Fjordman: The Indo-European Languages: A Summary

Fjordman’s latest essay — on Indo-European languages, one of my favorite topics — has been posted at the Brussels Journal. Some excerpts are below:

Since I have written several essays about the Indo-European language family I can sum up what I have found so far. Interesting things happened in Europe long before the Greeks and the Romans entered the scene. One of the hypotheses presented in my writings is that culture is the product of genes plus ideas. Since most of our genes date back to the Stone Age, you could successfully claim that our culture indirectly has roots dating back to that era. However, one the most ancient parts of the European cultural heritage still used is the language.

Modern English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian and Russian have roots back to the Late Neolithic and are all derived from a single mother language that is referred to as Proto-Indo-European. This is universally accepted, but where and when this language was initially spoken is more controversial. I belong to those who support the theory that PIE was originally spoken north of the Black Sea in what is today the Ukraine and southern Russia by 3500 BC, when the first expansion began with the introduction of wheeled vehicles. David W. Anthony writes about this subject in his book The Horse, the Wheel, and Language.

– – – – – – – –

The PIE language which has been reconstructed by linguists over the past two centuries contains words for a technological package that according to archaeological evidence existed after 4000 BC. An early form may have existed just prior to this and a late form after 3000 BC, at which point PIE was breaking apart. Scholars J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams explain in The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World:

“[I]ndividual Indo-European groups are attested by c. 2000 BC. One might then place a notional date of c. 4500-2500 BC on Proto-Indo-European….By c. 2000 BC we have traces of Anatolian, and hence linguists are willing to place the emergence of Proto-Anatolian to c. 2500 BC or considerably earlier. We have already differentiated Indo-Aryan in the Mitanni treaty by c. 1500 BC so undifferentiated Proto-Indo-Iranian must be earlier, and dates on the order of 2500-2000 BC are often suggested. Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Linear B tablets, is known by c. 1300 BC if not somewhat earlier and is different enough from its Bronze Age contemporaries (Indo-Iranian or Anatolian) and from reconstructed PIE to predispose a linguist to place a date of c. 2000 BC or earlier for Proto-Greek itself.”

Greek, the Indo-European language of the palace-centered Bronze Age warrior kings who ruled at Mycenae and other strongholds, is attested in the mid-second millennium BC. The breakthrough in the decipherment of the Linear B tablets was made by the Englishmen Michael Ventris (1922-1956) and John Chadwick (1920-1998) in the early 1950s. Ventris was himself surprised to discover that the language in question was a very early form of Greek.

Read the rest at the Brussels Journal.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/30/2010

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/30/2010According to information leaked to The Guardian, the United States has secretly promised the Palestinians that it will not veto a United Nations resolution condemning the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Rumors are circulating in Israel that Prime Minister Netanyahu has already instituted a de facto moratorium on further building.

In other news, Belgium’s lower house passed a ban on the burkha, despite the absence of a functioning government in the country. Meanwhile, Tunisia’s Culture Ministry reports that 22% of Tunisians have never read a book.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, KGS, SF, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, TB, TV, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

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Islam Rising

“There is no ‘moderate’ Islam… The Al-Hijrah may be the end of Western Civilization.”

                        — Geert Wilders

Islam Rising banner


A few weeks ago a woman emailed me and explained that she had woken up to the danger of the Great Jihad, but others hadn’t. She said:

Now I’m aware of the threat, I’m trying to “wake up” friends and family, but it’s proving extremely difficult. Everyone is so completely paralyzed by political correctness and trained not to look beyond the mainstream media headlines that they’ve lost all desire to know — it’s almost as if they’re too frightened of the truth.

People I’ve spoken to seem to have the usual “defense mechanisms” in place: Islam is “just another religion” and therefore must be peaceful; Islam has been hijacked and given a bad name by a handful of extremists, etc., etc.

Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about the practicalities of this to be able to explain it to people, so I was wondering if you had any suggestions?

I wrote her back, and we exchanged emails discussing various aspects of the Counterjihad struggle, and how we might break through the barriers to people who have no idea of the danger they face.

As of tonight I can recommend an excellent introductory tool for raising awareness of the threat of Islamization. It’s a fifty-minute film entitled Islam Rising: Geert Wilders’ Warning to the West, and was produced by PRB Films and the Christian Action Network. The film opens tomorrow in Washington D.C.

I’ve known Martin Mawyer, the president of CAN, for about four years. You’ll never find a more dedicated Counterjihad activist than Marty.

His organization is based in Lynchburg, Virginia, not far from two of the compounds of the terror group Jamaat al-Fuqra (check our sidebar for all the Jamaat ul-Fuqra links). Marty and his associate Jason Campbell personally investigated, visited, and overflew a number of Jamaat ul-Fuqra camps up and down the Eastern Seaboard. They even discovered one that had been previously unknown to the FBI, as chronicled in their earlier movie, Homegrown Jihad.

Islam Rising: Geert WildersThese guys have real guts.

Marty was kind enough to send me an advance DVD of Islam Rising. The movie centers on Geert Wilders, and includes the entirety of Fitna, the video that caused Mr. Wilders to be prosecuted for “hate speech” in the Netherlands. A major portion of Mr. Wilders’ speech from last year in Boca Raton is featured, accompanied by various video clips and still photos of the worldwide Jihad.

As the billboard for Islam Rising says: “You have been warned.”

Below the jump is the official trailer for the movie:
– – – – – – – –



Tomorrow, May 1, the movie premieres on Capitol Hill as part of “May Day 2010: A Cry to God for a Nation in Distress.” According to the official invitation:

The high-profile event brings Christians from all walks of life together to pray for God’s blessing upon the United States.

The “May Day 2010” is expected to draw in 15,000 Christians of all denominations to Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 1, 2010. The morning begins in front of the Lincoln Memorial for a day of prayer, speakers, and worship music.

If you’re interested in the movie, you can order it at CAN or on the Islam Rising Website. I recommend it as an “Introduction to Jihad” course for any friends and family who don’t yet get it.

Once they’ve seen it, they can’t say they haven’t been warned.

Whodunit?

Rosetta TombstoneThere has been some public controversy during the last few days over the circumstances surrounding the disappearance from Vlad Tepes’ Vimeo channel of all the subtitled videos of Col. Allen West.

People have continued sending us questions by email as well as leaving them in the comments. To clarify matters, I’ll give a full account of what happened. The report below consists entirely of facts, with neither speculation nor opinions. If there are no further developments, this will be my final word on the topic.

The incident began on April 22 when Vlad’s entire Vimeo channel was dropped. Several days later, after Vlad requested more information, Vimeo supplied a list of the videos that caused the problem, and all of them were the Rosetta Stone subtitled versions of Col. West’s speech, for which someone had claimed copyright or ownership.

After I posted about what happened, the videographer who taped the speech contacted us by email. Her name is Pamela Hall, and her excellent work is blogged at the Vigilant Squirrel Brigade. Ms. Hall insisted that she did not contact Vimeo to claim copyright nor ask them to take down any of Vlad’s videos of Col. West. The only video that she objected to had been posted on Vlad’s Youtube channel, and featured Col. West’s speech subtitled in English — which for some incomprehensible reason went viral a couple of weeks ago and garnered upwards of a million views before it was removed. In response to her complaint, Youtube took that video down.

However, Ms. Hall emphatically asserts that she had nothing to do with any videos of Col. West that were taken down from Vlad’s Vimeo channel.

The organizers of the Freedom Defense Initiative, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, have now also publicly insisted that they had nothing to do with Vimeo’s decision to take down any of the subtitled Col. West videos.

So we are left with a single question:
– – – – – – – –
If the videographer and the FDI organizers did not claim copyright and ask Vimeo to remove the subtitled videos of Col. West’s speech, then who did?

LTC Allen West (ret.) in Russian


Whodunit?



Update:On the advice of two experts (one of them my wife), I have revised my spelling of “whodunit” to reflect customary usage. I yield to higher authority.

The Most Wanted Infidel in the World Comes to Vienna

Many readers are familiar with the Coptic priest Zakaria Botros, who risks his life by evangelizing for Christ on the “Life TV” channel, broadcasting in Arabic to the Muslim World. As Sheik Yer’mami said a couple of years ago, quoting Joel C. Rosenberg, “[Father Botros] is far and away the most-watched and most-effective Arab-American evangelist focused on reaching the Muslim world, and by far the most controversial. The Rush Limbaugh of the Revivalists, he is funny, feisty, brilliant, opinionated, and provocative. But rather than preaching the gospel of conservatism, he is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And his enemies do not simply want to silence him. They want to assassinate him.”

Raymond Ibrahim published an in-depth account of Father Botros’ mission at National Review:

Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros — named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid — has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries — mostly Muslim converts — he appears frequently on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). There, he addresses controversial topics of theological significance — free from the censorship imposed by Islamic authorities or self-imposed through fear of the zealous mobs who fulminated against the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Botros’s excurses on little-known but embarrassing aspects of Islamic law and tradition have become a thorn in the side of Islamic leaders throughout the Middle East.

[…]

Botros’s motive is not to incite the West against Islam, promote “Israeli interests,” or “demonize” Muslims, but to draw Muslims away from the dead legalism of sharia to the spirituality of Christianity. Many Western critics fail to appreciate that, to disempower radical Islam, something theocentric and spiritually satisfying — not secularism, democracy, capitalism, materialism, feminism, etc. — must be offered in its place. The truths of one religion can only be challenged and supplanted by the truths of another. And so Father Zakaria Botros has been fighting fire with fire.

Now Islam’s Public Enemy #1 is paying a visit to Vienna on May 6, courtesy of Wiener Akademikerbund. Our Austrian correspondent ATM reports:

The political elite has tried to silence the Wiener Akademikerbund. WAB’s answer to the attempt can be described as a sensational coup: The renowned Coptic priest Father Zakaria Botros has chosen Austria as his first country to speak publicly on the topic of Multiculturalism and Islam. This event is hosted by the Wiener Akademikerbund, Pax Europa and the Oriental Christians Association.

AMT sent a copy of the official Akademikerbund invitation, and JLH has translated it for Gates of Vienna:

The AB/Vienna Akademikerbund
and
BPE/Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa
in cooperation with
The Community of Oriental Christians

present

Austria’s Lecture Sensation of 2010



Father Zakaria BotrosHe is a Coptic priest, high-ranking theologian, Islamic scholar, the most successful missionary in the Middle East, TV star, and the world’s most significant exponent of inter-religious dialogue. Public Enemy #1 in many theocratic-totalitarian countries.

For the first time in Europe and for the first time in a major gathering, this international media star makes himself available to a broad public in Vienna.

Date: May 6, 2010, 7:00 PM
Doors open: 6:45 PM
Location: Vienna Christian Center
1030 Wien, Baumgasse 32
Personal registration required:
e-mail: wien-ab@live.at
Tel: +43 (0) 650 56 130 73

Father Zakaria Botros
speaks on the subject

Diversity, Tolerance and Multiculturalism
finally, the Truth About Islam

Lecture and Discussion in English
Simultaneous translation: headphones on presentation of photo ID

Father Zakaria also writes books to enlighten Muslims and Christians about mutual misapprehensions, to give them useful answers to the essential questions in Christian and Islamic life.

Father Zakaria Botros
A Life for Muslims between Mohammed and Jesus Christ

Pater Zakaria Botros — known worldwide in English as Father (Fr.) Zakaria — was born on October 24, 1934 in Kafr al Dauar, a small village near Alexandria, Egypt and baptized with the given name Faiz.

He grew up in a Christian family. His father was already known for his unabashed profession of Christianity, even though this was no advantage for Copts, the original residents of Egypt, a fact constantly proven anew since the Arab conquest ca. 1,400 years ago. His sermons had a great effect on Muslims, even on the students of the Islamic Al-Azhar University in Cairo, something that Faiz found worthy of imitation.

Faiz Botros had his first negative experience in this regard in high school with the teacher of Arabic, who often used questions about Jesus and the Trinity to try to drive the uneducated youth into a corner and ridicule him. Faiz could not defend himself and began to study the Koran in order to be able to retaliate in kind. At the university, he studied and graduated in history.

– – – – – – – –

Subsequently, his parish wanted him as their priest, so he studied Orthodox theology and was consecrated for that post on February 8, 1959. Following his calling, he focused on his Muslim friends and compatriots as a target group, to convert them to Christianity and turn them aside from idol worship (kissing black stones on the Kaaba) and satanic acts of faith (murder of fellow human beings). Father Zakaria wrote and is still writing many books to explain to Muslims their theological misapprehensions and to give viable Christian answers to the great questions of Islamic life. His success as a preacher grew and so he moved to a Coptic church in one of the “better districts” of Cairo, where he continued with his sermons. Again there was word of mouth, his popularity grew and every Thursday masses of people crowded into the church to hear him. Soon the closest metro station got the nickname, “Zakaria-Botros-Station.” In his time there as pastor, from 1978 to 1981, Muslims converted by the dozen and were baptized by him.

His arrest followed. But even during his 10-month imprisonment, he did not stop his successful missionary work and he was simply beloved, so he was released. When the conversions from Islam to Christianity rose to the hundreds, the Egyptian government gave the Coptic church an ultimatum: for Father Zakaria’s safety, send him out of the country, i.e., into involuntary exile. In Australia, he distinguished himself as a competent specialist in Islamic questions and in the legalities in the umma — the Muslim (parallel) society.

In 2001, he moved to London, where he took up his missionary work via “Pal-Chat” in the internet. Instantly, he became known in all Arabic countries and now conducts a public dialogue with many thousands of participants from all over the world. Since 2003, he has combined his “Chat” with Al-Hayat (Life), an Arabic TV broadcaster which also broadcasts to Saudi Arabia, where Christianity is strictly forbidden. Even there, the number of converts to Christianity has risen to 5 figures through his missionary work. He would like to build a church for the quickly increasing number of converts in once-Christian Mecca.

His broadcasts have titles such as:

  • “Questions about Faith”
  • “Meeting Place” (“Confronting Problems”)
  • “Discussion of the Truth”

They are of particular interest to Muslims, because Fr. Zakaria, through his solid comparative knowledge, initially stimulates his listeners but then, with human understanding and palpable warm-heartedness, “retrieves” their minds and souls. Is he afraid of revenge, attempts at retaliation? Of course, he sees himself as (no more than) a fragile clay figure, but he draws strength from his belief in Christ as Savior and is prepared to be a sacrifice. What makes him very happy is that, after being banished from his homeland, he can reach still more people who are geographically and/or spiritually removed, with the word of Jesus Christ from the New Testament. The rising numbers of converts, that is Islamic apostates, seem to confirm this.

Pater Zakaria Botros works in various countries, in the studios of several broadcasters, has public discussions with Islamic scholars, talks to journalists, manages his international network and even finds time to give lectures, as, for instance, in Vienna, Austria.

Anyone who is near Vienna on May 6 will want to visit the Vienna Christian Center to attend this historic event.

In fact, you may want to buy a train or plane ticket to Vienna and make the pilgrimage from the Bermoothes or the Far Hebrides especially for the occasion. It promises to be worth it.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/29/2010

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/29/2010The state of Arizona, sick of the illegals flooding across its border with Mexico while the federal government does nothing, passed an immigration law that its own police can enforce. The law is modeled on federal immigration law in order to make sure it respects the rights of illegal immigrants. Needless to say, the federal government, including President Obama, objects to what Arizona is doing, even though the law is all but identical to the one the feds refuse to enforce.

And now comes the big surprise — the new law is effective! Cracking down on illegal immigrants makes them pack up and go home to Mexico. Who would have thought?

In other news, Iranian women are now subject to arrest if they have suntans. Tanning violates the country’s strict modesty laws.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, KGS, REP, Takuan Seiyo, TB, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

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Stoning As a Religious Value

An Alpine version of Abdul Wahid Pedersen is causing a lot of controversy in the Swiss media. As many readers (and most Danes) know, Abdul Wahid Pedersen is a Danish convert to Islam who was unwilling to declare himself against the stoning of women for adultery.

A little further south, meet Nicolas Blancho, president of the Islamic central council in Switzerland. JLH has translated an article about him from Basler Zeitung:

Stoning As a Religious Value

April 26, 2010

After his weekend appearance on Swiss TV, Nicolas Blancho, president of the Islamic central council, is really under fire for the first time. He himself proceeds on the assumption that he is being watched by national security.

Nicolas Blancho

According to the “Sunday Newspaper,” Nicolas Blancho did business with a man who allegedly had ties to al-Qaida. According to the newspaper, Blancho founded the firm Tradex with a Yemeni citizen. In 2007, the (Swiss) federal court convicted this Blancho companion of smuggling Yemenis into Switzerland and providing them with false papers. The federal attorney’s office also had indications that this Yemeni was in contact with an al-Quaida terrorist. However, it could not be proved that he supported al-Quaida.

Two national party leaders have made critical remarks about Nicolas Blancho’s appearance on Swiss TV’s “Arena.” CVP [Christian-Democratic People’s Party, “conservative”] President Christophe Darbellay said over the weekend that Blancho has to “distance himself from methods that do not accord with our legal order.” And: “Fundamentalists have no place in Switzerland.” Similarly, Fulvio Pelli, president of the FDP [Free Democratic Party,”liberal”]: “Religious fanatics are dangerous. You must not underestimate them.”

The background to these comments is as follows. On Friday in his “Arena” appearance, Blancho said emphatically and repeatedly that he and the Islamic Central Council obey Swiss law, even when it is in conflict with his religious views. However, he would give no clear answer to whether he was for or against stoning in Islamic countries.

– – – – – – – –

In an interview with the newspaper, “Sunday,” Blancho said in regard to stoning: “For me as a Muslim, it is a component, a value of my religion.” However, it is, “with the given conditions in the world and in Switzerland, not transplantable.” He did not want to distance himself clearly from stoning in the “Sunday” interview. “You can’t ask someone to distance himself from celibacy. Or the Jews to distance themselves from the Talmud.”

Blancho thinks it is “okay” for his organization to be in security’s crosshairs. He says he is prepared at any time to invite security into his mosque in Biel. He goes on the assumption that his organization is being surveilled. “As far as I am concerned the whole country can come into the mosque in Biel.”

People in Blancho’s hometown are concerned too. City president and SP [Social Democratic Party — “socialist”] national councilor, Hans Stöckli, said in reference to the “Sunday” interview, that he had not been informed by either the federal police or the intelligence service of any observations or insights concerning this “central council.” It is unsatisfactory, he said; the city of Biel did not wish to be drawn into “these kinds of important, political-security questions.” Stöckli explained that the Biel city administration had therefore tasked him with “an analysis of the situation, to clarify what action may be necessary concerning extremist groups in Biel.”

Fjordman: Superstring Theory and Quantum Gravity

Fjordman has published a new essay about superstring theory and quantum gravity at Vlad Tepes. Some excerpts are below:

Superstring theories are consistent with what we know, but critics, of which there are still quite a few, claim that they are too mathematically abstract to predict anything which can be experimentally tested and verified, as should be possible with a proper scientific theory. Its supporters claim that the theories suggest that there should be a class of particles called supersymmetric particles, where every particle should have a partner particle. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, recently opened their Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, near Geneva on the border between France and Switzerland. There are those who hope that the LHC will be able to detect signs of supersymmetric particles. If so, this finding will not by itself prove superstring theory, but it would constitute a strong piece of circumstantial evidence in its favor.

Personally, I would still count myself among the skeptical half regarding string theory. The critics who complain that it is unnecessarily complex with precious little experimental evidence in its favor have a point. It does seem rather drastic to go from four to eleven dimensions, thereby nearly tripling the amount of dimensions in the universe. As it is now, the theory contains too many epicycles for my taste. However, just because a theory is complex and seemingly counter-intuitive does not necessarily mean that it is wrong, as quantum mechanics and to some extent the theory of relativity showed us in the twentieth century.

– – – – – – – –

One humorous illustration of how hard it is to imagine extra dimensions was provided by the English writer Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926). His satirical novel Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions from 1884 is narrated by a being who calls himself “Square” and lives in Flatland, a world populated by two-dimensional creatures with a system of social ranks, where creatures with more sides rank higher and circles highest of all. Women are merely line segments and are subject to various social disabilities. In a dream, Square visits the one-dimensional Lineland, and is later visited by a three-dimensional Sphere from Spaceland. The Sphere tries to convince Square of the existence of a third dimension and mentions Pointland, a world of zero dimensions, populated by a single creature who is completely full of himself.

Perhaps we are all a bit like Square, who finds it very hard to imagine extra dimensions. And most of us have encountered individuals who live in Pointland, occupied only by themselves.

Read the rest at Vlad Tepes.

Rioting in Malmö

Rosengård: Fires and Police


Our Swedish correspondent Freedom Fighter sends a translation from Svenska Dagbladet about renewed violence in the culturally-enriched Rosengård neighborhood of Malmö

Freedom Fighter includes this introduction:

Rosengård, an area dominated by Muslim immigrants, has been in the news of late with the forced closing of children’s nurseries after violent attacks by youths. Violence and riots broke out again last night.

And the translated article:

Malmö: Fires and stone-throwing in Rosengård

April 29 2010

Some 20 police units were dispatched to the Rosengård district of Malmö to try to calm things down, after unrest broke out there on Wednesday evening.

A large number of young people gathered at Ramels road. Among other things, they set fire to a car, storage containers, a kiosk and a dressing room behind Rosengård’s school.

– – – – – – – –

The fire department and rescue units needed police escorts to fight the fires in various parts of the district, since firefighters were exposed to stone-throwing.

The police believed that they had the situation under control later in the night, as the situation had calmed down and police could withdraw most of the 20 squads which had been dispatched.

During the night the police sent out an alert about rioting.

The Rumble is Beginning

A Lebanese correspondent for Tundra Tabloids has filed a report that discusses the imminence of a war between Hizbullah and Israel, as well as a possible civil war between an alliance of Christian groups and Hizbullah within Lebanon:

Below are some excerpts from the report by “The Patron of Beirut”:

The situation in Lebanon so far doesn’t look so good. There is tension in the air due to the municipality elections taking place next Sunday. There is a threat for the Christians in the region, if a war breaks out between Hizbollah and Israel, the Shiia, the Hizbollah will take over the Christian areas in Beirut and in the South.

I have received messages from two sources with close contacts with the Christian parties, the Christian military forces there, that they are preparing for a war between them, (if Hizbollah starts a war with Israel) if Hizbollah starts to act against the Christian forces in the area, if they try to take over the mountain areas overlooking Beirut. They’re saying that Hizbollah will start the war by doing some kind of military operation in the south.

So Hizbollah will start some initiative on the border with Israel, and at the same time it will take a form of a civil war between the Muslims and the Christians, between the Shiia and the Maronites. According to my well placed sources, regarding certain Christian groups aligned with Hizbollah, (former general Michel Aoun’s ‘Free Patriotic Movement’), there won’t be any infighting between the different Christian groups, regardless of the past, even though that they have been aligned politically for some time now, between the head of army and Nasrallah.

– – – – – – – –

So there won’t be any bi-lateral Christian-Muslim front against other Christians, it just won’t happen. Only the Lebanese forces (Christian) are well prepared with arms, they are well prepared for the upcoming war (with Hizbollah). They want to take over certain areas, on the high hills overlooking Beirut if the actions starts, because they want to use these areas against the F-16’s (Israeli warplanes), they are very tall mountains about 1.6 kilometers above the sea.

There is evidence that the Hizbollah will want to be in charge of the Christian areas (mountain range overlooking Beirut) if such a war happens between Hizbollah and Israel on the border. I know of Christians living in the diaspora who have been warned by politicians through personal contacts that it’s not wise to come to the south of Lebanon for the summer. I even believe that the embassies are starting to warn Lebanese citizens abroad not to come to Lebanon this summer, not officially, but quietly between private exchanges not to make the trip at this time.

The other big issue has been the buying of Christian land by Hizbollah which will devolve into taking of land once Hizbollah start something on the border with Israel, this is what will happen, what is expected to happen once things start.

Read the rest at Tundra Tabloids.

It looks like events are heading for a flashpoint in the Levant. Several of my Israeli contacts tell me that people in Israel don’t expect to get through another year without a devastating war.

If such a thing should happen, they will not be able to count on American diplomatic and technical support, as they have in the past. In fact, the regime of Barack Hussein Obama may actively work against them.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/28/2010

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/28/2010There is so much news tonight, and so many things are going on, it’s hard to know where to start.

The biggest news concerns the financial crisis — check out how many articles there are about it. Most of it concerns the situation in Europe, which is accelerating into the danger zone very quickly. Germany is reluctant to bail out Greece, despite the pressure from the IMF and other European countries. The majority of Germans are opposed to rescuing Greece. Portugal’s condition is approaching that of Greece, and now Spain’s bonds have been downgraded to AA by Standard & Poor. Global stock markets dropped by 2% as the likelihood of a Greek default sank in.

In other news, a video of Zachary Chesser, the young man who threatened the creators of South Park, has surfaced. It was taken at a pro-Hamas rally in D.C. in late 2008. Mr. Chesser’s Arabic name is “Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee”, which is Arabic for… Heck, this is a family site — follow the link to find out what his name allegedly means!

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Gaia, Henrik, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, REP, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

[This post is a stub — nothing further here!]

Rosetta Stone Update

Col West Russian


After learning about what happened, LTC Allen West (ret.) sent some words of encouragement to the Rosetta Stone team. With his kind permission, I am posting them here:

This was a superb effort, and as stated previously my deep regards to all of you.

No worries, I am sure there will be more opportunities for me to address this issue. Hold the line and press on, we shall prevail!

Steadfast and Loyal,

Allen

One more thing — any readers who live in Florida’s 22nd District: Vote for Col. Allen West for Congress!

That’s an order.

[Post ends here]

Be Reasonable

A group of European Jews has appealed to Israel to use “reason” and adopt a two-state solution to resolve the issue of “Palestine”.

But look who’s first on the list of signatories — Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a.k.a. “Danny the Red”.

His hair’s not as red as it was forty years ago, but I remember him very well. Back then he was a Smash-the-State-Property-is-Robbery Marxist revolutionary, but nowadays he’s a respected political figure on the European socialist Left.

And he’s decided to intervene with his fellow Jews in Israel — in their own best interests, of course.

According to ANSAmed:

European Jews Send Israel an Appeal to ‘Reason’

PARIS, APRIL 28 — An “appeal for reason” which says it is “dangerous to have a systematic alignment with the Israeli Government’s policies” and supports the creation of a sovereign Palestinian State as a precondition for peace was launched by French and European Jewish exponents and will be officially presented on May 3 at the European Parliament.

It has over 2,500 signatories, including Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Bernard-Henri Levy, Elie Barnavi (former Israeli Ambassador to France), Gad Lerner, Aldo Zargani, and Bruno Segre.

– – – – – – – –

“We know the danger also lies in the occupation and uninterrupted creation of new settlements in the West Bank and in the Arab quarter in East Jerusalem, political and moral errors which also foment a process of unacceptable de-legitimacy of Israel as a State”, is written in the appeal stating that peace with the Palestinians must follow the principle “two people, two States”.

The appeal, as Jean Daniel writes today in an editorial in Le Nouvel Observateur, is directed at the attention of those who in France and Europe “are anguished by the latest direction taken by Israel’s policies”. (ANSAmed).



Hat tip: Insubria.