That Tanja girl is full of shit. As someone who grew up in 1970s/80s, I was never told that Soviet Union was “our strong ally”. In fact, Lybia, Iraq, India and Egipt were perceived as “our non-aligned friends”. I don’t know about her police-force-working mom, but my relative was an officer in Yugoslav People’s Army since WWII, and he never joined the Communist Party. Perhaps he would advance if he did, but he did not choose to do so and had no problems. I just hate it when people trivialize the foreign system.

     by historix on September 14, 2007 at 9:46 am

Dober dan, hvala and …
> This one is going to be purely phonetic as no
> online translator knows what the hell I mean.
> Got-chey = Underpants
Gače

     by Matej on September 14, 2007 at 10:09 am

historix: I was surprised by that comment, too. Obviously I wasn’t around but I’ve read before that there was a time of intense paranoia about a Soviet invasion.

Matej: Isn’t Gače a Serbian word? Or do Slovenes use it too? I’ve never heard it before.

     by Michael M. on September 14, 2007 at 10:17 am

I thought all Slavs used the term ‘gace’ it’s also not unusual among Yiddish speakers.

     by Katja iz Yakima Gulag on September 14, 2007 at 10:54 am

@historix and Michael M.: Tanja did indeed mix up her history. Reagan might have done a lot of things, but as far as I know he left the US economy more or less in ruins and it was up to pot-smoking, head-getting Bubba Clinton to fix it.

Having said that, I do agree with her last paragraph… US should listen to foreign nations, rather than tell them what to do, or even do it for them (such as regime-toppling and similar)

     by pengovsky on September 14, 2007 at 3:31 pm

A-ha! Gače! I think I might use that all day at work now.

“How are you?”
“I’m just Gače, thank you.”

Michael, thanks for the link, and for the recipe!

     by Moe on September 14, 2007 at 3:42 pm

Haha, Byzantine sacred art are hilarious

ps. Here’s Above in Belgrade too, four months ago.

     by Viktor on September 14, 2007 at 5:26 pm

About Tanja’s speech - fucking brilliant, actually. She’s doing her part, and doing it well.

I’m so much more scared by pro-American Slovenes (or the British, what have you) than anti-American Slovenes (or the British, what have you).

At its face, Tanja’s speech before Congress sounds pro-American, especially when she extols the virtues of Reagan (although we must admit that those jelly donuts in Berlin, at least the old fogies, think godly things of Kennedy and Reagan).

But she took the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get some digs in on the U.S. For instance,

“I would only suggest that those that are engaged in foreign policy should never assume that they know more than citizens of a foreign country or that they know where the reforms should go or that they know when it is the right time for them.”

Is she single?

     by Patrick on September 15, 2007 at 7:50 am

Oops. Just reread the venue. Not exactly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

     by Patrick on September 15, 2007 at 8:26 am

@Michael:

I’ve read before that there was a time of intense paranoia about a Soviet invasion.

Yes, but that was around 1948, when Tito started his quarrel with Stalin and managed to get Yugoslavia away from Soviet influence.

Isn’t Gače a Serbian word? Or do Slovenes use it too? I’ve never heard it before.

I think we mostly use gate, perhaps more commonly for men’s underpants than for women’s.

     by ill-advised on September 15, 2007 at 5:57 pm