When I checked the internet before my last trip there wasn’t much on Khabarovsk so to help the next earnest traveler, I’ve decided to offer a little travelogue of my own.
This is a beautiful city of rolling hills and tree lined avenues with tall, ornate street lamps, each with seven globes. The Cathedrals are so beautiful that even the communists left them alone. The style here is like a rectangle, sitting upright, taller than wide. When you enter and look up it is breathtaking, which was surely the architect’s idea.
The roads are immaculately clean and well paved. This is pretty unusual for a city with such severe weather contrasts. When I commented on this, my hosts immediately began to brag on their local Governor Eishaev, who is something of a legend here. He is immensely popular after almost a lifetime of service, a pretty rare phenomenon for any region of the world.
The unique thing about Khabarovsk is its large population (624,000) in such a remote location. One could really get cabin fever here. You can see China across the Amur River and it is a tempting 30 miles away by road but as a complicated border, most have never visited. In fact, I found that many locals have never visited any other major Russian city either. I was actually closer to Moscow before I left Dulles Airport in Washington, D. C. than I was in Khabarovsk. The nearest city is Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean, 500 miles away but don’t count on an Interstate Highway to get there. When my flight to Krasnoyarsk was cancelled I asked if I could take the train, the famous Trans Siberia railroad. “Sure,” they laughed, “It will take you seven days. And picture a toilet serving 200 people and you will get the idea.”
But to experience Khabarovsk one can see why no one in the city needs to go anywhere else. There are an abundance of diverse restaurants, more than I have experienced in most Russian cities. And this is partly due to the diversity of immigrants who came here.
The German Beer House doesn’t have sauerkraut, for some reason, but it does have everything else. My wiener schnitzel overflowed a large plate. The breadbasket had four different kinds of hot, homemade bread, each rather unique. That alone was worth the price of the meal.
A Ukrainian restaurant, Kabachok, serves a magnificent dinner, with costumed waitresses.
You can get excellent, el dente Italian cooking at Scalini’s.
Understandably, there are good Chinese restaurants, but with “Chinese” Chinese food, not American Chinese. The Theaters was the name of the one I visited. It had some great, unique, fried deserts.
Don’t be fooled by “The Marrakech.” It serves Uzbek food, not Moroccan. I had a hot,, spicy chicken dish.
And naturally, there is Russian food. One of the best restaurants in town is simply called “The Russian Restaurant.” I had a great, excellent bowl of borsch, which is actually Ukrainian.
My own personal favorite was the R Café on Lenin Square. It has a little bit of everything which usually means nothing is really spectacular. But everything I ate there was perfect. I had a dish called Tagliotelli Arrabiata, which turned out to be an “angel hair” Arrabiata. It was a chewy pasta, not overcooked, in a delicious sauce.
The Hotel Parus is clean and magnificent with a great view of the frozen river. Everything in the hotel worked. Everything was finished. The Internet was available. $10 bought 5 hours.
Shopping centers are not so grand but there is a surprising diversity of product from nearby China, Korea and Japan. An electronics store had everything, including the latest games and movies. Blackmarket?
I gave my speech at the Sports Palace, which seats 8,000 and is the largest auditorium in the whole Far East of Russia. Normally, they play hockey here and the city loves its team.
The symbol of Khabarovsk is a bear and a tiger. One of my hosts actually saw one of the famous Amur tigers, (often mistakenly called the Siberian tiger,) out on a road, late at night, crossing the highway right before him. So they still exist.
Khabarovsk was settled long ago by adventurers and serfs from the Czarist era who were promised their freedom and a plot of land if they helped develop the city. Once again, to give you an idea of the immense spaces of Russia and the remoteness of this region, the American colonies were founded before this city. But the spirit of the people who came here can still be felt in the independent and proud nature of its people. They were on their own then and so to survive they had to have initiative and imagination. Understandably, compared to many other regions of Russia, they immediatley thrived after the collapse communism, their independence and self sufficiency showing itself.
Doug Wead 
Very interesting to a geography enthusiast like myself.
Home this link works
David,
that’s a riposte? True to form, just another typical ad-hominem attack, oh so full of substance.
And you didn’t even notice the irony contained in my earlier:
“Only weak minds use ad-hominems and only weak minds fall for them.”
As to substance.
You write:
“Jews have contributed more to the world than any of you inbred hillbilly freaks, that’s for sure.”
What an achievement, you chose a most difficult comparison for sure.
As to substance, let’s give your post some:
Real inbreeding is the coupling of a too-closely related group / gene-pool, generation after generation. The kind that you love to point out so often, brother and sister, is the most extreme form of that. Thus a difference in degree, not in kind.
Moderating the degree of inbreeding only reduces the genetic problems in the offspring, but it is still there. Keep people of too many of these occurrences together, and you end up with an inbred group.
The most famous offspring of inbreeding (and just one degree removed from brother and sister) is Moses. Jochebed, Moses’ mother was the sister of Moses grandfather, Kohat. Thus, Kohat’s son, Amram, the father of Moses, had a chid with his aunt in first degree.
Did you learn about inbreeding when you read the Pentateuch as a child perhaps?
Or perhaps you stumbled on the problems caused by group inbreeding not in the Deep South, but while walking around Crown Heights? Because a tightly knit group of people live there, one gets to see physical ramifications of inbreeding up close, such as high degree-myopia in whole families, even in children below age 6, or the typically deep-set eyes.
On the other hand, David probably tries to avoid Crown Heights, as the inhabitants there do not cater to his favorite ideology.
Interestingly, David starts out talking about “Jew hating…”, yet that word is not in my post once. I did say Hertz-brigade, which is a critique of Zionism sure. But “Jew” and “Zionist” are not the same, as aforesaid Crown Heights inhabitants will attest
Even without being orthodox, modern citizens of Israel such as Mordechai Vanunu or Israel Shahak, are also critical of Zionism, or its adherents in their own country, or here in the US, such as you.
As David has pointed out in the past people like that are traitors to him. One must wonder traitors to what?
Many times, David has mocked the adherents of “mythical, supernatural beings” such as our Lord, Jesus Christ, or our God.
I must assume then, that you, Mr Black, do not believe in your god, Yahweh, or in the Shekhina, as they would certainly qualify as mythical, supernatural beings.
Either that, or you are unbalanced. Thus I will let my assumption prevail, as the latter would be an ad-hominem on my part, to which I would not resort.
Now, if you do not believe in that, how can you be Jewish? That is like someone saying I am Catholic, but I do not believe in Jesus, or I am Moslem, but I do not believe in Allah or Muhammad, or I am Hindu, but I do not believe in reincarnation.
Unless of course, to you, being Jewish has nothing to do with having the same religion, but having the same biology (like being Basque, Kurdish, or Uighur)?
That would be interesting, as some months ago, one could read in tne New York Times that making such a claim is “anit-semitic”.
Therefore, Mr. Black, if you ascribe to the latter notion, you are an “anti-semite” — something you accuse others of being.
And only with this latter definition could Dr. Shahak be called a traitor by you, or Vanunu for that matter.
Neither of them betrayed theif faith, they were grounded in it instead. Perhaps they betrayed Zionism, but that is not for you to decide alone.
Finally, what’s wrong with the F-150? People should keep buying those, because it helps keep that American icon, Ford, alive. And it would be a shame to lose a company that was the life’s work of that great American inventor, author, and newpaper publisher, Henry Ford.
Sorry, the above post was intended as a reply to David Black at the end of “Where will Sasha and Malia Obama go to school?”
Browser-refresh must have taken me to the new lead article.
Will also repost there for the ever discern DB
It’s a “riposte” (it’s funny when rednecks as yourself try to sound literate and cultured) that serves its purpose: to define the profile of a majority of the posters to this blog. You all revel in being semi-literate populist dullards in love with ridiculous religious fanaticism that you apply to your politics as well.
In fact, someone could easily think it’s the same one or two people posting under different nyms. With all the sickening butt kissing going on, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wead’s kids were involved here as well.
As for my racial composition, being Jewish is a matter of bloodline, not religion or belief in mythical supernatural beings as defined in books of ancient folklore. If you are Jewish and not a Zionist, you fail miserably as a human being in my estimation. Fighting for the survival of one’s race is what’s most important. Jews that don’t support fighting murdering islamic scum are cowards unworthy of respect or consideration. I don’t care how it’s perceived by the rest of the world. I could give a flying @#$% if anyone disapproves, especially isolationist paleo-con or losertarian morons like you who would cut all funding to Israel in a heartbeat if you had your wish.
Crown Heights was once a fine neighborhood but once decent white people fled due to faltering property values and mostly Third Worlders moved in, it became a relative dung heap, even though some lower class Jewish immigrants still move there from eastern Europe (why, I have no idea).
As for that rag called the NY Slimes, I’ve never believed anything written in it and consider it only worthy of receiving pet waste during housebreaking.
Well, at least from your perspective, that clears the air, Mr. David Black.
I am not sure whether all would agree with you when you say the following, but of course that means “a flying @#$%” to you:
“As for my racial composition, being Jewish is a matter of bloodline, not religion or belief in mythical supernatural beings as defined in books of ancient folklore. If you are Jewish and not a Zionist, you fail miserably as a human being in my estimation. Fighting for the survival of one’s race is what’s most important….”
OK, fine, you can do that, and from THAT perspective it IS the right thing to do, IF YOU ARE JEWISH as defined here.
BUT, why should WE, WHO ARE NOT OF THAT RACE, help you?
If you are fighting FOR your race, WHO are you fighting against? Is it just some elements of the other races, or is it really ALL who are not OF THE JEWISH race? Ultimately, it is the latter that is true. So, when you fight for YOUR race, you fight AGAINST mine.
“… paleo cons…who would cut all funding to Israel in a heartbeat if you had your wish.”
Damn straight, why should we FUND YOU in YOUR fight against US?
We owe you NOTHING, and any debt we may have had, has been paid in BILLIONS over the last 50 years. The British paid in blood (King David hotel), and we Americans (of whom you ARE NOT a part with YOUR racial definition of what a jew is) have given at least 150 Billion dollars to Israel in foreigh aid and cheap military hardware.
Using your definition, AIPAC and jewish congressman and senators are traitors when they vote FOR Israel. They are traitors not to their kin (Israel), but to the country they officially serve.
I hope most of them do not do all that for these reasons, and that they do not share your beliefs in this way.
BTW, no comment about the inbreeding of one of your ancestors, Moses? Or is he only a mythical, supernatural being too?
Underneath the din of the two of you fighting…the lesson of the blog…if I’m not mistaken…is to have a glimpse at what Society would look when Government…in this case by chance…does not intervene.
The world is screaming from an economic chaos…fingers are being pointed…money being inflated…& the People of Khabarovsk…could care less.
Just another utopian day…in the middle of Russia…of all places.
“Damn straight, why should we FUND YOU in YOUR fight against US?”
You aren’t funding me, jackass. The USA is funding a country called Israel, which, if you knew anything, you’d know that much of the $$$ given in aid to Israel comes right back to the USA in the form of military tech purchases. America profits from its investment. Israel gets what it wants, the USA gets what it wants. What could be better?
Since I am a lifelong American citizen, I’d say it’s money well spent. Better investing in Israel than a bunch of gangbanging crackheads in whatever urban American dung heap you can cite.
Christ, mtabor, you are being so cryptic and obtuse I can’t tell what side you purport to be on.
What a shame that Dough Wead has to attract such a subintelligent following that are unable to think for themselves. I believe my attacks on the religious kooks that infest this blog is evidence enough.
cbsure is too clueless about the world to understand that a tourist like Doug who is experiencing almost the best of what a still-backwards country has to offer is going to offer a positive account.
Ask Doug to live like a common peasant for a few months on a few hundred rubles without the means to dine in a fine restaurant or stay in decent lodgings and we’ll see what he thinks about Russia, which is still, by any realist’s reckoning, a miserable place.
If it were such a great place to live, the alcoholism rate wouldn’t lead the world. Studies have indicated that a majority of all infants adopted from Russia suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome. A majority of children adopted from Russia have any of a number of learning disabilities as well as behavioral issues that stem from pre-natal alcohol abuse.
So take your praise for Russia and shove it. It is, and always will be, a latent commie dung heap that should have been invaded and defeated when Gen. George Patton wanted to in 1945.
By the way, I’m telling cbsure to shove his praise, unless it was meant to be ironic. I don’t get the sense that cbsure has the sufficient intellect to know about figures of speech.
Doug was painting such a picturesque view…& then you guys came brawling in from next door.
That’s funny!
…
Speaking of irony…my ideal conclusions for Israel…will always remain as Independence & Peace.
For I am blind to the irony that history has created a nation so Independent…that it depends on another nation for its very survival…whose idea of a Holy Land happens to place them in an endless culture war graced with moments of ceasefires…whose very creation were meant to satisfy the Piety of their People…while still there remains aplenty that rather be living safely abroad.
For as long as ‘commie dung heaps’ offer delicious cuisines…where the Chinese food is ‘Chinese’ & the Pasta is al dente…my mind remains blissfully naive.
…
Just another dystopian day…here in the middle of America…of all places.
Even America on its worst day is preferable to anywhere in Russia or any country of the former Soviet Union.
Again, cbsure, your political “analysis,” proves that no good ever comes from intrafamily copulation.
“Christ, mtabor, you are being so cryptic and obtuse I can’t tell what side you purport to be on”
Moses, I can clear that up quick. I am on my country’s side, the American side, and believe in doing only what is good for America, not for anyone else, including any country in the Levante.
“You aren’t funding me, jackass. The USA is funding a country called Israel”
Israel= state of the Jews
Jew= bloodline, race
David Black=of that bloodline, race.
That is YOUR definition: the first line is the official description of the country.
USA= my country, funded by my taxes
Thus if the USA funds Israel…
“which, if you knew anything, you’d know that much of the $$$ given in aid to Israel comes right back to the USA in the form of military tech purchases”
If I know anything, it is that the money we give to Israel in “foreign aid” is only a tiny part of what is actually given. The military hardware is given away at a fraction of the cost, all in addition to the 3bil+ annual aid.
AND, what we, the US, don’t give freely, Israel STEALS by spying (Jon Pollard , Larry Franklin) in documented and proven cases. They must share your views on bloodline, because both are US citizens, yet betrayed THIS country in favor of a foreign entity. Too bad we no longer carry out the death penalty for traitors who betray this country.
As to the economic benefit, that has no more credibility than any of Keynes’ musings. That money, left in the hands of those that pay it, would have been better invested than by way of funneling through government’s hands and its incipient waste.
“bunch of gangbanging crackheads ….”
Gangbanging? Israel has the highest proportion of prostitutes to males and services rendered of any ciivilized country.
crackhead? Sure, Israel isn’t a user, but most certainly is a supplier of dope. 60% of world ecstasy production comes from, or is transited through, Israel.
Whatever Israel needs to do, it should do on her own, not through surrogates, or their money.
The surrogates incurr needless loss of blood, treasure, respect, yet they gain nothing for themselves. Could Israel do that? Not without reforms, one of which would be to establish a viable economy, that is capable of supporting its military spending
“Israel has the highest proportion of prostitutes to males and services rendered of any ciivilized country.
crackhead? Sure, Israel isn’t a user, but most certainly is a supplier of dope. 60% of world ecstasy production comes from, or is transited through, Israel.”
Evidence? And please, cite a source that isn’t stormfront.org or some other website maintained from some inbred truck drivin’ NASCAR lovin’ redneck’s basement.
What fries your redneck hide is that while we Jews occupy less that 2% of the world’s population, we lead the world in the fields of science, medicine, commerce, and the arts. Look at all those fields and note how many Jews are at the forefront? ALL of them.
We have more brilliance in our pinkies that all of you combined. We are smarter than you and are harder workers. We make you look like PISHERS and you can’t stand it.
Why else would you miscreants always cite the ZOG conspiracy whenever you don’t get your way?
I don’t know why you are worried about the ecstacy trade. Many of your precious Ron Paul followers are pothead Losertarians.
Where’s all that weed coming from? Right here in the USA, grown by your inbred redneck friends.
And again, McCain’s campaign didn’t include pot heads.
“Jews occupy less that 2% of the world’s population”
Well, the ZOG nuts would certainly dispute that number and place it at more like 60%. I hardly believe you meant that. Maybe a partial freudian slip there, certainly bad english.
But the percentage that Jews CONSTITUTE of world popluation, keep dreaming, if you believe it is close to 2%.
15, perhaps 20, million world-wide, thus <1/3%.
“we lead the world in the fields of science, medicine, commerce, and the arts. Look at all those fields and note how many Jews are at the forefront? ALL of them.”
Depends of course on your time frame across history, and even in the shorter term can be disputed. How do you measure it for example in the arts? By price attained for works?
Certainly if you believe that charlatans like a Damien Hirst are the best because they get multi-millions for their works, then perhaps. Of course Hirst, or Koons, just fool the idiots that spend the cash like the Saatchi Brothers, who then go on to fool others. (I am not citing these “artists” as being jewish, don’t know, doesn’t matter to this point.)
But certainly this applies to a Stella, or a Pollock, garbage.
Where was the dominance in Expressionism, in Impressionism, in the Romantics, the Baroque painters, or the mannerists?
I like a Soutine, or a Liebermann, to be sure, but I also like a Gaugin, or Renoir, or Van Gogh — dominance?
‘We have more brilliance in our pinkies that all of you combined. We are smarter than you and are harder workers. We make you look like PISHERS and you can’t stand it.’
Oh, white suprremacism is bad, but jewish supremacism as you evince here is ok?
“Why else would you miscreants always cite the ZOG conspiracy whenever you don’t get your way?”
What conspiracy? A conspiracy is kept underwraps. There is no conspiracy here, everything is open, and in broad daylight.
You yourself said that every good jew is a zionist, well how many members of the clinton cabinet were jewish?
80%? If that is not a major occupation, what would it be? And according to your definition they must be zionists.
Today?
Rahm Israel Emmanuel served in the IDF, now he is Chief of Staff.
Obama’s security, intelligence people in the inner circle?
Holbrooke, Harmann, Ross? To what god do they pray?
Treasury? We hear Mr. Summers.
So call it what you will, but a conspiracy this is not, it is plain for anyone to see. And you have made them all into zionists with your definition.
Thanks for that.
Uh, dumb ass, perhaps if you weren’t the product of a substandard public school education, then perhaps you could comprehend what you’re trying to read.
At 13.3 million, Jews certainly do occupy LESS THAN 2% of the world’s population.
I said nothing about being “close to 2%” 0.1% is STILL LESS THAN 2%, or were you taught a different version of math from the rest of America, redneck?
Arts dominance by Jews? Ever hear of a place called Hollywood? Guess who controls the multibillion dollar industry of films, TV, and recorded music?
It isn’t inbred white crackers like you, schmuck.
What’s wrong, hillbilly, jealous that Jews make more money than you? Perhaps if you had the intelligence to get some other job besides being a fry cook at your local truck stop, then you’d have something to show of yourself besides maybe that piddling $325 per week you bring home after taxes.
And why are you drawing pictures of schwartzes? Lips? Projecting some fantasy, hillbilly?
You aren’t a schwartze, are you? if you were, it would explain a lot. Schwartzes are known Jew haters.
http://mtabor1.deviantart.com/gallery/#_featured
Hey, ever heard of quibbbling?
There is common usage, and then there is David Schwartz.
In OUR language, one uses the figure that is closest to the actual number, so that <2 would be used for something between 1-2 percent.
Your were INTENDING on suggesting something in the ballpark of 2%, which is about 125 million people. That is an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE greater than actual fact.
Your analogy is like Bush telling us, that the war in Iraq will last more than 1 week, cost more than 1 million dollars, and claim more than 3 soldiers’ lives.
“Arts … Hollywood? Guess who controls the multibillion dollar industry of films, TV, and recorded music?”
Typical, you would term such stuff art.
“Controls the multibillion dollar…” And that is typical too. You would use the talmudic definition of worth, funny, seeing as though you disclaim those writings.
“You aren’t a schwartze, are you? if you were, it would explain a lot. Schwartzes are known Jew haters.”
Who knows, I might be black, might not be, but it is interesting that you talk about jew-hating while using a racist, black-hating word like “schwartze”.
Maybe not all readers here know what that means, but it is a yiddish word for “nigger”.
While I won’t stoop to your level by using a word such as “kike”, it is interesting that hate-expletives on this site are usualley posted by you, Mr. David SCHWARTZ, but not by others.
Sorry, but “schwartz” translates to “black,” not the N- word that you’ve conjured in your fervent imagination.
That answers my question from my last post.
Say, you aren’t a member of the NOI, are you? How about the Trinity UCC of Chicago?
“Sorry, but “schwartz” translates to “black,” not the N- word that you’ve conjured in your fervent imagination.”
I was completely unaware of that, seeing as I had already done this translation with your last name.
It is not a question of translation per-se, because the meaning of the word is the actual issue here.
Using your method of translation “schmuck” actually translates to jewellry, but we all know what it is used for and is intended to MEAN.
Just the same for “schwartz”, it does translate to “black”, but it is intended to MEAN and used for “nigger”.
This is no different than southern bozos who use the word “nigra” these days.
To be honest, mark, I hear of blacks calling each other the N- word all the time, so how bad can it really be if your own people use it?
Doug, I have been living in Khabarovsk for 2 years and do not share your optimism about the city, cleanliness, restaurants, etc. In fact, just a small correction: the communists destroyed the old cathedral and used the oldest church of Khabarovsk as arsenal. The current beautiful cathedrals and churches were built in the mid 2000s.
Thanks so much. Please tell us more about Khabarovsk, if you can do so without causing trouble for yourself. And correct me where I am wrong.
10 year marker comment