#ak

And thus to my final and most melancholy point: a great number of Stalin's enforcers and henchmen in Eastern Europe were Jews. And not just a great number, but a great proportion. The proportion was especially high in the secret police and 'security' departments, where no doubt revenge played its own part, as did the ideological attachment to Communism that was so strong among internationally minded Jews at that period: Jews like David Szmulevski. There were reasonably strong indigenous Communist forces in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, but in Hungary and Poland the Communists were a small minority and knew it, were dependent on the Red Army and aware of the fact, and were disproportionately Jewish and widely detested for that reason. Many of the penal labor camps constructed by the Nazis were later used as holding pens for German deportees by the Communists, and some of those who ran these grim places were Jewish. Nobody from Israel or the diaspora who goes to the East of Europe on a family-history fishing-trip should be unaware of the chance that they will find out both much less and much more than the package-tour had promised them. It's easy to say, with Albert Camus, 'neither victims nor executioners.' But real history is more pitiless even than you had been told it was. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#camus #communism #czechoslovakia #david-szmulevski #east-germany

All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price. ↗

— Juvenal

#few #knowledge #pay #possess #price

I wish it, I command it. Let my will take the place of a reason. ↗

— Juvenal

#i #i wish #place #reason #take

All I ever wanted really, and continue to want out of life, is to give 100 percent to whatever I'm doing and to be committed to whatever I'm doing and then let the results speak for themselves. Also to never take myself or people for granted and always be thankful and grateful to the people who helped me. ↗

— Jackie Joyner-Kersee

#also #always #be thankful #committed #continue

What commercialism has brought into Linux has been the incentive to make a good distribution that is easy to use and that has all the packaging issues worked out. ↗

— Linus Torvalds

#brought #commercialism #distribution #easy #good

I always have been trying to work on the other side of Jackie, and that is, making sure that my appearance, that my image, is right; also, working in the job world, knowing how it is to wake up and go to a job. ↗

— Jackie Joyner-Kersee

#always #appearance #been #go #how

I do not take steroids. I never have. It's sad to me that people want to point fingers. I don't do that. That's not me. I wouldn't feel like a human being. ↗

— Jackie Joyner-Kersee

#feel #fingers #human #human being #i

I set my sights on making an Olympic team, not realizing how tough it was going to be. ↗

— Jackie Joyner-Kersee

#how #i #making #olympic #olympic team

I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 18 during my freshman year at UCLA. I refused to accept it - and I hid it from my coaches and teammates. But ignoring my problem didn't make it go away. ↗

— Jackie Joyner-Kersee

#asthma #away #coaches #diagnosed #during

It's important to me to try and expose young people to the things they believe are off-limits to them. I tell them, 'There are no walls, only the ones we put up.' My advice to young people looking at my life is not to follow my footprint but to go out there and make their own. ↗

— Jackie Joyner-Kersee

#believe #expose #follow #footprint #go