper highly, and felt that no one could live a long life who didn't use it.
Or look at garlic, which Russian people say is 'better than ten mothers' It is useful for blood pressure, and for lowering blood fats, or ginseng, or ginger which have uses, these plants were not just valued for their nice tastes. Modern doctors will use them sometimes too if they know about them.

The grandbabies are at home today and it's a good thing I odn't have any face to face classes becaues t heir sitter is sick as a dog, and cant' watch them. so here I am, nema problema. Pretty soon it's their breadkfast time. it's cold outside but the pellet stove is keeping things warm. I
So much for plans for word domination! xaxaxaxaxa!

This is really sad. The miners were said to have been found except for the first one reported to be dead, so the whole town broke into celebrations. I remember thinklng, I'm glad the twelve were found alive, but I feel bad for the one dead one. I would have been grateful, but I think I would have done what I could to comfort the family of that last one.
I had kind of a bad feeling about it. I woke in the middle of the night to hear that the miners had been found dead, and the bodies rushed to the hospital, the one miner found, actually was found alive, but as of the last news I heard, he was barely hanging onto his life.
The little town went from wild exuberant celebration to fury in such a short time. I do not blame them for their anger under the circumstances, but it points up a thing that bothers me greatly.
The reason they went through this was they believed a rumor. Someone not authorized to report the situation heard just that the miners were found, this person reported them as alive.
I think the fact this mine has a rather poor safety record did not help, people were already very emotional.
This points up a couple of things, one for people to believe rumors is dangerous, rumor is only gossip on steroids, when people discuss rumor, they need to realize this, and be very clear of the difference between rumor and hard, provable fact.
The other thing is that there was a long time before the deaths of these poor men were reported. Could they have been alive and died later? Or was there 'news management'? If there were men still alive, then their conditions should have been reported, as in 'very serious' 'critical' or any of the standard ways you report that. If they were dead, I can see makeing sure there was an adequate police presence , and takeing care how the statement was worded, but three hours is too long for 'news management'. Past a certain point, it looks bad for the company. This mine has a history of fairly serious violations of safety rules. There are numerous minor violations, but more serious ones to do with air quality in the mine, escape routes being badly maintained, that sort of thing is not good.
Mineing is an unsafe occupation to start with, but it is not war, you do not go into mineing with an immediate expectation of death. A miner knows he's takeing chances, but there are expectatiions that the companies which own mines will obey the safety regulations, and will deal honestly with their workers.

There is a terrible mine disaster back East, a miner has been found dead, he hasn't been identified. Of course th e family members are upset, and I don't blame them. The things peopel suffer in these jobs are terrible, and my heart goes out to them.

I was returning from getting a LARGE and veyr expensive text book at the book store, it was snowing out too. Big fat flakes of snow. I heard a lot of barking in the general direction of the Hoodoo Hands House and the Hell Hound House. I really should have gone up to 16th instead of continueing on the same route. Once I was at the rather slippery crossing the Hell Hound Bitch came out, and ran in a snarling, snapping barking circle around me. JEBIM TI MAJKA!!! I yelled, JEBIM TI CACA!!, well that got a guy out, not the owner of the dog, he coaxed her away from me. The usually harmless brown and white dust mop was all hyped up now, of couse the Hell Hound Daddy Dog and the Hell Hound pups were all barking, but they were fenced in, or on a chain. I did not need that. I went out and logged into my classes and got my home work, and syllibi. There was a young man in the tech center who seemed very returned soldier to me. I pretty much can tell those guys when I see them, so I got very polite. The hell of it is there is a 20 page a day limit on what you can print. I am in maybe once a week tops. I printed most of what I needed, because he gave signs of being totally and inflexiably by the book. Not the end of the world, I can get the rest tomorrow. I am going to go early and do some work on my novel actually, in the writeing center and print some of it out, and then go to Deccio and get the rest of my homework.
My son came home dangerously stressed out from his job. I hate when that happens. it looks like this is going to be a very stressful quarter for me too.

Well I got through right at midnight coordinated gulag time and spoke to my significant other in Sarajevo. He was listening to some fairly loud music, the azan must be bugging him, and he was glad I got through, I told him I tried midnight his time and it didn't work, but it did this time,he told me that the phones went down in Sarajevo, probably the weather. I said I hope I cam make it over there this year. we wished each other Happy New Year, adn he did something he hasn't done before, he told me to wish my family members Happy New Year too!
That was good.
Anyway, it was good to get through on New Year's Eve. I haven't managed that in a long time. Maybe it's a sign of better things this year.
There were a lot of fireworks in the neighborhood, I didn't go downtown, the reain was not something I cared for, and I prefered to call my guy if I could, I could perhaps have used a phone card from a phone downtown, but this was better. Now I will sleep, after I finish my glass of rakija.