tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post2262552144404030202..comments2024-03-15T20:52:26.967-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Why do Slavs speak with deep voices?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43896843582809894922014-02-23T13:33:28.542-08:002014-02-23T13:33:28.542-08:00The British never tried to round up and massacre I...The British never tried to round up and massacre Irish or Indians living in England"<br /><br />If the words "Irish", "English", and "genocide", are used in the same sentence, they generally refer to the famine(s) of the mid-19th century, for which the English do deserve much blame. They had confiscated lands, exported the grains for themselves (with cooperation from more prosperous Irish), encouraged the locals to live on potatoes (a dangerously non-indigenous crop with idiosyncracys the Europeans were still unaware of), and were largely indifferent to Irish welfare; I'm sure the feelings were mutual though. I sometimes think the British passed more humanitarianly motivated laws in India than they did in Ireland. The population went from 8 to 3 million (the population has never gone over about 4 million since), mostly due to emmigration, about a million to starvation. Yet boatloads of various foods were sent out from Cork harbor to England just a few miles from where some of the worst suffering was taking place. Tenants were evicted in the snow. Common occurrence.<br />It was not exactly Rwanda or Auswitch (even the new, reduced kill-count Auswitch), but dying of hunger in the snow after being thrown out of one's mud hut by the occupying guard, is the stuff that victimology is made of.<br />I don't call it genocide but most "genocides" are the byproduct of warfare and physical domination, and virtually all peoples (nations, ethnicities, religions, tribes) have suffered it, and perpetrated it, at one time in history or another. One reason why I have no patience with professional victims. Once the injustice has been addressed, it's over. On to the next issue, because someone, somewhere, is just going to do it again to someone else. Nobody has only victim or only oppressor in their genes.<br />Since we're talking of Irish, to quote Joyce, "all history is nightmare from which I am trying to awake."genocedenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52887757743641783852014-02-21T12:18:43.267-08:002014-02-21T12:18:43.267-08:00Russians and Poles always seem nasally to me.Russians and Poles always seem nasally to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-73590534179681273552014-02-21T03:14:18.869-08:002014-02-21T03:14:18.869-08:00DR, those countries you mention as being different...DR, those countries you mention as being different from the rest of the Slavs are half of Slavic Europe. Which is why it doesn't make much sense to say "Slavs are", especially on an HBD blog. There isn't really such a thing as "the Slavs" in an HBD sense, the Slavs are only a linguistic group, and are vastly different both culturally and genetically. Cultural westernization and ottomanization etc. have played a role, but also, different Slavic groups came about through Slavs separating from each other and conquering and breeding with vastly different populations across the eastern half of the continent. It's normal that it's all a blur to an average Western European or American, but to me "the Slavs" are a bit of a nebulous concept to discuss on an HBD blog.<br /><br />To break it down into more sensible broad groupings, I haven't had that much contact with Eastern Slavs, so I can't say what they're like in this respect. I do know lots of Western Slavs and Southern Slavs (being one), and the "cruel and brutal" description frankly strikes me as bit funny, like an overly-exoticized idea from someone who hasn't had much experience with the areas in question. Which isn't to say South Slavs aren't screwed up in lots of ways from years of Ottoman rule. But, it's stuff like rampant corruption and bad management more than any such brutality and lack of empathy.<br /><br />Also, Slovenia and the rest of former Yugoslavia aren't post-Soviet in any sense, just post-quasi-socialist.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-51372993756075371692014-02-20T21:04:07.558-08:002014-02-20T21:04:07.558-08:00"As for the deep voices, have you heard the d..."As for the deep voices, have you heard the dude on the PA system at the Olympics?"<br /><br />In Russia, this style of public announcement is called Levitan's Voice. Yes, it has been originated by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Levitan" rel="nofollow">Jew</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mityZWUMSxg%22" rel="nofollow">Here</a> is Yuri Levitan announcing German invasion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-23944501796985838542014-02-20T17:51:41.473-08:002014-02-20T17:51:41.473-08:00Never thought about it, but you're right. My f...Never thought about it, but you're right. My female Slavic relatives all speak English with low voices. flavianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79091530616241846052014-02-20T10:55:38.717-08:002014-02-20T10:55:38.717-08:00"I don't blame the Germans for being para..."I don't blame the Germans for being paranoid either, considering the way the Good Guys (tm) treated them after the World Wars. African colonies gone, check. Did the British free their own colonies in 1918? Baltic coast, Pomerania, Silesia, Sudetenland gone. What about Ireland, Scotland, Wales? Germany and Austria partitioned. Holocaust guilt trip. What about the Irish Potato Famine and Bengal Famine?"<br /><br />C'mon. I hardly think the modest territorial price of defeat in 1918 is cause for that amount of angst, especially considering how Prussia/Germany acquired Memel [your "Baltic Coast reference I presume] and West Prussia/Posen in the first place. Only slivers of Pomerania, Silesia were lost in 1918 [these having also been acquired by conquest much earlier, like Prussia itself- turnabout is fair play.] When the rest of those territories were lost in 1945, I think the reasonable retort to any objection would be that if you start a war that big against that many enemies, make sure not to lose it spectacularly. And Sudetenland had been part of the German Reich for 7 years, the result of very recent adventurism. One doesn't get to keep gains like that after losing an all-out war against the whole neighbourhood. It's not like Hitler was defending the traditional Hapsburg or even an Austrian claim on Bohemian Crown lands inhabited by 800 odd years worth of German colonial settlers. <br /><br />Of course Britain didn't free its colonies in 1918. They didn't lose. So it goes. Granted, Germany might not have freed Scotland and Wales, but I would bet a pro-German independent Ireland would have resulted in the wake of a German victory. The ground had been prepared. Britain didn't lose and Ireland went anyway. There was not much call in 1918 for Scotland to leave, as it happens. Nor Wales. The British PM was a Welshman. Many before and since were Scots. Any ethnic Poles ever serve as Reichs Chancellor?<br /><br />Whatever may be said of the cynicism and or indolence of British polices wrt Ireland and Bengal, they do not equate to singling out and massacring a subset of your own citizens, launching a war of conquest against the majority of your immediate and near neighbours in rapid succession, the express goals of which include using that expansion to single out subsets of their citizens and massacre them, even diverting precious military resources to that purpose that you could use for real purposes, and expressly extinguishing the individual lives and cultures of millions and aspiring to do so to tens of millions.<br /><br />The British never tried to round up and massacre Irish or Indians living in England, nor set out to exterminate all of either group at home, nor any subset thereof for the sheer sake of it. The only time English assimilationism in Ireland reached potentially genocidal levels was under Cromwell, and I'd bet he would have been overjoyed if they all up and converted to Puritanism. I doubt he would have still sacked Drogheda, let alone killed all Irish and extinguished the name "Ireland", as the Germans proposed to do to European Jewry not to mention the states and peoples of Russia. Just stealing land for Norman landlords or Scottish planters and suppressing a religion doesn't compare. That's more on the level of American sins, not Nazi ones.<br /><br />Sorry to go on so long, though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31996102185650587212014-02-20T09:45:35.529-08:002014-02-20T09:45:35.529-08:00Song of the Volga Boatmen - Red Army Chorus - Leon...Song of the Volga Boatmen - Red Army Chorus - Leonid Kharitonov<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNb54rwDQJM<br /><br />A live recording:<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tw3g88JtWARichard A.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-26907120977864804322014-02-20T09:39:24.171-08:002014-02-20T09:39:24.171-08:00You have posted his same subject twice and I have ...You have posted his same subject twice and I have already written a long comment on the other one, but let me just add a few more anecdotes.<br /><br />The greatest operatic bass of living memory was probably Nicolai Ghiaurov. But the greatest novelty bass was certainly Thurl Ravenscroft - who wasn't Slavic at all.<br /><br />Operatic basses generally are not as low voiced as choral basses. In opera you have to sing from low F to high F. The high F is more important because you have to be heard over a chorus and orchestra and all good voices gain ring and power as they ascend. In choral music the basses can gang together on the low notes to be heard. I once had to sing a B Flat below Low C in a Negro Spiritual chorus. There is nothing remotely that low in operatic solo music. Probably the lowest operatic bass role is Polifemo in Handel's 'Aci, Galatea and Polifemo'. His aria sits down on Low C for long passages but then ascends to a High B Flat. No one has actually been able to sing this as written since Manna died in the eighteenth century.<br /><br />Generally the great composers shut down the orchestra if the bass soloist has an exposed low note (e.g. Sarastro's opening scene). Most famous operatic basses have weak bottom notes.<br /><br />Russian church music has a lot of low grumbling chanting and so does Some Korean music. Country and Gospel quartet basses often can sing incredibly low but usually they cheat. They exploit the 'proximity effect' of cardioid microphones. Many of them would be inaudible singing live.<br /><br />But many famous operatic basses often sing higher than the average untrained tenors can. Cesare Siepi, Adamo Didur and Sam Ramey had no trouble with a high G. <br /><br />Most of the famous Slavic basses were also rather high basses. The obvious example is Chaliapin. One reason for this is that the role of Boris Godunov is not really a bass part at all. It is a bass-baritone part. It has all those High G Flats in the Monolog. Varlaam and Pimen are the true bass roles in Boris.<br /><br />AlbertosaurusPat Boylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13477950851915567863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-11231652159676422852014-02-20T08:49:25.829-08:002014-02-20T08:49:25.829-08:00DR arguing that America should have spent a millio...DR arguing that America should have spent a million lives fighting a country that never wronged us to accomplish...what was done anyway, without firing a shot, is probably the single most evil, insane thing that I've seen anyone write in these comments sections. And that's saying something.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-15472073921621943092014-02-20T08:06:23.881-08:002014-02-20T08:06:23.881-08:00"For all their historic and monumental diffic..."For all their historic and monumental difficulties, their is a streak of genius that runs through that people and I would never underestimate them."<br /><br />The Russians strike me as an example of the limits of smart fraction. There are plenty of brilliant Russians, as their contributions in music, literature, and mathematics make obvious. But the long history of corruption doesn't seem to allow them to make much of it.<br /><br />As for kicking them out of Eastern Europe: yeah, right. The Red Army was just going to pick up and leave if we asked them nicely?<br /><br />As for Russia being an existential threat to Western Civ, Jewish subdivision or otherwise: before 1989, they had nukes aimed at us and a rival ideology. After 1989 or so, not so much. It's a rival power, sure, but it doesn't have satellites in Eastern Europe backing it up. And it's not interested in nuking Israel--that's the Arabs, who are a common enemy. I think a strong Russia's actually potentially better for the Jews than it is for the rest of the West, which would face a renewed competitor, ironically.SFGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-2897564100595420152014-02-20T05:31:28.840-08:002014-02-20T05:31:28.840-08:00Well, this is a quote from Englishmen who in 1939 ...Well, this is a quote from Englishmen who in 1939 was British envoy to Germany (Henderson, AFAIK, "Failure of the mission"):<br /><br />"no one can deny the German's tendency to be a bully when he is strong."<br />"put him [German] in any abnormal position of<br />authority, and in the majority of cases he will at once abuse it...<br />"I have endeavored earlier in this history to find some explanation for this in<br />the very considerable amount of Slav blood which flows in the German veins. The<br />mixture is probably a bad one; yet it cannot do more than account partially for<br />this distressing and distinctive trait."<br /><br />"The German, who has a highly developed herd instinct, is perfectly happy when he is wearing a uniform, marching in step, and singing in chorus"<br />"The Germans are a strange people: they<br />seem utterly incapable of seeing any side of a question except<br />their own, or to understand the meaning of civilized decency<br />and moderation."<br /><br />Saying that Germanics somehow civilicised wild Slavs seems absurd, especially given OUR stereotypes of what Germans are (in short: arrogant military obsessed guys which see no other side of the coin except of their own, happy with double standards and with no capability of empathy).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-916110270548494862014-02-20T04:16:02.527-08:002014-02-20T04:16:02.527-08:00"Anonymous said...
So in other words you wan..."Anonymous said...<br /><br />So in other words you want to control Russia?"<br /><br />And, presumably, exploit and profit from. DR is some kind of Wall Street cockroach.Mr. Anonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-26110160014703121122014-02-20T04:14:21.873-08:002014-02-20T04:14:21.873-08:00"DR said...
Supporting pro-Western movements..."DR said...<br /><br />Supporting pro-Western movements in Ukraine and neighboring states, pushing independence movements in Russia proper (particularly within the oil rich areas of Siberia), and making Russia dependent on trans-national Western institutions like international financial markets should be at the foundation framework of American foreign policy."<br /><br />Spoken like a true member of the financial parasite guild.Mr. Anonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-14568124912004043572014-02-20T00:36:36.676-08:002014-02-20T00:36:36.676-08:00"I don’t know about other European countries,..."I don’t know about other European countries, but from my travels and experience, the American accent is hard on the ears of the French, Spanish and English."<br /><br />It's also hard on the ears of many non-North American English speakers.Mr Drabnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-5114696135868873732014-02-19T23:14:27.389-08:002014-02-19T23:14:27.389-08:00I don’t know about other European countries, but f...I don’t know about other European countries, but from my travels and experience, the American accent is hard on the ears of the French, Spanish and English. We Americans, in general, use a nasal pronunciation in their home languages, whereas these three countries pronounce their vowels from the back of the mouth. The sound in Europe is crisper and gives the impression of precision. <br />In the Americas, American English, Latin American Spanish and Canadian French are all pronounced with a nasal intonation. I don’t know about Brazilian Portuguese, but it seems odd to me that the three major languages spoken in the Americas all have the same sort of nasal intonation. I would have put the Latin American Spanish intonation to an Amerindian influence, but that still leaves English and French. <br />Anyone have any knowledge about why this dialect schism occurred so uniformly between Europe and the Americas?Kevin Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-28373025466220071932014-02-19T22:17:54.525-08:002014-02-19T22:17:54.525-08:00Anyway, the chorus did a rendition of "Oh Can...<i>Anyway, the chorus did a rendition of "Oh Canada" that I can still remember to this day. It was simply spine tingling. </i><br /><br />Here is the Red Army Choir singing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGFbBjhFDGc&t=3m8s" rel="nofollow">the Star Spangled Banner.</a><br /><br />Speaking of low voices, here is American <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtU3vUOa2sw" rel="nofollow">Paul Robeson </a>singing the Soviet Anthem in English. This is about the deepest English voice I have ever heard.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-58386272473050997722014-02-19T21:23:14.241-08:002014-02-19T21:23:14.241-08:00Steve, you typically forget that there are two kin...Steve, you typically forget that there are two kinds of Europeans (at the very least): Those shaped by the Roman-Catholic-Protestant tradition and others shaped by the Greek-Byzantine-Eastern Orthodox culture. The Western Slavs (Polish, Czechs, etc) belong to the former, and the Eastern Slavs to the latterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31739023931138483692014-02-19T21:19:54.736-08:002014-02-19T21:19:54.736-08:00Steve audience continues to surprise by knowing Vy...Steve audience continues to surprise by knowing Vysotsky. His singing is surely an unusual experience for English speakers but in case anyone is curious, one of his most iconic songs:<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv9o5hbDYVE<br /><br />A pretty decent translation:<br />http://www.kulichki.com/vv/eng/songs/hamilton.html#wolf_hunt <br /><br />It is kind of on-topic here. Highly recommended!<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-14501375800871768282014-02-19T21:18:46.089-08:002014-02-19T21:18:46.089-08:00I am Canadian. Back in the late 70's the Red A...<i>I am Canadian. Back in the late 70's the Red Army Chorus gave a big show in Toronto. The all male chorus was featured, but they had a lot of side acts and some tremendous clowning and dancing.<br /><br />Anyway, the chorus did a rendition of "Oh Canada" that I can still remember to this day. It was simply spine tingling. </i><br /><br />Apparently they've done that a few times. This one's from 1971, it seems:<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzX9yWVomMMAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-71728715695416355052014-02-19T21:12:03.747-08:002014-02-19T21:12:03.747-08:00During WWII Germans fought for lebensraum and Russ...During WWII Germans fought for lebensraum and Russians fought to avoid extinction. Both sides were openly nationalistic. Humans are tribal by nature. Nationalism really gets us going as a species. What were US troops supposed to fight for in Italy and France? What would they have fought for if they were ordered to go against the Soviets? "Democracy"? What sort of an incentive is that? Even if it was real, can you imagine yourself wanting to die for it? <br /><br />In the openly nationalist setup men sacrifice themselves for their children or, if childless, for their siblings' or cousins' children. That's easy to understand. Compared to that, what the hell is democracy? Even if it was real, and not an empty slogan, as it was then and still is everywhere on Earth? Too abstract. <br /><br />And that is why Britain and the US did so much less fighting in the war than Germany and the USSR. I'm sure that FDR and Churchill would have wanted their countries to take a greater part in the carnage. But without primal, easy-to-understand motivation at the cannon fodder level that was impossible. <br /><br />No one will ever do for "democracy", even the honest-to-goodness kind that only exists in books, what Germans and Russians did to each other at Moscow and Stalingrad. <br /><br />On the leader board of motivations for violence democracy is way below chicks, fun and "the hell of it." It is so far behind survival and ethnic pride that it wouldn't see them if it had a telescope. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-38413199898985656882014-02-19T21:11:30.373-08:002014-02-19T21:11:30.373-08:00You may have a point when it comes to Eastern Slav...You may have a point when it comes to Eastern Slavs such as the Russians but not the Western Slavs like the Polish or the Czechs. As a Polish-born college professor I find that actually my pitch is a bit lower when I lecture in English. What is true is that in Polish the pitch is more variable than in English. English sounds monotone by comparison. Not sure if this applies to all Slavonic languagesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81906413046816406672014-02-19T21:10:08.013-08:002014-02-19T21:10:08.013-08:00Orthodoxy differs from the rest of Christianity in...Orthodoxy differs from the rest of Christianity in that the liturgy is solely choral, that is, no organ or other instruments. Russian Orthodoxy in particular evolved to favor the Basso Profundo because of the important role of the Deacon in the liturgy. Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGBtMcSOVQY<br /><br />I think that it is definitely mostly nurture. It is enlightening, I think, to compare the custom of Japanese women (especially their laughter) compared to Russian women. Japan prizes girlish, high-pitched voices and Russian the opposite. Antioco Dascalonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10617669156986603638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-66584420482755004582014-02-19T21:10:00.752-08:002014-02-19T21:10:00.752-08:00"More than anything else, I think that Obama&...<i>"More than anything else, I think that Obama's smoking and the resulting effect on the sonorousness of his voice is the key ingredient in his success [and the nicotine also suppresses his appetite, which keeps him rail-thin].<br /><br />To me at least, his voice is "sonorous" only for a couple of sentences; after that, at least in his speeches, his intonation pattern is so repetitive as to make me turn the channel or turn down the volume. I do mean that his voice or his rhythm starts to irritate me to the point I can't listen to him any longer.<br /><br />-anonymous</i><br /><br />It's the Harvard "quack." Romney has it, too. Really grating to my ears. <br /><br />Billhttp://www.welmer.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-58712686330494426882014-02-19T20:57:06.406-08:002014-02-19T20:57:06.406-08:00"There's absolutely no reason that the US... "There's absolutely no reason that the USSR should have been allowed to retain any territory acquired after 1939."<br /><br />These issues are never a case of right or wrong. It's about can or can't. USSR could. The end. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-20069288264728890512014-02-19T20:56:11.539-08:002014-02-19T20:56:11.539-08:00That makes them extremely dangerous, and is why it...<i>That makes them extremely dangerous, and is why it's so important that the United States contain Russian expansion of its sphere of influence. Supporting pro-Western movements in Ukraine and neighboring states, pushing independence movements in Russia proper (particularly within the oil rich areas of Siberia), and making Russia dependent on trans-national Western institutions like international financial markets should be at the foundation framework of American foreign policy.</i><br /><br />So in other words you want to control Russia? I don't get this endless fascination with controlling the rest of the world while completely surrendering control of one's own country domestically. One the one hand people plan and scheme about how to make Russia or some other nation dependent upon us. On the other they completely allow their nation to be invaded by third worlders and allow leftists to destroy the society bit by bit.<br /><br />What is the point of shaping the world to be friendly to America when America is no longer friendly to you?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com