Close Your Eyes and Pretend All's Okay Part 3

If you go to the comments of the previous entry you'll find several comments; all by some rascal named Anonymous. Upon closer inspection you'll see that one of the comments was apparently generated by a person who wants to direct the reader to his/her website dealing with miracle cancer cures or financial advise or some other "money-making opportunity." Ignore those. Your correspondent has nothing to do with that stuff.

On the other hand, there are a couple of comments posted by another Anonymous who actually comments on what yours has put forth. For the purpose of this blog, this Anonymous will be referred to as the Real Anonymous and it is his comments that part of this entry will address. The Real Anonymous is worthy of attention. The other guy is the Susan Powter of commenters -- a conman looking for the main chance.

To get to cases. It's unfortunate that Monsieur Anonymous chose Pamela Anderson and Grace Kelly as the Yank versions of Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve. Pamela Anderson was born and raised in Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada, and only arrived in the U.S. after her adulthood. Her only talent is the exhibiting of her surgically enhanced figure and her rather plain face. Her motion picture career has, up until now, rather limited, and her television career, in Los Angeles, has pretty much been limited to late night television. At the best Ms. Anderson could be called the better looking (but not by much) older and more shapely cousin of the Olsen Twins from the Great White North.

Grace Kelly, while from a Philadelphia Mainline family, abandoned the States to become a monarch of a Cote d'Azure gambling hell called Monaco. She traded in her Gadsen flag for a tiara. I think I need not say more. Maureen O'Hara, Irish born and bred and now living in Bermuda (or is it the Bahamas?) has shown more loyalty to the Great Republic than did Princess Grace.

If we are going to make analogies of French celebrities regarded as Marianne to American celebrities regarded as symbols of Liberty, the better choices would be Rhonda Fleming (Bardot) versus Jacqueline Smith (Deneuve). One is prettier than the other, but who would you rather have loading your shootin' iron while fighting off Indians, Redcoats, Rebels, or Yankees. Now that I think of it, I'd probably rather have Jane Russell by my side since she could kick Robert Mitchum's ass, and she was eminently huggable. By that's neither here nor there.

The point is that the symbol of Liberty or Marianne, from your correspondent's point of view, is that Liberty is something to be embraced, as is Marianne. Not something to be stood back from and admired. Take Delacroix's painting of Liberty Leading the People to Freedom. The painting shows Liberty (the model for Marianne) in liberty cap and carrying the tricolor storming the ramparts of monarchy.. Is it not easier to imagine the divine Bardot doing such a thing than Mme. Deneuve?

But that's enough of that. I'm suing for a truce with M. Anonymous. He's correct in that it's a Ginger versus MaryAnne argument. I like MaryAnne.

In the real world, we have an old article by a German about the state of Europe:FrontPage magazine.com :: Europe -- Thy Name Is Cowardice by Matthias Dopfner

And if you have a few bucks to spend buy a copy of Robert Spenser's The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades. It'll let you know what the Mohammedans are all about.

Close Your Eyes and Pretend All's Okay Part 2

If you turn back the clock and read Close Your Eyes and Pretend All's Okay posted on November 12 you'll see that a kind soul named Anonymous (that chap is as ubiquitous as Forrest Gump, although I think I see the hidden hairy hand of an ex-Eagle Rocker involved in this) made two comments regarding my comment that the French making Catherine Deneueve the model for Marianne was a step down from Brigitte Bardot. To paraphrase my correspondent, I was committing a crime by saying that Deneueve was a step down from B.B. Read the comments before you read any further (or is it farther?).

Finished reading? Here's the scoop from Bloody Nib Manor. Mme. Deneueve was, and is, a remarkably beautiful woman. Her beauty, though, is of the architectural type. It's rather cold, though classic. She is a woman as imagined by a French philosopher/mathematician trying to appeal to the Deconstructionalists and Post Modernists. Has anyone besides me noticed that since Deneueve hit thirty when she smiled it seemed that she was doing you a favor by noting your mere existence. Mme. Deneueve is the Marianne of the French Academy -- a cool, logical (and one wonders when the French traded their vaunted talent for logic for a short term pragmatism that would make William James abandon the philosophy if he had lived long enough). Mme. Deneueve is a sort of Athena version of Marianne, except not so wise.

The almost divine Mme. Bardot, on the other hand, is, and was, a people's Marianne. She may not have the classical beauty of Mme. Deneueve, but she is much more attractive aesthetically, personally and sexually. B.B. is not just French, she is from the earth of France as it once was. She transcends class, region and time. She can be a Breton, a Parisianne, from Marseilles, the Alcelse (sp?) Lorraine, the Vendi or the French Alps. She represents a France that was, and not just a France of philosophers or salon loungers. The average ethnic crapaud has as much idea of Deconstructionalism or Post-Modernism as does the average Iowa corn farmer. He's not interested in, whenever he thinks of it, existentialism or Sartre or Camus or Derrida. He's interested in the survival of his nation. Brigitte Bardot represents the nation of France, as it was and as many Froggies think it is, much better than Mme. Deneueve who seems to think of nothing much more than herself and the appearance of others.

Consider this fact: B.B. has made several publicized comments about the Islamization of France. In fact she's been sued over her comments and has had to pay penalties for her comments. B.B. cares for France. Mme. Deneueve, on the other hand, has only made the controversial comment that the reason that American women are overweight is that they eat too much bread. Who cares about France and who cares about herself? And just remember that B.B starred in a silly movie called Babette Goes to War. The movie took place during World War 2. Deneueve, on the other hand, has, as far as I know, only starred in war movies in which she is pretty much the victim.

Let's put it this way. Beauty is in many way subjective. All I know is that I'd rather have a cup of coffee or knock back a beer with B.B. than have champagne with Deneueve because in my mind Bardot is France and Deneueve is only an elite segment of said benighted nation.

Now let's get down to cases on the current unrest in France. If one watches the cable television news or reads the rags one would think that only cars have been burned by "disaffected" Islamic youth. But this, and the site is translation from the French so the grammar ain't great, shows that more than cars have been torched:Translated version of http://alexcorvus.blogspot.com/

A French Jewish philosopher has a few thoughts about what's going on in France:Haaretz - Israel News - What sort of Frenchmen are they? . Read the whole article.

And finally, if you've got a few bucks to spend, got to Amazon.com and order the novel The Camp of the Saints and read it. You'll see that some Froggies were more prescient than others.

A Couple O'Links

The rioting in France goes on and Chirac et amis continue to attempt to consult the shades of Voltaire, Rousseau and Louis XVI about the correct course of action to take.

Meanwhile, some of the rest of the western world seems to be waking up to the danger of Islamofacsism:

Islamic preachers drive the poisoning of young minds - Opinion - smh.com.au

World Magazine - Weekly News Christian Views

And remember that during the time that the Muslims controlled Spain the majority of Spaniards were not Muslim. They were Christians who gave up their faith and nation to acquire "peace."

Pat Robertson = Knucklehead

Bloody Nib Manor has since the 16th century, been a repository of hard core Protestantism. In fact, certain branches of the clan have gone as far as to adhere to the Puritan faction. Even the ever lovely Lady Nib, who is Japanese born and bred, is a Protestant of the old type i.e., pre Calvary Chapel/ Kumbaya.

And we here at the manse tend toward the conservative politically.

But sometimes we find ourselves wishing that those who have deigned themselves our spokesmen would just shut the hell up.

A case in point is Pat Robertson.

In the past couple of month Mr. Robertson has stated that it might be a good idea for the US government to assassinate Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and last week he told a city in the Northeast that they can forget any help from God because the populace voted out school board members who held to the theory of Intelligent Design instead of the Darwinian Theory of Evolution.

The man has shown himself to be an idiot and a prideful man. I believe that there was an Adam and Eve. I believe in the Creation as outlined in the Bible. But Robertson has gone way out of line. He has taken upon himself the mantle of a prophet. He seems to think that he is an Isaiah or Jeremiah without any proof that he has been given the mantle. But he insists that he knows God's mind. If that isn't pride, I don't know what is. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah were reluctant to take on the roles of prophets. They thought they were unworthy. Robertson, on the other hand, seems to think that he deserves to be a prophet. In other words, God owes him.

We here at Bloody Nib Manor will continue to refer and defer to the Scriptures instead of listening to a buffoon who tries to replace the church with the television church.

When your correspondent was a young apprentice Pat Robertson was know among the trade as "that moon-faced guy." Maybe back in those days we knew that he was a lunatic.

I don't know what Robertson's status with God is. He says that he's a Christian and I have to take him at his word. He's not been found in bed with a dead whore or a live boy. But his interpretation of the faith may be a little off.

I happened to come across, on the radio, Randi Rhodes of Air America, a liberal talk radio network. A caller said that her comments about Robertson's latest gassing were Christian bashing. She protested that she was not bashing Christians and that she was insulted by his accusation. But, in her comments it was apparent that she was bashing Christians because she saw Robertson as representative of the thought of all conservative or fundamentalist Christians. Is not the bashing of conservative, evangelical or fundamentalist Christians by using the club of Pat Robertson Christian bashing? The leaving out of liberal Christians of the Spong and Campolo type doesn't matter. When the US at large think of Christians they think of Calvary Chapel. Not Foundry UMC.

And finally, and cruelly, how can anyone take seriously anything that Randi Rhodes says? Her accent (Brooklyn, Bronx, or whatever) is so thick that one could listen to Plato and think it's all nonsense.

Close Your Eyes and Pretend All's Okay

Seventeen days after it started the rioting in France goes on. Apparently Chirac and Villapin and Co. have decided to declare victory over the disturbances by attempting to have "dialogue" with the arsonists. But isn't that the French way? You know the old joke: Why are trees planted along the Champs Elysees? So the German soldiers can march in the shade. It's somewhat reminiscent of Louis XVI trying to have "dialogue" with the Jacobins.

At one time in France it used to be the norm for government buildings to have busts of Marianne prominently placed. Marianne was the anthropological representation of France in the same way the Uncle Sam is of the United States or Jack Bull (and whatever happened to the great Jack Bull?) was of Great Britain. Over the years the image of Marianne changed. In the late 50s and 60s the image of Marianne was based on Bridgitte Bardot. During the 70s the image of Marianne was based on Catherine Deneuve (a step down in your correspondent's opinion). I don't know who the model for Marianne is now. But I suspect that within the next ten years Marianne, if represented at all, will be represented by some unknown woman wearing a chador. And then we'll know that France has become Gaulistan.

Mark Steyn has a few words to say about the current "disenfranchised youth." :Telegraph Opinion Early skirmish in the Eurabian civil war Check it out and laugh through your tears.

The War in Eurabia

Today marks the ninth days of riots in the suburbs of Paris by Islamic youth. If one reads the local rags on would believe that the rioters of just "youth", as if Jules and Marianne, having nothing better to do between their drinking of pastis and the eating of pate de foie gras decided to burn a few cars and a pre-school or two. Meanwhile, the President of La Belle France (Dominique de Villepin)thinks that "having dialogue" with the rioters will end the mayhem. But what can one expect from a man who considers himself a "poet." Poets are good for poetry and seducing silly teenage girls, and not much else. The Minister of the Interior, Nicholas Sarkozy, has taken a harder line. He expects people in France to act like civilized Frenchmen. He has called the rioters "thugs" and, for some reason, that appellation is considered controversial. Sarkozy, the son of Hungarian and Greek immigrants to France, knows what it's like to be a son of immigrants and expects a certain modicum of restraint and good behavior from second generation North Africans and Turks. But, apparently, the liberal faction sees the Muslim youth as somewhat stupid, primitive and naturally violent, so the youth must be handled with kid gloves.

But be that as it may, here's a round up of links concerning the War in Eurabia:
Paris When It Sizzles
Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Arms For the Poor”
The Fall of France The Brussels Journal
The Daily Demarche: Oh, to be a fly on the wall. This is funny.
The Daily Demarche: "The City of Lights"- did they mean burning cars?

And finally, to show that some pigs are more equal than others from Australia. I've never beat the ever lovely Lady Nib, but if I ever do and the local constabulary are called, I'll use the excuse that I'm a Muslim:Herald Sun: Police told to respect traditions [ 25oct05 ].

A Retraction

We here at Nib Manor haven't enjoyed the gift of omniscience for a long time. It came to an end when about the time we turned thirty. At that time we realized that a rotten trick had been played on us and that world had become much more complicated.

So I find myself having to retract a statement made in a previous entry. In a previous post I stated that a savings bank in the United Kingdom has stopped giving out piggy banks as premiums for opening savings accounts because of protests by Mohammedans living in Great Britain. It turns out that the story may be false. I picked up the information from several websites, each of which linked to an English newspaper. Now, some of those sites say that the newspaper may have been duped or have fallen victim to a new urban legend.

So, if you live in England and want a piggy bank, you may still be able to get a free piggy for depositing some funds. BUT, I wouldn't be surprised that the story has inspired a Muslim in Derby to file a protest with the bank for "disrespecting" Islam. We'll be waiting for the story to rise again.

As you may have noticed, the illustration on this post says "Save The Flag (and the pig) Fly Free!" This, of course partially refers to the Islamic fatwah on pigs. But there is also a war on the Cross of Saint George, which is the red cross used on the English flag. Our Islamic friends protest St. George's Cross as an insult to them because many of the Crusaders fought under that flag. Prison officials in England have been told not to wear English flag lapel pins because Muslim inmates may be offended. There's nothing like buckling under to the hurt feelings of convicted criminals.

It's just too bad that George Washington didn't get his way in desiring that the stars on the American flag be six pointed stars. The US is constantly being portrayed, by the Arab world, as a slave to the Jews. Six pointed stars in the jack would just send them into paradoxisms of rage and they might never have immigrated here.

And finally, for those of you who notice such things, you might notice that the font of this post is different than that of previous post. The only reason is because I neglected to change the font to my preferred font before starting this entry. Nothing special here, so move along.

More Pigs!

We here at Nib Manor are not particular fans of cartoons. Since the great days of the Warner Brothers cartoons in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Jay Ward productions of the 1960s, there hasn't been much to our taste. Japanese anime is boring, Scooby Do is and was just dumb. Like many contemporary live action films, most modern cartoons lack depth.

But this past week, while recovering from a 24 hour virus excited by the World Series, I happened to come across this program on the local PBS television station:Welcome to Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks Entara Ltd. I was impressed. I'm not usually much a fan of computerized animation, but this program is an exception. More importantly, though, is that the stories are good. And they're funny. And they have a bit of a moral without being being heavy-handed like the old flannelgraph presentations in Sunday School.

Check it out if you get a chance and while you can. The show is an English production and you can bet dollars to doughnuts that some imam in Nottingham or Derby is getting ready to file a protest claiming that an Irish pig is an insult to Muslim kiddies. But you know what that great humanitarian, the Ayatollah Khomeni said, "There is no place for humor in Islam."

Prince Charles=Twit. Bardot=Prophetess

Imagine that you wake up one day and find yourself to be the Prince of Wales. Your mother, the Queen of England is considered the head of the Anglican Church. One of these days, if you live long enough you will be the King of England and will be the head of the Church of England. One of your titles will be Defender of the Faith. The Church of England is, at least historically, a Christian church. Christianity was, and is, an exclusive religion. In other words, salvation is only found through the Grace of Christ and faith in Christ. Other religions, by this claim of exclusivity, no matter how "nice" or colorful of spiritual, are pretty much exercises in re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic after the iceberg was rear-ended.

Prince Charles, current Prince of Wales and perhaps future king, takes a different tack. He has said in the past that he would like his future title of Defender of the Faith be changed to Defender of Faiths. His idea is that, since Great Britain is now a multi-religious society, he should not favor one over the other. Or to put it another way, he plans on being the head of the Church of Kumbaya. He is a "modern," "liberal" and "forward thinking" monarch. Or to be more truthful and to the point, he plans on being the first dhimmi king of England.

I'm sure that Charles is a nice fellow. He has some ideas about architecture that I agree with, bad taste in wives, is reputedly a decent polo player and a rather indifferent father. That's all his business. But now he has decided to come to the US to explain Islam to us poor benighted Yanks:Telegraph News Prince Charles to plead Islam's cause to Bush. There are about 1.6 million Mohammedans in Great Britain. There are several times that in the US. Large populations of Muslims have a longer history in the US (since about 1900 in Michigan there has been a large Islamic presence) than they do in Great Britain. But Charlie knows best. Perhaps he should visit the Netherlands and explain this all to Ayaan Hirsin Ali, the surviving relatives of Theo Van Gogh or the survivors of Pym Fortyun. Thanks for nuthin', Chuck. And thank God for Washington, Adams, Hamilton and Co.

Meanwhile, in France, there's been a bit of a bother with Muslims rioting in a suburb of Paris:Fjordman: Second night of rioting in Paris. Make sure to read the whole post. The police in Paris admit that they have been unable to deal with the street fighting. They'd better get used to it because it will be come more and more often. Perhaps the foreign Legion should be called out. Meanwhile, Brigette Bardot is considered the author of "hate speech" for warning our French friends years ago about what has happened.

And if you're wondering why there's a photo of BB on this post instead of Charles, the answer is simple. I'd rather look at BB than an inbred twit. But I'm just a dirty dog.

We Are Happy Family!

As you may remember, the title of this post comes from the Barney the Dinosaur television kid's show. The following links may show why dinosaurs are extinct.

In Uzbekistan it is apparently forbidden to convert from Islam to Christianity:Compass Direct

In Eritrea, a Muslim nation, some Christians (the government approved ones) are more equal than others. The interesting thing is that the priest managed to have weekly evening meetings with 250 worshippers (almost any Anglican or Episcopal priest would not imagine such numbers in his wildest dreams), but Third World Anglicanism is a much different thing than the Canterbury or American variety; it's Christian: Compass Direct 2

Have you ever wondered what the future of Europe looks like? Here's a hint:Compass Direct 3

Meanwhile, we see what a threat little girls are to Islam:BBC NEWS Asia-Pacific Three Indonesian girls beheaded.

And this is big news on the media:Top News Article Reuters.co.uk Some of the gooey types speculate that the bombings may be the work of Sikh separatists. Ramadan ends and the bombings pick up. What a co-incky-dink! It must be the Sikhs!

What I Will be Giving for Christmas

The following item has given me an solution for my holiday gift buying problem --Piggy banks 'offend UK Muslims' - Breaking News - World - Breaking News . You may want to consider buying your friends and family a nice piggy bank and encourage them to save money while making a statement.

And here's a question: If a Mohammedan is given a piggy bank with, let's say, five hundred dollars inside it, will he touch it to get the money out? Will he even touch the money since it has been "profaned" by the image of a pig? I think we all know the answer.

And You Thought You Had It Tough

Being a conservative Christian -- both theologically and politically -- I'm sometimes amused and bemused by some conservative Evangelicals and Roman Catholics claiming that Christians in America are being persecuted. It is a fact that groups such at the ACLU and Americans For the Separation of Church and State would like to erase all public displays of Christianity from the land, but they haven't gone as far as to burn Christians, churches or Bibles. And it is to be remembered that the Bible tells us that the world will always be hostile to those who follow Christ. We, in the US, actually have it relatively good.

In Egypt, on the other hand, things are different -- The Free Copts ??????? ???????: Muslim radicals threaten to kill Pope Shenouda.

Money Talks

Some of us here at Bloody Nib Manor have never been big fans of Big Business. We've never been big fans of Big Labor either, but that's another story. Big Business has shown, especially within the past thirty years, that it (we'll assume for a moment that Big Business is a single entity because many big businesses share the same philosophy) is willing to sell out the welfare of the nation in which it is based for money. Examples abound. Boeing outsourcing components for the 777 and the Dreamliner to China, Japan, India, France, Italy and Great Britain instead of using American talent and skills, Wal-Mart selling goods made in China by what amounts to slave labor, and the use of customer service centers in India for telephone enquiries by almost every computer and Internet company, are only a few examples. Add to this the hiring of illegal immigrants to do "work that Americans won't do," to quote George Bush.

Big Business looks after its own interests and its own security. In fact, Big Business seems to be able to look after and address problems regarding security and the turning of a dollar much more effectively than do national governments. Consider this story:Middle East Times . The companies in question are based in France, of all places. Could it be that the Fat Cats will be the vanguard against the encroaching dhimmitude?

A Potpourri

We here at Bloody Nib Manor like to laugh. Despite adhering to a theology more akin to the Puritans of Early America and Commonwealth Britain than the current evangelical bip-bop, hip-hop, we like to exercise our diaphrams with a good guffaw. Let's just say that we take the attitude of Samuel Johnson -- life is ridiculous and yet serious.

Last night your faithful correspondent saw Dolly Parton on the television. And seeing Ms. Parton reminded me that there is an American style of humor that goes beyond irony, snide comments and insults of others. Ms Parton, while a great country singer, is a very funny woman and if she ever loses her singing voice she can look forward to a career as a comedianne. Can you imagine Rita Rudner, Margerat Cho or Ellen DeGeneris saying something like, "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap"?

A promoter is trying to excite interest in sumo wrestling in the U.S.Among the featured sumo wrestlers are a group of Yanks. As a young man. before my marriage to the ever lovely Lady Nib, I thought sumo wrestling was basically a pair of fat fellows trying to bump one another out of a ring. Since then I've found out that there is a lot more to the sport. There is a lot of skill and training involved in the sport. I'll never be a sumo fan, but the promotion of the sport in America is a good thing. It shows a form of wrestling that is real, unlike the current fascination with fake wrestling such as the WWF. Meanwhile Greco-Roman wrestling (Plato's sport) is relegated to high school and junior college basements.

The local PBS station is running a new series of mysteries based on the P.D. James novels. The problem is that the actor who is supposed to play Adam Dahlglish just doesn't quite cut it. The actor, whose name I can't remember, would be much better suited to play the role of psychiatrist in some kitchen sink drama than he is suited to play a detective. I've known a couple of police detectives over the years and they have been hard men. And if, God forbid, if I were in a situation where an investigation were done over the death of one of my loved ones, I would much prefer that the investigation done by a hard man instead of a soppy Sam.

I like an English type blend of pipe tobacco. I don't smoke a pipe very often, but when I do I like what I like. When I do smoke a pipe in a public place I usually smoke something like Captain Black. Captain Black is a black Cavendish. It is quite mild. And, for some reason, people who don't smoke like the smell of Captain Black in a pipe. More than once, while smoking Captain Black I have been told something like, "What are you smoking? It smells good." The ever lovely Lady Nib claims that is smells like hot chocolate. The taste of the tobacco is rather inane, but it's acceptable to the public. And given the choice of being able to please the uneducated public with a tobacco that "smells good" or a tobacco that tastes good to me, I'll take the "smell good" tobacco for the simple reason good manners demands a regard for the feelings and senses of those other than one's self.

A Little Jihad News

Why is it that women in Europe seem to be more vocal about the encroachment of Islam into Europe than are the men? Consider the fact that both the demi-goddess Brigitte Bardot and the intellectual powerhouse Orianna Fallaci have been prosecuted for their statements regarding the true threat posed by the Islamization of Europe. Ayraan Hirsi Ali, the female Dutch parliamentarian,has been forced to live on a Dutch naval base because of her criticism of the Islamic influence in Holland. The female minister of the interior of the Netherlands has declared war on the burka in Holland, saying, in effect, "The tea party with Islam is over. Dutch values will be the default values in Holland. If you don't like it, shove off." The men, at least the public men, in Europe, seem content to let themselves slide into dhimmitude. It may have something to do with the fact that European men, for all their macho posturing, are rather wimpy -- in effect, akin to gigilos feeling that their manliness comes from delving the span instead of putting up their dukes and fighting for what they believe in. "The Yanks will take care of that, cherie." It may have something to do with soccer, the ultimate Eurotrash sport.

But be that as it may, another woman, from Russia this time, has leveled a blast at Islamofascism and its creeping into Russia: Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Window on Eurasia: Russian Novelist Does 'N . I'm not a big fan of the Russian Orthodox Church for several reasons that need not be outlined here. But the Russian Orthodox Church and those remaining religious Jews in Russia are probably the bulwarks against the imposition of sharia law in parts of Russia.

Mark Steyn has an interesting article about the reluctance of the mainstream news media to acknowledging the fact that the terrorism in Chechnya is based on Islam: Media utters nonsense, won't call enemy out . One can only assume that NPR is afraid of getting a nasty phone call from Ibraham Hopper for calling a rat a rat.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the lovefest of Muslims and Christians goes on, with the Muslims being the more loving party: >>> AsiaNews.it /view.php?l=en&art=4359<<<. Actually, the amazing thing in this story is the use of the word "extremists." Most news organizations will not use the term "extremist" when referring to Mohammedans. It might hurt someone's feelings and we wouldn't want that.

And finally, in a non-jihad item, we see that two groups that are societal termites have managed to make bystanders suffer:- toledoblade.com - Nazis stink. Neo-Nazis stink even more. Criminal gangs stink. Criminal gangs "protesting" neo-Nazis stink even more. It brings to mind Faulkner's comment to his wife the night before he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, "The human race stinks."

No Pigs This Week

There will be no Mohammedan/pig comments this week except to ask the question, "When a Mohammedan goes to a MacDonald's' and asks for a hamburger is he committing some sort of a sin?" And if he shops at a Piggly Wiggly does that mean that he might as well commit suicide and consign his soul to the Islamic version of hell?

Let's talk cinematic versions of novels. Back in 1979 a movie came out called The Warriors. The movie was directed by Walter Hill (who seems to have gone downhill since The Long Riders) and was based on a novel by Sol Yurick. I saw the film when it first came out and I enjoyed it. I've seen it several times since then and have always enjoyed it. It had a mythic quality. The novel was based on the history recounted by Xenophon entitled Anabasis. Xenophon was a participant of the march from Persia by the 10,000 and while he tends to punch his own importance in the matter more than is gentlemanly, we can pretty much rely on his memoirs of the March Out.

This week I bought a DVD of the film and a copy of the novel on which the film was based. I did njot buy the Director's Cut of the movie. I bought the version as originally released. I've found, over the years, that Director's Cuts are exercises in masturbation by the director. In other words, the director's cut is akin to saying that, "This was my original vision and 'the suits' made me change the movie." And I've often found that the director's cut just stinks. I'm not interested in Walter Hill's "original vision." I'm interested in the version I saw some 26 years ago. If I was interested in the original, or true version, I'd read Anabasis, which I have. and which I enjoyed.

I got hold of the novel The Warriors in the mail today. I've not read the book yet, but I read the introduction by Sol Yurick And to tell the truth, reading the introduction made me not want to read the novel. He bitched about the publication of the novel and the movie version of his book. Yurick seems to think of The Warriors as an "art" or "socially conscience" novel and that Hill just raped his work. On the other hand, such great novelists such as Hemingway, Faulkner or Chandler never pitched a bitch about the movie versions of their novels. They just took the money and assumed that anyone really interested in the story told in the movie version would take the time to read the book. If nothing else, it shows the confidence of the writers. Hemingway and company knew that their stuff was good despite the screen version. Yurick seems to think that his reputation rests on Walter Hill.

But to get back to the point. Yurick's introduction to The Warriors was one of the few introductions to novels that made me not want to read the novel. I've read introductions to Proust's novels and Joyce's novels, and each made me want to read the novel. I never finished the novels in question, but I learned something from the introductions. Yurick's introduction, on the other hand, taught me nothing except that Yurick considers himself a "serious" novelist who can sling around words about Camus, post-modernism, social realism and on and on. In other words, he seems to be a guy who doesn't want to tell a story as much as he wants to make a social statement. He's a one remembered novel wonder, which more than most of us will ever be. And he bitches about it because he's not going to be remembered for his novel Fertig.

If a person wants to make a socialist statement perhaps that person should study Jack London. London managed to insert Socialism in his novels without shoving it in the reader's face. Hemingway, Faulkner, John Gardener and John Updike were/are able to let their works stand alone without extensive apologia or self/social analysis. They told/tell a story and let the reader take it as they would. When a novelist has to interpret his work for the reader he's failed. Or he's a post-modernist, which is pretty much as being a failure.

But what the hell do I know? I'm just an uneducated bum.

Tammy's Blog

The wonderful Tammy Bruce has modified her website to include a blog. Ms Bruce is one of my favorite public personalities. I've listened to her on the radio since her days as the overnight talker on KFI when she used to read books over the air. Now she's on KABC on Saturday afternoons in L.A. and is one other stations nationwide.

Check out her website: www.tammybruce.com . I don't always agree with her, but she always has something interesting to say

More Pigs!

If your faithful correspondent keeps making posts about pigs the name of this blog will have to be changed to the Piggy Nib. But I really do believe that the Mohammedan battle against pigs, pig figures and pig drawings in Great Britain is more important that it appears. To use the old term that has fallen out of favor, "It is the thin edge of the wedge."

Consider the fact that in the US and in Great Britain Jews have lived peacefully for at least three and a half centuries. In America Jews have had a presence since the late 1600s, and in Great Britain since the time of Cromwell. In fact, it was the Puritan government in Britain that invited Jews to immigrate to Britain after Edward II (it may have been Edward I) banished Jews from Britain. Religious Jews are forbidden from eating pork. They have been so forbidden since the time of Moses. To my knowledge there has never been a movement among Jews, religious or otherwise, to ban the existence or portrayal of pig, hogs or boars among non-Jews. In fact the Warner Brothers, both Jewish, are partially responsible for the giving to the world Porky Pig.

Our Islamic "brothers" on the other hand, want to drive Porky underground in the same way that they want to drive women's hair underground. Apparently Islamic clerics and theologians feel that the average Islamic man is so driven by his lower instincts that the sight of a woman's hair/face/ankle drives him to rape, and the sight of a pig drives him to a ham sandwich. The result is that the rest of us are unable, in public, to express our appreciation of porcine qualities. How long will it be before you go to the local Blockbuster or contact Netflix and find that the DVD of "Babe", "Charlotte's Web", or "Animal Farm" is unavailable because some guy who beats his wife with religious consent covets your Virginia ham and feels guilty coveting the ham?

Cox and Forkum have a pretty good cartoon about the current pig ban in Great Britain:Cox & Forkum: Perils Before Swine . Be sure to read the attached Mark Steyn article.

Long live Piglet, Babe and Geordie!

A Few Thoughts on Tea

One of my most vivid childhood memories is waking up early on a Saturday or Sunday and walking into the kitchen seeing the Earl sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper waiting for a saucepan of water to come to a boil. "Want a cup of tea, Hitz?" he'd ask. "Yes, Dad," I'd answer. And then when the water came to a boil he'd plop Lipton teabags in mugs and pour in the hot water. After a couple of minutes of steeping the teabags would be pulled out and sugar cubes would be dropped into the mugs, the tea would be stirred and then gingerly tasted and approved and the heat would warm me up on the coldest day.

The Earl is a tea drinker. Hot, cold, lukewarm. And I'm a tea drinker. It wasn't until I was in the Navy that I got used to drinking coffee. And even then coffee was a poor substitute for coffee. It's not because my family is English. I was the first member of my family to touch English soil since the late 1600s. And there was no great tea drinking tradition in my family. There was always a coffee pot on the hob for the rest of the family. Tea was, and is, my preferred drink. It's more warming, more cooling, more refreshing and better tasting than coffee.

Orange pekoe, oolong, Darjeeling, Assam, Earl Grey and lapsong souchong. Those five varieties of teas cover a greater flavor spectrum that do all the world's coffees. From light and clear to heavy and smoky, tea offers a drink that can be consumed by the pot without ill effect and makes coffee taste like burnt gravy doped with speed. No perking, no dripping, no squeezing. Just infusing leaves for a few minutes results in a drink that is not only stimulating, but calming and refreshing.

And one can't ask for much more from a drink than that.

The Quest for Cool

At one time your faithful correspondent was a member of the United Methodist Church. The UMC had, at one time, the reputation of being a Bible based, though Arminian congregation. Then, sometime beginning in the early 60s, the rot set in. By rot I mean theological liberalism. After the theological liberals managed to work their ways out of the pulpits and into the District Superintendent and Bishopric positions theological liberalism became the default position of the church. The Bible was no longer the Word of God. It became a somehow more valid version of Ovid's Metamorphosis. Christ was no longer Virgin born, Adam was no longer the first man, the Sermon on the Mount became a prescription instead of an indictment. The list goes on and on. The UMC, in its leadership, became what 19th century Unitarians were, with a social reforming agenda. Man did everything and God was a shriveled up old guy sitting in a corner as helpless as a kitten cornered by a pitbull. It was man's duty to save God instead of God through Christ saving man.

Once I started reading the Bible seriously I decided I'd had it with such Deistic nonsense. To paraphrase Flannery O'Connor, if the Bible isn't true, then to hell with it. I decided that the Bible was true and I upped stakes, leaving a lot of friends behind and, after a false start or two, found a worshipping body that held that the Bible was inerrant, that Adam was the first man, that Jesus was born of a Virgin, that God hates sin, that man is a sinner and that Christ saves sinners.

For various reasons I was, am and will be a little leery of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the reasons is that the Catholic Church has extra-Biblical beliefs i.e., Mary as co-Mediatrix, purgatory, the gaining of grace through the sacraments, et al. And I figured that if the Roman Catholic Church takes the position that it can add to the Bible, that means that it can subtract from the Bible.

Well, slap me silly and call me Martin Luther, the English bishops have decided that certain parts of the Bible are just not true. See this link:Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible - World - Times Online. (Tip o' the lid to Tammy Bruce) What I want to know is why any person subscribing to the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church should trust this bunch of guys. Consider this: when they took their vows as priests they vowed that they believed the Bible. Now they don't. Have they had a revelation? Perhaps the Holy Ghost came down and whispered in their collective ears that the Scriptures that have informed, educated and inspired close to 2,000 years of Christians is just an allegory? Or do these fellows want to try to pull back in the fallen by lowering the standards? Or perhaps they sailed into their positions while flying false colors; cuckoos as it were, laying their strange eggs in the True nest while pushing the native eggs out. Why should any Catholic who listens to this bunch consider the Eucharist the real Body of Christ when the bishops say that parts to the Bible are not true? And does the man in the pew get to pick and choose in the same way that the bishops do.

But, hey, the bishops want to be cool and with it and respected by the average newspaper and television opinion spouter, so who can blame them for playing the part of Judas and/or Simon Magus? They have shown themselves to be simoniacs by the very fact that they have, over the years preached one thing and believed another while drawing a paycheck. When their world begins to crumble about their ears they shouldn't wonder why.