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UPDATE:

One of my sources told me that Sir Ray did file in federal court. Perspirin’ minds wanna know… if he’s a retired priest, where’s he getting the money to pursue this? Needle’s not doing this for free. Also, I received whispers that, yes, some RC priests have sued this one and that one… and none have succeeded. My main point stands. You must prove “malicious intent”… and that’s damnably difficult. Besides that, the Winnipeg magistrate is watching this, and I believe that a criminal court CAN subpoena documents such as “confidential settlements”, if they’re deemed relevant. In short, Sir Ray has stepped into a gigantic and malodorous cow pat, and he’s trying to blame everyone but himself. Where is the OCA Holy Synod?

BMD

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Ray Velencia (RV) lives in Columbia, which didn’t even exist prior to 1967. On top of that, it’s not a city, it’s not a town, it’s not a village… it’s a CDP (Census-Designated Place). Everything’s artificial, including the three “lakes”. That is, there isn’t a Columbia “government” responsible to the voters. When you add in its proximity to the NSA campus and to Fort Meade, which leads to a certain volatility in the residential courts, it certainly doesn’t add up to a “normal” situation. The true intent behind Columbia was that it would be a Company Town… “Company” as in “The Company”… that’s Beltway-speak for the CIA. There was to be no local government to interfere with Langley’s surveillance of the area… and, to this day, the only local governance comes from Howard County or from the shadowy “Columbia Association (CA)”, a body that’s not responsible to the populace in the normal course of events. Therefore, Columbia’s an odd-job place with no history, no government, and no civic identity in the accepted sense (and not much in the way of a fixed permanent population). That’s distinctly odd in anyone’s book. Ray, of course, has lived in Columbia long enough to be contaminated by its atmosphere.

You see, if someone doesn’t “fit in”… the CA pressures them out. There’s no government to stop them, all too many residents are atomised transients, and most of the rest are Stepford Wives-style conformists and goodthinkers. In short, I wouldn’t last 30 seconds there. Not all of the Columbia CDP is “Columbia Proper”… only the part administered by the CA is that. Steeped in such a marinade, RV became a megalomaniac. He probably wasn’t the most tightly-wrapped sort to begin with, being put into a loose (almost an anarchic) situation only exacerbated it. He truly thinks that the rest of the country is like Columbia… it’s not.

In any case, I made my statements in New York State, so, he has to sue me in a New York State court or in a Federal court. Maryland courts have no jurisdiction over actions committed in New York State! Click here to see details on his court “case”. Only New York State or Federal courts have such jurisdiction. However, Ray’s gotten away with all his garbage because it’s been local. For whatever reason, he gets away with his pranks. I think that he’s got connections (probably through someone like Lyonyo or Webster) and he’s not afraid to use them. His mouthpiece, one Howard Needle, is a semi-retired guy in his 70s; he’s a former Democratic Party button-man and fixer (he was a delegate to a Maryland Constitutional Convention, which proves it). You can’t go to a local court to sue for defamation… local statutes don’t cover that! State laws do, and they differ from state to state. That’s what so odd about this. Yet, a friend of mine is correct:

This is all the OCA’s fault…they had ample opportunity to stop Velencia. Now, he’s suing clergy, which will move them to deal with him. It’s all their fault… not dealing with a problem isn’t going to make it go away… it often makes it worse. It’s the same with the sex abuse scandals… they knew about Archbishop Storheim two, almost three, years ago.

Let’s keep this on track… RV does the dreck he does because Fathausen protects him. In a normal situation, institutions “solve” personnel problems in a rather abrupt and clear fashion. It’s what happens… they’d throw RV under the bus “for the good of the Church”. You NEVER hear of RC priests suing people… NEVER. That’s because defamation is very hard to prove in the case of “public figures”. You must prove malicious intent, and that’s a slippery slope. In any case, the RCs know that if they let it be, time will “cure” most of it. If you haven’t noticed, if an RC priest gets too much “heat”, they transfer him. They don’t sue journalists or private people… they know better (and they have better lawyers than RV and the OCA has).

It’s time for action. Shall the OCA Holy Synod act? I’ll say this… if it doesn’t, Judge Pollack in Winnipeg’s gonna notice it. It won’t bode well for Seraphim Storheim. An institution is well on the road to self-willed death if it doesn’t rein in wilful officials (and priests are officials of the OCA, there’s no way around it). If the OCA Holy Synod doesn’t depose Raymond Velencia, and quickly, such inaction will have a negative impact on the Storheim case, no doubt on that. THE WINNIPEG MAGISTRATE KNOWS OF THIS FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT… trust me on that. The only way to retrieve the situation is to shitcan RV, quickly and without mercy.

Here are the choices:

• Depose RV
• Support RV
• Do Nothing

The first course is logical, but that doesn’t mean that it’ll happen. I think the chances are less than 50-50, based on past performances. The second’s crackbrained, but it’s action… and it’d precipitate cognitive dissonances that could shake apart the OCA. I don’t give this a high level of probability, either. I think that the third course will occur. Why? James Paffhausen’s a pusillanimous juvenile; he’ll block the attempts of the Synod to act. In any case, Fathausen’s a believer in California New Age Affirmation, not Orthodox Christianity per se.

Expect NOTHING. If that’s what’s forthcoming, you should tailor your giving accordingly… if they do nothing… give nothing. If they run and hide, keep your money in your wallet. You’re a damned fool, otherwise…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 27 January 2012

Albany NY

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Click here for an interesting report (“Is the Orthodox Church really in control of Russia?”) in English on the present situation of the Orthodox Church in Russia.

BMD

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Never, ever, let small-minded pompous boobs run roughshod over you. You have no need to grovel and kowtow before the self-important. However, never give in to hate or revenge… then, you sink into their pit and they win (even if they lose). God loves HAPPY warriors, who “never let the bastards grind them down”. Respect is EARNED… NEVER forget that…

BMD 

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I received information that Raymond Velencia, Fathausen’s pal in Maryland, filed suit, supposedly on 24 March 2012, in Howard County MD against:

• me
• Melanie Sakoda
• Cappy Larson
• Mark Stokoe
• Fr Michael Reagan
• Fr John Jillions

(CORRECTION: A source told me that Jillions isn’t a party to the suit… but that he’s been informed of it… BMD)

Click here to see details on this weird shit. If you needed proof that the OCA hierarchy is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land, this is it. I’ve received no official notice on this yet. However, I’d advise the OCA Holy Synod to act immediately. This crazy loon has Fathausen’s full support. Ergo, the Holy Synod has to meet in emergency session to depose Ray Velencia and to depose Fathausen for encouraging this looney shit. Let’s not be coy… the Winnipeg magistrate is watching this! If the Holy Synod doesn’t slap these two crazy maniacs down IMMEDIATELY, Judge Pollack in Winnipeg is going to come to conclusions about the OCA’s truthfulness. He’ll conclude that the OCA is an out-of-control organisation. Look, he already offered Storheim a plea… the Court does that if it’s got the evidence to convict. Usually, in cases like this, the court trades a guilty plea for a suspended sentence. I’ll bet you that Fathausen told Storheim to refuse it… and that they’d beat the rap… I wouldn’t bet against it.

Note this well… Storheim refused this plea… and Velencia filed this looney suit. They’re NOT unconnected, I believe. Fathausen is behind both of these oddbod decisions, I’m sure. A sane organisation would trade Storheim’s guilty plea for peace. A sane organisation would depose a loose cannon like Velencia.

I’d tell the Centre, “What more do you need? Step in, revoke the Tomos immediately, or more damage will be done”. What did we all do to deserve such shit?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 27 January 2012

Albany NY

Filed under: Christian, legal, Metropolitan Jonas Paffhausen, Orthodox life, religious, USA Tagged: Eastern Orthodox Church, History of the Eastern Orthodox Church in North America, Holy Synod, howard county md, Maryland, OCA, Orthodox Church in America, Paffhausen, Ray Velencia, United States, USA, Velencia, Winnipeg ]]> http://02varvara.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/big-news-velencia-files-frivolous-law-suit-in-howard-county-maryland/feed/ 0 01varvara 01-angry-judge barbara-marie drezhlo http://02varvara.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/the-truth-on-talerhof-what-the-catholics-really-did-to-us/ http://02varvara.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/the-truth-on-talerhof-what-the-catholics-really-did-to-us/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:30:13 +0000 01varvara http://02varvara.wordpress.com/?p=52620 ]]>

March held in Lvov by Orthodox to memorialise the Confessors and Martyrs of Talerhof… Sophia Kishkovsky, Victor Potapov, Anya Schmemann, the New York Times, and CNN didn’t tell you about it, did they? Oh, yes… Archbishop Avgustin Markevich of Lvov and all Galicia was one of the marchers…

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Editor’s Foreword:

In light of the smarmy declaration just issued by the OCA regarding “Pan-Orthodoxy” and its fawning subservience to papist institutions, it’s time that we spoke the truth about the relations of papist states with Orthodox minorities. The papists have NEVER apologised for the atrocities of Talerhof and Terezín. Ordinary RCs and Uniates aren’t responsible (cut them a break, kids)… but the papist hierarchy is, and we should cut them no slack whatsoever until they show signs of abandoning papal supremacy and infallibility (which they won’t… don’t hold your breath… it’s not only unhealthy, it’s undignified, and it’s funny as all hell to all about you).

What follows is a translation of the Russian Wikipedia article on Talerhof, with information interpolated from other sources. Expect to hear the usual sources slam Wikipedia. I’ll simply observe that SVS is aggressive in its “editing” of English-language Wikipedia articles on Orthodoxy, removing all references to unpleasant truths such as the internecine Church war of the 60s through the ‘90s, and whitewashing thoroughly-questionable figures such as Aleksandr Schmemann, Pierre l’Huillier and Dmitri Royster. Ergo, it’s NOT an unimportant and unreliable source, otherwise, interested parties like the First Families wouldn’t get involved… the ROCOR’s as deeply involved in projecting a false image on Wikipedia as the OCA is, informed sources tell me that Whiteford (a real expert, no?) has even edited an article or two.

If you do nothing else, click on the link to the Pravosalvie.ru article listed below. If you don’t know Russian, run a “machine” translation. It’s better than nothing, and, after you’re done, you’ll see the lying duplicity of people like Paffhausen, Psaryov, Behr, and Larina… they suck up to the worst sort of papists (and to Uniates… who attack the Church!), trampling Christ and His Church into the mud. As for me… I’m dead set against ecumenism, but I’m all for friendly relations between Christians. All decent people know what I mean…

BMD

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Memorial Chapel in Feldkirchen bei Graz (Bezirk Graz-Umgebung. Bundesland Steiermark) AUSTRIA for the Martyrs and Confessors of Talerhof

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Talerhof was an Austro-Hungarian concentration camp in existence between 4 September 1914 and 10 May 1917, in the early days of World War I. Its location was in a sandy valley at the foot of the Alps, near Graz, the main city of Steiermark. It was one of the first concentration camps in the history of the 20th century. The Hapsburg authorities deported actual and suspected Carpatho-Russian Russophiles from Galicia and Bukovina to Talerhof, usually due to denunciations from Roman Catholic Poles and Uniate Catholic Ukrainophile nationalist separatists. [1]

History of the Camp

The first batch of Russophiles from Galicia and Bukovina arrived in Graz on 4 September 1914, convoyed by soldiers. In September 1914, the Austrian authorities arrested virtually the entire Russophile-oriented Lemko intelligentsia. Among them were priests, lawyers, and cultural activists. The Hapsburgs suspected them of possible collaboration with the advancing Tsarist Russian Army that had invaded Galicia at the outset of World War I. In the winter months of early 1915, there were no barracks at Talerhof, so people slept on the ground under the open sky in the rain and cold. [2] According to the US Congressman  Joseph McCormick, prisoners were beaten and tortured. [3] In an official report on 9 November 1914, Schleer reported that Talerhof held 5,700 Russophiles. Of this total, around 1,915 people (according to other sources, up to 5,000) were Lemkos from 151 villages in the Lemkovshchyna. [4] Of those Lemkos incarcerated, 168 died, and numerous others had their health destroyed. The Hapsburgs imprisoned about 20,000 Galician and Bukovinian Russophiles at Talerhof during its time of operation; they killed nearly 3,000 prisoners only in the first half year. [2] According to the Galician public figure Dmitri Markov, the imperial authorities executed 3,800 people only in the first half of 1915. [5] In May 1917, a decree of the last Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Karl I, ordered the camp’s closure. The barracks at the camp site stood until 1936, when they were demolished. At the same time, the Austrians exhumed 1,767 corpses, which they reburied in a mass grave near the village of Feldkirchen. [4] Currently, Graz-Thalerhof airport stands on the site of the former concentration camp, obliterating all traces of the enormity committed here.

Famous Inmates

• Yaroslav Feofilovich Kachmarchik,  (1885-1944). President of the Lemko Rus People’s Republic [7](other sources report his place of imprisonment as  Nowy Sącz [8] )
• Nikolai Antonevich
• Vasili Romanovich Vavrik
• Nikolai Glebovitsky
• Yuri Ivanovich Demyanchik
• Metody Trochenovsky
• Efion Vengrinovich (1861-1919), imprisoned in 1914-1917 [4]

On 29 August 1996, the ROCOR Holy Synod glorified Maksim Sandovich, the Protomartyr of Lemkovshchyna, who suffered death at the hands of the Hapsburg authorities for his faith.

• http://www.rusyn.org/histalerhof.html
• http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%84

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Here’s another excellent source (in Russian), it’s from Pravoslavie.ru, so, its semi-official, (in addition, Kirill Frolov’s the world-acknowledged expert on the genocide of the Carpatho-Russian Russophiles):

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/archiv/ruskarpaty.htm

NB:

Note well that the HOOMie poseur Nectaria Rees did NOT translate this article… that means that Dickie Wood didn’t send it to her (I wonder what role he and Vlad Berzansky Jr played in the covering-up of pro-Russian and pro-Russophile material on English versions of Russian websites? Do they still do so after Dickie’s disgrace?)

A more “popular” grass-roots American po-nashemu account is here:

http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/kr/taler.htm

This is from Matushka Nina Stroyen… one of the first to publish “popular” material in English in Orthodox circles here in the diaspora. I’m honoured to know her… and humbled that she thinks well of me, by and large.

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Editor’s Afterword:

Fathausen and the konvertsy are squalling about notional lunacies such as “Pan-Orthodoxy”… and they’re going to do it at a papist venue. They can’t even do it on their own turf (click here for a saccharine post on oca.org… be warned… it’s offensively treacly). Let’s keep it focused. You can honour the martyrs of Talerhof and keep the Faith as they did, or, you can follow Fathausen and spit on the Lord Christ’s very image by sucking up to the heterodox… indeed, to the very group that murdered the Confessors and Martyrs of Talerhof. They’ve NEVER repented of it, and they never shall. Ergo, we should politely refuse all invitations to be part of their convocations… to go and observe, that’s fine; to participate in such, with the unrepentant murderers of our co-religionists… no, a thousand times, no! You can emulate the Martyrs of Talerhof and St Maksim Sandovich… or you can support Fathausen, Vassa Larina, John Behr, and Andrei Psaryov. The two positions are utterly incompatible… however, is that such a hard choice?

BMD

Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan (1935- ) of Kiev and all the Ukraine, the First Hierarch of the UOC/MP

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Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, the chairman of the MP Department for External Church Relations, visited Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan of Kiev and all the Ukraine at a Kiev clinic. As reported on the official UOC/MP website, the visit took place on January 25. Metropolitan Hilarion wished Vladyki Vladimir a speedy recovery, he was accompanied by Archbishop Aleksandr Drabinko of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vishnevsk, Metropolitan Vladimir’s secretary.

In late September, Metropolitan Vladimir went home from hospital, where he was recovering after undergoing surgery on 16 September for a hip fracture. In late October, he was again in hospital. In early December, he left the ICU and went to a rehabilitation ward. At the end of the month, his doctors discharged him from hospital. Currently, Metropolitan Vladimir is undergoing continuing treatment in a Kiev clinic.

26 January 2012

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=43947

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Read this. So, the voice of the robot is no more. No more “Danger, Will Robinson, danger!” or “It does not compute!” YOUCH… does that mean that I’m on the cusp of babahood? Must I wear black and chase the goats, as a good iaia should (“You are going to HELL…”)? Well… no matter what, I’ll be Mother Jones, not Mother Teresa. There’s nothing wrong with Mother Teresa, but I’m not that sort. “I’m not a humanitarian; I’m a hell-raiser”. Although I can bake a mean loaf of bread…

BMD

Greek Economic Crisis

Carlos Latuff

2010

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Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias announced that an all-MP fund drive would raise funds to help Greeks impoverished by the results of the economic crisis. On Thursday, at a meeting with Antonis Samaras, the leader of the Greek rightwing New Democracy Party, he said, “Presently, we must establish relationships between our Church social services and the Local Church of Greece, so that the MP can take part in the good work of helping the needy in Greece”. His Holiness felt that Russians should “take to heart” the problems of the Greek people, and he commended the activities of the Church of Greece to help those in need. He noted that the traditionally-cordial interaction between the Orthodox Churches in Russia and Greece was “one of the strongest ties that bind our two countries together. Political configurations come and go, they change, but ancient links going back into the depths of the centuries always remain. Orthodoxy’s an important factor in the Russian and Greek national identity”.

Patriarch Kirill pointed up that when the relics of the Belt of the Most Holy Mother of God and of St Dmitri the Great Martyr of Salonika came to Russia, “the Russian people responded to the bringing of the relics with enthusiasm, millions of people, despite frost and cold, stood in queue for long hours to venerate them. No political rally or sporting event attracts as many people as do the relics that come amongst us. Therefore, we have hope for the future”. He also said that he looked forward to an official visit to Russia on the part of Archbishop Ieronymos Liapis, the First Hierarch of the Local Church of Greece, and hoped that this visit will give new impetus to the development of inter-church relations. For his part, Samaras said that Orthodoxy was a foundation “that strengthens people, enabling them to survive difficult situations”.

26 January 2012

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=43942

Russian Proton-M carrier rocket

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On Thursday, a spokesman for the Federal Space Agency Roskosmos said it’s preparing a Proton-M carrier rocket for the launch of the US Sirius FM-6 telecom satellite, saying, “The launch is tentatively scheduled for February 2012”. The assembly of the upper stage of the rocket and the testing of a Briz-M booster is underway at the Baikonur Space Centre in Kazakhstan. The Sirius FM-6 mission was originally expected in the fourth quarter of 2010, then, there was a postponement to late December 2011, and, then, further delays to 24 and 29 January 2012. The Sirius FM-6, built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) for Sirius Satellite Radio, is a new high-power satellite designed to operate in a highly inclined elliptical orbit (HIEO). This satellite will be the sixth SS/L-built spacecraft in the Sirius fleet.

26 January 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120126/170964422.html

Editor’s Note:

Even American satellites are going up on Russian boosters. Newt’s gonna have a lunar base in seven years? In a pig’s arse…

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On Wednesday, in an address to a crowd of over 700 people on Florida’s “Space Coast”, US Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich promised to build a lunar base by 2020 if he becomes the next US President in November. “By the end of my second term, we’ll have the first permanent base on the moon and it’ll be American”, Gingrich promised to an applauding crowd, as well as saying that he would push to develop “the first continuous propulsion system in space” that would enable humans to travel to Mars, Politico.com reported. The topic of the latest wrinkle in Gingrich’s campaign struck a particular chord with the residents of Florida’s “Space Coast”, as they’re still struggling economically after recent US federal cuts to the space programme. CBC News quoted Gingrich as saying, “We’ll have commercial near-Earth activities that include science, tourism, and manufacturing, and we design to create a robust industry precisely on the model of the development of the airlines of the 1930s, and the Chinese and the Russians will never come anywhere close to matching it”.

Gingrich’s rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, mocked the idea of a lunar settlement, but Gingrich simply commented, “Here’s the difference between romantics and so-called practical people”. He referred to John F Kennedy, who first spoke of a national mission of landing a man on the Moon in a Joint Session of Congress on 25 May 1961. On Wednesday, Gingrich said, “John F Kennedy was grandiose, I accept the charge that I’m grandiose, and that Americans are instinctively grandiose”. Both Gingrich and Romney are campaigning to win Florida’s primary next Tuesday.

Special Bonus:

Click here for an interactive lunar globe from RIA-Novosti.

26 January 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20120126/170962924.html

Editor’s Note:

Newt’s a space cadet, but literally? There’s NO money… none… busted… Mutha Hubbard’s Cupboard… American cosmonauts are going into space on Soyuz vehicles from Baikonur… and he’s going to found a lunar base in seven years. R – I – I – G – H – T. Newt’s known for his pixie-dust bloviating, but this takes the prize. It does take all kinds, and this proves it. The reality would be rather more prosaic… Newt would preside over a Robber Baron Oligarchy that wouldn’t allocate enough money for NASA to build a kiddie ride in Disney World, let alone a lunar base.

If you needed proof that Newt’s crackbrained and quackers, this is it. This proves that his link to reality, as it’s commonly known, is tenuous and frayed. It proves the gullibility of the average GOP base voter… scary, isn’t it?

BMD

THIS was the true intent of the Bush aggression against Iraq… any questions?

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US Marine Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who stood trial in a court martial at MCB Camp Pendleton on charges of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005, received a demotion to the rank of private and had his pay reduced, but he’ll serve no prison sentence. The remarkably lenient verdict was due to the fact that the 31-year-old marine had pleaded guilty to dereliction of duties, repented for his wrongdoing, and expressed remorse for the victims. The American Themis has once again demonstrated that the principle of a just punishment for severe crimes doesn’t apply to everyone in the United States. The ruling came less than two weeks after a YouTube-posted video of US marines urinating on the bodies of slain Taliban militants in Afghanistan sparked an international outcry. The scandal on that hadn’t died down before the announcement of this new verdict.

However, let’s update you on the scandalous “exploits” of the US military in Iraq. Note well that they get away with such with impunity. Seven years ago, militants attacked a squad commanded by Wuterich in El Haditha, killing one marine and wounding two others. The sergeant ordered his men to search the nearby houses, to destroy the resistance, instructing his subordinates to “shoot first and then think”. As a result, the marines killed 24 civilians, including women and children. For his part, Wuterich shot and killed a mother and a child in one of the houses. Mark it down that none of the civilians had put up armed resistance.

Lawyer Sergei Maksimov of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences thought, “The prospect of an objective investigation of this crime is bleak. Unfortunately, this is universal practise. Any state that has an army strives to protect its servicemen from criminal prosecution and to imbue its soldiers with the belief that they must fulfil their military duty at any cost. The only true ‘guardian’ here isn’t criminal law, but conscience and faith. True, under existing international conventions, crimes against peace and humanity carry a severe punishment. However, one should hardly expect any fair investigation in this particular case unless it goes before an international tribunal, which is unlikely”.

One should observe that crimes against civilians during US military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan are almost routine occurrences. No military expediency can justify shooting at a wedding procession, which happened in 2008, or the regular abuse and bullying of civilians without military necessity. That’s not to mention the torture used by the Americans against detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at the Guantánamo detention camp in Cuba. Most of the story remains hidden, out of sight of American civil justice. Hakim al-Zamili, a member Commission on Defence and Security of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, reacted to what was virtually an acquittal of Wuterich, “One can hardly call it a punishment. The open contempt for the Iraqi people and their spilt blood is simply downright inhumane. The victims’ relatives will petition the United Nations and other organisations demanding harsher punishment for the perpetrators [of this atrocity]”.

Konstantin Sivkov of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, pointed up, “It wasn’t just this specific crime committed against civilians, but it was also a Western military intervention itself against a sovereign state, which itself was illegal. That soldier committed a war crime, and he must pay the penalty for them. However, that’s only the lowest level [of responsibility]. International law qualifies the unleashing of war against a sovereign state as a war crime”. Wuterich shall go free, albeit with a demotion, but he didn’t even receive a monetary fine. Yet, this isn’t surprising, as few of American soldiers who brought “democracy” to Afghanistan and Iraq at the tip of their bayonets paid any “price”.

25 January 2012

Ilya Kharlamov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012/01/25/64579647.html

Editor’s Note:

The original Russian and the VOR English translation included a small section with a misattribution of a quote to the late US Congressman John Murtha (D-PA). Accordingly, I removed it. Journalists make mistakes… it’s the duty of editors to correct them. Mr Kharlamov was obviously working under a deadline… cut him some slack; none of US are perfect, are we?

BMD

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It seems that Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, learnt some basic tenets of Karl Marx’s economic theory. In particular, he learnt about the widening gap between the rich and the poor. In an interview with Financial Times Deutschland he said, “In its current form, capitalism no longer fits the world around us”. At the same time, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) happened to make the same discovery, the growing gap between the “cream” of society and ordinary people proved to be an unpleasant shock. Many times, analysts warned that there was a stark imbalance in the distribution of wealth. The rich and powerful tried to stay silent on the issue, but now it looks like “the levee has broken”. Today, even currency dealer and billionaire George Soros has joined the critics haunted by apocalyptic nightmares, which he confessed in an interview with Newsweek magazine. Chaos grips Europe, and there are protests in the USA. Furthermore, there’s a spectre of a repressive governmental actions as a reaction of the rich and mighty to the attempts of the impoverished to deprive them of their fortunes.

The explosive contemporary situation, which is terrifying the world’s “powers that be”, didn’t come about yesterday or even the day before yesterday. It has built up for decades. So, why did the élites wake up so late? We asked Ruslan Grinberg, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the head of the Institute for Economic Studies, who told us, “In the period of 1950-70, the Western world adopted ‘capitalism with a human face’, thanks to its standoff with its rival, i.e. the Communist bloc. For the first time, the struggle was on to make life better for everyone. When our system collapsed, it turned out that we had gone back to Adam Smith’s theory of market self-regulation. However, as Karl Marx once said, market forces bring about a situation when the poor find themselves on one end and rich people on the other. Today, Obama speaks out against the rich. In the US, they worked out that the very rich pay only 15 percent of their income in taxes. That’s atrocious. I recall Kennedy’s statement, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable”. All these warnings made by Soros and the OECD are symptomatic. Either you start sharing your affluence with others or you’ll get what Soros has warned you about, i.e. street revolts, and, then, dictatorship. That’ll be bad for everyone; there are too many discontented and completely unhappy people. In the last 25 years, credit policy hid the imbalance in the distribution of income, but, now, all of a sudden, all this has come to the fore”.

There’s an ancient saying, “Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant”. Maybe, some will find comfort in Mark Twain’s aphorism, “Not everybody gets rich, but most people remain human”. Yet, given there are one billion people on Earth who are struggling to survive on 2 dollars a day (61 Roubles. 1.50 Euros. 1.25 UK Pounds), according to a report by the OECD, and the hundreds of millions of those who find themselves in a dead-end situation, there’s little comfort in it. Besides, Soros admits that the financiers who triggered the crisis weren’t merely mistaken; they did evil.

25 January 2012

Sergei Guk

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/25/64623783.html

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I adapted the words from a saying of Isaac Asimov… the fact that he was an atheist bothers me not in the least. THIS is what Pro-Life is all about… not waving placards, shouting slogans, and pandering to slippery politicians…

BMD

Note how Ms vanden Heuvel wraps herself up in “Progressive” rhetoric… the venue of her speech shows her to be a lying hypocrite…

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Look at this:

We want to invite you to a special event taking place in Manhattan next week featuring Nation Editor and Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and Russia expert and Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F Cohen.

“Russia and the Arab Spring”

Monday, 30 January 2012 18.00 EST

The Princeton Club of New York, Manhattan

Stephen Cohen, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and Paul du Quenoy will discuss Russia and the Global Protest Movement in a lively and free-wheeling conversation about how the Russian, Occupy, and Arab movements for change are shaping our future world, including upcoming elections in both the US and Russia. 10 USD (305 Roubles. 7.60 Euros. 6.40 UK Pounds) for members; 15 USD (460 Roubles. 11.50 Euros. 9.60 UK Pounds) for guests (includes one drink).

To reserve seats, please contact Nicole Diamant at:

 events@princetonclub.com

All best,

Peter Rothberg

The Nation

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What kind of “Progressive” is this? The event is at the PRINCETON CLUB. You can’t get more “establishment” and “One Percent” than that. Get this, the admission price includes “one drink”… is this a lecture, or, is this a party held in the bar? Everybody’s heard of vanden Heuvel and her husband Stephen Cohen, but the third party involved is a relative unknown, Paul du Quenoy (a hack academic from the American University in Beirut LEBANON). Click here for a short blurb on this academic nonentity. Do note that NO real Russians are involved in this. They’d all shit their nicks if Comrade Zyuganov or Vsevolod Anatolyevich showed up! Hell, they’d run for the hills if the Russian Consul General or Vitaly Ivanovich came to call!

Betcha any amount of money that phoney shits like John Behr, Paul von Meyendorff, Anya Schmemann, Serge Schmemann, Sophia Kishkovsky, and Lyonyo are going to be there and (mis)represent Russia and Russians (wanna bet that Potapov and his Charlie McCarthy, Fathausen, are going to show, too?). What they need is for a bunch of po-nashemu guys from the Wyoming Valley to gate-crash this affair and give ‘em the razz! Note well that they didn’t include ONE Russian on the list of featured speakers… hey, this is in the City, not Podunk Centre; they could’ve gotten Ambassador Churkin or somebody from RT or VOR. In short, it’s a bunch of credentialised blozos bloviating on Russia… ho hum! Now, if Val Zorin were to show up, that would shake things up! He was reporting on the American news for Gosteleradio whilst Ms vanden Heuvel was still shitting in her nappies.

This is why so many good people won’t have anything to do with the Left. They see posturing Establishment limousine liberals like vanden Heuvel, and they conclude, logically enough, that if she represents herself as being of the Left, then, that’s what the Left is like. If that’s what the Left is like, they want no part of it. Hell, I don’t like this sort myself… their condescension and patronising ways nauseate me. It kept me from looking at the Left objectively for YEARS… ergo, I understand why many reject the Left… they don’t reject Socialism; they reject those who purport to speak for it.

In short, this is GIGO all the way around. I wonder if Lil’ Mizz Sophia is going to report on this in the New York Times… perspirin’ minds wanna know…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 26 January 2012

Albany NY

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Isn’t it true that every honest German is ashamed of his government these days? Who amongst us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that’ll befall our children and us when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes… crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure… reach the light of day?

The first leaflet of the White Rose Circle

1942

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I needn’t go into detail on St Alexander Schmorell… if you want more info on him, click here, here, or here. In short, he’s the “good guy”… he wears the “white hat” in this particular oat-burner. He’s Christ’s Own Saint, worthy of our admiration and emulation, who gave his very life for Truth, Justice, and Faith… to say more would be disrespectful.

Now, let’s get down to the plug-uglies, the baddies, the Black Hat Brigade. Lately, the Vlasovtsy in the ROCOR have been loud n’ active. One of my kitchen cabinet members was wondrin’ why, and I think that the reason’s obvious. Next month, the Church is celebrating the formal glorification of St Alexander Schmorell in München. That means that the Church will speak, yet again, in approval of the Anti-Fascist Crusade against Hitlerism and show its respect to those who fell in it (the Church gives tribute to ALL of the honoured dead… not merely those of the VOV).

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Here is Valentin Rusatsov (1939-2012) openly with Kyle Hatcher (is he a spook? Your guess is as good as mine is), a flunkey of the US Embassy in Moscow… this is proof that Rusantsov’s a Langley asset, and that’s that.

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The Vlasovtsy hate this. Their fathers and grandfathers were Nazi collaborators… they helped the Nazis round up Jews for extermination; they aided the Fascists in their press-ganging of Slavic people for slave labour in Germany. They bore arms for the occupier… they raised their hands against their compatriots, killing many, making life easier for the aggressor (much like the Karzai junta in Afghanistan does today). That makes them traitors and filth in anyone’s book. They came to America on Langley’s rat-line, along with the scum from the Baltic Legions (see here, here, and here), the Ustaše, and the Galician Uniate SS Galizien Division. For years, they had a stranglehold on the ROCOR leadership; their especial champions were Gregory Grabbe and Vitaly Ustinov. For all intents and purposes, they ran the ROCOR after ’65 (after the death of Metropolitan Anastasy Gribanovsky of Happy Memory). They applauded Vitaly’s treacherous stab-in-the-back to the Mother Church in the ‘90s… all that got us was Valentin Rusantsov and Agafangel Pashkovsky, and everyone knows how wretched that pair was (both were/are certified lickspittles for Langley… Rusantsov even had himself photographed with a US Embassy flunkey).

The glorification of St Alexander Schmorell the New Martyr and Passion-Bearer means that the ROCOR’s turned its back (officially) on the extremist rightwing nonsense spouted by Potapov and Paffhausen. This pisses off the Vlasovtsy… it means that the ROCOR (at least in part) no longer gives approval, either officially, or sub rosa, to their agenda. The Vlasovtsy are just like the Batista Cuban émigrés in Miami, the Vietnamese RVN émigrés on the Gulf Coast, and the Iranian Imperial émigrés in the Northeast. They’ve become an embittered group, they’ve sought “release” in the most extreme factions of the American rightwing fringe (even the Birchers are more “liberal’ than they are). Here’s what’s most exasperating… these pigs are now attacking Carpatho-Russian people, claiming that they were Nazi collaborators and turned in Jews to be killed. That’s an underhanded attack on the memory of Vladyki Laurus Škurla, make no mistake on it. It’s a sign that some of them consider the Great Reconciliation of 2007 a mistake. Is Potapov one of them? God alone knows… but, fact is, he’s still active in extremist rightwing circles inside the beltway and he was/is an official at a known CIA-front organisation (RL/RFE is overrun with spooks, and everyone knows it) high enough to be a bearer of an official “red” US passport. However, do look for Potapov to issue a statement lauding the glorification (if he hasn’t already)… Langley doesn’t want to lose its best asset in the ROCOR (and, thusly, the MP).

So, kids, there’s a reason why there’s much “noise” in Vlasovtsy circles now. I’ll say, it’s time to honour a true hero and saint, and that’s its time to “clean house”. For instance, the ROCOR should transfer Potapov out of the District… send him to Alaska, Seattle, or Salt Lake City… that’d be far enough away to break his easy ties with Langley. We shouldn’t persecute people… we should just not make it easy for people to collaborate with the enemies of the Rodina and of Christ’s Church. Let’s revisit the quote I gave at the top of this post, revised slightly for relevance:

Isn’t it true that every honest American is ashamed of his government these days? Who amongst us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that’ll befall our children and us when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes… crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure… reach the light of day?

Think on that… we much to repent for… the Easter bombing of Belgrade… “Humanitarian Intervention”… the sale of human organs in the American-sponsored statelet of Kosovo… the indefinite detention of “terrorism suspects”… the torture of detainees in secret Eastern European prisons by the CIA…. and much, much more.

I stand against the Vlasovtsy and their self-serving lies. I’m not alone…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Albany NY

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A kitchen cabinet member sent me this:

If certain priests had withheld Chrism as often as some others withhold Communion, we wouldn’t be having this debate. In my estimation, on average, the character of those aspiring to the priesthood has declined over the last 40 years. Don’t panic. We have options. If you want a priest to commune an ordinary gay person, talk to his wife. There are powers-that-be that can make life very uncomfortable for certain priests; as we say, “Mатушка сказала” (“Matushka skazala”: Matushka said so). What if he’s unmarried? Then, call out the babas. It might be distressing for the hipsters to learn, but the repository for what’s normative in the church resides amongst women over 60. When I first came “out” and was still attending my church in the narthex, there were babushkas that would purposely come stand near me. One even smiled, once. Have we lost the sense of loyalty to each other that we’ve forgotten our ethos? Anyone with good manners, who spent a decent amount of time drinking tea with the babushkas, who thanked them for their cooking, who went to confession, and who showed up at Vigil never got a second look in Communion line, no matter how flaming/butch they were. Furthermore, if you’d visited them in hospital or taught their grandsons the Bible, you were golden.

Let’s be clear here. Lay homosexuals have NEVER been an important issue in the Church in the American diaspora, or in the homeland. The Church has been around for over two millennia, it knows a thing or two. There’s a key differentiation between lay gays and open clerical poofters. We leave the former alone; we don’t tolerate the latter. It’s why the MP Holy Synod deposed Bishop Nikon Mironov in Yekaterinburg in ’99… he was bloody-minded, but his theology was straight (after all, he burned ADS’ nasty Renovationist tomes in public). Yet, his homosexuality became open… so, the Synod shit-canned him and sent him off to the Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery (the abode of the late Elder Ioann Krestiankin of Happy Memory) to repent. After some years, they allowed him to live in retirement in Veshnyaki Raion in the eastern outskirts of the city of Moscow, where he’s the honorary rector of a parish (the Synod removed him as the ruling bishop of Yekaterinburg; they didn’t depose him). In 2008, Patriarch Aleksei Rediger gave him the Order of St Sergei of Radonezh, and, in 2010, His Holiness gave a panagia on the occasion of his 50th birthday. That’s what REAL Orthodox do with exposed clerical Sallies, if their theology’s straight. You’ll note that they didn’t put him under an anathema and throw him under the train as Fathausen and his minions do. He lost his clerical position, he had to go for a period of repentance, but that was all, so, he’s not only an Orthodox believer, but an Orthodox cleric (I do think that he’s under an order not to serve publicly, though), today. On the other hand, the Church deals with homosexuality in monastic houses harshly. However, even there, the worst that happens is that the miscreant’s laicised and sent away, we don’t throw them out of the Church. I asked a Russian priest of my acquaintance about the usual practise concerning lay homosexuals:

You know, Alekseyev {a prominent gay activist: editor} is a communing Orthodox believer. As long as they’re respectful, don’t disrupt services, and do what everybody else does, there’s no problem. The Church is against propaganda in favour of sexual minorities {“gays” in Russian usage: editor} amongst children, it’s against gay parades because they’re provocations, and it won’t bless homosexual unions, but it doesn’t bless hatred against sexual minorities, either. Homosexuality’s a sin… but so are greed and adultery, and we don’t expel adulterers and misers.

That’s why Moriak is chock fulla shit on Mark Stokoe. Mark wasn’t “in the closet”. Everyone knew of his “state”… Archbishop Job Osacky knew… Fr Ted Bobosh knew… hell, even I knew (and I don’t know everything). Moriak KNEW of Vladyki Job’s oikonomia, yet, one of his first actions was to piss on Mark to curry favour with Fathausen. Moriak also went against the “institutional culture” of the Diocese of the Midwest… that was unwise in the extreme. When you add in how Moriak set up his son in a comfy situation in the diocese (and the whispers about Moriak’s tastes in certain matters), it’s a recipe for a gigantic and malodorous Shit Sandwich, and Moriak had the brainlessness to force everybody to take a big bite (boy, what THAT ever STOOPID and hutsky-klootsky).

It’s simple… individual lay homosexuals aren’t harassed and attacked, although we do depose gay clerics like Gleb Podmoshensky… do recall how Fathausen, Freddie M-G, and Dreher all had guru-disciple ties with him after his deposition… it certainly puts a new “spin” on Fathausen’s loud fulminations against homosexuality, doesn’t it? Do bear in mind that closeted gay clerics (of all sorts, not merely Orthodox) are usually acridly and vehemently anti-gay in an attempt to draw attention away from themselves. If you want my plain blunt opinion, Podmoshensky’s a covert manipulator of Fathausen (along with Potapov), and, through Fathauen, manipulates the witless konvertsy… they’re all acridly anti-gay in public, yet, their real leader is as queer as a three-dollar bill. That’s why Fathausen has to go… his guru’s an unrepentant sodomite deposed by the ROCOR Holy Synod for good cause.

The REAL Church shows compassion to all… it doesn’t hold anyone up to public obloquy. Look at the Church’s real Christian forbearance and compare it to the abusive hatred spewed forth by the loud OCA konvertsy. Well… it looks like the konvertsy aren’t Orthodox in their heart-of-hearts, does it? Mark it well… the Church is the BIG TENT… that’s why they call it the Orthodox Church!

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Albany NY

Wikipedia: Panagia, also transliterated Panayia or Panaghia, is one of the titles of Mary, the mother of Jesus, used especially in Orthodox Christianity. →

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A friend of mine told me the following:

Gregory Jensen is going to St Seraphim Cathedral in Dallas… they’re circling the wagons.

Of course, we all know how forthcoming Ginny Nieuwsma is, so, I’m posting this, which’ll provoke a post on her part. I’ve figured out her MO… she’s a spoilt lazy brat who does nothing unless she’s forced to (one wonders if she ate her peas as a kid). Perspirin’ minds wanna know… is Jensen going to live in the gay neighbourhood around the Cathedral or is he going to live elsewhere?

BMD

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Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department of Church and Society, during one of the sessions of the 20th Christmas Readings in Moscow, stated that the efforts of those who want the Church to take the side of this-or-that political faction would be in vain. He said, “We need to think it over carefully before we answer any appeal of this sort, no matter how spontaneous, emotional, or passionate… they seem to say, ‘Be with us, not with them; be with us against them, don’t meet with Churov, don’t meet with Navalny, only meet with those whom we recommend’”. In his view, “In future, such pressure will never be effective, and we must confront it; we must say that the Church is open to all, it won’t side with one against another in civil disputes. It’s a fact that people can express their views; they can participate in the political process, to try to influence government decisions. However, at the same time, the Church will never side with those who are trying to sow civil disorder and attack our statehood, as such”.

24 January 2012

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=43912

Editor’s Note:

Fr Vsevolod makes it clear. Although the Church has a discrete and unambiguous social teaching, it doesn’t discriminate against people based on their political opinions. It isn’t like Jonas Paffhausen or Patrick Henry Reardon, who vent their ire on those who won’t follow the extremist wing of the Republican Party. I’d advise all comers not to listen to any of the American lightweights in Orthodoxy… none of them has a higher Orthodox education equivalent to a MDA kandidatura, the highest most of them have is an MDiv… we don’t have Orthodox graduate faculties; we don’t have the human or financial resources. Seminaries are trade schools for priests, they don’t count… and notional “institutes” like the Patriarch Athenagoras Institute and the Saints Cyril and Athanasius Institute are jokes, headed by people without Orthodox terminal degrees (a not-unimportant qualification). You also shouldn’t listen to jumped-up phonies like the Blunder (he has a defective Western education) or Georgi Kochetkov, either.

Instead, I’d advise everyone to listen to proven heavy hitters like Fr Vsevolod, Archbishop Mark Golovkov, Professor Aleksei Osipov, Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, and Professor Natalia Narochnitskaya. That’s not to mention His Holiness, who’s in a class all by himself. As my Nicky says, “He’s a living saint”… and if you see him with kids or the down n’ out, you can see that, in spades. They all say that there’s no political “test” to be in the Church… I agree.

That’s why you can’t have concord with Fathausen (and his Éminence Grise Potapov), Reardon, Dreher, Mattingly, or any of the konvertsy (especially the HOOMies, who are nothing but formally-converted cultists). They want to unite the Church with the worst and most demonic faction of the Republican Party… a faction that believes in perpetual warfare, corporate dictatorship, and the rule of “might makes right”… but they’re for the criminalisation of abortion, dontcha know! They want to link the Church with Moonies, Mormons, and the sillier form of High Church Anglicans… rather interesting, no? Listen to the REAL Church… and you won’t go wrong.

By the way, one last thing… whispers from several sources tell me that Vlasovtsy fanatics in the ROCOR are claiming that Carpatho-Russian people were collaborators and anti-Semites… that’s really another post, but that’s ridiculous and arrant nonsense. The Vlasovtsy were the collaborators… they came to America on the rat-line run by Langley, they ended as fellow-travellers and willing dupes of the nutter fringe of the American rightwing… to tar others, especially innocents, is beyond the pale. Then, again, these jabronies claim that “everyone” in the ROCOR is “wise to Jews, Niggers, Obama, et al”… rather sad, no? That’s why I oppose such filthiness… and I don’t think that I’m alone…

BMD

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Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department of Church and Society, during one of the sessions of the 20th Christmas Readings in Moscow, said that the heightened social and political activism of Orthodox Christians shouldn’t threaten the unity of the Church. He said, “Over the last six months, our Church life has changed dramatically. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill has given a voice to the people, including them in the formulation of ecclesiastical decisions”. In his opinion, there’s heightened interaction between Church and society, on the Internet, in various forums, in academia, and with journalists, as well as in the blogosphere, the mass media, and public events.

Thus, Fr Vsevolod stipulated, the Church, in its contemporary interaction with the state and society, “isn’t a monolithic bloc, its become a diverse choir of different voices and opinions, and all of us need to fully understand this new reality, not just the people within the Church, but also our government and the various groups in secular society. Over the past six months, we saw events take place in Russia; we discussed the political future of our country, people began to speak much more freely than they did before, expressing a multiplicity of viewpoints. Today, real life shows us that both the Church and secular society are polycentric, and that’s a fact“.

Fr Vsevolod noted that there are some that still want to “negotiate with one or two people in the Church, they want an easily-predicted and controlled ecclesiastical body, but that’s impossible… no one can force the people to abandon their desire for free speech”. However, he did point up that although the Church has a “united voice” on her divinely revealed, unchanging, and eternal doctrine, it has a diversity of opinions on political events and social life. Fr Vsevolod noted that the MP has a corpus of teaching on social issues in place, and he hoped that it would guide the different groups of socially-active Orthodox laity in their activities, and that they would consult with the hierarchy and church institutions on its implementation. He concluded by saying, “I hope that the new emerging reality, associated with the outburst of activity of Orthodox believers in the community, in conjunction with the principles of conciliarity and subsidiarity* (соборности и иерархичности), will help the Church to encourage the maximum freedom for the public activities of Orthodox Christians in society, to allow them to express their opinion, to both enrich and strengthen the unity of our Church”.

25 January 2012

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=43920

* The principle that the smallest or least central unit of government should exercise political power

An Étude in Shades of Ochre

Sergei Yolkin

2012

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Neanderthal tribes living in what is now the Netherlands in the late Pleistocene, about 250,000 years ago, were able to turn red iron oxide, hematite, into ochre pigment, which they could use for painting on prepared animal skins, Dutch and Spanish archaeologists reported in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

24 January 2012

Sergei Yolkin

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/caricature/20120124/547624609.html

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Laura Dekker is the world’s youngest solo circumnavigator, who sailed alone around the globe. Laura embarked on her solo voyage from the Caribbean island of St Maarten on 20 January 2011, and returned unscathed a year and a day later. In the second image above, we see Laura’s yacht Guppy in St Maarten at the end of her voyage.

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Teen captain Laura Dekker sailed 27,000 nautical miles on her 11.5-metre (38-foot) sailboat Guppy. On 21 January 2012, her boat docked in  the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean.

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A small fleet of vessels and Coast Guard vessels met the young adventurer at the harbour at St Maarten; she finally reunited with her parents later at a formal party in a local yacht club.

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16-year-old Laura Dekker meets her mother, father, and sister upon arrival in St Martin after her solo trip around the world.

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Laura Dekker was born 20 September 1995 in New Zealand, when her parents were making a round-the globe-journey of their own, and spent the first four years of her life at sea.

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Laura’s an experienced yachtswoman. She first sailed on the open sea when she was six, and she nurtured the dream of sailing solo around the globe since the age of ten.

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Laura announced her plan to embark on a solo round-the world voyage when she was 14. However, the Dutch Council for Child Care spoke out against the risky adventure, issuing an injunction prohibiting her from making vital decisions and putting her under state and psychiatric care. In December 2009, Laura violated the court’s decision and ran off to St Maarten, where the authorities apprehended her and brought her back home. In the image above, we see the Guppy at the end of Laura’s adventure.

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In July 2010, a Dutch court finally permitted Laura to make her solo round-the-globe journey. After completing preparations, the Guppy sailed from the Antilles on 20 January 2011.

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Laura Dekker celebrated her sixteenth birthday at sea. Until recently, Australian Jessica Watson, 17, was considered the world’s youngest circumnavigator, having made a 210-day non-stop solo voyage around the world. Nevertheless, Laura’s record won’t make it into the Guinness Book of World Records, since officials refused to register records achieved by young navigators after Dekker’s 2009 fallout with social care services {if that isn’t “goodthinking” in the Orwellian sense, I don’t know what it is: editor}.

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22/24 January 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/photoalbum/64513291/64517705/

http://rus.ruvr.ru/photoalbum/64381282/64381292/