Entries Tagged 'communism' ↓

By 1389

It’s time to stir the pot some more

My last post on the brouhaha at Grouchy Conservative Pundits (GCP) was harshly worded indeed, but nonetheless it was not harshly worded enough. I haven’t rattled enough cages yet. Until I start getting some hate mail, enraged comments in all kinds of languages, and maybe even some juicy death threats, I never know if I’m getting my message out, rather than just preaching to the choir.

Lots of people talk about respect…

Talk is cheap. If you’re going to play that game with me, you’ll have to ante up. I believe in giving respect ONLY where respect is due. People who want my respect have to earn it, and they cannot earn it by spewing flagrant and undeserved disrespect toward me and others, as did “Mike C.” and “Rayra” on GCP.

Intellect alone is not deserving of respect; it depends on what people do with it. I have known many people far more intelligent than those two, and who behave far better.

Current or former military service (assuming these people are who they say they are, and I have my doubts) in and of itself is not enough to earn my respect either; there are just as many despicable people among the military and former military as there are everywhere else. I had a recent ex-boss of that description; he was, and is, a crook who treated me like dirt and then got rid of me by transferring me to another position where I would not be paid as much as my contract specified, simply because I didn’t play along with his chicanery in manipulating department budgets. That ex-boss was one more example of the fact that the most consistently untrustworthy people out there are the ones who always talk the loudest about “having someone else’s back.” Yeah, right…with a knife between the ribs.

As far as military personnel are concerned, don’t even get me started on those US military who willingly took part in the bombing of the Serbs during the Kosovo War, or who failed (and still fail) to protect the lives, property, and freedom of the Serbs in occupied Kosovo. Every officer involved should have resigned their commissions. Those who failed to resign have genocide on their consciences, though I doubt that any of them will ever admit it.

Is he or isn’t he? Only his gardener knows for sure

As I said, I cannot determine for sure whether or not “Rayra” is a plant. It’s just as likely that “Rayra” is merely a deeply angry, confused, frightened, and mentally and emotionally unstable individual who is too impulsive to think anything through, can never admit being wrong about anything, sees no reason to learn to control his temper, has no respect for women or anybody he considers to be weaker than himself, has no interest in where anybody else is coming from, and lashes out blindly at anybody or anything that he sees as a threat to his ego or to his self-centered world view. Or he could simply be an outright psychopath; I’ve had the misfortune to be acquainted with a few of those too.

For obvious reasons, I would never WANT somebody like “Rayra” even to claim to be on my side. He is more a danger to his friends, such as they are, than to his enemies.

But whether “Rayra” is actually a plant isn’t the most important concern here. The point is that, whether “Rayra” intends it or not, his intemperate and misguided remarks further the interests of expanding the corrupt and tyrannical use of federal government power.

Why do so many people hate Russia?

As I mentioned in my earlier post, a truly irrational hatred of Russia is rife on GCP, and anybody who says a word in favor of Russia becomes a target. I have reason to believe that Russia is not only far less of a “despotism” than the US, but also it runs the country in the interest of its own citizens, its economy is growing instead of collapsing, it respects Christianity, and its leaders are loyal to their own country. Russia is nothing like its portrayal in the mainstream media.

We are acquainted with an American expat who has lived near Moscow for many years, and we get some information about what is going on in Russia from the inside. Also, one of our friends is an amateur astronomer who travels all over the world whenever there is an eclipse. He’s a rock-solid conservative Republican and has been so for many decades. He went to Russia the last time there was an eclipse there, and he liked it so much that he seriously considered blowing off the eclipse-viewing to spend more time traveling in Russia and meeting Russians.

No, I don’t agree with everything that the Russian government does, just as I will never agree with everything that any government does. We live in a fallen world and all governments are fallible. But I can well understand why, at this stage, Russia is a rival of the US and not an ally. Yes, Russia COULD have been an ally, but Americans blew the opportunity through our own selfishness and ambition. The carpetbaggers that came over to Russia from Harvard and the liberal think-tanks after the Berlin Wall came down inflicted incredible damage; they are the ones to blame for letting the oligarchs and gangsters take hold for as long as they did. Since that time, Putin and Medvedev have made considerable inroads against the oligarchs and gangsters. They’ve also instituted a flat tax that is not excessively high, they collect it even-handedly, and unlike the US, they don’t double-tax Russian citizens earning money overseas. If they’ve had to play rough against the Chechen jihadis and the media whores and NGOs that support the jihadis, then good for them.

I understand that many people continue to harbor suspicion and hatred against Russia as a result of the heritage of the Cold War. I myself was as ardent a supporter of the US during the Cold War as anybody could be. However, in the present day, such hatred against Russia is counterproductive and it sinks to the level of irrational bigotry. I haven’t observed the same degree of opprobrium leveled at China, our other Cold War enemy, even though China is much less free than Russia, China is not primarily a Christian country, China is more of a rival to us than Russia is, and the remnants of communism persist much more strongly there.

Pot, meet kettle

I would no more condemn Putin for having been in the KGB in the distant past, than I would condemn George H. W. Bush for having headed the CIA, which has done little to protect us, and much to get us into needless trouble. At least Putin is a Christian who has repented of whatever wrongdoing he has committed in that regard. Can you imagine an American president ever repenting of anything? I sure can’t. I doubt that we’ve had a real Christian president since Ronald Reagan, despite numerous photo-ops intended to prove the contrary.

Anybody can see that we have an even bigger mess in the US. What inroads has our federal government made against the Latin-American drug gangs, the SEIU, George Soros and his circle of oligarchs, the traitors at the New York Times and CNN, the traitors in the State Department, the commies in our universities, the crooks who run Detroit and Chicago, and last but not least, the jihadis that infest every corner of the US?

Shooting the messenger

Of course, it sent many people on GCP into fits of outrage to hear me say that Russia, despite its current rivalry with the US, has been cleaning up its internal messes, while the US has been sinking into an abyss. Their response was to shoot the messenger.

And why do so many people hate the Serbs?

There is plenty of evidence that they hate the Serbs over at GCP. This is ironic, considering that GCP was founded by people banned from Little Green Footballs, and considering that I was banned from Little Green Footballs for supporting the Serbs. Their antipathy toward the Serbs also serves to explain some of their hatred toward Russia, simply because the Russians have made some efforts to help the Serbs.

The US government, along with NATO and the EU, is still doing everything it can to destroy the economy and livelihood and what little remains of the sovereignty and culture of the Serbs, in order to help the jihadis to create a stronghold in the Balkans. And that includes the US military. I don’t even want to think about how many people on GCP might have been personally involved in one way or another. That’s between them and their Maker.

This foreign policy is not merely stupid, it sinks to the level of treason. The whole purpose of throwing the Serbs under the bus is to curry favor with the Saudis and other Muslim oil-producing nations. A lot of good that has done us! We would have done better just to colonize them and take over and de-Islamize the Middle East just as we once de-Nazified western Europe. As anybody could have predicted, like every other bunch of totalitarians, the jihadis are inherently evil and they will always bite the hands that feed them, which is what led to 9-11.

Does that statement surprise you? In case you don’t know, Osama bin Laden travels on a Bosnian Muslim passport granted to him by the late Alija Izetbegovic, who was literally a Nazi. It is not appropriate to invoke Godwin’s Law here, because we’re talking about an actual Nazi of the Third Reich. Notice that I do not call Izetbegovic an ex-Nazi, in that he was a lifelong unrepentant Nazi who recruited for Hitler as a young man. And the US government sided with Izetbegovic in the Bosnian War.

This collaboration with the jihadis in the Balkans has been going on ever since Reagan left office. I have grave doubts about the moral worth of the American people for consistently electing governments that support our enemies in this way. How am I supposed to be loyal to a government that is collaborating with our enemies? If I had been in Norway during the Second World War, should I have been loyal to Vidkun Quisling?

I harbor a faint hope that enough people in some state, somewhere in the US, will see the light in time to secede from a Quisling federal government that is deliberately laying us open to our enemies, so that at least some part of the US will be salvaged. If the turnaround doesn’t happen very soon, long before the 2012 election, it will be too late, and the America that we thought we knew will exist in name only.

Some will insist on remaining under the US federal government no matter what, so that their livelihood (and maybe their lives) will be bled away to support a socialist/jihadi federal tyranny that has chosen to represent not “American exceptionalism” or the “city on a hill” but the worst of all possible worlds. That’s their choice, but let them not claim their willful blindness as moral superiority.

By 1389

Yes, 1389 has been banned again…

I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve been banned from a lot of websites. I’ve been banned from Digg at least three times (for supporting Serbs and opposing jihadis), from Little Green Footballs once (again for supporting Serbs), from BoingBoing (after a single comment criticizing an article written by a left-wing admin), and even from StumbleUpon (my account was hacked and their admins never got around to reinstating me, so I eventually gave up).

Gotta collect ‘em all…

The latest forum that I’ve been banned from is Grouchy Conservative Pundits, a/k/a GCP, formerly Gulf Coast Pundits. No, I am not posting a clickable link here; you can find the link easily enough if you want. The reason I’m blogging about it here is to air my suspicions about what is going on both in public and behind the scenes on some websites and forums, and in some organizations, that portray themselves as conservative, but are not.

Yes, I’ll miss a few people on that board, and those few who miss me should not have any trouble finding me. Most people on the board are happy to see me gone, and have said so, though not in a public thread.

What trash talkers reveal about themselves

I make a point of being plain-spoken, but there is a huge difference between forthrightness and talking trash. Swears and vulgar epithets are not allowed in comments or articles on 1389 Blog, because they encourage bullying and flame wars, lower the tone of discourse, and can rapidly get out of control.

GCP has no such restrictions, but even so, I was amazed at the style of verbiage that GCP admin “Mike C.” used with me. He sounded so much like Charles Johnson (alias CJ) of the turncoat website Little Green Footballs that it wasn’t even funny. I have never been addressed in such a bitchy, snarky, condescending way by any heterosexual male in my entire life. Of course, “Mike C.” is just a screen name, and I have no knowledge of who “Mike C.” actually is and no information about his personal life, and am not interested in anything he may claim to have done that supposedly proves he’s a man. It all comes down to the fact that any male who would directly address a female in such a disgusting, contemptuous way, especially without any real provocation, is not a man.

“Mike C.” enforces a double standard when it comes to another blog admin whose screen name is “Rayra”. (Despite the feminine-sounding name, “Rayra” is, or claims to be, a male with a military background. Yes, I know, on the Internet, you never know who anybody actually is…) Be that as it may, “Rayra” is free to say whatever he wants on the GCP forum, as often as he wants and in as offensive a way as he pleases. On the other hand, women on the site had better confine themselves to echoing the opinions of the male admins, much as CJ’s female minions do with him. It is beneath my dignity to participate in that type of thing.

Neocons are not conservatives

Too many people on GCP seem to be “neocons” as opposed to conservatives, so much so that if truth in labeling applied to blogs and forums, that one should be called Grouchy Neocon Pundits. I have many reasons to avoid the neocons, but my biggest reason is that they can’t seem to figure out that America’s real foreign enemies are the jihadis, not the former Soviet Union, which is dead and gone.

As a person of Slavic descent, the reflexive hatred and suspicion directed toward Russia and other Slavic countries and peoples, particularly Orthodox Slavs, was starting to get old. Slav-bashing is based on a type of racism and bigotry, not on any real evidence. I hasten to say that I don’t approve of every decision that the present-day Russian government has made, but that isn’t the point. On the GCP forum, I did try to point out that Russia is not the Soviet Union, it is not interested in taking over Europe, and if we had not made such a mess of things ever since the Clinton Administration, Russia could potentially be a strong ally against both socialism and jihadism. At least they know what socialism is all about, and they reject it. But whenever I said anything about that, people on GCP would pile in on me like a ton of bricks.

“Conservatives” at the public trough

The major issue that led to my being banned from GCP had to do with my defending the idea that states have the right to secede (and should prepare to do so, as a way to stop the encroachment of socialism) and that Americans have the right to move to other parts of the world and even to become citizens there, if they so desire and if the other country admits them. I said then, and I still say, that declining to participate any further in supporting a tyrannical government, by means of secession or expatriation, can be a valid and principled stand against tyranny.

At that point, “Rayra” and “Mike C.” completely lost it, big time, and condemned me in every possible way.

No, I’m not going to risk copyright issues by directly quoting any of their nonsense here. Their screen names don’t actually identify them, so they have no cause for complaint about my “outing” them in any way. Obviously, they are forbidden to comment here, and I do not plan to visit, or link to, any other forum where they exert significant control.

• Anybody who goes ballistic over someone entertaining the idea of expatriating (or secession) to avoid ruinous taxation, is no conservative.
• Anybody who, without any evidence, levels a blanket accusation of “tax chicanery” against American expatriates who simply open an overseas bank account, is no conservative.

Evidently, “Rayra”, “Mike C.”, and their supporters seem awfully worried about keeping those federal tax dollars flowing so that they will keep getting their government checks of one sort or another. The very idea that I and others might vote with our feet, take up foreign citizenship, have a decent and peaceful life somewhere else, and stop funding their retirement, is anathema to them.

The very fact that “Rayra” and “Mike C.” went berserk over the very thought of Americans refusing to condemn themselves to a lifetime of poverty and ruin, followed by administrative euthanasia under “Obamacare” in their old age, simply to stave off the fiscal collapse of the federal government, shows where their loyalties really lie. It isn’t to the beleaguered American people, it’s to the federal government, and their quarrel with that government is that they aren’t currently the ones reaping most of the stolen loot.

And if people like “Mike C.” and “Rayra” were running the government instead of the Obaminators, would we be any better off? I doubt it.

Why it’s right to vote with our feet

It only got worse after I pointed out that people who fled the Third Reich after 1933, or the Soviet Union in 1917, had done the right thing. By going somewhere else with their labor and their livelihood, they prevented their efforts and earnings from being used to establish and run a tyrannical socialist regime. Those who voluntarily stayed were later accused of collaborating with the evils that followed.

All of was too much for “Rayra.” He posted a viciously-worded reply, in which he heaped scorn on all those who left the Third Reich, the Soviet Union, and other regimes, blaming them for not having stayed there and killed the dictators. He immediately went on to say that the Obama regime is getting ready to murder millions in the same way. In other words, “Rayra” implied that it is my moral obligation to stay in the US so as to kill off Obama and company.

“Rayra” does not read this blog, or he would know that I’ve already explained why nobody should do anything of the sort. (See “Going Postal” Empowers Evil Tyrants.)

This is not to say that jihadis, socialists, and totalitarians of any stripe, anywhere in the world, deserve anything other than the harshest of all possible fates. But it is not up to me to make that happen! It would be both pointless and counterproductive for individual Americans to put their lives on the line to go out with weapons and kill off the jihadis, the socialists, and the corrupt government officials who are selling us out to them. Okay, maybe I’ve gotten to be too peaceable in my old age, but there is some valid reasoning behind my stance on this matter. The long and the short of it is that any attempt to kill off these evildoers simply gives the current regime more opportunities to smear and demonize dissidents, and to enforce even more repressive measures.

Another reason why beheading the regime won’t work is that the main problem isn’t with Obama and a few people at the top, it’s with the entire American society being foolish enough to let Obama get into power. (See Words of Wisdom from the Czech Republic.)

As far as I know, nobody’s suggesting killing off everybody who was foolish enough to vote for Obama! The figurehead is always expendable, and there’s always another to take his place. Of course, one can only hope that our society will eventually come to its senses and use legal means to impeach and remove all public officials who support America’s enemies and who fail to uphold the Constitution, and then try and punish the perpetrators, along with their financiers and backers, for corruption, treason, et cetera after removing them from office. But such legal housecleaning, however justifiable and appropriate, is not a solution to the folly of the American electorate, simply because it could not possibly succeed until such time as Americans have already awakened from the folly that allowed Obama to get into power in the first place.

Expect to find a plant in every conservative organization

It wouldn’t surprise me if “Rayra” weren’t some sort of agent provocateur who wants to flush people who harbor anti-government thoughts out of the woodwork. While I don’t have any direct evidence that “Rayra” is a plant, suffice it to say that if I were to encounter him in person, I’d bring a watering can!

Put it this way, if “Rayra” can get people to admit that they also think that killing off the socialist Obama administration would be the right thing to do, then somebody from the goverment can arrest those people, and also use it as an excuse for all sorts of repressive measures against “domestic terrorism.” If you think that’s a stretch, look what happened with the Hutaree people. I find it absolutely despicable for “Rayra” and others to sit back, eat popcorn, and collect their government checks, while goading other people into taking actions that will ruin their lives and will only worsen government tyranny. If “Rayra” actually felt a moral obligation to put his own life on the line by killing Obama, I still would consider it misguided, but it is NOT his business to heap scorn on others such as myself for being unwilling to do the same. But I think that “Rayra” is just a bully and a coward who doesn’t mind getting other people into trouble as long as it doesn’t cause him any inconvenience.

So I decided to call his bluff once and for all. I told “Rayra” that, unless I saw “Rayra” himself, and NOT someone else, on the news as having assassinated Obama, that I would never take seriously anything “Rayra” says. My purpose was either to make “Rayra” reveal what he is up to, or, preferably, to get him to take back his remarks.

Instead, “Mike C.” deleted my comment in a fit of intemperate rage, probably before “Rayra” even got a chance to read it, and shortly after that I was banned.

People can draw whatever conclusions they want from that, but my advice is to watch out for people in any conservative venue who behave like this, and never to trust any of them.

More about this here.

A Letter to the Hebrews from Nanoc the REMF a/k/a Fastac_6:

I was looking at the post on B. Hussein’s latest appointments, and something that had been troubling me deep down leapt forward. I considered a herem, but decided my standing is such that it would cause more trouble than good. So, I will post a simple plea:

The charge to the Jewish people through the millennia has been simple. At its core, Torah is a simple business contract between G-d and the Jewish people. “Follow My Laws, and I will grant you these rewards.” Implicit in the agreement is the idea that in following the Law, Jews become a light for the world, a living Testament to G-d and all about Him that is Good. Work hard, care for one another, always be learning, and do not do to others that which is hateful unto you. In following this path, Jews have become subject to much painful persecution, for being different. Yet, through the millennia, enough Jews have stayed on that path that, for the most part, a Jew of 2,500 years ago would recognize the rituals and many customs of Jews today.

In our course through History, we Jews have freely given much to the world and continue that through today. Science, literature, religious philosophy, the arts………Occasionally we stumble, and give you a Karl Marx. Marxist thought leads to the destruction of all that is good about humanity- incentive, creativity, worship of G-d, the entire concept of individuals having worth. I call upon all my fellow Jews, in the Honor of All that is Holy, to immediately distance themselves from the administration of Barack Hussein Obama and all participation in Marxist thought and activities. Your continuing participation is a חילול השם, and can only bring tragedy and disaster upon yourselves and all Jews. I am an old Cold Warrior, and lived with the history and reality of how Jews fared in the old Soviet Union. It did not go well.

-Rabbi Mair ben Baruch haCohen.

Balkans For Dummies—
Or for Those of Us Deceived by the US Media

Part I – Divorce, Yugoslavian Style

By CzechRebel

It is about religion, stupid!

During the 1999 Kosovo War the media—inspired by the Clinton Administration was trying to convince the public that an ethnic struggle in Kosovo was pitting Serbs against Albanians. For reasons that no sane man can imagine Clinton and company had picked the Albanians over the Serbs and called in the Luftwaffe and other NATO air forces to bomb the Serbs.

But the news that actually came out of Kosovo made little, if any, sense. Newspaper would always feature a town where the Serbs and Albanians got along very well. Sometimes the Serbs would be offering their Albanian neighbors weapons to defend against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a bin-Laden-sponsored terrorist organization allied with the Clinton Administration. (In those, days most people had not heard of bin Laden and almost no one had ever heard of al Qaeda, so the media cheerfully endorsed American efforts to aid and abet them in their jihad against the Serbs.)

So, why would some Serbs and Albanians get along as great neighbors while other Albanians would join the KLA and fight against the same Serbs? It defied all ethnic analysis. So who are these people in the Balkans anyhow?

Let not pretend the author is familiar with every different subgroup in the Balkans, or even in Kosovo. However, it would be a good start to examine the major religions or the area.

The Jews

According to the Bible, God started his revelation to mankind through the Jews and so we shall start with them too. World War II was pretty rough on the Jews, but Hitler did miss a few. Not all of the Balkans Jews made it to Israel either, so we have a few over there. To our knowledge they are not much different than Jews the world over. Just remember that they are there for later reference.

The Early Church

If you read Romans 1:16, you will see that Paul admonished Christians to take the Gospel message to the Jew first, but also to the Greek. Some Bibles don’t translate it literally and use the word “Gentile” instead of “Greek.” However, one of the first major conversion stories taking place outside of the Greek-speaking world or Roman Empire was the mission to the Slavic people of Saints Cyril and Methodius. To this day, the alphabets used in Russian, Serbian and several other Slavic languages is known as the “Cyrillic” alphabet in honor of St. Cyril.

Today, the Early Church is commonly known as “Eastern Orthodoxy” or “Orthodox Christianity,” but if you think of it as anything other than the Early Church, you will have a lot of trouble understanding the Balkans. (We can understand if you would rather stay confused, you will be in good company.)

The Orthodox Church was the only major religion in the Balkans for many years. 98 percent of Greeks are Orthodox. Since the New Testament was written in Greek, it is pretty hard to argue that anyone else has a better “interpretation” Scripture than the Greeks. Nearly all Serbs who have any religion are Orthodox as well. It is also popular in Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia and other nations and provinces in the Balkans, including—believe it or not—Albania.

Now, nothing much has changed in Orthodox Church since the First Century. Yes, as of the Fourth Century they have a Bible in written form, and have been promoting lay reading of it every since. Yes, they have had several Church Counsels to clarify things, however, the core beliefs of the Orthodox Church are more or less the same as Roman Catholics and most Protestants. (It’s those details that split up Christianity much more so than core beliefs.)

The Roman Catholic Church

Until 1054, the Eastern Orthodox Church considered the Roman Church to be just another Orthodox Church. True there were a number of disagreements on minor issues, but nothing major. If fact, the only issue that made the Great Schism a necessity is an issue of Church leadership. Our Roman Catholic brothers in Christ recognize the Bishop of Rome, as Pope and the earthly head of the Church. Our Eastern Orthodox brothers in Christ recognize Jesus Christ alone as only head of the Church, earthly or otherwise.

If you draw a line where the Roman Empire was divided at the time of Constantine, you will divide the Balkans between an area that is mostly Roman Catholic and one that is mostly Eastern Orthodox. (It is not an exact border, but it is pretty close.)

The Habsburg Empire, or Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was a dominant force in the Balkans until World War I, was heavily Roman Catholic. Italy, which has a history with Albania also has brought Roman Catholic influence to the Balkans.

Islam

During the time when the Eastern Roman Empire (a/k/a Byzantine Empire) was still a strong force in the Balkans, Christianity was the major religion. However, as the Turks invaded, they brought Islam into the area.

Until the 1990s, when Yugoslavia began to break up, few of us in the West realized how many Muslims lived in Europe. Most of these Muslims are ethnically European and speak the same languages as others in their locale, so it is hard to tell them from their Christian neighbors.

Others

While you can find outpost of Protestants, Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and the like most everywhere, we are not going to try to go into all the tiny minority faiths that exist in the Balkans.

Suffice it to say that there will not be many Protestants where there are few Roman Catholics. What so many people tend to forget—even those with fairly extensive religious training—is that there never was a Reformation in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The decentralized overall structure and organization of the Orthodox Church does not lend itself to the corruption that existed in the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation. Besides, it is a little hard to tell someone that he should read the Bible and try to find something wrong with a Church that has always encouraged Bible reading and repentance.

We are not saying that no one in the Balkans ever leaves the Orthodox Church and becomes a Protestant, but is rare. Likewise, it is a rare event when someone leaves Islam for a Protestant faith, but that decision can be deadly as Islam endorses the death penalty for anyone who leaves Islam for another faith.

Ethic Stripes Merge with Divisions of Faith

Who Are the Albanians?

No one is really sure. Some Albanians like to consider themselves descendants of an ancient people that were scorned in the ancient world. A group of illiterate, unruly and unkempt people known as the Illyrians lived in the Balkans during Greco-Roman times. We have no idea what happened to these people nor do we know much about them, as they left no written records. They could not; they had no written language.

We harbor no ill will for the Albanian people. We doubt that the Illyrians actually have any relationship to modern Albanians, and we believe that Albanians are insulting themselves when they look to the Illyrians as a source of heritage. (To any and all Albanian readers, no offense is intended!)

What we do know is that the Albanian language is unique. There is no similar language, which leaves scholars puzzled as to their origin.

The Communist regime in Albania was harsher than that of neighboring Communist Yugoslavia, and religion was ruthlessly suppressed. After so many years of Communist rule, it is difficult to say what percentage of Albanians have any religious faith. However, the majority of Albanians who are religious are Muslim. The next most common religion amongst the Albanians is Eastern Orthodoxy. The Albanian Orthodox Church is a fully autocephalous organization, which means that it is completely independent of (though in communion with) the other Orthodox Churches. The third most common is Roman Catholic. Before Communist domination, it was estimated that as many as 65 to 70 percent of Albanians many have been Muslim, as many as 20 to 25 percent Orthodox, and the remainder nearly all Roman Catholic.

Who are the Croats?

The Croats are Slavic people. Many of them sided with the Axis Powers during World War II, and Hitler helped establish the short-lived nation of Nazi Croatia. While it is a little-known fact that such a nation ever existed, we have met people who were born in Nazi Croatia. However, many Croatians bravely resisted Nazi occupation and who were some of the brave unsung heroes of World War II.

The Croats speak a Slavic language almost identical to Serbian. In fact, before the breakup of Yugoslavia, the two languages were considered one and called “Serbo-Croatian.” Religious Croats are almost all Roman Catholic.

Who are the Serbs?

The Serbs are also Slavic people with a long history of being different from the Croats. One theorist has even speculated that the Serbs and the Croats were two peoples from a different part the world who migrated to the Balkans in tandem, yet as distinct people. While the theory may be interesting, we have seen no evidence to show that they are any different than any other Slavic people who have descended from a common clan that once spoke a common language known as Slavonic.

The Serbs may speak almost exactly the same language as the Croats, but the Serbs use a Cyrillic alphabet much like that of the Russians, while the Croats use the same Latin alphabet as we do in English, with the addition of accent marks. (The Cyrillic alphabet may look a little cumbersome or intimidating at first glance, but if you ever study Slavic languages, you will quickly see that the Cyrillic alphabet works better for representing the sounds of Slavic languages.)

The Serbs are almost by definition Orthodox Christians. While Communism may have thinned the ranks of believers, Serbs who are religious tend to be zealously Eastern Orthodox.

Notice a pattern here? Some Serbs and Albanians get along very well and all Serbs are—as some Albanians are—Eastern Orthodox. Gee, the Western media never connected the dots, but could it be that the Orthodox Christians in the Balkans get along with one another while the Muslims and Orthodox Christians do not?

Who are the Slovenians?

The Slovenians were the first who sought to break off ties with Yugoslavia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They are also a Slavic people and have traditionally been Roman Catholic.

Who are the Bosnians?

Trick question! Anyone who lives in Bosnia can call himself a Bosnian. It does not matter whether he is a Serb, a Croat of a Muslim. However, the Western media has led us to believe that only the Muslims of the Balkans are “Bosnians.” That is very misleading, because it gives the false impression that no one else belongs there! Bosnia is a place that is not named for any specific people.

OK, So Who Are These Bosnian Muslims?

For the most part, Bosnian Muslims are descended from Serbs who converted to Islam when the Turks ruled most of the Balkans. They tend to have very Serbian surnames and many of their customs are close to those of the Serbs. Bosnian Muslims speak the same language as do the Serbs and the Croats in Bosnia. One woman from Belgrade told us that, from their point of view, Bosnians all have the same accent. She likened it to the “Hillbilly accent” of Appalachia.

We can expect that some Croats and other people in the area also converted to Islam during the rule of the Ottoman Turks, as life was far easier for Muslims under Turkish rule than it was for non-Muslims.

Roma People or “Gypsies”

Another important ethnic group in the Balkans are the Roma people. We have called them “Gypsies” for centuries, but the conventional wisdom considers that word a pejorative. So, the common trend is to call them “Roma.” But that term is confusing for some; the natural reaction is to think or Rome and Italian people, or perhaps Romania, when we hear that word. (More on the origins of the Roma here.)

The Roma people are scattered throughout the Balkans and other parts of Europe. They blend in particularly well in Serbia and seem to be part of the Serbian landscape. (For instance, Marija Serifovic, the winner of the Eurovision 2007 song contest, is Roma.) But this is not the case where radical KLA Albanian Muslims have taken control. To them, the Roma, the Serbs and the Jews, or for that matter, anyone other than Albanian Muslims, might as well be one people.

Marija Serifovic sings Molitva (Prayer)
(Lyrics here.)

What About the Other . . . ?

Yes, there is a whole litany of other ethnic groups in the Balkans. In Yugoslavia alone there are a number of different remnants of earlier populations. For example, there are still Turks and Germans living there, as well as small distinct tribes, especially in the hill country, We cannot list them all, much less discuss them.

Why Did Yugoslavia Break Up?

The real question should be: why was Yugoslavia put together in the first place? Yugoslavia was an artificial country put together after World War I. It was much like Czechoslovakia. Neither country existed before the 20th century began, and neither was to survive the 20th century intact.

Slavs and Slaves

Both Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia had another thing in common; the majority in both countries were Slavic people. Prior to World War I, the only two places in Europe where Slavic people had the opportunity to live without being under the rule of someone else’s major empire were Russia and Serbia. The rest were under foreign domination.

Slavic people did not enjoy a very good image in Western Europe and North America. To this day, we have Polish jokes as a remnant of days when all Slavic people where considered inferior.

How inferior where they? So inferior that the English word “slave” is based on the Slavic word “Slav.” It means glorious in most Slavic languages; however, in English and other western languages, it meant, “these people may have white skin, but they are only fit for use as human chattel.” (Very loose translation, but you get the drift.) The Serbs, for example where slaves to the Turks before Columbus sailed to America. Many remained in bondage to the Turks until the end of World War I. That is twice as long as any African people were enslaved in North America!

Serbia, being free for a number of years prior to World War I, was ready to have other Serbs who had been part of the Hapsburg and Ottoman Turkish empires to join them in their independent and self-governing nation. However, the victorious World War I Allies had considerable clout in the destiny of 20th Century European people. The Czechs, who longed for independence from the Hapsburg crown for centuries “decided” that they just love to share their newfound independence with their Slovak neighbors who had been in a similar situation. It made a lot of sense to their cultures and heritages were similar.

Serbs, Croats, Slavic peoples of Muslim faith, Slovenians and other Slavs living south of Hungary had less in common. However, they “decided” that a nice big Yugoslavia, a land of the southern Slavs, might be nicer than smaller independent Slavic nations, especially from the viewpoint of fending off foreign incursions. While past migrations and geography might have made it more difficult for those smaller nations to agree on their actual borders, the seeds of much future destruction were sown at that time.

Breaking Up Yugoslavia and Forming a New One

As soon as the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia during the Second World War, the glue that held the first Yugoslavia disappeared. Many Croats and nearly all of the Islamic people in Southern Europe sided with the Axis powers. Pro-Communist Partisans lead by Josip Broz Tito and anti-Communist Chetniks lead by Draza Mihailovich (please don’t confuse that name with the name Milosevic) made war against the Nazis, and sometimes each other, throughout the Balkans. In addition to their battlefield heroics, the Chetniks saved hundreds of downed Allied flyers including over 500 American airmen.

While the Partisans were Communists of every ethnic stripe, including many Serbs, the Chetniks were nearly 100% Serbian. To this day, Mihailovich’s status amongst Serbian Orthodox Christians, especially those living outside of Serbia, is nearly that of sainthood. Winston Churchill considers his worst mistake of the war was withdrawing his support from Mihailovich and giving it to Tito. After the war, Tito came to power, captured Mihailovic, tried him on some trumped-up charges, and had him executed. The West did nothing to support this hero who had saved so many American lives and who had also played a vital part in tying up the Nazi war machine.

But, after the war, Tito and company put together a new Yugoslavia. Tito felt that a strong Yugoslavia meant a weak Serbia and vice versa. So, Serbs were forced to hide their identity and call themselves “Yugoslavian.” Of course, under Communist rule, church involvement of any kind was discouraged. So, the Serbs were hit with a triple whammy. First, their beloved war hero was executed. Second, they were told not to call themselves “Serbs.” Finally, they were discouraged from participating in their Orthodox faith, which was part and parcel of their ethnic identity.

Many Croats needed to hide their former Nazi ties from the Tito government, but the U.S. spared any Nazi Croats in their custody, as they were consider necessary to help combat Communism. The other minorities were not as greatly affected after the war. So, the world got used to a mosaic Yugoslavia that made studying World War I history difficult, as hardly anyone knew where Serbia actually was.

The Tito Regime

While the hardcore Western position was “the only good Commie is a dead Commie,” there always seemed to be an exception for Yugoslavia. Maps of Europe divided nations into those aligned with the West and those aligned with the Communist bloc. There were two exceptions; Albania, considered to be aligned for a time with Communist China, and Yugoslavia, which was purported to be Communist but somehow neutral in the struggle between Washington and Moscow.

For decades, American folk propagandist Paul Harvey would sing the praises of Tito on a regular basis. Mr. Harvey claimed that Tito, and only Tito, had the wisdom to keep the ethnic peoples of living together in harmony. It is funny that Mr. Harvey did not have the same praises for Fidel Castro, who used some of the same brutal tactics that Tito employed. Perhaps Castro just wasn’t brutal enough of a dictator to make Mr. Harvey’s list of great leaders. Having interviewed a number of both Cuban expatriates (including former political prisoners of Castro) and immigrants from the Balkans who lived through the Tito era, Tito was far worse than Castro. Ever hear of Castro imprisoning someone for calling himself a “Cuban”? Well, if one of Tito’s people would have caught you describing yourself as “Serb,” a cell could very well have been waiting for you.

Death of Tito, Birth of Violence

It did not have to be that way, but too many outside forces wanted to take advantage of a post-Tito Yugoslavia. Seeds of discontent were sown everywhere in Yugoslavia. The Slovenians were the first to opt out of Yugoslavia. Located on extreme northeastern part of Yugoslavia, its geographic importance was minimal. However, it opened the door for a complete breakup of the entire Yugoslavian state.

In 1992, Bosnia became a hot spot. Unlike Slovenia, Bosnia was in the heart of Yugoslavia. While there was no clear majority, the Bosnian Muslims were a significant portion of the population. (Remember, these are descendants of members of other ethnic groups, primarily Serbs, who had long ago converted to Islam. So they look much like other European people.) The Serbs represented a significant portion of the population, as well. While the Croats were a smaller portion of the population, the were, however, much closer to the part of Yugoslavia that is now called “Croatia.” While their percentage of the population may have been the smallest, they lived closer to the “center of gravity” of their own ethnic group than did the Serbs. Unfortunately, too many Serbs living in Serbia tended to look down on all residents of Bosnia, including their Serbian cousins, in much the same was as too many Americans belittle Appalachian-Americans – as merely a bunch of “Hillbillies.”

Well-organized Muslim propaganda bombarded the West while Roman Catholics Croats, Eastern Orthodox Serbs and Muslims fought a three-way religious war against each other. American, being a land that has grown weak in faith, was quick to see it as an ethnic struggle. Since the Croats had some Roman Catholic support—including a fake appearance of the Virgin Mary—they were able to create some positive propaganda of their own. The Serbs, having few fellow Orthodox Christians in the West, very little money to invest in promoting their own image, and only moderate support from Serbia proper, got almost no sympathy in the West.

That Cyrillic alphabet did not help either. Too many of us remember seeing Cyrillic letters on Russian signs during the Cold War, and we still don’t get warm fuzzy feelings when we see any people using a similar alphabet now.

Ending the War in Bosnia

In 1995, the Dayton Accords were signed creating two new entities, a Republic for Bosnian Serbs and a new country for both Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats – not as independent states, but as parts of yet another artificial, foreign-imposed federation. Neither the Muslims, nor the Roman Catholic Croats were too happy about having the same country, but after three years of a three-way war, it was about the best they could hope for. Not everyone is too happy with the Bosnian Serbian Republic either, as it has been forbidden to join the rest of Serbia.

The man the West considered instrumental in shaping the Dayton Accords was Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic. Funny, how quickly the US turns on its friends. Not that we are equating the two, but remember what happened to Draza Mihailovich?

Wrapping Things Up

Hopefully, this will clear up some of the confusion about the Balkans. This is only Part I. We will continue. In future articles, we plan to address the Kosovo War, early Balkans History and other issues. We will read all feedback and may tailor future articles to what we read in that feedback.

That said, be advised that we do moderate comments and we do enforce our comment policy. So if your purpose in commenting is to hate on the Serbs, the Jews, the 1389 Blog team, or anybody else, your comments will not be put on public display – and don’t expect us to waste our time explaining why!

If this article seems a little one-sided and simplistic, GOOD! What you have heard about the Balkans in the American media has been extremely pro-Muslim and made to seem overly complicated. Had the truth been known, American foreign policy relating to the Balkans would have been considerably different for the past 60 or even 70 years. Learn the truth and spread it. It is never too late to change course.

More:

• Category Link: Articles by CzechRebel on 1389 Blog
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  the ← Previous Entries link at the bottom of the page.)
• New Link: Illyrian Myth Busted
• Category Link: Balkans for Dummies Series on 1389 Blog
• Category Link: Articles about the Balkans
• Category Link: Articles about Kosovo
• Category Link: Articles about Orthodox Christianity
• Category Link: Articles about Serbia
• Never Knew that the Church was Orthodox
• What Happened in 1389?
• Serbianna News (feed widget available; see 1389 Blog sidebar)

Mainstream media corruption is nothing new!

Leftists, leading America’s foreign policy astray for over 45 years and counting…

Visit this article, and read it all:
Who Owns the Vietnam War?

…Lately, however, thanks to a growing body of evidence and careful work by scholars aided by first-hand accounts from former North Vietnamese and Vietcong participants, a much more comprehensive picture has begun to emerge, one that challenges the conventional wisdom from start to finish.

Among the new generation of historians of the Vietnam war, important debates and differences still remain – for example, over the efficacy of American tactics of counterinsurgency and pacification. But they overwhelmingly agree on one point: the old account is a myth, and no longer stands up to scrutiny. It is worthwhile reviewing some of the main findings of the new scholarship before returning to the question of their relevance, if any, to our present struggle in Iraq and to the President’s warning on August 23.

(H/T to Cecil and The Belmont Club)

Also, please visit the other links at The Belmont Club:

• Sunday Reading

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Our Suspicions Proved Correct

Quadrant: The True Genesis of Amnesty International

Read the above article by Claudio Veliz in Quadrant Magazine: Australia’s independent review of literature and ideas. Veliz was involved with the organization from its founding. Just for starters, Amnesty International came into being much earlier than its official founding date of 1960.

And if you have ever suspected that Amnesty International is anything but politically neutral, despite its stated policy of representing “prisoners of conscience” from both the left and the right, you will learn exactly how and why your suspicions are correct.

According to Veliz:

The Cold War experience would also have confirmed Münzenberg’s conviction that waged urbi et orbi, such campaigns would be ignored inside a communist world undisturbed by a free press and public opinion, but would undermine the moral status of policies advanced by the United States and its allies.

Vatican Calls for Catholics to Stop Supporting Amnesty Int’l

This article sheds additional light upon the hidden leftist agenda of Amnesty International. One need not be a Catholic to regard AI’s recent activities as a grotesque betrayal of the organization’s stated aims:

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican, called on Catholics to stop supporting the group.

“If in fact Amnesty International persists in this course of action, individuals and Catholic organizations must withdraw their support, because, in deciding to promote abortion rights, AI has betrayed its mission,” the National Catholic Register quoted him as saying.

(Stein hoist to Gop3.com: The Triumvirate!)

More:

• Winds of Jihad: Amnesty calls for Bali bombers’ lives to be spared

  * Amnesia Intentional, Irene `Gulag’ Khan’s far left Islamo-fascist front against freedom and democracy, is looking for bleeding hearts and other useful idiots to save the lives of the good Muslims who blew up 200 Westerners in the Bali bombings.

  FRIENDS and relatives of Bali bombing victims have rejected calls by Amnesty International for the lives of three Bali bombers to be spared.

  The human rights group has called on Australians to write to the Indonesian authorities in a bid to avert the execution of Imam Samudra, Ali Ghufron and Amrozi bin Nurhasyim…”

  Hmmm…I thought that AI made a big deal out of their policy of not helping anybody who has “used or advocated violence.”

• Amnesia Blasts US on Terrorism War

  “* AI is rotten to the core, just like the UN. Their sole purpose seems to be to hide and excuse the embarrassing filth and depravity of non-Western (Islamic) countries, by exaggerating and lying about what Western countries do.

  * More proof that human rights organizations have degenerated into a front for Muhammedan agent provocateurs like the excremental Irene “Gulag” Khan, with help of her Marxist enablers:

  
  [Amnesty International (AI) Secretary General] Irene Khan is a Muslim and was born in Bangladesh. Obviously Bangladesh has become a paragon of human rights and equality in the past few years, unbeknownst to all of us, for someone from there to righteously preach to the rest of us about rights as if it was invented by them.

• New York Sun: Scrutinize Amnesty International

  …In contrast to the democratic governments that Amnesty officials frequently denounce and condemn, including Israel, NGOs are not subject to independent accountability.

  No one outside the inner circle knows how or why they choose their particular “targets,” or how they assess the “evidence,” or write their reports. And officials such as Amnesty’s Irene Khan are often in power and in control of massive budgets for many years, without significant challenges or competition.

  Given this situation, the time is long past due for ending the “halo effect” that surrounds powerful groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. Their reports should not be given automatic credibility by journalists, diplomats, academics, and individuals genuinely committed to the universality of human rights principles.

  Rather than publicizing their reports and endorsing their campaigns, the publications of Amnesty and similar groups need to be subjected to the same type of independent questioning as is done for reports issued by governments and other political organizations.