By CzechRebel

Back in 1961, Hollywood put together a film to whitewash the eleventh-century legend about Spanish warrior Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043 – July 10, 1099), better known as El Cid. Charlton Heston played the role of Díaz, who fights against Muslims and later for Muslims and, still later, is fighting in an army composed of both Christian and Muslim forces. Wrapped up in this strange story is a romance with Sophia Loren playing the leading lady, who is also a Christian.

The theme of the story might be “just give war a chance.” The viewer is bombarded with this message that it scarcely matters who or what you are fighting for, as long as you keep on fighting. Of course, it was not until the late fifteenth century when Spain was finally able to rid itself entirely of Moorish Islamic terrorism. So for another four centuries after El Cid, Spaniards continued to suffer and struggle under the yoke of Muslim tyranny.

From the initial invasion in 711 until the final expulsion of the Muslims in 1492 – 781 years! – Spaniards toiled and bled and died under Islamic rule. The Reconquista was a war to reclaim western civilization from the Dark Ages imposed by Islamic conquest. But the film portrayed the false image that Islam and Christianity were roughly equivalent – merely two sides in a long-ago political and military conflict. That tended to numb whatever sensitivity to the danger of Islamic expansionism that the viewer may have had. Perhaps it even contributed to the foolish mindset of the architects of American foreign policy who think that we can fight on behalf of Muslims sometimes and against Muslims at other times, without letting the Muslims do us any real harm. The West has been doing this since the 1970s and has only gotten burnt in the process.

Not all wars have followed that pattern. World War II could all too easily have gone the other way. It took the Allies only four years to emerge victorious, as opposed to the 400 years it took the Spanish from the time of Rodrigo Díaz to the time of a free Spain. One of the big differences between the so called “War on Terror” and World War II is that the America of the 1940′s took the threat of a fifth column very seriously. The FBI kept a close eye on Germans who might be a bit pro-Nazi long before the war even started. However, there was an even greater threat from Japanese immigrants and even some Japanese-Americans. So more stringent measures had to be taken following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

However, many of those Japanese-Americans were much more American then they were Japanese. A number of them went quietly–if not cheerfully–to internment camps, knowing full well that certain of their seemingly mild-mannered neighbors felt duty-bound to support the Emperor of Japan over any loyalty they might have had to America. But peacefully going into internment was not enough for some Japanese-American patriots!

Many young Japanese-American men volunteered for the American military, most notably the 442nd Infantry Regiment, whose motto was “Go For Broke.” (Other Japanese-American units earned distinction also.) The 442nd became the most highly decorated unit during World War II, taking on some of the most dangerous assignments in Europe and suffering the highest causality rate. 442nd combatants earned over three Purple Hearts on the average per capita. This was in an era when minorities supposedly, in the words of Rodney Dangerfield, “don’t get no respect.” Yes, to this day we hear from the crybabies with their historical revisionist films on how they suffered more and got less credit for winning the war then the “white men.” Well, these guys who physically looked like our Japanese enemies went out and earned their respect in that very era without waiting a few decades for some Hollywood leftist to use their story in one of those manipulative y’all-don’t-love-me-back films.

Oh dear, we may hear from those crybabies who don’t think we appreciate his grandpa’s war effort, so we better address that now. If Hitler had won and his troops had marched down the Main Streets of those little towns where your grandfolks’ family used to live, do y’all really think those Nazis would have given them any more respect? Unless y’all are part of his “Aryan race” it might not have gone so well. For any women who didn’t think they got enough respect, we ask, would the enemy soldier who raped you after winning the war have “respected you in the morning”? Now, if these Japanese-American fellows–the guys who were out winning medals–hadn’t had much luck, had lost the war, and the troops of Hideki Tōjō had come to “liberate” the camps that held their families, those troops’ relatives would have had an excellent chance of surviving the war. For the grandparents of our modern-day crybabies, winning the war was an absolute must. For Japanese-Americans, the US losing the war could have been bad, but probably not fatal.

Time to Choose Sides

Now, to get into the American military at that time, Japanese-Americans faced some probing questions. Most telling was “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power or organization?” Of course, for some, this meant reneging on such a pledge to the Japanese emperor – a pledge that many Japanese-Americans had made before the war.

In view of that, we are proposing that all Muslim members of the American military, and the armies of any nation or faction that seeks US support in the field, be asked the following question: “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and renounce any form of allegiance or obedience to any teaching of Mohammad, any teaching based on the Koran, and the dictates of any Islamic civil or religious leaders that teach violence against the US, Western civilization, or any other Judaeo-Christian civilization?”

To any Muslim who can take the above pledge and mean it, 1389 Blog will give the title “moderate.” To those who consider us too extreme, we say, “Drop the El Cid mentality; we don’t have 400 more years to wait!”

Wondering why 1389 is the monicker for our blog?

Today, we are batting against a rather stealthy jihad. When hijacked airplanes fly into American buildings, we feel the affects of jihad, but we let Muslim clerics explain it away as the work of “extremists.” When a terrorist in the Holy Land explodes a bomb killing himself and a number of people around him, we feel the affects of jihad, but we let the leftists explain that it is Israel’s fault for existing and we let them spout some historical revisionism that a “Palestinian” people are entitled to this land and have some sadistic right to act in this manner. When Islamic dictatorships take (or allow others to take) hostages, we feel the affects of jihad, but we quietly wait for their release. In Muslim countries, Islam and the political system become one and the same. They stone to death those accused of an impure act, behead hostages, persecute and slaughter Christians and Jews, and impose a horrible form of tyranny upon their people. Meanwhile, Islamic movements are hard at work infiltrating Western and non-Muslim societies, all too often aided and abetted by Western governments.

Throughout history, battles between jihadis and non-Muslims were not always so stealthy. Even though communications were slow and not always reliable, the non-Muslims knew the threat and understood what a bleak future lay ahead for those whom fell to Islamic conquest. Battles were fought with swords, arrows and the like. When the Muslims won, the vanquished suffered. When the Muslims lost, the victories peoples thanked God and prepared for the next Islamic attack.

Some of the victims reasoned, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” So, those of weak faith capitulated and converted. This was never an option for staunch Orthodox Christians, for whom Islam was a serious heresy and the work of Satan. If you look a modern map of the world’s religions, you will see that Islam seems to end where Orthodoxy begins and vice versa. You just don’t find too many Lutheran-Muslim borders, Methodist-Muslim borders, or even Roman Catholic-Muslim borders. Indeed, Roman Catholics and Protestants have fought Islam in past centuries; there are a number of locations where Islam clashed with non-Muslim forces that are famous to this day. Our esteemed blog colleagues at Gates of Vienna commemorate a location where Christian forces twice stopped Islamic terrorism. But it has always been Orthodox Christians who have most often fallen under the hammer of Islamic expansionism and have fought against Islam for their very survival.

The Battle

We commemorate a battle fought in 1389 A.D. in Kosovo, the very cradle of Serbian civilization and culture. It was a classic clash between Islamic terrorism and Christianity, and it was a real bloodbath. Both Prince Lazar, the leader of the Christian forces, and Sultan Murad, the leader of the Islamic forces, were killed. All of the high-ranking officers among the Christian forces were killed, as were most of the Muslim leaders.

But who won the Battle of Kosovo? Ironically, the Christian people of the area, the Serbs, consider that they lost the battle! Historians are divided. Many consider it a draw. However, some who study the technicalities of military battles deem that the Christan forces won.

However, one thing is certain: with Sultan Murad dead, the Muslim plans to conquer Eastern Europe were set back for a while. It was 70 years before the Muslims conquered Serbia. By the time that Islamic forces reached Vienna, those Christian forces were ready to fend them off.

Had it not been for the Battle of Kosovo, in 1389 A.D., the Muslims might have captured Central and/or Eastern Europe in the 1400s. Who knows, with several Muslim bases of operation in Central and Eastern Europe, the Reformation may have seen “Protestants” rejecting the Trinity and inserting Allah instead; the Thirty Years’ War may have ended with the Muslims taking charge; and the French Revolution might have been an Islamic takeover.

Note that I referred to Prince Lazar’s forces as Christian. Historical sources tend to refer to his forces as “Serbian.” Many of the Christian forces were not Serbs, in that other kings had sent whole armies to help. However, don’t consider the Serbs “ethnocentric” for calling those troops Serbs. The Serbian people are very inclusive. More than one Serb has called me a fellow “Serb,” sometimes offering and explanation, sometimes not. In the Serbian mindset, a fellow Orthodox Christian, bearing arms against a common foe, would seem like such an equal that I cannot imagine them viewing him as anything less than a countryman.

No, the world might be a bit different today had Murad survived and won that battle back on June 15, 1389. [Note: the date is according to the Julian Calendar then in effect, and still used for liturgical purposes by the Serbian Orthodox Church.] Six centuries on, not much has really changed. The same types of Islamic extremists are fighting the same battle against us today, albeit with different tools, different weapons, different tactics.

In a sense, everyone is either a Jihadi (as much so as Murad’s Turkish terrorists) fighting to impose Sharia law on the world, a bystander who is are more ignorant that innocent, or a “Serb” fighting the forces of the evil of Islamic expansionism. Hence, we are the 1389 blog. And we invite all those who are concerned about Islamic extremism to become Serbs, at least, in spirit.

Links:

• Kosovo (online book by 1389 Blog team member William Dorich)
• What Happened in 1389? – 1389 Blog
• Lazar of Serbia – OrthodoxWiki
• Lazar of Serbia – Wikipedia
• The Battle of Kosovo (Projekat Rastko: Serbian Epic Poems)

From Journey to Orthodoxy:

Posted by Fr. John on November 19, 2011

More and More People in Czechia and Slovakia Are Giving Preference to the Orthodox Church

An interview with Metropolitan Christopher, Archbishop of Prague and Metropolitan of the Czech and Slovakian lands.

Archbishop Christopher of Prague, Metropolitan of the Czech and Slovakian lands talks about the history and modern condition of the Orthodox Church in Czechia and Slovakia. The talk was recorded in June of 2011.

—Your Beatitude, you chose the path of a clergyman of the Orthodox Church during the time in Czechoslovakia after the famous events of 1968 (“Prague Spring”), and for a number of reasons thousands of parishioners were leaving the Orthodox Church. To be Orthodox at that time was at the least, not considered prestigious. What moved you to go against the current?

—Yes, that was when my fate was decided: I chose the Orthodox theological seminary. I have to admit that it was not my cherished dream to become a priest. I wanted to become a forest ranger, and I also wanted very much to paint icons. I studied iconography with Fr. Andrei (Kolomatsky), a very gifted Russian priest, architect, artist, and tireless man of prayer. At times I would try to paint, wanting my icons to be like his—alive. But it didn’t come out like that. I would complain to Fr. Andrei, and he would answer, “Are you praying?” He himself prayed without ceasing, and that was the most important thing I learned from him. I began my spiritual path with him, and I came to know the mighty power of prayer, the strength of Orthodoxy, which enables a man, hoping in God’s help, to overcome what would seem to be insurmountable. I came to know God’s mercy, how the Lord works miracles. Perhaps it was then that I first had the desire to become a priest, albeit not fully consciously.

I went to the seminary only because no other school of higher education would have accepted me. At the time, in order to be accepted at an institute, one had to fill in an application line about one’s agreement to enter the armed forces of the Warsaw convention on my country’s territory. I was not in agreement with violence. Never. When I heard that in the application for admission to the seminary at the Orthodox theological department of Charles University had no such requirement (but there is, as they told me, a more complicated question—on Holy Scripture), I applied there. This is how, by God’s will, I began my path as a clergyman.

—The Church of Czechoslovakia is currently preparing for the sixty-year anniversary of its autocephaly. Why did the Church of Czechoslovakia receive its autocephaly from the Russian Orthodox Church?

—The first contacts, which became the basis of the friendship between our Churches, go back to antiquity, in the tenth–eleventh centuries, when the recluse Procopius, like St. Sergius of Radonezh, founded a monastery in the forest wilderness not far from the Sázava river, which later became a large, famous monastery. During the time that the Sázava Monastery was active, the monks would go to Kiev, and the monks from Kievan Russia would visit the Sázava Monastery. Each time they would bring gifts of icons and manuscripts to each other… These gifts from the Sázava Monastery are still treasured in Kiev. The Kiev monks in their turn brought a piece of the relics of Sts. Boris and Gleb to the Sázava Monastery, where they were honored with great reverence. One of the monastery’s side altars was dedicated to these saints.

In the eighteenth century, the Russian Orthodox Church also aided our country’s renewal of our Church. For nearly three centuries, Czechia did not have its own government, and was subject to the Austrian Hapsburg Empire. The people were Germanized, and had no rights. No one in the West wanted or was able to help us. Russia was a light, hope, and refuge for the Czechs at that time. Russian Slavophiles supported the Czech and Slovak patriot-renewers both ideologically and materially. With their help, in 1848 the first Slavic conference was conducted in Prague, which placed a beginning of the renewal in Czechia of Slavic culture and language. In 1867, the Slavic conference took place in Moscow, and on the streets of Prague people were singing, “God save the Tsar!”

Russians helped the Czechs afterward, also. They sent money for the construction of Orthodox Churches, and Orthodox priests. One of these was, for example, the martyr for Orthodoxy and faithfulness to Slavicism Archpriest Nicholai Ryzhkov. The people of Czechia honor that man’s memory. The Czechs also received Russian refugees (during the years of the civil war in Russia and subsequent persecutions) as their own brothers. They helped them to establish themselves, to receive education… The young Czech government spent billions on that.

The first head of the Czechoslovakian government formed in 1918, Karel Kramář, was Orthodox. Together with his wife, Nadezhda Kramář Khludova (a Russian aristocrat), he organized the construction of a remarkable church dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Olšany Cemetery, which became a haven for Orthodox Russians, and then during the war years, for Orthodox Czechs, who were earlier under the omophorion of the Holy Hieromartyr Gorazd, the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Czechoslovakia who was executed by the Nazis. The Russian priests, primarily Fr. Andrei (Kolomatsky) and Bishop Sergius of Prague, helped their Czech brothers and sisters in Christ, spiritually cared for them, risking their own lives…

The Russian Orthodox Church did much for the Orthodox in Czechia also after the war. During those years, on the territory of the Czech and Slovak lands their existed four jurisdictions. It was necessary to do away with this atomism of the Orthodox Church and place our reliance in the largest Orthodox Church, the Russian Church. In 1946, the Czech Orthodox Church was accepted into the Moscow Patriarchate. The Russian Orthodox Church sent a talented organizer and missionary to Prague, a most honorable man who suffered much, Bishop Eleutherius. He had a gift of preaching from God, and drew to Orthodox tens, later hundreds of thousands of parishioners.

In 1950 the Church of Czechoslovakia already had a sufficient number of the faithful and bishops to receive independence. It even had a theology school. The Church could support and maintain itself, and needed no support from other sources. On November 23, 1951, a statement was signed in the Moscow Patriarchate granting autocephaly to the Czechoslovakian Orthodox Church. From December 18, 1951, after the notification of the heads of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches of Czechoslovakia, the Orthodox Church exists as an autocephaly.

—During the 1950′s, the Russian Orthodox Church endured a new round of persecutions (the Khrushchev era). In Czechoslovakia, upper echelons of the Communist Party aided the Orthodox Church in a victory over the Uniates. Is it true that this act of the Communists aided Orthodoxy in Czechia and Slovakia?

—The Communists, both yours (Russian) and ours were always enemies of the Church. That the Czechoslovakian party members supposedly helped the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia was only their cunning maneuver: to get rid of the Uniates as quickly as possible with the help of the Orthodox. In fact, the Communist only injured the work of Orthodoxy. They shouted about the victory over the Uniates. In fact, there was no victory, only liquidation. You see, the Unia was introduced into the Slavic lands during the seventeenth century, also by force. Therefore, a large part of the faithful in the Uniate churches, under the influence of Bishop Eleutherius’ sermons, joyfully returned to the bosom of the Church of their ancestors, to Orthodoxy. Undoubtedly, all the rest would have followed their example, with perhaps rare exceptions. But during the process of voluntary departure of parishioners from the Unia—it could be said, at its final stage—the Communist bosses inserted themselves, demanded speedy and total liquidation of the Unia. Their methods are well known: prison, exile…

Then, to the Northern Czech border were sent hundreds of Uniate families. Scores of Uniate priests who did not accept Orthodoxy were defrocked. The Uniate leaders, for example, Bishop Goidich, were held in prison cells, and then sent to a concentration camp designated for particularly dangerous criminals. There Goidich died. Of course, all of this had a negative effect on Orthodoxy. We Orthodox know that no such force is a victory. Goidich became a holy martyr for the Uniates, their standard. Unfortunately, we still have not been victorious over the Unia. They call people to their churches through deception. Those who come to them see Orthodox icons, and thinking that they are being baptized into Orthodoxy, they end up in the Unia…

—What was the real reason for the mass exit of parishioners from the Orthodox Church after the events of 1968?

—The aforementioned was the reason, in any case, the main reason, for the mass exit of parishioners from the Orthodox Church. The arrival of Soviet tanks on our streets completed this process. Orthodoxy was always associated with Russia. And those who invaded our country in tanks spoke Russian. As a sign of protest, our people “forgot” the Russian language. It cost the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Czechoslovakia, Vladyka Doretheus, an enormous effort to save the Church from total disintegration…

—Is it true that at the present time, only the Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia is increasing in the number of parishioners, while all other confessions are decreasing? What is the reason for this, in your opinion?

—Yes, this is true. The number of Orthodox in Czechia is growing. Many people have come to us from the former Soviet Union. They want to live here. And they bring their homeland with them—the Orthodox Church. But Czechs are also coming to be baptized into Orthodoxy. Our Church attracts people by the absence of negative phenomena in its history—that is, the inquisition and persecution of those of different convictions. To the contrary, the Orthodox Church is a refuge for all the persecuted. That there are many more Orthodox can be seen: all the Orthodox churches are full. On feast days we even have to serve outdoors, next to the church. Meanwhile, the many Catholic churches are empty; at best, concerts are given in them. The Uniate churches are also not at all full. Less than a tenth of the original number of parishioners (in the 1920′s there were 900,000!) are left in the Hussite Church. Around three million parishioners have left the Catholic Church.

—Why is this happening? Why is Czechia the most atheistic country in Europe?

—People ask me about this often. I then answer by telling the history of my much-suffering country, which joyfully received Baptism from the saintly brothers Cyril and Methodius, but later, after many centuries, suffered persecution from the aggressive (at that time) Roman popes and cardinals… Catholicism was instituted by force, by almost the same methods as fascists or communists used. For disobedience—requisition of property and land, exile from the country, and even execution… “Let every father, mother, and child who does not receive Catholicism in fourteen years be exiled from the country!” Such were the orders from the Pope of Rome after the Catholic League’s victory over the Czechs.

At that time, nearly half of the population of Czechia was exiled. Out of 150,000 families, there remained only 30,000. It is apparently understandable, why Czechs did not like Catholicism. Therefore, as soon as Czechoslovakia became an independent country, nearly a million people left the Catholic Church and created the Czechoslovakian Orthodox Church. And our country would have been Orthodox then, had not, as the Russians say, a mess occurred. Essentially, a tragedy: When the Primate of the newly created Orthodox Church, Holy Hieromartry Gorazd, went to America in order to obtain some needed financial means with the help of wealthy Czechs, another pretender to the bishopric, the talented orator Karel Farsky led nearly all the parishioners into his modernist Church, where Jesus Christ was honored not as the Son of God, but as the First Saint, born of marital union. And people believed him… I think that the name of this modernist Church, called Hussite, worked on people’s psychology. Although, Jan Hus himself was not a modernist, but rather went to be burned at the stake for the sake of Original Church of Christ. As years passed, people have figured everything out. That is the answer to why people leave not only the Catholic Church, but also the Hussite Church.

—Czechia is considered to be the most atheist country. It would seem that without faith, all the vices of society should appear. But in fact Czechia is a peaceful country, people are well-wishing, without aggression. One can be out on the streets without fear at any time of the day or night. Everything in Czechia—the construction of houses, the public transportation, the stores, and other places—is designed to be of maximum convenience for people. I remember how amazed I was at the transfer system of the trains… Everywhere, you feel that in everything having to do with relationships to people there is cordiality, warmth, and kind wisdom… Does this mean that it is possible to do without religion, without faith? What is your opinion on this?

—Yes, our citizens’ peace-loving nature and absence, or more precisely, near absence of aggression, you have correctly noticed. That the majority of the population does not number itself amongst any one of the religious confessions is also true. However, the main mass of our people, the Czechs, cannot be called godless. Take, for example, the Church holidays: Christmas, Christ’s Resurrection, and other great feasts. People try to observe the traditions that have taken root in Czechia since long ago, and which were passed down from generation to generation…

Yes, it is very unfortunate that the majority of our citizens do not attend Church services. But does that mean that we can do without the Church entirely? No, of course not. It is precisely thanks to the Church that our people had the happiness of receiving Christianity originally from the very Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius; in place of barbaric cruelty, they began to cultivate such qualities as love of neighbor, gentleness, and readiness to forgive offenses; loyalty and dedication to family and Fatherland, honor of parents, and all the other virtues. It is precisely thanks to the Church, to our great patriots, such as the first president of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, such as the historian and Russophile František Palacký, who were deeply religious men, that our people acquired Christian morals, a Christian view of life. One could say that this very culture instilled by the Church became the Czechs’ second nature. This can also be seen in the mass pilgrimages to holy places and in part through the reverence for Orthodox saints—Martyr Liudmila, Princess of Czechia, and the Holy Passion-Bearer Prince Václav (Wenceslaus).

Thus, in answer to your question, I would again like to repeat that it is precisely due to the Christian religion, the Church, which was Orthodox in our country from the beginning, our people have the traditions of their fathers, and became the people you know, and the whole world knows—hard working and peace-loving, with God in their hearts. And, of course, the Czechs need the Church.

More and more people in Czechia and Slovakia are giving preference to the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, it is not our task to increase the number of parishioners from for example, former Catholics. Right now it is necessary to unite our efforts to morally strengthen the people, first of all the young people, in order to teach them how to oppose evil, so that, as they say, the sheep would not become goats.

—Will Czechia and Slovakia return to the faith of their fathers, that is, to Orthodoxy? How do you see the future of your Church in the country?

—Return to the original Church of St. Methodius? It is possible. Theoretically. But I don’t normally talk aloud about it. Although I dream of it and pray. I also believe that I am not alone. With the Lord all is possible, and we need to work. After all, the majority of the population is not in the Church. We need to work with them in particular. Our efforts need to be directed against abortions, same sex marriages (although we are against any persecution of such people). We need to explain what the Lord said to us in His commandments: about life, love, friendship, help of neighbor, and about everything good. We need to struggle against evil and violence, against the deception of people…

I am for the one Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Then it will be possible to restore moral values, and raise the peoples’ spirituality. And in this was, is, and always will be the strength of the people and the nation.

—Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague died a martyr’s death for Christ’s truth. Their memory lives on not only in Czechia. Your Beatitude, why have they not been canonized as saints?

—Czechs began to venerate Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague as saints immediately after they were burned at the stake. Jerome of Prague was the first to call Jan Hus a saint—at the very Council of Constance, which condemned Jan Hus and which awaited a “statement of repentance” and condemnation from Jerome of Jan Hus. They were venerated for two hundred years. However, after the defeat by the Catholic Leagues at the fatal battle on White Hill in 1620 and the forced Catholicization of the Czech people, the names of Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague were basically outlawed. In 1918, when Czechoslovakia became an independent state, the modernist Church took the name of Jan Hus. The communists called him something of a revolutionary. In fact, he never called for modernism in his sermons, but spoke only about the undistorted, original teaching of Jesus Christ, which was in fact Orthodoxy.

—Does that mean that Jan Hus’s and Jerome’s martyric deaths could be considered martyrdom for Orthodoxy?

—It was precisely of Orthodoxy that they were accused. This was one of the points of accusation of their heresy. However, they considered themselves Catholics and officially were so. Only at the end of the twentieth century did the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church, John Paul II, express his deep regret over their burning at the stake. But he did not go beyond regret. And they both, Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague, died for the undistorted faith, for the pure faith of Christ—that is, for Orthodoxy. Therefore we are completely justified in canonizing them as saints. This has already been confirmed by the Church of Cyprus and the Greek Church. Other Orthodox Churches also support us.

—Your Beatitude, what are the greatest problems facing your Church right now?

—The greatest problem is the lack of space. Did you see what is going on in the Churches? People can barely squeeze in. Many stand outside. We have nowhere to gather, nowhere to receive pilgrims—and they would come to us. Many people would come from Russia, to the relics of St. Liudmila and St. Wenceslaus; they would come to the place where the first Slavic desert dweller, St. John of Czechia, lived.

—It seems you also had a problem with the Sunday school, and with your office? Were you able to resolve them?

—Yes, there were problems. Big ones. We have a very good Sunday school for children. It is attended by several tens of students. But do you know what the children, parents, and we experienced? The owners of the building (the Czech military offices) refused to extend the lease of the building the school occupied. This is after we, the clergy, and the children’s parents had spent so much time and energy fixing up a building that was given to us in a far from optimal condition. We had even set up a house church for the children, which was beautiful, and the children loved it. They didn’t even let us finish the school year…

We had to finish the Sunday school sessions in the Metropolitan’s office. And it is not so easy to get there…

—Is that your office, Vladyka?

—Yes, it was once, and not only mine. Since 1950 this building served as the Metropolitan’s office of all of my predecessors, the Primates of the our Orthodox Church. However, soon after the refusal to extend the lease of the Sunday school, the owner of the building where the Metropolitan’s office is located also refused to extend the lease. The two refusals coincided like that… So during the new school year, the children had to go from place to place. In part, they used the building of a pre-school.

—And you yourself remained, as they say, without a roof?

—Yes. It was a difficult situation. I am grateful to the Russian Orthodox Church, and in part to His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and also to Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department of External Church Relations, and the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church here, Archpriest Nicholai Lischeniuk—they helped us very much. Our Sunday school received a non-terminating lease of the building that housed an exhibition complex. True, only part of it; the rest will come in two years. But the Sunday school is already active there. And do you know what is remarkable? The Sunday school is, by God’s will, very near the new Metropolitan’s office.

—So, that means that the problem with your office was also resolved? Are you also renting?

—We received it as our own property. We purchased it. Again I thank the Russian Orthodox Church, and Patriarch Kirill for his material assistance and support.

—Your Beatitude, how is it going with the parcel of land that the government of Prague promised to give you for the construction of such a needed Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia, and a Cathedral church?

—They have been promising for a long time now, ten years. They are always on the verge of placing the last dot. We have already prepared the blueprints for the building. The last time, they asked us to wait for the elections. The mayor’s election has passed… But nothing went forward. They are completely silent. They don’t even promise, but they don’t refuse. We will make it happen. It is a pity—because of insufficient space we are losing potential parishioners. Especially young people, who often out of their ignorance end up in sects. Our space is overfilled, while they (the sectarians) have all they need. So the young, inexperienced people think that God is there, in the sect. But have only an appearance, only talk. Sects in Czechia are strong right now. They have money, buildings…

—Tell us, please, about your prospects for the future. About the most important thing.

—Our prospects are the young people—they are what is most important. Look at the children in the Sunday school, what bright faces they have. What will they become? Engineers, doctors, teachers, and perhaps priests? We do not know. But undoubtedly they will be people who are able to tell right from wrong, to become citizens who live according to the laws of God. And that is the most important thing.

—Finally, one last question concerning the interdependence of Czechs and Russians. You, Your Beatitude, well know what true friendship there was between our peoples. Czechs and Russians have considered each other brothers for many centuries. We loved each other. You also know the reasons for the abrupt cooling, even phobia of the Czechs toward Russians, which, alas, still go on. I know that you for your part try very hard to renew the former friendship. Tell us, please, what specifically do you do in this regard, and what, in your opinion, do Russians need to do in order to make this renewal happen?

—Yes, truly, the friendship between Czechs and Russians continued many centuries. [One testimony of this are the huge number of Liudmilas and Viacheslavs (Wenceslaus) found in Russia. —OC.] The events of August 1968 were especially a blow—the Russian invasion in tanks was taken as a crude disregard for our country’s independence. Czechs are particularly sensitive to that.

A friends’ betrayal is the bitterest betrayal there can be. Czechs were dumbfounded, and “forgot” the Russian language. I remember myself at that time, and I was only fifteen. It was very bitter to recognize that our very best friends, the Russians, had betrayed us.

In August, 1968, on vacation in Hungary, I was arrested for the first time: I had written in Hungarian, “Long live Dubček”. The young Hungarians who told me how to write it in Hungarian gave me away. They were strict about that. They held me and then released me, saying that had I been an adult and Hungarian, I would be sitting in prison for twenty-five years.

—Your Beatitude, you said, “the first time.” Was there a second?

—There was a second time, and a third… The second time was in 1969, after a hockey match between Czechs and Russians, that is the Czechoslovakian team and the Soviet Union’s team. We won, and our boyish heads were spinning. I don’t remember what we did, but we found ourselves in a prison cell. We were again released because we were underage. The third time was when I was twenty-seven. I was getting ready to go to Greece for study. They arrested me due to slander that I wanted to flee the country! In those days, they gave five years for that. Vladyka Dorotheus saved me from prison; he quickly collected the documents and sent me to a monastery in Greece… There I learned Greek and graduated from the university. The slander, of course, was unfair—I never wanted to leave, for I love my country very much…

Well, and as for the “Russian occupation”, I quickly understood that the Russians had nothing to do with it. They did not send Russians to us in tanks, but Soviet Kazakhs, Ukrainians, Uzbeks… And there were also Germans, Hungarians, Poles… Some Russians, too. But I saw the faces of those Russian boys, “invaders”, and they looked the most miserable. From that time on I always said, and still say that the Russians are just like us—sufferers, and Russia, like Czechia, was under oppression, enslaved…

Now many understand this and relations with Russians have changed for the better. I and the Orthodox priests never tire of repeating that the Russians were and are our brothers. I have been consecrating more and more Russian (Ukrainian)-Czech marriages and baptizing the offspring of these unions—infants born from these bonds of love, and bearing within themselves love for both of our peoples and nations.

Source

Translation by OrthoChristian.com

© 2011, Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian ‘Welcome Home’ Network for Converts. All rights reserved. On republishing this, please provide a link to the original post. Thank you and may God richly bless you.

Read more: Jan Hus, Jerome of Prague and Orthodoxy in Czechia & Slovakia : Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian ‘Welcome Home’ Network for Converts

Also see:

• Never Knew that the Church was Orthodox

Our readers have a simple question for you: How much did Romney pay you for your endorsement? Please don’t lie.

Or are you hoping that Romney will ensure four more years of Obama? Obviously, you could sell many more books and speaking engagements with Obama in office than you could with President Ron Paul, President Rick Santorum or President Newt Gingrich. All three would make much better presidents than Romney ever could. But ONLY Romney can afford to pay for these endorsements.

Yes, the Republicans have three credible candidates this year and a real loser–true, he is a rich loser–in Romney.

While all of the candidates have some baggage, Romney is by far the worst. He created the blueprint for Obamacare. He has been on both sides of too many issues (the same was true of his father). He will simply say and do ANYTHING to get elected.

Romney could NEVER get the pro-life community behind him. In the latest primary in South Carolina, his support from people who considered ending abortion their primary concern, Romney finished dead last. In fact, his support was in single digits. Clearly, the massive pro-life faction of the Republican electorate will stay home, vote third-party, or even vote for Obama, so they can put a pro-life President in the White House four years up the road. For that reason alone, it will be almost impossible for Romney to beat Obama!

So, please, let us know. How much does Romney pay for these endorsements?

One other thing, please don’t ever call yourself a “conservative” again. Your endorsement of Romney proves you are NOT a conservative and never were.

CzechRebel
Administrator 1389 Blog

Emailed to Ann Coulter via Townhall.com.

This comment by CzechRebel deserves to stand on its own:

I can remember Ron Paul’s stance against the Kosovo War very well. He seemed like the only voice of reason in the Congress at the time. However, do we see Ron Paul reaching out to the Serbian community today? During the debates or media interviews, does he ever bring up the fact that we were on the wrong side of the Kosovo War?

Perhaps future historians will look back at the United States and wonder what happened to a group of peoples, united under one government, who were the first to put a man on the moon, and wonder: How did such a great empire fall?

Perhaps some future historian will look back at the spring of 1999 and declare it to be the time when America lost its soul. Yes, lost its soul so much so, that even the one voice of reason during the Kosovo War refused some thirteen years later to acknowledge that it was not that the war was so wrong, but that we had actually fought on the wrong side.

Challenge to Ron Paul: Support the Serbs again and renounce radical Islam.

That is the whole point: we fought on the wrong side in the Balkans. Until we acknowledge the situation and make our best effort to undo the damage we did, the US and Europe will continue to suffer “blowback” from this tragic political and moral error.

We on 1389 Blog staunchly support both the Serbian people and Israel. Ron Paul and his supporters, in true doctrinaire fashion, blame our current global predicament not on our worldwide appeasement of our Muslim enemies, but on our alliance with Israel and on the supposed manipulation of the “Jewish lobby” in the US. They insist that all we have to do is to throw Israel and the Jews under the bus, and the rest of the world will leave us in peace.

While we ourselves are not Randians (indeed, blog admins 1389 and CzechRebel are both Orthodox Christians), we find it ironic that Ron Paul named his son Rand after Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand on libertarianism and Israel:

Ayn Rand, who unintentionally provided the impetus for the movement, disdained libertarians, calling them “right-wing hippies.’ She was unequivocal in her support for Israel, which she explained this way in a 1974 appearance: “When you have civilized men fighting savages, you support the civilized men, no matter who they are.”

We do agree with Ron Paul on one issue: the Senate must explicitly declare war before the US engages in military action. Nothing justifies our current “War Powers Act”; nothing in the US Constitution empowers the Senate to delegate its authority to declare war. Even when Congress is not in session, present-day communications and transportation are so rapid that it would take little time to gather a quorum in the Senate to declare war, even in an emergency situation.

It is not the job of the President or of the State Department to decide when we go to war. It is the duty of the Senate to meet and declare war, without waiting for the President, whenever a foreign enemy declares war on us (via a fatwa or other proclamation) or perpetrates an act of war on us. Then it becomes the President’s duty, as Commander in Chief, to wage war in accordance with the Senate’s declaration. Ever since the Iranian hostage crisis, our Senate has allowed foreign Muslim enemies to walk all over us. That is a disgraceful abdication of responsibility.

Also see:

• Trevor Loudon: Blinded by the Left: How Marxists Wrote Ron Paul’s Defense Cuts Plan
• Don Feder: To Get Ron Paul’s Insanity, You Have To Understand Libertarianism
• Lemuel Calhoon: Ron Paul is an @$& Clown

A funny thing happened to me Tuesday night…

I watched an Iowa caucus that ended more like a Chicago election. I got in late. The score was tied: 23% Santorum, 23% Romney and 23% Paul. It looked like an interesting finish, but it got even more interesting!

Anyone who has lived in Illinois, or in a media market that covers Illinois (i.e, St. Louis, Missouri; northwest Indiana; Davenport, Iowa, etc.) for any length of time can remember those “exciting” state-wide elections.

The Illinois election scenario goes something like this:

Chicago voters arrive at the polls in two precincts, but discover that the doors are locked. Hours go by before someone with keys can be found and the polling place can be opened. Someone in the Democratic Party (or some “person of interest” who actually was doing it clandestinely on the part of said Chicago ruling party) gets an “emergency motion” to a Cook County Court. A Cook County judge (who is more likely to be a loyal Democrat than the Pope a loyal Catholic) rules that that those two precincts must be left open longer to make up for the fact that they started voting late. The rule of thumb on how long those polling places remain open is “long enough to steal an election” but “not long enough for a federal court to come in and order those polling places to be closed.”

For all other Illinois voters, the polls close according to the statute. For many years, that was 6 P.M. Last time I witnessed an Illinois election, it was 7 P.M. The rest of the State counts its votes while the “powers that be” in Chicago are watching. There is a certain amount of election magic that the thieves in Chicago can work every year. “Oh, look, this guy forgot to vote for Treasurer; I think he would have voted Democrat. PUNCH!” Or, “Gee whiz, we have three more ballots than applications. Someone is playing a practical joke. OK, I found three straight Republican tickets, those must have been the ones, throw them out!”

A vote for Obama is a vote for Chicago-style corruption

If the above scenario sounds silly to you, bear in mind that in Cook County, where Chicago is located, the votes are counted INSIDE the precinct where they were cast. The level of scrutiny is very low. In theory, there are an equal number of election judges from each party; however, in Chicago, any Republic judge may actually be a Democrat or may need something from the ruling party and be willing to help steal a few votes here and there to get it. So, stealing elections in Chicago is a way of life.

Now, for the massive numbers needed to help steal an election on a state-wide basis, those precincts where the polls close late can be a lot of help. The “powers that be” in Chicago watch the vote tally come in for each candidate that they would like to help, focusing particularly on the close races. Typically, there will be a number of Chicago precincts that close their doors on time according to the statute, but seem to be really slow at counting their votes. As those precincts come in, the lead for some Republican who is running for a state-wide race starts to evaporate. Complaints of “polling place irregularities” also start coming in. Because a federal investigation could mean jail time for some precinct workers, the vote theft is spread out carefully. Those late-closing two precinct close and wait for their orders. If the race is close enough to steal (in other words, within the “margin of fraud”), that unlucky Republican can kiss his election chances goodbye. Worst of all, even if some of the crooks get caught and punished, the election results stand.

When Americans voted for Obama, the quintessential product of the Chicago Machine, they were actually voting for Chicago-style corruption. It won’t make any difference how much makeup they put on the pig; all Chicago Democrats who succeed are either crooks or vassals of crooks.

Getting back to Tuesday night…

It looked pretty good for Santorum and Paul, especially for Paul. Tallies for two counties with big college towns had not yet come in. Paul does so well with young voters, especially college-age folks. Darned if Paul’s position didn’t get worse as the results trickled in. How could that be? Lack of organization on those two college campuses? Support for one of the other candidates that just wasn’t in the rest of the Iowa? Or something else?

Poor Ron Paul. Now, let’s look at Rick Santorum. He jumped into the lead. It wasn’t by much, but darned if strange things didn’t start happening again. “Some guy with a truck” had the election results with him, and according to a Fox News reporter, was “going somewhere with them.” Don’t you just love it when the reporters give you the election story in such technical terms? If I didn’t know better, I would think that someone lied to that reporter, and reporter knew it, but didn’t want use the word “liar” on the air.

Who benefits? The candidate from Massachusetts

Out of the blue, Rick Santorum’s lead over Romney narrowed. No new results came in. They just “revised” the figures from one caucus. It sure is funny that it always seems to be the guy with the most money whose figures are “revised” upward. Does anyone know how far Des Monies, Iowa is from Chicago, Illinois? The number of miles may have been unimportant Tuesday night, as they became political soul mates.

The only other caucus came in for Romney, but the “guy in the truck” was still A.W.O.L. According to the news reports, a representative from the Romney camp and a “representative” from the Santorum camp “agreed” that the “paper in the truck” would have given the caucus to Romney by just enough votes so that Romney could have a narrow victory. We don’t know who this “representative” from the Santorum camp was, but I am sure that one can be found who will swear to it on a stack of Bibles if necessary. No, make that on a stack of that Book of Mormon.

I have kinfolk who farm in Iowa. (What person of Czech descent does not?!) I know they have some nasty-smelling manure out there. However, none of ever stunk as much as the 2012 Iowa Caucus!

So, I guess I know how folks from Chicago and, and now, folks from Massachusetts, go about stealing elections. Go ahead, Republicans, nominate Romney. That way we can have yet another crook v. crook in election in 2012!

Jay Sekulow on Fox News discussing Presidential Primary in Virginia

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by OfficialACLJ on Jan 2, 2012

Several candidates failed to meet Virginia’s legal requirements to be on the ballot in the state’s Presidential primary. Is such a high bar to be placed on the ballot for president constitutional?

“Free” Elections?

Oh, I can still remember those public school teachers telling us about “Communist elections.” They used to tell us that, in Communist countries, “You can vote for Joe or you can vote for Stalin.” We were supposed to quiver and think of that Joe Stalin fellow, the Mr. Wonderful who helped us win World War II and who later became Mr. Evil, our first enemy in the Cold War. But they always told us how “free” our elections were. They would tell us how we could “vote for anyone we want.”

Well, that was not a complete lie, in that some voters like to write in ‘Mickey Mouse’, just to push it to its illogical extreme. However, it is a significant enough lie. The United States has pretty much been locked into a two-party system since the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment. I.e., since there is no “second prize” in our national elections, presidential and vice-presidential candidates run on the same ticket, with absolutely no fear that the third most popular viewpoint can capture the second prize. Hence, the best a candidate who is not running as a Democrat or Republican can hope for is to play the role of a spoiler.

So, the Democratic and Republican parties act as great gatekeepers in the same way the Communist Party did back in the days of the USSR. Of course, in the USSR, everyone knew they had only one party and little choice. In the USA, we have the feeling we have some choice–and that is often the case.

What choices do voters actually have?

That said, the elements of dictatorship remain part of the picture on election day. For example, I’d like to ask our Democrat readers: Who will be challenging Obama for the nomination this time? Hmmm? No one? Well, I guess y’all are so happy with this dude that nobody would think of such a thing. OK, back in 2004, who was challenging George W. Bush for the nomination? Doesn’t anyone ever challenge a sitting president in his own party? Well, at least Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter. That was just back in . . . 1976. Like over a third of a century ago!

So, unless a President is retiring, we have a primary election choice in only one party–that is only half of the field, as it is pretty rare to see a partisan challenge of a sitting President. Now let’s look at what choices are available to voters in the party that is currently out of power.

Few would want to grant ballot access to anybody and everybody who signs a few papers and offers to be President. Elections are expensive to run, and ballots with hundreds of names on them would be too unwieldy and time-consuming for each voter and for the election officials. Ballot access should require some indication of a significant amount of support for the candidate. And, generally speaking, each State’s government and that State’s political party should be allowed to create REASONABLE means to determine whether a candidate has a significant enough following to allow the party faithful of its state to consider that individual for their support.

Virginia was the first colony. It was first in freedom. It produced the first President and lead the US in many ways. Leaving the US in 1861, it was first in freedom in the Confederacy, until captured by the Yankee dictatorship. General Robert E. Lee’s home became the great Yankee cemetery. Controlling and Yankeefying Virginians has been the mission of the American dictatorship ever since.

Et tu, Sekulow?

Jay Sekulow is supposed to be one of the good guys. He is a lawyer who fights abortion and homosexual extremism; he defends the rights of Christians and Jews, and seems the type of guy who makes us feel a little guilty when we tell lawyer jokes. So, when the ONLY two candidates who happen to make the GOP ballot in the Commonwealth of Virginia are Mr. Establishment, RINO (Republican In Name Only) from the quintessential all-Democrat-all-the-time-please-disregard-all-party-labels State, and an open and notorious Libertarian, you would think it might raise a red flag in Sekulow’s mind.

Of course, we have had Bachmann, Cain, Perry, Gingrich, and most recently, Santorum garnering major support in the polls. It is hard to say that any of them can be left off the ballot by any REASONABLE method. Of course, the fact that no other State has managed to winnow the field down to two candidates this year also argues pretty loudly that Virginia’s system is not very REASONABLE. In fact, it would probably be more reasonable for Virginia’s Republican leaders to decide who will be the State’s uncommitted delegates in some “smoke-filled room” and send them to the Convention. Heck, if I were a Virginia Republican voter, I would see the “smoke-filled room” as a much fairer system. If I don’t like what the leaders of my local party did, I could take it up with them, in person and/or at the next local election.

But Mr. Sekulow is out there screaming that rules are rules! He says that most years, they have plenty of candidates on the ballot in Virginia. (Irrelevant, because the ballot access law was recently changed.) He says that you Republicans can choose between a Democrat in Republican clothing and a Libertarian who has been nice enough to serve as a “Republican Congressman” for many years.

If the Sekulow the-law-is-the-law argument were absolute, we would have to apologize to the Nazis tried at Nuremberg. Every one of us who has gone to law school knows that we look not ONLY to the law as written, but the interest that the law was written to protect. Every Christian knows there is a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.

Jay, if you are shilling for Mitt Romney because you feel he is “the most electable”, I can respect that, though I think you are deeply mistaken. If you are shilling for Ron Paul because you believe that the good he does by promoting libertarianism and limited government outweighs the harm that will be done by the libertines who are promoting him, I would agree that you have a point.

Of course, if you are getting paid for this, all lawyers can understand that. We all heard it during our first year in law school: “If someone is paying you X dollars per hour, you could make an argument for . . . .” So, if a wealthy client is paying you for this, Godspeed, Jay!

However, please spare us your the-law-is-the-law mechanical reaction to this injustice. The Republican voters of Virginia should have an actual Republican on the ballot. In the 2012 Primary, Republican voters in Virginia will be completely disenfranchised and Jay Sekulow is amongst the disenfranchisors.

This calls for a PARTY!

  

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I have suspected for quite some time that Glenn Beck has been getting ready to promote Mitt Romney and other Mormon candidates in the 2012 elections. The easiest and stealthiest way to do that is by trashing the non-Mormon front-runner.

Mediaite has the story:

(h/t: waldensianspirit)

by Jon Bershad | 11:50 am, December 12th, 2011

Glenn Beck is very much not a fan of Newt Gingrich. If anyone didn’t yet know that from this interview, he made it very clear Saturday on Fox Business Network when he alleged that Gingrich was so similar to President Obama in his “progressive” ways, that the only reason Tea Partiers would like him over the President would be because of his race. Unsurprisingly, this has caused some anger. Even less surprisingly, one of those angry voices is Andrew Breitbart, a man who is very much not a fan of Glenn Beck.

Breitbart appeared on the Victory Sessions podcast and slammed Beck for, as his BigGovernment site put it, “pulling the race card” on the Tea Party. However, the Beck/Breitbart beef goes back a far way and one could tell this had as much to do with a heated, longstanding grudge as with the Tea Party comment.. In fact, Breitbart only discussed that comment briefly before moving on to a list of the many slights he feels he’s received from Beck. He accused Beck of throwing him under the bus during the Shirley Sherrod scandal and trash talking him in private while poaching employees to create rival website The Blaze).

This was clearly personal…

More here.

(Podcast in MP3 form at Victory Sessions)

La Tortuga Anti-Gatos!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by FiltroRecords on Sep 7, 2010
Tortuga que ataca a los gatos

You heard as a child in your government propaganda camp . . . Oh dear, I am having a Rick Perry moment. Most people don’t call those places “government propaganda camps.” What are the words? Oh, yes, most people call them “American public schools.”

At any rate, they told you that the Pilgrims in Massachusetts had the “first Thanksgiving” back in the 1600s. Well, actually, the those strange-dressing, “witch”-hanging, Yankee forerunners were actually pretty late to the party. About a half century too late to the party, to be exact.

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated September 8, 1565, in St. Augustine, Florida. Oh, you are one of those English-only people who think that you can find fault with this post? Well, think again. The first recorded Thanksgiving amongst English settlers was on December 4, 1619 in Virginia. Read all about it here.

Want to experience a real Old South Thanksgiving? Visit the Olde South Thanksgiving and Harvest Festival website to see what it’s all about. If you plan to be in the Abbeville, South Carolina area, it is this coming weekend. If not, wait until next year.

How to get there? Click here for Abbeville, SC on Google Maps.

By CzechRebel

OK, I am a bit fan of bilingual puns. Since the only two languages that I can sort of communicate in are English and Spanish, most of my bilingual puns are in those two languages. My favorite goes something like this:

“People are always worried about something. Either it is the Greek debt crisis or world hunger. People always worry about something, but everyone knows there will always be arroz in Spanish Harlem.”

For those of you too young to remember, “There is a Rose in Spanish Harlem” was a very popular song once. For those of you who don’t speak Spanish, the word for rice is arroz.

Now for those of you who are not so familiar with English and Spanish pronunciation, a person who has Spanish as a first language would pronounce a rose and arroz, their word for “rice,” exactly the same. So, to them, the song title would sound like “there is rice in Spanish Harlem”.

I am not sure when I first heard it, but I could swear I hear kids singing, “Don’t cut the toes, don’t cut the toes, don’t cut the toes off the gatos.” OK, I am old. I may be confused. Maybe I even imagined it. But it is always there in my memory, like a few other songs that I wish would leave (see Earworm.)

Well, I have always hated the thought of declawing cats, so maybe that is why it sticks. So, I had to post this next video. Now, I need to give a disclaimer. I really don’t have much use for PETA and this video comes from PETA. So, I think back to that old adage. “Even a broken (analog) clock is right twice a day.” Well, I doubt that PETA is right that often, and I sincerely apologize to all broken clocks for comparing them to PETA. I ask that you heed this video without feeling too bad about where it comes from.

Click here to view the embedded video.

By CzechRebel

It has been said, “One man’s crusade is another man’s jihad.” At 1389 Blog, we have taken the approach that we blog anonymously; we don’t put any of our contributors at risk of possible jihad violence. We think of ourselves more as “war correspondents” than actual “combatants” in the Counterjihad efforts. True, some of our team members chose to post under their own names. And, yes, we do honor the memory of Theo van Gogh and others who have paid the ultimate price for telling the truth about Islam.

However, there is one woman who has really thrown down the gauntlet and told any Paradise-minded jihadi just where he can come to collect his 72 Virginians . . . (or was that 72 silly teenage girls; my memory fails me).

Somehow, I doubt that any of these lame-brained cyberjihadis will take her up on it.

Infidels United has the story:

Ann Barnhardt Responds to Death Threat

Also see: http://www.barnhardt.biz/

Fox News: Hank Williams, Jr Rates 2012 GOP Field

Click here to view the embedded video.

By CzechRebel

Remember when freedom of speech was considered an important right? We all know the history of how our right to free speech has been declining. During the run-up to US involvement in World War I, Congress passed a law seriously restricting that right in open violation of the First Amendment. The US Supreme Court declared that flagrantly unconstitutional law to be constitutional after all. Well, it has been downhill for free speech ever since. Of course, the protection in the First Amendment to the US Constitution is against government actions that infringe on free speech. Even so, freedom of political expression should be respected whenever possible, especially by mainstream media outlets that enjoy the protection of the US government.

Just now, the sports network ESPN (“N” being for “Nazi”) has shown the ultimate disrespect for the right to express one’s political opinion. Witness the appearance of Hank Williams, Jr. on Fox and Friends, in the video above. Mr. Williams said some important things that need to be said. Well, to ESPN (and maybe to NFL) it was reason enough to pull his voice from last night’s Monday Night Football game where his voice has sung “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here On Monday Night” for some twenty-three years now. (See: ESPN pulls Hank Williams Jr. after he compares Obama to Hitler.)

To me and some others at 1389 Blog, these points are pretty obvious:

1. Obama is indeed the moral equivalent of Hitler. He wants the Israelis to go back to their pre-1967 borders. That is antisemitism. Pushing Israel back to the pre-1967 borders is equivalent to reopening the death camps. This would render Israel defenseless and its Jewish inhabitants would soon be overrun and massacred, roughly 7.7 million people. Jews all over the world would lose the protection afforded them by the existence of the State of Israel. So, how can we fault Williams for saying what he said?
2. The “official religion” of the blood-soaked twentieth century was Get-Both-Sides-Together-and-Have-Them-Compromise. That sure didn’t work out very well! When Obama . . . I mean Hitler (it is an easy mistake, sorry) said, “All I want is Czechoslovakia,” the Western world believed him. Way too many compromises have resulted in disaster. If compromise were such a great thing, why doesn’t the medical community just compromise with cancer? The Tea Party and Obama have NOTHING to compromise about! Obama wants to tax and spend America into the Third World status, and his every action since taking office proves it. The Tea Party was formed to stop him. For the Republican leadership to say, “Wow, the Tea Party just gave us a majority in the House, and hope in the Senate; now let’s sell out to Obama” is simply insane. We don’t think that Mr. Williams is so out of line.
3. Oh dear, Mr. Williams doesn’t really like any of the Republican candidates this year, but feels that Herman Cain makes the most sense. Well, we don’t see a Ronald Reagan in the field this time, either. Some candidates make more sense than others. We also have noticed that Herman Cain makes more sense than most. We have tried lawyers, generals, and even a Ph.D and an MBA in the Oval Office. Maybe it is time to try a mathematician. At least Mr. Cain might have some concept of all the money we are spending!

So, would you fire a guy after twenty-three years of good service for that?

If you would like to tell ESPN how you feel, the contact data is:

Phone (US):
1-888-549-ESPN (1-888-549-3776)

Postal mail:
ESPN Viewer Response
ESPN Plaza
Bristol, CT 06010

Email via their website:
http://espn.go.com/espn/contact

Hank’s All Star Band, ESPN Monday Night Football

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by habanaave on May 17, 2008

ESPN Monday Night Football television spot with Hank Williams Jr., Brian Setzer, Richie Sambora, Gretchen Wilson, Cindy Blackman, John Ondrasik, Bootsy Collins, and Drake Bell. Produced by Habana Avenue (www.Habanaavenue.com)

Also see:

PJM: Are You Ready For Some Argumentum Ad Hitlerum?

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