Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
interrogated before the Inquisition. For over two weeks he is imprisoned in an apartment in the Inquisition building. Galileo agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a more lenient sentence. He declares that the Copernican case was made too strongly in his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, and offers to refute it in another book.
And on June 22, 1633
sentenced to prison for an indefinite term
His Crime?
Now some may say, "Isn't it a bit late to start a Free Galileo Galilei Movement?"
For the Man, yes he died almost 400 years ago, still imprisoned by the Inquisition.
But NOT for his Principles, it is not too late for them.
It has been said those who study History are doomed to see it repeated by those who do not.
Not since the purges of Soviet Academia has the Civilized World seen the Body of Science so diminished on the grounds of doctrinal purity. The Cause of Galileo Galilei is alive in our day.
The Acid of Dogma versus Scientific Inquiry is once again on the attack lead by a Neo-Inquisition.
Those attacked, denigrated and outcast, are not cranks, not fringe experimenters, but have among their ranks some of the Best, the Brightest Minds of our Age.
So for the Intellectual Descendants of the Great Master I call out the battle cry.
Free Galileo Galilei
Do not let his Spirit be once more imprisoned, take up the gauntlet he threw down all those Centuries ago and defend it.
Does this mean we can now have a VGWOT Day like we had a VE and VJ Day? Not really
Democrats have banned the phrase "global war on terror" from the draft Pentagon budget, arguing that it is a propagandist term designed to boost President George W Bush's contention that the Iraq conflict was a war of necessity.
The term, coined by the Bush administration shortly after the September 11 attacks, soon entered the American political lexicon. In Pentagon documents, it has its own acronym - GWOT.
But Democrats on the House of Representatives' armed services committee, in an unconscious echo of Basil Fawlty's refrain of "Don't Mention the War!" in a Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans", has said that GWOT should be avoided.
What a concept! Just think how many lives we could have saved at the Normandy Invasion or the Storming of Iwo Jima if the Democratic Party of some 60 odd years ago had come up with this concept!
It beats "Cut and Run" or "Declare Victory and Leave" hollow. Just pretend there is no War and stop using the phrase that has been used to describe it thus far. Just erase the words from History
The Republic can now rest secure in the knowledge that the Global War On Terror has Ended and that the Security of the Nation is in the good hands of the more innovative thinking of the Democratic Party.
One question?
Has anyone Informed Al Qaeda and the other associated Jihadist Islamic factions?
I mean what a complication if they failed to hear that the Global War On Terror was over.
Doing some reasearch I have discovered this method of dealing with unpleasant situations has a long History, from antiquity upto today it is called:
Damnatio memoriae is the Latin phrase literally meaning "damnation of memory", in the sense of removed from the remembrance. It was a form of dishonor that could be passed by the Roman Senate upon traitors or others who brought discredit to the Roman State.
Explanation The sense of the expression Damnatio memoriae and of the sanction is to cancel every trace of the person from the life of Rome, as if he had never existed, in order to preserve the honour of the Urbs; in a city that stressed the social appearance, respectability and the pride of being a civis romanus as a fundamental requirement of the citizen, it was perhaps the severest punishment.
Practice Its most visible practice was in the condemnation of unpopular Emperors upon their deaths. The Senate wanted to condemn the memory of Caligula, but Claudius prevented this. Nero was declared an enemy of the state, but then given an enormous funeral honoring him, thus his status is unclear. Similarly, the Roman senate condemned Domitian and Commodus. Shortly after Commodus' death, they restored the original name of the city of Rome and its institutions which had been renamed in Commodus' honour during his lifetime. Other notable examples are the damnatio memoriae of Geta by his brother Caracalla, and of Elagabalus.
Upon passage of the damnatio memoriae, the person's name was stricken from any rolls of honor on which he may have appeared - some of them were called memoriae. In the case of the Roman Emperors so condemned, their statues were destroyed, or recycled with the heads of their successors, and their name removed from public buildings.
Similar practices in other societies It has been suggested that Person#Implications of the person, non-person debate be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
A modern example: A Soviet "unperson" vanishes: commissar Nikolai Yezhov retouched after falling from favor and executed in 1940.
The cartouches of the heretical 18th dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten were mutilated by his successors. Earlier in that same dynasty, Thutmose III carried out a similar attack on his step-mother Hatshepsut late in his sole reign. However, only engravings and statuary of her as a crowned king of Egypt were attacked. Anything depicting her as a queen was left unharmed (and the campaign ended after his son by a secondary queen was crowned co-regent), so this was not strictly speaking damnatio memoriae.[1] There is also some debate whether this defacement was Thutmose's doing at all, since most of the damage is estimated to have happened some 47 years into this reign. Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus to become famous. The Ephesus leaders decided that his name should never be repeated again, under pain of death. Marino Faliero, fifty-fifth Doge of Venice, was condemned to damnatio memoriae after a failed coup d'etat. More modern examples of damnatio memoriae in actual practice was the removal of portraits, books, doctoring people out of pictures, and any other traces of Josef Stalin's opponents during the Great Purge. In a twist of fate, Stalin himself was edited out of some propaganda films when Khruschev became the leader of The Soviet Union. A famous example of the concept of damnatio memoriae in modern usage is the "vaporization" of "unpersons" in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four in the quote "He did not exist; he never existed".
After blogger Judith Klinghoffer and an army of Davids declared a "Buy Danish" campaign to combat the Muslim boycott. The Guardian says "fervent rightwing Americans" participated in the buying spree and implies that the cartoonists were responsible for the deaths of 139 people.(like it was the cartoonists who killed those people instead of the ones who shed their blood, how like the Progressive TransNazi viewpoint)
Words by: Adam Gottlob Oehlenschlager Music by: Hans Ernst Kr?yer Adopted: 1844
"Derer et yndigt land" was first performed for a large gathering of Danes in 1844, and became popular quickly with the Danish people. It was adopted later that year by the Danish government as a national anthem, but not the sole national anthem. This anthem is on equal status with "Kong Christian",which is both the national and royal anthem.
When the Danish anthem is usually performed or sung, the first verse is played in its entirety, then it is followed by the last four lines of the last verse. (This is true whether the lyrics are sung or not
Recently I have been posting music to Illustrate the Diversity of America, this week I have a different motive to express Solidarity with DENMARK
I maintain my Support of Denmark, and will later today, post links to and my thoughts about a Danish Editorial "We are being pissed upon by Per Nyholm "
I think I shall title my Post, "There is no "But" in "Freedom of Speech".
When I first started upon my journey through the blogverse I created a Statement of Purpose Now upon reading it, one can realize that I did not hold to every detail of that original statement, but from it's basic premise, I have never swayed, in my belief that the Blogs are in fact the Committees of Correspondence of the Second American Revolution.
And that it is a Revolution of Information, no longer can we afford and allow elite gateways to control what we can see, hear and discuss.
For I believe that those bloggers who find their way, here and in particular from the Blogs associated with Sam.
HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.
Some of us are more Serious, some of us are more lighthearted and some post the common ordinary things that make one smile and recall that Life without the simple things to treasure is meaningless.
And it is important that all have a platform from which to speak.
As I understand this process you can link to this post and trackback to this post on ANY subject or post you think important. It is open. I will repeat this every Monday.
The Committees of Correspondence welcomes your intelligent comments. And also welcomes you to join the
OPEN TRACKBACK ALLIANCE
This week I also have shortened my usual introduction for a more important message.
MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism Created by Mark Jefferson on March 1st, 2006 at 5:42 pm AST
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism. We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all. "
Spanning The Globe
Periodically I like to check my Geo Tracking to see where my readers are from and use this handy "where have you been in the world" tool to map them. It's a lot of fun as well as very interesting. I have yet to cover the world but I am getting there. ;-)
Tashbih Sayyed R.I.P Topic: Islamic Jihad
This just came in from Obsession Highlights
With Deepest Condolences
With great sorrow we inform you that Tashbih Sayyed, a courageous foe of the global jihad, passed away. Tashbih Sayyed appeared in Obsession. Read the Front Page Magazine article here.
[Editor's Note: The following was written by Robert Spencer on behalf of Frontpagemag.com.] Tashbih Sayyed, 1941-2007
With great sorrow, Frontpagemag.com informs our readers that Tashbih Sayyed, a courageous foe of the global jihad, has passed away.
After a long career at Pakistan Television, Tashbih's differences with the Zia ul-Haq regime in Pakistan (which gave the Islamization of Pakistan its first great boost) led him to come to the United States, where he founded two newspapers, Pakistan Today and Muslim World Today, and wrote eight books, including Mohammad – A Secularist's View. He appeared in documentaries including Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. He was the President and founder of The Council for Democracy and Tolerance, an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute, and a member of the Jihad Watch Board.
Tashbih was insightful, humorous, and above all, fearless in his opposition to the jihad ideology of Islamic supremacism. Despite numerous threats and a relentless barrage of insults and personal attacks, he kept on trying to awaken the world to the magnitude of the threat we face, never trimming his truth-telling to fit current fashion.
He was a dear friend, and he will be greatly missed.
“How do you make the invisible, visible? You take it away.”
One morning California wakes up to find that one third of its population has disappeared. As the day goes by we discover that the characteristic that links the 14 million disappeared is their Hispanic background. This is the premise of the film A Day Without A Mexican that was released in 2004.
As filmmakers we felt, beginning in 1994 with California’s Prop 187, that the half-truths constantly repeated in immigration discussions needed to be clarified. Using our artistic voice we intended to give form to a strong sentiment of discomfort we perceived in the Latino immigrant community but which up to now had had no clear shape, no loud voice. We believe that immigration reform is the civil rights struggle of our time. It is a struggle that affects all of us with its impact on the economic, social and cultural fabric of our society.
In the spring of 2006, reality has imitated art. Immigration issues have exploded onto the national stage and currently there is a call for a National Boycott on May 1st -- No work, no school, no buying, no selling -- in support of immigration reform in the United States. All artists dream of changing the world. Our goal is to create work that is relevant to our times. If our work has encouraged social change, that is the ultimate satisfaction. In making this film, our objective was to open the dialogue on the issue of immigration by including factual information and alternative views that would change the terms of the discussion. This in the hope of having the Latino community take its rightful place as an important contributor and player in the history and future of the United States. The film was meant as a fable, a warning to be heeded.
Today, the fable has come to life. As we see reality and our imagination become one, we want to encourage people to participate in the struggle as they are able. We will be documenting the process and the outcome in hopes of furthering the discussion of the contribution made to our society and economy by not just the Latino immigrants but all immigrants. That these contributions increase productivity and raise the standard of living for all of us
I don't know about anyone else but this part popped right out at me,
We believe that immigration reform is the civil rights struggle of our time.
Excuse me, but citizens of other countries enter ours as guests they have no inherent right to come here.
If you disagree with that sentiment, I suppose anyone who wishes to, has an equal right to enter your house and make themselves at home?
I didn't think so.
Anyway I recalled that movie while reading about all the courtesy that little girl from Tennessee received in Mexico recently when she was representing the USA in the Miss Universe Contest. NOT!
Oh brother. Yeah, that'll wake us up about how wrong we are about the intentions and attitude of the 20 million-plus illegal Mexicans in our nation. Or, it could simply highlight the contempt Mexicans hold for this country. You see, the more someone allows you to take advantage of them, the less you respect them.
This year's contest was marked by controversy, with a handful of Mexicans booing Smith in the run-up to the finals because of what they saw as U.S. unfriendliness toward illegal immigrants...This was the fourth time the pageant was held in Mexico...
Rachel Smith, our entrant and a Tennessee girl
Despite the characterization that there was a 'handful' of Mexicans who boo'd, it was thunderous. How dare they, with all this nation has done, and now because they want a free pass to ravage this nation further and we resists, they boo this young woman.
Hey if you don't believe me or the author of the website I took the above from, Tammy Bruce.com,
Check it out for yourself.
Anyway, like I said I recalled that Movie and I thought how about a "Day Without Gringos"?
I don't mean we disappear, some of them might like that. They keep screaming at rallies about how we should all go back to Europe because they are the ones who have a right to this continent, not us.
I have news for them, some of my ancestors walked here quite a few thousand years ago and I am not going anywhere.
The truth is what they really like is Gringo Dollars so for "A Day Without Gringos", start looking at labels.
If it was made in Mexico put it back but note the price and from time to time, mail or email the Mexican Embassy how much you did not spend on their products and how much you spent on the same thing from another country.
Come to think about it forget that "Day Without Gringos" make it a way of life.
**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email stiknstein-at-gmail-dot-com and let us know at what level you would like to participate.
The Internet is buzzing with the news that some public figures on the Left are bowing off the stage.
But my question is, Can We Believe Them?
I mean we are talking about folks who are best at making announcements but leave a lot to be desired with the follow through.
Back Home we call it Talking the Talk, but not Walking the Walk.
First there is Casey Sheehan's mother. You noticed that I did not use her name? Well for one thing I would not give the woman the search help and for another, way back at the beginning of her rise to notoriety, there was a big deal on Daily Kos about NOT mentioning Casey's name so the focus would be on her instead of him.
Anytime I can do the opposite of the Kossites I find it tempting.
Now cast your minds back, didn't some of their friends vow to leave the country if Bush were elected in 2000?????????????
I read a while back that someone noticed they were still here and suggested a fund raising drive to help Progressive Liberals who are still stranded here relocate.
Not me. First that just feeds into their delusional neurosis that someone else besides them (The State usually) should do everything for them and would therefore be enabling their illness,
And Second I DID my share already.
I mean I helped give them not just one chance to leave in 2000 but also did the same thing in 2004 and I believe I have done my part it is now up to them.
I not only did my part but I can't repeat it. The Constitution prohibits Bush from running for a third term
So like I said earlier, before we get two excited about this recent news the question remains.
Can We Believe Them? Will these two keep their word and leave?
Recall what happened to the Mother of the 1000th soldier to die? Topic: Iraq War
Update: It looks like it is the time of the year again to keep and eye out for attacks on our Military Forces and their Families not by enemies foreign, but domestic.
I am bumping this up because I am starting a 4 day 4th of July weekend, and I remembered what happened to at least one of our GIs in a 4th of July Parade last year.
We need to be thinking and looking for incidents like this, not that I wish them to occur but I sure want to condemn them when and if they do.
Support the troops,despite a hatred for Bush? Not that crowd of two faced hypocrits!
Now that the Peace(?) activists are gearing up for their 2000th fatality vigil, it might not be a bad idea for me to bring forward what happened when they celebrated the 1000th Soldier to die,
SGT. CHAD DRAKE was killed in Baghdad three days ago. So when his family learned of a candlelight vigil in honor of our fallen soldiers to be held in their hometown of Dallas, they thought it would be a good way to begin the healing process.
As it turns out, they were wrong. Drake's mother was "harassed and yelled at, booed and hissed, told her son died for nothing," the message read. Drake's mother reportedly left the event in tears.
The family attended the vigil because they thought it was meant to honor U.S. casualties. The event was organized by the Dallas Peace Center, which opposes the war.
Though the Department of Defense did not describe Drake as the 1,000th casualty, somehow Drake got singled out. Ginger Drake, Chad's mother, and other members of the family declined to do interviews but gave Steve Alberts of KXAS-Channel 5 photos and information about Drake's life.
"He did a beautiful presentation of my brother," says Jennifer Ott, Chad's sister. "At the end, it said the Drake family would like to invite everyone to a candlelight vigil."
The Drakes felt the broadcast made it seem as if they were involved. Ott called Alberts, who assured her the vigil was non-political. She then spoke to Sherry Bollenbacher, a member of the Peace Center, who also reassured her it was non-political.
"I looked at my mother and said we have to go," Ott says. About 20 of Drake's relatives arrived at Dallas City Hall just before 7 p.m. When the family arrived, only a handful of people were there, Herriage says, though they could hear drums. "I thought there was a band. Then it just didn't feel right. I could tell it wasn't like a marching band."
Herriage says a woman approached them and asked if they were there for the vigil. Mrs. Drake introduced herself and asked about the drums. "If this is some kind of protest," Mrs. Drake said, "I'm not going to participate."
Bollenbacher introduced herself and reassured her: "Oh, no, we're just here to comfort you in your grief."
Mrs. Drake saw a man with a basket full of fliers accusing Bush of war crimes. Bollenbacher again reassured her.
"I had told him he couldn't hand those out," Bollenbacher says, but she allowed a banner that read "Vets for Peace."
The Drakes saw that banner and then realized the drummer was wearing a T-shirt that said "Drums Not Guns." Believing it was an anti-war protest, Mrs. Drake burst into tears. She started screaming, "Somebody has lied to me."
Herriage says the situation turned even uglier when another woman walked over, grabbed the weeping Mrs. Drake and shook her. "She said, 'Shut up and I'll explain our cause to you,'" Herriage says. "That's when Ginger went ballistic."
While we're add it. You know how the Left likes to compare present day Iraq to Vietnam? Well in ONE respect they are absolutely correct and they have not changed their spots in 30 years!
Think about the Seattle area -- Bainbridge Island to be exact -- and you think scenic views and liberal-minded tolerance.
FOLLOW-UP Read the latest update: An apology and -- it is hoped -- healing on Bainbridge.
At least the killer views are still there.
The bucolic island's deep reputation for civility got a gut check this week during the annual Grand Old Fourth of July celebration.
That's when Jason Gilson, a 23-year-old military veteran who served in Iraq, marched in the local event. He wore his medals with pride and carried a sign that said "Veterans for Bush."
Walking the parade route with his mom, younger siblings and politically conservative friends, Jason heard words from the crowd that felt like a thousand daggers to the heart. "Baby killer!"
"Murderer!"
"Boooo!"
To understand why the reaction of strangers hurt so much, you must read what the young man had written in a letter from Iraq before he was disabled in an ambush:
"I really miss being in the states. Some of the American public have no idea how much freedom costs and who the people are that pay that awful price. I think sometimes people just see us as nameless and faceless and not really as humans. ... A good portion of us are actually scared that when we come home, for those of us who make it back, that there will be protesters waiting for us and that is scary."
On the Fourth, Jason faced his worst fear
It was such a public humiliation -- home front insult after battlefield injury.
Jason's mother, Tamar, says a female parade announcer locked eyes on her son who was walking behind a pro-Republican group called Women in Red, White and Blue. The group supports President Bush and the troops in the fight against terrorism.
According to Tamar, the female announcer sarcastically asked Jason:
"And what exactly are you a veteran of?"
The perceived mocking, the mother adds, set off some people in the crowd, loosing a flood of negative comments,
I was reading a Memorial Day Post on Jihad Watch that had an explanation why, the Intelligentsia at least, no longer respects nor honors our fighting forces,
Today is Memorial Day, and while Hugh grills the Jihad Watch burgers I thought I'd note that one of the reasons why the popular culture does not honor our fighting forces today or in general is that the politically correct mindset assumes that we have moved beyond all that. Conflicts don't ever need to be solved with wars, you see. All we need to do is understand each other a little better, show the opposition that we are really good fellows after all, win over a few hearts and minds, teach the children not to hate, and voila, all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well.
They then posit a question that to my mind is very valid in these turbulent times.
It is axiomatic in the State Department, and in Europe, and at the UN, that all conflicts can be solved through negotiated concessions. This is so much a part of the air they all breathe that it would be unthinkable even to question it. No one would even think to ask,
"What if we implement state-of-the-art hearts-and-minds initiatives, and conform to all their foreign policy and cultural demands,
and they still hate us?"
I put my answer on their website and then decided to recreate our virtual dialog here on my own.
Why in that case we are supposed to implement the Gandhi Option, I guess
In 1940, when Hitler was scoring victory after victory throughout Europe, Gandhi addressed the following advice to the soldiers of Great Britain: "I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them." Two years earlier, in the months before World War II began, Gandhi reacted to the outrage of the Nazi-inspired Kristalnacht (the national pogrom of November 9 to 10, 1938) by offering the following advice to German Jews for overcoming Nazi anti-Semitism: "I am as certain as I am dictating these words that the stoniest German heart will melt [if only the Jews] . adopt active nonviolence. Human nature ... unfailingly responds to the advances of love. I do not despair of his [Hitler's] responding to human suffering even though caused by him."
