I can't wait to hear National Public Radio's take on this.

The man warned about the dangers of communism and socialism and the utter inhumanity dished out by the Soviets in a craven and arbitrary and capricious manner. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a testament to man's ability to survive such inhumanity.

It's amazing he was able to survive the gulag archipelago given how many millions others perished in the name of the greater good.

Just keep that in mind when you hear politicians talking about the greater good and policies that infringe on your rights - because that is where they're heading. Slouching towads socialism. RIP

Requiescat in pace, enemy of the left, friend of freedom.

Possibly the best book I've ever read. Sits in a prominent place on my bookshelf waiting until the kids are old enough to read it.

The Gulag Archipelago should be required reading of every high school senior. The parallels between the old Soviet propaganda machine and the main stream media are frightening.

At the end of WWII many, many Soviet POWs committed suicide rather than be re-patriated to the USSR.
They knew their fate........
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Isn't it strange that western intellectuals embrace communism elitism, whilst ex-Soviet intellectuals embrace democracy and freedom.

World Split Apart

Iirc, he wasn't too sweet on the American way either, and holed up in Vermont during his exile.

Being a man who longed for the restoration of Holy Russia, he saw the same weakness in the West the Islamists see.

it would never be allowed. it wouldn't fit "their" hopes for a socialist utopia

I once had occasion to have a two line debate with Madeline Murray O'Hair (pboh) (/sarc) over Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

She had been blovating at a speaking engagement Michigan State in '85 about how free religion was in the USSR.

Me: "I don't think that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn would agree with your views on that subject."

She: "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a fascist."

Crowd: Wild applause.

It wasn't until that incident that I realized that I was the only conservative present--and realized just how really rinsane the left is.

God bless you, Aleksandr Isayevich, and angels take you to your long home.

As these survivors of the gulags and the death camps pass on to the next world, the deniers, the apologists and the unmoved will continue to beat their drum for Marxism/Stalinism/Maoism. It never ceases to amaze how after eye-witness accounts and testimonials to the inhumanity of leftist doctrine fails to kill this virus, cadre upon cadre still try to dupe our youth -- I accuse the lame stream media, the academy and other fellow travelers in entertainment and politics. Obama and the Democrat party are the heirs to this nightmare.

/rant

The Gulag Archipelago was one of the best books I ever read. RIP old timer, there are alot of people waiting to thank you in heaven for telling their story.

O God of spirits and of all flesh, Who hast trampled down death and overthrown the Devil, and given life to Thy world, do Thou, the same Lord, give rest to the soul of Thy departed servant Alexander Sozhenitsyn in a place of brightness, a place of refreshment, a place of repose, where all sickness, sighing, and sorrow have fled away. Pardon every transgression which he has committed, whether by word or deed or thought. For Thou art a good God and lovest mankind; because there is no man who lives yet does not sin, for Thou only art without sin, Thy righteousness is to all eternity, and Thy word is truth.

For Thou are the Resurrection, the Life, and the Repose of Thy servants who have fallen asleep, O Christ our God, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, who is from everlasting, and Thine all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever unto ages of ages. Amen.

Eternal be your memory.

What is sincerely disquieting to me is, for all the evil coming from jihadis, is the apparent resurgence of old Soviet attitudes towards the West. I'm a product of the cold war, where school children learned to duck and cover under their desks, and a series of proxy war cost tens of thousands of US soldiers lives. I find some of the rhetoric coming out of the modern Kremlin very troubling. A good part of the modern jihadi nonsense was orchestrated by the old KGB, Arafat was a prime example. Most of the Muslim world doesn't even read Arabic, the only religiously authorized form of the Koran, they only know of their religion what wild-eyed imams tell them of it. While I am concerned about radical Islam, I'm not about to take my eye off the ball on an entity that has been for centuries just as hostile and paranoid to the West.

re: #11 Arkay

That is stunning. Completely and absolutely mind-boggling.

re: #16 Gang of One

And every word is utter truth. It left a bitter vetch in my mouth I have never forgotten.

As America slides towards Socialism, especially if the Lightworker becomes POTUS, I wonder who will become the American Solzhenitsyn, and how many people will heed the words.

"That which is called humanism, but what would be more correctly called irreligious anthropocentrism, cannot yield answers to the most essential questions of our life."

I read all three volumes shortly after they were published. A difficult read, and horrifying. The banality of evil exemplified.

I became acquainted with Mr. Solzhenitsyn in the 8th grade (1980) through his novel 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'. It was a powerful book for a young teenager and more then anything else at that time, it made me aware of the horrors of Communism in general and the Soviet Union in particular.

Later in life I followed his life as he lived in exile and then upon his return to his homeland. He never pulled any punches when he spoke, warning all who would listen of the dangers of totalitarianism and the price of freedom.

I am saddened to hear of his passing.

Thank you A. Solzhenitsyn for all you gave. You lived a great life and your memory will live on long beyond the failed government you fought against.

Farewell.

re: #9 keefe

When S. was expelled from Russia, Richard Nixon uttered one of the few spontaneously witty remarks known from him. When Henry Kissinger said of S. that he was slightly to the right of Tolstoy, Nixon said, "Hell, he was slightly to the right of the Czar."

re: #19 RTLM

"That which is called humanism, but what would be more correctly called irreligious anthropocentrism, cannot yield answers to the most essential questions of our life."

"And so it was, for three thousand six hundred and fifty three days of Ivan Denisovich's life.

"The extra three days were for leap years."

re: #4 dm60462

Possibly the best book I've ever read. Sits in a prominent place on my bookshelf waiting until the kids are old enough to read it.

Now there's a book the left will never read.

We are seeing the end of an era. The old guard of people who witnessed the inhumane cruelty of socialism in action are dropping from the 'passing parade' As long as the giants of media keep a relative stranglehold on the production of news, we will continue to see the lies that are the true foundation of the utopian dream of communism/socialism. The "Deniers" of stalinist genocide will win.
Next year I fully expect, if The One gets elected and the congress gets the dem majority everyone is talking about, that we will be here with rallying cries of "FREE RUSH LIMBAUGH" ... that is, if they haven't used Internet regulations to shut us up as well.

A government built on a foundation of lies cannot govern. it can only rule. ~ me.

Let's hope that all the House Republicans on vacation look at what this man went through for challenging his government and then get their behinds back to the Capitol tomorrow to exercise their freedom to challenge what is wrong in our government.

A true literary hero ... has passed. Took a brave person to state the Emperor was naked in those times and places.

The wiki has this quotation for AS:

Until I came to the West myself and spent two years looking around, I could never have imagined to what an extreme degree the West had actually become a world without a will, a world gradually petrifying in the face of the danger confronting it . . . All of us are standing on the brink of a great historical cataclysm

Great, and the weekend's over.

I was going to write an obituary and then found 70 ways to spell his name incorrectly. So I gave up and left it to the professionals.

re: #26 livefreeor die

I applaud their efforts, but so far the media is making them look like either a bunch of kooks or just publicity seekers (Which if course is true, but not for the reasons the MSM want you to believe.)

The need to bring in their own lights and cameras and stream video onto the web. Host a talk show from the floor with callers from all over the nation calling in to vent about how sick they are of the high gas prices and asking why the Dems won't allow a vote on it.

Now THAT would be some interesting street theater!

re: #9 keefe

World Split Apart

Iirc, he wasn't too sweet on the American way either, and holed up in Vermont during his exile.

Being a man who longed for the restoration of Holy Russia, he saw the same weakness in the West the Islamists see.

And, like AS, the Islamists are wrong.

His books were powerful and important but he shouldn't be mistaken for an exponent of Western liberal democracy.NY Times

re: #18 FurryOldGuyJeans

As America slides towards Socialism, especially if the Lightworker becomes POTUS, I wonder who will become the American Solzhenitsyn, and how many people will heed the words.

He gave us a gift ,left to us still, of reality and truth. I fear i feel as gave us a gift ,left to us still, of reality and truth. I fear i feel as Oldguy,(slide toward socialism) but without hope there is a leader to stop it.

when he writes about stalin and the camps is good but when he writes about other things not so much
His book on the jews of russia is ANTI SEMITIC.
But Solzhenitsyn's book has caused controversy in Russia, where one Jewish leader said it was "not of any merit".

"This is a mistake, but even geniuses make mistakes," said Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Russian Jewish Congress. "Richard Wagner did not like the Jews, but was a great composer. Dostoyevsky was a great Russian writer, but had a very sceptical attitude towards the Jews.

"This is not a book about how the Jews and Russians lived together for 200 years, but one about how they lived apart after finding themselves on the same territory. This book is a weak one professionally. Factually, it is so bad as to be beyond criticism. As literature, it is not of any merit."

RIP Sir.

Democide - govt. killing own citizens, resulted in more deaths than in the 20th century than all wars combined in the same time period, according to U. of Hawaii site.

Soviets were not alone in their brutality.

The University of Delaware Ideological Re-education Program at least didn't involve imprisonment and death.

re: #14 Charles the Hammer Thank you for sharing that prayer, I shook and got goose bumps at the same time. Where is that from please?

re: #31 Shay4l

This is the tragic paradox of AS. He suffered much, and wrote some fascinating books (although much of the last 2 volumes of Gulag and 1914 is boring, at least in English) but he was a fool, perhaps a Holy Fool in the old Russian sense, but still a fool.

i should never try to paste another name

I would not be surprised about his "views on the jews" so to speak, but it would not be surprising. I had a friend who was a jew who immigrated from Moldova. When he was growing up more than once, a teacher in his grade school would point him out to the class and 'out' him as a jew, even though he never even visited a synagogue until he came to America.

A fish is hatched and swims in the sea of it's birth you can't blame the fish for that.

Please don't misconstrue this to say I approve of A/S or any of that bullshit. I just think that people sometimes expect a lot more from others than they are willing to give themselves.

[Link: findarticles.com...]

ON RUSSIA AND 200 YEARS WITH THE JEW.

he was a fool, perhaps a Holy Fool in the old Russian sense, but still a fool.
>

There's an old Irish expression: "If I burned you for a fool I'd have wise ashes."

The great often make stupid mistakes. Lincoln chose McClellan. Churchill invaded Gallipoli and Anzio. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren. Reagan listened to Ollie North. G.H.W. Bush chose Dan Quayle.

Yes, he was a fool, in many ways. But--there was a man!

re: #30 sojerofgod

I applaud their efforts, but so far the media is making them look like either a bunch of kooks or just publicity seekers (Which if course is true, but not for the reasons the MSM want you to believe.)

The need to bring in their own lights and cameras and stream video onto the web. Host a talk show from the floor with callers from all over the nation calling in to vent about how sick they are of the high gas prices and asking why the Dems won't allow a vote on it.

Now THAT would be some interesting street theater!

You're hired!

Wasn't this track by prog-rock group Renaissance a tribute to AS?

re: #34 Fairfax Avenue

Way to speak ill of the dead.

Sakharov
Solzhenitsyn
Reagan
Shcharansky is the last left of the giants.
(Yes credit to Maggie)

much of what the problem was and how easily death were to occur was stalin using one class , one group against another, don't know if anyone has read Harvest of sorrow , but i thought i understood the turning inside out of peoples minds

re: #31 Shay4l

We've just been treated to a Zombietime special that repeats to me that some thing is wrong, very wrong, with us. Solzhenytsyn saw it; the Islamists are exploiting it.

Will Islam win? I prefer to think we'll pull through, but that's a separate question.

re: #42 livefreeor die

Heh, I wish. I have never understood, through years and years of hoping and yearning, why the republicans can't seem to find one decent marketing guru out of 20+ million registered repubs? The are so damn tone deaf it just frustrates me to no end.

..."Where have you gone, ol' Lee Atwater, the republicans turn their lonely eyes to you.... Woooo ooo ooo!"

BEING ANTI STALIN does not mean you are for freedom fascists in the ukraine and baltic states were clearly anti stalin but were also pro nazi.

i am not calling him a nazi but he did have problems with anti semitism. and blamed russia's jews for stalinism even though stalin wasn't jewish but from georga.

I must say I never read Mr. Solzhenitsyn's book nor am I familiar, except in a very cursory sense, with his life. However, I think now that he has died, I may pick up One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. We can't forget these horrors. May he rest in peace.

re: #9 keefe

World Split Apart

Iirc, he wasn't too sweet on the American way either, and holed up in Vermont during his exile.

Being a man who longed for the restoration of Holy Russia, he saw the same weakness in the West the Islamists see.

Keefe -

You are ON TARGET as far as it goes. Unfortunately, the restoration of "Holy Russia" is about as practical as the restoration of the BOURBONS or the BONAPARTES. In any case - Rest In Peace Friend "Ivan Denisovitch."
You did well and more importantly - DID GOOD.

-S-

re: #37 MikeySDCA

This is the tragic paradox of AS. He suffered much, and wrote some fascinating books (although much of the last 2 volumes of Gulag and 1914 is boring, at least in English) but he was a fool, perhaps a Holy Fool in the old Russian sense, but still a fool.

Now you've got me searching

[Link: incommunion.org...]

"Nikolai Leskov (1831-95) is one of the many Russian authors who have explored holy foolishness in their writing. His stories contain numerous subtly drawn examples of holy foolish behavior. One of the best known is “Deathless Golovan,” about a simple and self-sacrificing man who cares for victims of a plague regardless of his own safety, and who amazes his neighbors by giving a Jewish man milk for his children."

this work has not been translated into english WONDER WHY?

[Link: www.davidduke.com...]

I need to clean my eyes after looking hear but given the subject some times one must see it.

re: #48 sojerofgod

Heh, I wish. I have never understood, through years and years of hoping and yearning, why the republicans can't seem to find one decent marketing guru out of 20+ million registered repubs? The are so damn tone deaf it just frustrates me to no end.

..."Where have you gone, ol' Lee Atwater, the republicans turn their lonely eyes to you.... Woooo ooo ooo!"

Maybe Karl Rove could show up tomorrow, you know, to respond to the subpoena and, well hey, since he's there...

My downstairs neighbor is from Poland, and this past week I've spent a lot of time out on my balcony listening to her speaking Polish to her son and daughter (and not understanding a word).

It made me think of the Pollack jokes everybody told when I was a kid, and how we don't tell them any more. You can't tell Polish jokes after Lech Walesa, Solidarity and Pope John Paul II. Ronald Reagan and Iron Maggie couldn't have brought down the old Soviet Union without Lech Walesa and Karol Wojtyla.

But I'm not sure any of it would have happened if Solzhenitsyn hadn't come first.

May he rest in peace.

re: #53 yochanan
had no idea, i had thought given time and how bright he was and horror he experienced he would find his way through that

Solzhenytsin was the 3rd greatest Soviet dissident, after Natan Sharansky and Anderi Sakharov.

re: #15 JHW

Freedom has many enemies.

As for Mr. Solzhenitsyn- I too (like someone mentioned above) have not read any of his work. I will add him to my list, but any man standing up for freedom will be sorely missed by those of us who cherish it. RIP, Sir.

re: #57 Alouette

Solzhenytsin was the 3rd greatest Soviet dissident, after Natan Sharansky and Anderi Sakharov.

don't forget Boris and Natasia

[Link: upload.wikimedia.org...]

re: #51 Dr. Shalit

It seems that way now, A.S. as quioxtic figure, but given that the social rot in Putin's Russia continues apace, I expect to see in my lifetime an Orthodox revival there.

Great person on par with Regan. RIP.

Rest in Peace, Solzhenitsyn.

Ahhhh- already commented on this on previous thread!

There is controversy about Alexander Solzhenitsyn and anti semitism, as Yochanan says, here's a Reason article on it.

That said, today's not the day to discuss it. He was human, and now he's dead.

If you haven't read his books yet, i highly recommend them.

re: #57 Alouette

Solzhenytsin was the 3rd greatest Soviet dissident, after Natan Sharansky and Anderi Sakharov.

Respectfully, Solzhenytsin was the father of Sakharov and Sharansky. (And I think Sharansky would agree...)

RIP, brave soldier.

A great writer, Solzhenitsyn. There are many, many good writers out there, but to be great you've got to have something to say.

re: #1 swamprat

I can't wait to hear National Public Radio's take on this.

Any particular reason?

RIP

As of 3 minutes before this post the Solzenytsyn obituary has not been reported by Drudge. It will be interesting to see how much fanfare this story gets in the mainstream media, and I expect that in some quarters his passing will be cause for rejoice. I mourn.

re: #71 talkradiobug

As of 3 minutes before this post the Solzenytsyn obituary has not been reported by Drudge. It will be interesting to see how much fanfare this story gets in the mainstream media, and I expect that in some quarters his passing will be cause for rejoice. I mourn.

If only some mainstream outlet would report on this, so we could all read and post about it...

re: #5 Kawabunga

The Gulag Archipelago should be required reading of every high school senior. The parallels between the old Soviet propaganda machine and the main stream media are frightening.

Yes. A classic of the triumph of good over evil.

re: #71 talkradiobug

As of 3 minutes before this post the Solzenytsyn obituary has not been reported by Drudge. It will be interesting to see how much fanfare this story gets in the mainstream media, and I expect that in some quarters his passing will be cause for rejoice. I mourn.

The press, no doubt, will miss the irony of their minimizing this story.

RIP Aleksandr Isayevich

re: #50 Dahveed

I must say I never read Mr. Solzhenitsyn's book nor am I familiar, except in a very cursory sense, with his life. However, I think now that he has died, I may pick up One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. We can't forget these horrors. May he rest in peace.

Required Reading.

re: #71 talkradiobug

It's got prominent positioning above the fold on the NYT and Fox websites. It should probably get above the fold treatment in the national newspapers tomorrow although it may depend on whether the news moved after their printing deadlines.

re: #77 lawhawk

It's got prominent positioning above the fold on the NYT and Fox websites. It should probably get above the fold treatment in the national newspapers tomorrow although it may depend on whether the news moved after their printing deadlines.

Yes. There's no minimizing, here. No doubt some will insist otherwise, though.

re: #14 Charles the Hammer

Eternal be your memory.

Вичная память.

re: #36 Behead Me Bob

It's from the Orthodox memorial prayers.

WaPo

Soviet Dissident Writer Solzhenitsyn Dies

He was a good author, of course the quality of the translation can make or break these works but I think most people are pleasantly surprised by how good a read his books are.

He must now be in heaven, because he's already been through hell.

From wikipedia:

"He (Solzhenitsyn) described the problems of both East and West as "a disaster" rooted in agnosticism and atheism. He referred to it as "the calamity of an autonomous, irreligious humanistic consciousness."

It has made man the measure of all things on earth—imperfect man, who is never free of pride, self-interest, envy, vanity, and dozens of other defects. We are now paying for the mistakes which were not properly appraised at the beginning of the journey. On the way from the Renaissance to our days we have enriched our experience, but we have lost the concept of a Supreme Complete Entity which used to restrain our passions and our irresponsibility."

Among the reasons he was reviled by the Left in this country:

He was religious. (Russian Orthodox)
He loved his country (hated its ruling system).
He believed (correctly) that the Vietnam War protesters were wrong.
Railed against the spread of Communism. (lefties love commies)
He hated rock music.

RIP - may God wipe away your sins and your tears and welcome you to eternal life.

re: #49 yochanan
True, however, there were Trotsky (Bronstein) and many of the other old Bolsheviks that were. It was this that contributed to the antisemitic taint, as well as the special "areas" (physical and economic) that had been carved out for Jews by Russia. How ironic it is that many Jews had been encouraged to emigrate to Russia by the Czars.

re: #14 Charles the Hammer

O God of spirits and of all flesh, Who hast trampled down death and overthrown the Devil, and given life to Thy world, do Thou, the same Lord, give rest to the soul of Thy departed servant Alexander Sozhenitsyn in a place of brightness, a place of refreshment, a place of repose, where all sickness, sighing, and sorrow have fled away. Pardon every transgression which he has committed, whether by word or deed or thought. For Thou art a good God and lovest mankind; because there is no man who lives yet does not sin, for Thou only art without sin, Thy righteousness is to all eternity, and Thy word is truth.

For Thou are the Resurrection, the Life, and the Repose of Thy servants who have fallen asleep, O Christ our God, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, who is from everlasting, and Thine all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever unto ages of ages. Amen.

Eternal be your memory.

AS it will be beautifully chanted at his funeral.
Amen.

Heres how the NY Times obituary slimes him:

By MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN
Published: August 4, 2008

"Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose stubborn, lonely and combative literary struggles gained the force of prophecy as he revealed the heavy afflictions of Soviet Communism in some of the most powerful works of fiction and history written in the 20th century, died late Sunday in Russia, his son Yermolai said early Monday in Moscow. He said the cause was a heart condition. He was 89.

He outlived by nearly 17 years the state and system he had battled through years of imprisonment, ostracism and exile.

Mr. Solzhenitsyn had been an obscure, middle-aged, unpublished high school science teacher in a provincial Russian town when he burst onto the literary stage in 1962 with “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” The book, a mold-breaking novel about a prison camp inmate, was a sensation. Suddenly, he was being compared to giants of Russian literature like Tolstoy, Dostoyevski and Chekov.

Over the next four decades, Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s fame spread throughout the world as he drew upon his experiences of totalitarian duress to write evocative novels like “The First Circle” and “The Cancer Ward” and historical works like “The Gulag Archipelago.”

“Gulag” was a monumental account and analysis of the Soviet labor camp system, a chain of prisons that by Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s calculation some 60 million people had entered during the 20th century. The book led to his expulsion from his native land. George F. Kennan, the American diplomat, described it as “the greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be leveled in modern times.”

[Link: www.nytimes.com...]

If he'd been any younger, I'd say scan him for Polonium 210 and look for a bit of a smile on Putin's face.

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhlemed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

When the news appeared on a local MSM source, I commented on its message board that we need to hear his words more than ever now, what with neo-Stalinist sects like the WWP and the RCP essentially controlling the "anti-war" movement. The whitewashing of the Communist legacy in the years since the USSR fell has allowed this deadly ideology to once again infect a generation of idealistic, ignorant young people.

Memory Eternal, Mr. Solzhenitsyn. +

"For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion."

"Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing?"

re: #86 ted

"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press." (1978 Harvard address)

More at Wikiquote.

My favorite quote from Gulag:

Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig.

re: #86 ted

How is this slime? "Stubborn and compative" can be regarded as compliments.

re: #35 yochanan

when he writes about stalin and the camps is good but when he writes about other things not so much
His book on the jews of russia is ANTI SEMITIC.

Can you describe exactly how Solzhenitsyn reveals his anti-semitism? Because my understanding of the book you're describing -- 'Two Hundred Years Together,' I believe -- is that it defends the Jews from common misperceptions of the time.

re: #90 victor_yugo

"For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion."

"Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing?"

"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press." (1978 Harvard address)

More at Wikiquote.

So true...

re: #92 MikeySDCA

How is this slime? "Stubborn and compative" can be regarded as compliments.

Not from the NYT regarding a Russian dissident.

re: #82 Kosh's Shadow

He must now be in heaven, because he's already been through hell.

Yep, him and about 30 million of his comrades were processed through the Gulags. For some reason, liberals and Democrats do not find the act mentionable or even debatable. Our forefathers produced the second amendment just to prevent crap like this from happening, which is why the Democrats want gun control. It is time for the Democrats to change their name to a more fitting name. "Socialist elite" seems appropriate. Republicans can change their name also, "Socialist lite" come to mind. Hats off to the Republicans last Friday for standing up for something for the first time since Newt Gingrich left office. The Republicans lost their way when Newt left.

re: #95 victor_yugo

Not from the NYT regarding a Russian dissident.

Not from the NY Slimes.

re: #86 ted

You're reaching.

re: #95 victor_yugo

Not from the NYT regarding a Russian dissident.

Exactly.

re: #96 loflyer

Practically universal gun ownership did not protect the Iraqis from Saddam Hussein and his sons.

re: #98 Cognito

You're reaching.

No I'm not. They never would call BHO "stubborn and combative"

re: #100 MikeySDCA
Saddam and Company made damn sure that whenever Saddam was in public, there were no weapons around at all, despite the availability of weapons in Iraq. No one who was armed was allowed to be near him.

We are fast running out of articulate anti-socialist/marxists/communists. The man was a hero in every sense of the word.

re: #102 grumpy old codger

My point was that the guns did not protect the citizenry from Saddam et al.

re: #100 MikeySDCA

Practically universal gun ownership did not protect the Iraqis from Saddam Hussein and his sons.

Maybe not, but our forefathers wrote the second amendment for the express purpose of allowing the population to fight a tyrannical government. Our forefathers were wise men who despised big government with no representation.

Kolyma
Magadan

Maybe some of the old soviet jokes would help us remember what AS was talking about.
Three Russians are complaining of why they're political prisoners in Russia. The first says "I voted for comrade Petrov". The second says "I voted against comrade Petrov". The third says "I am comrade Petrov".

re: #104 MikeySDCA

My point was that the guns did not protect the citizenry from Saddam et al.

The possession of firearms is useful only the extent one is willing to use them.

But how does this help Michelle's children?

/snark

RIP, old soldier. Battle against the force of darkness well fought. Let us hope that your fight was not completely in vain.

re: #79 victor_yugo

Thank you victor_hugo, that's a wonderful prayer and the first time I encountered it. Adding that to my favorites.

re: #108 tgibson1962

There is a slight whiff of treason there.

re: #104 MikeySDCA
Understood. My comment in response was only pointing out that even with the "right" to bear arms the tyranny existed.

re: #111 MikeySDCA

There is a slight whiff of treason there.

Ridiculous.

re: #111 MikeySDCA

There is a slight whiff of treason there.

Scots. Irish. Southern.

If it's down to just a whiff, I'll have to stop bathing so often.

re: #8 buzzsawmonkey

re: #5 Kawabunga

The Gulag Archipelago should be required reading of every high school senior. The parallels between the old Soviet propaganda machine and the main stream media are frightening.

Your presumption that high school seniors would be capable of reading it with comprehension is touching indeed.

I think it would work in an Advanced Placement World History class. Now, Kawabunga's presumption that an NEA member would be qualified to teach it may not be fully supported by the facts.

re: #111 MikeySDCA
How so? The 2nd ammend. is for the express purpose of being able to defend ourselves, if necessary against a tyrannical gov't. To throw the rascals out if they decide the Bill of Rights is to onerous for the ruling class to put up with. Don't forget the 1% of all Americans who served and are serving in the armed forces take our oath to the Constituition, not some asshat congress critters or the sitting CinC.

re: #113 OldLineTexan
from that same site ; i predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them thomas jefferson

re: #107 grumpy old codger

Maybe some of the old soviet jokes would help us remember what AS was talking about.
Three Russians are complaining of why they're political prisoners in Russia. The first says "I voted for comrade Petrov". The second says "I voted against comrade Petrov". The third says "I am comrade Petrov".

A man telephones the local office of the KGB.

"Someone has stolen my parrot," he says.

"Why are you calling us?" the KGB man says. "This is a minor criminal matter. Call the militsiya. Why are you bothering us with this?"

"Because if you find it I want you to know I do not share his political views."

. . . .

"For calling Comrade President Brezhnev an idiot, I sentence you to twenty years in Siberia."

"Twenty years!?! But insulting the President carries only a one year sentence! Why twenty?"

"Because you revealed a state secret."

. . . .

(A worker disagrees with a Communist party speaker at a factory rally.)

"Comrade, I respectfully disagree. We must not overcome and pass the Americans. We must only draw even with them!"

"Why is that, Comrade?"

"Because if we draw even with them they will not see our naked ass!"

re: #114 tgibson1962

Just as an aside, there are lots of Scots and Irish in the Northeast. However, they don't feel the same way. Is it being Southern more than being Scot or Irish? Why? Is it residual from the civil War?

I must raise a glass to a man who did so much to express to us what the Soviet Union was truly about. May God hold you close.

re: #110 Behead Me Bob

Vichnaya pamyat

Pokoi, Spase nash, s pravednimi raba Tvoego , i sego vseli vo dvori Tvoya, yakozhe est pisano, preziraya yako blag pregryesheniya ego volnaya i nebolnaya, i bsya yazhe v vyedyenii i ne v byedyenii, chelovyekolyubche.

Give rest with the Just, O Saviour, unto Thy servant, and establish him in Thy courts, as it is written: Regarding not, in that Thou art good, his sins, whether voluntary or involuntary, nor anything, committed either in knowledge or in ignorance, O Thou Who lovest mankind.

So cbyatimi oupokoi, Christe, dushu raba Tvoego, idyezhe nyest bolyezn, ni pechal, ni vozdihanie, no zhizn bezkonechnaya.

With the Saints give rest, O Christ, to the soul of thy servant, where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting.

Vyechnaya Pamyat!

^{Anyone know Old Church Slavonic here?}

Solzhenitsyn's primary work -- the Gulag Archipelago -- is a staggering achievement, and well worth the patience it requires. Commenters are right, however, that his opposition to communism did not equate to pro-Westernism. S. was a slavophile and a nationalist, and he saw nothing but decadence in the west. Still, the truth can arrive in strange containers. May he rest in peace.

re: #118 Arkay

They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.

I remember reading only excerpts of The Gulag Archipelago during high school...as it was being published in the West. My reaction was HOLY S**T! and further led me to hold any and all Dirty F**kin' Communists in utter contempt.
Rest in Peace, Алекса́&# 1085;др Иса́еви&# 1095; Солжени& #769;цын.

re: #111 MikeySDCA

One gun makes a madman. It takes a group of firearms for a revolt. It takes a nation of guns for a revolution.

re: #103 pingjockey

We are fast running out of articulate anti-socialist/marxists/communists. The man was a hero in every sense of the word.

If we're running out, as you say, it's our own damn fault. Speak up. You just have to be articulate, not eloquent.

And by the way, even Hollywood is getting into the fray now with the pro-conservative, anti-left movie "An American Carol." Go to see this one, everybody. It won't be A.S., but it's important nevertheless.

re: #118 Arkay

(TASS representative doing Q&A:)

Worker: "Can you tell the TASS printers to use lighter ink?"

TASS rep, confused: "Why lighter ink?"

Worker: "Because our asses are all black!"

Said to have actually happened.

re: #124 grumpy old codger

They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.>

That is not a Soviet era joke. That is the Michigan state motto.

re: #121 victor_yugo

Beautiful hymn.

re: #118 Arkay

I LOVE jokes such as these!

re: #118 Arkay

Yakov Smirnoff had one funny joke (that I heard anyway).

When asked the difference between American and Soviet Police...he replied...

"Warning Shots".

re: #126 tankdemon

As the descendant of soldiers in the American Revolution and the Civil War (on the revolutionary side in both; we're batting 500) I see your point.

In a somewhat related news story, the NYT is reporting on why it's so important for China to have been given the Olympics.

Parsing the impact of the seven-year buildup is difficult. Even before its selection for the Olympics, China was, gradually, becoming more open for ordinary people. Yet, today, rights to free speech and assembly remain sharply restricted, ethnic minorities are repressed, the Communist Party dominates, and, in a report last week, Amnesty International said progress on human rights had been limited.

In some other ways, the bet has already paid off. Perhaps no other Olympics has been so intensely anticipated. China provides a shiny new wrapping on a package damaged by scandal, doping, the disappearance of Cold War rivalries and diminished public interest. “The Games are going to Beijing because it’s a show; the spectacle lives on and needs new and exciting places,” said Kevin Wamsley, a former director of the International Center for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario.

Another wish might be fulfilled — that giving China a home-field advantage would blunt the political and sporting dominance that the United States gained with the fall of the Soviet Union.

“We need China to act as a check on the U.S.,” Ivan Slavkov, then an I.O.C. member from Bulgaria, said in 2001. “The U.S. is the only superpower. It dominates everything, including the Olympics and the medal tables.”

As the Games approach, though, the Olympic committee faces criticism — from without and within — for relying too much on chance and not enough on leverage in trying to hold Chinese leaders to their amorphous statements about change.

Success breeds resentment in all manner of endeavor, sports included.

Let's also ignore how and why the Soviets and East Germans did so well in earlier Olympics - doping, insane training regimes and a fear that failure may lead to loss of privileges. The same can be said of the Chinese as well.

It also explains why so many athletes from around the world flock to the US to compete under the US flag, rather than their home countries.

"Is outrageous that the Americans have landed spaceship on moon. We must surpass them! Must land Soviet spacecraft on surface of sun!"

"But Comrade Breszhnev, we cannot do that! They will die of the heat!"

"You are not hearing me, Comrade! We will land at night!"

Slightly OT but given recent events, maybe not-

If anyone wants to go have a word with Politburo Pelosi, Michelle Malkin has posted the dates for the Madam's book tour.

re: #129 Arkay

If you get the opportunity, rent or buy Billy Wilders "One, Two, Three" with Jimmy Cagney. It's a hilarious (though dated movie) with lots of anti-Nazi, anti-Communist jokes.

re: #127 Tigger2005
Ah, but I do speak up. It is just that I will never ever see elective office. No college degree, Just common sense, which seems what the electorate does not want. Plus retired navy so the Rinos that are running the party now run away screaming in terror. I would not go along to get along with Pelousi/Reid/Kennedy etc...They are the enemy.

re: #119 grumpy old codger

Just as an aside, there are lots of Scots and Irish in the Northeast. However, they don't feel the same way. Is it being Southern more than being Scot or Irish? Why? Is it residual from the civil War?

I think it has something to do with all three, though probably not equally. I think there is a higher level of distrust of government in the South, and the Recent Unpleasantness probably contributed to that.

re: #132 Fat Bastard Vegetarian

Yakov Smirnoff >

"Ameeerika! What a country! I go to beach in California and someone says to me, 'hang ten'! I love this place! In Soviet Union 'hang ten' has completely different meaning!"

re: #101 ted

No I'm not. They never would call BHO "stubborn and combative"

Well he isn't. The adjectives charming, unctuous, greasy and vapid seem more appropriate.

On this I'd give the Times the benefit of the doubt. THe quality of strength the]at people like Reagan and Maggie Thatcher and Solzhenitsyn brought to the fight is hard to communicate to the readers of the Times. THe real problem is that the Times does not explain why they were right to show those qualities of stubbornness. The Times cannot bring itself to communicate just how evil Communism both was and is and how that evil is rooted in the ideology. The Times persists in believing that defects were the result of human error.

re: #140 Arkay

See?

I read all his books AS wrote in samizdat—English translations, of course.

re: #134 lawhawk

China provides a shiny new wrapping on a package damaged by scandal, doping, the disappearance of Cold War rivalries and diminished public interest.

Even more proof that the Slimes doesn't live in The Real World™.

Solzhenitsyn's books changed my view of the world and politics, and convinced me that Soviet communism would collapse - I just never expected it would so fast, and so soon. He is one reason I am a conservative.

I highly recommend reading Solzenitsyn's Commencement address at Harvard in 1978. It still rings true. A few snips...

".. And decline in courage is ironically emphasized by occasional explosions of anger and inflexibility on the part of the same bureaucrats when dealing with weak governments and weak countries, not supported by anyone, or with currents which cannot offer any resistance. But they get tongue-tied and paralyzed when they deal with powerful governments and threatening forces, with aggressors and international terrorists."

"A statesman who wants to achieve something important and highly constructive for his country has to move cautiously and even timidly; there are thousands of hasty and irresponsible critics around him, parliament and the press keep rebuffing him. As he moves ahead, he has to prove that every single step of his is well-founded and absolutely flawless. Actually an outstanding and particularly gifted person who has unusual and unexpected initiatives in mind hardly gets a chance to assert himself; from the very beginning, dozens of traps will be set out for him. Thus mediocrity triumphs with the excuse of restrictions imposed by democracy."

"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. In-depth analysis of a problem is anathema to the press. It stops at sensational formulas."

"Liberalism was inevitably displaced by radicalism, radicalism had to surrender to socialism and socialism could never resist communism. The communist regime in the East could stand and grow due to the enthusiastic support from an enormous number of Western intellectuals who felt a kinship and refused to see communism's crimes. When they no longer could do so, they tried to justify them."

"It is not possible that assessment of the President's performance be reduced to the question of how much money one makes or of unlimited availability of gasoline."

re: #11 Arkay

I once had occasion to have a two line debate with Madeline Murray O'Hair (pboh) (/sarc) over Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

She had been blovating at a speaking engagement Michigan State in '85 about how free religion was in the USSR.

Me: "I don't think that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn would agree with your views on that subject."

She: "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a fascist."

Crowd: Wild applause.

It wasn't until that incident that I realized that I was the only conservative present--and realized just how really rinsane the left is.

God bless you, Aleksandr Isayevich, and angels take you to your long home.

OK my eyes almost popped out of my head on that one. Nothing the left does surprises me anymore, but damn if that didn't!

re: #1 swamprat

I can't wait to hear National Public Radio's take on this.

"Enemy of the Soviet people escapes people's justice."

re: #141 lifeofthemind

THe quality of strength that people like Reagan and Maggie Thatcher and Solzhenitsyn brought to the fight is hard to communicate to the readers of the Times.

I'd venture to say, most of the Slimes' readers wouldn't get it even if someone did manage to communicate it well. Those who do "get it," generally no longer read the Slimes.

the jewish section of the communist party of russia destroyed the russian jewish community the problem with this man is he blames the total jewish community for what the jewish communists did rember that comrade joe stalin purged the jewish commies,

it is not a suprise that some jews in russia would become communist as the jewish community was oppressed under the czar. little things like the black houndreds pogroms and the stuff in the ukraine even in the 20th century. but the jewish community was destroyed by the jewish section of the party, jewish schools were shut down, the teachers and rabbies were arrested and murdered. it was illegal to teach hebrew up until the soviet union fell

re: #8 buzzsawmonkey

Your presumption that high school seniors would be capable of reading it with comprehension is touching indeed.

I read DARKNESS AT NOON and WE THE LIVING in high school.

re: #129 Arkay

that was a old soviet era polish joke from the solidartiy union.

re: #2 lawhawk

Well, he would NOT have survived, if the USA did not give him sancutary here. He most certainly would be buried in the gulag system. The USA gave him a home. The USA supported his dissidence, and the USA made him an anti-soviet celebrity. However, he went back home under Gorbachev and in turn, based soviet and democracy!

re: #152 yochanan

Problem with soviet system was that so many political jokes ran the place.

re: #118 Arkay

A man telephones the local office of the KGB.

"Someone has stolen my parrot," he says.

"Why are you calling us?" the KGB man says. "This is a minor criminal matter. Call the militsiya. Why are you bothering us with this?"

"Because if you find it I want you to know I do not share his political views."

. . . .

"For calling Comrade President Brezhnev an idiot, I sentence you to twenty years in Siberia."

"Twenty years!?! But insulting the President carries only a one year sentence! Why twenty?"

"Because you revealed a state secret."

. . . .

(A worker disagrees with a Communist party speaker at a factory rally.)

"Comrade, I respectfully disagree. We must not overcome and pass the Americans. We must only draw even with them!"

"Why is that, Comrade?"

"Because if we draw even with them they will not see our naked ass!"

This one is reputed to be Ronald Reagan's favorite anti-communist joke...

So a Soviet factory worker after 20 years of laboring is finally given permission to purchase a brand new car. The salesman says to him, congratulations comrade you now own a brand new Volga, you can pick it up in ten years... Without out missing a single beat the factory worker replies... In the morning or afternoon..... The salesman looks at him in surprise, does it matter comrade? Yes the factory worker say, the plumber is coming in the morning....

OK, I like Yakov now. He designed and painted the "America's Heart" Mural that was in NYC at Ground Zero...this caption

"The Human Spirit is not measured by the size of the act, but by the size of the heart."

RIP...Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

I'll take the liberty of recommending another book that illustrated the absurdity of living in the nearly unbearable zoo that was the Soviet Union, written by a well connected intellectual, Nadezhda Mandelstam.

Nadezhda means "hope" in Russian. And Nadezhda Mandelstam, wife of Osip Mandelstam, one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century, is aptly named, for it is hope alone that seems to have buoyed her strength during very trying times. In this, the first of two volumes of her memoirs, she offers a harrowing account of the last four years she spent with her late husband. She re-creates in terse, stripped-to-the-bone sentences the atmosphere of intense paranoia that enveloped Russia's literary intelligentsia. In 1933, Osip had written a lighthearted satire ridiculing Stalin. It proved to be a 16-line death sentence. Nadezhda recalls the night the secret police came for him: "There was a sharp, unbearably explicit knock on the door. 'They've come for Osip,' I said." He was arrested, interrogated, exiled, and eventually rearrested. Nadezhda chronicles each turn of event, describing her feelings of heartbreak and joy with self-effacing discipline. Not only does Mandelstam write with the vitality and insight of the classic Russian novelists, she is far too selfless to write an account of her own travails. Instead, she acts as witness to a society's. Similarly, although Osip's mind became unbalanced by his ordeal in prison, his spirit remained unbroken; it is this liberating, imaginative force that Nadezhda celebrates in Hope Against Hope. --Lilian Pizzichini, Amazon.co.uk
Hope Against Hope

re: #147 tedzilla99

a rabbi friend of mine was sent to the golag for 5 years for teaching hebrew he was one of the refusenicks at which they fired him from his job so he was teaching hebrew to get by and they arrested him for PARISITEISM as teaching hebrew was illegal.

re: #118 Arkay

One winter, there's a rare delivery of fresh meat to a Moscow market. As usual, an immense line forms hours before the market opens, with thousands of people standing in line in a snowstorm, in subzero temperatures.

After a few hours, the market manager emerges, and says to the crowd, "I have some bad news, comrades. We've been delivered less meat than we expected, and only have a limited amount to go around. For this reason, I have to restrict the meat sale to Gentiles only. Jews cannot buy any meat today." So a bunch of people leave, and the crowd continues to shiver in the freezing snow.

An hour later, the manager reappears, and says, "More bad news, fcomrades. We have even less meat than we thought there would be. For this reason, I have to restrict the sale of meat to Communist Party members only. Non-party members cannot buy any meat today." So most of the crowd walks away, leaving a couple hundred loyal Party members huddled together for warmth in the blizzard.

After another hour, the manager comes out once more, and says, "Party members, there is some bad news. Only a very small amount of meat is available. I must restrict sales to only those people who were Communist Party members at the time of the 1917 Revolution." Nearly all the crowd walks away, leaving only two very old men who are by now hip-deep in snow, and turning blue in the freezing winds.

Finally, after another hour, the manager comes out and addresses the two men directly. "Valued comrades, I have some bad news. There is no meat to sell. I must ask you to leave."

Whereupon one of the old men, now nearly paralyzed with frostbite, turns to the other old man and says, "Those damn Jews always get the good breaks!"

re: #61 Perplexed

Great person on par with Regan. RIP.

Don Regan?

re: #50 Dahveed

I must say I never read Mr. Solzhenitsyn's book nor am I familiar, except in a very cursory sense, with his life. However, I think now that he has died, I may pick up One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. We can't forget these horrors. May he rest in peace.

Do not neglect the Gulag Archipelago.

re: #138 pingjockey

Ah, but I do speak up. It is just that I will never ever see elective office. No college degree, Just common sense, which seems what the electorate does not want. Plus retired navy so the Rinos that are running the party now run away screaming in terror. I would not go along to get along with Pelousi/Reid/Kennedy etc...They are the enemy.

I don't recall A.S. holding any elective office, either.

All of us really can make a difference. We must not allow the passing of giants like A.S. to discourage us.

re: #150 yochanan
You are preaching to the choir, Yoch. Understood.

re: #155 doriangrey

One day Comrade Breszhnev was on beach on Black Sea in August.

As sun came up that morning, it talked to him.

"Are you comfortable, Comrade Breszhnev? Am I warm enough, Comrade Breszhnev? Is it bright enough for you to read, Comrade Breszhnev?"

Comrade Breszhnev was little bit taken aback at talking sun, but got used to it. Presently he went inside his dacha to have lunch.

He came back out to beach at mid-afternoon. The sun was scorching hot.

"Excuse me, sun, but why are you so hot? Cool down a little!"

"Kiss my ass!" the sun said. "I'm in the West now!"

In the days of the Soviet Union, an old man dropped off a pair of shoes to be repaired at the shoemaker.

"Come back one year from today and they will be done" He was told.

"Can I come the day after that? " the man said. "The plumber is coming that morning to fix my sink."

As Douglas MacArthur said, old soldiers never die. They just fade away.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn had the privelege to fade away into the quiet he so avidly sought after seing the monster he railed against finally slain by its millions of victims.
He got to outlive the monster by almost two decades.
I hope they were happy years.
Many of us have since forgotten the beast and the real danger this country faced, or the fact that such a real, mortal, danger can exist.
Maybe, in the midst of whatever interest Solzhenitsyn's death rekindles, an appreciation of that danger can be resuscuitated.
...especially since today we face a newer, wilier, and even more savage threat.
Let's spread the word.

re: #11 Arkay

I once had occasion to have a two line debate with Madeline Murray O'Hair (pboh) (/sarc) over Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

She had been blovating at a speaking engagement Michigan State in '85 about how free religion was in the USSR.

Me: "I don't think that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn would agree with your views on that subject."

She: "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a fascist."

Crowd: Wild applause.

It wasn't until that incident that I realized that I was the only conservative present--and realized just how really rinsane the left is.

God bless you, Aleksandr Isayevich, and angels take you to your long home.

Madeline Murray O'Hair was an example of what I've come to call the self appointed superior being. Such a self exalted status was supposed to allow one to be exempt from rules of civilized life, having to see things as they really were, and having to treat ordinary people with any degree of decency. She also apparently held the idea that being an atheist somehow granted moral superiority to depraved people and states such as the Soviet Union. Never mind the body count.

As a proper atheist I have to say good riddance.

re: #154 Arkay

Problem with soviet system was that so many political jokes ran the place.

Will Rogers - Mr. President would you like to hear the latest Washington Jokes?
President Harding - Don't have to. I appointed them all to office.

re: #162 Tigger2005
Not discouraged. Just need a bigger magaphone and soapbox. As it is I have a 17 and 15 yr old boys and there are a lot of young pliable minds hanging out in my garage! Mwahahahaha!

re: #158 yochanan

And so, for what happened to your rabbi friend at the hands of the government, you would curse Solzhenitsyn and let all his works be forgotten?

BBIAB.

re: #24 FrogMarch

Now there's a book the left will never read.

Except as an instruction manual.

Will Rogers - Mr. President would you like to hear the latest Washington Jokes?
President Harding - Don't have to. I appointed them all to office.>

Then there's the one political joke credited to U.S. Grant.

Grant: "I have decided to appoint my good friend N. to the office of Ambassador to the Court of Russia."

Assistant: "But sir! You know that N. is a complete idiot! Why are you sending him to Russia?"

Grant: "Because if we had an embassy on Mars, I would sent him there instead!"

re: #164 ArkayA version of this was used in the movie The Lives of Others

re: #170 victor_yugo

what he said about the gulag and stalinism was correct, but what he said after he was free offen wasn't true and that should not be forgotten as well he isn't a saint but a man.

that david duke would post a piece of his work on russian jews should clue you in.

As a proper atheist I have to say good riddance.>

With respect: one denies God at one's peril, in the short or long run.

Pascal had it right, methinks. The smart money is on the Deity.

But that's a topic for another day and another thread.

re: #167 The Other Les

Agreed, and understood. I believe that her atheism was not the result of any honest intellectual or philosophical differences with theists, but rather the symptom of deep psychological disturbances, with God/religion symbolically standing in for whatever demons were tormenting her.

Unfortunately, angry, contrarian cranks like her seem to be just as common in atheist circles, as ignorant bigots are among religious folks.

My favorite Soviet Joke:

One day in 1982, Leonid Brezhnev died and went to Hell. The Devil was there to greet him. "Welcome, Comrade Brezhnev. Do you know where you are?"
"Da," said Brezhnev. "I am in Hell."
"Very well, follow me, for you will choose your punishment for all Eternity."
The Devil led Brezhnev down many stairs, to a chamber where History's worst tyrants were receiving their Eternal Damnation. He saw Comrade Lenin being harangued by peasants and workers...he saw Hitler being tortured and gassed by Holocaust victims...
...then he saw Comrade Khrushchev having wild and passionate sex with a screaming Marilyn Monroe, in all possible positions, without cessation. "THERE! THAT's the punishment I want for all time!" said Comrade Brezhnev.
"Don't fool yourself," said The Devil. "That's Hell for Marilyn Monroe...."

re: #174 lifeofthemind

"All of my best jokes were stolen by the ancients!"

this work has not been translated into english WONDER WHY?

[Link: [Link: www.davidduke.com...]...]

I need to clean my eyes after looking hear but given the subject some times one must see it.

re: #177 Arkay
Oh.no. not another ID thread! Chas. will notr be pleased.

re: #182 grumpy old codger

Oh.no. not another ID thread! Chas. will notr be pleased.

Charles on the other hand.... lol...lol...lol...

broken link

[Link: www.davidduke.com...]

this book is not published in english WONDER WHY? maybe the anti semitism is a problem it must be because david duke seems to like it.

re: #178 mikalm

Unfortunately, angry, contrarian cranks like her seem to be just as common in atheist circles, as ignorant bigots are among religious folks.

>

Well, take, er, well, I won't say his name. He's a famous contrarian author who lives in New York and randomly generates brilliant analysis of Islamofascism with vomitous hatred of religion and Christianity specifically.

His mother (an atheist of Jewish extraction) had a sex affair with a Catholic priest, who then talked her into joining him in a dual suicide.

I can (sorta) understand hating religion for that reason, but that makes him none the less odious thereby.

Interesting post by Neo on the last thread, worth a look.

re: #57 Alouette

Solzhenytsin was the 3rd greatest Soviet dissident, after Natan Sharansky and Anderi Sakharov.

"Alouette" -

Thank you. Nevertheless - Rest in Peace Friend Ivan Denisovitch. If/When we Jews start recognizing Prophets again - Natan Sharansky is my FIRST NOMINATION.

-S-

So we should believe in God out of fear of what will happen if we don't?

For the life of me, I will never understand how otherwise good-hearted people can embrace such "logic." Even when I was a believer, I did not understand it.

A God that demands belief in him as a requirement for salvation, and condemns those who honestly question his existence (not "deny" him) while still leading upright lives, is not even worth worshipping.

"Betting on God." What a trivialization of the whole idea of faith.

re: #177 Arkay

As a proper atheist I have to say good riddance.>

With respect: one denies God at one's peril, in the short or long run.

Pascal had it right, methinks. The smart money is on the Deity.

But that's a topic for another day and another thread.

re: #182 grumpy old codger

Oh.no. not another ID thread! Chas. will notr be pleased.

Not here. I'm a fullthroated evolutionist. But in the words of St. Mothersbaugh: "God made man, but he used the monkey to do it!"

A God that took 13.8 billion years to make me is exceedingly cool.

Sorry meant on Sunday Afternoon Open, my bad

re: #118 Arkay

"For calling Comrade President Brezhnev an idiot, I sentence you to twenty years in Siberia."

"Twenty years!?! But insulting the President carries only a one year sentence! Why twenty?"

"Because you revealed a state secret."

We will soon be telling this joke about President Obama.

my wifie said 'g-d made man and then had a second look and to get it right made woman'

re: #179 Macker

*WHACK*

"Betting on God." What a trivialization of the whole idea of faith.>

God's not proud. Anything to evade the eternal fires of Hell. He'd even consider letting his kid get lynched to make it possible.

After what I saw in Bosnia, the existance of a real Hell is of no doubt to me.

re: #108 tgibson1962

The possession of firearms is useful only the extent one is willing to use them.

"t-gib" -

Historically we in the US - HAVE BEEN READY, WILLING, and ABLE to use our Firearms - Thanks be to G-d, and Woe be to Tyranny for that.

-S-

re: #189 Arkay

Not here. I'm a fullthroated evolutionist. But in the words of St. Mothersbaugh: "God made man, but he used the monkey to do it!"

A God that took 13.8 billion years to make me is exceedingly cool.

Thinking of L'Envoi by Kipling. "....When Earth's last artist has passed away, and the youngest critic has died......" Maybe next time, He'll get it right sooner.

re: #194 Arkay

hell on earth is bad enough (dachou) was it address amough others)

If anyone is interested in exploring the Russian soul, check out Akaky Akakavaitch.

totally off topic, but what happened to the revolving header things?

re: #185 Arkay

Good example, although I consider that individual a far more intelligent and sophisticated critic of theism than the late Ms. O'Hare, who was essentially a bloviating buffoon. Both of them seem to be profoundly unhappy people, with the former's rather obvious drinking problem being an indicator that something's seriously wrong.

re: #199 aishel

totally off topic, but what happened to the revolving header things?

They're now located above the lounge, but I'm wondering what happened to the "Now Playing" feature.

re: #188 Tigger2005

So we should believe in God out of fear of what will happen if we don't?

That's about the size of it.

If there is no God, Hitler's the best we can expect.

If there is a God, He is absolutely good.
If there is a truth about the human race, it's that none of it are absolutely good.
If we are to be with Him, we need to be absolutely good.
We can't get there from here, without certain radical intervention.

Which was provided. For further information, see your local friendly neighborhood Gideon's Bible, chapters 1 - 4, New Testament.

re: #199 aishel

I believe The Big Lizard eliminated them, since they were interfering with the ability of search engines to find and archive topics here.

i am what you would call a cons. secularist unlike the leftist secularist i respect those who are religious and don't make my more secular belief into a religion like radical athiests.

re: #118 Arkay

A long line is forming in front of the grocery store: the rumor is that fresh meat will soon be available.

After waiting for several hours, an official comes out and says, "It seems there will not be enough meat for everyone. Jews go home!" All the Jews leave.

After several more hours of waiting, the official again comes out and says, "There is not going to be enough meat for everyone, only for Party members! Everyone else go home!" All the non-Party members leave.

More hours of waiting in line, and the official comes out and says, "There will be no meat after all. Everyone go home!"

An angry Party member goes and beats up the first Jew he sees. "You got to go home before everyone else!"

re: #193 MandyManners

Thank you ma'am, may I have another?

re: #205 Alouette

You obviously missed Post #159.

re: #203 mikalm
How is big Brotherhood that much different from Big Lizardom?

re: #199 aishel

totally off topic, but what happened to the revolving header things?

Look above the Lounge Lizard's head.

re: #192 yochanan

my wifie said 'g-d made man and then had a second look and to get it right made woman'

"Yo" -

AND - What if She is Right? The Hebrew Prayers thank G-d either for making me - "A Man" or "As I Am" - is either greater? I cannot answer THAT QUESTION. Are Men and Women "Equal" - YES! NOW, for all of you Math Fans out there - Are Men and Women "CONGRUENT?" - Don't Think So. enough for Now.

-S-

The Soviets claimed to have invented a suitcase nuke. The only problem, they couldn't find a suitcase to put it in.

RIP

Read many of his books decades ago. Very depressing reading. As I remember he was an artillery officer in the Red Army and one of his letters had a negative comment about Stalin. Off to the camps he went.

re: #208 grumpy old codger

Dunno. You'll have to ask Charles.

re: #212 richiep

RIP

Read many of his books decades ago. Very depressing reading. As I remember he was an artillery officer in the Red Army and one of his letters had a negative comment about Stalin. Off to the camps he went.

He referred to Uncle Joe as "The Mustachioed One"

I'm amazed, given the life he had in his early years in the Gulag, that he made it to age 89.

Born 1917, the year of the Revolution, a serious student, a patriotic artillery captain who wrote the merest lighthearted criticism of Stalin in a "private" letter and was therefore thrown into the cauldron...

The most important thing I have taken away from The Gulag Archipelago is the waste. The waste of human talent, intelligence, and spirit. The waste embodied by an unparalleled number of deaths under Lenin and Stalin, the incomprehensible suffering, the fanaticism and evil of those at the top. Almost without exception, all of the best and the brightest -- in the arts, in medicine, in the armed forces -- were swept away to unspeakable fates. Millions of just plain folks murdered for the crime of "nothing." Millions of soldiers betrayed. Solzhenitsyn wrote about all this, was published at risk of his own and others' lives, and finally made some in the West aware of the insanity and evil of the Soviet Union.

Rest in peace, old warrior.

re: #210 Dr. Shalit
As The Great Man (WCD AKA WC Fields) once said, "It was a woman who drove me to drink. I never thanked her for it".

re: #199 aishel

totally off topic, but what happened to the revolving header things?

The sayings are above the icon for the Lizard Lounge.

Solzhenitsyn's work "August 1914" is a profound work. This novel belongs in the company of Tolstoy's War and Peace, and Vassily Grossman's novel Life and Fate. The other two novels deal with Napoleon and Hitler's invasions of Russia, respectively.

The argument that Solzhenitsyn wasn't right about everything misses the point. It's hard enough to be right even once. That is, it's a heroic life achievement to take history and give impetus to some one decisive event of your age. Thatcher, Reagan, Walesa, John Paul II, the people of Poland, of Berlin, of Afghanistan, had their part to play, but Solzhenitsyn was on the stage too.

He did what he could to save Russia from Communism.

re: #212 richiep

One reason the Soviet Army lost so much ground to the Nazi invasion was that much of its senior Officer Corps had been wiped out during the 1930s purges, mainly because of Stalin's paranoia. Fawning sycophants generally don't make good strategists or leaders...

re: #211 Alouette

The Soviets claimed to have invented a suitcase nuke. The only problem, they couldn't find a suitcase to put it in.

Alouette -

Whaddabout a STEAMER TRUNK?

-S-

re: #211 Alouette

The Soviets claimed to have invented a suitcase nuke. The only problem, they couldn't find a suitcase to put it in.

All the suitcases were needed to carry the two enormous batteries for the soviet portable radio.

re: #216 grumpy old codger

One of my favorite lines of his is in The Bank Dick. He comes into his favorite bar, the Black Pussy Cat Cafe, and asks bartender Shemp Howard, "Was I in here last night, and did I spend a $20 bill?"

When Shemp responds in the affirmative, Fields answers, "What a load that is off my mind! I thought I'd lost it!"

Hey!

Charles must be playing... the News and Blogs widget is gone from the right side under Oriana and is now below the Log In box!

re: #215 PoorMan
One of the things that has always caught my attention is that in the USSR, there was absolutely no concept of "innocence". If OGPU, or the NKVD was told to round X number of people, they produced X number, regardless of the actual people who were to have been arrested. There are many stories of people being swept up to meet quotas. It was, it seems, a total terror where no one was exempt.

re: #219 mikalm

One reason the Soviet Army lost so much ground to the Nazi invasion was that much of its senior Officer Corps had been wiped out during the 1930s purges, mainly because of Stalin's paranoia. Fawning sycophants generally don't make good strategists or leaders...

"mik" -

Might you be saying that when "The Balloon Goes Up - YES MEN SUCK?"
works for Me.

-S-

BTW, could someone tell me what the heart next to the up and down ding thingies is for?

re: #197 yochanan

hell on earth is bad enough (dachou) was it address amough others)

Hell on Earth stops at some point. Eternal Hell does not.

re: #223 mikalm
Once in the wilds of Afghanistan, we lost our cork screw and were forced to subsist on food and water for two weeks.

re: #206 Macker

You asked for it so, you don't get it.

re: #224 stevieray

Yeah.... Not a very catchy beat.

re: #222 ploome hineni

can you explain what he means by that? because I do not understand why Israel is singled out

Sounds like he meant it as a compliment and wanted Orthodoxy to have the same position that he, somewhat mistakenly, thought religion had in Israel.

re: #228 MandyManners

Hell on Earth stops at some point. Eternal Hell does not.

I've always figured it depended on your POV. Like falling into a black hole. I throw you into a black hole, you're dead from my POV. But as you enter said black hole, time slows down from your POV and you never quite....

On second thought I'd rather not pursue that line of thinking.

"Everybody needs to believe in something; I believe I'll have another beer."

re: #232 ploome hineni
No, ploome, a WC quote. a quote from a man who drank prodigiously.

re: #222 ploome hineni

can you explain what he means by that? because I do not understand why Israel is singled out

Read more for context..

Any ancient deeply rooted autonomous culture, especially if it is spread on a wide part of the earth's surface, constitutes an autonomous world, full of riddles and surprises to Western thinking. As a minimum, we must include in this category China, India, the Muslim world and Africa, if indeed we accept the approximation of viewing the latter two as compact units. For one thousand years Russia has belonged to such a category, although Western thinking systematically committed the mistake of denying its autonomous character and therefore never understood it, just as today the West does not understand Russia in communist captivity. It may be that in the past years Japan has increasingly become a distant part of the West, I am no judge here; but as to Israel, for instance, it seems to me that it stands apart from the Western world in that its state system is fundamentally linked to religion.

I understood the part about Israel to mean just what it says. Israel stands apart from the rest of the Western world because its state system is fundamentally linked to religion.

re: #232 ploome hineni

Hint: what do you open with a cork screw?

re: #230 ploome hineni

Jews do not have 'eternal hell'..:D

I know that. I'm just responding with my POV.

(Hiya'. Howya' doing?)

re: #236 Arkay

I've always figured it depended on your POV. Like falling into a black hole. I throw you into a black hole, you're dead from my POV. But as you enter said black hole, time slows down from your POV and you never quite....

On second thought I'd rather not pursue that line of thinking.

"Everybody needs to believe in something; I believe I'll have another beer."

POV is paramount in civil discourse.

re: #241 MandyManners
Some of my married Jewish friends might disagree.

re: #236 Arkay

I always liked the line from an E.F. Benson story, where two men were discussing the nature of time: "Eternity is not a quantity, it's a quality."

re: #242 ploome hineni

"I've taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has ever taken out of me." - W. S. Churchill.

re: #237 ploome hineni

oh

giveitothim

No.

Godspodi moridnya, Gaspadin Solzhenitsyn.

Gulag Archipelago is an enormous, overwhelming work. Reading it and allowing it all to sink in cannot help but make any sane person into a permanent enemy of Stalinism and any movement influenced by it. Whatever Solzhenitsyn may have thought about American culture is strictly secondary to the brilliant moral clarity and massive cumulative power of Gulag Archipelago, which cannot be ignored once you have encountered it. He was a great soul. May he be at peace.

re: #11 Arkay

That was an excellent story! Lets do an inventory on the two personalities discussed: Mr. Solzhenitsyn died of old age in his own home, a revered (if flawed) writer whose work will stand the test of time. Now on to Mrs Murray O'Hair: She was kidnapped and killed and dismembered by a disgruntled employee, is reviled by her only living son and is remembered by history as a bizarre fringe figure, if at all.

POV is paramount in civil discourse>

Is it though? Our age's fanatical devotion to the certain truth that there is no certain truth that anyone should be fanatically devoted to is the cause of every single one of it's great evils.

"How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?"

(how's THAT for tying two completely unrelated threads of arguments together?)

re: #225 grumpy old codger

One of the things that has always caught my attention is that in the USSR, there was absolutely no concept of "innocence". If OGPU, or the NKVD was told to round X number of people, they produced X number, regardless of the actual people who were to have been arrested.

"I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame you."

re: #244 ploome hineni

surviving

hotter than hell here..drinking so much to stay hydrated, I need depends

Screw that. Get some good exercise for the legs.

re: #247 Arkay

Another story goes that Field Marshal Montgomery once told Churchill, "I neither drink nor smoke, and I'm 100% efficient." Whereupon the Prime Minister shot back, "I do both, and I'm 200% efficient!"

re: #245 grumpy old codger

Some of my married Jewish friends might disagree.

Well, they've chosen to figure it out for themselves.

re: #203 mikalm

I believe The Big Lizard eliminated them, since they were interfering with the ability of search engines to find and archive topics here.

NO, just moved them. See above the Lizard Lounge.

re: #257 MandyManners
As one said, paradoxically, after a great number of beers, "time on the cross".

re: #225 grumpy old codger

This is very thoroughly documented in Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, by Simon Montefiore, published 2003. It's based on, among other papers, those in the Presidential Archive of the Russian State Archive of Social and Politicak Theory, which were only released in 1999. It is now impossible for anyone to defend the monsters who ran the USSR. Their own papers are therefor us to see.

The book is not well written. It hardly matters. The original-source filth that is recorded is what's important.

re: #199 aishel

There at the top. Good luck.

re: #258 reine.de.tout

OIC. Thanks.

G'night.

Solzhenitsyn dropped the scales from my eyes, I never looked at the world the same way again. He influenced my career choices, first as an engineer, and then as a story-teller. He helped me understand revolutions and how freedoms are lost, about the effectiveness of a ruthless mafia against a slowly liberalizing society. He changed how I looked at the Western left. How could any intellectually honest individual not be an anti-communist after Solzhenitsyn? My respects to his family, and to the families of all of victims.

. Their own papers are therefor us to see.>

There is a hotel in Moscow that speaks to the madness of the Soviet system.

It is radically different on the left and the right hand sides--one half modernistic, the other half more like Greco-Roman pastiche.

What happened was this: Stalin was supposed to choose between two possible designs. The proposal paper (one page long) had a picture of the left hand of one design and the right hand of the other.

Comrade Stalin, who was crocked that particular evening, scrawled the equivalent of "OK JS" on the paper.

Right over the middle line, the "OK" on the left hand side and "JS" on the right.

They kludged the two designs together rather than risk telling the mustacioed one that he'd f---ed up.

THAT is Stalinism in a nutshell. Or a building shell as the case may be.

Hellooo Ploome!

I was just trying to figure out how you were going to do the depends thingy with that bikini . . . .