Recently, I came to President Bush's defense on hurricane Katrina. However, It has come to my attention that if you're going to defend Bush on one subject, you might just have to defend him on other topics. This also gives me a good excuse to show you exactly how I think.

The following articles are lessons in "historiography"-- basically, seeing the history of history being written, examining the text as well as the subtext. Basically, welcome to my mind... be sure to bring a flashlight.

The following articles were written two years ago before the Iraq war. Keep in mind, I have not changed my mind on most of these subjects, and Weapons of Mass Destruction are a topic for another day [however, I'm fairly certain they're in Syria, and they've been used in Iraq on our troops over the course of this "insurgency"]


Never Start a Fight, but Always Finish It.
(or simply: Always Finish it)

War is never necessary, inevitable, or anything of the sort. Attacking Iraq would be a preventative measure; it worked for Elizabeth I in 1578 against the Spanish Armada, in 1758 for Prussia, and Israel’s Six Day War of 1967 and in 1981 (when they took out the French supplied nuclear facility in Iraq).
When it comes to Saddam Hussein, he can avoid any conflict with amazing ease. Saddam could decide that life would be easier if he gave up his bioweapons and chemical weapons, then let the UN inspectors come in free and clear and have a look at EVERYTHING. Then he could stop killing his own subjects, stuff the rebellious ones into a corner of the country, give them their own state and tell them to do something obscene with it. War avoided, case closed.
Who knows? Maybe the threat of an all-out US attack will even make roll over and play dead, stop pulling a Milosevic on his own people, and stop gathering enough gasses to make new epidemics of plague, etc. But the odds of that happening are…?
There is no one on the planet who wants to blow away Saddam just for the fun of it. But honestly, who thinks that—after ten years and God knows how much cash Saddam has blown on his weapons programs—he’s just going to let it all go? That after so much effort wiping out Kurds that he’s just going to take the easy way out? One major problem I find with the current attitude is it’s too much of the Hollywood Wild West ethic of “the good guys don’t draw first.” Since when did American foreign policy involve a shootout at high noon, mixed with a little touch of poker-style bluffing?
This isn’t the nineteenth century anymore. When the Congress of Vienna tried to carve up a post-Napoleonic world, the world fell apart in about fifty-to-sixty years. After World War I, Europe created Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. Nineteenth century rules barely worked in the 19th century, and when we applied them to the Middle East, we got burned; OPEC in the 70s, Iran in the 80s, then Iraq and Afghanistan. Europe played 19th century politics waiting for Hitler to strike first; the US waited for Bin Laden to give us an “actual” attack (as though blowing up US barracks wasn’t enough).
Welcome to the 21st century. We’re in a war now; it’s just that the rules have changed. We didn’t start it, but we should definitely finish it.
No one wants a war simply for the sake of having one. No one wants our soldiers to die. There were ninety-eight civilians on board Flight 93 didn’t want a fight either, and they didn’t want to die. But a war came to them, and they didn’t wait for a suicide dive. Their response was “Let’s roll.”
Let’s hope that, when the time comes, our response won’t be any less.


Let's Roll.

Why bomb Saddam?
Why not?
Slobodan Milosevic killed how many people before the US (UN Peacekeepers came in later) wiped the floor with him? It was enough to describe Milosevic as a Hitler prototype. But Saddam Hussein's killed tens of thousands of his own people, and we let him get away with it…why? September of 2001, the Torch “school” opinion had seven of eight students saying we shouldn't wipe out the Taliban, because we would kill so many innocent people and have so many soldiers die. With limited causalities and a few weeks later, say goodbye to the Taliban. In the first Persian Gulf War, it was argued that we'd lose thousands of soldiers. Aside from car accidents, helicopter mishaps and the like, we barely broke double digits (12 people).
The U.S. gave Saddam bioweapons to fight Iran. Don't we have the responsibility to clean up our messes? What's that I hear you say? The UN inspectors? After ten years and nothing done, how many people think that anything will get done NOW? What has the UN done to Saddam but put sanctions on Iraq, sanctions that do nothing but hurt the Iraqi people and leave Hussein unhurt? We went to war in the Gulf to wipe out his weapons of mass destruction (see: Caleb Carr, "The Lessons of Terror."), why not now? Besides, when SJU went to a Nike factory in Mexico, everyone tore them to shreds because Nike directed what they saw; Saddam Hussein isn't crafty enough to imitate Nike?
What about our allies, like the French? The French gave Saddam parts for nuclear weapons in the early eighties, and they've been helping Iraq despite the sanctions. Who wants to place money on what the French have given to Iraq lately?
I hear cries of "wait for the UN and our allies!" And if Saddam's six months away from getting nukes, it takes six months to assemble the UN, and what then? We pray that he won't wake up in a fit of peak and nuke Iran or Israel, perhaps?
"But the Middle East isn't worried!" Why should they be? We came running to their aid last time, so why should they help us get rid of what is only a potential problem?
Why don't we go after Iran or North Korea instead? They already have nuclear weapons. Next question?
Why don't we deal with terrorism? According to Bill Safire of the New York Times, the head of Iraqi intelligence met with someone in Al Qaeda's chain of command before 9-11-02. Must I draw you a flow chart?
This is our next step on the war on terror, please make no mistake about it. The Taliban crumbled, odds are that Bin Laden is buried in the sands of Tora Bora, and we haven't had a terrorist attack in one year; that was step one. Step three might be wiping out the French…or at least having a very long talk with Mr. Chirac; maybe we can even talk with the House of Faud in Saudi Arabia about fifteen hijackers.
CNN logic is nice, but never assume that a gut reaction is wrong because it's merely a gut reaction. Logic's good, but logic is a tool, and like all human tools, it can be faulty.
Last point: Once upon a time was a place called Ethiopia. It was invaded by a man named Mussolini. The League of Nations told him to back off. He didn't. The League of Nations did nothing and it died.
Once upon a time was a man named Saddam, and he wanted weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations imposed restrictions. He didn't follow them. The UN… well, let's wait and see….

And a fun time was had by all.

All vacation long, I listened to Democrats whine about North Korea; we should wipe them out for breaking a 1994 agreement that it stop its nuclear program for aid. I hear we’re not going after N. Korea with the same pressure on Iraq.
“Bush mislead us so he could go into Iraq!” the cry echoed, despite two and a half pages of intelligence briefings offered to Congress on the subject (Colin Powell, This Week, 10/20/02). We’ve been in peaceful diplomatic negotiations with N. Korea and their nuclear supplier (Pakistan, not Clinton or Jimmy Carter), and we’re even continuing UN deals on Iraq.
What’s the problem? Why do I hear Democrats demand to invade N. Korea, but do little or nothing to Saddam? Even Amnesty International suggests that Bush and Blair are “too selective,” when talking about the human rights abuses in Iraq, even though AI has reported Iraqi horrors for years.
All I can think is “Why not have an Amnesty International hit list? Let’s deal with every tribal war in Africa; why not the shifta murder gangs of the Sudan who’ve enslaved whites and Christians of all ethnic groups for decades (no, can’t do that; Sudan’s on the UN human rights commission…you see something wrong here?).
“Why don’t we go after China, which persecutes, beats and jails Christians for fun, and drops baby girls down wells? Clinton’s state department let US businesses perfect China’s ICBM program like we gave weapons to Iraq, so why not clean up the mess?
“Why don’t we go after North Korea, free Tibet, and provide peacekeepers in Northern Ireland, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Palestine?”
For those of you who missed the sarcasm, you can’t complain about NOT declaring war on North Korea while at the same time treating Saddam with diplomacy. The US is trying to talk with North Korea like we’re STILL talking with Saddam.
But still, each time Iraq is mentioned…
“Bush is a warmonger.” Who have we bombed since the Taliban?
“Bush is ignoring terrorism.” After all, look at the bombed American buildings, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and…oh, yeah, that’s been it for sixteen months and counting. It took fifteen months for Al-Qaeda to get back in shape again, thousands of prisoners at Guantanamo and we’ve had no progress with the war on terror?
While I personally wouldn’t mind regime change in China, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan and Northern Ireland, I’m not holding my breath, since China and England are on the UN Security Council (China holds sway over the area once known as Tibet. England set up Saudi Arabia’s House of Faud, and holds the leash on the British Army in Northern Ireland).
So the next time you hear talk about “conflict resolution,” think a little bit about the new Global order in which we live. Remember that everything is connected to almost everything else. Then stop, think, do a Lexus Nexus search, and ask, “what’s their connection?”
Remember that governments deal in compromises and convenience, and it’s up to the rest of us to make up the difference.

The House of the Rising Sun is Closed.

I initially did not do this because, well, it's not nice to speak ill of the dead. However, that has changed for me, why.... because I believe that, while error has no right, PEOPLE have rights.

So what does St. Augustine have to do with anything? Simple, people have rights, error doesn't.

Which means the mayor and the governor of New Orleans and Louisiana, respectively, are lucky that they never lived in the Soviet Union, because they would have been taken out and shot-- there, people who err had no rights. At least here they do [and you don't joke about assassinating politicians in New Orleans, they're touchy ever since Huey Long].

"But what about Bush? The federal government did nothing until it was too late." If you honestly believe that… well, wait.

But what triggered this? Why did I decide to go off on the Left wing nuts blaming Bush for the weather? Well, someone asked me about it, to start with, and I like to answer in a detailed, somewhat thoughtful manner. However, I have a headcold, so forgive me if some of this is incoherent.

But this blog post was triggered by 9/11. Yes, 9/11. I wanted to do an in memorianum, but I thought it would be too sappy.

But now I’m pissed. Governor Blanco, I’m certain, deliberately exaggerated the 10,000 dead in order to claim that Bush is responsible for more dead than on 9/11, but now we won’t even break one thousand, never mind three.

And I was reminiscing about the day. I had heard about the first crash the minute it happened… someone asked if I had heard about a plane hitting the World Trade Center [WTC], and I laughed, saying that the towers are too damn big for someone to accidentally run into them. I got out of class an hour and a half later, to my next class, and we were all told that class was cancelled… okay, but why? And why didn’t Fr. Caserta leave a note? Or have the theology department post one. I called my father on one of the inter-college phones, and he said “Come to my office.” That’s it, nothing more…but okay. Whatever.

I walk out of the building, across the great lawn, and for some reason, the chatter is oddly isolated instead of University wide. And everyone on God’s green earth has a cell phone out. I felt like I was in Hitchcock’s The Birds [or The Boids for Warner Bros. fans]. “Wow this is odd.”

I walk into my father’s office, and he says that “Planes have crashed into the World Trade Center, they’ve fallen and the Pentagon is burning.”

“Didn’t Tom Clancy already do this novel?”

And everyone and his brother knew Bin Laden had done it. My father said “Of COURSE bin Laden did it!” Then again, when even my campus joke magazine advocated killing bin Laden, I might want to note that we’re biased. My second reaction was “bin Laden is a dead man” [and he might be—his press statements are few and far between, and the language is off, but that’s something else.].

Twelve hours later, Kabul was burning. I heard later that they weren’t our bombs. To quote Ann Coulter, “I wanted them to be our bombs. They should’ve been our bombs.”

I remember… the NY Times calling Rudy Giuliani Churchill in a baseball cap.

I remember NYPD and FDNY going into the fire, knowing they were going to die, but there were still people up there, and they were going to get them out… and they died trying. They had trained for this every Saturday for every week of Giuliani’s administration, and they were ready, and they gave everything.

I remember them staying there for a month cleaning out the rubble.

I remember it all.

And now I remember something different.

I remember how Amtrak offered to send trains to evacuate New Orleans before the hurricane even hit—and the Mayor REFUSED THEIR HELP

I remember the Governor having 65 THOUSAND National Guard troops outside of New Orleans, sitting there, doing NOTHING. Buses, sitting in their docks, not being used for evacuation .

I remember the governor evacuating the rich white tourists from the hotels and letting them cut the lines out of town.

I remember that the levies couldn’t take a level 3 hurricane and that Katrina was a 5, but no one called for a mandatory evacuation.

I remember Louisiana getting TEN TIMES more federal money than California. That New Orleans diverted the funds from rebuilding the levies this past year because “they’ll be fine,” and shifting them to pork barrel projects.

I remember Bush calling for an evacuation of New Orleans before the hurricane hit, and the Mayor only made it voluntary.

I remember that New Orleans had a contingency plan to deal with disasters/hurricanes. Only Mayor Nagin didn't follow it, nor did Governor Blanco. And these are the people complaining about what Bush didn’t do? [PS: In Long Island, they tell you to leave, or you drown. And they’re NOT below sea level.]

I remember that the Red Cross was not allowed to enter New Orleans by decree of local officials.

And I remember the New Orleans Police Department. I remember them well. The stinking cowards ran like river rats, almost a third of the police department abandoned the city before the hurricane even hit. Now half the department has resigned, most in disgrace. The NOPD has dishonored their badges. One committed suicide, as did one PR representative.

The NYPD didn’t run, they didn’t hide, they went to their deaths in the hope that others may live. The NOPD live to die some other day.

And should I start on the looters?

Why bother?

On 9/11, Guiliani was there, on site, and in fact was thrown into a building to escape the debris from the collapse of the South Tower.

Nagin? He bellowed for federal help, complaining that it was the federal government's fault. He did NOTHING. He deserves nothing in return. New Orleans has been known as the big easy, but also as the Big Sleazy. And no wonder, it got taken out by several of the Seven Deadly Sins—greed, pride, envy and anger [hence the looters of the Trinitrons and the rapists].

And then what did he do? He announced plans to give NOPD officers vacations to Las Vegas (all on the tab of FEMA). And he's now bought a house in Dallas. At the very least, send your cops to Houston—they’ve got strip clubs, and they did save YOUR voters.

See, that’s the one problem with being a Republican—the Republican federal government generally assumes that the local government knows enough to take care of itself, and it’ll call when it needs the big guns sent in.

That’s a problem when the Governor’s an ass who doesn’t know that her cell phone won’t WORK in a hurricane, and will need a satellite phone. That’s a problem with the mayor supported the Governor’s opposition in the previous election and the Governor’s still holding a grudge. That’s a problem when the Governor seems more intent on letting New Orleans down the gutter than doing her job.

A message to Governor Blanco—you are the duly represented official of your state, not an impotent weakling. You remember those National Guard troops you had? You can USE them. If you are too gutless to use the national guard in evacuating a city, and sending in those 65,000 troops when the riots break out, then you should’ve called President Bush the day Katrina was declared a category 5 hurricane, and said, “Mr. President, I am a corrupt, incompetent fool. I squandered all of our federal money on anything but the levies, and we’ve known for over a year that they can’t take what’s coming. I need to be relieved of duty because I don’t have a clue.”

Now, in this case, Bush messed up. Oh yes, W. went wrong….. BUSH SHOULD’VE COMMANDEERED THE STATE FROM THE GOVERNOR AND DECLARED MARTIAL LAW THE DAY KATRINA WAS SPOTTED.

However, that’s a problem. In saying the above, it’s basically saying that Bush couldn't do anything about Louisiana without doing something that hasn't been done since the Civil War— use the insurrection acts to usurp the power of the state government.

And now that two incompetents killed over four hundred people—so far—they blame Bush for causing the storm [I didn’t know he was God]. The blame Bush for not personally coming down immediately into the war zone that is New Orleans with a hundred thousand federal employees on his back, bringing in the troops that were in Iraq….

I’m sorry, wait a moment? The democrats wanted Bush, a republican, to declare martial law? With the military? Had that happened, he would’ve been impeached—well, they would try, anyway. And how exactly would Bush say that, hmm? “I, the white Republican male, am going to usurp the authority of the black, democratic, female governor, and declare martial law”?

Then again, Bush would’ve at least had someone competent running the place—I don’t mean the FEMA director, I mean the man the Mayor praised as “John Wayne,” the army General Honore.

Rudy and Pataki didn’t have the President on 9/11. The president was being hidden by the Secret Service in an undisclosed location. Probably several. In any other city, there would’ve been riots and blood in the streets. New York didn’t need it. Had New Orleans been prepared for the worst, the citizens would’ve been moved out of town on buses and Amtrak trains. We may not have needed body bags [although there are always idiots who would’ve stayed—people are STILL staying, until the military comes to their door, M16 assault rifle and all].

And now Barak Obama is calling Bush a racist? Forget the rappers, but this was the guy who spent half his talk at the democratic convention pretending to be a Republican [even the black Lt. Governor of Maryland at the RNC said “I was going to give the RNC platform here tonight, but Barak Obama already did it up in Boston six weeks ago.”]. Now it’s “W.’s a racist,” only said articulately…. Mr. Senator, if W. was a racist, he’d mention that all of the blacks of New Orleans are being saved by white rescuers. I’m told that you haven't figured out yet how the evil "neocons" cooked up a hurricane that targeted only black people. Let me know how that turns out, would you?

These people are vile. Mistakes were made all around, but for God’s sake, Blanco and Nagin, you are the duly elected local authorities. If you can’t have the moral courage to admit you made a mistake, if you can’t have the courage that George W. Bush has already exhibited by saying that he screwed up, then how DARE you try to put this all on him? You failed to protect your citizens. Admit it and move on.

On a related note:

Someone asked me recently if W. was still a hero of mine. Maybe I should tell you why he was in the first place—decisive action. Once he was given proof who was responsible for 9/11, they were gone before the next month was over. Clinton would’ve gotten even MORE indictments ready for bin Laden, as if we didn’t have enough. Al Gore… who knows?

Is he still a hero to me, now that he’s admitted that he screwed up in New Orleans? Even more so. Any other man would’ve been screaming about the faults of others. But he hasn’t. It was his fault that the FEMA director wasn’t qualified. It was his fault for not taking control of New Orleans when the train wreck was coming.

On 9/11, he was a man. He was a man who showed kindness to those who were made victims. A man of stability and reassurance. “I hear you. The American People Hear you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will be hearing from us real soon.”

And now, he says that the buck stops at his desk.

Pay attention, gentlemen. This is the mark of a true man.





“There is
A House
In New Orleans
They call
The Rising Sun.
And it’s been.
The Ruin
Of Many
A poor boy
And God
I know
I’m one.”

A Requiem for a City, New Orleans, RIP.

Even if New Orleans is not demolished with the option of moving further uphill, it will take three years for it to make a comeback structurally, and ten years economically. When people think about Katrina, they see bodies floating in the water, they see people dramatically rescued from their roofs via helicopter, they see whiners about Bush, and MPs in the streets.

Let me tell you what I see.

I see New Orleans as it was. The Cities of the Dead, six- and seven-foot-high mausoleums the homes of this ‘parish’ of New Orleans, keeping the dead buried aboveground, since six feet under the city was water. The stone tombs were also designed to be ‘natural’ crematories. At one point, the Catholic Church had banned cremations, and since New Orleans was very Catholic—or at least very French—they obeyed. They came up with a way around it by making the mausoleums act as natural ovens operating on heat from the sun. The inside of the coffins would reach over three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. By the time another body had to be buried, the coffin would be slid in, sweeping the remains of the previous body to the back, to fall down a vent to the bottom of the sepulcher.

When you first get out of the plane, you feel like you've fallen into a pool of warm water, except you're was on solid, semi-dry ground. Then again, you are about thirty feet below sea level, the only think from making Lake Ponchatrain from becoming Lake Orleans is a dam, and luck during the hurricane season, for a good hurricane will just shove the lake into the city, and the Levies can't withstand more than a Category 3 hurricane.

Bourbon Street, New Orleans in the Sunday predawn hours was not exactly pleasant, since the time was in-between: after the party the previous night and before the cleanup the morning after, when all the shops took hoses to their sidewalks and sprayed off the three types of beer: spilt, vomited and excreted.

Bourbon Street is where you think of when you think New Orleans, and Marte Gras, and it's also New Orleans’ red light district. A row of strip clubs, bars, restaurants, and tourist traps. In one window there was a video-loop of woman stripping her clothes off in a translucent window backlit by a yellow light. The neon lights flashed along the street, and scattered groups of people from all ages danced to jazz still pouring out from the nightclubs.
A tiny ambulette slowly rolls down the street to collect drunks for the drunk tanks and dries them out.
On the same street is the Royal Sonesta Hotel, and you wonder if you’re in the same place. It opens into a the expansive hotel lobby behind crystal class doors. The floor laid with marble and chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The hotel bar on the right and a hallway filled with gift shops on the left.
It is also the home of Brennan’s—where, on Sunday mornings, you can go and have a late breakfast that IS dinner. A breakfast where they serve absinth and huge pink iced drinks with an umbrella in them; fillet mignon that melts in your mouth, topped with poached eggs with hollandaise sauce as an entrée.

It is a land of “Live and Let Die”, of Anne Rice’s vampires, James Lee Burke’s policemen, Sherylon Kenyon’s dark hunters, the home of voodoo in America, of jambalaya and zydico. It is the last place in the world where the Napoleonic Code still exists at THE law.

It is the home of the con: “Give me a dollar and I’ll tell you where you got your shoes.” The inevitable answer being ‘You got your shoes, on your feet on Bourbon Street.” You’re usually so busy laughing you didn’t notice that you just got scammed and he’s making off with you money. A city where the fast and loose play faster and looser.

At the moment, New Orleans is a city of the dead, and only the dead. But, God Willing, it will once again be a home of the living and the lively.

Raquel and Jason have good articles on the hurricane proper, with great analysis of what went wrong, and links to charity organizations. I just felt like someone needed to say a eulogy.

Be well, and God bless.

Unless the quotes are otherwise attributed, they're most likely from Ms. Coulter.

I like this woman just for the headline, if nothing else.
"I'd rather be doing my hair than doing you." Headline for Carleigh

COULTER: TOO HOT FOR "CHRISTIAN" COLLEGE
September 1, 2005, 11:57 AM
"Christian College Succumbs to Pressure, Cancels Coulter” Alumni complain, citing facts gleaned from "Ann Coulter Is A C—-.com." The Rev. Barry Lynn will give the lecture instead. Coulter announces she is joining a Black Church.

Laurence Simon, of http://www.imao.us/
September 1, 2005, 12:48 AM
Apparently, the fire marshal and the people who plan disaster relief don't communicate, because Houston offered up 24,000 folks a cot and three hots at the Astrodome but the gates have been shut at 12,000 or so.
We here in Houston are used to this kind of screw up. Although what we're really waiting for is when the refugees threaten to relocate to Tennessee because there aren't adequate luxury box accommodations and the astroturf isn't fit for play.

THE NATION UNITES AFTER A DISASTER!
September 1, 2005, 6:51 PM
"George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, . . ." New York Times editorial, Thursday September 1, 2005.

http://imperialrequiem.blogspot.com/
"The media's got it's work cut out for itself. I'll just revel in their pain."

GERMAN PAPERS: Katrina Should be Lesson To USA on 'Global Warming'...
August 31, 2005, 12:04 PM
And getting your butt kicked in two world wars should be a lesson too.

CINDY AND THE GERMANS TOGETHER AGAIN
August 31, 2005, 12:07 PM
"Cindy Sez Katrina Bush’s Fault”
What if you had a war protest and nobody came?

August 27, 2005, 1:32 AM
"Sweetness and light: Has there ever been a phonier news story”
CINDY: "He just wanted to go over to fight for his country . . . "

August 26, 2005, 3:15 AM
"Sweetness and light: Two days after Casey's death, Cindy said . . . ”

AT LEAST THEY DIDN'T CHANGE IT TO "THE GOD OF EVOLUTION"
August 26, 2005, 8:13 PM
"The Parent, the Offspring, and the Holy Ghost”

PAT ROBERTSON JOINS STEPHANOPOULOS IN CALLING FOR ASSASINATIONS
August 25, 2005, 7:15 PM
"Stephanopoulos Urged Foreign Assassination”

SHEEHAN CALLS TERRORISTS KILLING AMERICAN TROOPS "FREEDOM FIGHTERS"
August 23, 2005, 4:13 PM
"Sweetness and Light: Cindy Calls Insurgents “Freedom Fighters”

ANOTHER GREAT FIND ON THE SWEETNESS AND LIGHT BLOG
August 22, 2005, 11:13 PM
"THE BUSH CRIME FAMILY"


And now, the most vicious hit I've seen in quite some time. Courtesy of WWW.sacredcowburgers.com

And now, a Subject which will drag everyone to my site (at least every male), by search terms alone.

The Hottest Chicks of the Internet ("Neocon" version.)

Okay, some of these women are not neocons, however, I would like to submit them as proof than brains and beauty can go together quite well. Just because they're human beings worthy of respect and decency does not also mean wee cannot appreciate them as they are as works of art at the hands of God.

And if you can't seem some of these women as works of art, get glasses.

To start with
May I introduce to you the lovely and talented SarahK, of Mountaineer Musings. She is, of course, the Mountaineer (not to be mistaken with Sydney Bristow of Alias). She's cute, cuddly, has an impressive set of lungs, and an impressive set of guns. And, sorry guys, she's taken, by Frankj of IMAO.







Then of course, after her, the witty, charming, and ever friendly Ann Coulter. Anyone who knows of Ann, you know exactly what I mean. If you don't know Ann... well, follow the links.




Now, over at thoseshirts.com, they have a very interesting layout...

And I mean SHIRTS. Get your head out of the gutter. I particularly have a weakness for the anti-commie / ACLU shirts.

Then again, there is also the ever marvelous Michelle Malkin, journalist, IMAO fan, wife and mother, and all around sharp lady. The only place to go for in-depth journalism nowadays, even on the web, I think. Following her links... I mean, her lead.. is usually a safe bet when referring to anything in the so-called "real world."




Now, this young woman is a friend and a fellow blogger-- Kathryn Vogel, not bad, eh? She isn't big on the political commentary, but then again, how many people really, really, REALLY want nothing but politics 24/7?







Here's where I cheat a little and introduce my friend, Inna Lamm. While not a blogger herself, she is a conservative, and, well... she's hot.

Now here is a young woman who'd probably kill me if she knew she was being put on this list, because she is not a neocon. In fact, Colleen works at New Yorker's Against the Death Penalty. However, she's my friend, it's my list, and she's not unattractive, yes? Besides, she's pro-life in every sense of the term, which means Howard Dean would call her a neocon anyway.


There is also an attractive young woman who I am not as familiar with, but she is attractive, and conservative, so she should be included. Her name's Tara, and she's a frighteningly brilliant woman. She is an attorney, fitness model and nutrition consultant NYC & Westchester, and she passed the NY Bar Exam on the first try. She's also working on her new fitness site, still under construction. I'll update it as it becomes complete. I don't know about you, but I'd follow her advice on fitness.


In any event, there are other women to come, assuming I can make their photos load.

Cindy Sheehan has gone insane.

For those of you who don't know about Cindy Sheehan, don’t feel bad. As George Will noted, “has already been largely erased from the national memory by new waves of media fickleness in the service of the public's summer ennui.” And I hadn’t heard about her until she had been kicking and screaming for about two weeks of her campaign of complaining.

Now, I had promised on the ever-annoying Ms. Sheehan for later, ad this is pretty much it. For a full, deep enquiry, you should check Michelle Malkin, for insults, IMAO, and for a good quick analysis, Jason at IR.

The Story thus far.

Casey Sheehan was a brave, heroic US soldier fighting in Iraq, with an impressive service record. He died last year, fighting in Sadr city. And I’m not exaggerating his record.

Now, Cindy Sheehan, or Ms. Sheehan (and yes, I said Miss.... even though she’s married, her husband's filing for divorce right now for several reasons—it might be self-explanatory), is Casey’s mother.

Now, to start with, she met with President Bush. She came out calling him a good, decent, sincere man, but believes in what he does and says, even called him a man of faith.

Fast forward to summer 2005. The MoveOn.org loonies have gotten their hooks into her. MoveOn.org, which claims 3.3 million members and is the tail that wags the Democratic Party dog, adopted Sheehan during her Crawford demonstration, organizing 1,627 vigils around the country to express solidarity with her. But the DNC chair Howard ("I Hate the Republicans and Everything They Stand For") Dean, is not ripe for lessons in temperate rhetoric.

The result: Since her first meeting with the president, she has called him a "lying bastard," "filth spewer," "evil maniac," "fuehrer," the world's "biggest terrorist" who is committing "blatant genocide" and "waging a nuclear war" in Iraq. And, of course, saying other things that can be found in Fahrenheit 9/11 (but this link is cheaper)

And, oh, yes, she wants ANOTHER meeting with the President.

That would be an interesting conversation.

Now, as Ann Coulter noted in her article, “Call me old-fashioned, but a grief-stricken war mother shouldn't have her own full-time PR flack. After your third profile on ‘Entertainment Tonight,’ you're no longer a grieving mom; you're a C-list celebrity trolling for a book deal or a reality show.”

Laurence Simon has an essay on why Cindy Sheehan should meet with the President.... trust me on this, read it through all the way.

UPDATE:

Jason at IR [link above] has noted to me something interesting. Two people like Sheehan-- Daisy Duke and AL Sharpton. Yes, Dyke, (I mean Duke, total misprint, honest) the KKK fellow, and Al Sharpton, the black lawyer. What do they have in common with each other, AND Ms. Sheehan?

All three of them blame the same evil that's running America into the ground, controlling the country, out to take over the world's oil.

No, not Haliburton.

As IMAO would put it, it's the evil Zionist joooooooss.

Gimme a break. Can't this people dig up an original idea in their life?

Then again, these are the same people who started this century hating Haliburton, and have declared a small war on Wal-Mart because it's big business.

God save us.

BTW, Jason at IR has a cool article out on Israel. One of a five-part series [so far]. Check it out... now.

A book Review Fiesta.
Ann Coulter's Slander: Lies Liberals Tell about the American Right.
Daniel Flynn's Why the Left Hates America
Peter David's Knight life.
Robertson Davies Fifth Business and High Spirits
Joseph Michael Straczynski's Tribulations
Joseph Pearce's Literary Converts


SEX, LIES AND POLITICS
Ann Coulter's Slander

Now that we are approaching the silly season of elections, let get down and dirty with the shortest political book you might ever see, and possibly the funniest and most honest: Ann Coulter’s Slander. Despite being on The New York Times bestseller list, it has none of the pretentiousness. Coulter writes in clear, plain English, with biting humor and enough footnotes to prove all of her points. The point of the book is explained quite clearly in the subtitle: Lies Liberals Tell about the American Right.

For example: perhaps you’ve heard of the conservative-controlled media; aside from Katie Couric, the media seems to be filled with Democratic Presidential campaign workers, from Dave Matthew of Hardball to Larry King. I won’t cite all of her examples, if only because I don’t have the room; however, there is the simple case of James Carville filling in for Larry King on CNN one time (as though a Democratic attack dog is more objective than anyone else on the planet). Coulter goes on to outline all of the malicious little details reporters don’t let you hear (Al Gore saying “Who are those guys?” when pointing to statues of Washington and Jefferson).

Overall, it’s a fun little book. It’s also slightly frightening when you look at the quantity of the lies Democrats have been telling for about seventeen years (e.g.: there were more articles about Alzheimer’s disease in Reagan’s reelection year than in any year before or since, shadowboxing the “Religious Right”). Coulter almost literally compares IQ points of Democrats and the Republicans that they call stupid, contrasting people point to point. She also goes over the frightening aspect of the mafia-esque political “protection” within Washington; moderate Republican Robert Packwood’s sexual assaults were ignored by NOW (founded by Leftist Betty Friedan) until he was no longer usefully supporting legislation they wanted (like abortion laws).

Again, it’s a good, solid book that anyone can read, from registered Democrats to people who haven’t voted in years. While it is as politicized as a bad episode of Crossfire, Coulter seems interested in one thing above all else: the truth. She distinguishes between the upper class and high-end Liberal elitists and the casual, everyday folk like you (I assume that you, unlike Norman Mailer, don’t go around freeing murderers from prison only for them to kill harmless waiters; and you’re not like Barbara Streisand and Steven Spielberg, trying to fence off a public beach so you can have it all to yourself), although there are times when she feels her audience has everything in common (I’m still at a loss trying to figure out why she believes her audience watches NASCAR races).

As I said, it’s a short book; easy to read, footnoted beyond reproach, and detailed enough to let you keep track of the incidents cited without needing to watch the news (if you’re like me, you find it too depressing).

Election Day is the time of year where you can fool all of the people some of the time, and that’s usually enough to get elected. All Fool’s Day this year is November 8th, so be sure to vote, if only so you have the right to com


A LITTLE KNIGHT READING
Peter David's Knight Life

The perfect politician: honest, trustworthy, hates pre-written speeches, speaks his mind; has combat experience, but fights only as a last resort; kind, courteous, the perfect gentleman. He minces no words, and you know what he’s thinking at all times. To what lengths does one go to get this person?

How about over a thousand years in the past?

Enter Mr. Arthur Penn, who fits the above description perfectly. Penn is short for Pendragon. After a thousand years of rest, King Arthur has come out of retirement. But what is a Once and Future King to do after being reduced from a great historical figure to a mere legend? The Euro-trash of the British Royal Family wouldn’t have him (too honorable), and any declaration of his identity would buy him a free room in a psychiatric ward.

Simple answer: become President of the United States. However, before doing that, building a political history would be a good start, so King Arthur, heir to the throne of the Britons, etc, etc, will settle for being Mayor of New York City.

With his trusty political aide, Merlin, at his side, King Arthur bravely heads out into the political landscape, with Excalibur on his hip, and an interesting collection of political staffers backing him up: including his accountant Percival (or Parsifal, depending on his mood) and his personal aide, Ms. Gwen DeVere Queen. Along the way, Arthur must deal with his sister Morgan le Fey, and his bastard son Modred (a political consultant for the Democratic ticket), in fights that range from a mystical shootout in Hell on Earth (Verona, New Jersey), to a swordfight in the Cloisters.

For some, this may sound like a bad LSD binge, or—for those familiar with his work—Knight Life, the creation of Peter David, New York Times best selling author of some of the most demented novels ever written. During the presentation of King Arthur’s political campaign, David present some interesting solutions to: the lack of voter turnout of young citizens 18-24 (simply tell them not to vote, guaranteeing that they will), gun control (“I prefer a light broadsword myself”) and science (“Scientists believe in nothing, while magicians believe in everything, which is why magicians get so much more done”).

Knight Life is a light, funny novel, part fantasy, part political satire (assuming you don’t consider politics fantasy) and, quite simply, a fun read. All in all, it took me under six hours to read in one sitting. The humor is witty, with just the right amount of truth to it, making it even funnier. Peter David manages to encapsulate the magnificent detail of New York City down to the pond scum in Central park (well, maybe not THAT detailed), as well as integrate King Arthur in such a way as to make it believable that—should he show up one day—this is exactly what would happen.

So, before you head out to the polls next month, crack open Knight Life for a candidate that’s truly medieval, and then try voting for one that isn’t TOO modern. After all, as Robertson Davies once said, “Nothing grows so old-fashioned so fast as modernity, you know.”


WHY DOES THE LEFT HATE AMERICA?
Why the Left Hates America.

When India was first colonized by the British, the locals had a custom of throwing a widow on the husband’s funeral pyre. When Brahmins complained about plans to end the practice, they said those plans violated custom. Sir Charles Napier replied, “My nation also has a custom. When men burn women alive, we hang them. Let us all act according to custom.”
Under Leftist theories of multiculturalism and relativism, Napier was the bad guy; he neither “respected” a culture that set women ablaze, nor treated them as moral equals.
In Why the Left Hates America, Daniel Flynn examines the world of the Left, it’s lies, and the myths it has promulgated, and why we have academics burning flags in front of their sixth grade classrooms, banning students from lectures on campus that disagree with their views, among other horrendous incidents. Unlike other “conservative” books, like Slander, he has no interest in Democrats— the Democratic Party merely leans to the left end of the spectrum. A "Leftist" is Stalin, Noam Chomsky, or Gore Vidal. These are the people who said that we had 9-11 coming to us because we're a "sexist, racist, biased" country, the source of all the world's ills, and praised Osama bin Laden. These are the flag burners at Berekley and the anti-Americans in academia who seem to think that anything is good as long as America looks bad.
Flynn manages to construct an entire ideological history of the Left, from its past overseas to where it landed in established America today. His entire book is well constructed, and filled with factoids rarely heard of: the horrors committed against free speech in the People’s Republic of Berkeley; how Leftist works are praised, even though they’ve been proven lies (like I, Rigoberta Menchu); how “diversity supersedes factual correctness,” turning diversity into one coloring of political opinion; how the American “internment camps” were so popular, the Japanese American Citizens Council wanted them kept open after World War II was over; how the slaughters of other cultures have been deleted from history textbooks, while George Washington has been all but removed from the education plain; that the Unabomber was offered a book deal for being a good eco-terrorist; how former Leftist terrorists from the “Weathermen” hold tenured faculty appointments, and how cop killers make so much money giving lectures.
Flynn has managed to construct an amazing book, with a masterful summary of every lie told about the United States, and how to disprove them with overwhelming evidence, and over forty pages of footnotes. He explodes the myth that the United States is the world’s biggest environmental threat, since NONE of the world’s most polluted cities are in the United States (LA doesn’t even make the cut), and reforesting programs have given the US more trees than there were fifty years ago. He gives the basic facts behind Charles Drew’s death, rids any notion of an “Imperialist” America, and answers John “Taliban” Walker’s question, “What is America good for?”
All in all, it’s a great book, with true stories that make Steven King look like pleasant bedtime reading.



FIFTH BUSINESS, FIRST CLASS

No bombs. No serial killers. No well-earned derogatory comments about the political Left. Any constant reader who is looking for these and other staples of my book reviews, please try your luck again next time. What do I have to offer you? Saints, fools, professors, idiots, evils, magicians, sorcerers, two world wars, and a universe of wonders right next door.

Welcome to the world of Fifth Business, a novel that earns the title of novel. It is not any specific genre, but it encaptures all genres. It is the start of Robertson Davies epic Deptford Trilogy, which traces the path of three men and a snowball, as strange as this might seem. Fifth Business is told from the perspective of Dr. Dunstan Ramsay, professor of history, chaser of saints, and keeper of a secret powerful enough to destroy a local Bill Gates.

The story begins with a snowball thrown at a young Ramsay by the local rich kid. From there, the novel unfolds into an entire life story, following the path of Ramsay’s life from the Canadian backwater of Deptford to the French battlefield of Paschendale, and into a world of wonders our modern age has tried to deny. It is a deceptively easy read, full of detail and subtle humor. Each character is shaped and molded with the craftsmanship and effort of a master writer with a mind twisted ever so slightly from one side of dementia.

Robertson Davies manages to capture the lost idea that the wondrous is just another aspect of reality; he manages to portray this with detail marvelous to behold, resulting in a timeless work of art that reveals the joy and awe within the world in which we live. Davies portrays reality, with all its darkness and light, in a successful counter to an antiseptic age that tries to banish the fear, the awe, and the splendor of simple wonder along with God, myth, and magic. It is not fantasy, but it is fantastic. It captures religion, business, teaching, mythology, economics, warfare, saints, Gods, and monsters, all without leaving Canada (which I suppose could be considered a fictional realm, depending on your point of view).

Of the Deptford Trilogy, which is considered Davies’s best work, Fifth Business is the best. The next two— The Manticore and World of Wonders—are also not bad. If you enjoy Fifth Business, finish the story with the next two; for Fifth Business is only the beginning of the story, ending with a mystery that takes two more books to complete.

A SPIRITED END TO THE SUMMER

Summer reading has usually been defined as books so light that one can drop them in the water and watch them float. this might be something to consider: High Spirits, written by Robertson Davies, author of Fifth Business and The Deptford Trilogy. The book is light enough in content and plotting to float on water, and funny enough to put in a final exam recovery kit. It’s a book of short stories assembled from Davies’s time at Massey College, in the University of Toronto, where he served eighteen years as Master (a Canadian title for Dean). Being a twisted fellow, Davies wrote these ghost stories to be told at the College Christmas party each year.

Yes, you read it correctly: ghost stories for Christmas, an odd idea, and each story is just as odd and as demented as the author. One story has Davies encountering the University ghost, “of which it is justifiably proud;” a ghost that vanished by degrees—a Bachelors, Masters, and a Ph.D—and a table inhabited by a Presbyterian ghost of irritable character. There is also Frankenstein’s cat, the man who discovered immortality through vinegar, the tenor turned into a frog (a story for anyone in a chorus, to be sure), and a story that stands as a warning to all English majors, “Dickens Digested.” Cameos also include the ghost of Queen Victoria and George IV, the three kings (King George the fifth, the sixth, and Prime Minister King), Ibsen, Einstein, a nasty, mercurial little demon, and the Devil himself as he tries to go home for Christmas.

The funniest story in the book (and I write this with the full awareness that some may simply grab the book off a shelf, read through the story, put it on the shelf without buying it or reading anything else) is called “Refuge of Insulted Saints,” in which appears all the saints reduced to simple legendary status by Vatican II. In order to avoid Limbo, all two hundred of them arrive at Massey College, complete with their attributes: dragons, cannons, St. Ursula’s 11,000 virgins (“simply personal staff”). “You need us,” says St. George of Cappadocia, patron saint of England, “to balance the extreme, stringent modernity of your thinking; nothing grows so old-fashioned so fast as modernity, you know.”

Along the way, Davies manages to capture the proper sense of the absurd in everyday college life, and any educational major (and professor) can identify with the comments on academia. He has an equally appropriate sense of how bizarre it looks after the first few dozen hauntings, making fun of his own premise as he goes. The range of topics Davies touches upon is so wide and so varied, it encompasses education, religion, history, literature, and murder. It’s something for everyone, and as funny as Robin Williams off his medication (including the interesting suggestion of placing St. Christopher in the parking lot, allowing everyone to find a place—something that, as every student knows, requires a miracle).



TROUBLES AND TRIBULATIONS

Reporter Susan Randall is going through the worst time of her life, as is LA. It begins with a typical ride-along with a local patrol car, usually a serene, boring assignment; and it is, until she gets shot.

It gets worse: a serial killer is having a fun time in Los Angles, slicing through the homeless population. Each victim is mutilated in a less-than-typical fashion: their hands are sliced in such a way that they riffle like a deck of cards when touched. Susan wants the case, and gets it and everything that comes with it.

“Everything” includes not only the killer sending her e-mails, but a man named Raymond Weil, who keeps showing up: first at the crime scenes, then at the funerals for the victims. Despite his claims of demonic involvement in the murders, Raymond knows more than the police do about the serial killer and makes for a great lead for the story.

That is, until Susan suspects he knows too much.

As the search for the killer proceeds, Susan becomes intrigued by Weil’s life and his continued persistence in relating the demonic to a serial killer. Before too long, she discovers an unnerving secret that causes her to suspect that Raymond shouldn’t know some of the things he knows, especially as the City of Angels slowly becomes more like a city of Hell.

Those of you who are interested in the realm of Science Fiction know the name of Joseph Michael Straczynski, creator of the television series Babylon 5, and writer of over one hundred episodes of miscellaneous TV programs. Straczynski’s style is often marked by creative wit and a keen observation of society at large. Tribulations is no exception. Throughout the novel, he uses his years of experience in Los Angeles with his graceful wit and driving narrative that forces the reader to push on. Despite his claims of atheism, one would hardly suspect it with his knowledge of past demonic incidents—both in theological and pure historical terms.

There is one mistake you should not make before you continue reading: that this is a spiritual novel. Whether you are Freud, the next generation, an atheist theology major, or a Catholic priest, you can enjoy this book. One might say Straczynski is part Walker Percy and part Jeffery Deaver: humorous, thrilling, and just dark enough to qualify as literature by a college English department. Straczynski uses his considerable talents to merge psychology, sociology, and theology into a story that unites profiles of serial killers, the sociology of a riot, and a profile of evil. Truly something for everyone.



And Not To Yield: Literary Converts

After September 11th, saw a vibrant return to patriotic roots; mass rallies of flag-wavers and candle-lighters. There was a return to religious roots: scenes of people at prayer were popular on news reports. For Catholics, Joseph Pearce’s Literary Converts is a timely read that recalls the last 100 years of conversions to Rome by British writers, poets, and playwrights. Maybe you can sympathize with those living in an earlier age when your religion was looked down on. Not only by people who don’t share it, but also by those who believe all religion superstition, completely psychological. Those secularists have been with us since pre-1900, and will continue into this century.

Imagine you are dying. All your life you’ve held admiration for a religion your peers do not particularly like, and you’ve almost converted once or twice. You’ve spent time in jail for illegal homosexual acts, and spent your days writing witty tales and satire. At the end of your days, you’re dying from syphilis. Your friend brings a Catholic priest, and your pain is so deep you have to imply you wish to convert because you can barely speak. He blesses you as per your wishes. The next day, you pass on, fulfilling one of your own quotes, “Catholicism is the only religion to die in.”

So wrote Oscar Wilde.

The opening chapters of Literary Converts begin at the dawn of the 20th century with the death of Oscar Wilde and his opponent, the Marquis of Queensbury, both converts to Rome. The subsequent chapters all cover the lives of Hillare Belloc, Maurice Baring, GK Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Muriel Spark, and Sigfried Sassoon, even touching upon the life of CS Lewis, who was an ‘Anglo-Catholic,’ (In U.S. read Episcopalian, the ruling class religion of many Presidents).

Each chapter follows the conversion and the religious life each man and woman led, and the odds they stood against: Ronald Knox and Hugh Benson converted from the Anglican Church, even though their fathers had both been Anglican Bishops; GK Chesterton, who had defended Catholicism for 20 years without converting, but had to “Pope” without his dear wife (who followed him into the faith soon after); Arnold Lunn, an Atheist who learned about a religion to attack it, and who was himself eventually conquered by it; or Graham Greene, who became possibly the oddest Catholic to ever live. Each life is briefly told from the beginning to the end of their days.

The narrative style of Literary Converts is a continuous flow that mysteriously breaks down near the end. Despite its last chapter problems, Pearce manages to write at least a dozen biographies with an easy grace—and plenty of humor— that glides through decades. The sources are well catalogued, and the events are interesting enough to hold the attention firmly.

For example, history books say that the Fascist Franco won the Spanish Civil War, but hardly ever acknowledge the brutal Communist murder of Spanish priests, the rape-murder of nuns and the wholesale martyrdom of the faithful by the LEFT side of the political spectrum. While still hating Nazism, I now understand why Franco’s people called themselves Loyalists: loyal to king, country, and Church—and why they never gave help to Hitler in World War II-- they had only thrown off one tyrant to a new paganism, they refused to have another.

If I were to answer what is Literary Converts about, I would have to say it is a book about faith. It is a book about those who don’t give up hope in the face of oppressive odds and the gods of science and subjectivism. It is about a secular age declaring war on God, and God winning. It’s about facing a world that kills dreams and then lies when it says “you’re the only one left who believes that!”

Some Things Never Change, Do they?

(The following can be footnoted in David Dalin’s “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope,” Ralph McInerny’s “The Defamation of Pius XII,” or Roy Schoeman’s “Salvation is from the Jews”)

Ann Coulter noted recently “the intriguing diary entries of British jihadist Zeeshan Siddique,” on April 10th of this year. “Siddique was captured last April in Pakistan by that country's security forces. His diary is a sort of Plan-a-Jihad journal,” which included his commentary on the Pope’s death,— "Allah will throw him in hell." This is, of course, after Islamists tried to kill John Paul II (a plot with pointman Ramzi Yousef, and back by a certain Osama bin Laden). Question: what did the Pope ever do to these people?

The answer lies with the main problems with the Middle East.

And believe it or not, the problems with the Middle East started a while ago. You may not believe that if you’re part of the left crowd, but it’s true. Whatever do I mean by that? Do I mean, as Bernard Lewis does in his “What Went Wrong?” that the Middle East never grew out of the Ottoman Empire mentality that they rule the world? That’s certainly part of it, and I wouldn’t even presume to question the scholarship of a man like Lewis (do not, however, get me started on his adversary, Edward Said, may he burn in eternal flames for saying that the US deserved 9/11).

It is, in fact, far worse than anyone supposes. The trouble with the Middle East, in part, can be traced to the Nazis. No, I am not being allegorical, but literal.

You may have heard of the myth of Hitler’s Pope (Which happens to be a very nice book by Rabbi David Dalin, btw), that Eugenio Pacelli, aka Pius XII, worked with, for, or around Hitler in support of the final solution of the Holocaust. Daily readers (all four of them) know my opinion on that subject, and will hear about it even more in the weeks to come. This, of course, is a myth started by former Nazi Rolf Hoccuth, and perpetuated by liars tramps and thieves like John Cornwell, James Carroll, Gary Wills, Susan Zuccolti, Evan Katz (who was sentenced to jail for his lies), and an ever growing list of liberals who’d like to see the Catholic Church swing from the nearest tree (that’s crucifixion, not hanging).

What you never hear about is what Rabbi Dalin labels Hitler’s Mufti. To be more precise, he is properly called the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. Al-Husseini was installed by the English, who are themselves not known for being very pro-Semetic. Remember, in the 1920s, as a prize of World War I, Palestine was a mandate of Britain—they ran it and everything in it. Hajj al-Husseini was the recognized leader of the Palestinians, and in April 1920 led a rampage against local Jews, wounding 211, and killing five. The British convicted him, but ignored the whole incident and made him Grand Mufti two years later.

Al-Husseini called for an anti-Jewish jihad in Palestine during the 1930s, saying “Murder the Jews! Murder them all!,” starting riots in 1929 and 1936-1939. He would later move his rhetorical style to Berlin radio, stating in one “Kill the Jews—Kill them with your hands, kill them with your teeth! This is well pleasing to Allah!” (reminiscent of Eduardo Chianelli’s exhortation in the film “Gunga Din”: “Kill for the Love of Kali! Kill for the love of killing! KILL! KILL! KILL!”)

Al-Husseini’s connection with Hitler begins in 1937, when he sent emissaries to Berlin, first lending support, then suggesting collaboration. In this he was a little slow. When the German anti-Jewish laws went into effect in 1934, the Islamic world sent them congratulations. Husseini would become friends with Adolf Eichmann (the banal evil that engineered the Holocaust logistically), and pushed for the extermination of Jews as soon as possible. It is not surprising that Eichmann was also sent to meet with the Irgun, one of the lead armed Zionist groups—the Nazis wanted Jews out of Germany, and Irgun was happy to catch them in Israel. However, al-Husseini had no problem with Jews coming to Palestine, as long as they would die. He was also sent to Iraq to do a pro-Nazi rally there, but was tossed out (more on Iraq later).

SS chief Heinrich Himmler took Husseini on tours of the death camps, and the mufti pushed for greater diligence in running the gas chambers. Eichmann’s deputy Dieter Wisliceny mentioned that the mufti “played a role in the decision to exterminate the European Jews.” At the Nuremburg trials, he stated that “the mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler… one of Eichmann’s best friends”

He also had a Muslim clerical school in Dresden, where Muslims could be trained in Nazism, and introduce it to the Middle East. In exchange for this service, Husseini went into Bosnia to recruit Muslims for the SS, who wore specially marked fezzes with the swastika on them. You can also see photos of Husseini in Bosnia inspecting the SS troops (see: Shoeman, 258. If you want to see more research on Muslim/Arab Nazis, hit the Yad vashem archives , or the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The Muslim SS Hanjar (“sword”) unit massacred about 90% of Bosnia’s Jews.

Husseini made it to Egypt after the war, hiding there until the day that bastard died in 1974.

So what? Why does Mufti al-Husseini matter today? What’s he to do with the Middle East?

Well, let’s start with the fact that the grand mufti imported Nazi experts to train young Palestinians in guerilla tactics—the start of a group we know as the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

During the Six Day War in 1967, Israeli’s found Egyptian prisoners carrying issues of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” Ironically, it had been translated into Arabic by a man known as el-Hadj…aka former Nazi propagandist Lius Heiden. Mein Kampf would be republished by Yassir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority in 2001 and was an instant bestseller throughout the Middle East—in 1999, it was sixth on the bestseller list in Palestine (and this is before the reprint). By the way, did I mention that “Schindler’s List” is banned?

And the legacy of al-Husseini lives on today, in the form of his nephew—Abd al-Rahman abd al-Bauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini. Yes, I know, if you blink you miss the key word—Arafat. Yes, THAT Arafat.

Then there’s the Grand Mufti’s grandson, Skeikh Ekrima Sabri, the CURRENT Mufti of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. He said “The figure of 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust is exaggerated…It was a lot less. It’s not my fault if Hitler hated the Jews. Anyway, they hate them just about everywhere.” Funny—Pope John Paul II never visited the Temple Mount, but he DID visit the Wailing Wall, which is right next door.

Anyway, remember how I mentioned that pro-Nazi rally that got Husseini tossed out of Iraq? One of those rally members was a man named Khayrallah Tulfah. After the war, he lived with his nephew, and in the main room of his house he had an idolized portrait of Hitler on the wall. This nephew would grow up to be one mean and nasty fellow—in fact, one of his mistresses noted that he would look himself in the mirror and state “I am Saddam Hussein. Heil Hilter!”

And let us not forget Gamal Nasser, who helped the Nazis in Egypt during the war, and who later led the Six Day War against Israel. He even adopted the slogan “One folk, One party, One leader.” Sigg Heil! His successor, Anwar Sadat, also had ties to the Reich. SS General Oskar Dirlewanger, who crushed the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, was Nasser’s personal bodyguard. Johannes von Leers, Goebbel’s main man, was put in charge of Egypt’s Ministry of Information in 1955. Gestapo man Hans Becher went on to become a police instructor in Egypt. Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Boerner, a guard at Mauthausen concentration camp trained members of the Palestine Liberation Front.

And let’s not forget that the Socialist nationalist party of Syria had a “Furher” and their banner donned the swastika as well.

So, the next time someone calls bin Laden and co “Islamofascists,” there’s a reason for it.

Unethical Starts With UN.
Or: "They Shoot Diplomats, Don't They?"

Kofi Annan decided to feed one of his own men to the dogs today.

Alexander Yakovlev pled guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and money-laundering charges as part of his time being involved in the food-for-oil program.

Now, as you may know, the stated purpose of food-for-oil was to create enough revenue for Saddam Hussein to feed his starving population.

We should’ve known something was up when 1.5 million people starved to death in Iraq during the Clinton years.

Or maybe we should’ve known when he stated building very large palaces, or when he started paying Palestinians to blow up family members in Tel Aviv.

The mechanics of this are not entirely know to me, but they involve oil vouchers—basically, here’s the oil in exchange for, well, whatever the purpose is. The INTENDED purpose was for, obviously, food. However, it went a little bit deeper than that. How much deeper, you ask?

Well, let’s see…

Saddam promised the French their very own oil field after the oil embargo was lifted…

Gave millions of dollars to George Galloway, Tony Blair’s arch-enemy in government…

Gave money to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Communist party…

And a bunch of other people. You can see much of the list thanks to the people of MEMRI, a Middle East think tank, believe it or not.

Anyway, as I was saying, to begin with, Alexander Yakovlev was busted. And pled guilty.

Of course, the question becomes “now what?”

Look at it this way: Kofi Anon’s son, Kojo, is running the oil-for-food program, and Kofi just fed one of his own guys to the hounds by waving Mr. Yakovlev’s diplomatic immunity.

If this were Chicago, Yakovlev would have been found in a trunk. However, Kofi doesn’t have the brains of an Al Capone—and Capone was just a glorified thug. The Independent Inquiry Committee, headed by Paul Volcker, which is looking at massive corruption in the program, found something interesting.

Yakovlev had been wired $950,000 in bribes, sent to an offshore account in Antigua, since 2000. Those bribes, which were not connected to the oil-for-food program, came from companies that had won $79 million in U.N. contracts.

Now the cops are on to Yakovlev’s trail, and Kofi cut off the loose end.

However, there is a problem for Kofi. Yakovlev faces 20 years in jail, and a quarter of a million dollars in fines.

Oh, yeah, and investigators are taking another look at a 1998 oil contract awarded under Yakovlev's watch to Cotecna — a company Kojo worked for. Funny, ain’t it?

Now Yakovlev is kaput, the former food-for-oil man Benon Sevan resigned from the UN on this past Sunday after taking $147,000 in kickbacks. Sevan’s still got his immunity, but I wouldn’t bet on that lasting for long. Were I him, I’d pack my bags and get out of town.

Then again, were I Kofi and Kojo, I’d be running too. Remember, Yakovlev has already plead guilty—and I haven’t seen anything on his deal. Who knows how much we’re not being told.

My bet is that Yakovlev is singing very long and very loudly. Kofi should’ve just given Yakovlev warning that the feds were onto him, and to get out of town, back to Russia, and safe from prosecution. Now Yakovlev has had the bracelets clapped on him, and Sevan will either be next, or he’ll be persona non grata and kicked out of the country.

Kofi probably isn’t worried that he’ll be next. That would require an IQ. Kofi, however, is probably betting that his job as Secretary General will expire (next year, by the way) before anyone catches up to him. If he’s right, I’d empty out my off shore accounts to Switzerland, and run.

Then again, given the spacing on all of this, the paperwork to pulling Yakovlev’s immunity was already in the works just before John Bolton was installed as UN ambassador.

Now, if I’m wrong, and Bolton was appointed just before the immunity was waived, I’d suspect that the arrival of Darth Bolton precipitated Yakovlev being handed over to serve as a red herring, something to buy Kofi some time before the law came to get him.

If I’m right, and Yakovlev was handed over before Bolton, Kofi is probably starting to sweat profusely.

As he should.

But for now, cue up the theme for Jaws. The hunt is on, the game’s afoot, and a leg, and whatever other body pats will be found in the woodchipper when they’re done.


-------------
IN OTHER NEWS.

After liberal radio channel Air America cut off and knocked off several minority, ethnic, and other local channels off the air in its pursuit of getting on air, it has also literally ripped food from the mouths of children. Literally, taken money from a charity that feeds kids.

It gets better.

Al Franken is complaining that he's not getting paid.

And? There are kids who aren't getting fed.

Check out the wonderfully talented and beautiful Michelle Malkin for complete details on this buffoonery. And yes, I can comliment her as much as I like, she doesn't read this blog anyway.

And IMAO has a comment on Airhead America as well.

Speaking of libs stealing money, Ms. Malkin also has a nice little story about how New Jersey is ripping off anti-terrorism funds to give to their friends and contributors. Tamany Hall, anyone?

And now for something cute and adorable... the top of the reading list for terrorists at GITMO? Harry Potter.


UPDATE (August 23)

Benon Sevan has taken my advice, and run away as fast as an far as he could, all the way to Cyprus-- supposedly for his aunt's funeral, but he also took the liberty to change his address to Cyprus as well. Convenient. Not only had he been accused of taking bribes from Saddam, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is STILL pursuing criminal charges now that he's on another continent.

Bon Voyage fool.

And now, for a brief overview of things that have been in the news and have made me quite, quite annoyed.

GITMO


According to the LA times, there are over 600 people at Gitmo, and "dozens" may not be even related to terrorism.... But they can't be sure because they don't release the prisoner roster... if they don't have the prisoner roster, how can they be sure about it?

Answer, the law of averages.

The more I hear about Gitmo, the more I think it's a piss poor excuse for a Gulag. Did you see that list about the Koran "abuses"? 100 instances of "abuse," and some of them....

Did you hear about the one idiot who urinated near an air vent? The air vent exploded and hit the Koran; this is an abuse according to the Pentagon? It almost makes me think that they made some of them up. Sigh. Then again, the British army in the Napoleonic wars would hang a soldier for stealing a piece of rope, so the Pentagon comes by this tight-ass approach honestly.

But honestly, a Gulag? Amnesty Internationale may have just been exaggerating, "like with the Axis of Evil," but it helps that Saddam, Kim Jung Il, and the leading nuts of Iran are, well, um, evil? (Ok, in Kim's case, he's prolly just nuts, but anyway). Even the AI people reversed themselves on the Gulag pronouncement.

If the US army were running something that's even close to a Gulag, we wouldn't be releasing prisoners, we'd put two in the back of their heads, toss them into the Caribbean, and let the sharks dispose of them. Instead, we catch most of them in Iraq or Afghanistan, most while shooting at US troops, we bring them to Gitmo, then release them, and we find them face down in the sand after they--once again-- shoot at US soldiers.

I'm sorry, AI wants to compare Gitmo to the worst genocidal policies of the 20th century (worse because they lasted longer than the concentration camps and went into the hundreds of millions dead) and condemn US actions in Iraq, and when was the last time they said anything about the Sudan?

They made a lot of noise about the Sudan in the mid-1980s.... a lot of noise being that they mentioned it. Now where the hell are they? 2.5 million people have died in the Sudan over 25 years, some of them crucified, hacked to death, bombed or landmined, so you can probably round that figure up.

Can you see why I find GITMO food poisoning, sleep deprivation, and fake menstrual blood to be petty-ante garbage.... at least Gitmo prisoners can walk out on their own two feet, because we DIDN'T CUT THEIR FEET OFF. Food poisoning, sleep deprivation, fake menstrual blood vs. hacking off limbs, crucifixion, hacked to pieces by machetes..... and AI DARES to compare the two? THEY DARE TO CALL THE US THE WORSE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS ON THE PLANET!!!! WHAT ARE THEY SMOKING DAMNIT).

Over two million people died in Iraq during Clinton's years in office alone, and AI was doing nothing, and the French were trying to break the embargos on Saddam (then again, they were promised an oil field or five all to themselves).


AFRICA

And now for the biggest piece of racism I've seen in years: the LIVE8 concert. I know, how can those idiots be of any harm.... let's see, when the premise is that dictators run Africa into the ground, and steal all of their foreign aid money, the solution is..... WE ROCK STARS HAVEN'T WHINED AT THE WEST ENOUGH ABOUT IT!!!

So, why AREN'T we doing anything in Sudan?

If "our interests" are natural resources, then Africa should be our first priority. And if we wanted quick, cheap and dirty oil, we invade South America.

But, why not bother with Africa? Well, where do I start?

So, you want to invade the Sudan for purely humanitarian purposes?

Wonderful, so are we, America going to invade it? Not a problem, we have a million man army, we're not even using 10% of it yet, so we can do that.

Oh no, wait, we can't go in on our own-- God knows we went into Iraq with almost all of NATO and were still yelled at (we didn't have Germany France or Holland, thus we're unilateral, go figure).

So, maybe we'll go to the UN. Granted, their troops have been raping and pillaging the towns they occupied since 1995 in Somalia, Kosovo, Congo, but we can use them for a few days and then kick their asses out of town afterwards when the fighting's through... or the US troops keep a close eye on them.

So, time to get the invasion force together, and we can of course put together a resolution on Human Rights violations by running it through the Human Rights Commission in the UN, right?

Oh, wait, THE SUDAN'S ON THE HRC, well, that's out. No matter, certainly the security council will help us.... wait, the People's Republic of China is making deals with the warlords because the Sudan has nuclear materials, the Russians are arming them, the French are selling them land mines.....

So we call upon our friends in the NATO alliance.... then again, Spain's a communist government in disarray and hates us, Berlusconi will give ransom money to whoever kidnaps an Italian puppy, France Germany, Holland, we won't go into, and the only militaries in all of Europe that have systems compatible with ours are the British, and Special Forces units....

Well, that doesn't matter, we can use them for border security, because God knows there is not a single country in Africa that has a secure border. We have a more secure border with Canada than any of them do.

Actually, how DOES one secure the borders in a country were everyone's busy blowing everyone else up. At least in Iraq, we're fighting one enemy-- first Saddam, then the leftovers (most of these losers are former Bathist party, and over a third of the suicide bombers sent out by Zarqawi are Saudi). But the Sudan is a mess of people...

Anyway, so we're "alone" in the Sudan, with our unilateralist agenda to try to get these idiots to stop killing each other. There were protesters in the street on 9-12 protesting an imperialist war for oil in Afghanistan (ps: Michael Moore's Afghan oil pipeline was only "connected" to the Bushes via the Carlyle group, but problem-- the elder Bush wasn't on the board until after the deal went south... but Moveon.org's man George Soros was on the board, and he backs Michael Moore. fascinating, ain't it?). What do you think these useful idiots are going to do after we invade the Sudan? Now we're not only imperialist, we're RACIST by implying that they can't get along by themselves. Multiple street protestations, another Michael Moore movie implying that everything was fine in the Sudan before we showed up, and that's just on the domestic end. Just wait until the press gets to the Sudan to find that we're going to actually have to kill... gasp... a few black people, because they have a Lord's Liberation army running down into Uganda every once in a while to enslave children for sex slaves. And, of course, since a republican president will have to do all of this (you don't want to see what Democrats do to military budgets), it'll all be for "big business," because only democrats can do humanitarian military actions.

Oh, and by the way, more's been happening in the Sudan than just in this little place called Darfur. "What?" you ask? Let's see.

Since the 1980s, the Arab, Islamic Sudanese of the North have been killing or enslaving any of the Black African Christians they can get—they’ve harassed Uganda by supporting the Protestant Lord’s Resistance Army, not to mention the Sudanese shifta murder gangs and pirates.

Sudanese law was rewritten in 1983 to reflect the Islamist policies favored by later guests of the state—including one Osama bin Laden. Under this Islamic law—sharia—imprisonment for theft was replaced by amputation of the hand, sentences for armed crimes became death, amputation, or life imprisonment, alcohol and gambling were outlawed, and adultery became a crime punishable by stoning or lashing.

What happens? What do the great and powerful United Nations do? They put Sudan onto the Human Rights Commission! Ha!”

If that weren't enough, that’s not the only issue. The Sudanese have old Antonov bombers from the Soviet Union, and their bombing runs target Churches; in fact, the government has chosen Sunday as the best day to bomb, because the churches are full. Some churches are bombed almost every Sunday. On Easter Monday of 2001, when an Archbishop was about to leave by plane, the government bombed the airfield; they barely missed the crowd watching him leave, and nearly destroyed his plane; this came shortly after an invasion of the Anglican cathedral in Khartoum—the capital—during Holy Week by government troops with tear gas and high-explosive grenades. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury of the Anglican Church, Dr. George Carey, described the policy towards Christians as a policy of ‘torture, rape, destruction of property, slavery and death, and forcible conversion.’”

Oh, yes, did I forget the conversions? When children are kidnapped—as they are all the time, even from Uganda—they are either sold to merchants as slaves or indoctrination with Arab-Muslim culture in Koranic schools for six or seven years. The children of refugees are the most exposed to abuses and violations, most of them belong to ethnic, racial and religious minorities—the UN knew this years ago, and still put them on the Human Rights Commission.

When the children are targeted for conversion and indoctrination instead of slavery, their heads are shaved, their names are changed to Arabic, and they are forced to pray five times a day starting at 4 a.m., and given military training so they can be martyrs for the cause. Any caught escapees are made to crawl naked across the ground until bloody, and then lashed.

It’s genocide, but who cares?

The Cold War ended in 1991, and the first Bush didn’t know what to do with the world until Saddam Hussein became an obvious threat. There were eight years of Clinton. The second Bush has to deal with international terrorism, and this is strictly local.

It’s also blacks versus Muslims, so which minority group does the American politician wish to offend? Aid the Sudanese murder gangs and promote genocide, or aid the Christians and risk offending vast amounts of future terrorists in Saudi Arabia, as well as a few Democrats, who seem to think that anything that gives aid to Christians seems to indicate support of one religion over another, and labeling it a problem of Church and state.

No one can profit. The UN only went along with Clinton because they believed the Balkan dispute was about to spread; they went against Iraq in 1991 because of Saddam’s threat to their oil reserves. The Sudan...no one wants to be bothered with a large potential mess over the long run. It’s not worth it.

Pope John Paul II was able to get the support of the United States and Ronald Reagan in Poland because it was a part of the larger Cold War. Sudan is merely one in what has been over a hundred petty little wars on what amounts to a petty little continent -- even Africans complain about all the intelligentsia leaving town-- unless you count the resource rich countries: Ghana has oil, South Africa has just about everything, and then there’s the blood diamonds of Angola.

The short version, it's a mess, but sorry, the US does have other problems to solve, and no one else cares. Give us ten years to clear up the middle east, then the People's Republic of China, then I wouldn't want to be the Sudanese dictators...

But oh, yeah, by then, the population will be wiped out by AIDS.

Hmm, plan B, John Bolton cracks heads in at the UN, and the United Nations works WITH us to clean up that hellhole.

Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but one can hope.

UPDATE:

As Jason of IR , pointed out to me, Live8 discouraged the Useful Idiots of the rock world from opening their mouths. To quote him, "the main guys were actually pushing for the African nations to take responsibility for themselves first, and then the rest of the world would step in, and they stressed the musicians to SHUT THE HELL UP about their myriad leftist fantasies... even Bono praised Bush."

And as I noted, there's what was instructed, there's what was said, and there's the African version: Cameroon columnist Jean-Claude Shanda Tonme wrote something similar to what I did on July 15. "But the truth is that it was not for us, for Africa, that the musicians at Live 8 were singing; it was to amuse the crowds and to clear their own consciences, and whether they realized it or not, to reinforce dictatorships. They still believe us to be like children that they must save, as if we don't realize ourselves what the source of our problems is." I can't link to this one, but a Lexis-Nexis search should net you a translation of it in the NY Times, July 15th, 2005.

ANOTHER UPDATE: a hat tip or kowtow, or something to Jason once more for noting something I should have:

The media, the LAST time we were in Africa, ie; Somalia, went out of their way to show the bodies of our brave men and women being dragged through the streets. People know of it better as the Black Hawk Down incident. Even Clinton was pissed off at the media. He bowed to the pressure to pull out our troops only after CNN and his cabinet all but revolted on him. According to the wise and somewhat right-leaning Dick Morris, his first inclination was to give the military a blank check, and bomb the heck outta them. This was not done.

And now, a quote from the Gipper himself.

"The deficit doctors have their scalpels out all right, but they'renot poised over the budget. That's as fat as ever and getting fatter.What they're ready to operate on is your wallet." --Ronald Reagan


Wow, nothing changes, does it?


Other bits snatched at random from the News. Darth John Bolton, the new ambassador to the United Nations arrived at Turtle Bay only five hours after the president dispatched him, and he was greeted with carefully calibrated warmth. Remember, this is the man sent in to crack heads, take of names, and maybe ask a few questions to the corrupt food-for-oil smuggling representatives to third world coutnries (and in this case I mean France and Russia.)

Also remember that this man is put in in a recess appointment-- basically, that President Bush bypassed the senate to make a "temporary" appointment that will last for around a year and a half, by which time, Bush's second term will be half ove, and Bush can probably do it all over again for the SECOND half-- assuming Bolton wants to be bothered with the UN losers and EUnichs. Considering the level of burnout at high government levels (name me a Clintonista staffer who lasted more than one term-- he went through several FBI chiefs, and Janet Reno, the worst Attorney General in the history of the US, I think was the only one to make it in the long haul-- from Waco to Elian Gonzalez.... sounds like the title of a book... but I digress).

Now, the dems are saying that Mr. Bolton arrives in New York with 'built-in handicaps' and 'starts out as a lame duck' without 'the stature that comes
with Senate approval,' makes no sense. He's there for a year and a half, and probably more, if he wants the job. And I'm pretty sure that if the UN doesn't care what the President wants, says, does, the UN doesn't give a damn what Ted Kennedy or Chuck Schumer wants.

In an editorial, the Associated Press called the appointment 'brazen' and an 'in-your-face gesture to Congress and the global community.' While I think the latter is true (the nomination of Bolton was in their faces, considering his reputation), this is bull. However, W. only needed to overleap a tiny minority of senators, resigned to a permanent role as grumblers.

All there is for now. Enjoy.

I am not a news junkie....

So why should you care?

Simple: I"m not a news junkie, and I'm still more informed than half the people out in the world. This isn't an insult, but it is a statement of fact-- how can I be so well informed? I go to political comedy websites, and whadda you know? HALF OF THE FUNNY PARTS ARE THE REAL LIFE NEWS STORIES. Can you believe that?

Probably not. However, IMAO.us is an amazing little site that allows for such interesting things.

Then of course, I do hit certain select sites of news ANALYSIS, such as my friend Jason, of Imperial Requieum.

Another interesting source of information that you may find amusing is simple: my newly found contacts with the members of the New York City Young Republicans. Just listening to idle chatter around them is more enlightening than any five showings of the McLaughlin Group, NPR, or PBS news.

For example, there was a Frenchman there-- who's name I will not say-- and yes, I do mean a Frenchman as in he was born in France. However, he's here, now, running as fast and as far as he can from the morons back in France. He made several very interesting points.

1) Frenchman hate America... they hate America so much they're DESPARATE to come here for jobs because the country's dirt poor, and is becoming a third world country, sort of like Russia under the Tsars

2) The People with the most money in France... are Swiss bankers and Russian Mafia (the Mafiosky), both of whom want the nice quiet countryside in France, away from their native long winters. (In the case of the Mafioski, they probably want to get away from the reign of Tsar Vlad, Russian PM Putin, who, former KGB man that he is, is out to take full control of the country... and we're shocked WHY?)

3) The economy is so bad, that French women will... let's say that they will sell what morals they have.

4) Jacques Chirac has about $30 million in the bank... but his salary has never exceeded six digits in his entire life... where'd all that money come from? (*cough* food-for-oil *cough* *hack* *wheeze*)

Ah well, more later. Farewell and good night. And if you're good, I'll provide analysis on this tomorrow.

The Defamation of Pius XII


Do you like being lied to?

I thought not.

Next question: How much do you know about Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli?

If you, like me, have trouble keeping Popes apart, I’ll make it easier. He was the Pope during the later years of World War II. He’s been called Hitler’s Pope; branded as the man who let about twelve million people die in the holocaust.And it’s all a lie.

Ralph McInerny is a Ph.D in Philosophy at Notre Dame University, and creator of the Fr. Dowling Mysteries, so he can tell a story with ease—especially the true story of The Defamation of Pius XII. The entire book is crystal clear, footnoted beyond reproach, with his main question spelled out on page one: why are the lies about this pope so popular?

McInerny begins with a sketch of Pacelli’s life, emphasizing the years of the Third Reich. In less than two hundred pages McInerny covers the millions of Catholics killed in the concentration camps; the Catholic families sheltering Jewish refugees in their own homes; the false Baptismal certificates and Vatican passports forged by priests to protect Jews; three thousand Jewish men and women hidden within the papal Castle Gandalfo. Adolph Hitler himself called Pacelli an enemy of the Reich, “The Deputy of the Jew-God.”

This is called friendship?

When Pius XII’s immediate predecessor condemned Communism and Fascism, Pacelli held the pen as Vatican secretary of state. Is this silence? Pius XII “was responsible for rescuing 860,00 Jews from certain death,” so many that the Chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism and took the name Eugenio. This is an anti-Semitic monster?

Yes, the Vatican signed a treaty with Hitler, as did France, England and Russia; but the Vatican was the only one who from the first stated a dislike for the Reich and its policies--and Pacelli had been outspoken against the Nazis since he was an ambassador to Germany in the 1920s. The list of evidence goes on for a very long time.

However, the book isn’t about Pius XII and the Holocaust, but why he’s been defamed by thugs like John Carroll and Rolf Hochhuth (the first an ex-Priest, the latter a former member of the Hitler Youth). Eugenio Pacelli saved more Jews than anyone else, but he’s still maligned.

Why?

The answer is simple: Pope Pius XII stood for a principle called natural law, and by shooting at him, his enemies target it. Natural law is why Popes John Paul II and Benedict, and the Catholic Church stands against contraception, abortion (45 million dead and counting), and euthanasia; a stance that the modern Culture of Death finds inconvenient. To further the agenda, a whole generation has been brought up on slander.

Are you angry?

Good, you should be. Being lied to is just another way of being controlled.

If you’re angry because you believe McInerny to be wrong, read the book and argue with him yourself.

If you’re angry because you’ve been lied to, read the book—you haven’t even begun to realize the breadth and depth of the vilification campaign.

Remember one important lesson: it’s what they DON’T tell you that’s important.