Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

To all our Christian and non-denominational friends wherever and whoever you are.

Now smile!

And for the cat lovers (my kind of people):

Interrupting the silence due to one missing ball

Well, of course this day brought other good news too, like the demise of this vermin. It certainly adds some elan to these festive days.

But no, the main reason I popped up is this:

A medical document shows that Adolf Hitler only had one testicle, German media said on Saturday.

There has long been speculation that Hitler was missing one testicle, with rumours circulating that he lost the other one during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War. But a medical record from the time when Hitler was put in prison after the failed Munich beer hall putsch in 1923 shows he suffered from "right-side cryptorchidism" - a condition where a testicle fails to descend into the scrotum - media reports said.

Whatever the eggheads say, it only proves that the folks' wisdom is frequently on he money. So enjoy this, knowing now that it is totally true:

The blogging will be light for a while

Till about mid-January. You all out there - behave yourself and don't do what your natural inclinations tell you to do. Vladimir Vladimirovich will do it for you anyway.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach vs an RT anti-Zionist

For full disclosure: I am not one of the fans of the illustrious rabbi. However, in this case his opponent has clearly shown his bias with his first sentence about the alleged use of white phosphorus by IDF* and continued the interview using smelly quotes from some characters not worth mentioning, liberally mixed with half-truths. Rabbi Boteach has steamrolled the creep, and good for him and for us.

As I was given to understand, the Russian RT, the bastion of anti-Western propaganda and conspiracy theorists, decided not to air this episode at all, seeing as how it wasn't serving their interests, so kudos to the uploader.

The clip is about 15 minutes and worth your time.



(*) Of course, IDF didn't deny its use of phosphorus, for two reasons: a) it is not prohibited and b) it wasn't used against population. But what does a little RT mouthpiece care?

Turkey plans a seven days package tour to Russia?

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Cavusoglu

I am not sure whether to believe this. There are several sources on the 'net, but not of what I would call quality. Anyway:

Faced with Russian efforts, we have, no fear, no remorse. We act with moderation, to bring our relations back to normal. However, if necessary, I assure you , we can occupy Russia in less than seven days with NATO and our regional allies.

Minister of Foreign Affairs? Oh well, with a boss like his half-mad half-Caliph it is not a great surprise. What surprises in this tirade is that he counts on support from NATO and some unspecified "regional allies" - that after his boss diligently ruined Turkey's relationships with most nations in the region (and beyond).

Does "Major Major and I..." remind you of something? Fine then.

Eric Feight + Glendon Scott Crawford or triumph of inanity

And thus the story ends:

An upstate New York man who admitted helping build what he thought was a mobile X-ray device to kill Muslims has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Fifty-seven-year-old Eric Feight, of Hudson, pleaded guilty in 2014 to providing material support to terrorists. He was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Albany.

Feight was arrested in 2013 along with 51-year-old Glendon Scott Crawford, of Galway. Crawford is awaiting sentencing after his conviction in August of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and other charges.

They could have tried to kill their intended victims more successfully by showing them this:

The stupidity of the perps is staggering, as the following shows quite clearly:

Investigators began tracking Crawford in 2012 after he approached two Albany-area Jewish groups. They also learned Crawford sought help from a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who was an FBI informant.

On the other hand, the representatives of the State in this tragicomedy... well, see for yourself:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Belliss said earlier "Mr. Crawford hated Muslims and other politically liberal people".

And other politically liberal... oh well.

Somebody slipped here indeed

At least according to this scenario of the case:

A Saudi millionaire has been cleared of raping a teenager after claiming he might have accidentally penetrated the 18-year-old when he tripped and fell.

Property developer Ehsan Abdulaziz, 46, was accused of forcing himself on the young woman as she slept on the sofa in his flat in Maida Vale, west London.

He had already had sex with her 24-year-old friend and said he might have fallen on top of the teenager while his penis was poking out the top of his underwear.

Abdulaziz was cleared of one count of rape following a trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Doesn't look good for the famed British justice. But all is good for a Saudi millionaire, and why wouldn't it be so?

As Dave M., my Facebook buddy, astutely notices, it is just like:



P.S. The colorful eyes of the subject are rather a result of poor photography job than a werewolf's sign from a Stephen King's book. I think...

The only thing that bothers us...

Translation:

How do I live? I live well. Only one thing bothers me: that they might depose Assad.

Mahmud Abbas and John Kerry: great minds think alike

The descendant of the Russian royals and the democratically inclined, elected to rule for 4 (four) years but already celebrating 11 (eleven) years of his democratic rule, Mahmud Abbas are becoming closer and closer in their (granted, somewhat limited by inclinations and mental state) worldviews. Here comes a headline, generated by the first:

Kerry: Building settlements and demolishing Palestinians' homes not a solution

And here is one created by the second:

Abbas calls terror attacks 'justified popular uprising'

Yeah, practically twins, these two, wouldn't you say?

During a visit to Bethlehem this week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas held up a stone model of a map of "Palestine" that erases Israel.
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 26, 2010]

More here.

Kirill Petrenko: the third Jew of the Berlin music?

The story, of course, is deeply unfair to the Berlin Philharmonic - one of the very few top premier orchestras on the planet. And it is deeply distasteful to this here blogger, who vastly prefers not to deal with anti-Semitism at all, the subject being too murky and the term being overused and underused at the same time. What with its modern replacement helpfully called anti-Zionism and all that... no, people who know me also know that I try to shun the subject.

Be it as it may, here are the basics:

Kirill Petrenko, 43, a Russian-born Jew, was appointed last week to replace Sir Simon Rattle, who is leaving to take over the London Symphony Orchestra, in September 2018. Petrenko is currently the director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

Petrenko won the Berlin job despite only having worked with its musicians on three previous occasions. The orchestra made the announcement June 22 at a news conference at its concert hall in Berlin.

For those who don't study the life of conductors (the musical ones): they tend to move all over the globe in the course of their careers, and there is nothing surprising in the fact that a conductor born in Omsk (look it up on Google Maps) ends up in Berlin. So, geographically speaking, this is just another stage in the life of a musical genius.

Racially speaking, however, the appointment stirred some hitherto invisibly smoldering ashes.

Petrenko stopped talking to the media following commentaries by Northern German Radio, or NDR, and Welt Online which used anti-Semitic tropes, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. The offending material has been removed.

NDR’s Sabine Lange, writing about Petrenko and a German-born contender for the position, described the latter — Christian Thielemann — as a world-renowned expert in the German sound and Petrenko as a mythical, dwarflike figure from Wagner’s operas, “the tiny gnome, the Jewish caricature.”

The Welt Online commentator said that while Petrenko and Thielemann were otherwise comparable, it was “a relief to many” that Petrenko enjoys good interpersonal relations, “as at least one of the female opera singers at this year’s Bayreuth [Wagner] Festival can attest.”

In response, readers noted the anti-Semitic stereotypes of overly competitive and oversexed Jews, and the articles were edited or removed, the Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or German Economic News online, reported.

And more:

If that’s not bad enough, Manuel Brug in Die Welt points out that three* leading conductors in Berlin are now Jews – Barenboim and Ivan Fischer are the others.

While the quotes above look quite damning, they could do with some additional digging. Ms Lange used more or less the following wording: "When Christian Thielemann [a German conductor vying for the post that eventually was given to Petrenko] meets Petrenko at the Wagner's festival in Bayreuth it will be like Wotan meeting the dwarf Alberich, the Jewish caricature". The reference to the dwarf Alberich from Wagner’s opera as a Jewish caricature is quite telling. You see, Wagner himself, while being a rabid anti-Semite, never hinted that Alberich was meant to serve as an image of the much hated Jew. Indeed, out of many eminent critics of Wagner only Theodor Adorno held to this opinion, but this is neither here nor there. What is known, however, that during the Nazi period this comparison was widely espoused. The fact of a modern German culture expert referring to this caricature as something obvious is quite disturbing.

Another, seemingly minor but telling point, is the automatic identification of Kirill Petrenko, as well as Daniel Barenboim and Ivan Fischer as members of the Jewish tribe. The first man is of Russian/Austrian origins, the second of Argentinian extraction and the third a Hungarian - how does the learned music expert Manuel Brug establish Jewishness? For all he (and we all) know, Petrenko might be a Buddhist, Barenboim a Zoroastrian and Fischer a deeply religious Catholic or a practicing Seventh-day Adventist. But no, it was enough for Mr Brug to check the tribal belonging of these people's parents, and voilà: a Jewish invasion in the making! The method of identifying (or uncovering?) a Jew in these three cases smells of some olden times we all would like to put behind us, if not to forget (we wouldn't).

Yes, the articles were removed, but the aftertaste lingers:

Both reports were “bursting with anti-Semitic hatred,” one reader wrote to NDR, adding, “This is now apparently OK in Germany again.”

Is it OK in Germany today? A good question that, but a subject for another post.

Many thanks to G.S. for the tip and even more thanks to Y.V. for generously giving me his precious time.

(*) Poor Mr Brug - at the time of writing this he wasn't aware of the depth of Jewish infestation of German music: a fourth Jew, Vladimir Jurowski will be the new Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSB). Oh boy, oh boy... what would have Wagner said about it?

Hamas MP Fathi Hammad: We Used Women and Children as Human Shields

Just watch.

Saint Vladimir Putin, pour tenderness into my heart!

Some of you might wonder why I am so preoccupied with Russia. It is simply that this is a kind of a gift that keeps giving. This time the gift is of a theological/spiritual sort, and who could withstand such an outpour of loving?

The organization "National Committee +60", created in 2012 in connection with the 60th anniversary of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked Patriarch Kirill to approve the text of the prayer to Putin. The prayer is written as a poem* and reads as follows:

To you, Blessed Vladimir, dare I to raise my voice,
Cleanse me from all defilement, hear me in this sad hour.
Accept my warm prayers and deliver my spirit from evil and misery.
Pour tenderness into my heart, guide me on the way of salvation.
I will not be a stranger to your will, I will be ready to endure all for God;
Be my support in my bitter lot, do not let me die in sorrow.
After all, you are the protector of the wretched, a kind prayer for us!
Oh, help me when I hear the terrible call to God's judgment,
When the eternity stops the time, when the sound of the trumpet resurrects the dead,
And the book of conscience exposes the burden of my sins.
You are the reward for Holy Russia! To you I pray with all my heart.
Our Apostle of Petrov's burg, have mercy for me!

This prayer is a slightly altered version of the poem "Star that presents the Sun" by Nikolai Gogol. In the original, this "prayer" is addressed to the Virgin Mary.

"The National Committee +60" is demanding that Putin be canonized. Activists argue that Orthodox Russians are constantly turning to them with a request to promote the canonization of the president. The Committee believes that Putin has "brilliantly restored the sacred fatherland of Korsun [oldish Russian name for Crimea]" and "heroically defends the Orthodox people in Ukraine and Syria [sic!]."

"Recent data from the Russian opinion polling center clearly indicates that for 90 percent of the population, Russian President is the support and the hope in this life, and almost 100 percent of the Orthodox folk pray daily for his health and want to see him as the lifelong leader of the great Russia! It is no secret that he receives from God his titanic powers for the good of the motherland," the activists said.

The only remark I have to the above is that, while only five years ago Russian children were encouraged to pray for Putin, today Russians are encouraged to pray to Putin.

So there.

(*) The poem rhymes, unfortunately it is beyond my ability to translate it adequately.

Fareed Zakaria, Anti-Muslim rhetoric and other crapola

One of the (American) nation chief Valium dispensers, whose main drive on CNN and elsewhere is to lull his followers into a zombified state of well being, Fareed Zakaria is not totally unknown on these here pages. Just three years ago he appeared in a special burlesque called "Iran is weak and getting weaker" (no, it is not a joke).

Recently Mr Zakaria decided to stick his unerring GPS into the issue of Islamophobia, timing this move to follow the San Bernardino massacre. Here he is dispensing his soporific version of wisdom.

I was watching this and, as usual in case of Mr Zakaria speeches, gradually nodding off and also nodding, in a positive sense of this word, at some true statements, such as:

• Islamophobia is not nice
• And so is Anti-Muslim rhetoric
• We shouldn't demand that Muslims as a whole condemn publicly the barbarian acts by a few terrorists (what is the use, besides, it is not as if the said terrorists consult with the said Muslims as a whole?)
• We should be... whatever, I think it was about somehow or other being politically correct
• Etc.

And then, Mr Zakaria, all of a sudden, decided to go into some calculations. Here I have prepared a snapshot of these numbers for you:

I am still unsure about the generously offered by the author number of 50 "planners". But I sincerely hope that by "planners" he doesn't mean people (some call them "activists", some use a more down to earth "terrorists") who are ready to use firearms and other implements of murder. Let's be less generous and agree on a smaller number.

Numbers, however, are not on the side of Mr Zakaria, who tries to impress on his listeners that there is an infinitesimally small bunch of these "planners", generally shunned by other Muslims. To use a sample, recognized by people who are generally in tune with what Mr Zakaria is claiming, this is an "optimistic" estimate of Daesh supporters' demography:

Even if we generously use only 5% as a percentage of Daesh supporters in Arab world, the result will be quite serious 18 millions. While 95% of the non-supporters is indeed an overwhelming majority, 18 million of supporters are not to be taken lightly by any sane measure.

And this estimate of 5% is being challenged, for instance by this Pew poll that says that more than 60 million Muslims in 11 countries support Daesh. And this is only for 760 million of Muslims, less than half of total Muslim population of the world! So much for the infinitesimal minority...

The number 60 million echoed another number in my memory. The population of Germany, which numbered a tad more in 1930 (about 63 millions), produced two millions of Nazi party members by 1933 (or about 5% of self). This same population produced a bit more than 18 million soldiers of all kinds that served in the Nazi military during the life of the Third Reich.

Yeah, Mr Zakaria, just keep up with the Valium. Sterling work that...

Bibi: don't call the Swedish PM - call Haaretz first

According to this article, Bibi is pissed off at the Swedish Foreign Minister, one Margot Wallström. So much so that he "called his Swedish counterpart Stefan Löfven on Sunday to convey his criticism...".

Yes, Bibi has enough reasons to be angry. Ms Wallström has provided at least two good reasons for that, the last one surely bordering on blood libel.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström on Friday accused Israel of executing Palestinian assailants without trial.
...
"And in the same way the response cannot be, and I say this in other situations as well, where the response becomes so that there are extrajudicial executions, or that it becomes disproportionate so the numbers of dead on the other side is greater than the original death toll by several factors," she said.

One could argue the point from a common sense and common practice point of view, such as, for instance, the common practice when facing a knife wielding assailant being to shoot the said assailant in the center mass. Which is totally true, but truth tends to get lost at the oxygen depraved political peaks where Margot Wallström and her colleagues roam.

One could argue that Ms Wallström is simply a no good dumbo, as her stumbling and mumbling attempts to deny what she said (second time during last month) abundantly prove:

The foreign minister made a general statement about international law and the right to self-defense and the importance of proportionality and distinction. What she stated applies to all parties.

Yeah, yeah, spare me the officious crap. Anyway, this is not the point I wanted to make. The point is that, while Bibi is wasting his hot breath on Sweden's chilly attitude toward Israel (which is not going to thaw anytime soon in any case), Margot Wallström's moral high horse came at least second after a much earlier accusation by one Gideon Levy, our self-appointed Moral Compass.

I would suggest that this is the case that has to be dealt too - and no, I don't mean closing down the Haaretz or hounding the poor well-meaning Mr Levy. Just addressing it, because it should be addressed, because this is exactly the fodder Ms Wallström and her ilk are using. Say no more...

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and the will of Allah

I sincerely hope that the war of words and unsubtle under-the-table mutual kicks in the financially sensitive bits between Turkey and Russia will remain on that level and not escalate to a military conflagration. While Turkey and Russia have an old and hallowed tradition of warring, let's not tempt the devil, shall we? Especially since it is practically impossible to choose a... should we say... less disgusting party in this story.

As for the war of words: after the tenth (or twentieth, who could say?) flat refusal of Erdogan to apologize for downing of that wretched Sukhoi-24 (today, radio source), Putin decided to voice a tenth (or twentieth?) threat to Turkey. This time he decided to apply his theological acumen:

Putin: "I Guess Allah Decided To Punish The Ruling Clique In Turkey By Stripping Them Of Their Sanity"

And from stating this theological point, Putin switched to the mundane, I would even say - pedestrian - good ole KGB shtick:

But we will not respond in a nervous and dangerous way, our reaction will not be to achieve short term political goals, no, our actions will be based on responsibility before our people, our country.

We don't want any sabre-rattling, but if somebody thinks they can get away with this with tomatoes and restrictions on construction workers, they are wrong. We will long remember what they did and they will long regret what they did.

I don't know whether Erdogan is a slow or a quick learner, but I am sure that by now he is looking over his shoulder frequently enough.

As he should.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: the one-eyed king in the land of the blind

This is, while quite predictable, rather sad:

December 3. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been included in the list of the leading global thinkers in 2015 by a Washington-based influential Foreign Policy magazine.
Putin was named as a leading global thinker in the category "Decision-Makers" along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The magazine linked the choice to Russia’s airstrikes in Syria against terrorists and the growing popularity of Putin.

At least the title was gifted with some strings attached:

However, the magazine’s title seems to be more critical rather than congratulatory: "For Playing Peacemaker By Dropping Bombs."

Nevertheless, it shows a rather depressing picture of the political landscape we are all living in.

Too bad.

Unconditional surrender of an ex - male chauvinist

A reposting of an old one, inspired by this news:

It seems that gals letting their armpit hair grow wild and free wasn't liberating enough, so they have decided to up the ante by including one important feature: glitter.

Quite, so here is the old one, from the good old era of armpit hair liberation.

One of my pen-friends has sent me a link to this extraordinary poem, considering it to be funny. Indeed, the title - Ode to My Armpit Hair - could be, at first glance, considered funny and cause a few laughs here and there.

However, after a careful reading and analysis of the poem and some study of its author, Ms Kirsten Anderberg, mostly via her site, I have plunged into a long period of gloomy and nerve-wrecking deliberations upon the future of the world, focusing at the end on my own, generally insignificant and short, but still dear to me, future.

And I have made the choice, my dear fellow men and women. You, my friends, may consider me a quisling, but let me tell you - it is this way or re-education in uranium mines (or alfalfa fields or whatever plant the eco-feminists will consider fitting for feeding their men). But let me give you some background first, using the above mentioned poem. Starting with one of the last stanzas:

Who would I be shaving for?
Who benefits from it all?
Perhaps the purpose is to distract my energies
From facilitating patriarchy's fall!!

I hope it is clear that Kirsten's plan of felling patriarchy could not be thwarted. I, for one, will not stand in her way. Not after reading on her site:

And let me make it clear right now, they will have to kill me with a squadron of Blue Angels before they will ever take my son to fight their illegal wars.

(It is not the letter of the statement - after all, Blue Angels just don't have what it takes to kill someone, aside of themselves when something goes wrong with the plane and, besides, Blue Angels are not about war, but mostly about adventure and testosterone - oops... anyway, it is the spirit of this sentence that caused my hands to shake for a while.) Patriarchy will fall, it is already falling, and if you do not see it crumbling - too bad for you. I, personally, never had anything against matriarchy and am ready to submit to it and its tenets.

So, to show my loyalty to the cause, I can easily relate to this:

What does my armpit hair symbolize?
Why does it threaten you?
Shaven armpits that use deodorants get cancer more often
And corporations stink more than you!

While I cannot say that I have ever invested any time into comparative sniffing of corporations, I can easily agree with that statement. And no, the armpit hair has never threatened me personally, nor did I hear any of my friends complaining about receiving threats from one. As long as Kirsten promises not to attempt to strangle me with her armpit hair (after all, it must be quite long by now, see "I haven't shaved since '78 "), I am perfectly fine with it and promise even to take up braiding it for any matriarch that requests this service in the future.

And to hell with deodorants. Really. Just one humble request to Kirsten: please, oh please, do not sing that song* at me anymore!


Sincerely (and always) pro-feminist.
STG

(*) Update: I have copied that song from the K.A. site, after it has crashed my Firefox and my IE several times. Whether the following is related to this act or not, I don't know (click to enlarge):

After all, how many spam mails signed by this or other VIP does one get from very dubious sources? How can one be sire that this is an authentic Kirsten Anderberg?

But, assuming that it is authentic:

1. The letter should be taken seriously (see the reasons why above). I still hope to avoid the uranium mines and alfalfa fields, if at all possible.
2. The letter itself is a tit-for-tat replacement of the song, it's as screeching to the eyes as... you know.
3. It seems to be a sign that the song will be soon removed from the originating site as well and will not endanger the future generations of Pavarottis and Callas-es.
4. And that I should avoid aggressive-looking persons with overabundance of bodily hair for the near future (at least).

But boy, oh boy - one should be careful when a lady tell him she couldn't care less, because then...

Update 2: There is a worthy replacement to that forbidden song now, on Youtube no less, so here you go. Enjoy, but be carefull enough to hold your finger on the Stop button.

***