Thursday, February 02, 2012

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WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?

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If to be smart means to exploit a situation to one’s advantage, we must be just about the dumbest people on earth.

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We like to think Turks are not as smart as we are. And yet, when it comes to manipulating world opinion, they might as well belong to a superior race – compared to us that is.

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There are a thousand ways to be smart as there are a thousand ways to be stupid. If their success so far is a result of our failure, in what way, may I ask, are we smart?

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We must learn to ask, where did we go wrong, beginning with, why did we allow ourselves to be butchered by a bunch of bloodthirsty morons? And why so far have we failed to convince the Yanks that what we say is the truth and what they say is a lie? The obvious answer is: in diplomacy, a stupid diplomat will be smarter than a cunning rug merchant.

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As long as we have Oriental rug merchants or similar riffraff as leaders, “mart bidi ch’ellank!” and we will continue to behave like fools forever at the mercy of alien interests, manipulators, and retards.

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Friday, February 03, 2012

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IS GOD AN ARMENIAN?

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As a nation are we a success or a failure? It depends. If we were meant to be 70 million or more, we are a failure. If we were meant to be annihilated, we are a success.

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Many famous Frenchmen (among them Zola, Ionesco, Adamov, Cioran, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Sarkozy) are not French. Neither are most Turks Turks, or Greeks Greeks.

What makes a man a Turk? Only his willingness to identify himself as such. Armenians who refuse to identify themselves as Armenians probably outnumber the others. How do I know that? I don’t! I am just guessing. Or, that’s my story and I am sticking to it. I have several friends – smart, successful, educated, and in some ways even brilliant – to whom the Armenian identity is a joke. They make fun of me for my obsession with Armenians – in their view, a lost cause and a complete waste of time. Do I disagree with them? I don’t know. I am not sure.

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Is my Armenian identity a blessing or a curse? On the day I decide I will be in touch. Is there hope for us? I wish I had an answer. Are things getting better or worse? Only God knows. Is God an Armenian? I like to believe He is. But I suspect Turks have many more reasons to believe He is one of them.

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Saturday, February 04, 2012

A LETHAL COMBINATION

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When told there are good and bad Germans, Thomas Mann explained: “All Germans are a combination of both.”

So are we. So is everybody.

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American presidential candidates are not liars when they promise to recognize the Genocide but fail to deliver when elected. When told Armenian voters are evenly divided on partisan lines, they have every right to think, If they don’t care enough to present a united front, why should I give a damn?

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Stalin was not a born killer. No one is. He purged only those who were about to purge him. Which also means, he was fully aware of the fact that he deserved to be purged.

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So many things in life make perfect sense that one is tempted to believe God

(if He exists) must be a reasonable being.

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On the radio this morning I heard a pundit say, the most corrupt African nations don’t have a word for corruption. Neither do we. And if we do we don’t use it. We prefer “corruptsia.”

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There are people so thoroughly brainwashed that they equate all talk of corruption with treason.

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It took me many years to realize that asking questions is not a capital offense.

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People may be divided into those who believe everything they are told (I was one of them as a child) and the others.

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What is democracy if not the fascism of the 1%?

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