xzar_monty

A friend of mine is a very popular artist over here. At one of his gigs, someone from the audience shouted "Play something old!", as nostalgic fans are wont to do. Well, he looked at his bass player, gave a knowing wink, and off they went and played some Bach for a minute or two. Can't say that they didn't fulfill the request. Also, better late than never:

Good point! Of course I knew this, it just slipped my mind. But good correction, thanks.

Indeed, sometimes it's really difficult to tell whether these guys are basically trolling the world or whether they're actually serious. Here's a clergyman giving everyone an extremely important message, definitely worth checking out. Never once does it seem to occur to this fellow that one actually does not have to choose between two kinds of idiotic deaths -- and that it is entirely possible to live a life that doesn't end in either. The contrast between the rather beautiful backdrop and the drivel this guy is spouting is also pretty good: sometime in the past there has been a culture worth recognizing, but right now there's this fellow representing it. Way to go, guys.

Question. Towards the end of the Ivory Sanctum, there's an encounter where you're almost overwhelmed by demons who appear both in front of and behind you. But then you're half-saved by a group of angels -- at least if you play an Azata. But what happens at this point if you're playing a Demon or a Lich? I can't see any angels coming to help you.

You know, one reason that this whole war is so heartbreaking is that culturally, Russia has been a giant. I know that art is not a competition and should not be regarded as such, but if we look at classical music or literature, then the US, for instance, loses quite spectacularly to Russia. It's just that in so many other respects, Russia is an absolute monster. The country has had some two hundred (or is it three?) years of exceptionalism at the core of its thinking, and the results are disastrous.

Christmastime in Russia. This is a bit like the fires: given the kind of country Russia is, is this an indication of something, or is this business as usual? I don't know.

Former Roscosmos boss Dmitry Rogozin wounded in Donetsk. Here's a sassy video of him doing Sieg Heil. Just so that we know where the nazis are...

It's really hard to believe that anything like this could be a real ad, even in Russia. But is this real?

While it has to be said that Russians have been surprisingly inept in many of the things they've attempted during the war in Ukraine, we must also acknowledge that they have been remarkably clever and effective in the way they have spread dis- and misinformation apparently all over the world; the aim has been to destabilize "the West" by encouraging all racist and far-right groups and basically everything that works against what is regarded as a democratic Western society. This has worked depressingly well, and part of the reason it has worked so well is that poor education is, unfortunately, quite rife in the West as well. The troll factories in St. Petersburg are effective because so many Westerners believe in fairy tales with trolls in them... (This is not a direct reference to ZeroHedge, btw. Although, as I've said to Darkpriest before, one look at it is enough to tell me that it's rubbish.)

Apart from that gaffe with the missiles that ended up in Poland, Zelenskyi has indeed been remarkably impressive during the war. By contrast, both Putin and Lukasenka look dreadful: lacking in poise and grace, entirely joyless, rigid, mechanical and, from what I can determine, poorly educated. I don't speak Russian, so I can't really comment on Putin's eloquence or lack of it, but it sounds to me that he speaks like a thug, in the same way that Trump does. As if having no education, or poor education. (Trump doesn't have manners, either, whereas Putin can play this game fairly well if he wants to.) I'm extremely keen on the way people speak and what their way of speaking tells of their learning, so it would be wonderful to able to say something about Putin in this regard. But I can't. AND IN OTHER NEWS TODAY: masked Russians throwing sledgehammers onto the yard of the Finnish embassy in Moscow. Apparently this is a response to the "repeated provocations" from Finland's side. News flash: there have been none whatsoever. Historical reminder: it is impossible not to provoke the Russians. Whenever they feel they want to be provoked, they will come up with an excuse for it. I also applaud the bravery of these people, wearing masks and all! I suppose we all know what the sledgehammer is a reference to. Video: https://t.me/moslentaru/17606

Now this is really something: the Russian ministry of justice has effectively ordered the shutdown of the Moscow Helsinki Group. I don't know whether people here are aware of this at all, but it might even be Russia's most important human rights organization (but don't quote me on that). Things are getting dire indeed, for anyone with humanity, in Russia. News story: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-12-20/russia-files-lawsuit-to-close-down-one-of-oldest-human-rights-groups-court Background: https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/press-and-media/statements/moscow-helsinki-group

Gas pipeline explosion in Russia. Looks big, but I suppose it can't look small. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/blast-west-kazan-shuts-russia-ukraine-gas-export-pipeline-2022-12-20/

Moscow libraries are now told to "recycle" (i.e. destroy) books that fail an LGBT propaganda test. This looks both unbelievably childish and so sad & pitiful: a society must be very frightened of thinking if it deems that authors such as Stephen Fry, Michael Cunningham and Sarah Waters ought to have their books destroyed. But this is where Russia is now. https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/12/19/from-jean-genet-to-sarah-waters-moscow-libraries-told-to-recycle-books-that-fail-lgbt-propaganda-test

Israel is often a peculiar outlier. Here's an example of how this may manifest in the war in Ukraine: @Sarex: I'm not sure if there's a "Western narrative" as such at all. The 100k Ukrainian casualties is a figure that's openly discussed in Finland, for example. I agree that some of the noisy English-speaking press and some "official" outlets do appear rather foolish at times.

Switzerland being a peculiar case once again (Twitter link below -- I don't understand the "potentially sensitive" warning btw, there's just rubble in the picture). The relationship between geography and politics is very interesting, as exemplified by both Switzerland and Russia. If it wasn't for the mountains, Switzerland would have had zero chance of forming a "neutral" bastion in the middle of Europe, and at least part of the Russian paranoia stems from the fact that to anyone coming from the west, Russia is open land that's relatively easy to march through: not many natural defensive structures in sight.

Indeed. I suppose that once the war in Ukraine is over, Russian war criminals can only expect to find work in FIFA. No mafia, for instance, will take them.

Best World Cup final ever, I'd say. I haven't seen them all, though.

I'll say we're not: Argentina can't hold on.

I'd say the penalty was (almost) never a penalty, but France is in serious trouble now.

Do keep in mind that when Sartre said "Hell is other people", he was in France.

A significant proportion of the team behaving in incredibly bad ways, some of them committing serious crimes, is not a very good reason? That's an interesting take. You seem to imply that I should support a fellow EU country instead of Argentina. What's the logic behind that? I can't see any. Why would that one insignificant fact, membership in the EU, determine my support or lack of it? When I was much younger, I used to have sympathies for Holland in big tournaments, but once I had seen them take unsporting behaviour almost to an extreme (in the EC against Portugal and in the WC against Spain), I decided that that was enough: whenever Holland plays, I support their opponent. I have also watched a lot of football live, on various stadiums, and that has led me to support whoever Serbia plays against, because the Serbian team and their supporters have behaved in ways that I really don't enjoy. But my non-support towards Serbia is not as strong as that towards Holland or, these days, France.

Normally I don't care much about the private lives of sportspeople. However, previous WC winner Benjamin Mendy looks to be a rapist and is about to get sentenced soonish. Karim Benzema is a confirmed extortionist. Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann have enjoyed some fairly nasty racist fun at the expense of innocent Asians -- their club Barcelona had to make a public apology for the whole thing. Kylian Mbappé has engaged in some awfully prissy behaviour (not very serious, but weighs here). Thus, there is no way I could dream of supporting France.

There's a Finnish war joke concerning Finns and Russians. "Come on guys, one Finn is worth ten Russians[*]", a commander shouts to his troops. "Yeah, but what do you do when the eleventh one comes?" a fairly demoralized soldier asks. This appears to be the way Russia wages this war. In fact, there's an article today arguing precisely this point: Russia intends to go on as long as it has to and kill troops on both sides, until "the eleventh Russian is left standing". They really are that cynical, even to their own people. [*] (Incidentally, this is even fairly close to true, when you look at the casualties in the Winter War.) EDIT: Speaking of Russia and stupid approach: Gorth, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Yet again. This is interesting because it is so far from Ukraine and such an important facility.

Weakish-looking teams have come back and won from 3-0 down at half time. So, not over.