The need to remember - Charlie et al.

 Salvete Omnes

Saint George slaying the Evil dragon 

today is another anniversary of 9-11, already 14 years ago. The current tragic  events in American also need our attention, as there is a need to remember. We must slay the Evil dragons.

I remember the day mostly through imprinted in my memory images of burned and still smoldering paper bits,   those millions upon millions of snowflake-like office paper bits floating in the morning air, dimming the sunlight (it started as as a nice Indian Summer-like sunny day), settling on my jacket, hat, skin, pants and boots, as I walked from Manhattan Ave towards the shore of the northern Brooklyn Greenpoint & Williamsburg waterfront on the East River. 

And yesterday, September 10,  a good American, free speech advocate, defender of liberty and right to bodily integrity and choice,  defender of reason, family values and American Conservative, fine father and loving husband - Charlie Kirk - was murdered during his debate-meeting with the young college students  in Utah. He was the most promising young leader among the Conservative Americans... Someone robbed us and our children of a future leader and pathfinder.  So much sorrow...

And I still see the hidden-behind-the screen figure of a young Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, dying from  stab wounds, inflicted by a  racial hatred-filled black man,  slumped below her seat on the floor on a mass transit train in Charlotte, NC. 

She came for a better future than in Ukraine, and found horrible death. Her American dream never took of...  so sad.

 
Nobody came to her rescue, indifference  of her fellow straphangers was terribly unsettling. 

All these crimes pale  when compared with what horrific scale of mayhem is happening in the Holy Land, or the deaths in the Ruso-Ukrainian war.   
Pacem Aeternam to all

Georgsaltar of Laurentiuskirche Scharenstetten

Valete

Shenanigans in Kaunas War Museum, Lithuania

 Salvete Omnes,
I have been defrauded by Paypal (more than 1000 dollars), Russian publisher and some Polish writer. But this is old, now something new. 

on Monday I found out through Facebook page of this gentleman  - Aliaksei Lastouski - that the Vytauto Didziojo Karo Miziejus( Vitatuas War Museum) in Kaunas, Republic of Lithuanian, used my own drawing for their exhibit without any consent nor permission from me. 

Note that the exhibit was created with the cooperation with the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum of Lviv, Ukraine. And Radoslaw Sikora's splendid book on the winged hussars was published in Ukraine in 2019AD . In that book my drawing, along with others,. was published on page 156 of that Ukrainian edition .

But hardly a hilarious aspect of this fact is that they did not ask me for any permission to use my drawing in this displays prior to setting up this display within their exhibit - they not only used my drawing but also manipulated it and after manipulation enlarged it to monstrous size, that was never intended by me to be made this large - due to limitation of the technique used. I am not flattered nor please. I am wronged. 

I am providing a link to the exhibit and  attaching the photo by Aliaskei Lastouski on the privilege & purpose of citation - 

I wonder what they - the Museum - gonna offer as an excuse, justification and whether they provide me with any compensation here.
I wonder how they got a copy of my artwork ? 

c'est la vie nowadays I guess

Valete
ps today is 911  - 

Orsza 1514 - a 1515AD woodcut

 Salvete omnes,

so yet another anniversary of 9-11 -  in the link my old post about my experiences that day - pacem aeternam to all the victims 

a quick return to the Orsza battle and victory over the Muscovy ..

 so probably the very first image of the battle appeared in 1515AD in printed  poem written by Andrzej Krzycki, Kotwicz coat of arms, who was queen Barbara Zapolya secretary, Ad Divum Sigismundum Poloniae regem et Magnum Ducem Lithuaniae semper invictum post partam de Moskis victoriam Andree Krziczki inclite coniugis sue Cancelarii carmen, Kraków 1515, 

the printer was Jan Haller and they published  this poem in Krakow, then the capital of the Polish state.

perhaps Polish commander hetman Janusz Swierczowski, Traby coat of arms, on the left while horsemen of opposing armies are dueling between the armies 

there is a horse drummer next to the Polish hetman

emjoy

valete

9-11 Anniversary

Salvete Omnes,
 
yesterday we had another anniversary of the 9-11 terror attack.
I am going to link for you  my post from 2015 about my own experience on that day in NYC.

When taking a minute or two to think and ponder about the outcome and legacy of the whole war in the Middle East that followed the 9-11 tragedy, the thoughts are not very positive.












  
     Pacem aeternam to all victims, including the later, most silent victims that have passed away from the poisons they inhaled while cleaning and rebuilding the cite of Twin Towers/World Trade Center.
by the way 
World Trade Center cross


Valete

Katyn Massacre Monument from Jersey City in danger

Salvete Omnes,
April passed smoothly and we are in May, a lovely month in many ways. This May starts on a wrong foot for us, Polish-Americans and all who favor the truth and beauty of art, I daresay.
Rather sad news coming from New Jersey, precisely from Jersey City, Hudson County, where the most famous monument to the Katyn Forest Massacre has been standing since 1991. Sculpted by master sculptor Andrzej Pitynski and also associated, through a plaque at its foot,  with the 911 terrorist attack; so this tall bronze has been a fixture on the Jersey waterfront.
fast forward to April 2018 and the winds of political correctness threaten the monument.
Namely, there are plans to move the monument to storage - this and this articles explain  the issue [and do read the comments sections] -
The most telling is this statement :
"I don't think the statue's appropriate for a major metropolitan area," said Mike DeMarco, chair of the Exchange Place Special Improvement District , and a CEO of a development company . - "DeMarco added that the notion that Russians are backstabers is "not exactly a politically correct idea nowadays"
Sad news and time to fight this atrocity!
                                           Audaces Fortuna iuvat - Virgil

These photos may become historic if you do not take action against this erasing of public space monument

Valete

ps
April has been traditionally the month when yet another anniversary passed of the secret German genocide of our Polish elites carried during the early months of the German occupation of western and central Polish Republic; the genocide started taking place immediately after  September 1, 1939 joint Soviet-German invasion of Poland ( Soviets invaded on September 17 ).
The Nazi Germans gave it the code name Intelligentzaktion - not a bad article on Wiki - it was the first step in enslavement and a total destruction of the Polish Nation envisioned by the German elites and embraced by the Germans of the Third Reich - the genocide was followed by the mass deportations of Poles from western Poland annexed to Germany, and then AB Aktion started etc.
Vast majority of Germans carrying out this genocide have never been tried, mostly due to the fact that the Federal Republic of Germany always refused arrest warrants from the Polish authorities after 1948, and so those henchmen of Hitler et company died out of natural causes, perhaps right now just rotting in Hell. It is very disheartening that all these genocidal actions carried out by the Germans are rather very poorly known  or rather relatively unknown outside the university circles and surviving relatives and families of the victims.

Hunting bison on horseback - R.I. Dodge's observations

Salvate os,
I came across another interesting observation about the bygone method  of hunting American bison on horseback in the XIX century.  The book is titled 'The hunting grounds of the great West: a description of the plains, game, and Indians of the great North American desert.' Lieutenant-Colonel [1] of the US Army Richard I. Dodge wrote this work circa 1877, a military man with a huge experience on the American Plains during the so called Indians Wars.

Here the text:

  Buffalo hunting on horseback is a very different thingy and, to a novice, full of excitement. A buffalo can run only about two-thirds as fast as a good horse; but what he lacks in speed he makes up in bottom or endurance, in tenacity of purpose, and in most extraordinary vitality.
  A herd will stand staring at an approaching horseman until he is within about 300 yards. It will then begin to move off slowly, and, when he is within about 250 yards, it will probably break into a gallop. This is the sportsman's moment. A good horse ridden by a man who knows his business will be among them before they have gone 200 yards, to shoot and slaughter at his pleasure. A poor horse, or careful rider, and the hunter will find to his sorrow that ' a stern chase is a long chase.' If a herd is not overtaken in 500 or 600 yards 'the chase had better be abandoned, if any regard is to be had for the horse. The difficulty in this hunting is that the herd is enveloped in a cloud of dust, which prevents very careful aim; the explosion of the pistol creates a turmoil, confusion, and change of places among the flying animals, rendering it almost impossible to shoot at any individual buffalo more than once; and their vitality is so great, that it is an exceedingly rare exception when one is brought down by a single shot.
  The danger is not so much from the buffalo, which rarely makes an effort to injure his pursuer, as from the fact that neither man nor horse can see the ground, which may be rough and broken or perforated with prairie dog or gopher holes. This danger is so imminent that a man who runs into a herd of buffalo may be said to take his life in his hand.
  I have never known a man hurt by a buffalo in such a chase. I have known of at least six killed, and a very great many more or less injured, some very severely, by their horses falling with them. The knowledge of the danger, the rush of the horse, the thundering tread of the flying brutes, the turmoil, the dust, the uncertainty, and, above all, the near proximity and ferocious aspect of the lumbering throng, furnish excitement enough to set wild the man who is new to it. There is, however, a sameness about it which soon palls, and an old buffalo hunter rarely runs buffalo. It is very good for an occasional ' flyer*,' but frequent repetition is like eating quail on toast every day for a month monotonous. However ardent the sportsman, however ardent for this especial sport while new to it, two or three seasons will dull the edge of the keenest appetite. 
  The running is very different under different circumstances. A single buffalo offers very little sport even to an enthusiastic novice. He is generally an old fellow whom solitary life has rendered self-reliant. He has little disposition to run from any enemy; and, when he does start, he runs so slowly and wastes so much time in ' gibing and filling ' to watch his pursuer, that he is generally a prey so easy that, after the killing, the murderer's conscience smites him, and his self-respect is gone. ' I'd as lief shoot an ox,' has often been the report, in a lachrymose, self-abashed tone, of a beginner whom I had sent off in a fury of excitement after a solitary old bull.
  The pursuit of a small herd of bulls is equally unsatisfactory. A race after a small herd of twenty or thirty cows and six months' calves gives to the hunter a much more ample compensation for his time and trouble. When from three to six months old, the calves run like the wind; and to dash into such a herd, single out a calf, pursue and bring it to bay, is a feat worthy of record for the novice. This selection of the animal is the beauty and perfection of buffalo hunting. On account of the confusion of numbers and the dust, it can scarcely be done in a large herd, except by first splitting it up into small herds. 
  This is much more easy than would appear. When a hunter rushes into a large herd, the buffalo on each side of his horse push from him laterally. As he gets farther into it the buffalo passed do not close in his rear, but being now able to see him more clearly, press farther and farther away. The consequence is that the hunter finds himself riding in a V, the point of which is only a little in advance of his horse's head. By going completely through the herd it is not only split, but the leading buffalo on each side, now clearly seeing the position of the foe, immediately diverge from him, and consequently from each other.
  All this requires an excellent horse, a cool and skilful* rider, and, what is difficult to find on the plains, good ground and plenty of it. Among steep ravines or very broken ground the buffalo can travel better than the best horse.
  Once when on a hunt I came upon two Mexican buffalo hunters, one of whom possessed the finest and most perfectly trained buffalo horse I have ever seen. They were encamped near a water hole to which the buffalo came to drink. On the approach of a herd the horses were saddled, the fine horse and rider dashed into it, split it up as I have described, singled out a victim, always a fat two-year-old, separated it entirely from its companions, and headed it towards his camp, all at tremendous speed. They were soon met by the other hunter, and the two, placing themselves on the flanks of the now tired animal, drove it to their camp, when a pistol shot finished the race. They had a fine lot of meat and a goodly pile of skins, and they said that every buffalo had been driven into camp and killed as the one I saw. ' It saves a heap of trouble, packing the meat to camp,' said one of them, naively.

[..]

 I am sure colonel Doge will be visiting this blog again :)
enjoy
*original spelling
[1] Mr Dodge retired as a full-bird colonel of the US army in 1891, but also note that he was a fine son of the South in his manner and style.
ps
an article to read and ponder

9-11 2001-2015

Salve,
another anniversary, and nothing has improved since that fateful date, or even it is getting worse as we speak, albeit mostly in the bloody Near East and the most confused European Union, wide open to the new Völkerwanderung.

 Pacem aeternam to all who perished in the Twin Towers in the morning of September, 11, 2001.

I first heard about the attack while sitting at my desk in Astoria Queens, NY and listening to the morning program at the WBAI radio station (my favorite station as for the news, health talks and computer/telephone shows etc). I ran over to the window and from this window on 5th floor I saw the second plane hit the South Tower. From then on it was between listening to the radio stations and watching the towers burning and finally collapsing.
About noon I reached Greenpoint and Williamsburg shore in Brooklyn, the streets were deserted as if the city itself  came to a stand still, and while I was driving and then walking I watched the millions of burned paper debris in a snow-like fashion cover the streets and the shore.  There were some people there, the Williamsburg district was not yet as popular as today, and we all watched in silence the heavy smoke, already miles long cloud or column of it,  coming from beyond the East River and Lower Mnhattan.
My relatives and friends who worked in Manhattan were safe enough, they told me later, but had to walk from the Lower Manhattan to the Queensborough Bridge in order to cross into Queens and Brooklyn.
It was a mayhem.. it was a tragedy ... and travesty of ineptitude (he, he, Rudy Guliani, the 'best' mayor our city could have had), soon followed by looting of the stores and vaults by the always ready  looters that came on their boats and jet-skies from Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey...
Daniel Pipes - on the volatile Near East and his predictions as to the future - here
....
For my Polish-speakers - a good and interesting program with prof. Franciszek Bocheński - on Radio Wnet - about the wider context of Al-Qaeda  and Daesh.

Also, in Polish , a raging issue of migrants and refugees from the wars and poverty of Western Asia and Africa  - from the Polish Parliament,    Łukasz Warzecha on media and misinformation, Witold Repetowicz on migrations,  Rafał Ziemkiewicz on the Polish (and Central European) problem with the EU leadership, especially old good Germany's drive to do away with the member states's sovereign powers.

ps
What I find most curious is that this present EU elite sentiment embodied in the German government calls for the stricter censorship of the political speech, by tightening speech controls and punishment on the social platform Facebook - and any vocal opponents of the resettlement of these migrants and few refugees within EU are called Neo-Nazis, right-wingers, hate-mongers and in general the enemies of the human race... most curious.
But then the present political system of the European Union is more akin to the corporate-bureaucratic oligarchy with socialist undertones and gender socialism flags in the background... 
ps'
images from the Wikipedia Commons

PS
An interesting article on the Paleo-Indians archery  in Northern North America via Owen Mason's academia page