Remembrance -&- Forboding

Bumped up. New posts below this. NJC





For millions of Canadians the poppy has long been the flower of Remembrance. It originally was a reminder of the blood-red flower which grew in the fields where many Canadians died in a place called Flanders. It remains the flower of Remembrance.



For all those airmen who didn't become medal winners

Losses

"We read our mail and counted up our missions--
In bombers named for girls, we burned
The cities we had learned about in school--
Till our lives wore out; our bodies lay among
The people we had killed and never seen.
When we lasted long enough they gave us medals;
When we died, they said, "Our casualties were low."


The Death of the ball-turret gunner

From my mother's sleep I fell into the state.
And I hunched in its belly, till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from Earth, loosed from its dream of life.
I woke to the black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Both the above are by Randall Jarrell

If you haven't read it, check Bud Talkinghorn's account of two "Canadian heroes" -- see menu.

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Forboding

5,000 burnt-out cars, along with torched schools and businesses--a portrait of the future

France, that bastion of all things cultural, is in shell-shock. Every city and town which had a sizable African Muslim population has been touched by the flames of anarchy. The French elite who lauded Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth as a classic are now discovering its real underlying meaning. They are coming to stay with you. The colonial treasures of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria have turned to lead. The millions of Muslims from these past colonial possessions, who were brought in to do the dirty, boring jobs, are sitting in their slummy suburbs and festering. Automation has claimed many of their positions, but they have no intention of going back to their homelands. Life there is either deadening or deadly. France gives them welfare and a picture window on the good life--neither of which they have in their ravaged native lands. They hate the French for their snobbery and their "depraved" lifestyles; however they will remain put.

What we are witnessing across France is an intifada, much like that in Palestine. It is fueled by a similar subliminal envy for their neighbours' decent life. Outside of their belief that their religion has a stranglehold on the truth, their daily existence is bereft of creature comforts. The mindlessness of the violence in both the Muslim slums of Paris and the Gaza area of Palestine suggest that the battle for reconciliation will be hard won. The French Muslim youth burn down their schools, cultural centers, and their neighbour's cars; while the Gazans destroy millions of dollars worth of greenhouses that the exiled Israelis had left behind. Both show a revanchist mentality that will always hinder any true progress.

Sometimes people have to accept the truth of a situation. There is never going to be a Palestinian / Isreali peace and the French Muslims are never going to assimilate properly. Even the idea of basic birth control is a non-starter; hence, they will breed vast numbers of children, who will be, at once, religiously indoctrinated and subsequently, will be disenfranchized from general society. The demographic bomb has a short fuse. What the country which espouses "liberty and fraternity" can do about this situation is anybody's guess. At least, let it be a gallow's sermon for the Western Left and their laissez-faire immigration policies.

Bud Talkinghorn

Let our government learn a lesson before it is too late -- or are they unable? NJC



Overheard on CBC TV

Heather Hiscox is talking to Harry Forestal, the London bureau reporter

Hiscox: "And what is the latest on the French riots, Harry?"
Forestal: "Well, things are calming down, with fewer than 500 cars being burnt".
Hiscox: "What is the response from the government?"
Forestal: "The Interior Minister, Nicholas Sarkozy, is calling for the swift deportation of illegal immigrants, or ones on a temporary work permit, who are among the 2,000 in detention for rioting. (now Forestal turns extremely sarcastic) I'm sure that measure will go down well with the poor and destitute in the urban slums?"

Trust the CBC to misappropriate blame for the riots. How dare the French government toss out people who are in the country illegally? Just because they burned a few cars and supermarkets. It is obvious to Forestal that France should emulate Canada and let them stay while they wend their way through decade-long appeals. Swift deportation for gangsters, arsonists and suspected terrorists? Quelle horreur!

Minutes later, after snapping off the TV in a rage, I try to calm myself down with the National Post. My fury is re-ignited when I read that DNA proves the Vancouver Muslim kid, Rudwan Khali, was actually killed by Russian troops, along with three other Chechen jihadi terrorists. He attended the Dar al Madinah Islamic Center in Vancouver. He came under the influence of a fundamentalist lecturer, Sheik Younis Kathrada, who called for jihad against the infidels and made derogatory statements about Jews. Even the moderate Muslims took umbrage at this fiery rhetoric. One Muslim however took the Sheik's message literally and sent him an e-mail saying that he had lots of guns which he wanted to use in waging jihad. Kathrada, to his credit turned the guy in to the police. When the man's house was raided, he had accumulated a small arsenal

Another BC Muslim man was thought to have been travelling with Khali. He has disappeared. Another man, Azer Tagiev, is thought to know about the fate of the two. However, after being interviewed by police he left the country. All three of these men attended the Dar al Madinah Center and were close friends. The Center is a registered charity. Just two simple questions arises from all this, and they are: Why is this Sheik, who is not a Candian citizen, not deported or arrested for hate mongering? Secondly, why is a center that preaches religious hatred not closed down, or at the least, denied charity status?

Bud Talkinghorn

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