Dear friends,
Today Orthodox Christians like myself celebrate the Eve of the Nativity (aka “Christmas”) and tomorrow will be a major feast day for us (Orthodox feasts always begin on the previous evening).
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| Icon of the Nativity |
On Thursday I will have to spend the day on the road to drive my daughter to college so, God willing, I will be back only on Friday. I have a hotspot in the van, but since cellphone coverage is spotty at best in the Florida boonies and 4G is rare, it might be hard for me to stay connected.
I will have the time to make a short post tomorrow morning with some good news to share with all of you.
Until then, please consider this post (and tomorrow’s!) as “open threads” which I will try to moderate as best I can (but considering that I will attend long church services at night and that I also need sleep, please don’t be too frustrated if it takes me longer than usual).
To those of you who celebrate the Nativity according to the Julian calendar I wish a joy-filled and peaceful day, and to those of you who do not, I also wish the exact same thing :-)
Kind regards, peace and cheers,
The Saker
Just a question, saker, I think the saker is a falcon. So, what kind of eagle is the double-headed eagle on the Russian Romanov Crest based on?
gc
Greetings from France:
To Saker & family:
Christ is Born – Indeed, He is born!
Cheers
Mario Medjeral.
12/14 Report of the Senate Committee on CIA Torture discloses that confessions were NOT extracted by torture. Rather that torture was a precurser to inculcating (planting) the desired confession regarding the 9-11/al qaeda connection There was no attempt to extract a confession, rather it is officially admitted that false “confession” was simply planted. So it is admitted tha the CIA’s purpose in torturing this subset of 119 people was to accept planted confessions. The torture report strips away all pretense that al qaeda was involved in 9-11. http://www.voltairenet.org/article186204.html
Saker, Happy Orthodox Christmas and enjoy with your family!
For me today is my last holiday ( Day of the Magi here) but since I started working on Monday.
Yesterday I started to feel sick, ( vomiting ) I think it’s something viral, (although images of the attack on Batman did not help much) so I’m resting and with strict diet but…. using the time ….
For those who still have vacation and like them to study, even on vacation, I leave this class that I found on the web. It looks very interesting!:
“How rule the world. Lecture at the FSB (KGB)”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuf9d3sci-w
Christmas Greetings !!! I would like to attend Orthodox Christmas services – I also like the idea of leaving the 25th December to the shopping mall crowd and celebrating the true meaning of Christ’s Mass
Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!
Hi Saker,
AS Always, i find your blogg, very interesting and refreshing, because it offer real information in a logical and sensical way, far different from the nonsense, lies and histerya from MSM.
Anyway, i wanted to attract your attention to this information:
http://fortruss.blogspot.se/2014/12/is-ukraine-preparing-for-nuclear-false.html
I really hope is nothing, but you never know. I hope your sources can share some light in the matter, if possible of course, but i understand if i do not read any comments about. Anyway i Think is important to let you know about it, although perhaps you already know about it.
I am sorry to bother you with that info, in the middle of your celebration, but i Think is important to pass on the info. I hope that those who can do something against it, know about it already.
My sincere best wishes to you and your family,
Cabbage
Hi Anon
I think this was mentioned on a thread in passing when it first came out. A proper nuclear bomb doesn’t seem too likely.
However there is a nuclear power station less than 200 kilometres from the war zone,which has had TWO “minor accidents”, one Nov 28 and one Dec 28, which let out little “puffs” of radioactivity, not dangerous levels but measureable. The authorities of course tried to hide it, the first one they only qannounced5 days later and only because people were asking about it.
That information has gradually found its way into blogs and local news sites in quite a few countries. I have made contact with a blogger who monitors international radiation meter stations for a hobby, so understands what the mean,hows to read them, etc. He’ll be first to know if there’s anything unusual outside of Ukraine (he picked up the November one in Latvia and Romania), and the authorities in Donetsk know to watch out or news/gossip about further “accidents” at the Zaporozhye power station.
The major problem there is, the soviet-designed reactors use hexagonal section nuclear fuel rods. Kiev has contracted the supply with the US company Westinghouse, which makes square rods. These have been tried in soviet reactors in 3 or 4 countries, including Ukraine in 2005 and 2010, and they tend to bend the frame assemblies while being withdrawn This of course is risky and there’s no real way to straighten them. The 2010 problem (at the South Ukraine power station) ended up costing $176 million to redesign and update the assembly, but it was decided to never buy the Westinghouse fuel again for the other reactors. The new government in June right away fired the last expert who objected, and bought some Westinghouse fuel.
This fuel and engineers and demountable buildings are at the plant now (and were there for the December “accident”). So a deliberate nuke is not likely. An accident we need to cross our fingers about.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2dqj0c_obama-admits-falling-oil-prices-aimed-at-weakening-russian-economy_news
Mir bozji, hristos se rodi!
Мир Божији Христос се Роди – Ваистину се Роди!
Merry Christmas dear Saker and those celebrating our Lord and Saviours birth.
Dear The Saker,
Wishing you a happy and peaceful Christmas.Please take the time out to enjoy this special time with your family :).
I hope you received my donation which I hope will be utlised (the clue is in the name ;)).
All the best.
Rgds,
Veritas
This is a little off-topic,but this should be required viewing for anybody with internet a brain – pass it around:
former CIA agent Philip Agee in 1995
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvZQa0hkfgw
dear friend, your new website is a masterpiece!
Saker…
Great look on the new blog. Much better start than before. Just as a note to maybe help others…
When I first got here without the help of the direct link to the Blog, I struggled to find the latest post. After hitting the Blog button I now find everything in chronological order as before, but looking much better.
Almost my first stop everyday is here. Why? Great information by you and your writers, plus all the comments. Thanks for all your work on keeping us informed.
the site is super saker well done on all work and help u got from friends
just one thing saker site is super but theres no link to send any of your articles to twitter but great if that were kade available congrats on site
I am replying here to Not So Fast’s comments concerning Tibet on the old blog. Thank you for those in depth comments, Not So Fast. I do agree with you on the current crisis – I have family connections that tell me much of the Tibetan faith is very close to my own Orthodox persuasion. My children have travelled both in China and in Tibet, and I will say that as with most countries, the ways of ordinary people are welcoming and hospitable, as is their suffering when regimes clamp down to organize and rule despotically. Much more needs to be done to recognize unique traditions that are in harmony with the land itself. The Dalai Lama attempts to have this happen peacefully, and for that he has my deep respect.
Hi Juliania – I’m so glad to find you on the side of the Dalai Lama. This is where my own persuasions lie, and I have always placed great value on your comments. I made a response in this thread on the old site, I don’t know if it’ll be carried over here, and there’s no time stamp yet of course so I can’t link to it.
What’s certain I think is that this discussion will continue for a long time, and that we will all come to a degree of consensus about Buddhism, Tibet, China, and the ancient and modern world. I’m glad you’ll be part of it.
Thank you for your words of support for the Dalai Lama. Combined with very diligent study, our hearts will tell us the truth of things.
Thank you for your honest and factual comment, Juliana. And your answer illustrates an approch that I believe is very useful, namely that all of us are better served when we base our opinions on personal experience (“facts-on-the-ground”) rather than on official proclamations which are mostly long on moralizing judgments and short on honesty. The reason for this is simply that government proclamations are often based on an agenda of power-madness, superiority of the government stance and inferiority of the dissidents – unfortunately a frequent illness of all human power-elites.
Looking good so far, here!
Looking good so far!
Tanti auguri dall’Italia
Jazenjuk showed his insane world view in an interview in the german media…http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/ukraine-jazenjuk-101.html
Jazenjuk: “We can all remember very well the Soviet invasion in Ukraine and in Germany . This must be avoided. No one has the right to re-write the results of World War 2.” (Wir können uns alle sehr gut an den sowjetischen Einmarsch in die Ukraine und in Deutschland erinnern. Das muss man vermeiden. Keiner hat das Recht die Ergebnisse des 2. Weltkrieges neu zu schreiben.)
Insane and very sad that he is allowed to say something like this in pulblic and instead getting criticism he got hand shakes from Merkel and Gauck…
@Serendipity ….. re „Dorje Shugden“
My sincere thanks for your links. From what I gather at your main link this is mainly a competition betweeen two divination systems which are understood as real deities by many Tibetans, and where the „Dorje Shugden“ side is trying to establish the “Yellow hats” as absolute masters while the Dalai Lama is trying to integrate all of the Tibetan sects under his own authority.
“I don’t deny that the tantric deities exist (the spiritual world contains all sorts of entities) but to rely upon them for advice would seem to be a practice of very dubious value. ”
On the matter of deities I have no personal opinion – I can only say that I have never encountered convincing evidence of their existence. But they do exist for those Tibetans who believe in them – and there I certainly agree with your view that relying on them seems of more than dubious value, especially in view of the characteristics that are attributed to them.
FWIW my conclusion would be that Tibetans could do without this internal division and that they would have every reason to concentrate on surviving the destruction that the current Chinese policies are visiting upon them. But they were originally a warrior people and maybe this trait still manifests itself in their warrior deities?
Working on an iPad I’d suggest a button/feature to allow the user to select order of comments. Windows is easy to scroll down to the latest but one gets tired of the figure work to do the same on a tablet etc. A “last first” order option would be good.