Beyond comprehension

Most of us really can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to lose everything in a natural disaster. The sheer weight of loss and the accompanying despair is overwhelming. Looking through the pics of the devastation wrought in Haiti by yesterday’s earthquake, every good soul must feel kinship with those suffering in grief.

It is truly beyond comprehension.

Father Philip is right, and there is very little to add to what he has said. Let’s pray for the victims. Let’s help them as much as we can and in whatever way we can. Here are some links for organizations providing relief in Haiti:

United States
Episcopal Relief and Development
Anglican Relief and Development
Food for the Poor
Catholic Relief Services
American Jewish World Service
Salvation Army
(thanks: Chris Johnson)

Italy
Caritas Italiana
Medici senza frontiere
Croce Rossa Italiana
See also here.

World
Caritas.org
International Committee of the Red Cross
Médecins Sans Frontières
Save the Children

The WWII vet and the Holocaust survivor: a telephone conversation about President Obama

Harold and Esther are both in their 90s, and they are amazed, angry, and determined not to see the US die before they do. And they both are not fans of Obama’s apologetic attitude towards nations classically hostile to both America and Israel. Sara K. Eisen—Esther’s granddaughter—got the crazy idea that they should meet...

'The Pillage Idiot Guide to Offensive Statements by Public Officials'

It’s one thing for Barack Obama to grant absolution for an ally's dubious racial remark, but when Al Sharpton absolves the offender, you just know there are different standards at work.

Here is a flow chart mapping out the politics of offensive statements. Via Instapundit.

Burma: a culture lost in translation

“We Are Because They Are: A Culture Lost In Translation” (part 1/part 2) is an interesting documentary film about Burmese living abroad (in this case in Norway). Once home away from home, Burma is destined to become a foreign land to them. It’s worth looking at and thinking about.

How Tibet was sold out for a fistful of pounds and a few dollars more

Last week, Christopher Booker, columnist at the Sunday Times, reported on “the strange eagerness” of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office “to appease the murderous regime in Tehran.” But now we have learned that David Milliband’s appeasement of Tehran has a strong precedent,

Another example of the FCO's willingness to kowtow to nasty regimes has been flagged up in another newspaper, where a columnist researching ahead of a recent visit to China came across a remarkable statement from the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, slipped out on the FCO website on October 29 2008, just before representatives of the Dalai Lama were due to hold talks in Beijing on the future of Tibet.
Buried in the statement was Britain's recognition for the first time that, like "all other members of the EU… we regard Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China".

It’s just what Barack Obama said last November, soon after his meeting with China’s president Hu Jintao. Unfortunately, the “recognition” has become a very popular motto in the language of international relations, since in a diplomatic note to Beijing issued one month ago by the Danish government it was made clear that Denmark—ruled by a center-right coalition—would oppose Tibetan independence and carefully considered China’s reaction before inviting the Dalai Lama again.

So, apparently it all started from David Miliband, the would be leader of the Labour party (and possibly Prime Minister of the UK), and above all the Foreign Secretary of a country which for over a hundred years has studiously not conceded that Tibet is part of China. He even apologized that Britain had not done so earlier… As Robert Barnett, the director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University, wrote in November 25, 2008 New York Times,

The British concession to China last month was buried within a public statement calling on Beijing to grant autonomy in Tibet, leading some to accuse the British government of hypocrisy. It is more worrying if it was a miscalculation. The statement was released two days before the Dalai Lama's envoys began the eighth round of talks with Beijing on their longstanding request for greater autonomy, apparently because the British believed - or had been told - that their giveaway to Beijing would relax the atmosphere and so encourage China to make concessions to the Dalai Lama.
The result was the opposite. On Nov. 10, China issued a damning attack on the exile leader, saying his autonomy plan amounted to ethnic cleansing, disguised independence and the reintroduction of serfdom and theocracy. The only thing that China will henceforth discuss with the exiles is the Dalai Lama's personal status, meaning roughly which luxury residence he can retire to in Beijing.

Barnett also reported that

The official press in China has gleefully attributed European concessions on Tibet to the financial crisis. "Of course these European countries are at this time not collectively changing their tune because their conscience has gotten the better of them," announced The International Herald Leader, a government-owned paper in Beijing, on Nov. 7. It added that the financial crisis "has made it impossible for them not to consider the 'cost problem' in continuing to 'aid Tibetan independence' and anger China. After all, compared to the Dalai, to as quickly as possible pull China onto Europe's rescue boat is even more important and urgent."

Would the International Herald Leader have ever imagined that about one year later even the President of the United States would sell out Tibet by rewriting history to get support in the financial crisis?

But, as the old saying goes, “Never say die!” In fact His Holiness the Dalai Lama today said he was optimistic about China giving autonomy to Tibet, and this, paradoxically, just because of a matter of money... Asked about the chances of China giving autonomy to Tibet, he said, “Since Jiang Zemin came to power, there has been a big change in China; now money is very important. Therefore, I am optimistic.” But then again, as another old saying goes, “Money comes and goes...”

St Paul's Cathedral

“ St Paul’s is, as I remembered it, a very handsome noble architectural exploit, but singularly unaffecting. When I formerly came to it from the Italian cathedrals, I said, “Well, here is New York.” It seems the best of show-buildings, a fine British vaunt, but there is no moral interest attached to it. ”


~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, April? 1848], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) - London (England), 1982.

That’s just (si parva licet componere magnis) what I always thought about London’s cathedral…

The thousand faces of the real Islam

Her name is Anna Mahjar-Barducci, she is a young journalist and writer living in Italy, born to a Moroccan mother and Italian father, and married to an Israeli Jew. In the eyes of orthodox Islam, as well as of her fellow Muslim immigrants, her marriage and that of her mother are an apostasy. “When I see a Maghrebi on the street,” she says, “I have to change direction. He starts to greet me in Arabic, and stares at me as if I were his property. One time I was in a pizzeria with a classmate, and a Moroccan called me “sharmuta,” prostitute, and told me that I couldn’t go out with an Italian. The owner of the pizzeria had to intervene, to kick him out. Nothing like that would ever happen in Morocco.”

“Nothing like that would ever happen in Morocco,” in fact, in 2006 the most widely viewed film in Morocco was a love story (Marock) between a young Muslim woman and a Jewish young man. This means that in Morocco predominant opinion is not at all so rigid. How could this difference be explained?

In an autobiographical account—entitled Italo-marocchina. Storie di immigrati marocchini in Europa—which was released a few weeks ago in bookstores in Italy, Anna Mahjar-Barducci—who is also the founder and the president of the Associazione Arabi Democratici Liberali, the website of which is also in English—tries to solve the enigma, and to answer many other questions about the reality of today’s Muslim communities both in the West and in the non-Western world. What emerges from the book is a multiform, unknown and “individual Islam,” made up of love, ruin, passion, fanaticism, and Europe as an unfulfilled dream.

Go to Sandro Magister’s website to read a chapter of the book (in English translation).

Here are some articles in English by Anna Mahjar-Barducci:

1. The Burqa: “I Am Not A Candy” (July 9, 2009, The Daily Star)
2. What happened in Omdurman, and who is Khalil Ibrahim? (May 27, 2008, The Daily Star)
3. A step backward in Moroccan freedoms (February 18, 2007, The Daily Star)
4. Turning Abbas into a missed opportunity (July 11, 2006, The Daily Star)
   
5. Fatal attraction: the Hamas-Iran alliance (May 8, 2006, The Daily Star)

International complicity

And now there is also a defence of the Islamic Republic of Iran posted at Socialist Unity today. As an eloquent example of how far certain sections of the British (and European) Left have sunk. Hat tip: Harry's Place (the “other” Left).

The 'Religion of Peace' strikes again

He is a 28-year-old Somali with a regular residence permit in Denmark, but with close links with Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab and possibly al-Qaida militants in East Africa. He broke into Kurt Westergaard’s home armed with an ax and knife, shouting threats of “blood” and “revenge.” Yet, fortunately Westergaard and his granddaughter, who was in the home on a sleepover, succeeded in fleeing into a specifically created safe room. Westergaard is the Danish cartoonist whose 12 caricatures named “Faces of Muhammad,” published by Danish Jyllands-Posten, ignited riots and outrage across the Muslim world.

The Danish Muslim Union condemned the attack. They said in a statement: “We strongly distance ourselves from the attack, and any kind of extremism that leads to such acts.”

Here is what I had to say at the time about both the cartoons and the riots.

Happy New Year!!!

“ The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. ”

~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Iran: what should the West think & do?

What’s going on in Iran isn’t that different from what happened in Eastern Europe just before the wall fell. It also reminds us what happened in South Africa just before P.W. Botha decided that he must cede power to avoid a civil war and national bloodbath, or 1992 and Boris Yeltsin facing down the tanks prepared to overthrow the regime. Yet, at the same time, it could also be China just before the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

What should the West (especially the US) think & do? There are those—especially among the neoconservatives—who do not believe there is any difference between radical leaders and reformers in Iran. According to them it is foolish to make a distinction or to modulate policy to benefit one side or the other. I respect their opinion, but I’m not sure they are right. What I’m quite sure about is that it would be ineffective and possibly counterproductive for the US and its Western allies to take punitive actions against Iran (new sanctions would just hit the people and, by consequence, would throw a lifeline to Khamenei and further enrich the Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guards), while supporting human rights and civil liberties, and denouncing those violations that have occurred would speak louder about what the Western true priorities are than any threats of punitive action.

Merry Christmas!

Imagine a snowy Christmas Eve, a small church in a little mountain village, deep inside a pine forest. Inside the church a kids choir is singing an unknown but amazing song … It might just have been better if I hadn’t already told my readers the wonderful story of Silent Night, because I could still have the chance to tell it right now! Yet, there is still something to be done to complete the good work: if you haven’t already heard it sung by the Thomanerchor, one of the oldest cultural entity in Europe (founded in 1212!), may I take the liberty of suggesting that you do so right now:



One more suggestion: in order to understand better the significance of the Nativity of the Lord, here are some brief remarks by Pope Benedict XVI on the historical origin of this solemnity.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

BUON NATALE A TUTTI!

The winter of our discontent? No, it's Christmas time...

It has been snowing these last few days in North-Eastern Italy, and Christmas is a-coming. And to be sincere I would have no wish to talk about politics, but, just like nature, politics has its own times and seasons, and these are special and challenging times—no way to escape from the battlefield (believe me, you people who don’t like war movies, the term is not exaggerated!), nor would I wish this, neither should anyone else in my opinion. So here I am with an end-of-year thought.

While I was reading what Steven (The Metaphysical Peregrine) had to say right here in this very blog last Friday about the US at the end of the year 2009, sometimes I wondered whether he was talking about America or Italy. He denounced what he calls the Obama tyranny, but that’s just the way the Italian and European leftists talk about Berlusconi, the media tycoon who owns or controls most of Italy’s major national newspapers and magazines, TV stations and radio…, which is only partially true, but it doesn’t matter because nobody listens, except for the usual haters.., masters in the art of lying and deceiving, proscribing and despoiling, under a cloak of legality. And that’s what both makes Berlusconi stronger, beyond his real merits, and “the haters” more and more unreliable, beyond their faults (which aren’t exactly child’s play, though). It’s the Nemesis, or, as the old proverb goes, “The devil makes the saucepans, but not the lids.”

What is certain is that both Obama and Berlusconi are not uniters but dividers. Which makes life difficult for us moderates of both trenches (I mean, I consider myself a conservative on many issues, and a liberal on a few, but overall I support conservative parties around the world). In fact, moderates dislike the way some people tend to extremize their views, which often leads them, in the worst cases, to what I would call the intellectualization of political hatred (you know, it’s always the same story: never concede an inch to your opponents, whom must be seen as inherently “evil” or “stupid,” whatever they think, say and do, etc.). But I concede that both in Obama’s case and in that of Berlusconi a certain Manichaeism is somehow more understandable. They are symbols, “representative men,” and that’s what can make them automatically worthy of love or hatred, without half-measures.

Yet, there is a difference between those who target Obama as an American traitor and a “tyrant,” and those who have a similar attitude towards Berlusconi: while the formers fight a political war (which I believe to be well-founded, by the way), the latter prefer ad hominem attacks to serious analysis and a sensible discussion of the issues, which is something I cannot stand, nor do I believe such a “political” approach should ever be acceptable in a civilized country.

So if my American conservative friends have the right to be furious, there are even more reason why their Italian counterparts should be so. That’s why I might say, along with the Poet, “Now is the winter of our discontent,” if it were not that Christmas is so close, and Christmas time
comes once a year… a time to be joyful and happy. So Merry Christmas everyone, conservatives and liberals alike! May God bless you and keep you from harm’s way!

Changing how we view Islam

How sad! The civilized world is exposed to the truth of the brutality of Islam. Meanwhile many Muslim converts in the West are finding it more and more difficult to find excuses for the actions of their fellow Muslims. Well, never say die! Here is a handy reference for our Western Muslim readers to help them deflect the charges leveled against Muslims and to help convince others that Islam is the religion of peace.

(From the series “And Brutus is an honourable man,” which is much in the spirit of this blog… though I have lost some friends along the way because of my passion for William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar—my great admiration for the bifurcated tongue of Marc Antony included. But then again, if you don’t want to take any risks, just don’t blog about Islam and other sensible phenomena, such as Climategate, Obama, Berlusconi, etc...)

The US at the End of the Year 2009

~ “LETTERS FROM AMERICA” - by The Metaphysical Peregrine ~

This has been a mean and combative year in the US.

It didn’t get into full meanness until late summer. The House of Representatives tried to ram their takeover of the health insurance and health care industries before their summer recess, and failed. The reason they wanted to hurry up and get it done was because the American people were overwhelmingly against it. People jammed into Town Hall meetings with their Representatives and made it clear they didn’t want this legislation passed. These “representatives” of the people then denounced and called these citizens
names: Nazis, stupid, fascists, racists (you’re a racist if you oppose the polices of Obama) etc. Many of these Citizens are part of the “Tea Party” movement against high taxes, Cap and Trade legislation, and the government take over of the health industry. That we have government officials, elected representatives, insulting the citizens of this country is an outrage. They should all be fired.

All this week the Senate, which was designed to slow the political process, by reviewing the potential consequences of legislation, are doing exactly the same thing. About 60% of the American people, shown in several polls, do not want this legislation. Last night Senate Majority leader Harry Reid kept Senators until after midnight. Even if this government take over succeeds, it won’t go into effect until 2014, so what’s the rush? It hasn’t even been released out of committee; no one has read it expect for Harry Reid and his oligarchy. We do know this is part of it; if you don’t buy health insurance you will be fined and or imprisoned. If you change insurance companies or coverage, you will be forced to buy government insurance. Insurance companies to stay in business will have to comply with government mandates, ultimately making all insurance government insurance. Taxpayers’ money will be used to finance the elective procedure, abortion.

This has been the primary battle since May of this year.

The secondary battle is Cap and Trade. It’ll raise energy costs for the average American family of four by $1500-$4500. In an interview prior to his election, Obama said energy costs under his proposal will “necessarily skyrocket”. Nearly 60% of the American people are against this legislation.

This ties into climate change, which had its name changed from global warming because the earth has been cooling for over a decade. Plus lots of people have pointed out the year 1000 CE was warmer than it is now, and there was no industry; and that Greenland was once green. Copenhagen comes to a close today, I think. Worst storms there in decades, and I’m laughing. They should have held it in August! Duh. I didn’t hear any scientists’ speeches; just government functionaries from socialist countries demanding money from the US; then Communist dictators denouncing the US and capitalism, which got the loudest and most extended applause. Nothing was agreed on, except, baby it’s cold outside, the US is evil, and give us money.

Our president went to Cairo and softly denounced Christianity and strongly praised Islam. No effect on foreign relations there. Bowed to a Saudi king. No effect on foreign relations there. Went to Europe and talked about something not memorable at all on economics and climate. No effect on foreign relations there. Went to Asia, bowed before the Emperor of Japan with no effect on foreign relations there. In China couldn’t get help controlling North Korea, no human rights issues were addressed, no trade agreements, couldn’t get them to stop cheating on the valuation of their currency. Obama sided with dictators Chavez, Castro, and Ahmadinejad with the overthrow of the Constitutional government of Honduras by a dictator.

Meanwhile, no new businesses were started in the US. Unemployment is at 17%. The value of the dollar is plummeting. Tax revenues are way down. The number of government jobs is up, as is their pay, while pay in the private sector is frozen or reduced.

An Islamofacist yelling ‘Allah Akbar’ slaughters people in Fort Hood, Texas, and gets a pass, with excuses made by the Administration and the Main Stream Press. Three Navy Seals are facing Court Martial because a murdering terrorist claims he got roughed up when captured. This terrorist is the guy that captured American civilian workers in Falujah, dragged their dead bodies through the streets, burned their bodies, and hung them from the bridge over the Euphrates River. Meanwhile, the murderer Kalid Mohmmed and his fellows that planned 9/11 and killed 3,000 Americans are getting full US citizen’s legal rights. Not so our brave Seals. The primary job of President of the US is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He’s letting the Seals be unjustly prosecuted, sending men and women into combat in Afghanistan without the goal of Victory. Also against the will of the American people he’s closing Gitmo, putting them in a prison in his home state, and giving them all full US Citizen’s judicial rights.

Everything this president and his Democrat Party have done this year is against the will of the Citizens. This is the definition of tyranny. It has not been a good year for the American Citizen. Fortunately his approval rating has dropped from the high sixties about nine months ago to about 47%. Congress’s approval has dropped to the twenty percentile.

We have a huge national election next November. We can turn this dismal performance around, and stop tyranny in its tracks. The Republican Party though, is the Party of Stupid, so any optimism is cautious.

This year end report is sad; sad for my country, and by extension the rest of the world. America until now has been the engine for the world economy, the ‘city on the hill’ for freedom. Everyone on the planet that wants fiscal strength and Liberty, had best pray and hope, that the Citizens of the United States stand up against Tyranny this coming November.

What spiritual freedom is all about

I have a great story to share with you today, dear readers. It’s a simple quote, but it truly speaks volumes about what freedom, in a spiritual sense, is all about. But please allow me a few lines to introduce the Source and Author (both not very well-known).

The Book of Ecclesiasticus, also known as The Book of Sirach or Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, or the Wisdom of Ben Sira, is a work from the early second century BC, originally written in Hebrew (but afterwards translated into Greek, by another Jesus, the grandson of the author). It is not in the Jewish canon, but is received as canonical and divine by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and most Oriental Orthodox, but not by most Protestants.

Ecclesiasticus is a collection of ethical teachings. Thus it closely resembles Proverbs, except that, unlike the latter, it is the work of a single author, not an anthology of maxims drawn from various sources. Many of the teachings are advices and instructions as to the duties of man toward himself and others, as well as toward society and the state, and most of all toward God. One of them is the one I have chosen for today. I love it for its essentiality and effectiveness:

Do not say, ‘The Lord was responsible for my sinning,’ for he does not do what he hates. Do not say, ‘It was he who led me astray,’ for he has no use for a sinner. The Lord hates all that is foul, and no one who fears him will love it either. He himself made human beings in the beginning, and then left them free to make their own decisions. If you choose, you will keep the commandments and so be faithful to his will. He has set fire and water before you; put out your hand to whichever you prefer. A human being has life and death before him; whichever he prefers will be given him. For vast is the wisdom of the Lord; he is almighty and all-seeing. His eyes are on those who fear him, he notes every human action. He never commanded anyone to be godless, he has given no one permission to sin.
[Ecclesiasticus: 15, 11-20]

___

First written for The Metaphysical Peregrine

___

La Toscana

         
        Italian souvenirs by Mirino

I alluded to the spontaneously generous way we were welcomed on our second day in Tuscany (Lavane) on Viewfinder. Such natural trust and generosity reinforces one's own believe in the essential goodness of human nature, hopefully still of the majority.

Such 'random meetings', that in reality can never be qualified as such, are more often than not the instigators of a chain of positive effects that endlessly continue to determine others. Interwoven circumstances in an endless, positive evolution. The 'one good turn determines another' effect.
In history these are far less recorded than the negative evolutions. As a rule the 'one bad turn determines another' monopolises the world's history books of humanity. 
But maybe it's thought that I'm digressing. What has all this got to do with Italian souvenirs?

Perhaps this allusion is especially pertinent regarding Italy, because of Italian generosity. This is not simply a reference to generous servings of pasta Veronese, or, to an introductory Milanese welcome, generously serving oneself to someone else's property. I'm referring to Italian history, magnificent, Italian art and architecture, Italian traditions such as the Palio, the Carnival of Venice, and Italian food and wines of course. Italian hospitality.
Italian generosity is not necessarily in terms of quantity, it's of quality. It's the giving of one's best which is essential to all art, and why Italy will always be an international reference for art and architecture.
Where else in the world can one appreciate a carnival that is more elegant, magical and imaginative than that of Venice? Where else can one be moved by the colourful tradition and the courage and zeal of the Palio horse riders of Siena and of similar events that take place in other cities in Tuscany?

Yet despite such events, mid summer may not be the ideal period to go there. Perhaps Florence is not at it's best when the Arno is low and sluggish. And when one has already heard so much about this fabulous city, seeing it then for the first time might even cause some disappointed. But this was certainly not the case regarding Siena. Walking up the little, shaded lanes one is suddenly taken aback by the surprise view of huge, sun-lit piazzas of fabulous edifices, and there is that same, wonderful contrast of finely, interposed, architectural styles that one also admires so much in la piazza San Marco of Venice.

Another memorable city of Tuscany is Arezzo, one of the important Etruscan capitals (Dodecapolis) famous for many sites including its medieval square- la Piazza Grande, and the recently restored Piero della Francesca frescoes that one can see in the church of San Francesco di Arezzo.

Then the less grandiose Vinci, more to visit the museum there to admire the numerous inventions and innovations of Leonardo. So incredibly in advance of his time, that he was far less appreciated during his lifetime than he should have been. Perhaps the timelessness of his work is due to his devoted study and appreciation of the fine workings of nature, natural science, human and animal anatomy. These in turn seem to have been an inexhaustible source of information and inspiration for his engineering feats, which might also explain why the results of his work are endlessly applicable.

Another souvenir is the most picturesque drive from Arezzo to Bagno di Romagna, from Bibbiena through the majestic forests up to the passo di Mandrioli. We were less taken by what little we saw of the Adriatic side of Italy, preferring the Mediterranean coast where the sea is far more inviting, and in this case the Promontorio dell'Argentario springs once more to mind.

Then to return to other pleasures, a visit to the medieval Castello di Montozzi in the same Commune of Arezzo (Pergine Valdarno) is recommended, not only for the views down across the Valle d'Arno, but to taste their fine wines and their superb extra virgin olive oil, and maybe buy a few bottles, including their excellent Grappa del Chianti. (In the village of Pergine Valdarno there is also a first rate butcher, who specialises in curing and treating delicious hams).

To end this little series, briefly returning to the first paragraph and Lavane, Montevarchi, raising my glass of grappa (anche invitando un segnale d'amicizia a Carla, a Arnaldo, a Nicoletta ed a suo fratello- buon fine d'anno e buon Natale!) I should add that Nicoletta has been accepted to expose her work for a month in the New Year in a large and well lit gallery in les Alpes Maritimes, France... There's a reason for everything.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

______

Text and photo- La Piazza Grande, Arezzo © Mirino (PW) December, 2009.

Something’s rotten in Denmark (but also in East Anglia, Asheville, and New York City)

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” So spoke Marcellus in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, first performed between 1600 and 1601, at the start of the Little Ice Age. Four centuries later things haven’t changed that much, according to Joseph D’Aleo, who is Executive Director of ICECAP, a former professor of meteorology and climatology, the First Director of Meteorology at the Weather Channel, and a fellow of the American Meteorology Society. The focus belongs not just on CRU, but on all of the organizations which gather temperature data, he says. And all now show evidence of fraud:
Climategate: Something’s Rotten in Denmark … and East Anglia, Asheville, and New York City

It's A Climategate Christmas

“Oh Climategate Oh Climategate those hacked emails have sealed your fate

Oh Climategate Oh Climategate micheals trick was really great

Medieval Warming now is done, Also the Maunder Minimum

Oh Climategate Oh Climategate maybe now we can debate. […]”


Minnesotans For Global Warming announces their new Christmas Album “It’s A Climategate Christmas.” Actually there is no album: all they have is the commercial.., but it’s very cool all the same, and it’s worth a smile—well, one can smile out of happiness, joy, kindness, hypocrisy, and sometimes to hide disappointment, frustration, sadness.. you decide!




Hat tip: Cambidistagione

A glorious Revolution?

Can you read French? Mirino has a thought-provoking piece on the (glorious?) French Revolution. Personally, if you ask me what I think about it, I’d say that my favorite revolution is the American one… Sounds like I’m dodging the question? Nah, I never do that, I’m just taking my time (terrible question, you know…).