As we remember World Holocaust Day, let’s not turn a blind eye to the rising anti-Semitic violence from Islamofascists:
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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!
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!!!’
Ottawa Shooting – a home-grown terrorist…
October 22, 2014 — xanthippaToday was an exciting day – and not in a good way…
It now seems more than likely that today’s shooting was a terrorist attack – jihad performed by a home-grown terrorist, as the shooter was known to the police and had had his passport confiscated for fear that he would go join ISIL.
ISIL is reportedly showing off pictures of him.
And, ISIL also commanded its minions that if they cannot go to Syria/Iraq to join ISIL there to go ahead and carry out terrorist attacks against people in their home countries.
Which is what happened at Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu on Monday.
And which seems to have happened here, in Ottawa, today.
So, here are some videos from today:
First, this is the War Memorial where the first shooting and the murder of the Canadian Soldier, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo took place as he stood honour guard as the Memorial. (Aside – whose idiotic idea was it to have the honour guards have unloaded weapons?)
You can see the group of people where ordinary Canadian, heroes each and every one of them, rushed to Cpl. Cirillo’s aid – put pressure on his wounds and performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived instead of running for cover.
In the background is the Chateau Laurier (on the left) and the Old Train Station which is now Conference Board of Canada (on the right) and the North-bound lanes of Elgin St. between them. That is the route I take every morning to bring my high-school-student sun to his co-op placement, just a few blocks from here.
Second, this is the main entry hall in the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament building, leading to the Library (the only original part of the Parliament buildings that was not burned down in the Great Fire. Off this hall are meeting rooms – and, co-incidentally, I have attended a wedding of a friend of mine in one of these room. (Yes, ordinary Canadians CAN book a wedding at the Parliament…though, after this, I’m not so sure….)
This is the front of the Parliament:
Macleans has a map with highligted buildings about what was locked down.
This map—last updated in November 2012—was created to illustrate the 100 most powerful buildings in Ottawa. Many of these buildings are under lockdown orders now: all federal buildings including Parliament Hill, the Elgin Street police station, the U.S. Embassy, the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library, the Rideau Centre, and the Ottawa courthouse, among others.
I hope it will paste/display OK – if not, please, follow the link.
The topmost highlighted building (purplish) is the US Embassy – and we were on lockdown in a non-Government (and thus not highlighted) building just a few minutes’ walk east of it.
Yeah, when it happens in a place that you pass several times each day, it really strikes home…
P.S. While in lockdown, I could – every now and hen – use my son’s work’s computer (but not log into anything, and so could not live-blog the event…). As such, I posted a few progress comments over at BlazingCatFur: thanks for the well-wishes and support from all the folks over there!
Bill Maher and Sam Harris vs, Ben Affleck Battle Over Radical Islam – ” They Will F*cking Kill You! “
October 6, 2014 — xanthippaPlus a bit of commentary:
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 