Badonk a Monk

From the AP

"Dressed in the vestments of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations, rival monks threw punches and anything they could lay their hands on.

The Greeks blamed the Armenians for not recognizing their rights inside the holy site, while the Armenians said the Greeks had violated one of their traditional ceremonies.

Israeli policemen scuffle with an Armenian altar boy during a fight at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on 9 November2008

An Armenian clergyman said the Greek clergy had tried to place one of their monks inside the Edicule, an ancient structure which is said to encase the tomb of Jesus.

"What is happening here is a violation of status quo. The Greeks have tried so many times to put their monk inside the tomb but they don't have the right to when the Armenians are celebrating the feast," he said. "





Check out the shit starter Armenian Monk in the red.


The place is shared by a lot more than just the two current brawling factions. There are custodians there from Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox ,Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Syriac Orthodox Churches. The protestant churches were just never invited having been considered heretic sects when the "Status Quo" was implemented in 1555 or so. This setup is so effed up that a ladder placed on a ledge over the entrance sometime in the 19th century has remained there ever since because of a dispute over who has the authority to take it down.

What's crazy is how aggressively everyone defends their "Rights" to this shrine.

"On a hot summer day in 2002, the Coptic monk who is stationed on the roof to express Coptic claims to the Ethiopian territory there moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians, and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fracas. "

I don't want to get on any sort of Atheist's rant but, Jesus H. Christ!

Cold Turkey

VS

As an Armenian, or rather, as someone who's residence in Glendale and copious body hair was often mistaken for Armenian, I am passingly familiar with the Armenian Genocide, and the desperate plight of the Armos at the hands of the pre Attaturk, Ottoman Turks during WW thee Firste.

As far as i am given to understand, the (Ottoman) Turks rounded up 2 million Armenians for "Deportation" and 1.5 of them conveniently died en route. Nasty nasty lot, those Ottomans. After The "Great" War, the allies spanked all the naughty axisss pretty damn well. Germany had to pay out the nose, the Kaiser abdicated, the Austro-Hungarian Empire ceased to exist and was partitioned into incredily troublesome little states (Serbia, Bosnia, Endor), and the Ottomans were also disbanded. To the great fortune of Europe and all the cutures thas collide at the bosporous, the man who took the reigns of a throttled Turkey was a great man named Kamil Attaturk. He developed Turkey into a prosperous, secular, democracy, fully understanding that a place so steeped in religion, can only be peacful without it.

Since then, Turkey has been our friend and ally. A part of NATO, and even a grudging helper in our bullshit invasion of Iraq, they grumpily allowed us to invade through the north by passing through their airspace. Turkey is cool by us, right? But today, they called back their ambassador and are throwing a world-class hissy fit, over the congressional vote to aknowledge the Armeian genocide of nearly a century ago.

Now, here's the thing. WTF? I mean, WTF? I thought that the Germans had established the rule for international fuckupery. You can fuck up really hard, but at the end you have to say "Sorry", and you have to mean it. That's it. Now deportation and Genocide are hugely different, I get that. But come ON! Let's call it like it is. Everyone except the biggest assholes in the world have accepted the genocide as , well.. a genocide. Check out this handy map of all the US states whos legislatures have accepted the Genocide.



As you can see, only the "DIck" states, have refused to accept the fact (With Hawaii just not giving a Dervish's Fart). But even some traditional "Dick"states have accepted the facts , which is huge when you consider their aversion to them (Facts, not Dick).

So, what's the big deal?

Let's say you're Ted the Turk, you don't admit to anything, you preserve whatever macho bullshit you need to preserve, and the whole world is slightly pissed at you, but hey we're all friends here, right?

If you're Armo Armakian, you're stil going to be pissed at the Turks and everyone knows they've got genocide issues, so there, take comfort in that.

What strikes me, is the pissy reaction from Turkey. Phrases like "Hardball" or "you'll be sorry" have been flung around diplomatic circles like in an Alabama High School commencement speech. Now, I expect that from our "Plaintalking, "Folksy, and "Reatrded" President. But Turkey? Really? It sounds like our little vote struck a cord with the Turks.

The overreaction is not dissimilar to the reaction i got from Larry Craig's "I'm Not Gay" speech.

Whoa! Whoa! Larry, no one is saying you're GAY. We're just saying you got caught soliciting cop cock in a public toilet.

A similar reaction to the Paultards with my previous post.

Hey Paultards, I didn't say the doctor was a facist, racist, asshole. I just said that his voting record tends to appeal to facist racist assholes.

So Turkey, fuckin' relax. If you're so sure there was no wrongdoing, why all the melodrama?