The next EU (Eurasian Union).

Off-Topic Off Topic - Militaria
#61

Ah, the guilty pleasures for emancipating Micks in the 1970s of enjoying Dave’s irreligious digs at the Catholic Church.

And the Pope at the time, John XXIII, and Vatican II which he convened, surprised many inside and outside the Church by not declaring any opposition to Soviet or other communism which was stridently opposed to religion in general and the the Latin and Eastern rites in particular. John XXIII even received Khrushchev’s daughter and son in law at the Vatican after playing an important part in defusing the Cuban missile crisis which, in part, somewhat ironically represented the first Catholic American president staring down the atheistic Soviets.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1798&dat=19630307&id=gxQhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3IsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6572,678241
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/preventing-war-pope-john-xxiii-and-the-cuban-missile-crisishttp://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/preventing-war-pope-john-xxiii-and-the-cuban-missile-crisis

And now we have the remarkable spectacle of the former loyal Soviet agent Putin forming an (unholy?) alliance with the Eastern Rite as personified by the Russian Orthodox Church which has brought that Church back to the centre of Russian politics after being excluded from, indeed persecuted by, the Kremlin for nearly the last century.

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

How’s that for getting back on, and wildly expanding, the topic?

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt0Y39eMvpI (About the same era as Dave Allen, and also hilariously funny at the time. And still pretty funny.)

#62

Hello sir RisingSun. i’m glad to see you too.:)))

Putin specializes on the another form of censorship.He doesn’t care about gays much. But american OS windows7, i suspect, might to support that kind of tolerasty :mrgreen:I was meaning the Guyes who goes to parades:))Don’t Guyes go to parades?Really?Only gays and lesbian ?:slight_smile:

#63

I see this not much optimistic. The any confrontation is a danger and nasty thing! Hope they will not turn the Ukraine into the another one Iraq or Syria. Actualy the people in Russia survive like sort of patriotic euphoria - never seen such since the most 1990!! The media rise it up as the another one “historical great victory”. Putin’s popularity rises. Some of social networks and TV warm up the anti-american propogand.Idiocy IMO!!!
The most popular hero here n Russia is not Putin , but Vitaliy Churkin - the russian UN consul.His batalies with Samanta Power made him very popular on TV.

#64

Glad to see you, too.

It would be good to see you posting more often, as your knowledge and opinions are always welcome, me old Russian mate. :wink: :cool:

#65

It’s not the our case:) The bigger- the more impressive!!!Like carnaval in Rio:)

#66

I don’t know.

Nickdfresh is American and, worse, he lives in America, so he should know. :wink: :smiley:

#67

Thanks mate. I see you do a great job here supproting the order:)

#68

That is what I was thinking. That some or many or all Russians are pleased by exercising Russian power to take Crimea and not taking any notice of the West / UN, so it creates a sense of Russian pride after the end of the Cold War.

#69

Like this Rio carnival? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZxGRdqGEIw

I think Panzerknacker is in the opening scene. :wink: :smiley:

#70

That is true, but i see not much reasons for honor and proudness. The last bloody slayghtering in Odessa demonstrates that ukrainain ultra-rights seems are OUT of Kievan controll - they killed female civils in manner of nazis killed jews in ww2.Putin is undirectly , but responsible for that blood, together with the kievan junta.

#71

I think the greater problem might be the longstanding Ukrainian hostility to Russia as a result of the 1930s famine imposed by Stalin.

If the Ukrainians are pushed into a corner again by Russia, they might choose to fight rather than experience the horrors again of something like Holodomor.

#72

Does that make Putin / Russia or Ukraine / government responsible, or is this just the usual start to armed civil conflict which can lead to civil war where various groups have abandoned the restraints of civil society and its laws to pursue their own aims, and the central government(s) won’t or can’t control the rebels?

The Ukrainians seem to be in the awkward position of using their military forces against some of their Russian aligned police, at least from the new reports we get here.

It looks like an opportunity for a civil war, which perhaps brings Russia in. While the West stays out.

Glad I’m not in Ukraine.

#73

Total mess. I am not sure I would agree that there are no valid parallels with the Autumn, 1914 situation. The imperative for Russia to intervene to protect “Little Russian Brothers” is a clear common point. Nor am I entirely sure that “Germany” wanted war in 1914. Its position would best be regarded as “flaky”, with a dithering Kaiser and the professional warmongers of the German (Prussian) General Staff to some degree at odds. One big difference is, of course, is that there is no equivalent in the present situation of the moribund Austria-Hungarian Empire/Kingdom, that seemed from its actions to disregard the possibility of general war in its narrow focus on putting manners on Serbia, a kingdom whose very existence was an affront to the Austria/Hungary polity. But, then again, how is one to view the “pro-Russian” elements in east Ukraine ? They also seem to be pursuing a narrow maverick agenda, without regard to possible broader consequences. At least, this time, one can be certain that none of the major players are dumb enough to want a general war. That, unfortunately, is not to say that circumstances will not drag at least some parties into such a conflict. The arrival of Cold War 2 is bad enough …

By the way - I should before now have welcomed Chevan back into activity In Here. His informed comment and perspective are always interesting. Also - “Micks” ? Seems to me that there is plenty of Mick DNA circulating in the Merry Old Land of Oz … Yours from the Shed (tanned hide to), JR.

#74

‘Mick’ down here, in my distant youth when such things mattered, could mean Catholic or Irish / Irish descent, but more Catholic in my 1950s / 1960s time as the Irish heritage was diluting and Italian Catholic immigrants were starting to take the heat with their peculiar form of Catholicism, which I envied greatly as it required the men to stand outside the church in nicely tailored suits talking and smoking while the women attended the service inside.

Standard chant of the state / technical school boys to those of us in Catholic school uniforms before they belted us was
‘Catholic dogs
jump like frogs
and eat no meat on Fridays’
and other highly informed and vastly amusing comments, such as disgust about the tunnels which ran between the nuns’ convent and presbytery which facilitated child sacrifices on the church altar in the dead of night.

If only they’d known what some priests were really doing with the altar boys and other children, they might have belted the **** out of some bastards who really deserved it.

#75

Might the difference be that the current situation revolves around Russian speakers / ethnic Russians in places where, often, they are only fairly recent migrants, but in1914 the situation revolved around pan-Slavism which saw the then Russian Empire supporting more or less indigenous slavs in the Balkans against Austria-Hungary and behind that Germany?

#76

RS* - you have a point, certainly. However, there is also the point that defense of the “Little Russian Brothers” in east Ukraine might be taken to fill the space of pan-Slavism in the short term, not to mention the Eurasian idea, in which Putin has expressed interest, in the medium/long term ? Don’t feel safe yet, me ould Cobber … JR.

#77


Oh that macho Mr. Putin. Always taking his shirt off and showing his man-titties and shooting sedated tigers. :mrgreen:

I’ve been to a few parades and enough to know that they aren’t my thing. And I’m not sure but I think we do in fact have a gay Pride parade in Buffalo like most major cities, but they seem less gay than touting your big, girthy IRBM’S :mrgreen:

And yes, we do have some military themed parades that are more somber and a remembrance on Memorial Day. Most of the military equipment featured is from WWII with local owners of Jeeps and halftracks driving in front of aged veterans, not the latest M-1’s. That’s not to say America doesn’t have its own chest-thumping military pageantry and overreaches with our love of military aircraft flying over everything involving major sporting events. But the only major U.S. military parade I recall was the return of the First Gulf War veterans through NYC in around 1991 for a ticker tape parade. But I think it was largely devoid of large pieces of military equipment IIRC…

#78

I would not give our bearded Austrian friend much chance of winning a Eurasian Song Contest. Regarding parades, we used to hold an annual military Easter Parade through Dublin to commemorate the anniversary of our 1916 Easter Rising/Rebellion. This was a bit embarrassing, as the Irish Defence Forces are small and, while quite well equipped for what here is broadly called providing assistance to the civil power (something the US National Guard is involved with over the Pond), has little in the line of heavy hardware. The military parade was mercifully killed off by the onset of the Northern Ireland “Troubles”. Nowadays we confine military commemorations to relatively modest public ceremonies, usually without parading. I think that most people here find this much preferable, for a number of reasons. With the centenary of the “Rising” coming up around Easter, 2016, it will be interesting to see whether an old-style parade will feature in the commemoration programme. Best regards, JR.

#79

A bearded Austrian conquering Europe…almost more terrifying than Stal…er…Putin-

#80


I call it, “ANN-EX-AYE-SHUN!”…