Steynian 456nd
We Owe Them That Much
~ ITEM: Byzantium 1200; Byzantium 1200 Videos
~ ITEM: The Emperor’s Lost Harbour
~ ITEM: The Byzantine Empire
~ ITEM: Charles Martel
~ ITEM: Mystras
~ ITEM: Iran targets Baha’i cemetery for destruction
~ ITEM: Binks: Finders, Keepers
~ TEH BINKS LOVES many aspects of the Eastern Roman Empire: Byzantium, The Eastern Orthodox Church, and the fact that the Byzantines held back the hateful tide of ruination, murder, destruction and Jihad from swamping Eastern Europe in the AD 600s and after.
On the other end of the Med, it was only the last-minute intervention and skill of Charlie “The Hammer” Martel which stemmed the Jihad-flood from taking France, Flanders and Northwards, Austria, Germany, and the opposite tide meeting them from across the Bosphorus into Central Europe. They did that for us, and for them.
A Response To War
The West began the Crusades as a response to Muslim cruelties and destruction–
“On October 18, 1009, Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, has the Church completely destroyed. It is believed that Al-Hakim “was aggrieved by the scale of the Easter pilgrimage to Jerusalem…. everything was razed ‘except those parts which were impossible to destroy or would have been too difficult to carry away’.” The Church’s foundations were hacked down to bedrock. The Edicule and the east and west walls and the roof of the cut-rock tomb it encased were destroyed or damaged (contemporary accounts vary), but the north and south walls were likely protected by rubble from further damage”
That is, the holiest place in Christendom aside from the Church of the Nativity, hammered, burnt, re-hammered and re-burnt down to the pavement. Including most of the the actual tomb itself. Imagine if we went over to Mecca today and bulldozed the whole Ka’aba complex, after blowing most of it up.
We Failed Them
Sadly, intra-European war, Venitian machinations, and the vagaries of history meant the Western Crusaders later took over Constantinople and did their own wreck & plunder (1200s); and when the Last Emperors pleaded for help in the mid-1400s, more Venetianism and Papal politics and whatever else saw the final fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, a thousand years after the fall of ancient Rome.
Fleeing Byzantines brought books, relics, ancient manuscripts, and in doing so, directly inspired the Renaissance. Even in their dying, we were blessed, and benefitted, despite Western European muddling, selfishness and short-sightedness.
Then came the Jihad again– into Eastern and Central Europe, throughout the Mediterranean. No Byzantines left to slow things down, and the old Constantinople became the centre of the Ottoman Empire. Hungary, Russia, Vienna, Italy, everywhere felt the new push, as the riches of the old empire– and the new trading capital itself– funded armies and navies to conquer Christian lands.
Still Not Dead
Several authentic bits of Byzantium are still with us, both in Greece, the other last bastion of the dying Empire. Holy Mount Athos and her monasteries, and the abandoned town of Mystras, above modern-day Sparta. And don’t forget the Orthodox Church itself, in all its national varieties.
Yet more sadly, in modern day Istanbul, there’s a general “since the Greeks are evil, we can’t respect their old stuff too much”, a rising Islamism, and a general neglect and hostility to old stuff that can remind the Turks that in geopolitical sense, they are late-comers inhabiting lands and cities which other people made and started.
Alongside Turkish pride, the hatred that Muhammed held towards pre-islamic times (the Jahiliyyah or “Time Of Ignorance/ Stupidity”). Thus, all the cultures and ruins of pre-Islamic Arabia, including ancient churches and synagogues? Evil paganism to be ignored, torn down, or used for target-practice unless the tourists really really like it (as with Petra).
Blow Up! Plunder! Wreck!
Radical Muslims Everywhere Hate The Old Stuff. That’s why the ancient giant Buddha statues were blown up in Afghanistan. That’s why the Government of Iran recently mused about bulldozing all the surviving Persian ruins and tombs. Or why Muslim Brotherhood mobs torched an Egyptian antiquities library and then danced around and cheered about burning countless irreplaceable ancient Egyptian documents and the related research.
Why? Follow the logic, as follows.
If pre-islamic times were Utterly Stupid/ Ignorant AND Evil, then erasing them is good for Islam, as is destroying all history or religion or evidence to the contrary of Islam. Moe told them to: after all, if all infidels ever are utterly hell-bound, then ancient dead infidels– with no hope of conversion– are clearly the worst of all.
Pyramids? Sphinx? Tombs of pharaohs? See them now, while you still can, or enjoy the pictures.
The world is already littered with plundered cities, wrecked churches, pagan temples, burned libraries, dead bodies, empty monasteries, especially of the Byzantine Romans, who were essentially the first non-Arabian victims of the First 6th Century Jihad. It would be interesting to know how many have been slain world-wide in the name of Moe’s Cult, since Day One, and how many irreplaceable things and places and art were burnt, plundered, ruined, or otherwise destroyed.
Redeeming All Things
By contrast, the incarnation of Jesus implies that there is goodness about creation, and the past; St. Paul quotes pagan poems to evangelize Greeks; Romans used the best of pagan architecture to build churches to the glory of God. St. Thomas Aquinas articulated the principle thus: “Grace perfects, it does not destroy nature.” There was Christian vandalism and intolerance (again, in Egypt, most notably), but more generally no desire to utterly erase all that went before, rather to redeem it and reuse it into new forms.
The Pantheon in Rome became a church; the pagan trees of the Germans are with us each Christmas, transformed in purpose and meaning; ancient arts inspired iconography, architecture, music, painting, to the Glory of the Holy Trinity. Roman Law and Greek Philosopy were used to structure society and ask the hard questions about God, man, and existence. Heck, in English and other European languages, we still use pagan names for days and months!
We Invented That, O Infidels
Those who like to trumpet that Islam invented everything ever forget that they first inherited Stupid and Ignorant pagan science and engineering, and that many leading Christians were actually the ones who transmitted what they knew to their new masters. Math? Hindus did it.
After a brief flowering in Sicily and elsewhere, most Muslim philosophy (since it relied on infidel Pagan Stupids like Aristotle) was forbidden. It’s partly why deep thought and education and book-publishing are so poor in the modern Middle East, despite a lot of technical skills to do with electricity, roads, and oil infrastructure. Even there (as in the fairy-tale wonders of Dubai), many imported Western non-Muslims head up the projects, and do the hard planning and execution.
Finely, And In Contusion
One cool website I’ve mentioned before gives us the merest glimpse of what Constantinople and Byzantium used to be: Byzantium 1200, done by a Turkish archaeology & computer-nerd named Tayfun Oner. Drop by his site– make a donation.
We all owe Byzantium that much, and more. ~
The Neighbour-Kid
~ ITEM: How the left uses “bullying” to restrict free speech that offends them
~ ITEM: Hate crime charges in England, only apply against whites
~ SO WALLACE The Wonder-Poodle needed some personal time outside, so out we wented. It turned out the nieghbour-kid was home.. on a school day.. chopping kindling. I asked him if Wallace’s best bud– a giant wolf-like male husky-thing– was home, and so he was and they cavorted and peed serially on various spots in what passes, I suppose, for doggie-tag.
I enquired of neighbour-kid as to his situation: hooky? Exams?
“I was suspended”, he said. “What brilliance got you that?” I asked.
“I was joking with my black friend, who calls me ‘The White Kid’. I call him ‘The Black Kid’. He brought some noodles to school today, and somebody asked me why. I said ‘Ask the Black Kid’, but then the teacher heard me. She told me that was unacceptable. My friend even tried to explain that “it was a joke back and forth between us all the time, and I call him The White Boy”, but that didn’t matter.”
Wow.
No doubt modern schools, Teaching programs and the notoriously slimy NS Teacher’s Union and the general state of well-meaning conformity and liberal conformity made sure that teacher in particular now has The usual special sensitivities. However, an ordinary kid involved in banter with his friend? Now a victim of Leftard bullying, a suggestion that he is somehow a racist and deserves punishment, and no doubt this goes on his academic record.
This is a sad commentary on ideology interfering with real life, and the rough and tumble of regular school-life. Do teachers or bureaucrats or various other self-appointed moral busy-bodies have an unrestricted right to interfere with free-speech, even when ‘The Black Kid’ in question was not offended or suspicious of racism by his classmate and friend, and tried to defend him from the teacher? Apparently so.
Lessons? Teachers have weird ideas unrelated to the reality of student life & friendships. Authority may be arbitrary. Racism means white people suck. Don’t trust authority, they’re clueless. Never say what you really think or mean.
Plus, the evil racist cracker– a.k.a. the pleasant, hard-working unracist Neighbour Kid– got some free days off before exams. ~
Weaklings, Down With The Ship!
Civilization Is Fragile
“Its continuance requires respect for the law, tough-minded education, collective thrift, private investment, individual self-reliance, and common codes of behavior and civility — and exempts no one from those rules. Such knowledge and patterns of civilized behavior, slowly accrued over centuries, can be lost in a single generation.”
~ ITEM: Steyn: No More ‘Women and Children First‘; Steyn on Culture: Who’s Off First?
~ ITEM: Metaphor of the Week, Month, Year, Decade, Age
~ ITEM: Al Mohler — “What are we to do with Captain Schettino? He will go down in history as an example of miserable failure”
~ ITEM: MS Estonia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “The survivors of the shipwreck were mostly young, of strong physical composition, and male. Seven people over 55 years of age survived. There were no survivors under age 12. About 750 people were inside the ship when it sank.”
~ ITEM: For some, life is just a game where the goal is to rise to the top at all costs
~ ITEM: Titanic – A man in women’s clothes was among the survivors in lifeboat 10
~ GO READ THE Steyn article– it rocks. A century later, and rather like the cowardly ass-saver on the Titanic, one J. Bruce Ismay (White Star Line higher up), dear Cap’t Schettino of the sunken liner Costa Concordia has already gone down in history as the Captain who bolted (albeit after swinging his ship nearer shore, by some pretty swift thinking after he caused the accident in the first place), hours before the passengers and crew were all safe.
He’s not been tried and found guilty yet, but as Steyn points out, the behaviour of a lot of other folks on that stricken vessel is a parable for the age we live in– and for the hard days that may lie ahead, even (especially) if Obama goes down to defeat. We are on the Titanic, morally and economically, spiritually and culturally, out on the front deck of the ‘unsinkable’ playing with chunks from the iceberg we just hit. Whee.
Iceberg, Right Ahead?
What happens when the local, state, or national bills can’t be paid? When the prices keep going up, wages down, and the unemployed or debt-laden employed can’t pay the bills, or feed themselves & the kids? As the still-deferred reckoning of the 2006-2008 financial collapse continues to unfold?
We’re living on borrowed time– the ship has hit the rocks, and water is pouring in, and the officers are playing about as if it’s all just fine, no worries, go back to your cabins and wait for instructions type thing. The captain & officers will mostly save their own hides, so they’re not overly concerned about the expendable passengers.
So, WWYD?
It is often said that nobody knows how they might act in an emergency. Only partly true, in my experience. If you’re a douchbag/ette, you may surprise yourself with unsuspected resources of courage and suchlike in a disaster.. but you’ve also left it up to luck, maybe, who knows.
The time to prepare for an emergency is before the emergency– just as the way to deal with temptation is to practice virtue and stick to your promises with God’s help before the particular juicy opportunity saunters by. Thinking about what you’d sacrifice– or lay down your life for– best happens ahead of time, not while you find yourself kicking everyone out of the way to save your all-precious ass.. if not your self-respect or basic humanity.
Jeez: Move It, Granny!
Suddenly, we find ourselves pushed back on basics of self & civilization. A cornerstone: unselfish love. The Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” [ Luke 6:31 ] How about John 15:13 – “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.“
.. Or a weaker person, or a pregnant mother, a child, a granny, an elderly person, your spouse or child, a stranger needing saving. The passengers on the Costa Concordia (Or “Peaceful Coast”) found out what happens when civilization loses faith, and when “self and individuality and did I mention my all-awesome self?” is all I really believe in. Some charitable souls have tried to explain the recent disaster by pointing at Italians. As Steyn points out, nice try, but MV Estonia in the Baltic saw the same damned ugly scenes, of panicky men clambering over the weak, and not using their strength to save others.
Going Down With The Ship?
Back in WW2, the last man off the bombed & torpedoed carrier the U.S.S. Yorktown was– wait for it– the captain. He slid down a line into a waiting rescue boat, having walked all the parts of the ship he could get to to make sure everybody was safe. On the Titanic, Captain Edward Smith likewise remained at his station and died there. These were not random acts of randomness, but chosen acts of self-sacrifice and courage, leading to the saving of countless lives.
If Steyn is right, our society is busy on the pleasure deck, but the chaos is incoming. The fraying of manhood, the selfishness and narcissism of comfortable people, the assumption that Nanny-state will look after all the problems.. it means all kinds of unsuspected ugly lurks just under the surface of our brittle modern world. ~
( ‘..And Get The Heck Back On Your Ship, Captain!’ )
We Deserve To Know
Beware What You Gobble!
~ ITEM: MUHAMMADAN MILITARY COMMANDER: ‘THE ISLAMIC CALIPHATE IS COMING‘
~ ITEM: Google: ‘halal campbell’s soup‘; halal turkey
~ ITEM: Peter’s vision of a sheet with animals
~ SO EXACTLY when & who & where was deciding to make so much stuff (Campbell’s soups, ButterBall Turkey, Kiwi mutton products, heaven knows what else) blankety-blank Halal? That is, killed and/or prepared in accord with Muslim sharia law regarding food.
A silent non-consumer-driven revolution has crept into the food supply, whereby some companies placate Muslims, food corporations have gone halal, sometimes in collaboration with Muslim Brotherhood fronts like ISNA (for Campbell’s).
What The Fudge?
What other foods are Muzzie-approved without labels? What other sharia-compliancy is being foisted upon consumers?
Through the magic of Reverse-The-Terms, let’s imagine if food being shipped to Saudi Arabia turned out to be Kosher? Properly offered & sacrificed to Hindu gods? Maybe prayed over by evangelical Christian butchers? Sprinkled with bacon-fat?
OUTRAGE! MOB-VIOLENCE IN THE STREETS! FATWAS! DEATH-THREATS! MULTIPLE DEATHS!
On The Other Hand
Christians confronted this issue back in the early days, where butchery was often a pagan temple thing. Meat sacrificed to idols– should Christians eat it? In 1 Corinthians 10:28 St. Paul said (a) meat sacrificed to not-gods are allowable, but (b) for converts from paganism, or people of tender conscience, such meats should be abstained from, to not trouble those brothers or sisters for whom it could weaken their faith or cause offence. This also connects with the vision given to St. Peter [ Acts 10 ], that all foods were declared clean– no more dietary laws, or forbidden critters. This expands on what Jesus himself said, that it was not what into a man, but what came out from his heart that made him clean or unclean, good or evil [ Matthew 15:11 ].
By that principle, eating a Christian eating halal is free to do so– but other principles remain in force. What if a newly-converted Christian (a former Muslim man or woman) has such labelled food, sacrificed according to his or her former religion? For smarter-than-thou seculars, who cares? One religion is as false as another, and maybe this throw-away will make the Jihadi-prone Moe-lovers calm for a bit.
Still– why are companies in theoretically Christian but legally secular countries sneaking this grovel towards Islam into the food supply?
The Ugly Bigger Picture
The world-domination goal of The Muslim Brotherhood is not necessarily conversion, but the submission of the planet under sharia law, and Muslim domination uber alles. Halal, body-bags for all women, modesty laws, no criticism ever of anything or anybody Muslim, slighting of all other faiths, or non-faiths.. on and on it goes. European no-go zones are colonies of shariatopia. When there’s more than 5-10% of militantly Muslim population, you get your no-go zones, segregated swimming, honour killing, religiously sanctioned violence and dishonesty and Muslims Are Always Right and everything and everybody else shut up, forevers.
Halal soup or lamb or turkey is a first step in our submission to the Muslim Brotherhood Islamo-supremacist agenda. Boycott, and tell them why (the companies, an your local Supermarkets, too).
Our Sick-Making Cretins
The disgusting thing? If you read some of the links above, you’ll note various smirking Leftists mocking those who who called for boycotts. You know, because religious supremacism is just another patch in the rich tapestry of multiculturalism of something and stuff like that.
This should come as no surprise: the radical Left has always had a romance with tyranny and terror, aiding and abetting and apologizing for Gulag and Jihad. Call it a lust for destruction, or suicidal schadenfreude: brain-rot and soul-rot for the hipster radicals of the troubled West.
Drawing Of Lines
We are seeing the civilizational battle-lines drawing up.. while there may be converts from the radicals, we should not be surprised by their treachery, for they are not on the side of the West, but worship creative destruction, envy, self-hatred, and hating all the good things that made them who they are as members in a free society.
In The Inferno of Dante, the traitors are the lowest of the low, found at the heart of hell, frozen in a lake of ice surrounding Satan himself, who chews eternally on Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. Having used their God-given powers in life to betray God, homeland, and their fellow man, the treacherous are frozen nearly powerless for eternity. ~
What You’ve All Been Waiting For
~ ITEM: Well, what a surprise (not); America sails towards Scylla and Charybdis
~ ITEM: The most dynamic and productive economy in the history of the world degenerates into class warfare
~ ITEM: President Gingrich Would Be Good For Canada
~ ITEM: According to the WSJ, Illinois is “the Greece Next Door” to Wisconsin
Michael Coren & Mark Steyn: From Newt To Schettino & Everything In Between
~ GIVEN THE NEAR-INFALLIBILITY of Teh Binky, no doubt the world waits with bated breath Binksmeister’s wisdom on the 2012 American election race. You know, cuz I called it for the RINO in 2008, and Obama won despite my predictive amazingnesousity.
No clue, except: Anybody But Obama as President.
4 more years of his wrecking? And likely worse, since he will be a Lame Duck Prez, and no longer worried about re-election? Where next– $20.. or 25 trillion or more, plus the $100 trill in liabilities and bills coming due?
The Next Election Already
It’s good to hear that some Democratic voters are looking at the actual President’s actual record versus his 2008 platform of lies (almost all broken) and perhaps deciding that America needs real hope and change, minus the Big Narcissist currently sailing the nation straight for the rocks on almost every front domestically and internationally.
Likelihoods
Hard-core radicals will not abandon him, because under his watch the revolution can continue to wreck America now and for the next generation at least.. if not forever. One might wish that the Dems would look at what’s actually happening and seek to dump Obama: but the perqs and power are very intoxicating.
Dear Democrats: please love your country & the world more than the current monster heading up your political tribe.
Dear Republicans: get your #@&%$! act together.
Dear independents: vote for America– not for the wreckers. ~
A Teen Adventurer
~ ITEM: Laura Dekker Website
~ ITEM: Laura Dekker
~ IT GOES WITHOUT saying.. that not all teens are the same. Still, young Laura Dekker is a hero in two respects– youngest to sail around the world ever, and a survivor of bureaucratic abuse by the Netherlands nanny-state “Youth Care Acency”, which actually tried to lock her up to kill her dream of global circumnavigation, and take over her .
Until the Victorian era and modern nanny-state, there were no teens. There were children, then young adults. Children might work in the household, farm, or family business. No extended immaturity via baby-sitting schools & party-hearty universities. Heck, these days some folks can even make it into their mid-thirties on the big baby plan.
Another ‘Mere’ Teenager
In Biblical times, someone like Miriam of Nazareth was a young adult: mature, able in her due duties and skills. Likely around Laura Dekker’s age, she was already engaged, and then an angelic vision presented her with a choice which would literally put human salvation in her hands.
In my past teaching teens at Church camp (serious stuff like this, not Kumbayah & canoes), I found many of them– once they knew it was OK to ask real questions– to be serious, interesting, and brimming with questions of the most fundamental sort.
Modern education seems a most unserious enterprise, despite decades of fiddling and experts and dumbing-down. One of teh Binkling’s fellow students had trouble with basic reading (in high school) as they worked together on a project.
Throwing Away What Could Be
How many teens are deflected, defeated, dumbed down by current education into worker drones? Party critters? Studs & sluts? Burnouts?
By depriving kids of serious answers and solid food in their life-deciding years, we are throwing away so many chances for goodness, heroism, world-changing, and solid citizens. Mind you, we’ve been aborting actual babies by the millions in our ‘civilized lands’ for the last 50 years and more, so what’s wrong with a few aborted minds and souls and hearts?
Girls On Deck
Sad to note, despite all the drama and wonder of her voyage, Miss Dekker still reports being haunted by memories of bureaucratic abuse at the hands of Dutch authorities. One might suppose Dutch-descended Mark Steyn knows all about that, as does any member of that unhappy cadre of victims of Canucki Human rights commissions, tribunals, and investigations.
Sail on, brave young lady!* ~
* No, teh Binks is not advocating any and all teens cavorting solo, mid-Atlantic on a yacht.
Saith
The Binksmeister
Random Binky Linkies
~ WOULDN’T Pulp Fiction have been even cooler with this cast…? …. (eyecrazy.blog)
~ A SUBCULTURE of Americans prepares for civilization’s collapse …. (reuters.com)
Google: Minding ALL Your Business, cuz they say so.
~ GOOGLE’S BROKEN PROMISE: The End of “Don’t Be Evil”– In a privacy policy shift, Google announced today that it will begin tracking users universally across all its services—Gmail, Search, YouTube and more—and sharing data on user activity across all of them. So much for the Google we signed up for …. (gizmodo.com)
~ THE MOST Amazing Highest Resolution Image of Earth Ever …. (gizmodo)
Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut
Via
~ WHERE DOES spiritual autism come from? …. (americandigest.org)
New fragment of Romans 9 and 10 from circa AD150.
More on Hobby Lobby’s Steve Green’s work here. And the exhibition here.
~ BANG, ZOOOOM!– I was under the impression [ George Lucas ] hadn’t made a Star Wars film since 1977 …. (ghostofaflea)
~ THE MIGHTY VANDERLEUN– Pure Science …. (americandigest)
Paul Simon – So beautiful or so what
GreenEcoClimatologyism
~ THE MIGHTY BAYONET– Incoming Batpocalypse?; Global Warming Weekly Round-Up, Jan. 19th 2012; Canada’s big green fight …. (dailybayonet)
~ WISDOM FROM Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore: “Tides Canada…should have its tax status revoked” …. (mooseandsquirrel)
~ MANBEARPIG! — Goracle Praises Obama For Rejecting Keystone Pipeline …. (weaselzippers)
~ NEXT ICE-AGE deferred by human CO2 emissions? …. (JR)
~ HEY, KEVIN BACON– “I was part of the Footloose generation. I used to shake my ass to the theme song” …. (themoderateseparatist)
Bacon! I am Binky, and he approves this message.
~ FROM CJUNK– Spiteful, Small, Dishonest … Science …. (cjunk.blog)
~ PEW: GLOBAL WARMING Finishes Dead Last In Poll Of Americans Top Policy Priorities For 2012 …. (Wz)
~ BUTTING UP– Bugs from your colon could produce the world’s next great energy source …. (americandigest.org)
~ AMERICAN DIGEST– Nelson Reads All Climategate 2.0 Emails So You Don’t Have To …. (americandigest.org)
~ THE ACTUAL COSTS of subsidizing solar electricity have exceeded the 100-billion-euro mark in Germany …. (cjunk.blog)
Mark Steyn
~ A COUPLE of months back, I was with a friend of mine when she suddenly collapsed …. (steynonline)
~ A LADY CALLED Manal al-Sharif was killed on Saturday. She was, in Saudi terms, a brave pioneer …. (nationalreview)
~ STEYN ON DISASTER– No More ‘Women and Children First’ …. (ocregister.com)
~ VIDEO– Steyn on Culture: Who’s Off First? …. (sunnewsnetwork.ca)
~ THE RUSH Limbaugh Show: Mark guest hosts Rush …. (rushlimbaugh.com)
Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant on Sex Selection Abortions
~ PATRICK MOORE, founder of Greenpeace, tells viewers why he gave up the radical environmental way of life …. (Ez)
~ THE MIGHTY EZ– Keystone cop-out: Obama chose conflict Venezuelan oil over ethical Canuck oil, and movie stars over working men, women …. (Ez)
~ SPY V. SPY– Cold war reheated? …. (eZ)
~ A FASCINATING RESPONSE by Media Party to Marines’ urinating video …. (ezralevant)
FreeSpeechers
~ AN UPCOMING EVENT– One Law For All: ‘Hold this date – 11 February 2012: A Day to Defend Free Expression’ …. (xanthippa)
~ GO AND READ EVERYTHING over at La Shaidle. She is narrow-minded and incorrect …. (fivefeetoffury)
~ WHAT IS MAN– Anthony Esolen on What Raskolnikov Knew & Translators Have Lost …. (touchstonemag)
~ SAITH THE GYAPONG– Victor Davis Hanson on reading literature; Obama has got to go; So the MSM is ignoring Newt’s standing O– why is that the Anchoress asks?; How can someone lead such a double life?; An interview with Fr. Steenson; What Christians can learn from Christopher Hitchens; A message from Fr. Steenson for us in Canada; Woo hoo! The Binks is baaaaack! …. (deborahgyapong)
~ CRIMINAL GOOGLE– How the Government Used a Con Artist to Catch Google’s Criminal Activities …. (gizmodo)
~ PERSECUTION– Boston Event Spotlights Imperiled Middle East Christians; via Walid Phares …. (theird)
Forbidden Image. DON’T LOOK.
~ BLARING CATBOX– Sh&t Liberals Say; Liberal MP’s & Islamists Bashing Kenney; Rally for Free Expression: One Law for All; Your Tax Dollars at Work; Fighting for property rights. Land rights and gun rights in Canada; Attempted honour killing victim speaks on Quebec TV; Atheists Fear Mohammed …. (blazingcatfur.blog)
~ SPEAK OUT FOR THOSE IN DANGER– Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) Calls on UN to Protect Christians of Syria – Reuters …. (atlasshrugs2000)
~ VICTOR DAVIS HANSON– “The average Californian, like the average Greek, forgot that civilization is fragile.” …. (americandigest)
~ COPTS & ROBBERS– Persecution of Egyptian Copts; One Year Later: The Failure of the Arab Spring; Prominent Coptic activist calls on Minister of Justice to investigate Two Saints Church bombing; MENA’s New Left …. (Various)
~ MOOSES & TREE-RATS– Canada’s anti-property rights bureaucracy targets legal gun owners — Who’s next?; Snowpocalypse in Vancouver; CBC & its “neutral” ombudsman Lapointe to apologize soon; Fired for telling a harmless joke in class? …. (mooseandsquirrel.ca)
~ OVER OUR DEAD BODIES– Men Who Are Willing to Lay Down Their Lives Are Truly Indispensable …. (touchstonemag)
~ WELL DONE, THEN! — “The Harper government has changed our international image in a short period of time, from that of a so-called ‘peacekeeping nation’ whose ill-equipped and bureaucratically shackled Armed Forces were often placed in situations to ‘keep the peace’ when there was no peace to be kept, to a much more vocal nation on the world stage which takes a stand, politically and militarily, against the bad guys” …. (themoderateseparatist)
~ WALKERISM– On libertarianism …. (walker)
~ ORWELL’S PICNIC– I imagine it’ll be the only one; I find the arguments for Intelligent Design to be somewhat unconvincing; these people knew nothing about the history of Nazism and the War; Never fear Jihadis, the EU stands behind you in that noble effort; a few Thoughts about the subject of philosophical isolation; Hate the cutsie-wootsy figures; A parade of naked emperors; He sees when you’re dissenting, he knows when you’ve blasphemed …. (anglocath.blog)
~ A CANADIAN MEMBER of Parliament proposes to remove a 300-year old law about babies from Canada’s Civil Code. Prime Minister Harper once again won’t cooperate …. (catholicinsight)
~ MERE COMMENTS– No More Narnia Movies?; Mere Links 01.20.12; Gay divorce first, religious freedom a distant second, Charles Lewis …. (touchstonemag)
~ THE LATE Christopher Hitchens on Mormonism …. (ghostofaflea)
~ WINTERY KNIGHT– What happened to the ethics charges against Newt Gingrich?; Haitian man who could not be deported kills three people in Florida; Peer-reviewed paper looks at the causes of homosexuality; Did Obama really create jobs with his green energy and stimulus programs? …. (winteryknight)
~ WORLD TEETERS as past mistakes repeated: “..we ignore past failures at our peril even as we drift towards repeating them” …. (boldcolors)
~ CRANMER BLOG– Nadine Dorries’ quest for sexual abstinence; Christian persecution – the top 50 countries; Chris Bryant on the ‘silliness’ of the Roman Catholic Church …. (cranmer.blog)
~ STATUTES OF LIBERTY– The Tyranny of Modern Freedom versus the Freedom of Jesus …. (touchstonemag)
~ SMALL DEAD AMINALS– Ontario Hydro: One Very Confused Government Agency; A Super Secret Anti-Gay Agenda; Gunter: Big cuts needed in Ottawa’s bloated public service; Tim Thomas “Just Has To Be” a Racist; Now is the Time at SDA When We Juxtapose …. (sda)
~ THE HATEFUL John Robson– Does the topic of abortion make you uncomfortable? It should. Abortion is wrong …. (canoe.ca)
~ CELESTIAL JUNK– The Art of Being Sanctimonious; Travails of the f-35a Flying White Elephant …. (cjunk.blog)
Bill Whittle On Walking Into Mordor
~ THE MIGHTY MELANIE Phillips: A loss of religious belief has led the West to replace reason and truth with ideology and prejudice; South Carolina– Well, what a surprise (not); the idea of elected police commissioners; Cameron and Clegg give a free pass to racism; Save the union? Stop throwing cash at the Scots; the Times still clings to the delusion that the ‘Arab Spring’ was the harbinger of democracy in the region …. (melaniephillips)
~ IT’S A GIRL- Female Infanticide and Foeticide In China and India …. (republicaninthearts)
It’s a Girl! Documentary Film – Official Trailer
~ ED DRISCOLL– Identity Theft, Then and Now; Lunch, Cigars, and the Final Solution; It Looks Like You’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat; Civilization in Reverse, on Dry Land and on Sea; Metaphor Alert: ‘Main Street USA will be Closed for the Duration of the President’s Time There’; Sucking up to Jimmy Carter by praising one of his worst, most self-destructive moments; If Newt so lacked the “moral character” for the Presidency, why did it take Marianne eight months to tell us?; The Me Decade versus the Great Relearning …. (pjmedia.com)
~ MEET THE LEFT’S Most Offensive Twit: Roy Barbeau …. (clayandwater.ca)
~ THE HATEFUL MARK SHEA– “Gay Brownshirts on the March! Because the purpose of gay “marriage” is to create a legal basis for persecuting Christian belief. Tolerance is not enough. You. MUST. Approve!” …. (markshea)
~ MITCHIEVILLE– It Really Is The Favourite; Say, is it cold in here, or is it just Bawney Fwank?; Horoscope for the week of January 22, 2012; UK Headlines From The Year 2030; Modern Propaganda Techniques; Living in poverty like those Mexican welfare cases; It is always nice to know you can blame the Jews for everything …. (mitchieville)
~ SENTINALISM– Gubmint Motors Paying for Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Film; Canadian Indians Opposing Pipeline Accepted Soros Money …. (thecanadiansentinel.blog)
~ BIG BLUE WAVE– Abortion will not come to an end in Canada without martyrdom; Creepy parents reveal sex of their ‘gender-neutral’ child‘; and Sometimes you just want to give a person a vigorous shake; also If you want to fight contraception, you must take up metaphysics; horrible fun with Pro-choice Semantics …. (bigbluewave.ca)
~ A PAPISTICAL rebuttal to “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” …. (patheos)
~ MIKE ADAMS– Postmodern Political Correctness and Christianity, and here’s Part II …. (boldcolors)
~ CLOSET-CON: “I rarely disagree with the great Caroline Glick, but hey-there’s a first for everything”; Rest in Peace, Navajo Warrior; and The UK is really screwed …. (conservativeinthecloset.blog)
~ LIFESITE– Ontario government thanks Catholic leaders for support of gay anti-bullying bill; ‘Confessions of a recovering lesbian’; A battle to the death against moral relativism – Michael O’Brien; The silliest pro-abortion argument ever (is one you hear all the time); Liberals outraged over Dutch government funding of therapy for homosexuals …. (lifesitenews)
Obysmal
~ HEY, GENIUS POTUS– “Obama was only too happy to help the Islamic supremacists overthrow Mubarak, but has been criminally silent on the persecution and slaughter of Christians in the wake of his post-American foreign policy” …. (atlasshrugs2000)
~ GIZMODO– This Is Obama’s 2012 State of the Future …. (gizmodo)
~ SAITH MARK SHEA: “The question is not whether the Church will survive the growing hostility directed at it by the United States. The question is whether the United States will survive. To hate Christ is to love the spirit of suicide” …. (patheos.com)
~ MUST-READ: “How would you have reacted in 2008 if any Republican ran promising to do the following?” …. (markshea)
~ PULL HIS FINGER! Obama Chooses Chavez Over Canada …. (themoderateseparatist)
~ THE PUNDITA– A few choice words about poetic justice and the Washington Consensus …. (pundita.blog)
~ RENT-A-MOB BOSS Soros Predicts Occupy Wall Street Movement Will Turn Violent, Riots To Bring About A “Repressive Political System” …. (Wz)
~ EXACTLYY– “Barack Obama is a terrible president and an unpopular one. He is ripe for defeat in November, but not by Newt Gingrich” …. (powerlineblog)
Cuddly, Cuddly Evil
~ HE CUDDLES THE EVIL– It is official: the Obama administration supports the radical anti-American, anti-semitic and anti-Western Muslim Brotherhood …. (princearthurherald.com)
~ THE HATEFUL SULLIVAN– Newsweek adds to the left-wing media “racist” narrative: Obama critics are “dumb.” …. (boldcolors.net)
~ PREPARING TO FAIL– “Having basically written off the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Obama is falling prey to a temptation several of his predecessors found irresistible in peacetime: Cut defense expenditures” …. (centerforsecuritypolicy)
~ REALITY BITES BACK– Dems Say Romney “Not Paying His Fair Share” – Seemingly Unaware John Kerry Was Paying a Lower Tax Rate When He Was Their Nominee …. (Wz)
~ SIGH.. EVEN MORE MARK SHEA– “Really Gingrich and the media are (like Gingrich and Freddie Mac) deeply incestuous (but then, we know how Gingrich feels about the need for his lovers to share him. There’s just too much awesomeness crackling in that Teacher of Civilization to be confined by bourgeois mores)” …. (ms)
~ DR. SANITY– Without envy, there would be no Democratic Party today.”I have to ask again with some exasperation, why aren’t Republicans making a case for the essential morality of capitalism?” …. (drsanity.blog)
~ CB CONGRESS Chairman: Blacks “Wouldn’t Dare March on The White House” Because Obama’s Black, If He “Was A White President We Would” …. (Wz)
~ NEWT’S RIGHT on Sharia, By Frank J. Gaffney Jr. …. (nro)
~ OBAMA’S RACE-WAR– “Too Black to Fail:” Juan Williams and the Race Card Played Two Ways …. (americandigest)
~ THE BOSSY LADY– “What, exactly, does Valerie Jarrett do?” …. (cjunk.blog)
~ THE RBO2 BLOGGER is keeping track of the rent-a-radical Occupy movement …. (rbo2)
~ CYNTHIA FARAHAT: Jihad & the War on Egypt’s Coptic Christians …. (centerforsecuritypolicy)
~ NITWIT FOX NEWS Hires Soros-funded Activist …. (atlasshrugs2000)
~ EAT CAKE, BIATCHES– “Apparently, Obama hopes the cult of celebrity will transform the gravest presidential election since Lincoln into an American Idol face-off. Winner at eleven.” …. (atlasshrugs2000)
Jihad
“The international Left’s embrace of the likes of Hamas, the Taliban, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood has increased leftist and isolationist American policy-makers’ comfort level in adopting hostile postures towards Israel. So it is that at the same time that the Obama administration is assiduously courting the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian regime, according to Channel 2, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has refused to meet with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman during his upcoming trip to Washington.”
~ Some Evil Jewess ~
~ KUWAITI PRINCE declares conversion to Christianity: “if they kill me because of it, then I will appear before Jesus Christ” …. (jihadwatch)
~ BAIT, SWITCH, SCAM– Ireland may be the first EU state to sell Islamic bonds. Fleecing the infidels was never so easy …. (jihadwatch)
~ FATWA FROM THE OIC: France Adopting Armenian Genocide Law A “Sign of Islamophobia” …. (weaselzippers)
~ LET MY PEOPLE Go– Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists reportedly collaborate in rampage against Christians …. (jihadwatch.org)
~ GRUDGES ARE ETERNAL– AUTHOR SALMAN RUSHDIE IN MUMBAI JIHADI ASSASSINATION THREAT …. (atlasshrugs2000)
~ PAKISTANISTAN– “Beneath the surface in Abbottabad” is the Pakistani regime’s routine use of terrorism as a policy tool …. (pundita.blog)
~ WOULD-BE MASTERS of the world! Egypt: Female former member of Muslim Brotherhood tells all …. (jihadwatch)
~ SAITH THE BOSTOM– “Understanding the Islam in Muslim Jew-Hatred” …. (andrewbostom)
~ UKISTAN: Three Muslims guilty of “hate crime” for advocating murder of gays …. (jihadwatch)
~ UNCLEAN POLICE sniffer dogs trained to spot terrorists at railway stations may no longer come into contact with Muslim passengers – after complaints that it is against the suspects’ religion …. (clayandwater)
~ IRONY ALERT: The country that threatened to wipe Israel off the map is very upset at aggressive language used against it …. (eyecrazy.blog)
~ SPECIAL JUSTICE– AN Indonesian civil servant who declared himself an atheist on Facebook was arrested and is now facing jail for blasphemy …. (atlasshrugs2000)
~ THE VLADMEISTER– Gaddafi supporters seize control of Libyan town; Hate crime charges in England, only apply against whites …. (vladtepesblog)
~ RUSTY SOVIET DISINFO still going– Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Claims HIV Created By West To Weaken Third World …. (republicaninthearts.blog)
~ SPECIAL JIHAD LOGIC– “Hamas says that if only Jews still were in Gaza, it would be able to stage peaceful protests. Without them, the only choice is violence” …. (cjunk.blog)
~ NEO-NAZIS & MOE-LOVERS: Andrew Lawton at Landmark Report remembers a somber anniversary …. (clayandwater)
Freedom of Speech & Human Rights Under Sharia
~ CREEPING SHARIA– Jihadi magazine got into Gitmo cell; At least 143 killed as Muslims wage jihad in north Nigeria; Tariq Ramadan And Youssef Qaradawi Come Together; Bangladesh coup plot by military & Hizb ut Tahrir members fails; Muslim killed wife, brother in law, gets settlement from Ohio for halal meals; Maldives removes monuments “offensive” to Muslims …. (creepingsharia)
~ MORE GENDER Segregation In Iran- Schoolgirls To Get Separate Text Books …. (republicaninthearts)
~ INFILTRATIONISM– Muslim Hate Groups on Campus …. (clayandwater)
~ CAROLINE GLICK– Latma exposes the Jewish terror machine; Mainstreaming anti-Semitism; The rise of the forces of jihadist Islam in Egypt places the US and other Western powers in an uncomfortable position …. (carolineglick)
A Pre-Dead Minion Writes…
Ken Kully helpfully chimes in via FC Comments:
To add to the digital privacy/password-changey goodness, grab yourself a copy of KeePass. It’s a simple but powerful password database application, which includes a random password generator you can control the parameters of.
Whenever you need to register for something, just call up a new entry in KeePass, record your username, and generate a random password. The only password you ever need to remember from then on is the one that unlocks your KeePass database. And if you throw said database (which is heavily encrypted) into a Dropbox, you can access it via different apps on your Android or iOS-based mobile device, just in case.
Oh, and KeePass also lets you assign expiry dates to passwords stored in it, in case you need periodic reminders to change your online security.
Best of all: FREE!
It might be included in the PortableApps suite; I forget. If not: keepass.info.
Steynian 455st
ChinaComs Want Your Stuff
“The servility of Canada’s political leaders (municipal, provincial and federal) to the obvious manipulations of Chinese strategists who flaunt world trade and financial market principles and jail democracy-promoting authors for 10-year terms is a national disgrace.Canada is not a parking lot for Chinese (or American) resources and our complicity with what Glavin rightly describes as “a rigged game” orchestrated by this “increasingly vile regime” in Beijing needs to end…”
~ Anthony Campbell ~
~ ITEM: China has our forests, now we’re sending our oilfields too; also here; and some return fire
~ ITEM: About China: “Canadians need to talk about what’s happening under our noses.”
~ ITEM: The 3-Ds Blog: Diplomacy, Defence, Development — China
~ ITEM: Jean Chretien and the Sidewinder Report; Secret Report Shows China Using Canada To Infiltrate US
~ ITEM: Sidewinder Report — Secret – RCMP-CSIS Joint Review Committee
~ ITEM: Prime Time Crime
~ ITEM: Former diplomat says West has ‘fantasy’ view of China
~ MIGHTY CANADA: Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water, giant land of endless resources.. but who owns them?
If author & commentator Terry Glavin is right, an awful lot of Canadian stuff, companies & resources belong to Communist China. You know, the people running industrial theft & espionage across the country, and around the world? The folks who own a big stake in Sudanese oil-fields and the resulting genocides? Yup, the People’s Republic of Maoistan.
Sidewindered
Back in Prime Minister Jean “I Love China” Chretien’s day, he crushed a timely early warning– the 1997 Sidewinder Report (link above)– about systemic ChiCom infiltration of Canada via spies & organized crime. He and his travelling pack of pro-China salespersons wanted ever closer-ties with China, in an echo of the earlier Trudeaupian plan of “Anyone But America” for canadian imports & exports. Can’t be pointing out that our new best business budies are snooping and stealing and buying political influence.
Actual Secret Plots
This may not suit the conspiracy theories of the Occutards, The Harper-haters, or the Dr. Dawg-style whingers about the evils of the West.. but like the Jihadists, China knows how to play the long game, wheels within wheels, and is playing for keeps. The weird talk and conspirazoid quacking on any other topic– let alone the Paultard isolationism– would be yelling about second things, while the real and first things slide under their radar.
Wakey-Wakey, Big-Hats!
Harper? Kenney? McKay? Let’s hear the rest of the story about our would-be major oil-importers versus our natural ally to the south (currently crazied by eco-nitwits and $oro$ and Obamunism), before we give in any more to folks who are stealing, buying, lying, and seeking to enslave us to their geopolitical future.
It would be more than disappointing if Chinese Canadians– feeling a certain loyalty to their homeland, or a worry over racism– were to merely dismiss such concerns. The first issue is Truth, and Canadian economic and political freedoms. They, in particular, know the inside of their local mini-culture, the presence of organized crime, or possible eco-industrials spies.
The True North Strong And Free is worth it, after all. It’s ours to lose. ~
The Binky Wants To Save Your Life!
~ EVER SINCE Binks-Dad bought me my first Victorinox Swiss army knife (for cub-scouts), I’ve loved blades. Functional, serious, not toys but endlessly useful tools. When the Binklings were old enough, I bought them jack-knives. So far, no murders or lost fingers.
I also like multi-functional things.. which is why the new & inexpensive rescue knives via Amazon or eBay are a new fave on my radar. That’s one of those folding-knives with a serviceable 4-inch blade, a recessed rope/ seatbelt-cutter on the handle, and a small metal spike on the handle-end.
That is: an inexpensive all-purpose knife which can fit in a pocket or purse or glove compartment, made to save lives in case of an accident by freeing you or others from damaged seatbelts, and which can break car safety-glass to allow escape, above or below water. A life-saver.
Woof, Woof!
You’d pay any amount for such a thing in time of emergency– why not buy one for your car, and each family-member now? A cheap investment in preparedness & life. There are sheep, wolves, and sheep-dogs– be a sheep-dog, and be prepared.
The life you save may be your own. You’re welcome*. ~
* P.S. Please to note that Teh Binks shared such information freely, whether you & yours are Binks-Minions, of whatever faith (or non-faith), or even if you like this page and The Binksmeister, or not. It’s how this infidel rolls.
Sacrificed Unto Allah
~ ITEM: Honour Killing Entrenched in Islam; and “Honor Killing” is Absolutely Islamic!
~ ITEM: Pakistan: 675 women and girls were murdered there to protect their families’ honor
~ AS YOU SEEK TO re-organize your life around Binky’s tastes & interests, don’t forget NCIS. Show creator Don Belisario has managed two of the least politically-corrected franchises on TV over the past 2 decades, first with JAG, and the spin-off NCIS (Navy Criminal Investigative Service).
Then came season 7, episode 10. Whoever wrote this stinker should be kidnapped & driven around to all the graves of young teen Muslim girls honour-murdered by their families.
A Tide Of Blood
World-wide, Muslims account for 91% of this horrible Islamic custom (yes, it’s original), and that’s why we’re seeing it now in the West, where immigrants bring their sharia with them to use against their modernizing kids (particulraly girls), to protect the family honour (only girls can be sluts, after all). Forced marriage of girls is also a sharia-treat.
Along with this is the murder of converts from Islam to any other faith, since that’s in the ever-delightful Koran of Moe, too.
Um, NCIS, You Said?
That’s what makes NCIS 7.10 so backwards, grating, and politically correct. Forget all the jihad on North American soil, and directed at the U.S. military by Muslims, in this episode of NCIS, we meet a Christian brother murders his Marine son for converting to Islam, and ruining ‘family honor’.
You know, because honour-killings are a big Christian problem, ever since God told Moses about that ‘Do No Murder’ thing, and then there’s when Abraham didn’t sacrifice his son and all… Why, I heard of a Christian doing this to their teen.. um, well: not sure, but Muslims are better than us, so it must be a problem….
Pander, Grovel
Liberally slathered throughout the episode are useful tidbits about Muslim practices, how noble islam is, how only red-necked intolerance and bigotry can account for criticism or wariness of Moe’s cult.. you get the idea. Not only is it a sloppy and transparently pandersome script, it ruined the otherwise moving re-visit to the show of guest star Ralph Waite (Pa on TV’s The Waltons) as Gibb’s semi-estranged father.. who turns out to have things to share with his son.
Fun With Islam
Human sacrifice was a common pre-Islamic practice before Muhammed got his cult going– particularly for unwanted girl infants. Moe did stop that, sort of, but with his unique twist: the Moe Or Die thing.
Honour-killing can arguably be based on a few elements: death to all apostates, and the strange story of the mysterious traveller Al Khidr “The Green One” (see here), who along with fixing a wall, wandering around Galilee, and sinking a boat, also kills a child in cold blood. Says bloody random murderer GreenDude in ‘explanation’,
“I killed the child because Allah did not want that child to cause his parents, who believe in you, to leave and run away from your religion. Allah will give them better children than him.”
Koran, 18:65f.; and Prophet of Doom – 5 Qur’ans
Got that? No repenting, no uncertainty, no mercy, cuz Allah says so, therefore kill the unbelieving little bastards. Call it divinely-sanctioned retroactive abortion, if you will. The cult says murder = many cultists murder their kids. Moe said God told them it was OK. Sacrifice your children to Allah’s will, he’ll give you new & better ones.
Upsidedownistan, USA
The NCIS story has it backwards: the Christian brother murdered the convert. So the world tres to ignore, deny, and even, as in this crappy attitude, reverse the blame. Shame on Belisario, the show’s writers, and the cowardly denial in the West which would apologize for and cover up such evils. Let’s make nice with the crocodiles, so maybe they won’t eat us right now.
Yeah, it’s ugly, and no wonder some Islamic websites try and say honor killing is alien to The Cult Of Moe. Like his fondling a 6-year old ‘wife’ (and deflowering her when she was 9), Moe’s allowance of murder due to apostasy is just plain evil and impossible to justify.
It’s all wink-wink back in the home countries. A horrible conspiracy of silence.
Got immigrant Muslim neighbours? Keep an eye out for the kids.. they are disposable. Of course, here in the West, we already know that, but we tend to hide our form of infanticide in abortion mills and hospitals. ~
The Bitches Are Disposable
No To The Penguin Pr0n!
Hot Nekkid Penguin!
~ ITEM: Steyn: Sex and The Silly
~ HERE AT GULAG BINKS, we run a pretty tight ship re: the interwebs. The Binklings know that if explicit penguin p0rn (or worser) shows up on any house computers, that computer is shut down, online privileges lost, chores abounding. Interwebs is a right, not a privilege.
Thing is, that’s us. Many homes are unsupervised web-wise, DVD/ downloads-wise, and it taken for granted that the PLDs (Precious Little Darlings) would never wander to the forbidden fruit sites online, let alone ever sext or take naughty pictures with cellphones or hook up… oh, you know. If humans are merely animals with speech, then before the PLDs rush off to the bushes to Do The Natural, perhaps they might pause long enough to slip on a condom? Way to ruin civilization, O sexual revolutionaries!
Pee Wee Hermanism
PeeWee Hermanism
Back in the day, there was one (one) local cinema with creepy men in raincoats doing the Pee-wee Herman. There was one (one) hardcore p0rn-shop. Then came VHS & DVD & the interwebs & HBO and the pr0nification of ordinary culture was underway. That’s probably how the last of the mystery of sex & innocence got murdered amongst so many.. or nipped in the bud amongst the younger set, and disconnected from love & procreation and the larger scope of marriage & relationships.
Actual Romance
Odysseus and Penelope, Caesar & Cleopatra? Dante & Beatrice? Romeo & Juliet? Nope, these days & for some kids, it’s down to oral sex at the back of the school bus; dating in Elementary; that’s upwards of 2 decades of dating before marriage.
Old Man Steyn Says “DON’T”!
Notorious killjoy and neo-puritan opponent of sex, the former DJ Mark Steyn, has touched on our current crisis of love and sex and all that dirty stuff. Worth re-reading, in light of the slow death of our culture from the inside, and the outside.
In part, I blame Freud, the Marxists, organized crime, but most of all the Middle Class of pr0n-loving suburbanites– you and me– who enjoyed and/ or ignored this wave of soul-killing stuff as it swamped souls and homes and marriages.
We’re currently reaping the entirely foreseeable results of human nature marinated in such stuff, or as the radical left likes to call it “unintended consequences”.
What Is True Freedom?
In contrast to the often morally anarchic Libertarians, I wish to assert– along with the wisest pagans and the greatest Christian saints– that true freedom is freely choosing to will and do the good. HOW we do that is a discussion for another time. ~
Binks Smacked Down?
~ ITEM: SIX DEGREES OF DIGNITY– Disability in an Age of Freedom, by David W. Shannon
~ CRUELLY HATEFUL infidel professor & alleged freespeecher Mark Mercer wrote to The Binks about a recent post ‘Back In The Day‘ which mentioned– apparently now former– NS Human Rights Boss & rabid utopian Krista Daley. Mark sideswipingly informs me:
You mentioned Krista Daly in your latest Free Canuckistan post. Probably you know this, but she hasn’t been with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission for a few weeks now, maybe more than a month. I know nothing about her departure–health reasons, a better offer, internal machinations…. Her first term had expired a few months before she left.
The new CEO of the NSHRC is David Shannon. Here’s the official announcement, here’s a bio.
Ouch! What a heartless and brutally “fact-based” way to harsh Binky’s mellow, huh? Binky: you’re terribly, terribly wrong! No wonder the fact-lite new & improved SMU paper fired his professorial butt.
No word via Mark if Shannon’s a hardcore utopian crusader, a time-server, or one of the good guys. He’s a past member of the ridiculous Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. Anyone got work, or up to a backgrounder?
After a little look, he’s at least a tireless public advocate for teh crippleds, as a quadriplegic. Won’t see him running the Soylent Green euthanasia/ eugenics squads for cripples, feebs, retards, veggies, sickies, and other useless eaters. ~
Avast, Ye Swabby Scurves!
HMS Surprise, by Geoff Hunt
~ IT HAS BEEN suggested by some members of the Binks tribe that I have a short attenti– look! a castle!– erm.. attention-span. My Grade One teacher certainly thought so, whilst I thought all this sitting in rows for interminable periods to be a Very Regrettable Idea.
In any case, I’ve been revisiting the very fine Aubrey-Maturin series of novels (currently on HMS Surprise), by Patrick O’Brian. These books are on my read frequently list.
The 18th & 19th century of sail was the natural culmination of thousands of years of like technology and a way of life. A hard, direct, often brutal way of life for the sailors, but very different from pushing a button somewhere, and things explode far away. Wooden ships & iron men type thing.
The Real Article
This time I’m using Teh Internits to look at maps, paintings & prints, and even downloading the autobiography of Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane, one of the people O’Brian borrowed to fill out his Captain Aubrey. Earl Cochrane was a huge man, like Jack Aubrey in the books (though not in the movie), and even had a particular friend & physician who sailed with him through most of his sea-going life– though he a Scot named Dr. Guthrie, and not a Catalan named Dr. Maturin.
If anything, the real Cochrane was larger in life than any fictional character, and in many places O’Brian actually scales down the escapades of the man, while preserving the flavour of his exploits, and a naval life at the height of the British navy. Reading the autobiography is very moving, as you recall it was total war against Europe’s first modern dictator, nor was Cochrane was not a man to bite his tongue, or forget a wrong.
In such circumstances, each vessel was precious for the overstretched military and trade needs of the British Empire, and the everyday beast of burden– the versatile royal frigate– was employed as raider, convoy escort, diplomatic vessel, coastal defence, fleet outrider & big-ship protector, special-cargo vessel, explorer, spy vessel.. you name it.
Happy Little Gerbil
Binky’s Brain
(Not Exactly As Shown)
Reading with a book in one hand and a computer nearby gives depth and background to the book.. plus a field of play for my gerbil-brain. Today (whilst resting) I’ve already looked up the Wiki on Admiral Linois (French), the story of the actual battle which O’Brian used (plus prints of the battle & some of the ships)– where a wary Linois & his powerful small squadron was fooled by a rich comvoy of English merchants into thinking that a half-dozen of the ships were not fat comfortable East Indiamen, but Royal Navy heavy frigates.. so he let them go. I’ve also looked up wooden models of the ships involved, maps of the maneuvers.. and written this blog-post.
Down, gerbil! Back to the battle! ~
Now, With More Nuance
~ ITEM: Wired: “Why the Hobbit Trailer Creeps Me Out”
~ I’M A DEEP-DYED Tolkien-nerd. That doesn’t mean I love all things Peter Jackson, since he lacks a certain finesse and inner grasp of the characters and point of what the good professor was on about. No, really.
When asked by one reporter what The Lord Of The Rings was deep down all about, he said.. here it comes.. “It’s about the power of friendship” (?!). On that depth, one might as well say that the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels is about boats, and War & Peace is about lost Frenchmen.
Jackson seems a cultural Christian, at best. Just as Christians can know and feel the truth & power of Handel’s Messiah more profoundly than an agnostic, so a mind at least sympathetic to chivalry, comradeship under arms, the deadly seriousness of some conflicts, and the revelation of God in Christ has the mental furniture, arguably essential tools to understanding the beating heart of Middle Earth, and the events and people in the trilogy.
Danger, Bilbo Baggins! Danger!
As Wired’s Erik Wecks recently warns in an online article, he’s worried about what a Jacksonian treatment of The Hobbit will bring us in late 2012 and late 2013. What messing about with characters, and their essential nature? What buffoonish Dumb & Dumberism? What grand missing the point, or trying to awkwardly fit a bland modern point onto a classic boy’s adventure with all the right elements of a cracking good story? Diversity? Recycling? Dragons are People, Too?
I agree (and have written similarly) on Wecks’ essential point, that in misunderstanding and weakening the characters in the LOTR movie-trilogy, Jackson missed the point of the books, and the true nobility & strength of the heroes. Aragorn, Frodo, Gandalf, Gimli, Merry & Pippin– all get the emo/ wimpification treatment, because– so we are told these days– noble, brave, principled characters or people are.. horror of horrors.. boring. We must to have the nuance! Angst! Waffling! A little stupid self-betrayal and suchlike. They must be like us, and not get out of our comfort-zone!
Keep It Mushy, Professor!
In reading the comments responding to the critic, ‘lordvanye’ riffs on this theme:
“the screen writers actually gave frodo and aragorn a more human and interesting side. Characters that are intrinsically “perfect” are un-relatable and frankly kind of dull. Much like how, in the book, faramir had no interest in taking the ring but in the films he struggled. That made him more realistic and a much deeper character because he wasn’t so perfect in that sense.”
Mean Old Boring & Dulls!
Wahh! Virtue and character and doing the right thing most of the time is, like, SO boring! You know, like on the recent shipwreck of the Costa Concordia when the Captain resisted the same-old boring goody-goodyism of ‘staying with his ship‘; how some of the officers & crew excitingly clambered over passengers to save their own asses; how the tired and dull “Women & Children First” trope was overthrown for a new and creative paradigm, revealing many new and dynamic shades of character in the midst of disaster. Hmph.
On the contrary, I find wishy-washy dangerous & treacherous; the Vicar Of Bray an unreliable ally. For the Binks, looking up to worthy folks with real virtues is not a waste of time; and men or women who have some honest stick-to-itiveness are the least boring of all. Many of my not shiningly perfect blog-buds are still obviously people with fine & shining parts, who know the cost of standing up for what they believe is right.
Today’s lack of courage, jealousy & resentment of goodness, and that wishing others (even in movies) were just as bad as you are? That’s just plain selfishness & cowardice– St. Gollum, a hero for the rest of us?
Mr. ‘lordvanye‘ simply misses the point (did he read the same books?) about Frodo, Aragorn, and Faramir– the true battles are in the heart, will, conscience, hopefully fought & pondered many times over before put to the test.
The Characters As Writed
So Aragorn had– by the point in the books where we meet him, 86 years of battle, learning, mistakes, reflection, education from the wisest in Middle-Earth, to sort himself out. He’s not some wishy-washy Leftist, ever-changing his ideas and principles to suit the moment, or the passing crisis. So Frodo (in the novels) is not a teen, but a gentle-hobbit in his 50s. He may not know himself as tested by extreme danger, but his fundamental good humour, courage, stubborn goodness are all set qualities.
Likewise, Faramir puts Frodo on field-trial, but then finds himself on trial when confronted by the Ring– but figures out (being a sensible man) that taking it, or bringing such a dangerous thing as destroyed his brother Boromir to his nasty & bossy father Denethor would be beyond crazy.
No need for all that extra footage and moral lapse and cruelty, because good and wise people generally have stuff figured out, understand life reasonably well, and know temptation when they sense it. These characters are not “dull.. unrelatable”, but mature, tried & tested, and not prone to dramatic failures of character just to make emos and squishes feel good about themselves.
Don’t Botch It, Pete
So here’s hoping that Jackson won’t pander to the squishes in the audience, and instead remind people that goodness is in itself attractive and inspiring, as is courage, sticking to decent principles, and understanding the cost and sacrifices necessary to be good and do good in dark times.
Here’s also hoping that ‘lordvanye’ doesn’t find himself on a stricken cruise-ship one day, where the reportedly exciting if unprincipled alternatives to moral and physical courage are set before him & his loved ones in a real-world way. ~
The Titanic II: Massive FAIL
Pre-News Warning
~ IN HONOUR of SOPA/ PIPA Blackout day (SOPA currently on hold, PIPA not), Teh Binks isn’t posting today. More here.
Um, except for this “posting”. Which, properly speaking is advance notice of a posting, and not a posting itself.
It will be an essay-dump tomorrow, not a link-dump, as I’m still building up stamina & speed.. and am yet again on The [expletives deleted] Antibioticals again for my guts, so don’t wish to overdo it. More prayers for feeb-elf, please.
Cheers until tomorrow,
The Binks
We’re Not Declaring, But…
… given the choices, lefty Performance Artist Vermin Supreme is looking pretty good: at least you know what you’re getting. If he won, maybe it would be like Belgium in 2011, which ran well enough without any actual government for several months.
