YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett

Today is the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the U.S. Army Camel Corps, I have always really liked camels, I like their intelligence and grace and feel they get very undeserved bad press. My late step father swore he saw a white camel and her calf in the Mojave desert when he was a Boy Scout out there camping with his troop. I believe him as he had very sharp eyes.
Bacrians were used too, but most of the animals imported were Dromadaries, I personally have an old article from Harpers Magazine that has an account of their arrival in Texas.
Here are some links about this story.

http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/hijolly-ap.htm

U.S. Army Camel Corps

http://www.texascamelcorps.com/
Texas Camel Corps

http://www.drumbarracks.org/original%20website/Camel%20Corps.html

Book on U.S. Camel Corps

http://www.forttejon.org/camels.html
This guy says camels weren't much used in the U.S.

He has a point, there's a history of using the Bactrian variety in Canada, in the Yukon.

but the camels saw use in Death Valley

Camels in Death Valley

File under the NERVE of Some People!

http://news.aol.com/strange/story/_a/dutch-pedophiles-to-launch-political/n20060530085709990013


Pedophiles in Holland Form Political Party

http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=60629

Black Gold in the Balkans
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060531/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_referendum_dc;_ylt=A0SOwmDal31Egl4BXg1m.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Meeting between Serbian and Montenegrin Leaders

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-05-31-voa8.cfm

U.N. Concludes Milosevic Died of Natural Causes

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11526688

Milosevic's Surviving Brother Disputes Finding

Shades of the Great Migration:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060531/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_kosovo_dc;_ylt=A0SOwmKnnH1EzU8BzANm.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

U.N. Braces for Serb Exodus from Kosovo

Taken on May 30,2006 by Melita a Flikr friend. Blogging this image from Flikr didn't go the way
it should have so I had to do it this way.


Life returns to 'normal' for Y.T. I was expecting to go to someone's house for a study session so I asked Ivan the Terrible to please bring avocados so I could make guacamole, one of my specialities. He did and as I was cutting the second one in half, one of my classmates called to say that the other student couldn't make it and her husband was sick anyway. So we had my very good guacamole for dinner as part of very nice nachos!


http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=125&newsid=89373&ch=0&datte=2006-05-30

Javier Solana to Visit Belgrade

Warning: the following story has an obnoxious advertisement.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060530/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_kosovo_dc;_ylt=A9G_RwKfSXxESoYB0Q9m.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Independant Montenegro Means Trouble

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20060530-085910-3661r

Objections to Montenegrin Independance Linger

http://www.regnum.ru/english/648217.html

Russia Should Welcome Refugees From Kosovo

Tattoos are a definate no no for police here, as are visible piercings, and it's the case in the business world here too. Nice to see someplace this is regarded as discriminatory at least in the case of tattoos!

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/457628.htm

Croatia to End Ban on Officers With Tattoos or HIV


http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=125&newsid=89266&ch=0&datte=2006-05-29

Tadic Shares Objections to Boycott of Serbian Goods in Kosovo


http://virtual.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=12746&group=General

Serbian Asylum Seekers Fined in Finland

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=64011

Bird Flu Scandal in Romania Bigger Than Ever

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=143&newsid=89364&ch=0&datte=2006-05-30

EU Must Ease Visa Restrictions for Western Balkans




http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=129&newsid=89392&ch=0&datte=2006-05-30
Croatia Snowed under!

Again obnoxious ad warning. One wonders how this person is supposed to keep her swimsuit bottom on!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060526/ap_on_re_eu/bosnia_war_crimes
Bosnian Serb Officer gets 20 years

http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2006/05/nparticle.2006-05-23.9962988556


Current Status at Mt. St. Helens

They did not report this locally because of the Memorial Day weekend, until 11 pm but it's enough that the alert level is Orange.

Update:

Here is a webcam view of the volcano...

Note the ash plume, eruption has continued it looks like.

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

Webcam View of Mt. St. Helens

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-tours/volcano_news/indian_ocean/comores/?&L=%2F%2F

Volcano link


http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=120&newsid=89312&ch=0&datte=2006-05-29

A volcano blew in the Comorros Islands, the one expected to blow was in Indonesia, but I guess there was no particular attention being paid to this one.

The earthquake in Indonesia has taken many lives, and it is proving hard to get aid to the people. They have a volcano that is expected to erupt soon as well.

Child Trafficking Ring Busted
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/29-05-2006/81170-Belgrade-0

Chemical plant explosion in Serbia kills 4

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=64196

Trade Unions in Bulgaria Protest poor wages


http://entertainment.iafrica.com/books/news/451370.htm

Handke Award Causes a Row

This I do not consider good news. 1. there is a matter of BiH's territorial integrity, 2. Serbs are NOT the only people living in Republika Srpska. 3. This has not been part of Serbia or an independant area
In other words it's a very different situation from Montenegro which was an independant country for centuries before being part of Yugoslavia and later Serbia Montenegro. To allow this is to reward the violence committed on BiH in the 1990s.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060529/wl_nm/bosnia_referendum_dc

Dodik Calls for Referendum

2006_04290037
Originally uploaded by uyf_aive.

I've never been to this town, never heard of it, but maybe something really bad happened here, something steven king like or something....

2006_04290091
Originally uploaded by uyf_aive.

sorry I just had to blog this it doesn't look like a good place to find much of anyone, especially sluts, who expect some sort of amenities after all!

Cool wierdness that I liked! Probably it's propaganda from whatever planet Gospodin Vilim is exiled from but that's o.k.! I liked it!

http://www.annecy.org/home/index.php?Page_ID=647&ressource_id=627&film_id=20065010
Bendito Machine


Yugoslavia R.I.P.

Foreign Minister Rupel says Talks Slovenia Should Start Talks With Montenegro

Bird Flu Center in Romania

Today is sunny and a bit cold, which is ok with me I cope better with cold than with heat.
I woke up later than usual. Probably that's a good thing, most days I get up very early. I don't feel wonderful, I have a sore throat.

How the Hell did I miss THIS story?!?
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63868


13,000 Quarantined in Bucharest

The bird flu is present in Indonesia as well, compounding the problem of the horrific earthquake they had, by crossing into the human population. There have been requests that Tamiflu be sent there, as the measures possible in Buharest are not possible in Indonesia!

The unfortunate people of Indonesia have been visited with another catastrophe. There has been an earthquake that at last report I heard, killed 400+ people.

There has been a report of gunfire heard at the Rayburn Blg, the Senate office building. This is on NPR and the reports have grown more alarming since first aired half an hour ago. The most recent report 8:41 our time was that 1. ambulances have been called, and 2. Security people are going room to room to a. search for the source of hte noise of shots fired, and b. to tell staff and senators to close their doors and stay put.

8:50
The NPR reporter is telling what he observed. He heard nothing entering the garage, and then heard chaos, because hundreds of tourists were being evacuated. Then the Capitol ws locked down.

As of now the Capitol is open but the Rayburn House Office building is being searched and is being searched top to bottom. The ambulances were only there on standby but no one really knows what is going on.
David Welna (sic) of NPR reported this.


Final Update: The noise was construction noise, and the situation is sort of normal, but one person had to be taken away as that person suffered a big panic attack.

Clinton to Visit old Tito Resort
Both these stories are perhaps more on the 'trivial' end of the scale, but given how things are in the region when there is a lot of news, I can live with that.

Bonus points, Mecap has been accused of war crimes, front page Slobodna Dalmacija, and if you go to the Death Notices (osmrtnice) a lady passed away at the age of 106!



http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060526/novosti02.asp

more

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-romania-castle.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Von Hapsburg happy to go home to the 'Dracula Castle'

So the handover is complete.

thanks Mate:

Whiteness Studies


This sort of course is useful, for one thing race as such doesn't REALLY exist, not in an objective sense, but it certainly does exist as a social construct.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/05/bosnia-pm-to-form-war-crimes.php

BiH will form War Crimes Commission

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/25/news/edpfaff.php

Article about Djilas and about Montenegro

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564740684470681714

Pyramid Update

Not that this amounts to much of an update!

http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20060525-102017-7468r.htm


Gen. Clark says Kosovo is near to independance

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/basket7st/basket7st1148534510.aspx

Terror Suspects busted in BiH

Just when ethnic based crime was supposed to be going down!

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20060525\ACQDJON200605251116DOWJONESDJONLINE000746.htm&selected=9999&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked&lang=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na


Serb Lawyers attacked in Kosovo


Vuk Draskovic says Montenegrin Independance likely in July

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Friday/Columns/20060526081624/Article/index_html

Vanishing Nations

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20060525-050317-9121r

Illegal Immigration into Spain

Well on the other hand it's some sort of balance for the illegals from North Africa.

I am having problems with my mouse again.
Most annoying.

I thought today might be a good day to explain for some of my readers who don't know this bit of history, how the attire of Western people got to be so immodest.

The West has not been really recognized as a place of extremes in dress, but in fact it was in the period of the late 16th century to the beginning of the 20th century.

Women's dress included huge hats with big feathers and birds and such, they had corsets that cinched their waists in so much that it was a danger to health. Some women even had their two lowest ribs removed in order to be corsetted yet tighter.
They wore hoop skirts and high heels, and fainted easily. They wore excessive jewelry.

There is a big difference between being both beautifully and modestly attired and excess. Excess always comes from the fashion industry, serious excess is not a thing normal people will do.

The original Rational Dress Movement as you can see from the following link:

http://www.fashion-era.com/rational_dress.htm

Rational Dress Movement

As you can see they advocated something modest, comfortable and practical while still being beautiful.

Since trousers in any form were not customary dress in most of the Christian world at the time, it was rejected. The only places where Christian women wore bloomers were places like Lebanon, Syria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, where some regional dress for Christians included them at least for work in the fields, and sometimes as daily attire or even of elegant dress might include the full Turkish bloomers.

In England anything that was like trousers was assumed not to be proper Christian dress.

Women were riding bicycles and of course skirts are highly impractical for that! Bloomers of about calf lenght worked quite well for women who rode bicycles.

Since pants violeted the interpretation most Western, Northern European, North American had of the Biblical verse prohiting cross-dressing, 'Bloomers' were condemned.
I think if they hadn't gone the direction of being 'man tailored' the fashion might have spread into the working classes and been generally more accepted.

During WWI fabrics were in short supply and rationed. Skirt lengths went up, leaving only peasant women in long skirts for the most part.
By then men had taken over the fashion industry, and it was their fantasies which decided what women would wear. So modern dress is less beautiful, less modest and less in touch with realities of the female body.
There are people who say that women in certain other cultures are oppressed by what they must wear and by what they may not wear.
The truth is a similar lack of choice is the case in the West at this point, mainly because of business dress codes.
Business dress codes are intended to prevent people showing up at work looking like sluts. I'm all for preventing that, don't get me wrong! Where I have a problem is that a lot of modern business attire 1. does not allow a woman to be properly covered, 2, makes no accomadation for women's physical needs, 3, has no pockets, forceing women to carry purses 4, looks too mannish or is too tight and is too short. 5. It doesn't allow women to cover their hair which in fact IS a Biblical requirement.

I find it most ironic that it is Christians who most no longer LOOK like Christians!

A lot of the people who fund Christian Extreme Fundamentalist movements are IN the business community!
It's interesting that liberal Christians are MUCH more likely to understand the importance of modesty in attire as a part of observing Christianity!
There is some movement back toward modest attire, but churches for the most part are not backing it like they should.
Mormons value modesty and Catholics do as well. There have been groups of Catholic and Mormon girls who have put on fashion shows for modest dress and who have pressured stores to stock modest dress.
This is a reaction to the fact that even clothes for little children have a certain 'street' quality to them. When places like Abercrombie and Fitch were selling thong underwear to pre-teen girls there was a reaction to that, but there was no reaction to the fact that besides underwear that is too skimpy, over garments were too skimpy for a LONG time!
A Christian woman should have her skirts at about ankle length, lower calf lenght at the very shortest, and should not have cleavage on her blouses. Sleeves ought to be at the elbow and women really should be wearing scarves!
For most of history that was what women wore!
I can see exceptions for going to the beach to swim, I can see exceptions for athletic events and for work reasons. Obviously a woman who is a soldier isn't going to wear skirts on the battlefield or in a field hospital! Obviously a woman who is working in a hospital is far better off wearing some form of trousers, because caring for sick people you could have to move in a way where a skirt would be WAY too revealing!
Most of us don't work in hospitals, most of us are not soldiers, and we don't most of us go to the beach every day either!
I think men are almost de-sensitised to the female body in the Western culture. You notice that a LOT men have problems functioning by a certain age, there is a reason Viagra is such a popular drug! That should not be the case! That is sad for these men and their wives!
Modesty would be better for both men and women.
A woman who is a slave to the fashion industry is not a liberated woman, a woman who is a sex object is not a liberated woman.

Oh this is juicy!

Falsifikator Gotovinine putovnice
uhićen zbog farme marihuane

IDEALNI UVJETI U kući koju je unajmio poznati falsifikator Franjo Katavić, okrivljen da je krivotvorio putovnice generala Ante Gotovine, Hrvoja Petrača i Libera Matekovića, policija je pronašla ukupno 268 stabljika marihuane uzgajane u idealnim uvjetima

For those of you who can't read B/H/S... The forger who made Gen. Ante Gotovina's false passport was arrested due to th e fact he had a marijuana farm. there was a hell of a lot of pot there bad dudes and dudettes!

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060525/index.asp

Big Pot Bust nets forger
more:

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060525/crnakronika01.asp

More

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/entertainment/Royal+News+Serbia+s+Prince+Calls+For+Monarchy+To+Return-18071.html

Prince Calls for Return of Monarchy

My editorial take, I have more royal blood than the average American. It's nothing so special to have royal ancestors. The real reason it's cool to find them is at LAST you can find records that are both old and well kept. That was for a reason, to guarantee succession of course. THe thing is that the kings and queens of old were seldom good people, even the 'good' ones were more notable for being successful in war which is even when undertaken for the most just of causes, a vicious business.
Most of the well remembered good kings and queens were remembered for 1. being unusually successful in war, or 2. they really WERE good like St. Queen Jadwiga who founded colleges, or Queen Katarina Vukcic-Kosaca who did works of mercy for the poor and taught poor children to read, even when she was not a queen, or St. Queen Margaret of Scotland who again did works of mercy and fostered learning. Other queens were remembered as Marie Antoinette was remembered.....
I'm not saying that royal people can't be good, but it is so hard to be good and rule people. As far as Constitutional Monarchy goes well, that's silly subsidising a family just because of their blood-line! There is no point giving people money and housing and cheering the births of their children simply so they can run around cutting ribbons for highways and christening ships!
A monarchy that doesn't rule is a waste of money and a monarchy that does rule is an anachronism.

On the other hand I doubt that Mr. Karadjordjevic could do a worse job than the late Mr. Milosevic!

Montenegro itself was a monarchy and they had some of the hottest looking princesses ever to walk the earth! :)

Yesterday, President Vicente Fox of Mexico visited the Yakima Gulag, it was a low key visit, mostly a fact-finding tour. He visited a grower and some workers here, and was out by evening.

The Immigration Bill is still causeing agitation around here, it's very tiresome because this isn't the kind of reform I'd like to see.
The real key is to ease immigration law all around and take away all excuse for illegal entry. Legal aliens could not be so utterly exploited, they still probably would not make as much as born Americans or natualized Americans. I do not believe in makeing citizenship any easier, but I do favor making legal immigration easier. Then go ahead and tighten up the illegal means of entry.

Happy Birthday Bob Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan!!
Front Page news, Croatia is not going to hurry and recognize newly independant Montenegro

One reason is that division of assets isn't complete between Serbia and Croatia and since Montenegro was part of first Yugoslavia and then Serbia Montenegro, that means there are still issues in this matter between newly independant Montenegro, which have been 'inherited' so to speak. Plus maybe Croatia doesn't want to piss off Serbia.

In the same issue an article on Croatia building more nuclear reactors to produce power. Most Balkans nations have reactors.

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060524/index.asp

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060524/index.asp

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/stones%20postpone%2015%20gigs_24_05_2006

Stones Not Going to Zagreb


Further on the handover of Dracula's castle...

http://dailyireland.televisual.co.uk/home.tvt?_scope=DailyIreland/Content/News&id=30433&opp=1&_ticket=M1N3Y8ERQGSGX237CAMAAQ6GAPKACK3URGQFIR0CANZEFNPCEH0IZQRFLZ9KMMTEDYLABHSI7RXEIOPNFYSEANYPFGSGW4UGHONCNU0DALOL6Z5FURUSJORE9NTHLF8WBHSJ7QRFOSMAAT2DALOLT

Dracula's Castle Hand over

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20060524\ACQDJON200605240740DOWJONESDJONLINE000530.htm&selected=9999&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked&lang=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na

Ethnically Motivated Crime Declining in Kosovo

Montenegrin Independance is the end of the Yugoslav Navy

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=125&newsid=88960&ch=0&datte=2006-05-24

End of Yugoslav Navy


Officers indicted in Croatia for war crimes in 1991
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-05-24T103028Z_01_L24324133_RTRUKOC_0_UK-WARCRIMES-CROATIA.xml&src=rss


War Crimes Trial

President of Serbia Montenegro Resigns


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/23/content_4590811.htm

Resignation


There were three Kosovo Albanian American citizens killed in the Kosovo war, this is a break in that case.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12950817/from/RSS/

Serb Policeman held in wartime slayings

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=125&newsid=88926&ch=0&datte=2006-05-23

Montenegrins will be treated as foreigners in Serbia


More on the five Uighers

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/14972

Uighers in Albania

Warning: swearing... but so funny!

For best use of scythes in a music video! Thompson and his group perform 'Moj Ivane'




And the winners at this years Eurovison, ps did the rest of you notice all the Turkish flags in that one segment?

Finland's Eurovision Entry!

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060523/index.asp

Dukanovic Waits for Acceptance from Croatia

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,417639,00.html

A German View of How Europe Is Now

Traffickers stopped at Macedonian-Greek Border

http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=60368

Traffickers stopped at Macedonian-Greek Border

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1989463&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

So Long Yugoslavia!

Of course Irish people are VERY interested in Montenegrin independance as it came by the vote.

http://dailyireland.televisual.co.uk/home.tvt?_scope=DailyIreland/Content/News&id=30314&opp=1&_ticket=U5G3KYY9CHVR6JL1HONDNPTK9LLDNVP5TRRIVQNAGNYGDNNCEM1FURUQ4YZ9ANWRALKACJ5G0QRFK1SL9NTGN0O9CHUTXSQFIQ0HHMTEDWFSPGSGX4SFMSMAAQ48X7KACK5FURXJHONGJMTEDW9MW

Historical Facts on Montenegro

Montenegro Independance Vote

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-05-23T130805Z_01_L23363010_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SERBIAMONTENEGRO.xml&src=rss


Montenegro Begins Division Talks With Serbia

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-05-23T130958Z_01_L23363010_RTRUKOC_0_US-SERBIAMONTENEGRO.xml

Montenegro Begins Talks on Division of Assets with Serbia

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=88901&ch=0&datte=2006-05-23

Croatia wants recognition of Croats as National Minority in Macedonia

Both Croats and Albanians have a long historical presence as minorities in Macedonia, .


This guy makes some interesting points about the EU vs being a part of Yugoslavia, BUT... Yugoslavia wasn't the same as just Serbia and Montenegro!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1780820,00.html

an opinion piece in the Guardian

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5007654.stm


The Press Loves This Story

http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=294025&rel_no=1

Castle of Dracula Family to be Handed Back to Descendants This Week

We still have rain here, and it's been interesting trying to keep dry. It can be done though!

Alright, the resolution leaves much to be desired but it's possible now to see these places, and given that the other Mostar live cam is down, it's something at least!
Huge tip of the sombrero to Quod over at Balkan-Scissors for posting the to Goran's Homepage, which I have not visited in like two years, because I lost the link. I went through his links and found this page that way.


Visocica!


A New Mostar Live Cam

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060522/index.asp

Montenegro Vote is Front Page News in Croatia

I had no idea Montenegro had any surviving royal family that is known as a royal family.
Then again if the Ottomans and the Hapsburgs could, why not the Montenegrins?

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2006052018470000&Take=1

Crown Prince of Montenegro favors Independance

Note man in Montenegrin national dress voting.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/21/montenegro.serbia.ap/index.html

Serbian View of Montenegro Vote

http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=60357

UN High Representative in front of BiH Parliment

Of course anything the U.S. does is wrong according to 'Pravda'! I still think sending those guys back to China when they didn't do anything to Americans isn't right, in fact even sending them to Albania was and dangerous, sort of a back door eventual hand back because Albania is a strong ally of China.
Everyone knew that there could be innocent people caught up in this and that there should have been a plan for their safe release. Assylum might have been a reasonable choice.

http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/22-05-2006/80729-Uzbek-0

Uzbek anti-terrorism official accuses US


I think that the separation of Montenegro from Serbia is going to make it yet more complicated finding and prosecuting the war criminals and another thing, it is known that Montenegrins participated in such crimes. A Montenegrin general was in charge of the bombardment of the city of Dubrovnik for example..
Karadzic is said to slip into Montenegro from time to time. I don't think a sufficiently strict border regime is possible on the Republika Srpska Montenegrin border, because it's a place of steep mountains and large areas where no one lives.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2191643,00.html

Analysis: Mladic issue swung vote in Montenegro


http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060522/NEWS08/605220354/1018/NEWS

Croatian American Hero's Relatives recieve the Medal of Honor

And a different sort of culture....

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63832

Only three Bulgarian Yogurt Brands have Bulgaricus Culture


Now wait a minute, isn't unemployment pretty high in Russia?

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=88758&ch=0&datte=2006-05-20

Russia wants Montenegrin workers

Locally the weather has been rainy. We had a small anti-war demonstration in the rain. Some nice lady brought us a few cheap umbrellas to use. At the end the umbrellas were put in the back of the truck to use in case of rain next time.

It is again overcast today. At least it's cooler! The rosebushes out back are blooming now too. They look so lovely!

http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=21244

Montenegrin Vote Favors Independance!

http://cbs2chicago.com/worldwire/Montenegro-Referendum-ai/resources_news_html

But Opponants Dispute Results

Well Mike over at 'The Glory of Carniola' got his wish, Finland indeed won Eurovision! As everyone knows I was hoping Hari Mata Hari would win. i don't have anything against Finland, they're lovely people, I just was rooting for Hari! I wanted him to win!
Now I'm sad!

Today is the referendum in Montenegro on independance.

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=129&newsid=88788&ch=0&datte=2006-05-21

But Croatian Chocolate is Perfectly Good!

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/21/Worldandnation/Division_marks_vote_i.shtml

Montenegro Vote Today

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=125&newsid=88794&ch=0&datte=2006-05-21

The Crucial number has been met for legitimate election in Montenegro


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2189817,00.html

Sex Scandal hurts the Montenegro Vote

Interesting book about the Danube Germans

http://www.post-trib.com/cgi-bin/pto-story/neighbors/z1/05-21-06_z1_neig_3.html

Book Review

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2006051818260008&Take=1

Update on the 5 Uighers

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2138281,00.html

Record Flooding in the Balkans

For a complete discussion of this, I wanted a variety of sources. I include at the top a link from one of my earlier postings on the alleged pyramids in BiH. I know of stone balls in Mexico which are huge. The ones found in BiH are not the biggest possible, the big ones are in South America.

My theory on the ones found in BiH is that at least some of them could be early cannon balls. Early cannon did not use the type of shell seen later, they used carefully carved stone balls, as stone is cheap, and re:useable. How big they got would have to depend on the cannon, and I'm fairly sure they were used in Medieval siege engines, I'm ot 100% sure on that last statement, I need to research it more. But on their use as cannon balls I'm very sure.

I think the size of the usual Bosnian find of stone balls makes their use as cannon balls a pretty likely theory.

http://www.bosnianpyramid.com/Archive_files/BosnianStoneBalls.html

Bosnian Stone Balls


http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146412410

Scottish Stone Balls

http://www.atomicathletic.com/store/category.aspx?categoryID=209

Modern Stone Ballls and their uses

http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/archaeology/special/balls.asp

More on Scottish Stone Balls

http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/museum/online_exhibitions/stones/stills/stills.html

I wanted to include these as the ones Osmanagic claims to have found he compared to stone balls found in South America and Mexico. As well t his is not one of those annoying 'woo woo' type articles. That is important as these things do exist, but probably have bugger all to do with Atlantis!

http://www.ku.edu/~hoopes/balls/

Stone Balls in Costa Rica

Bosnia did it past the Semi-Final into the Grande Finale. Slovenija, Albania and Poland did not. So, we've got Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Russia and Ukraine in the Final. The Grand Final is only hours away

This is from an e-mail of a friend of mine living in Australia, Hvala Mate!

So let's all cheer on the Nightingale of Sarajevo!

http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=21185

Montenegro Prepares for Independance Vote

Estavisti has more on this probably. He has given a good deal of coverage to it.

As to the article below, it would not surprise me if this happens a lot more than we think it does!

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17105828%26method=full%26siteid=66633%26headline=exclusive%2d%2dcharity%2dscot%2dis%2dcharged%2dwith%2dsex%2dabuse%2dof%2dorphans%2d-name_page.html

Director of Orphanage for Albanian Children Arrested for Sexuaul Abuse

Note the disgusting mode of dress of the young lady! Seriously! This is pretty icky, it looks bad even on someone who'se body is good enough to carry it off which hers actually is! This custom of hanging out of car windows is really stupid! I would not care if my kid was old enough to graduate from High School, I'd spank him or her for it. I might let them off on the dressing so tackily for just that night, kids have to have some fun!

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63725

Prom Season in Bulgaria

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63411
This Looks Like Fun!

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=125&newsid=88721&ch=0&datte=2006-05-20

Fuel Prices to be Lowered in Serbia

Did a flame-war get out of hand?

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=88717&ch=0&datte=2006-05-20

Gunfight Skoplje Internet Cafe

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=143&newsid=88660&ch=0&datte=2006-05-19

Yet more division advocated


There are some similarities in what is going on now in Iraq, to what was going on in BiH, but one big difference, American presence ended ethnic cleansing in BiH and the American presence agrevated the situation in Iraq.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/05/ethnic-cleansing-taking-over-iraq.html

AmericaBlog

And just because this looks interesting...

http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=4926221&nav=menu99_1_13

Mechanical Cure for Depression

I was able to air the house nicely, it' s been rainy. My rose bush out back has begun to bloom. The nasty mold that afflicted it last year seems gone.

I need to put up some Queen of Hungary Water, and fresh roses make that recipe work better.

Yesterday there was a lovely rainbow, it was a double rainbow at one point, and was dark and magnificent, one of the best I ever saw. I of course ran for my camera and took pictures of it. I'll get t hem up as soon as I can.

Today there are a lot of things going on in the Yakima Gulag, the Yakima Live event. Actually I may attend if it stays cool. I can go see what is happening and maybe take pictures.

Weather here is sometimes quite odd, we may even get hail in some areas. The rain was very welcome. The air smells nicer and it's cooler.

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=130&newsid=88663&ch=0&datte=2006-05-19

A Serb and a Croat Accused in Plot to Assasinate Dodik


http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060519/novosti01.asp

Croat Serbian official fell


http://www.free-press-release-center.info/pr00000000000000001077.html

Londoner Hides Identity to Tell Truth about Romania

Registration site but there's a snippet of the story:

https://registration.ft.com/registration/barrier?referer=&location=http%3A//news.ft.com/cms/s/8ce722fc-a022-11da-a703-0000779e2340.html

Let Head Rule Heart When Purchasing Foreign Property

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/257951
Ana Popovic brings the Balkans to the Blues


And now for today's Pyramid Update:

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/basket7st/basket7st1147927316.aspx

Pyramid has similarities to Giza

Again I wonder if this really so?

There aare so many discrepencies in this pyramid story.


I am getting really fed up with the whole immigration bill process.
I'm not against securing the border, that should happen for any number of reasons, my problem is there isn't enough discussion of easing the difficulties of LEGAL entry! Assylum in particular is difficult.
Why isn't htere more discussion of hiring enough people to actually do the job? Seriously that is one of the problems, not enough customs agents or border control guys in the first place.

The Bosnians are not the only ones with an archeological puzzle, it may be they have found the location of Jimmy Hoffa's burial.

Speaking of the dead, I found out yesterday that Diamond Lil is buried in the Yakima area!

I need to check that out more.
Have a nice day, I will try not to get too h ot.

Updates, checked out the Diamond Lil story, most likely an urban legend of our gulag!
No definate info anyway.

I really liked the rain today. I took a few pictures of a magnificent double rainbow which formed behind my house. I will get them up as soon as I can.
I've seen very few rainbows here, one was triple though, I saw it out at my daughter and son-son-in-law's place, the last rainbow I saw here was last year actually.
There has been a bit of rain today, and I liked it, it cooled things off which I badly needed.

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?focus=hot&hotid=1032

Bulgaria's Orthodox Bishops want the DaVinci Code Banned in Bulgaria

As well the Muslims want it banned in Russia!

That the Catholic and Orthodox Churches both don't like this film doesn't surprise me much.

I have a theory about why there were legends about Mary Magdalen and Jesus being married.

At least one royal family has substantial Arab, Berber and Jewish ancestry, that of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Of course they would want to deny this heritage! Other noble families of Europe had some Jewish or Muslim ancestry and it was not exactly convenient to say 'Yes there are Arabs in our family tree! Yes there are Jews in our family tree!' It would have got them in trouble with the Inquisition!

Jews of the House of David in fact ARE relatives of Jesus, and Muslims descended from Prophet Muhammad consider themselves as related to the family of Jesus as they believe all the prophets are related to each other, the ones in the Torah the Bible and the Koran are of a single blood-line. So someone with Arab or Jewish blood facing the tender mercies of the Inquisition might well have come up with a legend, a pious fraud that would protect them.

King Ferdinand of Spain had a Jewish grandmother. This was the same king that kicked all the Muslims and Jews out of Spain. In the time of his rule even harmless customs like using henna were banned as being of Muslim origin!

The hatred of Jews and Muslims and the desire to kill them and take their stuff was a big theme in the epic El Cid. '
In those days people who were Catholic but had Jewish or Muslim relatives had to protect themselves, as did disident Christians. I believe the whole legend can be explained by this fact.

I do want to say something on the question of Opus Dei, not my favorite organization within the Catholic Church, but they have not been to my knowlege a violent organization. Narrowminded and conservative yes, supporters of political movements like Fascism under Franco yes, but again as an organization not violent.
I have not been to see this film, odds are I won't go see it, not because I think it will damage my faith, daily life can be much more of a danger than any work of fiction! I won't go see it anytime soon because I don't have time right now.
I went and saw 'The Passion of the Christ' and it confirmed me in my dislike of religiously themed movies. I did not like being in a theatre full of people being whipped into an artificial but very real religious frenzy!
It's the same reason I wasn't nuts about 'The Last Temptation of Christ' I find this sort of thing boring, pointless and basically pretty shallow.
A pity that they had to put one over on the Inquisition in that fashion!

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20060518\ACQDJON200605180757DOWJONESDJONLINE000613.htm&selected=9999&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked&lang=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na

Court Revokes Ruling against Milosevic's Widow

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20060518\ACQDJON200605180749DOWJONESDJONLINE000599.htm&selected=9999&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked&lang=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na

Sentance of 'Avengers' Upheld


http://www.iwpr.net/?p=brn&s=f&o=261925&apc_state=henpbrn

Bosnian Serbs Challenge Flags and Emblems Ruling

Art: http://www.frieze.com/review_single.asp?r=2453



A Picture of War is not War

http://www.newstatesman.com/200605220013

Rename the Balkans

Pyramid Update

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/14603893.htm

Egyptian Geologist says Hill is a Pyramid

I don't know anything about this man, I still have to say that it probably is not a pyramid. I wonder if he looked at the topographical map?

This makes one wonder about the rest of the region. . .

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=125&newsid=88586&ch=0&datte=2006-05-18

Hepatitus C in Serbia Montenegro

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63633

Sofia Hospital Accused of Selling Stem Cells

Local News: A police situation occured in my neighborhood last night. The police were pursuing a man that had a knife. I listened to it on 'Live Scanner' which I can't link to in this site for some reason. (I wish I could as it would be very convenient)Anyway the man was caught and the knife he was carrying was recovered.
It was a bit un-nerving but the police seem to have done a professional job of it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5415979

Street Musicians Organize in Berlin

A new blog to visit, of special note, lovely if harrowing film of a road trip in BiH and even more harrowing and less lovely film of drives through tunnels in BiH!

http://random-bosnian-thoughts.typepad.com/

Random Bosnian Thoughts

It's got lots of interesting stuff to read and learn about.

The weather has become very hot very early here. I notice too that a lot of people in the area are not mowing their lawns. I am speaking of American people. It is probably the cost of gas. If it becomes too expesive to mow using a gas mower, I am at least covered, because I do own a scythe. I won't hesitate to use it. Right now I pay a neighbor to mow the grass because I must save my strenght for my school work. Still if I have to use it, the annoying people who used to drive by and think this was FUNNY, will realize I made a very wise investment.

It turns out that a few classmates in my math class are people of Croatian heritage. Some of my classmates come from Roslyn, famous for the show 'Northern Exposure' (I personally know the guy who played one of the Native Americans, a Yakama Indian) I also have met many from Rosyln who got really tired of how the show messed up their daily lives.

When they don't come from Roslyn they come from neighboring Cle Elum, I like Cle Elum, it's a charming little town. Again many of the inhabitants have ancestors from Croatia. I have heard that the language is dying out among them, as older people die. Some are a bit distressed by this fact. Most are pretty thoroughly assimilated Americans, and they don't speak the language at all.
The lives of their parents and grandparents were hard, the Croats arrived in large numbers at the end of the 19th century and early in the 20th century to work in the coal mines.
So the fact I have actually been to Croatia three times is of interest to a few of my classmates.

I will try to feature some information and websites on Croatia for the benefit of those classmates who may come to this blog.

The first advice I give them is have a look at Balkan Baby. Ed is English, but he's been living in Zagreb and has written a good bit about Osijek, and his travels around Croatia generally.

His blog is in the sidebar. Go through the archives to see nice pictures.

Well I must go, that annoying lag seems to be gone. That's nice! I wonder if the bad weather back East has caused some of it?


http://living.scotsman.com/people.cfm?id=735092006

Update on Elsie Inglis statue

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=88540&ch=0&datte=2006-05-17

Earl of Wessex Visits Macedonia


http://ionglobaltrends.blogspot.com/2006/05/arms-bosnia-denies-secret-sale-of-arms.html

More on the Wierd Weapons Shipment story

I find it really irritating when there is this level of lag and I don't know what it is caused by. Anywa of updates. Damn this is as bad as dialup!


http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=733392006
A land of poverty


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/05/14/bowhi07.xml&sSheet=/arts/2006/05/14/bomain.html
Book Review

and I see a picture of MY fence, a nice well done black and white picture of MY fence, in the exhibit, guess what? The student who did that picture of my fence got $35! I ought to get something for having a cool fence!

http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=60194

BiH troops for Iraq


Ballots Printed for Montenegro Referendum


http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=125&newsid=88385&ch=0&datte=2006-05-15

Serbia Benefits from Montenegrin Independance too

I don't know about that...but here's today's Mladic Update....


http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/16-05-2006/80385-Serbia-0

Germany urges Mladic turnover

http://freeserve.advfn.com/news_Possible-human-case-of-bird-flu-found-in-Romania_15431689.html

Possible Human Case of Bird Flu

I told my son that once the Indians got too expensive the outsourcing would go to Eastern Europe, probably Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, BiH, and then when those people figured out what a crock some of those jobs can be, they'd be back in the U.S....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/16/BUGANIS78M1.DTL

For Outsourcing, Bulgaria is In

http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/05/kosovo-albanian-serb-documentary-wins.html

Kosovo Albanian Serb Film Wins award

The flame war on this site is pretty obnoxious. I wonder what difference people really think they are making by getting so ugly with each other?

http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=60187

Balkans Political Club meets in BiH

NPR is having a report on Indonesia and the new 'anti pornography' bill, which goes a lot further than just pornography.
While I understand a discomfort with pornography, especially in a basically religious nation, I see that some of this is an effort to impose religion on people.
It's funny, imposing religion tends to kill religion, it imposes a dry and rote form of religion that doesn't do anything for people and they end up LESS religious than if left to themselves.

Some high tech from Croatia...

http://www.gizmag.com/go/5637/

Just COOL!

This morning I feel somewhat better, I was relieved to see that the math was mostly decimals which I'm not too horrible at.
So i copied down the problems to do at school over coffee. I'll take some really bland stuff to eat for lunch.
I will need to call someone for the homework for Spanish though. I probably won't fall too much behind there, because I'm fairly up to speed there.

It's annoying that things happen with one's stomach. I'm not properly hungry and that is a good thing, because I'm a little afraid to eat in case it sets that all off again. I've had this happen in such a way that ANY food was a little risky. There's bananas, I'm going to take some of those along to eat. Bananas are usually safe.
It was really warm last night, I should put the plants outside.

What I have yet to figure out is WHY my blog is essential reading! Surely it's not the post with the Dalmatian on a bike! Surely it's not the ocasional Thompson video! Surely not the Guca Trumpet Festival! I'm not advocating violence, never have, even when I feel like it because I'm sort of civilized.

Well on the upside, I"m really fairly safe if someone is watching out for me! xaxaxaxaxaxax


besides,


'I write like a chimpanzee that's got a magic hat.

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Today is Bleiburg Day I know that many don't like to talk about this because it is a day that should bring shame on civilized people. Basically Croats who fled to Austria for protection at the end of WWII were handed over to the Yugoslav government. This resulted in them being massacred. It was and remains a source of bitterness among Croats. It should not have happened.
It is one thing that men who were former soldiers were killed, but women and children also were killed.
This after a journey under hellish conditions. I still remember my mother telling me about the children who made this walk who developed calluses an inch thick on the soles of their feet because their shoes wore out and fell apart on the long walk over mountain passes.
The Allies should not have handed over these people. If they'd wanted to intern them and sort out who had criminal responsibility in WWII that would have been far better, far more civilized, even if they shot some of those people, it would not have been a massacre and it would have been less blood on the hands of the then new government of Yugoslavia.
Maybe the result of doing things as they should have been done would have been the survival into the 21st century of Yugoslavia. The breakup could not have been exactly forseen maybe but this sort of thing contributed over time to the bitterness and sorrow that led to the breakup.
I think on this day people who live in the West and are of the West need to face the ways that their government's actions led to it over time and to think about foreign policy and issues of asylum in a new way.

Today's stories so far:

Explosion in Macedonian Embassy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060511/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_mladic_dc

Promises promises...


on a personal note, it's been very hard for me to get my mouse to co:operate! Sometimes it's fine for HOURS at a time, other times I will need to shut down, and try to get back on and hope the mouse works. Sometimes it's seven or eight times, meanwhile I'm reduced to lurid terrible blasphemy.
Why the Hell could the designers of so essential a componant have designed it better?
One the plug that plugs it into the tower is so fragile! The least damn thing can jar it!
Two the wireing inside is way too delicate! things like that drop sometimes even if you are VERY careful.
I like optical mice very much BUT my computer is so spoiled I can't get the older type of mouse to work, and the lovely wireless mouse and keyboard my son got me worked a few hours, and now won't despite the absence of any obvious defects.
I don't know what the cause of the problem is, my son hasn't had time to help with it, and frankly it makes me really really angry sometimes.
Then this morning I had something fall into the toilet, AFTER I'd used the toilet!
Maybe in the grand scheme of things these are trivial events but it's VERY tiresome and I didn't need that kind of happening.
I was already really frustrated by the mouse being on the blink which it has been for months and this model of mouse hasn't been in the local place I buy these things either for a long time.
I want a new mouse that my computer won't refuse to interact with.
I'll put the other stories in at school. At least it's doable, if less comfortable than at home.


ok here I am at school, I hope this posts ok, I've taken my new precautions so hopefully it will.

http: english.pravda.ru/news/world/15-05-2006/80297-Dutch-0

Explosion in Macedonian Embassy"


Promises Promises...

http://http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63481

Taliban suspects busted in Bulgaria

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=88422&ch=0&datte=2006-05-15

11 Kosovo Citizens involved in Illegal Tafficking in Immigrants

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63479

UK facing more immigration from Romania, Bulgaria

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/health/article_1164068.php/New_outbreak_of_bird_flu_in_Romania

Hej she's CUTE too!



http://news.monstersandcritics.com/health/article_1164068.php/New_outbreak_of_bird_flu_in_Romania
Again with the bird flu!




OK it didn't work, mostly due to my not being able to remember how to do the code. I came home again because I really wasn't feeling good, I stuck around long enough to go to Math and get my homework. I will be doing that now that I'm home. It gets WAAAY too hot in the buildign where math is. I am having a digestive problem and just don't need to be in a hot room right now.
My instructor was VERY understandinga bout it! I've been very fortunate about instructors. For those of you who came to this blog earlier, sorry for the messed up ness of the links. It's VERY hard for me to see things on the screen there at school because of the way things are set up. The resolution is bad compared to at home. I could not exactly remembered how to set up the cold and this link thing here in compose has NEVER EVER worked in the history of my blog. oooooj.

ok here I am at school, I hope this posts ok, I've taken my new precautions so hopefully it will.




Promises Promises...




Taliban suspects busted in Bulgaria


11 Kosovo Citizens involved in Illegal Tafficking in Immigrants

UK facing more immigration from Romania, Bulgaria

Hej she's CUTE too!




I had to put back the messed up links because dammit when I tried to do things the 'right' way it didn't work! did I mention I hate that I can't just use the link feature and count on it working?
Whoever can dig up one of the Blogger staff to explain what a damn pain this is and talk HIM or HER into fixing that, I'd really like it!

I whish they had like a phone number, an e-mail address, dead drop, cut-out, one time pad SOMETHING! ANYTHING! so I could let them know this feature doesn't work, and that doing it the hard way is harder on some of us!


OK I had a question why the Croats went to Blieburg. I was promised that this question was not a provokation.

In the confusion at the end of WWII, various nationalist and anti-Communist elements thought that their best chance was with the West.

Geographically speaking there was no other available direction for them to go.

Fairly thorough accounts are here:

McAdams on Blieburg


http://www.serendipity.li/hr/bleiburg_massacres.htm
Count Tolstoy on Bleiburg
* nb quick note on Serendipity, I don't endorse the site, I only used it to acquire soruce material.

Someone or other may have been plotting to assasinate Dodik.

http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=20844

Police in BiH investigate assasination plot against RS PM

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2006051315530000&Take=1

Pope backs EU entry for Bulgaria

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=88337&ch=0&datte=2006-05-14
Radical Islam Spreading in Bulgaria


This sort of thing is never a good idea, it leads to trouble every time it's tried!
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?focus=scan&sid=1016
Attack Party Form Shadow Police

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=88310&ch=0&datte=2006-05-13

Large Arms Dump found in Macedonia

No one mentioned this possible side effect of democracy!

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63406


Democracy Killed Bulgarian Men's rocking sex lives


http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=62952

Worlds Heaviest Man is Mexican! HUH?

Then again Diego Rivera was no lightweight either, but most Mexicans I know are not overweight, they are working too hard!

http://dim.com/~jbettin/air/index.htm


A really good spoof of certain educational reading
http://eastethnia.blogspot.com
I put this link because it was really synchronous after reading East Ethnia

and getting to see

Damir Niksic's art. The home page portrait of him in classic old National Geographic style for one thing is beautifuly executed!

http://www.damirniksic.com/top.htm

Damir Niksic

This was difficult to see visually, it was almost like a subliminal message... so here it is in a more readable format....




NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 1912

THE CHANGING MAP IN THE BALKANS

By Frederick Moore

Author of "The Balkan Trail" and Correspondent of the Associated Press



...The Turks added to their Semitic blood some of the finest manhood of the races of Southeastern Europe. Turks whose appearance is thoroughly European and Turks with fair hair and straight noses are to be distinguished throughout Western Turkey from the distinctive Semitic type; and some of the best brains in the recent Young Turk movement are European brains.
The infusion of European blood had a certain minor effect upon the character of the Turk, but the greater change came upon the converts and their offspring. The blight of the Mohammedan creed, which impairs all better civilizations that it touches, affected the Europeans only less seriously than it had the Asiatics whom it reached.
When Europeans became Mohammedans they became to all intents Turks and called themselves such; they were no longer Greek, Servian, or Bulgarian, as the case might be. In spirit if not in blood they were wholly gone over to the other race. Such is the power of the Moslem faith!

* a few points to make, Turks are not Semitic! Their language isn't Semitic! Their social organization wasn't either until they became Muslim! In fact arguably Turks observe many aspects of the Muslim religion differently.
The other point is that in fact a lot, maybe most Balkans Muslims are in fact Slavs!
Damir Niksic is working with images and propaganda of the era of war against the Ottoman Empire. The referals in the National Geographic article to the 'Mohammedan creed wihich impairs all better civilizations that it touches' Plus did I mention it there's an element of anti-Semitism in the article!
This attitude in the National Geographic, had it now appeared in such blatent form would upset people and would probably result in law suits and protests. I have read a lot of old National Geographics and the attitude toward Hinduism was a littl better but not by much.
Basically anything that wasn't White, Western European Protestant Christianity was not respected, was written about in a disrespectful way, whether that disrespect was subtle, or blatant as this Geographic piece. It wasn't just in this publication, but the writings of other people from Northern Europe and North America visiting the Balkans countries.
Often these people were good writers and their books were and sometimes remain the only thorough descriptions of the region. Coupled with the dislike and disrespect for their fellow Europeans who happened to be Muslim, there is very often, a lack of respect for the Catholic and Orthodox inhabitants of the region. this seems to have a bit to do with the side the writer took in the Ottoman vs Austro-Hungarian Empire stuff.
Rebecca West's writings betray a lot of this as do Edith Durham's and other authors who were in the region.
Rebecca West on top of it seems to have had at least some tendancy to anti-Semitism. I don't think she had it in for ALL Jews, but I think she was at very least uncomfortable around Jews.

Damir Niksic does a good job of showing the ways the media of that era was used to manipulate attitudes. These are attitudes which have remained in one way or another.
What is really sad is that the National Geographic, then was one of the few readily available sources of information about other countries and cultures. If a person read it totally uncritically they would imbibe an awful lot of propaganda wjith the valid information and with the beautiful photography for which this magazine has always been famous.
The sad part is that so much of this went unquestioned so long, and I believe it was damageing to a lot of people, in the form of excuses for ethnic cleansing, and for lower levels of hatred and distrust.

And now for something completely different, Just for you Gospodin Vilim!

Dalmatian Riding a Bicycle

Daily Mladic Update
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19127460-38200,00.html
Hardliners Hiding Mladic
This is getting oooold, just bust him already...

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060513/novosti03.asp

Ceric makes some untoward comparisons
You can't say BiH is like South Africa! It's not a workable comparison! Normally I think Ceric is a pretty decent guy as religious leaders go, but he should really make more of an effort to get along with Cardinal Puljic.

http://www.star.com.jo/viewNews/DetailNews.aspx?nid=2362
A thorough pofile of General Hayden
Considering this man's future and past importance this is must reading.

TV Service in Macedonian in Pancevo


http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19127460-38200,00.html
Hardliners Hiding Mladic

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=88307&ch=0&datte=2006-05-13

Macedonia has most expensive phone service in Europe
I guess I'm glad that my fiance isn't Macedonian, nothing at all against Macedonia or Macedonians, but damn I've spent over the last five years a fortune on phone calls and postage as things stand!

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?focus=scan&sid=1015

Attack Party H! in Varna firebombed

Know what, they have the wierdest emblem I've seen in a long time!

A housekeeping note, as some may have realized, I've instituted comment moderation. Most people are playing by the rules, not spamming me, and no one is flaming, I have a really DECENT bunch of readers.
I wanted to have the least annoying for me and for others means of eliminating spam. I HATE word verification. It's difficult for me! I will not impose something I hate on my readers.
No one's e-mail address ever reaches me, Blogger simply e-mails me the comment and I put it in if it's not spam. I am not going to impose any censorship of opinionions on anyone. If it's nto spam it will get in.
Thanks everyone for your underrstanding!

1 President Vicente Fox of Mexico is going to visit the Yakima Gulag
2. The Yakima Gulag is tenth in the Nation for most cars stolen!
Tomorrow when I have the film downloaded, I'll have some brief clips and a review of the Spring plays they were two of the nuttiest one act plays I've ever seen and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time!

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20060512\ACQDJON200605120837DOWJONESDJONLINE000561.htm&selected=9999&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked&lang=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na


One Month Detention Ordered for Mladic Aide

http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=60038

Two Serbs Seriously Wounded in Mitrovica Kosovo

http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=60032&LangID=1
Genocide Case

And a HUGE helping of WTF?!?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,,1773106,00.html?gusrc=rss

US involved in wierd small arms deal
http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=537233

http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=537233

Another Story on the wierd small arms deal


http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=271616

And another

and yet more!

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/12/content_4539790.htm

BiH Defense Minister Denies Bosnian Involvement

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/12/opinion/edwaters.php

Some Person Who Thinks the EU should NOT Insist on the Arrest of Mladic

Croatian Health Ministry Announces that every patient will pay five kuna. Of course the reality is that patients already pay a bit in small bribes. I think there would be less complaint about this official fee if something were to be done about the unofficial 'fees' which are paid!

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060512/novosti02.asp

Every Patient Will Pay Five Kuna



http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=63362

Mom Can I go to the Mall?

On a personal note, on this day five years ago I arrived back in the gulag after a visit to my fiance in BiH and Croatia. Much as I looked forward to seeing my children and then new grandchild, it was hard to return home.
It was never easy to look out the window and see Sarajevo getting smaller below the plane. In fact each time I left I cried like a baby, and not just because I was already missing my fiance. I liked it there, because it was the first place I went that I felt at home and normal. I'm not saying I dislike other places I've lived, that isn't true. I love my family and I love my country, but there is something special I found in BiH, and in Croatia, and not just on the first visit! I hope to be able to go back.

There were some interesting things on the radio. 1. on the Terry Gross show, which is an NPR programe, she's interviewing the author of a book on Christian Nationalism, Michelle Goldberg. Christian Nationalism is a perversion in the faith rampant in America. It's really a good interview.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5398604



Fresh Air

Particularly she's talking about 'Christian Reconstructionism' and 'Dominionism' which are TERRIBLE Taliban like things.
2The other thing that happened is Sean Hannity did something GOOD REALLY GOOD
!
He had a woman from the Phelps outfit on, I have seldom heard such a bigoted person on radio in the United States of America, frankly she belongs in Ian Paisley's church.
Sean Hannity gave her Hell! I was really happy he did that1 He had reported on a thing they did in our gulag and reported inaccurately on it. Maybe he didn't know, I was really angry at the time of that program. Well he's better than made up for that error.
Someone on the Right HAD to be the one to take this outfit to task!
Basically the Christian Nationalist and Dominionists are not any better than the Christian edition of the Talban, and frankly they would make everyone else, including Christians who differ be in a position that the Muslims are accused of putting 'dhimmi' in. These people want to execute women for having sex before marriage which is something that Muslims don't advocate, a 100 lashes may suck but at least one isn't dead!
I am really alarmed at the presence of these people in our society.
These people do not in fact live as Christians, they are bigots with a political agenda.
I was really delighted that someone as right wing as Sean Hannity has seen this as clearly as I have. It is about time.
I think these people need to be shown for the hypocrites that they are.

http://www.hannity.com/


Sean Hannity Show

Om the local front! This young man Brad, has done a lot to help the Yakima Gulag People's Institute of Higher Re:Education! He helped with setting up a new recycling program, and that's him on the front page of our local paper. He's one of the people who sit at the famous Table!
Not just anyone gets to sit at OUR Table! Hej Paige, this is just one example of how our Table is newsworthy, in case you need ammunition to pitch this story!



photo courtesy Trinity of Goth Barbie and Gothic Tendancies! Hvala Najlipsa!



Her Blog is right here, she did a good story on it


Little Brother in the News




and then this was just kind of cute and whimsical!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5393277

Fairy Doors!