DJS, there is a difference between Putin's Russia and old USSR. USSR was multinational conglomerate where Russia dominated the states in the federations, and many nationalities faced rusification, and today, where it became nationalistic state waging wars against neighbors to turn them into unified, centralized Russian state. This dream of Russian nationalists is bloody and it took 20 years for the West to finally notice it. The present guard in Moscow wants to recreate state within boundary of USSR and beyond, but with much stronger grip of Moscow to prevent similar disintegration of 1991. The same time, it is driven by revenge against all states that were some point under Moscow control and they decided to chose their own destiny. This poses threat to good half of Europe and it is ridiculous when two months ago Russian officials claimed that future border of Russia as far west as in Prague and Rijeka at Adriatic sea. Southern Slavs were never part of Russian influence because Tito chess mated Stalin from the Balkans in 1948. This still does not prevent nationalist in Moscow to dream that Rijeka, Zagreb, Prague or Ljubjana to be a part of vast empire just because Croats, Slovenes, and Czech are Slavs. Either way, what is happening in Russia is far more different than was with USSR. Russia after 1917 isolated itself from the world, today, it attempts to flex its control everywhere it feels like to.
Posts by kaik
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29I'm bemused - Vladimir Putin as a Christian Warrior - Do Russians see him as a fighter for Jesus?
by fulltimestudent ini accidentally came across this youtube video, "why the west fears putin.
" curious, i watched it.
you may find it interesting also.
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kaik
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I'm bemused - Vladimir Putin as a Christian Warrior - Do Russians see him as a fighter for Jesus?
by fulltimestudent ini accidentally came across this youtube video, "why the west fears putin.
" curious, i watched it.
you may find it interesting also.
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kaik
Russian speakers in Ukraine are Ukrainian citizens. Ukraine is multinational country. There are Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks living there as well. Carpathian Ruthenia was part of Czechoslovakia in interwar period and later became a part of Hungary during WWII to be returned in October 1944 back to Czechoslovakia for 8 months until Stalin kicked them out and the territory was ceded as price for liberation to USSR. I was in Lviv, Uzhorod, Beregovo, crossed over Carpathian mountains separating Hungarian basin from Central Ukraine. It is not ethnically homogenous country, yet it is Russia who got involved by military action and destroying this country. Since Putin ascent into the power if we include first war in Chechnya, more than 150,000 people died in Southern Russia, Caucasus Region and Ukraine for his dream. Three countries are directly occupied and invaded by Russia today. Russia threaten everyone on its border from Finland down to Poland to Baltic states to Romania. Russia will not stop there, and if not contained, they will be in the Western Europe in no time. Russia has hard time to acknowledge Ukraine as an independent county and nation. They do not understand that no Slavic country wants to be with Russia, no single of them have whatsoever desire to be allied with it. Maybe Serbs after 1999 NATO bombing, but I was in Yugoslavia under Tito and Serbs were looking upon Russians as poor relatives not to be trusted.
The issue for me is that Western Russian sympathizers do not see the dangers and apologize Russian extremism and aggression even at the cost of tens of thousands dead. How many countries and what is the death toll acceptable for these people.
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JW child taken out of hospital - now cured of cancer
by Xanthippe injw child cured according to bbc this morning.
if you remember the child's parents took him out of the southampton, uk hospital against the doctors' advice to have proton beam therapy for his brain tumour in prague.
interesting follow-up article..
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kaik
British cancer care lags behind of that in Czech Republic and Slovenia. It is actually on the bottom of the list in EU and OECD. Czech child care is far ahead of British, or every EU country is ahead of the NHS system. UK still does not have PTC, which is already in other countries like Poland, Russia, Austria, and now in process to open in Pecs, Hungary and Slovakia.
The issue was not level of care from NHS, but arrogance of British bureaucracy dealing with the case. I believe what doctors told in interviews with the Czech press over embarrassed behavior from UK officials who chased poor Kings family across entire Europe and made jack asses of themselves in the process in both in Spain and Czech Republic. If the British were right, than Kings would be in prison and little Ashya in CPS care at the hand of British bureaucracy. British were wrong and even apologized to Kings, but it was not after widespread outcry in EU, UK, Spain and Czech Republic. If their case would remain anonymous and forgotten, we would never heard of it. Any case, you trying to tell me that British official were behaving right, but it was Kings family -who got apology and their action was justified- were wrong? It just does not make sense.
So, what I have read from the Czech newspaper, TV and media, Kings contacted PTC in Prague for treatment in July. PTC is a standard cancer care in both Czech Republic and Germany. Munich has PTC on level of Prague but it is not as modern. Nothing alternative about it. British doctors did not bothered to answer Czech medical officials for SIX weeks. They were ignored, this was the PTC word. They lied to Kings family that PTC is not worth it and than threatened them with CPS to take little Ashya away. Czech medical team twice per week through entire August tried to communicate with the British and got NO single word of reply. They received medical papers after international outcry ten days later after scheduled appointment. British doctors knew that little Ashya would be scheduled for transport to Prague in first week September. PTC and child hospital in Prague-Motol (the largest hospital in Central Europe) had their all calls and messages ignored. Kings family pull their child away in defiance of NHS bureaucracy, and decided to pay for the treatment with their own money. They got chased across four countries and get arrested on false arrest warrant. Their name is smeared through European press. It was not until international outcry and assurance from Czech PTC that they were dealing with Kings for six weeks to get the boy released from Spanish custody. Boy arrived to Prague in very bad shape according to PTC and Motol. He got treated and anonymous donor paid $50000 for it. Later NHS after public pressure paid for the rest. The British hospital lied, hid themselves from the international embarrassment, and yet it is Kings fall that they sought treatment abroad which is not available at UK. The institution who was responsible for smearing Kings family was not even capable to fire the people who mishandled the case and seems nobody is there responsible for anything anymore.
What Kings family did was brave and they made the right choice. They did something what other loving parents would do for their sick child and I cannot condemn their action.
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JW child taken out of hospital - now cured of cancer
by Xanthippe injw child cured according to bbc this morning.
if you remember the child's parents took him out of the southampton, uk hospital against the doctors' advice to have proton beam therapy for his brain tumour in prague.
interesting follow-up article..
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kaik
I believe what best medical cancer center said in the Czech Republic over NHS and CPS in UK who looked like jack asses over entire incident. They were trying to communicate with the British counterparts for several weeks who were not willing to hand over the care to the Prague Proton Center, which is btw BEST radiation therapy center in Europe and third in the world after Loma Linda and Mayo Clinic. There was serious breakdown of communication, but in the British side, who thought who knew best. Parents defied. If they were wrong they will be still held in the prison either in Spain or UK. It was not until public outcry and international embarrassment that
1) Got Aysha to Prague to receive treatment
2) Got parents released from jail in Spain
3) And showed that UK cancer treatment lags behind the rest of Europe where Proton Therapy is a standard cancer care. NHS was not believing that it is standard because UK does not have single center until 2018.
Without much of the publicity that case received, who knows how little Ashya would fare. Any case, the issue was that parents sought a best possible treatment and British prevented them from doing so and chased them across continent while getting embarrassed both in Spain and Czech Republic doing so.
Proton Therapy is NOT alternative treatment. There is another one as good as in Prague in Munich and two other are in process to open in Central Europe within next two years. Kings family should sue for wrongful arrests and I am not surprised they do not want to return to UK. Czech press had covered the case much extensively. It was not after public outcry that British hospital decided six weeks later to sent medical records to Prague which were being requested by PTC since July but all these requests were ignored. Parents did what was right, they did not deserved to by haunted by British law enforcement, and had their name smeared.
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My 10 year old son almost Outed me as when someone showed him a Watchtower! "The Generation that won't die"
by PokerPlayerPhil ini had a photo copy of the magazine "the generation that will never die!
" sitting in my office, he saw it and being the voracious reader he is, he asked me "why did the magazine say all those people would never die?
" i told him "humans make mistakes, they were wrong by claiming that.
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kaik
I remember the WT publication when we studied it back then. Wow, it been 30 years. Now the elders have you at the spotlight for hoarding apostate literature. -
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Some Early Church Fathers even ignored the name YHWH
by opusdei1972 ini was reading the bart's answer to terry on th name "jehovah", and i remembered that when i did my personal study about the church fathers of the second century i found that justin martyr ignored the divine name:.
from the first apology of justin martyr:.
... and as many virtues as are peculiar to a god who is called by no proper name.
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kaik
Jehovah name was not used in the Antiquity nor in early medieval times. Jews do not use it. It did not appear until late 13th century, and it was not widely used in the Catholic Christianity. On the other hand Protestants churches used it extensively since the 18th century, especially the one of the English origin. Many traveling preaches in the 18th century America used the name, and appears regularly in the publications and bible translations since at least 1750, for example in the work of Julius Bate (+1771) and many other Protestants under influence of Hutchinson. Jehovah name also penetrated into Scandinavian Protestant denominations and was used by Swedish mystic Swedenborg (+1772). Either way the usage of the name is deeply tied with religious awakening of the Protestants in the 18th century and Jehovah witnesses borrowed something that was widely used by one time very popular theologians century earlier. Hardly anything they had invented. -
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JW child taken out of hospital - now cured of cancer
by Xanthippe injw child cured according to bbc this morning.
if you remember the child's parents took him out of the southampton, uk hospital against the doctors' advice to have proton beam therapy for his brain tumour in prague.
interesting follow-up article..
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kaik
This case received widespread media attention the Czech Republic. I hope little Ashya recovers and lives normal childhood. If his parents did not stand against arrogance and ill-will of bureaucracy, he may have been dead. -
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Brett King (Jehovah's Witness) Releases Video of why he removed his ill son, Ashya, from a UK hospital
by jwleaks in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14etqn9zpwk .
jw leaks.
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kaik
Lets hope, the boy is cured and the cancer would not return. Proton Radiation Therapy is a lifesaver. My friend had one done in Prague couple months ago and had bad prognosis. I will be heading to his wedding in summer. Last four years I lost two my female friends to breast cancer. Horrible disease and I wish there would be a real cure. -
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Brett King (Jehovah's Witness) Releases Video of why he removed his ill son, Ashya, from a UK hospital
by jwleaks in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14etqn9zpwk .
jw leaks.
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kaik
In the Czech media, there was update on the Ashya condition and seems that Proton Beam Therapy worked.
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29
I'm bemused - Vladimir Putin as a Christian Warrior - Do Russians see him as a fighter for Jesus?
by fulltimestudent ini accidentally came across this youtube video, "why the west fears putin.
" curious, i watched it.
you may find it interesting also.
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kaik
Another funny things on the right wing parties in USA and in Europe who think that Russia is guarantor of Christianity. Orthodox Christianity never reformed, it is backward, reactionary and stuck in thinking of the late Antiquity. It is not compromising nor interested in debate. In medieval times, Russians and Orthodox countries rather surrendered to Mongols that accept help from the West and confront their faith. There was this huge painting where we had under communist time in the text book where Alexander Nevsky surrenders to Mongols in exchange for protection of his Christianity against Catholic Europe. In 1415 Council of Konstanz several times had interest to unify Christianity after Schism in 1054. They even sent Czech missionary, Jerome of Prague to ensure equal treatment of the eastern Churches. Only Kievan patriarch was interested to attend. Numerous popes were interested in negotiation with Greek and Orthodox churches, but all these were never answered. Idealist from the right are as naive as the left was in 1920 who immigrate to Russia only to be shot or sent to gulags. Catholic church went through numerous reforms (Cluny, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, Schism, Lateran councils, and faced pressure from Reformation). Protestant Reformations are chapters on its own.
At any case, Russia has huge Muslim population with extensive birth rate from Caucasus to southern Russia to Central Russia of Tatarstan. More than 150,000 people in Russia died since 1994 when the war and insurgency in the south started. Much more than in Balkan wars and as much as in Syria. War with Ukraine and confrontation with entire West will wear out Russia. And the right wing want to side with totalitarian Russia for their own political ideology as the communist bastards in the past.