Tag: ek Humor

Remembrance Day

On 11 November at 5:00 am, an armistice with Germany was signed in a railroad carriage at Compiègne. At 11 am on 11 November 1918 – “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” – a ceasefire came into effect. During the six hours between the signing of the armistice and its taking effect, opposing armies on the Western Front began to withdraw from their positions, but fighting continued along many areas of the front, as commanders wanted to capture territory before the war ended. Canadian Private George Lawrence Price was shot by a German sniper at 10:57 and died at 10:58. American Henry Gunther was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them. The last British soldier to die was Pte George Edwin Ellison. The last casualty of the war was a German, Lieutenant Thomas, who, after 11 am, was walking towards the line to inform Americans who had not yet been informed of the Armistice that they would be vacating the buildings behind them.

Stanley Kubrick– Paths of Glory (1957) (1:27)

History and its discontents

No we’re not going to talk about slips and the fact that you wear them to make sure that your clothes fall right and don’t bunch up on your body.

This is instead my pointlessly long introduction to the BBC 5 documentary, The Russian Revolution In Colour, and this criticism by Nadim al-Mahjoub

Perhaps because I watched the documentary in black and white I was not so prone to accept the colourful misrepresentation of the revolution.

…

The Russian Revolution in Colour (History Documentary), we read on the Channel Five website, “shows how the Kronstadt sailors’ loyalty helped defend the revolution in its first years; and how their brutal defeat killed the flickering of hope for a more just society.” The documentary highlights the role played by the sailors of the Kronstadt naval base in the second Russian revolution as well as in the October Revolution. In addition to their strong militancy, the documentary stresses the high level of democracy and self-governing that reigned among the sailors of Kronstadt. The ‘turning point’ of the revolution, the editors argue, is that while the February Revolution was spontaneous the October Revolution was consciously organised. Lenin and his followers, the documentary tells us, “killed the hope when they dissolved the Constituent Assembly and took over.”

Regarding the circumstances, and what happened just after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, which they portray as ‘the embryo of democracy’, the documentary mentions nothing. Was it something of secondary importance that it was not worthy of mention in describing the process of the revolution? Or was the omission of the context and the reactions of the forces in play a deliberate act by the makers of the documentary? Unlike many commentators the documentary does not say that the Bolshevik Revolution was a coup. But what is stressed in the film is that the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly by Lenin led to dictatorship. Thus, the editors suggest, Soviet Dictatorship started with Lenin and was continued by Stalin.

The Russian revolution took place in a backward country; the overwhelming majority of the population of the country were peasants, most were illiterate, and the level of technique and production was very low. Russia was a semi-colony producing less than three per cent of world industrial output. The revolution found itself not only besieged by a fierce foreign intervention hell-bent on destroying it, but also without the hoped for assistance by the spread of the revolution to the developed capitalist countries of the time. These objective factors were to play a decisive role in determining the fate of the revolution. Lenin and Trotsky were the leaders of the revolution and they were all the time aware of the impossibility of establishing socialism in Russia alone. Thus, they linked the success of winning the battle for democracy by the working class to the revolution in Germany, in particular, and in the developed countries in general.

I happened to see this broadcast the other day and was quite surprised when it turned up in my recommended viewing list.

Your tinfoil hat is optional.

As a child I totally enjoyed the Emmuska Orczy story, now that I know more about the French Revolution not so much.  Originally posted here August 3, 2011.

I laughed, I cried.

Mostly I cried.

America died. The Democrat Party voted God out of their platform and replaced Him with Romans 1. In the Good vs. Evil battle…today…Evil won. Thanks a lot Christians, for not showing up. You disgust me.

Romans 1:26-27

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

This passage is unique in that it is the only place in the Bible that refers to same-gender sexual behavior by women.

I want to be fair to Victoria Jackson, but she just doesn’t understand Christianity very well.

Matthew 27:45-46

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.

Say what you like about Mourdock, but he is logically consistent with his faith.

Bob Barr on Drones, Democrats & Dirty Politics

My activist brother says the funniest part is Barr trying to pretend to take Jackson seriously.

Beep beep.  Originally posted August 2, 2011.

Still no Wikipedia entry.

It’s alive!

No, seriously, this one survived all the way from August 1, 2011.

On the other hand, the North East prepares for another Nor’easter.  It’s already slightly white outside.

I propose we name them.  This one is Grumpy.

Zombie Apocalypse Voting.  Originally posted November 8, 2011.

Hasenpfeffer!?  Originally posted July 28, 2011.

High time we raised the tone around this place.

Abduction of  Figaro by P.D.Q. Bach (2:24)

I’m so mad I’m not even going to sing my aria.

In 100 words where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art?

I finally invent something that works!

Another classic.  First posted here July 27, 2011.

One of the best.  Originally posted July 27, 2011.