From: slvrfox55 Subject: WHY MICHELLE CAME HOME Date: August 11, 2010 2:16:17 PM EDT
Sheppard Smith, Fox News:
“If you check President Obama’s last trip over-seas, his wife left just after their visit to France…She has yet to accompany him to any Arab country. Think about it. Why is Michelle returning to the states when ‘official’ trips to foreign countries generally include the First Lady.”
Here’s one thought on the matter.
While in a Blockbuster renting videos I came across a video called “Obama”. There were two men standing next to me and we talked about President Obama. These guys were Arabs, so I asked them why they thought Michele Obama headed home following the President’s recent visit to France instead of traveling on to Saudi Arabia and Turkey with her husband. They told me she could not go to Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Iraq…I said “Why not,(?) Laura Bush went to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Dubai..” They said that Obama is a Muslim and therefore he is not allowed to bring his wife into countries that adhere to Sharia Law.
Two points of interest here:
I thought it interesting that two American Arabs at Blockbuster believe that our President is a Muslim, who follows a strict Islamic creed.
They also said that’s the reason he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia. It was a signal to the Muslim world, acknowledging his religion.
For further consideration, here is a response from Dr. Jim Murk, a Middle Eastern Scholar and expert on Islam. This is his explanation of what the Arab Americans were saying.
“An orthodox Muslim man would never take his wife on a politically oriented trip to any nation which practices Sharia law, particularly Saudi Arabia where the Wahhabi sect is dominant. This is true and it is why Obama left Michelle in Europe. She will stay home when he visits Arab countries. He knows Muslim protocol; this includes, bowing to the Saudi King. Obama is regarded as a Muslim in the Arab world, because he was born to a Muslim father; he acknowledged his Muslim faith with George Stephanopoulus. Note that he downplays his involvement with Christianity, by not publicly joining a Christian church in D.C. And occasionally attending the chapel for services at Camp David. He also played down the fact that America is a Christian country and said, unbelievably, that it was one of the largest Muslim nations in the world, which is nonsense.
He has publicly taken the side of the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel and he ignored the National Day of Prayer, something no other President has ever done. He is bad news! He conceals his true faith to the detriment of the American people.” — Jim Murk, Doctor of Philosophy in Middle Eastern Culture & Religion.
ACTIONS speak louder than words. Another interesting item regarding Sharia Law. Why has Barack Hussein Obama insisted that the U.S. Attorney General hold the trials of the 911 Muslim Terrorists in Civilian Courts as Common Criminals instead of as Terrorists who attacked the United States of America ? If the Muslim Terrorists are tried in Military Tribunals, convicted and sentenced to death, by LAW, Barack Hussein Obama, as President of the United States, would be required to sign their Death Warrants. He would not be required to sign the death warrants if they are sentenced to death by a Civilian Court…Recently, Muslim Jihadist, Army Major Hassan slaughtered non-Muslim, soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas rather than go to Afghanistan and be a part of anything that could lead to the deaths of fellow Muslims. He stated that Muslims ‘could not and should not kill fellow Muslims.’ Is the motive for Barack Hussein Obama’s insistence on civilian trials, to make sure he doesn’t have to sign the death warrants for the Muslim Terrorists? Why would he, as President of the United States, not sign the death warrants for Muslim Terrorists who attacked the United States and murdered over 3,000 U. S. Citizens on 9/11? Could it be that he is FORBIDDEN by his RELIGION to authorize the execution of Muslims?
Think about that! Open your eyes, ears and mind to who the President is, how he behaves and what he is doing.
I recently received these words of wisdom by email:
This guy cuts to the chase….sad part is I’m not sure the “fools” can get it.
Some people have the vocabulary to sum up things in a way you can understand them. This quote came from the Czech Republic. Someone over there has it figured out. We have a lot of work to do.
The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.
OK, some of you still don’t get it! We had an Islamic attack on US military base, and the clueless US news media are treating it like an ordinary crime. The reports/commentators are trying to figure out why this Muslim soldier (who happens to wear a US Army uniform) on a suicide mission opened fire on American troops. It was a fairly obvious suicide mission. Just like the suicide bombers in the Middle East and the 911 attack, Muslims have infiltrated the US military and will be doing their best to give comfort and aid to radical Islam, which has declared war on these United States. (For those of you who speak, “Ya’ll,” I do mean all 50 of those States.)
The American media, once again, is proving that it is nothing more then the propaganda arm of the tyrannical dictatorship in Washington, D.C. True, you do get an election to choose the dictatorship’s figurehead for the next four years, and to pick the 535 power-mad flunkies who have let the real governance of the United States fall into the hands of thousands of unelected federal bureaucrats who are accountable to nobody.
Let’s examine the facts. Nidal Malik Hasan, the shooter, is a radical Muslim. He has been an outspoken supporter of radical Islamic causes. He has been in the US Army for a long period of time and knows the system well. He used that knowledge to kill a number of US troops and wound others. To wear a US uniform and support an enemy cause is a clear act of espionage. Of course, in the heavily controlled US press, no one would dare to point out this obvious fact.
Radical Islam is has been openly at war with the US since 1979, if not before. Yes, it has been thirty years since radical Muslims invaded US soil, namely the US Embassy in Iran, and took over 400 Americans hostage. President Jimmy Carter, one of the most clueless men ever to hold that office in US history, pussy-footed around, so that many of those Americans were not released until Ronald Reagan took office.
Reagan, with his hands firmly on the nuclear trigger, kept radical Islam at bay, but in radical Islamic circles, the hatred of America never ended. Reagan focused on “winning the Cold War.” He did so, but instead of using direct conflict, he pressured and cajoled the Soviets into slowly giving up Communism, thus freeing Eastern Europe from the clutches of left-wing tyranny. (On behalf of all non-Communist Slavic people, Mr. Reagan, please accept a “thank you” from this Czech-American.)
From then on, our position with radical Islam went downhill. The supposed “Third Reagan Term” was a dismal failure. Bush 41, sided with Islamic forces, and chose to help “break up the former Yugoslavia.” What that really meant was that after considerable Islamic violence, which he quietly but wholeheartedly supported, many Christians are now living under Islamic tyranny in the Balkans. Of course, the clueless American media, the abysmally corrupt US State Department, and many gullible Americans still believe that the Christian people of Serbian heritage did some horrible things to these “poor defenseless Muslims.” Nearly two decades of State Department and mainstream media efforts to dig up dirt against the Serbs have unearthed no credible evidence. On the contrary, there is overwhelming evidence that radical Islam and other outside influences not only set up this conflict in the Balkans, but also kept it going until they gained a jihadist stronghold in Europe. Thus, while the Roosevelt Administration helped liberate Europe from the Nazis, and the Reagan Administration helped liberate Eastern Europe from the Communists, the first Bush Administration helped the Muslim terrorists get a foothold in re-conquering the Balkans.
The Clinton Administration continued to coddle radical Islam, going so far as to use the US Air Force to aid and abet the radical Muslim terrorists in Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo. In addition, the Clinton Administration suckered and arm-twisted other nations to contribute their own air forces to aid in the terror-bombing of those who opposed the spread of radical Islam in the Balkans. While the controversy raged about the Clinton Administration’s eagerness to populate the US military with out-of-the-closet homosexuals, the public eye was distracted from the fact that radical Muslims were infiltrating the US armed forces. Of course, during the entire eight years of the Clinton Administration, reports of Islamic attacks on the US, and reports of attempted attacks, continued to trickle into the news.
It is likely that the most successful Islamic attack during the Clinton regime was the bombing of the Oklahoma Federal Building. On the day of the bombing, the US media at first focused the blame on Islamic terrorists. But then, the memo must have gone out to the closely government-controlled US media, so that the blame immediately shifted to US patriots who abide by the original intentions of the Framers of the United States Constitution and support their independent state militia. (No, the Framers were NOT referring to the state police or the National Guard.)
So, what was the payoff for twelve years of coddling radical Islam? What was the real legacy of both Bush 41 and Bill Clinton? The 911 attack, of course! By then, the Muslims had another oilman ally back in the White House, but jihadists have a habit of biting the hands that feed them. Bush 43, being both a former governor of the oil-rich state of Texas, and a close friend of the Saudi royal family and even of the bin Laden family, was not about to admit that we were at war with radical Islam. Instead, he declared war on “terrorism.” At the time, one commentator suggested that this would have been as silly as FDR asking Congress for a declaration of war against aircraft carriers on December 8, 1941. Terrorism is a weapon of war, not an enemy that one can declare war against. Radical Islam has declared war on the US several times during the last 30 years. A fatwa, after all, is an open declaration of war that is also an immediate and ongoing mobilization order. If the Muslim jihadists thought they could fight and win a conventional war against the US, they would do just that. Because they cannot, they use terrorism as their weapon instead.
The current Administration is an abomination. (Perhaps that should be spelled O-b-a-m-a-N-a-t-i-o-n.) A foreign-born immigrant from Africa serves as the United States President, illegally. He is allowed to hide behind his dark skin because all his critics are automatically accused of “racism.” So if you dare criticize his social agenda that is somewhere to the left of Karl Marx, or if you question his coddling of radical Islam, or even if you could not in good conscience vote for him because of his position on abortion, you run the risk of being labeled “racist.” (Note that the author of this article has been much harsher on Obama’s three white processors in this piece, but nevertheless, liberal propagandists with their “bigot” label will be complaining about this article).
Of course, all four of these administrations have used these Islamic attacks as just another pretext to restrict the freedoms of US citizens. Recently, I took my first airline flight since the 911 attack. The way I was treated was totally unbecoming a citizen of the US. Being disabled and unable to walk through metal detectors, I was made to balance precariously while being publicly patted down like a common criminal. The search was so invasive that the lady travelers in my party were aghast.
So, expect more Muslims in the US military to “go postal.” After all, this Nidal Malik Hasan is being passed off as a crazy man who lost control because he was being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Expect the US media to continue to pass off these Islamic attacks on US soil as “random acts of violence.” Expect the US military forces to fight in Islamic countries, supporting one group of Muslims over another. Expect the US media and US government to continue side with Muslim terrorists in Eastern Europe, as they have in both Russia and the Balkans. And, of course, if you are a US citizen, expect to lose more of your rights and freedoms.
The US people should be demanding the following actions:
1. That the United State Congress declare war on radical Islam;
2. That a Constitutional Amendment be ratified declaring that Islam is not a religion, but an enemy ideology, and that it is not to enjoy the protection of the First Amendment or of any other law guaranteeing unabated religious freedom;
3. That no Muslim immigration into the US be allowed until the war against radical Islam has been won;
4. That all Muslims in the US military should be investigated intensively and be required to state publicly that their belief in Islam shall never be used to disobey any order or to commit any act against the US, and that they be required to renounce all individuals, by name, such as Osama bin Laden, who oppose the non-Islamic world and all organizations, such as al-Qaeda and Hamas, who support violence against non-Islamic countries (anyone refusing to do so is obviously a danger to the US military);
5. That dangerous radical Muslims be interned, similar to the detainment of radical Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans who openly declared their loyalty to the Emperor of Japan over that of the US during World War II;
6. That the rights and freedoms of non-Muslim US citizens be restored;
7. That their respective States each declare its sovereignty; or declare independence from the US federal government.
So far, March 28, 2008 has been our best day ever for traffic on 1389 Blog. Is one of our stories “cutting-edge”? Heck no! Do we have some great piece of analytical work that our readers have been waiting for? Sorry, not that either. In fact, we must apologize about having been so slow at getting out some articles that our readership has been expecting.
No, people have been flocking to 1389 Blog to read two articles that are both over a month old. In fact, one of them is over two months old. But these old articles have suddenly become timely. How could that be?
Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Set You Free
1389 Blog exists for two purposes, to provide information to combat the current Islamic jihad against not only the US, but of all respectable civilization; and to provide technical help, tips, and assistance to the online counterjihad community. This does make us a bit unpopular in some circles.
We Are Not Politically Correct
There is a current fad of relativism and egalitarianism. Men and women must be equal, to the extent of being the same except for outward appearance. (But, for some strange reason, we are still using separate public restrooms!) All cultures are of equal value. (Of course, some cultures, like Southerners, Slavs and “Rednecks” of any kind, just are not quite as equal as the rest!) And all religions are more or less the same.
That last claim is the most puzzling. Contrary to what you might hear on the History Channel, the Mayan culture of Central America is still alive and well. True, they may no longer be in the pyramid building business, but take a trip to Guatemala and you should have little trouble finding someone who knows a priest in the Mayan religion. Now, it is a lucky thing for us that the Mayans are not demanding their religious rights to conduct human sacrifices. But that was once part of their religion.
I wonder what those who preach the modern gospel of political correctness would say if the Mayans were to return to their practices of human sacrifice. Would they scream that such a practice was “murder” and condemn the Mayan religious leaders for wanting to revert to it? Would they say that they personally opposed to human sacrifice, but consider human sacrifice to be a private matter within the Mayan community and oppose any government interference? Or would they finally realize that their own philosophy of political correctness is both illogical and morally bankrupt?
(Disclaimer! Present-day Mayan Indians do NOT want to return to this practice! This is merely a hypothetical example.)
We at 1389 Blog have consistently opposed the equally disgusting practices of jihadism to which many modern Muslims adhere. Yes, we get a lot of flack. However, these practices of jihad are every bit as disgusting as a rebirth of Mayan human sacrifice would be.
Geert Wilders Has the Platform
1389 Blog is just a small blog with about ten authors. Several of us have other works published. Most of those works are under names other than those used here. At present, we have no substantial platform that we can use to drive our point home.
The Price Paid by Theo Van Gogh
But then, having such a platform can be deadly proposition. Consider the fate of Theo Van Gogh. This is the movie, Submission, for which he gave his life:
Note: The above video was pulled from YouTube and is being hosted directly at 1389Blog.com.
Geert Wilders Refuses to be Silenced
The anti-jihad community has a new hero in the intrepid Dutch MP Geert Wilders. He has made a film, Fitna, that exposes modern-day Islam for the savage, cruel and barbaric death cult that it really is.
For obvious reasons, the crme against Theo Van Gogh figures prominently in Fitna.
Geert Wilders is so prominent that old articles bearing his name are drawing new readers out of the woodwork. We must selfishly thank Geert Wilders for the collateral benefit he has brought to 1389 Blog. However, we must wholeheartedly give him an altruistic thank you for helping to do more to spread the truth about radical Islam to the world than, in my opinion, 1389 Blog will ever be capable of doing.
The Jihadists’ Allies
Speaking hypothetically once again, if the Mayan Indians ever wanted to return to human sacrifice, or even to demand their right to do so, the would get little traction. I have been to Central America several times and have met a number of Mayan Indians. Yet, I know few people from the US, Canada, Europe, or even Israel who can say the same. Most of the people whom I encounter in the US do not even know that Mayan Indians still exist and still have solid communities.
So, the Mayan Indians would have few allies in their “struggles” to return to human sacrifice. Very few people would know of some wonderful Mayan Indians who they felt the need to stick up for in that regard.
(Disclaimer! The Mayan Indians in real life do NOT want to return to this practice! This is merely a hypothetical example.)
However, it is different with Muslims. Everyone knows and likes some Muslims. We all seemed to learn in school that Islam was one of those acceptable “Western” or “Abrahamic” religions, almost like Christianity and Judaism. We have all heard someone tell us that Allah must be the same God whom the Jews worship, or that Allah is equivalent to God the Father of the Christian Trinity.
What is at the root of this? We all want cheaper oil, and it seems logical to many that appeasing Muslims worldwide, and especially in the Middle East, would be a good way of guaranteeing our supply. We all have heard misguided people tell us that if Israel were not our “ally,” that the Muslims would all love us.
But the truth is far different. Islamic doctrine requires never-ending expansion so as to put the entire world under Sharia law. There is no room in Islam for anything other than itself. That’s what mainstream Islam is all about.
Thank You and Thank You
First of all, I would like to thank the Mayan Indians for helping me to make my point. I will be buying some of your shirts (a/k/a camisas tipicas) as soon as I see them for sale. Those shirts are a pleasant reminder of how the people of your culture do so well co-existing with the peoples of other cultures around you. True, there have been some failures in that regard, as we are all only human. However, I fully respect your culture, as I know you respect mine.
And thanks again to Geert Wilders for taking such a bold stand.
“So where can I see this Fitna movie?”
Note: Fitna has been pulled from the main site, http://www.fitnathemovie.com. It has also been pulled from LiveLeak on account of threats against the staff. This is frustrating, big time.
For this reason, we are hosting the video ourselves at 1389 Blog:
Well, if you want to consider the 21st century to have begun January 1, 2000, it would be a tough choice between Clinton and Bush, as Clinton’s last thirteen months in office were pretty hideous. More traditionally, though, we have considered the year ’01 to be the actual beginning of each century. From that perspective, while Clinton’s last three weeks in office were no improvement over the rest of those eight years, the damage he managed to do in that time period was trivial by comparison.
But if any president in the next 92 years really wants to look worse than George W. Bush, he or she is going to have to work pretty hard at destroying the Republican Party; promoting the socialist agenda in the United States; aiding and abetting Islamic terrorism; planting “time bombs” in the economy that are set to go off after he or she leaves office; promoting tyranny against the American people; destroying our relationship with the one nation on the planet that has most in common with us and that has the strongest reasons to be our ally; and last, but certainly not least, supporting a criminal gang of Islamic terrorists in establishing a stronghold in the Balkans.
Destroying the Republican Party
In January of 2001, an historic event took place. Or so we thought. A supposedly conservative Republican became President with the backing of a conservative Republican Congress. What could have been better? Cut taxes, raise revenue, promote business growth, provide jobs, cut federal regulation, recognize States’ rights. But George W turned out to be no Ronald Reagan.
We got some temporary tax cuts, slow to take effect and all too quick to expire. Most notably, the draconian death tax, enacted right out of the Communist Manifesto, will spring back to life soon after Bush leaves office. And every Republican in Congress was told to be a “good Republican” and back the President’s plan rather than hold their ground and insist on something better – so such legislation passed.
George W let Ted Kennedy, one of the leading Senate Communists in all but name, write an education bill that firmly entrenched left-wing propaganda into our youth “re-education camps” – otherwise known as “public schools.” And every Republican in Congress was told to be a “good Republican” and back the President’s plan; so such legislation passed.
The list goes on and on. The end result is that Republicans looked more and more like socialists, and less and less like Conservatives, and – surprise! The party lost the Congressional majority that countless Conservatives had worked decades to achieve.
If George W does not get invited to speak at Democratic convention this summer, it will be a sign of the Democrats’ ungratefulness. After all, no one has done so much to bolster the Democratic Party since FDR!
Promoting a Socialist Agenda
You would think that allowing legislation that cuts taxes for a few years, only to bring them back with a vengeance, not to mention the “No Child Left to Grow Up Without Socialist Indoctrination” legislation, would be enough. But not for George W, he stood by passively and allowed a major frontal assault on freedom of political speech in the form of the McCain-Feingold Act. Yes, THAT McCain – he is an enemy of the freedoms that this blog seeks to protect. Under the new law, the leftist news media can say what they will, but all other will be under the gun of government-controlled censors. It’s ironic – and obviously no accident – that John McCain seems to be one of the three finalists to replace George W as America’s next dictator.
George W let pork-barrel spending run wild, and in doing so, he has betrayed the legacy of his party, and he has betrayed the principles of limited government embodied in the Constitution he swore to uphold. Thirty years ago, everyone knew that the Republicans were fiscally conservative and many leftists feared their rise to power would finally doom socialism in America. Would that it were so!
Twenty years ago, we had already seen some hypocrisy from a Republican-controlled Senate. Even so, Ronald Reagan’s veto pen had pretty much kept the GOP’s image intact, no matter who was in control of Congress. However, in this decade, little boy Bush did not even have the guts to veto his own Republican party’s pork-barrel spending. Now, there is no longer any major party in America that Eugene Debs would have hesitated to embrace. Thanks, George W!
Of course, if George W had ever bothered to read the Constitution, and the Articles of Confederation that preceded it, he would have known that the primary task of the federal government is, and has always been, to secure the homeland. No, like a true socialist, this Georgie Porgie el presidente created a new bureaucracy to do the job that he had already taken an oath to do. Now we have a Department of Homeland Security, multiplying layers of bureaucracy, providing another arena for turf battles, and putting even more roadblocks in the channels of communications. Just try getting rid of that outsized and pointless boondoggle. No matter how well, or indeed how poorly, the DHS does its job – that department will remain in power. So we have more bureaucrats, more spending, more taxes to support it and more socialism, thanks to the present US dictator.
Aiding and Abetting Islamic Terrorism
On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists flew four kamikaze missions against US targets. George W was either too stupid to notice that fact that the terrorists were Mohammedans, or he simply wanted to aid and abet their cause. But then, his family is in the oil business. If he forgets for an instant which side his bread is buttered on, they’ll remind him.
So George W sidestepped the issue. He declared war on “terrorism” rather than on the terrorists themselves and their hate organization, which we allow to masquerade as a religion. Make no mistake about it, Islam and religion, as the rest of the world defines religion, have nothing in common. You don’t see Baptists hijacking planes and flying them into buildings. You don’t see Jains strapping on suicide belts and walking into places were they can kill innocent civilians. You don’t see Hindus killing people for having left their faith. You don’t see Buddhists blowing up trains in Spain. You don’t see Jews getting all bent out of whack because someone makes a political cartoon that includes Moses.
But you do see followers of Mohammad doing all these things, and other heinous things besides. And it happens often. George W. had a golden opportunity to expose Islam for the hate organization that it is now, and has been for 1400 years.
Yet, he praised Islam after 9-11. Instead of interning the enemy, as FDR had the courage to do during World War II, he invited one of them to pray with us right after the horrible event. It should surprise no one that the imam he invited, Hamza Yusuf, turned out to be no moderate at all, but a radical Wahhabist convert who played George W for all he’s worth. And then there’s George W’s other friend, Imam Hassan Qazwini, closely linked to various Islamist organizations in the US.
He even aided and abetted the relatives of Osama bin Laden in their efforts to leave the US, post 9-11. We must agree with our liberal friends on one thing they often say – though not for the reasons they claim. George W. is, in fact, a terrorist, because he aids and abets terrorists.
Economic Time Bombs
1389, the primary admin of this blog, has a degree in economics, and she would not allow the following data to be posted on this blog if she were not 100% certain that it is true. High taxes discourage economic activity. It’s the working poor, those of modest income, those who are in debt, and most of the middle class, who really suffer when taxes are high. When taxes are low, economic activity is stimulated and those at the bottom benefit the most from those opportunities. (Politicians like to talk about “soaking the rich” – but when was the last time a poor person hired anybody? And anyway, rich people will never pay that much in taxes, no matter what you do. They are comparatively few in number. Moreover, they are mostly smart people and that is why they are rich!)
Bush could have insisted that his tax cuts, especially the estate tax cuts, must remain permanent. He did not. After all, “we can always do that later.” Well, later came and no one has been in a tax cutting mood. Income taxes will increase. Estate taxes will revert to what they had been, back in the day when you could still get something for a dollar or so. Tax shelters and estate planning will prevent the rich from losing anything. Middle class families, especially small businesses and family farms, will suffer, as they always do when taxes go up.
Historians don’t always understand economics, so they may even make George W look as though he was a “good president” for the economy. But unless someone steps to the plate, which seems mighty unlikely, economic woes are soon to follow.
Anti-Semitism
We’re tired of hearing the widespread myth that “the Jews” control the media and American thought, and that, because of their influence, US policy is highly pro-Israel. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The US is no ally of Israel, not by any stretch of the imagination. Israel had no problem caring for itself before America supposedly became its “ally”. Witness the way Israel defended itself in 1948, 1967 and 1973. American became its “ally” and convinced it to give back territory. (Note that Israel never asks the US to give Texas or California back to Mexico.) Anybody with normal powers of observation can figure out that, ever since the Carter Administration, it’s petrodollars that have been doing the talking.
Israel is a tiny strip of land surround by Islamic states. Only 7/24 vigilance and sheer determination to survive secures this Jewish homeland. The Arabs have many countries in which to live. Yet, a number of these Arabs have been camping out in Israel – mostly in the hopes of a better economic future than what was available in Muslim-controlled lands – and calling themselves “Palestinians.” Well, the Romans did start calling Judaea “Palestine” and anyone living there when it was called that – including Christians and Jews, had they thought in those terms – would have had every right to call themselves “Palestinians.” But that cannot make “Palestinian” an ethnic identity any more than living in New York City could create an ethnic identity of New Yorkers.
Yet, George W still insists on squandering tax dollars on financial aid to the Palestinian terrorists, who are our enemies. He even supports providing them a terrorist base so they have a safe haven from which to kill more Jews. Calling it a “homeland for the Palestinians” is like calling the area around Auschwitz a homeland for the caretakers of a concentration camp.
Make no mistake about it, support for a Palestinian “homeland” is vile anti-Semitism, and serves as proof that George W is every bit as anti-Semitic as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Anti-Patriot Acts
It is clear to anyone who has at least half a brain, or who has any reading comprehension ability at all, that radical Islam has declared war on the US. Osama bin Laden’s fatwa against the US was in the news well before 9-11. And there was no question about what he meant – none at all. He meant to destroy us, and his followers still mean to do exactly that. And the only way to change their minds is to defeat them.
In World War II, after the Empire of Japan perpetrated an act of war on the US, Japanese-Americans who remained loyal to the Emperor of Japan, and other Japanese-Americans who wished to remain on the West Coast, were watched very carefully. Many were interned. Those who were decidedly in support of the Japanese war efforts were even held as foreign enemies. We won the war and very few of them bothered to complain. They knew what was at stake and they were willing to help the US war effort in that fashion.
FDR never even thought of stripping all Americans of their basic rights and their financial privacy. But George W has done exactly that. Much as I detest FDR, I have to say he was a better man than George W in this regard.
The Holy Land of Kosovo
George W promised to remove US troops from the Balkans, and to honor the treaty with the Serbian people that ended the 1999 Kosovo War (a/k/a the Kumanovo treaty or UN Security Council Resolution 1244). Did he keep his promise? No way! Camp Bondsteel is still alive and well. The Serbs should have known better than to trust the US to honor a treaty. Ask any American Indian. Once you disarm, withdraw, or abandon your struggle in any way, the tendency is for the US to keep whatever the other side gave, and to keep on doing whatever it had been doing. We had expected George W to be a man of character and to keep the agreement with the Serbs. But clearly, little boy Bush has no character.
According to the Kumanovo treaty that ended the 1999 Kosovo War, the Serbs had the right to move their forces back into Kosovo to protect their church property and to protect their people who had been abandoned when the KFOR peacekeeping troops took over that war-torn Serbian province. The Serbs were willing to fight to the finish, perhaps to the last living person, to keep Kosovo as part of their homeland.
When the Clinton Administration had so depleted the American conventional arsenal that the security of US interests elsewhere had been severely compromised, Clinton and company finally agreed to Slobodan Milosevic’s original terms of peace. For some reason, the same wonder weapons that allowed the US to devastate Saddam Hussein’s forces in the 1991 Gulf War were making little, if any, dent in Serbia’s commitment to keep Kosovo as part of Serbia. Yet, the dumb-dumb son of the earlier President Bush, who claimed to be a Christian himself, never could understand that Christian people of Serbia were very committed to keeping the most important part of Serbia as part of Serbia.
Well, yes, it may be hard for anyone who is not a Serb to understand the importance of Kosovo to the Serbian people. Kosovo is the place where the Serbian people pledged themselves and one another to serve the Lord. That is not a familiar concept these days! It may even be impossible for anyone who is not an Orthodox Christian to understand it fully. However, it would be liking telling any Christian—be he Roman Catholic, Protestant or anyone else who adheres to the traditional definition of the faith, as agreed upon in the Seven Councils—to preach the Gospel, but to leave out the part about God walking on Earth as a mortal man and the part about Jesus Christ rising from the dead. There simply would be nothing left.
Kosovo is Serbia. Those words are embedded in the heart of every Serb I have ever met, and trust me, I have met many of them. To a Serb, Serbia is Kosovo – just as, to a Serb or any other Christian, the Gospel message is our Lord coming to Earth as a mortal man and Jesus Christ having risen from the dead.
Yet, because of George W’s love for the pseudo-religion, or rather, the expansionist totalitarian ideology, of Islam, George W recognized the claim of radical Mohammedans that Kosovo should be torn away from Serbia and placed under the rule of a criminal gang of thugs who were nothing less than the local branch of al Qaeda.
The Friend of Terrorists
Clearly, George W. Bush prefers Islam over Christianity. He prefers helping al Qaeda to honoring his oath of office and his pledge to uphold the Constitution. He is obviously working on behalf of al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists, both in the Israel and in the Balkans. In siding with terrorists, he has become one himself.
So, we must agree with our liberal friends on this one point – though our reasons are, of course, very different. We at 1389 Blog consider George W. Bush to be every bit as much a terrorist as those nineteen quasi-human wastes of protoplasm who flew hijacked airliners into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
Links:
Category Link: Articles by CzechRebel on 1389 Blog (Note: To page back through the archive of older articles in a category link, please scroll down and click the ← Previous Entrieslink at the bottom of the page.)
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.)
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.
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.
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 (Note: To page back through the archive of older articles in a category link, please scroll down and click the ← Previous Entries link at the bottom of the page.)
A cartoon likeness of a young man, standing with an indoor pool in the background accompanies the ad. This author does not look like that in real life, but, yes, he is the same CzechRebel who writes this column.
Normally, we on the 1389 Blog team speak of serious political issues that may affect us all, and we share technical tips to help out in this ever-changing age of innovation. However, diversion is an important part of life too, and some of us on the 1389 Blog team like to slip over into the cartoon land of IMVU for a nice little vacation from reality.
Well, you can speak to a young college student from the People’s Republic of China, visit a middle-aged friend in New Zealand, exchange ideas with an elderly person in Germany, all in the same hour that you spend on IMVU. You will be the form of a cartoon character and look 25 again! (Or, if you are a little younger, get a taste of being about 25.) You can travel the world in seconds. Or fly somewhere slowly on a private jet.
You can have romance, even hugs and kisses. If you are looking for anything more, I am sorry, it is PG at most. On the other hand, you can even have a fistfight with someone and it won’t hurt a bit. You can swim even if you have never swum before and come out of the water bone dry. You can dance beautifully, even if you have two left feet. Heck, you can dance if you are laid up in bed with casts on both feet.
You can hang out in large mansion or a small cabin in the autumn woods. You can even take a visit to fairyland. Sound like too much? Well, all you need is a PC. (Sorry, Mac, old PC has got you beat on this one.)
Beyond Chat Rooms and Instant Messaging - and It Is Free
IMVU provides the traditional features of a chat room with the added bonus of cute cartoon characters that speak in actual cartoon bubbles. There are realistic people, like my CzechRebel character, and fantasy features such as fairies. Some dress in period costumes. Others are furry creatures that are partly human and partly animal.
The basic chat scene is pretty simple: You hit the icon that asks if you want to chat now and you and another character meet in a room. Or you can visit cyber clubs and restaurants. You can chat one-on-one. You can invite friends whom you have met to chat.
Getting Started – Really, it is free
To get started, just click on our IMVU ad. If you use the one with the CzechRebel picture, be sure to click right on the character’s photo.
The first thing you do is to design your character, which is called an “avatar.” You can pick a male or female character, and, trust me on this one: it is a really good idea to make sure you and your avatar have the same sex. This character will become your alter ego.
It is very simple. You select your character’s features and an initial wardrobe of clothing. You also pick a screen name. Next, you select a place where your character will be living. Finally, when you have your character selected and place to live, you set up the account and away you go.
Chatting
IMVU really encourages you to meet new people. You can meet people at random. If you like your visitor, you can add him (or her) to your “buddy list.” If not, feel free to leave at anytime. Each character has an IMVU homepage, so it is possible to see other person’s homepage data to get a better idea of who you are talking to. Most people who play this game list their age and the country they are from. In the US, specific states are specified, but no other personal information is generally available to the public, unless you choose to give it.
Your Buddy List
It does not take long to have a few people who you would not mind speaking to, at least one more time. Whenever you visit IMVU, it is simple to invite a buddy to join you. Or they may invite you.
The Cartoon World of IMVU Even Has Email
Just as in real life, you’ll need to check your email, but you don’t need a separate program. You just display your own homepage, and there it is.
Private and Public Email
When you email a friend, you can make it private or public. Anyone who visits your homepage can see your public email, unless you decide otherwise. However, it is fun to see your friends’ friends’ little messages. If it is a private message, send it as one. If not, share the fun with your friends’ homepage visitors.
Gift Package via Email
Modern science has not yet found a way to email us our Christmas and birthday gifts. However, not so at IMVU! Check your homepage and you may find that an admirer, secret or otherwise, may have sent you a gift.
Some really sweet avatars have even given my avatar a gift or two. And, other people’s generosity does help tend to make us generous with others.
Chat and Email At Once
While you are chatting with one friend, you can still use the IMVU email as an instant messenger system with others. It saves you the trouble of doing an invite to say, “I have to leave in 5 minutes, but will you be on tomorrow after work?”
All Avatars Are Single
It is important to remember that IMVU is only a game.
As with any other chat room, it is extremely unlikely that any online friendship will work out into a real life relationship. Also, the characters do tend to gravitate to avatars of the opposite sex. Regardless of your marital status, your buddy list will most likely reflect this. So, please don’t play if you have a real-life spouse who would get jealous of your cartoon character’s adventures.
You may have someone in real life, but your avatar does not. That does not meant that your real-life special someone cannot join you in cartoon land, but it would be a little silly to join IMVU to chat only with your own mate. So, expect to be “seeing other people.” The avatars don’t come with X-rated features; thus IMVU does not lend itself to infidelity. For all intents and purposes, your avatar is not you, and your avatar will always be single.
Personal Information
IMVU does allow you to post certain other data, such as marital status. However, you do not need to show it, as it can be a lose-lose situation when people make hasty and often unwarranted assumptions. For example, “He (she) is married; must be here to find some on the side.” “She is divorced; must be easy to take to bed.” “He is widowed; must have some insurance money at least.” “She is 33 and single; wonder if she is so ugly that in real life no one would think of marrying her.”
So, it is probably best to leave your marital status blank in your profile. However, there are true romantics who hope that disclosing their available stats, or single, widowed or divorced status, might lead to finding a cyber mate who could be promoted to real-life spouse. More power to them!
For a woman, disclosing the status of being married is also pretty safe. The boys will still play with you, but the chances of their trying to get too fresh with you will be much lower.
Paid Upgrades
You can play with IMVU for free for an unlimited period of time, but if you really love your new hobby, there are some paid upgrade features. One is called an AP pass; it allows the avatar to hug and kiss in a little more romantic fashion. It is not really all that dirty, but only paying adults can use it. IMVU does a good job of keeping their game relatively wholesome. Anything too risqué for the 1950s world of Beaver Cleaver is unavailable without an AP pass. Even with the AP pass, it is still a fairly respectable fantasyland, at least as far as I have seen. And, even if you do add some of the slightly more racy characteristics to your avatar, only those with their own AP pass can ever see the results.
You can have your age verified, so that others will know that you are old enough to play this game, or too old to play with them. Right now, age verification is free with the AP pass.
You can also official join, own your own screen name, and be able to have more prompts and features than those who do not pay. However, most of the players are playing for free, so you really don’t miss that much if you never invest a dime in this hobby.
If this is the right hobby for you, and you are going to spend some quality time in cartoon land, you may want to consider VIP membership. It will allow your character to make certain moves that regular avatar cannot. You are also invited to participate in special activities. This includes ownership of your screen name as well. But play for a while first and see whether you like it enough.
Credits, the Fantasy Currency of IMVU
Just like in real life, IMVU has an economy. It provides a certain amount of “credits” just for showing up and playing the game each day when you start out. If you do want to spend real money on this hobby, you can also buy more credits.
What Are Those Credits For?
The basic avatar and his or her dwelling are OK. You also get some places to take your guests, such as a virtual Starbucks-like coffee bar. However, you may want a nice house or apartment to meet your guest. Your basic clothing is fine, but you might like more of a wardrobe. You can even have a vacation spot, a car, a motorcycle or even a jet plane. You may also want to play music for both yourself and your guests, or show your creativity and style by putting decorations on your IMVU homepage.
All these things and more can be obtained for IMVU credits. You may get some for free, or you may buy more if you like.
Making the Most of Free Credits
IMVU is very generous with provide initial credits. We highly recommend that you join when you are in a position to visit IMVU on four consecutive days. You don’t have to chat long, but each of four days earns progressively more credits. You get 200 for day one, 400 for day two, 800 hundred for day three, and a whooping 3,600 for the fourth day. So, if you join knowing that you won’t be able to chat on the fourth day, it will cost you 3,600 credits.
Once that period of generosity has passed, you will still be able to earn credits here and there. You can get some credits by chatting with new people. You can get 50 credits for seeing what is new in the catalog. There are other free promotional credits too, but noting is as good as those first four days.
Buying Credits
Credits are not too expensive when purchased direct from IMVU. However, people who make and sell things to be used on IMVU generally sell them at a discounted rate. Those people are called “developers.” Also, joining IMVU as an official member of their VIP club includes 5,000 credits per month at no extra charge.
Giving and Receiving Gifts
Many IMVU people love to give and receive gifts. Only credits that you pay for can be used to provide gifts. However, many players give gifts to their friends who would not be in a position to purchase credits.
Shopping and Wish Lists
You can use both your free credits, and any that you purchase, to buy your props form the IMVU catalog. It takes seconds, and your avatar can have a new house, a coat, or even a jet plane right on the spot.
However, IMVU allows you to create a wish list. This will allow you to shop, compare, and contemplate, just like in real life. What is even better is that your friends will know what you are thinking about buying. So, something from your wish list may appear as a gift.
The Downside to IMVU – Problems and What to Do
The worst thing that I can say about IMVU is that it very easy to spend too much time there. However, you need to be aware of a few other things.
Saying Goodbye to Strange People
The vast majority of people with whom you chat on IMVU will be decent. However, anyone with a computer can play this game. And you may have a few problems. It is simple to remove someone from your buddy list. And if you remove them, you come off their list, too.
You can also block someone who continues to give you a hard time. This should be sufficient in almost all cases. However, there is always the creep who thinks of something that no decent person would ever imagine. IMVU had a special line to report abuse and IMVU is very good about getting back to people who have a problem.
I Am a Mac and Cannot See PC on IMVU
For the time being, you must have a PC to play IMVU. However, IMVU hopes to have Mac software in the relatively near future. So, when you see that cute Apple ad, remember that Mac cannot yet do everything that old PC can.
Rude People
The other serious problem is that some people carry real-life rudeness into IMVU. Ladies, there is nothing wrong with telling a guy who show shows up bare-chested that you will talk to him only after he puts his shirt on. Gentlemen, if you don’t like women in real life who are a little too quick to kiss, who want to be too close too soon, and who ask for expensive gifts, you don’t need to play with them on IMVU either. There are plenty of nice people for everyone on IMVU.
One caveat: IMVU is not geared to young kids – it’s for people who are old enough to have some savvy about conversing with adults of both sexes.
If you come to visit IMVU, you may chat with me in cartoon land. I ordinarily don’t mention politics there, but would be glad to talk about a blog post or an issue that we cover on the 1389 blog, if pressed. But, come to have fun too, please. Life is too short.
CzechRebel, the character, is real ladies’ man on IMVU. It didn’t start out that way. However, as in other online venues, a man who will be nice to the women can become pretty popular, and the image has stuck. When asked how many “girl friends” my avatar has, he said, “I don’t number them. They are all unique and special to me as individuals.”
That is my character; “the man behind the curtain” of the CzechRebel avatar is a good friend, just as in real life. I am interested in hearing about my IMVU friends’ real-life problems and joys.
But ladies, I strongly advise you: don’t kiss and tell. I never do. Your secrets are safe with me. IMVU is only a game and my character is really sweet to ladies. In fact, if he were to meet 1389 herself in a chat room, he would try to sweet talk her a bit. After all, she works day and night to make this blog possible. If she ever gets time to visit cartoon land, it would be just the thing to get her mind off politics and computers.
Category Link: Articles by CzechRebel on 1389 Blog (Note: To page back through the archive of older articles in a category link, please scroll down and click the ← Previous Entrieslink at the bottom of the page.)
We regularly receive hate mail and hate comments from all sorts of Serb-hating and anti-Semitic bigots. We expect hate mail; it goes with the territory. Hate mail shows that people are reading our blog, that we have not merely been “preaching to the choir,” and that we have clearly taken a stand on an issue of importance.
Our haters usually try to paint victims of the Nazi Holocaust as the new Nazis. Quite frankly, it makes no sense. So it is almost refreshing to hear from a self-admitted Croatian Nazi. At least, he (or she) is an honest Nazi.
Reader Equates Love of Croatia with Being Nazi
This is an exact quote:
“If loving your country and wanting to be free makes you a nazi then we’re nazi’s!”
We have left it all in, including improper capitalization, the misuse of an apostrophe to make the word Nazi into a plural, and all.
That is classic. Hitler himself equated his National Socialist Party with love of Germany.
Giving Nationalism a Bad Name
Unfortunately, the modern politically correct position is that all nationalism is bad. We are amazed that the Christian community, which is so worried about the restrictions against displaying the Ten Commandments, doesn’t want to apply “Honor thy father and thy mother” to nationalism. The word “father” clearly refers to an ancestor, as well as to one’s biological father in the immediate family. You can’t truly honor your father, if you don’t honor his heritage.
It is right to be proud of your heritage, to support your ancestral people, and to preserve their traditions. However, in modern melting pot America that concept seems to be lost. If we even manage to recall anything of our heritage, we downplay it with phrases such as “We are Americans now.”
Croats, like every other ethnic people, should be proud of who they are. The high points of their civilization should be celebrated. The low points should be acknowledged, true. But we should not define ourselves by our low points, , as individuals or as peoples.
Unfortunately, seeing Nazism as the means to support your people and your homeland tends to cast all nationalism in a bad light. Nationalism? Yes! Nazism? No!
World War II Croatia
Our reader continues,
“There has been many mistruths spread about Croatia circa World War II(sic).”
On that much, we agree.
We all too often focus on the Ustache, the regime that ruled Nazi Croatia during World War II. But we would rather focus on Croatians who bravely fought the Nazis. We are especially thankful for those Croatians who stood up for what is right-sometimes sacrificing their own lives-to save Jews, Serbs and Allied combatants. They are the true Croatian heroes of World War II.
World War II Deaths
Everyone should be well aware that many millions of people died during World War II; there is no denying that a vast proportion of the dead were innocent civilians rather than actual combatants. The Holocaust is an undeniable fact. In addition, collateral damage is a fact of life during all wars. Often, strategic military decisions are made that will kill many innocent civilians.
So, we are bit confused by our readers next sentence, “Hundreds of thousands of unarmed Croatians were slaughtered at the hands of the Serbs/communists – when do you ever hear about that?”
If our reader means the Serbs that served in Tito’s Partisans when he says “Serbs/communists,” we would not be too surprised. Civil wars tend to be brutal and bloody. However, we have not heard of these “hundreds of thousands” either. If it happened, we would like to see some evidence. However, such accusations are easy to make. When those accusations are made against Serbs, they are routinely accepted as gospel truth, even with no evidence to back them up.
Holocaust Denial Rears Its Ugly Head
Growing up in the shadow of World War II, I can vividly remember hearing some of the nasty things that were said about my classmates who may have had some German heritage. Clearly, having German heritage bothered some people of my generation, even though they were born years after the Holocaust and may never have set foot in the old country.
The epitome of this concept was demonstrated when a young friend of mine, with a very German-sounding surname, read a book suggesting that many of the Jewish Holocaust deaths were not actual executions, but deaths during captivity from disease, starvation, and what might be called natural causes. (Obviously, regardless of the immediate cause of death, the Nazis were nonetheless responsible for their captives’ demise.) One could say that, he wasn’t denying the Holocaust. He wasn’t minimizing it. He merely felt somewhat vindicated in believing that his ancestral people had not actively executed the full six million Jews.
Our reader seems to be endorsing this view as he (or she) continues,
“The amount of Jews/Serb civilians (sic) that were killed is widely exaggerated – I think the figure is over 1 million now! What a joke!(sic)”
Stalin once said that a death was a tragedy, but a multitude of deaths was merely a statistic. It is amazing how desensitized we have become to mass murder. What can we say about someone who more or less acknowledges that the Nazis murdered over a million Jews and Serbs, and yet complains that the numbers bandied about are exaggerated?
Let’s take a close-up look at the death of a family of four. None of them every committed a crime. The father worked at his job and contributed to society. The mother managed her home. The children went to school. Father, mother, brother and sister where rounded up by the Nazis solely because of their ethnicity. They are detained in a camp. They are separated and never see each other again. They do not receive proper food. They do not receive medical treatment. One by one, they each have their day with the gas chamber. Expecting a shower of some sort, they each enter a mass shower room. They die an agonizing death. After death, their bodies are taken to a mass crematorium. They have no funerals. They have no graves. No marker bears their names. Each dies alone in a way that lacks any semblance of human dignity. Mass murder is mass murder, whether you multiply each death by six million or one million.
Yet, modern Nazis say that we need to return to those days. They say that a million dead Jews and Serbs should be forgotten and that six million deaths did not happen. We didn’t take Hitler seriously until it was nearly too late. Maybe we should take these modern Nazis a little more seriously and confront them now.
Winners Write the History Books, But Sometimes the Loser Contributes
Our reader goes on to complain that the Croats, being the loser in World War II, have gotten bad publicity. Quite frankly, I cannot think when and where this bad publicity might have come out.
None of the Croatian Nazis were tried for war crimes, as they were considered “too valuable” in the Cold War effort against the Soviet Union. Few people even know about Nazi Croatia. While people today may know about the pro-Nazi Vichy puppet governmet in France, Nazi Croatia was simply not well publicized.
In the recent Balkan struggles, we only hear about those “bad” Serbs and “holy” Muslims. The Croat faction seems largely to have escaped public notice. Croatia is no longer part of Yugoslavia. But now, their new county has produced an openly pro-Nazi rock musician who tours the world with songs about killing Serbs, and the world doesn’t seem to care.
He riles his audience and gets them in the mood to perform acts of destruction. This has been limited to property damage – for the time being.
So, we are at a loss to identify exactly what “propaganda war” our reader feels that the Croatian people have lost. It sounds as though the Croatian Nazis are getting away with murder . . . again!
Also See:
Category Link: Articles by CzechRebel on 1389 Blog (Note: To page back through the archive of older articles in a category link, please scroll down and click the ← Previous Entrieslink at the bottom of the page.)
