Everyone is my friend until they prove otherwise.
This is the most unrest that’s been seen in Iran in a decade, there’s a lot of people in Iran unhappy over the election results that were announced. (h/t Michael Totten please stop by, he has several more videos posted)
The history of taps from Tapsbugler.com.
If you’ve been in the military or a military family you have mixed emotions about this 24 note song – heard at dusk it means end of day, you and yours are still alive. When heard at other times that meaning is changed.
Some get confused between Memorial day and Veterans day, but there is a difference. On Veteran’s day we honor all veterans, those living and those who fell.
On Memorial, or Decoration day as it was previously known and as President Ronald Reagan preferred to call it, we honor those who have fallen. We honor them by visiting their graves, their monuments, and we decorate their graves with memorabilia and flowers. Decoration day was created by order in 1868 to honor those who fell in the civil war. Here is Ronald Reagan speaking:
No words needed here, Roxana says it well enough.
More from the BBC Article.
UPDATE: Roxana Saberi wins at Cannes Film Festival:
CANNES, France (AP) – A film co-scripted by U.S.-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi won a prize in one of the Cannes Film Festival competitions on Saturday.
“No One Knows About Persian Cats” won a special jury prize in the festival’s Un Certain Regard competition.
The film is a lively look at Tehran’s underground music scene and the risk of censorship and jail faced by Iranian musicians.
Saberi shares a screenplay credit on the film, which was directed and-co-written by her romantic partner, Bahman Ghobadi.
Torch ceremony at Mt. Herzl, photo credit Gil Yohanan at YNET
There’s a big blogspat going on and as usual Charles Johnson is on the right side of the truth. He’s calling out the neo-nazi backgrounds, associations, and political partnerships between the Euro-Supremacist groups organizing the Pro-Koln anti-mosque movement.
The Paleosphere has risen in defense of Robert Spencer and Pamela at Atlas Shrugs who were billed by the Pro-Koln group as coming to attend or speak at the event, and now the usual obfuscations and cries of “guilt by association!”, it’s the “Soros attack machine!” and “Psyops!” are screeching across their close-knit bigotted group.
First of all here’s a hint for all conservative bloggers – before you chime in you best do some real research on the groups in Europe so you know what the heck you are talking about.
Secondly let’s put all of that Euro-Supremacist stuff aside for a moment.
Step back and look at the bigger picture. If someone were building a mosque in the US anywhere, would you support a group of Yo-Yo’s showing up to stop it?
Is it libertarian to tell someone how they may or may not use their property?
Is it constitutional in the US to stop a mosque from being built? (Think before you answer – what if it were a church, a temple, or a synagogue?)
It’s basically un-American and not a conservative value to oppose freedom of religion. Is that a politically viable stance for conservatives to support?
There you go; the big picture, please think on it.
UPDATE: Robert Spencer says he won’t go, but defends the group and attacks detractors, if he feels so strongly why doesn’t he go then?
One other note: The pro-serbia lobby in the US has had “no new mosques” as a talking point for years (at least since 2005 where you can find Jatras articles pushing that point) so don’t imagine that a similar campaign would never be mounted here. If it were it would be disastrous for Republicans.
Gegentrik also points out that some of Pro-Koln’s political opposition is as extreme: when you get extreme enough then at some point you cross over and become the mirror image of your enemy.
Addendum:
Some backgrond on people partnering with Pro-Koln:
and the organizer, Manfred Rouhs.
There’s a big blogspat going on and as usual Charles Johnson is on the right side of the truth. He’s calling out the neo-nazi backgrounds, associations, and political partnerships between the Euro-Supremacist groups organizing the Pro-Koln anti-mosque movement.
The Paleosphere has risen in defense of Robert Spencer and Pamela at Atlas Shrugs who were billed by the Pro-Koln group as coming to attend or speak at the event, and now the usual obfuscations and cries of “guilt by association!”, it’s the “Soros attack machine!” and “Psyops!” are screeching across their close-knit bigotted group.
First of all here’s a hint for all conservative bloggers – before you chime in you best do some real research on the groups in Europe so you know what the heck you are talking about.
Secondly let’s put all of that Euro-Supremacist stuff aside for a moment.
Step back and look at the bigger picture. If someone were building a mosque in the US anywhere, would you support a group of Yo-Yo’s showing up to stop it?
Is it libertarian to tell someone how they may or may not use their property?
Is it constitutional in the US to stop a mosque from being built? (Think before you answer – what if it were a church, a temple, or a synagogue?)
It’s basically un-American and not a conservative value to oppose freedom of religion. Is that a politically viable stance for conservatives to support?
There you go; the big picture, please think on it.
Addendum:
Some backgrond on people partnering with Pro-Koln:
and the organizer, Manfred Rouhs.
Tomorrow is Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance day, here’s a video from 2003 of a ceremony to remember what it was, as well as what will ever be truer. Out of those dark furnaces came new resolve, new courage, and ultimately a resurrected nation.
“Triumph of the Return” – On September 4, 2003, in a large ceremony, the Israeli Air Force flew three f-15 jets over the Auschwitz concentration camp in a show of the Jewish people’s continued strength and triumph over past adversities.
During the Holocaust (1939-1945) 6 million Jews were murdered at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. Millions of Jews and other victims of the Nazis were imprisoned, enslaved and murdered at Auschwitz and her sister camps.
This visit was a testament to the world that the saying “never again” is not just a slogan.
Many of the participants were the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.
In this video Hans Rosling demonstrates two hundred years of dramatic world change. This isn’t something to sneeze at but if you want to ask “So What?” then the answers to the “so what” question are manifold. Here is but one:
The world in general trends towards the good – throwing conventional politics and philosophy aside for the moment (colonialism vs industrialization vs education vs capitalism vs. communism etc.) a key thing that occurred to spur the tremendous growth in economies everywhere was the tapping of abundant cheap energy through technology. Given plentiful energy then prodigious leaps were bound to occur, so it’s thoroughly wrong-headed to think of energy itself as being an evil. Instead view it as a neutral: it’s something we can use well or abuse.
So while everyone is crying doom and gloom right now, I like to view the long term. Every setback in human history has been far outdone by amazing progress through our collective and individual wills toward the good.
I’m not non-plussed or threatened that China is booming, it doesn’t worry me that India is making wondrous progress – neighbors who have wealth are much less of a threat, and much more of a contributor to overall worldwide good than those who are poor.
Watch the video, and pay attention to the countries where Freedom came, and where energy is in abundant use. Conventional wisdom is that we use abundant energy because we are a rich country – I don’t believe conventional wisdom because history proves that wrong. Instead we are rich because we use high energy – we must continue that if we want the world to continue to progress.
The other thing to notice is the pace of change – as energy and eduction increase together, we accelerate that pace. We are on an ever faster trajectory towards a better life for all, but… we have to continue to increase rather than decrease energy use across the planet, and we have to increase the pace of education.
