Hamas

http://www.time.com/time/cartoons/20060527/4.html

Are We Really This Scared?

MY GOD! These cartoons where published in September 2005, and apparently we're still afraid of how Muslims will react. No offense, but that says alot about the Islamic faith. It also says alot about us for letting them get away with this crap. Listen up Muslims and listen good, in Canada we have FREEDOM OF SPEECH. That means we can say whatever we want, no matter how offensive someone may find it. Don't like that? Get the hell out of the country.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060526.wxchapters27/BNStory/Entertainment/home

Real Atrocity

Report from Mosul. Funny how the media is ready to crucify the US over any misconduct, real or imagined, well they fall all over themselves excusing or praising any one who opposess the US or Western Civilization in general.

This will probably never make it on CNN
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/little-girl.htm

Band of Brothers

The title Band of Brother's is a reference to Shakespeare's play Henry V

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, "These wounds I had on Crispian's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford, and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. (King Henry, IV.iii)

E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, U.S. Army

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne; From Normandy to Hitler's Eagles Nest
By Stephen E. Ambrose
Published: 1992

"Band of Brothers" is Stephen Ambrose's most famous work. Based on interviews, memoirs and letter's, it is the history of a company of American paratroopers from basic training through D-Day and the battle for Normandy and the following campaigns in Holland, Belgium, France and Germany. Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airbornne Division (the "Screaming Eagles") was one of the best infantry companies in Europe during the war. Ambrose's account is an excellent work showing the Second World War not from the perspective of a historian, but of the men who fought on the front lines. Recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in the war, a must for any student of history. Ambrose produced one of the most moving works of history out there.

**** out of ****
Polemarchs' Essential Pick

Surpressed Writing

Google is trying to censor The New Media Journal for publishing editiorials and articles that challenge the mainstream media.

http://www.newmediajournal.us/index.html

Bookmark it.

The Other Side of the Green Line

Another piece of non-corporate writing by Michael J. Totten. He interviews several Palestinans in Ramallah, and then talks to several politicians. Must read.

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001140.html

Canada Stays the Course in Afghanistan; Italy Surrenders in Iraq

The Canadian Parliment has made the right choice; to stay the course in Afghanistan (despite NDP, Bloc, and a good number of Liberals voting to cut and run).

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/060518/w051816.html

Prime Minister Harper's speech to the House
http://www.conservative.ca/EN/1004/42896

NDP Leader Jack Layton's Speech
http://www.ndp.ca/page/3757

Not a big surprise that Italy's planning on surrendering, now that Prodi is in charge. Italy's, like Spain's, withdrawel will only surve to embolden those forces hostile to Western Civilization.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2186417,00.html

Save Nazanin!

In Iran a 17 year old girl has been sentenced to death by hanging for defeanding herself against a would-be rapist.

http://save.nazanin.googlepages.com/home

The Nazi Invasion of America

Lightning in the Night
By Fred Allhoff
Published 1940 in Liberty Magazine

Written in 1940 in serial format, Lightning in the Night, is a what if scenario. Allhoff asks what if Hitler gained mastery in Europe? Hitler wins in 1940 aquiring British, French and Dutch overseas colonies. After 5 years of consolodating his power (including betraying his Italian allies) Hitler occastates a war with America. Japan and Russia (believing that there has been a break in the Axis alliance) attack Pearl Harbor, using chemical weapons to inflict massive civilian casualties, however the fleet escapes. Hitler strikes at Panama, using his own chemical weapons, seizing the canal and splitting the American fleets. Well Japanese and Russian submarine fleets are mauled by the US the Red and Japanese armies invade Alaska, push through Canada and capture Washington state only to face partisan bands who maul the invaders but do little to slow the actual invasion. The Germans begin air raids, devastating New York before invading. Despite stiff resistance the Americans are slowly pushed into the mid west (the Mexicans try invading from the south but after initial success are pushed back by American counterattacks). The US Navy, after hard fighting gains control of the Atlantic but the Nazi's control most of the countries industrial areas. At Cincinnati, Hitler and the President meet. There the Nazi's surrender after it is learned America has succeded in creating Atomic Bombs and threatens to destroy Germany. The Invaders quickly retreat ending the conflict...for now. Well overly optamistic at times (hey, it IS propaganda) the ending does suggest that the U.S. and Germany well engage in a Cold War (Germany's atomic research was a month or so behind the US's in the story). Well written, recommanded for anyone who's wondered what might have happened had things gone differently.

*** out of ****

Does the Koran Incite Violence?

Friends of Micronesia has an interview by Bill O'Rielly with Andrew Bostom and Ahmed Yunis on the subject.

http://www.friendsofmicronesia.com/archives/001305.html

From Iran With Hate

http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/000839.html

The Morass of Middle East Diplomacy

To respond to Dennis Ross’ pertinent observation (“those that say Oslo was a mistake, they don’t offer anything in its place.”), I would simply say that the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict calls for a radically different approach in diplomacy.

First, the fallacy of the ongoing political dogma should be recognized: the objective is wrong (A new Palestinian state carved out of Israel as defined by the Mandate); the “land for peace” principle is wrong; the many assumptions that have gained currency with time are also wrong (“inalienable rights of the Palestinian people”; “illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land”; “Jerusalem as the third holy city of Islam”). A bold stance on the historical/legal truths should not be an obstacle to peace unless the world is willing to sacrifice the integrity of Israel on the altar of dubious geopolitical interests. But if such is the case, we should expect less hypocrisy and certainly no selective application of international law.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5483

AHMADINEJAD’S DEMONS

Mathias Kuntzel writes a good article on the Basij, the fanatical movement in Iran that current president Ahmadinejad belonged to, and whose theology profoundly impacts his world view.

During the Iran-Iraq War, the Ayatollah Khomeini imported 500,000 small plastic keys from Taiwan. The trinkets were meant to be inspirational. After Iraq invaded in September 1980, it had quickly become clear that Iran's forces were no match for Saddam Hussein's professional, well-armed military. To compensate for their disadvantage, Khomeini sent Iranian children, some as young as twelve years old, to the front lines. There, they marched in formation across minefields toward the enemy, clearing a path with their bodies. Before every mission, one of the Taiwanese keys would be hung around each child's neck. It was supposed to open the gates to paradise for them.

At one point, however, the earthly gore became a matter of concern. "In the past," wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettelaat as the war raged on, "we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the minefields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone." Such scenes would henceforth be avoided, Ettelaat assured its readers. "Before entering the minefields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves."

These children who rolled to their deaths were part of the Basiji, a mass movement created by Khomeini in 1979 and militarized after the war started in order to supplement his beleaguered army.The Basij Mostazafan--or "mobilization of the oppressed"--was essentially a volunteer militia, most of whose members were not yet 18. They went enthusiastically, and by the thousands, to their own destruction. "The young men cleared the mines with their own bodies," one veteran of the Iran-Iraq War recalled in 2002 to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine. "It was sometimes like a race. Even without the commander's orders, everyone wanted to be first."

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20060424&s=kuntzel042406


The article goes on to describe how Ahmadinejad believes that the appearance of the 12th Imam is imminant revealing the apocalyptic mindset that runs through him and his Basij and Revolutionary Guard brethren and is incouraged by the Mullahs. Does not bode well for peace.

Kinda like the 1930's all over again.

The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
Published: 2003

Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" has for the past several years been a best seller and has a movie and video game on the way. The plot: Symbologist Robert Langdon is implicated in an elderly man's murder. The man was a member of the Priory of Sion, and Langdon must follow a trail of clues to a secret that could shake Western Civilization to it's core, all the while hunted by a mysterious figure called The Teacher and the Catholic Sect Opus Dei. All I can say is, for all the hype I'm unimpressed. Browns writing, well not bad, is nothing spectaculare and well I was compelled to finish the story I didn't feel that I had read anything new, throughout the book I kept wondering what Michael Crichton could have done with this story. Also, for a novel that claims to be based in fact, lack of a bibliography hurts. Brown also makes several flawed or one sided assments of history/religion, ie. Brown never explains what the "sacred feminine" is other then it involves Goddess worship and sex. Also Brown claims the Priory of Sion was founded in 1099. This is false. The Priory was founded in the 1950's. All this is fine, except to many people seem willing to take this story at face value and believe it to be true. I'm still looking forward to the movie, as the big screen is probably a better canvas for this story. A good read, but nothing to write home about.

** out of ****

Criticism (Contains Spoilers)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticisms_of_The_Da_Vinci_Code

Letter to Dan Brown
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5505

Mark Steyn on "The Da Vinci Code"
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/article.jsp?content=20060515_126652_126652

Communists and Muslims

Gateway Pundit is carrying a story about Italian Communists assisting the Irainians and Terrorists in Iraq.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/05/italian-communists-assist-iran-in.html