Monthly Archives: December 2006

AEYRheads

Posted on December 28, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

Until I came back from Eastern Europe I hadn’t often had to put up with a certain kind of person that infests the universities and intellectual circles of America and Western Europe. I refer to the kind of “progressive” intellectual … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor/satire, Philosophy, Politics, Social Science & History | 5 Comments

Summation; criticism Q and A

Posted on December 28, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

A reader, who emphatically didn’t like my post: ‘Western Civilization and its discontents: Is it true?’ sent this link http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-Interventionen_im_Ausland which details a number of American military interventions abroad. It’s in German but shouldn’t be too hard to follow. I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Multi-culti Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

We had a tradtional Christmas dinner on Sunday: salmon, Greek-style fish, and beet soup. Traditional Polish that is. We started by taking flat wafers (something like Communion wafers) exchanging pieces of them to eat and kisses. We had fewer than … Continue reading →

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Musings on petty provincials and prideful sophisticates

Posted on December 22, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

A recent reader’s comment got me thinking about the difference between European’s knowledge of their neighbors and ours. It’s true, Americans show a regretable lack of knowledge of even our closest neighbors’ history and Europeans tend to scorn us for … Continue reading →

Posted in Social Science & History | 3 Comments

Bulgaria

Posted on December 20, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

In 1996, after having lived in Poland for five years, I moved to Bulgaria and lived and worked there for more than half a year. I knew very little about Bulgaria but I wanted to see another post-communist country for … Continue reading →

Posted in News commentary, Personal | 1 Comment

Review: America Alone

Posted on December 17, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

1.38 – keep that figure in mind while you bear with me a bit. I tend to be skeptical about disaster scenarios based on statistical reasoning. Firstly, I’m old enough to remember when the fashionable disasters were the Next Ice … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Great moments in mediocre movies

Posted on December 15, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

I wonder how many movies I’ve seen that I can’t remember? We’ve all had that experience; turn on an old movie on TV and a few minutes into it, “Oh, I’ve seen this one before, but I can’t remember how … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | 3 Comments

Western Civilization and It’s Discontents, Part 4. Is it true?

Posted on December 13, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

Is it True? “Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.”–Eric Hoffer Since I am questioning the sincerity of the professed motives of the self-hating Americans and the sanity of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Meditations on graves

Posted on December 12, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

The day I landed in Poland in 1991, I was met at the airport and taken by car through Warsaw to the small town that would be my home for the next two years. On the way out of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Philosophy | 3 Comments

Cool National Anthems

Posted on December 10, 2006 by Stephen W. Browne

“Let me write a country’s songs, and I care not who writes its laws.” There is an experiment I’d really like to try sometime, if I could only establish the initial conditions. Trouble is, I don’t know where I could … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments