When Welsh Cad revealed Gray Old Lady to be a Lying Red Whore

Avuncular Uncle Joe gave him a proper admonishment ................................................................... Dead journalists floating down the River Charly is about as close to Sweet Reason as Planet Pepe knows how to get.

Churrascaria in Vegas: First Bismarck-to-Ulaanbaatar Stop

MFT's Upcoming Excellent Adventure

From the desolate bleakness of Mott to the desolate bleakness of Bayanhongor. Geez, MFT, couldn't you have thrown in a week or two on Palau in between?

Have a great time, komrad, and enjoy Christmas and the New Year before Ulaan bators you.

Hölder < Moonbeam

Quick! More Google Searches!

Blow, Al Gore, blow. We need all the hot air we can get.

Mongol Nazis & the Power of Paranoia

A friend of mine sent me the above article.

It smacks of 1984 and concerns the empathy that some Mongolian Hard-Right Wing Political groups are cultivating for Hitler (they pronounce it "Gitler," so far as I know the H makes a "G" sound in Cyrillic), a delusion that results from an ignorance of the past. There were a couple encounters with individual Mongolians who had an ignorant fondness for the Nationalism of Hitler.

My experience in UB was grand, the majority of Mongolians extending a kindness one commonly encounters in the Old World. But it's important to keep an eye on these individuals involved in this shit, to keep tabs on any kind of Hard -Right or -Left outfits that use violence to crush dialog and discourse.

I encourage you to read the article. Mongolians already know what an alliance with Stalin means (which, at the time, was better than an alliance with Beijing), when Uncle Joe purged the country of some 20,000-30,000 Buddhist monks. Perhaps Mongolia is in need of some Western History Professors to help bring them the truth about Nazism and Hitler, and the idiotic notion of Racism and Pure Blood.

Hmmmm?....

The video is titled, "Luxury underground sauna in Mongolia" — note the, ah, brass "fire poles" in the middle of the booth tables.

Pernicious Bullshit, Mongol Mistranslation, Street Children, and Orwell's Nightmare

"Street Children" as they are known of in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, often come in droves, and unless you have someone with you who can fluently speak and swear in the beautifully powerful Mongol language, you're almost fucked. One Street Children begger brings another, and they stage coordinated begging skirmishes: even sitting in an establishment and drinking beers, one Street Child will burst in to distract the help, and others will swarm to the patron tables pleading for a hand out. At times I would hand money out (I'd learn to get some ready), but this single generosity gives other Street Children the impression that us Round Eyes have a limitless supply. Some Round Eyes do, but this isn't one of them.

If you FCP assholes have read it this far, here is a paragraph critique on the intentional mistranslation with the voice over. Watch the short clip (click on the title link), and then read this from a friend below:

The translation of what the street children say is not just "[in]accurate," as one of the commentators, a Mongol, wrote, but is pernicious bullshit. (Another commentator had it almost right when she said it is "wrong.") The voice-over in English has nothing whatsoever to do with what the children are saying. Nothing. She asks them, in Mongolian, "Where do your parents come from?" and one child answers, "My parents come from the 5th district, near Amgalan." But the voice-over translates it like this: "I would like to live better, with new, and warm, clothes; I would like not to starve anymore." No doubt. The child answered without pathos, exactly what was asked. Why this deliberate deception? Surely, a short film showing a child living underground, without food, without parents, in the coldest big city in the world, doesn't need embellishment, doesn't need to make the children seem like they're asking for aid? This short film, which I recommend watching, is cynical, a manifestation of the feeling that the whole world is so rotten that a moving story must be translated into cliches and then exaggerated.

As I'm in the habit of giving these children money (I estimate that I've given at least $400 during the time I've been here), you can send your donations to (at least 1/30 of your money will reach these children)

Mongolia Addressing Its History

...the alcohol issue has been around since the time of the Mongols. Saruul writes up an interesting anecdote when, "in old times, Mongolians used to wrap a drunk person who is misbehaving in a wet cow skin until he sobers up." The paper continues to cite examples of punishments metered out on drunkards, including a 13th century quote from the Ikh Zasag Law of the Great Mongol Empire. "In case a person arrives drunk at a workplace, first time impose a fine of a weapon he’s carrying with himself, second time impose the fine of a horse he’s riding, third time cut off an extremity of the body. If a fourth time, expel him out of the territory."

Mongolian Babes and Such...

Some months ago an understandable question was asked: how are the babes in Mongolia? Gentlemen, I offer another site.

Enjoy.

~mft

La Russ: Summer Shashlik BBQ

Just another idea for that backyard grill. I'm gonna go get the ingredients and start preparation now for this evening. I'll be using boneless beef tips rather than straight mutton, though.

I've been told to accompany shashlik with white rice, butter, lemon juice, salt, pepper and parsley. Also uncooked cherry tomatoes and cucumber slices (with a light dill cream sauce) can refresh the palate in between juicy meat bites. I'll get pics up once it's created.

Feynman Exults

You guys know Feynman took a trip to northern Mongolia some years ago. I just received this in the mail, the title coming to me by the documentary, "Ghengis Blues".

Mormons in Mongolia; or Mongol Mormons

Mitt Romney running for president, even though he suspended his campaign, is probably one of the better things to happen for the Mormon Church, to get people talking about the Church's history, its current creed, and stuff of that sort.

With that said, here's a picture of what the Mormon Church looks like in Ulaan Bataar. Well, at least what it looks like at night.

Mongolian Ger (updated)

I'm getting the photos downloaded to the hard drive, and here's one of a modern Mongolian nomadic ger, mft and his gracious host. (In the 'stans they are referred to as yurts, but in Mongolia, they are gers.)

mft returns via Las Vegas, Nevada...

It's difficult to gauge, but after 30 hours of trans-Pacific travel (from Ulaan Bataar via Seoul via San Francisco via LAX to Sin City, Nevada), I have finally made it Stateside. Pics are pending (not wanting to overwhelm the blog, I'll post just a couple). The first order of business when I returned was to get a REAL slice of pizza, and I found a pretty decent place in San Francisco International that did 'em up all wood-fired and such in the Domestic terminal area. That's all for now...

Mongolian Babe Request

Here are three pics from AI's original request. Let me add that these pics are appropriate representations of what I've been seeing -- with more winter clothing, obviously in January-February -- all around Ulaan Bataar.

Sitting Bull South of Siberia

Last night I was at some disco/bar, and while Mongolian babes gyrated on the dance floor, and while American pop songs pumped through the Chinese sound system, and while the Tiger beers from Singapore and the Mongolian Chinggis Khan vodka was flowing, I looked up on the wall and saw a framed picture of Sitting Bull. My eyes lit up, and I leaned over and told my friend Andrew to translate to the other Mongols at our table that me and my friends are acquaintences and friends with Sitting Bull's descendants. The Mongolians smiled, nodded in approval, and said so are we. We all laughed, tipped back another shot of vodka, and then I lost the feeling in my feet.

I thought it an interesting, long duration sort of connectivity with that whole Bering Straight thesis.

Applebaum on Russian Babes

Anne Applebaum is onto something here with hot Russian women. She breaks down beauty by ethnicity, noting the Tartars and Mongolians as well. Just to footnote Applebaum's claim: from my empirical studies over here, yes, Mongolian women certainly increase the beauty factor, bringing attributes such as high cheek-bones and beautiful round eyes to the gene pool.

Applebaumism: Beauty is a matter of luck, but the same could be said of many other talents. And what open markets do for beautiful women they also do for other sorts of genius. So, cheer up next time you see a Siberian blonde dominating male attention at the far end of the table: The same mechanisms that brought her to your dinner party might one day bring you the Ukrainian doctor who cures your cancer or the Polish stockbroker who makes your fortune.

Khan On the Japanese Sumo Circuit

I caught this bout last evening in a modern Mongolian ger, electicity powering the television and sound system, vodka shots and piva flowing, all while the wood-burning stove kept us warm from the Siberian cold beyond the felt walls.

The Japs typically try to absorb the great wrestlers, offering the non-Japanese (gaijin) citizenship and Japenese wives if they are good enough to take the Grand Champion.

I'm Back in this Absolut World

Today, I have internet. And the end of blessed silence from AA is unhappily upon you. Vodkas all around, boyos.

AI, we've got to get a drink sometime soon. I now understand why the devil's water sells so well near any public education joint. I need liquor, and I need it muy pronto.
MFT, enjoy that beetsoup and blackbread. However, I shall return to this plate of freshly grilled viands from a local Brazilian restaurant.
JJ, bliss while you can on the sub-80 temperatures while you have them. Come April you'll be sweating a mighty river, if not hunkering down in a brick icebox of a building that would do Novgorad proud.

The "mapclustr" has grown nicely since we "made public" this blog. But I won't rest happy until we see a nice little dot out of Mecca [probably the HQ of the Ministry For The Propagation of Virtue and The Prevention of Vice --and not the harem quarters where some fat poobah from the House of Saud keeps his comely wenches. Oh well].

[Added a pic--is that you in front of that rakija vat, AA? --AI]