Old e-mails

Recently, I received an e-mail to login for my account update and verification, or it would be shut down within 24 hours due to "termination request". I wonder now how I could believe in such an apparent scam, but I did. Happily, nothing scary has happened so far, but shame on me!

I do not even use much this particular e-mail address, but I have there some old e-mails I do not want to lose. Not that it is likely that I will ever read them again. Old letters written by other people, when read by us, revive the past. However, our own old letters - those we wrote and those we received - are the exact opposite: they are a repository of a "dead future". Therefore, reading them can be recommended only to the happiest or the interpid.

The World Jewish Congress broadcasts lies of Bulgarian far-left

Every year in February, far-right Bulgarian organization and citizens hold a rally called Lukov March. It is allegedly to commemorate General Hristo Lukov (1887 - 1943), but actually more to reflect current events of interest to the participants. This is what I know from the media, because I have never taken part in the rally and do not intend to. I do not like these people and their views and I think they are discrediting Bulgarian nationalism. At the same time, I think that people in a free country have the right to express their views, to associate and to rally peacefully, regardless of whether we like them or not.

The latter opinion, however, is not shared by all. Every single year, self-described human rights activists (!) petition Bulgarian authorities to ban Lukov March. In these efforts, they not only criticize the organizers and participants as neo-Nazis but, by association, smear Hristo Lukov as a rabid Nazi and anti-Semite. This year, the efforts were supported by the World Jewish Congress. Its Executive Vice-President Robert Singer came to Bulgaria and handed a petition to the Prime-Minister Boyko Borissov, "so far signed by 175 000 people from all over the world", against the Lukov March. In an interview with Sega Newspaper (the above link), he stated: "The march is in the name of General Hristo Lukov, who supported the neo-Nazi laws in Bulgaria, and the deportation of Jews."

Unfortunately, human rights groups in Bulgaria are heavily infiltrated by far-left people who have a serious reason to dislike General Lukov: he was assassinated by two communists because their bosses feared that he might return to politics. It is true that Lukov, like many other Bulgarians of that time, was pro-German, but this wasn't necessarily because of any sympathy to Hitler. For Bulgarians, Germany was just the power that was hoped to reverse Versailles and the associated treaties that had torn apart the Bulgarian territory, leading to ethnic cleansing and forced assimilation of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Bulgarians. However, no source known to me from Lukov's lifetime or more than half a century later describes him as an anti-Semite, even the memoirs of communists glorifying his killers. In a 2013 interview (source in Bulgarian), Bulgarian historian Nikolay Poppetrov (otherwise very critical of Hristo Lukov), when asked whether General Lukov had been an anti-Semite after all, answered: "There are no preserved documents [indicating this]. There is another suspicion - he had commercial activity, he might have worked also for some companies with Jewish ownership. His enemies [during his lifetime] had accused him in this..."

General Hristo Lukov was Minister of War between 1935 and early 1938, but after that, he was removed from government by King Boris III until his death. The nationalist organization headed by him, the "Legionnaires", was banned. He was assassinated on Feb. 13, 1943. The agreement to deport more than 11,000 Jews (most of whom died in the Holocaust) from Macedonia and Aegean Thrace was signed in deep secrecy on Feb. 22, 1943. This timeline, easily accessible online even for readers who speak no Bulgarian, proves that Mr. Singer and his organization uncritically broadcasted untruths fed to them by the Bulgarian far-left. As Bulgarian-born Jew Samuil Arditi commented (source in Bulgarian), "Lukov could not even known about the deportation while he was alive, let alont "support" it posthumously". Arditi called the claims of Lukov's support for the deportation "a lie in the name of political interests" that a certain Bulgarian Jewish organization "is selling to international Jewish organizations". My impression, however, is that most of the people smearing Lukov and recruiting international Jewish organizations against him do not even have Jewish background. There are indeed a few Jews among them, but the leftist identity dominates .

Unless and until any evidence is presented and not just baseless assertions, I regard the alleged anti-Semitism of General Hristo Lukov as a recent invention of our communists and other far-left activists who are deliberately and systematically spreading lies, selecting ones that would best stick abroad. Such people have also accused my father in anti-Semitism after his participation in a Brussels conference in 2014, and he has been suing them for libel and slander ever since. Two of his accusers were people I had personally known and regarded as friends. Therefore, the entire story not only burdened me as an aide to my father (a 95-yr-old man with multiple disabilities) but caused the emotional pain we feel when we lose a friend because of his transformation into an unfriend. As a supporter of Jews and Israel, I suffer a similar emotional pain when Jewish organizations work hard against my country, as in this case. However, I do not for a millisecond equate these organizations with the Jews they claim to represent (unelected), I continue to support the Jews and would advise anybody to do the same.

Islamist terror in 2017

To begin blogging in 2018, a short bulletin of Islamist terror attacks in the West in 2017, compiled with the help of Wikipedia:

- March 22 in London, UK: A convert to Islam drove a car into pedestrians south of Westminster Bridge, fatally injuring four, then stabbed a policeman to death.

- April 4, Paris, France (not in the Wikipedia list): A French Muslim killed his neighbor, a 65-yr-old Jewish woman, by severely beating her and then throwing her out of the window. The perpetrator shouted "Allahu akbar" and "I killed the devil". French authorities and media tried to cover up this murder for as long as possible, categorizing it as a hate crime only 5 months later. I learned of it by chance, searching for something else in a Jewish media source. The victim, Sarah Halimi, happened to have the same family name as Ilan Halimi, another Parisian Jew savagely murdered by Muslims ten years before.

- April 20, Paris, France: A French Muslim shot dead a police officer.

- May 22, Manchester, UK: A British Muslim, born to Libyan refugees, carried out a suicide bombing at a concert, killing 22. This act was particularly outrageous because the concert was of Ariana Grande, a singer with audience mostly of teenage girls. The youngest victim was 8. The cartoon above, of the "Jesus 'n' Mo" series, was published two days later. I copied it from Prof. Coyne's site.

- June 3, London, UK: Three British Muslims drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge, killing 3, then, after the van crashed, began stabbing people, killing 5 more.

- August 17-18, Barcelona, Spain: Five Spanish Muslims of Moroccan origin killed a total of 16 people in separate attacks by driving into pedestrians and stabbing.

- October 31, New York, USA: A Muslim immigrant from Uzbekistan drove a truck into cyclists, killing 8.

As if this is not enough, some Westerners descend to the level of the Islamists, reacting to their attacks with equally ugly attacks on random, innocent Muslims. On January 29,  Alexandre Bissonnette (28) opened fire in a Quebec City mosque, killing 6. On June 19, Darren Osborne (47) drove a van into Muslims coming out of a London mosque after prayer, killing one. Again in London, on June 21, John Tomlin (25) poured acid on two Muslims, a female university student and her cousin, as they were sitting in their car.

Let's wish that 2018 will be better! I do not hold my breath, however.

Shame: my country joined the anti-Semitic orgy

A UN resolution has just voted a resolution that condemns the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and calls for this decision to be renounced. The BBC has published a list of countries that voted against, abstained, and voted for the resolution, respectively. Nine countries voted against, 35 abstained, 128 voted in favor. Unfortunately, Bulgaria is among the latter. Shame!

Europe should recognize Jerusalem as Israeli capital

Ever since the foundation of the State of Israel, its authorities and citizens consider Jerusalem as their capital, while other countries use Tel Aviv as interim capital so that not to anger Arabs, some of whom have claims on Jerusalem.

In the distant 1995, the US Congress voted the Jerusalem Embassy Act, recognizing Jerusalem as Israeli capital and ordering the US Embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Since then, three US Presidents have had their terms and none of them dared to implement the act. It needed to wait for Donald Trump to be implemented. He is widely regarded as crazy, and I dislike him, mostly because of his pro-Russian positions, but this act of him shows that even crazy rulers have their role in society.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu appealed to Europe to follow the American example, but European leaders refuse, at least for now. I think that they should absolutely support Israel and its right to name its capital. Especially after it was European countries that carried out the Holocaust. Unfortunately, it seems easier for the Europeans to shed crocodile tears for the Jews perished in the Holocaust than to support the surviving Jews and their state.

My prognosis is that Europeans will continue to make fools of themselves for some time, maybe several years, and then will quietly start to move their embassies to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the Palestinian opponents of Israel are rioting and have already produced some victims. It is notable that the most violent protests are in Gaza, where there seems to be no other industry. In contrast, Arab residents of East Jerusalem are peaceful. The quote below is from an Atlantic report by Emma Green:

"Jerusalem—the political and geographical center of the debate—stayed relatively quiet... Palestinians in East Jerusalem have integrated with Israelis to a significant extent; they depend on Israel and its tourists for their livelihoods, so there’s a lot at stake if they decide to protest or strike... For his part, Abu Madhi says he wishes the Israeli government would make East Jerusalem a little nicer. “You’ve been to Tel Aviv sometimes?” he asked me. “Clean country, high-speed world, green trees.” He pointed to the Damascus Gate area. “Why shouldn’t we have here a garden, and here a basketball court? This thing that I prefer, the government could do.”... Eventually, a man brought a tarp out to the area near the Damascus Gate for the next round of prayers. More than 60 men lined up before the Old City, facing a row of cameras, a line of Israeli soldiers just behind them. This was the most peaceful form of protest—and the most normal thing in the world.... “Just one hour, and you’re going to see everything’s okay,” Abu Madhi said. “You’re going to see an Arabic man and a Jewish man sitting here.”"

Maybe now, as a resident of a capital gaining international recognition, Mr. Madhi has a higher chance to see new gardens and sport facilities.

The Guardian feeds anti-Muslim stereotypes

Browsing the Yahoo!News, I have just found a Guardian article titled Trump’s error on Jerusalem is a disaster for the Arab world … and the US too, by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of Arab studies at Columbia University. It is about the decision of US president Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israeli capital and to move the US embassy there. (The decision was actually made into a law by the Congress back in 1995, but three consecutive US presidents were too afraid to implement it. I do not like Trump, but I give him credit for this act.)

Briefly, Prof. Khalidi states that Trump's act was an error because it favored Israel and made Palestinians unhappy. He condemns the decision as a crushing blow to the peace process, while admitting that the peace process has been "at death's door" since 2014. He also states that "few [Palestinians] want a return to violence", though his entire text is a thinly veiled threat of long-lasting, "impossible to predict" violence. If you have time to waste, read it in entirety. Now, I'd prefer to discuss stereotyping.

All people stereotype and are stereotyped. This is how human brain works. And it works this way because stereotyping is, and has always been, a survival strategy. However, while it may be very useful for individuals and in the short run, stereotyping harms the long-term interests of whole societies. For example, here in Bulgaria we have a minority that performs more than its fair share of thefts. When members of said minority are on a bus or a tram, everybody, no matter how progressive, clutches their belongings. The stereotype in question, like most other stereotype, is concentrated experience and will die out only when the minority stops regarding other people's property as a free resource. In the meantime, however, I think it is counterproductive to talk too much publicly about thefts by this minority, because this will feed the stereotype to expand beyond its healthy degree and will hurt the employment of minority members, leaving them in a vicious circle with no subsistence other than thefts and welfare. (This is why I am reluctant even to name the minority; if you are European, you know perfectly well whom I mean, and if you are not, please consider my example hypothetical.) If you are a member of a stereotyped group, I think that, instead of attacking the stereotypers, you should address first those members of your own group who with their behavior have caused the stereotyping in the first place, and then those public forums that make a bad situation worse by needlessly feeding the stereotype.

Muslims are stereotyped as being anti-Semitic. Despite the presence of countless Muslims and whole Muslim communities (such as the Bulgarian Muslims) who do not harbor any anti-Semitism, this stereotype, like most others, is based on facts. It is so entrenched and normalized that even sophisticated people like Prof. Khalidi make no attempt to hide it. The big question is, why does the respectable Guardian, which claims (e.g. here) to stand against the "Islamophobia", publish a text that can only feed anti-Muslim stereotypes? I think that, if I were a Muslim, I'd be outraged by this. I would call Prof. Khalidi names and would write to the Guardian.

How a student made my day

Two months ago, we at the Medical University of Sofia were carrying out our regular additional autumn exam session, known among students and teachers as the "liquidation" session. It can be best described as "just another last chance" for students who have skipped or failed some exam both at the regular session and at the September corrective session. Unfortunately, while many students had learned at least the minimum of required knowledge and passed, others had not. (The ribosome, already proven to be a Waterloo for some, remained so; this September, two students independently prepared for me depictions of it as a circle surrounded by smaller circles like petals of a flower. I even composed a ribosome haiku: Know thyself and thy ribosome / And remember that it is crazy / To draw it shaped like a daisy.)

After one of those very hard exam days was finally over, I went out in a rush. There was a parent meeting at the school of one of my sons, the first such meeting for this school year. I didn't want to be late. The only way to get there quickly was by a taxi. I saw a free taxi, jumped into it and started to explain the destination to the driver.

Suddenly, a young man - apparently a student at our Medical University - shouted in English: "Doctor! This is a false taxi!" He came closer and pointed at the list of prices displayed at the front window of the car. The numbers were indeed about twice higher than those offered by most taxi companies. I usually check them, but not when I am in a hurry. Expensive or not, this taxi was my chance that night. So I said to the student "Thank you!" but did not leave the car. With it, I reached the school just in time.

That student made my day. I always try to teach well and to examine justly. And while I say that "I do my job the best way I can, and I do not care what others say", I'd wish my efforts to be appreciated... sometimes. That young man showed goodwill to me in circumstances where he could simply pass by. I am sorry that, with my poor ability to recognize faces, I shall not know him if I see him again. But I will remember him.

(This post, stuck in the pipeline together with many others, was called to existence by one of my current 1st year students, who rightly remarked that I should write not just about the poor students but also about the good ones.)

France, we have a problem

Below, another quote from the Newsweek about the scary reality of today's life in Europe - Muslim Anti-Semitism Threatens France's Democracy, a today's report by Simone Rodan-Benzaquen.

"Paris—“In the Merah household, we were brought up with hating Jews, the hatred of everything that was not Muslim.”

These were the chilling words of Abdelghani Merah at the trial of his brother, Abdelkader Merah, who was accused of conspiring with a third brother, Mohamed, to murder three soldiers, three Jewish schoolchildren, and a teacher in Toulouse, France, in 2012.

Abdelghani also revealed, at the time, that “when the medical examiner brought [his] brother’s corpse home, people came over. They cried tears of joy. They said that he had brought France to its knees. That he did well. Their only regret was that he had not killed more Jewish children.”

These appalling remarks, which suggest the environment in which Mohamed Merah was immersed and his family’s way of thinking, have sparked a debate about the extent of hatred of Jews in the French Muslim community.

For years, it has been nearly impossible to speak about French Muslim anti-Semitism.

Many refused to take notice for reasons of ideology, discomfort, or lack of courage. Many feared being accused of “playing into the hands of the far right”... The Merah trial exposed a reality in France: anti-Semitic roots run deep within some elements of the French Muslim community...

French anti-Semitism is distinguished in Europe by its level of violence, ranging from attacks to abductions and even to murders...

Now, some French Muslim intellectuals are speaking out. The most recent example is film director Said Ben Said, who, writing in the French newspaper Le Monde , clearly and courageously criticized Arab Muslim anti-Semitism, after learning that he would not be allowed to sit on a film jury in Carthage because he had produced films in Israel.

The moral courage of such Muslim intellectuals should be commended because we know how difficult it is for them to make themselves heard. Journalists often prefer to invite more controversial figures such as Tariq Ramadan to their TV and radio shows.

And even when these intellectuals are invited, the simple act of denouncing anti-Semitism and extremism makes them susceptible to criticism, insults, and even threats of violence.

They are afraid. How could they not be, when they see that jihadists assassinate French Muslim soldiers and policemen because they are considered apostates, or that outspoken Muslims who denounce violence need police protection?..."

Terrorists should not brag online, hurts job hunt

The text below is from ISIS Members From Europe Can't Get Jobs When They Return Home, a several months-old report by Jack Moore

"The first thing an employer will ask about a resume is any gaps between jobs. But they probably wouldn't suspect that an applicant for a certain role who seems to have been unemployed for a few years was busy fighting for the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

Jihadis returning to their home countries in Europe are now finding out the hard way, and many cannot get a job as they try to reintegrate into western society.

Swedish daily newspaper Expressen interviewed former jihadis about life after ISIS and they discussed the challenges of finding work. As many as 150 have returned to the Scandinavian country to try and rebuild their lives.

“I just want to forget everything,” Walad Yousef, a 27-year-old returning fighter, told the newspaper. “I apply for a lot of jobs, but I can’t get any because my pictures are out there.”

Yousef had posted images of himself in Syria on Facebook, posing at a training camp with a Kalashnikov, and encouraging friends to join him. He returned to Sweden and said he had only gone to Syria to help civilians in the eastern city of Raqqa, where ISIS has beheaded several western hostages...

Employers fear that returning fighters may commit attacks or help others to commit attacks and do not wish to be associated with them, said another returnee who has changed his name to Yousef.

"You in the media have scared them. I do not know why they are afraid," said a jihadi from the southern city of Malmo of the fears that employees and civilians had of returning foreign fighters...

Sweden is one the best countries for a foreign fighter to return if they want to reintegrate. It is trialling a rehabilitation programme that gives Swedish extremists housing, employment, education and financial support. Anna Sjöstrand, the municipal coordinator against violent extremism in the city of Lund, said in October 2016 that it is much cheaper to reintegrate someone than to abandon them...

 The country suffered only its second radical Islamist attack in April when an Uzbek national plowed a truck into civilians on a busy shopping street in central Stockholm. The attack left five people dead. Authorities arrested the driver and said he had sympathies with ISIS. ISIS did not claim the attack, but it generally does not take responsibility for attackers who are captured alive..."

The moral? If you really, really want to join ISIS or another similar bunch of good fellows, at least do not brag all over the Web about it. May cause problems if some day you change your career.

Does academic success matter

When my children have problems with their school grades, I try to put things in perspective. I tell myself that, ultimately, being alive and healthy is what matters. I also remind myself that academic success does not guarantee a successful later realization, let alone happiness, and I remember some who were nearest and dearest to me and had straight As at school, and were responsible, hard-working and compassionate, yet did not get the happy and long lives that they deserved.


But this thought gives no comfort.

Immigrants listen to leftists, lose jobs

From a yesterday's report by Macradee Aegerter at kdvr.com:

"Local workers fired after not going to work on ‘A Day Without Immigrants’

DENVER -- Dozens of people say they were fired for taking part in a protest in Denver. Thursday’s “A Day without Immigrants” movement closed restaurants, shops, and jobs sites across the United States.

The moment was an effort to show the Trump administration how much immigrants contribute to the country’s economy. Many skipped work and vowed not to spend any money that day.

Now dozens of local masonry workers say they are without a job...

Ray was the foreman of two crews working for JVS Masonry.

He said when he told his boss his crews would be missing work Thursday to support the cause of immigration, he was told, they would be fired.

“You stand for what you believe, make sure you stand for whatever consequences are going to come… He said whoever took the day off today can find another job tomorrow,” Ray read from the texts on his phone, sent by his boss, Jim Serowski, the owner of JVS Masonry.

All of them, he said, fired for standing up for families.

“The guys that we have out here that have families that are afraid to go out and get a gallon of milk, get gas, going to get groceries in case they get stopped and deported,” he said of why they wanted to take part in the movement.

But family is what the owner of JVS Masonry said he supports.

“If you want to go to work to support your family. I don’t care if you have antennas coming out of your head, I really don’t care. If you’re going to betray the company then I have a concern,” said Serowski.

For him, he said, it comes down to business.

“I have no view on immigration laws or anything going on with that. All I know is I have a business to run,” he said..."


Earth to protesters:

When a country accepts an immigrant, the idea is not to give him the good life he is dreaming of. The idea is to use his labor at the lowest cost possible. He will be expected to work hard, often under conditions that the locals find unacceptable, and to keep his mouth shut. A legal immigrant could in theory prosper by starting a successful business, but this is easier said than done.

The "Day Without Immigrants" protests were most likely organized by local well-to-do leftists who can take a day off whenever they feel like it, without any consequences. Actually, the economy would hardly suffer even if all those leftists who have overtaken the US academia quit work for good. But the poor immigrant workers should think well whether it pays to take advice from these people. Now, some immigrants who have listened to the the anti-Trump leftists have as a result lost their jobs. A good lesson maybe, but hard. I do not expect the leftists to be helpful in finding new jobs for the unemployed. They are far better at destroying jobs.

At least, Mr. Serowski has promised to take back those fired workers who reapply.

Vegetarian parents forcing their obsession on children

I have just read this on Dear Abby:

"Dear Abby: I have been a vegetarian for 12 years. My husband has been one on and off for five years. I thought our children, 7 and 3, had never had meat in their lives. I recently found out that my father-in-law has been feeding them chicken nuggets from fast food. I was, and still am, very upset about it. It has been six months, and I haven’t talked to him since and no longer let my kids go over there without my husband. He texted me an apology that seemed very sarcastic and made me even angrier. Everyone says I need to get over it, but no one has confronted him about it. This has put a strain on my relationship with my husband. Can you please advise me on what to do next?
Furious in the South

Dear Furious: Text messages are, by definition, terse. Accept the apology you were given and move forward. That said, however, continue to insist that your children be under their father’s supervision when they visit their grandfather because his judgment is questionable, and he has already shown that when they are with him, your wishes will not be enforced."

Humans have evolved to be omnivores. However, many individuals, families and whole cultures decide to reject human nature and be vegetarians or vegans. There are some legitimate health reasons, e.g. kidney problems. Also, some people just do not like meat. However, the overwhelming majority of vegetarians are such due to crazy religious taboos on animal food or even crazier concern with welfare of non-human animals at the expense of humans.

Of course, everyone can make his food choices. The problem is that vegetarians and other food-restricted and food-obsessed individuals typically are big-time bullies and force the entire family to follow their diet. Of course, the spouse is likely to have been a vegetarian from the beginning, because vegetarians tend to intermarry (other people consider them weird and prefer to keep a distance). But even if the partner has initially had normal food habits, as in this case, he will be forced to submit, as is the rule when a non-fanatic marries a fanatic. Then, the happy couple will make their children vegetarians from the day of their conception, though a developing fetus and child has much higher nutritional needs than an adult. A friend of mine knows a vegan child whose tooth eruption was delayed for many months. That boy's teeth grew only after the grandmothers conspired to give him cheese secretly. Some children have suffered much more. There are reports of babies brought to death or brain damage by their vegan parents.

The "Furious" mother from the above letter has been a vegetarian for 12 years. She has a 7-yr-old child, which means she is unlikely to be younger than 25. She has enjoyed growing on a normal diet containing animal food, but now it seems to her a good idea to raise her children on crappy food. Doesn't she see how disgusting it is to force on your children something that most people hate and that has not been forced on you when you were a child? No, she doesn't. She feeds her children as if they are cattle, and nobody can do anything about it. Her husband is a spineless creature. He doesn't have the will to leave her,  doesn't have the will to resist her attempts to make him vegetarian, doesn't have the will even to keep the diet she is imposing on him (therefore he is "on and off"). Of course he doesn't have the will to fight for his children and guarantee their normal nutrition. The grandfather tried to do something, but was caught.

I am disappointed by Abby's reply, but some commenters had more to say:

"If you don't like what the kids eat on grandpa's watch, then stop using him as free childcare and hire a sitter who will do exactly as you instruct. You probably won't be happy even then because you sound like the sort of person who can't let anything go, who enjoys being livid over some first world problem, and who has a litany of woes that you love to go over with whomever will listen."

"Furious sounds like a control freak. An occasional McNugget isn't going to harm her children. It seems she found religion as an adult, and that's fine, but it takes a very carefully planned diet to raise a healthy child without meat. Maybe Granddad doesn't know how to do that. There is a reason we are omnivores."

"Maybe your kids want meat. Have you bothered to ask them?"

And a comment on the report about the damaged babies: "All you vegan adults, go for it. Everyone needs a religion/hobby. All you would-be vegan parents, consider that your strongly-held beliefs about meat should extend into strongly-held beliefs about not having children. A childless life actually fits very nicely into the stated vegan goal of a sustainable world where animals are completely free of human exploitation."

I just hope that Furious' children against all odds grow up normal.

My little Gilgamesh

At a certain age, children are tormented by existential problems.

Last summer, traveling back from our Black Sea vacation, we visited the city of Ruse at the Danube. We were there for first time. It is a beautiful city, full of culture and history. We especially liked the museum of history, arranged impressively by enthusiastic experts supported by EU funds. For example, one could see a prehistoric sickle from an antler horn with inserted sharp flint pieces as blades; and above, a video showed a woman harvesting with such a sickle. She was in a crude dress, as if it was woven also using Stone Age technology.

Another item was the skeleton of a woman killed during the Indo-European invasion. It was exposed as it had been found, only cleared from above for easy observation. The sight shocked my 12-yr-old son. He apparently realized his own mortality, fell in a whiny mood and kept talking about bones, graves and dying for days. After we returned home, my mother in-law told me that we shouldn't have scared the child like this. I said, in a serious voice, that I realized my mistake and would never again bring the kids to a museum (a promise that I would not keep, of course). I also gave my son Astrid Lindgren's Brothers Lionheart to read. I liked how he, by the end of the book, sensed the sad mood even before it was revealed that Jonatan was paralyzed and both brothers would die.

Half a year later, he had a history lesson about ancient Mesopotamia. It mentioned the epic of Gilgamesh. My son said about the hero:

"He went to seek immortality like me, as I intended!"

Austrian convicted for exposing inconvenient facts about Prophet Muhammad

 From the ECLJ site:

"The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is called upon to decide on the scope of the right to criticise Islam in the case of ES v. Austria, (No. 38450/12) in which a speaker was convicted of blasphemy: for criticising the sexuality of Muhammad.

The speaker who filed the case before the Strasbourg Court was convicted of publicly “disparaging a person who is an object of veneration”, namely “Muhammad” the "prophet of Islam", in a way likely to arouse justified indignation, in violation of section 188 of the Austrian Criminal Code.

The contentious statements were made during a series of lectures entitled “Basic Information on Islam” at the Institute of Education of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), given in front of about thirty participants.

The speaker is alleged in substance to have said that Mohammad had pedophile tendencies (he “liked to do it with children”) because he married a girl of six (Aisha) and consummated that marriage when she was only nine. The speaker noted that this was problematic since “the highest commandment for a male Muslim is to imitate Muhammad”, adding more generally that “Muslims get into conflict with democracy and our value system.”

Following a complaint made by some journalists, the speaker was ordered to pay a 480 euro fine or serve sixty days in prison in default of payment. The Austrian courts gave this ruling in order to protect the "religious feelings" of Muslims and the “religious peace” in Austria.

The speaker brought the case before the European Court of Human Rights who will decide on whether freedom of expression prevailed over the respect for Muhammad and the “religious feelings” of Muslims."

(Reported by Gregor Puppinck, hattip Coel.)

The spirit of Christmas

Merry Christmas, or whatever solstice festival you are celebrating! We are now in the happy phase of relaxing after the "active" part of the holiday. No one at home is actually believing, but nevertheless we like the tradition to set up a Christmas tree, to put presents for the kids under it, to invite relatives for a plentiful tasty dinner and then to rest with full stomachs and cautious hopes for the next year. To me, this is the spirit of Christmas.

The spirit of Christmas includes also helping people in need. I like this part less. A major reason for not liking it is that those in need, or their agencies, try to track down the helping people and to harass them with never-ending demands for more help. For example, there is a poor lonely man in our district who lives by collecting bottles and other recyclable items from the garbage. Though I disapproved his drinking, I had some sympathy for him because of his love to animals. He had "adopted" a stray dog and we gave him bones to feed it. Then some neighbors poisoned the dog and he was devastated. "Those dirty, nasty Gypsies!", he exclaimed, though he himself belongs to this minority. After that, he tried to bring up a litter of stray cats. He asked me for milk to feed them, and I bought some. Then, he asked me to buy also a bread for him... Briefly, he asked more and more from me, until I set a fixed sum of 10 leva (EUR 5) per month. But even now, he routinely "forgets" that he has received the money and asks for more before the month is over.

In early December, when that man approached me, I had no bill of 10 leva, only of 20 leva. I sighed, gave him one and said that the extra money was for Christmas. He seemed happy. But yesterday, while I was on last-minute shopping, he asked for money and tried to convince me that I had promised to give him for Christmas. I told him that I had given him Christmas money weeks before and that there was apparently a misunderstanding. I don't know how he felt, but I was angry.

I had another experience of the same type with some students. During the last 4 months, my duties included holding a lecture course at a college loosely affiliated with my university. This work is so unwanted that we literally throw lots about who is to do it. Last year, a colleague picked the losing lot. This year, it was me. I tried to do the work as well as I could, and I invested much time to prepare the course. I even began to like it and thought that I could take it voluntarily the next year.

The exam was last Thursday. Just before it, the students gave me a nice Christmas card. I thanked them though I actually disliked this attempt to predispose me to be too generous. One of the students, who had attended the lectures regularly, approached me and asked me in a low voice whether there would be a bonus for regular attendees. I said that I hoped the regular presence would result in better test scores. So the exam began.

The results were a blow not only to many of the students but to me as well. Colleagues who had participated in the course the previous year had warned me that the level of these students was very poor, but I still didn’t expect 20 out of 50 students to fail, after we put the threshold at just 4 correct answers out of 15. After the exam, the failing ones (who included most regular attendees) were very unhappy, esp. those with 3 correct answers: “Only because of 1 score! Couldn’t you ask us additional questions (to reconsider the grade)?” I pointed out that it was not just 1 but 12 scores that they had got wrong. Then they went to complain to their administration, but were told to study harder.

Yesterday, as I opened my e-mail to send and read Christmas greetings, I saw a message from those students, about whether we could do the exam in February instead of September. They had my e-mail, because I had used it to send them the teaching materials I had prepared for them. And now they were using it to write me that I should write to the Dean to fix a date for the second exam in a month which, according to the rules of our university, is not meant for exams at all. It seems that the less productive a person is, the more prone he is to demand things from others.

So, when a friend at a forum asked about what New Year Resolutions we had, I could present only one: to make sure that someone else troubles with this course next year.

Bloody legacy

A new article in a top-ranking scientific journal (Gómez, J. M., M. Verdú, A. González-Megías, and M. Méndez. 2016. The phylogenetic roots of human lethal violence. Nature, doi:10.1038/nature19758, Published online, 28 September 2016) deals with the tendency of humans to kill other humans in evolutionary perspectives. It is discussed extensively by Prof. Jerry Coyne at his site, from where I learned about it.

Using data from other published articles, the authors calculated for more than 1000 animal species the proportion of deaths that are due to killing by other members of the same species. They found that related species had similar levels of such "lethal violence", and that it was higher in social and territorial species such as carnivores and (especially) primates.

Levels of deadly violence were also estimated for different human populations - more than 600, dating from the Paleolithic to the present. According to the authors, the ancestral human condition corresponded to about 2% deaths caused by other humans. However, depending on the social organization, this proportion could be moved both up and down. Some primitive societies, esp. those that are still retaining their primitive organization, were found to have higher levels of violence, while states have lower levels.

I know that we cannot hope ever to build a society completely free of lethal violence. The bloody legacy of our evolution is inscripted in human genes and cannot be erased. However, we can and must try to control it. We must strive for a society that discourages killing in every possible way. We have already advanced on this path, and this gives hope. We must continue. Every life that is preserved is worth the effort.

Trump, Putin and NATO: worrying development

The quote below is from the Sept. 9 article Why Donald Trump can't stop praising Vladimir Putin, by Jeet Heer at the New Republic:

"Donald Trump has long shown admiration and respect for Vladimir Putin, saying that the authoritarian Russian president is “doing a great job” in “rebuilding Russia,” and “I think I’d get along very well with Vladimir Putin.” After Putin called Trump a “talented person” last year, he returned the favor: “It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”

So it came as no surprise when he praised Putin during NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief Forum” on Wednesday night. “The man has very strong control over a country,” Trump told Matt Lauer. “It’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly, in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.”...

Americans, though, feel less affection for the Russian strongman. A Bloomberg poll conducted last month found that 69 percent of respondents were bothered by Trump’s praise of Putin, the seventh-highest concern about the Republican nominee.  

Why, then, does Trump continue to show affection for Putin? Some journalists have tried to explain it in crass economic terms, by pointing to evidence that Trump has borrowed money from Russian oligarchs and that former campaign manager Paul Manafort was handsomely compensated by Putin allies in the Ukraine..."

Next, I am copying from How Donald Trump's Rhetoric on NATO Works to Vladimir Putin's Advantage, by Michael Singh at the Aug. 7 Wall Street Journal:

"To see Donald Trump’s rhetoric on NATO strictly through the lens of U.S. politics would be a mistake. Mr. Trump has called the alliance “obsolete” and questioned the U.S. commitment to defend NATO allies...

In an election year, it is tempting to dismiss as partisan division such divergence from long-standing U.S. policy... Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, probably sees the growing skepticism toward NATO not as an unexpected twist in the U.S. political debate but as the intended outcome of a Russian policy designed to deter the United States.

Consider: Russian forces have acted boldly in Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria. They have become increasingly aggressive toward U.S. forces. Analysts have had to reassess Moscow’s willingness to take risks. Meanwhile, Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons to counter conventional threats and quickly close conflicts, a strategy it describes as “escalate to deescalate.”

To Mr. Putin, wavering in the U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance is vindication of this approach. He will not fail to highlight U.S. vacillation to Eastern European states, where leaders may increasingly feel pressure to hedge their bets on U.S. support against Russia and other threats. This vicious cycle could result in the success of a Russian strategy to “destroy our alliance, not by attacking it but by splintering it,” as the commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, put it last year..."

Today, Sept. 22, is Bulgaria's Independence Day. I hope that despite these scary trends my country and all of Eastern Europe will retain independence.

Go to therapy at your own risk

In today's West, whenever we are emotionally overwhelmed, we are advised to "go to therapy". Unfortunately, if we follow the advice, this most often means that some individual with a pseudo-scientific diploma will charge us nice round sums for asking us very personal questions. I like the dialog below, borrowed from the Greek Mythology Olympiaganza by Don Zolidis. It shows Cronus and Rhea in a psychotherapy office, trying in vain to save their marriage.


"NARRATOR 2: Now I know what you’re thinking out there: I’m not sure this is the proper family
relationship. But you’re just looking at it with modern eyes, in ancient times it was perfectly acceptable to... okay, it was always gross.

RHEA: Cronos, can we talk?

CRONOS: Sure honey, what’s up?

RHEA: This is hard for me to say: I’d like you to stop eating our children.

CRONOS: Nag nag nag nag nag, that’s all you ever do!

NARRATOR 2: So Rhea did the only thing she could do - they went to therapy.

(A COUNSELOR enters and they sit.)

THERAPIST: That’s interesting. And how do you feel about him eating the children?

RHEA: It makes me feel… upset.

THERAPIST: Go on.

RHEA: Because he’s a jerk -

THERAPIST: That’s a blaming statement. We’re not using blaming statements here.

CRONOS: I feel upset now.

THERAPIST: It’s okay, Cronos. It’s Rhea’s turn to share right now. Are you listening to her?

CRONOS: Yes.

THERAPIST: Good. I think we’re making progress. Go on Rhea. Tell Cronos how you feel.

RHEA: Cronos, when you eat my babies it makes me…

THERAPIST: If you don’t share your feelings with him, he’ll never know.

RHEA: It makes me feel angry because a lot of work into those babies and you eating them…

THERAPIST: Keep going! We’re getting somewhere now.

RHEA: Means that you’re eating our love.

CRONOS: Can I respond to that?

THERAPIST: Please. That’s why we’re here.

CRONOS: Rhea -

THERAPIST: Yes. Look at her.

CRONOS: You need to stop complaining or I’ll eat you next.

THERAPIST: No no we’re backsliding, remember what we talked about in our last session -

CRONOS: No death threats -

THERAPIST: That’s right, no death threats. Positive statements, Cronos. Positive statements.

CRONOS: Okay, um… it makes me feel good to threaten to kill -

THERAPIST: No. No. Cronos?

CRONOS: Okay. Rhea, I’m sorry you’re upset that I eat our children. But… I don’t feel that… you
respect my decision to eat the children enough -

RHEA: What!

THERAPIST: Listen to him. Hear him out.

RHEA: He’s crazy!

CRONOS: This is what I’m talking about, Doctor. Right there. No respect!

RHEA: I don’t respect anyone who eats babies!

CRONOS: Oh sure and you’ve never done anything wrong in this marriage! What about that time
when the soup was cold?

THERAPIST: Maybe -

CRONOS: You’re not even trying to make this marriage work!

RHEA: Are you kidding me?!

THERAPIST (overlapping): Let’s try to remain positive -

CRONOS: Where is the love?! Huh? Where is the affection!!!

THERAPIST: Okay. Okay. Stop. Let’s just sit down and try to move forward. We’re going to try an
exercise I like to call `sharing time’. So here’s what we do: Cronos, you share something you haven’t told Rhea, and then Rhea, you share something you haven’t told Cronos. Okay? Can we try that?

CRONOS: I guess.

THERAPIST: Cronos. You first. What haven’t you told Rhea?

CRONOS: Um… Rhea… I think your sister is hotter than you.

RHEA: What!

THERAPIST: Now Rhea. What would you like to share with Cronos?

RHEA: Okay - you know how the last baby you ate was all tough?

CRONOS: I figured he was going to be god of earthquakes or something.

RHEA: Actually that wasn’t a baby. That was a rock.

CRONOS: What?

RHEA: And I’ve been raising that child ever since to kill you.

CRONOS: What?

RHEA: Come on in, Zeus!

(ZEUS enters.)

CRONOS: See what I mean! She’s been lying to me!

RHEA: Kill him Zeus!

THERAPIST (shouting over them): There has to be a healthier way to address family conflicts!

RHEA: Get him boy!

ZEUS: Rarrrrrgh!

NARRATOR 2: Oh yeah, and in the middle of this Cronos puked up all the kids he had eaten and they banded together and -
(they all stop to look at him.)
What? I’m not making this up. This is straight from Wikipedia."

My fears about the future of Europe and the world

My friend Bill Moulton, commenting on my previous post, agreed with those who think that the world is getting better.


I have had times when I have thought the same, e.g. after the fall of communism in 1989, the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the ending of wars in former Yugoslavia by NATO intervention. However, most of the time I have been pessimistic about the future of Europe and the whole mankind, esp. after the mid-2000s.


Of course, when people say that "there are now more forcibly displaced people worldwide than there have been at any point since World War II", one important reason is that there are now more people in general than there have been at any point in world history. However, I see little reason for optimism here. The current human population growth, and I think even the current absolute number of humans, is unsustainable. Look at the chart below, based on data from Wikipedia:

The last point corresponds to the 2014 estimate of 7,215,000,000 people. How do you imagine the future of a population with this dynamics? It can curb and become flat and then decline slowly. This is the optimistic scenario. However, it can also curb and decline fast, like a bacterial culture in the death phase.


Actually, I think the very fact that we are making comparisons with the catastrophic immediate aftermath of World War II speaks volumes, even if the comparisons are reassuring.


The global political situation is grim. Pax Americana is over. Bush Jr. compromised it, then Obama destroyed it altogether. It was not perfect, but I miss it. Without it, the world is scary. Even if you take such a minor but telltale sign as the resurgence of piracy that accompanied also the end of Pax Romana.


With the decline of US power, of course, every well-armed bandit state makes a bid for the vacant superpower status. Russia is invading, killing and grabbing land once again, pulling down by force other nations to the level of its misery. No one in Eastern Europe should feel safe anymore.


There is, however, an even more sinister threat to Europe: the invasion of Islam. The large-scale, uncontrolled migration from Third World Muslim countries to Europe is threatening to destroy the cultures of the continent and to reduce its native population to pariah status, a fate my nation has already suffered in its history, living under Ottoman domination for almost 5 centuries. Frankly, with the current scale of the migration process and the determination of European elites to continue it at all costs and against the will of ordinary Europeans, I see little hope for the future of Europe. In 100 years, I imagine the continent as a conglomerate of Muslim-majority states, all of them failed by any reasonable standard, as is now every single Muslim-majority state on Earth.


I expect now that indignant readers will jump to the comment form and start writing that most Muslims are good people. Of course, they are. But the same can be said about most early Indo-Europeans, most Huns of Attila, most Ottoman Turks, most European settlers in the Americas, and most Germans and Russians in the 1930s and 1940s. Every single human wave in history and prehistory that has wreaked misery and destroyed civilizations on its way has been composed mostly of nice people, if you don't judge them too harshly. This, however, is small consolation for the victims.


America could at least take a lesson from Europe and down-regulate Muslim immigration before it's too late. There is, however, little hope for this. The only high-profile politician promising such a policy is the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. However, he is an aggressive mentally unstable crook and habitual liar who shouldn't be trusted to run a grocery store. The Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who will most likely be the next leader of the free world, is an appeaser of Islam and promoter of large-scale Muslim immigration.


These days, several bombs were planted in New York and New Jersey, and some exploded, injuring more than 30 people (happily, nobody was killed). Such Islamist terror acts, which I interpret as claims for domination, are becoming more and more often. So far, there is a single suspect - Ahmad Khan Rahami (28), an immigrant from Afghanistan. Well, can you guess whom is Clinton blaming? Not the terrorists, and not the religion/ideology inspiring them, but her opponent! Because, as she allegedly said, "Trump's comments have been used online for the recruitment of terrorists". With such a leader, Allah help the free world, or what has remained of it. My American online friends are divided in their choice for whom to vote, but no matter whether it's Clinton or Trump, they will vote holding their noses.


The good news is that the dracunculiasis eradication campain is close to its successful ending, and the polio eradication campaign is advancing, although extremist Muslims try to stop it by attacking and killing vaccination workers. Let's hope that Dracunculus and the polio virus will share the fates of smallpox and rinderpest viruses. Whatever troubles has the future in store, it will be better to face them in a polio-free world.

Hopefully, no monster mosque next to Ground Zero

Today, at the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, I do not feel optimistic. I am afraid for the world, for the civilization. (To me, "clash of civilizations" is an euphemism, for I see only one civilization.) There is, however, a small piece of symbolic good news that is worth mentioning. It is related to the project to build a monster mosque nest to Ground Zero. After years of opposition from American citizens, and reluctance even of Muslims to pray or gather at this site, the developers of the project have announced that they back off from their original idea and will build a luxury condominium instead.