Taking the Culture War Straight to the Enemy
the nsfw version of samizdat...Balkanization is a Good Thing!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Sretna Nova Godina!
This has been a rather awful year. I'm thankful to have gotten out of it alive, and that my loved ones have gotten out of it alive.
Before I get to the news, I think we all need a little fortification for the next year. Since the technology at hand doesn't allow me to pour those of you who partake a drink and I couldn't afford it if it did, even with this modest readership, your good taste would make it even LESS affordable, so in the spirit of the season, I will recommend the Capitol Steps. You can listen in before or after reading, or you can just do half before and half after, or do a full dose both times, whatever works for you. Their New Year's Eve programme was earlier than usual because Prairie Home Companion is on tonight. Given the icy state of streets around here, although I would LOVE to go to the New Year's Eve thing downtown, although there's nothing I'd like better, I can't drive and no one I know is likely to go either, so I have to miss the fireworks food and excitement of the celebration put out by the Ministry of Joy ooops City Hall. It actually will be good, those of you who CAN go oughta go. There's no drinking but you can always go to a nice restaraunt ahead of the event, or after the event, or for once wake up with a clear head. They have big heaters and stuff in case it's cold. I just don't like walking on ice or in rain if I don't have to, and I'm going to have to a lot in the new year, at least for as long as this lovely snow remains. I have a love hate relationship with snow. I am grateful for God's bounty because I know how important snow is for us, but I hate walking in it.
Food for Thought This is a post at a blog called Genocide in Bosnia, the young man who puts out this blog is originally from Srebenica, he posted this video because it's got some things he felt worthwhile, I watched it and found a lot to think about. It's a panel discussion about Islamic extremism, and many young people are present.
At the request of Shaina, I am posting a brief summary, this is film of the Doha debates, I'm not sure who is the moderator, somebody British though, participants include Bishop Desmond Tutu,Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, a very remarkable American Muslim convert who really has studied, and he is very good at explaining things about the Muslim perspective to Americans in particular. Diana Butto, She's a Palestinian Muslim person, and a community activist, she's also a lawyer and has served as a legal advisor to the P.L.O. Dr. John Esposito, He's a proffessor at Georgetown University and founded an organization for Christian-Muslim understaning.
The first part of the discussion involved attempting to define extremism and terrorism, which are not so easy to define actually. Diana Butto mentioned a very important point and that is that the powerful tend to be the ones who get to define extremism and terrorism. Another person present who was not on the panel was Rabbi Arthur Schneir who is head of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. There were a lot of students present,who asked very good questions.
One major point was that the extremists are not ALWAYS or ENTIRELY wrong, sometimes they are right about something and it's important to acknowlege them. Acknowleging valid points tends to be a good way to calm extremists. (This is something I've noticed in my own life, to do so may not end the debate, or the problem but it tends to be useful, in at least calming the vehemence of a discussion.)
I do recommend going to the library and watching the whole thing. The other method is if you can download the whole thing while on pause, that sometimes is a useful technique in dealing with online videos. I have a DSL connection and it was even a little slow downloading for me.
This is really a good debate. There is a lot to think about in it.
Since many here will not be familiar with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf here is a link that has some information about him and it's interesting in it's own right.
I smell a whiff of revenge for Saddam in this matter. I am afraid the hanging of Saddam may have sealed these poor people's fate. Unintended consequences can be a real bitch.
Saddam Hussein was hung and the news has just come on the radio. I hold no brief for the man. I think though that other war criminals ought to hang as well.
It is really sort of bleak this morning, it got to 14 Farenheit in the night, but that's in a way good. People kept walking by. I usually don't hear people walk by here in the night, but there's some ice on the walk and I guess that they must walk by and I just don't hear most of them. I get nervous when they are too close to my window. I was working at times on a small sewing project and when I took a break re-reading the Autobiography of Sean O'Casey, the cranky author of Juno and the Paycock.
I don't know what the Hell they were playing at on the Sean Hannity show. He's had a substitute who decided to have an interview with a 'High Level Al Qaida' type.
So I hear this accent, this accent that makes me think of people in that book, 'The Grapes of Wrath' and I hear him throwing around terminology related somewhat to Islam and to Islamic extremists. Right away I flashed on it, this guy is DEFINATELY NOT an Arab, and he's definately not African, or South Asian, his first language is English, the way it's spoken in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Not only that, I sussed that there was no way he was a convert to the Muslim religion, in short NO WAY IN HELL was he involved with Al Qaida.
A lot of listeners though were taken in and called to in one case tell him a smart bomb would go right down his throat. This happy horse shit went on for like an hour. I KNEW this guy wasn't any description of Muslim, not born one, not a convert, and not an extremist. I was starting to get angry with the insult to my intelligence.
At the end they revealed that this guy was really somebody named Bard E. O'Neill. Yeah he knows some stuff but he better not try the 'High Al Qaida Operative' štik again, it's not clever, it's not cute, it's not funny and it's not particularly educational. Just go ahead and say the guy is an instructor at the War College and whatever books he wrote and do a straight interview. It would even if I disagreed with some aspect or other of his points, make me respect the man more.
This was stupid. I would have called in but I know what happens, you sit there forever for damn well ever and get screened and then insulted if you are not one of their type of conservative and then maybe come up against a commercial. I liked when the military intelligence guy called and seemed fooled, that was phoney too I bet.
where we count our blessings that at the moment it is not snowing! Maybe we'll have enough sun to melt some of the water on the streets. That would really be nice. I should say the precipitation is a good thing, especially in the form of snow because a year with lots of snow at all the right times never turns into a drought year.
Actually what is going on here is something the Rant Wing radio people claim isn't happening. Muslims are taking measures to prevent extremist doctrine from taking over in the Balkans and other European communities of Muslims. It's very important to understand that oppressive regimes contribute to extremism in any religious community. Especially the sort of repressive regime that makes people wonder if the Day of Judgement is at hand.
This is important because the Rant Wing radio people have been really hammering on the whole Kosovo question. Some of the appeal the Rant Wing radio people have been using is religious in nature, intended to appeal to extreme views in the Christian community. 'The Serbs are our Christian brothers' is one thing but Milosevic wasn't really much of a Christian! I don't call massacre and rape Christian values. Massacre and rape are not Jewish values either. Some of the propaganda of denial which has taken place just lately around the issue of Kosovo on shows such as the 'Savage Nation' Rush Limbaugh's show, and the Sean Hannity show, lately featuring guest hosts as the regular hosts take vacations has been worse than ever. I think an element of plausible deniability is built in because guest hosts have been doing most of the ranting.
In American news, Former President Gerald Ford died last night. He will be remembered kindly by history because he was a genuinely good man. He wasn't president for very long, and he had the job at a very hard time in American history.
Locally the Rant Wing radio has been full of what basically is untrue information on Kosovo, I figure someone who served there should have some say more than they are getting locally.
I meant to put some new information up on the subject of the possible uses of stone balls. One person I know watched a programme on T.V. about Cappodocia, a community of man-made caves in what now is Turkey, but a long time ago an early Christian community. The people there were often besieged, and they apparently used wheel like stones as a means to block a tunnel in their caves from human entry but to allow people to shoot arrrows out at potential invaders. Sometimes there stone balls were used in flattening floors and in the process of excavating tunnels. The area of BiH that has the most stone balls had many mines for minerals and precious metals, so perhaps these balls were used in the mining process. I need to find out more about this but the headache I'm suffering at the moment prevents my doing this right away.
It snowed a little last night. I still have a little bit of the headache from yesterday. I need to take it a little easy today. I'm happy with what I got for Christmas, my daughter got me some nice thinsulate gloves, I got lots of candy,Cadbury, and other more Christmasy types of candy, home made from my daughter's mother in law, she makes wonderful candies. and a tiny ginger bread house that is a Christmas tree ornament but also edible, I think she gave everyone one of those, they are so CUTE! I got a quilt with pictures of various family members on it doing things that are fun, and my daughter is a dab hand on the singerica! The grandbabies liked their little toy camels, Dee liked the marble candle sticks, Steve seemed to like the books but the big postcard from the Shrine of the book I got him at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit pleased him, We'd agreed to keep things simple for adult members of the family, it's the kids who like having lots of loot. Believe me the kids got LOTS of loot all around and were happy. I wasn't feeling wonderful because I slept poorly Christmas Eve. Mojo felt he needed to bark at passing reindeer or something. . . He got a big bone shaped chew toy, and lots of nice leftover ham and turkey. I know he liked it. I think the kids will long remember getting to ring the bell Christmas Eve at St. Joes. I got a present from someone I haven't seen in ages, a parishner at St. Joes, known as Big John, he's an unusually big and tall man, 7 feet tall if he's an inch, and a gentle soul who likes making religious articles like rosaries, or doing Indian beadwork, he's given me many nice little things of this sort in the past and is a pleasure to talk with. He gave me a very nice rosary made out of wood, and a key chain thing that has a picture of St. Francis and also St. Claire of Assi. I have still a holy card of St. Patrick running the snakes out of Ireland he gave me. I put it in the door window. I put it there partly to keep religious propagandists of other religions from bothering me.
Last night I went with my daughter and son-in-law to Vigil Mass in town, it was lovely. After the service my little grandchildren were allowed to ring the bell, which is a great privelege and they really enjoyed themselves, in fact we all got to ring the bell! I for the first time actually rang a church bell and was pulled up into the air, maybe a couple feet, and I weigh at least 160 lbs now! We all rang the bell so much it reminded me of the Russian church in San Francisco.
Last night I went with my daughter and son-in-law to Vigil Mass in town, it was lovely. After the service my little grandchildren were allowed to ring the bell, which is a great privelege and they really enjoyed themselves, in fact we all got to ring the bell! I for the first time actually rang a church bell and was pulled up into the air, maybe a couple feet, and I weigh at least 160 lbs now! We all rang the bell so much it reminded me of the Russian church in San Francisco.
The very interesting story of Germans who went to Romania in the 12 century is told in part of this article.
Sretan Božić to my regular readers on all continents and in all nations. In the two years of doing this blog, maybe my readership isn't huge, but there are people who read what I post here regularly and who comment pretty regularly. It has been very rewarding and I have enjoyed it.
Now I will indulge my love of footnotes!Footnotes are an old fashioned thing in books, and how one may find out many worthwhile things by surprise. I love footnotes!
*Badnjak Noć is the night before Christmas, a badnjak is the Slavic equivalent of the Yule log, in different Slavic countries there are different traditions related to the badnjak, a log cut in the forest from a species of oak. It is decorated with nuts, figs,honey, and it is burned the night before Christmas. Many sparks from it are supposed to be significant of cattle and wealth. It is not ENTIRELY burned however. Pieces of it are put in the fruit trees after Christmas is over, to ensure the fruitfulness of those trees. This custom is very ancient and dates back to Pagan times. It's done by nearly all Slavic people in one way or another.
I have been saying this for a long time now. Christians lived in relative peace in the Middle East for centuries. I'm not saying it was a perfect situation, but they were able to live, to take care of their families and be alright. Now this is no longer the case.
There is an important thing Christians of North America, and Europe often overlook. Christianity originated in the Middle East. Our roots as Christian are Middle Eastern. Jesus in His Earthly human form was a little Jewish boy born in Bethleham. To do anything that causes destruction for the Christian community in the Middle East is to risk the roots, the origins of the Faith. People who know what these roots are increasingly dispersed to places where their culture inevitably will be diluted and lost. Certain aspects of modern corporate and popular culture are very seductive and also very destructive to Christianity.
Here in the Yakima Gulag we have recieved some real snow, and my daughter surprised me this morning. She works as a baker for Safeway, and that means she must have been at work at her usual un-Godly hour, so her 'lunch break' coincided with my breakfast. I got up late, because it was sort of cold, and I skimmed some of the news, put on some breakfast and there was a knock at the door, it was my beautiful daughter in her baker's whites and red Safeway jacket,bearing a jar of de-icer. 'Where's your snow shovel?' That was in the spajs, so I got it out for her. Offered her coffee, hot chocolate, tea and she said no, just let me know when it's been close to an hour. In under half an hour she had the entire sidewalk around my house done, and sprinkled de-icer. She left me the jar of de-icer too! and a choclate eclair! I am truely blessed to have such a daughter. Bulgaria Shuts Down Nuclear Reactors as Price of E.U. Membership
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=74521
Well at least Bulgaria doesn't have any major war crimes issues in recent times.
I should mention that the Evangelicals are taken a poor view of in many Balkans countries, as are the LDS and Jehovah's Witnesses. At times this disapproval has taken the form of violence.
I think that a really good legal system is a good idea anywhere. Not one clogged by litigious idiots, one that works, and works reliably so that people fear the law not the judge, and so that people obey the law. Law removes the reason for taking personal revenge, and right there that's important. When law doesn't work, people do take matters into their own hands. They bribe and steal and otherwise contribute to disorder, and then matters slide slowly into people having to band together for mutual self protection. That is a bad situation.
Warning! This IS the Daily Mail and they can be a bit dodgy. No British reader needs to be told that but a great many Americans wouldn't know...
The next thing we'll hear is that Mladic is alive and well in Manhattan and Karadzic is alive and well in Kansas City. Seriously it's a wierd weird world.
Seesaw often lays hands on really worthwhile matierial, this is particularly worth reading, I think she managed even to scoop Gordy over at East Ethnia on this one.
I was up fairly late, and saw the snow that is now going away. It's on the cold side. I suspect that the Hell Hounds are back. The yard there has turned totally W.T. There's a camper shell in the hard propped on it's side. and the I don't know for sure how many dog houses. The dogs were barking even at 2:30 in the morning. I don't know who the Hell they were barking at. They could be cold.
The first story has to do with a story of a few days ago, ICE agents apprehended 26 Bosnian Serbs for mis-statements of their military service. They all said they'd done their mandatory JNA service but not said they were in VRS and in units that were involved in the Srebenica massacre.
This is to do with the poor nurses who have been wrongly sentanced to death. I think Libya has treated them so badly that they don't want them out to talk about it.
General Abuzeyd is retireing. He is doing so at the normal age for this, that was reported on Fox News. General Abuzeyd has been one of the main generals in the Iraq war.
Reported on KIT today at 12:42, Mt. St. Helens blew. KOIN TV has live video, small smoke ash and steam plume has been seen.
UPDATE of Volcano story: KIT has reported that the volcanic eruption isn't an eruption, what is happening is that some of the snow melted, and that snow hit the hot rocks in the volcano's opening, of course that turned it into steam.
The worst of it is these people are COMPLETELY INNOCENT!!! There was scientific proof that the AIDS was afflicting those poor children before any of them were even IN Libya! This fact was reported in various news services a couple of weeks ago.
Over the weekend the body of one of the lost climbers was found, as well the death toll of the big wind in the Northwest went up to 8, it may be higher due to people using alternate heating methods, while they lack power. Most people in the Gulag who lost power do have it back, the uneven distribution of power failures is because the wind snapped some power poles but not others, or took down one tree but not another.
We had fun with tartuffe bianco in Sociology class after watching a movie called 'People Like Us.' a movie about social class in the U.S. and I was the only one in the class that even knew what 'tartuffe bianco' means. I'm not entirely sure the instructor knew! She may have, and pretended not to know for the Hell of it. She also might genuinely not have known.
Woke up to 16 degrees but it felt like less. There's frost all over the place. Black ice warnings, etc. Of course they found one of the guys who was climbing Mt. Hood, and he is dead, they haven't officially identified the body. Two still missing, and it's been a week. You know this is probably not going to be good news. People outside the gulag here and there are without power. Some fairly well-to-do people have been showing up in the warming shelters. Actually some people can't even call for help since their only phones are cordless, and you see in the U.S. landlines usually remain up when other means of making a call are down. There's been a rash of carbon monoxied poisonings too. Basically if you are all one sort of heating it can be a bad idea. I'm ok here obviously, the electricity is working, and there's heat, and it looks like the people I know who'se power was out got power, saw the electric company truck on their street anyway.
Rents are so high in California that someone gainfully employed part time must choose between a roof over their head and food, so he was actually acting pretty logically for a single guy. I would have liked to meet him I bet he was an interesting fellow! Now I can't because someone killed him.
Review of a seris that isn't shown in the U.S. Which appears to be based on the story line of 'Grbavica', it's by the same director.
I first heard this disturbing story on the Rush Limbaugh show, and because I did not hear what source he had for his story, I did not want to say anything about it before finding something objective that discusses the story. I already know that hospital conditions for ordinary Ukrainian people are to say the least, deplorable. This makes me afraid to visit, and it is worse than anything I heard of in the Soviet era, and Lord knows that was not a wonderful time... Anyway I wanted to make sure I wasn't hearing things before including this story.
This is by far one of the more upsetting things I've seen of late.
Four have died in the same storm that hit our Gulag, but on the West Side of the State, a woman who drowned like a rat in her windowless basement as her horrified neighbors could not help, and four people sleeping in vehicles of one sort or another. Here we were lucky actually.
Just HAD to Tag me, and on a day when I just don't give a damn since there isn't a huge news overload for Balkans news, z ašto ne? I mean there is no where for a zeka to go in this wind. It's cold but not too bad out. No snow hvala Bog, but we are going to stay in and discuss books since the Adult Snow Child is safely elsewhere. She went to go take her husband some lunch at his work, and probably then will go home and sleep, until time to get him from work.
So here is a book I can totally recomend:
'Irish Raj' the author is Narinder Kapur, and it is the stories of people from India who went to live in Ireland, and Irish people who lived for various reasons in India.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Indian-Author-English-1759-1851/dp/019565238X, he was possibly the first Indian to settle for a lengthy time in Ireland, he opened a Turkish bath, and previously was 'shampooing physician' to King George IV. I did not know that he was an author until I decided to Google him up so I could include a picture of a man who was very elegant.
He was also very long lived, he lived to be 102, and is buried in Brighton, England
There is an aptness that a Muslim who lived in a time when few Muslims lived in the British Isles being buried in the churchyard at St. Nicholas's Church since St. Nicholas is the Patron Saint for Muslims and Jews, a fact that is hilarilous given his opinions of people of these faiths!But I digress.
A family of Romany who live in India, sorry no names, just a cool picture of this Indian family of Romany.The picture accompanies a short explaination that Romany come originally from India and what their caste status were in those long ago times and what their status is now.
Lal Khan: an enterprising clothing seller who worked in Northern Ireland and never really learned English well. None the less a very successful businessman! He knew when to have his wife help him!
Rabindranath Tagore, who corresponded with bothWilliam Butler Yeats and Padraig H. Pearse, And Margaret and James Cousins who went from Ireland to India and who did a lot to help women in India.
because I think he can come up with some interesting reading.... =================****==============****================****=============***========
original taggage see below v
Andy at Csikszereda Musings tagged me for this one with the introduction that 'Like a bus, you can wait years to be tagged and then loads come all at once.'
This post has ended up equally like a bus in that when you're waiting for the damn thing, it takes its own sweet time to turn up.
Anyway, a week ago I was supposed to do the following:
Once nominated, name one book you'd recommend wholeheartedly and explain your choice within one paragraph.
Nominate three people that you'll introduce to your readers in one paragraph.
Let these people know that they've been tagged.
Refer back to the person who tagged you, so that readers can travel back as well.
Let's go with Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, then. It's the story of an intersex teenager growing up in 1970s Detroit; two incestuous Greek lovers' escape from Smyrna to America in 1922; and the intersection of big-brush American history and Greek diaspora life in between. Eugenides ties the whole plot up with allusions and foreshadowings as tight as brown paper packages tied up with strings, which appropriately enough makes it one of my favourite things.
Tag, you're it: Katja, who fillets Balkan news and battles storms in the Yakima Gulag;
My Adult Storm Child is arriving shortly. She has no power in her home and needs to stay warm so I got a call about 6:45 "*Komrade*Katjuša*, imas li struja?' 'Da imam!' So a zeka who needs very much to stay warm is soon to arrive on premises. The storm had winds of 100 mph and knocked out power in a sporadic way around the Yakima Gulag. I happen to have power hvala Bog! She does not and this comrade zeka lives only a matter of blocks away. My power was on all night and nema problema. I have been tagged and have no time to respond until I've dealt with vijesti. Watch this space for vijesti, and I'll see about the tag as soon as I have a free moment from being hospitable.
Oh the comrade zeka was chased in her car by the Hell Hounds! the Female Hell Hound followed her car to my place and BIT the tire. I have called 911 on these urki. I am fairly sure they must be urki no decent zek would own such beasts.
Rant Alert: On the whole stupid ass conference in Tehran..
The conference of Holocaust deniers is one of the more stupid things I've heard of. David Dukes being there is particularly wonderously stupid. I wonder if Ahmedinajad(sic) REALIZES that this man belonged to and held high office in the Ku Klux Klan, and that the Ku Klux Klan HATES LOATHES andDESPISES any religion other than certain Protestant types of Christianity?
Ummmm this includes Muslims! It's carrying the whole the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' bit WAY too damn far. It is not going to help Iran, and it isn't going to do anyone in the Middle East any good, it in fact is going to do harm, active harm.
There wasn't always in the Muslim world such an anti-Semitic viewpoint. Muslims in many countries, BiH, Albania, Bulgaria, North Africa, saved Jewish lives.
Well the predicted storm is rocking and rolling through the Yakima Gulag, the wind is howling and any unclosed doors are slamming in the most sinister way. Update* NPR and KIT knocked off the air. usually KIT manages not to get knocked off the air, it's ridiculously easy to knock NPR off the air, but usually not both will be knocked off at the same time, as well some bridge in the Seattle area is going to be closed at 11pm, due to the winds.
Further Update** Winds of 100 mph have been located in parts of the Pacific Northwest...
It of course creeps me out, not that storms bother me but the wind kicked up before I realized what was happening. That all happened as I decided to make up one of those boxes of no bake cheese cake. I vary the recipe a tiny bit, for one I usually use powdered milk with a hit of coffee creamer, which means I mix the filling with hot not cold water, and I put it in two small plastic Gladware dishes since I don't have an actual 9 inch pie pan, and then put them in the fridge to chill, for obviously longer than the 'at least one hour'. This was a thing I made often when the kids were little, because carrying ice cream in a back pack in any weather just isn't my idea of fun and delightfulness. I don't know it looks like the wind is indeed the promised 50mph+ we were all warned about, I hear it howling out there. Was out seeing a friend who is ill right now most of the day, I took my copy of 'No Man's Land' for us to watchm, since she'd never seen it. She has a kid, and we wanted to pick a time when her kid was away since there is some language in the film and some violence, du'h it is a war movie! So we timed it in such a way that no small children would see it. She liked it, and we had some lunch, then I went home, it was stormy out from early. It smells like Seattle here. All the ice is washed away from the sidewalks near me, but I bet it will all be back tomorrow.
Interesting to note that the Soviet Union continued to treat badly any soldiers who returned from being prisoners of war. This was a prime reason not to go home when he might have. He would have MASSIVE reentry shock if he did go back. Looks like he's got a nice family where he is.
Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights Marked in Yakima Gulag
The commemoration was a quiet candle light vigil and we did readings of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, then had coffee and cupcakes in the cold, then we read poetry related to Human Rights questions, Mr. Leonard picked some excellent poems for us to read. I got one by a Palestinian poet, and someone else got a Latino poet. I read the whole thing because I didn't think the others had the right attitude to read the one I was given. Mr. Leonard sort of knows what resonates for people. I would have brought a little of my own work too if I'd known ahead. Anyway it was covered by KAPPTV a broadcast Channel, the ABC affilate here in the Gulag, SChannel 35 if you don't have cable, sorry I don't know what it is on cable.Should be on the 11 o'clock news.
I am having a quiet glass to commemorate that an evil man has passed from this Earth. God has called him to Judgement. I hope he gets a hot tub in Hell. I am speaking of Agosto Pinochet.
Another dictator had a customs officer for a father, I want to see how many YGLG readers know who that was...
I noticed something very interesting. The White House statement wasn't what I expected out of a right wing administration.
''Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile represented one of most difficult periods in that nation's history,'' said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman. ''Our thoughts today are with the victims of his reign and their families.''
I have just spent a fairly hellish morning with Skype, trying to get hold of my fiance, who is back in Sarajevo from visiting some relatives. I heard him just fine the first three tries, but he didn't hear me. O.K. that can happen with a purely landline call too. I don't like that under any circumstances. I tested the microphone and I know it works fine, so that's not the problem. He was perfectly audible to me, which was nice, but he could not even tell who I was. I had to go through nonsense with the password too. I after years on the internet suffer badly from password overload, and places to keep passwords overload. Skype doesn't easily let me change my password to something I might actually remember. The credit would have expired had I not used it, and I don't like that much either. It's possible to get phone cards with no expiration date whatever. I know it can be done, because I have done it. I only tried Skype on the advice of Ivan the Terrible,Minister of Information Technology for the Yakima Gulag. He's going to be hearing about the essential Balkans unfriendlieness of Skype Out. I tried a number of times too,J all I did was annoy my fiance, who probably thought I was a crank caller. So that's $10 right down the W.C. Jebiga bilo kako!
The following two articles are from Slobodna Dalmacija they are in Croatian, and are an interview with an Al Qaida operative who is in the jail in Zenica, BiH:
We are getting more snow in the Yakima Gulag. Quite a bit more snow, the streets which were bare are now white, and this zeka is grateful not to have to go anyplace.
I'm rather relieved, not because I have any use for Seselj but because the whole concept of hunger striking is so damn archaic, and no one should be doing it. I hope he will learn not to be such a Drama Queen, that may be too much to ask of him though. This whole exercise was a manipulation of the system, and it has led to a delay in the trial. Those add up after awhile.
I think the whole thing is totally trumped up. There never has been an Albanian seperatist movement in Montenegro, does their governmetn feel left out by not having such a movement? Because this sort of behavior will create a seperatist movement where none existed before.
He was denied the customary funeral due to the radiation, the British felt it would have been too dangerous for the mourners, and the type of coffin might have been a danger too. This denial comes after a lot of reassuring statements to the public that polonium 210 has to be ingested to be dangerous.
I'm just glad something is being said. Now it's time to do something. BiH is the place the extremist ideology can be rolled back most effectively, so there is no excuse not to roll it back.
It's been pretty damn cold here, and I was out in it. A friend of mine just moved, and although I've told her she doesn't need to buy me a present, she did, lovely Turkish delight, and I went and got her some amaretto, since that's her favorite drink. She has a lot of stairs and I had a time getting up all of them. I brought music to listen to, and we sat and had coffee, watched the sunset and listened to music. She's on one of those wierd streets where it's very hard to find an ice free sidewalk, but I found some, and was not lucky about busses. Finally got one going close to home. Stopped in at the Arab owned store near home for some sodas, since I was nearly out. I ration soda, I'm down to only having one in a day, and definately not every day. Anyway I was glad to get in since it was face-freezing cold. Today I am going to stay in.
Yesterday they found poor Mr.Kim. He and his family took a wrong turn onto a road usually closed in Winter. His wife and daughters were found alive in their vehicle, he however went for help, and wasn't at all adequately dressed for this errend. 1.it is seldom a good idea to leave one's vehicle in this sort of emergency. A vehicle is shelter, 2. and is ig enough to see from the air. 3. it's way too easy to get lost in the woods. 4. Hypothermia, he obviously got hypothermia and lost his reasoning ability. I've had hypothermia and one initial symptom is very like the worst hot flash you ever had in your life. The immediate impulse is to take off some clothes. That is the WORST move. You need to get to shelter, get warmer, and then it's ok to take off some clothes. I was in Santa Fe when it happened, and I went into a place to get coffee, and sit down before heading home. I took my coat off once inside, because it felt radically warmer, and I fainted, Two people I knew came to my help, and called a friend to take me home to my mother. She was from another area of the U.S. that is gulag like, and knew what to do. I was alright.
I wonder if Mr. Kim weren't so afraid for his family, if he wasn't so afraid he was going to see them die, that he couldn't face it, and that that made him go into the snow? I don't go places if I can avoid it. I am glad classes are over for the year and I don't need to go to school again until January. I got into my biology class, and the math class I need, and i'm now only #8 on the wait list for the other class, I was #27 only a week ago, so I have the chance to get in. Both those classes are online, and the math class is on campus. I don't usually like on-line classes, but I don't need to be out and around right now either, so it's good.
This just in from NPR: The ICTY has ordered Vojslav Šešelj to be taken to hospital and steps taken including drip feeding to prevent him carrying out the hunger strike until death. Šešelj has been on hunger strike for 29 days now.
Alright, the U.S. has gotten along with no official language for 200 years. I'm not saying it's never been a problem, a national language however isn't a vital necessity, why have fights about it? Just have important forms and ballots available in all languages spoken by citizens of the country.
London Sevdah is a very worthwhile project and I hope people will go have a look at their blog, and their website, let them know if you'd like to hear some of their latest recordings, COMMENT, please comment!
First let me say that while the fast unto death has an ancient tradition among the pre-Christian Celts and the people of India as a means of obtaining justice, I don't know of a similar tradition among the ancient Slavs.
Fasting, sometimes fairly rigorous, is a tradition of both the Catholic and Orthodox believers as a means of improving the soul, but that is a different matter from fasting in search of an earthly goal. In that situation it becomes an ugly form of emotional blackmail, which is why fasting unto death is not moral as far as I'm concerned. Justice is on the merits of the case not on this type of emotional blackmail.
Which leads to our own Yakima Gulag Winter tradition, the Madrigal Feaste. The last night is tonight. Last night I attended with three friends, and we were fortunate enough to have a table close to the front. The catering was EXCELLENT. Instead of ho hum canned beef stew, the new caterers prepared a spinich salad with raspberry vinnaigrette, tiny roast potatoe, everyone got about three of those, and roast beef! not canned soup, ROAST BEEF! Desert was apple pie, very good apple pie it was too! and all the coffee or tea you might like, and I almost forgot the sourdough bread! It did need to be cut, which was a little inconvenient, but it was delicious, really delicious. Now we zeks at the school were able to obtain tickets at $10 a piece with student ID, the general public, (urkis, nomenklatura,administrators) were $20 a piece Tonight is the last night. Pictures may be seen at the Yakima Gulag's Flikr page.
The truck was headed for Finland, o.k. so far as I know there isn't a Sami Liberation Army or anything, it's a dead cert those weapons were going to be dropped off someplace else.
Now just a cotton pickin minute here, Seselj is not imprisoned in vile conditions, no one is torturing him. Until he went to the hospital, he was among friends. No one held a gun to his head and said to go on hunger strike. It's not like he was Gandhi, or even Bobby Sands.
Well, it's still cold, but it's been pretty out because the sun has been out. I have most of the work on the English paper done, I can't do anything else tonight, other than the highlighting of quotes. This is something that most of the other instructors at the Yakima Gulag People's Institute of Higher Re-Education (tm) have not required. Not that it's a huge problem, it's just one more job. I am not sure even the fairly big folder I got will hold everything. The postage was high but at least not prohibitive. I do NOT in the LEAST blame the instructor for this. She works hard to comment on papers and then people don't collect their papers at all! That's so WRONG! To me her thoughts are worth the price of the SASE, and I was gladd to do it.
This legislation is an enormous step forward into the 21st century and it was very brave of him to do this. His critics have called the law 'un-Islamic. I don't see how that could be the case since adultery is still a crime, and you can go to jail for five years if convicted, or be fined $165, which is a serious chunk of change in Pakistan. Jail sentances for women are almost worse than death since rape is a real danger to women prisoners in all of the sub-Continent. So the penalty is still pretty severe.
Well it is cold here, but I understand that we in the Yakima Gulag may well be in better shape than people less used to this sort of weather. We are actually a tad warmer than where Ivan the Terrible is now living. I was wearing my other pair of boots yesterday, not my Doc Martin (TM) cowboy boots, but a fairly fancy label, and the sole came loose as I was on my way home. Thank God it wasn't too awful out there, but it was harder getting home because of this. Once home I switched boots and went to take care of some essential business, ie putting my paycheck in the bank and getting some much needed walking around money. Today is to be devoted to the finishing of the final English paper.
Location: Yakima Gulag, Soviet of Washington, United States
No Work Element living in The Yakima Gulag, Soviet of Washington. In the year 2007 I went to live in Sarajevo, BiH. I had a terrific time, but a series of Unfortunate Events made it necessary to return to captivity.
