If You Want Peace With Islam, Then be a Crusader

Mark Noonan14 Comments

It is said that only Nixon could go to China. That is, nobody but an ardent anti-Communist could talk peace with Communists. There is some truth to this. Not that talking with China worked out all that well, but the basic concept is correct. For there to be peace there has to be reality – we can’t live in a world of illusions. Anyone else trying to break the ice with the Chi-coms would have been immediately tagged as a sell out. That Nixon did it gave us some assurance that there was reality behind the move. So, too, with Islam – only a Crusader can befriend the Saracen.

I put up a comment on X pointing out that part of the reason for the Church’s soft touch with Islam is the plain fact that anything provocative would lead to bloodshed. Specifically, the blood of innocent and defenseless Christians in the Muslim world. This touched off a firestorm of criticism. I was torched for a whole day! In fact, there are still people dropping by to call me a coward, an Islamist stooge, a traitor, an apostate and so on. I do note, though, with great care that all of those calling for a Crusade against Islam are very unlikely to actually join the effort…that those who want bloodcurdling Papal statements about Islam won’t actually pay the price for same.

Now, to be sure, I do believe the Church should take a far stronger stance against Islamist oppression of Christians. A lot stronger. But what I was trying to do there is put myself in Papal shoes…and in Papal ears. I’ll bet big money that the Christian leaders of the Muslim world are always urging a soft stance. Great issues of the day aside, these people are trying to shepherd very small flocks through very large wolf packs. They don’t want a very difficult task made even harder. People are almost incapable of nuance here in 2026 and so I was flamed on it.

I want the stronger stance not to provoke violence, but to get the Muslims to the table – to be the Crusader who earns the respect of the Saracen, and so can make peace with him. Sorta like Trump is doing. Part of the reason the Muslim world was diddling over Iran was lack of trust in our determination. Why provoke Iran at the behest of the Yanks if they’re going to cut out on you when it gets rough? Trump has shown he has the will to get the job done regardless how much people whine about it. And, so, now we’re seeing real efforts at peace with Israel among Muslim nations and a growing determination to see an end to the Mullah regime. They know they can trust Trump. The President has shown he has the courage of Richard the Lionheart. So, too, I think the Church should become – a bit of Urban II is called for.

I think the Church leaders should issue a firm statement – not just calling for more dialogue, but calling for Christian emancipation in the Muslim world. No more second class citizenship. No more routine denial of Christian rights. No more death penalties based on Sharia law that Christians are not in any way bound to obey. Certainly the statement must also say that Christians in Muslim countries must show deep respect for their Muslim neighbors and not needlessly provoke them…but it must be a two way street, and it must be the foundation of a true dialogue between Islam and the West. We can’t talk sensibly if we’re not talking as equals in all things. We can do this. And we must do this. War and death might seem the easy way out – and getting a pound of flesh after decades of outrages might seem satisfying. But it isn’t the way. A peace between equals who respect each other is what we must have.

And we can see signs of its possibility. The King of Jordan is a decent man. So, too, the King of Morocco. The UAE is a land of decent, honest people. Perfect? Not by a long shot. But people we can work with. And signposts to a better relationship between Islam and the West. I’m not saying we’re going to love each other. I’m not saying we won’t find conflict. But I am saying that we can live in peace. In this, what Trump is doing is crucial – because the Mullah regime is the cancer in the Muslim world. The entity which inflames all hatreds and makes peace impossible. If he can destroy it – or even just degrade it significantly – we will have a window of opportunity. A chance to build so much peace and reconciliation that the purveyors of hatred and death will become a small minority, shoved into a corner, shouting at itself.

A War Won

Mark Noonan35 Comments

There is a great deal of dishonest stupidity out there. When Trump announced the cease fire a host of voices rose up saying that Iran had won – they controlled the Straight, had Trump over a barrel and were now in a stronger position than ever. There was just one fly in the ointment here: it was nonsense.

The first requirement to control a waterway is to have a navy. Even shore positions aren’t enough. You have to be able to get out on the water and stop the traffic. Iran has no navy. They didn’t have much of one before the fight and after it they had nothing. We had spent weeks systematically destroying anything like a sea going ship. Meanwhile, we have the most powerful navy in the world and a significant portion of it is parked right off Iran. If anyone is going to control the straight, it is us. And easily.

But that didn’t stop the stupid liars – when the Mullah regime absurdly claimed it has ordered a US warship to depart and it had complied, the stupid liars were everywhere going, “see? We told you!”. Except they didn’t order anyone to do anything. They can’t. They lack the capability to seriously damage a US warship…and any attempt to do damage would mean instant death to anyone who tried. That is, opening fire on us just tells us where you are and so allows us to kill you. Fanaticism can get you a long ways but it takes fanaticism of a rare level to press a button which will result in your instant death without any real chance you’ll kill the enemy.

Aside from slick enemy propaganda, I think part of our problem here is that it has been so long since real American victory that nobody can recognize it. Take a look at this:

Thus the American people heard of Dewey’s victory in Manila Bay. If this happened in 2026, we’d have headlines saying Dewey was now doomed because the Spanish army in the Philippines was 30,000 strong and could mine the harbor yadda yadda yadda. But those who bought that paper knew we had won – we controlled the sea. Whatever the Spanish army wanted to do, it couldn’t stop us from coming ashore where and when we wanted. That was the reason Dewey was ordered to attack the Spanish fleet at Manila the instant war was declared…because that was game over for the Philippines. The only thing the Spanish could after their fleet was destroyed was kill people…but, being civilized, they didn’t do that. The Spanish authorities in the Philippines capitulated quickly. The Mullahs are barbarians and so are quite willing to keep killing even when its pointless…but that doesn’t mean we haven’t won.

The bottom line is that the Mullah regime lacks the military capacity to alter the course of events. Even if we decided to, say, take Bandar Abbas to seal our control of the Straight, there would be nothing the Mullahs can do. They can’t stop us from coming ashore and they could not eject us once we are ashore. The Iranian army is some 300,000 strong but it is already heavily degraded (lost in the shuffle was a lot of American and Israeli targeting of Iranian military vehicles and ammunition stores) and if it came out en masse and surged against American positions at Bandar Abbas it would simply be massacred. The amount of intensely coordinated firepower we’d be able to inflict on them would simply kill them all before they could even come to grips with us. The larger risk to Americans would be in the aftermath trying to clear away the bodies before they became a health hazard.

Now, it is clear that Trump prefers not to commit US ground forces in Iran. I don’t want us to, either. And I do want this thing wrapped up quickly. Trump wants a deal – but if the Mullah regime is really that stupidly insane they won’t take a deal, then they’ll be swiftly destroyed. This is not going to be winning the war – that is already won. This will just be getting rid of idiots who won’t admit they’re beaten. Had to do it with Japan and Germany in WWII. They were decisively defeated by late 1943. Any sane person would have called it quits by then and taken the best deal possible from the victors…but they kept at it until we were forced to reduce both nations to junk heaps. So be it. Their choice. What they wanted. If the Mullahs want that, they’ll be obliged.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan25 Comments

The ceasefire doesn’t seemed to have ceased much fire…but I’m gonna trust Trump on this as he’s earned that. Plus, one must understand a couple things:

  1. Iran hasn’t had a government since 1979. Its all just factions which have absolutely no consent of the governed. The Mullahs have been the primary faction but the whole thing is various politico-economic-religious groupings competing for power and wealth within Iran. When we went in and started decapitating this beast, it then fell to third and fourth tier members of these groups to pick up the torch, as it were. These people will be unsure of themselves, unsure of their fellow faction members and none of them will initially be able to impose their will upon everyone. So, when Trump talks of negotiating, he’s probably working in terms of trying to find the faction which can emerge triumphant and become the transitional government of Iran.
  2. The Mullahs did create the functional equivalent of the Hitler Youth and the Waffen SS in the Republican Guard. For 47 years now, this has drawn in Iranian youth (not all of it, but a substantial portion) and relentlessly propagandized them. Now, don’t get me wrong: this doesn’t mean they’re all true believers. One thing which should actually surprise nobody is that in 1945 when the Soviets started imposing Communism on eastern Germany, the people they found most apt to become bright, shining Commies were Hitler Youth leaders. Things like the Hitler Youth draw to leadership those who most want to be part of the Ruling Class…and they’ll turn on a dime if necessary to keep on the inside. But, also, you do create a class of True Believers…the kind of kids who were fighting to the last teenager in 1945. Iran has some of these as well. They will not accept a ceasefire…they’ll keep firing missiles until they run out of them or they’re killed.
  3. Trump’s goals are not what his critics think they are – they are highly strategic. And, in the end, the Mullahs were just in the way…Trump wants American control of the seas and global trade. That is the long term issue here…this means that Trump isn’t worried if a de-fanged, quasi-Mullah regime remains in Iran. American domination of the oceans and trade and, here ya go world, an open Hormuz courtesy of us, is the real end result. This does require a peaceful Iran, of course – and a destroyed Hezbollah, as well…and thus we haven’t agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon.

We’ll see if he can pull several rabbits out of the hat here. I think he will.

The war has completely exposed how hollow NATO is and that European leadership is universally disgusting…even the so-called Right in Europe is mostly craven. Even if we get a change in government over the next few elections in Europe, we know that when push comes to shove, they’ll still side with the Globalists and the Islamists…and will continue Europe’s trajectory towards being overtly anti-Semitic. Sure, Labour only got 35% of the vote in 2024…but if you add up Labour and all the even worse parties in the UK, you find that more than 50% of the British people are evil and/or stupid. So, too, in France, Germany, Spain and on and on. Heck, there are rumors that the Turks provided the anti air weapons which shot down our jet last week. Not only do I want us out of NATO, I want us to become in policy overtly hostile to it. I might agree to some sort of alliance with Poland and Romania, but that is about it. But I’m also increasingly Isolationist…because the world is so disgusting. Even if currently governed by friendlies (like Japan and Israel) there is still the prospect that the next election will return a raving lunatic anti-American government…so, why sign in alliance with people who might vote to become America’s enemies? Better to cut it all out, build that 600 ship Navy and call it a day.

The bastard who stabbed Iryna was ruled not competent to stand trial – likely because the local establishment doesn’t want a trial at which it will come out just how hideously cruel and incompetent they are. The Feds say don’t worry too much – the murderer is in federal custody and they’ll be holding their own competency hearing. Meh. Look, guys, if a man can stab a defenseless woman to death then of course he’s insane…but he also knew exactly what he was doing. Such a man is precisely who you most want in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed. Its far more important to keep him locked up than it is to keep anyone else locked up…because that lunatic might just decide one moment that its time to stab again for no reason at all. And it doesn’t matter if you “cure” him in jail – he still has to stay locked up because (a) we can’t ever be totally sure of such a cure and (b) he took a life…if he is ever really cured, then the only they he’ll want is to sit in jail until death in atonement for his crime. If he ever wants out, then that is proof he ain’t cured.

All Patriots are Happy

Mark Noonan22 Comments

I know it is still Easter but this is getting to me a bit and I want to write about it now.

Something I posted on X earlier:

Reminder: Bill Clinton left our boys hanging in Somalia.

Obama left them hanging in Libya.

Biden left them hanging in Afghanistan.

There isn’t a foul enough word to describe a CinC who does that.

As of this moment its got 1,000 reposts, 5,000 likes and nearly 31,000 views. That’s in under 5 hours and, keep in mind, I’m a minor account on X. Not an “influencer”! So, I struck a real nerve here. There are Lefties and Never Trumpers commenting – all coming in with stupid lies. So, a second nerve was struck.

The first nerve is that Americans – actual, patriotic Americans – are tired or losing. We’re tired of our boys and girls going into harms way and being hung out to dry…left to die, allowed to be killed…and if they do manage to win, being hauled up on war crimes charges. The worst of the three events I posted was the infamous “black hawk down” incident. Keep in mind that was a carefully planned event by our enemies. They were looking for exactly that – shoot down one of our ‘copters so they could jump up and down on it and drag American bodies through the streets. In the savage mind, that is victory. Our response should have been to inflict punitive damage on the city and people of Mogadishu. Let them know that while they might at times get a lucky shot in, the response by us is so horrific that it isn’t worth it.

Instead, Clinton pulled the plug – not just giving the enemy a propaganda victory, but an actual victory. That is what set the stage for all which followed. Reminder: we had just won the Gulf War in 100 hours of ground combat. The Elder Bush, IMO, wrecked that a bit by not compelling the Iraqi army to unconditionally surrender but there was still no doubt in the global mind: going toe to toe with us just kept graves registration busy. Mogadishu changed all that – it inserted into the global mind the concept that if you kill some Americans and make it difficult, we’ll cut and run. The whole plan that Saddam had in 2003 was to have his forces fade into the crowd and then create a score of Mogadishus until we quit. The Younger Bush was a bit more stern in that he wouldn’t just bug out like Clinton did, but he also went along with the “don’t hit them too hard” concept which had been prevalent in American military thought since Korea. This lead to the morass, the collapse of Bush’s support…and the ushering in of Obama who not only showed he’d cut and run, but he’d actually bend over backwards to help our enemies grow stronger.

Americans aren’t afraid of casualties – we’re just tired of forever wars ending in defeat. We will pay any price and bear any burden…but only if it gets us somewhere. Keep in mind that we won’t always be able to do what we did yesterday – devote massive resources to get one man out. Sometimes the exigencies of combat will prevent us from doing that. But by doing it – and whacking the heck out of the Mullah’s goons in the process – Trump let the world know that you won’t Mogadishu us into running away. That when Trump says we’re fighting to win, then we are, indeed, fighting to win.

And that is the other nerve – the Left and Never Trump nerve. Make no mistake about it, if they believe in any sort of a god, they were praying all day for our man to be killed or – even better – captured. They were hoping for an American defeat. For our humiliation. For one our sons to be paraded around like a trophy – alive or dead. And if alive, tortured until he agreed to make an anti-Trump statement on TV. Don’t get into an idea that they wanted a good outcome for America…they wanted a bad outcome for America. And, sure, a lot of it is animus towards Trump but keep in mind why they really hate him: he’s a brash, American patriot. That is the key to understand TDS…it is actually ADS. America Derangement Syndrome. A lot of people have for so long supped on garbage lies that they really think that America should be defeated. Should be humiliated. They hate my comment because the stark contrast between Trump’s muscular Americanism and the cowardly retreats of their heroes infuriates them. It punctures their bubble. It lets them know that we know they’re the bad guys in all this…and that is something they can’t stand; they want to be the good guys…but they can’t be. Not without repentance and admission of error…something no Lefty or Never Trump will ever do (except in rare instances).

The divide is really between Patriot and Traitor. Not that Trump symbolizes America – you can hate Trump and remain a Patriot – but that what Trump is doing, rebuilding American greatness, is something all Patriots support, even if they take exception to the methods Trump uses. The Left and Never Trump don’t just hate Trump, they hate America. They want an America hollowed out, drug addicted, flooded with illegals and at the beck and call of a Global Elite which is increasingly enthralled to Chinese Communists and Islamists. They want us depressed, impoverished, weak and frightened. They believe the world is a better place when America is degraded…and they hate Trump for trying to restore American greatness because they hate American greatness.

We are winning a decisive victory over the Mullahs – their regime will soon be no more. The Gulf States, faced with Mullah insanity, are finally lining up with us. For all the money we give to Israel, it is a pittance compared to what we give to NATO, and in Israel we have brothers and sisters in arms who are every bit as good as America’s warriors. The world is learning the lesson forgotten…the lesson of World War Two: we’re not just a Great Power, we’re the only true Great Power. As long as we are patriotic and lead by Patriots, we can’t be defeated. Ever. By Anyone. We will leave the Traitors on the ash heap of history. We will Make America Great Again…and the world peaceful and prosperous as we do it.

Happy Easter!

Mark Noonan3 Comments

Note: I was first thrilled with my Knights beating the Oilers last night and right after that we started getting rumors that our pilot had been rescued and all that completely distracted me! It was only this morning as I was preparing for Mass that I remembered I forgot! So, belated but here it is – and, me being late or not, He is Risen!

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead. – John 20:1-9

Finding the Truth

Mark Noonan7 Comments

It is surprising what you can find in second hand stores if you’re just poking around. I mean, take me with my deep interest in history and especially military history. There I was, wandering around the store and I spot this book: The War Lords. Looks interesting. Edited by Field Marshal Sir Michael Carver. Never heard of him. Picture on the back though looks like a thoroughly English officer of the mid-20th century. Open it: printed in 1976. Cool: way before anything like Woke became fashionable. Flip through it: ah, it is a series of sketches covering the main military leaders of the 20th century – varied from Kemal to Bradley. I buy it, take it home and start to read it – and am immediately enthralled. Why? Not because it is all new – though it does provide some info I hadn’t heard before – but because it isn’t written to make a point…just tell us what the men were like as war leaders. Strengths and weaknesses, all of it given out without any political axe to grind.

That is so very important here in our Age of Lies: just telling it as it is. One of my favorite books about World War One is The Great War written by Cyril Falls. Not that Falls was perfect – no, he was a loyal British officer and he would not stick a knife into the back of his chief – Field Marshal Douglas Haig – just to sell a book. But his book is good because, as he put it, it was written in the sense of a grandchild asking, “tell us about the war, and what they fought each other for”. He just told the story. He didn’t varnish it – but he wasn’t trying to make a point; just tell the tale, and that is what makes it so good. If you want a brief and well written history of the war – by a man who served in it – Falls’ book is the go-to. And I’m thinking that The War Lords will be added to my selection of first rate books and one which I will end up reading multiple times.

We must keep in mind that history is whatever the historian decided to say – and if the historian wants to make a point, then what you’re getting is a point of view. It might be a very well written point of view. It might be a logically sound and well sourced point of view, but it is a point of view. William Manchester was an excellent historian and biographer but no matter how you slice it, he was a mid-20th century liberal (and he would have been the first to admit that is what he was) and his books are written through that lense. He might admit to his bias, but that bias did not prevent him from excluding things which worked against his Narrative. For instance, as a mid-20th century liberal, he was of the view that war is a stupid, tragic waste. It is how he saw his own service as a Marine in World War Two (and there are doubts about the accuracy of some of the war stories he relates…so, even when recounting his memoirs, his Narrative was paramount) – and it is how he views the men who lead the wars. Even the best were, in a sense, bad. Maybe less bad than some, but bad all the same. This is why his contribution to war literature must be taken with a grain of salt. He never got over his fury about how many of his friends died on Okinawa…and this prevented him from telling us, except as an aside, how incredibly brave his friends were. War is not mere glory. But it isn’t merely sordid, either. It is a human activity…and it is therefor a mixed bag and if we’re really being honest, we tell the whole story…even the parts that don’t support our argument.

It is so very important to find the truth. The whole truth. Nothing but the truth. It is also pretty rare…but it is what we must always seek. It is amazing how just a little bit of truth will upend perhaps even decades of settled thought in the mind. And how once you reach a critical mass of truth in your mind, you simply can’t be fooled. You also stop being fearful. Or worried. Once your quest for truth passes a certain point, a certain calmness becomes your main sensation. You can tell the liar a mile away, and you stay away from him – except, perhaps, to point out to others he’s a liar. You can tell instantly when someone is just making stuff up to sell a garbage idea. Even if you’re not an expert on a particular subject, you can tell when someone is lying about it. This, I think, is what was meant by “the truth shall set you free”. Not free in your body – someone might throw chains around you at any moment. But if you have the truth, you are free…you already know what is going to happen and you rest content knowing that no matter how triumphant a liar appears at any given moment, total disaster awaits him because lies are always destructive.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan35 Comments

Let us modify the 14th:

All persons born to two American citizens, native born or two persons naturalized in the United States according to law are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. Persons born to one American citizen are citizens of the United States if they have been continuously resident within the United States for at least ten years prior to their eighteenth birthday and take an oath affirming their loyalty and renouncing all foreign ties. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, nor shall any State provide any aid whatsoever to non-citizens. Violation of a oath made in any capacity shall result in permanent disenfranchisement and is not subject to the pardon power.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective number of adult citizens. No legislative district shall be valid if it is drawn for the purposes of securing a partisan political victory nor shall any district be based upon race, ethnic, gender or religious grounds. If any district is challenged on grounds of validity, seven adult citizens of that district shall be randomly chosen via lottery to gather and rule on the validity of the district. A majority is required for ruling on the district validity. The House of Representatives shall be required to expel members from invalid legislative districts; any Representative or Senator who disagrees with said expulsion shall also be expelled. Any person expelled from Congress is by that act permanently disenfranchised and may never hold any office of profit or trust in the United States or the several States.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in actions which violated that oath.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred due to fraudulent activity; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Make your own additions or subtractions as you like: but it is clear that if we are to be a serious nation with a future, we’re going to have to start spelling things out. We can’t rely on honesty and good will – too many of our fellow citizens are idiots and crooks. We can’t leave things open to interpretation because the liars will simply interpret them to support lies.

I saw a picture of that Islamist massacre of Christians in Nigeria over Palm Sunday and it is going to stick with me forever – quite horrific. Don’t search for such pictures. This poor kid had his face sliced in half.

But we do need to think about it – these savages hacked the Christians to pieces. Think about the physical effort and time that takes. The perpetrators would have been covered in gore after they were done. Yes, they are still humans and thus endowed with the rights of same – but they are also unreasonable, inhuman savages. We can’t negotiate with such people – they don’t have grievances which we can ameliorate…they have a vision of themselves as eternal brute masters over slaves. There is no half way point between what they want and what any decent person deserves.

In Iran, this is what we’re fighting – the same sort of people. Yes, they are in error. Yes, they are capable of repentance. Yes, if they do repent then they can be welcomed with open arms into the community of people. But first they must be stopped – and that will require violence. You can’t disabuse people of such deep seated evil by careful reasoning…if they were open to careful reasoning, they never would have got to the point where they chop people up. I hope that Trump arms the Christians and provides them support via our Navy and Air Force.

Apparently for Season 3 of Rings of Power, one of the heroes is an orc. It is like they are deliberately going out of their way to be insulting.

Orcs were creatures of Morgoth in Tolkien’s universe. It is never made clear whether they were something made out of whole cloth by Morgoth or captive elves which he ruined. Suffice it to say, the orcs were made in mockery of elves. Entirely evil and entirely enslaved to Morgoth and, later, to Morgoth’s emissary, Sauron. Clever enough to make weapons and do other basic things, they were usually lazy, greedy and cowardly. Unless they had a Dark Lord to impose his will, they wandered in small bands, killing and stealing what they could. Orcs aren’t born – they are spawned. This does imply some sort of female of the species, but orcs are incapable of love or devotion. So, no, an orc can’t be friends with an elf, even as some sort of temporary alliance. That the writers of Rings of Power are doing this means they want to change the entire meaning of Tolkien’s work – and IMO, this was started with the first series for the Lord of the Rings. There were two major parts totally excluded from the movies: Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire. Part of this was time constraints but I believe that most of it was because the people who made the movie failed to understand why Bombadil was in it and why the Shire had to be scoured. Most important, though, was the excising of the Scouring.

Tolkien, himself, said it was an integral part of the story and envisioned from the start. That is, the hobbits after their arduous adventures, would have to return home and set the Shire to rights. Clean out the bad elements – a sort of low-key version of what Aragorn was doing in Gondor. That is, in any people, bad elements slip in and start to erode the good things and if they aren’t called out and expelled from time to time, it just gets worse. The hobbits had grown lazy and overly tolerant…they just wanted to be left alone and thought it was their right to be left alone. But all the while, enemies were gathering…enemies which could have been easily kept out by a bit of vigilance, but laziness allowed them in, causing death and destruction. By not having it in the movies, we are left with the sense that nothing was ever wrong with the hobbits. Nothing needed to be cured, nobody needed to stand guard. It left a hole in the tale…and that hole is now being driven through by people who not only don’t understand Tolkien’s world, but hate it.

It is my hope that eventually the slop they’re doing now will eventually be forgotten and in later years, truer adaptations will be made.


Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

The Iran war has been a major revelation showing us how the entire Global Ruling class has a vested interest in keeping the Mullah regime going. Now, just why is that? Well:

  1. A lot of them are bribed. The Mullahs pay them off. Never forget that the Ruling Class is corrupt and greedy – throw a couple bucks at them and they’ll dance to your tune.
  2. Peace in the Middle East would be a catastrophe. Reminder: the continued chaos there justifies the continuation of migration to Europe…gotta get those poor people outta there, right? If there’s peace, there’s no justification for replacing French and British voters.
  3. They really hate Israel. Of all the geopolitical events since 1945, Israel is the one they’ve come to hate the most. It is rich. It is powerful. It has the only growing Christian population in the Middle East. It is the only Middle East nation where Muslims are able to vote in genuinely free elections. It is a standing indictment of not just the Muslim world, but of the entire Third World…showing that starting from war and poverty you can lift yourselves up and very rapidly. You can have a free and law abiding society.
  4. Combined with this, the Ruling Class has been importing Muslims by the million and in order to keep them voting for that Ruling Class, hating Israel is a requirement. Even if one of them would prefer to support Israel, the potential loss of votes – and the turning over of their nations to patriots – is something not worth the risk.

Combine all that and you can see why they are so invested in the Mullah regime. Make no mistake about it, the Mullahs have not closed the Straight of Hormuz. They can’t. They lack the physical means to do so. But the Mullahs said it is closed and the Global Ruling Class went along with it and ordered the ships to stop sailing…because they hoped it would spike oil prices and force Trump to back down. What they didn’t understand was that Drill Baby Drill had already made the USA independent of the global oil market…we have had price spikes, but those really are just people being greedy. Charging the higher price because they can, not because they need to…in the USA, there is no shortage of oil or natural gas. To be sure, lots of countries are running out (I hear that Thailand is already rationing gasoline), but we aren’t. Trump is right when he proclaims we don’t need the Straight – it is Europe and Asia’s problem if it is closed. We can go on like this for a while – and the longer it goes on, the more the USA will be decoupled from the global oil and gas market…that is, our prices will start to drop, rapidly, even if the rest of the world is paying $20 a gallon for rationed gasoline.

Now, how will Trump wrap this up? I have no idea. It won’t go on much longer, though. Don’t pay much attention to alleged statements from the Mullah regime – in reality, there is no regime. No real government. Just various factions – mostly led by third and fourth tier people – vying for survival. Any idiot can put on a dress uniform and appear in front of a camera with a flag in the background to make a statement. What appears to be happening is the continued rapid degradation of every Iranian military asset – including tanks, vehicles and ammunition supplies – while Trump people talk to various Iranian people, trying to find the guy who will cut a deal…that is, bury the Mullah regime and become the transitional government. The continued bombing is important because day by day the various factions have less to bring to the table…and now it appears we’re hitting the ability to censor the internet and television. That is, the Iranian people are now getting access to non-regime news. The longer the factions hold out, the less their leverage…the coup de grace would be US occupation of strategic Iranian territory. Everyone is focused on Kharg Island, but I’m thinking Bandar Abbas and environs. But, that is all up to Trump and his people. We’ll see how he brings this to an end.

A Spanish girl in government care was raped by migrants. Not getting proper help afterwards, she attempted suicide which left her paralyzed. Then the government pressured her in to “assisted suicide” and her organs were harvested. You really need to think about that one – and not get angry at the migrants. To be sure, they all need to be flogged and then hung…but they aren’t the problem. The problem is the host of people – doctors, nurses, lawyers, bureaucrats, politicians, orderlies, etc – who made it all happen. The evil of the Nazi regime – or the Stalinist regime – wasn’t Hitler (or Stalin) it was the army of faceless operatives who made it all happen. The clerks who fill out the forms. The officials who sign the forms. The end-use operatives who carry out whatever is written on the forms. There was someone who filled out the form for the girl’s suicide…typing away at a computer screen, making sure there were no typos and all the relevant information was accurate…and what that clerk was doing was having a poor, suffering victim killed…to be harvested for organs and then forgotten about. After all, looking up at the clock, have to get this one done before lunch today!

The evils of the modern world are only possible because people go along with them. With a shrug. And it is just those people who must be severely punished. The insanely evil can’t do it unless (allegedly) decent, hard working people agree to help. We have to figure out some way to make such faceless actors indictable – and then convict them and subject them to something really horrific. It is the only way to drive home the absolute moral requirement that nobody cooperate with evil. Ever. Even for a minute.

UPDATE: All yesterday a growing love between Americans and Japanese flowed through social media. Appropriately it started with a shared love of barbecue. But it looks pretty awesome…some samples:

Japanese version of Country Roads. Very much worth a watch!

Japanese apparently like country music:


Japanese thanks Trump for the Pearl Harbor joke because, in his view, it finally completely buries the WWII hatchet. We can josh with each other, even about the bad things, because we’re friends.

Awesome:

Also awesome:

And more awesomeness:

Anti-Semitism: it is Part of the Modern Barbarism

Mark Noonan19 Comments

A Priest-mutual I have on X posted the following:

One doesn’t have to support Israel. I don’t support Israel. I simply refuse to hate Jews.

Which is, of course, simply true. Now, on my part, I do support Israel – explicitly as a Jewish State. One thing the past century has taught us is that even in the most advanced and tolerant societies, Jew-hatred is both easy to stir up and quickly becomes deadly. But the bottom line is that reasonable people can take exception to Israel – both in its actions and in its reason for being. That is, you can think it was a mistake to create Israel…but this doesn’t entail hating Jews.

We’ve talked here before of the genesis of modern Anti-Semitism, which is different from that of the Middle Ages where it was simply thought that Jews were foolishly wrong for not accepting Christ as savior – and this, indeed, could and did often lead to violence against Jews. But in the modern world, anti-Semitism changed…from a dismay to a hatred. And it became tinged with race – that is, Jews are not a religious but a racial group…and no matter how secular a Jew is, or even if a Jew converts, they don’t stop being Jews. This was the baleful ideology which was created by Gobineau, refined by Chamberlain and Schonerer and then wound up given full expression by Hitler. The crucial aspect of all this is that it was plain and simple stupid. Not supported by anything scientific nor the result of any logical chain of thought. It was just idiocy produced by losers to explain why they weren’t on top – later taken up by Hitler and his Nazis and carried out to the detriment of Germany’s own future. You’d think that Nazi defeat in 1945 would have killed it off completely, but it never did.

To be sure, it took decades to get it back on track – surviving Nazis worked long and hard at it, starting mostly in the Muslim world but always with footholds in the West. Everything carefully pitched to catch the ignorant and get them to believe. It is rising to a malignant cancer in the West these days because while the Nazis were lying, the West was destroying the West…that is the educational, religious and moral convictions which were always the strongest bulwark against vicious modern anti-Semitism.

And that brings me to the main point: the full purpose of the modern Left is to get people to be degraded. To be ignorant. Envious. Lazy. Greedy. To pretty much embrace all the cardinal sins and consider themselves superior for doing so. What this has done is make people, well, insane. We see it in a video I saw earlier – some woman was attending an 8th grade graduation and because her child wasn’t called up early on, she threw a temper tantrum. The lady probably knows nothing. I’d bet money that she’s only barely literate. To consider if she’d ever read a book of any sort is to be asking far too much. But she’s fat. Monetarily in good shape. And supremely confident that if things don’t work as she wants, she has a right to mess everything up for everyone else – she is also certain that if there is something wrong, it is the result of a shadowy conspiracy to prevent her from being on top. It is of such clay that our modern anti-Semites, BLM activists and Code Pink crazies are made of.

The problem we have isn’t just one particular type of evil. While it would be great if we could wave a magic wand and make all anti-Semitism instantly disappear, it wouldn’t help us long term – it wouldn’t save our civilization. If the people are still ignorant, lazy, greedy and nuts, then if one particular aspect of insanity is removed it doesn’t help. What we – the civilized – must decide is how long we’ll allow the barbarians to afflict us, and what means we’ll choose to convert them to our ways.

Because make no mistake about it, the barbarians – with rare exceptions – will not voluntarily give up their ways. Why should they? They can take and destroy and nobody stops them. The people starting a brawl in a fast food joint because they didn’t get enough nuggets in their order are never punished in any real way. Until they are, they will not change. We’re going to have to disenfranchise them and then let them know they are the social inferiors who must learn the ways of their betters. Or else. Don’t even for a moment think this is race-based. That is just another bit of drivel – in fact, the modern American racism owed a huge amount to Gobineau’s idiotic twaddle…it was seized upon by pro-slavery people in the USA and used as a justification to continue stealing the labor of black Americans. It isn’t about race – it is about being civilized or being barbarian. There are plenty of white Americans just as barbaric as any morons out there – and they, too, must be instructed in right conduct.

Such things as not being a drunkard. Staying employed. Keeping your house clean. Your yard maintained. Never even thinking for a moment that shoplifting is ok. Being respectful of others. Not picking fights with cops. Getting married. Staying married. Learning to read. All of that – and, as I said, they won’t voluntarily go to the wellsprings of decent behavior. They will have to be compelled. And if we do this, then all of the ills of our society will shrink to very manageable proportions…

Honorable Service

Mark Noonan7 Comments

Vladimir Sukhomlinov (1848-1926) was a Russian army officer. He entered service 1867 and remained until 1915. As a young officer he served bravely and was decorated multiple times. But he left the service in 1915 because he was War Minister and Russia had suffered some catastrophic military defeats. These defeats could be traced to the Russian army not being well equipped with modern weapons and being badly organized logistically for war (ie, men going into battle without proper weapons and clothing, food being insufficient, so forth). And here’s the thing: he was a senior member of Russia’s armed forces from 1886 onwards. That is, for nearly thirty years he was high up, eventually rising to the highest rank, Minister of War who was de-facto Commander in Chief of the Russian army. During all this time at the top he was repeatedly praised, promoted and decorated…but when the test came, it was found that the army he commanded wasn’t in any way ready for war. In other words, he failed…and had failed for decades.

How was he able to rise so high? I mean, after a while someone should have figured out that whatever qualities Sukhomlinov had, he wasn’t fit to be in charge. Well, he was protected and advanced by the Russian system…which was corrupt to the core. All errors and rumors of corruption were covered up. He was protected. Heck, he was protected even after he fell from power – he should probably have been shot but he ended up spending only a few months in jail before his powerful friends in the Imperial government got him released. To be fair, he ended up dying in extreme poverty as an exile in Germany after the Russian Revolution…but this doesn’t change the fact that for decades a man in no way fit to hold power exercised such power…and untold numbers of Russians ended up dead because of it.

I bring this up because of Robert Mueller, who passed away the other day. We are told that his Bronze Star and combat performance in Vietnam is the defining thing about him and thus any condemnations are not just wrong, but wicked. This all in response to Trump posting that he was glad Mueller was dead. But as we can see in the case of Sukhomlinov, bravery in combat as a young man doesn’t mean that everything which comes after is good. At some point in his career, Sukhomlinov observed how the system really worked – it wasn’t bravery and ability which got you ahead in the Imperial Russian army, it was connections and connivance. Make the right friends and then do whatever is necessary to help those friends, and you’ve got it made…though you are mentally incapable of exercising command, they’ll put a general’s insignia on your shoulder and have you command soldiers in battle! Nobody cares about how many of them die, or if the country wins or loses the war…its all about place. Position. Prestige.

Mueller saw the same thing in our government. The path to advancement in federal law enforcement wasn’t paved with dedication to the rule of law…but in getting in and getting on. Finding out who had the power and then stroking that person or group until they let you in…and, of course, once in you have to keep things up for everyone else who is in. Cover up crimes and failure for the in crowd, ruthlessly hound – even if it means breaking the law – anyone the in crowd identifies as an enemy. Given the overall arc of Mueller’s career, this decision point came to Mueller fairly early on…perhaps not even more than a few years after he hung up his uniform. Whatever beliefs he had a boy, young man and combat officer were set aside in favor of career advancement. Mueller reached the decision point and decided he would do what it took to advance – in the end, his final public act was to lend his name to the Trump-Russia con…a transparently false attempt to frame Trump and force him out of office. Complete degradation…all honor entirely lost. It is sad, when you think about it. We can pray for the repose of his soul and hope he repented before he died, but the bottom line is that his entire career in government was a malevolent blight upon the Republic. We’d have been better off if he had never lived.

And it is right and proper to be pleased that he has gone to his final judgement. That he cannot in any way, shape or form harm our Republic again. A bad man has died. His fate is now up to God – but his memory must be damned by all decent people. None of this pretending he was an honorable man or public servant…he was a corrupt apparatchik for a disgusting, inhuman Ruling Class. We must condemn his memory because we want the rising generation to know that being a Mueller is a disgrace and even if it doesn’t land you in jail, it will lead you to a dishonorable grave.

One thing our nation must recover is a sense of decency. Not the “decency” of the Ruling Class – their idea of decency is that they are treated with kindness and respect no matter how nauseating they are. No: we want real decency. Men and women who do the right thing, all the time, no matter the consequences. People who aren’t looking for career advancement, but to do what is best. Pissing on Mueller’s gave is where this starts, crude as that may seem – but, then again, real decency is a bit brutal. All true things are like that – sort of in your face, insulting you a bit by their existence, because one thing all decent people know instinctively is how far short of excellent they fall. Contrast with our Ruling Class which is convinced of its moral and intellectual superiority while they wallow in ignorance, lying to themselves and to us while the steal and kill. Mueller probably never had a doubt. Hillary. Obama. Comey: all like that. Stupid. Liars. Corrupt. Cruel. But convinced they are better than everyone else and that any criticism of them is perverse. They get to do this because our system continues to protect them…but under Trump, we might be getting back to a system where garbage people do get what’s coming to them…and honorable people get to be in charge.