Reader Tips

"Censors ban soap opera that was too much like reality TV".

{censored) say,
too much like reality.

"Snail House, a show featuring shady communist officials, their mistresses and dodgy financial dealings, has fallen foul of the censors."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6965671.ece

The USA has caught a real communist spy working for the state department...

yes in 2009 a communist spy!!!

this is a MUST READ!!!

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTIyZGIzY2IyNjc3NzI4NzMyZjA3YTI0ZGY5YTRjNTY=

SDA featured link in Belmont Club...

http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/12/21/the-copencabana/

THE COPENCABANA

Small Dead Animals has a translation of a German article which purports to describe how Barack Obama stormed into a meeting of heads of state, acting like it was a scene from a Hollywood movie.

strangely Tony Bennett reminded me of this one. which one year due to a blog was voted the third best christmas song of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLb213lak5s&feature=related

Thanks for the Ukrainian video, Vitruvius.

One of the Ukrainian stars in the video is Ruslana Lyzhicko, winner of the 2004 Eurovision Song Festival; a voice in Ukraine's Orange Revolution; and later elected to the Ukrainian Duma (Parliment).

This video is her winning performance at Eurovision:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXgaOTOCSuU

Христос Раждається!

Tony Bennett is to singing what a 66 Lincoln (with suicide doors) is to automobiles!!

... mao shlong slay...

more victims of the american gluttonous appetite for cocaine:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/091223/world/international_us_mexico_drugs

mountains of it. millions of tonnes of the stuff over the years.

I remember a newspaper article describing it as 'non-addictive'.

kinda like the present day claim that the old guard Italian mob has lost power.

Vitruvius-Thanks very much for presenting the beautiful rendition of 'Dobry Vechir Tobi".
Being of Ukrainian ancestry (paternal) myself, I have a real appreciation of the cultural traditions of my heritage.
Although it now seems to be a fading (or perhaps more acurately, integrated) culture, they were one of the predominant groups responsible for the settlement and development of Canada's West. Their hardships, travails and successes are well documented in the local histories.
Going back to my youth, the Christmas and Easter hymns and carols really strike a chord. I don't know what it is, but the rich harmonies and melodies are so meaningful. I can still hear the rich baritones of my uncle as he led the choir in praise of the birth, or of the Risen Lord!
Where did those wonderful times go?

yup vit..

poignant ain't the half of it...black and bloody well white.

life before the commies and the nasties ....

yes the ukraine has truly suffered...the equal of the Jewish agony in my humble opinion...but the russians feasted on the ukraine and the jews...the ukraine feasted on the jews..the germans feasted on the ukraine and the jews...and so it goes..

but the impulse the desire to be good to men of good will persists....which is small enough..one would think natural ...only it ain't.

nice footage of the families prosting each other at christmas ....and the sleigh rides...and children delighted at the wonderful world they live in (what it is ALL about)assures me of my belief we will triumph as a species...

Vitruvius, thank you for tonight's selection, particularly 'Dobry Vechir Tobi". Ukrainians have suffered enough over the last five hundred centuries and possibly longer. I enjoyed the country in 2008 and wish them all the best in keeping their independence and for economic growth.

50,000 years? I thought what are now known as the plains
of Kiev were first settled by humans about 8,000 years ago.
Anyway, it's a lovely carol.

Vitruvius, Oops, I sit corrected. My post should have read "modern" Ukrainians have suffered enough over the last five hundred years or five centuries or at least from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Now you made me drag out my Ukrainian history books. The Ukraine or the "borderland", has traces of human habitation going back approximately 150,000 years and Cimmerians, Scythians and Sarmations and other cultures have all left their stamp on the Ukraine.

Hmm, my understanding is that the neolithic Cucuteni-Trypillian folks were the first to inhabit those lands, on the order of 8,000 years ago. Do you have any other reference that I could refer to, Ken?

Ukrainian carols are nice but Polish and Slovak are not bad either ;-)

Polish carols

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KY113hzigY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZjOzhsTliU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbZ83mTA5eA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmVqdj43qVQ&feature=related
and the last but not least
carols sang in church during mass last year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=PL&hl=pl&v=YETpC8wCxVQ&fmt=18

Slovak carols

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q0iEEUYIhw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8OhU2Sn9Ds&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdZM08g9bX8&NR=1

enjoy.....

Oh no, look out, we've got the Slivovitz out !-)

@ vitruvius

there were Neanderthal settlements around 140,000-120,000 years ago. and archaeologists found around 800 settlements of Cro-magnon men. Ukraine is probably a cradle of pra-indoeuropean language.

"we've got the Slivovitz out"
NO, NO, NO
I do not drink slivovica, I drink vodka, my homeland drink.!!!
*****
ps. to be perfectly true - after my first glass of that awful, national drink called "vodka" I started drinking wine
So there.....

Interesting, Ella. I'd like to read more about that 100,000
year horizon. Let me know if you know of an article thereto.

@ vitruvius

there is more about it in wikipedia and in other books - unfortunately none I know of are in English.
Sorry.

Where at Wikipedia?

In Ukrainian: Under entry Україна; Кам'яний вік
In Polish: Under entry Ukraina: Czasy najdawniejsze
In Russian: Украина: Древняя история

Unfortunately, there is nothing in english

There is nothing on the web in English about the human habitation over 100,000 years ago of the area now known as the Ukraine? Well, sorry, colour me skeptical, but until you can do better than that, I don't believe you. I mean, I thought we were reduced to a few thousands of functioning wombs during that near-extinction event on the order of a mere 70,000 years ago, which would put any sort of 100,000 year old northern european hypothesis pretty much out the window.

I think ella is refering to Neanderthals.
which were reduced to less than that in terms of functioning wombs. However, there is some evidence that freckles and ginger hair may be a remnant Neaderthal gene.

and views of Leonid Brezhniv and his cohorts used to appear as throw backs as well.

top videos for 2009, no Tiger Woods but a trip to singularity anyway.

http://www.newscientist.com/articlevideo/dn18318/58516215001-2009-review-top-videos-of-the-year.html

1st-Time Discovery of 2nd-Temple Dwelling in Nazareth

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) The remains of a dwelling from the last days of the Second Temple have been uncovered in the heart of the city of Nazareth. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) revealed the remains of the ancient residential area in the northern Israeli Arab city for the first time to reporters on Monday.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135139

re. neanderthals in the Crimea: I have found for you this link. I don't much like it. The reference to "Homo sapience" is not reassuring; but there you go.

Aside from that, someone named Adriane Burke from the Universite de Montreal seems to be all over this neanderthals-in-Crimea thing.

And then I went through Wikipedia's list of archaeological sites in Ukraine, and I found the Mezhirich site in Central Ukraine which they're claiming dates to 15,000 BP.

Cal2 @3:37 - I was reading about that recently in National Geographic, - neanderthal gene sequencing etc., v. interesting - but they were saying that the red-haired trait had evolved twice; once for them, once for us. I'd be very interested in any info. to the contrary. As far as I know there is zero evidence of neanderthal DNA in the modern human gene-pool, Leonid Brezhnev notwithstanding.

GNWO* Report:

"Big Freeze Could Grip Britain Until March"

"Chavez announces new discount 'socialist' stores"

"HP looking into claim webcams can't see black people"

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/news-forum/index
(*Global New World Order)

Ah, c'mon, Vit: -- " ... something you should remember from the start" is that "Christmas is a feeling in your heart"??? (BTW, Andy Williams is still going strong at 82. Friends saw him in Branson, Missouri last summer.)

That's a GOOD start, but it's not the whole story by a long shot -- something you've managed to acknowledge in your choice of Dobry Vechir Tobi which, if nothing else, proves that Christians know how to have fun!

Yikes, and then there's White Christmas as an exorcism!!

Further to the conversation about the Ukraine, I know next to nothing, except remember an exceptional exhibition at the ROM last year: Ancient Ukraine: Mysteries of the Trypillian Culture. The pottery was amazing: simple, elegant lines with strong, dramatic designs. I'd hoped they were selling facsimiles in their shop. But they weren't.

Taliban Jack LaytoNDP Dispatch.
...-

"Torture allegations can't dent Tories' armour"
urlm.in/dviw

"Taliban blow up Pakistan girls school: official
AFP - ‎36 minutes ago‎
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The Taliban blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district, where troops are fighting against militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday."

First, thanks maz2 for your always informative posts.

Second, from yesterday's Reader Tips, 'seems like Vitruvius, Erik Larsen, and a few others have relegated the celebration of Christmas to "a human creation."

While I agree that the the day on which Christians celebrate Christmas IS a human creation -- the 25th of December is as good a time as any to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ: light in darkness -- the coming of the Savior of the World is not.

Millions upon millions of books have been written, songs sung, poems spoken, of this event which changed history, so this isn't just my opinion!

... We see him come, and know him ours,
Who, with his sunshine and his showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.

Which we will give him; and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath,
To do him honour, who’s our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.

What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ucVQSJunR4

A Blessed and Joyful Christmas to all! (And remember: Christmas is a season which lasts for 12 days!)

"While Ontario's education minister says a decision to eliminate fall report cards for elementary school students and replace them with kinder, gentler progress assessments is intended to give teachers time to evaluate students before issuing a letter grade, the change drew flak from critics who said pupils do not need to be shielded from the reality of grades."

They are back to the same crap before Harris made the report cards mean something. My son used to get report cards with computer generated useless statements like "He is doing much better than last term.". How would I know? One of my good friends was his principal and I would complain to her that this stuff is totally meaningless and children understand grades and performance. It is all part of the left's continual bleat "Its all about the children". No its not, its about their lazy asses removing anything challenging to children and turning out good little liberals.

I say to teachers I meet just take a look at the native community on the reserves to see where your stupid progressive policies lead to, forgetting that that is where they want our society to be.

Lookout used to accurately tell us the "teaching" community mindset as I see it whenever I talk to my teacher friends.

This mindset is reflected in programs like National Geographic as they constantly go on about how Global Warming is destroying our world.

Its Christmas, think pleasant thoughts, its Christmas, think pleasant thoughts....

Dont know if iam going to be on here much over the next few days, I lost my mother this year just after the new year & now my father is quite ill & hospitalized. My dad taught me to always show & give respect & to always never be afraid to speak up. So anyways here goes.

First to Kate, Thanks ever so much for a great blog & all the contributors for some interesting topics & conversations. No matter how much you may disagree with someone we must remember to respect the other person as this is what it is all about. To express your thoughts in a civil manner to live in a free country where we are able to do this. So at a time when we all wish for peace around the world. I would like to raise a glass to good freinds & family that are still with us & those that cannot be with us and wish,
A Very Merry Christmas to All & Have A Happy, Safe & Prosperous New Year.

"Comments have been disabled

Editor's Note: We have closed comments on this story for legal reasons. We appreciate your understanding."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/morning-buzz/article1409900/
...-

"Top court transforms press freedom with new libel defence
Globe and Mail"

batb, re: 12 days of Christmas season,

Is this ten Lords-a-leaping day?

bryanr: Sorry to hear about your mom, and now your dad. I lost my stepfather this year, and am now watching out for my mom who is 82: Growing old is definitely not for sissies.

My own father's (RIP) toast at special occasions was always, "Here's to absent friends and those who've gone before."

Texas Canuck: "Is this ten Lords-a-leaping day?"

Not yet! The first day of Christmas is Christmas Day. There's a ways to go till the Lords start leaping ... ;-)

One of Crowders best. My dad's family lived in Detroit in the good days.
What happenned to Detroit? Crowder nails it.

http://www.pjtv.com/v/2876

thanks batb
very much appr'd.
I lost mom to breast cancer jan 09 she was 78. dad is 82 & was diagnosed with leukemia 8yrs ago, he faught back & has been in remission for 5yrs. It came back 4wks ago.

Ralph Peters, 2010: The year of bankrupt gov'ts

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. But he only comes for kids -- not for governments that have bragged, borrowed and spent their way into bankruptcy. Two Thousand Ten is going to belong to the Grinch.

For spendthrift governments around the world, the new year's going to bring massive defaults. The new globalization may be the globalization of a second wave of financial crises...

this site has lots of gene links and refers to ginger neanderthals.

http://www.rdos.net/eng/asperger.htm#MC1R

google red haired neanderthals and there are mega sites.

Steven F. Hayward, The EPA's Power Grab

The climate campaign, built step-by-step over the last 20 years, has reached its Waterloo. The Copenhagen conference that ended Friday was an exercise in political theater. It not only failed to produce a binding agreement, but the potential emissions curbs it endorsed fall far below what climate orthodoxy demands, while the proposed wealth transfer from rich nations to poor nations is a political nonstarter. Back home, cap and trade legislation remains on life support, even though it has been significantly watered down so as to postpone real costs to consumers for a decade or more. In the midst of this gloom, the climate campaign has played its trump card in the United States: The Environmental Protection Agency formally announced on December 7 its intention to regulate greenhouse gases through the Clean Air Act.

That trump card, however, may turn out to be a joker...

Vitruvius @ 1:05 am "Hmm, my understanding is that the neolithic Cucuteni-Trypillian folks were the first to inhabit those lands, on the order of 8,000 years ago. Do you have any other reference that I could refer to, Ken?"

ella @ 2:16 "there were Neanderthal settlements around 140,000-120,000 years ago. and archaeologists found around 800 settlements of Cro-magnon men. Ukraine is probably a cradle of pra-indoeuropean language."

Slivovitz? Sounds like it might taste alright.

Sorry I am a little late in getting back to this thread. My sources are "Ukraine, A History, 3rd Edition, Orest Subtelny pp 5-13 and "Borderland" by Anna Reid.

You are both right. Subtelny says that the low fore head, heavy jawed small brained people where in the region from about 150,000 BC and the Cro-magnons appeared around 40,000 BC, then the Trypillians. The Trypillians were abosrbed or replaced by nomadic peop0les such as Cimmerians, Scythians and Sarmations.

(PDF warning) Henry J. Aaron, Cricket, Rugby, and U.S. Health Reform: Three Sports, in Increasing Order of Violence

The origins of this political theater go back a long way—nearly a century, in fact. Theodore Roosevelt, running unsuccessfully for president in 1912 as an independent, advocated a limited form of national health insurance. The next Roosevelt, Franklin this time, considered including health insurance along with unemployment and old-age benefits and poor relief in the Social Security Act, but decided against it, fearing that including health insurance would rouse opposition from physicians and doom the whole bill. At about the time you were setting up the National Health Service, president Harry Truman tried and humiliatingly failed to get Congress even to hold hearings on a plan to provide limited health benefits to all Americans.

The reasons for his failure are instructive...

Has that been Slivovitza 70% edition straight from an oak barrel? :)

we have a blue moon this month. on the 30/31 depending where you are in the world.

If you see an Arrow truck in your travels, try to spread a little Christmas cheer in whatever form. They went belly-up virtually overnight, stranding 1,400 drivers all over the country. Cut off fuel cards, no notice, no nothing. http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/business&id=7179478

I really want to get this out there. These hard working guys and gals (nearly everything you have has been on a big truck at some point) are stuck with nothing.. Other people in the industry are trying to shore things up, but to have this happen right before Christmas, when the company knew this was coming, and to give no notice whatsoever is unconscionable.

…-

“CFRA Polls

This week – we will ask you to rate the 2009 job performance of the Mayor, Premier, Prime Minister and U.S. President. Today, please rate, on a scale of 1 to 5, the job performance of Stephen Harper.”

1. 1 – Excellent
42.6%
2. 2 – Very Good
34.8%
3. 3 – Good
13.2%
4. 4 – Poor
4.03%
5. 5 – Very Poor
5.20%”
http://www.cfra.com/

The 25th of December is indeed an artificial construct regarding the birthday of Jesus Christ. It is generally accepted that this date was chosen due to its' proximity to Yule (Dec 21st), and presented the best chance of attracting pagan adherents of the earlier celebration. That said, it's still fun - and should not in any way interfere with those who do follow a Christian doctrine.

But, as it is topical - what day of Christmas is it if one adheres to Ukrainian Christmas?

(btw - Merry Christmas!!!)