Category: Fourre-tout

Have you ever seen a couple walking hand in hand and wearing the exact same outfit from head to toes?
I have, and it makes me puke.
Because there is only so much togetherness that one can take.

When you agree to tie the knot, it doesn’t mean that you have to morph into a facsimile of your mate.
You don’t have to dress the same way, share the same political views or even share the same activities.
You might make love together but this is as far as the sharing goes. And you might negotiate who goes on top!

The animal kingdom has practiced this kind of Modus Vivendi for a long time.
At the mating season, Papa Bear and Mama Bear exchange a few smoke signals, get together, and after a few amorous encounters they go their separate ways.
Get your own space, he says.
Good riddance, she says.
This is the best way to keep a relationship fresh and exciting.

This long preamble to warn you that in order to survive a couple does not need to be joined at the hip. As a matter of fact, it needs to spend some time apart.
An occasional night out with the boys is not optional, it is mandatory.

When you live with somebody, one of the best ways to sustain a long-term relationship is to get a fairly large abode.
You then immediately stake claim to a space that is going to be yours, and yours alone. It could be the West Wing, the East wing, Downstairs or Upstairs.
It will be your hiding place, you sanctuary, your panic room.
It is where you will retreat when you don’t feel like making small talk or when making an artisanal bomb.

In order to remain undisturbed, you might even post a sign saying, “Keep the X#&* out”.

Then you should sign a non-aggression pact, agree on zones of influence and establish a Checkpoint Charlie.
Those wise preventive measures should keep conflicts (and togetherness) to a minimum.

If nevertheless discord erupts, the first thing to do would be to send your representatives to a quiet place (like Bagdad) to negotiate a cease-fire.
It would be understood that no rockets would be fired into enemy territory during that period and that no underground tunnels would be built.
Failing to abide by these rules would severely undermine your relationship,

To sum it up, togetherness (like sweets) should be used in moderation. Overconsumption could produce harmful side effects.

Alain

PS: I am of course half-kidding. Everybody knows that “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” or as one of my uncouth friend would say “Absinthe makes the fart grow stronger”.

 

He who says nothing agrees.

To tell you the truth, I was a little awed by the huge response generated by the little piece (The new Huns) that I wrote last week.

I usually try to stay clear of politics, but I felt that I had to lend my voice to what some people are reluctant to say.
Pan-Islamism is the new fascism of our era. It is an intolerant form of nationalism that urgently needs to be stopped.

Around 1946, former Nazi believer Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) said:

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

In essence, keeping quiet tacitly condones what is being done or said.And by doing so, it facilitates Pandora’s Box opening.

With automatic weapons being as common as lollipops, extremism and terrorism are becoming a worldwide problem.

The Arab world is awash with weapons and scientists are unable to explain why given a gun, a man becomes mentally disabled.
This strange phenomenon is known and exploited by religious zealots and autocrats in waiting.
They arm desperate young men and use them for depraved purposes.

The twin scourges of the Muslim world are religion and ignorance.
Poor and ignorant young people can easily be indoctrinated into a bloody, but ill-fated adventure that ultimately will never benefit them.

Most of the so-called “Jihadists” never look beyond the barrel of their guns. They rely on “prophets” to enlighten them.
But most so-called Prophets are false prophets, leading their flock to doom.

The main question of the Israeli-Arab conflict could be “Why can Israel make the desert bloom and its neighbors can’t?”

The answer is probably Education, for it is the key to salvation.
And Koran’s rote learning is definitely not education

If the money spent on armament were spent on education, most of the world conflicts would disappear.
A prosperous Middle East would cease to destroy itself.

Ironically, the Muslim World is very wealthy, but unfortunately wealth is squandered on just a few.
If the fabulous wealth of Saudi Arabia or Qatar for instance was spent on improving the lot of their fellow Muslims, the desert could indeed bloom.

But monarchies, dictatorships or theocracies are not the least interested in their brethren’s woes.
They just cater to a few obsequious lackeys.

The crux of the problem is not the very existence of Israel but the true liberation of Muslims everywhere from the yoke of religious and ignorance.

Until this happens, there will be turmoil and bloodshed in the tormented landscape of the Middle East.

Alain

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Thank you.

Most every day now, since the beginning of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the media has shown a succession (especially in European cities) of Pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

A wide assortment of Palestinian sympathizers (mostly of Muslim descent) is shown marching, brandishing Islamic banners, shouting death threats against Jews and vandalizing property. It looks eerily like the “Stormtroopers” rampages of Nazi Germany.
I find these rallies extremely disturbing.

You probably don’t know this, but I never knew my father.
He died in a concentration camp in 1942 when I was about 3 years old.
He died because of the intolerance and the debased views of the Nazi fanatics.
The same blind hatred is now shown by a new breed of sectarian bigots who are bent on enslaving the world.

The demonstrators do this (they say) to protest the genocide inflicted by the Jewish state upon the Gaza Strip’s population. Regrettably, there have been over 2000 victims in Gaza, but this hardly qualifies as genocide.

If you want to talk about mass murder, let’s first talk about the Armenian Genocide.
In 1915, the Ottoman (Muslim) government started the deliberate and systematic destruction of its Armenian population.
The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 1 and 1.5 million.

More recently there was the Holocaust. Between 1941 and 1942, 11 million people (including 6 million Jews) were murdered in the most gruesome manner by the Nazis.

During that period, in the Middle East, Nazi politics were wholeheartedly supported by Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

“During World War II he collaborated with both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy by making propagandistic radio broadcasts and by helping Germans recruit Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen-SS.”

The Israelis for all their shortcomings never planned to exterminate anybody.
They yearn peace and security but the Muslim extremists have repeatedly said that they want nothing less than the total eradication of the Jewish state.
What can you do when there is a serial killer living next door?

And would the Muslim bloodshed stop if Israel disappeared?
In view of what’s currently taking place in the Middle East, this is more than doubtful.

So far in a series of Muslims against Muslims conflicts,
3 million Muslims died in Pakistan in 1971
1 million Muslims died in Sudan in 1983
800,000 Muslims died in Iraq in 1988
150,000 Muslims died in Algeria in 1991
250,000 Muslims died in Syria in 2011

Is Islam as peaceful as its disciples proclaim?
The world is slowly (too slowly) coming to realize that it is not.

Now, hordes of Muslim everywhere are joining forces to attack and kill Infidels (anybody who is not Muslim). They are the new Nazis, even more heinous and cruel than the barbarians of World War Two.

Muslims are often whining about Islamophobia but deeds speak louder than words. ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq) latest gory video showing the gruesome beheading of US journalist James Foley reinforces my convictions.
Can you find accommodations with people like this?

We have a lot to fear from them and should be justly afraid of the Islamic menace.

We should also be highly suspicious of the insidious infiltration of the West by Muslim Fifth Columnists.
Their relentless efforts to impose their twisted customs, their mosques, and the subjugation of women everywhere is a threat to western civilization.

This might sound a little harsh, but who in his right mind would ever have thought that Hitler and his barbaric hordes would bring so much death and destruction to the world?

Islamic hordes in Iraq, Syria and Libya have already proven that they can be much worse than Hitler’s Einsatzgruppen.

Alain

http://youtu.be/ewFW3EZsFIY