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Editor’s Foreword:
I’m in plain type; my interlocutors are in italics.
BMD
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General definition of treating someone as a “mushroom”: Keeping someone in the dark and feeding them shit.
It’s a legacy of Stokoe’s Syosset days as a minor apparatchik. I’ve found him cold and calculating. I’ll speak up if Moriak tries to screw him, but I’ve no liking for him at all. He wants to get back in Syosset along with his gang, re-establish what he sees as the salad days of the OCA, and he’s a Renovationist nutter. Yet… as I say, I won’t be silent if they try to attack him. That’s clear. Sometimes you have to speak up for bastards… that’s the way of it. Fair is fair. I don’t like him and find him untrustworthy in the extreme (he’d betray anybody if he felt that it was to his advantage). Yes… he’s an ally… but one that bears constant watching. That’s what my grey hairs tell me…
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We’ve got to stick together… and realise that people are what they are, and they’re NOT going to change. You don’t have to agree with someone totally to work with them amicably (and even be friends!)… that’s obvious. That being said, though, Mark’s slippery… he’s the sort that USES people. Have a care in his presence… please…
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You have to understand that they’ve grown up in an environment suffused with secrecy and émigré politics. That’s led them to associate with rightwing nutters in the West, and all such sorts are “conspiracy theorists”. There are NO conspiracies… there are only associations of like-minded individuals. In any case, the powers-that-be smile at such lunacies… if people are chasing chimeras, they’re not making trouble for the First Families.
What worries me more are the paranoid conspiracy theorists in the OCA. When you think what they did to the Serbs by welcoming the Albanians! Kishkovsky may be the only brains left in the OCA… that’s saying something!
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I’ve seen the so-called “American Orthodox” trumpeting their attacks on Patriarch Kirill all over the internet. It’s merely thinly-disguised Russophobia hitched to the “mean machine” of rightwing extremism. I have a deep fondness and respect for Russia and for the Russian people, and I concur with Ilya Glazunov, “A Russian is anyone who loves Russia”. I stand with the MP and against the hypocrites of the West.
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“You can’t go home again”… although I wish that we could turn the hands of the clock back to 1980 and defeat Slobberin’ Ronnie. I fear that we’re going to pay a hard price for the affluent effluent’s greed. The ‘50s were a time of a fairer distribution… that’s all that there’s to say on the matter. It’s gone… not only this, but also the days of Captain Alexander at Jordanville and Metropolitan Leonty at St T’s. Nevertheless, we MUST look forward, not backwards, and FIGHT. That’s our duty…
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We’re on the same page… identical? NO! That’s NEVER the case. As for me, I realise it’ll take three generations to put the Church here to rights. Healing is SLOW. VERY SLOW. I fell and hurt my shoulder a couple years back, and it took a year to knit together just right. I followed my doctor’s orders and took my meds. As I did so, it allowed my body to heal itself. Now, it’s as good as new… but it took a whole year. Institutions are much more “unforgiving”… there’s such a thing as “corporate memory”, and it takes a long time to heal that. The generation that witnessed the abomination has to pass on before the healing’s over. That’s the way it is…
A friend wrote to me saying that “every” priest reads my website. That means that my responsibility’s the greater. I have to double-check things more thoroughly… I have to be careful as well as hard-hitting. It’s sad that the “official” news media in the Church in the diaspora is so poor… it’s good in the homeland. However, do remember that’s a result of the Rodina having been purged by the godless unbelievers, as a result, all the phonies are out of the Church now (we have some dumb jabronies and some clueless idiots, but NO Black Hundreds). We in the diaspora didn’t go through such a cleansing… ergo, we have all sorts of heretics and fanatics amongst us. They’ve taken over the Church… they think they “are” the Church (especially, SVS has an l’église c’est moi attitude, for instance). God’s justice grinds slowly, but it grinds exceedingly fine, they say. Don’t look at the official websites or listen to the seminaries… the sans-culottes are stirring, and “a spectre is haunting Europe“.
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A Portrait of a Sans-Culotte
Louis-Léopold Boilly
first third of the 19th century
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Note the supreme contempt in many clerical circles for the “people”… Freddie M-G, for instance, believes that we have to “follow the clergy in all things”. If we were to do that, the Church would fail… do remember the Iconoclasts, the Union of Brest, and the Russian Renovationists… the clergy supported the “wrong” side and the PEOPLE stood up for what was right!
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Apparently, Berezovsky’s running the anti-Kirill and anti-Church campaign in Russia. It’s his revenge for the Church’s lukewarm support for Putin. Of course, the West loves it… Berezovsky loves the West.
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That’s why I don’t care for konvertsy… “swims with the tide”… “that doesn’t prevent him kissing up to the EP when he wants to”. You just described the typical Angliochian to a tee. I know why they support Renovationism… that’s what passes for “traditional” amongst a certain set of Anglicans (the Stand Firm in the Faith lot). What we mean by Tradition, and what prideful former Anglicans mean by “tradition” are two diametrically opposite things.
You see, if you already “know”, you won’t learn. They’re all “scholars”, dontcha know! As for me, I’ve learnt tons since I started my site. It requires research, and that means that one learns, especially, if one’s on the track of the truth. If all that you’re doing is mouthing your oddbod opinion and pious platitudes, you sink deeper into prelest with each post (such as one sees with Freddie M-G, Dreher, and Honeycutt). Sad, ain’t it? They’re on the hell-bound train, and not only do they not know it, they insist that we join them! Note this well… all of the American Angliochians have ties to Gleb Podmoshensky in one way or another (Paffhausen, Dreher, Freddie M-G, Jensen, and all the HOOMies, amongst others, have direct ties to him). They hate sodomy (supposedly)… and yet look at who’s their guru! One of the most questionable sorts ever to exist in the American diaspora (Lebedeff admitted in a public post on the Indiana List that the deposition for serving under suspension was a dodge… which they used to keep certain things hidden)!
Live and learn, eh?
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Patrick Reardon and David Bleam (both AOCANA convert priests) went to Syria for Philip Saliba and wrote glowing reports on Assad… it was printed in the archdiocesan magazine.
That’s because if they didn’t, Philip would bore ‘em a new arsehole. They’re all punk cowards as far as I’m concerned.
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You KNOW how it is… the closeted gay blades make the most noise. I think that they canned Frederick because he was catching on. Watch for MAJOR disillusionment amongst some of the konvertsy when they find out. They’re beginning to catch on… do note that the Centre’s not bankrolling the OCA… a friend of mine said, “We know what’s going on. We take the LOOONG view”. That’s all he wrote… but I think that you know what he means.
By all means have more than one… but remember Aquinas’ dictum, ad usque hilaritatem… once you get “nice”, don’t overdo… or you’ll pay the next day. I speak from EXPERIENCE…
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Love BT (more like Hatred BT) sums up EVERYTHING that’s wrong with the OCA… They hate Russia, they hate Tsar St Nikolai, and they hate Putin. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot…
Also… they LOVE the Godless West, the Uniates, and the Almighty Dollar. FOUR DAYS for a Holy Synod meeting… why, the Centre’s content with one day for a meeting (shades of Clemenceau commenting on Wilson!)! Paffhausen’s turning on his allies… he’s a goner.
Of course, the opposite of Russia is the Godless West, the opposite of St Nikolai are the Uniates, and the opposite of Putin is the Almighty dollar, Mammon himself…
Yes… and they’re drowning… as I say, JP’s turning on his last allies. My only question is, “Who’ll be JP’s Bennigsen?” “It ain’t personal… it’s only business”… but it won’t save them. I think that His Nibs is on to them, but he’s letting them cut their own throats. Nevertheless, the melon’s ripe for the plucking…
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I can’t believe that some want Gerasim as Bishop of the Diocese of the South of the OCA… I’m shocked, but many people don’t know about his ties with Gleb Podmoshensky.
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There IS a serious fight… over the USA. The EP is serious when it claims the USA as its own. The Centre’s not going to stand for that, and that may be the pretext for it shutting down the OCA (St Fagomyr’s has been quasi-EP ever since the Schmemanndorff days). It IS serious…
I know it’s serious, but the MP was here first… in Sitka AK! So, the EP doesn’t have a claim. It’s all about money, Barbara… the Phanar’s broke… they need American money…badly.
The GOAA IS the EP… full stop. That’s why it’ll NEVER allow an “autocephalous” Church in the USA… the OCA wasn’t an autocephalous Church, it was nothing but an MP dependency with big ideas (which caused its downfall and demise). 99 percent of the EP’s money comes from rich Greeks, and the rich American Greeks transmit Washington‘s orders to the Phanar… think of George Stephanopoulos and his interference in ROCOR internal affairs (through his sister, who was a nun in the ROCOR, but left it after the 2007 reconciliation).
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I don’t know when… the older I get the easier it is for me to say, “I don’t know”. One of the good things about running a news site is that you LEARN. It’s an education… truly, if you pay attention to what you report. Remember, most “journalists” aren’t REPORTERS, they’re COMMENTATORS. I seek out REALITY… not OPINION. It’s chastening at times, and always enlightening…
Is This the Beginning of the End of Romania’s Russophobia?
Tags: Bucharest, Crin Antonescu, EU, European Union, Facebook, Moscow, political commentary, politics, poster, Romania, Russia, Russian, Russophobia, Social-Liberal Union, Titus Corlăţean, Traian Băsescu, Transnistria, Victor Ponta
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One wouldn’t call the relations between Bucharest and Moscow sunny, and it’s obvious that Romanian President Traian Băsescu played a major role in shaping the current situation. The Romanian leader has been memorable for his praise of Nazi criminals as well as his public statement that, in 1941, he would’ve given the order to attack the USSR. The actions and statements made by lower ranking officials seemed like “innocent mischief”, but they weren’t that innocent. Such positions of the Romanian leadership couldn’t go without political and economic consequences.
After the parliamentary opposition managed to form a majority and a coalition government, signs of an improvement in Romanian-Russian relations began to appear. Prime Minister Victor Ponta, unlike Băsescu, exhibits no signs of pathological Russophobia and even creates the impression of being a rational politician. However, some of the members in the new government still prefer to deal with Moscow by using derisory rhetoric. Titus Corlăţean, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, stands out in particular, having begun a tough and quite lengthy argument with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin. The Russian government’s desire to open a consulate on the territory of Transnistria served as the apple of discord.
In the context of the historically-complex relations between Moscow and Bucharest, the mere fact that a political faction won the parliamentary election with a huge majority of votes, and didn’t show aggressive Russophobia, can already be considered as a major step forward. Băsescu used all his power to give the domestic political struggle a geopolitical aspect; he used accusations that the opposition leaders were trying to push Romania from its pro-European and pro-American course as the basis of his party’s election campaign. It’s worth mentioning that, for the first time in the history of post-socialist Romania, the accused didn’t rush to make excuses regarding their alleged love for Russia, but counterattacked with a proposal to Romanian society to seriously consider the question, “Is it that bad to have good relations with Russia and China?”
Speaking on air on the most popular news TV channel, one of the leaders of the Social Liberal Union and the chairman of the Romanian parliament’s upper chamber, George-Crin-Laurenţiu Antonescu, stated that he wasn’t going to bring up the same arguments over and over to prove that he was a pro-European politician and that he found it necessary to once and for all end the rumours related to Romania’s geopolitical course, saying, “The USA has serious economic and political ties with Russia and China. Russia is Germany’s main economic and political partner. At the same time, Romania’s president wrote on Facebook, ‘Don’t vote for such and such because they will lead us towards Russia and China!’ The whole world is laughing at us! I don’t feel comfortable when I meet Russian and Chinese diplomats. We insult these countries by the mere fact of such public discussions”.
It’s possible that the economic crisis and the generational change in Romanian politics will lead to a more pragmatic attitude and less Russophobia in relations between Bucharest and Moscow. There’s a chance that the example given by the Western countries, which found ways to effectively cooperate with Russia, will encourage a new generation of Romanian politicians to search for ways to establish a mutually-beneficial dialogue by throwing aside the heavy-handed behaviour of their predecessors.
12 December 2012
Valentin Mândrăşescu
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_12_12/The-beginning-of-the-end-of-Romania-s-Russophobia/