Voices from Russia

Monday, 9 August 2010

The Georgian Aggression of ’08 is Remembered… “Nothing is Forgotten… No One is Forgotten”

On Monday night, Russian youth group members lit candles at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in memory of those killed in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict. The memorial observance Свеча памяти (Candle of Memory) opened on 8 August at 23.00 MSK (20.00 UTC 15.00 EDT 12.00 PDT). 500 activists attended the event, Anna Biryukova, a spokesman for the youth group Nashi (Ours) told Interfax. Participants observed a moment of silence in memory of the civilians, Russian peacekeepers, and Ossetian militia killed in South Ossetia.

“We mourn all who died as a result of these terrible events, and demand the condemnation of the actions of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who fought against his own people and against its history”, said Maria Kislitsyna, the organiser of the rally. On the evening of 8 August 2008, the Georgian army opened a heavy bombardment on Tskhinvali from Grad rocket launchers and artillery. Only then, did statements appear that Georgia effectively declared war on South Ossetia. The Georgian aggression, according to the Investigative Committee of the RF Procurator, claimed the lives of 162 South Ossetian civilians and 67 Russian soldiers. 255 Ossetians were injured; more than 30,000 {out of a pre-war population of 60-70,000, nearly 50% of the total: editor} were forced to flee their homes.

Meet the Ossetians! A great people… marked for extermination by America’s stooge Saakashvili…

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In Tskhinvali, they remembered the events of two years ago. Memorial observances began on Saturday night at exactly 23.35 MSK (20.35 UTC 15.35 EDT 12.35 PDT), the exact moment that the Georgians started their bombardment of South Ossetian territory. There were many civilian victims of the Georgian attack, and 67 Russian peacekeepers died in the defence of South Ossetia from the invaders. According to Вести.Ru (Vesti.Ru), on Sunday night, the central square of Tskhinvali was filled with hundreds of people who held lit candles in memory of the victims of the bloody aggression in the summer of 2008.

Everyone remembers the chronology of these events in South Ossetia by heart. In the evening of 7 August, on Georgian television, Mikhail Saakashvili promised that he would not go to war, and that South Ossetia could sleep peacefully. People went home, and, literally, within an hour, Tskhinvali was engulfed by fire from Grad rocket launchers. People remember how the town burned, as children hid in basements, as tanks shot at civilians at point-blank range. These days will remain forever in their memories. There are still many reminders of the brutal attack left in Tskhinvali. One sees the charred skeleton of the university, which was one of the first objectives of the aggressors, and the broken walls of a department store. This reminds people of the events of the recent past.

Today, local residents need not fear for their safety and security. Along with their own armed forces, Russian units help safeguard the region, the base of the 4th Guards is on the edge of town. They were amongst the first troops who came to liberate the burning city in August 2008. The North Ossetian branch of the United Russia bloc does what it can to support the troops, and a delegation from the party visited local bases. “Both the (Russian) government and the United Russia bloc do what they can to strengthen South Ossetia and to restore its economic base. We’re doing everything that we can to ensure that everyone who lives here has a better life, so they can look confidently to tomorrow”, according to Lyudmila Takaeva, secretary of the Political Council of the North Ossetian branch of the United Russia bloc. Today, Tskhinvali is changing rapidly. New houses are springing up amidst the ruins, along with the restoration of social and administrative facilities. Two years ago, the people of South Ossetia defended their land, and, despite the fact that the memories of that war are still fresh, they people confidently look forward to build a new and peaceful life.

9 August 2010

Interfax-Religion

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=36843

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/08/08/14950352.html

Editor’s Note:

What do you do if you are in the US forces and receive orders to go to Georgia or to train the Georgian thugs? You can ask for another assignment, it won’t hurt your career if you’re upfront and honest about it all. We should not be aiding godless secularist warmongers such as Saakashvili… especially not when they are attacking an Orthodox state. That’s simple enough… don’t help the neocon bandits if you can avoid it.

BMD

Vicar Bishop Teodosije of Kosovo is Against the Transfer of the Protection of Serbian Monasteries from KFOR to the Albanians

Filed under: Christian,church/state,diplomacy,Kosovo,NATO,politics,religious,Serbia — 01varvara @ 00.00

Bishop Teodosije Šibalić of Lipljan (1963- ), the Vicar of the Diocese of Ras and Prizren (Kosovo)

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Bishop Teodosije Šibalić of Lipljan, the Vicar of the Diocese of Ras and Prizren, said that KFOR’s decision to transfer the protection of Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija to Albanian Kosovo police will greatly jeopardise the safety of both the property and the monks. In addition, Bishop Teodosije noted that this decision was taken without the consent of the SPC, according to the radio station Voice of Serbia. He emphasised that neither the SPC nor the local Serbian population trusts the Kosovo Police Service, because of their inaction during the destruction of Serb holy places, especially during the March 2004 pogrom. Bishop Teodosije is convinced that NATO officials did this for political reasons, in an attempt to convince the public that there is an improved security situation in Kosovo and Metohija, and to conceal human rights violations. He also noted that such a solution is not conducive to the repatriation of Serb refugees.

9 August 2010

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=36850

Editor’s Note:

Let’s keep it simple. The neocons/Tea Party support the UCK junta in Kosovo. On the other hand, the MP supports the SPC unreservedly. You can stand with one or the other, but not both, as the positions are mutually exclusive. I would be remiss if I didn’t inform you that Paffhausen stands with the neocons (he’s taken in by their anti-abortion stance), and stands against our Orthodox brethren (he prefers the company of Mormons and Episkies). I stand with Patriarch Kirill on this… so should you. There’s no “middle ground” available. If you stand with Patriarch Kirill, you stand for the beleaguered Serbs and their Church… if you stand with the neocons, you stand for the UCK bandits and their thugocracy. That’s all one needs to say…

BMD

A Short Lexicon of Newspeak… DO Think of the Tea Party and of Certain Orthodox Parties as You Read It

Editor’s Foreword:

If you read nothing else, look at the entry for “Memory Hole”… that says it all. It also shows you why I’m a fullwise doubleplusungood crimethinking ownlifer in some quarters…

BMD

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Bellyfeel:

An emotional, instinctual, and non-intellectual understanding of a topic; it can also mean a blind and enthusiastic acceptance of a concept. In a negative sense, you see it in teabaggers and Orthodox konvertsy alike. The jury is out whether one can use this in a positive context… I would say YES… “Orthodoxy can’t be explained… one must bellyfeel it”… or, “You know the Tea Party’s wrong… your bellyfeel tells you so”.

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Crimestop:

The faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to the party line, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought that is capable of leading in a heretical direction. In short… “protective stupidity”. For instance, one sees protective stupidity in the OCA fanatics when you mention the links of Nashotah House with the TEC or the teabaggers look blank when you mention the exorbitant cost of America’s foreign adventures in global hegemony.

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Crimethink:

To consider any thought not in line with the principles of the party line or doubting any of its principles. All crimes begin with a thought. Therefore, if you control thought, you can control crime. “Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime doesn’t entail death; thoughtcrime IS death… it’s the essential crime that contains all others in itself”. The ultimate “crimethink” for the OCA fanatics is to question Aleksandr Dmitrievich Schmemann (he’s their real deity; Christ sucks hind tit for them); for the Tea Party, the equivalent is to question the pre-eminent position of America in the world as a given right.

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Crimethinker:

One who engages in crimethink, that is, someone like me who doesn’t swallow the party line uncritically and regurgitate it on command. I’m a crimethinker on two levels… I don’t accept the Gospel according to Paffhausen or the Tale of the Tea Party… nasty sort, no?

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Doubleplus:

A prefix used to create the superlative form of an adjective or adverb, as in, “Vara’s a doubleplusungood crimethinker who won’t bow down in front of The Metropolitan and repeat His Doubleplusgood Goodthink”… “doubleplusungood crimethinker” means “very bad heretical dissident”, with the “boon” of using no “negative” words, according to the tenets of New Age Affirmation (as taught by Guru Paffhausen et al).

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Doublespeak:

Strictly speaking, it’s not Newspeak, but it’s a very useful neologism, no? Its definition as “deliberately ambiguous or evasive language or any language that pretends to communicate but actually doesn’t” applies to oca.org or to any Tea Party pronouncement directly.

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“You can send your money now. Everything’s changed… it’s all over now”… a classical example of “doublethink”… it’s for your own good, after all (Pay up! Bobby needs the dough!)…

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Doublethink:

The attempt on the part of an individual, group, or state to “control reality”. It’s the power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accept both of them. Excellent examples of doublethink in modern society are “the War on Drugs” and “the War on Terror”… neither has achieved its object, both have led to an exacerbation of the “problem” involved, and both feed massive corruption and governmental sclerosis and hypocrisy. The USA’s become an armed camp in many ways (a guard demanded that I remove a mulitool from my keychain at a Federal building, for instance), but the USA is the “Land of the Free”… the Tea Party says so!

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Fullwise:

This is a replacement for “fully” and all of its cognates. One of the rules of newspeak is that you can turn any word into an adverb by adding the suffix “wise”. This allows the removal of repetitive words such as completely and totally from the language. Note that this neologism’s very common today amongst users of jargonese; it is usually a reliable indication that you’re dealing with a total and shameless BSer who is trying to put one over on you.

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Goodthinker:

One who strongly adheres to all of the principles of the party line (Goodthinked, Goodthink, Goodthinked, Goodthinking, Goodthinkful, Goodthinking, Goodthinkful, Goodthinkwise, Goodthinker). One sees this at SVS and New Skete, and in many who post on the Orthodox Forum (and some corners of the ROCOR as well, sadly) in the case of Orthodoxy; and at Fox News, the American Enterprise Institute, and Pat Robertson’s CBN in the case of the Tea Party (Robertson is the Ron Popiel (with apologies to Ron… Ron’s only a harmless TV salesman) of that movement… his network is nothing but an endless infomercial for his political ideas, with only the slightest religious veneer).

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“In the process of bringing democracy to this Third World country, there was unfortunate collateral damage to property and to the civilian population…”

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Joycamp:

Forced-labour camp. In both New Agers and teabaggers, always look for “inverted meanings”… it’s one of their favourite techniques. Here’s an example, The Metropolitan said, “It’s all over. Everything’s changed. You can send your money now”. Oh, yes… I shall be a doubleplusungood crimethinker and point up to you that Lyonyo Kishkovsky was smiling lupinely at his side… those “in the know” know what I mean.

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Malreported:

It describes the situation when the Times reported a fact that the government later deemed untrue. You see, the government is never “wrong”, the paper merely reported the facts incorrectly. One uses this term to describe newspaper articles that contained references to unpersons, unfulfilled economic projections, or altered government policies (also known as Malquoted). For instance, “The recession actually started in December 2007, the government pronouncements that there wasn’t a recession prior to the November 2008 presidential election were malquotes of the officials involved; the Mainstream Media malreported it”.

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Memory Hole:

A system of pipes, similar to pneumatic tubes, used to destroy documents. A document stuffed in the memory hole would be conveniently whisked away to the furnaces below…  quickly and easily wiping it from history. Let me give you a real-world example that I know… a priest left the ROCOR during the nasty years of the Ustinovshchyna. The specious little fib at the heart of it all was “the communists are still in power”. The parish ceased to mention him and removed all traces of his presence. I wonder what they’ve done now that the party line has changed? Since all too many of them are doubleplusgoodthinkers, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that they’ve flipped, and, dontcha know, “We were always for reconciliation, and wasn’t Fr X a prophet of it all?” THIS is the most dangerous of the Newspeak concepts… we’ve all seen it and we all know that Satan’s hand is in it. NEVER argue with such sorts, for they’ll deny the past… and here’s the scary part… when you look in their faces, you see that they BELIEVE it. It’s prelest personified…

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Oldthink:

Holding on to old ideas and patterns of thought not consistent with the current party line; maintaining a belief that’s no longer acceptable, but was normal just a few years prior. For instance, some years ago, it was official policy of the ROCOR to be hostile to the MP… today, that policy is opposite that of the past, to the point that the ROCOR is now part of the MP, and, most probably, it’ll lose its separate legal identity and be subsumed into the main body of the MP in due course. Therefore, “The people who left us after the reconciliation were oldthinkers… they’re living in the past”. Please, note that I’m NOT sitting in judgement of those who left… I’m only using this situation as an example of the usage of the language.

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“Ownlifers of the World… Beware!”

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Ownlife:

Refers to all kinds of Individualism and eccentricity. It’s a desire to do something merely because it pleases you or benefits you, such as a hobby, owning property, love, or any other thoughtcrime. Remember, one of the marks of a cult is that you’ll see Stepford Wives conformity and that the cultists spare nothing to chase out those perceived as “ownlifers”. You see this trend most strongly in the HOOMie element in the OCA, Mormons amongst the teabaggers (the Pentecostalists and American Sectarians are NOT far behind them, alas), and in some isolated parts of the ROCOR (again, sadly enough… but I must report what I see).

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Ungood:

Bad. One of the rules of newspeak is that you can turn any word into its antonym by adding the prefix “un-“. This allows the removal of repetitive words such as horrible, terrible, great, fantastic, and fabulous from the language. That is, “doubleplusungood” is Heretical Unbelief and “doubleplusgood” is the Received Truth (that is, at present… it could change at any time).

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Unperson:

A person erased from existence for transgressing the party line in some way, they suffer complete erasure from history. There’s a complete removal of all records of their existence, and all party members must remove them from their memories. To mention their name is a thoughtcrime. This eliminates any possibility of martyrdom. Of course, this is like unto the memory hole. The priest I mentioned in that definition became an “unperson” (at least for the period that Vitaly Ustinov’s senile maunderings were goodthink for the ROCOR). Hell… I’m an unperson in some circles; so, don’t say that I didn’t warn you…

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Vaporise:

The act of being “shunned” and having all records of your existence erased, the action involved in becoming an unperson. To wit, “Fr X didn’t agree with Metropolitan Vitaly’s doubleplusgood goodthink, so they had to vaporise him…”, or, “We had to vaporise X because they’re an oldthinker, they kept pointing up bin Laden’s ties with the neocons”.

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Youth League:

Mandatory youth group under control of the Thought Police, similar to the Hitler Youth or Komsomol. Their primary task is to monitor the activities of their parents. You find this tendency not only in the PC/Therapeutic movements (“children’s rights”), you also see it in the Tea Party… what’ll happen to parents who don’t buy the BS that the USA is a Special City on the Hill? Why, their kids will turn ‘em in and get praised for exposing crimethinkers. Remember, we’re talking about people who oppose mosques in their neighbourhood because they believe that Islam isn’t a religion. Be wary of mandatory ANYTHING…

Adapted from:

http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html

Thoughts Springing from the Logismoi (λογισμοι, Eight Evil Thoughts)

Filed under: Christian,moral issues,Orthodox faith,religious — 01varvara @ 00.00

Here’s what the backers of the Tea Party have done already… and they want to do more… it’s all for our good, after all…

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One hears much about the “Seven Deadly Sins”… well, we Orthodox speak of the “Eight Evil Thoughts”. Most think the list goes back to Evagrios the Solitary of Pontis (345-99). He was condemned for Gnosticism and most of his books were (rightfully) burnt, but Orthodox admirers such as Ss John Cassian, John Klimakos, Maximos the Confessor, Symeon the New Theologian, and Benedict of Nursia recognised that some of his writings were useful, so, they secured their survival and dissemination. The listing follows below and it needs little commentary from me:

  1. Γαστριμαργία (Gastrimargia)/Gula/Gluttony
  2. Πορνεία (Porneia)/Fornicatio/Lust
  3. Φιλαργυρία (Philargyria)/Avaritia/Greed
  4. Λύπη (Lupē)/Tristitia/Despair
  5. Ὀργή (Orgē)/ Ira/Wrath
  6. Ἀκηδία (Akedia)/Acedia/Acedia (Torpor)
  7. Κενοδοξία (Kenodoxia)/Vanagloria/Vainglory
  8. Ὑπερηφανία (Hyperephania)/Superbia/Pride (Hubris)

The pietistic, who often offer up a simulacrum of piety in place of the “real thing”, often misrepresent number 8. You’ve seen them… they put smarmy pious expressions on their faces and they tell you how “humble and worthless” they are, and how they aren’t fit to be in monasticism/the clergy/a parish officer. Such is actually number 7 writ VERY large… do watch out for them. Such sorts are the bane of our monasteries, and I’ve met them in most monasteries that I’ve visited, including Jordanville (I have no doubt that they’re on the Mountain too). Positive “pride” is technically termed “magnanimity”, but we all use “pride” and we all know that we’re using a positive definition of the word.

Note number 7… Kenodoxia is similar in structure to Kenosis (Κένωσις), that is to “empty out”. Thus, Kenodoxia is “emptied out of glory”… that is, to suck out all the good from a thing, to make it a “weasel word”, an empty shell. The Latin is somewhat different. Gloria is not a cognate for “Glory”, it is closer to “Boastfulness”, thus, sic transit gloria mundi isn’t “Fleeting is the Fame of the World”… it’s “Fickle is the Praise of the World”. Thus, the Latin implies puffery, an inordinate pumping up of something not there in the first place. It’s an interesting difference, based on linguistic considerations. It’s why there was always a difference between the Latin and Greek schools of thought (it’s a division that predates Christianity, kids)… it had to do with the “tool” used, for one can only think what is “allowed” by one’s language (that’s why monoglots are normally so stunted).

It’s why the fictional language Newspeak is important for us in our time. Some of its concepts are central to what is variously termed “neo-conservatism”, “political correctness”, and “therapeutic language”. These concepts are only superficially opposed… they are very united “under the skin”, for they’re all expressions of “we few are going to tell you many what to do”. That’s why the Tea Party is such a danger to us all. Its populist rhetoric hides a virulent elitism that puffs up the suburban affluent effluent at the expense of the rest of us. It’s classic Orwellian “doublethink” and “crimethink”. In short, it’s number 7 to the nth power. Don’t ever be fooled by its religious BS (the Tea Party is full of it)… it often hides a satanic hatred and self-centredness that even demons would be ashamed of. As a believer, I admit that it’s the greatest argument for atheism that exists. That means that we believers have to roll up our sleeves, put on our armour, and chase the rascals out. Once we do that, it’s gonna take a LONG time to put things right and clean out all the shit… but it’s the only way out, kiddies.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Monday 9 August 2010

Albany NY

Editor’s Postscript:

Do check this out. It’s what the Tea Party wants to do throughout America to save their rich backers’ tax breaks:

http://m.philly.com/phillycom/pm_22229/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=14FF0C2736C26483FB9597779DC8A698?contentguid=CjR1yQ1U

Millionaires Grow in the Midst of Crisis… So do the Poor… The Middle Class is Disappearing

Filed under: economy,Orthodox life,politics,Russian,USA — 01varvara @ 00.00

Tsar, Priest, and Oligarch… The Curse of the Working Class. Now, that’s the world of the Tea Party… don’t say that you weren’t warned…

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No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Luke 16. 13-15

Firstly, read this:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ranks-millionaires-club-climbs-numbers-people-living-poverty/story?id=11327341&page=1

Now, read the words of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill:

The modern economy is built largely on fraud; it creates money out of thin air. [Money is] a token of human labour and of our God-given resources, such as coal, ore, and oil, along with our intelligence, physical labour, culture, and spirituality. [However,] every company produces its own money in the form of shares, which is passed onto the secondary market, becoming not just simple securities; they are traded and used as items of speculation. If these mere phantasms earn billions, not even backed by labour or real capital, then, how can such an economy exist? Who is going to pay for all of this? Why, the simple worker [is going to], who produces the value behind all of this bubble. [We need] a fair economic system where money and capital are equivalent and are the expression of real work.

One of these things is not like the other. Let’s keep it to the point for all the simple out there.

The Tea Party praises greed and calls it “good”. Patriarch Kirill exposes greed as self-centred pride and calls it “evil”.

There’s your real-world choice. If you’re an ordinary stiff and if you vote for a Tea Party candidate in the upcoming elections, you’re a boob… full stop. Patriarch Kirill is NOT alone… his view is common in grounded Russian Orthodox circles. The Church, by and large, condemns American Entrepreneurial Capitalism. Are there Orthodox hierarchs who oppose His Holiness, who support the wickedness of the Tea Party? Sadly, there are… mostly in the so-called Orthodox Church in America (OCA). To begin with, this group has less than 120,000 faithful, but has 20 (!) bishops (9 ruling diocesans, 2 vicar bishops, and 9 “retired hierarchs”). For comparison, the MP has over 100 million faithful (100 times the size of the OCA), yet only has a bit over 10 times more bishops (207). One of the OCA bishops, Tikhon Mollard (a convert), is typical of this group… he drives around in a Cadillac Escalade SUV… I saw it with my own eyes in South Canaan PA. If that isn’t “Let them eat cake” personified, I don’t know what it is. There are priests on food stamps and these wankers swan about in SUVs… sadly, that’s so typical of contemporary America, isn’t it? Do note well that the Metropolitan of the OCA, Paffhausen (another convert), kisses up to the neocons (and I hear that he supports the evil of the Tea Party). He also makes sure that he stays in good odour with the Episkies, Mormons, and Uniates. Birds of a feather… need I say any more?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Monday 9 August 2010

Albany NY

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