Good article

A solid article on our Muslim "friends" from Gates of Vienna.  I don't know if the West has the willpower to resist this encroachment.  I do know the leftists will do everything possible to allow us to be destroyed by Islam.  Not because they like what Islam says about homosexuality, women's rights, etc; but simply because they're too stupid to realize what Islam is really all about.

Useful idiots, as the saying goes.

Anyhow, enjoy.  Or rather, read it and weep.

Jukebox of the Mind

Today we have an interesting song for JotM.  This is the great Scottish duo The Corries, doing "Blue Bonnets".  I found this last night, while looking for good Highland Marches in honor of Bill Millin.

I knew the song before, because Natalie MacMaster, an old favorite of mine did a lovely, haunting version of it.  At least I think it's the same song.  I'm not sure, since I can hear no similarities between them.  It might be the instruments, the tempo, etc, but to my untrained ear the two versions are completely different.

I'm not sure which one I prefer.  The fiddle version is, as I said, very haunting.  It's got a sad tone to it, which works well for catharsis when one is feeling down.  The Corries version, with pounding bodhrans, sounds more like what I guess the song is intended to be:  A song to inspire a Highlander to go pummel an Englishman or twenty.  So I guess that's a point in its favor.  (Not encouraging any random Scot to go a-pummeling, but honestly, that's the point of much of their traditional music).

Anybody got an feelings either way?

Anyhow, to warm up for writing this, I watched this video twice, one after the other.  Love the song, but something about the video is equally compelling.  Maybe it's the internal dork in me, but even the outfits they wear seem cool.  I sometimes wish I were younger, so that I would have had the internet as a teenager and young man, when I could have found these traditional or medieval type outfits and worn them as my own particular style.  Don't think I could pull them off so well now.  Ah well.

Enjoy.



(DOH!  Almost forgot the video!)

A brave man leaves us

RIP Bill Millin, the man who achieved well-deserved fame for playing his pipes on Sword Beach, June 6, 1944.  The bravest of the brave, perhaps.

Here's the best quote from the story.  When Lord Lovat asked him to play, Millin initially refused, because regulations forbade it.  Here's the terrific but brief story:

"....When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: “Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply.”


Thanks to Mr. Millin for his courage and the inspiration he provided to men who needed it that day.  And I hope to someday see him in heaven.  I'm pretty sure he'll be there, and I hope he pipes me ashore then.

Scary if true

Don't know for certain the truth of this whole affair, but this makes sense to me.  Even if we were to assume this article is wrong, the question would remain:  Does the Muslim world see it the same way?  After all, it's well known that Arafat, a "peace-lover" in the eyes of the Western world, would make a pro-peace statement in the West, and then run home to his cronies and tell the Islamic media that he didn't really mean it, and that the goal of destroying Israel was still there.

So I don't know.  But I figure the smart money is on this being a ploy to make Islam look stronger in the Mideast, and humiliate the US a bit.  And if the elite and the politicians are too ignorant to know what they're doing, that's just a bonus.

PS- If anybody out there cares, I posted a brief comment about this on my Facebook page too.  Look for Guntotin Wacko.

Huh???

Wow.  Here's an article that explains one of Bambi's problems: He thinks he's so darn smart because he's always been told how gosh-darn smart he is.  Not the most original idea, but here's the quote that I think makes the whole article worthwhile:

“He is so supremely confident in his intellect that he forgets, on his way to the correct decision, to slow down and pick up not-so-gifted stragglers.”

Again, wow.  Just wow.  Of course the woman who made this comment no doubt considers herself to be waaay smarter than the rest of us, or anyone that doesn't agree with Bambi.

So Margaret Carlson, here's what I think:  Screw you.  You're an elitist, arrogant snob who is so convinced of your own superiority that you think everyone that disagrees with you and your ilk does so from stupidity.

And of course, I suspect you think that everyone who disagrees is also part of the "fringe".  Of course, you are too ignorant to realize that, when 70% of the American People disagree with you, there's a good chance that you might actually be on the fringe, and not them.

But you're too convinced of your own superiority.  So again, Margaret Carlson, screw you.

Another brilliant move

Once upon a time, politicians here in Michigan had a brilliant idea:  ban smoking in bars.  All of them.  Across the board.  Gotta protect the health of the people, no matter what the cost.

Opponents warned that it would be a disaster.  After all, if people go out to bars to drink, play pool and hang out, they'll often want to smoke.  If they can't smoke, then they're less likely to go out.  If they don't go out, they won't spend money.  Bars will suffer a downturn (possibly fatal) in business, tax revenues will drop, and the economy in the State will suffer.

But no.  Those people are fools.  A smoking ban would have no effect.  The politicians and anti-smoking people said so!  And thus the ban passed....

.... And now behold!  42% of respondents to a recent poll found their business has dropped since the ban went into effect.  Along with loss of jobs & loss of tax revenues, the State has even found a drop in lottery revenues.

Great thinking folks!

At some point, I hope that politicians and bureaucrats figure out that screwing over small and medium businesses, and costing them money is somehow harmful to the economy.

But I doubt it.  They're all morons.