According to the BBC, Josef Stalin is a contender in a Russian poll for greatest Russian of all time. Out of almost 4 million total votes, about 400,000 have gone to Stalin. BBC reports further that:
The fact that Stalin has been doing so well comes as no surprise to members of the Communist Party, which remains one of the biggest political parties in the country.
"Stalin made Russia a superpower and was one of the founders of the coalition against Hitler in World War II," says Sergei Malinkovich, leader of the St Petersburg Communist Party.
"In all opinion polls he comes out on top as the most popular figure. Nobody else comes close. So for his service to this country we can forgive his mistakes."
His what? His - mistakes? You mean, his genocidal extermination of millions was just a mistake? The anguish of those who withered and died in Siberian gulags was just a result of a forgivable error in judgment on Comrade Stalin's part?
Surely this supasses every record in the invention of euphemisms.
I wonder what Sergei Malinkovich would think about those mistakes if he had to spend even just one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich.
Come on, Russia. Your country has produced leaders like Catherine the Great and Peter the Great, deathless literary titans such as Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekov, Bugalkov, and Solzhenitzen, and legendary composers like Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. And none of them had to resort to exterminating their own countrymen to achieve what they did!
27 December 2008
21 December 2008
Царство Американское
CNN: Biden to be working families czar
Why this recent penchant for czars? Last year there was talk of a war czar, and now Biden's a working families czar? Couldn't the media find a term that doesn't make it sound like we're living in Muscovite Russia?
Боже, Царя храни!
Why this recent penchant for czars? Last year there was talk of a war czar, and now Biden's a working families czar? Couldn't the media find a term that doesn't make it sound like we're living in Muscovite Russia?
Боже, Царя храни!
19 December 2008
Their President Too
I detest Rick Warren. I think him a bigoted ass who furthers the damage he has done to this country every time his flock grows by another imbecile.
That said, I am delighted with the President-Elect's decision to have him deliver the invocation at January's inauguration.
This may appear to be a contradiction - a blasphemous one in the eyes of some liberals, apparently. But look back to Obama's acceptance speech from November 4: "And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too."
Obama wasn't just saying that. He wants to show conservative Christian Americans - the people who most gravely doubt his morals, his religion, and his patriotism - that they, too, have a role to play under this administration. And elements of the left are scorning him for it!
Isn't this why we elected the man? To unite the country? To listen to all Americans - not just one or the other side of the political fence? Change under the Obama administration doesn't mean simply exchanging which half of America will be listened to and which half will be ignored. Like it or not, Rick Warren and his congregation are also Americans. And what will make Barack Obama different is that, despite his disagreements with them, he will be their President too.
That said, I am delighted with the President-Elect's decision to have him deliver the invocation at January's inauguration.
This may appear to be a contradiction - a blasphemous one in the eyes of some liberals, apparently. But look back to Obama's acceptance speech from November 4: "And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too."
Obama wasn't just saying that. He wants to show conservative Christian Americans - the people who most gravely doubt his morals, his religion, and his patriotism - that they, too, have a role to play under this administration. And elements of the left are scorning him for it!
Isn't this why we elected the man? To unite the country? To listen to all Americans - not just one or the other side of the political fence? Change under the Obama administration doesn't mean simply exchanging which half of America will be listened to and which half will be ignored. Like it or not, Rick Warren and his congregation are also Americans. And what will make Barack Obama different is that, despite his disagreements with them, he will be their President too.
15 December 2008
The Reason for the Season
Although "Happy Holidays" has become the vogue, P.C. way to greet people this time of year, I harbor no compunction about wishing others a "Merry Christmas". But it's not what you think. I am not a Bill O'Reilly fighting the war against the forces of secularization; it's just that I think the war is over. And we won. Christmas is a secular holiday.
Granted, not for all. Some people still desperately cling to the Christian roots of the holiday. Despite that those roots are planted in pagan dirt - the winter solstice festival that predates Christianity by thousands of years - such people insist that "Jesus is the reason for the season."
They are wrong. Santa Claus is the reason for the season.
Santa has dethroned Jesus. The shopping mall is his church, the elves are his saints, and fruitcake and egg nog are his holy communion.
Only a powerful capacity for denial can allow one to believe that the man who put the Christ in Christmas still matters at this time of year. Whatever the religious history of the holiday may be, look at it now. It is not about God or Jesus or your eternal soul. It is presents. It is Christmas trees. It is food. It is traveling hundreds of miles to see family. It is egg nog and mistletoe, a fire in the fireplace, and Christmas-movie marathons on TV. It is hyperactive children on Christmas morning dragging their bleary-eyed parents out of bed.
It is wonderful.
Not all of it, of course; Christmas as we know it also glorifies consumerism to a perverse extreme and encourages the exchange of material goods as the only valid expression of love. But I contend that even this is an improvement on the old model. Whatever vandalism consumerism commits on the human spirit, it's nothing compared to the epic guilt produced by the idea of sin.
There are many who still go to church on Christmas, but I wager that the percentage of the population who choose to waste an otherwise beautiful morning in this fashion drops every year. And manger scenes are still ubiquitous, but they look more and more quaint next to all the pretty light displays and iPod advertisements.
So atheist though I may be, I see no contradiction in wishing people a Merry Christmas. To my mind it is no more indicative of reverence for the Messiah than yelling his name when I've dropped a hammer on my foot. Christmas is a holiday that celebrates being with friends and family, eating good food, and exchanging presents. It is a lovely tradition in its purely secular form, and the inclusion of the superstitions whence it came contributes nothing of value.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good, godless night!
Granted, not for all. Some people still desperately cling to the Christian roots of the holiday. Despite that those roots are planted in pagan dirt - the winter solstice festival that predates Christianity by thousands of years - such people insist that "Jesus is the reason for the season."
They are wrong. Santa Claus is the reason for the season.
Santa has dethroned Jesus. The shopping mall is his church, the elves are his saints, and fruitcake and egg nog are his holy communion.
Only a powerful capacity for denial can allow one to believe that the man who put the Christ in Christmas still matters at this time of year. Whatever the religious history of the holiday may be, look at it now. It is not about God or Jesus or your eternal soul. It is presents. It is Christmas trees. It is food. It is traveling hundreds of miles to see family. It is egg nog and mistletoe, a fire in the fireplace, and Christmas-movie marathons on TV. It is hyperactive children on Christmas morning dragging their bleary-eyed parents out of bed.
It is wonderful.
Not all of it, of course; Christmas as we know it also glorifies consumerism to a perverse extreme and encourages the exchange of material goods as the only valid expression of love. But I contend that even this is an improvement on the old model. Whatever vandalism consumerism commits on the human spirit, it's nothing compared to the epic guilt produced by the idea of sin.
There are many who still go to church on Christmas, but I wager that the percentage of the population who choose to waste an otherwise beautiful morning in this fashion drops every year. And manger scenes are still ubiquitous, but they look more and more quaint next to all the pretty light displays and iPod advertisements.
So atheist though I may be, I see no contradiction in wishing people a Merry Christmas. To my mind it is no more indicative of reverence for the Messiah than yelling his name when I've dropped a hammer on my foot. Christmas is a holiday that celebrates being with friends and family, eating good food, and exchanging presents. It is a lovely tradition in its purely secular form, and the inclusion of the superstitions whence it came contributes nothing of value.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good, godless night!
05 December 2008
The Blind Guide
"In dunkeln Zeiten wurden die Völker am besten durch die Religion geleitet, wie in stockfinstrer Nacht ein Blinder unser bester Wegweiser ist; er kennt dann Wege und Stege besser als ein Sehender - Es ist aber töricht, sobald es Tag ist, noch immer die alten Blinden als Wegweiser zu gebrauchen."
"In dark times the people were best led by religion, just as in the dark of night a blind man is our best guide; at such a time he knows the ways and byways better than someone with sight - But it is foolish, once day has dawned, to keep using the old blind men as guides."
- Heinrich Heine, Aphorisms and Fragments
"In dark times the people were best led by religion, just as in the dark of night a blind man is our best guide; at such a time he knows the ways and byways better than someone with sight - But it is foolish, once day has dawned, to keep using the old blind men as guides."
- Heinrich Heine, Aphorisms and Fragments
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