Stormig

Yeah, only an idiot would get off of hitting people out of the blue.

I think it's pretty cool! That sort of stuff IMO has as much potential as, if not more so than, some of the mock "displays" that Native Americans/Indian Americans/whatever put up to attract interest. Case in point: guttural singing as a score in ethno-jazz - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throat_singing

What goes around comes around - and I think the intensity magnifies. May he be disgraced and humiliated to the other end of the world and out of China.

Is that Rammstein in the background? New hobby, Sip?

BTW, I am loved by everyone at work. Where does that leave me and my fart? Oh wait, I respect people's noses by curbing my most natural - and I do mean natural - right even if some people have no qualms with polluting my breathing air with that "cool" thing they call smoking or making a commotion out of being reminded about some manners... What's the big deal about compromise, adapting, trade-offs, and middle-ways? It's not just with couples, it's a fact of life with almost every kind of relationship out there. To not go through any of those would mean either you live on an island or are like those German eldsters who die and the police find out only when they break into their houses N years later. Still, of course, to each their own. I see little in the way of a relationship between, say, a woman's making a man (whatever) over and compromise. It's ruts and growing old, losing that joie de vivre and turning on themselves or something... My observation is that this is more common with aging females, but then it is also common knowledge that teenage guys, who are no less affected by mid-life crises later on in their lives and ending up doing stupid things, are also interested in only sex during a certain period of their lives, exceptions not screwing the rule. Big whoop. Let's discover America all over again/make America over...

Hallelujah! At last, the truth! I want to believe!

http://www.agos.com.tr/eng/index.php?modul...7&cat_id=22 “The Mysterious American Who Drives Armenians Crazy” Holdwater - II .: Taner Akçam Authors Issue:582 25 Mayıs 2007 In the interview to Yeni Şafak Newspaper on 27 July 2005, after stating the reasons for withholding his identity, Holdwater says, “I have managed to continue this daunting struggle by successfully holding my tongue for thirty years. So please don’t pressurize me more on this sensitive issue”. Holdwater claims he has exceptional ingenuity in protecting his anonymity. I don’t know if anonymity ascribes Holdwater a particular mystery and a special meaning to his work; or if it arouses curiosity in people to think, “who actually is this person?”. It didn’t in me. Neither what he wrote nor his site interested me. Until he began to play an important role in the campaign carried out against me. One of the most important arguments of his campaign was the presentation of a letter of complaint to American authorities on me being a “terrorist”. I don’t know if he actually did this. I don’t know either if there is a direct link between his campaign he and my arrest on the Canadian border. But I did mention him and his campaign on an article I wrote on the arrest incident. He wrote a 30-page answer back, which was full of lies, insults and attacks. He trusts the fact that his name and address are withheld. “No one knows who I am, so I’ll say whatever I like,” he thinks. This approach of Holdwater must be curbed, and he must be reminded that every game has to be played according to its rules. To shamelessly insult others while hiding your own identity fits with no proper principle, it’s a disgrace to say the least. Holdwater’s claim regarding his intense effort to protect his identity doesn’t seem to hold water. Or he doesn’t take historians seriously enough. He doesn’t know we are enthusiastic about documents and love to trace them. To sum up, he has shown some degree of carelessness, the kind of carelessness committed by every ordinary person who fancies themselves as very clever and more intelligent than others. He published some letters he wrote in his own name and some he received to his own name, by removing his name. According to these letters, Holdwater wrote a letter, in his own name, to president Jimmy Carter on 2 April 1980, using his real name and this letter was then sent on to the Holocaust Memorial Council. The Holocaust Memorial Council is an organization founded under official law by the United States Congress in October 1980. Holdwater’s letter received a reply from Council Director Monroe H. Freedman on 2 June 1980. One senses from the reply that Holdwater’s objections about the Armenian genocide were taken seriously. Freedman states that he doesn’t have sufficient information on the “Turkish theses” and asks Holdwater to forward any works he knows of. This, of course, is a great honour for Holdwater. Therefore, he sees no harm in publishing the letter on his website with his name removed. He also published another letter he wrote, this time to the New York Times, on the site. We understand from this second letter that, on 5 September 1980, Holdwater wrote a reply to Monroe H. Freedman’s letter dated 2 June 1980. I don’t know how aware Holdwater is of this, but the Holocaust Memorial Council and the Holocaust Museum it governs are public institutions and therefore letters sent to these institutions are open to public. Which means, in accordance with the principle of transparency, all applicants can view these letters. Once you have the text of Freedman’s letter dated 2 June published by Holdwater, and the information that Holdwater wrote a reply on 5 September 1980, it is rather easy to access these documents. The Holocaust Museum has to give this information to anyone who demands it. Yes, Mr. Murad Gümen, or, to use the English alphabet, Murad Gumen; as you see, one doesn’t have to be detective Kerry Drake to find out who you are [detective Drake is a comic book hero, and Murad Gümen understands very well what I mean]. Tracing documents published by you has proved sufficient. I believe you will stop taking historians lightly from now on. As you have understood, we are talking about a document you yourself have also published. All I am saying is, to prevent any distortion and alteration of the document, that the name on this document, which you effaced, is Murad Gümen. In a sense, I am rectifying the alteration you made on a document presented to the public. You may know, us academicians do not like altering documents much. (Document distortion is the reserved occupation of the Turkish Historical Association.) Attacking others, and insulting them, while concealing your own name, does not fit moral conduct at all, Mr. Murad Gümen. Believe me, I am still really curious why you think I, and many others in my position, do not deserve a right you so readily find yourself endowed with. Translated by Nazım Dikbaş

http://www.agos.com.tr/eng/index.php?modul...7&cat_id=22 “The Mysterious American Who Drives Armenians Crazy” Holdwater - I .: Taner Akçam Authors Issue:581 18 Mayıs 2007 On 27 July 2005, Yeni Şafak Newspaper published an interview titled “The Mysterious American Who Drives Armenians Crazy”. The newspaper wrote the following about this person which it describes as “interesting and unusual” and who goes under the pseudonym Holdwater: “This mysterious American has been, for many years, the financer of a highly effective Internet site based in the USA. The main aim of the site called ‘Tall Armenian Tale: Other Side of the Falsified Genocide’... is to give strong answers to the Armenian Diaspora’s claims of genocide.” According to Yeni Şafak, Holdwater is actually the son of a Turkish family which immigrated to America in the 1940s, he was born in New York in the 1950s, and his parents raised him without teaching him a single word of Turkish. He champions the Turkish theses on the Internet site he administers http://www.tallarmeniantale.com. Holdwater explains his use of a pseudonym with receiving death threats and the sabotage of his broadcast repeatedly every day. “If I were to publish my real name... there would be no trace left of my family peace... nor of my business life, not even of my Internet site,” he says. Holdwater is afraid to disclose his name because his “peace will be disturbed,” however he does not hold back from publishing the photographs of intellectuals such as Halil Berktay and Müge Göçek, and parading them as targets by writing articles full of animosity and hatred. It is quite difficult to understand how someone who is afraid of being attacked can organize such ruthless campaigns of belligerence against others. I am also among Holdwater’s priority targets. He leads the campaign against me, along with institutions such as the Assembly of American Turkish Associations (ATAA) and the Turkish Forum. He publishes articles on his site which claim that I am a terrorist and that I am responsible of the death of Americans in Turkey, and even that I have planned and organized murders of American civilians. He publishes a list of my “terrorist activities” from the years 1974-75, even with precise dates and locations. The list he has published is actually ordinary, small scale apprehensions during student demonstrations of the era, which didn’t even make the press at the time. One does not have to be exceptionally intelligent to guess who might have given the police records of these insignificant apprehensions to Holdwater, whose dates even I had forgotten. But the real problem is: Those who present this information to Holdwater as “Taner Akçam’s terrorist activities,” are actually abusing Holdwater’s lack of knowledge regarding Turkey. Poor Holdwater thinks these apprehensions are “terrorist activities” and doesn’t know that they are all related to crimes of handout distribution and bill posting, for which police permission was obtained. Holdwater probably hasn’t even heard of the fact that you had to obtain permission from what is now called the Security General Directorate’s Associations Special Inspection Branch Directorate in the 1970s in Turkey. He probably doesn’t know either, that even if you did receive special permission from this office, you could be arbitrarily arrested and apprehended at Police Headquarters for 3-5 days. As a matter of fact, I was apprehended by the police once for an issue regarding the Cyprus landing. As the Student’s Association, we had distributed authorized leaflets protesting the military invasion of Cyprus. We were apprehended while we were distributing handouts and despite showing the permission documents on us, we were held under arrest for 2-3 days at Police Headquarters. The other actions Holdwater has published as my ‘terrorist activities’ are related to our demand for the foundation of a student representation office on campus. Our university did not have a student representation office and we wanted a representation office where we could express our problems with the administration. All this is slightly difficult for someone who was raised with American culture and who has been educated in the USA to understand. Besides, those who transmitted to him the information regarding my arrests forgot to send him a photograph of me. Therefore, for a long time, Holdwater used a photograph of a PKK member as my photograph on his site. Those who are carrying out a campaign against me, portraying me as a “terrorist”, are using this “mysterious American” called Holdwater. Their calculation is simple: To use the “terrorist” image which has formed in the States after September 11. They are expecting favours from a mindset which can explain both a person apprehended for handout distribution in 1974 and those who attacked the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, with the same concept of “terrorist”. With this attitude, they are actually making fun of Americans, too. After all, here we have a “terrorist” who has carried out direct “terrorist activities” against Turkey; and what is logical would be to get hold of this terrorist and hold him to account according to Turkish Laws. Or at least give information to Americans regarding the past activities of this “terrorist”, his investigation and trial. But instead, they are telling the Americans something which amounts to, “We treat this man as a citizen with a clean record, but could you be so kind as to treat him as a terrorist?” Because the citizen in question had his prison sentence annulled with changes made to the Turkish Criminal Code in 1992, and also has a document stating he has a “clean record”. It is impossible for Holdwater to understand all this, due to his lack of knowledge regarding Turkey. What I find difficult to understand is why this “mysterious” person is so full of hatred and animosity and why he organizes campaigns of belligerence against others despite stating that he is very afraid. I wouldn’t even want to imagine that Holdwater, who describes himself as “a typical Christian, who goes to church on Sundays with his family,” does not know of the Christian teaching which proclaims, do naught unto others what you would not have them do unto you. Next week, I want to take a closer look at the Holdwater issue. Translated by Nazım Dikbaş

Poor Azaty Poo... Get well soon. Last year I was kissed on the lip by a mosquito in my sleep. What a sight that turned out to be. I had to get a shot in the buttock for that one.

Indeed extraordinary. Mine is always at my door by the time I wake up so I can take her exercising. Self-absorbed biotch.

Just thought I'd ventilate. Is the new look not - - - I don't know, The O.C.-like???? http://www.archiecomics.com/news/pr121706-bv-new-look.html What a disappointment.

That begs the question - what ARE the English words for secular and culture?

I believe the footage where Hrant speaks was actually shot by Marashlian himself.

Of course, no self-respecting, self-denigrating, auto-destructive nationalist would ever even be able to listen even if they hear, read or see even if they look. They can't even read, it's so boring and above all soooo un-nationalistic! Erdogan the "Lan" Kasimpasali, the head of thieves, a nationalist? Take your head, expecting that so-called salvation from politicians, out of that ostrich arse of yours you buried it in.

In Memory of My Friend Hrant Dink http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY2f4CZy8Qc

Armenian Reporter, Feb. 10, 2006 © 2006 Armenian Reporter “My Turkishness in Revolt” By Taner Akçam EDITOR’S NOTE: Taner Akçam – Turkish intellectual, professor at the University of Minnesota, and the author of A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility – recently became the subject of a formal complaint under Turkey’s Penal Code Article 301: the same “crime” of “insulting Turkishness” for which Hrant Dink was tried and found guilty by the Turkish judiciary. The essay below – originally published as Türklüğümün İsyanı (”The Revolt of My Turkishness”) in the January 24, 2007 edition of the Turkish newspaper, Radikal – is Mr. Akçam’s approved English translation of his original Turkish-language article. It is being reprinted in the Reporter with the author’s permission. I am a Turk. Hrant was an Armenian. I write for Agos. He was Agos. Hrant, Agos’s Turkish writers, and Agos itself risked everything for a cause: to cease the hostility between Turks and Armenians; to bring the resentment and hatred to an end. We wanted each group, each nationality, to live together on the common ground of mutual respect. Hrant and Agos were a single flower blooming on the barren plains of Turkey. That flower was destroyed, torn from the ground. Everyone says, “The bullet fired at Hrant hit Turkey.” That’s true, but we need to ask ourselves in complete and transparent honesty: Who made the target for that bullet? Who targeted Hrant so the bullet would find its mark? Who held him fast so the shot wasn’t wasted? Hrant wasn’t killed by a lone 17-year-old. He was murdered by those who made him a target and held him in place. Nor was he killed by a single bullet. It was the targeting, month by month, that murdered him. “I’m afraid,” he said on January 5. “I’m very afraid, Taner. The attacks on me and on Agos are very systematic. They called me to the Governor’s office, where they started making threats. They said, ‘We’ll make you pay for everything you’ve been doing.’ All the attacks began after I was threatened.” “2007 is going to be a bad year, Taner,” he continued. “They’re not going to ease off. We’ve been made into a horrible target. Between the press, the politicians, and the lawyers, they’ve created this atmosphere that’s so poisonous, they’ve made us such an obscenity, that we’ve become sitting ducks. “They’ve opened up hunting season, Taner, and they’ve got us right where they want us.” Hrant wasn’t killed by a 17-year-old. He was murdered by those who portrayed him as an enemy of Turkey, every single day in the press, to that 17-year-old. He was murdered by those who dragged him to the doors of the courthouse under Article 301. He was murdered by those who aimed Article 301 during their open season on intellectuals, and by those who didn’t have the courage to change Article 301. Hrant was murdered by those who called him to the Governor’s office and then threatened him instead of protecting him. There’s no point in shedding crocodile tears. Let us bow our heads and look at our hands. Let us ponder how we will clean off the blood. You organs of the press who have expressed shock over Hrant’s death, go read your back issues, look at what you wrote about Hrant. You will see the murderer there. You who used 301 as a weapon to hunt intellectuals, see what you wrote about 301, look at the court decisions. You will see the murderer there. Dear government officials, spare us your crocodile tears. Tell us what you plan to do to the Lieutenant Governor who called Hrant into his office and, together with an official from the National Intelligence Bureau, proceeded to threaten him. What do you intend to do to them? Hrant was portrayed as “the Armenian who insulted Turkishness.” For this he was murdered. He was murdered because he said, “Turkey must confront its history.” The hands that pulled the trigger – or caused it to be pulled – in 2007 are the same hands that shot all the Hrants in 1915, the same hands that left all those Armenians to choke in the desert. Hrant’s killers are sending us a message. They’re saying “Yes! We were behind 1915 and we’ll do it again in 2007!” Hrant’s murderers believe they killed in the name of Turkishness, just like those who killed all the Hrants in 1915. For them, Turkishness is about committing murder. It means setting someone up as the enemy and then targeting that person for destruction. Quite the contrary, the murderers are a black stain upon the brow of Turkishness. It is they who have demeaned Turkish identity. For this reason, we have stood up and we have decided to take Turkishness out of the assassins’ hands and we have shouted out, “We are all Hrant! We are all Armenian!” We are the resounding cry of Turkishness and Turkey. All of us – Turks, Kurds, Alevites, secularists, and Muslims alike – shout out on behalf of everyone who wants to take Turkishness away from these murderers. Turkishness is a beautiful thing that should be respected instead of left in the hands of murderers; so is Armenianness. We can feel proud to be Turkish only if we can acknowledge the murderer for who he is. That is what we are doing today. By declaring, “We are all Armenians,” we know that we honor Turkishness; by identifying the true murderer, we create a Turkishness worth claiming. Today we declare to the world that murder has nothing to do with Turkishness or Turkey. We are not going to leave Turkishness in the hands of murderers. We will not allow Turkishness to be stained by hate crimes towards Armenians. Either Turkishness belongs to the murderers, or it belongs to us. Turks cry out that the person who killed Hrant is a murderer. In the wake of his death, Turkishness affirms that we are all Armenians. This, I say, is what we also need to do for 1915. If we can affirm that a real Turk is someone who can distance Turkishness from the murder of Hrant Dink, then we ought to be able to do the same thing for the events around 1915. Those who gather in a protective circle around Hrant’s murderer are the same people who protected the murderers of 1915. Those who honored Talaat, Bahaettin Sakir and Dr. Nazim yesterday are doing the same for Hrant’s murderer today. If we can come out and declare Hrant’s murder a “shameful act,” then we should be able to state the same, as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk did, about the acts that occurred in 1915. Today, hundreds of thousands of us condemn this murder by declaring “We are all Armenian.” In 1915, Turks, Kurds, Moslems and Alevites did the same. We have to choose, not only for today but for yesterday as well. Whose side are we on? Which “Turkishness” are we defending, the one that defends the murderers or the one that condemns the murderous acts? Do we stand with Kemal, the Mayor of Boğazlıyan, who annihilated Armenians in 1915, or with Abdullahzade Mehmet Efendi, the Mufti of Boğazlıyan, who bore witness against that mayor at the trial that lead to his execution, stating, “I fear the wrath of God”? Are we going to represent the “Turkishness” that defended the crimes of Talat, Enver, Bahaettin Şakir, Doctor Nâzım, and Governor Resit of Diyarbakır? Or will we oppose them in the name of a Turkishness that condemns such horror? We need to know that in 1915 we had Mazhar, the governor of Ankara; Celal, the governor of Aleppo; Reşit, the governor of Kastamonu; Cemal, the lieutenant governor of Yozgat; Ali Faik, the mayor of Kütahya; and Ali Fuat, the mayor of Der-Zor. And we had soldiers and army commanders in 1915, men we can embrace with respect, for opposing what happened: Vehip *****, Commander of the Third Army; Avni *****, Commander of the Trabzon garrison; Colonel Vasfi; and Salim, Major Commandant of the Yozgat post. Trabzon has its share of murderers like Ogün Samast in 2007 and Governor Cemal Azmi and Unionist “Yenibahçeli” Nail in 1915. But those who opposed the crimes of 1915 and didn’t hesitate to identify the murderers in court included many citizens of Trabzon: Nuri, Chief of Police; businessman, Ahmet Ali Bey; Customs Inspector Nesim Bey, and parliamentarian Hafiz Mehmet Emin Bey, who testified, “I saw with my own eyes that the Armenians were loaded onto boats and taken out and drowned, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it.” These are just a few of the dozens, hundreds, even thousands of people who opposed the horrible acts committed. We, Turks and Turkey, have a choice to make. We will affirm either the Turkishness of murderers past and present, or the Turkishness of those who cry out today, “We are all Armenian!” and who yesterday declared, “We will not let our hands be stained with blood.” The whole world looks upon us with respect because they see us draw a line between Turkishness and barbarism. Today we are building a wall between murderers and Turkishness; we are Turks who know how to point the finger at a murderer. We must show the same courage in regard to the events of 1915. Hrant wanted us to. When he said, “I love Turks and Turkey, and I consider it a privilege to be living amongst Turks,” that’s what he was asking for. We need to acknowledge the murderers of the Hrants of 1915, and we need to draw a line between them and Turkishness. If we are going to own up to this murder in 2007 then we need to do the same for those of 1915. That’s what confronting one’s history is about. Today, by saying to Hrant’s murderer, “You don’t represent me as a Turk: you are simply a murderer,” we have begun the process of confronting and acknowledging our history. We must do the same with the murderers of 1915 by drawing a line between their acts and our Turkishness. We must condemn these murderers as having smeared our brows with the dark stain of their crimes. Then, and only then, can we Turks go about the world with our heads held high. I cry out in the name of Turkishness. I cry out as a Turk, as a friend who lost Hrant, my beloved Armenian brother. Let’s take back Turkishness from the murderous hands of those who wish to smear us with their dark deeds. Let’s shout in one voice, “WE ARE ALL HRANT! WE ARE ALL ARMENIANS!” Radikal (Turkey) January 24, 2007

Have I missed anyone? Anyway, happy birthday to all those implicated.

Someone should warn them that too many Malatya apricots gives one the runs.

Not 100% sure, but... The older provincial system grouped many modern provinces together, and that likely means the modern province of Erzincan was part of the older province of Erzurum. There IS a Tercan in Erzincan province.

They were Presbyterians. Ironically Malatya is also the hometown of the late Hrant Dink.

Yes, of course. You can't force yourself to fake it too long and act against yourself. Best be steadminded at all times.

Oh how that had escaped me. Yeah, I better get that grip.

Still BS. Since when is anyone asking for tears? Did I cry for Ariel Sharon? No. Would I condone his assassination? No. What is his diplomat guilty of? Nothing. Big whoop.

Like I said, serving EVEN the Israeli government is not "wrong" by any stretch of warped-up imagination. No-one is in a position to make such a judgement and act upon it. If there is a "wrong" out there, well, there is the rule of the law to resort to.

I am at a loss for words.