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Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Testimony :: Panayote Dimitras
Founding Member/ Spokesman - Greek Helsinki Monitor & Minority Rights

In order to help explain why, in its 2002 reports, Freedom House ranks Greece last among free countries in civil liberties and in media freedom, while the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report ranks, again in 2002, Greece as a Tier 3 country –alongside countries considered as not free- indicating that there have not been significant efforts to meet minimum anti-trafficking standards, it is important to outline some basic features of Greek political culture.

Political science academic researchers like Adamantia Pollis and Thanos Lipovatz have written extensively on the incompatibility of the individualistic human rights culture with the traditional communalist Christian culture. In societies with an Eastern Orthodox tradition, the conflict between modernist and Enlightenment values on the one hand and traditional church-based values on the other has not led to the domination of the former at the expense of the latter, as it happened in societies with a Western (Catholic and Protestant) Christian tradition. So, while in the latter a rights-oriented civil society was able to develop in the last 100-150 years, in the former such a characteristic is for all practical purposes absent.

Moreover, the Greek Ombudsman wrote in its Annual Report 1999: “Human rights violations by the administration (…) can be codified with the words arbitrariness-indifference-bias-impunity; they take their most acute form when applied on vulnerable social groups. Often the administration arbitrarily uses public interest as an excuse to restrict individual rights or shows illegal idleness when there is a constitutional obligation to protect human rights [p.15]. These phenomena will not be eliminated as long as existing disciplinary procedures remain idle. (…) The administration, reproducing the most backward reflexes of our society, often shows its worst face when dealing with members of minority groups. The pathology of human rights in our country is mainly a problem of implementing existing constitutional and legal provisions rather than lack thereof. It is common wisdom that in the administration prevails a feeling of impunity, that in some cases favors occasional illegal actions, or in other cases it perpetuates a status of generalized anomy and corruption [pp. 55-56].” Another academic, criminologist and oftentimes government advisor Yannis Panousis, recently wrote that “in our country, anomy (no rules of the game) and zero guilt (no one is responsible to be held accountable) dominate”

During his visit to Greece, two weeks ago, Alvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, felt necessary to publicly remind Greek authorities that “Every country has its own share of human rights problems… The most important though is the attitude of state authorities –their reluctance to cooperate to help record the situation” “The priority is for the state to find the ability to recognize its human rights problems and start working towards their solution”

However, former Minister of Justice Mihalis Stathopoulos -a non-politician and an academic with a NGO background, who introduced the abolition of religion from the identity cards in 2000, only to lose his cabinet post a year later- said (on 29 June 2000, in a seminar in the Amphitheater of the Foreign Ministry) that “all those who boast for the absence of racism in Greece are people who are not used to criticism and self-criticism.” He was in effect commenting on Greek government’s rejection of the criticism by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)’s report on Greece released in June 2000.

Indeed, the relevant advisory body to the Prime Minister, the National Commission for Human Rights, in its first ever 2000 report, noted the tendency of Greek authorities to view NGO and IGO reports as “undermining the nation” and to treat them with either “secrecy or scorn.” It also recommended instead that state reports or answers to criticism “should not be confined to banalities or exaggerated promises.”

Perhaps the most revealing reaction to an IGO report is Greece’s rejection of the multicultural character of Greek society, which the ECRI report (and other IGO reports since then) insisted upon. Indeed, in Greece, it is widely thought that “the concept of a multicultural society, which may suit young countries such as the USA, Canada or Australia, is less suited to Europe with its long tradition of nation-states,” as stated a few days ago in a front page commentary of Greece’s authoritative daily Kathimerini, whose English edition is inserted in the International Herald Tribune. The commentary’s main line was an appeal for, inter alia, “the repatriation of migrants to their homeland.”

The main consequence of this rejection of multiculturalism is Greece’s persistent denial to acknowledge the presence of ethno-national minorities on its territory, namely the Turks and the Macedonians.

Instead, Greece insists that there is only one religious minority, the Muslims of Thrace. However, the most comprehensive description of the situation in Thrace is offered by an inter-governmental institution (the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe): “We hold the following assessment of the NGO Human Rights Watch to be correct: ‘While it is indeed true that the minority is mixed on an ethnolinguistic basis, being made up of ethnic Turks, Pomaks … and Roma, the group overwhelmingly identifies itself as Turkish. Indeed many Pomaks and Roma will, especially to outsiders, even deny their ethnolinguistic origin in the belief that being called ‘Pomaks’ or ‘Roma’ is merely a state artifice to suppress them. One commentator [Professor Christos Rozakis, vice-president of the European Court of Human Rights, and former Deputy Foreign Minister in 1996] noted that, ‘Due to the uniform way in which Greek authorities and local communities have treated Gypsies and Pomaks, the latter tend to identify with the stronger elements of the minority in Thrace, who are, of course, the Muslim Turcophones.’” An EU Euromosaic survey carried out in 1995 among minority members found that 80% of its members have a Turkish identity (vs. 10% who have a Greek identity). ECRI reported that “the majority within the Muslim minority identify themselves as Turks, although this general category includes Pomaks and Muslim Roma as well.” The UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance stated that “the Muslim minority of Thrace … is composed largely of people of Turkish origin but also of Pomaks and Tziganes.”

“As regards Greek citizens wishing to express and promote their ethnic Macedonian identity, ECRI notes that, in July 1998, the European Court of Human Rights found Greece in violation of the right to freedom of association, based on her refusal to register an association aimed essentially at promoting Macedonian culture . ECRI also notes reports of cases where the right to freedom of expression of this group has not been respected. ECRI encourages the authorities to ensure that all groups in Greece effectively enjoy the right to freedom of association and to freedom of expression, in accordance with international legal standards.”

Four years after that court decision, the Macedonian association concerned, the “Home of Macedonian Civilization,” has not yet registered as, until recently, all lawyers refused to take up its case, while the courts refused to appoint a lawyer. Only after the intervention of the Greek Ombudsman who pointed to the illegality of the situation, a lawyer was appointed a few months ago. In the meantime, a second Macedonian association, “Rousalii” was not allowed to register in 2000. These cases may have been reported by NGOs but have been systematically and deliberately ignored in the annual Department of State reports, which, on this issue that is a “taboo” for Greece, follow more or less the official and very intolerant Greek state line, including mentioning the references to defamatory statements by Greece on Macedonian activists and not their denials. On the contrary, the 2002 report refers to the refusal to register the “Political Association of Turkish Women of Rodopi” and the dissolution of the “Turkish Union of Xanthi.” When Greece refuses the existence of Macedonian and Turkish minorities, it is consequent that its courts will do everything possible to disallow associations bearing these ethnic names to operate legally.

In 1999, the leaders of two minority Christian Churches confirmed the general negative climate against minority religions in Greece. “Legally, religious freedom is secure here,” Antonis Koulouris, Secretary-General of the Greek Evangelical (Reformed) Church, said “but the attitude persists that citizens have a duty to be Orthodox, and that belonging to other denominations is unpatriotic and heretical.” Furthermore, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Athens, Nikolaos Foscolos, spoke of “practical discrimination,” inter alia in the armed forces, where being Orthodox was the “first requirement” for officers: “Orthodoxy is the Church of the state, so non-Orthodox are considered incomplete Greek… Although the constitution guarantees citizens the same juridical status regardless of creed, religious discrimination exists.” Later, on the occasion of public opposition by nationalist and Orthodox Christian Church circles to a possible visit of the Pope to Greece to celebrate the Millenium, Archbishop Foscolos declared: “Since 1989, an anti-Catholic and anti-Pope spirit has been growing in Greece. Do not forget statements a few years ago by a Minister and Orthodox Bishops that the Pope is a war criminal. Official statements never opposed by any official government or Church authorities. (…) There is certainly a situation of oppression of Catholics in Greece. Here the principle that dominated in the medieval West, … whoever owns the country also owns the religion, applies. For many people, Greek means Orthodox and it looks strange if someone is Greek without being Orthodox. Such mentality is nourished by both the state and the Orthodox Church.”

The Greek Orthodox Church is also a major source of inherent anti-Semitism. While the Greek Orthodox Church formally condemns anti-Semitism, many of its clergy are openly anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist. Father Nectarios Moulatsiotis, who manages a highly popular “rock group” of singing monks called “Free”, and runs a summer camp for 200 children at his monastery, has published several vehemently anti-Semitic treatises. The Archbishop of Greece Christodoulos, himself, declared that the Jews were behind the removal of the religion designation on official Greek identity cards, and were a threat to the Greek nation. Many Jewish graves and monuments were defiled following his mass protest rallies in 2000. The depth of anti-Semitism in Greek consciousness is evidenced by the ease with which it manifests itself in mainstream expression, unimpeded and seemingly unnoticed, during times of crisis. The Greek press has played a major role in this area. Since September 11th (2001) and, more so, with the increasing violence in the Middle East, blatant anti-Semitism regularly seen in fringe newspapers and magazines and on certain television stations has been consistently expressed in print (especially), on television/radio and in public by a spectrum of prominent government, union and cultural figures. So widely discussed was the rumor that 4,000 Jews working in the Word Trade Center were forewarned and thus escaped death, that a poll taken for state TV NET showed 43% of Greeks as believing the rumor, as opposed to 30% who did not.

Moreover, three mainstream dailies readily printed (one as its front-page headline) as unquestionable reality a heinous libel -supplied to the Athenian News Agency by a Palestinian organization in Greece- that Israelis were trafficking the organs of dead Palestinian fighters and performing medical experiments on Arab prisoners. During Spring 2002, there was an avalanche of anti-Semitic cartoons, comments, and even letters to the editor in many mainstream newspapers, inter alia with the –often certainly condemnable and probably criminal- activity of the Israeli army in Palestinian cities equated with the Holocaust, and Sharon with Hitler. The Speaker of the Greek Parliament, Apostolos Kaklamanis, used the term “genocide” when speaking about the events in the Middle East. To add insult to injury, as justification for this, Government Spokesperson Christos Protopapas subsequently claimed that the former was “expressing the sentiments of the Parliament and the Greek public.” Sadly, this appears to be so.

The role of the media in the perpetuation of intolerance is indeed crucial. In a special study on Racism and Cultural Diversity in the Mass Media, the EU’s European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia wrote about Greece: “Overall, Greek media, the rightwing press and private TV channels in particular, show little sensitivity towards cultural difference and tend to stigmatize and discriminate against minorities, claiming that they threaten the presumed cultural and ethnic ‘purity’ as well as the welfare of the Greek nation. Albanian immigrants and members of the Macedonian and Turkish minorities are the main targets of verbal harassment and racial discourse in the Greek media, followed closely by the Roma population and. Occasionally, religious minorities.”

As for Greece’s only anti-racist law, Law 927/1979 as amended with 1419/1984 and 2910/2001, it specifically states that “Whoever intentionally and publicly instigates, either orally or in the press or through written texts and illustrations or through any other means, acts or activities capable of provoking discrimination, hatred or violence against persons or a group of persons, solely because of their racial, religious or national origin, may be punished with imprisonment of up to two years or a fine or both.” With the 2001 amendment, the prosecutor could ex officio file such charges. The law also prohibits discrimination on the basis of such criteria too. Yet, there is not one case that ever led to a conviction under that law. Hate speech is thus uninhibited. In 2002, GHM is testing the system with cases involving the country’s major newspapers.

GHM, as well as all international press freedom organizations, have repeatedly asked for changes in the legislation so that libel be decriminalized and articles that criminalize the (even in extreme forms) expression of opinion (blasphemy, disturbance of international relations, etc.) or investigative reporting (publication of classified documents, etc.) be abolished, as they are internationally unacceptable restrictions of freedom of expression. In the International Press Institute report World Press Freedom Review 2001: Greece, the following is mentioned, inter alia: “Greece continues to be one of the few countries within the European Union (EU) that has consistently brought criminal defamation suits against journalists. IPI and other press freedom organisations have long campaigned for the repeal of such repressive laws, pointing out that handing down prison sentences in defamation cases impedes the free flow of information and ideas and the threat of imprisonment deters free and critical reporting. In addition, criminal defamation is in contradiction to Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights, to which all EU members, including Greece are bound by law. However, representatives of the Greek government deny that criminal defamation, as applied in Greece, constitutes a threat to freedom of expression. At a meeting on Freedom of Expression in Europe, organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on 12-13 March and attended by IPI, a Greek government representative said that Greek journalists prefer the current system since it is cheaper for them. The Greek delegate said that it in common practice, if an individual is found guilty of defamation, prison sentences are bought off for a small amount of money. As such, it is cheaper for the convicted than if a verdict were reached in civil court. After being presented with an IPI paper at the conference listing a number of press freedom violations in Greece, the Greek representative said that press freedom organisations have a biased picture of the situation for Greek journalists and that many of the reported incidents are not press freedom violations at all. IPI pointed out that, in practice, criminal defamation criminalizes free speech which goes against a number of international declarations and that the use of it in Greece reveals a deep-seated suspicion on part of the Greek authorities against a free and unfettered media. The attitude of the Greek representative was also evident in a protracted court case which dragged on last year.”
Greece’s most urgent human rights concerns however, as pointed out also by Alvaro Gil-Robles, are “the unacceptable detention conditions of deportees and the non-living conditions (since they have not even water) of the Roma.” All that amidst a generalized anomy in the treatment of documented migrants and Roma, despite the existing legislation which generally offers satisfactory protection of their rights, if it is implemented in its entirety.

On 15 June 2002, 45 human rights NGOs from 21 Euro-Mediterranean countries –including Amnesty International, Article 19, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Fédération Internationale des Ligues de Droits de l’ Homme (FIDH), Human Rights Watch (HRW), International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), and Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)- published an appeal expressing “their great concern about the frequent and grave violations of the rights of thousands of foreigners who arrive or live in Greece as (potential) asylum seekers or (un)documented migrants and are detained pending judicial or administrative deportation. Greek NGOs have documented an almost systematic absence of competent translators during examination by law enforcement officials or in court. Moreover, the Greek authorities frequently fail to inform foreigners of their rights, refuse them asylum application forms or even provide misleading information. Undocumented migrants or asylum seekers have often been tried without benefit of legal counsel, and sentenced to imprisonment or deportation after trials lasting only a few minutes. Detention conditions are in many cases degrading and inhumane, and access to lawyers and NGOs has been severely and arbitrarily limited. When authorized representatives of detainees have requested the full documentation for their cases, this has been denied by the authorities, on the grounds that this might hinder efforts to deport them.” The NGOs “welcome last week’s statement by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles, that ‘Greece should not forget that deportees are human beings, too;’” and they “appeal to the Greek authorities to radically revise their treatment of foreigners under arrest, detention, trial or deportation; and also call upon all inter-governmental organizations (UN, OSCE, CoE, EU) to use all of their mechanisms (expert committees, special rapporteurs, commissioners, etc.) to review this situation regularly and to urge Greece to honor its human rights commitments, in this as well as in many other areas. They should review Greece’s record and judge it according to universal international standards which protect the rights of detainees, the right to fair trial and the rights of refugees.”

Significantly, in 2001, the European Court of Human Rights –that had in previous years convicted Greece for the violation of the rights of all religious minorities (Jehovah Witnesses, catholics, Protestants, Muslims) and ethno-national minorities (Macedonians and Turks)- convicted Greece for violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment) in detention facilities (Dougoz v. Greece 6 March 2001) and prisons (Peers v. Greece 19 April 2001). Also, on 8 May 2001, the UN’s Committee Against Torture voiced the following concerns and issued the following recommendations for Greece: “The Committee expresses the following concern that, although the domestic legislation provides a satisfactory framework for protecting human rights in general and of certain Convention rights in particular, difficulties in effective implementation remain, which may amount to a breach of the Convention:(a) there is evidence that the police sometimes use excessive or unjustifiable force in carrying out their duties particularly when dealing with ethnic and national minorities and foreigners;(b) the harsh conditions of detention in general and, in particular, the long-term detention of undocumented migrants and/or asylum-seekers awaiting deportation in police stations without adequate facilities; (c) the severe overcrowding in prisons which aggravates the already sub-standard material conditions and which may contribute to inter-prisoner-violence; (e) the lack of comprehensive training of medical personnel and law enforcement officers at all levels, on the provisions of the Convention. The Committee recommends that:(a) urgent measures be taken to improve conditions of detention in police stations and prisons and that undocumented migrants and/or asylum seekers who have not been convicted of a criminal offence not be held for long periods in such institutions; (b) such measures as are necessary to prevent overcrowding of prisons should be taken as well as continuing steps to find alternative penalties to imprisonment and to ensure their effective implementation;(c) such measures as are necessary, including training, be taken to ensure that in the treatment of vulnerable groups, in particular foreigners, ethnic and national minorities, law enforcement officers do not resort to discriminatory practices; (d) steps be taken to prevent and punish trafficking of women and other forms of violence against women; (e) that steps be taken to create detention facilities for undocumented migrants and/or asylum seekers separate from prison or police institutions and urges the State party to complete its proposed new building construction for aliens as a matter of urgency.” Very little has been done along those lines since. In particular, despite many draft bills to combat trafficking in persons have been announced, none has been debated in Parliament to this day, as if the state is reluctant to take any serious measures and only announces bills to mellow its critics.
Likewise, the government regularly launches impressive multi-million euro programs to help Roma integrate Greek society, but they seem to aim at appeasing critics more than anything else as very little has been done to alleviate the burden of the Roma in Greece. Their plight has been very well summarized in a recent report by the National Human Rights Commission: “The Roma are the most underprivileged and marginalized social group in Greece, a victim of everyday and recurring racial discrimination. The tent-dwellers also have an acute survival problem. The living conditions in the settlements, are, by any standards, miserable. The Gypsies live in shanties, amidst garbage, without water, toilets, electricity, in the mercy of weather phenomena and epidemics. The efforts of the Gypsies to integrate are subverted dramatically by the racial reactions of a society, which is nevertheless convinced that it is not racist! The municipal authorities regard the Roma who live within their borders as a burden and instead of solving the problem, they simply try to get rid of them in any way -even illegally. With the opportunity of the Olympic Games they have organized the eviction of the Gypsies from many areas. The local societies invoke (usually falsely) the need for the construction of sport facilities in order to evict the Roma, just like it happened in Mexico in 1968. Roma are not even accepted in the public hospitals nor treated like the rest of the patients. When the hospitals demand some medical expenses, they try to ensure them by withholding the identity cards of the Gypsies. The result is that even those Gypsies that do hold an identity card, necessary for their transactions, are left without one in the end! In reality, the access to education, that is the possibility for a future social and economic integration, is literally denied to the Gypsies. The racist practices against those Roma who attempt to get educated are of two kinds: a) open attempts to exclude the Gypsy children by mobilizing the society, the parents, the students and the teachers; b) their passive exclusion within the classroom by marginalization. Roma children are treated by students and teachers as bothersome outcasts who delay the materialization of the program and undermine the image of the school. Under these awful conditions, it is only natural that the Roma children feel undesired, get disappointed and drop out of school. No administrative measure has been taken to avoid the incidents of educational exclusion, because the strategy of the program in the first phase of materialization had been the avoidance of conflicts. Their exclusion from the labor market has chained effects on their life in general, given that it does not only condemn them to poverty but gradually pushes them to delinquency and namely drug trafficking. The result is the dramatic worsening of their health and their relationship with the rest of the Greek citizens and authorities. 50% of the Roma population had not been registered in the municipal rolls. An unregistered citizen simply does not exist for the state. The municipal authorities on the other hand take advantage of the problem of illiteracy and lack of familiarity of the Gypsies with the bureaucracy and do not try to facilitate their legalization procedure. This way, since they are not even registered in their municipalities, they get rid of them more easily. There is therefore a vicious circle that strengthens the conviction of the Gypsies that the Greek state is hostile towards them. The Gypsies are condemned to living in conditions of apartheid. Moreover, the phenomenon of the Gypsies and their children becoming the target of vicious evictions and illegal actions that jeopardize their physical integrity is not at all rare in the framework of the efforts by the local societies to get rid of them. The usual policy that offers an easy social alibi is to blame the Gypsies in general for offences that only a small minority of them has committed. Media speech has attributed to them en bloc characteristics of marginalized and criminal persons. Most municipalities follow the same strategy. They do not facilitate the legal transactions of the Gypsies with the offices and keep the Gypsies under sordid conditions so as to make them move outside of the municipal borders. In almost no case was a viable alternative solution provided to those evicted, following their eviction. Whenever an alternative solution is suggested by the municipal authorities, it is either completely unsatisfactory or concerns only a few Gypsies -mainly the few residents registered in the municipality. In the same context, the municipal authorities also take advantage of any differences between the local and non-local Gypsies in order to divide them and neutralize them more effectively. Police officers uncritically resort to use of disproportionate violence, without being afraid of being exposed to the eyes of the public opinion. A public opinion which in any case considers the Gypsies en masse to be thieves and drug dealers, thus justifying any illegal action of the police. Furthermore, the police forces often do not conclude the investigations in relation to violent incidents against the Roma nor do they punish police officers who have abused their power. In cases when those who have been wronged try to initiate legal procedures for their defense, their status as powerless, second-class citizens renders them susceptible to extortion to drop them. As Dimitrina Petrova, director of the European Center for the rights of the Gypsies [sic], stated in 1998, ‘the Roma in Greece are not considered to be humans.’”

Indeed, most of the human rights problems in Greece were presented here using texts from Greek state or intergovernmental institutions. In the last three years, they have all described the exact same dire situation that GHM has being consistently reporting since its creation ten years ago.

For example see: Adamantia Pollis “Eastern Orthodoxy and Human Rights” Human Rights Quarterly May 1993 (volume 15 number 2); and Thanos Lipovatz “Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism: Two Sides of Contemporary Greek Political Culture” Greek Political Science Review October 1993 (number 2) –in Greek.
4 (all texts which are in Greek in their original were translated into English by GHM)
“Zero Guilt?” in Ta Nea, 10 June 2002, p. 6
6Interview to Kyriakatiki Eleftherotypia, 2 June 2002, p. 50
8Interview to Kyriakatiki Avghi, 16 June 2002, p. 12
9Vasilis Angouras, “We, the Franks, and Racism” Dikaiomatika July 2000,
10 Then competent Alternate Foreign Minister Elisabeth Papazoi, also in charge of Greece’s answers to related criticism in/by intergovernmental organizations, insisted upon the release of the ECRI Report on Greece, “that there are only isolated instances of racism in Greece and the Greek society is not possessed by an inclination to xenophobia” (Greek Center of European Studies and Research Immigrants, Racism and Xenophobia: from Theory to Practice Athens 2000, p. 5). Not surprising, as she also declared a few months later that “Greece has nothing to fear in the area of human rights protection; evidence of that is that in our country no major human rights violations are observed or denounced” (Pontiki 9 November 2000). Also, the day after the report was released, then government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said that: “Greek society is tolerant of any difference, it is a society that has accepted any possible difference in all areas. Be they morals, culture, religious or other beliefs… In that field Greeks are pioneers. I believe that Greeks, as citizens, accept citizens from other countries, accept they can coexist with persons who have very different views than themselves. I consider [ECRI’s] accusations exaggerated. I cannot accept that Greece can be accused, at least for discrimination in that area” (Government’s press briefing, 28 June 2000,
11See report available in Greek at
12ECRI recommendation: “ECRI considers, however, that there is a serious need to educate the Greek public to the benefits of a multicultural society. (…) Specific courses focusing on issues of tolerance and respect for differences should be offered and teachers should be trained in this area. In addition, in its general policy recommendation N° 1 on combating racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance, ECRI recommends member States ‘to ensure that school-curricula, for example in the field of history teaching, are set up in such a way to enhance the appreciation of cultural diversity.” (European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Second Report on Greece, released on 27 June 2000, p 9); Greek government answer: “The policies of the Greek Government in the fields falling in the purview of the ECRI (…) of course … do not imply adherence by the Greek Government to the notion of a multicultural character of the Greek society.” (Ibid, p. 26.)
13Stavros Lygeros, “Focus on illegal migration” Kathimerini 14 June 2002 p. 1
14PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights (Rapporteurs: Domenico Contestabile and Valdimir Solonari) Situation of the Muslim Minority in Thrace (AS/Jur (2000) 12 rev, 7 March 2000 –made public on 7 September 2000) (
15Greece: The Turks of Western Thrace Vol. 11, No. 1 (D) ( p.11.
18 United Nations Distr. GENERAL A/51/542/Add.1 7 November 1996 prepared by Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 50/183 of 22 December 1995 (
19 See Case of Sidiropoulos and others v. Greece, (57/1997/841/1047)
21 Complete file of the case:
22 Complete file of the case in Greek:
23 “The most serious flaw, though, is the treatment of Macedonians, in a way that gives the impression the State Department (DOS) wants to conform with what may be bearable to Greek authorities. Macedonians do not speak a Slavic dialect, as mentioned in the report, but the Macedonian language, as it is known and respected internationally; use of the Slavic term in fact shows bias in favor of Greece; worse, saying that Macedonians complain that “the government discourages them to use their dialect” is a distortion of what they say, as they never use the term dialect for their language. The report also mentions government concerns about “separatist aspirations of some Macedonian activists.” It does not mention though the repeated denials of such allegations by all activists. In fact, as there has never been even one such statement, the mere mention in the report of the Greek government’s defamatory allegation cannot but do service to the government. Such impression is strengthened by the absence of any reference to the case of the non-registration of the Home of Macedonian Civilization (and of the Rousali association), in both the 2000 and the 2001 reports, although references to similar problems of Turkish associations are reported. In the 2000 report, it was even mentioned that “complaints of government harassment had ceased in 2000” … All that despite the fact that GHM and MRG-G had organized a special briefing of the US DOS delegation to the OSCE meeting in Warsaw in 2000 with the participation of Macedonian activists present in that meeting; and that all related documentation on the non-registration is available in the GHM and MRG-G website, and was given to DOS in mid-2001. DOS’ attitude towards Macedonians in Greece, as reflected in the annual reports, cannot therefore be considered an oversight, or a result of lack of information; on the contrary it is a sustained and deliberate policy of complacency towards Greek authorities on the most sensitive human rights issue in Greece. Such complacency is not shown towards Bulgarian authorities that have a similar sensitivity for Macedonians, whose problems are mentioned in the relevant chapter.” See GHM and Minority Rights Group-Greece Comments on the US Department of State Report on Greece, 18 March 2002, 24
25 ENI (03.03.1999) / HRWF (06.03.1999) (
26Eleftherotypia 31 August 1999.
27Poll conducted by KAPA Research among 622 households in the Greater Athens area for the program “Protagonistes” aired 18/10/2001 on NET (New Hellenic Television).
28“They sell organs of dead Palestinians: they went even further than the Nazi atrocities” front page Apogevmatini 2 April 2002; also covered, on 2 April 2002, with shorter articles in the interior pages of the two largest selling newspapers “They denounce trade of organs of dead Palestinians” Eleftherotypia; and “They steal organs from the dead” Ta Nea
29 Examples from Eleftherotypia:;; and
30See Eleftherotypia 3 April 2002
33Coverage of his press conference in Eleftherotypia 6 June 2002 p. 45
36 Available in Greek at the GHM web page:


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Project Description
You will find the classic Commerce Starter Kit 2.0, created by Rob Conery, here as well as the new Commerce Starter Kit 3.0.

For status and updates on CSK 3.0 progress, see J Sawyer's blog at .
Support for CSK 3.0 will be hosted on the ASP.NET Forums.

Last edited Oct 29, 2008 at 3:48 PM by jsawyer, version 3

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Sep 092013

hamlet 1Here’s a Hamlet photo I came across in Jan/ early Feb, when I was having a heavy Hamlet fixation. I think the photographer’s name was Marianne?

 Posted by at 6:25 am
Sep 092013
"Accept Our Sacrifice"

“Accept Our Sacrifice”

The Wicker Tree was a pretty bad movie. Yet I find myself thinking of the plot-line-

Scene from The Wicker Tree

Scene from The Wicker Tree

These evil guys lure this young guy to this remote village (there they seduce him into impregnating a lady)-

Scene from The Wicker Tree

Scene from The Wicker Tree

They set him up as the quarry in a version of the Wild Hunt-

Scene from The Wicker Tree

Scene from The Wicker Tree

They chase him into an abandoned castle, where they set upon him and rip him to shreds with their bare hands. Not happy for that guy, huh?

Sep 092013

As an HIV Pagan (a Pagan living with HIV), I remember the devastation of the AIDS era, when AIDS was a death sentence, and marvel at the era of HIV-effective meds, which enable HIV-infected persons to live without progressing onto onset AIDS. Now, if only one can afford HIV medication or have access to an insurance program that will cover same-

As an HIV Pagan, I find acupuncture to be a marvelously wonderful way to address HIV conditions. The Chinese system focuses on the ch’i, the body’s life-force or essential energy. It holds that illness or sickness is caused by imbalance in the ch’i, and acupuncture rewires the inefficiency out of the ch’i imbalance.

It is very Pagan in its way, as like Paganism (and Star Wars), it recognizes a Life Force.

Truthfully, I have had Western Medical doctors look at me and go, you suddenly have much less meningitis infection in your brain fluid; it’s like your body is throwing the infection off; we don’t have an explanation for this.

And I’m going, Aha! acupuncture.

Trust me, Pagans; acupuncture: it’s the healing way of the future.

Sep 082013
Sir Joseph Paton's Oberon (19th century)

Sir Joseph Paton’s Oberon (19th century)

“Thou rememb’rest since once I sat upon a promontory, and heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath that the rude sea grew civil at her song and certain stars shot madly from their spheres to hear the sea-maid’s music.” Oberon, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act II, scene i, lines 148-154)

Sir Joseph Paton's Titania, with changeling prince (19th century)

Sir Joseph Paton’s Titania, with changeling prince (19th century)

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, with sweet musk-roses and with eglantine. There sleeps Titania sometime of the night.” Oberon, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act II, scene i, lines 249-253)

Sep 072013
The Bamberg Hexenhaus

The Bamberg Hexenhaus

There are certain themes prevalent in every variety of Witch-Hunt: one is the maligning of the Witch or Witches who are either the literal or figurative objects of the hunt, impugning them so viciously and thoroughly that their social assault comes to seem almost a noble and necessary thing; another is the inflammation of accusation and opinion so that a firestorm of hysteria erupts, subsiding finally into a state of reflection in which people often end up asking themselves, what was that going on? what happened? what did we do? Families and friends of the accused Witch or Witches are often drawn into the conflagration, as the contagion of Witch-hysteria spreads; transgressive sexuality is often an issue, as sexuality is a “hot-button” topic (imagine all the lurid medieval tales of Witches fornicating with demons, and consider the taboo impact that the word “fornication” alone has); accusations of the abuse of children frequently occur, as child abuse strikes a deep and primal chord (medieval Witches were thought to cannibalize children- think of Hansel and Gretel- and boil off their fat to make Witches’ ointments). All these things and more tend to be characteristic of a Witch-Hunt, whether of the Great Witch Hunts of Europe, or Salem, or the McCarthy Communist hearings, or the McMartin Preschool case, or the trial of the West Memphis Three.

According to Robert Rapley in Witch Hunts From Salem to Guantanamo Bay, the worst of the European Witch Hunts took place within the German cities of Bamberg and Wurzburg, each ruled absolutely by a Prince-Bishop. As was the case with European Witch Crazes, torture drove the hysteria, as accused Witches were tortured into confessions and the naming of accomplices, each new name reinforcing the perception that a massive Witch conspiracy was being uncovered. The short span of the Hunts (1626-1630) and the number of people accused and condemned (317 women and 136 men, with at least 278 put to death) indicates the frightening ferocity. The earliest accusations started in 1626, ballooning into major conflagrations by 1628. In 1626, 15 men and women were accused; in 1627, the number of accusations increased to 85; to 137 in 1628; rising to 167 in 1629 (the height of the craze). In 1630 the number of accused dropped to 54, with almost none after. (Throughout the ratio of women accused to men was roughly 2/3).

As might be surmised, something of a Witch-Hunting industry arose in both cities, with an almost factory-like system of moving accused victims into prison and torture; forcing the names of more accused; then processing them into “trials” based upon the “confessions” elicited, before the final stage of execution. The mechanical nature of the proceedings in Bamberg is seen in the construction of the Hexenhaus (“Witches’ House”); smaller German towns seem to have had lesser scaled equivalents. According to Emile Grillot de Givry in Illustrated Anthology of Sorcery, Magic, and Alchemy, the building was constructed in 1627 and depicted in the print seen above. A line from Virgil can be read above the entrance, “Learn justice, and having learned, beware you slight not the gods!” Two tablets on either side of the entrance quote a passage from I Kings ix, 7, 8, and 9: “This house…shall be…a byword…Every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done this unto this land, and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God…and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.” The smaller building in the back contains the torture chamber. The first floor contains the warder’s room, with eight cells opening onto the hall, and a chapel in the rear. The second story contains a room called the Confession Chamber, eighteen cells, and a room for the warder. Six stoves provided heat; the building could hold up to thirty Witches.

The question comes: is this German House for Hunting Witches (with nothing similar existing anywhere else in Europe) possibly a precursor to the Nazi concentration camps?

Sep 052013

vintage witch 2In Act III, scene iii, of Thomas Middleton’s The Witch, having made their Flying Ointment, the Witches take to the air in a surprisingly lyrical scene. It opens with an offstage song, as “Voices in the air” begin to sing. “Come away, come away, Hecate, Hecate, come away!” [This is apparently the song incorporated into Act III, scene v, of Macbeth.] The Head Witch of the coven, Hecate (named for the Goddess) responds: “I come, I come, I come, I come, with all the speed I may, with all the speed I may. Where’s Stadlin?”

Another Witch of the coven answers: “Here.”

Hecate: “Where’s Puckle?”

Puckle: “Here. And Hoppo too and Hellwain too; We lack but you, we lack but you; Come away, make up the count.”

Hecate: “I will but ‘noint and then I mount.” Malkin, “a Spirit like a Cat descends” from the upper stage [Malkin was a common name for Jacobean house cats; the feline is the Witches' familiar.]

Malkin: “There’s one comes down to fetch his dues; a kiss, a coll, a sip of blood; and why thou stay’est so long, I muse, I muse, since the air’s so sweet and good.”

Hecate: “O, art thou come? What news, what news?”

Malkin: “All goes still to our delight, either come or else refuse, refuse.”

Hecate [having anointed herself]: “Now I am furnished for the flight.” She takes to the air, “going up” (according to stage directions, and singing): “Now I go, now I fly, Malkin, my sweet Spirit and I. O, what a dainty pleasure ’tis to ride in the air when the moon shines fair. And sing and dance and toy and kiss; over woods, high rocks and mountains, over seas, our mistress’ fountains, over steeples, towers, and turrets we fly by night amongst troops of spirits; no ring of bells to our ears sounds, no howls of wolves, no yelp of hounds. No, not the noise of water’s breach or cannons’ throats our height can reach.”

The scene ends on a plaintive note, as Hecate’s son Firestone remains behind, reflecting to himself: “Well, mother, I thank your kindness. You must be gambolling in the air, and leave me to walk here like a fool and a mortal.”

Sep 022013

flying witchesThe Witches in Thomas Middleton’s play The Witch spend an inordinate amount of time brewing in their cauldron (this is the centerpiece activity in all of their scenes). Whereas in their last scene, the Witches’ cauldron is the focal point for an energy-raising Witches’ Dance, in their first scene, they brew a batch of the famous Witches’ Flying Ointment- subsequently utilized in a marvelous Witches’ Flight scene. The Head Witch Hecate (what we would call the High Priestess of a Jacobean Witch Coven) enters in Act I, scene ii reciting an Invocation to various Spirits: “Titty and Tiffin, Suckin and Pidgen, Liard and Robin, White Spirits, Back Spirits, Grey Spirits, Red Spirits, Devil-toad, Devil-ram, Devil-cat and Devil-dam.”

She calls to the other Witches in her coven, who respond offstage that they are “sweating at the vessel [cauldron],” so that it “gallops now.” Hecate gives to one of the Witches the body of an infant which she has stolen [Jacobean Witches stereotypically and in inflammatory fashion were said to steal infants, in order to melt their body fat for use in ointment making]: “There, take this unbaptised brat, boil it well; preserve the fat. You know ’tis precious to transfer our ‘nointed flesh into the air, in moonlight nights o’er steeple-tops, mountains, and pine-trees, that like pricks or stops seem to our height; high towers and roofs of princes like wrinkles in the earth. Whole provinces appear to our sight then even leek a russet mole upon some lady’s cheek, when hundreds of leagues in air we feast and sing, dance, kiss and coll, use everything.” A rather poetic imagining of the Witches’ Flight, paraphrased from Reginald Scot, whose Discoverie of Witchcraft serves as Middleton’s source.

Hecate quotes from Scot further, as she describes the various ingredients of the Flying Ointment: “eleoselinum [mountain parsley], aconitum [wolf's bane], frondes populeus [poplar leaves], sium [yellow watercress], acarum vulgaro [myrtle], pentaphyllon [cinquefoil], solanum somnificum [nightshade] et oleum [a base oil, within which to mix the various ingredients].” There are, in the corpus of “Witch Literature” from the 1400s-1600s, some half-dozen instances where specific recipes for Flying Ointment are given; they tend to be similar enough so as to suggest reporting of actual recipes, and curiously all include plants with hallucinogenic properties. For instance, my source for Middleton’s play quotes a writer as observing that nightshade “would certainly produce hallucinations, with a considerable amount of vascular excitement.” It is interesting to speculate that the legend of Witches flying might derive from the use of consciousness-altering mixtures.

Next: having made their Flying ointment (out of in part the boiled flesh of their stolen baby), the Witches take to the air in their next scene.

Aug 292013

3 witches aThe Witches in Thomas Middleton’s The Witch are notable for (1) seemingly inspiring sections of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (added to his play by someone who was not Shakespeare), and for (2) the amount of time that they spend brewing in a cauldron. In the setup for the play’s conclusion (Act V, scene ii), the Head Witch Hecate (named for the Goddess) leads the other Witches in a “charm-song about a vessel,” the vessel being the “cauldron in the centre” of the stage stipulated by the stage-direction at the scene’s opening. [The Witch is notable for showing a coven of Witches practicing the Witches’ Arts collectively, under the guidance of what we would call a High Priestess.] The song performed by the Witches is known as “Black Spirits”; it was apparently incorporated into Macbeth (Act IV, scene i, line 43); folklorist Katharine Briggs believes that it represents a genuine folk-ballad associated with the St. Osyth Witches, also quoted by Reginald Scot in his significant work The Discoverie of Witchcraft.

“Black Spirits and White; Red Spirits and Grey: Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may. Titty, Tiffin, keep it stiff in; Firedrake, Pucky, make it lucky; Liard, Robin, you must bob in. Round, around, around, about, about! All ill come running in, all good keep out!”

It is intriguing that the song indicates four Spirits summoned, each identified by a color: this is in keeping with the modern identification of a quartered Circle, each quadrant signified by a different color. “Mingle, mingle, mingle” invites the Spirits to freely associate as They will; various Familiar-Spirits are summoned to empower the spell-working, “Pucky” and “Robin” [Goodfellow] being aspects of the famous English folkloric figure Puck. “Round, around, around, about, about” describes both the Witches dancing “around” their cauldron, as well as describing the excited state of the Spirits and Energies. Doreen Valiente unearthed “Black Spirits” in her research, and notes that if the last line is changed simply from “All ill come running in, all good keep out” [Witches in the seventeenth century were stereotypically imagined as wicked, spiteful types], to “All good come in, all bad keep out,” one can effectively use the “charm-song” as a modern Witches’ Invocation (a New York coven with which I am familiar, in fact, uses “Black Spirits” in this manner). When one considers that the Witches conclude the scene by performing “The Witches’ Dance” [Hecate: "Let the air strike our tune, whilst we show reverence to yond peeping moon," identifying an association between Witches and the moon], one can see that (1) dancing, (2) in a circle [around the cauldron], while (3) exciting and “raising up” Magickal Energies, were thought of as the performance of Witchcraft in the 1600s: all of which are so much like what Gerald Gardner described as “Raising Energy” as to suggest that he was correct in identifying “Energy Raising” as a native and essential part of English Witchcraft.

Aug 242013
Helen Mirren in Julie Taymor's The Tempest (2010)

Helen Mirren in Julie Taymor’s The Tempest (2010)

Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest represents without question the quintessential Renaissance Master of the Mystical Arts (either Prospero, or the most recent significant innovation in Shakespearean interpretation, Prospera, the female version of the Magick-Worker without parallel, exemplified by Helen Mirren in Julie Taymor’s film of The Tempest). Prospero (Prospera’s) expertise in Magick is seen in his (her) control over storms and winds, and is symbolized by his (her) Magickal servants Ariel (representing Air and Fire), and Caliban (representing the more tangible elements of Earth and Water). With the aid of his Magickal robe, book, and staff (all credited in the play with being essential to Magick-Work), Prospero casts a Magickal Circle in Act V, scene 1 (lines 33-57) to set into motion the events of the play’s conclusion. Unlike the extremely Ceremonial Circle cast by Faustus in Marlowe’s play, Prospero’s Circle is purely of the Natural variety, summoned out of an invocation of the natural elements:

Prospera's Magick Circle in The Tempest (2010)

Prospera’s Magick Circle in The Tempest (2010)

“Ye Elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves, and ye that on the sands with printless foot do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly Him when He comes back; you demi-puppets that by moonshine do the green sour ringlets make whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice to hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid, weak masters though ye be, I have bedimmed the noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds, and ‘twixt the green sea and the azured vault set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak with His own bolt; the strong-based promontory have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up the pine and cedar; graves at my command have waked their sleepers, oped and let ‘em forth by my so potent art. But this rough Magick I here abjure, and when I have required some heavenly music, which even now I do, to work mine end upon their senses that this airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet sound, I’ll drown my book.”

Unlike Faustus, who generates his Magick Circle by creating a microcosm of the Macrocosm through astrological signs, sigils, and protective names- Prospero (or Prospera, if a female) casts a Circle of Power by calling upon the Spirits (“Elves”) of Nature: the Spirits of “hills, brooks, lakes and groves,” as well as the Spirits of the sea and beaches of his tropical island, that chase the tidal waters of Neptune washing ashore.

Prospero (Prospera) refers to the Spirits (“demi-puppets”) that make circles of mushrooms grow in fields at night (“midnight mushrooms”), eschewed by sheep, during the anarchic time after the evening curfew is sounded, summoning persons to home, bed, and sleep (circles of mushrooms growing in fields were the subject of much superstition in Faerie mythology during Shakespeare’s time).

Prospero boasts of the powers that he has acquired through the aid of such Spirits (whom he characterizes as “weak,” meaning that his powers grant him mastery over them): he has dimmed the noon sun; called riotous winds; and generated storms at sea (“twixt the green sea and the azured vault of sky” has he “set roaring war”). He has joined lightning to “rattling thunder,” and assumed the power of Jove in even blasting apart oak trees, with Jove’s own lightning bolts; he has shook the “strong-based promontory” of earth, generating earthquakes that uproot pines and cedars; even “by his so potent art,” has he assumed the final God-like powers of awakening the dead, opening graves, and allowing the spirits of the departed to roam freely. In essence, through his use of Natural Magick, Prospero (Prospera) can assume the most destructive and awe-inspiring control of the Natural Elements.

This final bit of Magick-Working, however, Prospero says will be his last: he means to “abjure this rough Magick,” and when he has finished “charming” his enemies through the use of the “circle which he has made” (according to the stage directions following the speech), he announces his intention to break his Magickal staff, bury it deep within the earth, and plunge into the ocean, “deeper than did ever plummet sound,” his Magickal book. It might be a certain sop to Jacobean convention, to end the play with a swearing-off on the Magickal Arts (officially not approved of, in the Jacobean era): but the significant point is Prospero’s (Prospera’s) command of Magick and the Magickal Circle through the elements of earthly Nature.

Aug 212013

murnau faustBased upon medieval Morality Plays, Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is the cautionary tale of a man whose forays into the Mystical Arts go tragically awry when he summons the Devil, believing that he has the power to control and command the Fiend through his study of Magick-Making. The story is interesting to modern Pagans for its depiction of Middle Ages Magick; having been twice filmed, it would make an interesting double-bill Movie Night the day that the Pagan Television Network (PTN) is up and running. Murnau’s 1926 film (actually based upon Goethe’s telling of the story) is a marvel of silent era film-making, especially the scene where Faust conjures in his Magick Circle. (Check out the clip on YouTube; note how Faust goes to a crossroads, under a full moon, invoking the four directions with his Magick Book, before the Circle activates with the aid of 1920s special effects.) A fascinating movie artifact, Faust is especially interesting when viewed against-

burton faustusOne of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the latter twentieth century, Richard Burton filmed Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus in 1967, with his wife Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy. Notable for being such an esteemed production, Burton’s Faustus would make an excellent companion piece and follow-up to Murnau’s Faust for Faust Night on the PTN. Blessed Be, Pagan Television and Movie Fans!


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At Last, a Moment to Myself

“Whew!  I cannot believe I held it together this year.  Got all the Christmas cards mailed, shuttled three sets of relatives from airports to hotels, and got all the presents wrapped and under the tree at the last minute.

“Well, at least Junior’s decided to do me a favor and let me sleep in on Christmas morning…”

This … Is … PHOTOBOMB!

  1. That little dude is SO going to get his arse kicked into next Tuesday!

  2. Aw, grown-up kitty looks SO unsuspecting…

  3. The concentration on the kitten’s face is hilarious. I’d like to see the “after” picture…

  4. earlybird1 says:

    LOL @ a comment on photobomb… “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?” BWAHAHA!

  5. Queen of Dork says:

    Kitty! Don’t do eeet! Mommy looks pretty exasperated already. You’ll get on Santa’s Naughty List!

  6. ButtaRumCake says:

  7. OMG – so funny – just when you think you get to sleep in for Christmas morning and then WHAM. So funny.

  8. IMPENDING DOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    (At least I don’t usually get a wake-up like that!)

  10. AuntieMame says:

    Hey kid…take a hint. Wait until Dec. 26, huh?

  11. No, kitty, nooo! *bat bat bat*

  12. Brandi7920 says:

    *spwat* *spwat* *spwat*
    lil kitteh is so going to get it. lol

  13. kibblenibble says:

    Awww. Mama needs a break, baby. Her blue eyes look so…resigned.
    Beautiful cats. Excellent prose once again NOMTOM.

  14. The adult cat’s face looks kind of like he has to deal with this every morning.

  15. Nicolletta says:

    Grounded for the next five years in 3…2…1…

  16. Aaawww that reminds me of when I was little on Christmas morning…only my poor parents weren’t even awake! Learn from my mistake little one, wait until Mommy has some coffee!!! LOL

  17. I could love to see the picture after this lol

  18. YAY! One of my favorite blogs mentioned on my favoritest blog! :D

  19. Funny how you shoot out of bed of Xmas morning when you’re little . . . and not so much when you’re not so little. :roll:

  20. Paw Whap o’Doom!

  21. I second the “Impending Doom” tag.

  22. kiki willow says:

    Getting sent to bed without dinner in 3…2…1…

  23. catloveschanel says:

    think again Meal Ticket? LOL

  24. :lol: That little kitty acts like my cat Dooley when he pesters my other cat Badger :lol:

  25. dr. berthaservant says:

    This is like the first Simon’s cat cartoon (available elsewhere on teh internets including this site!)

    Bertha does this to my back when I’m asleep to indicate her want of food (which, I remind her as I awaken briefly, is already in her dish). But she did something weird the other night. I sleep on my side; she jumped up on my shoulder, sat there, and then just did a little “pop” at my ear. I imagine that perhaps she held her paw aloft like this little fellah, as if to say “Do I dare bop the ear? Am I truly prepared for the possible reaction of this much larger creature who might kick my catt butt into a parallel universe? Or will perhaps larger creature just turn and growl a ‘knock it off, interrupter!’ and turn away? Let’s bop and see what happens….”

  26. Ahn! Lookit the paws on that kitteh! Karate Kat strikes!

  27. Am I just behind the times or do I see a change in Berthaservant’s title? Are congratulations in order? If so, here are fifty Attaboys coming your way!

  28. exquisite eyeliner on mama and kitteh, sigh

  29. @BServ – LOL, Bertha is one brave kitty. And congrats on the Dr.!!

  30. Mama, mama, let’s go see what Santy Claws bringed me!!!

    Impending doom indeed!! :D

  31. Congratulations to DOCTOR Berthaservant!!!

  32. Bang bang Maxwell’s fuzzy white hammer came down upon her head…

  33. Congrats Dr. Bserv! *hug*

  34. Ah am soooo glad I gaveh zat Cato ze night off. What a long day of defusangeh booms and trrrrackang ze criminal mastermahnds.

    (what waz… zat noize? deed you ear zat?)

    Cato? Cato eez zat you? Not-eh toonaght Cato! Not too…

  35. Eric Hanneken says:

    That’s odd: an adult cat with blue eyes.

  36. I’m in tears laffing at this! I feel her pain.
    “Mom you forgot the milk and cookies for Santa Claws!”

  37. I love those inverted Y cat lips. Could we have a close up, please? :D

  38. Eric H: Mamma kitteh looks like possibly a Tonkinese or lynx-point Siamese mix, hence the blue eyes.

  39. DON’T DO EEEEEET!!!!!!

  40. Colonel Jenna says:

    Oh Lordy the memories this brings back. Not of cats, but of Christmas mornings (mumble) years ago, and what we put our poor parents through….

    And huge congrats to DOCTOR B!

  41. Huzzahs to Doctor B!!!

    Mom eye-rolling followed by hugs in …3….2….1

  42. I can’t stop looking at this – what a great shot, and great commentary! Poor Momma kitteh, and poor baby kitteh too, he just wants to open his presents and play with the wrappings….

  43. “I feel like I’m forgetting something… I put the dog out side… barfed up a hair ball on the couch… Did I leave the cat nip out? No it wasn’t tha……..”

  44. snoopysnake says:

    This reminds me of a photo that I saw on years ago…for some reason I just cannot find it on that site using its search facility (maybe because of punctuation marks in the title.)

    It had a little kitten (photoshopped from that ubiquitous photo of a little marmie kittie who has his paws up because someone has pointed a gun at him) who was about to crash cymbals right in the ears of a bigger kitty. The caption was something like, please don’t or oh no don’t. Does anyone have a working link to this cymbal kitteh photo? Thanks in advance.

  45. So adorable! Whap, whack, wake up, mom!

  46. The lovely thing abut Hanukkah-it happens when everyone is already awake.

    Merry and Happy Everypeep!

  47. Firstly, congratulations Dr. Berthaservant!! Wooot!

    Secondly, I think that momma kitteh is going to end up with her claws hooked in the ceiling by the expression on her face…

    *poke* YAAAAAAHHH!!!!! *pant pant pant*

  48. Aww, c;mon Mom, it’s the holidays! Lemme just whack ya upside the head, just this once.

    …..and the fight ensues, all in the spirit of the (thwack!) Season!

    Too funny.

  49. Mary (the first) says:

    In addition to all the beauty inherent in the kittehs themselves, I love how the mama kitteh’s eyes match her sheets/pillow. SWEET.

  50. @Katrina, Belated Happy Hanukkah!

  51. Thanks, skippymom, Early Happy New Year!

  52. emmberrann says:

    @Dr. Berthasbutler: How terrific for you! Kudos! Congratulations! Wonderful! We are not worthy……
    Dis kitteh-bebeh is so-o-o-o gonna get it from da kitteh-mama! Oooooh, Impending Doom, oh, my!!

  53. This looks to me a little like a little bit of Little Kitty Theatre. To explain:

    The play they are performing is “Young Ashton Kutcher”. And he has Punk’d for the first time!

    On the other hand, the younger kitty could simply be saluting. Many Glorious Leaders (big Kitty) tend to stare down the world in quite casual a manner. Perhaps they are preparing to take over the world (no objections here). Or…

    Little Kitty is assassinating said Glorious Leader, under the cover of a salute. After all, the Leader is already in bed, right ? It means he is tired; and if he is tired, he will fall asleep, right ? And if that sleep should be longer than expected…well…it is not altogether unexpected. An unexpected tragedy.

    But all Big Kitties should be warned…is the little one behind you saluting ? Or…something else ? *Trust No One*

    This just goes to show that the world of men and women is not the -only- one to be plagued with the occasional political/special-interest seeking power brokers intent on only one thing: Power. A lesson to us all.

    But this is the cutest assassination attempt ever!! :twisted:

  54. Boy, when Mom gets up – someone will be flying into the next room!

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Thank you for stopping by!

Both books in my Awakening series, VAMPIRE’S HUNGER and VAMPIRE’S THIRST, are available now! Check out my Bookshelf page for more details on the series.

Where I’ll be:
October 28th - Desert Rose Chapter Meeting at Monti’s La Casa Vieja on South Mill Ave in Tempe
March 14-15, 2015 - Tucson Festival of Books

You can also always find me at my Facebook page and at Twitter.


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1 definition by RJB2000

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Neighborhood in Chicago's near north side known for its preponderancy of singles bars and dance clubs. The triangle is formed geographically by Chicago Avenue on the south, State Street to the west, and Rush Street as the hypotenuse - though the bars to the north along Division Street are commonly considered a part of the Viagra Triangle experience.
You're guaranteed to hook up if you hang around Viagra Triangle long enough.
af RJB2000 15. november 2006

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Aging more rapidly than normal due to stress and over-working, the same as Presidents, who seem to age prematurely while they're in office.
I've been working so hard, and you can tell by looking at me because I'm aging like a president.

My boyfriend is causing me so much stress, I'm aging like a president.
af JonaOG 15. oktober 2009
5 Words related to Aging like a president

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The weird/cramp-like feeling you get in your leg the morning after you have been drinking heavily
"I am so hung over and my legs feel like they are cramping, I hate drunk leg"
af SJenk 21. december 2009

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Someone in the corporate world who slacks off most of the time, and whose level of productivity is seen as his/her "typical". However, once this person actually starts doing productive work, it's extremely good and effective.
Harvey Keitel was a slackoff superstar in Pulp Fiction.
af man-tow-notch 14. januar 2009

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Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Samuelson: Mixed-Bag Economic Results

A pretty good (fair and balanced!) look at the Census Bureau stats from Samuelson of the WaPo.

The Census Bureau found that median household income in 2007 was $50,233. Though up 1.3 percent from 2006, that was still less than the peak of $50,641 in 1999. (The median is the midpoint; all figures are in inflation-adjusted 2007 dollars.) Meanwhile, the share of people below the government's poverty line -- about $21,000 for a family of four -- was 12.5 percent, up from 11.3 percent in 2000. Finally, the ranks of the uninsured have increased in six of the past eight years. They're now about 15 percent of the population.

That sounds not-too-hot. But then, there are liars, damned liars, and statistics.

First, comparisons are made to an artificially high benchmark -- the late 1990s "tech bubble."

If one selects 1997 as a basis, then we've had 10 years of growing income, says Samuelson.

Second, immigration distorts commonly cited statistics

Obviously, when several million people take low-pay/low-skilled jobs, the median will suffer.

Third, the census figures understate income gains by not counting fringe benefits.

TOTAL compensation has gone up quite a bit--but health costs and SS tax increases have eaten up a bunch of the money before it got to anyone's pocketbook.

(As an aside, WEAC members don't want you to know what THEIR health-insurance policies actually cost the taxpayer. But they'll be happy to talk about horrible paychecks...)

Samuelson is not an optimist:

...a continuation of present trends would imperil future prosperity.

If health-care spending remains uncontrolled, Americans will see more of their compensation diverted from take-home pay into insurance that mainly benefits (as insurance should) a small proportion of very sick people. Similarly, if the immigration of low-skilled workers continues unabated -- whether they're legal or illegal -- the ranks of the poor will swell, as will the uninsured or the costs of providing government insurance.

Given the 2008 economy -- higher unemployment and inflation -- next year's census numbers will probably be worse than this year's. But it's the long-term threats that really matter.
Obama and McCain don't confront them realistically because doing so would be unpopular and there's no strong public case for action. That's the biggest cost of misreading the economic report card.

Surprise!! Politicians acting...spinelessly!!

HT: FoxPolitics

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Jindal, Walker, Haley slam Obama, Republican Congress for no sequester deal

The leaders of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) slammed both President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress for not finding a solution to the sequester’s autoatic spending cuts, which are set to go into effect on March 1.

At a press conference held after the Republican governors met with Obama at the White House, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, appearing with RGA Chairman and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, said “after this meeting, I came back and I told Bobby and Scott I could not be more frustrated than I am right now.”

“How many more times are the governors going to have to pick up the mess of Washington, D.C.,” she asked. “How many more times are we going to have to deal with these issues over and over again because of the finger pointing and the blame game that happens in Washington?”

Haley said the task of figuring out more reasonable budget cuts to replace the sequester cuts, which Obama has warned will have dire consequences, is something her kids could do.

“This is not rocket science. What this is is an inability to want to get to work. No one should be going home. No one should be playing golf. No one should be taking vacation. What they need to do is do what these governors do every day: We stay until we get it done,” she said, in a jab at both the president, who spent the weekend golfing in Florida, and Congress, which recessed last week.

Jindal accused Obama of “trying to scare the American people” by portraying the cuts as dire. Jindal said that the president’s unwillingness in talks with the governors — to consider possible alternatives to the sequester that did not involve raising taxes — showed that they were not as “devastating” as he was suggesting they were.

“It just seems to us that it is time for the president to roll up his sleeves, to stop campaigning — the election is over — and to do the hard work of governing,” Jindal said.

“There is a complete lack of leadership or responnsiblity or accountability in this town,” Haley added.

Walker said that as governors, when budget cuts needed to be made, they had to “put up or shut up.” It was time, he said, for the federal government to do the same.

He made a point of adding that Republicans in Congress were just as negligent in this regard.

“We’re not here speaking on behalf of Republicans on the Hill, we’re speaking on behalf of Republican governors,” Walker said. “The contrast is, we’re providing leadership.”

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Jay Carney Resigns As White House Press Secretary

President Obama announced the resignation of White House press secretary Jay Carney Friday afternoon.

Obama also announced that current deputy press secretary Josh Earnest will replace Carney in the post.

“Be nice to Josh during his initiation,” Obama encouraged the laughing press corps.

Carney is the second Obama White House press secretary and has held the post since February 2011.

Earlier Friday, Obama separately announced the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki after bipartisan calls for his removal over apparently rampant mismanagement of the veteran health system.

Carney’s resignation appears unrelated to the VA scandal, and as reported by The Daily Caller, had been imminently expected.

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Heating up

If you're suffering in the heat today here's an interesting fact you can use when someone asks "is it hot enough for you?" According to the National Climatic Data Center, the period from January to June was the warmest six months on the planet since records were first kept. This current heat wave blankets a big part of the country this weekend. Here in the east it's that wicked combo of heat and humidity, while the west is baking in a virtual dry oven with temperatures in some spots reaching into the triple digits. I found myself fantasizing about winter today, which is a sure sign the heat is getting to me (in January I'll be blogging about the joys of July). We'll have more on the heat on tonight's broadcast.

We're of course also keeping tabs on the undersea drama in the Gulf of Mexico. A lot of eyes are keeping watch on that new containment cap over the ruptured well, and so far all the readings look good -- meaning no signs of leaks. We'll update the operation and look ahead at the next major challenges in this disaster.

Remember all those pets that needed homes after Hurricane Katrina? The oil crisis threatens to create a similar predicament for those suffering economic hardships in the Gulf and our Michelle Kosinski will share some of those heart breaking stories on tonight's program.

Thanks for checking in. We'll look for you tonight on NBC Nightly News.