does it ever end? (apparently not)

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that's right, she's a контральто:

Поющие гитары - Тачанка:

a beautiful rendition of Katyusha (Катюша):




some excellent crowd shots in this one:




a catchy tune featuring rotary dial phones and helpful subtitles in english and chinese:

"79 Tibetans have now set themselves on fire in Tibet since 2009."

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• Breaking: Tibetan teen burns self to death, Toll climbs to 79 


• Full list of self-immolations in Tibet


• Self-Immolation Fact Sheet


• Seven Self-Immolations In One Week

No True Pagan: The David Duke Litmus Test (Two Case Studies)

While some people concern themselves with the fanciful vagaries of "crypto-fascism", we here at EGREGORES prefer to focus on the real thing. It turns out that if you really want to find people who claim to be Pagans (or Heathens, or Hellenes, or Traditionalists) but who are, in fact, Fascists and/or Nazi sympathizers just looking for a new way to peddle their old poison, it's really not too hard to spot them. Just check to see whether or not they are standing next to David Duke.

Anyone who would be caught dead with David Duke is No True Pagan in my book.

But how, you ask, does one apply the much vaunted David Duke Litmus Test in practice? To answer that question, lets take a look at two case studies: Galina Lozko (leader of the pseudo-Pagan "Native Faith" movement in the Ukraine), and Greg Johnson (editor of the proudly white supremacist Counter-Currents website, and who claims to be critical of Christianity and sympathetic to Paganism).

What might happen if, for example, one were to do the simplest possible google search, and just put in two names, one of them being "david duke" (no quotes in the actual search - nothing fancy) the other being the name of the person to whom the David Duke Litmus Test is being applied? The results for "galina lozko" and "greg johnson" are given below:

The search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=galina lozko david duke

Very first hit:
http://www.icare.to/article.php?id=4859&lang=en

The search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=greg johnson david duke

Very first hit:
http://www.toqonline.com/blog/david-duke-interview-1/

Further evidence of the linkage between Galina Lozko and Daid Duke:

• David Duke's account of the 2006 international conference on "TheWhite World's Future" attended by both Duke and Lozko (Duke mentions Lozko):
  http://www.davidduke.com/?p=581
• Full pdf of the book containing the proceddings of the above conference (Lozko's contribution is on p. 99, Duke's is on p. 79):
  http://www.tulaev.info/pdf/15_P.V.Tulaev_WWF_book.pdf
• 2011 interview with Pavel Tulaev (Galina Lozko's husband) which mentions David Duke (approvingly) twice:
  http://euro-synergies.hautetfort.com/archive/2011/11/17/pavel-tulaev-responds-to-questions-by-alfred-vierling.html

Further evidence of the linkage between Greg Johnson and David Duke:

• A book by David Duke, published by Counter-Currents:
  The Little Bank That Saved Christmas

A Galloping Troika: Full Steam Ahead Into Russian Music Videos!!!!

yet another amazing russian music video round up

[pssst: here's a version with english subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlQ6KqTlyfk&feature=related]









Other posts from this ongoing occasional series:

• Blaxploitation Style Soviet Funk! (from 1975) 12/4/11
• even more videos 11/22/11
• More Russian Videos That Do Not Disappoint, товарищи! 11/18/11
• Потап и Настя Каменских (Potap & Nastya) 9/30/11 
• сумасшедшие видео России 4/5/11
• Калинка 2/27/11
• Kalinka 5/24/10

Heathens and Hellenes

OOPS! Wrong kind of "Goth". Sorry!

The Germanic word "Heathen" can be traced back to the mid 4th century (348), when Ulfilas produced his Gothic translation of the Bible. Ulfilas used "Haiþi" as a Gothic equivalent of "Hellene".

Lets take a look at Mark 7:26:

ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἦν ἑλληνίς, συροφοινίκισσα τῶ γένει· καὶ ἠρώτα αὐτὸν ἵνα τὸ δαιμόνιον ἐκβάλῃ ἐκ τῆς θυγατρὸς αὐτῆς.
[Greek text, link: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/gnt/mar007.htm#026]

wasuþ~þan so qino haiþno, Saurini fwnikiska gabaurþai, jah baþ ina ei þo unhulþon uswaurpi us dauhtr izos.
[Ulfilas, 348, link: http://www.wulfila.be/gothic/browse/text/?book=4&chapter=7]

erat autem mulier gentilis Syrophoenissa genere et rogabat eum ut daemonium eiceret de filia eius
[Jerome (Vulgate), ca. 385, link: http://www.drbo.org/lvb/chapter/48007.htm]

Soþlice ðæt wif wæs hæðen, Sirofenisces cynnes. And bæd hine, ðæt he ðone deofol of hyre dehter adrife. 
 [West Saxon Gospels, ca 990, link: http://wordhord.org/nasb/mark-ws.html]

And the womman was hethen, of the generacioun of Sirofenyce. And sche preiede hym, that he wolde caste out a deuel fro hir douyter.
[Wycliffe, 1389, link: http://wesley.nnu.edu/fileadmin/imported_site/biblical_studies/wycliffe/Mar.txt]

The woman was a Greke oute of Syrophenicia and she besought him yt he wolde caste out ye devyll oute of her doughter.
[Tyndale, 1526, link: http://wesley.nnu.edu/fileadmin/imported_site/tyndale/mar.txt]

(und es war ein griechisches Weib aus Syrophönizien), und sie bat ihn, daß er den Teufel von ihrer Tochter austriebe.
[Luther, 1545, link: http://www.bibledbdata.org/onlinebibles/german_l/41_007.htm]

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It is also worth taking a look at some modern commentaries on this passage (taken from here: http://bible.cc/mark/7-26.htm):

"all heathens or idolaters were called Ἑλληνες, Greeks, by the Jews; whether they were Parthians, Medes, Arabs, Indians, or Ethiopians. Jews and Greeks divided the whole world at this period."
Adam Clarke

"A Greek - The Jews called all persons 'Greeks' who were not of their nation. Compare Romans 1:14. The whole world was considered as divided into Jews and Greeks. Though she might not have been strictly a 'Greek,' yet she came under this general appellation as a foreigner."
Albert Barnes

"The woman was a Greek,.... Or Gentile, an Heathen woman, which made her faith the more remarkable. So the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions call her; which she might be, and was, though she was a woman of Canaan, as she is said to be in Matthew 15:22, for though the land of Israel in general, was called the land of Canaan, yet there was a particular part, which was at first inhabited by Canaan himself, which bore this name; and is the same with Phoenicia, of which this woman was an inhabitant, and therefore she is afterwards called a Syrophoenician."
John Gill

Also check out this closely related post:
Defining Paganism: "Where your treasure is, there is your heart also." 

Ulfilas preaching to the Goths.

"Properly speaking, Albigensianism was not a Christian heresy but an extra-Christian religion."

It is interesting to note that already in 1910, the venerable Catholic Encyclopedia was even then groping toward the modern redefinition of heresy, which transformed heretics from Satan's minions into sincere (if errant) Christians.

This is from the Catholic Encyclopedia entry for Heresy:

"Heresy differs from apostasy. The apostate a fide abandons wholly the faith of Christ either by embracing Judaism, Islamism, Paganism, or simply by falling into naturalism and complete neglect of religion; the heretic always retains faith in Christ." 

(It is worth noting, at least parenthetically, that making "faith in Christ" a defining feature of "heresy", as opposed to apostasy, is a case of logic that is not so much circular as it is fractal. For if two people have wildly different views of Christ, then in what sense do they both have faith in the same Christ?)

One fascinating side-effect of this definitional shift, is that the Catholic Encyclopedia's entry on Albigensianism is forced to state the following (in order to be consistent with the article on Heresy):

"Properly speaking, Albigensianism was not a Christian heresy but an extra-Christian religion."

The implications are truly remarkable. Catharism-cum-Albigensianism is generally (if not universally) considered by historians and religion scholars as the single most important (if not defining) example of medieval heresy!

Vergilian Heresy in 10th Century Italy

"At that time also, mischief not unlike the above appeared at Ravenna. A certain man named Vilgard occupied himself with more eagerness than constancy in literary studies, for it was always the Italian habit to pursue these to the neglect of the other arts. Then one night when, puffed up with pride in the knowledge of his art, he had begun to reveal itimself to be more stupid than wise, demons in the likeness of the poets Vergil, Horace, and Juvenal appeared to him, pretending thanks for the loving study which he devoted to the contents of their books and for serving as their happy herald to posterity. They promised him, moreover, that he would soon share their renown. Corrupted by these devilish deceptions, he began pompously to teach many things contrary to holy faith and made the assertion that the words of the poets deserved belief in all instances. But he was at last discovered to be a heretic and was condemned by Peter, archbishop of that city.

"Many others holding this noxious doctrine were discovered throughout Italy, and they too died by sword and pyre. Indeed, at this same period some went forth from the island of Sardinia--which usually teems with this sort of folk--to infect the people of Spain, but they were exterminated by the Catholics. This accords with the prophecy of the apostle John, in which he said that Satan would be released when a thousand years has passed. Of this we shall treat more fully in a third book" 

The above is a contemporary account (ca. 1025) concerning events that are supposed to have happened about 50 years earlier, given by one "Ralph the Bald". There are several important things to be noted about this incident:

1. Vilgard is unambiguously identified as a "heretic".

2. Vilgard's heresy was caused by demonic influence.

3. Vilgard became vulnerable to demonic influence due to his great love for classical Pagan literature.

4. Vilgard's heresy consisted of venerating the works of "the poets", that is, classical Pagan literature.

5. "Many others holding this noxious doctrine were discovered throughout Italy."

6. These Vergillian heresies are claimed, by Ralph, to have been foretold by a prophecy concerning an increase in the power and influence of Satan at the turn of the millennium. 

Some links of possible interest:

• Vergilian Heresy: A Cautionary Tale
• Medieval Sourcebook: Ralph the Bald (ca.1025):Early Appearances of Heresy, c. 970
• Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, 1000-1200 by Heinrich Fichtenau (2000), see especially pp.13-15.
• Christianity: A Global History by David Chidester (2001), see especially pp. 258-259.
• Master Virgil: the author of the Æneid as he seemed in the middle ages; a series of studies by Joseph Salathiel Tunison (1886), see especially pp. 53-55.

Arab polytheism, Vaginas, Rajan Zed, Justin Bieber, Peter Kingsley, Navy SEALS, Zombie Jesus, Natural Fractals, Blasphemous Images, and a ukulele cover of Shine On You Crazy Diamond

According to the automatically generated web stats provided by Blogspot.Com, the top ten posts on this humble blog this week cover the following topics (in descending order of popularity):

Arab polytheism 
Vaginas 
Rajan Zed 
Justin Bieber (and Edie Sedgwick) 
Exposing Peter Kingsley as a New Age wanker 
Navy SEALS, bin Laden, and the Book of Five Rings 
Zombie Jesus
Extremely Cool Natural Fractals 
Blasphemous Images 
And a ukulele cover of Shine On You Crazy Diamond