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How Roman rule expanded through the lands
January 15, 2015 — xanthippaDid you ever learn how the Romans were able to spread their empire so far and wide…and so quickly? Yes, they had a strong army and were not afraid to use it but the army was there to back up their primary method of colonization.
Romans would send some citizens to live in far away cities to facilitate trade with Rome. Makes sense, right?
These citizens brought their families with them and would build their houses close to each other for mutual support and entertainment. As the trade grew, so would these self-segregated Roman neighbourhoods. Eventually, once these neighbourhoods got large enough, Rome would offer trade incentives to the rulers of the city to permit the Romans within their enclave to be ruled by Roman laws and be subject to Roman authority directly.
It was that subtle ‘carrot and stick’ routine: the carrot of reduced trade tariffs and the stick of the not-so-proverbial sabre-rattling of the Roman army. Most city states thought that this was a beneficial arrangement and agreed.
After a while, the members of the Roman enclave would ask that the Roman law should apply not only within their little enclave but when they traded with the locals: after all, Rome got rich from trading and they all wanted to benefit, no?
Slowly and in very small increments, the Roman enclave would grow – and the demand for more and more Roman laws and norms within the host city would keep pace with this growth.
No matter how hard the host city would try to appease their Roman enclave, they could never satisfy them fully and eventually, Rome would have to point out just how cities that don’t treat their Roman minorities nicely happen to be the next ones to be burned to the ground by Roman armies.
Thus, through self-seggregated and un-integrated immigration, economic pressure and threat of violence, Roman rule spread throughout the lands!
Oh boy, am I glad that we live in enlightened times, when we would never permit members of a supremacist culture to build multiple enclaves throughout our countries and then demand that more and more of our laws conform to theirs, or they will do violence to us!
Go Cameroon: 143:1!
January 14, 2015 — xanthippa‘Yaound -The Cameroonian army killed 143 Boko Haram fighters who attacked a military base in the northern town of Kolofata on Monday, in what the government said was the militants’ heaviest loss yet on its territory.
One Cameroonian soldier also lost his life in the clashes, Communications Minister and government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a statement read out on television and radio.
The toll was “the heaviest loss yet” suffered by Boko Haram on Cameroonian soil, he said, and comes at a time of fears of increased cross-border raids by the Nigeria-based group into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
The spokesperson said the attack began in the early hours when “several hundred” Islamist fighters took advantage of thick fog to cross over from Nigeria and tried to storm the town’s military base, where an elite army unit is stationed.’
“Knowledge starts as offendedness”: Jonathan Rauch on Free Speech
January 13, 2015 — xanthippaFrom our friends at FIRE:
The Jihad of Words
January 12, 2015 — xanthippaIn the words of the one and only Inigo Montoya:
Or, if you are more into classical music:
“Because, you know, sometimes words have two meanings…”
It is impossible to hold a meaningful conversation with somebody when you both think you know what the words you are using mean, but in reality, you each subscribe to a completely different meaning of that word.
For example, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood government that had come to power in Egypt following the ‘Arab Spring’ was lead by Morsi’s party, which was called the ‘Freedom and Justice Party’.
Muslim Brotherhood = Freedom and Justice?
Why, yes – if you mean what the Islamists understand these words to mean.
‘Freedom’, according to Koranic sources, is defined as ‘freedom from the laws of men’. In other words, being ruled by the word god, Allah, alone.
In other words, they understand the word ‘freedom’ to mean the implementation of the Sharia and Sharia alone.
And ‘justice’?
‘Justice’ according to laws of God and God alone: again, Sharia.
In these people’s mind, the way we use the words ‘freedom’ and ‘justice’ is a perversion of their true meaning (Sharia and only Sharia) and we are ‘spreading mischief’ by perverting these words.
And under Sharia, the penalty for ‘spreading mischief’ is death.
A simple way to tell a moderate Muslim from an Islamist is to ask their view on whether Sharia should be implemented in the West.
If they say no, they are here because they are attempting to flee the horrors of life under Sharia and we must do our utmost to protect them, because they will be the first victims of the Islamists. Many are afraid to speak out, for very real fear that relatives stuck in Islamic countries would be harmed for their words: Islam is a clan-based culture where you are often held responsible for your relatives actions.
If they say yes, then they are an Islamist who is advocating, in no uncertain terms, the elevation of SHaria above our own laws. This is treason and our societies must treat it as such. All advocates of Sharia in the West must be arrested and charged with treason, because that is what trying to replace our laws with Sharia is.
Following is an excellent video. It is a bit longer than what I usually post, but it is most excellent:
Guest Post by BeaverMoose: ‘Charlie Hebdo’ march in Toronto January 11, 2015
January 11, 2015 — xanthippaThis is a guest post by BeaverMoose:
Attendance wasn’t bad at Toronto’s ‘Charlie Hebdo March’ that started at New City Hall at 2 pm on Sunday, January 11, 2015: there were slightly more than 2,000 people in the crowd, about ten percent of the Montreal march’s turnout of 25,000 held the same day.
A marcher explained to me, ‘That’s understandable that Montreal had more attendance. They read Charlie Hebdo and identify more with Paris than Toronto does.’
On short notice, 2,000 wasn’t bad for a march organized in Toronto concerned about free speech in France. I happened to see a notice about the march on TV and showed up to find about 2,000 people with king-sized, hand-made cardboard ‘pencils’, French, Iranian and Ukrainian flags, a hundred ‘je suis Charlie’ posters. Many held up home-written posters and slogans in different languages, Dutch, Danish, Iranian and English.
About fifty expat Iranians held large ‘je suis Charlie’ signs in written in French and Arabic script, along with free speech detainees persecuted in Iran. They described how no freedom of expression whatever is allowed in Islamic Iran.
A Dutchman wearing wooden shoes marched next to a Frenchman holding a hockey stick with a French flag on it.
A woman with a paint brush agreed that artists seem to understand the critical importance of free expression more than people in other lines of work. ‘As early as I remember,’ she admitted, ‘I was getting in trouble for drawing caricatures, usually of my teachers.’
Another person chimed in: ‘Artists have to maintain a ‘screw-you’ attitude – otherwise, they can’t be much of an artist.’
I agreed.
After speeches about freedom at Toronto’s New City Hall were finished, the crowd marched half a kilometre to Dundas Square, up Toronto’s main street, while chanting ‘Charlie…Charlie…’ and ‘liberté…d’expression’.
Muslims on the street averted their gaze, while a seller of ‘halal’ poutine looked on nervously while muttering prayers to seek refuge from those who were demanding free speech.
There was also a man who wore a sign on his hat that said, ‘I am a Muslim but I am human first.’
I walked up to him and smiled before asking his point of view. He said he doesn’t agree with terrorism. I asked him: ‘Do you think I am a kafir? ‘ (i.e. a troublesome disbeliever) ‘No, you must do something bad to be a kafir,’ he responded.
Were the Charlie Hebdo artists kafirs? ‘No, I do not think so,’ he said.
Did he disagree with Sharia law about blasphemy? ‘I do not think we should kill people who write something.’
‘But,’ I said, ‘If you do not follow Sharia law, you have left Islam…can you convince the mullahs at Al Azhar University that you are right and they are wrong?’ He replied, ‘No, I do not think I can do that.’ In other words, nice Muslims like this man, realize he cannot change Islamic law.
The Toronto ‘Charlie Hebdo’ march was attended by people who understand that freedom is not free.
Unfortunately, freedom isn’t secure once for all when there are Islamic terrorists who are trying so hard to take it away. I really thought that after the attack on our national Parliament Buildings, Toronto would have had more marchers. Canadians will need to see they are the ones who must pay for our freedom by getting out of their comfortable chairs and marching for it. Our battle is against those who claim their right not to be criticized is more important than our right to speak out against misogyny and supremacism.
This is my moment to speak to those who did not attend. Canadians, it’s YOUR freedom we marched for today. How important is freedom to you? What has to happen to us Canadians before we realize how precious our freedom is? Let’s not wait until something worse happens.
So let’s keep marching for freedom (more next time, please). The Islamic terrorists won’t stop their marching, their bombing and their shooting until they realize that we love freedom more than they love death!
They won’t stop until they realize their actions are completely futile. Rather than give in to them, we have to rally against them and tell our politicians ‘OUR FREEDOM IS NOT NEGOTIABLE!!!’
JE SUIS ERIC!
January 10, 2015 — xanthippaEarlier, I wrote about Eric Brazeau’s upcoming trial and I said he had already served more time in jail than was possible for the ‘crime’ he had committed.
I was wrong!
I did not expect the judge would not only sentence him to double what the prosecution was seeking, but also that the judge would not apply the usual 2.5 to 1 credit for time served pre-trial, as is customary in Canada…
Oh, how naive I feel…
So, let me be the first to say:
JE SUIS
ERIC BRAZEAU!
One of the most distrusted professions in Canada is ‘lawyers’.
The other one is ‘politicians’.
Yet our judges are ‘patronage appointments’ of lawyers by their politician buddies.
Ever wonder what is wrong with our judicial system?
Me too!!!
I just can’t put my finger on it….
Killing Islam’s Critics: not just for terrorists any more!
January 9, 2015 — xanthippaEverybody, well, everybody with a functioning brain, that is, is outraged about the jihadist terrorists’ murder-spree at Charlie Hebdo.
I think I made my views on this clear.
And, predictably enough, them ‘nothing-to-do-with-Islam’ chaps of the Islamic State (aka IS aka ISIS aka ISIL) claimed responsibility for the Charlie Habdo murders and gloated that more such attacks are coming.
Savages!
No, I will not call them ‘Barbarians’ because I would never insult Barbarians by likening them to these savages!
But, at least they are just rogues, playing at a state, right?
It’s not actual UN (ok, I’m choking on this phrase, but roll with it) actual UN recognized countries, right?
And certainly not any ally of ours, right?
Weeeeeeeel, not so much!
Flogging is a punishment often inflicted on Muslims by Islamist governments, because Sharia (Islamic law) commands it. And all Islamist governments are guided by Sharia – including the ones our young men and women had liberated.
Like Afghanistan. Whose new Constitution, drafted with the help of Western ‘liberators’, cites Sharia as the ultimate ruling authority.
And the punishment of flogging is often so severe, those being punished the victims often die. Unless the sentence is broken up into ‘managable’ bits: you know, just to the brink of death, let you recover, flog some more – almost to the brink of death, let you recover, and so on. This is how the torture is maximized.
That is pure Sharia.
That is pure Islam.
And that is what our closest ally in the Arab world is doing to Raif Badawi.
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 